Collin Oneal

Escaping Al-Qaeda Operation in Turkey

2008-01-26T05:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it out of Turkey all safe. I say this because on January 24th my gang and I had just left our hotel when we heard gunfire and what sounded like bombing. Jacko, Jean Franko and Jesus thought nothing of it but I knew something fishy was up especially when a few minutes later people scrambled through the streets and police cars sped wildly toward the scene just a few blocks away. (see story here: Guardian and here: Turkishdailynews) We continued on the the Gaziantep museum which has the 2nd largest collection of mosaics in the world. It wasn't until we were leaving the museum that we stopped by the gift shop that was playing the operation live and then it really hit home to both the guys and myself. The guys and I toured Gaziantep's castle then the guys went to the gym while I went looking for some last minute gifts. That evening we finished up shooting and I really wanted to get to bed by 10pm, but no luck! I had a ton of paper work to do and packing up so it was not until 1:30am until my head hit the bed when I had to be up in 2 hours to head to the airport for a 4:45am flight!

Jean Franko had to catch and immediate flight to Barcelona from Istanbul but Jesus and I went to a hotel to take a nap and then take a quick tour of Istanbul before heading back to the airport. Jesus was very excited to see the Blue Mosque and the Aga Sofia. Actually, Jesus just loved every moment of my crazy porn adventure from walking across no-man's-land in freezing cold weather to get to Syria to a drive we took through the beautiful countryside. Anyway, Jesus and I went our own directions at Istanbul airport; he boarded a flight to Madrid and I boarded a quick flight to Athens. So, now here I am in Athens after a crazy night doing a promotion for Greek super-promoter Paul Sofianos since it was his birthday. I have not danced, stripped and shook my thang for a long time so it was a bit interesting to get back up on a stage.

Middle Eastern Adventure!!!

2008-01-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Well, as I said in my last entry I may not be able to update my blog over the next few weeks, but I decided today to throw a bunch of little interesting happenings at all of you that happen to read about my adventures around the world. I first want to share a photo that my bambino (Neal) took of me when I was working late at night in Miami Beach and he was begging me to come to bed. He said "This pic epitomizes you in your work mode. LOL. I thought it was funny. :)" That evening he warned me about working so hard, but here I am again near killing myself to make you all some porn that I hope you will enjoy.

So I left Las Vegas, stopped in Miami for a few hours to do some work, and then got back on a plane to Madrid and then continued on to Alicante where I picked up a model that I flew in from Belgium then drove to Murcia to pick up my model Jesus and then on to Almeria. I have a secret place to film outdoors near Almeria, but in the middle of the shoot a herd of goats rampaged through my set and I forced my models to pull up their pants and luckily they did since the herder soon followed! After a pleasant 20 minute conversation the herder moved on and we finished the shoot. A few more days in Almeria and I took off with Jesus to southern Turkey (the magic of frequent flyer miles! ha!). The reason I do not give away some locations is that first, I still try my best to keep the Roman Ragazzi stalker off my back and potentially calling local authorities on me like he called the Israeli Consulate and the NY Post on Roman Ragazzi. Second, I have a producer here in Europe that is trying to hunt down and use my models and there are some models I want to keep to myself, such as Jacko. So I dare any producer to do what I did ......keep on reading!

So the first night I arrived I tried to get into Syria. Since Jesus did not have a visa we had to try and convince the border police to give him one. After a quick drive through no man's land by a taxi we arrived in Syria, but after 30 minutes of trying to convince them to give Jesus a visa, they refused, and we had to walk all the way back to Turkey in 35 degree weather in just undershirts....oh, I forgot to tell you Iberia and Turkish Airlines lost all of our luggage with our jackets! After passing Turkish immigration again we drove back to the border town and spent the night.

The next day I got a wild hair up my butt to not leave Jesus behind at the hotel and try to convince the Syrians to give him a visa again and Jesus was up for it so off we went! After a brisk 20 minutes walk through mine laden no man's land we arrived at our friend's the Syrians and their lovely border post. After about 15 minutes of begging, they let us back behind their glass to get warm next to their heater and share coffee with them (we were freezing without jackets)! Another 30 minutes of the border police playing with my computer and cell phone we got pulled into the big chief's office. I begged and pleaded, but he insisted that we wait for a fax from Damascus that would take 3-4 hours, but I said we only planned to go to Haleb for that amount of time. In the end he gave the "ok" wink to the worker and we were on our way to getting a sneaky snake visa for Jesus...yee haw! And off we went in a taxi speeding down the bumpy, dusty pothole filled road to Haleb! After what is probably going to be about $50 in phone calls to confirm a meeting point my friend Annas arrived with Jacko not too far behind. We drank coffee and then went to the Citadel for lunch and finally said goodbye to Annas and headed back to Turkey (Try all that KB, ha!). I thought we would have problems with my Syrian at the border, but in the end no problems at all except for the taxi driver left us on the Syrian side and we had to walk all the way to Turkey....bastard! We barely had time left to drive to the airport and pick up Jean Franco, but we made it, ate dinner, harassed the Turkish Airlines agent for our bags and finally drove back to an amazing hotel I found. So here I am after wandering the streets with Jean Franco, Jesus and Jacko to replace lighting that is still missing.

New Year and Hustlaball

2008-01-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last update, but I have had a major distraction with me every since right after x-mas. A while ago I met someone that has become very special to me and we have been spending a lot of time together! So right after x-mas with my interesting family my baby (il bambino) and I took off for Los Angeles for New Year's Eve where we spent the night at Here lounge as guests of super-promoters Paul Nicholls and Jonathan Chang. The night was quite interesting in addition to being very fun and full of porn stars!

The next day we took off back to Miami Beach to relax a bit in the sun, but when we arrived a cold spell just hit and we were shivering for a few days until the heat finally returned and we were able to go to the beach again. After a bit of fun and work we headed to Las Vegas for GAYVN and Hustlaball. My baby was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and production so after talking with a few business affiliates (such as Chris Baker from AEBN) Chi Chi pulled us back stage to enjoy the rest of the evening in a more quiet setting to talk with my baby and I in addition to some of the performers.

Now my baby and I are going to take our last few days to ourselves before he goes back to school and I go off to Europe to do some shooting! I will do my best to update my blog, but I will be in some remote areas of Spain and Turkey and doing a promotion in Greece!

Back Home!

2007-12-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

I know I said I would update you all from Europe, but I hit the ground running when I arrived in Berlin and really had no time to sit down and write. In addition to not having time, I also had major internet issues at the hotels I was staying at in both Berlin and Paris.

So now, I'll rewind a bit and let you know I had a fabulous time at ManHunt's annual x-mas party in Boston. My business partner Rich Richards and I nearly froze our Miami Beach butt's off, but once we got to the venue it was nice and warm. Of course, the company heated up the place. Not only are some of ManHunt's employees are hot, some of their guests sure made the party memorable! X-mas parties are all about free licquor, but with that, comes the consequences of tipsy party dares for shits and giggles. See Lisa and I compare boobs and butts in the bathroom. Then Lisa accidentally kicked the toilet paper and I just had to point it out, burp! The later it got, the more interesting photos Phil, Lisa and I started to take, although none stranger, at least I think, than me pointing out the toilet paper in the bathroom.
So after a fun night with the ManHunt crew we slept in a bit, ate, worked a bit and then headed to the ariport. My flight to London and Rich's flight to Miami amazingly took off at the same time!

There is not much to say about Berlin except I worked my ass off and it was the first time I did everything myself including filming 3 scenes and taking still photographs. Oh, also got caught riding the Berlin U-Bahn without a ticket....naughty me! ooooooops! Everything went pretty smoothly: all models showed up and liked their partners and my locations were all organized and were available when I needed.....a special thanks goes out to someone I cannot mention by name, but he knows who he is...thanks!

A quick flight to Paris and I landed in the old TWA terminal bringing back memories of my jet set youth. The design is so retro futuristic and always fun to re-experience every once in a while! I had one day to myself to do laundry, catch up on some e-mails, visit retailers and mail some screeners off.

My free day in Paris went well, but my shoot was in shambles! A model that also had a location did not answer his phone, ugh! So not onlydid I have to replace a model I also had to replace 2 locations at the last minute....and last minute it was! I found a replacement model literally 1 hour before a shoot and he turned out to be fantastic! (Thanks Marcos!) When the last shoot was done I was exhausted and pretty ready to fly home, but instead of flying to my home in Miami Beach I flew to my original home to be with mom. Oh, and on the flight home I saw the poor Arctic that seems to be suffering from global warming, yikes!

So now here I am typing this up at home in Northern California after an argument with my mom today about the fact that I do not have a normal job (she thinks an 8-5 is the only valid job out there) and that I am going to give my cousin some money, especially since I do not have a normal job so I don't have money and I have to take care of myself first. Anyone else out there find this logic weird? Anyway, not much happening until New Year's except my quick flight x-mas eve up to see my father in Oregon to spend x-mas morning with him and then fly back down to have another dysfunctional x-mas dinner here where the gays will outnumber the straights! YEE HAW!

Thanksgiving and stuff!

2007-12-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

After Nicaragua I went home to Miami Beach for one night and then took off to San Francisco to have Thanksgiving with my mother's side of the family. Family events for me are usually a kick in the pants, so I thought I would share a sneak peak into my very private life for some shits and giggles. You see, it is just my mom, her twin sister and her lesbian daughter and my great aunt (who we all suspect of liking the women folk too). Oh, my gay brother (yes, all 3 children from the 2 twins are gay) was missing for this wondrous event. My mother's family gatherings are also funny because of the weird ass conversations and my cousin and I winking at each other concerning my porn career that has eluded my mother's knowledge base. As you can see the dog barfed on the carpet and we still have a dear head in the living room that my grandfather killed like in the 1960's or something.

After a nice massage from my cousin everyone left including myself but not until the next day. I went down to LA for a few days to meet with people (business you know!) and meet up with a potential model that I really ended up liking...a lot! He is still not sure about doing porn, but after spending a few days with him I may have interest in him other than trying to get his gorgeous self onto film for me! Midweek I flew up to San Francisco for 1 day for a quick meeting and returned to LA to have more meetings before flying off to Oregon to spend 3 days with my dad (another interesting experience!).

So, dad is another complete whack ass experience also. He is as right wing of a Republican as you can get and is married to a quite liberal, but quite Christian woman. Amazingly enough dad and step mom know exactly what I do; they are just thankful I do not work for Hizbullah, the Lebanese government or even the CIA as they have thought for a long time now, so porn director was a relief for them! First, they live in the total outback, thus, no cell reception and they are working on a 56K modem! AHHHHHHH! so basically forced relaxation. I had to do some work so my stepmother dropped me off at a local coffee shop where the customers and staff were all trying to take a peak at what I was doing.......nosey butt heads! After several political arguments and a discussion of how my mother made my brother and I gay it was time to decompress and fly back to Miami for 2 days of work and rest before heading out to NY, then Boston then Berlin....more to come from Europe very soon!

Nicaragua Update

2007-11-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, so here is the deal on my trip to Nicaragua! I was all hopeful to find some hot guys to do something in front of my camera, but at last I discovered getting to the hot guys and then convincing them to do something slightly scandalous is quite hard to do. I went out on Thursday night to only be stopped and trapped within 3 minutes of walking into the bar by local regular guys with inflated egos saying “soy un abagodo” (I’m an attorney). Big deal! I was on the hunt to meet the hot boys but this group of guys kept getting in my way so I finally left. The next night I tried the same bar and this time I was able to talk to the bartender who totally blew me off! I left soon after and went on to their gay club to only be attacked again within 5 minutes by a little guy that would just not leave me alone. Once again, I left without any luck.

The following day I called a gay hotel called Joluva in the city of Granada (http://club-alegria.com/joluvanicaragua) to find out if they could help me out somehow and the nice owner promised he would. Since I was so over what happened Thursday and Friday night in Managua’s bar scene that I decided not to go out and get good rest instead. So on Sunday I made the quick beautiful drive down to Granada past volcanoes and lakes to talk to the owners of Joluva. Francis and Jan, the owners of Joluva, are a really nice Belgian couple that immigrated to Nicaragua a few years ago. I spent the day talking and laughing with them about all kinds of different things.

Jan told me a very interesting story of how he collected money from gays around the world to help out street kids in Granada. Basically, the local church runs a center for street kids and Jan and Francis wanted to donate a water tank and shower facilities so the kids could take showers. A very noble and wonderful idea, right? Wrong! The local Bishop found out the donation was coming from “our” kind of people and forced the center organizers to not only refuse any donations from “our” kind of people but to also not allow Jan and Francis to come near the center. So I know what you all are thinking, but come on, I spent much time with this couple and know they have no fishy ideas about their help, but rather found a cause in the city they immigrated to that they wanted to support. While I was at the hotel for 3 days I noticed that many street kids still come to the hotel asking for food or just simply clean water and Jan and Francis try to help them out but do not believe the kids should be coming to them directly for such help especially when there is a center. Go figure, the church is making the local population completely dependent on its own center with its own agenda: to keep the children dependent on the church and strike the fear of almighty in their innocent heads. But in the end, the Bishop can care less about the children especially since they blocked a wonderful donation of a clean water source. If any of you out there are touched by this story please let me know! I am very interested in helping build a non-denomination center to help street kids in Granada that will not deny them basic necessities because they have to come from one source: The Church.

Ok, so now I am getting off my soap box, board a plane and will soon let you know what a funky Thanksgiving I had.

For more information on gay Nicaragua look below:

http://www.gaynicaragua.net/

Hey guys, vote for me!

2007-11-16T16:32:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, I'm back in Nicaragua looking for hot guys that want to show you what Nicaraguans are really made of....and I'll let you know that Nicaragua has some hot guys!

Also, please nominate me for GLBT Studio of the year, GLBT Performer of the Year, GLBT Director of the Year and GLBT Feature Movie of the Year. Click on the link below to vote!

Also, I have already been nominated for sveral Cybersocket Awards:

BEST NEW ADULT SITE
BEST PORN STAR SITE
BEST VIDEO COMPANY SITE

so click on this link below to vote for me! Thanks guys!

BACK HOME!!!!!

2007-11-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it takes me a bit to update this blog, but hey, I have been nicknamed "The Clone" by, well, someone close to Miss Chi Chi LaRue, so you can just imagine I am not at home all the time putzing on my computer. (This post however is being written from the comfort of my bed at home in Miami Beach and not in some exotic place paying an arm and leg for Internet service). Anyhow.....well, After party-o-rama in Madrid, Rich and I took off to Paris to try and get business done, but I really hate the cold (home=miami beach...get it?!?!!?) so I am not as productive and out and about as when I am home in sunny Florida. After scoping Paris I rented a car and drove up to Belgium to visit some family of mine.

I would love to share pics of my grandmother and my extended family in Belgium, but you know, some things I keep a bit private. Sooooooo...Rich and I decided to go to Rotterdam to visit the local retailers (as we did in Brussels and Antwerp). I had never been to Rotterdam, but knew it was a nice modern city, but did not know there is a HUGE problem there. I drove in with French license plates and a weird Euro minivan with tinted windows, oh, and it was a Friday and Rich was in the passenger seat. All of a sudden an Arab or North African looking guy ran across traffic lanes to try and catch our car. It was really frightening but then we drove into the center of town and all of a sudden we were being chased my adolescent Arab boys on bikes. Whenever we stopped at a light an Arab youngster would approach. Finally I parked the car and one Arab boy on a bike came up very abruptly. Before he could say a word I started a verbal blast at him which confused him...I spoke English, not French. So, I went to my hotel and asked the concierge why this weird thing was happening. He did not understand until I finally told him I was driving with French plates. "A ha" he expressed, "they think you are here to buy something." What???? Buy what? OHHHHHHH, duh, stupid me, Marijuana is legal in Holland. So all these boys on bikes wanted to get a cut of the profits by taking me to a dealer. Supposedly, French people drive up to Holland to load up on loads of MJ! Mystery solved.

If that wasn't enough excitement, my wonderfully intelligent business partner Rich did not click with some Dutch customs. I don't know what you see, but I clearly see a bike lane in the pic, but Rich thought it was a Rich only lane and almost was
severely injured by several cyclists (as in Rich fashion, he blamed everyone but himself bitching the lanes was not clearly marked!) Oh and look at the pic of the ketchup and mayo. The Burger King employee asked Rich if he wanted mayo or ketchup, Miss Thing said yes to both not realizing that ketchup and mayo are for french fries and not an option for your burger. He also did not realize each one cost half a dollar....waste not want not!

After a night out in Rotterdam we continued on to Amsterdam. Rich really wanted to go (he thought it would look like Curacao) but much to his dismay the city did not thrill him. I have been to Amsterdam a few times, so all I wanted to do was go visit retailers. So I called up Xavier from Drake's and we met up, had lunched and had a great time talking very intelligently about our biz! If you are ever in Amsterdam stop by Drake's and say "hi" to Xavier from Collin O'Neal.

Spain!

2007-10-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

After a quick day to catch up and warm up after 2 very cold days in Berlin we had to get to work! After a quick trip to just take a quick look at Alicante, we met up with my new model Jesus at the "Corte Ingles" (A Spanish department store) in Murcia. I was very thrilled to see him and he seemed very happy with me, so we packed him up and headed 2 hours south of Murcia to film the next day. This is the first time I am posting a quick behind the scenes pic from one of my sets before it has been edited or anything. The guy I am kissing is the ever sexy Jesus and I wish him all the best for his future (he is only 22!).

After a very smooth shoot and a great location that I am keeping a secret, Rich and I dropped off Jesus and spent one last night in Murcia exhausted. The next day we got up late and drove to Alicante to check into our hotel there and took a quick trip to Benidorm for shits'n'giggles. Benidorm is very moderm is interesting but it is such an EsyJet/Ryanair/ThompsonFly/Jet2GO....well, you get the idea, or maybe not, city...Yob-a-licious! Later that night I met up with Jose (he is the big tall daddy in the middle of the bar pic) for dinner and then a few drinks out. Alicante has a really cool bar scene, especially if you are looking for younger guys....they are all over!

The following day we boarded another plane for Madrid and decided to stop over there to go see Martin Mazza and help him with his party in Madrid. And low and behold I run into the ever sexy Francois Sagat. We all went to dinner and then headed to the club where I ran into Vicotr Banda and my model from "Spain" Igor Bad! Of course I was up to my old ways of biting asses and licking armpits, but who could resist biting Francois Sagat's butt and licking his sexy arm pit.

More to come soon from Paris, Belgium and Holland!

HustlaBall Update...a little late

2007-10-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! So I finally am taking a moment to update my blog after Hustlaball. I spent much off the night trying to make sure my group of friends were having fun, especially Benny and my new model Bijan (he is soooo hot!). Bijan was so impressed with Chi Chi that he insisted to have his photo taken with her, so I obliged and you can see for yourself below.

After I was done rounding up friends and taking photos I decided to get a drink and then take a look around myself, but that plan was bombed quickly. First, I saw Chi Chi's business partner and stopped to talk with him for a while then I took off again and ran into one of my models from my London movie: Milan. I spent a good bit of time speaking with Jeremy Hall and then ran into Francesco D'Macho. After talking with him and some other people that swung by to talk with us, it was time to leave.

After a day or two longer in Berlin and dinner with the nice guys from Manhunt, Adam and Phil, and a quick thank you to Brandon Baker, Rich and I took off to Spain to film with a hot new guy I discovered (that I know some big company will pick up and run with, well, at least I got him once!) And so now I am in Spain until Sunday. I will make a quick stop in Madrid to see Martin Mazza and help him with a party before boarding a plane to Paris.

Berlin, Venus, and Chi Chi's Party

2007-10-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

So after a nice week of rest and actually quite a bit of work (I am hardly ever home so receipts and projects are strewn about by condo, so I do have to clean up and organize every so often), I was off again on another plane ride! I actually had everything done and packed the day before so Rich and I went to the beach after a crap rainy weekend in Miami and then got to the airport relaxed and in plenty of time (I am usually just barely making it). I upgraded myslef to Business on American (I get 4 round trip international upgrades per year), but after talking to the Admiral's club personnel a bit and asking them for a further upgrade I was shocked that they actually did upgrade me to their flat bed First Class!!!! WOO HOO! I dumped Rich off in Business Class and then went to have a nice 7 hour sleep on the way to London to awake refreshed and well rested.

After a quick shower at the arrivals lounge Rich and I popped into central London to visit friends, do a bit of business, have lunch then head back to catch our flight to Berlin. You can see our Rich and David are happy to have a sunny day in London in October!

After a nice long night of rest, rich and I headed to chat up people within the business at Venus. Running around trade shows is very exhausting so we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading to Chi Chi's party. The party was the who's who of the porn business and some fans that found out about the party. The space was not great, but Chi Chi's spinning can make any space danceable and she sure as hell did a good job to keep me entertained as well as the rest of the guests that were dancing to her mix of 80's and 90's. I also hung out with my good friend Phil from Manhunt...we always have a great time together...well, you can see by the pic!

Next update tomorrow....well, hopefully, since who knows how late I will be at Hustlaball tonight!

Hola de Costa Rica!

2007-10-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

After Folsom and a little bit of business in LA, I decided to go to Costa Rica for 5 days. Actually, the trip was not booked on a whim, but rather when American Airlines decided to compete with Spirit Airlines' entry into the Central American/Caribbean market. I bought my trip to Nicaragua, San Juan and here at the same time for only $79 round trip to each destination. In addition, American upgrades me automatically since I am Executive Platinum with them so I flew for that cheap in First Class!

Anyway, I have been here 3 times before and every time I came here my business partner Rich (back then he was just my friend since I had not started the business yet) begged to ride along the next time, so I decided to show him how pretty Costa Rica is. We picked up a SUV from the airport and 3 1/2 hours later driving up mountains and then along the Pacific we ended up in Manuel Antonio Park at my favorite hotel Mariposa. (By the way, that is Rich drinking coffee with a view from the hotel.)

(Whoa, look at that log in my shorts....no wonder the people on the beach were looking and the American girls next to me were flirting!)So, for the past four days we have been relaxing, hiking, and going to the beach and then working productively at night since it gets dark around 5pm. Both yesterday and today I went to get a very nice massage right on the beach with the sound of the waves from a nice Costa Rican girl who I need to import back to the US so she can give me the same massage every day! We have another half day in Manuel Antonio then a drive back to San Jose and then fly back to Miami the following day to start organizing for Berlin!

Weekend at Folsom

2007-10-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

I had been traveling so much lately that I had booked myself to stay in LA with a friend of mine for about 1 week, but you know, work calls and I change my plane ticket to spend the weekend in LA to meet up with my buds in the industry, fans and my distributor Raging Stallion.

I first went to the bigmuscle party which is always fun to attend and full of porn stars, most of them provided by Titan. After a quick nap I went on to the End Up for Raging Stallion's party DJ'd by Chi Chi LaRue (one of my favorite DJs out there)!

I brought my friend Raul to the party and it seemed he was quite popular among the guests and among the producers (sorry guys, he would be perfect in front of the camera, but he doesn't want to). I also ran into my ex Arpad Miklos who looks bigger than ever....making me look like a midget standing next to him and in the picture!

After wandering around a bit and getting up on stage with my fellow RSS people (and of course I had to thank my fans for supporting my World of Men series!) the party began to go south....in a good way. I ran into my buddy Scotty from Cybersocket who had been running around all day attending all the parties like a good reporter should. Then Scotty, Raul, Arpad and I followed Chi Chi over to the pool table for some interactive fun, well, I let Chi Chi interact while we all looked on!

I HATE THE TREO!

2007-09-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

For all of you out there that hate the Palm Treo because it is the most fucked up phone ever, you will get some joy out of this post. After spending over $1,500 on replacing my Treo over the past year because no cell company covers PDAs .....and the Treo is a severely problematic PDA! Between the phone doing what I call "farting," you know, when the Treo just locks up randomly and gives you that most annoying "bump" noise when you try to do anything with it and then the phone's screen so easily breaking from a simple drop on the floor I just got tired. One time I was at LAX waiting for Chi Chi to come through security to catch our flight to Miami and my Treo kept farting in combination with general crap service at American's terminal in LAX, I did my fit of rage slam down of the Treo and the screen broke. Chi Chi was frantically calling me and after several dropped calls we finally found each other. And then one time I was shooting a scene (Collin and Robert Brankov.....outdoors) and I sat on and broke my Treo. Needless to say, I finally gave up on the piece of shit and opted for the BlackJack (I had to get over all the Beyonce ads for it and just trust it is a businessman's phone and not something used just for downloading Beyonce's latest hits to play at the gym during a work out).

Day trip to Timisoara

2007-08-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

After a few days of Mr. Pam, Rich and I constantly working we all agreed to finally go out and about. I had already planned a trip to look for a country house to film at and go on to Monte Negro and return through Kosovo, but we all decided we had too much work to do so we had to cut that trip and do something that would take less time and effort.

I suggested a quick trip to Timisoara, Romania, and Mr. Pam and Rich thought "cool!" So we took off to the North-East part of Serbia which happens to be very pretty with amazing little towns with really old buildings that look like the American Old West! At the border the Serbians harassed us a bit (something to do with my video camera) but they left me alone finally (I'm sure the border agent called us "dirty Americans" or something, I just could not tell what adjective he used...I just know his tone of voice was nasty and "Americani" followed it!).

The drive through Romania was equally as amazing, but very different from Serbia. First, the architecture is a world of difference and I could understand many of the street signs because Romanian is a Latin language and similar to Spanish in many ways. We arrived into Timisoara on its ugly industrial side, but then we happened upon the very beautiful downtown with amazing architecture and streetcars. i parked the car and we stumbled upon the main square where we ate a great tasting, but cheap meal. We then walked down to a very interesting church (I think it is Orthodox) and then got back in the car and started our drive back to Serbia.

On the way home we saw what looked like a carnival so we stopped and check it out and what an experience! The carnival was run by Gypsies and they were playing amazing music and selling local items and toys. We hung out a bit and then decided we better get going because it started turning dark and I hate driving in foreign countries at night. We finally got back around 10pm and we all ordered room service and went to bed early.

Day at Sex i Grad on the Ada

2007-08-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

After a long night out and Mr. Pam catching up on some sleep too, we all decided to head out to Belgrade's waterfront where everyone goes on the weekend in Summer to stroll and cruise. After eating we met up with some friends at Sex i Grad and relaxed until sunset.

Glamor Pig (aka Super Pam) decided to pay for our drinks...FABULOUS!

Mr. Pam says good evening from Belgrade!

SERBIA Part 2

2007-08-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

After a great cruise and a little vacation, Rich and I took back off to Belgrade to finish my movie there. Our camerawoman Mr. Pam got stuck in Chicago with bad weather so she did not arrive into Belgrade until very late at night and of course she was jet-lagged. So, Rich and I went out to check out Belgrade's gay scene but were drawn into a park by loud music. Rich and I walked into this big concert in the park series and hung out for a bit drinking and dancing.

After the party in the park Rich and I went back to a small gay bar where this blond thin guy started picking up on me and then I took advantage of his kindness and Rich and I bugged him to show us where the big gay club was. We arrived around 2:30am and stayed until 6am dancing to Serbian Folk-Pop....I loved the music!

The Rest of Italy....a little vacation

2007-08-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

After picking up a rental car at the port of Rome and dropping Roman off at the airport Rich and I continued back down to Sorrento to take in a few days of personal time before heading to

Serbia

to finish shooting that movie.

When we checked into the hotel I notice a piece of luggage missing: my video camera for business! I was thinking back to when I left the ship and remembered that I did not have it then so I must have left it under the bed in my cabin. Since it was the weekend, the cruise line’s help desk was not open so there was no way for them to help so I went to the website to see where the ship was docking next and noticed it would be in Monaco the next day. The following day after changing hotels I called the Port of Monaco and a wonderful woman contacted the ship for me and it was confirmed

that they had my precious cargo, but they wanted to send it to the corporate office lost and found instead of shipping it to me in Italy from their next port which was to be Livorno, Italy! I made an executive decision to fly to Pisa and rush the ship and insist they give it back to me, but flights were too expensive and there were no nonstops. After a ton of searching the net for a decent airfare I decided to look at train tickets. I found the train was direct from Naples to Livorno and took about 5 hours so I made the decision to take the train the next morning. Driving was just not an option since we had already booked a non-refundable hotel and really wanted to spend more time in Naples in addition to the drive taking about 7 hours.

The next morning I woke up early and took a commuter train from Sorrento to Naples and then the big train from Naples to Livorno. I slept a lot along the way and the time seemed to go pretty fast. I decided to walk to the port since it looked close on the map. However, I first went to the wrong port so I had to turn around and go to the next port when it started raining. By the time I arrived at the ship I was soaked and the person that was to have my camera had just “stepped out.” 5 minutes later here she pulled up with my baby all safe! I thanked the staff (some of them recognized me and asked where the rest of the previous passengers were…LOL), took the ship’s shuttle into town then a bus to the train and 5 hours later Rich picked me up at the station in Naples.

The following day Rich and I went to Ponpeii which is truly amazing but very hot and dusty! I also stopped in to get my hair cut which was a very interesting experience. Italians LOVE to chitty chat and they so desperately wanted to do the same with me and the hair cut took about 20 minutes longer than it should of, but it was a great experience nonetheless. The next day we drove back Rome and relaxed a bit. I went to go meet a “friend” and drove all through RomeRome trying to find the apartment. which was a crazy experience, but I saw a lot of

The next morning we took off for Belgrade on our favorite airline: JAT Airways…LOL. Our camerawoman extraordinaire was going to very late since she called me at 3am Rome time to let me know her flight was severely delayed. I took a nap while Rich worked and then we went to go get Pam from the airport sans luggage. YEAH! Mr. Pam made it to Serbia safe but extremely exhausted!

RSVP Cruise Day 9: Salerno

2007-08-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Since we had so much fun in Dubrovnik with Diane, Michael, Randy and James I decided I would take a shot at a group effort in Salerno. We all wanted to head to Capri, but getting 6 people to be at the same place and same time would be hard and Randy was late so the rest took off while Rich and I waited for Randy. After a short bus ride into town and walking about 1 mile to the port we somehow caught up to the rest of the guys even though we were about 40 minutes behind them. We dumped the Capri trip for a Positano trip because the boat already left and Capri is much further than Rich thought.

I fell asleep on the boat ride that first docked in at Almafi before it continued onto Positano. When we finally arrived we only had 2 ½ hours to putz around and have lunch…so that’s just what we did! After lunch and gelato we boarded the boat and I fell asleep again. We barely made the last bus back to the boat and then spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. Since this was our last night basically the ship started shutting down. At 9pm, when normally there would be a ton of people floating around, I could not find one person anywhere. Eventually I just retired to my room and prepare for the arrival into Rome’s port the next morning.

RSVP Cruise Day 8: Malta

2007-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

After a day on the open sea relaxing and a kind of late night partying it up on the back deck, we pulled into Malta early in the morning. When I opened my curtains I was completely amazed by how beautiful Malta is. I learned my lesson with Corfu and decided to reserve a car so we could drive around the island a bit. So Roman Rich and I headed for a taxi to get to the rental agency with our laundry (it was so expensive on the boat) and our laptops for a bit of work.

When we arrived at the car rental agency we drove immediately to drop off our laundry and then go to the internet café just blocks apart. Rich and I finished our work quickly, but Roman wanted to stay and finish his work so Rich and I drove off into the Maltese landscape. With Rich as my navigator I took off up the hills towards a town where the JAT Airways office is (don’t ask…well, yeah, I have to fly a model to Belgrade and needed to buy the ticket…JAT still does not have e-ticket ability!) We found the city but the oddest thing is that I parked the car in the main square so I could find the JAT office by foot and guess what? I parked right in front of the bloody office! LOL! We went through a store, then up some stair and into the office where the JAT woman only accepted cash payment so I ran to the ATM, got the money and finished the transaction…back in the car and on the road to a nice beach!

Ok, so this is going to sound really odd, but hey, I am human and also a strange person! For the LONGEST time I have always wanted to go to “Popeye Village” in Malta (http://www.popeyemalta.com). I knew if I ever went to Malta I would go to Popeye Village but since we did not have much time and I did do my homework in advance I thought my dream would never come true…… But then a sign appeared! A sign on the side of a random road on our way to the beach that said…..POPEYE VILLAGE 5 KM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH! Rich flipped a nut at me and said no “no way!” But I insisted and we went…wooo hooo! After a quick romp at the village we went to hop in the water. After about 1 hour splashing around we had to head back to get our laundry and then to see the beautiful for city of Valetta, the capital, before returning to the ship.

After picking up our freshly cleaned and folded clothes we headed to Valetta that totally reminded me of Beirut! We walked around a bit and then drove back to the port where we found the gay bar! We stopped in and talked to the bartender that gave us great info regarding coming back to film my “Malta” movie!!! Oh yeah! After dropping off the car in front of the ship rich went off to sleep and I went to the back deck again for a really cool 70’s party!

RSVP Cruise Day 6: Venice

2007-08-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

We pulled into Venice around noon so I was able to catch up on sleep and relax a bit since the past few days have been rush rush rush and fun fun fun. I have been to Venice 2 times before, so I was not as excited as when we pulled into Naples or Dubrovnik, but Venice is always nice to return to since it is such a unique city. First and foremost Rich and I had some work to do so we headed to an internet café, but before we could reach one I found a Ferragamo shop…..OOOOOHHHHH AAAAHHHH…Now, I’m not label whore, but Ferragamo has such nice masculine fashions. Of course, there was an item I just had to have so I went to go check my personal account and do work and then I returned to make my purchase!

After whizzing by San Marco Square rich insisted we eat at a local restaurant and not a touristy joint. We found a place, but the food was not as good as we both thought, but after we found a way to take a gondola for 50 Euro cents instead of the hefty 200 Euros usually expected. The secret is to take the cross canal public gondolas which are run my gondola drivers all dressed up and running authentic gondolas…a great photo op for just 50 Euro cents!

We made our way back to the ship and we both crashed! Walking all through Venice is a pretty rough work out and the air conditioning of my room really made me conk out! I woke up around 10pm to find another great party going on up on the deck. While in Venice Rich and I bought typical masks from Venice so we put them on and went upstairs with Roman Ragazzi to have some fun! Once again another great party with a lot of energy and DJ De Leon rockin’ the house!

RSVP Cruise Day 5: Dubrovnik, Croatia

2007-08-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a day I did not want to waste since we docked into a city both Rich and I really wanted to see and come to for a long time: DUBROVNIK! But as I was not watching Rich closely the night before (I took a very long nap while he went to dinner with the RSVP people) and he made commitments for us both…AAAHHHHHH…well, that is what I thought initially. I was kinda pissy that Rich committed us to the RSVP photo shoot in Dubrovnik, but after the bunch of us got going I warmed up to the idea and eventually warmed up to each individual person by the end of the photo shoot. DJ Dan Leon and his partner Alex really impressed me as well as the photographer Michael and his wife Diane. Now, Diane is one of those people I would call “koo koo for cocoa puffs”…LOL…a bit out there and constantly talking and moving around. I pulled Rich aside and asked what her story was and he let me know she is an attorney and highly intelligent. Well, that makes sense! Most people I quip with my coo coo…etc, are highly intelligent people whose minds go 100 miles per hour. Needless to say, Diane is one person I became extremely fond of!

Now, back to Dubrovnik! Diane found us a nice restaurant to have seafood at the pretty port and then we all broke in separate groups and ours went on to take a boat to an island and go swimming…it was amazing! We all headed back to the ship where I took a long nap and then another night party on the back deck of the ship. So far, the cruise has been very nice and I met some great people!

Dubrovnik is a must see on any trip to Europe. It is a tiny well-preserved walled in port city that has a truly unique European flare with a beautiful setting right on the Adriatic coast. It is not overcrowded with tourists making it very romantic and a well kept secret!

RSVP Cruise Day 4: Corfu, Greece

2007-08-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Corfu! Rich learned his lesson about inviting people along on our excursions so we left the ship early to investigate the island of Corfu by ourselves. We tried to rent mopeds, but it seems they were either all sold out or the other agencies wanted an international driver’s license which neither Rich nor I have. We then moved onto rental cars and they were even sold out, so we just putzed our way into town. It was so hot and both Rich and I were lazy that we decided to get on this kiddie-like fake choo choo train that does a quick tour of the town! Rich and I are so anti-tour, but heat and laziness sometimes takes over and we were extremely happy to be sitting and in the shade. The 40 minute ride took us everywhere around the city we needed to see and then dropped us off at the main square. We quickly popped over to a nice coffee shop with bali-beds and laid down and sipped cold coffee drinks until we could muster enough energy to investigate the castle.

As beautiful as Corfu is, we also needed to do some work so we headed into town to find internet access. After 2 extremely hot ours of sitting in front of a computer we had to haul our asses quickly back to the ship. Later in the evening RSVP threw another great party on the back deck of the ship. Inspired by our recent Greek port of call, the party was a “god’s and goddesses’” party…woo hoo…and of course lot’s o’ fun!