De Bauch does the Bible Belt

Back home after a whirlwind run around Germany and Switzerland shooting for some stunning latex designers over the last couple of days! I can't wait to see all the photos, but for now I will bore you rigid with more ramblings about my little holiday to the US ;p

I like what I've seen of the Southern States a surprising amount considering I'm a liberal bisexual atheist nude model. The food and music are good and the people are friendly (perhaps because none of them knew that I'm a liberal bisexual atheist nude model).

I was staying at my dad's place in Kentucky but most of this blog will probably be about our excursion to Nashville, Tennesse :)

My room at my dad's house. Sleigh beds = love!

My dad, brother and I went to BB King's bar in Nashville, which is just the coolest place with fantastic live music. The dude in white spent some time playing his guitar with his tongue!

One of BB King's signed guitars

I decided to try some traditional Southern food and went for the catfish po boy for dinner. It's not the same as fish and chips, honest.

The next day it was back to Kentucky to get a traditional American diner breakfast :)

View from my Nashville hotel room at dawn; the tall building on the right is called the Batman Building because of the two spikes

I like how in America you always get eggs with breakfast and a big selection of how they're cooked. I like mine over-easy on wheat toast :) I also <3 the retro posters on the walls!

The menu at Waffle House finally explained a Bloodhound Gang lyric that's baffled me for years: "I want you smothered, want you covered, like my Waffle House hash browns."

Well, sort of. Who wouldn't want a woman covered in sauteed onions and melted cheese?

I did actually try a bite or two of American hash browns and they're way nicer than those little crispy ones you get in the UK. They taste more potato-y and less processed (fascinating fact #894984)

Next up, something my bro (Josh) and I had been looking forward to: our first ever drive-in (do check out the website, it reflects the place itself perfectly) movie! It didn't disappoint either. What a great idea and piece of Americana :)

L-R: me and Josh at the drive-in (with Dad taking the photo)

Toy Story 3! :D

Other misc. photos from Kentucky:

Black Widow in Dad's garage

Best cheeseburger I've ever eaten in my life at Rafferty's

Guns for sale in Wal-Mart; right between the ammo aisle and kids' clothing section

And then began the epic journey home to London for Josh and me. Even more epic for him because he had to get a bus to Bristol after arriving in London. We flew Nashville to New York JFK, where I ate the most cutely packaged chow mein...

... and noticed Dita on the front of a Virgin plane. One of the ones to Vegas I presume!

I love Virgin Atlantic flights so was actually a little bummed out to see London looming at around 7.30 am local time, having sat up all night with Josh sinking free champagne and arguing about movies. If you look closely you can see the London Eye.

Now, my feet are absolutely killing me from three days of epic high heel wearage so I'm off to soak in the tub for a couple of hours!

New York, New York! *photo and video dump*

Back from my "vacation" to the US! My brother, Josh and I were visiting our dad, who lives in Kentucky, but we all met up in NYC for the 4th of July celebrations (not sure how ironic it is for British people to celebrate Independence Day but I like fireworks and beer too much to pass it up!) :) We saw Macy's display from Pier 54:

The sun setting before the fireworks

The subway was in total chaos after the display but somehow we made it back to Times Square, which was also jam-packed with people (as in shoulder-to-shoulder, shuffle-stop-shuffling rather than walking). A bunch of police went by on horses and everyone cheered! New York is definitely different to London.

We decided to go to Planet Hollywood for post-firework junk food and nerdage. I decided to be good and have the spinach salad which was actually DELICIOUS, even if you're not on a diet I totally recommend it. It came with peaches and strawberries! <3

After my pathetic salad-excitement was over I went to check out the film stuff. This was the Holy Grail:

The day before when the three of us met up in New York we checked into our hotel in Times Square then went to Olive Garden for lunch (bit of a crappy looking restaurant but quite nice food). The view of Times Square from our window table was great but it was slightly off-putting having a gigantic poster of a perfectly normal-looking woman with 'HUGE' written next to it facing me while I was trying to eat my meatballs :s

Speaking of Times Square billboards and body fascism aside, did anyone else NOT know that Green Day's American Idiot is now on Broadway? Erm, what??

Didn't think anyone would believe me if I didn't take a picture

If you follow my Twitter or have added me on Facebook then you probably read my "I'm on a video billboard in Times Square" update. Even from another continent, I can still pwn you :p

So yeah, every dickhead walking through Times Square was on the billboard, myself very much included.

That night I had an almost spiritual experience when I came across the guitar Kurt Cobain smashed up at the end of the Teen Spirit video in the Hard Rock Cafe. Teen Spirit was the first alt rock song I ever heard and completely changed the way I thought about music from the age of 13 onwards (before then my favourite band were Queen) so it's a special one for me :)

There was also a rather cool In Utero promo poster under it

There was tons of crap donated by various bands of course, but one of the more interesting/ unusual things I found was this drawing that Jim Morrison drew in high school. The writing says, "It only hurts when I laugh."

I also photographed this "Hard Rock Barbie" in the gift shop because I really want her jacket :p

Must ask a designer to make one for me!

While in NYC we had to visit Little Italy again. I love that place for some reason, it makes me feel really at home. We got some great pizza in SPQR:

More holiday snaps!:

Dancing in the street

Meaningful fridge magnet in a souvenir shop; so true!

Me and my "little" bro in Times Square

 The lifts at The New York Marriott Marquis. I'm a total bumpkin and still amazed by skyscrapers

View from my room on the 36th floor

Breakfast at Westway Diner! Bran muffins are so good but I can't find them in the UK. Think I'll experiment with baking my own!

The subway. Not as slick-looking as the tube but at least it runs all night!

Highly intelligent and well-written poster presumably produced by a non-smoker

It was too hot for my dad and bro during the day on 4th July, so while they went back to the hotel for a siesta I slathered on the sunblock and went on a pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields, Central Park to see the John Lennon memorial mosaic.

I imagine it would be dodgy at night, but during the day, Central Park is just a lovely place to be. It feels like some sort of woodland pod, removed from the world, especially when you look to the horizon and see skyscrapers poking up from behind the trees!

It was too insanely hot to walk round the whole of the park, but I saw the fountain, listened to a choir group singing Stevie Wonder songs and saw the Alice in Wonderland sculpture <3 I'd just seen the new Alice in Wonderland movie on the plane on the way over so I was well in the mood!

On the last day we went up the Empire State Building because Josh hadn't been there before. Now that the Twin Towers are gone it's the tallest building in New York again.

me at the top with the Chrysler Building in the background

Better view without my head in the way

Tops of the buildings below... things look different from 86 floors up!

A friendly pigeon doing his best King Kong impression

The very top of the Empire State

After our trip to New York we hopped on a plane to get to my dad's place in Kentucky... more about my adventures on the Bible Belt later :p

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

I don't because I only did German for one year at school when I was 12 (excuses, excuses!) but I will be modelling for The Beauty of Abyss' High Class Fetish Fashion Workshop in Karlsruhe-Baden, Germany on Sunday if anyone in the locale would like to come along :)

More from Spain! One prop, many shots ;)

I just had a lovely email from John Tisbury with even more photos from our productive week in sunny southern Spain earlier this year!

These were taken at a fantastic fort on top of a mountain! John produced a reel of bondage tape and told me to "do things with it."

Your direction is my command ;)

I have a reel of unusually coloured baby blue bondage tape under my bed that's been sat there collecting dust ever since I bought it during my lunch break at Erotica '08! Maybe I'll bring it along to my MAD Studio Day on 31st July... ;)

Photos from The Boudoir Academy and beyond

I'm shooting in London tomorrow then I'm off to the US for a week for 4th July celebrations in NYC and visiting my dad in Kentucky :) So I thought I'd do a big update now in case I can't post again for a while. I'll be coming home 11th July then I'll be posting a million holiday snaps :p A whole week with NO work to do!

But first, a photo update :)

First up, check out these wonderful images taken by a graduate of The Boudoir Academy called Lisa Gault!

Hair by Faye Yerbury

Makeup by moi

Location: Maunsel House

I also have this funky ballerina-esque photo back from a shoot with a Canadian photographer called Bud who was in London in May:

Hair and makeup: me

Corset: Heavenly Corsets

My other bit of news is that I'll be modelling for a series of "bite-size" art nude workshops at Studio Face on Saturday 14th August. I'll be blogging about it properly when I'm back from the US but if you want to secure yourself a place before the rest (there will only be 4 delegates per workshop), you can check out the details here.

Right, now I'm off to pack a small suitcase for tomorrow's shoot and a big one for the US- it will mostly be empty to make space for shopping in New York ^^

I'll leave you with a snap of me, very ill with chest infection and a blood clot in my cheek (hence my swollen mush) but nonetheless enjoying myself on my last trip to NYC last year!