MHVTA
Mid-Hudson Valley Transgender Association
New York,USA

- Tiffany Club First Event -
Report By Edie - January 24, 2004

Hi ladeez, your roving reporter back from Tiffany Club of New England's First Event. I had a fabulous time. To summarize, this event is staged entirely in the Woburn, MA Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Tiffany Club is a broad spectrum TG group with participation by almost every TG persuasion. The daytime focus is on seminars, mostly on TG and TS issues. There are also many vendor booths, more than any other event I've been to, to visit during the day. All these activities occur on the conference floor of the hotel. On Friday night there is a buffet dinner and fashion show. On Saturday night there is a formal dinner, Tiffany Club awards presentation, and keynote speech. After the dinners on Friday and Saturday there is a DJ for dancing, or most of the girls go out or to the hotel bar. The event concludes on Sunday morning with a buffet breakfast. I would estimate that there were about 200 participants.

I arrived later than I had intended on Thursday due to the weather. I was able to register even though it was much later than the advertised 5:00 closing time of the registration desk. On Friday morning I went to two seminars. The first, a makeup seminar with Jim Bridges, was a basic presentation on how to followed by questions and answers. The second was a voice feminization workshop with Rebecca Shafir. I was very interested in that, as that is something that is rarely addressed at these events, and one of our (as a group) weakest areas. I was disappointed, expecting some quick tips on how to speak more femininely. Ms. Shafir presented the basics she does when she works with transsexuals using a volunteer from the audience with very limited group exercises. I thought it was much more elaborate than the garden variety CD needed, and there was a lot of, "This is what we would do if you came to me."

On Friday afternoon I toured the vendor area; stopped in to say hello to Amanda Richards who I am familiar with from Paradise in the Poconos, and one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. She was there doing makeovers. In all, I ran into half a dozen people I knew from PIP and two people that I had met at Lake Erie Gala. Oddly, I have never really bonded with anybody I know only from First Event, except Christine Haupsburg. The first time I got "stuck" at dinner with Christine, she was name dropping all the TG biggies and I thought it was all BS. Came to find out she does volunteer work for TG groups across the country and the stories are mostly true. I had one of my wigs done up in a French twist that would have done Patsy, of "Ab Fab," proud for the dinner fashion show.

The Friday night fashion show was fabulous; some of the girls looked very hot. Diana Arria, now transitioned, was the mistress of ceremonies. There were some interludes in the runway activity by the comedic talents of drag king Heywood Wakefield. I kept thinking that he looked like Andy Kaufman's alter ego, Tony Clifton, without the fat suit. Afterward I stayed in the banquet hall and danced until the DJs shutdown around 1130. A little extra excitement, the DJs' smoke machine set off smoke detectors, summoning the city fire marshall. A group of the girls hired a bus to take them to Man Rays in Boston in the below zero weather.

Saturday morning, toured the vendors, more had come in since Friday, filled out a few survey questionnaires. I had another wig styled and I went to Amanda for a makeover. I must have been very raggedy looking as I had a tag team makeover by Amanda and the vaunted Jamie Austen (Jamie was nothing at all like what I expected). I was going with a "real" look this trip, very conservative. I made sure they explained everything they were doing for future reference. I don't know how I really looked, but I felt like I looked Absolutely Fabulous. In the afternoon, I went to a seminar, "Angora Hollywood," which I had gone to two years ago, it had been a fun thing. Unfortunately, when only myself and another girl showed up for it, it was canceled.

Saturday night the formal dinner, awards, and keynote speech. I sat with one of my New York acquaintances and met a New York contributor to Lady Like magazine, Briana Austin. The keynote speaker was Diego Sanchez, an FtM who has been involved in some of the pro TG legislation that has occurred in Boston. I thought he was very good, providing some levity to make the heavy stuff more palatable. After dinner I stayed to dance, but before too long the DJs were boring me to distraction. I went down to the hotel bar where the TG girls were partying down. There were a few locals, gawkers, and tranny chasers. After a while there in my formal dress, I decided I needed to get into some party clothes, so I went to my room and changed. I went back to the bar until closing. The DJ there made a little announcement before shutting down for the night, "I came all the way from Philadelphia to do this gig. I have done it for the past three years and I have to say that you people are the best to party with!" Then he played "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" for the second time that evening.

I went to Sunday morning buffet breakfast in drag, a change (I usually turn into a pumpkin before breakfast). Turned back into a pumpkin, packed and drove through the snow home.

Would it be an Edie trip report without a toot about the DJ? I knew I was in trouble when I saw that they had changed DJs from previous years. In the past the DJs had been fairly Edie friendly. We did OK on Friday night with lots of '70s disco and rock remixes. On Saturday we got mostly contemporary stuff. Boring! Imagine my surprise when I spied one of the DJs, who had looked bored by her own music, animated and dancing enthusiastically to '70s disco down in the hotel bar! Now I'm really confused.

Regards,
Edie