'Ho on the Go' -- FLORIDA! (or not)

[Guest DevonSFescort]

Folks,

 

The Ho on the Go has identified the Sunshine State as a possible venue for launching the production of my documentary/road trip movie. There are a few reasons why I might want to get there soon, like in a few weeks time.

 

So: I just wanted to ask anybody in Florida who thinks they'd like to hire me in a few weeks to please let me know ASAP. Let me know where you are and how long you'd like to see me for (longer visits cannot be encouraged strongly enough, but if an hour will really do ya, that's great too).

 

Also -- and this is whether you'd like to hire me or not -- let me know if you would be willing to participate in this project in one of the following ways:

 

1) Be interviewed on camera about your experiences and perspectives as an escort and/or client. Better yet, let me hang out with you for awhile, camera in tow, and get a sense of what your life is like. Or if that's too scary we can just do a talking head interview. I can blur out your face and disguise your identity in any way you need me to. But if you're an escort whose face is already plastered all over

the Internet and are willing to go ahead and be undisguised and identified under your working name, I can't tell you how phenomenally helpful that would be. By the way, if you're on the fence about whether or not you'd hire me and want to come do an interview for the purpose of checking me out, that's a-okay. Be cool if you could let me know that for head count purposes.

 

2) Do a "Chatterview" with yours truly -- an interview via Instant Messenger. Say whatever you want without worrying that people will know who you are. Or if you're willing to identify yourself (I'm thinking of escorts mainly here; i.e. their working name) that'd be great too. You can also be interviewed on camera and supplement it with a Chatterview in order to say something you didn't want to say on camera. I think I'd prefer this format to the off camera interview I had earlier proposed because this way we don't have to rely on my frail memory and chicken-scratch handwriting. I want the Chatterviews both for research purposes for the film and because I think I'm going to be writing a book as well. Also I'll be posting Chatterview transcripts on my site. If you wish, your IM handle will be changed when the transcripts are published. (Obviously I'd love to do these with anybody NOT in Florida as well, but we'll get to that.)

 

3) Know someone who should be interviewed or at least Chatterviewed? (This could include tranny or female escorts/clients, by the way, though boys will be the primary focus in the flick.) Encourage them to get in touch with me ASAP! Escorts only: wanna pitch in on camera crew at any point? Let me know.

 

4) I know ZILCH about Florida. How long's it take to drive from, say, Orlando to Miami? Any tips on seeing the state on the cheap (glamour WILL be sacrificed on this trip)? Are there better deals to be had flying in/out of a particular city? Please post anything good to know about Florida, including about the escort scene in Florida, but also travel advice in general for the budget-conscious ho (no, it's NOT an oxymoron).

 

5) Here's one for non-Floridians as well: read all about it as it's happening in the diary and give me feedback.

 

6) Ditto this one: keep this thread alive for a few days! If you have nothing constructive to say, then for god's sake say something bitchy. I've tried to give you enough ammo. I'd just like the max number of eyeballs to be laid upon this thread, with maximum feedback so I can make a decision in a few days.

 

Thanks, everybody. I hope this works out. The twins have never seen Florida. :9

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

>4) I know ZILCH about Florida. How long's it take to drive

>from, say, Orlando to Miami?

 

4 to 6 hours depending on your initiative... :-)

 

Any tips on seeing the state

>on the cheap (glamour WILL be sacrificed on this trip)? Are

>there better deals to be had flying in/out of a particular

>city?

 

Southwest No Frills Air... good online ticket prices for planned travel and currently four rountrips gets you one unrestircted frequent flyer ticket good for one year. Flys to most cities. Southwest.com

 

Please post anything good to know about Florida,

>including about the escort scene in Florida, but also travel

>advice in general for the budget-conscious ho (no, it's NOT

>an oxymoron).

>

Check online for good hotel rates. Better rates are usually available all over the place once there and you look around.

 

Lots of motels and heat in the summer (lasts 6 months)

[DaninWA]

>>4) I know ZILCH about Florida. How long's it take to drive

>>from, say, Orlando to Miami?

>

>4 to 6 hours depending on your initiative... :-)

 

Haven't been back to FL in a few years. Did they change the speed limit? Or do I drive too fast? It never took me longer than 3 1/2 hrs.

 

Dan

[Guest Ant415]

Good cheap hotel in sobe... middle of the nightlife is a place called Clay Hotel. Half is a youth hostel, and the other half is a standard hotel... they call them "couple rooms". Singles can of course rent a standard room. The place is no-frills, no pool,doorman, conceirge... but is clean and basic.. close to what you need to see in Miami Beach.

[Trixie]

"Why are we going to Florida, mom?"

- from a Nina Hagen song

Devon, I think you'll have a wonderful time there! Florida is full of freaks, and I've felt right at home, every time I've visited.

(The humidity is MURDER on your perm though, consider yourself warned.) Fly into Orlando, there are great deals to be had there due to the Disney World factor. Car rentals can be cheap there too. Tell the sweet, naive southern girl at the counter that your wife just died of cancer, and you came to Florida just to "get away", and you'll get a bitchin' upgrade! (I got a 4WD jeep!)

Orlando to Miami... was it six hours? Guess it depends which route you take. If you do a road trip by all means travel the keys down to Key West. Absolutely Fabuluous! I had my very first reef-snorkeling tour there and threw up all over the boat!

[Trixie]

PS...

 

When you're lying down-which i'm sure you'll be doing-in Florida, your twins may well be the highest elevation in that state. Imagine that.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

RE: PS...

 

>When you're lying down-which i'm sure you'll be doing-in

>Florida, your twins may well be the highest elevation in

>that state. Imagine that.

 

Well, that's not such a novelty. I'm from Texas. I grew up in a flood plane.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

Thanks to those of you who have emailed me about participating and/or hiring me in Florida. Thanks also to those of you who have posted travel tips.

 

Does anybody have any comments, either from the escort side or the client side, to make about the escort scene in any particular part of Florida? Is it more of a buyer's market or a seller's market? Are there a lot of problems with police? Dangerous incidents with clients? Any observations about gay life in Florida that spill over to apply to the escort/client world? What do people from "underserved" areas of the state do -- do they travel to Orlando, Tampa, Miami, or do they fly escorts to them?

[Rick Munroe]

>If you have nothing constructive to say, then for god's sake

>say something bitchy.

 

That's against the new Message Center Rules!! Bad Devon...}>

[MiamiLooker]

Good selection in south Florida. You can rent a South Beach body (sometimes comes with an attitude and a lisp, though), make a selection from the dancers at the strip bars, or find someone in the "models" listing of the two local gay rags, Outlook and Hotspots. Asking prices seem to be at $150 and up, but there are plenty of hot guys available for less (two years ago I used to see a dancer from Boardwalk for $80....and no, I didn't negotiate the fee, he did). Bottom line is, there's a lot of hot guys around wanting to make a buck.....

 

Slim pickins in Orlando, especially if you're looking for masculine type for around $150. Lots of twinks that seem to have only youth going for them.

 

Not familiar with the Tampa scene.

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

Dan

 

You are right... I was thinking Tampa for the upper limit -- my mistake.

 

BYW Devon, the FHP is allover the SSP so be on your best behavior.

[Guest Ant415]

In Miami Beach (sobe), any guy that is on rollerblades, without shirt, and tanned is an escort.

[Guest Derrick]

Cheaper airports also include the Ft.Lauderdale airport.

 

I also must confess the Clay Hotel is popular for "in-calls" when the

escort cannot utilize their base of operations.

 

Derrick

[chrismac]

Tell the sweet, naive southern girl

>at the counter that your wife just died of cancer, and you

>came to Florida just to "get away", and you'll get a

>bitchin' upgrade! (I got a 4WD jeep!)

 

Oh Trixie, For Shame, for shame! As someone who works in the travel and tourism industry, I'm SHOCKED to hear the kind people of this message board might engage in less than honest behavior when purchasing services! ;-)

 

Devon - best of luck to you. If I lived in Florida, I'd give you my house as a base and wouldn't expect more than good conversation with you. I would not allow my most distasteful visage to be filmed, however.

 

You might try to hook up with Clifford Cortese (escort) in Orlando. Don't know if he'd want to participate, but you might want to check him out anyway. If you thought Talvin D. was fantastic, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Cliff will have you thinking you're an acrobat in the Cirque du Soleil.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

...and another thing...

 

Since many people being interviewed won't want to show their faces, I'm going to want shots with more visual interest than a silhouetted figure or blurred out face like you see in most anonymous interviews. So often people will be speaking in voiceover against images of the urban landscape of the city where they live.

 

I lived in Minneapolis during the early nineties and they were setting a lot of films in Minnesota, and it was fun to go a movie and recognize a location, especially if it wasn't the most obvious choice and gave a sense of the city. I want to gather shots in Florida -- and everywhere I go -- that will make the locals say, "yep, he captured something about this place."

 

In your opinion, where in Florida are some of the best shots to be found?

[Guest Derrick]

If you walk upstairs into Twist after it opens around 9pm,

you'll see our colleagues "on-the-clock" with their clients. Even

happy hour I've seen some of my former boyfriends with their

Daddy of the hour.........

 

Derrick

[Guest Ant415]

I would only be filmed if disguised. Perhaps you can outfit me with a Richard Nixon mask to hide my identity. The of various dead US Presidents to hide the person can add a frivolous, yet historical touch to the video.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

>I would only be filmed if disguised. Perhaps you can outfit

>me with a Richard Nixon mask to hide my identity. The of

>various dead US Presidents to hide the person can add a

>frivolous, yet historical touch to the video.

 

DONE! Thanks, Ant415! That is definitely going to be part of the fun and humor of the movie, will be coming up with the various disguises. Groucho glasses, presidents' masks, giant blue dots, drag, focusing the camera on the subject's crotch instead of their face -- all these tactics are fair game as far as I'm concerned.

 

Half the fun of being in my movie is deciding what to wear! ;-)

[Trixie]

Devon, Sweetie...

Could I wear a giant feather boa?

[duke37]

Devon,

 

Florida as I'm sure you will discover is an odd place. Even for a native like myself it's hard to describe. Perhaps because most of the people here are from elsewhere explains why people strive so to adapt this place to their own purpose.

 

If you want a good thumbnail of what S. Florida is like try about any novel by Carl Hiassen. There are other writers of course and some more perceptive but he is a good fun place to start.

 

I would guess you will start with South Beach. And why not beautiful area , beautiful people and an amazing story as well. It's a good a place as any to see the theme of adapting your enviroment to your own purpose. People don't seem to come here because of what this place is, they come here to make this place what they desire. South Beach and Miami are great and you may end your trip here as well.

 

But Ft. Lauderdale is just up the road and with the proximity you get a comfortable melange with Miami but with a distinct spin of its own. I for one am amazed at our tribes ability to take a distinctly middle class white bread town and turn it into a retirement area of our very own. When I was growing up there you never heard or saw a gay person. But today is a very different story.

 

You will find lots of visually stunning things to film but I hesitate to say you will find things that locals will say "Yeah I know that place". Things change too fast here and no one is from here anyway.

 

Jeff

[Guest DevonSFescort]

>Devon, Sweetie...

>Could I wear a giant feather boa?

 

I'd expect no less, Trix... :*