Thursday, December 3, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves buying as much candy as she wants
Yesterday, my insane Arby’s manager spent an hour complaining to me about how he doesn’t have time to do everything he has to do: train me further, supervise me, write an evaluation about me. Rather than doing any of these things or running the restaurant, he ranted and raved while I made roast beef sandwich after roast beef sandwich. By the time it got to my twenty minute lunchbreak I was nearly in tears.
I went to the nearby RiteAid to pick out a candy bar (actually six candy bars). Standing in front of all the candy was a child looking at all the butterfingers and lollipops with such longing. His mother angrily refused him any candy. Meanwhile, I loaded my basket with chocolate bar after chocolate bar. Kit Kats, Hershey bars, Baby Ruths, Junion Mints, Mars bars. Walking past the little boy who was in tears I laughed at him. I may work for a miserable man, but at least I’ve earned this as an adult: the right to get as much candy as I want!
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves white people looking awkward
I was waiting for my bus to get to work at Arby’s this morning. A small white woman reading the new Stephen King book and listening to her ipod stood just outside the bus shelter as I was taking up most of the bench while eating my second scrambled eggs and bacon bagel. A black homeless man wandered down the street towards us. He stopped beside her and started to mumble incoherently. The woman looked uncomfortable but pulled her white earplug out and said, “Excuse me can you repeat that?” The man mumbled incoherently again. Her cheeks colored pink. She looked around, but I was the only other one there and she seemed not to think the fat woman in the Arby’s uniform staring curiously at her could help.
The man gestured wildly while spluttering and mumbling. He smelled like old poop. The white woman looked frightened. But I could tell she didn’t want to be nasty to him or just leave because that would be like admitting she is a privileged white woman who doesn’t care about a black homeless man. The man gruphed and harrumphed and coughed. She looked down at her Stephen King, but that only seemed to irritate him further. “I’m sorry. I don’t have any change,” she said. The man scratched his crotch and the bus pulled up. The white woman said to the man "Happy Thanksgiving." She and I both got on the bus. The woman went to the back of the bus scratching her face looking very perturbed. The homeless man continued on down the sidewalk.
I didn’t think to intervene because as Ronald Reagan said, “What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.”
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Friday, November 20, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves making crying girls in wheelchairs feel better
My rehearsals Wednesday night went terrible. As I tried to lift myself up on my hands, my wrists felt like they were cracking beneath me and I kept toppling to the floor. My instructor (who I pay $10 an hour! and who I can barely afford) got frustrated and belligerent. It was awful. I finished half an hour early and ate three double cheeseburgers at the Burger King next to the studio.
I had a vente size (that means 20 in Italian) and the wheelchair girl had a tall. I also got us three marshmallow kebabs to chew on. We talked about American Idol and laughed and the wheelchair girl was very cheery afterwards. I went to work at Arby’s feeling cheered, but I had lost track of time and was 20 minutes late. My mentally ill boss shouted and ordered me to change all the soda syrup cartons in back. This is a messy job and when I was finished my hands and the front of my Arby’s shirt were covered in grimy sugary liquid. I spent my break in the bathroom crying.
Despite it all, I still have faith. This is because I've made the choice to be free from absolute sorrow. As Dwight D. Eisenhower said "Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free. "
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves LadyGaga Outfits
This year I’ve been following the rise of new musical star LadyGaga. Now that’s she’s collaborated with Wale and Beyonce I’m waiting for the phone call where she’s looking to work with your hand walking queer.
Here are some favourite Lady Gaga dresses, costumes, uniforms, pieces of old toys of mine…
#3
China is so ladylike. Here LadyGaga gets it so right.
#4
Feminine. Tactile. Adorable. LadyGaga triumphs on her throne with her Hello Kitty outfit.
#5
#6
#7
#8
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves the smell of fried potatoes and bacon
I was walking down the street on my break from working a double shift at Arby’s and I caught the smell of fried potatoes and bacon from somewhere. The scent jolted me to a stop and a huge wave of memories came crashing through my mind, my father standing at the stove making me breakfast in the morning: heaps of crispy golden fried potatoes, crispy bacon, eggs over easy and waffles topped with cream and fruit. It was a weekend treat for me on weeks when I wasn't performing.
It all tasted so good lovingly prepared by my father who walked out on my mother a few years later. I never saw him again and don’t know where he is now. I stood there in the street crying not knowing why I should miss a man as crooked as Nixon.
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves working for a mentally ill boss
Times being what they are a month ago I accepted a job at the local Arby’s. I know this is not the most glamorous step given my entertainment history. But artists like me need to pay the bills and get by in between gigs.
One of the best perks for working for Arby’s (aside from the many free BBQ Bacon Cheddar Roastburgers and loaded potato bites I eat) is working for Roger, my mentally ill boss. It hasn’t been confirmed that he is actually insane. However, he seems to spend most of the day behind his manager’s desk mumbling incoherently to himself, attempting to fix the dysfunctional drive through speaker system or walking around and around the restaurant in a stupor. There is the odd occasion when he sets upon a hapless employee shouting at them to sell larger orders of curly fries.
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Monday, July 13, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves entertainers in masks
Wearing masks creates an air of mystery. The public love this. Take Michael Jackson. Take Lady GaGa's recent Malta press interview. Perhaps I should wear a mask in my upcoming comeback tour. Everyone will wonder. What is Iris Myandowski hiding? What is her real face?
For the record, I am also inspired by moonlight. LadyGaGa and I are so alike. Perhaps a collaboration is in order?
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves America’s Got Talent
Yes, we do have talent America! Gallons of it. My dearest dream is to have Eli Mattson on piano as I walk on my hands in my come back tour. I can’t think of a better man to accompany me. Yes, Eli rose from nothing just as your hand walking queer did. This is what we’re good at America! Turning ourselves upside down and walking without anyone’s help.
If anyone knows how to get in touch with Eli please let me know.
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Friday, July 10, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves men who dance alone in public
A friend of a friend set me up on a date last night, but the prospective man didn’t appear and your hand walking queer was left on her own to pay for the five glasses of wine she nursed while watching the door. Sitting at the bus stop (my car has broke down again) I was eating my way through a box of a dozen Krispy Kremes when I saw a man approach listening to his ipod and feeling the music.
He stood there shaking his behind and mouthing the words. It felt beautiful to me that he could be so enthralled in his own little world bumping along to his own beat, nearly oblivious of all around him. It lifted my spirits as I made my way home to have my diet milkshake for dinner all alone.
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves dashing novelist Christopher Rice
My future husband all-American man Christopher Rice has posted a letter on the Lambda website about the site’s long-coming revamp. Well, when Christopher Rice asks Iris Myandowski to have a sneak peek, she can’t resist opening his trousers for a little sniff. Let me tell you my darling fans, I love the look of it. It looks very user-friendly even for an old broad like me, with lots of ways to interact. It even looks good upside down!
My only question to Christopher is why does Lambda have to be about gay books? Christopher, when will you stop this farce about your sexuality and come home to your loving Iris Myandowski? I understand what your going through. My third husband Francesco Bellini thought he was a homosexual as well. But after he made love to Iris Myandowski upside down he never went back. Think of what a spectacular American couple we’d make, fit enough for the White House. Yesterday, when standing on my head for George Bush Jr. I showed him your picture and he agreed that you and I could be on the next presidential ticket as the Republican nominated candidates. Please Christopher Rice, let me be your one and only hand walking queer!
Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Iris Myandowski loves hotdogs
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Iris Myandowski is back!
I have missed you all! It’s been forty years since I’ve performed my patriotic hand walking tribute to America and I’m delighted to update you that I’ve been rehearsing for my great comeback. Yes, Iris Myandowski will walk on her hands again! Times have been hard and I became side-tracked from my true calling. I must admit, C.C. Bloom’s comments and her allegations that I am a “hand walking queer” did hurt. Well, where is that bitch now, eh? Drunk on Miami beach, estranged from her adopted daughter and bald after so much bleach. Time is the great vindicator, my adoring fans. This is what Nixon taught us. Scorned and vilified, he’s now the prime character in an Oscar-nominated film and celebrated stage play.
Iris Myandowski, American Sweetheart/Handwalking queer
I have been rehearsing hard and standing on my hands all day. In fact, I am typing these words to you now while upside down. It’s no easy feat!
So please join me here in the blogsphere to read my thoughts, memories and secret longings. Most of all, let this be a forum where we can celebrate this great country of ours!Yours and forever,
Iris Myandowski (The hand walking queer)