facebook-logo

instagram_150

pinterest200

twitter2

tumblr_logo240

wikipedia_free_encyclopedia150

Playboy TV

Glamourcon 56 (long post)

So, the first time in forever that I’m not double-booked for something else on GC Weekend and my car doesn’t shit on me, I run into a convention that is deader than I’ve seen in a long time.  Not like Sign Of The Times dead, just ‘eh’ until Saturday afternoon where it picked up, thankfully.  It is *much* harder to just roll by a Playmate or model who you aren’t interested in dealing with (priorities, priorities) when there’s no crowd.  But my empty wallet demanded it.
Anyway,  due to the quirks of attendees’ scheduling this is the first time I haven’t needed to bring the Playmate Book for signatures.  I hope that’s not a trend (though my spine appreciated the break, pun intended).
I decided to get the 2013 Playmates out of the way first since the room was so slow I was afraid they might leave before I could talk to them.  Jaslyn Ome is *beautiful*, I can see why people think she could be PMOY.  I agree except that out of the 2013s she’s the most like Raquel in looks, I just can’t see Playboy picking her.  She has a very hispanic look yet isn’t (white/black/Indian), she “changes ethnicity” simply with different makeup and hairstyle (hair dyed black and it was straight, she looked much more black than hispanic at GC).  She said she shot last August and had to wait a bit to be a Playmate.  She’s modelling and taking acting classes, is also on Black Belt TV.
Ashley Doris was towards the “back” (right side) of the room with a few other 2013 Playmates, I didn’t realize she was that curvy.  As others have said, she has a real Brooke Burke vibe to her (minus Brooke’s odd upturned nose).  She said she has been modelling.  Both days had her in skin-tight short dresses.
Alyssa Arce has a very nice combination of Barbara Pavlin and Morgan Brittany in her looks.  Which is to say, fashion model.  I didn’t realize she was that curvy, either.  She said she hasn’t had time to do any Playboy promos yet.  They should fix that.
Kristen Nicole was very nice, she got a kick out of my bacon-themed t-shirt ( http://shirt.woot.com/offers/lucky-pig ).  She’s tall, some people mentioned a similarity to Kate Upton.  I didn’t see it, their eyes are different, if anything she’s got a Marisa Miller vibe.  She said she’s been modelling and that whenever she tries acting she needs alcohol to loosen herself up and laughed about that.  I think she ended up not returning Sunday (or I missed her).  Too bad, I wanted more pics of her.
Many people have commented on Bryiana Noelle’s tininess.  I, too, was a little put off by that, assumed it was her idea.  Turns out it’s due to a medical condition, severe… something anemia, her bone marrow shut down, she needed a transplant.  She was misdiagnosed with lukemia and went through chemo first, though.  Apparently all that (illness + treatment) screwed up her ability to grow normally.  Her younger sister is 5’7″, I think, she’s 5’3″ tall.  She’s really pretty and cute (due to her tiny size) but still has a great body even being that small.  She was very lively, I suppose just being alive has that affect for her.  She said she got to do a Make A Wish thing, swimming with dolphins, it gave her a will to keep fighting.  At one point she was *dead*, the doctors were working on her, revived her.  She was out of it, got mad at them for waking her up, haahaha.  Later they told her what had happened.  It was wonderful to talk to her, so animated.  She has the same mannerisms as Piper Perabo.  She said she has modelled and also was into pageants.
Going back to the “front” of the room, Val Keil was a little underwhelming to me compared to her pictures.  I like her, she’s very pretty, just “less” than the other 2013s in attendance.  She is really fun to talk to, though.  She said she’s very “country” though she’s from Philly.  She was a bartender a few times, I think once in the South, where she got her country vibe.  Prefers to “roll around in the dirt” for a photoshoot vs. stuff like her pictorial.  She said they brought in furniture for her shoot, it was in a bar but you can’t really tell, she thought she’d be doing poses while pouring drinks and stuff.
Audrey Aleen Allen looked very pretty both days in breezy dresses.  To be honest I remember little of what I talked to her about, she didn’t seem to enthused to be there.  Not aloof, just disappointed.  She bugged out early on Sunday with another Playmate.
As for returning Playmates, none put more effort in than Pamela Horton.  She had a whole video game deal going.  First, she agreed to compete against 3 GC attendees in a Mario Kart Racing tourney.  The mortals had to race in prelims first, the 3 best would compete in the final against Pam.  Our own Hairball ended up being the best of the worst, coming in second to Pamela after like 5 races.  So he has achieved his maximum potential, it’s all downhill from here, hahaha.  She later gave a talk on another video game.  She knows what she’s doing and looks damn cute doing it.  It was weird, she dressed nice and somehow transformed back and forth between stunning Playmate to cute dorky video game girl with glasses on, I kept staring at her as it happened.  I want to know how she does that.
While talking to Bryiana I noticed another of her fans had a calendar with Alana Campos in it.  He said Alana was selling them.  The design of the calendar cover was so bland that I didn’t realize it was there as I passed her table.  Talking to Alana later, she said a Mexican company did the calendar for her.  That made no sense, why would a company just do that?  But it turns out it was a calendar for a Mexican auto parts company (Tebo?), they made a load of them with their logo on them and then gave her like 300 without the logo.  That’s what she was selling and I got one.  Really nice photos, exclusive to the calendar (not mag photoshoot reprints).  She looked great, said she was still doing modelling gigs.

Tiffany Toth is a Playmate that is much prettier than her pictures say she is (and they say she’s stunning).  I asked her about a photo book she had shot for (some car or motorcycle book) and had mentioned at the last GC, she had forgotten about it!  As far as we know it’s still not out.  But she was going to look into it.  Being less retarded than the last couple Glamourcons I remembered to bring the Guitar World Buyer’s Guide she was in this time.  She said it was windy during the shoot.  She still has her online store and has posed for Kandy Magazine ( http://www.kandymag.com/ ), an online-only magazine that might start printing physical mags soon.  We got into a funny discussion about social media, Facebook and Twitter.  She said she doesn’t update much because there are a lot of dicks out there who live to say mean, personal shit regardless of what she initially posts.  She said someone once told her she should die of leukemia and not because she posted anything mean or opinionated at all.  I thought that was a pretty specific wish.  So if your favorite Playmate doesn’t post much, thank those assholes.

Also in a Guitar World buyer’s guide was Shelby Chesnes, she said the shoot took a day, Playboy shoots usually take a couple days or more.  She was just as beautiful as ever but I agree with what some other GC attendees were saying about her, she’s very shy.  Or not very engaging, I don’t know what you’d call it but I can’t see her doing the PMOY thing the same way the last few have.  She says she’s been modelling and travelling, sounded very happy.

Jaclyn Swedberg looked very much like she did last year at GC, meaning wearing hot, strapless dresses that had “check THESE out” push-up chest designs.  She was very animated and happy, said she’s still working, modelling.  At one point on Sunday Pamela came by Raquel’s area where Jaclyn was to say hi, grabbed her and gave her a chest-to-chest squeeze hug, very funny… and nice to watch, haaha.  I’m very pleased with Playboy’s selection process that has gotten us the last few PMOYs, they all have great personallities.

Juliette Frette looked stunning, as she always does.  She was saying that this will probably be her last GC for a little while, she feels that she should wait until she has more new stuff to offer.  The slow weekend did nothing to change her plans.  I asked her about the Women’s Examiner that she has written for, says nothing much has been going on there lately.  She did write and star in a Funny Or Die video (I assume this one http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6ddb0e466a/boys-are-stupid-girls-are-mean-season-2-episode-2-perfectly-perfect-boobs ), she wants to do that kind of writing more.  But mostly she’s too busy, has a day job as a recruiter for a Silicon Valley start-up, has to handle a lot of jobs there (around 30-50 employees?).  She says she likes it and it’s something that is a good fallback to simply being a hot model since that can’t possibly last.

Jessa Hinton looked fantastic.  I only remember her being there on Saturday but maybe she left early on Sunday.  She said she’s a hostess for Top Rank, a boxing site.  She still has her online store and is still designing clothes.  She, along with Juliette, seemed to have it the most together in terms of what she should be doing for her future.

Raquel Pomplun was there Sunday only but was worth the wait.  She rivals Claire Sinclair in terms of being nice to fans, being patient, looking like she really cares about what her fans are talking about.  I didn’t want to leave her area.  No question she should have been PMOY.  She was beautiful in a nice blue pattern dress.  She, like many other Playmates, is on Black Belt TV.  Apparently Black Belt is practically everywhere except the U.S.  Sounds like a cool channel (martial arts and Playmates)

Nikki Leigh was also there only on Sunday.  Even more than Tiffany, Nikki is a Playmate who absolutely stuns in person compared to her pictures.  She reminds me of a cross between a young Teri Polo and a younger Kaley Cuoco ( Nikki Leigh http://www.hollywoodtuna.com/?p=101472 ).  Her personality is electric, laughing, funny, getting everyone involved.  She said she’s been doing some acting, she’s in “Unlucky Charms” and, soon, “Snake And Mongoose” along with some other Playmates like Raquel.  Her table was right next to Raquel’s and at some point there was a fan there talking to Raquel who ate up a good 15 minutes on his own.  I don’t want to bag on the guy, he seemed to know her (I think through emails) and was being very complimentary and all that, but he wouldn’t stop with the cliches about her beauty.  As he was running out of ways to compliment her he said “You’re so photogenic!” (which is true) but Nikki smiled and almost laughed at that, and then when she realized some of us saw her she said something like ya, we’re all photogenic, that’s why we’re in Playboy.  I couldn’t argue with that.

There were a bunch of girls there from The Women Of Perfection.  They weren’t on the same level as the Playmates but one, Cora Cunningham, was very pretty, like an improved Lindsay Lohan with dark hair (similar body and facial features).  Beautiful green eyes.  She said she’s a new model while also being a stripper at a San Diego club.  We talked a bit about the differences (and similarities) between nude modelling and stripping.  If I’m ever near that area I’ll try that club.

Due to being unemployed I had to completely give up on dealing with some Playmates I really like, like Summer Altice, Luann Lee, Carrie Yazel, Marketa Janska, Nikki Schieler, Vanessa Gleason, Katie Lohmann, etc., which sucked.  And I still ended up burning hundreds.  It was good to see some familiar PML faces, though.  As I was almost done typing this my thumb swept across the laptop touchpad and before I knew what happened everything had been highlighted and then replaced with a single letter ‘t’.  I tried undoing and nothing changed and I was seriously ready to throw this thing into the middle of the street.  I went to Drafts one more time and it was there again.  Goddamn, I didn’t want to have to spend more money replacing it, hahaha.

Alfred.

********************

I’ll give Raquel the edge over Claire. If I remember correctly, when Claire returned as PMOY, she started charging more, not that there’s anything wrong with that. She has a right to, due to her enhanced title. But it seems like Raquel not only didn’t raise her price as PMOY, she lowered it. I swear she was charging a bit more in the last Glamourcon, once again I wasn’t complaining, not that she was charging unreasonable prices. But it was funny one guy actually complained that Raquel prices were too low and insist on paying her more for a signed copy of the PMOY magazine.

 

Raquel just seems to have a personality that is unmatched and very genuinely down to Earth that could feel the plight of the working men and women. Maybe it was her upbringing, but I really want to tell her parents what a great job they did with her. Another thing is that despite being the first Mexican American PMOY, she doesn’t seem to fit the Mexican American stereotypes that I’m familiar with, not that there is anything wrong with that (I love Mexican culture). But certainly does love soccer and rooting for the Mexican team, and I love that about her too.

As for Nikki, she stands alone as one of my favorites too. My heart will always be with Raquel first, and to be honest I really didn’t care about Nikki back then. But meeting her last year in person changed my mind. Sadly, there is deep internal conflict within me when it comes to Nikki and Raquel. A part of me loves Raquel to death, the other part of me feels the same way about Nikki. The fact that their table was next to each other and they could hear me talking to the other didn’t help. If I told Raquel she truly deserves to be PMOY, I feel like I’m insulting Nikki in some way. The same time when I told Nikki how great she is and why she would have been an awesome PMOY choice, would have done the same damage to Raquel. I know they’re probably mutually happy for one another, they seem to get along really well, and are good friends, but it just really tears me apart. But luckily, I am just happy that I got to meet them both and I seem to be on really good terms with both, as they appreciate my admiration for them.

As for, 2013, like Raquel my support will always go to Jaslyn first but how could I not have the same love for Val and Audrey that were just darlings? To be honest, I have never been more torn like this than these last 2 years, maybe because I got to meet them in person at Glamourcon. A few years ago, I thought Shera, Amy Leigh Andrews, Kyra Milan, and Claire were all great picks and Shera and Claire were both nice in person but I never really developed such a personal relation with them.

Jon Pish

************

My records show the following:
GC#50 (LB 11/10): Claire signed her in-magazine GF (unpersonalized), a loose GF, and a tear sheet for $15 an item.
GC#51 (CHI 8/11): Claire signed her PMOY issue for $25 (unpersonalized) and an 8X10 photo from her PMOY layout for $25.
GC#52 (LB 11/11): Claire signed her 2012 calendar page and her SE cover (unpersonalized) for $15 each.
At least when I dealt with her, Claire’s prices in Long Beach were consistent: $15 across the board, personalized or not.  She did raise her prices in CHI but that might be because of travel expenses, that and she was also at a sponsored table.
Raquel had very fan-friendly prices at both GC #54 & #56: $10, personalized or not.
Regards,
Dan Stiffler

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>