My piece, “Seven Minutes with Stripper #2″ has been published in the new anthology, Hos, Hookers, Callgirls and Rentboys on Soft Skull Press! Although I have never worked any of the jobs in the title, my essay is about my encounter with and empathy for a male dancer at a bachelorette party. After working in the sex industry as a dominatrix and stripper myself (briefly), it’s hard to see such performances as anything more than paying gigs. I do consider myself sex-positive, pro-legalization of adult sex work and without judgment of whatever two (or more) consenting adults want to do. It’s just that for me, the magic was gone after the assistant learned the magician’s tricks, so-to-speak. Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading work by others in the book, and meeting some of my fellow contributors at the release party in NYC on October 1st! Come see me! (Gosh, why does everything sound like a bad pun now?)
new anthology
Spring for Poetry
Poetry, as stumbled upon during another bike ride! Apparently this is part of a program sponsored by the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library, who, back in April, “planted” poems around the city. This one caught me off-guard and made me happy on a night when life was looking a little dim. We could all use a little more poetry in our lives, couldn’t we?
Teach Spelling
As seen yesterday on my bike ride on Sligo Creek Trail, Takoma Park, MD. Look closely.
Dharma Punk
I had the pleasure of interviewing designer/activist Heidi Minx again, this time for BustedHalo.com. I admire all she’s doing with her project, Built on Respect. She is sharing her business savvy with Tibetan refugees and others in India, demonstrating something that Joe Strummer once said: “Punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings.” Please read, get inspired and pass it on!
Nice interview just went up here about the online classes I’ve been co-teaching with Cara Bruce, my friend and fellow angsty author extraordinairre. We’ve since changed the name of our workshop and publishing company to Life’s a Bitch Books, playing up the fact that great writing often comes from crappy things that have happened to you.
Cara Bruce & I have decided to offer another online class, beginning August 1st. Our first is coming to a close and it has been a joy to watch the transformations! We have new plans for Roaming Writers anthologies, based on the work coming out of all of our upcoming classes, which I find vey exciting! The sad truth is that it’s hard to get published until you’ve been published, so our hope is that publication in the Roaming Writers anthology will give our students a boost into the world of writing; ultimately we want to plan readings surrounding the release of the books, giving writers the full experience of marketing and publicly sharing their work. For more information about upcoming workshops, click here. Also feel free to email me with further questions!
Nothing rotten in Denmark
I’ve been away from the blog for a bit, busy with teaching, writing and most recently, continuing my love affair with Scandinavia. This was my third time in that part of the world. Copenhagen is a charmingly beautiful city and it’s easy to see how Hans Christian Andersen was so inspired there. This time I attended a friend’s wedding in Denmark and visited some other friends in Sweden, where I was once again impressed by the bike culture. Nearly every road has a dedicated bike lane, and most Danes in Copenhagen use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. They ride bikes in high heels, dresses, business suits, and pouring rain. Children, groceries and dogs are piled into the amazing Christiania bikes, built in the free city of Christiania (whose very existence is another fascinating aspect of Danish culture; the American government would never stand for such a thing!) Back to the bikes, though. My friend Anja says they have a saying: “There’s no such thing as bad weather–only bad preparation.” I’m trying to adopt a little of that attitude now that I’m back home.
Crossing Borders Magazine
The new issue of Crossing Borders, an international magazine that I have been language editing, is out and available for free download. I also happened to shoot the cover this time around–a photo of a mural by Shepard Fairey, taken at 14th & U Sts, NW, Washington, DC. Crossing Borders is a Denmark-based nonprofit/NGO dedicated to providing neutral dialogue space to youth and educators interested in the peace process. They do amazing work and the magazine is just one element of the program. This is is the 3rd issue I’ve been involved with, and the majority of the content is written by young journalists and journalism students in the Middle East, writing about their lives and perspectives on the conflict. They are a lively and fascinating group and it’s been an education in itself for me to be involved with this program. Hopefully I will be traveling to Denmark again in May, teaching a brief writing workshop to a new group of international students.
I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Last Gasp)
I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Random House, UK)
I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Retro-Systems)
I Was a Teenage Dominatrix (Baldini-Castaldi)
My first book is ten years old this year. It’s been a wild ride. I seriously wrote it thinking “no one would ever read it anyway.” My old hometown free weekly recently featured I Was a Teenage Dominatrix in its book club; the results can be found here. Nice to see my little book still gets some press and is even still in print, thanks to my publishers and anyone whose ever given it their time. Feeling full of gratitude this morning…
Imposters phenomenon
See? I’m not the only one who has been obsessed with those street performers on Hollywood Boulevard. The latest coverage of them (since my book, Imposters) is Rena LeBlanc’s article in this month’s Discover Hollywood magazine. The pic to the left is of Christopher Dennis, who portrays Superman on the Boulevard–at home, among his collection (Photo taken by Jim Knoblauch).
Christopher has been on the Boulevard the longest of all of the superheroes. He is the wise, grandfatherly figure to most of the other characters. He and his girlfriend Bonnie are consummate collectors; when I visited, a giant wide-screen TV blaring a Disney movie filled one wall of their one-bedroom apartment—every other floor-to-ceiling square inch (including the bathroom) was filled with toys and Superman paraphernalia. Chris showed me a huge collection of celebrity autographs, and albums full of pictures of his tanned, shirtless self out on fishing boats off the coast of Long Beach, in his pre-Superman days. He has done some modeling for high-end fashion magazines as both Clark Kent and Superman. He and Bonnie are kind of romantic in their shared obsession, really. They were very sweet people. Some of the other characters were not as friendly, or had complaints about the book once it was out. Oh well.
