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In Paperback
Now! Thursday July 28th/Friday 29th: Tracy on BBC-5's Up All Night 9:30 pm Eastern USA/2:30 am GMT with Dr. Petra and Dotun Read an excerpt |
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| Friday, September 26, 2003 My Day at the Airport I had the greatest time today signing books at Barbara's Bestsellers in LaGuardia Airport! Barbara's is located in the Food Court -- well, across from it -- somewhere between Laptop Lane and Asian Chao. While there, I couldn't help thinking about "The Global Soul" -- when Pico Iyer decides to live at LAX airport for a bit. Admittedly, LGA does not quite compare to LAX, if you are talking about size. But I have a feeling LGA is the more charming airport, in the way that a village is more charming than a sprawling city. I had never before considered the possibility that an American airport could be charming. Today I saw my local airport from a completely different perspective and felt, for once, like a citizen of LGA rather than a visitor. I saw short-term bonds forming as people waited for their various flights, had the most amazing conversations, some of them quite funny, and discussed the merits (or demerits) (and origins) of Chick Lit with Sharon who is a STAR. Sharon, in case you don't know, is the manager of the store. I am also grateful to Cheryl, Margarite and the entire staff whose names I have not been able to keep straight. And the nice guy who offered me a junk food fix. Everybody was incredibly helpful and kind!! For me, LaGuardia Airport felt like a temporary, modern village. But how does it seem to the people who work there every day? All in all it was a fascinating and new experience for this rather nest-oriented author. Barbara's Bestsellers has some extra copies of my book, signed. LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Lower Level, Flushing, New York 11371 Phone: 1-718-397-8477 It's open 'til 9 most nights. Monday, September 22, 2003 Banned Books Week began this year while I wasn't even looking, on Saturday September 20. I first became aware of this annual rite in 1984 when, for obvious reasons, Banned Books Week obtained a certain ironic caché. But it's STILL an important occasion for sober, irate reflection. Especially at a time when librarians are being asked to function as tattling spies! I'm not sure I agree with this theme: "Celebrate Your Freedom to Read September 20–27, 2003" ... which is being promoted on the ALA's website. Maybe this needs to be rephrased? There is more to the banning of books than the banning or burning of certain books. What use is the freedom to read if people are compelled by law to tell the state what you've been reading? It's easy to make a yearly fetish of listing the individual book titles which have, at various times, been banned. Yes, okay, everything from the brilliant, riveting "Huck Finn" to the rather lame and disappointing "Go Ask Alice." But that is not the point anymore. The ALA has been quite outspoken about challenging the excesses of the so-called Patriot Act. So, in light of this assault on our freedom, I want to warn against the danger of turning Banned Books Week into a shopping list of book titles and platitudes about freedom. For more information, visit www.ala.org/oif/ifissues/usapatriotact Radio in Denver Tonight, Monday the 22nd at 7 pm (Mountain Time) I'll be talking live about Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: KNRC Radio in Denver, 1150-AM... My hosts are Dominick and Bill. That's 9 PM Eastern Time... I'm not sure whether you can listen online: http://www.knrcradio.com/ Saturday, September 20, 2003 This is so cool!! Take a look... http://www.nypost.com/gossip/2951.htm Next up: Tuesday, September 23rd, 8pm Galt MacDermot and Norman Matlock New work from the composer of Hair! The Gershwin Hotel 7 East 27th Street (between 5th and Madison) New York, NY 10016 Admission $10 For more info: 1 212 725 6060 Tuesday, September 16, 2003 Orientalia update This week's Flavorpill features a very interesting take on Reagan's show by Nicolette Ramirez: http://www.flavorpill.net/mailer/issue171/index.html#orientalia Japanese Bookstores Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, in Japanese, is on sale in New York! Kinokuniya 10 West 49th Street (Between 5th & 6th Avenues in front of the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink) New York, NY 10020 Tel: 1 (212) 765-7766 e-mail: kinokuniya@kinokuniya.com http://www.kinokuniya.com/newyork/index.html I am trying to find out whether it's also available at their other shops in New Jersey and San Francisco. Saturday, September 13, 2003 Completely by accident, I discover that Salon published this piece by Glen Helfand this weekend! A girl in every port A search for cultural roots takes photographer Reagan Louie into Asia's sex industry. Read it here: http://www.salon.com/sex/galleries/2003/09/12/louie/index.html Orientalia, the book, is on sale at the Von Lintel Gallery, St Marks Bookshop and Shakespeare & Co. Photographs by Reagan Louie, Introduction by Tracy Quan You can also order it online: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/157687186X/ Save these dates! Meet the author... Friday afternoon, September 26, 2003 (2:15 til 4:pm) : I'll be signing books at Barbara's Bestsellers in La Guardia Airport, Central Terminal Marketplace, Flushing, New York 11371 Phone: 1-718-397-8477 Reception & reading... Thursday, October 9, 2003 at 7:00 pm: Reading, discussion, Q&A followed by a reception at the Museum of Sex, 233 Fifth Avenue (@ 27th Street), New York, NY 10016 $8.00 admission ($7.00 for members and students) http://museumofsex.com/information/visit/hourslocation.html Thursday, September 11, 2003 Wheee! A lovely person just wrote to tell me that my book is now available in Japan. The cover is adorable! http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/imgdata/large/4048970348.jpg For the Japanese translation, from Kodakawa Shoten Publishing, the ISBN: 4048970348 This is my first Asian edition... China is next. Monday, September 08, 2003 New York Premiere: Festival of Pleasure Come to a film screening and discussion about sex work in India! This event is free and open to the public. WHAT: Festival of Pleasure, a 45-minute film about the Sex Workers Festival in Kerala, India. Followed by a discussion with Subhash of the Sex Workers Forum Kerala. WHEN: Monday, September 8, 2003 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM WHERE: New York University, Silver Center, Room 713, 100 Washington Square East (near Washington Place) (Photo ID required due to NYU regulations) Just off the park, with entrances on Washington Place and Waverly Place Map: http://www.nyu.edu/map/virtual.nyu Bus & Subway: http://www.nyu.edu/travel.nyu ABOUT THE EVENT: Subhash helped to organize CHILA ("branch of a tree"), a center for children of sex workers, and a legal aid and drop-in center for sex workers. He also coordinates the Sex Workers Forum Kerala, a network of male and female sex workers throughout Kerala State, India. This March, the Forum organized its third sex workers' conference with the theme "Festival of Pleasure." A 45-minute video about the conference has been shown at sex worker film festivals in Montreal and San Francisco. This will be our first opportunity to see it in New York. -- Sponsored by: Urban Justice Center, Prostitutes of New York (PONY), Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute at New York University, The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU, and the Program for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Health, and Human Rights, Columbia University. Orientalia: Sex (Work) in Asia The opening of Reagan Louie's show at Von Lintel Gallery -- Sex in Asia -- was a bit of a mob scene! Reagan Louie took these pictures over a period of six years, visiting different parts of the Asian sex industry. As some of you know, I've been involved with one aspect of this project for the last year. I watched it unfold as Orientalia, the catalog, a collection of these pictures. So I have seen the images, many times, as pages in a book. Seeing Reagan's photography on the wall at Von Lintel is a different emotional experience -- huge! (And physically bigger.) Humane, pensive, mysterious, hopeful, cheeky... are some words that come to mind. Pictures of working girls in Tibet, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan... at different stages of professional sophistication or naivete. On the game. Off duty. Girls who know what they're doing and girls who look like they just got off the bus. 30-something women dressed in school uniforms (Japan); younger women at a brothel in Lhasa who look like they're dressed for camping in the mountains. Many women aren't wearing MUCH but they still look dressed, if you know what I mean. Although I had seen these images and people before, I really saw them for the first time on Thursday night. Maybe I'm gushing about this but when I like something, I like it, that's the way it is. Get over there before October 4... Von Lintel is at 555 West 25th Street (just east of Eleventh Avenue), New York, NY 10001 Phone: 1-212-242-0599 If you're on the West Coast you can check out Reagan's work at SF MoMA: Sex Work in Asia runs Sep 4 through Dec 7. |
