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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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| Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Hong Kong Radio Date ... This Saturday 9:00 AM I'll be on "Saturday Morning" with Phil Whelan June 25 between 9:00-10:00 AM HK Time. If you're in New York, that's Friday evening between 9:00 and 10:00 PM. You can listen live here: RTHK-3 or after it's been archived. (In fact, I am listening live right now to a show called Hong Kong Today! Just to make sure it all works. They just aired a short BBC segment on racism in Mississipi. Now they're talking to the president of the Lion's Club International.) Saturday, June 18, 2005 News Flash - Saturday night with Sam Just heard that Sam Du Bel will be singing tonight at World Cafe, 201 Columbus Avenue (at 69th Street) 10 PM! Friday, June 17, 2005 Last night, Sam du Bel debuted his cabaret show, The Naked Me, at The Triad on 72nd and Broadway. I had no idea what to expect. Sam's ...enchanting! Even with his clothes on. Funny, romantic, eclectic, and a pleasure to hear whether singing about eros or agape. Or chatting about a place he knows well: the Garden of Eden. (Sam's a porn star with a degree in theology.) And his riff about the "polemical" nature of his title -- The Naked Me -- was endearing. I have a fondness for English spoken/sung with a Brazilian accent but among Sam's best were some bossa nova classics (Ipanema, Wave) sung in Portuguese. That said, I've never experienced anything quite so perfect, compelling and downright patriotic (in a sassy way) as last night's rendition of Cole Porter's "I'm a Gigolo." Sam's monologue between songs was edifying rather than nakedly "educational". He's edgy but has that old world feeling for a good tune. Did somebody once write somewhere that Brazil has produced the loveliest pop music of the 20th c? I was reminded of this last night. These are some of my fave songs that I listen to every day on my laptop -- wonderful to hear them LIVE. About his monologue, you sometimes get insightful messages about prostitution from geeky performance art but how much GPA can a bossa nova fan (me) really take? Not much. So it was fantastic to see a humane message about migration, love and sex work delivered by a well-groomed, stylish performer with a real voice. Who's not afraid of "sentimental." Not angry! Not a 24/7 iconoclast! What a refreshing show. It's also fun to meet a progressive Christian who doesn't insist on a unisex God. And though I'm an atheist, I enjoy Sam's take on Adam-and-evil. At a post-performance gathering, in a different kind of garden -- everywhere I turned there were Found Object Sculptures -- I heard someone say, "I could listen to Sam singing in Portuguese all night long. Don't cut any of the Brazilian stuff!" I agree! But the show succeeds because it's a mix of American showtunes, Jobim, Brazilian folk and Christian pop. With a great band! I hope he will present this mix again, very soon, in Manhattan so we can all bring our friends. Stay tuned for news about Sam du Bel! To The Market Now THIS is intriguing! I have been getting some interesting responses to the Duane Reade shopping bag commentary... Like this homage to some of our favorite "food chains". A limited edition print by Giles Ashford (who is donating 5% of each purchase to City Harvest) is available here http://tothemarketprint.com/ "...in the spring of 2002, photographer Giles Ashford began... 'stalking' the city’s residents as they frequented their favorite food purveyors. 18 months and several strange looks later..." I like it! And he seems to appreciate the authentic appeal of local chain stores. Unlike some people. Thursday, June 16, 2005 Alex Richmond of The Trentonian does a quirky column, twice a week, on everything from digital cookbooks to Euro-Asian masculinity. A few samples of her jaunty wisdom: "Newspapers used to be the cocks of the walk. Books are generally considered to be the ultimate authority on anything..." (This, in a column about food writing.) "Women are the new men. Gay men are the new women. Two stories about men came out last week that made me tilt my head like a dog, when you talk to it. They both came under the header of Men’s Fashion and Marketing." Newspaper punditry is a special art, whether applied to the intriguing (???) minutiae of social security a la Krugman or the latest dressing for a roasted fingerling potato. Sunday, June 12, 2005 How many Duane Reade bags do you own? I have about seven (the large ones with the plastic handles) tucked away in my supply closet. While New Yorkers don't need cars (or the headaches that go with), we are almost slavishly beholden to our Duane Reade shopping bags! Saara Dutton hits the nail on the head in the NY Times today... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/nyregion/thecity/12duan.html ...pointing out that a (large with handles) Duane Reade bag is to the city pedestrian as the car trunk is to the suburban driver. Essential portable storage space. You have to read Saara Dutton's "ode" to Duane Reade: and the pictures are fantastic! Like Dutton, I know what it's like to schlep a manuscript across town in a Duane Reade bag. (However, once I delivered the MS, I carefully rolled up the bag and took it with me -- retaining the Duane Reade bag has become a default setting.) I have also felt that triumphal surge of something when I score a large (with handles) bag for my shampoo or mouthwash. I have friends who resent Duane Reade. They see it as something akin to Starbucks, a not-so-great Satan, destroying all the small indie discount shops. But, where Starbucks may have invaded Manhattan from god knows where (Seattle, I guess), Duane Reade is a homegrown chain. (Dutton says they were created in 1960 and are now up to 230 stores.) To wish Duane Reade ill is like wishing that all the new indie shops will never grow beyond what they are today -- it's like romanticizing a stagnant culture. Well? Isn't it? Thursday, June 09, 2005 Annie Sprinkle has been my friend for many years and we have disagreed over many things. Most notably, her zany embrace of prosex feminist jargon and her granola tendencies. Totally at odds with my neocon dating philosophy, for starters, and my antigranola outlook. Once, Annie told me that I would benefit emotionally and sexually from attending a Drag King Workshop. Call me narrow-minded but I just wasn't ever gonna be ready for that. But what are friends for? Annie categorized me as a radical traditionalist (rather than an uptight princess) and embraced our squabbles. She told me why it was important for a porn star to reach out to feminists: she loved her porn fans but wanted to communicate with a larger audience. Annie wanted to reach a new market and she succeeded. Annie is a role model for anyone who wants to follow her own path, reinvent her career or change people's minds. Annie Sprinkle has become the mistress of make-over. Today, while contemplating the death of Grisélidis Réal, a leader of the European prostitutes' movement, I feel compelled to point you toward Annie's URL: 40 Reasons Why Whores Are My Heroes. Does it seem like all our heros or leaders are dying? In October, 2004, Paulo Longo of Brazil. Then, a few days later, Sabira, a leader in the Indian sex workers' movement and member of the Vanitha Society in Kozhikode, Kerala. On May 31, 2005: Grisélidis Réal. Yeah, it does seem that way. Nothing lasts forever. Nations and people are not eternal... But Annie lives! And keeps on reinventing her life. Her book event on Saturday at the Museum of Sex was invitation-only -- not because she's a snob or anything. (Annie is the least snobbish person I know. A true non-elitist.) But there was a crowd-control issue and the book party was ... packed. Her most recent gift to the world (courtesy of Penguin/Tarcher) is Dr Sprinkle's Spectacular Sex. Proof that it pays to keep the faith. Not surprisingly, the premise of Annie's new book is .... how to make over your love life. With one of the world's great sex experts! Reason #23? Whores endure in the face of fierce prejudice. Visit Annie Sprinkle at http://www.anniesprinkle.org |