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| Saturday, July 30, 2005 Weekend Listening: Downtown Soulville Mr. Fine Wine has this astonishing collection of obscure soul 45s which you want to experience NOW (if you're reading this between 8:00-9:00 pm Eastern USA, any Saturday night.) Or retrospectively at your leisure: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SV Downtown Soulville airs from Jersey City every Saturday but you can tune in to Fine Wine's soul archives from anywhere in the world... including the UK (I know you're out there!) Learn more about WFMU here: http://wfmu.org/faq.html It's a fantastic radio station with fans and listeners all over the planet. Weekend Reading: Reviews of Diary PL, a reader from Brighton, just sent a link to this which ran in The (London) Times this weekend: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1712069,00.html (Two Giggles) and this rather saucy write-up from The Mirror! http://www.mirror.co.uk/tvandfilm/theticket/books/tm_objectid=15737686&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=diary-of-a-manhattan-call-girl-name_page.html (One Reluctant Smirk) Thanks for keeping me up to date! Weekend Reading 4 Giggles: "in fairness to the author, reading creepy, cut-and-paste books is my hobby." Joe Queenan's four-giggle review of Klein's Truth About Hillary will appear online Sunday. Enjoy. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/review/index.html 1 Smirk: "I do not necessarily agree that theatre tickets are 'worthless.'" Nor do I! The boys who designed this much-discussed study are confused. Plenty of self-interested floozies attach positive value to a nice meal or good seats at the ballet. Are happy to enjoy those pleasures with a series of different males. While being loyal (enough) to a man who pays the rent. What planet do these researchers live on?? Dating is an art, not a science. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7737 Another Smirk: "Stacking up stone is the oldest trade there is. Not even prostitution can come close to its antiquity." Cormac McCarthy says he is never bored; I believe him. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/books/mccarthy-venomous.html Friday, July 29, 2005 Reasons I'm Liking Five Live Brief Lives with Dotun Adebayo is really worth a listen! I have just discovered the BBC 5 obit column. Latest edition (Sunday 24 July) recalls the life of Ted Heath: Why Heath hated Thatcher, loved France and married politics. Thank you, Dotun, for remembering a New York treasure (RIP Nan Kemper)and the unfortunate career of John Tingle. I like Dotun's interview style. This approach to the obituary format is compelling. Go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/listen/audioarchive.shtml and scroll down to Brief Lives. I'm also tantalized by Message Boards which, as we know, can be weirdly addictive! This conversation -- "Do you believe the IRA?" -- is a lively one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F2148564?thread=714142 This rude rollicking free-for-all on recent comments from the Vatican is also compelling. Participate at your own risk! Not all are well-informed but some good questions are raised. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F2148565?thread=715737 Behind the moral panic, an opportunity to work If you want to pursue some topics that arose on the show last night... Carol Leigh published this fantastic op-ed in SF Chronicle last Friday. HOW did I miss this?? Well, anyway, please go to the SF Chron right now, if you're curious about the exotic wing of the sex biz: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/22/EDGHGDRSV41.DTL Feedback: Just say no? I thoroughly enjoyed last night's radio chat with Dr Petra & Dotun. And hearing from my UK readers. Thank you for sending your supportive text messages to the show! I also liked the call-in, including one cantankerous soul who thinks lonely people should abstain from paying for sex, and foreign prostitutes don't belong in the UK. His advice to the lonely -- "Have a wank!" -- was interesting, for there's a punitive vice cop within us all. Even sex workers express hostility toward people who are more outre in bed or more exotic in general. We are not above this sort of thing ourselves! So my feeling about such feelings is "forgive and learn." The call-in is archived, if you click on Friday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/upallnight.shtml?focuswin It was especially fun to have my orgasm discussion interrupted by the Chelsea-DC soccer game! (Chelsea won.) Topics covered include: Is a noisy orgasm necessary/desirable on the job? How does a hooker get away with leading two lives 24-7? And why pathologize the girl with two lives, if her partner is happy and she is too? (Yes, you can be happy while leading two lives under three names. And very bored/unhappy while leading just one.) Are "exotic" prostitutes corrupting our society? Or making it multicultural? Are there any prostitutes from rich families? What about multiple orgasms? Dotun was highly amused by my Highgate roots... but I'll give Simon's text the last word: "My wife paid her way through university as a prostitute, she's proud of her fortitude and I love the woman it made her." ** PS: This was all followed by a nutritious midnight meal at Blue Ribbon Sushi -- the deep fried skeleton of a horse mackerel is packed with calcium and they're open 'til 2:00 am (Eastern Time) ** Big thanks to M for being so patient and clued in! To C for the auditory rehearsal. And to Dan Allman for his messages! ** Companionship Dr. Petra has just published this book which is sure to intrigue all the sex worker anoraks, er, advocates out there. The Research Companion: A Practical Guide for the Social and Health Sciences Research involving the prostitute (or companion of the prostitute) has become THE burning issue on the activist menu these days. I would love to hear from anyone who has had a chance to read or review it from a prostitutes' rights perspective. Send me your comments or links! ** Thursday, July 28, 2005 BBC Radio Five Live/ 9:30 pm Eastern USA Time/Tonight Was talking to C, a yellow-dog NPR-addicted New Yorker, about tonight's BBC-5 radio chat. In America, the BBC is misunderstood. Because most New Yorkers get their BBC fix through NPR, El Beeb is known to be a rather earnest, furrow-browed font of information. However, as I pointed out to C, Beeb is multi-channelled with lots of demographic know-how and they have survived by staying relevant and competing with commercial radio. So this show, Up All Night, on BBC-5 is very informal. I will be chatting with Dr. Petra Boynton and Dotun Adebayo about sex in the news, themes in my book and whatever else comes up. I'm looking forward to it! And you can listen live, take part in the call-in or text your comments to the show. Call on: [011 44] 08700 100 500 Text: 85058 If you want to listen or email the show, go here and scroll down a bit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/upallnight.shtml More Highlights of the London Launch Sunday lunch with L. at Balans on Old Compton Street (Soho)was delightful. Sunny weather streaming through open doors, throbbingly ironic disco music and a bread basket involving complimentary goat cheese. The food was stylish but satisfying. L was wearing a slightly open shirt and getting cruised much by the staff -- it's a mostly male crowd. After lunch, he scurried off -- perhaps in the direction of a hotel, but I couldn't tell. L's mystery quotient is v.v. high. He told me to get a copy of Michel Houellebecq's Atomised which I just might do. This was followed by Sunday dinner with two feisty Canadian gals at a gastropub (non-smoking!) in Islington -- drrr, but I can't remember the name of this place. I will find out & post. There I indulged in grilled mackerel, more rosé and a rice pudding. During dinner, my ex-pat companions opined on the state of heterosex affairs. I was really surprised at how their world differs from mine. In the sex trade, we all have older girlfriends who continue to have admirers (and personal adventures) for a long long time. It's practically a tradition for call girls. These older role models set the standard and our indoctrination starts early. We do not lack female mentors! Apparently, this is not so for women in other walks of life? During dinner, I was surprised to hear a lot of stereotypical anxiety about age. It made me realize that, while the sex industry is old-fashioned in some ways, it's progressive in other respects. An edifying cultural exchange. (I should add that, when you are surrounded by female mentors, you don't appreciate them -- at first. Sex trade mentors can be difficult, egomaniacal and way judgemental.) Monday, July 25, 2005 The T Word http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/international/europe/25cnd-london.html What's with "Tupperware-like"? All over the front of the Times website! If it's not actual Tupperware, why is T-ware being mentioned? This careless reference is very telling. If you know any Tupperware enthusiasts (I know a few), you will know that Tupperware people are sticklers for authenticity. There are no Tupperware-like containers. There is only Tupperware -- and stuff that is not. What exactly does it mean to be pro-life? I was forced to ponder this while reading yesterday's NYT. The key to dealing with HIV (and many other hazards) means we acknowledge prostitution as a GOOD thing... contrary to what this long-winded troglodyte (chief "medical" officer Dybul) claims in a surprisingly good piece by Larry Rohter. Dybul wants an entire nation to "oppose" prostitution? This is like being opposed to the weather or the dairy industry. Superstitious; futile. Once again, we are embarrassed by our official image in the world, while Brazil sets a more realistic example: "Obviously abstinence is the safest way to avoid AIDS. But it's not viable in an operational sense unless you are proposing that mankind be castrated or genetically altered..." -- Pedro Chequer, director of the Brazilian government's AIDS program I am glad he used the C-word, for the human race cannot function without healthy expression of masculine desires. How interesting that our present admin needs to be reminded of this. What we are showing the world is a kind of pseudo-virility ... Brazil is also rejecting the emasculation of its national sexuality!! Interestingly, one of the groups giving condoms to prostitutes in Brazil is called... Da Vida. Here is another helpful snippet from the Times piece: Brazilian labor law recognizes "sex worker" as a profession. That entitles prostitutes, call girls and street hustlers to contribute to the official government pension fund and to receive benefits when they retire. "We view prostitutes as partners in this effort, partners who are efficient and competent" in getting Brazilians to give up dangerous sexual behavior, Dr. Chequer said. "Prostitution exists everywhere in the world, including the United States, and we have a commitment to work with this group and respect them." Now this, I feel, is truly pro-life. Looking at the entire life span of a human being. Making it possible for people, including prostitutes, to provide for their later years. Saturday, July 23, 2005 The Blogger Pixies are involved in some militant behavior at present. I keep trying to post... this is just a test! Relationship Tale Just discovered that Diary is #2 on LoveReading's Featured Book list this month! Sarah Broadhurst's favorite Relationship Tales are listed here: http://www.lovereading.co.uk/genre/rt While I do have a weakness for things highbrow (one of my middle class afflictions!), my pulse just soars when Nancy Chan is seen in the same 'hood as Sidney Sheldon. It's a great honor to see my first humble effort next to Sheldon's ... 17th?? novel. The mind just boggles at that kind of output. Radio Chat: Up All Night on BBC-5 this Thursday July 28 ...or Friday morning in the wee hours, depending on where you happen to be that night! I'll be talking to Dr. Petra and presenter Dotun Thursday night at 9:30 pm (Eastern USA time)-- that's technically Friday morning 2:30 am in the UK. You can listen live online from anywhere in the world: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/listen/ There will be a phone-in segment, as well, which I'm looking forward to. This will be fun. More info to follow! Thursday, July 21, 2005 I've been getting lots of email from people who saw Nancy Chan mentioned in this week's Heat magazine ("spirited and fun.") If you're looking for an autographed copy of Diary in Central London, try: Waterstones 19 Oxford Street London W1 Waterstones 203 Piccadilly London W1 Waterstones 311 Oxford Street London W1 Books etc 421 Oxford Street London W1 Waterstones Trafalgar Square (The Grand Bldg) London WC2 Waterstones 82 Gower Street London WC1E 6EQ For signed books in other parts of London, scroll down the blog a bit. I've been to North London, East Central and West London during my book tour! Thanks for reading my blog and for sending your emails! Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Some highlights of my London book launch! In random order. Doing an interview with Radio Europe Mediterraneo while reclining on Rirkrit Tiravanija's pristine black bed at the Serpentine: http://www.serpentinegallery.org/current.html Being able to tell my mother it wasn't the Tracy Emins bed! Finding an air-conditioned smoke-free internet cafe on a really hot day: http://www.chelsea-net.com/ Meeting lovely Dominique at the Books etc @ Whiteley's of Bayswater. (Very atmospheric shopping center in Queensway with a somewhat Edwardian vibe.) Lunching with Essie and Rosie at The Gate on July 4, official pub date. I especially liked my wild mushroom Eccles cake! They will be doing a six-course wild mushroom feast in October -- check it out. Pecorino ice cream (served with carpaccio) at Osteria dell'Arancio, 383 Kings Road. Visiting the Freud Museum in Hampstead. The house where Freud lived for a year after leaving Vienna during Nazi occupation. His daughter Anna lived here until the 1980s. On a sunny day, it felt exactly like a visit to someone's home. Recently, the Freud Museum's garden received a Camden-in-Bloom award for "Best Business Frontage" from Camden Council! Devouring grilled sea bass, stuffed cabbage, and red wine from the Bekaa Valley at Ranoush Juice. Irish rock oysters & french fries (accompanied by some truly heart-warming gossip)with my elusive girlfriend V under a solarium roof at The Gold near Portobello Market. Followed by a guided tour of shoe sales and other hang-outs deemed essential by the very wise and delightful V. Running into Armand Leroi at the annual HarperCollins author party. We soon discovered that we share an agent. I am now enjoying his book Mutants (now available in paperback) which has recently been made into a fascinating TV series for Channel 4: "Truly remarkable book that uses human mutation to explain how we are all formed while avoiding the voyeurism of the freak show." Agreeing with the current enthusiasm for rosé! It goes with everything, doesn't it. Monday, July 18, 2005 East Central London Autographed Diary now available at Books etc on Fleet Street! Books etc 176 Fleet Street London EC4 tel:020 7353 5939 Updated! in East Central London: Books etc 54 London Wall London EC2 Tel: 020 7628 9708 Books etc in Broadgate Circle London EC2 Waterstones (Procession House) Ludgate Circus London EC4 Tel: 020 72365858 Waterstones Leadenhall Market 1 Whittington Avenue London EC3 and on the way to Waterstones, lots of lovely edibles to sample in the market ... a v. v. picturesque spot! Sunday, July 17, 2005 More book-signings in (West) London! There are now autographed copies of Diary at: Books Etc in Whiteley's Queensway, London W2 Waterstones 193 Kensington High Street London W8 Tel: 020 7937 8432 Stay tuned for bookstores in East Central ... and more! North London: Autographed copies of Diary! Books Etc. at the 02 Centre 255 Finchley Road London NW3 Borders Books & Music at the N1 Centre Parkfield St London N1 tel: 020 7226 3602 close tube Angel Waterstones 68-69 Hampstead High Street London NW3 Waterstones 128 Camden High Street London NW1 Monday, July 11, 2005 Updated! In London: Autographed copies of "Diary" are at Borders (Oxford Circus) 203 Oxford Street London W1 Tel: 020 7292 1600 Books Etc. (Covent Garden) 26 James Street Covent Garden, London WC2 Tel: 020 7379 6947 Borders Express Fulham Broadway London SW6 Tel: 020 7386 5451 open late until 10 pm most nights Borders, 120 Charing Cross Road Tel: 020 7 3798877 Waterstones on the Kings Road 150-152 King's Road, Chelsea, London SW3 3NR phone 020 7351 2023 enquiries@kingsroad.waterstones.co.uk Saturday, July 09, 2005 http://www.nuts4chic.com/Templates/nuts4chic_%20uk_Books-Sizzling_summer_reads.htm This is so much fun! Queen of sex and shopping novels Jackie Collins, who is currently working on her new novel Lovers And Players, due out in November, says: “I’m going to be reading about gangsters and hookers this summer.” Friday, July 08, 2005 Saturday July 9 at 9:00 pm in Manhattan Jodi Sh. Doff reading from her "Dirty Girl" collection, a memoir of Times Square. Says Jodi: "Take a stroll back to a time when pimps still looked like Huggy Bear and Crack was just a pipe dream, to a time before silicon ..." PRE-SILICON SMUT! The mind absolutely boggles! I highly recommend this experience and wish I were in town for this: Saturday, July 9 Silver Whale Gallery 21 Bleecker Street, downstairs Gallery opens at 6pm with paintings by Emma Griffiths Readings start at 9pm with stories by Danusia Roberts & Jodi Sh. Doff Why Sex Workers' Independence Day? More background on this in a New York Times editorial that ran on July 2! Sorry I have been too disorganized to post this in "Timesly" fashion -- it has gone into paid archives! Here are some excerpts [my emphases here and there] from the NYT editorial which you can read in full at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/02/opinion/02sat3.html July 2, 2005 Taking the Prostitution Pledge Since 2003, the Bush administration has required foreign groups fighting AIDS overseas to pledge their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking before they get money from Washington. Last month, the administration expanded the requirement to American groups. On its face, this law seems innocuous. ...some very effective programs are built around trying to make sure that prostitutes and their customers use condoms. The groups who run these programs try to gain the trust of prostitutes by providing them with health care and teaching them about safe sex. They argue that being forced to state their opposition to prostitution would limit their ability to do that. Brazil turned down a $40 million grant from the United States because it did not want to imperil successful programs... [you go, Brazil!!] The Bush administration and some of its supporters .... argue that anything that makes life more tolerable for prostitutes encourages prostitution. That would include organizing sex workers in India to stand up to abusive clients, or helping Bangladeshi prostitutes get shoes so they can leave the brothel to visit a health clinic. Thursday, July 07, 2005 London calling... Calling London My warmest wishes to those of you who have sent concerned emails and tried to contact me today! I am just fine, thank you, and while the incidents of this morning have altered my plans slightly, I feel very lucky to be alive. I will report back soon with more news from London. This just in! ~3 TENORS IN SEARCH OF AN ACT!~ is returning to the NYC cabaret scene NEW 90-minute Expanded Edition of their BACK STAGE Bistro Award winning show. A music-filled evening poking some light-hearted fun at the original 3 Tenors ... and the world of cabaret, too. featuring: Bill Brooks, Edd Clark & Steven Tharp, Musical Director/Arranger: Paul Stephan, and Director: Linda S. Nelson ~ 2005 BACK STAGE Bistro Award Winner "Best Musical Comedy Act" ~ Come Join the Search EVERY TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY, July 5th through August 31st at Helen's Hideaway Room, 169 Eighth Avenue (between 18th & 19th Sts.), New York, NY 10011 $20 cover, $15 food/drink minimum. CALL 001-212-206-0609 for Reservations (most shows at 7pm, but call to confirm) RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED! Monday, July 04, 2005 Autographed copies of the UK Diary are at Waterstones on the Kings Road! 150-152 King's Road, Chelsea, London SW3 3NR phone 020 7351 2023 enquiries@kingsroad.waterstones.co.uk Watch this space for more locations over the next few days... Today, July 4, 2005 is... Sex Workers' Independence Day! (Prostitution Anoraks: Why July 4th? Find out here.) My own celebration occurred at high noon in the office of Harper Perennial where we toasted the UK edition of Diary, and I had a chance to meet the hardworking creators of... my book!! People in general don't realize what really goes into creating a book. Everything from the contract to the cover to... the sales team to... points waywayway beyond the obvious. (By obvious I mean authorship and editing.) And it's all crucial. Getting the mental kernels transformed into coherent characters & a coherent narrative is like mating and growing an embryo; the next process is more like cosmetic surgery. It's really important that things happen on schedule AND for everyone to get along. Or at least communicate well. The people at Harper UK, in addition to putting on a fantastic annual party for their authors, are (imho) fantastically talented business people and splendid colleagues. Their surgery has been a success!! Do I sound like a gushy Americana? Well, maybe I do... okay, I know I do. I'll be back to comment on shopping, restaurants and (the ultimate Manhattan chick obsession) ... finding a smoke-free internet cafe in London! I promise you that such a thing really does exist! Speaking of sounding like an American, what is Sex Workers' Independence Day? Here's more background for the hardcore anoraks. I'll get back to that soon. I'm a little cross with the NSWP for failing to post an faq on July 4 BY July 4 but if you have the patience to wade through the background they provide, you'll see why sex worker advocates are declaring their independence from the Global AIDS Act. And why July 4 was nicknamed SWI Day. Read about Brazil's policy regarding abstinence and prostitution. Sunday, July 03, 2005 On the BBC, Tuesday night July 5 10:10 pm GMT - I will be on the Joanne Good Show, BBC Radio London 94.9FM with Simon Ledderman. I think you can listen online but if you're in New York, that's 5 hours earlier (5:10 pm) Here's the Radio London website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/insideldn/radio/radio_schedule.shtml and a link to the show itself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/05/04/joanne_good_person_profile.shtml |
