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Sunday, June 29, 2008
A Dear TQ from Nancy Chan Herself
Dear TQ,
... evidently I have missed out a BIG chunk of the goings on of Nancy Chan. I can remember clearly the day I stumbled upon Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, three years ago. It was during a routine boring work lunch, I had decided to hit the shops. I walked past all these books and none stood out as much as this novel.
When I had read the blurb on the back of the book I had to buy it straight away. Three years later in the same shop, I casually walked past the books section and here it was -- the third of the Nancy Chan novels screaming out at me. I had no idea there was #2 or #3! I can't wait to start immersing myself back into another world of Nancy Chan.
I say "another world" because my name is Nancy Chan.
No middle name, no marriage name. When I read the first book I had to read it again a second time. Sometimes I think the similarities are too real, my friends would say you could be writing about my crazy crazy life.
I just have one question that has been plaguing me for three years now:
Why did you choose the name Nancy Chan?
Best wishes and warm regards,
Nancy Chan
Australia
(coincidentally getting married in August)
Dear Nancy,
Wow. I decided to keep your city a mystery, just to be safe. A girl can never be too careful. It is, of course, a lovely name. I've always been fond of it. I have a favorite relative whose name is Nancy, but there may be other reasons for choosing this name. And then again - do we really choose the names of our characters? There is something in the creative process that is confounding and dreamlike.
TQ
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, June 27, 2008
Jetsetting Call Girl Review: Vibewire, Australia
"I was rather biased towards this book from the start," says Dawn Dawson at Vibewire. Nancy "has consciously chosen to construct her life like 'a house of cards', constantly worrying if some tiny, revelatory detail will be the one that topples it. Constantly coming up with new lies to maintain the old ones. Even though she's a fictional character, you really have to wonder how anyone could live this way...Oh, and by the way, there's also this whole strange plot involving the relics of Mary Magdalen, a goat farm and deranged Christian feminists."
You can read the entire review here.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
London: Signed Copies of Jetsetting Call Girl
Chelsea: You can pick up a signed copy of my new book at Waterstone's, 150 Kings Road, across from M&S.
Notting Hill: Waterstone's, 39-41 Notting Hill Gate
Kensington: Waterstone's, 193 Kensington High Street, W8 6SH Phone 02079378432
More shops will be listed here shortly. Watch this space!
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Bedtime Reading
Naturally, I acquired WAY too many books in London. I can't wait to read Hillary Mantel's Giving Up the Ghost. (Thank you, Essie!) And I now have a signed copy of The Wisdom of Whores. (Thanks to ADL.) As both were hardcover, I packed them away. Miraculously, I was only 1 kilo over the limit when I returned.
Also picked up Gigolo which looks promising and witty. Plus: a novel about Freud by Salley Vickers, Where Three Roads Meet.
What I devoured on the flight back to New York...
was the newly released paperback, Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. I simply couldn't put it down. The most fun I've had in months! Entertaining, intelligent and quirky.
I'm dismayed - but convinced - by MP's depiction of Athena. (Warning: TQ Juvenilia.) Click here if you can bear to look at Acrylic Athena, pubescent homage to my favorite goddess. As you can see, I wasn't sure what to do about her face and hands -- but I think I did a decent job with the headgear, no?
Turns out she's a bit dysfunctional, a brainy sort who can't communicate because she's been overexposed to academic bureaucracy. Phillips has control of the story! Like I said, her take on Athena's entirely believable. Wonderful stuff.
In due course, I'll let you know what I think of the other books but this is the one I can't stop thinking about.
posted by Tracy Q
My Name in Lights?
Someone just sent me this link to The Jewish Journal. A first for me!!
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, June 23, 2008
In Australia: Cosmo Asks
"Nancy has her favourite client, Milt, whom she tries to please in much the same way as people with, say office jobs, try to do their best possible work for a coveted project. Did you ever have a client like this, and if so, what kind of things would you do to please him?"
You can read my conversation with Cosmo's Lauren Melcher here.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Diary of a Married Call Girl: Nu PÅ Dansk
The second misadventure in the Nancy Chan series has just been published in Denmark! Visit the Leksis website to learn about Høje hæle og laktaske,
translated by Søren Rasmussen.
Check out the snazzy jacket art here. For some reason, when I look at those slim purposeful legs, I think of Pippi Longstocking - blossoming into a post-adolescent go-getter, checking her cellphone at every traffic light.
Pippi was Swedish, not Danish. So perhaps that's a bit like mentioning Suzie Wong in the same breath as Bangkok 8? But Nancy Chan is herself an ethnic hybrid and good stories tend to travel across borders.
Characters from my childhood library live on through Nancy. Many of you will know that A.A. Milne's anxiety-ridden Piglet has been a huge influence. But now I think of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi who planted in my juvenile mind the idea that a girl can survive on her wits, live alone (or with whom she pleases), challenge authority, and make up any story she likes.
I wonder whether Marilou Perhson, the illustrator, feels this influence -- or is it just coincidental?
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, June 20, 2008
Jetsetting Call Girl: There is no such thing as a free, er
...lunch, but sometimes (if you're lucky) there's a free lip gloss. At your local Tesco this week, Jetsetting Call Girl comes with a matching gloss, hygienically shrink-wrapped. Just like our heroine Nancy, the Jetsetting lip gloss is classy enough to deceive everyone -- while hinting at a secret reputation below the surface.
If you're looking for a signed copy, try Waterstones in Notting Hill Gate. Notting Hill manager Mark Farley has very kindly posted our Q&A on his blog in honor of the occasion.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
London Diary
My UK launch has been huge fun, thanks in great part to the machinations of Rebecca McEwan. It began with this zany Q&A in the Sunday Times Style magazine.
On Monday, a delightful celebration with the HarperCollins team at Snows on the Green. Had a delicious osso bucco with risotto -- am I growing addicted to the life-enhancing qualities of veal marrow?? -- while sipping Prosecco.
During lunch, it was hard to avoid the question of Obama. HarperCollins is Doris Lessing's publisher, after all...
For dessert, I ordered a rhubarb and hobnut crumble!!
I now know that rhubarb farming has replaced coal-mining in West Yorkshire...well, I THINK that's what Paul Baggaley told me, which led to comparisons with upstate New York where prisons have replaced farming. Until Monday, I'd no idea about the ascendancy of rhubarb in UK life. (I did know it to be high in vitamin C though, and remember having it as a small child, raw, dipped in brown sugar.)
I returned to my guest room near the Kings Road clutching a gorgeous bouquet -- lots of mysterious purple flora to match Natasha Law's lavender-hued Jetsetting jacket. If only I could figure out how to get the camera on my UK cellphone to work.
Later, I had a bracing discussion on BBC Five Live with Richard Bacon (of Blue Peter fame). Richard admits to enjoying the new book but seems to regard Jetsetting Call Girl as a guilty pleasure.
You can listen again on the Five Live website. Click on Monday and listen to the June 16 show. My bit begins about 1 hour and 21 minutes into the show. It will be up until they replace it with the show for Monday 23rd June. Get it while you can.
[Update 6/24: No longer available on Five Live. You can listen here instead.]
Richard was very focused on drug abuse -- an interesting topic for Richard! -- and finally made the point that the five women murdered in Ipswich were addicted to drugs. (Therefore, prostitution is bad? Of course, I disagreed.)
After our segment, Richard spoke to Rodney Pinter about reporters who lose their lives on the job. In the elevator, as I left the studio, I couldn't resist asking the (v. nice) producer helping me find my cab whether we think journalists killed in the line of duty have simply chosen to enter a profession that shouldn't exist.
Given the juxtaposition of my segment and Rodney's, it's hard to avoid the comparison! Richard's discussion with Rodney about another potentially dangerous profession is, in fact, quite interesting and worth hearing.
I'll return in a bit to continue my London travelogue.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, June 09, 2008
Laura Agustin in Re-public
A beautiful piece of writing about Border thinking in this online journal which is new to me: Re-public.
"...although the media report continuous polemic and violence here, vast numbers of people move across this border every day in the course of their ordinary lives."
Laura Agustin's Sex at the Margins has developed a following that also crosses borders. You can listen to her conversation with Doug Henwood here. In The Erotic Review, Bruno Phillips refers to the author as a class act. I so agree! The New Statesman calls Sex at the Margins "one of the most important books on migration published in recent years."
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, June 07, 2008
More Thoughts About YSL's Funeral
A lovely description of the service in the Telegraph. I found this especially moving. "You belonged to this magnificent and tragic family of highly-strung people who are the salt of the earth. All that is best comes to us from the highly strung." Also: In accordance with his wishes, the Algerian-born designer's ashes are to be spread in a botanical garden close to the villa in Marrakech, Morocco, where he spent much of his time.
"He will stay there in a country that influenced and marked him greatly. He will end up in the Maghreb where he was born," Berge said. As a mark of respect, YSL shops around the world closed for two hours while the funeral took place. There is an aspect of his story that makes me want to talk about colonisation. He was from Algeria, and maybe that's part of what made him ambitious. Many of the movers and shakers of French culture come out of Algeria. I think it's no coincidence that he became a French icon -- being an outsider sometimes gives a certain charisma, as well as insight.
Despite his comfortable origins, he was also a casualty of Algeria's colonisation. His terrible ordeal in the army: it's remarkable how one person can have so little power and then so much within one lifetime. In the French army and in the mental hospital (where he was afraid even to leave his room), he was a victim of other people's cruelty. As an artist, he had so much cultural power it makes you gasp. But he did have to work for that. He always did it first and he always did it with panache. In the 1960s, women were banned from restaurants for wearing "YSL" trouser suits, and in the 1970s he provoked outrage when he showed a transparent chiffon blouse... at 21 he was the world’s youngest couturier ... says this obit. He was "traumatised by his own talent."
... those working with him became accustomed to his regular crises de nerfs and to the frightening possibility that the man on whom the multi-million YSL fashion empire hinged might at any moment become permanently unhinged or even vanish altogether. I see a connection between his precocity -- "world’s youngest couturier" -- and his inner demons. I've known a few people who suffer from this problem which is also, of course, a price they pay for their talent.
I also see a connection between Algeria -- being French but an outsider -- and his pioneering support for non-white fashion models. He was one of the first to put black models on the runway. I have tremendous sympathy for people who find themselves in the middle, neither the darlings of the right nor the left. They very often develop a talent for survival and empathy unique to their situation.
The coloniser's lot was not such an easy one in the 20th century. Their luck ran out. They weren't always accepted in their "home" country. Especially if they were not star quality outsiders. Snubbed by the social climbers and the establishment at home, they were also vilified by the left at a time when it was becoming more fashionable to identify with the colonised.
Is it correct to say that Yves Saint Laurent found a way to rise above this?
"Fashion dies, but style remains."
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, June 06, 2008
An SOS to My Readers
If anyone out there can point me to the poem which Catherine Deneuve read at YSL's service, please do send me a dearTQ!
dearTQ@tracyquan.net
posted by Tracy Q
YSL's Funeral Yesterday
“The most beautiful clothes that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves,” he once said. “But for those who haven’t had the good fortune of finding this happiness, I am there.”
Like many of the women in the church, Carla Bruni wore a black trouser suit, "a gesture of respect and even homage." Catherine Deneuve carried a sheaf of green wheat into the church and read a eulogy, in the form of a poem by Walt Whitman.
I'm dying to know which poem. Will see what I can find out.
My homage, Daughters of Yves, is posted here.
posted by Tracy Q
In Australia: Jetsetting Unleashed
Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl is out now. For your chance to win one of FIVE copies, visit Sydney Unleashed.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, June 05, 2008
U, After All
The upgrade at Guardian Unlimited CIF continues! Good news! The links are being restored. The site is moving faster. I regret any criticism I had expressed earlier. Anyway, you can't fight City Hall, baby.
This is the new link to my Commentisfree page. Many thanks to Richard, Sasha and the elves for fixing what was not working previously.
Today's column will be going up shortly. And ....
it's the first day of the rest of our lives!
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Australia: Jetsetting Call Girl Schedule!
Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl is out now in Australia.
Two radio shows on Thursday June 5. Morning and afternoon drive.
SYDNEY: Thursday morning, Breakfast with the Stars, Kyle and Jackie O, 7:10 am Sydney time. If you want to listen live, from New York, that's 5:10 pm Eastern.
UPDATE from Sydney! They're running behind schedule, and I'll be on in ten minutes or so. :)
CANBERRA: Thursday afternoon, I'll be discussing Nancy Chan's latest misadventures on 2CC Radio's Mike Welsh Drive Show.
posted by Tracy Q
U and Non-U at Commentisfree
I keep seeing these weird spooky warnings from the Brit side of Guardian Unlimited about the CIF "upgrade."
Yes, well... "upgrade"??
Personally, I'm skeptical about the term. "Upgraded" websites, upgraded software.
Sometimes it's nothing of the sort! For example, I'm *deeply* unimpressed with the changes to my favourite email reader, Eudora.
As for those who dare think they've upgraded their boyfriend? Beware. You may be deluding yourself about that particular upgrade. U know who u are!
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
In some respects
YSL was more confident than Freud:
“My small job as a couturier,” he once said, “is to make clothes that reflect our times. I’m convinced women want to wear pants.”
A shrink has to keep asking questions, but a designer's got to provide
answers. Well, that's my current theory.
My new piece on Yves Saint Laurent goes up shortly at Commentisfree
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Over at Commentisfree
... the remarks about Sex and the City continue to accumulate. I haven't been able to read them all because I'm kind of busy this weekend.
Still. I'm learning a lot of interesting things about Guardian Commenters. If I write a column that doesn't mention my scarlet past at all, someone will bring it up. If I write a column that does mention it, someone will ask me what my scarlet past has to do with all this.
Still, I love writing for the Guardian Commenters because they are such a diverse tribe. Yes, a tribe, I'm convinced of it. Maybe that's a bad habit -- thinking of Commenters in tribal terms. Maybe it's important to see each Commenter as an individual. At the end of the day, because of the way comments are counted, this is hard to do.
I haven't made up my mind about Lee Siegel's assertions, but they're beginning to interest me.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Hustle at powerHouse & Udo Spreitzenbarth = the bomb
What an honour to finally see my portrait by the amazing Udo Spreitzenbarth hanging at powerHouse Arena... in the company of classic performers such as Vanessa del Rio and Guy Gonzalez.
This exhibit is a celebration of powerHouse Magazine, Issue 3: The Hustle.
A tribute to capitalism in action, Issue 3 is about the art of selling, with a nice emphasis on DIY capitalism, the informal marketplace. This show, which includes new material not seen in the magazine is up through July 13.
When: May 22 - July 13
Weekdays: 10am - 7pm
Weekends: 11am - 7pm
Where:
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
powerHouse Arena Toll Free 1-866-99-ARENA
Directions to the Arena here.
~ ~ ~ ~
If you can't make it to the Arena, you can order the magazine here for $10. Issue 3, The Hustle, includes: True to the Game by Teri Woods; Ron Galella, Godfather of Paparazzi by Tami Mnoian; a chilling piece about selling images from the Iraq war by Christoph Bangert; and an ex-hooker's Horizontal Diary by yours truly.
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
At the risk of seeming totally self-centered....
I want to report that my new column is currently #1 in the top ten Most Active at CIF. Now some authors (swollen-headed MSM journalists for the most part!) tell me they have no time for Commenters! I even know some website editors who "hate" their Commenters. No names!
(I am very good at that by the way. Not giving up names. Suffice it to say, I count these flawed, high-handed snoots as my friends. But even if they were not my friends, my lips would be sealed.)
I compare this authorial snootitude to how pro athletes feel about their fans. There's some professional chauvinism here about the amateur scribe who can't spell or doesn't get paid. I don't really share it -- though, of course, I notice (other people's) spelling errors. It's just second-nature.
Personally, I think Commenters have a strange kind of cultural power. Even the most dismissive author feels good about getting a lot of comments. And a self-confident, capable author feels a bit worried when NOBODY comments.
One Commenter today said that it doesn't matter how well or badly I write because of how I look. (I can only take that as a compliment, giving it the 'when I'm 85' test.) I would add that it doesn't matter how well or badly a Commenter spells, as long as they have something to say.
It's all starting to feel a bit Marxist in here. I think I'll have some more coffee.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, May 26, 2008
God doesn't HAVE to be great....
for religion to be worthwhile. Some of my favorite comments on today's column include the very wise:
...amongst those who ostensibly kill and oppress for their religion or other ideology, there are usually a multitude who are doing it for the money or the power.
... the ad feminem:
Who is this ignorant baggage? It would have been nice if she'd bothered to read any of the books she mentions. Too busy concentrating on her 3rd book I s'pose...
... as well as the very interesting:
I've been brought up without religion. I have read Richard Dawkins' book and passed it on to my 19 year old son.In my view, you don't have to be religious to see that several children by several different fathers is not desirable to the larger society. It should not be beyond the ability of government, in a secular way, to encourage moral behaviour.
.... which demonstrates an important point: even atheists buy into Judeo-Christian judgements about female sexuality.
A totally fun comment thread, I must say! People really get wound up about God.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, May 19, 2008
This Just In
I have just learned that Essie Cousins, my fabulous editor at HarperCollins UK, is now the Editorial Director of Harper Perennial. As we say in the States, You Go, Girl!
I have also received in the post a gorgeous wetlook lipgloss that matches the Jetsetting Call Girl cover beautifully. Stay tuned for further deets.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, May 17, 2008
In My Mailbox: a dearTQ re "What is up with the jetsetter?"
Dear TQ,
I knew you had been tied up with the next project so I was patient. Now your third novel is out. Only in UK, though? No info has been up so far in US, or am I the only one missing it? You owe me an explanation.
- Another Jetsetter
Dear Jetsetter,
My third book will be out in just a few weeks, and yes, it will be published in the UK first. Expect some news soon about the US.
Not into being tied up, by the way... but thanks for being patient, girlfriend.
- TQ
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, May 12, 2008
Yasmin Alibai-Brown versus Gordon Ramsay
Yasmin A-B has a few things to say about Ramsay's latest enemy: the out-of-season strawberry, imported from God knows where...
For centuries, our island nation has been seafaring and roaming, restless and lusty, hedonistic and insatiably curious, mercantile and capitalist, unable ever to stay put. Through that history, the land periodically goes through cycles of self-pity and dread of the very things it seeks, withdrawing into itself, its cliffs becoming fortresses. Sybaritic excess is followed by puritanism; internationalism is pushed out by petty patriotism. One thing for sure, this zeal will not be followed through to its logical end for that would mean the closure of Carluccio's and tandoori houses, and even the most fundamentalist food purists would not dare tread that far.
Yes!
I don't always agree with Yasmin A-B. but when she's right, she's right.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Mother's Day Cont'd
What IS it about Mom? I mean the concept, not the actual person. Because I said a few irreverent things about my mother, two people have taken me to task for being the child of a heartless witch -- implying that I am the devil's spawn. But I am not, I repeat NOT, the devil's spawn. (My dad's a programmer and refers to his gig as having to do with "the black arts" -- but that, I assure you, is all smoke and mirrors. He's just my dad and my DNA's no more satanic than yours, EquivalencyDalek.)
posted by Tracy Q
The myth of the wanted child
It's Mother's Day in America, and Guardian readers are freaking out. Talk about a cultural panic:
"I can't tell you how much you've just scared me! Make it clear that you're talking about the US Mother's Day and I'm not going to be fielding a hurt phonecall from my mother tomorrow..."
"OH NO HOW AM I GOING TO GET A CARD TO THE LAKE DISTRICT."
And so on and so forth. There is nothing quite so ticklish as setting off those primal alarm buzzers -- accidentally.
I want to say that Guardian commenters are the most fun people to write for and I adore some of those user IDs. (What kind of person goes by tinfoilhoodie?? No matter, it's a great name!!)
Happy Mother's Day. My new column is posted here.
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, May 09, 2008
In My Mailbox Today: a dearTQ from Paul
Tracy,
I hope you will consider not giving up on your blog. I check it fairly regularly, and if I don't check it for a while it just means things have gone insane at work. (Which they have been lately, which is why I didn't see your plan to give it up until now.)
Anyway, I hope you'll consider keeping it running. I mean, I've needed some consolation after the denouement of the Palfrey affair (it made me really depressed seeing it on the news when it happened), so it was nice to read something by you on the subject. (Although I regularly search for your articles online, I don't always find them.) Vive La Tracy Quan's Blog!
- Paul
Dear Paul,
This is fairly convincing. Except... I did not blog from July until May! Work must have been insane, but sometimes insane is good. Especially at work. But okay, I'll try this for awhile and see how it feels. Thanks for checking in.
I didn't know DJP -- didn't realize until today that she was called Jeane, rather than Deborah, by most of her friends. (Alex Jones called her Jeane. I noticed, but it took awhile for it all to sink in.) Anyway, I didn't know her but her death has caused an emotional ripple, and I guess we're part of that.
This weekend, I have a piece going up at Guardian America -- a sacrilegious take on Mothers' Day, motherhood and the myth of the "wanted" child.
- TQ
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, May 02, 2008
Deborah Palfrey Talking to Alex Jones
An important video because you can hear Deborah in this interview with Alex Jones. There's something to be said for having a voice.
posted by Tracy Q
Email from an IUSW activist
As many of you doubtless already know, a body believed to be that of Deborah Jeane Palfrey has been found. Although it seems possible she committed suicide, it has been reported she feared for her life from those whose public standing could be damaged by her testimony.
Whether she died by her own hand or her suicide is a cover for murder, she has been killed by the state.
We will remember her as we remember all those named and unnamed women and men who are victimised for their sexwork, till one day we all are free.
...in solidarity and hope...
Thank you, Catherine, for that eloquent message of support.
posted by Tracy Q
Deborah Palfrey
You have to remember that all those who worked for her service and those who used it — none of them were held to account, or punished. And now, she is dead. (Dan Moldea)
Many are questioning the official version of her death, and I was taken to task yesterday by a friend for referring to DJP's death as a suicide. At a moment like this, people who basically share some sense of loss can turn on each other. Maybe that's a way of processing death.
But you know what? Conspiracy theory is not a term in my lexicon. I wouldn't rule anything out. And neither, it seems, do a lot of New York Times readers.
I think everyone responds to a thing like this differently. A lot of us, whether we knew Deborah or not, are taking this personally. Will she come to be seen as a martyr for our cause?
I wish she had lived on to do a book about her experience, including her prison time.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Goodbye, Deborah Palfrey
I just heard that Deborah Palfrey has killed herself. We're all a bit shocked. She was convicted in April and sentencing was scheduled for July.
While I think of myself as a fairly upbeat person, this is daunting.
I wonder about all the people whose job it was to chase her down and ruin her life. How do these people sleep at night?
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Something to Blog About
Today, I spoke to Charlie. "So you're GIVING UP YOUR BLOG?" he said.
"As if anyone would notice," I sniffed.
"*I* would notice."
Hmmmm. Well, I'll take that into consideration, then.
Meanwhile, I'm overjoyed to learn that the Bloomingdale's strike has been averted. I am peeved by all the disruptions taking place around 59th Street. For me, 59th and Third is the throbbing heart of Manhattan. Everything is the perfect size, nothing is too grotesque or imposing and the 20th century lives on... never change, 59th Street!
Recently, my favorite grocery store, Katagiri, underwent renovations -- fine, no problem with that idea. Katagiri has been on East 59th Street since 1907, and always looks like it was invented yesterday. That's what makes Katagiri special.
But when they re-opened, I discovered that the lunch counter has been eliminated. So you can still get all the delicious little snacks and meals, the frozen Berkshire pork belly, the fresh herring roe, the green teas (dry or bottled) from Japan, the lovely shrimp dumplings which need only a few seconds in your microwave...
But you can no longer pop into Katagiri for a piece of grilled mackerel and a bowl of perfectly executed rice on your way to pick up facial provisions and men's socks at Bloomie's.
I complained about the new state of affairs at Katagiri to my hair guru. "Yes, I know," he said. "I got over it." Got over it? I hate it when people "get over things" before I even find out what there is to get over.
When I heard that a strike at Bloomie's 59th was even a possibility, I got very serious, and ordered a two year supply of my custom face powder. Just in case. Panic buying. Anyway, I'm relieved to learn that, while I get used to Katagiri's new lay-out (yes, I will just have to get over it) - life as we know it can sort of continue.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, April 21, 2008
What I Did Last Summer...?
Well, I had every intention of coming back in July 2007 with some Asian sex worker chit-chat, but then I disappeared on you all. I did, however, finish my new novel, start a new column, and... well, it's been quite an intense year.
I'm actually contemplating whether to continue this blog. I'm rather attached to it because it's one of the oldest blog templates in existence. When I started, I had no idea things like Permalink and Comment would be coming next. I quite like the fact that this has neither, even though I take full advantage of such features on other folks' blogs! It's just one of the many perversities I indulge in because I can. A bit like my overdue fondness for DOS and attachment to Dial-up.
For now, an update on The Guardian column which I thoroughly enjoy doing. I am a little surprised to find myself commenting on the sexual motifs in politicians' lives. For some time, my friend Michael in Toronto has been after me to devote myself to this theme. My first reaction had been that politicians are, for the most part, sexually boring. To me, politicians are a terrible snore (unless they are Pierre Trudeau -- alluring, but he's dead.) I'll never be one of those girls who throws herself at a candidate. Unlike Dina or Silda I'm incapable of getting it up for a state governor. Also, isn't a politician's private sexuality none of our business? But it turns out we can often be most opinionated about things we aren't involved in... especially things which weren't our business to start with!
Speaking of things which shouldn't be any of my business, my next Guardian column takes a look at VS Naipaul's, er, sexuality.. Snipe-All, as I like to call him, has volunteered this info, so it seems entirely okay to go there...
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, July 13, 2007
We, Asian Sex Workers: Update
My Q&A with Gennifer Hirano is up. We'll continue during the week...
Visit We, Asian Sex Workers in San Francisco.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, July 12, 2007
San Francisco July 14-22: We, Asian Sex Workers
is the brainchild of Gennifer M. Hirano, an Asian princess with a mission. Check out the china pattern.
Read all about the participants here! There's a nice round-up of menu choices here.
If you go to their fundraiser on Sunday night, you just might win a signed souvenir copy of Married Call Girl!
Full schedule is here.
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, June 15, 2007
June 14-24, 2007: What Am I Doing on eBay?
This year, I'm participating in the MIX NYC Charity Auction to support Hima B.'s media training "summer school." It's a project aimed at LGBT youth. My personal reasons for doing this are discussed here.
You can bid on my mystery pics -- or those of 150 unusual suspects -- and support a fabulous LGBT cause!
Visit MIX NYC to find out more.
Visit eBay to place a bid on my camera. Or, go here to bid on the cameras of Annie Sprinkle, Meredith Monk, Ann Magnussen and many others!
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, May 31, 2007
More Mail: Laura Bush Precedes Me
Dan and Lisa wrote to tell me about my interview with Ben Karakh which appears today at Gothamist -- right after the Laura Bush school librarian photo op.
?!
Then Molly wrote to say: "You cut school to go to the library? I did that, too!"
As the saying goes: We Are Everywhere.
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Today's Mail: Bookslut & BEA
I just heard from Charlotte Reed, who tells me that the Q&A I did with Bookslut is finally up.
Charlotte (Emily Post for the Pet Set!) will be signing copies of her new book, Miss Fido Manners, at BEA this weekend.
If you're attending BEA, Charlotte will be at the Adams Media Booth, #3915 on Saturday, June 2, 10:00-11:00 AM!
Or visit the Miss Fido Manners website to find out more.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Nancy Does Washington?
Not exactly but: what a cute coincidence!
From the diary of Nancy Chan: Today, a piece in the Times about a Washington archeologist who recently uncovered a brothel in D.C. While searching for something entirely different... You can read the rest of this excerpt here.
Don't confuse me with the facts! Today, Francis Clines writes (about the same brothel)in the Times Editorial Notebook: Except for archeologists digging in the Mall a decade ago, Ms. Hall’s for-profit revels would have eluded history. The diggers uncovered volumes of broken Champagne bottles and other deluxe detritus where the three-story bordello once flourished. At that time, he points out, " 'prostitute' was an occupation on census lists," and "pitifully nuanced defenses for the media were unnecessary."
It's worth reading, if you want to put this whole mess in perspective.
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, May 04, 2007
I'll be on Washington Post Radio: Monday May 7 around 2:15 PM Eastern USA Time
talking to Sam Litzinger. You can find out more here:
www.washingtonpostradio.com
1500AM/107.7FM in D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Or listen online.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
May Day Activities: Newsday and WOR
Yesterday, I told Newsday that people in the sex industry have a right to interpret the law for their benefit, too. This isn't the exclusive right of giant corporations, landlords or big media! You can read the Newsday column here.
My take on the very shy and retiring Randall Tobias. (Did Deborah Jean Palfrey take the "anti-prostitution pledge?") Scroll down to the May 1 Podcast for my interview with Henican & White at WOR710HD.
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Radio Interview Today: Listen Live @ 4:00 PM Eastern USA-Canada Time
I'll be on WOR710 HD later today... talking about the DC meltdown, er, madam, story. As some of you already know, a notorious anti-prostitution hack has "retired" from his job as Director of US Foreign Assistance and Administrator for USAID (US Agency for International Development)
... because his name shows up in the records of Pamela Martin Assoc.
Tune in at 4 pm Eastern USA time.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, April 12, 2007
What's In Your Bag
January Magazine has just published my review of Winifred Gallagher's latest, It's In the Bag. I loved this book. Perfect prezzie for the girlfriend who has everything. Or wants to have everything -- let's not be too exclusive. It's as smart (cover and contents) as your smartest bag.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Don Imus and the H-Word
Well, I can't believe I missed this, but I'm finally getting up to speed on the Imus flap. He has been dismissed by NBC, for referring to a group of respectable women as HOs. The adjectives he used didn't exactly endear him to anyone.
Gwen Ifill describes it as "a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men."
Without taking sides here, I just have to ask: What's up with middle-aged white guys who try to incorporate the word HO into their public patter?
A notorious FOX-TV host tried this when he interviewed ME and it was simply bizarre. I mean, this was a grown man with a daughter! Unlike Imus, who was merely trying to sound with-it, this one was hoping to sound censorious as well: an uptight white guy from Long Island trying to work a two-letter word... which I myself can't use with a straight face.
Talking heads of a certain age need a good talking to. Enough with the pseudo street talk. You're only 14 once and that was a long time ago. Alas, it may be too late for Don Imus.
posted by Tracy Q
Resurrection Riff
Here's a PDF of Amy Zimmer's piece in Metro New York.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, April 09, 2007
Matzohs, Madeleines & the Morning After
Transmission Easter was lovely. Thank you to all who came, helped out, participated, announced the event!
We had what I can only describe as interactive communion, involving matzoh and wine (grape juice for some). People gathered in groups of six to ten and each group had a Ziploc bag with a communal matzoh. There were various instructions on slips of paper, for the group to work with. Like a scavenger hunt...
Anglicans are doing it for themselves!
Bowie Snodgrass, by the way, is inspiring and fun to read. As I prepared for the event, I checked out some of her work and enjoyed, especially, a piece about life as a single seminarian in the city. I'm really glad she invited me to participate.
$pread magazine hosted a "station" where PONY gave away madeleines made in Commercy. (Madeleine is the French equivalent of Magdalen: edible and audible proof of Mary Magdalen's everyday presence in one culture's life and language...)
And this morning, I heard from Harley about this nice write-up in Metro. Lewis W. sent a scan of the piece -- I'll have it up soon.
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Experimental Easter
gets a nice write-up in Time Out today: "Hold the haroset and the ham: nervy and pervy Jews and gentiles are turning Passover seder and Easter into sexy time!" (We're featured alongside the fetish seder in Prospect Heights.)
Sex workers will hear confession. Everyone is welcome. I'll speak about the very long and varied career of Mary Magdalen, and I'll sign copies of my book. All proceeds will be donated to Transmission to help them recover the cost of this event.
Come to the PONY/$pread table if you can't find me.
Here's a very interesting piece of New York history, sent to me by Transmission:
Long before the notorious New York nightclub 'Limelight' was re-christened 'Avalon', the Gothic Revival structure was built as 'Holy Communion Episcopal Church' by William Augustus Muhlenberg, who later instituted a radical ministry to help brothel workers and abandoned mistresses start new lives.
Muhlenberg's Feast Day on the Episcopal Calendar of Feasts and Fasts is April 8th, which this year also happens to be Easter Sunday.
Easter at Avalon
Sunday, Apr. 8th, 6-8 pm FREE
Club Avalon 47 West 20th Street @ Sixth Avenue
+ Local sex workers, artists, and an underground Manhattan church
combine forces to bring you an experimental Easter service at this
Chelsea dance club (formerly The Limelight)
+ Come honor Mary Magdalene and celebrate one of western
civilization's oldest springtime/resurrection festivals
+ All are welcome, regardless of age, gender, profession, or how many
times you've been born
CURIOUS? www.transmissioning.org
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
O Pecado Mora Aqui
is the title of my first novel, Manhattan Call Girl, translated into Portuguese: the sin lives next door. A nice twist on "the girl next door." There are 42 footnotes!*
You can order it here for 16,20 Euros.
Many thanks to Maria João Freire de Andrade for this way cool translation.
--
*I now know that T&A in Portuguese is M&R -- "Mamas e Rabo"
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, April 02, 2007
King Lear of the Taxi: 2:00 PM, Today in Middle Village Queens
Last month, on my way to the Paltalk studio, I flagged down Davidson Garret's cab. We had a nice conversation about his acting career, and how New York keeps changing. His poetry has been published in the NY Times, and his story is one lots of my friends can relate to:
Year after year, hundreds of actors, artists, writers, and musicians descend on New York City... Some get lucky very soon, and for others, destiny is not so kind. Survival work is a necessity in a city where the inflation rate multiplies by the week. King Lear of the Taxi: Musings of a New York City Actor/Taxi Driver is a philosophical glimpse at an ever-changing city in this actor's odyssey of self-revelation.
Garret has appeared in Oz and Spin City, has worked with Woody Allen, and writes about New York in a knowing understated way. It's good stuff!
He also writes about having Lauren Bacall in his cab, and meeting Mother Theresa. Order his book here.
He is reading today @ 2 PM at the Middle Village Library in Queens: 72-31 Metropolitan Avenue.
For more info, call: 1-718-326-1390
Check out his website: http://www.adventpurplepress.com
Stay tuned for news of his future readings!
posted by Tracy Q
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Alan Colmes Show: My Impressions
It's always fun to see Alan, and I've been meaning to tell him, "The website photos don't do you justice!" He's nice-looking in person.
I enjoyed meeting Matt (conservative ex porn star) and Barry (liberal comedian) in the FOX studios Friday night. What a madhouse that place is!
I was surprised when Barry started making fun of a caller who married a lady from the Philippines -- isn't Barry the liberal? (I wonder if mail-order marriages are now fair game in "liberal" circles.) During commercial break, I asked, "Why is it okay to marry someone you went to college with but not someone you met on the internet?" To my surprise, Matt agreed.
It could only get better after that.
Barry asked why a male sex worker who's into women would work in gay porn. Matt explained that gay porn pays better. In conventional porn, it's all about the women, and what does that do for the male sex worker's ego? Put another way, how many women yearn to be underpaid courtiers to some puffed up stud?
Terms like gay, straight, bisexual, cannot begin to explain the slippery nature of sex work. (Only liquid K-Y does that.) Sex workers have sex with each other or with customers because it's our job: we're not just imitating "civilian" sexuality, we practice a specifically commercial sexuality. And we can be aroused or hot in the presence of people we're not even attracted to.
I pointed out that a woman having sex with men for money doesn't necessarily "feel" hetero, and when two female prostitutes have sex, they don't necessarily feel gay. The same might apply to a male sex worker.
This is hard for civilians to accept when the sex worker's a guy. People are used to the idea that women PROVIDE sex -- whether we're dutiful wives, drunken sorority girls, or calculating prostitutes. But there's still this assumption that the male is always a "consumer." Therefore, he must be "into" the person he's having sex with. However, if he's a sex worker, the person he's into most might be HIMSELF.
There are men making a living in this industry, too, and women don't have the monopoly on sexual narcissism.
The flip side of that provider/consumer stereotype is that people wonder "How does a male sex worker get it up?" Yet they never ask whether girls have to get it up. In our own way, we do. We have to feel sexy on the job, and if we don't think we're hot stuff, it's not much fun for the consumer. So male and female sex workers have more in common than people realize.
Matt and I don't agree on everything. He's pro-Bush, I'm pro-Brazilian. And I'm not sure about his stance on gay marriage. I'm for it. I know many gay couples who pay tax and contribute, but don't have access to the benefits that come with matrimony. I'd like that to change.
Maybe we'll do another interview together. Stay tuned.
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, March 30, 2007
Alan Colmes Update!
I just found out who my co-guests will be. Matt Sanchez, controversial blogger and Marine Corps reservist who once worked in gay porn (as Rod Majors), is tonight's Conservative.
Barry Weintraub, of Comedy Central and BBC fame, is tonight's Liberal.
What a line-up! There have been questions about whether Sanchez also worked as an escort -- he says he did NOT. Just porn, which he now disapproves of.
I look forward to meeting a brother in the sexual economy. Whether he thinks sex for pay is groovy or "poisonous", I think this will be a great experience. His Salon article is very interesting. Check it out.
I am also pleased to be meeting Barry ("Stars, Stripes, and Human Rights") but I have to admit this flapdoodle over whether Sanchez ever tricked is absurdly distracting!
Listen live online tonight 11 PM til 1 AM New York Time.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tune In: Fox News Radio, Friday Night 11 PM - 1 AM(Eastern USA Time)
I'll be on The Alan Colmes Show this Friday, March 30, 11:00 pm New York Time. It's a roundtable chat that goes until 1:00 AM.
We'll take calls! Phone: 1-877-367-2526 (1-877-FOR-ALAN)
(I don't know if this number works outside of the US. I'll ask.)
**Alan has three guests: a "conservative", a "liberal", and a "wild card." It's a free-for-all current events discussion. Wish me luck, and do give us a call if you're around.
Listen online: www.alan.com
Or on your radio. Find out how by clicking here.
~~~
** What's a "conservative"? What's a "liberal"? It depends where you live, right?
Take this fun quiz: http://www.politicalcompass.org
and find out which classical composer, world leader, country or party you politically resemble.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Manhattan Cricket & Easter Sunday
At 5th Estate, my response to Shashi Tharoor's op-ed ("Our Cricket Problem") which ran in the Friday Times: you can read my comments here and Shashi's op-ed here.
That was Friday.
On Wednesday, I met with members of Transmission, who asked me to say a few words at their Experimental Easter Service. Easter @ Avalon will celebrate Mary Magdalene "leading the way to Easter." PONY and $pread will be attending. The event is free.
I will let you know what unfolds, as it unfolds! I'm looking into the possibility of signing my books, with all profits going to Transmission. (Experiments do involve some expense, especially when there's free admission.)
The event is for anyone curious about how this ancient holiday continues to evolve in the 21st century. You need not be a fervent believer. Nor an early riser: doors open at 6 pm :)
I, for one, am interested in new-fangled approaches to Belief, especially if I do not have to adjust my owlish body clock to attend a morning service. Though I favor the more established rituals and ways, this is due more to laziness than theological ardor.
From the start, Transmission was determined to get sex workers involved in their service, and they have succeeded. There will also be Jewish participation, and Communion will involve "ancient elements of Christian worship." If I have got any of this slightly wrong, I will correct it in the next post.
Easter@Avalon
47 West 20th Street (corner 6th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011
6 pm until ? (I must find out)
Sunday April 8 2007
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, March 12, 2007
Live Interview with Gary Baumgarten on Paltalk Tuesday March 13, 5 PM EASTERN USA Time/ 10 PM GMT
I will be in the PALTALK News Talk room with host Gary Baumgarten, Tuesday afternoon at 5 PM Eastern USA/Canada. That's 10 PM in the UK. 2 PM in California.
Visit http://www.paltalk.com/newstalk/ to find out more.
We'll take comments and questions from the audience, until about 6 PM (EASTERN)
Callers worldwide can use Paltalk’s voice-over-IP technology to join in the conversation. You can register here if you'd like to participate.
I'm looking forward to my first encounter with Paltalk, and Gary. He was a news director at CNN for many years, so I expect to be grilled. Recent guests and topics include Arianna Huffington, Plan B, and the New York City Council's N-word resolution.
So visit me at Paltalk on Tuesday!
posted by Tracy Q
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Talking the Talk
Pierre Bayard's “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?” will soon be available in English. Alan Riding reports that translation rights are "under negotiation" in Britain and the US, having already been "snapped up" across Europe.
That's good news because I can't wait to read it! The fact that it's only available in French needn't stop anyone from discussing its premise. The book is already creating delightful opportunities for non-French commentary. Recently, Stacy Schiff summarized in the New York Times: "After having been bludgeoned by the unbearable lightness of French women, it's high time we were consoled by the exemplary liteness of French men."
And Sarah Vine told us why Brits prefer not talking about books they HAVE read. To which a Pennsylvania reader responds:
As a reference librarian, I frequently deal with people who assume that I am widely read. I do read a fair amount but I'm pretty selective about it and my reading habits don't correspond with my patrons' expectations. So I have developed some ways to keep my edge and maintain the facade of the underpaid but intellectually superior librarian. In my experience, the best way to fake readership of books is through reading reviews. Take advantage of those who are paid to read, remember one key assessment from the review and you can fake having read almost any work of fiction. Non-fiction is a bit more challenging, but you get the idea.
This was excellent, I thought. But wait, there's more, from the author himself.
As Bayard puts it, "there are many ways of reading a book. You can skim it, you can start and not finish it, you can look at the index. You learn to live with a book.” (My italics.)
Aha. Reading as a form of cohabitation. When I think of the happiest cohabiting couples, these turn out to be people who treat each other as Bayard would have us treat books.
So, what can we learn about HUMAN cohabitation from this approach? Well, when you live with another person, you may indeed encounter a difficult passage. A word you don't understand. The word you don't understand is easy enough to solve, but the difficult passage that wants to be read over and over again until you get it? No, actually, it doesn't.
If you get too hung up at this point, you might get discouraged too early and you'll never find out that the next passage -- the entire next chapter of your partner! -- is a breeze, filled with witty zingers, quotable gossip and bizarre insights into the human condition. So it's okay to skip ahead to the funny parts, if there are any, as if your partner were a collection of short chapters. (I'll try to avoid describing your partner as a text.)
If you don't abandon the entire text (sorry) you can always return, later, to the introduction. Having browsed your partner's index, you might find that some of the more opqaue bits are making sense now. Or you might simply decide that there are things you don't need to understand after all. (A common strategy of male "readers" when dealing with anything elusive and female.)
You make a relationship work by figuring out what purpose it serves in your life, and the same applies to your relationship with a book.
But that's not all. A book can create as much tension between two love birds as a mutual friend. That bothersome buddy your significant other keeps wanting to insert into your lives? What if that buddy is a book? "People often want their spouses and partners to share their love of a particular book. And when this happens, Mr. Bayard said, they can both inhabit a 'secret universe.' But if only one has read the book, silent empathy may offer the best way out."
So, sometimes, silence is a way of talking. To your partner. Or about books.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Happy New Year!
It just so happens, we're celebrating another Year of the Pig, and Synergy is our middle name. Female Chauvinist Pigs and other controversies are discussed in my current 5th Estate column, Raunch & Its Discontents.
Comments are welcome, so please feel free to join the discussion!
posted by Tracy Q
Friday, February 23, 2007
SAVE THE DATE: Weds., March 14, 2007 (New York)
SLEEPING WITH THE UPPER EAST SIDE...
at (where better?) a reading in the East Village.
Tracy Quan, who "straddles the threshold of the love-sex macroeconomic divide," will read from Diary of a Married Call Girl. Molly Jong Fast, daughter of New York City and Erica Jong, will "take us on a tour of her big fat Jewish bohemian upbringing."
Wednesday, March 14, 7-9 pm at
Solas,
upstairs lounge,
(232 E. 9th Street, between 2nd and 3rd)
New York, NY 10003
posted by Tracy Q
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Manhattan Event: $pread Benefit, Monday, February 19, 2007
Join $pread magazine for an evening of performance, featuring writers and personalities from their newest issue.
Sarah Katherine Lewis, author of Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It As a Girl For Hire is the featured reader!
Plus, readings and multimedia performances from Diana Cage, Molly Crabapple, Melissa Ditmore, Sydni Ellis, Raven Koch, Sir Loins, Ignacio Rivera, Cristy Road, Simone Valentino, Virginia West, and emcee Astrid E. Allen.
Mingle with $pread staff and writers, win sexy prizes, and be the first to get your hands on the latest issue of $pread!
Monday February 19th, 8:00-9:30 pm
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212.614.0505
At the foot of First Street, between Houston and Bleeker. F train to 2nd Ave or 6 train to Bleeker
Admission: $7/ $5 for sex workers!!
Check out the latest issue at www.spreadmagazine.org
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, February 12, 2007
Chick Lit Without Borders?
Today, GalleyCat responds in this biting post to Maureen Dowd (and her guy pal, Leon Wieseltier.) In case you don't know, Maureen delivered a sort of weekend tirade on the pastel scourge they call chick lit.
Hmmmmm. So Maureen and Leon don't approve of pretty pink book jackets. And they think there's way too much light fiction in the shops. Breaking news? Not quite, but I'm a huge fan of Maureen, even when I don't agree with her.
That's what makes a great columnist. You want to know what she'll say (or do) next.
But this time, I think she's being short-sighted. And perhaps a bit disloyal to her own genre: journalism.
The most influential chick lit novel has been "Bridget Jones's Diary" which began life as... a newspaper column! At a UK broadsheet, The Independent. Chick lit has interesting roots, for this is one of the youngest of the UK dailies. It's the paper that won over a bunch of Guardian-type readers, even though it was founded by renegades from The Telegraph. When The Independent became a compact/comploid, okay... polite tabloid... others copied.
The Independent brought new energy to the UK newspaper industry and, through "Bridget Jones", made its mark on book publishing as well. It's the antithesis of the rather staid New York Times, but still. As Ron points out, there's something ironic going on.
Last year, when Bridget's diary returned to The Independent, I was obsessed with two columns: When I wasn't following Maureen in the NYT, I was following Bridget.
I loved it when (white, middle class, fully employed, 30+) Bridget couldn't figure out which boyfriend got her pregnant. Bridget's creator, Helen Fielding, made me realize how uptight and anxious we still are about paternity. Even though countless women have been in Bridget's kitten-heeled shoes. Even though we-who-know-better openly thumb our noses at Judeo-Christian morality. We still assume there's something ODD about not knowing which guy got you pregnant. Fielding makes this point without delivering a pro-sex feminist sermon. She does it with humor and with few words, because she's an artist and a journalist.
Maureen may object to Shopaholic rubbing shoulders with Shakespeare. She may think certain ideas should be segregated, but that's an artificial approach to the written word. You can't easily enforce those barriers, especially in a bookstore. And this speaks to the very essence of Bridget Jones ... who chatters about Princess Diana, Hurricane Katrina, Brangelina, July 7 bombings, whether Mum thinks she's a Winter or a Summer and, more than anything, Whether He'll Call, as if all these things were equally significant.
No coincidence, then, that chick lit = a less "bordered" feeling in the bookshops.
In her Saturday column, Maureen refers to British chick lit as a sub-section of the genre. Would you call this a dis? And if so, is the dis political? An explicitly anti-British thing? (Ireland has been called the first colony, with good reason, and I sometimes wonder if Maureen sees it that way.)
Clearly, the global thing we call chick lit originates in the UK. And that's because British publishers are very down-to-earth about what they do: books are not sacred objects, they're an everyday pleasure. And chick lit reflects that, even when it comes out of New York, Philadelphia or Atlanta -- where the idea of a sacred, self-improving text is alive and well.
Of course, there have always been books that resemble chick lit. "Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York" was/is quintessential '70s chick lit. Nancy Mitford's novels could be described as chick lit. "I Capture the Castle"(1948) is one story every chick lit freak should read. But chick lit, as I mean it, is a specific trend that got going in the '90s -- with the sales of "Bridget Jones's Diary."
What I'm getting from Maureen's column, and her conversation with Leon, is a feeling that books should be more precious and readers more aspirational. This is bizarre coming from a newspaper columnist.
As for Leon, literary editor of The New Republic, he thinks we chicks should spend less time obsessing about our hair and nails, and more time contemplating manly things like war. And yet, there is something schoolmarmish, and perhaps a little vindictive, about recommending The Red Badge of Courage to a chick lit fan. What is his point? To broaden horizons? Or to insist that reading isn't *always* for pleasure?
And surely, Maureen's recent book is a great example of sociological (or even polemical) chick lit. Granted, there is more red than pink on the cover of Are Men Necessary? --
Omigod. Is red the new pink?
posted by Tracy Q
Chickerati update
Kyra Davis responds here. I really enjoyed this!
posted by Tracy Q
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Anna Nicole Smith: Finally Someone "Gets" Her
My friend Mike Godwin sent me a link to this piece in the Washington Post. What would it be? Another irreverent pseudo-appreciation? Or just the facts?
However, when I clicked, I discovered this was neither.
Philip Kennicott has written a thoughtful, humane, and well-informed response to Anna Nicole's life, death and notoriety. He eloquently suggests that our culture is mourning the death of an important and valuable "sexual category," that of "courtesan."
Many, including women who sell sex, have mixed feelings about Anna Nicole.
New York hookers instantly recognize her as a type who would never be able to "pass" in Manhattan's polite circles. The sex worker next door she was not. But some of us envied her too -- for her financial success and her showgirl-style chutzpah.
She also made us aware of the tension between "exotic dancer" and "call girl" -- a tension that goes underground with the categorisation of us all as "sex workers."
Kennicott sees Anna Nicole, the modern courtesan, as part of a dying tradition. (I think that tradition is still doing its thing, but he's not wrong.) He points out that Anna Nicole very publicly "crossed a line." In a culture that idealizes a "happy marriage of loving equals" (Bill and Hillary, for example), Anna Nicole "made us very uncomfortable indeed."
Kennicott is also, in this piece, a gentleman -- one more cultural category that we must not take for granted. And, if this doesn't sound too hubristic, I believe that it takes a hooker to recognize one.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, February 05, 2007
In My Mailbox Today
"What on earth is a SEX CLOWN and am I one?"
That's a one-line response to my review of Killing Johnny Fry in Washington Post Book World.
posted by Tracy Q
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Le Racolage Passif (Passive Solicitation)
is a crime in France, since 2003. Les-Putes Paris have asked sex workers (and our friends) to sign this petition. You can read about the law here.
Prostitutes began protesting against this law during its earliest phases. Read about some of the history here.
Today, the petition has almost 300 signatures. Take a look, add your voice, take a stand against "la putophobie"! You can also subscribe to the mailing list of Les-Putes: www.lesputes.org/mailing.htm
~~
This law is but one example of Sarkozy's "distorted vision," symptomatic of something larger. He is trying to push a center-right party farther to the right, and people have been comparing him to Napoleon. He recently won an election to lead his party in the next election. Nobody opposed him, which on the face of it suggests popularity. But only 69% of the party voted! (How typical this is for a party election, I don't know.) His anti-immigration stuff is fascinating: he's the son of an immigrant. Why doesn't this surprise me...
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Pimp Your ...
Stroller? It was bound to happen, I s'pose.
Today's installment of UrbanBaby Daily, urges all groovy trend-setting 'rents to "Pimp Your Ride" with such bells, whistles and enhancements as these from Hedvig Bourbon.
End of civilization/parenthood as we know it? Or just a harmless example of transgressive-lite?
In an effort to hunt down the URL where you, dear reader, can see this for yourself, I went Googling. I also found something on MetroDad of all places ("Poppycock from a cocky pop!") that went up almost a year ago.
Today, it seems, anyone can sport the mantle of pimphood without paying his dues. But, the real question, always lurking in the back of my mind when I encounter stuff like this... "Is it good for the sex workers?"
This remains to be seen.
posted by Tracy Q
Monday, January 15, 2007
What's Happening in the UK?
The grass is always greener. In the US, we think of Canada, Europe and the UK as zones of tolerance, at least where prostitution's concerned. Compared to us, they seem to have it better. In the UK, however, all is not rosy. There is dissatisfaction, and sometimes anger, about current prostitution laws.
I have just finished reading, in the latest issue of British Medical Journal, a very outspoken editorial from Linda Cusick and Michael Goodyear. BMJ calls on the prime minister to "show leadership and restore human rights by decriminalising all aspects of sex work now." Goodyear and Cusick argue that criminalisation limits access to health care "and contravenes United Nations' guidelines on human rights."
Also addressed are the new Swedish laws which have "influenced the UK government's philosophy" in completely wrong-headed ways. Basically, the Swedish model "criminalises men who purchase sex rather than women who provide it," a non-solution that appeals to many feminists. However, this "drives markets into more dangerous areas, as in Ipswich," the town where five sex workers were found murdered in December. Ironically, this anti-male approach makes it possible for the worst type of men to act out in more dangerous ways.
The editorial recalls "a media controversy over whether labelling [the murder victims] as prostitutes was dehumanising."
What's in a label? Recently, a group of us argued online about whether it was more appropriate to refer to the murder victims as "prostitutes" or "sex workers." (This was on a private list, so there are no links, sorry!) This may seem like semantics, but the parents of at least one murder victim had objected to the word "prostitute." One father apparently told the press, "Personally, I prefer lady of the night."
Some of us felt that "sex worker" was the only term that would do for now -- because "prostitute" carries so much negative baggage. Others felt that both terms should be used, interchangably.
To what extent should policies be shaped by the concerns of a deceased sex workers' parents? I don't think our families should be ignored at these moments -- after all, they must deal with the consequences after their offspring have died. I'd like to respect their feelings, but I think we can do this by using a flexible approach.
Sex worker is now the "safer" term; it sounds both polite and clinical. But we need to get people used to the idea that the murder of a prostitute is a serious matter. And sometimes you have to use politically incorrect language -- the uncomfortable words -- to get that across.
Read the BMJ editorial here.
~~
Meanwhile, at Fifth Estate, my UK pied a terre, we have been asked to discuss our "secret weapons of the bookshelf." Kate Hyde, our blogger-in-chief, is convinced that everybody has a "special book" that "nobody else has heard of." I was pretty convinced nobody knew of MY special book -- and I wasn't entirely wrong. But now that the secret is out, well, who knows? Could this be the start of a Milne Revival? Read about "Chloe Marr" here.
posted by Tracy Q
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
I've Got a Little List
I'm lucky to know such wise and generous people. Thank you for contributing your Lessons of 2006. They are posted on Fifth Estate where I will soon be commenting on the issues of 2007.
If you think you've learned something that's worth sharing, please send it to me. Or, better yet, post it in the comments at 5th!
posted by Tracy Q
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Reality Check '07: Dr Sketchy Meets Dr Boynton
Okay, well, that WAS a false start. I thought I was back but wasn't really, and now I am. The evidence can be seen on other people's blogs, such as Bookseller to the Stars who was nice enough to update his End of the Year Recommended Reading List today!
My favorite nonfiction in 2006 was Queen of Fashion by Caroline Weber. Stay tuned for news of her paperback. I found Weber's biography of Marie Antoinette more accessible (and fun) than the Coppola movie. Though I think Coppola's flick has its moments, Weber's book is more lively. It also makes Marie Antoinette relevant to our era, and having it out in paperback will bring that point home. Reading about executions, accusations, and dresses trimmed in "Foulon’s blood" makes you ponder 21st c. democracy just a bit.
Other evidence that 2007 has begun:
Delectable Molly Crabapple was on Channel 11 this morning, discussing her new book! Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book is a trip. THE perfect gift for the perv who has everything. She has an utterly bizarre sense of humour. Go to her next event (this Friday in Philly!) and tell her I sent you. Molly's heading toward Boston in February, then south to DC, North Carolina and Maryland. Keep tabs on Molly's book tour here.
Dr Petra Boynton has issued her Sex Predictions for 2007. Each year (well, she did it in January 06; long may this habit persist), Petra predicts the sexual trends to come. For 2007, she predicts: some newfangled thing called "super sex" (sounds too tacky for words!); more self-testing for STDs (sounds interesting?); more hype about ethical sex toys; fewer medical services for transsexuals in the UK (sounds worrying); annnnd that "prostitution will become a media favourite" (for the wrong reasons.) You can read her predictions -- and explanations -- here.
I like the way Petra re-assesses her prior beliefs, and I enjoyed her sexual summary of '06.
This year, I'm looking forward to new editions of Manhattan Call Girl in Portugal and Slovenia. And a Danish edition of Married Call Girl coming soon from Leksis in Copenhagen.
~~~
Save the date! Come back for news of my February 13th reading in downtown Manhattan. And soon I'll post an update about Mansized.
posted by Tracy Q
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Holiday Reading
I'm back! No explanations! But I have returned to New York and my computer is behaving again. I apologize to all who have tried to have consistent dialogue with me in recent weeks. It has been impossible. Sorry!
Before I get caught up on email, I MUST share with you all this enjoyable, funny, informative piece by Frank Kermode. It's a review of Geza Vermes's "The Nativity: History and Legend" in the LRB: "... whatever some say about the venality and bad taste that can make Christmas tedious, nothing these critics complain of can wholly prevent the celebration of an orgiastic midwinter festival," quoth Kermode. "Long before it’s over we are longing to move on," he writes, adding that "if we looked at the narratives carefully we’d find it a little harder to talk about a happy Christmas. We take the singing angels, the gift-bearing kings, the star, but forget ‘Joseph’s psychological torture’ and the fear and panic caused by Herod’s massacre of the Bethlehem children. One or both may be fictive, but they belong to the story as much as the happy shepherds and the gift-laden tree."
So there.
posted by Tracy Q
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