Two Firefighters Die

The stark headline slammed down on my front porch two minutes ago. How could I possibly have compared this real life horror surrounding us to a movie?

New Book, New Bookings

Vacation's Over
Back to work. Thursday, September 7th - YIKES - that's this week!!!
READING at BOOK SOUP.

No no no - not yet another reading of my memoir, The Devil Made Me Do It - though I will be doing more of that in San Francisco September 16th at Good Old Good Vibes Erotic Emporium. The one on Polk Street. That's from 5 to 7pm - preceding a screening of The Devil in Miss Jones at the Lumiere Theater. All part of the Good Vibrations FOURTH ANNUAL Independent Erotic Film Festival.

No. This is a new book, Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys.
I contributed a big fat six page essay.

You may have seen the Great Review it got in (be still my heart) the New York Freakin Times?!
Front page of the book section. I'm still breathing hard.
Whoops - just tried that and it seems old snooty NYT makes you join to read their stuff.

David Sterry (co-collector of these stories) just sent me these links to other reviews, and you don't have to join anything to read 'em. Some of them even mention me.

http://therumpus.net/2009/08/hos-hookers-call-girls-and-rent-boys-professionals-writing-on-life-love-money-and-sex/
http://tigerbeatdown.com/?p=448#more-448
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6667888.html?
http://www.nypress.com/article-20211-the-happy-hook-book.html

It's hot, the air smells like an old ashtray, and we're watching the fires on TV as they're being fought by our heroes. Who needs adventure movies when you live in LA?

The Amazing Mr. Crisp

If you don't know who Quentin Crisp is - read Naked Civil Servent - or see the film. I loved the book too much to see the film, but I've heard it's quite wonderful.
An avant guarde film maker, David Nahmod, hired me to protray the mother of a man who dies of AIDS in a poignant "small" film called Red Ribbons. To my great delight, I learned that the "Effin Ineffible" Mr. Crisp would be in the cast! I rushed out to buy an additional copy of the above-mentioned signature memoir in order to have my very own SIGNED copy of it. We were shooting in New York, and my copy was back home in L.A. On the first day of the shoot, I tremulously approached Mr. Crisp and asked for his autograph on the fly leaf. "Why, how sweet of you. And you must give me yours, as well," he graciously replied, whipping out the call sheet for the shoot for me to sign. David had the still photographer on the set snap a quick shot of "his guest celebrities" and this is the result.
And here is a slef-portrait done on the spot and sent to me by the owner, Steve Lopez. Check out HIS art here.