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Monday, January 21, 2008

She works hard for the money!

I just got back, a short while ago, from attending a pretty amazing show: Sex Workers' Art Show 2008 (http://www.sexworkersartshow.com/). I got the invitation to join a new friend and his wife for the show, so I went. I didn't really know what to expect, but I admit to not expecting much. You see, I thought I would be let down by the performances. Oh sure, I expected there to be a little titillation, and there was definitely that, but it was presented in an air of openess and okayness that had me smiling the entire evening (and my friend, literally grinning from ear-to-ear!). What I didn't expect was to be impressed by the raw talent of the performances. Even the more burlesque acts were witty, intelligent, and impeccably performed. Sinfully beautiful.

image But what surprised me most was the quality of the readings and the routines. These sex workers can write. And perform. One of the sex workers, a porn film star named Lorelei Lee (see picture), read some of the best flash fiction I've come across in a long time. Most of it was snippets of situations she may have lived through, like bringing home cough medicines for a sick friend lying on the couch, only to have the friend sit up and say, "I just watched the Ghandi movie, and I have no idea what it was about." Simple stories about real people. Snippets of reality packaged with an economy of words and a juxtaposition of events that only a seasoned author could produce. That she's an undergraduate, a porn star, and a an award-winning Tit-Tortured model, busted the hell out of a lot of my unacknowledged stereotypes.

If this show makes it to your burg, go see it. Like me, you may be pleasantly surprised. And titillated, for more than just the obvious reasons.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I've said something similar about how people think of heavy metal musicians or those fans who like heavy metal. The stereotype is very negative but there are some very smart folks in the metal arena. Sounds like the same is true for the porn field.

Clifford said...

Yeah, I'd guess metal gets the same bad rap. Horror writers too. I can't tell you how many times I've been introduced from one friend to another, followed by "Cliff writes science fiction", when I've never written a science fiction story in my life...

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This is me and one of my two cats. His name is Cougar, and he’s an F1 Chausie. A chausie is a new breed of cat under development. Chausies are the result of a cross between a domestic cat (in Cougar’s case, a Bengal) and a jungle cat (Felis Chaus). Cougar’s mom is 8 pounds and his father is a 30-pound jungle cat. He’s about 16 pounds, super intelligent, spirited, and toilet trained. A writer without a cat (or two) is not to be trusted.