Filed under: hookers | Tags: australia, Scarlet Alliance, Serious World News Stuff, sex trafficking, The Grey Man
You probably know that I try my best not to talk about international politics ever, on this blog but also pretty much in the real world. But the #Kony2012 hysteria–and a backlash so immediate that I actually knew about the backlash before the hysteria–has been really fascinating me for the past week or so.
The story, about Invisible Children, a group of Americans who produced a video calling for military action against a kidnapper in a country that most Americans would never be able to find on a map, gained a lot of traction almost immediately, thanks in large part to the Twitter-going ways of Jesus-loving teenagers in Alabama and also Invisible Children’s tactic of using Twitter to bomb the accounts of certain celebrities like Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres,* whose opinions on African militarization are suddenly things we are meant to consider seriously.
But this story–to put it unsympathetically, a bunch of privileged white people go to somewhere far away and use exploited children as a means to feel better about themselves and their white privilege and their frankly rather dodgy organization–sounded eerily familiar. And then I remembered the article I read last month about The Grey Man.
Filed under: hookers, people from rhode island | Tags: documentaries, providence, sex workers, things that are happening
Tonight at Brown:
Have you heard of Project Weber yet? They’re an amazing group in Providence, RI doing direct service and outreach to male sexworkers in our state.
Come find out more as Richard Holcomb, co-founder of Project Weber, gives us an in-depth look into the world of male prostitution on the streets of U.S. cities and abroad. Through lecture, documentary clips, and a panel, this presentation will cover data, personal and professional experiences with this population, and the barriers and challenges in providing male sex-workers with appropriate services and support. The panel will include Richard Holcomb, one of Project Weber’s fantastic outreach workers, and documentary filmaker Dio Traverso, with SNEAK PEEK CLIPS from the documentary “Invisible”.
Filed under: hookers, movies | Tags: greece, melina mercouri, movies, never on sunday, prostitution
I first encountered the melody to “Never On Sunday,” without realizing it, as the base for late-nineties cheesefest “No Tengo Dinero,” a tinny sort of mariachi-inspired Shaggy-lite number that hit pop radio around my junior year of high school. Years later, I’d encounter the song again as the lead track on Petula Clark’s truly fabulous 1965 album The World’s Greatest International Hits! In the song, Clark tells a man how he can kiss her on any day of the week except Sunday, because by that point of the week she’s worn out from all the kissing.
I didn’t realize until much, much later that the song (which was originally performed in Greek with completely different lyrics) was the theme to Never On Sunday, an Oscar-nominated film from 1960 that’s part light-hearted Mediterranean comedy and part social drama about a prostitutes’ rebellion in Greece’s largest port city.
Filed under: hookers, hot, people from rhode island | Tags: me me me me me, providence, readings
At long last, I can finally announce this reading I’m organizing in Providence on June 9th. I am very, very excited to have put this together. These are some of my favorite people (ahem ahem ahem ahem), largely because they are all smart and funny and interesting, and so I expect this event to be a big heap of fun.
The reading is part of Q30, which is this month-long queer art happening that a guy named Michael Kurt organized. He’s taken over a space downtown for the month and there’s readings and talks and music and films and a whole bunch of other stuff. It’s good that it’s happening in June because with the colleges out there’s often a shortage of interesting events going on.
Full performer bios after the jump:
Filed under: hookers, people from rhode island | Tags: me me me me me, providence, readings
Just a quick little reminder that you’ve only got until Saturday to apply for the night of sexy reading that I’m hosting in Providence on June 9th. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail with your name, a very brief bio, and a sample of something you’re proud of. More details are here.
Filed under: hookers, hot | Tags: calls for performers, new york city, sex worker cabaret
Last year I took part in the inaugural Sex Worker Cabaret, the event to take place before the doors closed at the Slipper Room on the Lower East Side. The event was a lot of fun, and featured such pretty and nice people as Lorelei Lee, Jodi Sh Doff, Essence Revealed, Inbred Hybrid Collective* and Adam The Terrible. Everyone was very glamorous and glittery and fabulous and I read a story un-glamorous story about my godparents’ yard sale.
This June, all the magic is happening again. This time it’s at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, and right now there’s an open call for performers (and also video artists!) There’s not a ton of time, though; the deadline is April 7.
Sarah Jenny’s official press release after the jump:
Filed under: hookers, personal | Tags: gay sinise, me me me me me, red umbrella diaries
The podcast featuring my story from last month’s Red Umbrella Diaries is now online. If you’d like to hear about my getting a blowjob from a man I call Mr. Chompers, click away.
Filed under: books, hookers | Tags: happy endings, me me me me me, new york city, red umbrella diaries
New York: I am going to be in you in about twelve hours. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening I’ll be reading at Red Umbrella Diaries, Audacia Ray’s monthly reading series at Happy Ending. My story is kind of dirty and kind of gross and kind of still not done yet. (But I have seven hours before my bus leaves?) Doors are at 7, the reading’s at 8, and it’s over by 10, in time for a big dance party something something. (It’s called Downtown Top Ranking. I may have to stick around?)
Then! Friday night I’m heading to the Sex Work Awareness fundraiser at Madame X, which is a place with which I am not familiar at all. But this is from the Facebook invite:
Filed under: hookers, movies | Tags: call girls, movies, sasha grey, steven soderbergh, the girlfriend experience, two years late to the party
Way back in early 2009, it seemed like every single person on the internet was talking about The Girlfriend Experience, porn star Sasha Grey’s entry into the world of mainstream film. The movie had a really great poster, and it was made by popular director Steven Soderbergh, but it didn’t get a whole lot of distribution and disappeared rather quickly, earning (according to iMDB) less than a million dollars total.
Yesterday, lazing my way through a combination sick day/snow day, I finally saw the film, which is currently streaming on Netflix. It’s interesting, for a Hollywood movie about prostitution. But also it’s pretty frustrating, particularly if you like movies where anything actually happens.
Grey plays Chelsea, a Manhattan call girl whose clients are mainly sad-sack hotshots who spend most of their sessions dispensing unasked for financial advice. (Invest in gold. Vote for McCain. Invest in gold.) Meanwhile, Chelsea’s also talking to a reporter who wants to profile her, chronicling her day-to-day life (and wardrobe) in a diary, and trying to update her website. She agrees to meet a man who runs an escort review site when she knows full well that he’s probably full of shit. She is mostly if not all business.
