My “Amazing” time with Chippendales’ Jaymes and James

Posted on May 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

No women allowed … except me backstage at Chippendales with Jaymes.
With Jaymes, Rachel and our photographer at Fox 5.
Breaking for lunch at Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza with the Jameses.
In the recording studio with Jaymes and Tanzer.
Comparing the souvenir-cup version of Jaymes with the real thing backstage at Chippendales.
Feeling short in comparison to Jaymes and James.
With all the boys … and one lucky magazine intern.

 

Sometimes, dreams (and dream assignments) really do come true. Recently, I got to follow around Chippendales’ Jaymes Vaughan (and his Amazing Race partner James Davis)  as research for a Vegas Seven profile. The best part was that the guys were super nice. Ever the Southern gentleman, Jaymes would tirelessly pose for pictures with fans and, even better, open the car door for me when we flitted from location to location.

Above are some behind-the-scenes photos (not pictured: me pinching myself to make sure it was really happening). Below is the finished product:

Jaymes Vaughan’s ‘Race’ to the Spotlight: Can the Chippendales host extend his 15 minutes of fame before the time runs out?

It’s Friday night at Chippendales, so the audience of mostly bachelorette parties is rowdy and sloppy-exuberant. The emcee, Jaymes Vaughan—tall, tan, blond, blue-eyed, square-jawed with Indiana Jones regrowth and muscle-y muscles—is basically a human Ken doll with a goofy sense of humor. And I have spent all day following him around in the name of … um, research. Watching Jaymes cavort onstage, I realize the effort I spent politely averting my eyes when he changed clothes throughout the day was wasted. Read more …

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Her One-Night Stand of a Writing Career

Posted on January 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

Wurtzel image_with bagWhat the world does not need is another blog response to Elizabeth Wurtzel’s angsty personal essay in New York Magazine, “Elizabeth Wurtzel Confronts Her One-Night Stand of a Life.” But as a woman writer, I cannot resist. Because everybody else already has, I won’t get into the most obvious complaints. (The New Yorker offered my favorite critique; Slate’s was great, too.) I will focus on the two things that bother me:

1. She relates marriage to prostitution.

“I am committed to feminism and don’t understand why anyone would agree to be party to a relationship that is not absolutely equal. I believe women who are supported by men are prostitutes”

To which I say, what’s so wrong with prostitution (if it’s between two consenting adults)? Certainly that’s not my life choice, but I don’t begrudge the choices of others. Why would such a self-advertised feminist free spirit who is so proud of sleeping around be so into judging other women’s choices? It just seems so un-feminist and so un-free spirited!

2. Her self-imposed trainwreck of a life makes for some great rubbernecking. But all this self-indulgent self-destruction seems so dated. Her writing is like the literary equivalent of wearing Doc Marten’s and a flannel shirt. In a national climate where everybody is just trying to recover from the Great Recession, how can readers tolerate her gleeful boast of being poor because she chose a designer purse over a savings account?

“But I never saved or invested, because I believe if you take care of the luxuries, the necessities will take care of themselves. When I got a huge advance for Bitch, my second book, I bought a Birkin bag…”

Somebody introduce Wurtzel to Suze Orman’s Women & Money. This Huffington Post critique says it best, but it bears repeating: An independent woman has gotta be responsible for her own finances. How else do you keep from being a prostitute?

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12 Best Books of 2012

Posted on January 5, 2013 | 4 Comments

I’m only slightly sorry to note that I posted but a single blog in all of 2012. That’s because I’ve been so busy living life, reading books, writing articles, etc., all in IRL. I’m planning a several-post roundup of what you, my friends, fans and Internet stalkers, have missed. Let’s start with books.:

The 12 Best Books I’ve Read in 2012:

(in alphabetical order by author’s name)

Something Wicked This Way ComesMy AntoniaThe Last WerewolfMiddlesex
A Discovery of WitchesThe LacunaAmerican Gypsy: A MemoirVegas Knockout: a novel in stories
The Egyptologist: A NovelBattlebornThe House of MirthRevolutionary Road

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. A beautiful, poetic and creepy tale about nostalgia, growing up and aging … or, if you prefer, about a father and son’s fight against an evil carnival that comes to town. Make it at Halloween tradition!

My Antonia by Willa Cather. An invigorating tale of the pioneer spirit. Read it and feel connected to the American experience.

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. When a literary author writes a page-turner the result is intelligent entertainment. Can’t wait to read the sequel.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A sweet coming-of-age tale about a transgendered child of immigrant parents. Pair it with Revolutionary Road for an interesting comparison of perspectives.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Twilight for women with advanced degrees. The ultimate guilty pleasure. Sadly, her sequel does not live up to book one’s promise.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I grew to love this protagonist: a Mexican-American boy-turned-author who works for Diego Rivera and befriends Frida Kahlo.

An American Gypsy by Oksana Marafioti. A touching and insightful memoir of a high-school student’s immigrant experience.

Vegas Knockout by P Moss. A darkly humorous collection of linked short stories revealing life in the underbelly of Las Vegas in the lead-up to a big fight. The characters are enchanting.

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips. A purposefully rambling faux-Victorian archeological mystery. Listen to the book for the myriad accents. Read if you enjoy dry humor or wonder about the dark side of Downton Abbey.

Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. A fantastic debut short-story collection that gives life to the “nowhere places” in rural Nevada.

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. This classic novel about a independent-minded New York heiress who must find a husband (or else) is, oddly enough, quite relevant to life in Las Vegas.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. The ultimate smack-down on life in suburbia. The movie does not compare to the book!

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New Year’s Resolution: 1 Short Story a Month

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 5 Comments

Seconds into 2012 at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. (Yes, that's Stevie Wonder.)

Sure, it’s a little late to start talking about New Year’s Resolutions, what with it being the end of February and all. Nonetheless, I have an awesome 2012 Resolution, and I’m writing to see if you want to play along with me.

Here goes: I’m sending an unpublished short story to publication every single month of 2012.

As for length or genre or type of publication, that’s up to you. I personally, am choosing to have fun with it and go for as wide a range as possible, like walking down an all-you-can-eat buffet and sticking my finger in every dish as I pass. (Not that I’d ever do that in real life, though a great buffet, if you were so inclined, is the one at the Wynn. Yummy.) So far, I’ve sent a sci-fi story to Asimov’s for January and I’m finishing up a literary-fiction confection for Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers (February).

Worried about the anguish of rejection? Don’t be. At the end of the year, I’m going to publish whatever isn’t already published on Amazon e-books. Each short story will go for a dollar. And then I shall get rich or at least get a lot of practice.

Won’t you play along with me?

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The Economics of E-Readers

Posted on September 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Can you spot the article about literature hidden in Angelina's hairline?

Everybody (especially me) is terrified that e-readers will do to books what Napster did to the music industry. And perhaps with the recent closing of Border’s, there’s some merit to that fear.

However, my short personal experience of owning a Kindle have taught me otherwise. As I said in my last post, I’d fallen out of the habit of reading (and especially buying) novels. But now that I have a Kindle, I can’t resist the temptation. It’s instant gratification with a lasting reward.

And by gaining one marketing advantage, publishers seem to have realized another: up-selling. Here’s my anecdotal evidence:

A few days ago, I was shopping at Target, as I am wont to do. At the checkout line, I spotted a teaser for an an article in Vanity Fair:

How to Create
A LITERARY
STAR
By Keith Gessen P. 262

“I want to become a literary star,” I thought to myself as I plunked it on the conveyor belt without even glancing at the $4.99 cover price.

When I was home and halfway through through the article, I noticed a little textbox lodged into a column on page 272:

For an amplified version
of this story, download
How a Book Is Born.
For the Nook and Kindle.

I stupidly assumed that the “amplified version” would be free, since I’d already paid in bulk for a bunch of articles. And by the time, I discovered it cost $1.99, I couldn’t let that small figure keep me from literary stardom.

In the end, I paid $7 plus tax for the pleasure of reading one (1) magazine article! Now who says the publishing industry is dying?

And yes, it was worth every penny. (But only because of the free perfume samples—otherwise I’d been better off buying the $1.99 Kindle version and saving a tree.)

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Kindle

Posted on September 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

Check out my green Kindle cover with Shag sticker. (I'm not smiling because I'm concentrating on holding my computer with one hand while pushing the photo button. ... So much for stoicism.)

For my birthday, I got the best present in the world: A Kindle! (Thanks, Dad.)

When e-readers came out a couple years ago, I’ll admit that I was terrified of them. To me, they represented the end of all that was real and true about books … before I even got a chance to publish my own.

Two things changed my mind:
1. The technology got better.
2. I realized that despite my lifelong love of reading novels, I had fallen out of the habit. Instead, I frittered away my free time obsessively reading the New York Times online. Why? Because it was convenient. For me, getting a Kindle was leveling the playing field for books.

Why a Kindle?: Although I’m starting to fear that Amazon may be the next evil empire, I chose its e-reader. Sure I could have gone with the flashier iPad or the touchscreen Nook. But I did not want a FaceBook machine or an Angry Birds console, I wanted a device that was as much like a real book as possible. So far, Kindle has been wonderful.

The agony and ecstasy of choosing a cover: For the first time in my life, the cover of a book was not the thing that held the pages together, it was a reflection of myself. I wanted to proclaim to the world that I was smart, I was an intellectual, and that I had a fabulous sense of style.

I narrowed down my Kindle cover options to three types: 1. The covers that are made to look like copies of the New Yorker (but which one?) 2. The covers that look like literary novels (but which one?) 3. The Kate Spade covers that also look like novels (Great Gatsby was my fave).

I’ll spare you the agony and dispense the results. After so much thought, I ended up picking Amazon’s own cover because it had so many more amenities. The built-in light that’s powered through the e-reader is awesome. And in the end, with the help of a couple stickers, I have a cover that’s all my own!

The back of my Kindle: The two Shag stickers tell a story, if you look carefully.

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Visiting The Goon Squad

Posted on September 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

I just had another birthday and I just read Jennifer Egan’s spectacular novel “A Visit from the Goon Squad.” Coincidence? … Yes, actually. But, the two events are intimately related. Both involve agonizing over the inevitability of getting older. One involved a pulitzer. And another involved cake. Guess which is which.

Egan’s story is fabulous, and although I’ve always hated for my age to go up, I’m looking at this birthday as another chance to live long enough to win a Pulitzer of my own. Okay, now back to novelizing.

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