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Non-stop $pread

January 14, 2006

Sometimes, my life is super slow and not at all action packed. Earlier this week, when a friend called and asked what I was up to, my answer was “Laying in bed, eating chocolate pudding and reading comic books.” (er, I mean, graphic novels – specifically Y: The Last Man, which is goddamned amazing).

But in the last two days – whoa.

Thursday night $pread magazine hosted two events to promote and celebrate the release of our fourth issue, which completes our first volume – an entire year of $pread. We were also celebrating our Utne Independent Press Award for “Best New Title,” which consistently reminds and impresses us with proof that we are, indeed, a real magazine. Issue four features our first cover boy in a story called “Rich Merritt: Coming out as a Gay Marine Porn Star.” Juicy, eh? My favorite pieces in this issue include our recurring interview feature, Intercourses, which this time around is “$pread speaks with labor movement veteran Bill Fletcher Jr.” There’s also a great piece about New Orleans’ strippers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. My absolute favorite piece is Echo Transgression’s “Beautiful Grotesque: An Escort’s Letter to Her Favorite Artist.” I contributed an interview with photographer Charise Isis, the news shorts, a book review, and the first installment of a news recurring piece, Style, which features the amazing designs of Bella Vendetta’s company My Own Brain. Yes, I’ve been busy.

Canada’s SexTV was on hand to interview me about the magazine and document the evening’s activities, which kicked off with a reading at Bluestockings. JB McGeever read a beautiful and trying piece of fiction that’s in the current issue, Jo Weldon read about her experiences in and between stripping and burlesque, Shane Luitjens read about sex work, recreational sex and affection, Sarah Patterson read her piece from the current issue about foot fetish work, Tracy Quan read an excerpt of her new novel on why her main character is not a crack whore, and my fellow editor Eliyanna and I read some samples of recurring features, reviews and news in the magazine. Bluestockings was totally packed – standing room only.

We then moseyed around the corner to the Slipper Room and the second portion of the night – the Sex Work Olympics. We’d come up with a bunch of sex work related different events to humiliate volunteers with: a contest to see which contestant could most quickly put a condom on a dildo using only his or her mouth, an obstacle course in which contestants had to wear stilettos and not spill a very full martini glass, a challenge in which pairs of people had to make a convincing BDSM scene with random objects (including a plastic stegosaurus) and a phone sex contest. Highly (and high-minded) entertaining, let me tell you.

I got home, full of whiskey, around 3 am. Good times indeed. Though its definitely stressful to throw these events for $pread, for me at least it’s a morale boost to work my ass off on each issue of the magazine and then be rewarded by seeing a roomful of eager and supportive people.

Today I made the boob-altering decision to retire my nipple piercings, as despite some good old fashioned TLC in the form of salt water soaks and tea tree oil, my right piercing is starting to reject – that is, grow out. I’ve been resisting this decision for a few weeks, but yesterday in the shower I noticed that I could see the glint of the jewelry through my skin – ew. So, this morning, after a good long last look at my shiny nipples, I took the jewelry out. I technically could’ve kept the left one in, but I’m keen on symmetry. It’s strange, after almost two and a half years, to see my nipples not shiny. I feel very bare breasted. Not necessarily a bad thing, just weird. I will say that I’m looking forward to being able to rigorously towel off my breasts after a shower without the fear of snagging a piercing.

Anyway, after dealing with the nipple ornamentation issue and consoling myself with a ham sandwich, I headed into Manhattan for my first WBAI interview of the weekend with Riseup Radio, which is all about youth activism. It was a pretty awesome show, and though our time was cut a little short, it was a good interview to do. I love the radio, especially stations like WBAI where the hosts are really enthusiastic about telling stories and being unabashedly political.

I’m about to dive into a weekend of doing more interviews with the press and a whole hell of a lot of writing. I’m feeling inspired in that brain-too-fast-for-typing-skills kind of way. Not a bad problem to have, really.

Posted by Dacia at January 14, 2006 01:42 AM

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