bragging, right?

 

I know y'all don't think I do anything much other than sit on my ass and drink beer and write intros for friends' books and their grants, but about once a year I work in advertising. Yep, I help to sell California Closets. Magazines are pretty much dead on account of lack of ads, but California Closet doesn't need ads to put out a high end perfect-bound product on good paper with great reproduction. I mean, the whole thing is an ad. It looks like Real Simple back in the day. Which is no surprise since the editor of California Closet's Ideas of Order used to be the editor of Real Simple. And one of mine at Life. Anyway. Here's the latest essay I did for them. See if you can find the logical flaw I wrestled with. Oh, and I did the pictures! In my apartment, and got paid better for them than the words. I may change my professed profession. 

 

Oh, and yeah, the caption is dummy type. I did write one. But if you have been in my house you will recognize these things. Taking questions.

 

   And now I want to brag on some friends. 

   Some of you may recollect from the distant past Gallery Girl, daughter of friends Eddie Wong and Anna Whittington. Well Maggie Wong is now an artist in her own right, teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago and practicing her art. THIS ARTICLE is about her latest show, which explores her lived experience of growing up with parent activists who formed a communal day care for their children. 

   My friend Wesley Strick (also known to my friends as one of my college boyfriends) spent the pandemic recording music. If you are on Facebook I think you can LISTEN TO IT HERE. 

    Another college friend (also known as one of my college boyfriends who has been married to my best friend from college lo these many years), former judge Bill Downing as appointed to the Public Disclosure Commission in Washington State. As such, he and a fellow lawyer and a journalist caused META to be fined $25 million for not being transparent about their political ads. Sound familiar? You can READ ALL ABOUT IT here.

     And on a totally unrelated topic, Donna Ferrato is interviewed about the time she spent photographing at the sex club Plato's Retreat, of 80s fame. Her black and white pictures accompany a lot of the interviews. in a documentary by Vice TV.  You can FIND IT HERE. Click on "Sex Before the Internet," and search the episode "The King of Swing." Ah, back in the day when we had analogue IRL sex. 

   And finally, because I'm plumb wore out (are you?) Here is a A BIRTHDAY TAPE for Karen, of Block Island, RI, who recently turned 80, not that you'd know it. She was a dancer in the Paul Taylor company for years. You probably don't want to watch if you don't know any of the cast of characters, though I do recite an execrable poem.

    OK enough bragging for now.