Raising the Bar: Kitty Stryker, Ceyenne Doroshow, The Red Umbrella Diaries, and Queercore
Author: TT Jax
April 24, 2012
Ever since I finished reading Robert Coover‘s The Adventure’s of Lucky Pierre: Director’s Cut last week, I’ve mostly been thinking about porn. And death. And art. And porn. Years ago this wouldn’t have merited mention; lately this is a bit out of character. The porn part, anyway.
Coover raised the bar. Porn, now, should not only titillate and inspire, but also mildly hypnotize and incite laughter, tears, existential questions, and contemplation of cinematic history and mortality. At least.
We should ask the residents of Ontario, Canada what they think. Last Friday, viewers were treated to a sudden random blast of hardcore porn during the morning news. “It felt like an eternity,” the (presumably straight) Vice President of CHCH reported.
God, it’s good to be alive.
Kitty Stryker shares her standards for porn here.
What goes great with porn? High heels. And Cooking. The Red Umbrella Project‘s director and founder Audacia Ray collaborated with longtime Red Umbrella Diaries performer Ceyenne Doroshow to support Ceyenne Doroshow‘s forthcoming book, Cooking in Heels: A Memoir Cookbook. Drawing from epiphanies, priorities, and survival skills learned during her imprisonment for a prostitution charge, Doroshow’s memoir contains over 50 recipes and “takes tradition to heart”, beginning with Doroshow’s life story and ultimately demonstrating that “food and love are the ties that bind, and family is what you make it.” Morty Diamond of Bodies of Work did a wonderful interview with her here.
The Red Umbrella Diaries is a series of performances in which former or current sex workers share their experiences in sex industry. Performances are free and also available through podcasts. The next performance? May 3rd, Like a Virgin, featuring Karl MarXXX, Go-Go Van Go, Colin Black, and author Mike Albo, hosted by Josh Ryley. Happy Endings, 8-10 pm, Brooklyn.
A few more oral history projects: OUT recently did an oral history of the queer punk scene, while Jim Hubbard of ACT UPdiscusses how he collected the oral history of the ACT UP movement for the film he produced with Sarah Schulman, United in Anger.
And after all that porn talk, I’m afraid that I must wrap up this round-up with an extreme video of bears in water.
