Reviews of
Call Someplace Paradise
Readers' comments
on Ghost Town
Moving Target
Pat Hartman's blog
Michael Ventura:
an appreciation
Murder of
Sarai Ribicoff
The File Cabinet
Finished things I wish somebody would buy -
long, non-fiction
Are Collectors Crazier Than Artists?
Probably. Some famous ones, some extreme ones. The wonderful world of
collecting. Myths about art. How to be a collector. 21 Collector Profiles.
You're in Good Company.
Revealed: The Philosopher-Little Tramp Connection
The myriad links between Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Schopenhauer.
So You Think Your Love Life is a Mess?
Here's what some of our most revered culture heroes got up to in the romance
department. Soap operas of the great and famous.
Waco is a 4 Letter Word
Words About Everything
Arranged by topic, hundreds of quotations, sometimes from unexpected sources,
relevant to a large number of subjects.
Fiction
Oh Yet We Trust
novella set in Venice, an intense love affair that just can't work
Things I wish somebody would pay me to finish
- long, non-fiction
Thoughtcrime
Timothy Masters was convicted of murder on the basis of drawings
he made as a 15-year-old. Walter Sickert has been named as Jack the Ripper,
on the basis of a painting he did. There's a trend here, a kind of aesthetic
McCarthyism, that is dangerous to all of us and particularly threatening
to artists.
the Asshole Issue
This bulging accordion file full of material was going to be Salon:
A Journal of Aesthetics #26
I Got It
An evaluation, years after "the training" (Hint: I still tell
people it was the best $300 I ever spent.) Results of a 25-year road test
of a philosophy designed to make the world work for everyone. Werner Erhard
was the object of character assassination on several fronts, by individuals
and media institutions who later admitted they lied. Neither the accusations
nor the recantations ever affected the usefulness of the est training.
My Number One Desert Island Movie
It's X-rated. Richard Dreyfuss did it for union scale, saying it was the
best writing he'd ever read. Inserts is a shining example of the
art of cinema
How to be a Mystical Libertarian
A Year In Bed
An astonishing number of people who grew up to accomplish great things,
started out as sickly children who spent long periods isolated and bedridden.
Materialism
Some books give useful hints about how to weed out and organize your stuff.
But how many delve into the mindset, the emotional needs and delusions
and rationales that make us want to have Thing in the first place? (Thanks
go out to Stephen Gaskin, who suggests this eloquent term for possessions.)
Ever had the feeling that life needs to be less complicated, but just
didn't know where to start? The mind is the place to start, with this
book as a companion.
Creativity
Obstacles to; processes of; rewards of; relationships and
Cheap and Trippy Things to Do with Kids
Out in the World of Work
Target audience: youth. Message: It's both better and worse than you think.
You can have both a job and a life. The best career counselor is your
own body. Embellished with many true-life experiences.
Art and Crime, Crime and Art
The artist as criminal, the criminal as artist, and many other fascinating
permutations of the basic idea
Things I wish somebody would pay me to finish-
long, fiction
My Last Beautiful Loser
novel in Venice with some of characters from the short stories
Steps to Beach
detective story/love story set in Venice, actually the novelization of
an already existing screenplay
Untitled Speculative Fiction novel
Cybersex, and love that never dies
Kinney's Folly
collection of short stories and a long one, all set in Venice.
Death and Texas
novel about feminism, pacifism, and the effects of the Vietnam war on
those who weren't even present
Finished things I wish somebody would buy -
short, non-fiction
The Ideal Reader
the secret shared by many of the finest writers, with numerous examples
The Smallest Minority of All
television-free Americans. There is no corner of the day so empty that
TV would improve it. Through TV the worst nightmares of science fiction
writers come true. Kill your TV before it kills you.
Jump-Start Your Muse
Well of Tedium
Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. Its suppression and why
the literary luminaries of the day defended this very bad novel. A major,
yet unreadable landmark work in gay women's literature.
It Works For Me
Hints to bring sanity to everyday life. The devil is in the details. How
to take care of the little things so the big things can take care of themselves.
My First and Last Co-Op
Member or manager, an arts co-op can drive you right out of your ever-lovin'
mind
Who Should Pay for the Arts?
(hint: not the taxpayers)
Born Again and Again and Again
Writers, painters and musicians who believed in reincarnation. Why. How
it affected their work.
Artists and Suicide
Some tragic lives and chosen deaths
The First Hippie
Gerald Brenan did things in the first twenty years of his century that
everybody else caught up with decades later.
The True Believer Revisited
Eric Hoffer's great work belongs in every classroom, now more than ever.
Why Don't I Feel Like a Victim?
Sometimes it's optional. Technically a victim of robbery, mugging, rape,
sexual harassment, one victim figures out that it doesn't have to run,
or ruin, your life.
The...uh...Schwa Epidemic
That is, the uh sound that uh people uh tend to make....a trend, nay,
an epidemic badly in need of quashing. The aesthetics of vocal communication.
Does public speaking entail a certain obligation to the listeners?
Duncan Grant
Maya Deren
Ego-surfing
Googling yourself can turn up surprises both flattering and annoying
The Sustainable Non-Driving Lifestyle
Does it exist? Yes! A remarkable story of ten years without a car.
Mutilation as Identity
the deeper meaning of head-shaving, tattooing, branding, piercing, etc.
Finished things I wish somebody would buy-
short, fiction
Blue Book is a collection of short stories
all with a pronounced erotic focus, but that's not the only reason they
are blue. As another kind of "blue book" quotes the values for
used cars, these stories are about the values that lead to choices, and
the times when there is no choice. They deal with whole people as well
as organs. The characters are the artists, musicians, film lovers, street
denizens, boardwalk entrepreneurs, actors, drifters and dreamers of Venice,
California.
It's been said that the major sex organ is the brain, and also that intelligent
women are sexier than average. Perhaps it's a selling point that the author
is a Mensa-certified genius. Contrary to Tom Lehrer's satirical demand
for "smut and nothing but," this is smut with plenty of redeeming
social value. Most of the stories are sex-positive, with some tender perversions
and convoluted sexual politics. They range in mood from romantic to raunchy,
serious to silly, disturbing to lighthearted, sublime to grotesque. They
explore undying love and momentary lust, the mysterious alchemy of attraction,
the game of seduction, the fulfillment of ecstasy, in the lives of fascinating
characters in one of the most interesting places on the map.
Year of the Slut
Laura lives on the Venice boardwalk in a large apartment building full
of free spirits and borderline nut cases. During one frantic year she
samples freely from the smorgasbord of sexual partners on offer.
A Change in the Weather
What is behind the lavishly decorated facade of that New Age book store,
just a block from Venice Beach? A romantic tryst.
Lucian in the Sky With Diamonds
- Altered state sex with lavish, luscious psychedelic trimmings
Eyelids
A sizzling affair reaches a turning point and Randa sees the writing on
the wall that spells betrayal by her current boyfriend. She looks up her
old high school sweetheart and finds solace in his arms.
Troubadours Eat Breakfast
Gayle at twenty has had enough weird experiences to be wary, and enough
good ones to be eager. Then she meets Donald, an actor and writer, who
wants her more than anything.
Beyond the Call of Duty
Middle-aged erotic writer Felice Jordan entertains a much younger man
who wants to profile her for a local paper. The interview is concluded
between the sheets, and Donald welcomes the opportunity to learn all he
can.
The Mobius Trip
Norah sets out for an evening of fun and gets a lot more of it than she'd
hoped for when she goes home with a blind man.
Not Quite Date Rape
An insecure and rebellious teenager, Gayle takes a walk on the wild side,
with unfortunate results.
The Weekend That Started It All
After a promising start, Donald and Gayle spend several blissful days
together and discover the love of a lifetime.
Off the Wall
Two lovers visit the site of a suicide, find a terrible secret, and explore
the concept of necrophilia
Things I wish somebody would pay me to finish - short, non-fiction
On Being Anal
A cranky reaction to the death of literacy
Shut the #%*# Up!
the insidious evil of noise pollution
Bring Back Bloomsbury
Drugs in Speculative Fiction
Books I Keep
A. Gene Hippe's Reading List
The Fascination of Mail Art
Dear Landlord
How to Get Your Ducks In a Row
What the Flood Said
Adults Only - Why Not?
Neighbors From Hell
Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From Bumper Stickers
If I Believed in Censorship
How I learned to keep worrying, yet love my computer
The Millennium Made me Do It
Pain as Guru
Lighter Side of Virginia Woolf
Older Women and Younger Men
In Praise of Separate Rooms
plea for the space that brings us closer
Don't Tell Them You're Married
memoirs of a band wife
Hug a Nerd Today