Last night was buzzing with activity. First there was a panel at the New School about pornography. I was invited by my friend and mentor, Candida Royalle, and we both arrived early enough to get good seats. She introduced me to Norm Perlstein, the Editor in Chief of Time Inc., and we sat there with him and his super smart wife, heaving and hawing at the ridiculousness of the panel members. The panel was called "Pornography goes Mainstream," but there wasn't a single representative of the adult industry on the stage! Even if Nadine Strossen, the President of the ACLU and Nelson George, a social critic who knows almost everything you could ever imagine needing to know about hip hop and booty shaking, were both good speakers on the panel, someone should have been up there who actually works in porn. The other panelists, Ariel Levy (think, Female Chauvinist Pigs) and Pamela Paul (think Pornified) and Kay Hymowitz (not sure what to think) were all, well scratch that, Ariel Levy was intelligent and vibrant, but not really all that on topic about "pornography" and Pamela Paul didn't make a single point, just like in her book..and why the f*%# was Kay Hymowitz there in the first place? My blood boiled because a. the moderater, a very smart Catherine Orenstein, couldn't really control the panel, and talked way too much and b. because the audience questions were so far out there and really exhibited this idea of returning to modesty, that I had to question their values (not mine, theirs). But it was thought provoking, meaning it made me think - even harder - about the importance of me being here, in this industry, now.
Then I headed to a good friends home to watch Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price. Production wise, not such a good movie. Information wise, as those credit card adds would say, Priceless. I will NEVER shop at Walmart again, well, except when I'm out in Missouri for Christmas and there's no other place to get my food from. Which seems sort of ironic, as this farm producing part of the country isn't producing. But Walmart is evil. How they treat their workers is evil, and believe it or not, one of the richest companies doesn't even provide significant health insurance for its employees! I'm outraged. I'm thinking of bootlegging copies of the movie and handing them out at the Walmart in Missouri. The truth is, the town I'm going to is in the movie, so why not tell them that they should see this film because they're in it. I mean, they should see it anyway, but now this is added incentive.
Then got to listen in on a Howard Dean phonecall. Why isn't this man our president?! He's so smart and SO SMART, and I didn't know he was the head of the DNC, but that shows you were my head has been these days.
And now I'm heading out to get a haircut because my curls have lost that springy bounce. It's so strange, the loss of springy bounce seems to happen overnight. Two days ago I'm sure my hair didn't look so flat, but now I'm sure it does. Well, let's just hope that's not how it goes with my ass.
Posted by jamye at November 16, 2021 04:21 PM