Author: Don

Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

…is it, James?

I heard this alluded to on the Bat Segundo Show podcast interview with James Lipton, but my jaw dropped when I looked it up.

Actors Studio host Lipton was a pimp in France
Last Update: 10/22 5:04 pm

James Lipton, the host of U.S. talk show, Inside the Actors’ Studio, once worked as a pimp in Paris, France.

The revered TV presenter, who has sat down with Hollywood’s biggest names for in-depth chats about their life and work over the last 13 years, has revealed he once procured clients for French hookers.

He says, “This was when I was very very young, living in Paris, penniless, unable to get any kind of working permit… I had a friend who worked in what is called the Milieu, which is that world and she suggested to me one night, `Look, you’ll be my mec… We would translate it perhaps… as pimp.”

The Reading List

Yes, this one’s overdue, just like all my other entries. Deal :). So, two weeks ago, I read some cool stuff, mostly from The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and a couple of old issues of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

  • Geoffrey H. Goodwin, “Stoddy Awchaw”
  • Theodora Goss, “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow”
  • Sarah Monette, “Three Letters From the Queen of Elfland”
  • Gigi Vernon, “Solomon’s Wedding”
  • Gigi Vernon, “The Maidservant’s Letter”
  • Janice Law, “The Girl Watcher”

Yeah, I said I was gonna read Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn. Sue me. I’ll get to it this week ;).

Speaking of Reading

…I have to pass on listing the various short stories I’ve read this week, unless you want me to regurgitate the table of contents for the last half of Barry Hannah’s Airships.

To tell the truth, I’m going to slow the short-story reading for a bit, even though I want to just continue with reading more Hannah. I snatched up a used copy of Hannah’s collection High Lonesome at one of the used bookstores. Instead, while I edit my last couple of stories, I’m going to read American Son and Dogeaters, slated to be the 6th and 7th novels I’ve read in the past four years.

It used to be a point of pride with me to be able to brag about how many shorts I’ve read at the expense of novel reading. I’ve come to realize, since I devoured Nick Sagan’s Idlewild trilogy and Ben Tanzer’s Lucky Man, that I do just shove them down my literary throat. I go through novels like I go through showings of Scent of a Woman or A Few Good Men on cable TV–before I know it, I’ve spent a couple of hours–2 to 3 days in the case of novels–doing nothing but taking it all in. Case in point, I’m a third of the way into American Son, and if I did nothing else for the rest of the night, I know I could finish it.

More to Read (Not That I’m Complaining)

I attended a presentation at the local library yesterday by poet, author, and teacher Luis H. Francia, called “Longing and Belonging: The Idea of Home in Asian American Literature”. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my thoughts on the eye-opening themes of his lecture, how they’ve impacted my personal views on my culture which impacts on my writing, to myself (for now!). Suffice it to say that I was honored to get to speak with the man briefly afterward, and was pleased that the library actually carried two out of the three books he suggested to me, namely the novels Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn and Brian Ascalon Roley’s American Son. The library didn’t have the third, Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, but a local bookstore did.

Yeah, I bought it and borrowed American Son. Yeah, I know I already bought a crapload of books to read. I bought a couple more on top of that last week, too. I’ll read what I want. Hey, quit yelling at me…

Tough Love

Okay, I got a backlog of posts and post ideas going back a week or so. Here’s where I try to get to them.

Last week, I workshopped a flash piece for the crit group, formerly titled “NIGYSOB,” one of the Games People Play in the book written by Eric Berne. It’s been a week, so I’m trying to recall the context of the notes I made.

The Good

  • Good characterization.
  • Nice twist at the end.
  • It was apparently the right length (Just over 1,000 words. I’ve edited it down to about 920, though I have the sense that it might’ve been too much).

The Bad

  • The parentage of one of the characters was too ambiguous for most–especially when I intended absolutely none.
  • The escalation of the conflict felt rushed.
  • Some disagreement over whether or not I left enough clues to the “punch line.” Everyone felt I didn’t, but some liked it that way.

The Ugly

No real ugliness, this time around.

I joked about how I wrote and brought a finished flash piece when I’d started two longer-length shorts which I haven’t finished. Well, now I’ve got two pieces to finish and two to edit. I think I’ve got a legit excuse for not bringing something to read next week–I should be editing!