Just got the scoop from Dad. Guess I'm not the only one making last minute travel changes. Does this seem complicated or is it just me?

I fly into Charlotte, NC to my sister's tomorrow. We'll meet Dad and Jean at the Columbia zoo with the kids on Tuesday evening, then all drive to Dad's house in SC. Erik & Alisha get in from Atlanta that night too, but they have to leave early on Christmas eve for a flight to Nebraska to spend Christmas with her family. My sister's husband gets in on Thursday, so I'll have his truck when they all go to Woodruff, SC to spend Christmas afternoon with his family. Dad and Jean are driving to her daughter's place in Tennessee on Sunday, 26th, so I'll meet up with my sister then and caravan back to Charlotte. (Wait, not done yet.) Then, my sister, brother-in-law, three kids and I all pile into their Honda Pilot to drive up to Connecticut to visit my other brother for New Year's Eve. Erik & Alisha fly back to Atlanta on the 30th then take a 6AM flight up to CT/NY on the 31st. Dad just told me he and Jean decided to drive up to CT directly from Memphis for New Year's too. Should be a houseful!

Oh yeah, so I decided as long as I was in the state, I would swing by Buffalo on my way home. If you see someone wandering around Elmwood inappropriately dressed for the weather, it's probably me. Hope to meet some peeps.

During the (e:estrip) illegal character striptease[inlink]paul,2506[/inlink]last night, this FAX came in, probably only the third FAX I've gotten all year. I have no idea why it was sent to me. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

I wasn't going to post it at first, but the timing was just too weird. And I had to do something during the interminable pauses while (e:Paul) performed his magic behind the scenes. So I OCR'd it and posted it. Ironically, it had the most illegal characters of all my posts, and eventually was sacrified in the great time warp of '04. I may be tempting fate by posting it again now. Keep your fingers crossed.

Global_Exchange
415-255-7296
12/15/04 7:05 PM 1/1
Contact: Greta Christina greta @gretachristina.com

For immediate release: Dec. 15,2004
Please announce/post until Jan. 11,2005

Annie Sprinkle to Appear at "Paying For It" Reading at A Different Light, Jan. 11

Annie Sprinkle, prostitute/porn star turned performance artist, writer, sex educator, and Ph.D., will be appearing at a reading/book signing for the new book Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers and Their Clients. Recently cited as an expert resource in the nationally-syndicated sex advice column "Savage Love," Paying For It is a book of advice for sex work customers, written by sex workers and former sex workers. Does your sex worker's face light up when she or he sees you walk in the door? If not, the wise, outrageous voices in this book can make the difference between a so-so session and an hour you'll remember the rest of your life. Contributors to the book include Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hartley, Carol Queen, Vic St. Blaise, Matt Bernstein Sycamore, and more.

The reading/book signing will be on Tuesday, January 11, at A Different Light Books, 489 Castro Street, near the comer of Castro and 18th Streets in San Francisco. In addition to Annie Sprinkle, the participants will include Lex Kyler, a.k.a. Vic St. Blaise (founder and editor of the sex worker zine "Whorezine" ); Cleo Dubois (BDSM educator/ritualist and producer of the videos "Tie Me Up" and "The Pain Game" ); Steve Mitchell (male stripper and ten-year veteran of the business), Liberty N. Justice (peepshow dancer and "talk to a live nude girl" booth entertainer from 1990 to 1993); and the book's editor, Greta Christina. The event will start at 7 pm.

"If you're a sex work customer, this book will be life-changingly useful. If you're not, it'll just be entertaining and enlightening. Funny, smart, and both blunt and kind, it gives customers a hefty dose of practical advice on how to make their sex work encounters more pleasant and fun. And it gives the rest of us a unique insight into the nuts and bolts of the sex industry." -Susie Bright

"One of the best sex guides I've ever read." -Betty Dodson

"Smart, sane, and fun to read, Paying For It takes the guesswork out of being the ideal client. A boon to buyer and provider alike." -Lily Burana

For more information or to request a review copy of the book, please contact greta @gretachristina.com, or visit www.gretachristina.com.

My ex-roommate has an autographed picture of himself with Annie Sprinkle. If I don't start getting more people signing up on estripwest maybe I'll post it there and see if that helps.

I dreamt I was visiting e-town and having dinner with a bunch of (e:peeps). There was a constant commotion going on while the waiter came over to tell me which of the specials were still available and which ones weren't, then left me to tell everybody else. As the conversation came around to ordering I said I was going to have the roast beef special, and that the waiter had said they were out of all the other specials. Everybody else decided to have the roast beef special too. I started worrying what if I had misunderstood the waiter and they were really out of roast beef? I tried to convince everybody to choose a back-up order just in case.

Oh, and I made a pretty funny joke about (e:peeperoni)'s. I guess you had to be there.

p.s. - one of you looked remarkably like Edward Burns . Who was that?

Internet goes to the dogs
Calling all canines -- Dogster.com is the online spot for Spot

Cubby from New Jersey has a passion for peanut butter. Dedeaux from Baton Rouge likes to suck his brother's ear. Spike from the East Bay just wants to kiss pretty girls.

Two months after a group of self-described computer and canine geeks in San Francisco launched a social networking site for dogs, thousands of furry ones have their own Web page, complete with mug shots, personal stories and listings of likes and pet peeves.

The online site, called Dogster.com, went live Jan. 12 (2004) with fewer than 100 dogs. As of Friday (February 27, 2004), there were more than 8,000 dogs posted on the site. Hundreds of new pooches from around the globe are added daily. There are dogs from far-flung countries including Malaysia, Afghanistan, New Zealand and Croatia.

Current dogster stats show 66457 registered pooches.

Advertising on Dogster

Dogster and Catster are fun sites with a serious mission to celebrate fluffy love. Dogster is serving over 6 million pages a month on average and Catster is serving over 3 million pages a month.

A few details I left out of the first dance saga,[inlink]twisted,106[/inlink] if you can believe it.

It was the morning of the wedding (scheduled for 4PM) and my sister was still searching for the right song. My bro-in-law had pitched many outstanding selections, but none of them struck home with her.

Cue the fatal moment when I off-handedly recall the time my sister, at the impressionable age of 14 or so, announced she wanted "Evergreen" to be her first dance song. Even as my mind was accessing another memory of her saying the same thing about "Endless Love" but before I could formulate the words, my sister declared "Evergreen" would be a good choice, my brother-in-law agreed, and the deal was done.

I want to go on record as saying I have a deep and abiding appreciation for Ms. Streisand (although those fingernails scare me), but given the two theoretical options, I probably would have gone with Lionel Richie on that particular occasion. I don't know what my sister would have done, and that's what haunts me.

My brother's first dance selection was even more down to the wire. They were still deliberating between U2's "All I Want Is You" (my brother's choice) and Jimmy Buffet's version of "Brown-Eyed Girl" (my sis-in-law's choice) when the rehearsal dinner video soundtrack (which also included Vince Guaraldi, the Smiths and others - I was NOT launching a subliminal campaign for my song suggestion) interjected the third option. Actually it came down to Alisha wanting the video song and Erik refusing to concede the decision. Alisha left it up to him, with her vote definitively cast for Phil Collins.

The wedding day arrives and besides doing whatever it is guys do before a 6PM wedding, my brother makes a big show of trying to find someone with a CDRW and internet access from the hotel so he can mysteriously download something. At the wedding reception he gives the CD to the DJ and won't say what's on it. Good thing the darn thing worked.

As my brother said later that evening, I had "picked out Christina's first dance song" (I did NOT pick it out! I only reminded her of something she said 13 years earlier!) and they were still together after 10 years. So he decided to go with "my" song.

Gosh darn it that's too much pressure! I'll check back with you here in 10 years and let you know how they're doing.

(Ok, I have my own freakin' estrip site. Why am I still posting over here? Back to my own time zone. Come visit!)