Adrienne Urbanski

Hide and Seek: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exibitionists

barbara — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, Alison Tyler

Sometimes a sexually arousing or a sexually fulfilling experience does not necessarily have to involve physical contact with another person. This is the premise behind the erotica anthology Hide And Seek: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, in which the characters in the scenarios that enfold find sexual fulfillment and release from viewing others in the throes of sexual passion (be it with an attractive partner or with a vibrator). The characters take pleasure in each other, not through sexual intercourse, but simply through sight. This premise makes the set-ups and plots of these stories differ from typical erotica fare.

Talented erotica writer Rachel Kramer Bussel one again lends her editorial eye to Cleis Press for this anthology, selecting steamy, well written, and well-developed erotic stories that all fit under the broad umbrella of voyeurism and exhibitionism. While the title made me initially assume that the stories within this anthology would be specifically voyeuristic, the stories in this collection actually cover the gamut, with voyeurism leading to arousal for couples, friends, neighbors, and total strangers. As is the case with most erotic works put out by Cleis Press the stories within this anthology are all smoothly composed, with enough character and plot development to satisfy more cerebral readers.

Among the tales I found to be most scintillating within this anthology were “A Girl, Two Guys, and a Sex Toy,” by Kristina Wright. As one would perhaps conjecture from the story’s obvious title, the plot does indeed involve a woman, two men, and a large dildo. A lovelorn woman heals her wounds when she finds herself in bed with her two male best friends. However, instead of engaging in the expected ménage a trois scenario one would anticipate, she instead pleasures herself with the aforementioned sex toy, soaking in the fact that she is able to arouse two men.

In Teresa Noelle Roberts’ story “Visual Memory,” an artist finds artistic inspiration by recalling past voyeuristic memories, and laments upon how they transformed her own perception of sexuality. Roberts’ writing in the story is often poetic and rich with detail and character introspection, making it literary enough to surpass the erotica genre.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, March 25th 2011

Beautiful Boy

mandy — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Directed by Shawn Ku

Anchor Bay Films

Considering how common the tragedy of school shootings has become in our society, it is strange how infrequently this phenomena appears on both the silver and the TV screen. Perhaps this is because understanding these incidents is difficult, even when it comes to fiction. In Beautiful Boy, director Shawn Ku attempts to explore unanswerable questions by depicting a married couple who are torn apart by the death of their son, a college student who is both the victim and culprit of a massively fatal school shooting.

Maria Bello and Micheal Sheen play Kate and Eric, a married couple on the brink of separation. Despite living in the same home, the two move in completely separate spheres: eating dinner apart, sleeping in separate beds, and conversing with one another from different rooms. Their coldness to one another seems to have spread to their sole child, Sam (Kyle Gallner), who is attending college away from home.

Beautiful Boy opens with Sam reading a short story aloud, sadly recalling a long gone happy memory of his family at the beach. Eyes large and heavy with sadness, he calls his family from his dorm room and tries to communicate his frustration. His parents, however, are completely distracted by their own troubles, and unable to register his need for help.

The next morning the couple’s routine is interrupted by news of the shooting at Sam's school. Panicked, Kate fruitlessly attempts to get in touch with Sam. When the police finally come to their door, Kate and Eric learn that the truth is more terrible than even their greatest fear: not only is Sam dead but he is the sole perpetrator of the shooting.

With the media waiting on their doorstep, and the phone ringing incessantly, the two find themselves unable to carry on with their normal lives. Unsure of who to turn to and where to go, Kate and Eric walk away from what they knew. At first this tragedy seems to push Kate and Eric further apart, but eventually it's the only thing big enough to hold the couple together.

The question that haunts Kate and Eric, and no doubt the parents of real-life shooters, is how they could have created a child capable of carrying out such an unspeakable act. The two are forced to face this question amid intermittent snippets of television footage showing their son explaining his actions. Defying cliche, Sam is never made out to be overly angry or monstrous; rather, he is shown to be a boy ripped apart by the seemingly bleak world around him.

In the end, it is the raw and unsettling internal examination of a disjointed couple’s struggle to reunite in the midst of an an overwhelming crisis that is the sole focus of this film. Bello and Sheen give incredible, understated, and emotionally bare performances in which they portray the anguish of their characters without seeming overly dramatic. Both prove themselves to be immensely gifted actors, skilled at lending realism and believability to the most unbelievable of moments.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, March 13th 2011

La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City

farhana — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0000

By Lydia Otero

University of Arizona Press

In her historical work La Calle, Otero focuses on the city of Tucson’s elimination of the Mexican cultural center known as “La Calle” in the late sixties. While this event may seem minor in the grand scheme of things, Otero successfully argues that the incident was in fact proof of a bias against Tuscon citizens of Mexican descent and representative of a far larger problem.

No other United States city has remained under Mexican control as long as Tucson, which was not fully acquired by the U.S. until 1856. As a result, the city retained both a people and a culture that reflected its prolonged ties to Mexico. While the Mexican flavor was initially used as a means to attract Caucasian tourists, the city later began a plan to “revitalize” the city by eliminating such centers of Mexican culture as La Calle, a downtown area populated by small locally owned boutiques, Latin flavored restaurants, and the Plaza movie theater, which showed films in Spanish. The city of Tucson chose to eliminate this popular downtown destination in favor of replacing the area’s attractions with chain stores and strip malls designed to attract suburban Caucasian visitors, believing such a change would mean a higher profit for the city.

The bias towards Mexican-Americans also went further with realtors not selling them homes to keep them out of Caucasian neighborhoods, and restrictive mortgage policies. Otero makes her case by culling local city records and utilizing the oral history from city residents who experienced firsthand the changes made to Tucson during the sixties. Otero’s evidence clearly points to a policy rooted in a belief that Mexican Americans were second class citizens and that historical monuments tying Tucson to its Mexican history were not worth saving.

As a whole the book does a good job at pointing to the larger issue of the political implications of city planning. Otero quotes feminist geographer Linda McDowell who stated “Places are made through power relations which construct the rules that define boundaries. These boundaries define who belongs to a place and who may be excluded, as well as the location or site of the experience.”

We may take for granted that the arrangement, boundaries, as well as what is deemed worth preserving, within the cities we reside in may most likely have been influenced by racism, classism, and sexism.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, February 21st 2011

Best Bondage Erotica 2011

brittany — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Cleis Press

As the title would imply, this erotica anthology contains solely stories that involve bondage, the use of restraints for the purpose of sexual pleasure. Along with the use of bondage in sexual encounters comes the play of submissive and dominant roles. As one might expect, nearly half of stories in this book stick to standard dominate/submissive heterosexual roles, with men tying up women in various scenarios and then sexually dominating them. As a feminist with a lifelong interest in challenging gender roles, I found these stories to be a bit lackluster and predictable, though surely they might appeal to some readers. (To be clear, I'm not suggesting feminist beliefs necessarily negate interests or arousals derived from women in submissive sexual roles.) That said, the stories that I found to be the anthology’s gems did not pigeonhole men and women into clearly defined submissive and dominate roles.

Among the stories within the collection that I found to be most scintillating was “The Rainmaker” by Elizabeth Daniels, in which a married couple whose sex life is marred by the wife’s frigidity finds renewed fire with some BDSM play involving a gag and rope. Similarly, in Lux Zakari’s story “Truss Issues,” a heterosexual couple experiments with the use of restraint for the first time, and although the female is restrained it is her sexual needs that are fulfilled, rather than that of the male, as is the case with some of the other heterosexual stories in the collection.

I also liked “Reasoning” by Tenille Brown, in which a woman restrains and sexually dominates her male lover in an attempt to make amends over past transgressions. For less heteronormative narratives, I recommend “Bound Helen,” in which a lesbian couple’s use of corset by day is a precursor to their bondage play by night, and during which neither partner has complete control of the other. In “Daddy,” a lesbian couple takes the submissive and dominate roles to the extreme, with the plot’s apex centering around a trip to a party in which the submissive is blindfolded and restrained for the exploration of others.

While bondage as well as domination and submission are not sexual scenarios that will appeal to all readers, most fans of erotica will most likely find at least a few stories arousing. Those who find the subject matter more to be their cup of tea will surely find the anthology to be a gem. The most valuable attribute of this anthology is the high quality of writing in every story, scenes that are set well, and characters that are fully developed despite the short stories in which they appear. Those who enjoy books with more literary merit will surely value editor Rachel Kramer Bussel’s pattern of selecting well-written stories that sometimes trigger the intellect as well as the sex drive.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, February 15th 2011

The Vintage Book of American Women Writers

mandy — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Edited by Elaine Showalter

Vintage

Anyone who has taken their share of English literature survey courses will tell you that the women considered great enough to be included within the literary canon are few to be found, as women writers have been marginalized throughout history. Even today, the title “great American novelist” is one that has yet to be bestowed upon a woman, and many women writers whose work has literary significance find their work disregarded as "chick lit." The Vintage Book of American Women Writers helps to give women their due. The 848-page book traces the history of women writers in America, beginning with Anne Bradford, the first woman to be published in Puritan America, and ending with such contemporary writers as Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Among the most noteworthy additions on the table of contents is feminist Kate Chopin, who was revolutionary in her time for depicting women who hungered for an independent life outside of the confines of marriage and children and who sought out their own sexual fulfillment. Included within this anthology are “Story of an Hour” and the two connected stories: “At the Cadian Ball” and “The Storm.” “The Storm” was particularly groundbreaking; written in 1894, it presents a woman who, in the throes of lust, commits adultery during a violent thunderstorm. Due to the sexual explicitness of the story, it was never published until 1969, over seventy years after Chopin originally wrote it.

Continuing along the same vein are works by Dorothy Parker (“Big Blonde”) and Edna St. Vincent Millay (“First Fig,” “Second Fig,” and “What My Lips Have Kissed”). Both writers also portrayed women who expressed sexualities that challenged societal mores, although this specific story by Parker displays a woman who becomes trapped by the limited role she is left to carry out in society.

Even with multiple English degrees under my belt, I found there to be many stories and writers within the anthology I had not read, or even heard of. Among the writers whose legacy has been somewhat left to obscurity is Alice Bradley Sheldon, who posed as a man and wrote under the pen name James Tiptree, Jr. in order to better her chances of publication. Tiptree, who once belonged to the CIA, wrote compelling science fiction works. The included selection, “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain,” reflects both her background in the CIA and the knowledge she gained through her Doctorate degree in experimental psychology. Also included within this collection (and one could not imagine any anthology of women in literature not including them) are a selection of poems from Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich.

The Vintage Book of American Women Writers makes note of the struggle women have fought in order for their voices to be heard within the literary world. Of course, many people are apt to argue that there are many wonderful and historically significant women writers who did not make it into the collection, but there is only room for so many in one book. In the end, this anthology successfully underscores the overlooked importance women have played in literary history.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, January 17th 2011

Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks, and Consumer Culture

mandy — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0000

By Hilary Radner

Routledge

In the past decade, America cinema has shown a change towards producing more women-centered movies, depicting independent unmarried women who seek out their own empowerment and gradually changing society’s view of single women. The women of Sex and the City, for instance, celebrate their singledom, showing it not to be the pitiable state it was once thought to be. While these women possess many feminist qualities, they also have attributes that separate them from the traditional ideals of feminism, a perspective which media studies scholar Hilary Radner labels neo-feminist in her current work, Neo-Feminist Cinema.

Radner compellingly opens her book with a discussion of how neo-feminism differs from second wave feminism. Radner traces the start of neo-feminism to Helen Gurley Brown, who wrote the infamous Sex and the Single Girl. Groundbreaking for its time, the book idealized for women a lifestyle in which they maintained their own independent identities and lives from men, encouraging them to seek out both fulfilling careers and sexual experiences. Through her focus on being fashionable, attractive, and forever youthful in appearance, the former Cosmopolitan editor showed an extreme diversion in her views from that of feminists of the same era, including groundbreaker Gloria Steinem.

In Neo-Feminist Cinema, Radner connects Gurley Brown's views to the neo-feminist views expressed in contemporary works in which feminist-seeming ideologies are undercut by a focus on extreme consumerism (Manolo Blahniks, anyone?) and male sexual attention. Radner then dissects such other modern day films as Something’s Gotta Give, Legally Blonde, Maid in Manhattan, and Pretty Woman. Each films' focus on the girlishness of the characters, regardless of their age (even at forty- and fifty-years-old the cast of Sex and the City possess girlish qualities), as well as women's supposed fixation with fashion and extreme consumerism. Radner posits that neo-feminism replaces consumerism, instead of maternalism, as the primary feminine attribute. Radner’s analysis of each film is both compelling and convincing, though her method of devoting a chapter to each film results in redundancies, as many films possess the same characteristics.

Radner's work is most compelling in her definition of neo-feminism and her historical tracing back to show the roots of the term. Radner gives needed attention to how feminism has slowly filtered into popular culture, mutating the movement into a new form, one that furthers consumerism and maintains a woman’s focus on being sexually desirable to men.

Radner seems overly critical of popular culture in her work. While the neo-feminism expressed in popular works today may be a watered down, shallower version of the feminism second wavers expressed, it nonetheless is a positive step forward for the depiction of women in the media. The depictions of these images encourage women to pursue more self-actualized societal roles and encourages both genders to be accepting of women within such roles. Television shows and films have positively depicted empowered single women for over a decade, albeit ones who may not be quite what our feminist fore-mothers idealized as the future for modern women.

In the end, Radner’s work is both compelling and thought provoking, and she successfully pinpoints the media’s version of contemporary society’s ideal woman. Women who can lead successful and challenging lives absent of husbands and children are positive images to influence women, even if they encourage women to also spend undue amounts of time on their appearance.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, January 14th 2011

Cuntastic

andrea — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

By Laurel Ripple Carpenter

With the popularization of blogs and personal websites in the past decade, there has been a sharp decline in the zine phenomena. I have longed for the days when the magazine rack at independent bookstores was lined with photocopied feminist zines, daring to say the things mainstream magazines cannot. Thankfully, there are still some zinesters willing to invest the time and money needed to undertake the taxing task of putting out a zine. Radical doula Laurel Ripple Carpenter is one of these few remaining idealists (however, a blog version of her zine does exist at blog.cuntastic.org).

As the name would imply, Cuntastic deals with “all things cunt,” meaning anything related to reproductive health, pregnancy, sexuality, etc. As Carpenter is both a doula and a mother, the zine has a large focus on pregnancy and children. The premiere issue, focusing on pregnancy and placentas, delved into multiple women’s experiences of being pregnant, including Carpenter herself. Carpenter shares her own pregnancy journal, giving an honest account of the concerns, fears, and elation a new mother faces. Another new mommy also gives an account of using a midwife assisted birth as opposed to a hospital birth, noting her reasoning behind her preference. As someone who has never been pregnant, or contemplated pregnancy, it was fascinating to read multiple graphic descriptions of the experience of being pregnant and giving birth. The zine also deals with the squeamish issue of new mothers taking placenta pills or eating their placenta, offering instructions both for tablets as well as meals meant to complement the inclusion of placentas.

The second issue, the menstruation issue, deals with women’s’ experiences with their menstrual cycle and alternative menstrual products like cups (i.e The Keeper) and sea sponges. The zine explores menstrual related traditions such as “menarche parties” for girls who receive their first periods. (There is also a humorous story from a male writer on his first time having sex with woman during her menstrual cycle.)

The third issue, the radical parenting issue, deals with feminists (and other left wing folk) becoming parents. The issue asks such key questions as how to not gender condition a child, how to go without disposable diapers, and generally how to raise a child while sticking to your ideals. It is fascinating to see the issue of motherhood explored by feminists as this was often a murky issue for the movement in the past. It is inspiring to hear about women using their feminist ideologies to raise their children. Within the issue, Carpenter also details her experience going into labor while at a DNC protest.

Overall, Carpenter has created a compelling and likable feminist zine with Cuntastic, in which she answers such questions commonly discussed by feminists (menstruation) and questions that need further exploration (motherhood and pregnancy.) I hope to see future issues of Cuntastic soon and hear more about Carpenter and her new life as a feminist mother.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, December 12th 2010

Feminaissance

barbara — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Edited by Christine Wertheim

Les Figures Press

French theorist Hélène Cixous first coined the term ècriture feminine in her 1975 essay “Laugh of the Medusa,” in which she wrote “Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies.” Within the essay, Cixous posited that women write their gender into their writing, that gender is embedded in the language women use.

Écriture feminine is the focus of the anthology Feminaissance, which began as a Cal Arts conference held in 2007 on the topics of feminism and women in writing. One of the key questions that arose at this conference was the concept of ècriture feminine, and whether there were in fact specifically feminine forms of text. The ideas expressed at this conference later lead to the creation of this rich anthology, in which multiple women explore the concept of feminine writing and gender in language through a myriad of methods. All of the pieces of the anthology are laid out on the page in halves and thirds, so that each page shows a discussion of the topic from many voices.

The responses vary vastly, with some women exploring theory, some women exploring concepts of what it means to be a woman, and some women writing fiction and memoir related to gender and sexuality. As a whole the book presents a compelling and thought-provoking discussion on the concept of feminine language and what it means to be female within today’s society.

Among the most compelling pieces within the anthology is Dodie Bellamy’s short story “Sexspace.” Bellamy explores the connections between language and gender and sexuality by depicting characters that enter into an Internet-like world in which sexuality is expressed through energy and language, rather than merely imprisoned within our physical bodies. The protagonist’s femaleness then becomes something that transcends her body, and is rooted instead within her language and energy. In a day and age where much of the communication around sexuality now happens online or via text message, this concept seems highly relevant. Eileen Myles then depicts the reverse within her work “Tapestry,” in which she explores women whose sense of self and sexuality is linked to their bodies; the protagonist then remembers her own female lovers by describing their breasts and vaginas in detail, linking them to their physicality and sexuality. In “Continuity” Chris Kraus laments on the state of female writing, declaring that such writing has a “pervasive schizophrenia” as the identity of women within society is constantly in flux.

As a graduate student in English reading the writing of Helene Cixous and Luce Irigay, ècriture feminine often felt a bit disconnected from real life, mired down in academic purposes. Feminaissance makes the ideas behind ècriture feminine far more accessible by applying and exploring Cixous’ ideas within the context of real life. Much like Inga Muscio’s groundbreaking book Cunt, Feminaissance succeeds in its ability to take feminist theory and apply it both to artistic expression and real life experience, making feminism feel more relevant and accessible.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, December 8th 2010

Literary Readings: Jonathan Franzen and Lorrie Moore (11/13/2010)

mandy — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000

92nd Street Y

New York, New York

In the deeply downtrodden, recession smashed state that the publishing industry is in, and in a culture in which few people seem to have the attention span to read an entire novel (much less one nearly 600 pages long), it seemed unlikely that America would ever crown yet another Great American Novelist. However, Jonathan Franzen has been given such a title by many media outlets, some of which showed a photo of President Obama carrying Franzen's latest work, Freedom. Franzen’s readings across the country have lead to lines around the block, giving life to a dying industry. But all of the fawning and attention directed at Franzen has lead some writers, like Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, to wonder if writing by men is automatically taken more seriously than writing by women, who are often written off as "chick lit" or left to play second fiddle.

This question seemed to be in the air at the opening of the 92nd Street Y’s talk with Lorrie Moore and Jonathan Franzen. Despite being a well known and prolific writer, Moore was the first to read, and functioned much like the opening act at a concert, warming up the crowd for the headliner. She even made a joke out of the situation, choosing to begin by reciting the lines: “Opening acts,/opening acts/I’m not a girl complaining,/I’m just facing facts.” Moore then launched into singing part of the song “We Shall Overcome,” poking fun at her underdog status.

While the majority of the attendees seemed to be there for Franzen, Moore managed to solicit more laughs in the end with her warm, laid back nature as she read from her novel A Gate at the Stairs. Franzen’s reading of his recent, critically lauded Freedom was, by comparison, a bit hurried and self-conscious. He did not stop to pause over the language and coy jokes the way Moore did as she languidly hovered over the lines in her story that drew the most laughter. This caused her work to come across as more humorous than Frazen’s, though they both implanted plenty of wry observation into their respective works.

Both authors chose to read passages that depicted women naively giving all of themselves to men who do not love them quite as much as they assume, with Moore’s being from the woman’s point of view and Franzen from the man’s. The similarity of their two plots made it seem as though they were reading two sides of the same story.

Following the reading, a moderator took questions from the audience. One audience member questioned whether there was a connection between being from the Midwest and writing humorously. Moore responded that perhaps it is the result of the terrible weather in the Midwest, and that they have to find ways to amuse themselves. Franzed added that “those who can leave the Midwest must have mastered one coping skill, such as flight,” and Moore noted that perhaps humor is another of those coping skills.

During the course of the evening, Moore’s warmth and Franzen’s self-consciousness showed that, unlike stars of other artistic mediums, those of the literary realm are much more grounded, even when endless lines of fans wait in rapt anticipation for them to autograph their newly purchased books.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, November 25th 2010

Best Lesbian Erotica 2010

gita — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Edited by Kathleen Warnock

Cleis Press

The photo on this anthology’s cover, of two near identical women in rapturous embrace serves to convey the collection’s reoccurring theme: sex with one’s doppelganger. While the majority of stories in this collection do not adhere to this theme, two of the most unusual tales in this collection do. As one would assume, the stories within this collection often veer outside of the clichéd, cookie-cutter lesbian erotica setups. While many of the traditional ingredients are here, this anthology manages to put them together in new ways, offering a bit of variance for those familiar with the typical erotica set up who are perhaps looking for some new spins. We can thank the selectors of the stories, the musical group Betty (most recently of The L Word fame), for choosing works that stray off of the usual path.

While there are many tales that adhere to the butch/femme setup, the outcome differs in many of the tales with femmes being the dominant party (oddly, the butch/femme tales are also almost exclusively told from the butch’s point of view.) Among the most stimulating and heartfelt of the stories including the butch/femme dynamic, is “Bloodties,” by Alex Tucci in which a young butch finds relief from her grief at a funeral by having a steamy sex session with her second cousin in a church bathroom. Tucci delivers stimulating sexual description while combining genuine plot and character development—attributes not always found in steamy erotica. In “Shameless,” writers Kymberlyn Reed and Anais Morten surprisingly include heterosexual men in their tale. However the two lesbian characters do not engage in heterosexual sex with the two men. Instead, they are allowed to drool over the two while they engage in sex. Later on, the lesbian couple uses their strap-ons on the two men, convincing them into such a position by offering it as their only means of sexual release. This creative setup offers an interesting spin on the heterosexual male fetishization of lesbian sex.

Among the collection’s most unique tales are the two that adhere to the cover’s theme, tales that I did not find to be sexually arousing, but instead intellectually stimulating. In “Self-Reflection,” by Tobi Hill-Meyer, a female to male pre-op transsexual runs into her time traveling post-op self and gives new meaning to the phrase “having sex with yourself.” My favorite, and the most literary tale in the collection, is “Uppercasing,” by Charlie Anders. It tells the story of a near identity-less girl who travels to San Francisco to find herself. Instead, she finds an arrogant artist, with the same name who proceeds to transform her into her double. The strange sexual situations that unfold between the two are undercut with such statements as: “I’ve always wanted to see the look in my own face when someone fists me…And now I can.”

While the sex that occurs between the two serves to only be the stuff of humiliation and rampant narcissism, the tale offers an interesting lament on the concepts of identity and ego. I was unsure as to why this story was in an erotica collection, but I found its strange theme to be one that stayed with me weeks after I finished reading the collection, and finding well crafted writing amidst a book of erotica was a pleasant surprise.

Overall, this collection succeeds in offering up unusual and eclectic tales that are a nice diversion from the standard erotica that gets dull much too quickly. While the unusual tales may be too far out to be stimulating for some, there is most likely at least one story to get your motor racing.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, November 23rd 2010

Soul Leaves Her Body (10/08/2010)

brittany — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:00:00 +0000

HERE Arts Center

New York, New York

In today’s digital age, people often communicate with each other via computer and cell phone screens rather than face to face. In recent years, Here Arts Center has taken the difficult leap of transporting this contemporary feeling of being disconnected (and yet overconnected) via the coldness of technology to the theater stage through their resident artist productions. Soul Leaves Her Body is an ambitious multimedia venture that uses choreographed dance and video, creating a production that is highly visually stimulating and innovative in its implementation, albeit somewhat fragmented and confusing in its overall effect.

The concept behind Soul Leaves Her Body is derived from a thirteenth century Chinese tale, The Soul of Chi'en Nu Leaves Her Body, in which a young woman rips her soul from her body in order to pursue a destiny in the city. The work itself is split up into three stories: One set in the thirteenth century, the other two set in contemporary times. The first segment sticks to the original story line of the traditional tale, in which a young woman meets the strange man to whom she is betrothed but to whom her mother strangely refers to as “elder brother.”

Interestingly, the segment opens with a woman obviously not of Asian descent looking out on the audience proclaiming, “I am Mrs. Chang.” Later, an older Asian woman dressed in attire appropriate for thirteenth century China stares out at the audience from a video, a persona which we understand is being embodied by this much younger dancer. An image of a traditionally dressed Chinese man is also later shown on the video screen when we see the Caucasian dancer performing the role of the betrothed. The emotions the characters feel towards one another are conveyed through movement rather than dialogue, and all three performers fully embody the tone of the work in the well-choreographed dances.

For the second segment, Jennie Mary Tai Liu—who also served as the work’s co-director and choreographer—is seen in a film as Yan, floating in an anachronistic fishing boat at the shore of contemporary Hong Kong. While she peacefully drinks tea from an old fashioned tea pot, sitting in the ancient boat, she stares back at the blinding fluorescent lights on shore, trying to find the light of her friend’s apartment amidst the chaos. Her cell phone and MacBook on board prove to be her only links to the modern world she is floating in front of. Later, she and her siblings lose their mother’s apartment, leaving them the boat as their only home, floating uneasily without a sense of rootedness.

In the third segment, Yan rings a penthouse apartment to which she feels mysteriously pulled. The action then returns to the stage as Yan and her elderly relative share similar experiences as Chinese women seduced by foreign men, showing a connection between the past and the present.

Soul Leaves Her Body is a fascinating, innovative work, merging ancient texts with the disconnected, overly technological feel of modern life. However, it nonetheless feels fragmented. Audience members who do not read their programs or have some familiarity with the ancient Chinese fable may feel themselves somewhat lost at sea. Viewing this work is valuable nonetheless, as it successfully merges multiple mediums, creating a work of great visual stimulation.

Soul Leaves Her Body runs through November 23rd at Here Arts Center.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, November 12th 2010

Estrogenius Festival (10/08/2010)

mandy — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Manhattan Theatre Source

New York, New York

Considering how many women pursue a career in theater, it seems perplexing that so few women-centered plays or female directors make it to the stage. This was the problem Fiona Jones set to resolve when she created the Estrogenius Festival as a showcase of women in theater... a decade ago. With much of the theater industry still dominated by male voices and visions, this festival provides women a chance to step out from the sidelines and into the spotlight.

I attended the second week of the festival's short plays (for the first four weeks of the festival a different rotation of works are shown). The standout of the evening was “All Mapped Out,” a piece focusing on a lesbian couple, Hannah and Joni, at a crossroads in their relationship: Joni wants to move in together whereas Hannah is still approaching their commitment with caution. The two are en route to their therapist’s office for another session of couple’s therapy in Hannah’s new vehicle, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art GPS system replete with the voice of a British woman, whom Hannah has dubbed "Emily." (When Joni lampoons her naming the GPS system, Hannah points out that Joni named her car “Porsche DiRossi.")

While the drive begins on a cheery note, things quickly turn ugly as Joni confronts Hannah about her hesitancy towards co-domestication. As the couple’s relationship takes a turn for the worse, so does their drive; Hannah misses a turn and Emily begins to inform them of their need for recalculation, her directions mirroring the relationship’s misdirections. As the argument worsens, eventually leading to screams and a breakup, Emily advises them to drive straight off a cliff.

Writer Paula Marinac shows an ear for snappy, laugh-inducing dialogue, and director Alexandra de Suze times each punch line perfectly, milking every possible guffaw. Actors Cheryl Orsini and Candice Myers also are convincing in their roles. In a theater scene dominated by men, “Mapped Out” is a nice escape.

The other standout of the evening was “Little Goldie and the Shines,” directed by Lexi K. Hubb and written by Kay Poiro. It is a psychological thriller where a present day woman suffers from reoccurring nightmares in which she fronts a sixties girl group that is heading for an ill-fated flight. Tension mounts as the woman becomes increasingly unable to distinguish what is real and what is a dream. The cast for the work convincingly portrayed the mounting emotional drama of the work.

The other fare on the night I attended included three cleverly written short plays. "The Open Door," written by Hana Mironoff and directed by Kathleen O’Neil, focuses on a teenage prankster in Victorian England; "Crossing Borders" depicts a pair of mice debating whether they should pursue a life of intellectual stimulation by taking up residence in a Border’s bookstore; and "Wrong Planet," written by Dori Appel and directed by Dina Epshteyn, explores how one man’s struggle with autism presents challenges for his dating life. While some works were more engaging than others, all showed great originality, taking the short play form in new directions. The audience in the small, sold out venue maintained rapt attention throughout each work.

The Estrogenius Festival runs through October 29th, and the last week of the festival features audience-seleced encore performances of the best of all the short plays.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, October 16th 2010

Law of Attraction

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Allison Leotta

Touchstone Books

As far as my taste in reading material goes, I tend to avoid genre books, particularly cookie cutter thrillers and mysteries as many most often lack originality, societal observation, and genuine writing skill. Alison Leotta’s novel Law of Attraction, however, manages to be the exception to the rule, creating a mystery that adheres to the genre standards but also manages to transcend them through tackling the heavy hitting topics of domestic abuse and power struggles within heterosexual relationships.

The novel’s protagonist Anna is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington DC; many of the cases that come across her desk are domestic violence cases in which she observes women suffering through the cycle of abuse at the hands of their husbands and boyfriends. Anna seems to identify readily with the women she helps, and through a series of flashbacks it is slowly revealed that Anna’s own mother was a victim of domestic violence.

Among her cases is Laprea, a woman who seeks legal help to escape abuse at the hands of her boyfriend D’marco, only to continually drop the charges and let him into her life. The day after Valentine’s Day, a bloody Laprea enters Anna office seeking to press charges, sure that this time she is done with D’marco. At the same time, Anna also reconnects with Nick, a former law school classmate who has long been holding a torch for Anna. Sparks fly between the two until it is revealed that Nick is D’marco’s lawyer. Things get messy when Anna begins an impassioned relationship with Nick. While their relationship initially seems to be an idyllic one, Nick is quickly shown to be a man of questionable character when he cajoles Laprea to change her testimony and claim D’marco’s innocence. Things take a turn for the worse when shortly after Nick’s release Laprea’s bloody body is found in a trash bag.

While Law of Attraction has all the ingredients of a typical genre thriller, it somewhat transcends the genre. Leotta’s obvious writing skill is apparent and the characters and scenes are more richly developed than is commonly seen in other thrillers. Many of the legal details and scenarios throughout the course of the book ring true, which can be credited to Leotta’s employment as a federal sex crimes prosecutor. The novel’s exploration of domestic violence and the psychological implications of it are also handled well by Leotta. Much like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this subject matter elevates the novel as it provides valid societal observation and insight, often into the inequalities that frequently exist in heterosexual relationships.

While Law of Attraction may be more a fun thriller than a substantial work of literary merit, it is nonetheless a joy to read. Those readers who often pass over the thriller genre may find Law of Attraction to be more cerebrally stimulating.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, October 12th 2010

Sex in Mommyville (8/19/2010)

mandy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:00:00 +0000

The Flea Theater

New York, New York

For feminists marriage and motherhood have always been gray areas. While feminists of the seventies were quick to write off these roles as domestic slavery, some contemporary feminists have embraced these roles, finding that one can be an independent woman and still be a loving mother and wife. However, finding a balance between the roles of independent career woman as well as wife and mother can be a struggle. This struggle is at the crux of The Flea Theater’s production of the one woman show, Sex in Mommyville. The play’s main focus is the struggles a feminist faces when she finds her life focusing on maintaining a home for her children and husband, rather than pursuing her own professional and intellectual goals.

The play opens up while Fishbeyn’s character Artemis is in the process of writing an article for Bitch Magazine on the sex lives of mothers, explaining how both her pessimistic Russian immigrant parents and pregnancy lead to her dreams of writing being pushed aside for years. She tells us that sex with her husband has now become an “elusive dream”. Just how much of the play is based on real life experience is unclear as Fishbeyn is ostensibly playing a character. While all of the play’s material rings true from the get go, it could have been more moving had Fishbeyn based the experience on her own life rather than shrouding things with the guise of fiction. Fishbeyn excels as the play’s sole performer. She is warm and engaging from the get go, speaking to the audience as if they were a long lost friend stopping by for a visit. She makes use of the small stage well, effectively using physical humor as she enacts sexual situations with her husband. Surely, director Sande Shurin has a knack for staging and physical comedy. Fishbeyn launches into a humorous and highly accurate analysis of the stereotypes surrounding mothers, joking about the mothers who only have sex to please their husbands as well as the current pop culture phenomenon of the “MILF."

The first hour of the play focuses on her disastrous attempts to have hot sex with her husband due to the constant interruptions of her offspring. Many of the mothers in the audience (with surprisingly silent babies in hand) laughed hysterically throughout the work. My guess is that for those who have lived through the stress of motherhood, the jokes will hit spot on. After the first hour, Fishbeyn changes her comedic tone for a somber one, showing she is just as gifted at drama as she is at comedy. She delivers a heartfelt monologue on the frustration she feels as she attempts to be both a writer and a loving mother and wife. She feels that no matter which role she focuses on she is neglecting another.

At this point Fishbeyn walks to a series of screens at the back of the stage and begins to deliver an analysis of the current state of women in popular culture, looking at both the ageism and hyper focus on physical appearance that burdens women. Her talk is peppered with images of wrinkle cream and The Bachelor, an additional use of images would have made this segment even stronger. Her monologue, though not necessarily original, is both humorous and true, sounding a lot like a pop culture savvy version of Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth.

Fishbeyn concludes the play with Artemis admitting that there will never be clear answers for her in her struggles. In the end, she raises a shot to her fellow mothers , acknowledging that it is inevitable that in their lives they will at some point have to neglect or make compromises when it comes to their professional and academic aspirations. While Sex in Mommyville offers little in terms of definite answers, it raises important questions.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, September 6th 2010

Flirty G Waterproof G-spot Vibrator

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Good Vibrations

The existence of the G-Spot has been under debate for years now. While some women swear by it as the secret to earth shattering orgasms, other women deem it a myth. (Comedian Margaret Cho once declared it “The Gotcha Spot.”) Regardless of your view on this elusive spot, Good Vibration’s new Flirty G seeks to stimulate it. The Flirty G is akin to the Rabbit Pearl in that it is a dual action vibrator, simultaneously providing both vagina and clitoral stimulation. Unlike the Rabbit Pearl, the Flirty G comes with fewer bells and whistles and packs a lighter punch (though boasts a substantially smaller price tag). It also offers a waterproof function, ideal perhaps for those women interested in bringing a little fun to a bath or a hot tub (or protecting it from the ejaculation that sometimes occurs from G-Spot stimulation).

The best feature of the Flirty G is its front section designed for clitoral stimulation. Its series of raised nubs serve to stimulate the area well, perhaps better than the ears of the Rabbit Pearl. The area also packs a strong vibration. The shaft part of the vibrator is curved and paddle shaped, designed to stimulate the G-Spot. While the shape and size of the shaft is nice, it does not provide much vibration. The vibrator also has a tendency to easily slip out of place while in use.

For me, the vibrator was successful in helping achieve an above average orgasm, though perhaps not as good as more expensive models such as the aforementioned Rabbit Pearl. While I’m undecided about the validity of the G-Spot, the vibrator’s vaginal section did seem to be more stimulating that those with traditionally vertical shaped shafts of the same size. The vibrator also works nicely in conjunction with plug in vibrators/massagers like the Wahl and the Hitachi Magic Wand.

There may be more stimulating dual action vibrators on the market; however, for its relatively inexpensive price tag, the Flirty G is a worthy buy and might be an easy way to spice up your toy collection.

Written by: Adrienne Urbanski, August 22nd 2010