So you can now order Backwoods, the print version, on Amazon for $9.04. That’s only some cents over the price of the ebook version on Amazon. Why is it so cheap? I have no idea!
Furthermore, I have yet to see a copy of it. I can’t believe it. How is it that I could conceivably order a copy off of fucking Amazon and see it in two or three days, yet I haven’t seen it?
YES I’M FRUSTRATED.
Every day I come home and hope to see it on my doorstep, and every day I’m disappointed. It’s passed the point where I’m even going to be excited about it. I’m just going to be relieved and a little less annoyed.
Also, here is the Smashwords edition. Smashwords lets you download the book in a bunch of different formats, such as HTML or PDF, for people who don’t have a Kindle or an ebook reader.
Apparently Amazon gets the copies of Rebel Satori’s physical books before anywhere else gets them, so while I still haven’t seen the book yet, I’m thinking it’s gonna be any day now.
Hello! Here’s a couple photos that my friend Anthony DeAngelis took of me, to be used in promoting my book.
And I should mention that I’ve recently come out of the closet about some semi-nude photos of me by cult filmmaker Bruce LaBruce.
This happened many years ago in Pittsburgh, and the photos initially popped up in an issue of this snooty gay French magazine. I used to be a little embarrassed by them, but I’m not now. And now LaBruce put one of them on the cover of his new monograph. Click here to see it, I’m in there somewhere…
Repost from old blog, 2/16/2007
Is there anything sadder than a pedophile?
Born with his predilection, the pedophile is forced to make a choice: submit to his desires, either through pornography or child rape, and live life as a criminal, most likely ruining young lives in the process. Or, remain a slave to his sexual proclivities for the entirety of his life, always knowing that he is a freak and a degenerate, never able to truly accept himself or love himself in a society where he is unilaterally demonized.
In a country as oversexually stimulated as America, to maintain a neutered state of mind must be a challenge. We are bombarded with the sexualized images of young children – youth is put at a premium. It’s all “look – but don’t look too closely – and certainly don’t touch.”
As a gay man, I sympathize with the plight of the pedophile, even as I see their actions as repellent. I know what it’s like to be born differently, to not have any control over your desires even when you most want to. There was no way I could have lived a straight life. And there is no way a pedophile can live a life any other way.
This makes me question nature. Isn’t nature supposed to make sense? If a person is born with certain desires, shouldn’t they be able to act on them?
No. Nature doesn’t make sense – nature is as chaotic and uncompromising as it is beautiful and nurturing. So living beings will always have to die to keep other beings alive. So violence is essential for creation. So we’ve been given brains large enough to devise things (nukes) capable of destroying all of this.
It’s life. I guess no one ever said it was easy, but I’m going to say that sometimes: Life Sucks.
First off, usual disclaimers apply: deactivation is temporary, I’ll probably be back on Facebook before you know it, etc etc.
The short answer to the above question is: people on the Internet annoy me. The answer that requires explanation is: because I believe the Occupy protests are the most important thing in the world now.
I can’t help it. I’m smitten with this movement, I was made for this movement. My fears, when I have them, tend toward the major – by which I mean the catastrophic, the End Times, the point of no return. Atomic weapons. Irreversible ecological degradation. The forces that conspire not only against me, not only against humanity, but against life itself.
You could also say that the things I fear most are the things I feel helpless to change. So when something like this comes along – when a mass of people find one another and simply acknowledge that SHIT’S FUCKED UP, it uplifts me. It gives me some fucking HOPE. Go ahead and ask me “What is it these people want?” I’ll be glad to offer several hundred suggestions.
And now, as the movement gains momentum and coverage, I increasingly get subjected to dissenting opinions on my Facebook news feed. Let me be clear: dissent is healthy, skepticism is good. And: the Internet, particularly Facebook status updates, is not the ideal venue for a productive conversation.
On Monday afternoon I stood in downtown Pittsburgh with the Occupiers, holding my sign (“Accountability, please”) and facing the passing-by hoards on their lunch break. This was not an easy thing for me. I’m not comfortable putting myself center stage. I feared being challenged.
And people did challenge me. They offered dissenting opinions. But they were framed in the form of a conversation, with people who genuinely wanted to engage. Sure, one guy scoffed at my sign, people screamed “Get a job!” from their cars – the real-life equivalents of a pithy Facebook observation. But in the face of real people acting like interested humans, they faded into the background.
On Facebook it’s a little harder to ignore, particularly because these are my “friends.” I’m not being melodramatic when I say that I feel like our collective asses depend on this movement. When Internet-people deride the movement as pointless or idiotic a part of me (rightfully) says not to take it personally, while another part of me thinks they may as well be calling me a faggot.
To them I say: it’s unfortunate you lack for imagination. And if you really, truly believe that everything in this country, this world, is dandy, is kosher: get your head back in the sand, your ass back on the couch, your eyes off my fucking webpage.
I’ll see you on the other side of history.
Comments disabled: Fuck the Internet and fuck this guy.
