Our Favorite Things
by Susannah Indigo
(01/02/08)
One of my favorite gifts at the end of each year is all of the lists of "favorite things" everywhere,
because I always seem to make a few wonderful discoveries among them. So we've collected our own
list from some of Clean Sheets' favorite writers and editors, and here are their choices:
Best New Experience:
I know that pole dancing classes are all the rage. And I know that I pooh-poohed them for a long time.
But then I signed up for this class at BJuicy Studios.
Holy shit. I'm bruised and battered. I can do a butt munch, a pole twirl, and a hip shock. For the first time in my life,
I own eight-inch stilettos and not only can I walk in them, I can waaaalk
in them. I realized I have an ass that won't stop, and a libido to match. I cry every class because
the instructor is actually a counselor and she doesn't let me get away with a goddamn thing. And it's
by far the best thing I've done for myself all year. No, It's the best thing I've done for myself since I
bought my first vibrator.
Favorite Books: For mind-bending, genre-bending joy, check out
Neverwhere
(Neil Gaiman is a god) and
Hart & Boot (Tim Pratt is also a god).
Favorite Movies: 300, Stardust, and Beowulf. If you want sexy men and women, 300.
If you want romantic, Stardust. And if you want a laugh-your-ass-off raunchy adventure,
then Beowulf. (Notice a Neil Gaiman theme here yet?)
Favorite TV shows: Weeds, Lost, and Big Love. They're all breaking the boundaries of what you can talk about on TV.
Pot-smoking suburban soccer moms, a bunch of plane-crash survivors facing their deepest fears, and a
polygamous/polyamorous/religious family. There's hope for TV yet, I swear.
Favorite Blogs/Web sites: I read a lot of blogs and Web sites, but truth be told, the ones that
hook me the most are writers who truly tell me something about their lives. My votes this year
are Alison Tyler's year-long look at a sub/dom
relationship, Alana Noel Voth's fucking heartbreaking and honest look at the life of a single mother
and erotica writer, and the Lipstick & Dipstick duo, who give us lesbian life in a straight-up, no-bones-except-funny-bones manner.
Favorite Movies: Films with great women's point-of-view have been slim to nothing this year.
This state of affairs has gone from cliche to snuff-like tragedy. Have you heard of the "Mo Criteria" for finding
authentic female characters to watch in the
movies? As my beloved
Alas! blog describes:
[Mo Movie Measure] is an idea from Alison Bechdel's brilliant comic strip, Dykes
to Watch Out For. The character in the strip explains that she only watches movies in which:
1) there are at least two named female characters, who:
2) talk to each other about:
3) something other than a man.
It's appalling how few movies can pass the Mo Movie Measure.
Sherrybaby was my own personal "MMM Winner" on my Netflix queue.
Why didn't Maggie Gyllenhaal win everything for this? She plays a young woman who's just
gotten out of prison on a drug conviction, and imagines she's going to swoop in with a
big stuffed animal to take over caring for her little daughter, who's been raised the past three years
by her brother and his wife. Riveting.
Read more on Susie's favorite
movies at
Susie Bright's Journal.
Favorite Music:
Song -- Stairway to Heaven - by Rodrigo y Gabriella
from the CD Rodrigo and Gabriella
They came to Santa Cruz, from Mexico City via Dublin, to blow our little town's mind,
and get some custom-made love from my friend, master guitar-maker Rick Turner.
Imagine the Ramones taking up Flamenco in the Zona Rosa.
Read more on Susie's favorite music at
Susie Bright's Journal.
Favorite Books: Two brilliant books on music -- Coltrane: The Story of a Sound and
Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (also see his great blog) The Rest is Noise.
Music: Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; Magic by Bruce Springsteen;
Sky Blue Sky by Wilco; River: The Joni Letters by Herbie Hancock -- four brilliant CDs from great artists.
Movies: I'm Not There -- if only for Cate Blanchett as Dylan; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer -- beautifully
sensual, almost as good as the original book; Black Snake Moan -- Christina Ricci chained and crawling
on the floor, a great blues soundtrack...what more could we need?; Two Girls and a Guy -- a
smoking Heather Graham, who is only one
of Robert Downey Jr's gorgeous lovers.
Favorite Books: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War -- A
very good narrative about a much mythologized time -- seemingly well
researched, but refreshingly free of footnotes and petty academic
squabbles.
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court -- A lot of Supreme Court books have appeared recently, but again, a good
clear narrative and more focus on the justices than on their writing in
cases. Also a surprise, since talking heads rarely write this well.
A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the
Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization -- more
fascinating material about the impact of the book of Revelations than I
thought existed anywhere.
Favorite Movie (DVD): Maxed Out -- this is Super Size Me for the credit industry.
TV: Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell
Music:Jethro Tull: Live at Montreux
Favorite Web site: Project Vote Smart -- sometimes the Web
inspires really good things that just couldn't work elsewhere, and this is
one of them.
Other Favorites: A presidential election with chaotic events and some real choices (especially here
in Iowa!). Don't blink, because that part will be over soon, but it's fun while it lasts.
Favorite Books: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (non erotic);
Un Roman Sentimental by Alain Robbe-Grillet (erotic, and how....)
Movies: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (non erotic);
Shoot 'Em Up (guilty pleasure); Lust, Caution (erotic)
Favorite TV: Current series of Spooks
Favorite Music: New albums by Beirut, Robert Plant & Alison Krause, Matthew Ryan,
Bruce Springsteen, and Arcade Fire.
Favorite Blog: Marie Phillips'
The Woman Who Talked Too Much
Favorite place of 2007: Sitges
Favorite Book: Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes -- this story about a high-school shooting
delves into the psychological warfare of a typical teenager's life, illustrates how someone can be pushed to the
edge, and delivers a shocking twist at the end. Not for the faint of heart.
Movies: Michael Clayton -- George Clooney plays a high-stakes 'fixer' who is called
to fix more than he bargained for. In a world of lies between heavy-hitters, Michael Clayton
does the virtually impossible -- the right thing -- and pays the price.
Favorite TV show: House, now in its fourth season on Fox. Dr. Gregory House is a
Vicodin-addicted, cold-hearted, sadistic son of a bitch who also happens to be a brilliant doctor.
The wit is lightning-fast, the cases
are intriguing, and the cast plays one another like fine-tuned instruments. But it's those brief moments
when House drops the facade and shows his true humanity that really make this show worth watching.
Music: Gary Allan: Living Hard. In the aftermath of the dark Tough All Over,
Gary Allan's Living Hard is a breath of fresh air. He covers all the bases: love, loss, atonement,
settling down and flying free. His voice is stone solid, his guitars are rock-edged, the songwriting is clever,
and the result is a disc that still spins in my player
months after its release.
Favorite Blogs/Web sites:
Single Mom's Guide
to Living Without Him. She's trying to make it as a single mom, and she doesn't sugar-coat
the challenges. She's open, vulnerable, and unabashedly real. I adore every word.
Post Secret. Started as a community
art project, readers are encouraged to submit their deepest
secrets anonymously, on one side of a decorated postcard. Once a week, site owner Frank
Warren posts new secrets. It's rare to read a Web site that can make you laugh out loud and cry at the
same time, but Post Secret manages to do just that.
Favorite Place: Three Sister's Cabin, Montebello,
Virginia. The perfect retreat! Great for a writer serious about finishing
up that novel, or for the romantic couple hiding from the world. Nestled in the heart of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, this is one of the most inspiring places I have ever visited.
Favorite Books:
Call Me By Your Name - by Andre Aciman (winner of the 2007
Rauxa Prize for Erotic Writing) --
an intensely erotic coming of age memoir;
The Best American Travel Writing, edited by Susan Orlean -- includes Elizabeth Gilbert's (Eat, Pray, Love)
amazing essay on her two week walking and eating (and walking and eating and eating and eating....)
tour along the rural trails of Provence.
Audio books: Giving, by Bill Clinton -- you'll be looking up the Clinton Foundation or some other
NGO for an opportunity to change your life while listening to this. The Kite Runner by
Khaled Hosseini -- read by the author, this outdoes the print book, with his perfect pronunciations and insight
into Afghani history and culture. It's a stunning story no matter which way you come to it, and though I haven't
seen the new film of it yet, I doubt that anything can beat his reading of the story.
Favorite Music:
Wyclef Jean's Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant -- download
the song "Fast Car" (with Paul Simon).
Patti Scialfa's Play It As It Lays -- download the song "Looking
For Elvis."
Michelle Shocked's To Heaven U Ride, recorded live at my favorite music
festival in the world, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival -- download the song "Good News."
Alicia Keys' As I Am -- Download "No One."
New music-related discoveries: Sirius radio! -- got it as a gift last year, couldn't imagine why I'd want satellite radio in my car, and now I'm addicted. Stations for Margaritaville, Springsteen, jam bands,
Grateful Dead, Howard Stern, and the Stars station with Deepak Chopra, a funny & edgy Barbara Walters often
with Mario Cantone, Bill Bradley's "American Voices" show...so little time, so many
good things there!
And, I can't be the only long-term iTunes user who didn't know there were free educational podcasts available on iTunes -- search on "iTunes U" in the iTunes store and start with the Berkeley series -- in Arts you'll find "Lunch Poems" with famous visiting poets, and then David Lynch speaking on meditation & film & peace, and there's a lot more -- they're a bit hard to sort through, but they're free and fabulous.
Video:
On the tube: Tell Me You Love Me - fascinating fully nude "real" couple sex, mixed in with all the
talking; Californication in spite of itself -- I didn't think I ever wanted to watch another story based on
a talented but dysfunctional guy, but David Duchovny is adorable, along with lots of interesting sex, spanking,
lust, and, well, more lust; Inside the Actors Studio -- absolutely love the sparks on creativity you
can pick up from this, and also love the recently released DVD of the Johnny Depp episode.
Iconoclasts -- a series on Sundance with odd pairings of famous people, like Deepak Chopra with Mike Myers, done so well that
you start watching an episode and wonder if it will interest you and then are sad that it actually ends
and you don't get to follow them around any longer.
On DVD: The first season of Queer as Folk, oh my, we're talking serious heat here, regardless
of your sexual identity or whether you saw it already on TV. Also, Naked World & Naked States -- the movies about Spencer Tunick's mass nude photos, which I reviewed recently
here.
New Movies: Into the Wild -- a stunning tale of freedom and adventure -- nobody moved once
in the small theater where I saw it -- seriously, no popcorn runs, nothing. The Darjeeling Limited - my
favorite kind of film, full of the weird and the wonderful, including a "short" before the film with a wildly sexy
Natalie Portman.
Favorite other things: Two in Vegas: the
Cafe Ba Ba Reeba!, a fabulous Spanish tapas place quietly tucked away on the strip,
with a great outdoor patio, reasonable prices, excellent paella, and a house-made white sangria that
will make you want to get up and dance the flamenco. Also: the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian -- smart, funny, improv, music, dancing - the guy's a triple-threat
talent, who knew?
My best concert of the year -- even better than Bob Dylan at Red Rocks Amphitheater! -- was John Legend, with Corrine Bailey Rae opening. I barely knew either of them
before this, but they are both stunning performers, and John Legend is completely hot, moving from
the piano across the stage and then out a ways into the audience, until everyone is slow-dancing with him and then some. These are two talents not to miss when they tour your town!
Favorite blogs/Web sites: There are so many good sites, but here's two I enjoyed in particular:
Confessions of a College Call Girl -- I read
her funny entry about how damned athletic you have to be when you're a college call girl, and how it
takes the place of your spinning class -- nothing like real-people sex where's there's often lots of laziness involved -- and I was hooked.
Clean Sheets' contributor
Jeff Beresford-Howe covered the
first Middle Eastern International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi in this fascinating three-part story.
And last but not least, two things that might make you happy for the new year -- remembering that the country of Bhutan tracks some kind
of a Gross National Happiness Product and that we all could do better no matter where we are, here is
the kind of
Positive News site that we could use more of...
 ...but if that doesn't make you
happy, I'm betting that my new favorite expensive-yet-fabulous-and-worth-every-penny sex "toy"
of the year will -- this
Swarovski crystal bondage sash is 7 feet of sultry, luxurious red (or pink or blue) silk, and it's so elegant and erotic against
your skin that you might just want to tie yourself up with a neat bow for the next holiday season.
©2008 by Susannah Indigo
Reader
Comments
Susannah Indigo is the editor-in-chief
of Clean Sheets, and also the editor of
Slow Trains. Her books include
Sex & Laughter and
Oysters Among Us. She has stories included in the new Best of the Best American Erotica 2008: 15th Anniversary Edition and
The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 2008.
Come join Clean Sheets and
Susannah at Myspace.
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