Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The King and I

Above: Portland Rose Garden at it's finest

Above: D.L. King at the Q Center in Portland

Sunday.

What weekend! The sun has busted out of a marine haze on the way to our reading at the Q Center in Portland last Sunday afternoon. We have a small but friendly audience. The amazing D.L. King and I read and, along with the others, BAK and our lovely friend E are here to cheer us on. The rest of the group is attentive and appreciative and I really enjoy talking to them afterwards. The Q Center space is bright and light, filled with gorgeous local art and great energy. I manage not to be too nervous. D.L., of course, is a polished pro. She reads her piece, "Tasting Chantal" from Girl Crazy and "The City Pony" by Roxy Katt from Where the Girls Are. Afterwards, we all tromp down the street to a little hipster bar for a round of spiiiiccccyyy Bloody Mary's. Yum!
Above: Some kind of amazing hangly dangly ginormous flower in the Portland Rose Garden's Shakespearean Garden

Above: Gina Marie, the writer also known as Kirsten Monroe, trying not to fidget


Sunday night.

I'm barefoot at "The Beach" (the name of BAK's palace of lust, snicker), the sun starting to set. BAK's apartment is filled with the sounds of youth, as we'd gathered our Burning Man entourage collective to discuss final travel and packing details. The rest of the group is very high energy, with no-one over the age of 19 in the bunch. There is laughing and chatting and suddenly I'm having this very surreal moment as I look over and see D.L. King sitting next to me in a low-slung beach chair eating macaroni salad and chicken legs. Soon after the "is this real" feeling returns when the teens are trying on their "Burn" masks that BAK and his daughter made out of hand painted cow skulls and bones. My mind flashes back to Roxy Katt's story and the leather-clad girl who's been locked into a horse head. I imagine us all walking into a restaurant in platform boots and skull masks. And leather collars, of course.

Monday.

The Portland Rose Garden is ABLOOM. The scent of a bazillion roses fills the air. Seriously. This is the Rose City at it's finest. Fine, very fine! After sniffing our way through the rows, we head down into the city. We zip over to Powell's City of Books where, I am very sorry to say, the erotica section sucks the big one! I did a little research and found that the stocking lists online do NOT match the shelves. Rrrrrrg! The only new erotica selection at the so-called book city was Susie Bright's "Bitten." Otherwise, the entire row was outdated. I'm on a mission now.

Above: The King and I
Monday afternoon.

A glass of Oregon pinot at the Beach and we're off to Seattle where we point out mountains to our friend from New York through the summer haze. We show D.L. the conservative wacko billboard and the Toutle River where piles of ash from the Mt. St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980 are still mounded along the shore. Traffic is a little slow but not too bad and we get there with time to spare. NOT! Turns out we are missing a single directional letter in our address for the Seattle Center for Sex Positive Culture and get a little lost. Just a little. Just a lot, actually, but it worked out juuuuussssst fine. That place is fucking awesome! Sex parties and events every night, a new dungeon, an old dungeon, bondage beds, sex swings, a medical play room, a huge library, and most of all, acceptance. For. All. The quote of the decade from our wonderful tour guide at the CSPC: "My daughter identifies herself as YES." Unfortunately, no-one shows up for the reading, but just seeing the place and a fun roadie is worth the trip. Thanks to BAK for driving, cooking, not texting while driving (much) and being so supportive of me and creativity in general.
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The past weekend inspired to work a little harder to make some new writerly connections in the upcoming months, put more effort into getting my work out in the world of publishing, and keep stepping up to the podium, smut in hand, with confidence, like the brave, bold cowgirl that I really am inside.

___________________________

p.s. -- D.L., I am so sorry that I let that fucking little bird out of his cage and that he bit you on the neck. He has been taught a lesson. He is now wearing a black velvet collar that says, "Dirty Slut" spelled out in rhinestones and is being paraded about on a silver leash. The crows can't stop laughing.


14 comments:

Danielle said...

pretty pretty post...:-)

i wish i could go to burning man too..as well as i wished i had been there to hear you and dl read...if i only would be so far away..damned..i wish i was at least in the same time zone...:-)

Danielle said...

ps: the dangling huge flower on the picture is datura stramonium..also known as angels trumpet or sting apple...its highly poisoning..all parts of it..especially the seeds..but in midage it was the most important incredient/part of creams and potions of the witches since in the right dosage it causes hallucinations and its also a very intense aphrodisiac...i have two of them , white and red-yellow..very beautiful flowers..:-)

BadAssKona said...

Never a dull moment at the Beach! Excellent recap of a very fun weekend. Hmmmm....what happened to Saturday?

Word Verification: "Amnes"
Def: The beginning of....(hmmm, can't remember)

Gina Marie said...

Hi Danielle, yes, get yourself into this time zone, gosh durn it!

Oh, thank you for the information about the hangly dangly! Angel's Trumpet -- and poisonous and all witchy aphrodesiacish! That's just wonderful!

Saturday, BAK? Oh, that's a whole 'nother blog entry. Gonna be good too, worth waiting for.

Shanna Germain said...

Oooh... we has the same cowboy boots! Whee!!!

I'm sorry I missed it. Sounds like a blast. But hurray for more writing, and more submitting!!! :)

Gina Marie said...

You have the same boots Shannalicious???? Yes! We need to go out dancing!!!

D. L. King said...

Ah, yes, the white bird, I'd almost forgotten. Good to know he's been humiliated to the point the crows are laughing at him! Bad, naughty bird!

Thanks so much for being the ultimate hosts! I had a great time and that was some kinda good pasta salad. Portland is beautiful and the drive to Seattle was great fun--getting lost and all.

Now it's just up to you guys to come to NYC.

Shanna Germain said...

Yes, I got 'em at a thrift store here! I just need some of them cool pants!

PS -- my word is 'humship'! :)

Jeremy Edwards said...

Congratulations, you awesome authors!!

Craig Sorensen said...

Sounds like a helluva weekend.

Congrats!

Verification word = mityme

But it's not mityme, it's urtyme do do more writing and submitting.

Erobintica said...

So fun! Wish you had of had folks at your second reading though.

Hmm, and now I'm waiting to hear about Saturday.

Gina Marie said...

Thanks Jeremy, Craig & Robin!!!

Yeah, too bad the crowds didn't show in Seattle, but apparently there were some issues with advertising the event. Sure was fun to tour the dungeon though!

....off to the next adventure!

neve black said...

Gina Marie!
My cup runneth over for you! Yah! Good for you for stepping up to that podium! That's exactly where you should be. You're a super star!

Wonderful post. Yah! I'm happy, happy for you.

Emerald said...

That picture of you and DL is fabulous! You look lovely!

Love the flower pictures too!

Congratulations, Gina!

"Word Verification: "Amnes"
Def: The beginning of....(hmmm, can't remember)"


Lol BAK. :)