“Ooh goodie,” I thought as I read Metro during today’s commute, “the publishing industry is getting smart.” You don’t have to work in newspapers, books or magazines to know the industry isn’t making tons of money & people don’t read as much as they used to. Back in grad school I read this report called “The Alliterate American” or something like that. Basically, the gist of it was something like: yeah, adult illiteracy (people who can’t read) is bad and alliteracy (people who can read but choose not to) is just as bad. I blame our 24/7, instant gratification culture; but, I also, in part, blame the publishing industry for not making a half-ass effort to make reading sexy. Every other industry, company and brand (Sephora, Rihanna, Nike, MTV … fuck, even milk) has put their product out there and, in essence, gone to great length to create demand. What did publishing do? They print. The thought pattern seemed to be: if we print it, they will come. People stopped “coming” and starting “going” online long ago. Why? Because it was easier, cheaper/free, more fun, hip, up-to-date, new and interesting. And, oddly enough, the publishing industry seemingly only discovered that in recent years.

But, back to the point of today’s post.

Did you see the Sex and the City movie? If so, you already know there’s this part where Carrie reads from a book called “Love Letters of Great Men.” Supposedly, people lustily ran to bookstores craving the title. “The problem? There was no such book — until now,” writes Dorothy Robinson in her Metro article How “Sex” Helped Sell “Love”. (Great, catchy title by the way.) “There are plenty of movies that have been ‘novelized’ but this is the first instance I know of in which a book that was a figment of a scriptwriter’s imagination has subsequently become real,” editor of the newly published “Love Letters of Great Men” Ursula Doyle is quoted in the paper. There was demand so, the publishing industry sought to fill it. Oooh, smart! Very smart. Ursula kinda sorta says her book is the only “Love Letters of Great Men” (e.g. an anthology of men’s love letters titled “Love Letters of Great Men”). After, like, 0.53 seconds of research on Amazon.com, I discovered Love Letters of Great Men, Love Letters of Great Men and Love Letters of Great Men; but, Ursula’s book (Love Letters of Great Men) indeed appears to be the only “real” book (i.e. a hardcover title printed by an established, heavyweight press: St. Martin’s Press). Sounds like an interesting read; I’m gonna try to get my hands on a copy.

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Psssst! Shout out to Little Brown for embracing Twitter; follow them! I love it when publishing houses use social media. Also, speaking of books and Amazon and shit, did you know you can support my blog without paying me a dime? Next time you shop on Amazon.com, please use this link. It won’t cost you anything extra. For every dollar you spend, Amazon will kick a few referral pennies my way. To date, Funky Brown Chick readers have purchased 61 items totaling $763.10 — granting me $34.91 to buy more books. I’m not getting rich off this stuff; I just appreciate support (and the books!).

Technorati Tags: alliteracy, Dorothy Robinson, funky brown chick, funkybrownchick, illiteracy, Love Letter of Great Men, marketing, Metro, publishing industry, Sex and the City, Twanna, Twanna A. Hines, Twanna Hines, Ursula Doyle

UPDATE: Ooooh! Be sure to read New York Times article, “Sex and the Rest of the City — Different Shoe Budget, Same Love Troubles.”
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Sex and the City (the movie) opens in Manhattan tonight. And, yeah, hell, I’ll admit it: I’m going to see it with my girls. Who’s in for tonight? Andy Milonakis‘ sister (inside joke: she doesn’t have a first name), my long-term friend April, a few women from my Beautiful Brown Girls Brunch Club (Ify, Rochelle, Suja, Chinyelu and Angie) as well as a new friend of a friend named Sara Rosen. Quite a diverse group of chicks with their own unique brand of sexy. We’re gonna have dinner, wine and cocktails at my favorite French restaurant. After that, we’ll see the movie, swing by the Feministing anniversary party and then go out dancing. Tavaris — an old university friend from BGSA (the black graduate student association) — is in town. The girls’ night out might meet up with the boys’ night out. Looking forward to hanging out with friends & seeing the movie. Our group is poorer, browner and more down to earth. What’s on the screen isn’t our lives; it’s just entertainment. Pure and simple.

I’m backed up on email. NYC friends, text me or (DM me on Twitter) if you wanna meet up tonight. Everyone else, you already know how to follow along with the live, play-by-play action: Twitter.

I already know quite a few of you aren’t SATC fans. Wondering: Is anyone else going to see the movie tonight or are you all skipping out on the madness?

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Related links:

• Sex and the Rest of the City.”
• ABC NEWS: The Sex (and the City) Economy
• Funky and Free: Sex in the Real World
• Jennifer Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City writer/director Michael Patrick King share (with ESSENCE magazine) the importance of including a Black woman in the film
• What the hell is Twitter?!

Technorati Tags: ESSENCE magazine, funky brown chick, funkybrownchick, Jennifer Hudson, movie, SATC, Sex and the City, Twanna

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you already know I’m a sex, dating and relationships writer in New York City. “Oooh, so you’re like Carrie Bradshaw!!” people often tell me. “Well,” I answer, “not quite.” I don’t live in a huge apartment. I don’t wear Manolo Blahniks. I get my most of my shoes from DSW, and I take shopping tips from the Budget Fashionista. My life in New York is good, but it’s nowhere near as glam as the fictitious writer on the show Sex and the City makes the NYC publishing world out to be.

I’m paid by the word when I do freelance gigs … and that’s when/if I get paid. Seriously, $1/word is an industry standard (e.g. Write a 500-word article, get $500. Write a 1,500-word article, get $1,500). So, needless to say, like most of the writers I know, I have a day gig to pay the bills while I spend my nights and weekends cranking out articles. I write because I was born to do it, not because I wanna get rich. I’ve written for Nerve, Lifetime, Gen Art, Fast Company and others. Also, little sprinkles of me have been in Glamour magazine and Time Out New York. (See bio, press and my print, online & video work if you want details.) I’ve gossiped about the boys in my life — or lack thereof — since I was a child. I’ve written about guys in my private journals since I was 14 years old, and I have boxes of dated, bound books to prove it. In high school, I wrote articles for the school newspaper and I was a writer on the yearbook staff. You get the point: I love to write words.

So, I was really happy when NPR asked me to come on one of their shows and talk about dating and general, and this blog in particular. Farai Chideya had me as a guest on News & Notes — a show about African-American life, politics and culture. We talked about my favorite topic: sex & dating. Listen to it now:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90776368

By the way, returning to the topic of Sex and the City for a second, it you want a more realistic view of what it feels like for me to put my private life on public, check out any of the following posts: My Family Found My Blog, Should Men Wear Thongs?, Who is More Gangster - Stolie* or the Mouse?, 2 out of 3: Apartment, Boy, Job and New York City 3, Me 0. Game Over? Hardly! Also, for yet another perspective about putting yourself “out there” online, be sure to check out Emily Gould’s essay, Exposed — the new Sunday Times Magazine cover story that picked up 800+ user comments.

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NOTE: Before I used my real name online, I was an anonymous blogger called “Stolie.”

Technorati Tags: Budget Fashionista, Emily Gould, Farai Chideya, New York Times, News & Notes, NPR, Sex and the City, Twanna A. Hines

I’d never heard of “real dolls” until I saw the trailer and clips for the movie Lars and the Real Girl starring Ryan Gosling. I remember thinking, “What a stupid and 100% completely unbelievable movie. Who the hell would keep a life-size sex doll / mannequin girlfriend?” Besides, didn’t that shit go out of style way back in the 1980s when Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall screwed around in the movie Mannequin. Yet, still, I was intrigued. Who am I if I’m not a woman who’s willing to learn new things? I dug around on the internet to do a bit of research, and I even checked out a real doll manfacturer’s site [NSFW]. And, then I forgot about real dolls for while. I tucked them away with the rest of the random trivial things that get injected in my brain throughout the days, weeks, years.

Thoughts of the plastic girls came charging back into my life when someone (can’t remember who) on my Twitter feed posted a link to a documentary called Guys and Dolls. It’s a flick about, you guessed it, real dolls. I sat down in front of my laptop, clicked the link and watched the whole thing. Absolutely fascinating. If you can, I highly suggest you watch the whole thing too. It’s worth it. Here’s a film synopsis from The Documentary Blog (via The Current Outlook via The DigiGuide): “Documentary about the men who use sophisticated life-size dolls for sexual satisfaction and more - such as dates, affection and lifelong companionship. Featuring a young American man who gives his doll daily massages in the home he shares with his disapproving Mum and Dad; a British man who takes his doll out on day trips to the coast where she watches him hang- glide; and two Americans who live with multiple dolls, one of whom shares his eight synthetic lovers with his human girlfriend.”

See, I told you: fascinating. I started googling real dolls after I saw the flick above. It turns out the girls have been around since, well, roughly right after the movie Mannequin came out. Oooh, who’d a thunk it? Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones was the original real doll! Wanna know more about real dolls? Time magazine did an article about real dolls about six or so years ago. Salon, Boing Boing (a site with a editor who really likes black people at SXSW … sorry, inside joke!) and others have all written about the chicas plasitcas as well. And, of course, there’s a Wikipedia page. Whaddya think, dear readers? Feel free to express your views. Are real dolls totally normal sex toys for men who don’t have girlfriends, or are the collections crazy, fucked up creepy habits for sociopaths?

Technorati Tags: Abyss Creations, Andrew McCarthy, Boing Boing, Guys and Dolls, Kim Cattrall, Lars and the Real Girl, Mannequin movie, real dolls, Ryan Gosling, Sex and the City

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that New York isn’t the center of the universe. Such was the case on Sunday when I cracked open a fresh copy of the New York Times (…online, by double clicking the orange and blue Firefox icon). Julia Allison. “Maybe, just maybe,” Leslie Kaufman’s article starts, “if Carrie Bradshaw, the dynamo at the center of the phenomenally successful television series ‘Sex and the City,’ were still in her 20s and just starting her ascent into New York life in 2008, maybe, just maybe, she would be like Julia Allison.”

“Are you shitting me?” I asked my laptop’s computer screen. “Julia Allison™ is in the Times?”

Full disclosure: although I hail from the same Midwestern locale that she does, I don’t know Julia Allison. I’ve recently spotted her across the room at various parties, but we’ve not yet met. Nevertheless, almost everyone I know has a J-Al Story. “She saved me a seat at XXX event” or “she came to our XXX party” or “yeah, I went to her birthday party” or “oh God, she went to New Trier and that explains everything.” It kinda feels like I’m in high school again and everyone wants to tell me their tale about the popular girl. But, this isn’t high school. It’s real life, adult life. So, the rules change a bit. Our “it” girl isn’t a cheerleader; she’s a columnist for one of the community’s weekly listings magazine, Time Out New York. And, sure, the daily newspaper just did a story about her. But, the “local paper” has more than 1 million readers. It’s the Gray Lady. The New York Times. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States.

“If Carrie Bradshaw were coming to New York today,” the Times quotes Julia, “she would be me.”

Self-aggrandizing? Maybe. But, here’s the thing … Is she 100% right? Probably. In fact, nearly everyone who writes words about dating gets compared to Carrie Bradshaw. My personal favorite? Folks who’ve called me Carrie Brownshaw or Carrie Blackshaw. Ooh, ooh, ooh … and let us not forget this lovely comment:

Can’t you be a bit more original … your not CARRIE BRADSHAW!!!…me thinks you’ve been watching way too much Sex and the City, your blog entry is bordering on plagiarism. Been reading your blog here and at Nerve and have noticed over the past couple of weeks and finding your tales very unbelievable. FBC used to be a good read, but I fear she is slowly disappearing up her own a-hole to please her growing audience and popularity.

I climbed out of my own asshole long enough to respond:

Regarding your Carrie Bradshaw comment … Many people live in New York City. Many people date here. And, they all have stories. That doesn’t mean that every New York dating story = Sex in the City. I think Rachel Kramer Bussel said it best. “I’ll be thrilled,” she writes on one of her blogs, “if no one ever makes a totally lazy, ridiculous Carrie Bradshaw comparison ever again.” If I’ve learned anything about New York in the two years that I’ve lived here, [I've learned] that New Yorkers value originality. Please respect mine. And, if you are going to criticize my writing, please be original in your criticism.

That is what it is. Whatever. The Carrie stuff doesn’t bother me; I actually think it’s kind of entertaining of humorous. But, back to Julia Allison. Yesterday, I commented that the Times piece was a “great article about New York life.” Indeed it is. Hmm, a girl from Illinois moves to the Big City with dreams of doing something more with her life than marching in step with the rest of the crowd? Yeah, I can certainly relate. How does that song go? “If you can make it here …”

Near the close of the article, the Times writer says, Julia is committed to “reaching for the gold ring, no matter how many time she is slapped back.” I say: as long as she isn’t hurting (or disrespecting) others or herself, let the girl reach I guess. Everybody’s got dreams, and Julia definitely seems to be going for hers. Kudos to her for making it into the New York Times.

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* By the way …. I’m only following up on this story because I said, “more later” yesterday. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program. Manly Mondays (or Testicle Tuesdays) coming up soon.

Technorati Tags: Carrie Blackshaw, Carrie Bradshaw, Carrie Brownshaw, Illinois, Julia Allison, Leslie Kaufman, New Trier Township High School, New York Times, Sex and the City, Time Out New York