I just joined a new book club. My brother’s girlfriend’s book club actually. My old book club involved much discussion of bird watching while sharing a bottle of wine. That’s one bottle. Six women. Do the math. Not nearly enough wine to be regaled with tales of rare birds hiding in tall grass. My brother’s girlfriend, Deidre, promised me that her book club would be much more exciting. More of a wine & gossip club with an occasional book and no bird watching. The book for my first meeting? Whip Smart: A Memoir. A memoir, to be precise, of a college student turned professional dominatrix. Wow, Deidre wasn’t kidding, her book club was exciting!

Read more of this article »

You’ve seen this movie before. Over and over again.

You know that movie where the kid finds that thing they really love but their parents won’t approve so they hide it from them and do the thing they love anyway even though it’s definitely going to end badly when their parents find out and someone inevitable gets arrested and then the kid runs away but something bad happens so they go home and the whole family makes nice with each other and the kid goes to do the thing they love again and the parents come along begrudgingly but in the end the parents are proud of the kid and in the middle there is some female bonding and almost a few laughs but not quite and the girl from death proof is in it but just a little.

Yeah. Whip It is like that sentence only longer. There’s some good music in it though. Oh and they gave me a free t-shirt when I went in… so that was nice I guess.

Also there were real roller derby girls at the screening I was at and they were handing out flyers for a roller derby event at the 23rd Street Armory in Philly on Saturday. Doors open at 5 and it’s $25 at the door though there are some sort of VIP tickets available for $30. End of free plug.