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Nifty shades of grey: Rafanole XL

April 1, 2014

After his 6-3, 6-3, 83-minute drubbing by Novak Djokovic in the March 30 Sony Open final in Key Biscayne, Fla., Rafael Nadal was asked a perfectly existential question: Is he glad Nole exists?

“No,” he said. Laughter all around. That Rafa, what a kidder. Then he added, “I like challenges, but I am not stupid.”

Nole had a Descartian “I play Roger Federer and Rafa, therefore I am” answer to the same question:

“I think challenges, big challenges that I had in my career changed me in a positive way as a player. Because of Rafa and because of Roger, I am what I am today in a way.”

Welcome to Rafanole XL as the media dubbed their 40th encounter, the most in the Open era. Oh, Rafa and Nole, you’ve finally been accorded NFL-Super Bowl Roman numeral status. Can your own John Madden fantasy league be far behind?

Di –Virgin-t

March 31, 2014

My friend Babs and I went to see “Divergent” this past weekend. The film was just about to start when five giggly tweens plopped down in the seats next to me.

“Are these seats saved?” the one closest to me asked, suddenly all girlish concern.

I was tempted to say “yes.” Who needs five texting jumping beans when you can have peace and quiet? But how dog in the manger would that be? “No, no,” I said, smiling.

I bring this up to begin with, because these tween girls are, after all, “Divergent’s” target audience. It may be “The Hunger Games” 2.0 or another American tale of the limits of conformity. But at its heart, “Divergent” is very much a virgin’s story, about growing up and learning to use your mind and body properly as you follow your heart and overcome your fears, including the fear of men.

Author to Author with Lisa Fantino

March 30, 2014

A look at my interview with fellow author Lisa Fantino:

Career journalist and editor Georgette Gouveia has ink running through her veins, as blue and black as any true writer. To say she’s well-trained is an understatement, having received both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Critical Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, the suburban New York bastion of the creative arts. To say she’s experienced is also an understatement, having served as the senior cultural writer for the Gannett newspapers prior to becoming Editor at WAG Magazine, the glossy magazine of luxury living. To say she’s inexperienced in the world of gay male athletes is the supreme understatement but that hasn’t stopped her from creating a believable world of lust, love and domination in her new book “Water Music,” the first in a series, The Games Men Play.
You are a woman author venturing inside the psyche of gay male athletes. How did you make the decision to explore this subject?
“When I injured my shoulder, I spent a lot of time exercising, with sports droning on in the background on TV. I began to notice that how players reacted to one another after a match or a meet depended on who won and who lost. So I started thinking about rivalry, particularly among players who appeared to be friendly. Then I thought, What if the players were also lovers? I chose men, because I thought it would give my readers – whom I presumed to be female – an opportunity to explore issues of power, dominance and submission safely without projecting themselves into the scenarios.”

Interlude with the vampire, part 2

March 29, 2014

Recently, Anne Rice announced that she was returning to her most iconic character, the vampire Lestat, with the Oct. 28 publication of “Prince Lestat,” which thrilled me no end.

“Prince Lestat” would immediately follow the events of “The Queen of the Damned,” the third, and I think, the most sensuous book in “The Vampire Chronicles.” It is for me also the most homoerotic of the series, although I think Rice would say these books are instead vampire-erotic since her vampires cannot have sex. Whatever. The point is that in Rice’s work, bloodlust is a metaphor for lust, just as the relationship of the fun-loving Lestat and the depressive (and at times depressing) Louis – as well as that of Daniel, the interviewer in “Interview With the Vampire,” and the vampire Armand – is a metaphor for a gay relationship.

Looking back on it, I realize that these books paved the way for my own foray into homoeroticism with “The Games Men Play” series.

ArtsWestchester CEO blogs about Water Music

March 28, 2014

A look at my interview with ArtsWestchester CEO Janet Langsam:

To look at her, you might think she’s a school teacher. But Georgette Gouveia is actually the feisty editor of the smart and sassy WAG, a monthly magazine dedicated to serving up a piquant dish of stories to keep tongues wagging. Gouveia is also the author of a hot-off-the press, and I do mean hot, racy novel “Water Music.” Yes, she certainly does keep tongues wagging.
Deftly, and with great trepidation, I tried to dig beneath Gouveia’s cool, conservative, sometimes almost prim, exterior to fathom why a gal like her would fantasize in her book about four gay, male athletes.

Are warrior women winning the battle only to lose the war?

March 26, 2014

Call it “The Hunger Games” 2.0.

This past weekend, “Divergent” opened with a respectable $55 million at the box office. It’s hardly “Twilight” money, but it’s a satisfying spring debut for a franchise hopeful that’s following in the wake of “The Hunger Games,” which is also about a feisty young woman leading a rebellion in a post apocalyptic society. (I plan on seeing “Divergent” this weekend though I’m in it mostly for Brando-esque co-star Theo James – he of the sculpted cheekbones and the sullen, sultry way with a self-contained character, Mr. Pamuk in “Downton Abbey” and the title character in CBS’ short-lived “Golden Boy.”)

The success of “The Hunger Games,” which cemented humorous everywoman Jennifer Lawrence as a star, has led toy companies to develop a whole line of weaponry – guns and bows and arrows in pink, no less – for girls who want to emulate Lawrence’s Katniss or Shailene Woodley’s Tris in “Divergent.” I have no problem with this or with stories featuring gutsy, independent-minded young women, having once been a gutsy, independent-minded young woman myself...

Adventures in the book and mag trades

March 25, 2014

Boy, nothing like a day spent meeting members of the public to measure character – yours and theirs – as I discovered when I appeared wearing my deux chapeaux, as WAG editor and author of the new novel “Water Music,” at the recent Hudson Valley Gateway Experience in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

First, a big shout out and thank you to Chereese Jervis-Hill of Events to Remember in Mount Kisco, N.Y.; Deborah L. Milone, executive director of the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce in Peekskill, N.Y.; and The Mansion at Colonial Terrace in Cortlandt Manor for a truly terrific day. Some 500 guests milled about the antebellum manse, with its Doric columns and brocade wallpaper, savoring carrot-ginger soup, gluten-free crab cakes, mango ice and sweet potato tartlets. Attendees saw cooking demonstrations; got a chance to meet authors like young Claribel Ortega, who’s on her way with the teen witch novella “The Skinwalker’s Apprentice” (more on her in my upcoming women warriors post); and received freebies like the sweet plants provided by Manzer’s Landscape Design and Development and the smart, sturdy canvas bags from Entergy. Who doesn’t love free stuff?