Category: Mainline Journae

  • Before Transgender

    I knew I could make a living as a transsexual prostitute. I used my intellect to become very successful at it. I could more than hold up my end of a conversation with any john: not many TS hookers were college educated in 1986. Prostitution was a job that I came to love: my johns were the only “Normal” people who made me feel good about myself. They called me beautiful and sexy, and I provided a valuable service to them, which made me feel valuable.

  • Death to the Ewoks

    It is nearly a given that sequels seldom live up to the promise of the original film, though there have been a few happy surprises since Hollywood sat up shop over 100 years ago. Sixty-five years later that industry produced Star Wars and nothing was ever the same afterward. For better and for worse. I’m […]

  • “Guilty” Pleasures

    A “guilty pleasure” is delight taken in something “bad.” In movies a guilty pleasure is either a film so bad that it’s entertaining (like an Ed Wood movie), or an exploitation film. The latter includes women-in-prison, “Blacksploitation,” naughty nurses (or nuns) and “splatter” movies. They are usually bereft of lofty aspirations. Social convention dictates you’re […]

  • Better Than Sex

    Music is my ultimate drug. It picks me up when I’m low and soothes me when I’m keyed up. It’s instant bliss on tap. Music lessened the Hell of my teenage years and breezed me through four years of military service. It kept me from killing myself during the loneliest and most desperate parts of […]

  • Trade Secrets

    I’m so busy with preproduction of my first narrative feature film, I haven’t had time to write. I just read something that recalled my experience going on female hormones in summer of 1985. In this nostalgic moment, I offer you an excerpt of my memoir from that time of my life. Feminization was my crusade, […]

  • Morality and Other Relative Shit

    6000 years ago, before patriarchal religions had stomped out Goddess worship—thanks a lot, assholes—sex and femininity were regarded differently … women were not the chattel that patriarchal religion reduced us to. … a completely different social morality.

  • My Hero Larry Flynt

    Like director Milos Forman, I choose to focus on those aspects of Flynt’s career that had far-reaching impact on culture, politics and our very freedoms. While Hustler magazine has hit some very sour notes over the years, overall Flynt consistently  jabs an erect middle finger in the face of Puritanism

  • The GOP & Sunk Cost Fallacy

    “Sunk cost fallacy” is a form of self-justification for continuing either a behavior or endeavor. The excuses are based on previous investments of time, money, reputation, etc., and is often exacerbated by hating to lose. Or a stubborn unwillingness to try something different.

  • Whining Isn’t Winning

    If you we born during or after the MTV age, you may have no clue how easy we’ve had it as a country over the last seventy-five years. Those who were born between 1901 and 1928 lived through World War I, the global pandemic of the Spanish Flu,  the Great Depression, and World War II.  […]

  • Soledad Moonlight

    I’m so busy with script development and a rewrite of my new feature film, I don’t have time to write a new column. Instead I’m sharing test shots that I did with my Sony α7 and a pro-quality GM-series 400mm lens. Soledad Canyon is in the Angeles National Forest between Santa Clarita and Palmdale; not […]

  • The Mountaintop

    What I love most about hiking is how it mirrors life. A good hike combines long, hard slogs uphill, relatively level stretches to catch your breath, and brushes with mortal danger. Best of all is that last agonizing push to the top where blessed relief and a spectacular view is your reward for never giving […]

  • Lord of the Flaws

    I recently re-watched the movie version of William Golding’s classic story Lord of the Flies. It chilled me in high school. What’s most disturbing is to see the story’s dynamic play out over and over again all of these decades. This is especially true in politics and cultural evolution. If you’ve never read Lord of […]