Thomas Farber's new book "Acting My Age" (2021, University of Hawai‘i Press) is a literary meditation on the intermingling of our death as individuals, as a species, and as a planet--with a focus on the fate of the oceans. Always carving away the inessential, Farber has perfected the art of the terse sentence as arrow of difficult truth. 

This book is the culmination of half a century of Farber's devotion to writing craftsmanship. Any writer can learn from his style, and anyone reflecting on death (personal or planetary) will find companionship in his compassionate literary grief. 

In this interview, author Michael Ellsberg--who has looked up to Farber as a writing mentor for two decades--discusses with Farber, among other things: the moral status of humans in a world we are exterminating, the literary stance of misanthropy, and the role of gallows humor as palliative care. This interview will not cheer you up, but it will meet with kindness and vibrancy in the places you may not allow your mind to wander otherwise. 

Buy "Acting My Age" here: https://amzn.to/36uSrKt

Author Thomas Farber Interviewed by Michael Ellsberg

A Selection from Francesco Maria Guazzo’s Compendium Maleficarum (1608), translated by Montague Summers (1929).
Read by Michael Ellsberg
Piano accompaniment by https://soundcloud.com/adey-bell, playing “Rev. 22:20” by Puscifer.


DESCRIPTION:

The "Compendium Maleficarum" (“Compendium of Witchcraft”) was a 1608 witch-hunting manual by Italian priest Francesco Maria Guazzo. The book contains many woodcarvings illustrating tales of alleged witches’ crimes. 

The woodcarving in the thumbnail illustrates the “osculum infame,” or “kiss of shame,” an imagined act of witches performing analingus on the Devil, submitting to him and sealing their pact. Those medieval priests were imaginative, kinky f*ckers! 

The problem is, like most religious prudes, rather than simply enjoying their phantasmagorical masturbatory fantasies in the privacy of their own church cells and rectories, these priests projected their fantasies (in this case, fantasies of demonic butt-licking) onto others, namely, social outcasts whom they deemed evil, accused of witchcraft, tortured and persecuted.

The "Compendium Maleficarum" quotes an accusation read by a judge of the Holy Inquisition in Avignon, France in 1582, which condemned eighteen women and men to burning at the stake, convicted of witchcraft. 

The accusation contains a lurid, prurient description of a Witches’ Sabbath ceremony leading up to a “kiss of shame,” resulting in an orgy with incubi and succubi (male and female demons who have sex with humans of the opposite sex.)

Today, on Halloween, in honor of all the women and men accused of and burned for witchcraft by these perverted inquisitors, I release this spoken word piece: my reading of the inquisitor's lurid 1582 accusation against these women and men, accompanied by the pianist Adey Bell.

The Witches' Sabbath

My friend Michael McDonald invited me to perform stand-up at his birthday party.

Topics:
0:00 – Is This Birthday Party a Sex Party?
1:07 – Ayahuasca Play Parties
3:45 – Bufo Boinking
5:09 – Women vs. Men at Sex Parties

Is This Birthday Party a Sex Party? (Stand-Up Comedy)

My girlfriend asked me to roast her for her birthday in front of all of her friends. I accepted the challenge...

Roasting My Girlfriend For Her Birthday (Stand-Up Comedy)

I got a vasectomy. My first-ever comedy performance (2018) explains why... 

[Content advisory: verbal descriptions of extreme taboo role-play between consenting adults.]

Freudian Kink (Comedy)

Jet Setting Jasmine has produced and starred in her own porn for a decade. She’s been a licensed therapist for even longer. Michael Ellsberg interviews her for The Daily Beast. 

Links:

+ Jet Setting Jasmine's main site: https://www.jsjlinks.com
+ Jet Setting Jasmine's therapy site: 
+ Jet Setting Jasmine's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JetSetJasmine
+ King Noire's Twitter: https://twitter.com/KingNoire
+ Michael Ellsberg's book "Sex, Cash & Privacy: A Case for Allowing People to Profit From Their Own Sexuality in Peace": https://www.ellsberg.com/sexcashprivacy

Meet the Porn Star Who's Also a Licensed Psychotherapist: Jet Setting Jasmine

Heart-connected spicy raunchy stand-up comedy

Michael Ellsberg

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