Email Author Keith Bowers

2012 Stories by Keith Bowers

• Lord, Have Mercy!

  published June 13, 2012

  Sundays in the deep South were once governed by something called "blue laws" (and for all we know they still are). On the Christian (er,... More >>

• A TARDIS in Every Driveway

  published June 13, 2012

  Whether it's science fiction (Asteroid, Mad Max, The Hunger Games) or science fact (global warming, nuclear arms, a pregnant... More >>

• The Road to Ordinary

  published June 6, 2012

  Grant Petersen has been called a “retro-grouch” on the subject of bicycles. That’s a label usually slapped on... More >>

• Deconstructing a Family Tragedy

  published May 9, 2012

  Marilyn Pittman came from what she considered a normal Midwestern family. Her parents had been married 50 years. Her dad was a World War II... More >>

• Our Streetlight Imaginations

  published May 2, 2012

  Lawrence Ferlinghetti was a pioneer in the business of bookselling (City Lights was the nation's first all-paperback retailer), and he turned the... More >>

• Something Must Break

  published April 25, 2012

  A handgun. Vengeance in a small town. A game of chance to decide who dies. Feel like laughing? Sure — when tension runs this high,... More >>

• You Said It

  published April 25, 2012

  The digital age promotes communication. (We’re more connected than ever.) The digital age inhibits communication. (We form superficial... More >>

• Sex in Black and White

  published April 4, 2012

  Between them, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Susie Bright have probably edited or written 100 books relating to sex, and contributed to almost as many... More >>

• Holding the Bag

  published April 4, 2012

  Keith Lowell Jensen hates Chicago. But he has a reason. He spent a night in jail there after being caught with a handgun in the airport. But it... More >>

• Hell on Wheels

  published April 4, 2012

  San Francisco bicyclists face constant battles. Rain. Hills. Rainy hills. Cars with outraged drivers. Jaywalkers wearing headphones. FiDi workers... More >>

• Judge Not

  published March 14, 2012

  Vaughn Walker did what federal judges occasionally do: He was appointed by a Republican president (George H.W. Bush), but he’ll forever be... More >>

• Quick Look at Forever

  published March 14, 2012

  Any gay or bisexual man will tell you that finding a quick hookup with another man in San Francisco (or anywhere in the world, really) is so easy... More >>

• Naked Is the New Black

  published March 14, 2012

  I read it for the articles. That was a common defense of men who were caught with Playboy magazines in past decades. Although sometimes it... More >>

• Salvation Spoken Here

  published February 29, 2012

  In late 2010 we attended a reading we’ll never forget. We didn’t know it, but a madman was about to take the stage. Except he... More >>

• Expose Yourself to Activism

  published February 29, 2012

  Hippies loved the Volkswagen van. It represented rebellion and counterculture. Yet one afternoon we sat behind a VW van -- on a bicycle, at a stop... More >>

• Thought for Food

  published February 22, 2012

  “Food addiction.” On its face it sounds absurd -- like maybe “air addiction” or “water addiction.” How can we... More >>

• The Low Road

  published February 22, 2012

  It took filmmaker Terry Zwigoff nine years to make the documentary Crumb, about the underground comic artist of the same name.... More >>

• This Is How the World Ends

  published February 22, 2012

  Ron Garrigues takes a subtle approach to the most vexing of issues: overpopulation, destruction, and extinction. A person might call his... More >>

• The Body Can’t Lie

  published February 8, 2012

  Seeing a dance choreographed by Holly Johnson is like going to a Tennessee Williams play where the actors have forgotten how to speak and instead... More >>

• Darkness from the East

  published February 8, 2012

  The fall of the Soviet Union freed not only political prisoners and some high-end vodka brands but also truckloads of culture -- including some... More >>

• Heart Over Heels

  published February 1, 2012

  Formalwear is life's cruel joke. Men usually rent tuxedos rather than owning them, and it's almost always for weddings -- where they're under... More >>

• Sex Work and Society

  published January 25, 2012

  San Francisco has an unusually high number of sex workers per capita. They’re not only prostitutes (some of whom seek decriminalization of... More >>

• The Act of Kipling

  published January 25, 2012

  Talk about an identity crisis. Don Reed spent time in the shocking-pink world of 1980s Hollywood with a pimp for a dad. He tried various routes to... More >>

• Socio-Political Psychosexual Literary Cabaret

  published January 18, 2012

  Ginger Murray, editrix of a magazine called Whore!, embodies a dangerous mix of literary, political, social, and sexual savvy, and... More >>

• Dirty Fun -- Fox News Says So

  published January 18, 2012

  Simon Sheppard's reading series has been attacked on Fox News, and it's no wonder. First of all, he writes gay porn, and the very name of the... More >>