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I had to pass along this news a former Madisonian sent to the e-mail list of the Ten Percent Society, a gay organization at the University of Wisconsin:

I wanted to alert you to a problem that I recently experienced with Amazon.com when ordering books for a grad course on Queer Visual Culture course and some books of personal interest in this field.

I just received part of an order I recently placed online including the following items:

* Outlaw Representation : Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art
* The Drag King Book
* No Future: Queer Theory And The Death Drive
* In A Queer Time And Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives

When I opened the package, I found three unrequested and unwanted Gideon Bibles inserted with my books. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy with this unwanted proselytizing and sent an angry email demanding to know why this happened and telling them that if it ever happens again, I will no longer be purchasing books from them.

These books discuss the place of queers in film, performance art, and society as a whole.

I have already passed this along PlanetOut and the Seattle Times. Please distribute widely.

If Amazon sent four books on queer theory and only three Bibles, then it seems to me queer theory is ahead 4-3. It would be funny if there were some kind of mixup, and this guy got Gideon Bibles while nightstands in three hotel rooms somewhere got copies of The Drag King Book.

Let there be rock

I'm thrilled to number among my possessions a Telecaster that once belonged to Carl Johns, but I must say: I think my next guitar purchase will be a Warlock. Preferably one with a skull.

If Avril Lavigne can have an SG, I can have a Warlock.

Swamped

Just letting you know, Back With Interest readers, that I am frantically working against a deadline, which normally doesn't keep me from blogging, oh, quite the contrary, but I really must finish this work, and I believe, perhaps superstitiously, that every iota of brain fuel I expend on blogging, to say nothing of time I spend blogging, will divert me from my goal, which is meeting this deadline.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a videogame I need to play.

Cutups

House band the Gomers provided lots of memorable moments at Saturday's Madison Area Music Awards, but my favorite came after the winner was announced in the Best Ensemble Vocals category: the Gomers broke out into an a cappella rendition of the barbershop classic "Hello My Baby" ("Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal...") that garnered an ovation of its own. It was one of many moments when the Gomers upstaged the honorees, and I say it's all good. Them Gomers is funny.