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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1997)
just out T august 1, 1997 T 17 t’s not that Mark Friedman doesn’t love the abuse and stress spawned by the daily grind. And you can bet as a City of Portland parking enforcem ent deputy (read “meter m aid” ), the 39-year-old tangles with plenty o f both. “T hat’s true,” says Friedman, who— like so many others— harbors professional passions that lie elsewhere. “ Books,” he says bluntly. “1 love books.” More specifically, writings by and about gay men and lesbians. “ It’s pretty much all I read now.” Housed in his inner Southeast Portland home is Friedm an’s pride— an estim ated 3,000-title personal library, a testament to his claims. From queer comic books to memoirs to fiction to essays to sci fi, Friedm an’s got it all. “Just call me a homosexual hom ophile,” he laughs, though he is entirely serious. “I enjoy it so much, and get so much from the experience of reading that I want to share that with others.” And th a t’s exactly what Friedman is doing via his gay literary “T u p p e rw a re ” p ar ties— an enterprise which takes the book lover into the dom i ciles of others to expound the pleasures o f the page. “ I have about 40 different [gay-themed] books and I go to people’s homes and talk about the titles. If anyone’s interested they can place an order for the book right there, and I’m usu ally able to get it within a few days,” he explains. Among the titles he carries are Armistead M aupin’s ever- popular Tales o f the City se rie s , lo c al w rite r T om Spanbauer’ s The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon , M ichael C u n n in g h a m ’s n a tio n a l bestseller Flesh and Blood, and the gay w riters’ coming-out an thology Boys Like Us. Friedman obtains the pub lic a tio n s th ro u g h v a rio u s Mark Friedman wholesalers. Thus far he has held a handful o f parties, all geared toward gay men. “ But my ultimate goal is to open a full-service gay and lesbian bookstore,” he says. “A place where lesbians and gay men can feel really com fortable and have access to books, magazines and videos.” OK, so here we are in Portland, Oregon, which— with Pow ell’s and sm aller eclectic inde pendents tucked in neighborhoods citywide— is often heralded as the book enthusiasts’ capital o f Books to you I Mark Friedman makes house calls to spice up the literary lives of you and your friends T by Inga Sorensen the universe. So it should be a good place to establish a bookshop, right? Tim e to play devil’s advocate: Many existing shops already carry queer titles, and this is also the age o f the looming superstore (Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Borders Books, etc.)— a phenom Front Runner. enon critics claim is knocking the more fragile independents out o f the biz. Oh yes, and we forgot to mention things like start-up costs and over head— rent, insurance, wages— all those nagging necessities that usually plop baby businesses into the red during the first few years. “ I have to admit that I have yet to develop a business plan,” confides Friedman, who only began holding his literary gatherings three months ago. Nonetheless, he’s confident he can make a go o f it. Knotty & Nicé. From modern retro to provincial rustic, our home furnishings offer timeless and unique styling for every room in your home. qjEb Futons & Furniture Delivery available ~ 90 days sam e as cash “Portland does not have a full-service gay and lesbian bookstore,” he says, conceding that there are sto res that targ et gay m en (N o rth east B roadw ay’s G ai-Pied) or w om en (Southeast Hawthorne’s In Other W ords) or a smattering of both (N orthwest’s Twenty-Third Avenue Books, Until then, however, Friedman intends to in ject his devotion into others’ lives via book par ties. “People are sometimes intimidated by book stores. They go in and don’t know what to ask for. T hey’re kind o f lost. At first I didn’t understand that, because I’ve always felt so at home around books,” he says. "But then I thought about how I feel when 1 step into a music store— all those CDs and tapes and records that I know nothing about. I feel like turning around and walking out the door. Now I know how some people feel about bookstores.” So Friedman gently eases folks into the rhythms o f reading, opening doors to previously unex plored worlds— a subject he knows lots about. After all, Friedman essen tially came out in the library stacks 19 years ago as a college student. He devoured dry text books on homosexuality as well as the more flowing stories found in queer classics like the novel i Ruitic Storage Trunk* Portland Beaverton 1916 NE Broadway 10-7:30 Mon-Sat & 12-5 Sun 11345 SW Canyon Road 10-6 Mon-Sat &. 12-5 Sun 335-0758 626-0400 Southw est’s Annie Bloom ’s Books, as well as the various Powell’s outlets). But he says there is no Rose City equivalent to, forexample, A Different Light (with stores in New York City, San Francisco and West Hollywood), which offers gay and lesbian literary atmosphere with knowledgeable staff and a sprawling collec tion of popular and lesser-known queer books, magazi nes, music, videos and assorted tchotchkes. “ I want to create a place like that here,” he says. “ I read to affirm myself,” he says. The rest, as they say, is history. Friedman started build ing his own library, and for the past seven years has been in a reading group. “The best time of the month,” he says. Friedman says he hopes his fervor rubs off on others. “ I’ve read the titles that 1 bring to book parties. 1 can talk about th e m .... The beautiful thing about reading is that taste is relative. W hether vowenjoy it— that’s what really m atters.” Friedman conducts his book parties free o f charge. The gath erings unfold like many apoliti cal house party— e.g., people invite 10 friends to their home, p erh ap s su p p ly sn acks and drinks, and then, in this sce nario, Friedman and the group discuss the titles. Those who wish to purchase books fill out order forms and pay in advance. Friedman ac quires the books and gets them to the person who hosted the party, who in turn distributes the titles to those who placed orders. “ I would love to do some parties in rural Oregon— places where people have little access to these kinds o f books,” he says. “That would be very fulfilling.” To learn more about Friedman's book parties, call 233-2003.