JOEY Magazine reviews Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

The Fall 2000 issue of JOEY Magazine (issue 3) features a review of Richard Grayson's The Silicon Valley Diet:

The Silicon Valley Diet
Richard Grayson
Red Hen Press - $14.95

A collection of twelve short “Seinfeldian” stories (i.e., funny, clever, lightly written and neurotic, while simultaneously about nothing in particular). Richard Grayson’s The Silicon Valley Diet delivers its strongest material in the twelfth story, the one from which the book garners its title. The final story is about a formerly fat Caucasian gay male trying to get his diet book published, while deciding whether or not he should date an English-language-challenged Vietnamese immigrant whose main goal is to return to his country of origin. (Still with me?) Peculiar as that set-up sounds, it works because the main character in the story, like the best of Grayson’s characters, balances his neurotic self-awareness with a genuine sense of empathy and healthy serving of humor. While the stories of various gay men don’t achieve any particular kind of character arc, that’s largely beside the point. Grayson offers up several “that’s-exactly-how-I-feel” moments in the snippets he reveals from his characters’ lives—bringing humor, reality and touching sadness to the small, if occasionally obscure, moments that fill their days. The other fun stories include a liberal who’s obsessed with the depleting supply of the world’s cocoa and dating a non-chocolate-eating conservative, a teenage junior college student who has a distinctly un-salacious affair with one of his professors, and an endearing bass-player in a gay punk band who writes crappy angst songs with titles like “You Fucked Me,” and battles with his ex-boyfriend/lead singer over various mediocre names for their band. The cast of characters entertain while often feeling eerily like people you know, love, hate, lust after, or happen actually to be from time to time
—James Sledge

Stuart (Fla.) News interviews Florida U.S. Senate candidate Richard Grayson

The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News of Florida interviews write-in U.S. Senate candidate Richard Grayson today (Sunday, August 27, 2000) on page E8 of its Martin County editions:

UNITED STATES SENATOR


Richard Grayson

age: 49

home town: Davie and Cyberspace

number of years at that location: 20

number of years resident of the city, county or district you seek to serve in office: 20

present employment: Author, "The Silicon Valley Diet" (self-employed)

military experience: Draft dodger, 1970-1973

education: BA, political science and MFA, creative writing - Brooklyn College; MA, English - College of Staten Island; J.D. - University of Florida College of Law

elected offices previously held: None

community activities: Gadfly and pain

immediate family: Self, goldfish (Frisky) and occasional boyfriends


What reforms do you favor, to put social security on a sound long-term
footing?

We need to raise the current cap on FICA taxes so that incomes over $70,000 are taxed fully. We should raise the retirement age to 75 and increase payroll taxes. We should not put retirement funds at risk in the Wall Street casino.

What specific Florida concerns do you think most need federal attention, and what will you do to make sure they are addressed?

We must make sure Everglades restoration funds are authorized. Increased funding for education should be a federal priority. And the federal government should step in when Florida's moronic state legislators pass unconstitutional bills. Ending the phony "war on drugs" will make Florida a safer place.

In your view, what are the most pressing global concerns for the United States, and how would you address them?

In order to compete with other advanced nations, we must have universal health care, government-funded child care, and increased foreign aid to poor countries. We must end the embargo on Cuba and Iraq. The Senate should ratify international treaties promptly.

How well can our "downsized" military cope with evolving global risks? what changes in U.S. force size, structure or mission would you favor?

I would replace the entire military establishment at the Pentagon with the Girl Scouts of America, a volunteer organization that doesn't sanction huge cost overruns, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, or unworkable science fiction schemes - and their cookies are delicious, if eaten in moderation.

Other than topics mentioned, what do you see as major concerns?

Reparations for slavery must be paid. Increased government funding for the arts is a priority. The Senate must confirm federal judges promptly. We should end the federal death penalty and strengthen affirmative action. Finally, Americans are the fattest people on Earth. We need to lose weight. As a diet book author, I will encourage low-fat meals. I urge all Floridians who can write - admittedly, not a majority - to write me in for U.S. Senate.

WRITE-IN

ECHO Magazine reviews Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

ECHO Magazine's August 17, 2000 issue features a review of Richard Grayson’s The Silicon Valley Diet in Ken Furtado's "Booked" column:


BOOKED

By Ken Furtado


. . . .
Arizona author Richard Grayson’s ninth short story collection, The Silicon Valley Diet (Red Hen Press, $14.95, trade pap.) contains a dozen works of fiction, having in common humor as dry as the desert and an assortment of nerdy-but-likeable Seinfeldian characters.

In “Willie 95,” the narrator reflects on his 30-year friendship with Willie, whose death he learned about on Compuserve, in sections titled after the menus of Microsoft Word.

“Salugi at Starbucks” is told via alternating narrative and e-mail exchanges, again spanning 30 years while Elihu waits in vain for his lover to move in.

The sections of “Anything but Sympathy” are named aftr words that can be formed from the letters S, P, O and T (spot, stop, post, etc.)

Many of the stories involve the inability to find or keep a boyfriend, an affinity for non-Caucasian lovers, and dissatisfaction with the narrator’s height (he’s short).

Grayson excels at a sort of Valley-speak mixed with stream of consciousness; his characters ramble on at length, brain-surfing from one topic or thought to another.

Many stories rely on a technique of alternating passages of complementary text with the narrative, as in “Moon Over Moldova,” in which we learn about Moldova while the narrator tells us about secretly loving this hot South American, then developing similar feelings for the guy’s lover. Effective for a single story, the technique loses its effectiveness when used repeatedly.

But Grayson’s humor will keep you turning the pages. His bullshit detector is dead-on, as in this sentence, from the title story: “I’d long ago given up going to slaughterhouses and trying to approach aspiring Abercrombie & Fitch catalog models emitting radiation from isotopes of unobtainium.”

Sarasota Herald-Tribune publishes photo including Richard Grayson on list of U.S. Senate candidates from Florida

Today, July 7, 2000, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune published a page 9B photo of U.S. Senate candidates debating. The photo featured a sign listing all the candidates, including Richard Grayson.

Chicago Tribune Sunday Books Section on Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

The Chicago Tribune's Sunday book section today (July 2, 2000) lists Richard Grayson's The Silicon Valley Diet on page 6:

READER'S GUIDE. New in Paperback.

THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

By Richard Grayson (Red Hen Press $14.95)

A short-story collection uses computer jargon to access the concerns of young
people.

Apache Junction Independent reports on Richard Grayson's residency at Ragdale Foundation

The Apache Junction (Arizona) Independent today (June 27, 2000) reports on Richard Grayson's residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Richard Grayson letter in The New York Times: "Summer Squall in Southampton"

Richard Grayson has a letter in the New York Times today (June 5, 2000), "Summer Squall in Southampton":

To the Editor:

Re ''Summer Residents Want Year-Round Voice'' (front page, May 30):

It is understandable that the wealthy seasonal residents of the Hamptons and other resort communities want a voice in local taxation issues. But it would be unfair to allow them to vote in local elections in two communities. Americans long ago abandoned property qualifications for voting, in favor of the principle of one person one vote.

Rich people with a Manhattan apartment and a Southampton house should choose one of those locations as their voting residence. Otherwise, their wealth will give them two votes and represent not them but their property.

RICHARD GRAYSON
Apache Junction, Ariz., May 30, 2000

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reviews Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

In today's book review section, The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reviews Richard Grayson's The Silicon Valley Diet:

The (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel (May 28, 2000):


Snapshots of modern humanity

By PAT MACENULTY


THE SILICON VALLEY DIET AND OTHER STORIES. Richard
Grayson. Red Hen Press. $14.95.

Most readers will find something familiar in the ninth collection of short stories, a paperback original, by the Fort Lauderdale author and college instructor Richard Grayson.

I, for one, enjoyed revisiting my old stomping grounds of Plantation and Tallahassee, and being reminded of the taste of croissants from Zabar's in Manhattan. I nodded as I read Grayson's renditions of the daily dramas that unfold in e-mails, the concerns with what we eat, the trauma of teaching community college students to write five-paragraph essays and the quest for good, if not always true, love.

Gay readers will most likely appreciate the affectionate and funny portrayals of gay men in tender and troubled relationships. Straight readers shouldn't have any problems identifying, either. All the protagonists in these stories seem to be looking for the kind of lifelong commitment that Mom and Dad embodied.

Although memorial services for young men seem commonplace in Grayson's fiction, the stories are not tragedies. They serve up slices of life as we know it right here and now with hate crimes, weight worries and easy money for Internet whizzes.

Structurally, the stories do not provide traditionally rendered scenes, and they don't move linearly along from point A to point B to point C and so on. Many of them are broken up with italicized passages that serve as a counterpoint to the narrative. I like stories that bring disparate ideas together, but occasionally when reading them en masse, the technique becomes superfluous.

That small quibble aside, let me say that the stories overall are funny, intelligently written and original. "Spaghetti Language" mixes the narrator's love for a dead grandfather, a friend's beautiful 4-year-old child, and his lover, Terence, a gorgeous, tall, young black man who appears in several stories with learning computer programming language. There is a connection.

"Boys' Club" drops the reader smack dab into the lives of a gay punk band. This is probably the most traditional story and my favorite. The narrative voice is so authentically young and misunderstood and rebellious and poignantly philosophical: "Anarchism doesn't only mean destroying the government. It could
also mean destroying the forces dictating how people have to live. It was more acceptable to be out in the punk scene than in mainstream music culture even before you were able to slam around with other boyfags in lingerie."

Grayson's writing is full of delicious nuggets. Here's an insight in the title story about the narrator's hunt for a meaningful relationship: "I'd long ago given up going to slaughterhouses and trying to approach aspiring Abercrombie & Fitch catalog models emitting radiation from isotopes of unobtainium. After enough `access denied' messages, you don't want to do anything but log off."

Other cool stories include "Those Old Dark, Sweet Songs," about the narrator's complicated relationship with Terence; "The Five Stages of Eating at Cuban-Chinese Restaurants," in which Terence breaks up with the narrator; and "Anything but Sympathy" about a 30-year-old man's first relationship with another man.

These stories accurately capture snapshots of our culture at a very interesting moment. The Silicon Valley Diet and Other Stories sets out to prove we haven't really lost our humanity under the deluge of technology. And we probably never will.

Pat MacEnulty, a former promotional writer for the Sun-Sentinel, is a short-story writer and freelance fiction editor in Charlotte, N.C.

Publishers Weekly reviews Richard Grayson's THE SILICON VALLEY DIET

In "Notes on Fiction," the current (May 15, 2000) issue of Publishers Weekly has a brief review of Richard Grayson's The Silicon Valley Diet:

Compulsively talky and engaging disjunctive, the 12 stories in The Silicon Valley Diet, Richard Grayson's ninth collection, flash snapshots of gay men in their 20s, 30s and 40s battling it out in an online world. Lighter and funnier than much gay fiction, the stories riff on contemporary consumer culture (I'm wearing Calvin Klein chhinos like the sexy adolescents I spotted this morning in full-pages in Wired and Swing) and introduce sweet, mixed-up characters like Terence, who has a child "slept with a teddy bear -- even when he was practically, by his own admission, a teenage prostitute." Grayson knows New York City -- where many of these stories are set -- inside and out. (Red Hen,$14.95 paper 182p ISBN 1-888966-23-4; June)

Richard Grayson letter in The New York Times: "Attica Reparations"

Richard Grayson has a letter in the New York Times today (January 15, 2000), oppsing reparations for the victims of crimes committed by prisoners who were brutalized at Attica and compensated for the government's brutality.

Richard Grayson letter in The New York Times: "A Minority of One"

Richard Grayson has a letter in the New York Times in the Magazine section today (Sunday, November 21, 1999), "A Minority of One":


As an idealistic undergraduate at the City University of New York, I volunteered to work in Herman Badillo's 1973 mayoral campaign. So I was outraged to read in James Traub's article (Oct. 31) that "Badillo doesn't regret a syllable" of his bigoted remarks, in which, among other things, he referred to Hispanic immigrants as "Incas and Mayas who are, you know, five feet tall with straight hair."

I am not ashamed to have worked for the Herman Badillo of 1973, but only because I believe that the man I knew back then would be ashamed of his 1999 self.

Richard Grayson
Davie, Fla.

Richard Grayson letter in The New York Times: "Let Vice Presidents Run Solo"

Richard Grayson has a letter in the New York Times today (October 13, 1999), "Let Vice Presidents Run Solo":

To the Editor:

It astonishes me that Vice President Al Gore's advisers have not suggested the simplest, most effective way to distance himself from the Clinton Administration (news article, Oct. 11). With a little more than a year until the November 2000 general election and only about 15 months remaining in his term, Mr. Gore should resign as Vice President to devote himself full time to his Presidential candidacy.

Not only would Mr. Gore achieve his goal of distancing himself from President Clinton, he could also give up his Washington address and move full time to Nashville, where he has relocated his campaign.

RICHARD GRAYSON
Davie, Fla., Oct. 11, 1999

South Florida Sun-Sentinel's "Local Book News" reports on Richard Grayson's Workshop on Writing for Webzines at ArtServe in the Ft. Lauderdale Library

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Local Book News column by Oline H. Cogdill today, Sunday, October 3, 1999,

has an item about the three writers' workshops offered by the Florida Center for the Book, including Richard Grayson's "Writing Fiction and Poetry for Webzines" from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. October 23 at ArtServe in the Fort Lauderdale Branch Library, 1300 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale.

Richard Grayson's column in Boca Raton News, citing Columbine massacre, calls for banning C-SPAN as bad example for nation's youth

Richard Grayson's column in the Boca Raton News today (Friday, June 25, 1999), citing the Columbine massacre, calls for banning C-SPAN as a bad example for our nation's youth.

Richard Grayson's column in Boca Raton News discusses new millennium list-making

Richard Grayson's column in the Boca Raton News today (Friday, April 16, 1999) discusses new millennium list-making.