“A thought-provoking commentary on the modern reality of constant surveillance and the ways in which our lives and choices are influenced by those who observe us, wielding power through the information they gather.” — read more about my investigative memoir, Data Baby: My Life in a Psychological Experiment
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
A giant animatronic head in Las Vegas in October 2026. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
When I lamented the loss of Salon the other day, I forgot to mention that my first blog, or the first incarnation of my blog, The Reverse Cowgirl, was on Salon. It was an incredible experience and changed the course of my career. In fact, The Reverse Cowgirl was one of the first blogs about sex on the internet, preceded only by Daze Reader. So one more reason to grieve the loss of what was once a radical, groundbreaking publication.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
In today’s newsletter, I wrap up my 10-part series on what I learned writing about pornography for 30 years.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Recently, I set out to read and reread, watch and rewatch, and view and review The Porn Library archives. This time, I reread David Foster Wallace’s “Big Red Son,” which was published under a pseudonym in Premiere magazine in 1998.
Here’s an excerpt:
“It is difficult to describe how it feels to gaze at living human beings whom you’ve seen perform in hard-core porn. To shake the hand of a man whose precise erectile size, angle, and vasculature are known to you. That strange I-think-we’ve-met-before sensation one feels upon seeing any celebrity in the flesh is here both intensified and twisted. It feels intensely twisted to see reigning industry queen Jenna Jameson chilling out at the Vivid booth in Jordaches and a latex bustier and to know already that she has a tattoo of a sundered valentine with the tagline HEART BREAKER on her right buttock and a tiny hairless mole just left of her anus. To watch Peter North try to get a cigar lit and to have that sight backlit by memories of his artilleryesque ejaculations. To have seen these strangers’ faces in orgasm—that most unguarded and purely neural of expressions, the one so vulnerable that for centuries you basically had to marry a person to get to see it. This weirdness may account for some of the complex emotional intercourse taking place between the performers and fans at the Adult CES. The patrons may leer and elbow one another at a distance, but by the time the men get to the front of the line and face the living incarnation of their VCR’s fantasy-babe, most of them turn into quivering goggle-eyed schoolboys, sheepish and salivaless and damp.”
Visit The Porn Library.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Yesterday I saw the 4k restoration of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland at the El Capitan Theatre, where the movie is screening for the theater’s centennial. Before the movie started, there was a live Wurlitzer organ performance.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Salon, the online magazine, has shut down. End of an era. The publication published some of my early journalism, including “Extreme Porn Crackdown,” “Death and the D.C. Madam,” “Those Dirty Girls,” “Stephen Hill’s Dark Life in Porn,” and “How Do I Become a Male Porn Star?” Thanks to all the Salon editors.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Recently, I set out to read and reread, watch and rewatch, and view and review The Porn Library archives. This time, I reread Martin Amis’s “A Rough Trade,” which was published in Talk magazine in 2001.
Here’s an excerpt:
“If you’re going to be a porno star, what do you need? It’s pretty clear by now. You need to be an exhibitionist. You need to have a ferocious sex drive. You need to suffer from nostalgie de la boue (literally ‘mud nostalgia’: a childish, even babyish delight in bodily functions and wastes). And - probably - you need damage in your past. You also need to be humourless. Chloe is not humourless. When she talked to me she was like someone peeping over a wall demarcating two different worlds, telling me stories about the other side.”
Visit The Porn Library.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Recently, I set out to read and reread, watch and rewatch, and view and review The Porn Library archives. I started by rereading Evan Wright’s “Scenes From My Life in Porn,” published by The LA Weekly in 2000.
Here’s an excerpt:
“I experienced a sense of numbness on Jasmin’s set — as I would on many others — that I can only compare to accounts I have read of combat. It was the sense of being in a group of people deliberately and methodically engaged in acts of insanity. Unlike in combat, I was not overwhelmed by the horror of it, but by the grand-scale stupidity, which crystallized that day as I stood by the craft-services cart. Boiled hot dogs on cold, white buns were being dispensed. A man next to me politely passed the mustard. The bottle was sticky with K-Y Jelly. I never attempted to eat on a porn shoot again.”
Visit The Porn Library.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
A shot I took of Deja Vu Showgirls Las Vegas in October. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
This year I’ve made it a point to return to seeing movies in movie theaters, which in Los Angeles is something special. So far, I’ve seen The Devils and The Odyssey at Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theatre, Mirror at the Egyptian Theatre, Stalker at the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion PIctures, and I’m looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland at the El Capitan Theatre this coming weekend.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
In my latest newsletter, I examine consent and authenticity on an adult movie set. Read it here and subscribe.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
I checked out the David Lynch: LA exhibit at Pace Gallery. For more of my photographs, follow my Instagram.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
Thanks to David Swindle for the kind words. Read and subscribe to his God of the Desert Digital Media Studios.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I Newsletter I Email
I wrote an essay for an upcoming special release from Arrow Films. I’ll share more on that when it’s released.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I LinkedIn I Email
A mural of a woman by James Haunt, Los Angeles, Calif., 2026. For more photographs, follow my Instagram.
About I My Book | Consulting I X I Instagram I LinkedIn I Email