Some Velvet Morning
The Price of Perversion
Photographer Clayton Cubitt explains why he's self-censoring:
"But honestly, there’s very little incentive for an artist to publish even modestly sexual visual work online. This is specially true when an artist also does work that requires patronage from often-skittish and culturally conservative corporations. Sexual images become extremely popular with rebloggers, and begin to crowd out more mainstream images, leading to an inaccurate survey of an artist’s oeuvre. While it might be superficially satisfying to have many thousand reblogs on a sexual/nude image, these many thousand reblogs are not worth even a single tiny poorly-paid ad campaign, which they might cost by scaring clients away when those clients do Google Image searches."
Nice Buttonhole
The cover of Tampa by Alissa Nutting. [The Casual Optimist via This Isn't Happiness]
I get email
"I have emailed you before about becoming a male pornstar. This has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Will you please give me a chance to become one? I would do anything to.join the porn industry. I just need a foot in the door and I promise you wont regret it. All I am asking for is one chance. If I dont meet your requirements show me the door. This is my dream please give me an opportunity to show you I would be a great male pornstar."
SAY, WHAT?
From "Sexcula: Canada's First Porno" by Will Sloan:
Halfway through Sexcula—a 1974 Canadian film released on DVD, by Synapse Films, for the first time last week—a gorilla is unleashed during a sex party at the shapely Dr. Fallatingstein’s castle. Why the gorilla is there in the first place is uncertain. We know from the doctor’s lab equipment that she is a scientist, and we know from her peculiarly sexual inventions (i.e. a “Female Pleasure Robot”) that she is mad; perhaps he’s a botched experiment. Whatever his purpose, there is no doubting his libido: gorilla or no gorilla, he gets down on that gravelly floor and has sex with a stripper.
SPACE DANCE
YOU GO, GIRL
From the Atlantic's "2013: The Year in Photos, January." [The Atlantic]
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S UNFIT TO PRINT: 12.7.13
Lil Wayne skateboards and watches porn at the same time. [Instagram]
An adult performer tests positive for HIV; a moratorium on shooting begins. [LAT]
Bloomberg's Stop and Kiss Program proves controversial. [Onion]
The fapping infographic for which you have been waiting. [Project Know]
Is that a cucumber or are you just happy to see me? [The Cut]
"Woolf of Wall Street" latest casualty of MPAA's anti-sex campaign. [THR]
The new editor of Mental Floss used to be in the smut business. [NYT]
"My porn-ness ruined my life at times," reports former gangbang queen. [Fox News]
Bruce Lee's yellow-and-black jumpsuit sells for $100,590. [WSJ]
"The Pervert's Guide to Ideology" trailer. [YouTube]
Mrs. Ice-T is getting into the sex toy business. [TMZ]
Who's that girl? [Instagram]
He thought it would perhaps be the Porn Star Life. [Arena]
Louis Theroux returns to Porn Valley 15 years after his first visit. [Documentary Jungle]
"Other jobs I’d had were physically rigorous—washing dishes, for example—and none of them paid anything compared to stripping, so how could I complain?" [Salon]
God bless America. [MoS]
Kids tell dirty jokes. [Vice]
"We are not victims, we are adventurous sex goddesses!" [Guardian]
ESPN tries not to suck. [Romenesko]
Now that's a showgirl. [YouTube]
JOURNALISM & PTSD
Blue tree / Photo credit: Susannah Breslin
CJR has an interesting piece on journalism-acquired PTSD and the reasons behind it:
"Earlier studies of reporters in war zones have suggested already that journalists are at higher risk for stress symptoms than other conflict-adjacent workers such as safety officers or medical technicians. Unlike other first responders, Idas points out, journalists 'are not there to help anyone,' a circumstance that 'runs against ethical and moral norms as a human being.' It’s a similar concept to the growing study of 'moral injury' in the military, where soldiers seem to experience stress symptoms when ordered to partake in actions that run contrary to their own personal moral code."
[CJR]
NSFW
When the internet says something is weird, that means something is weird. Not just weird. Internet weird. Thanks, Japan. [Bigredkev]
GOLD DIGGER HEELS
"‘12 shoes for 12 lovers‘ by chilean-born, new york-based designer sebastian errazuriz reflects on the recollection of the artist’s personal and sexual relationships with former lovers, each of whom became the influence for a series of shoe sculptures."
TIVO YO HO
“And I see your girl when I want, I got that ho TiVo’d”
NYMPHOMANIAC COMING
Reviews of "Nymphomaniac" are embargoed, but the Guardian has a peek.
Of interest:
- "a penis montage"
- Stellan Skarsgård says the movie makes you porn blind: "And after a while you find you don't even react to the explicit scenes."
- The hardcore sex scenes were shot using porn star body doubles
- von Trier's still not speaking to the press
- It'll leave you "shell-shocked"
[Guardian]
WOMEN ARE THE REAL SLUT-SHAMERS
"'Sex is coveted by men,' she said. 'Accordingly, women limit access as a way of maintaining advantage in the negotiation of this resource. Women who make sex too readily available compromise the power-holding position of the group, which is why many women are particularly intolerant of women who are, or seem to be, promiscuous.'"
[NYT]
YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG: MOTHER JONES
The Accused: Asawin Suebsaeng for Mother Jones
The Problem: This well-respected publication and its DC reporter are going to have to do better if they want to improve their online sex game.
The Story: "The Evan Rachel Wood Oral Sex Scene the MPAA Doesn't Want You to See."
The Money Shot: A paragraph from the "Charlie Countryman" script describing a cunnilingus sex scene starring Evan Rachel Wood and Shia LaBeouf that was shot but cut from the final version so the movie would receive an R rating instead of NC-17 rating, an incident Wood bitched about on Twitter by claiming the MPAA had "censor[ed] a woman's sexuality once again."
The Fail: The title of the article promised sex, but clickers found no sex, just words, which are not sex.
The Grade: D-
The Takeaway: When it comes to digital content, don't promise to fuck and not put out.
TURNING JAPANESE
In Japan, hardcore is censored
Porn gossip and news blogger Mike South posted an interesting email from a reader about how the porn industry works in Japan. Apparently, when it comes to porn, the Japanese are doing it better than the American pornographers, who are floundering.
"You definitely hit the nail on the head in terms of the amount they release, it truly is staggering. When I did place an order with them and was given the spreadsheet to choose from it was unreal. They put out hundreds of titles a month, and I’m not talking about comps and recycled material, and the same girls all the time, it is all new content, new and different girls, and a wide variety of genres. More importantly, it is all quality because that is the model that Japanese corporations follow. If you need more of an example take a look at the auto industry. Toyota, Honda, and the other Japanese manufacturers dominate because of their quality, innovation, and new ideas. The American manufacturers simply can’t keep up and I think that template can be removed from the auto industry and placed over the adult industry resulting in a perfect fit. Lucky for the adult industry in America, they don’t currently have to compete with Japanese studios, otherwise I think it would be disastrous for the mainstay studios here. You are already seeing a little bit of this happening on the toy/novelty side with companies like Tenga."
There's also some interesting information on how Japanese porn stars are treated differently and the Yakuza's involvement in today's Japanese adult industry.
FLYING MIDGET STRIPPER
In all likelihood, the best Vine featuring a flying, falling midget stripper you'll see today. Unless you see a better one. In which case, let me know. [Vine]
REAL SEX, TAKE 2
Vulture reports HBO is sort of doing a not-a-reboot reboot of their legendary sex documentary series "Real Sex." The new version is called "Sex/Now," it's directed by Chris Moukarbel, the director of "Me @ the Zoo," and the man-on-the-street segments are hosted by LisaTV.
"'Human desire is a technological engine in a lot of ways,' explained Moukarbel, whose first episode focuses on the cam girl phenomenon and also profiles young marrieds Emma and Eddie Lovett, who've monetized their sex life by broadcasting it online. 'On the show, we want to explore sex culture and we want people to be turned on, but we're also interested in these other questions about how people find sexual fulfillment through the Internet.'"
The half-hour pilot premieres January 2, 2014, at 11PM EST. Depending on ratings and the moods of higher-ups at HBO, the show may or may not become a series.
[Vulture]
MANX
Derek Jeter's $100 boxers have been trumped by Jay-Z's $2,590 boxing shorts. [Barneys]