How Much I Got Paid: #1

Title: "How Do I Become a Male Porn Star?"

Publication: Salon

Date: December 2, 2013

Word count: 1,262

Payment: $150

Notes: I wrote this piece on spec; in other words, I wrote the piece and then set about placing it. Typically, I don't write on spec. Instead, I pitch editors, get a contract, and then write the piece. I probably spent a total of two, maybe three hours writing this story over a couple days. I ended up sending it to five different editors. Four expressed interest. But there were various issues with those various responses. Eventually, I heard back from the editor I'd sent it to at Salon; I'd worked with her previously and knew she wasn't going to fuck up the piece. I believe I was paid $300 for the last piece I wrote for Salon several years ago; this time, she said she could only offer me $150. I accepted. The piece was good, I trusted the editor, and in this instance, I wanted the piece where it belonged and didn't give that much of a shit about the money.

Conclusion: It's OK to write on spec -- sometimes.

[How Much I Got Paid]

Must-See TV

TLC has a new show, "Sex Sent Me to the ER":

"In the premiere episode, 24-year-old Gregg is caught off guard when his girlfriend Jen tries to take their relationship to the next level. Four hundred and forty pounds and still a virgin, Gregg is determined to pull out all the stops for his first time. But passion takes a dramatic turn when in the middle of making love, Gregg accidentally sends his girlfriend headfirst through the wall and ultimately to the ER. Then, after a night of performing and drinking, rock ‘n' roll guitarist and singer Cash is ready to put on a show in the bedroom with girlfriend Anne. But after a wall-shaking round of sex, Cash collapses and is unable to move his arm and leg. He ignores his symptoms at first but a trip to the ER soon reveals a surprising diagnosis. And Dr. Kevin Klauer is treating a man with a broken penis whose situation is further complicated when both his wife and girlfriend show up at the hospital. Though the threesome appears to be on good terms at first, the women begin to argue over what caused the injury, which quickly leads to an additional patient for Dr. Klauer to treat."

[Discovery via Twitter]

Supergirl

La Cage et Les Maitres de Notre Monde by Sandra Chevrier. [via This Isn't Happiness]

Today

Today: @mollycrabapple draws porn star/fair labor activist @Stoya through hacked #GoogleGlass. Stream it live at rhizome dot org, 3pm EST!

— CreativeTime Reports (@ArtistsReport) December 11, 2013

Sexcamming in Romania

How to be a sexcam star in Romania:

"The key, even for erotic models, is to keep your clothes on for as long as possible, which isn't too difficult because ejaculation is less of a priority for members than you’d imagine. Most of them are divorced men looking for a little companionship. From Anica’s description, modeling sounds a lot like working in sales: ask them lots of questions about themselves and be interested in what they say and they’ll love you forever—or at least until their money runs out. Eventually they might ask you to take your clothes off, at which point you’re expected to lie back and get it over with."

[Vice]

We're All Gladiators

Online, exes Jenna Jameson and Tito Oritz bicker more than most married couples. [Instagram / Fox News]

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."

[Clayton Cubitt]

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?

Amazon

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.

[Hazlitt via Twitter]

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

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."

[Design Boom via This Isn't Happiness]

TIVO YO HO

“And I see your girl when I want, I got that ho TiVo’d”

— Lil Wayne

NYMPHOMANIAC COMING

Reviews of "Nymphomaniac" are embargoed, but the Guardian has a peek.

Of interest:

1. "a penis montage"
2. Stellan Skarsgård says the movie makes you porn blind: "And after a while you find you don't even react to the explicit scenes."
3. The hardcore sex scenes were shot using porn star body doubles
4. von Trier's still not speaking to the press
5. It'll leave you "shell-shocked"

[Guardian]