Journalism Is

Nieman Storyboard's Elon Green annotation-interviewed Buzz Bissinger about "The Killing Trail."

"Journalism is fundamentally morbid. It should be morbid. Life is fucking morbid. Is there really a good journalist out there who likes the fucking sun? I will take rain any day of the week. When you get material like this you feel energized, pumped up, and you only want to go out and get more because you see the power and potential of what you might be able to do. Depressing is sitting down to write and looking at your notes and seeing the only thing you have a preponderance of is the syrup they use to make canned fruit cocktail."

[Nieman Storyboard]

I Am What I Am

I added about 25 more emails I've gotten from men who want to be porn stars.

"Boogie Nights"

"I know that you are only a journalist. I am also aware that you know quite a bit about the porn industry. I am young and eventually want to get into the porn bussiness and I feel that you can help me with that, I figured since you're well educated in all that topic. I've read a few of your articles and i'm impressed and convinced that you will be able to help or guide me."

[I Want to Be a Male Porn Star]

Hitmen

"The reality of contract killing in Britain tended to be striking only in its mundanity, according to David Wilson, the university's professor of criminology. He said: 'Far from the media portrayal of hits being conducted inside smoky rooms, frequented by members of an organised crime gang, British hits were more usually carried out in the open, on pavements, sometimes as the target was out walking their dog, or going shopping, with passersby watching on in horror.'"

[Marginal Revolution via Alex Knapp]

The Creeper

[via This Isn't Happiness]

Uncle Sugar

I swear I was in porn film once with Uncle Sugar

— Susie Bright (@susiebright) January 25, 2014

The Shrink Convention

My friend Chris Horne interviewed me about my writing career for an upcoming podcast. During the interview, we discussed writing fiction, and I confessed I hadn't written much fiction lately. I challenged myself to write a short story. He challenged himself to do the same.

You can read my story here.

"The man picked up the colander and placed it on her head. Under the colander, she could hear a low humming that seemed to be coming from the box. Her skull began tingling with what felt like electric shocks. Her eyelids lowered; her hands relaxed on her thighs."

[The Shrink Convention]

Shhhh

a glory hole for listening

— Charlene deGuzman (@charstarlene) January 24, 2014

Weird Trends

Weird sex trends at a porn convention? I've got 'em.

"Behind him, foam core boards balanced on easels displayed artistic renderings of a planned 200-room, gated, private, members-only hotel and spa for those who come to Orlando in search of more adult activities than those found at Disney World. One, labeled 'TYPICAL SUITE VIEW,' included two nude women making out on a bed."

[Forbes]

All The News That's Unfit To Print: 1.25.14

Happy Valentine's Day. [Fashion Copious]

Cate Blanchett is all tied up. [This Isn't Happiness]

Girls on poles. [Vice]

Face tattoos. [Mark Leaver via Needles and Sins]

The pornographer's daughter speaks. [San Jose Mercury News]

I like the way you stand. [Clayton Cubitt]

Her boyfriend was real -- or was he? [Salon]

The anti-porn star. [Refinery29]

Miley Cyrus unplugged. [Miley Cyrus]

"I'm on the porn diet!" [People]

Fuck me shoes. [Flickr]

Sarah's uncertain path. [NYT]

The story behind "SpongeKnob SquareNuts." [Esquire]

How robot sex will save humanity. [Telegraph]

Your erection explained. [io9]

She's levitating. [Jeff Robb via Indie Nudes]

Hey, fuck you. [Sports Illustrated]

The brothel king. [Reason]

Naughty, naughty boy. [Iain Claridge]

Girl fight club. [Apple Trailers]

Silicone Valley

For my second report on the porn convention and porn awards earlier this month in Vegas, I take a look at some of the ways technology can disrupt the adult movie industry: "Can Silicon Valley Save Porn Valley?"

"In the press room, Mike Kulich — I’d last heard from him when he was trying to get a guy with diphallia to appear in one of his porn movies — was launching Skweezme.com."

[Forbes]

Being Trans

Photo credit: William T. Vollmann

"That is not how Vollmann views Dolores. In some ways, Dolores—a woman whom Vollmann controls by virtue of having created her—seems like the logical extension of the sex workers in his previous fiction and nonfiction, who are offered, or offer themselves, for male control. (He has often patronized the hookers he writes about, and once bought—to save her from street life—a Thai teen girl.) 'Dolores belonged entirely to me—was in fact my construct,' he writes, and so he drew her, painted her, dressed her up and did her makeup, and photographed her."

[The New Yorker]

I Get Tweets

@susannahbreslin I doubt you are painting your passion 4 dirty porn with a veil of politically correct. I wonder: why don't you make outing?

— Victor Blade (@VictorBlade1) January 23, 2014