Friday, May 4th, 2001

Tera Movie

Andy writes: Hey Luke. Get cracking on this one. I was in Blockbuster and saw Tera Patrick looking out from the shelves, which shocked the hell out of me. The movie was called "College Girl Seeking..." or something like that. It's a film from Universal, not the usual porn studios, but it had no rating, which is odd because Blockbuster doesn't carry porn or unrated material. I've found nothing in the IMDB or anywhere else on this movie. It's clearly non-porno, because Blockbuster doesn't carry porn, especially since it's on the main shelf with the mainstream films. So what's going on?

Brazilian Porn's HIV Controversy

Brazilian porner XXX replies: So now it became a trend to blame Brazil for AIDS? Really? Well, so let's kick the f---ing bucket and let the s--- hit the fan.

DO YOU KNOW WHO f---ED AN HIV-POSITIVE BRAZILIAN GIRL IN THE ASS WITHOUT A CONDOM? JOEY f---ING SILVERA AND ROCCO f---ING SIFFREDI, THAT'S WHO!!!

AND DO YOU KNOW WHO FAKED THE AIDS EXAMS TO FOOL JOEY AND ROCCO, CAUSE HE WAS THE ONE PRODUCING THE MOVIE? NO ONE ELSE THAN STANLAY MIRANDA, PRESIDENTE OF THE BRAZILIAN BRANCH OF ELEGANT ANGEL, AND MAJOR JOHN STAGLIANO BROWN-NOSER!

WHAT ABOUT THAT FOR BREAKING NEWS, EH? WHAT ABOUT THAT?

BESIDES, I DON'T SEE BRAZILIAN POR ACTRESSES DYING OF AIDS - BUT THERE'S HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN PORN ACTORS DROPPING DEAD LIKE FLIES!

SO, IF YOU WANT TO BLAME BRAZIL FOR A f---ING AIDS HYSTERIA, GO LOOK AT YOUR NAVELS FIRST, YOU f---ING BASTARDS!!!

Gregory Bowman, Cheyenne Silver's ex-boyfriend, writes: Gee Luke, It looks like I've stirred the "Pot" once again. Truth hurts in the porn business like the sting from a scorpion.

HIV in Brazil is just the beginning of many issues in porn that no one is willing to talk about unless confronted. Shall we talk about those actors with Hepatitis B and C? Those tests aren't required on any set. Why not? Hepatitis C is very fatal; reports show as high as 85% mortality within the first three years without costly interferon chemotherapy.(UCLA School of Medicine, 2000). Hepatitis B results in a 10% acute mortality and continued death with chronic active carriers. Eventual liver failure in these carriers has been estimated at 50% with patients showing high levels of HBsAg and anti-HBc in the serum(Bonito, et al, 1996)

How about financing productions with drug money? Who does?

And there is the issue of double dealing with agents. Contracts in the business...has anyone ever read the fine print?? You would be amazed. Taxes? what the hell are those?

There is so much to talk about. So little time.

I guess Gene Ross is scared to touch the HIV Brazil issue in that he may very well be "associate"ed with the problem. I did forward all the information to him right before his site went down, including the Extreme box cover circled with reported HIV positive girls. Mind you I merely forwarded it; I have no proof of the allegations but his silence is certainly an indication of suspicion. I would love to hear from Gene but I doubt he has the courage to speak up regarding Extremes position.

From my first reporting of the HIV situation in Brazil on your site I've recieved a few death threats and a lot of good information from concerned people. GOOD TIMES!! Safety and Concern Vs. Profit at Risk.....where do your readers draw the line?? Who is the guilty? who is the victim? I certainly encourage anyone to write me to continue this discussion or if you have any information(including Melissa Wests number) at Nathans_parable@yahoo.com

XYZ answers: Feh. What did you expectes? An official note saying "Hey, we're the Extreme guys and we're all dying, please don't f--- us cuz we're all infected!". HA! Gene's new motto is "The Gloves Comes Off". That means that The Genester is currently being fist-f---ed without protection, that's all.

David Patterson Switches To Astral Ocean

Former General Video of America head of sales, DP aka David Patterson, now works for Astral Ocean who is opening an office in San Francisco.

Wireless Porn

Can anybody give me any scoop on which porn companies are involved in wireless porn?

NORTHVALE, N.J., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Directrix, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DRCX - news), is pleased to announce that Vivid Entertainment Group will employ The Directrix Content Delivery Network to stream its premium adult video-on-demand content.

The Directrix Content Delivery Network leverages Akamai Technologies Inc.'s globally distributed network of 10,000 servers designed to deliver all forms of Web content from servers optimally located for an end user's request. Vivid will be utilizing The Directrix Content Delivery Network to offer their entire catalog, allowing users to watch every video Vivid has ever made, in a video-on-demand (VOD) format over the Internet. Approximately one in four regular Internet users -- or 21 million Americans -- visit one of the more than 60,000 adult sites on the Web at least once a month. Analysts from Forrester Research say that these sites generate at least $1 billion a year in revenue. This market is ready to expand, with worldwide cable modem subscriptions projected to leap from 2.2 million at the end of 1999 to almost 12.7 million in 2003, according to a report by Cahners In-Stat Group. During the same period, worldwide revenues from cable modem services will jump from 1 billion dollars to over 5 billion dollars, the report says. The Gartner Group expects the DSL-broadband business to experience growth in excess of 100 percent per year through 2005 and the number of DSL subscribers will double in 2001 to 3 million and reach 13 million by 2005. The revolutionary delivery mechanisms of The Directrix Network will provide the fast and reliable delivery Vivid needs to tap into this burgeoning market.

Quasarman Visits World Modeling Cattle Call, But He's No Luke F-rd

QuasarmanRants.com reports: "Upon entering the premises we were immediately requested by the suitcase pimp of porn newcomer Dynamite to sign a model release. It seems my pal Jim Digiorgio was there shooting some sort of "mockumentary" about porno casting calls and wanted to use everyone present as an unpaid extra. Jimmy’s a talented guy but if my mug is going to end up in a porn video for free I had better be receiving fellatio from nubile Swedish triplets while hooked up to a morphine drip. I declined to sign. I’m not sure what the actual role of Dynamites other half was but it seems that he had at least found gainful employment for the day."

Luke says: I thought that esteemed World Modeling owner Jim South had the good sense to ban Quasarman and James DiGiorgio from his premises. What happened?"

XXX says: I saw Max Hardcore and he was grumpy. We were going to toss him out the window.

Jim DiGiorgio: "The ban was lifted some time ago. I am persona grata there. It's the nature of the beast. One minute you're persona non grata, and one minute you're persona grata. One day, one guy steals a lot of money from some guy. Next minute, they're partners.

"Montana Gunn's back from Texas where she's studying to be a chiropractor. She's come back to the business to learn a few special adjustments to work into her chiropractic career.

"I saw Tex and Bobbie Baron with my own eyes. I asked him, and he said, 'Yeah, I read that too.' I asked, 'Didn't you think about saying anything to anybody? Email Luke and tell him you're not dead.' He says, "Ohh, you know...'

"The whole Elegant Angel crew, Mr Marcus, Steve Drake, Luc Wylder. Probably 50 girls. I don't share Quasarman's assessment that there were a lot of fat ones there. There were a couple. But I don't share his assessment and it was predominantly a heifer convention.

"Quasarman declined to sign a release for our documentary footage. I told him, 'You're a big shot now. That's your problem.'"

Luke: "Does he think he's..."

Jim: "You."

Luke: "I know Luke F-rd and let me tell you..."

Jim: "You know him very well and you know that Quasarman can't fill his shoes at all."

Luke: "He's no Luke F-rd."

Jim: "I didn't see any Sin City people there. I don't think they are supposed to be there.

"Your friend Logan called me. She's looking for work.

"There's a new Jewish porn chick, Cheri, who's quite the sexual athlete.

"Rob Spallone's got a black eye. He got into a road rage incident. He accidentally cut off these guys and they started road raging on him and cutting him off. He pulled over and got out of the car. Two of them got out of the car and one of them hit him with something. And he's got a big cut over his right eye which was swollen shot and black. I guess he pummelled the two of them and they ran. The police came and said he was lucky they didn't have a gun. I told him to be a more careful and more courteous driver.

"I've bought some new cameras. With all the hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment that I own, why am I sitting here making smut? I have the ability here to make anything that's on regular TV. What am I doing here?

"I'm thinking of taking an ad in Dramalogue or the Hollywood Reporter and saying that I am a bored pornographer and I am looking for some wildly energetic enthusiastic filmmakers. You provide the enthusiasm, I will provide the technical skill and equipment to make their dreams a reality. Why do I hoist a very expensive camera on my shoulder to record a penis going in a vagina? I could be doing news, documentaries..."

Quasarman writes: I never claimed that the talent call yesterday at World Modeling was "predominately a heifer convention". Jimmy is correct. There were only a few overweight girls on hand but they were REALLY overweight. In the interest of creating humorous content over at the QuasarmanRants.com website, I took the liberty of exaggeration because I really wanted to use the euphemism about trading cattle futures. Pound per pound it was a reasonably successful event.

P.S. I had the pleasure of meeting your friend Logan today and promptly signed her up for several projects.

Tired Of Linda Lovelace

Gloria Leonard writes: Inasmuch as I come from the same generation of performers as Linda Lovelace and have been subjected endlessly to her tired old bulls---, I find it continually compelling that she continues to blame Chuck Traynor for her lot in life. If a woman doesn't like what's happening in a relationship, any relationship, well then, there's the f---ing DOOR! Take a hike, call the police, SOMETHING. But no, even thirty years later, she absolutely refuses to take responsibility for her crappy life choices and decisions. As we all know, Linda made some 8mm loops having sex with a f---ing GERMAN SHEPHARD, pre-Traynor - now who made her do THAT? In the Berkowitz interview, she claims NOT to be anti-pornography but contradicts that position elsewhere. And if she feels exploited, she is in fact, nicely exploting herself by appearing at movie memorabilia conventions, tattoo conventions, promoting her book, appearing in PORN mag, Leg Show, doing interviews, ad nauseum. She is a whiny hypocrite who is so easily influenced that, back in the 70s, she also became the poster child porn-pawn of the so-called feminist movement, joining their ranks and railing against adult entertainment. Bottom line - get a life and get over it, you famously talented cocksucker.

HIV Testing In Gay Porn

I was on the set this week of a bisexual film from Stable Entertainment. And the company's PR guy Leo Buck told me that Stable was the only company in gay porn to require HIV testing. Is this true and what are the implications?

JoeBlow69 writes: Well, from what I understand, about 1/2 of gay performers currently have HIV. Condoms are required on virtually all sets, and the performers all know the risks they are taking. If everyone is wearing a condom, why do they need HIV tests? If you ask me, this is still a hell of a lot safer than not using a condom in straight porn.

Dave Cummings writes: Worrisome is the fact that 1%-4% OF CONDOMS BREAK DURING USE---scary!!!!!

Anonymous writes: Well, since condoms aren't perfect, it depends on what fraction of straight performers currently have HIV. Of course, that fraction can *change* quickly, so you're right that any sense of security straight performers have is somewhat unsound. But really, does anyone who knows he is HIV positive have any business subjecting others to risk? But since straight porn doesn't use condoms, they do need HIV testing more.

Shocking Tom Cruise Expose

Chaim Amalek writes Luke: If you want some free PR, make the lawyers pay for it! Start writing about Tom Cruise. One line of inquiry - did Tom and Nicole keep any household "pets"? Did they own any land on which objects could be buried? Did either ever attempt to hide from the prying eyes of the press? Why is he shorter than his wife? Is she really a woman, and is he really a man, or are they a transgendered couple? Is either a member of the Communist Party? Where do they stand on Jews in the media - are there too many, too few, or is the number just about right? What role have they played in Mad Cow disease or BSE?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Expose

The National ENQUIRER issue that hits stands today reveals that Arnold Schwarzenegger's has been cheating on Maria for the past 12 years. "It's gotten so out of hand that she can no longer look the other way," a source disclosed. The world-exclusive cover story chronicles Arnold's affairs with a leading lady, a stewardess, a stand-in, a makeup artist and others -- and details Maria's angry confrontation with the sex-obsessed superstar.

Dudley Moore writes: Arnold fits the profiles I posted on your site for reparative pre-oedipal male sexuality:

1. The camera served as a narcissistic mirror in both his bodybuilding career and film roles

2. He has consistently selected scripts in which he is either narcissistically "cloned" or "twins" or "double agent" with a split lifestyle ,and in a recent network interview insisted he really wished he could be cloned/twinned

3. His bodybuilding is narcissistically "reparative" of an incomplete or defective body image

4. He reparatively splits women into whore and madonna roles: the writeup reports he chose a woman who served a utilitarian sex-object "whore"(revenge against mother-motivated) role, rather than the relationship "madonna" role, which his wife filled

Luke Gets Mail

BrandyAlx1: You know, you should point out to some of these Brandy anti-fans that a number of my notes on your site you have personally copied from newsgroups because you wanted them there.

ZHR29: Luke, I ripped on Brandy Alexandre yesterday and I must say her comeback was good. I admit I spend more time following porn than I should and got on her case yesterday...but she did have a good comeback. Maybe I should change my opinion about her. I think so...

Brandy replies: Many thanks. :) It's the difference between context and tunnel vision. You gotta love a guy who can admit when he's wrong. Hell of a way to get a girl's attention. ;)

Steph from AdultDVDTalk.com writes: Hey Luke - looks like AVN gets their news from your site:

Example one

Example two

Yet you're the one who's called the cut and paste journalist? At least you credit your sources.

Luke says: Yes, it was your site, AdultDVDTalk.com, that alerted me to this news.

Porn star Logan LaBrent writes: Luke, not trying to make a jerk out of you at all. Tell MR. Know it all, that me and Pauly Shore met eachother when i was dancing at Crazy Horse Too Chicago before going to Vegas and Then LA. We met before i had thoughts of going into Adult films. I have not talked to him for awhile since entering the industry. Mike [McCormick] is a cool guy by the way, thanks for putting him in touch with me, looking forward to all.

LT writes: Flash wrote: "A lot of the girls who get boobjobs say that they love them." Yes, but the problem is many of this *lot* are just SAYING that. Like they're going to say anything else to anyone in the business or their fans? And women's breasts don't hang down to their knees at 21 or even 25 (by which time most porn starlets have already long since gotten implants) How many of these porn starlets have had babies? So how does it apply to those that haven't? And even childbirth isn't a 100% guarantee of breast shrinkage.

So, Flash, the big question is: have you ever urged any porn women to get breast implants or any other cosmetic surgery?

It's not a matter of how you think they look or how I think they look, it's a matter of how *they* think they look...and you'd be surprised how many of them hate that they ever got implants. And some of them "loved them" at first too. Stacy Valentine, Zoe, Alexa Rae...haven't you read Luke's site?...there are plenty more that feel more strongly than that. The sad reality is without the pressure, and left on their own, you'd be surprised how many porn women wouldn't have gotten breast implants.

Luke, I've got to admit I'm a bit disappointed in NJG and Lynne's lumping every male LF contributor in together. I don't belong in that, and it's wrong to "lump". I've never made any remarks one way or the other to NJG and the only comments I made to Lynne were expressing my extreme disappointment in her attitude toward breast implants. I was not harsh toward Lynne, I just suggested she go back and do some soul searching and reflection in this area since she is obviously a deep thinker. Mainly, I wanted to point out that her perception of that area perhaps was clouded by her involvement and I happen to know the opposite of her then stated beliefs were true. I've noticed a perceptable change, so perhaps she has examined the breast implant boom in life in general, but particularly in porn, more thoroughly...like I know she is capable of.

So you can see why I am disappointed to be lumped in with the mean spirited and the misogynists. I never made any comments about Andrea Thompson or "a woman's place"...Luke, you can vouch for me.

Shauna Green writes Luke: Levi, I enjoyed our talk yesterday. I always enjoy our talks, though more and more you resemble one of those wooden Russian folk dolls -- you open up one and there's another one inside, an exact duplicate, only smaller. I keep opening little Levi's, looking for the authentic Levi and only finding, as the dreadful French intellectuals would say, simulacrums. Shadows heaped upon shadows.

I have to admit that I was knocked out when you told me that you were in a porno film. I thought that nothing you say could shock me anymore and I suppose that's your tactic, to test me, bit by bit, desensitize me. You figure, rightfully so, that I'm a bit more open... But it doesn't mean that I accept degrading behavior. To write about porno films and the people who inhabit this sewer is bad enough, but to swim in the sewer ... what were you thinking? This is pathological behavior beyond imagination...

Sooner or later someone in shul is going to come across your website. It's going to be bad enough as it is. If there's information about you being in this film, please delete it. How would you ever face Rabbi Gadol if that information ever came to light?

I'm beginning to realize that Rivkah is right about you, you're hell-bent on self-destruction.

Aghast writes: I was a little taken aback when I saw you performed oral sex on Kimberly Kummings after Dave Hardman and four other losers pounded her! I never thought eating out a chick could be considered gay until then.

Luke says: That was simulated.

Aghast writes: I should hope so. Since you refuse to accommodate your lady friends with this act I would hope you would not bestow it upon a common pornstress.

Luke says: What should I do?

Helpful writes: Send him this JPEG. It speaks volumes.

Fred writes: 1. Uh, erase the past?

2. Regarding erasing the stuff on your web site about doing the porno film, my guess is that folks from your shul would have to do a lot of digging to find anything in your archives re having done a porno film. They will probably be offended long before they find the relevant post.

3. I don't think you can go back to this guy and say, "gee, I was only kidding."

Here are two options:

a) Never bring up this subject again; or
b) Tell him that you like him, his family, and his kids, and you would never want to do anything to alienate them, and you hope you haven't done so.

Also, think very carefully about who you want to reveal information to, and what information you want to reveal.

Let me ask you a few questions. How did you think this guy would react? What did you think he was going to say/do? Why did you tell him? Did you do this as a way of opening up to him, to let him know more about you? Or were you trying to simply shock him? Or both?

Luke says: Gee, Shauna, I was only kidding. I've never been in any porn films. How could you even imagine such a thing? I only said it to see how you would react. It's all a bad joke. Forget about it...

Shauna writes: Levi: I think I'm going to choose to believe the porno film story. I don't know why, but it has the ring of truth. I use the phrase "cognitive dissonance" in describing your particular pathology. Whether you are naked or not in a porno film is quite beside the point, and if you don't realize that, you're quite loony tunes.

I am going to assume that your behavior the other day represents who you are now. i.e. taking a hike when Ms. Carrera was about to expose her genius assets. Still, I'm worried. And Rachel says that someday soon, your house of cards is going to come crashing down.

Chaim Amalek advises: The only way for you to make amends is to invite him to a gang-bang shoot.

Rumdar writes: Luke, it would the stupidest person not to recognize from your site that you are not the anti porn crusader that you say are. The great, number one Jew of all time Jesus the Carpenter hung with the sleazoids to spread his message of love. peace and understanding. How quickly we forget.

You are unique in that you use porn to spread the gospel to those in need of conversion. Sure, they come seeking titillation but then they might linger to soak up some Torah. The intellectual musings of the L. F. Advisory Committee and others might prompt them to search further. POOF! enlightenment!!. What next? For some hapless porn queen at the end of her tether it might be a new life. An honest job as it were. She might turn her back on the grimy world of smut and decide to earn an honest wage at Starbuck's, K-Mart or Federal Express. The choices are unlimited and all made possible from the good offices of one Luke F-rd. Com. I urge you not to be so hard on yourself Luke. You are providing a valuable service.

Chaim writes: Luke, the clock is ticking on you. It is amazing that these women will have anything to do with you as is, given your situation. Stand up straight. Stop explaining yourself. Let her learn all your foibles through careful investigation on her own without help from you. And see to it that she bears your young.

Dr. Joseph Slade Interview Continued

I start the conversation by addressing the professor as "Dr. Slade"

Dr Slade says: "I'll make you a deal. I'll call you Luke and you call me Joe."

Luke: "Why a paper on Veronica Hart?"

Joe: "One of the things that strikes me now is that the industry is trying to reposition itself and exercise some control over the market place. There's a consolidation of the industry taking place on the order of what happened in Hollywood where six studios controlled distribution. You can go to the Tenplex near where I live and it is the same ten movies that are playing all over the Midwest. That's because the major studios control that.

"In the adult industry, you have about six major companies, like Vivid, Evil Angel, and VCA, are exercising control over shelf space in the video rental outlets. So there's a shakeout typical of any communication industry. From their standpoint, they're stabilizing the market. At the same time, there's a need to discover what it is that audiences really want. One of the untapped audiences is women.

"I think that Hart, without being able to articulate it fully, is trying to figure that out. How do I work within a market dominated by male taste, and she has no illusions about it being a largely sexist industry, but what can I do to make it more appealing? What is that women want their sexuality to be? And how can I be of service there?

"Again, she doesn't articulate it quite like that but the notion is that she really is interested in female sexuality. She certainly decries the notion that she is a feminist. She simply uses the word feminine.

"She's trying to reposition her films and her audience. She's a pioneer.

"The only other person doing this is Candida Royalle and her string seems to have run out. People are not interested in that kind of soft focus sentimental eroticism."

Luke: "Hart's interesting in the man bites dog category. The main consumers for this are men and women don't spend money on this stuff. That's what makes Candida Royalle such a media darling."

Joe: "Women spend some. I've been watching studies of adult video stores, and women do assist in the decisions. There was a period when women were renting a lot of video tapes, mainly for watching with their husbands and boyfriends, and that has fallen off."

Luke: "Are her movies any good, either as pornos or as movies?"

Joe: "They vary wildly. Some of the early stuff is apprentice work and dull. She did a lot of the Deep Inside Compilations... They're just spliced together sequences and they're not interesting.

"She enjoys working with Michael Ninn. She's doing something for HBO, and an animated series for Playboy. She clearly likes making things. She does best when she has a good script and she's not strong on writing scripts herself. She takes them from other people and some of them have been weak. But more recently, with Ginger Lynn writing as well as starring, some of the scenes strike me as appealing to males as well as females. And the stories are getting edgier. They have a nice erotic edge to them that are appealing."

Luke: "VCA seems to be the home of the over-the-hill porn star, using women who've worn out their one-handed welcome."

Joe: "That's possible. But judging from the steady if small market in classic porn. There are people who really enjoy watching films from the '70s and '80s. And there are people whose imaginations were cindered by Veronica Hart, Marilyn Chambers and Ginger Lynn in their salad days. And they seem to be willing to watch new incarnations of them. I don't object to it. This could be a feminist cause. People object to agism, rejecting someone's sexuality because they've passed 40 or whatever the cutoff date is. I find it interesting to rehabilitate these performers as sex stars."

Luke: "Max Hardcore."

Joe: "I find his work distasteful and misogynistic. There's a hostility there, I won't say that it upsets me, but it is extremely noticeable. I don't find it erotic. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I despise it but it presents an extreme to me. When people get upset at porn, they're often thinking about stuff like his."

Luke: "Speaking of hostility, what do you think of Dr. Robert Stoller's thesis that hostility was an essential element in sexual excitement?"

Joe: "I think transgression is always there. I've always differed from him. I think that some hostility is probably there, a sort of key ingredient to sexuality. Whether it has the proportions that he assumes, I've always questioned. He tends to single it out in the same way that Freud talks about the Id as a driving force. He sees it as more naked and I see it as more sublimated and translated into sexual attraction and appeal. I don't think that it has to be abrasive. A certain amount of hostility might be there but it is translated into the kinetic motions of intercourse.

"The late folklorist Dr. Gershon Legman thought that hostility was always present in sexual humor. Yes, but it takes many different forms. If you were to graph the millions of sexual jokes across the spectrum, you would definitely find a heavy shading towards hostility. He wrote two books on the rationale of the dirty joke. He thought hostility was a source of energy behind humor. Most jokes have an edge to them. Somebody is a butt. Somebody is a victim. Scholars are only starting to talk about this because it wasn't respectable to do this before.

"I like watching Pierre Woodman who makes glossy films for Private. There's a certain element of hostility there. There's a lot of anal sex. His films would be gonzo films except that he always embeds the sex within a story line. He has such high production values.

"Andrew Blake strikes me as an incoherent filmmaker and he's admitted that he just strings scenarios together. I don't find him terribly interesting.

"I watch Michael Ninn's stuff because I like his industrial sets and his techno approach.

"I sort of watch until I burn out or burn out my fast forward button. I've seen seven or eight thousands pornographic films. I started out at the Kinsey Institute. I helped them catalogue their stag film collection. I'm still working on a book on the stag film. It's mostly an anonymous form. One of the early centers was ironically Budapest considering they [pornographers] are going back there now. One of my grad students is working on a paper on Hungarian porn films.

"I've watched most of the world's supply of classic stag films. There are several hundred. I tend to watch them quickly. Every now and then I find something interesting or I am ravished by a particular image or I'm struck by a particular influence of performer or set or behavior..."

Luke: "How do the people closest to you regard your writing and study of pornography?"

Joe laughs. "My wife (Judith Yarros Le) has always been very supportive and perversely proud of it. There was a period when she would watch films or read text or page through photographs with me. But she got bored. She's a scholar also and works on humor. My kids are mostly amused by it. My colleagues are ambivalent. Some think it is great and some wonder why I am interested in it.

"My wife teaches interpersonal communications but like me, her PhD is actually in literature. She's just published a book on the formative years of the New Yorker. And she did a book on Garrisson Keillor.

"When I published my first article on it, I was at the University of New York, and my colleagues split evenly. I had a dean who'd also written on pornography. And she (Felice Flannery Lewis), and Margaret Mead, stood up for me. I got tenure and I never looked back.

"One of my first articles on pornographic films was for one of these odd magazines that drug companies put out to send to doctor's offices. And they reprinted one of Margaret Mead's articles. I got a phone call from her and she invited me to tea at the Museum of Natural History. We had a nice long talk. And she said, 'You really ought to be writing all this down and collecting all this stuff.'"

Luke: "How do you feel about her not taking your name?"

Joe: "I've never thought about it."

Luke: "How do your students address you?"

Joe: "As Professor Slade or Dr. Slade."

Luke: "What do you think about the growing academic fascination with pornography?"

Joe: "It's perfectly understandable. You can be cynical about it and say that it is a form of intellectual colonialism. They've run out of topics, so they've started mining the margins. At the same time, they're looking at pornography as a site for issues that are negotiated - like issues of gender, class and age. But mostly it is where notions of sexuality are given meaning. That is one of the reasons that I called my three volume work, not just pornography, but "Pornography and Sexual Representation." Because it is how sex is represented that contributes to how we think about sex.

"My assumption is that most of what we think we know about sex is just folklore.

"One of the problems with academic investigation of pornography is that so many academics are caught up in various kinds of theories. They try to impose their theories on the material rather than looking at the material first and letting the theory emerge out of the material. I try to avoid that syndrome. I've tried to look at pornography directly."

Luke: "What do you think of Gregory Dark?"

Joe: "He has a sense of humor, raucous though it is. I gather that he's changed his mind on things."

Luke: "Are there any porn films that stand on their own as good films rather than just as vehicles to masturbation?"

Joe: "Bill Osco's Alice in Wonderland was interesting. And Derek Ford's Diversions."

Luke: "Do you ever wake up at 2AM and think, 'I wish that I had never set foot in the world of pornography'?"

Joe: "Sure. Doesn't everybody. I would do the same thing about anything else that I've ever written about too. Just because you get saturated with it and you think that it has probably clouded your judgement. Do I ever feel dirtied by it? No. That's one of the reasons that I've kept my distance. I know very few people within the industry. I look at the finished product. I have the soul of a librarian or archivist.

"Perversity is inherently more interesting than routine goodness. It's liking reading Milton's Paradise Lost. Your interest is on Satan and not on God who's just a lump who sits up on his throne. Satan's human. He's defiant, rebellious, perverse."

Luke: "Is there a pattern to your research?"

Joe: "I tend to compartmentalize it. I'm really a historian of communication technologies. And at the moment I am working on a book on the inventor of the machine gun, which doesn't mean that I am interested in sex and guns.

"I've gone through the various moral panics that have attended the subject of child pornography through this century. I absolutely abhor child pornography. But I am interested in the kinds of cultural responses to it. My impression is that it is almost always hyperbolic."

Britney Spears Is Good For The Jews

Anne Roiphe writes for NYObserver.com:

The other night I was on a panel at the 92nd Street Y, biting my tongue as fellow panelist Dennis Prager spoke in a deep, ominous voice—as if the weatherman was predicting Armageddon—about the nation’s debased moral fiber. We were discussing the role of the country’s Jewish community centers in nurturing the Jewish sojourn in America. Mr. Prager, who writes on Jewish subjects and has a radio talk show in California, said that he had heard that first-graders in one J.C.C. had a “dress-up-as-Britney-Spears day.” Gasp! He’d also heard (from conservative drumbeats that pass from hill to hill across the land?) that a Jewish transvestite bingo night was permitted in one unnamed J.C.C. Mournfully, he told the audience (not in these exact words) that Jews were going to hell in a handbag. He probably meant Hillary’s handbag, although he didn’t say so.

The moderator wouldn’t let me get my two cents in on this one, so I stayed up all night phrasing and rephrasing my response. Here it is.

Let’s start with the shocking Britney Spears event. I would have said that we should be thankful that the little girls were not dressing up as JonBenét Ramsey. I would have said that the obvious glitter of the pop star, who makes a lot of money and receives a lot of adoration, creates a model of female sexual power. The little girls of the J.C.C. were doing no more than little boys do in their Superman capes: They were practicing for the real thing. Sexual power—flash and dash, the enjoyment of the body—isn’t a sign of moral decay. It’s a fact of life. Just as war games do not cause boys to become snipers, girls imitating rock stars are not so much a breed of deadly Lolitas-in-waiting as a flock of children playing dress-up. I would rather they imagined themselves in a singer’s clothes than in a Barbie-goes-on-a-date outfit. It bodes better for their futures.

I wonder why Mr. Prager is so concerned with proper dress; both of his examples of immorality run rampant hinged on clothes. I am more concerned with the immorality of children unable to get health insurance, old people who can’t eat because they spend all their money on prescription drugs, carbon dioxide that will destroy the ozone and things of that sort. Character is about love of others, control of self, honesty in your dealings with others, commitment to the bettering of the world, caring (as the Talmud says) for the widow and the orphan. It is not about monitoring the dress of others.

Are the Readers of Luke F-rd Masturbating Themselves into Oblivion? Stop Firing Blanks!!!!!

White nationalist Yggdrasil writes:

Interesting short piece in the April 2, issue of National Review on immigration by Ramesh Ponnuru. He argues that the anti-immigration faction which bases its objection on racial displacement is wrong politically as well as morally. Rather, Ponnuru supports immigration restriction based on culture - the idea that we need a slow-down in immigration to allow time for the new arrivals already here to "assimilate".

Assimilate to what, exactly?? I defy anyone to identify and clearly define an American culture. The NR piece is another one of those neocon articles which argues that our national identity is based on culture, but cannot bring itself to describe precisely what that culture might be or why, exactly, it might be worth preserving.

As Paul Weyrich has bravely pointed out, American culture has been completely destroyed. A vapid, contentless tolerance of all things good and evil hardly qualifies as a culture. I search in vain for any other unifying beliefs, values or rituals that are shared by all in this "nation".

We had a watered down American culture back in the 1950s when i was a little boy, but that culture died when Euro-America collectively decided that propagating its own genes into the future simply wasn't worth the individual effort and sacrifice, as that effort interfered too much with the business of getting and spending in our consumer society.

Having decided to abandon its own future genetic survival at the personal level, it made no sense whatever to go through the personal or collective effort of defending those aspects of religion, ethical rules, and the arts that served the purpose of keeping our collective cradle full. At bottom, our "culture" discarded all rules, rituals and traditions except those essential to keeping the cash register humming - hence the universal tolerance of everything and everybody. Rather, we decided to restrict our own birthrate and then broadly but quietly approved Roe v Wade as a device for monkeying with everyone else's birthrates.

Passing one's genes on to the next generation is an agressive and essential act in the drama of survival. There are no second place winners. The advantage of a tribe or genuine nation is that a sense of relatedness - rooted in biology but expressed in religious belief, laws, and the arts - strongly favors you in your quest to reproduce yourself. You know you are in an alien land when the forces of the popular culture reward reproductive failure or otherwise make the reproductive task more difficult for you.

America abandoned its only remaining pretense to nationhood with the advent of Roe v Wade. Indeed the most accurate symbol of our American "culture" is President Clinton firing all those blank rounds in the the Oval Office. Our "culture" urges us all to masturbate ourselves into oblivion, with Clinton leading the march and the typical soccer mom parading along behind smiling her broad approval. Thus, according to the neocons, the only serious immigration issue is how quickly we can corrupt the new arrivals into living the same lie, which, of course, is why Ponnuru knows better than to attempt do describe precisely what our "culture" might be.

The message to nationalists should be crystal clear. You must find a woman you love and start firing live and meaningful rounds. Help her fill the collective cradle of our small and scattered band! Forgo the entertainments of our popular culture in pursuit of a life-long commitment to that task! Far more productive in the long run than allowing your frustrations to provoke you into throwing youself in front of the tank treads of the universalist empire.