Monday, August 16th, 1999
Allison Kilgore
Mad Jack writes: "I hired Allison Kilgore for two shoots this weekend, and I must say, she was very professional. Quite the oppisite of the picture that the idiot wannabe "Kid Vegas" has been trying to paint over the past couple of months... It's obvious to me that HE is the one with the problem. After seeing his photo in this months AVN, I can see why he has to chase after women like Alison. For the most part, he's only shot skanks (aside from your true love, Kendra Jade) and Allison was probably the best thing to happen by since he started his "career." It might have helped if he wouldn't have had to have Dave Hardman stand in for him in his scene in "Ho in the Haystack" because he couldn't get wood, but hey, it happens to the best of us (NOT). I sent a few digitals to show you how happy Allison looks these days, as well as a couple of how we'd like to see the "Kid"."
Widow Sues The Globe
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - Michael Landon's widow filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against the Globe tabloid for portraying the couple's marriage as troubled.
The suit, filed Friday, said the Globe falsely reported on July 6 that the ``Little House on the Prairie'' and ``Highway to Heaven'' star was involved in ``such things as illegal drugs and pornography.''
Under the headline ``Michael Landon: The Shocking Truth,'' the Globe said, ``There was a dark side behind that handsome face.''
``These statements are simply not true,'' Cindy Landon said in a statement Monday. ``And I am outraged that the press feels that it can make any statements it wants about a person, no matter how damaging and no matter how false, when that person is dead and unable to defend himself.''
From :
Paul Fishbein writes: "Gene, I've seen transcripts of the latest bulls--- on the LF site. He tries to draw me in, with the bulls--- anonymous sources, but I refuse. He figures he can draw me in and he has content for his site. For those who read both sites, you Gene can run my response.
"First off, about Fetish. Within a few weeks, Fetish Magazine will be launching a new, very hot website, which has drawn great interest around the industry. Everyone has told us that a website based on Fetish (which is a very high quality book) will be a big money maker.
"Yes, it is still being published. But because it's such an expensive book to produce, we have to charge a lot and many retailers won't buy high priced books like that. We have mediocre distribution, and we basically break even. So we're rethinking our strategy and #10 will be out soon. Of course, the book helps drive the website, so we will continue to publish. It may be distributed differently. We're just being fiscally responsible.
"The other old news. While Luke finally admitted, or at least in a response told the truth for once, that he has seen the electronic balloting system, he didn't mention that I also showed him the old ballot system and never mentioned that the balloting is open for inspection for one year.
"Of course, he has another anonymous source that sat in on meetings where we fixed the awards (Savannah and other, I suppose) but of course, since you and I have been in on every awards meeting ever, we know "fixing" meetings never happened. In fact, we both know the truth. And one truth is this source will never come forward because he's lying.
"And finally, the presumption by the unknowing people who talk about us giving awards only to people who line our pockets with advertising dollars, there's no point in pointing out all the awards that go to people who don't advertise in AVN and that most of the companies are regular AVN advertisers anyway. But the Vivid and VCA comments are particularly interesting. Do any of these people watch adult movies? Don't they realize that VCA and Vivid actually make some real good stuff and perhaps, just perhaps, that they sometimes actually deserve to win." (www.geneross.com)
Randy Kaplan writes [Gene Ross]: "I don't want to give any credence to Luke F-rd, so I react to blatant falsehoods on his website by replying to you, knowing that his penchant for plagiarizing you means that he will read them. Given recent events, it wouldn't surprise me if you don't wish to accommodate this roundabout method of reacting to Ford any more, but I just can't fail to react to yet another absurdity regarding AVN on his site.
"Replying to some pathetic loser who rips the integrity of the AVN Awards, Luke clearly states that he has been shown the ballot records from when you and I and the rest of the reviewers and editors served as the judges, and that he has also seen the new electronic system for counting votes, and that he is satisfied the awards process is on the up-and-up. But facts aren't good enough for Ford. Evidence isn't good enough for Ford. He has to turn around in the very next sentence, and cite [uninformed, incorrect] rumor, and the infamous [unnamed] source, stating the exact opposite.
"Ford may think he is just being "fair," but equating verifiable fact with unsubstantiated rumor is anything but fair. It is not just factually wrong, it is morally wrong. It is one of those things that hurts people, something Ford continually whines that he does not want to do, but seems to have a sick compulsion to do anyway. I was one of many people who worked very hard to make the AVN Awards maintain an impeccable level of integrity, and to make the AVN Awards a worthwhile occasion to honor that rarity: excellence in adult entertainment. I think that the recognition of excellence in any human endeavor is worthwhile. Like any other person who participated in voting for the AVN Awards, and any other person who was ever nominated or aspired to earn a nomination, the results often did not meet my own expectations. But even an ego my size can recognize that all that means is that the collective opinion of the judges did not match my own.
"It sure as hell doesn't mean that any corruption of the process distorted the result. I think that there have been some rather absurd anomalies in the Awards; for instance, if the judges thought enough of Asia Carrera to vote her Female Performer of the Year in her rookie season, how come they preferred someone else, Kylie Ireland, to be the Best New Starlet, over Asia, in the same year? But check the ballots and you will see that apparently, enough voting judges ranked Asia high enough in balloting for the big award that they evidently thought it was enough, and ranked her at the same level or lower for the lesser newcomers' award. Of course, if the first place votes are scattered, but one of the front-runners sweeps the second spots on everyone's ballots, their total points can put them over the top. Check the ballots, and that's what happened to produce this anomaly. Wrong? In my opinion, sure! I didn't vote for either winner.
"Dishonest? Absolutely not! There are any number of such examples in the history of the Awards. As for the endlessly-repeated rumor about Savannah, let me remind Ford that the first criterion for Best New Starlet is impact on the industry. I personally thought that Savannah was a despicable human being and a poor porn performer. I also think that it might have occurred to someone who was practically addicted to plastic surgery that a broken nose was not likely to be a career-ending event, and not sufficient reason to blow one's brains out. Nevertheless, anyone who doesn't think she deserved that award at that time understands very little about the adult video business.
"I understand why AVN changed the voting format for the Awards. Basically, it has always been a can't-win situation. You can't make everyone happy; you can't stop the ridiculous rumors; you might as well make the whining great unwashed porn crowd collectively potentially responsible for their unhappiness by inviting them to vote for the Awards themselves. I personally think that opening up the voting in this way will devalue the Awards; as a result, I don't vote any more, after being one of the panel of voting judges for six years. During those years, I spent literally hundreds of hours watching, taking notes, and comparing the fourteenth-best Anal Scene Shot On Video to the fifteenth-best.
"I doubt many of the current voters take similar pains. But, as I say, I understand and appreciate the reasons for the changes. But here's the point: if the Awards are corrupt or corruptible, and there is no risk of being thrown out as a judge, why won't the anonymous source who claims the Savannah award was fixed identify themselves? Surely they don't believe that in the feud-loving, soap-opera world of porn that they would risk future employment. (Well, I guess Leisure Time might not offer you the chance to edit the five-zillionth Savannah compilation we've all been waiting for with bated breath.) Come forth, the Deep Throat of Deep Throating! The Luke F-rds, the whining losers, the mainstream always-get-the-porn-world-wrong media will lionize you. The 'revelation' would easily be worth thousands in interview fees, free lunches, media junkets, and the like. Mike Albo would take you to lunch, and not in East LA! Could the real answer be that the award wasn't fixed, and that the nameless source is another tiresome manifestation of the fetid, pusillanimous, morally corrupt imagination of Luke F-rd?" (www.geneross.com)
Gene sez: "One added note, if someone is trying to make some sinister connection between the fact that Savannah was both Best New Starlet and a Vivid contract girl, bear one thing in mind. The bulk of Savannah's work and subsequent exposure which justified her award as having profound influence upon the industry, came during the period when she was working for Leisure Time."
Luke A Right-Winger?
Alan Miles writes: "Got an email from a guy that said he recognizes Luke F-rd from his site photo but that's not his real name. This guy also said he was nothing more than a plant for the Religious Right. Who knows? I accused LF of that in an e-mail to him. This, after he e-mailed me to see if I would do an interview with him. Hell, I'm not involved with the adult video biz. I'm just a sexual freedom fighter. I want to know who this guy really is? Alan Miles www.sin-city.net
Rob Black's Xtreme Pro Wrestling
Johnny Ratbastard writes: Rob Black's Extreme Associates has started thier own pro wrestling federation "XPW" Xtreme Pro Wrestling. Kristy Myst, Lizzy Borden and Jasmine St. Claire are all involved with the group as well as members of ECW. The official XPW website is up and running at http://XPWrestling.com. The debut show was at XPW Arena in Reseda on July 31st and drew about 750 people and had appearences by all the above mentioned as well as Tom Byron and Ashlyne Gere. The next show is in Receda on August 27th and the one after that is on the 28th in San Bernadino.
Swingers at www.hedonists.com
Alan Miles, publisher of a swingers magazine at www.sin-city.net, writes Luke: "And all this time I really thought you might be a cop or otherwise affilliated with some law enforcement creep. You may still be a plant....but now it appears that you may be a plant from the Religious Right. Geeesh.....tell me it ain't so. I realize now that you are just playing with us but I still want to know the name of your "game." And without credible comment from whoever "Luke F-rd" really is --- that will be impossible, won't it? I just joined a grass-roots movement to publicly confront the RR and expose them for what they really are -- if you are one of them I will haunt you about it until you draw your last breath. The fight for sexual freedom and privacy rights in this country is just beginning on the grass-roots level by the people that are a part of that movement. The adult industry and associated industries have their organizations, but this is an organization of and by the people that enjoy sex and personal happiness. Check it out at www.hedonists.com. It will begin, as they say, in September, and every sanctimonious son-of-a-bitch hypocritical RR believer is our target. We will infiltrate government just as they have done but we will be representative of the majority of thinking people....not the mindless drones that subscribe to the theocratic philosophy of the fundamentalist, bigoted, hate-mongers, self-righteous pseudo-Christians. We will win and return America to the "land of the free.""
From A&E's Show on the Mitchell Brothers
The last airing (for now) was this past Saturday August 14. Here's a review of it from A&E's official website.
CITY CONFIDENTIAL: San Francisco: Betrayal By The Bay It's the legendary city by the bay: sparkling waters under the sprawling Golden Gate bridge, quaint shops along Pier 39, the smell of fresh sourdough bread, the mystique of Chinatown, and the trolley cars clanking up and down roller coaster hills. CITY CONFIDENTIAL: SAN FRANCISCO: BETRAYAL BY THE BAY recounts how San Francisco was a liberal, wide-open, anything-goes place when brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell began their family porno-film business. Their breakthrough movies starred Marilyn Chambers and Linda Lovelace in porn classics like Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door. But Jim was a family man and Artie was seriously overindulging in booze and drugs. Jim finally decided to get Artie into treatment, but his method was unconventional. Jim showed up at Artie's house in the middle of the night with a couple of guns and a knife. Artie came into the hall with a beer in his hand. Jim saw the glint on the beer can, mistook it for a gun, and fired. Artie died as his girlfriend hysterically called 911.
Artie's death would shock the local community and mark the end of an era for the multi-million-dollar porn empire the brothers had built together. Jim spent over a million dollars on his defense, assembling a "dream team" with Michael Tigar, one of the hottest criminal lawyers in the country, as the lead. The trial's cast of characters included top politicians and exotic dancers. The defense put Artie's life on trial as witnesses testified that Artie had been out-of-control, a worry to everyone. Jim was the responsible, loving older brother who ran the business and gave his brother constant support. In the end, Jim was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. He received a six-year sentence, and is already back on the streets. Today, the city's residents look the other way as Jim continues to run the family business.
Interview with Pop Critic J.D. Considine
J.D. Considine, 42 years of age, is a well known pop music critic. On staff at the Baltimore Sun since 1986, he also writes regularly for Entertainment Weekly and Guitar World. From 1979 to 1996, he wrote for Rolling Stone. He appeared regularly on the VH1 show "Four on the Floor," which was a sort of rock critic equivalent to "The McLaughlin Group." It aired from '94-'96, and earned a Cable Ace nomination ("Politically Incorrect" took the award).
JD: "I've interviewed most of the major stars. I did an interview in 1984 with Eric Clapton that was well thought of... I've interviewed Madonna... I wrote a book about Van Halen. I wrote a quarter of the Rolling Stone album guide. Probably the most famous thing I've ever written was a 1982 review of group GTR, led by Steve Howe from YES and Steve Hackett who used to be in Genesis. The title of the album was GTR and my review read "SHT." People still talk about it."
Luke: "Does create slashing journalism create more attention?"
JD: "In the case of the GTR review, it was short and appropriate. The group released one album and was never heard from again. I don't think that adversarial journalism per se holds up. The only reason that journalism has merit, regardless of the form that it is in, is if it speaks to the truth. If you make an adversarial point that is valid, people will remember that. If you make an advocative point that is valid, people will remember that. But what they tend to remember is what is valid, not how provocative you are.
"And as evidence, I would point to the career of Paul Kassner. He is a name that only journalism junkies truly recognize and who is probably more notorious than famous [for his adversarial journalism]. He was the one who came up with the image of the woman being fed into the meat grinder at Hustler, an image that even Larry Flynt, in the current issue of Loaded, regrets having published. It was certainly provocative and adversarial journalism, it was also a colossal mistake. Because it did not speak to any essential truth, it only made a very offensive point.
"Kassner was editor of Hustler for a couple of years. Before that he was the editor of the Realist, the underground leftwing counter-culture newsletter. It was to the yippie left as the Nation is to the academic left. It would pay lip service to Noam Chomsky but it was blindly provocative more than it was thoughtful... It's the sad state of the Left in America... It is such a benighted landscape. You can name a dozen examples of conservative journalism and maybe four examples of Leftist...
"I listen to a wide variety of music. In the background now you'll hear Sibellius symphony number five. There's almost nothing I won't listen to... As a journalist, I try to convey my affection for sound in an articulate way that makes people think about what they're listening to and why it works, what informs the music and musicians that they listen to... Unlike some journalists who are more interested in the culture of the music's listenership, I am more interested in the sound..."
Luke: "Do you consider rockn'rollers to be musicians?"
JD: "Absolutely. If recording existed in the 18th Century, most of what was published by Chopin would not have been published but simply been recorded. Furthermore, if composers of the level of creativity of Mozart were alive today they would likely be making popular music. Because Mozart, although a very deep musician on a compositional level, was also extremely interested in reaching an audience. And it is not that difficult imagining him wanting to make pop music on a sophisticated level, much on the same way that Stevie Wonder does. The difference being that Stevie Wonder's training was much more casual than Mozart's... If you look at the things Stevie Wonder does in terms of harmonic complexity and so forth, it is very ingenious... Or Quincy Jones, a well trained musician, without his input Michael Jackson's Thriller album would not have had the impact it did.
"There is an awful lot of musical knowledge that is either not acknowledged or even disparaged in the pop music genre simply because it is considered to be not cool to know what you're doing."
Luke: "Rockn'roll seems so primitive that I find it hard to mention it in the same breath as classical?"
JD: "Are you familiar with the song Greensleaves?"
Luke: "Primitive."
JD: "But is enduring and it has been used as a basis for more sophisticated pieces. What we think of as classical music is a means of processing a melodic idea. A symphony or a sonata or anything using the sonata form (three movement, mid tempo, slow tempo, fast tempo construction) is a formula for developing a melodic idea... A process for spinning out variations on a melody... Any tune can be treated that way. The difference is a matter of focus. What a pop composer is trying to do is achieve something completely different than what a classical music composer was trying to achieve 150 years ago. You can't say Edgar Allen Poe was a bad writer but as a detective fiction writer, Murder in the Rue Morgue (widely regarded as the first example of detective fiction) is not as good as Elmore Leonard. It worked for its time but what Poe and Leonard tried to do are two different things. They are in a similar genre. But they're different goals.
"What a popular composer is trying to do is come up with a strong melodic idea and convey a certain amount of emotion and mood through pure music, which is usually done with repetition, not development. A classical composer, on the other hand, is taking a theme and trying to stretch it out. Much in the same way as a jazz soloist takes a harmonic idea and extrapolates on that. But just because someone is working within a simple harmonic or rythmic format does not necessarily mean that what they are trying to do is unimaginative or unsophisticated. In many ways, it is more difficult to come up with a strong, memorable, cogent simple idea that can be endlessly repeated than it is to come up with a complicated idea that you can than spin off endless variations.
"Stewart Copeland, the drummer for Police, along with Sting and Andy Summers, all had strong musical backgrounds. They could all play jazz. But Copeland realized that most jazz musicians could not play music like the Police... Police came up with music that was melodic and memorable... And there was a level of sophistication to it... But they weren't being paid for the sophistication. That isn't what made them worthwhile... In many ways, it is easier to make an abstruse art film than a straight-ahead popular success. Not that there is more technique involved, but that there is a certain amount of imagination that either you have or don't have...
"I definitely think that what is going on with popular music has very strong aesthetic validity even if it doesn't seem as sophisticated as more sophisticated forms of music."
Luke: "Is rockn'roll a living genre?"
JD: "It depends on how you define rockn'roll. If you define music in terms of its rythmic basis, rockn'roll has been waning for about ten years... And the rythmic ideas behind hip-hop have been coming into ascendancy. But there's an awful lot of guitar based music that almost anyone hearing it would consider it to be rockn'roll even though rythmically it's driven by more of a hip-hop feel than by straight rockn'roll feel.
"The difference between hip-hop and rockn'roll is like the difference between swing and bebop. Hip-hop works off an implied double time beat. And so instead of being based on a quarter note pulse, it is built on an eighth note feel. Hip-hop is the culture that created rap music. If you listen to a rap record and how the beat doubles back on itself, and compare that to listening to a '60s soul record where the beat is straight forward, that's the difference.
"With bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and other popular bands, as well as the Backstreet Boys, you have this rythmic feel that gives an extra flip to the groove."
Luke: "What do you think about the growing attraction of many rockers to the porn industry?"
JD: "If you spend six, nine, twelve months of the year on the road, all of your time in busses and hotel rooms...it's not hard to understand how a lifestyle like that would lead to watching porn on video. Almost every band I've ever talked to watches a ton of video while on the road... Because there's not much else to do on the bus. Some watch regular movies, some watch porn, some watch a mix. It's only natural that one would feed an interest in the other.
"Historically musicians have always been a low caste group in culture. I know you're a fan of Haydn. And what set him apart from many musicians in his era was that he had a sponsor in the royal family of the Hapsburgs... He could hire musicians and give them real jobs so that they could afford to buy houses and so on... But in terms of the social strata of the Hapsburg Court, Haydn's musicians were about the level of stable hands. In most parts of the world, musicians and actors and prostitutes were considered pretty much all of the same ilk. So it shouldn't come as a surprise today that they would all find similar interests..."
Luke: "I'm surprised that there hasn't been a great porno-rock connection in the past."
JD: "I think there has been more of a subtle connection but the music industry has been controlled by multinational corporations since the early '60s while pornography back then was mainly smokers and mob-oriented... The opportunity for any kind of creative interaction was limited. By the time pornography became the industry that it is today, the record industry was already established as a multinational corporate structure. And CBS and Thorn EMI and Philips Norelco and Universal which owned MCA were not companies that wanted to align themselves with underground companies like Caballero...
"There was a band in Boston in the early '80s who called themselves Seka after the porn star. There's Phil Collins who included Desiree Cousteau in his thank yous for his 1993 album Both Sides. I asked him about that, and he said that there was a time in the '80s, after his first wife had left him, and he was on the road a lot, and he got a certain comfort from watching Desiree Cousteau movies... I'll put it in there and see if anybody notices... Porn stars back then were not the media stars they are today.
"During the glam metal boom of the '80s, most of the porn stars on the rise were going to the same clubs as bands on the rise like Motley Crue, Poison... But it wasn't explicitly acknowledged. I think the most explicit references were on Motley Crue's "Girls, Girls, Girls," where they didn't name actresses, they named strip clubs... There was a different media dynamic back then.
"Matt Zane and Vivid are actively marketing themselves... During the 1980s, people went from commercials to music videos to movies. Now they go from commercials to movies. So, to find people who are interested in making music videos, which is a lucrative but demanding and short-term business, in the search for new talent, a lot of porn directors ended up doing videos. They could deliver product on a tight budget on deadline... And they had a reputation that the people they were working with could appreciate..."
Luke: "How did porn stars become such media celebs?"
JD: "Are you familiar with a thing called the VCR? Back in the early '80s, I did a story about videocassettes... I remember one of the salesmen telling me that whenever they sold a VCR, they'd usually sell three movies, two mainstream and one X. They were mainly young couples who were interested in seeing the stuff but would never go to the [X-rated] movie theaters... So now they can own the stuff and nobody would know. That's when the pornography industry exploded. Videotape turned things around for them...
"Over time, as the price for the porn video kept in line with the sell through stuff, kept at a steady flow. I imagine that many people learned the lesson of Clarence Thomas - not to rent videos but to buy them."
Thomas was the black nominee to the US Supreme Court who got tangled up with Anita Hill and sexual harassment charges. Part of the background check done on him was what videos he rented.
JD: "He also single-handedly made Long Dong Silver a household name. Hill claimed that Thomas was very impressed with Mr. Silvers, um, ouevre, and discussed it in the office.
"We are so saturated with imagery that it takes something beyond being attractive to make us remember things. Hardcore sex tends to give your image an edge in someone's memory... I wrote a piece in December of last year about porn star cameos in mainstream films. I remember seeing the ad on MTV for Very Bad Things. And in the 30 second ad, six of the seconds were of Kobe Tai's [Vivid girl] face as she fell to the floor as a dead hooker. I saw that and said, that's Kobe Tai. And I thought to myself, I bet other people recognize that, I wonder how many will admit it?
"An awful lot of the porn stars who do do cameos in films don't get credit or very veiled credits. For example, Asia Carrera actually has lines in The Big Lebowski. But you won't see her names on the credits. And when I tried to do this story on porn stars in mainstream, the publicists for Very Bad Things refused to cooperate. They wanted nothing to do with a story that mentions that Kobe Tai is in it. And even Ron Jeremy will tell you about his troubles... He even had a scene cut out of the Robert DeNiro film Ronin.
"Mainstream, because they're dealing with the whole country, has a problem acknowledging porn. At the same time, they recognize the value of having porn stars in there... That many people will recognize them and they will get frisson from it. Particularly when you are talking about someone as distinctive looking as Kobe Tai is."
Luke: "What did you think of the book Hit Men, which detailed the music industry's ties to organized crime? I've always thought of the music industry as a particularly filthy industry."
JD: "It is. As music critic Dave Marsh pointed out, the biggest fault with the book is that Hit Men author Fredric Dannen was seduced on a personality level by the guy from Roulette Records... He was the Gambino's family man in the music industry. Roulette got Count Basie in the 1950s , Morris Levy.... Because the Mob got a hold of Basie... I'm pretty used Basie made no money off the albums he did for Roulette which were some of the best work he did...
"Another book details the relations between MCA, the Mob and Ronald Regan... An LA Times writer William Knoedelseder did a book on the music industry called Stiffed... Irving Azoff, the manager of the Eagles, became the head of MCA Records during the 1980s... He brought guys who were part of the Gambino family in with him... And they took over...
"The music industry now is cleaner than it has been as the power has been increasingly concentrated in multi-national corporations... The ownership level of mobbed-up interests has decreased...
"The mob came in because of the payola laws established during the Dick Clark era in the 1950s... The notion of paying radio stations money to play a record became illegal. This shadow culture developed wherein consultants were paid by the major labels to do the bribery at an arm's length removed... It was not common for programmers to get bribes ranging from cash to drugs to girls to laptop computers to play songs...
"Even though there are 3-4,000 albums released a year, and tens of thousands of singles, most radio stations will only have an active playlist of 15-20 records... Furthermore, if you look at the charts in recent years, as oppposed to the '60s and '70s where records moved up and down the charts at a rapid pace, a hit record these days will stay a hit record for six, eight, nine months... So the profit potential from having a hit record has grown at the same time that the pressure for getting your record in has also grown. So it is not surprising..."
Luke: "Why did they pass the law? What is wrong with paying radio stations to play your songs?"
JD: "Back in the '50s, people believed that rockn'roll led to teenage delinquency. And the only reason tha the radio stations were playing those awful rockn'roll records was because they were paid to. The payola laws were intended to keep good music on the radio. Instead they opened the door to the mob. It's a familiar refrain in American culture."
Luke: "I do think that rockn'roll leads to delinquency."
JD: "That [notion] is ridiculous. The vast majority of Americans listen to rockn'roll and the delinquency rates, if you study them historically, stay essentially constant and the only reason they go up and down is because the youth population goes up and down. In fact, delinquency rates at the latter part of the 20th Century are lower than they were at the earlier part of the 20th Century. In large part because there is much more education and chance for social advancement. If you look back at late 19th Century New York when you had all those horrible youth gangs... Incredible murder and thuggery...
"What people are reacting to is not the music but their economic prospects and their level of education... And what they see as the future before them."
Luke: "I tend to think of the rock culture as morally corrupting, particularly to those who traffic in it."
JD: "Most people who traffic off politics tend to be corrupt but that does not make politics by nature immoral.
"When Fatty Arbuckle was under the limelight for his scandal [death of a young woman], were their people imitating his lifestyle? If you're talking about decadent lifestyles, look at [classical music composer] Franz Lizst, and Fredric Chopin and Richard Wagner... Wagner was having an affair with the wife of his orchestrator and had a child by her. This decadence is not new...
"If you want to look at adverse pop culture influence, people doing things that they absorbed from pop culture that cause grievous bodily harm, you will find far more instances from mainstream Hollywood films than from pop music. There was a highschool football movie about three years ago where guys, to show how brave they are, go out and lie down on the road. And a bunch of kids saw the movie and went out and did the same thing and they got run over by cars. And the scene wound up getting excised from the film. That's much more concrete than people being incited to have sex because of what they think the lyrics to "Louie, Louie" were."
Luke: "I think of the beat of rock music as pagan and the whole of rock culture as drug infested."
JD: "A. There is no specific pagan musical tradition..."
Luke: "The rock beat seems really sexual."
JD: "The rock beat today is completely different from the beat of 1954. Are people having sex in a different way now? Any kind of music that invokes dancing feels sexual because dancing and sexual activity have parallel energies. In the 19th Century, the Waltz was considered completely immoral and a threat to the culture because it involved people moving in what was seen as a sexual fashion. My question to you would be: Does the music instigate this or does the music reflect repressed or sublimated desire?"
Luke: "Both."
JD: "No. If you asked the average person, what would you rather do, have sex or dance, most people would say, have sex. But life doesn't work like that. Sex isn't something that you can go get at the cafeteria. So they dance in hopes that that will lead to sex or in lieu of sex... We're talking about sublimation, not instigation.
"The real driving force behind the interest in pornography... If the average porn consumer could have as much sex as he watched, they wouldn't be watching it."
Luke: "I can't dance... I just can't do it..."
JD: "Some people when they look at a Van Gogh painting, see the palette technique, see the relationship of colors, see the underlying aesthetic that an art historian would talk about. Other people see an image that affects them on an emotional level that they can't articulate. Which is the more valid aesthetic response? Neither. Each is valid in its own way. Some people listen to music but can't react physically to it, but get pleasure from the vitality of the sound. Some people hear music and instinctively react to it physically. And some people just don't get it at all. To say that one response is more valid than another is absurd.
"Go to dance clubs and you'll be surprised how many people who go to dance clubs can't dance well. What you're talking about is a sense of insecurity... That because you don't feel comfortable dancing, it makes you self conscious. And therefore it inhibits you from having pleasure doing it. That's how many people think about sex... But the whole point of sex, is relating to another person in much the same way that conversation is... Maybe there are people who are better at conversation than others...
"The world is full of people who are not very good at having sex, but have produced children through it. And I guess this would be one of the things that bothers you about the peverse aesthetization of sex in pornography. It athletizes sex. You look down at your own erection and see that you're not as big as Marc Davis or you look at your girlfriend and you see that she does not have the boobs of Jenna Jameson... And that is where these things become destructive...
"If you like playing baseball, but everytime you go up to bat you think, I am no Mark McGuire, I might as well not hit the thing... If you do that, you are not going to have fun. But that's more about your sense of who you are...
"I can't dance for beans but I listen to dance music all the time because I still get aesthetic pleasure from it (in a different way from someone who moves to it). My experience of music is different, and that is why I am a critic. Like I am sure that your experience of the porn industry is different from other people... And it is one of the reasons why you are compelled to respond to it in the way you do... And others respond in the way they do."
Luke: "How did you find my site?"
JD: "I found it through the bookstore Atomic Books... Scott Huffines touted you a couple of times... I describe it to people as the porn industry equivalent to The Real World [MTV show]."
Email: "I just read your interview with J.D. Considine. For what it's worth, I thought that it was informative, intelligent, articulate and from an advocative stand point, valid. Thank you for including something other than the tired, old, he-said, she-said, make the entire industry look retarded, porn gossip."
Luke's Dad, the Preacher, Writes:
Dear Luke
There is probably no need to reassure you that you are so oftenin our thoughts but I have to say that these thoughts are mainly anxious thoughts. I have the feeling and dread of coming catastrophe for you unless you redirect your considerable talents. Your present course is tempting Heaven and inviting Hell.
Anyone who read your website asks if that can be the product of the fine young man they once knew---much of it is demonic or to use a more common term--filthy or perhaps the word should be lascivious. Whatever it is termed it leads to death. It can only influence people downwards. I would hate to have that guilt on my conscience, that I have contributed to the eternal ruin of many beings made in the image of God. But we fear not only for those you are harming by inviting them to fleshly indulgences that can only destroy---we fear for you the author of this downward course that depraves. God alone judges without prejudice and I believe he will judge that life harmed you greatly without any of your original choosing but that in these latter days of your experience you put up little fight against the evil propensities now reigning in your life and work.
Let me assure you with the certainty of a prophet though I am no prophet---things will not continue as they are. The bubble will soon burst and we are scared to death that you will burst with it. O that you might see how unnecessary is this coming debacle! O that you might see that you are greatly loved by God and your parents and friends. O that you might see that all evil leads to death and goodness to life. And so that you would do something about it. Don't wipe this away with a grimace. I love you. I want the best for you. But while you choose as you daily choose neither I nor anyone else can help you. Why not choose life and light and love rather than death, darkness and eternal loss? I beg of you-consider and consider well. Time for you may be very short. Much love from us both Dad
Stick: "In some weird way you sounded a little over fascinated at NJG detailed account of her rape. I'm not saying you have a rape fetish or anything like that, and I believe you were sincere in you remorse for her and your disgust of the perpetrator, but maybe you get off at the pain you were feeling. You seem to have sadistic personality, that loves to inflict pain on yourself. For instance your choice of work tears your soul and heart out, yet you stay in it to spite yourself. You relentlessly expose dangerous thugs who regularly threaten your checkbook, and your life, but you still keep chugging away with total disregard for your own well being."
Email: "Luke, was at Dr. F's yesterday and told them that people think you are a terrible journalist. He said a terrible journalist was suitable for talking about poor cinema."
Slade writes: i read the feature on you in rolling stone, so i figured id check out the website. im impressed with all the info, and i like that you f---in bust balls of all these characters in the porn business. you seem like you get alot of slack from alot of blockheads...f--- 'em, keep doin your s--- and you seem like your havin a good time so your set. now, how can i get some exposure cause i have a couple of tapes of me f---ing girlfriends, and i was wondering if there was any cut off point to being a porn star like height, weight, build, dick size and s--- like that.
Chuck Martino will shrug off his car accident and direct Cheeks 11 for Coast to Coast this week, possibly starring Inari Vachs and Rebecca Wild.
From www.darklady.com:
Top or bottom? Which are you? How many of us have been asked this question? How many of us have replied with "both?"
When I made my first official introduction to the local BDSM community I was nursing a wounded heart and had decided to explore my submissive side as part of my healing. I met a lot of very nice Tops who were more than willing to lend a helping hand or whip or collar but none of them were right for where I was emotionally or kink-wise at the time. It took another switch to help me find the path to my own perversions. And, like so many things in my life, I discovered that the path went in more than one direction. I discovered that it could be fun to both feel the whip and place the clip. I remember Lolita pointing out at LIL XII that some exclusive Tops (just like exclusively gay or straight folks) think that switches (like bisexuals) don't know what they want. She pointed out quite accurately that we know exactly what we want: we want it all! Just like I don't always want to be on the top of bottom during sex, there are just times when I feel more Toppish and times when I feel more bottomish. Expose a round, smooth butt wiggling for attention and my palm is ready for contact. Hand me a set of testicles and a turgid penis and I can feel the Dom blood flowing through my veins. Place that same penis down my throat and a warm cloak of submission wraps around itself around me like a second skin. I don't think I'm confused. I think I'm blessed. As a wordsmith, I consider myself to be a "method" writer. I'd rather not write about a subject unless I've had the opportunity to spend time in the community or engage in the activity that I'm covering. I'm not interested in treating my subjects like clever monkeys in a zoo to be gawked at and fussed over and then forgotten. That concept continues in my play. Although there are things I'm not interested in doing as a Top or as a bottom, I want to at least sample from each food group, if you will. My play style is ultimately my play style and until I've tried something or watched someone else try it, I really don't know whether or not I'll like it. Sometimes fantasies do better in fantasy land and sometimes they pale in comparison to the real thing. I've been meeting more and more people who are perceived as being exclusively Tops or exclusively bottoms but who have secret switch fantasies. I think that's exciting. For some, it's truly "edge play" to see life from the other side of the scene. I wonder sometimes how many people are repressing their switch urges (whether they be strong or weak) out of concern for their public image or because of internal censors. BDSM is still gaining acceptance within mainstream society and women who bottom or identify as exclusively or largely submissive, for instance, are sometimes viewed as victimized or symbols of abuse by those who don't distinguish between mutually consensual BDSM and genuine, non-consensual abuse. Likewise, many people received strong messages about appropriate behavior as children and so Topping or being Dominant can trip some serious "don't be mean" switches. Ultimately, regardless of how we self-identify or how others identify us, we are responsible for our own explorations in life, love, work, sex and play. Ultimately, our greatest scenes will be played inside of our own heads and with ourselves as both Top and bottom, Dominant and submissive. And ultimately, it is our own satisfaction and approval that we must seek and earn. As we grow to know ourselves, we will grow as companions and players, friends and lovers, Tops, bottoms or switches and, ultimately, human beings.
Candida Royalle and Nina Hartley Teach Porno 101
The Los Angeles edition of the Learning Annex, www.learningannex.com, features a course on pornography by Nina Hartley while the New York edition features a class by Candida Royalle:
"Adult-film star/Fillmmaker Candida Royalle on Breaking into Adult Movies--In Front of or Behind the Camera" Explains the latest Learning Annex catalog:
“Who better to teach the, er, ins and outs of breaking into adult video--in front of or behind the scenes--than renowned adult-film star, filmmaker and sexual revolutionary Candida Royalle? Candida’s gone from being a highly successful star of top X-rated movies to the president of her own internationally acclaimed production company, which makes sex-positive movies from a woman’s perspective. In this fascinating evening, she’ll talk about her own successful career and explore all areas of the adult video biz, from preproduction to distribution.
“Topics include: So you wanna be a porn star? How to get an acting audition. Money you can expect to make. How to find top agents. Myths, fantasies and realities. Pitfalls to avoid. How to get a job behind the scenes. Tips for writing a salable script. Softcore vs. hardcore. Safe-sex practices. How to raise money for your idea. How to jumpstart your acting, writing, directing or producing career in adult video.” “Plus: Q&A...Why watching porn can do wonders for your relationship...How to make your own hot films for fun and profit....And more!.....”