April Storm's Birthday Party Thursday Night
Alex Sanders, Phyllisha Anne Alex Sanders, Phyllisha Anne April Storm April Storm Phyllisha Anne, Alex Sanders, Nick Manning Nick Manning Hailey Young Amber Rayne Amber Rayne Amber Rayne Erika Cole Seymour, Hailey Young Kane, new talent Kane Kane Sunny Lane, Flower Tucci Journalist Gram Ponante and publicist Dusty Marie Estelle Maria Menandez Dane and his date Dane and his date Monstar, Maria Holly Morgan, Scott Nails Holly Morgan, Scott Nails
I arrive at 10:25pm to Privilege (at the intersection of Sunset and Crescent Heights Blvds), walking half a mile to get free parking near Santa Monica Blvd. Organizer Brad Thomas whisks me in.
"You were downcast the other night," asks Monstar. "About Holly posing nude."
"Yeah," I say.
"I told you," he says. "I've got something I've got to show you."
It takes him a minute to get it on his cell phone. I look around the party, paying little attention. Then Monstar puts it in my face. It is of some woman squeezing her breasts together to make them look big.
"Is that Stormy?" I ask.
"No, due" he says with a smile. "It's Holly."
"Holly f----- Randall."
I stare at the picture. I recognize those breasts. Damn.
"I can see her nipples," I yowl.
"No, you can't," says Monstar.
"You turned her out," I accuse. "You turned her into a ho."
"Dude, what's wrong with you?" says Monstar. "No wonder girls throw you out like a parking ticket."
Dr. Phil says that if you find a girl with 80% of what you're looking for, you should grab her and grow the other 20%. You'll do that a lot quicker than waiting for someone who's 100% of what you're looking for.
So I grab on to Amber Rayne (she turned 21 last September) and spend much of the night talking to her.
In porn six months, she's done about 40 scenes, mainly gonzo for such companies as Red Light District.
"I was doing mainstream," she says, "but I can't deal with mainstream anymore. I was so interested in [porn]. I enjoy it."
Since age 15, Amber has loved porn. "I've always been a sexual person."
With Bad Ass Models, Amber has a couple of small tattoos. She plans to get "Bad Ass Models" tattooed on her ankle.
Luke: "Why do you like tattoos?"
Amber: "I like the needle going into my skin. The pain. The burning."
Luke: "Do you like to cut yourself?"
Amber: "Do I like to cut myself? Oh no."
Luke: "Are you into pain?"
Amber: "You mean bondage and hot wax and that? Yes."
Luke: "I've had a couple of porn friends who cut themselves and I'm trying to work it through. So I'm asking everyone today if they cut themselves."
Amber: "That's a little scary."
Luke: "It scares me. That's why I'm talking about it.
"How has it affected your life to be a porn star?"
Amber: "I've learned to accept myself for who I am."
Another person comes up and says hi to me.
"Hey," I say.
"You have friends everywhere," says Amber. "That's awesome."
She's such a positive person, I feel my gloom diminish.
"I realized this is who I want to be," purrs Amber. "This is who I am as a person. Before, I was quiet and composed. I didn't want to let myself go. Now I feel like a free person.
"I worked hard at school. I entered college as a junior [because she did so many AP prep classes]. I have my BA in Theater Arts and a minor in Art History [from Cal State LA]."
Luke: "How does your family think [about Amber doing porn]?"
Amber: "My mom and and dad were concerned at first. My mom mostly. Now they've broken into manager mode. My mom's like, 'You have a shoot tomorrow. Make sure you go to AIM. Have your test with you.' She's very supportive. I've set up a 401K plan for retiring. She's my financial advisor. I'm investing in real estate."
I give a bedazzled look.
"I'm something else," she says. "I know. I'm not your normal girl."
Luke: "They don't watch your movies?"
Amber: "I've sent my mom my boxcovers and my clothed shots. She'll say they're cute."
Luke: "Not spread shots?"
Amber: "No, no, no."
Luke: "Were you traumatized as a kid and that led you into porn?"
Amber: "Not at all. I was a regular girl. I played sports. I played the guitar. I went to school. I worked."
Luke: "How's porn affected your love life?"
Amber: "I've had a boyfriend for a long time. He's awesome with it. He knows that I come home to him every night. We'll watch my scenes together. He's a musician. I love musicians. I love '80s metal bands. This is Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil. I'm the biggest Motley Crue girl you'll ever meet."
Luke: "I'm the biggest Air Supply boy you'll ever meet."
Amber: "Really? I love metal."
Lynn LeMay is back. She's going to parties, she's drinking, and she's hanging out with directors again (lately it's been Nic Andrews).
Amber Rayne says she spent her Saturday at the AVN Show in Las Vegas watching football and drinking beer with the Red Light District directors. "That's the kind of girl I am," she says. "I like football and beer."
"There aren't many girls like that," I say.
"I'm one of a kind," she replies. "I'd rather go to a bar or a football game on a date."
"When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"
"I wanted to be a performer on camera."
"What mainstream stuff did you do?"
"I did Kids in America with Nicole Richie. I was a cheerleader. I did... Cafeteria 3. I did a lot of theatre."
Amber grew up in Detroit and lived in Northern California before moving to Los Angeles almost two years ago.
She says she had a 4.25 GPA in highschool.
"Do you find your minor in Art History helps you in porn?"
"It does. The photographers tell me to do various poses and I know what they're talking about. I can get into intellectual conversations with them."
Erika Kole says she's going back to school, possiby NYU, to study film.
Standing next to 5'11" publicist Dusty Marie, I don't feel big enough.
"Never act out on any insecurity you feel," journalist Gram Ponante advises his Adult industry clients.
"You're as big as you feel," says Dusty.
I chat with Scott Nails's (23yo) date Holly Morgan, 21. She just did her first boy-girl scene with him.
Holly's a dental assistant in Las Vegas, where she grew up and still lives.
"How does porn affect your relationships with men?"
"I only do girl-girl," she says. "What kind of man has a problem with me f------ hot girls?
"Girl-girl is fun, but after a while, you get curious about what boy-girl is all about."
A guy named Frank gets in trouble with the bouncers for not turning off his video camera. Several people were surprised I got my camera into the party.
The party seems to be 95% civilians. Cousin Stevie and a few others smoke inside the club, which is illegal in California.
Erika becomes emotional about the death of Anna Malle. "She was such a good person," says Erika. "I did my first orgy for Anna."
The pounding loud music makes it hard to carry on a conversation. I leave shortly after midnight.
My pictures suck. Even by my low standards, I can only publish a couple dozen of them. It's so hard to get focus in the dark. I need an external flash and a battery pack to supplement my Nikon D100. Does anyone have a good deal or a good recommendation? I need to be able to lock the focus in low-light situations.
David writes:
If it is a matter of not being able to focus because it's dark an external flash or quantum flash with a battery pack will not help you. Those flashes are to be used if you are covering a large area and want to fill in the light throughout the large area. Even if you had those flashes, you still won't be able to focus in the dark because the flash is off while you are focusing.
What you need to do is use the nightshot capability on your camera. What it does is pre-flash several times so that the camera can focus before the shutter is released and the flash goes off again. Your on-camera flash is adequate for what you do.
James DiGiorgio writes: "With my canon cameras and a canon speedlite on board--there's not enough light to auto-focus, the speedlite will fire a "pre-flash" that will allow for focusing and, in any of the auto modes, will set the exposure and the power output of the strobe. I rarely shoot in the conditions you shoot in, i.e., i don't take snapshots (heheheh) but I'm pretty sure that's what the proper strobe will accomplish on your camera."
The other thing that sucks with my camera the way it is is that I have to wait about four seconds between shots when I'm using my manual flash.
Jack writes: "Nikon Speedlights fire an infra red beam to help with focus."
