The unsinkable Michelle Aston sent me this picture of incontrovertible proof that there is always more room.

The link is from a fascinating blog about master/servant relationships, Zille Defeu's Fetish Fantasies.

If someone could get an MRI of this, then surely I can get reimbursed for my elective forehead smoothening.

Previously: Michelle Aston's mixed messages; Memphis Monroe abandons contract stardom for poverty on streets of 19th century Paris; Healthcare options: naked nurse with statue of pig

Labels: BDSM, fellatio, fetish, found, michelle aston

posted by Gram the Man at Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 2 Comments Links to this post

(I am holding hostage a poetess from a local residency program from whom I'm demanding subject headings in exchange for creampies.)

Holly Randall is one of a handful of porn photographers who can make her living as an independent contractor. She'll set up photo shoots with models and peddle the stills and video components to the highest and/or most appropriate bidder. Last week she brought a small crew, including a makeup artist, wardrobe mistress, lighting rigger, and production assistant to a by-turns gaudy and ramshackle McMansion in Bel-Air where she shot a layout with the newly-boobed Teagan and the dangerous Roxy DeVille.

Teagan was the star of the day, having recently dropped the "Presley" from her porn name as well as replaced her old breast implants with some new, eye-popping ones. She got them for $7k from a famous doctor in Florida.

"He gave us a break," she said, referring to either herself and her boobs or herself and her boyfriend. "And when I run, they bounce."

Teagan is tiny and disproportionately arresting. Out of makeup, she sat folded up in a robe. Once in her lacy underthings, hair teased, made up, she transformed into the perfectly-posed porn star whose picture has been taken a million times. Putting on the heels was like flipping a switch, and the energy that accompanied that was considerable.

On sets I talk with the people who signal that they want to talk, so I didn't talk with Teagan too much. But she was very nice.

Randall shot Teagan mostly ascending and descending a spiral staircase that stretched around a horrible urn. Why anyone would do this in real life I don't know, but the people who owned the house loved this six-foot urn so much that they placed it in the entryway of their home, so what do I know? You walk into my house, there's a table with food and books on it. It says, "Come in! Read something! Eat something! You look stupid and skinny!" At this house the urn said, "Here are the ashes of my Turkish enemies."

Most of the things Roxy DeVille said cannot be uttered here because they would destroy lives, but if there is an extra seat at your cocktail party, you should really invite her. She is like Oscar Wilde with a Chicago accent who likes to fuck women.

DeVille recently appeared in the Sex And the City movie with Ryder Skye, but I found her most compelling in Rob Rotten's Texas Vibrator Massacre. I asked her if she would consider being a scream queen full time.

"I would totally be a scream queen," she said. "But on weekends. People want me to be in their T&A slasher movies and I'm fine with that, but if you can't expect me to work for three months and not get paid for it. I'll do your movie if you're not keeping me from work that actually pays me."

I was reminded of Ava Rose, whose Hollywood neighborhood is teeming with 23-year-old actress hopefuls who look like her but who don't have her steady job. Conventional wisdom is that all porn actresses want to be Hollywood actresses, but that is just not true. Porn is uncertain enough without trading it for something with no certainty whatsoever and that fits the dictionary description of a money hemorrhage.

DeVille's job today, as it is many days, was to don a dominatrix outfit and put her booted foot on people, and today Teagan was her surface.

After Randall finished with Teagan, DeVille was out of wardrobe and makeup and the two performers leashed up and posed in the opulently uninviting living room. Randall shot much more beautiful pictures than these, but she is a fantasist, and I am, as you well know, a hard-nosed realist. I am like Dorothea Lange and porn is my Dust Bowl. (But I would give that up if I could be Jaws the shark and Roxy DeVille could be my Quint.)

(That's two "Jaws" references this week. I don't know why I didn't notice how dirty "Quint" sounded before.)

With DeVille in her domme gear and Teagan as a French maid ("People told me about your ass, Girl, but seeing is believing," DeVille said to Teagan. "That's an ass"), Randall snapped away. Who knows what high-end publication they might appear in, aimed at discerning gentlemen who think of California and picture homes crawling with urns, dommes, and scantily-clad maids with multi-thousand-dollar boob jobs?

"My job is just to make them look really pretty," Randall said.

See my Holly Randall/Teagan/Roxy DeVille backstage gallery here.

Previously: Holly Randall has always been a pervert; Backstage at the XBiz Awards: A Night of Heroes; Roxy DeVille: Good couches make good neighbors; I am Teagan Presley (I am not Teagan Presley); Teagan distances herself from La Sad Eyes
See also: Holly Randall

Labels: BDSM, fetish, holly randall, roxy deville, set visits, teagan presley, WGL

posted by Gram the Man at Thursday, August 14, 2008 | 2 Comments Links to this post

Nina Hartley and Ernest Greene celebrated their fifth anniversary yesterday.

One of Hartley's favorite questions is "What does your husband say about what you do?"

"Action."

A version of this story first appeared in The Naughty American.

If there were a porn version of "Fiddler on the Roof" (and who says there won't be – the title wouldn't even have to change), the Yenta would determine that Nina Hartley and Ernest Greene are a good – and not so unlikely – match.

"We recognize that our relationship is a work in progress," says Nina Hartley of her marriage to Ernest Greene. "But we love each other for our essential natures, which never change."

Hartley, 49, is, of course, a major celebrity and sex educator famous to generations of fans, and Greene, 55, directs bondage-themed movies like "O: The Power of Submission."

The couple met in 1989 and married in 2000. They live and work in a massive loft overlooking downtown Los Angeles.

Hartley and Greene are veterans of several long-term relationships and have deduced that maintaining a successful marriage requires hard work for its rewards.

"We maintain really rigorous relationship hygiene," Hartley said. "No matter how frightened or upset, nobody gets to be mean. Nobody's leaving. There's no bringing up stuff from before."

One of the defining traits of couplehood is that each member can feel at ease with the other. This has been true of Hartley and Greene since the day they met, albeit with a porn twist.

"It was 1989 and I was working as an assistant director to (porn performer/director/screenwriter) Sharon Kane," Greene said. "And there was Nina…"

"There was a rape scene in the movie," Hartley added. "And I balked. I didn't want to do it. Ernest worked with me to recontextualize the scene for my character (those were the days in porn when you still talked about character). It was very helpful! Later that night, I was fooling around on the floor with Sharon and I asked Ernest if he wanted a blowjob."

"What was I gonna do – say ‘No’?" Greene said.

"I pay attention to the way a guy receives a blowjob," Hartley observed. "And he took it well."

Hartley was in an unhappy triad marriage at the time. Although the couple she was married to approved of her working in porn ("and its paycheck," she added), she was forbidden to get in an extracurricular relationship.

"So I was conflicted," she said. "I was attracted to [Ernest] from the beginning. He had such a big personality, and we clicked, which is something I didn't have at home in San Francisco."

So Hartley would stay with Greene when she came to Los Angeles for work, but eventually felt so guilty that she called off their nascent relationship.

"I went back to my marriage," she said, "until I just couldn’t take it anymore. And that took seven years."

Greene, meanwhile, consoled himself by "being absolutely sure [Nina] had made a big mistake." They would continue seeing each other professionally as they collaborated on a series of educational "Nina Hartley's Guide To … " videos for adult studio Adam & Eve.

To hear them tell it, Hartley suffered at their breakup but Greene soldiered on.

"I had relationships with several women in the business," he said. "All of them great learning experiences. But all of them transitory from the beginning. I knew that."

But then came the fateful day in 2000.

"She called and asked me to lunch … " Greene said.

"I actually called him and said, 'I've left my husband; are you free for lunch?'"

"Now and for the rest of my life," Greene said at the time. "Now where were we?"

Greene said he would do anything to keep her. He told her that she was never leaving again.

"You won't get out so easy this time," he said.

And there, at ages 40 and 46, Hartley and Greene started their life together, which now reflects decades of their own sexual, artistic, and political exploration, and which allows each party room to have sex with other people as part of keeping their own special relationship strong.

"The more men I fuck," Hartley said, "the more I love my husband. And if you want a perfect brute in the bedroom, go see Ernest. It's like dancing with the Minotaur."

"It's more fun than it looks," mused Greene. "I'm like an old Harley Davidson."

But each also has a commitment to making good porn, which they think has something to do with their generation, and the age at which they started in the business.

"You had a lot of sex radicals back then [in the 70s and 80s]," Greene said.

"Because porn wasn't everywhere, you had to go and find it,” Hartley added. “It seemed to attract the type of person who really believed in it."

"And so we try to give people the best we can give them," Greene said. "Consumers are not sheep to be fleeced. The people who are putting down their hard-earned money for a movie should get the best we can give them."

The couple feels like they've hit on something, and want to get the word out.

"We like spreading the Good News about sex," Greene said. "We want to let people know that 'I've seen sex and I think it's OK’"

One result of that philosophy was their well-received 2006 book, "Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex," with Greene writing as Ira S. Levine, his non-porn name.
Greene is also happy to promote the product known as Nina Hartley: Porn Icon.

"She's the star and I'm her biggest fan," he said. The longtime executive editor of Hustler's "Taboo" magazine, Greene acknowledges that even Larry Flynt seems smitten with Nina.

"After all this time, the invitations to Hustler's Christmas party are still addressed to 'Nina Hartley and Guest,' even though I work there," he said.

And Flynt isn't the only one. The artist Robert Williams, founder of Juxtapoz magazine and whose painting "Appetite for Destruction" was featured on the cover of the Guns 'n' Roses album of the same name, greeted his old friend Greene at a gallery opening. Greene recalled the conversation:

"You're with Nina Hartley?'" Williams said.

"I'm married to Nina Hartley," Greene said.

"I've been jerking off to her ass for years," Williams said.

Greene is not possessive of Hartley. The emotion is more like pride.

"How do I feel with other guys being attracted to my wife?" Greene asked. "Well, a little smirky, actually."

Greene said that this is the result of a genetic deficiency uncommon to most men.

"I don't get jealous," he said. "I was born without that gene. We recognize that it is healthy for us to now and then get a dose of a different person."

Hartley describes her own sexuality as "polymorphous/perverse." Greene clarified, "I call her the Universal Adapter."

"I'm dominant, I'm submissive, I like women, I like men," Hartley said. "Most spots on the continuum."

Hartley said that their style of open, non-possessive relationship encourages them to be better people for each other.

"Ernest says, 'The stronger you get, the more secure I feel,'" she said. "How many men say that to their wives? 'Be as big as you want.' Oh, fuck, man! Now I have to own who I am!"

Hartley and Greene do not offer advice for other couples, but point to successful relationship protocols that they arrived at through trial and error.

"We're very complementary to each other," Hartley said, "but it was helpful to realize that the ways we are not compatible aren't some plot by the other person to be offensive."

Eight years into the second act of their relationship, Greene has only one misgiving.

"The regret I have is that we missed some fun by starting later," he said. "What would this have been like in our 20s?"

If the relationship Greene and Hartley share seems alien to the average American couple, consider this final, universal tip.

"We have a maid come in and clean," Hartley said. "You can really focus on loving your partner by outsourcing the drudgework."



Previously: Sex on the nest with Nina Hartley; The Surrender of O first look
See also: Nina Hartley

Labels: ernest greene, fetish, interviews, naughty america, nina hartley

posted by Gram the Man at Tuesday, July 08, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

Photographer Ed Fox (whose picture of the newly-minted Noname Jane debuted on this site a week ago) is displaying his work for Garage Magazine at a group show at San Francisco's Minna Gallery.

"Full Custom Living: The Art of Garage Magazine" is a group show featuring 26 contributors to the magazine devoted to custom cars, hot rods, and the art they inspire.

Fox' book "Glamour from the Ground Up" is, for lack of a better phrase, hands-down the most popular coffee table book on display in my office, attracting even the people who say they don't like porn. Fox' depictions of fleshy, hot-blooded vixens - each of whom has feet - are frank, compelling, and accessible with just enough professional affectation to make the viewer comfortable that he paid for a work of art.

In other words, you'd hang these pictures in a garage, but they don't look like they were shot in a garage (except for the photos that were actually shot in a garage).

As Governor of the State of California and one of its largest landowners, I was interested in how Fox, a Mexican-American and native Angeleno, approached his work, which seems to be particularly reflective of Los Angeles.

Gram: What do you think makes an L.A. setting instantly recognizable in a photograph?

Fox: The traffic and smog? Since I don't visit many other places, it's hard to know. Maybe it's the whole package: the models, their clothes, and the architecture.

Gram: You can see why L.A.'s architecture is a certain way, and even how the clothes reflect the environment. But the models are particular to L.A. as well?

Fox: You just know how nice it would feel to squeeze them. It's the same reason I like a meaty foot, because there's more to squeeze. it's 'fleshy' instead of hard. I don't like it when the models start approaching 30 and start getting worried so they feel they have to work out extra hard and end up too lean and muscular. I think we are attracted to the fleshy girls because we are so used to seeing fake, overly manicured models (bleached hair, fake tits, tans, piercings etc.) that when these natural beauties come along, our jaws drop and we say 'where did you come from?'

The pictures on this page are of Jelena Jenson, Aria Giovanni, and Casey Parker.

Gram: You get day laborers from Home Depot to pose with the likes of Kelly Madison, Tall Goddess, and No Name Jane (the former Violet Blue). I can imagine this beats low-cost caulking for Glendale slumlords.

Fox: Since I speak Spanish fluently, I kind of had a leg up which also allowed these guys to trust me or maybe feel more comfortable. The models just go with whatever I tell them and the ones that go with it always turn out the best results. Tall Goddess I remember always wanted more. She'd round them all up like cattle and everyone just had a great time. I don't know who got more out of it, the workers or her!

Gram: How much did you pay the Home Depot guys?

Fox: Are you kidding? Being in the presence of these lovelies was payment enough. I thought of it as me bringing them these gifts. Like the 'untouchable' girls from the magazines would just fall out of the sky and land in front of them.

Gram: In the foreword to "Glamour," (Leg Show editor) Dian Hanson makes note of the shyness of some fetish photographers. What is that about?

Fox: We foot fetishists come in all different forms. Some are blatant and others are more secretive, for a few reasons. I feel uncomfortable talking about it because people think it's weird and just don't understand. "Why feet?" "I don't know; why breasts or why blondes versus brunette?"

...If anything, foot fetishists have that one extra female body part to appreciate when those who don't get it are missing out.

...Also, it's a little more exciting or 'dirty' to keep the fetish on the down-low. it then becomes more of a voyeuristic thing.

Gram: How do models who don't know you respond to "Take off your shoes," or, is there an attitude a good foot model shares with the photographer?

Fox: If a girl knows I have a foot fetish and in public says "oh here, look at my feet" and throws her shoe off and puts it in front of my face or on my lap, it totally ruins it. There's no going for the kill. Most likely that girl will not have nice feet anyway. Just because a girl takes care of her feet and gets pedicures weekly, doesn't mean she has nice feet. It's about shape, or size, odor or even how she teases you with it without her even knowing she's doing it.



Previously: The Voluptuous feet of Ed Fox; (Pop) Shot in the foot
See also: Ed Fox, Foot Factory, Minna Gallery

Labels: Aria Giovanni, art, casey parker, ed fox, events, feet, fetish, interviews, jelena jenson, magazines, noname jane, photographers, san francisco

posted by Gram the Man at Saturday, July 05, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

You would be correct if you accused me of perpetuating a stereotype about Asians' ability to pronounce the letter R in service of a pop literary reference that wasn't that funny to begin with. But this is what is known as a callback (or "carrback," if you are Asian) (See?) and the heaping of one vaguely funny thing on similar vaguely funny things creates a megajoke that is bigger than the sum of its parts.

Don't argue with it. It's science.

In this excellent gallery you will find the employees of Soapland Slip And Slide, an uniquely Japanese establishment in which "male clients come to have their most wet and slippery fantasies fulfilled."

Why this is such a personal journey of discovery for me is because the phrase "wet and slippery" just makes me want to put boots on and sand the tub.

See the Soapland Slip And Slide gallery here.

Previously: Cock Asian; Do they know it's Christmas?; What I learned from hentai; I Love Black Dick 3
See also: Third World Media

Labels: asian, fetish, third world media

posted by Gram the Man at Friday, June 27, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

There is a place in the porn world for lawyers (there is also a place in Hell, but that's not the point I'm trying to make).

There's L.A. public defender Ron Miller (aka Don Hollywood), there's a host of attorneys who date porn stars, and then there is the small group of First Amendment attorneys who have had nothing but work, work, work in the recent spate of 2257 and obscenity charges.

So German "Lawyer by Day, Domina by Night" Hera is nothing new, but her book, Hera: Rechtsanwaltin am Tage - Domina in oer Nacht, has contributed to her porn career, as the fetish crowd are big readers. They also like coffee table books, as those leave the most distinctive bruises.

It would be tempting to ask which tactics Hera employs as a mistress also make appearances in her day job, but that would be too easy; let's just hope "Guilty" isn't her safeword.

See more here.

I mention Max Hardcore because the Altadena resident was just found guilty of ten counts of distributing obscene materials. It is a ridiculous conviction, especially in that the material was not sent unbidden. Hardcore is free on bail and will be sentenced in Tampa on September 5. He will, of course, appeal. Read my story on Fleshbot here.

Previously: Life in a porn dorm isn't all pillowfights and orgies
See also: AEBN

Labels: aebn, BDSM, fetish, germans, germany, hera

posted by Gram the Man at Friday, June 06, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

The sequel to O: The Power of Submission will be released in September, just in time for submission for AVN award consideration. The new version stars Bree Olson as the title character, and I think her facial expression here says it all.





Two angles of the same picture. Either way there are some strong adhesives at work.


My O2 Gallery.

Previously: O: The Power of Submission
See also: Adam & Eve

Labels: "adam and eve", BDSM, bree olson, ernest greene, fetish, nina hartley

posted by Gram the Man at Friday, May 23, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

Must be the cheese.

(Thanks to Mchael Brandvold of porn emporium Gamelink for forwarding the picture. See a larger version here.)

Previously: It's what's for dinner; Slam It in a Slut - from It's perspective

Labels: Europe, fetish, found, hype, marital aids, switzerland

posted by Gram the Man at Friday, May 09, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

Natali Demore, right, who will be appearing this weekend at DomCon at the LAX Hilton, shows that dommes don't have to wear clothes at all if they don't choose to, and that they can humiliate their submissives simply by clothing them in useless garments.

You know what's another useless garment? A tie. I see someone wearing a tie, I think: "That guy wants some five-foot-tall domme to smack him with a riding crop." The last time I saw you in a tie, I thought that.

Q. Grams, what is Domcon?
A. Imagine your standard airport hotel with weary travelers arriving at all hours just trying to get some sleep before they are shuttled back to the airport the next morning. You see, their airline bumped them and gave them a night at the hotel and a $20 meal voucher. Now imagine these people co-mingling with an army of leather and PVC-clad submissives (wearing collars) and dommes (dragging collars) on the muted carpeting of the hotel lobby, as each group attempts to fit crumpled dollar bills into the Pepsi machine. That's Domcon.

Demore will be appearing at the Hottbonds booth doing unmentionable things.

Previously: Haley Paige video surfaces posthumously; It takes more than a sexy nurse's outfit and nipple clamps to make an effective universal healthcare program
See also: Natali Demore, Domcon Los Angeles

Labels: BDSM, events, fetish, natali demore

posted by Gram the Man at Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | 4 Comments Links to this post

You know when Carmina Burana starts playing that scary things are about to happen.

"Fate is against me/In health and virtue/Driven on and weighted down/Always enslaved."

So when I heard the first strains of that piece of cheery music at last weekend's San Francisco Fetish Ball, I instinctively covered my soul.

Questions I asked of God at that time were:

• Why is that man wearing a horse's head?
• Why is that woman 20 feet tall?
• Why are those ladies breathing through gas masks?
• Why do I have an erection?

The companies Stormy Leather, Syren, and J.T.'s Stockroom put together a showcase of their fashions using Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and, just as appropriate for a fashion show featuring floggings, worship, and submission, The Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane."

The Scorpions are more important to Germany than Hitler or David Hasselhoff, and for the first time I realized how important German culture was to the fetish scene.

There were a lot of jackboots and Nazi-suggestive outfits at the Ball, held at the massive Grand Regency Ballroom, and the very theme of the event was "Metropolis," Fritz Lang's 1927 movie that inspired everything from "1984" to "Brazil" to a famous Apple ad to a Queen video that was way better than the song it promoted.

The SF Fetish Ball capped three nights of events; a gallery show, a smaller, more physical party called Club Enslaved, and the seventh annual Ball itself, organized by Paige White.

White is the Kansas-born dominatrix and director of Uber Ego, a company that makes sparse, brutal, and lifestyle-accurate BDSM movies. She used to work for Mr. S Leather with her partner, Tchukon Hunter, but left to take over the Ball (Mr. S had run the affair since its inception, and is still a major sponsor).

White awarded the Ball's Best Costume award to Santa Monica's Eban (pictured).

"We started in 2000 in a much smaller venue, the DNA Lounge," White said (the DNA Lounge is where the gallery show was held this year), and we expanded for the past several years."

The Fetish Ball was not held last year, and organizers attribute this year's exponentially larger attendance to the fact that people missed the event.

Over the three nights I saw a lot of the same people, but each party had its own distinctive feel, with the hardcore aspect dwindling each night as the audience increased. By the Ball on Saturday night, with more than 2,000 people attending, there was little that seemed outlandish (although there were notable exceptions).

The crowd was overwhelmingly white and the couples in attendance were mostly straight and appeared to be under 40. But that is not to say the Fetish Ball was not inclusive; huge rainbow flags fly over San Francisco neighborhoods, and the Grand Regency itself was lit with spotlights like a film premiere.

At no other place in the country would motorists pay no attention as they drove by a dominatrix, smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, who was simultaneously ordering her pastie-d slave to do pushups at her feet.

But as groovy and tolerant as San Francisco itself seems toward all stripes of sexuality, it is just as fun to hear lesbians talking smack about transvestites, gay men turning up their nose at butch women, submissives topping from the bottom, and wholesome straight girls, observing for the first time someone getting flogged at a post, saying, "that looks like it hurts."

Over the weekend I also toured the Armory, the new location of Kink.com. This place blew me away. Built in 1912 for the National Guard, the Armory was designed to withstand a siege during a time of labor unrest. For this reason the 200,000 sq.ft. building has a branch of Mission Creek running through its basement.

"...in case the troops needed fresh water," said Thomas Roche, Kink.com's publicist and former editor of Eros-Zine.

The Armory had been vacant for more than a decade before Kink.com purchased it in 2006 for $14.1 million. And that was a steal. Inside is a parade ground, a gymnasium, and dozens of rooms to film everything from standard bedroom scenes to water bondage, and everything in between. There is no studio or shooting location in Porn Valley that matches the potential of this building.

Since Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder, I was pleased to see my friend Abby Ehmann at the Ball. How she gets the jobs she does I don't know, but now she is marketing one of the three brands of absinthe that are legal in America. Unfortunately she was not allowed to give out samples, but I used to drink absinthe when it was illegal and recommend its despair-inducing, hallucinogenic effects.

Made from wormwood, absinthe provides the drinker with a distinctively apocalyptic feeling.

"How are you supposed to drink it?" I asked.

"There's this thing you do by pouring cold water over a sugar cube in a fancy glass," she explained.

I bumped into Satine Phoenix and she invited me to her afterparty, which is described elsewhere.

The music on the dance floor was at times so loud that I could feel the bass in my teeth and stomach. Neither a sweaty bondage club nor a snooty and distant scene out of "Eyes Wide Shut," the Bondage Ball was instead like "The Vampire Lestat" meets the Third Reich by way of "The Shining" (especially this individual), something that was not only sexy and menacing but also comforting.

See the gallery here.

Previously: Counting floggers on the wall: Mr. S Leather; Trouble X 2
See also: San Francisco Fetish Ball

Labels: "Kink.com", abby ehmann, BDSM, events, fetish, interviews, paige white, san francisco, satine phoenix

posted by Gram the Man at Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 1 Comments Links to this post

Photographer Ed Fox is, like late predecessor (and fellow Taschen photographer) Elmer Batters, a foot man.

But Fox' feet tend to be attached to equally juicy porn stars like Tera Patrick, Brittany Andrews, Jill Kelly, Kelly Madison, Aria Giovanni, Jewel De'Nyle, Belladonna, Penny Flame, and Jenna Presley, who is the cover girl of his debut book, "Ed Fox: Glamour from the Ground Up" from Taschen

"Ground up" is also a way we might describe the soul of a human being subjected to porn, so the title is very clever, the way we might talk about a foot fetish at the same time we could be referencing so much hamburger.

Powers and Presley will be on (hand?) to sign his book at Taschen's Beverly Hills store on March 27.

"A beautiful foot is an extra," Fox said. "The same as shapely breasts or a nice ass, and all part of a feminine shape. It's all about voluptuousness."

I have never before thought of feet as voluptuous, or that they could be. Now I will require it.

"Glamour from the Ground Up" also includes a behind the scenes DVD.

Previously: (Pop) shot in the foot
See also: Ed Fox

Labels: Aria Giovanni, books, Brittany Andrews, ed fox, feet, fetish, Jenna presley, jewel de'nyle, Jill Kelly, kelly madison, photographers, tera patrick

posted by Gram the Man at Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | 0 Comments Links to this post

I visited San Francisco for its Fetish Ball this weekend and spent one early morning following Satine Phoenix around the city on various adventures. Generally I am a clean-living, wholesome person, but I hadn't slept in a couple of days and things began looking Lovecraftian after a while (which is also the name of my band).

3 a.m.

I arrive at Phoenix' hotel after most of the Fetish Ball after-party participants have left. Coming out of the elevator on tottery heels and smelling like vomit is the reason why the doorman told me, "Make sure you're quiet up there; people are complaining." There are a few people left, including her friend January, a foot fetish model. I demand they stand on the couch.

4 a.m.

"Let's go see my friend Ian," says Phoenix. While that will make the m/f ratio less favorable, I am only there to observe, so I tag along. Ian's not home when Satine bangs on his door. It is doubtful if he even lived there. We leave in haste. Satine takes care of business by a warehouse door.

"Will you take a picture?" she asks/"I should probably take a picture," I say.

4:30 a.m.

We head to another Ian's house near City Hall. Those guys aren't happy to see me. "We thought she was coming alone," one says. "Joke's on you," I say. The apartment is small. "Doesn't she have, like, a full hotel rrom?" one asks. "Yeah," I say. "I don't know why we're here either." They seem used to this sort of thing. We leave after 30 minutes.

5:30 a.m.

We head back to the hotel. The time change has resulted in a parking ticket. A hooker tells me I just got it two mintes ago.

"Couldn't you have blown the cop?" I ask. The ticket is $71; a blowjob costs $50. San Francisco would benefit more from my paying for a cop to be fellated, I asure you.

"I cost more than that ticket," she says. I laugh, but choose to run her over. Every time I go to San Francisco, I get a parking ticket. Even when I fly.

Satine's ready for bed. I'm ready to drive home.

Later, I take a wrong turn and wind up in Marin County. Next time Satine comes over my house, I'm making her buy a goddamn pizza.

Previously: Rebelle Rousers and their genomes; By the time I get to Phoenix, I'll be in Prague
See also: Satine Phoenix

Labels: events, fetish, pinups, san francisco, satine phoenix, WGL

posted by Gram the Man at Monday, March 10, 2008 | 3 Comments Links to this post

I usually encounter Madison Young when she is being smacked, humiliated, or otherwise being dragged around by a chain. I should not have been surprised to see her at a poetry slam.

"Well, I made the movie to promote literacy," she said.

The short Writers And Rockstars, available on her website, is as close to perfect as a porn scene can get, and it pulls off something remarkable: with an airy chick rock soundtrack and its female-centered story, it is ostensibly a female-friendly movie that nevertheless caters to a singular male fantasy.

Read what that is here.

Previously: Perfection
See also: Madison Bound

Labels: BDSM, fetish, madison young, san francisco

posted by Gram the Man at Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 1 Comments Links to this post

Syren Couture, designer of this ass-free pant, is co-sponsor (with Stockroom.com) of tomorrow's West Coast Fetish Ball at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theatre.

Henry Fonda, star of such films as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "On Golden Pond", would probably have choked on his Lifesavers and terrorized his childrten more had he known such an event would be held at a venue bearing his name, but if ever there's a cop beating a guy, chances are he's probably wearing leather.

Masuimi Max and Emily Marilyn will co-host the Ball, with a special appearance by anguished performance artist (that's redundant) The White Bunny.

Previously: April Flores: Diva; Fetish Ball; Prod of the O.C.: eXtreme Restraints
See also: Syren Latex, Stockroom

Labels: BDSM, events, fetish, masuimi max

posted by Gram the Man at Thursday, December 27, 2007 | 2 Comments Links to this post

The website Mean Bitches, which features bitches being mean, either to other bitches or men who are bitches, but never to actual bitches, is doing a decidedly non-bitchy thing for Christmas, like dressing Germany's own Annette Schwarz in festive holiday heels.

Also, company president Glenn King is giving his employees some cash for the holidays.

"Each one of them is going to receive $300," he said. "They will then use $200 of the money to help someone in need. It can be a homeless person, a friend in the hospital, a neighbor who lost his job, or anyone else in need. They can give the money to one person or spread it out among worthy recipients."

And because nothing actually happens if it is not documented -

"They will videotape the giving, with either a cell-phone camera or by video camera. I will then judge the videotapes to see who came up with the best use for the money. The winner will then get an extra $200 for themselves.”

More documentation of people doing good deeds after the gap.




Satine Phoenix paid it forward by removing her shoes in the house.


Harmony paid it forward by shaving this guy's moustache.


Daphne Rosen ... well, Daphne wasn't nice to anyone.

Previously: Skateboard Kink Freak; Fetish Ball; Prod of the O.C.
See also: Mean Bitches

Labels: annette schwarz, BDSM, fetish, harmony, satine phoenix

posted by Gram the Man at Thursday, December 20, 2007 | 0 Comments Links to this post

Because I am the coolest person you know, I knew that my trip yesterday to the Orange County headquarters and warehouse of hardcore adult products purveyor Extreme Restraints would not yield medieval scenes of people zapping each other's nipples while archiving QuickBooks files.

Still, in the way certain people will make a show of wiping their hands upon learning that I am America's Beloved Porn Journalist, I felt compelled to be That Asshole when I walked in.

"Don't tase me, Bro," I said.

Read more about my visit after the gap.



Extreme Restraints was founded in 2000 by Ari Suss and Kelly Eberhard. Both are knowledgeable about the BDSM lifestyle but both, contrary to popular depictions of BDSM fans, are approachable, businesslike, and not terrifying.

"I was living in Oklahoma and he was in Maryland," Eberhard said. "I was doing the sales and he was doing the shipping."

"...and our first warehouse was in a 10' x 10' spare room," Suss added.

The current warehouse occupies 15,000 square feet of XR's building in Huntington Beach. Warehouse Manager Corey Jarvis has added seasonal help to his regular staff.

"From around November to Valentine's Day is our biggest time of year," he said.

"Not Halloween?"

"No," he said. "People into this stuff don't keep it to one day a year. This is a big time because people are giving these products as gifts."


I took a hog crop, a sturdy cane staff with two leather flaps at the end, to maintain discipline at the office.

"The two flaps make a really satisfying sound when they connect," Eberhard said. "They get you a little red."

"Do people use this on hogs?" I asked.

"No," she said. "The hog refers to being a Pain Pig."

"Gotcha."

In addition to the lubes and jellies, standard issue and high-end vibrators, and a small cache of DVDs from enema movies to Pirates, XR specializes in heavy duty bondage gear and, more and more, muscle stimulation, TENS, and electrosex devices adapted from less sexy pursuits, like cattle drives.

"They got me with this when I started," said Jarvis of a three-foot cattle prod. "They got me right in the neck."

I looked at a stack of cattle prods and pulled one down. The four-"C" battery tool was made for cattle but appropriated for BDSM enthusiasts. What was weird is that the prod is sold by veterinary supply stores as the "Magic Shock Cattle Prod" and XR simply calls it the Large Shock Prod. I noted the lack of taffeta and prettification on the products.

"Naw, the people who buy from us are serious," Jarvis said. It is fun to imagine a leather-clad vegetarian dominatrix in her L.A. dungeon and George W. Bush on a whistle stop to Crawford using the same device at the same time.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the adult industry is its extraction of the sexual from everyday life. No longer do all porn stars look like hookers; niche porn capitalizes on the people in your neighborhood who might not be hookers. And now cattle prods have moved from factory farms to the bedroom, where they should be.

I asked to see some of XR's bondage models but they more than often contract out for them, using sites like Fetish Nation. A couple of the guys in the warehouse now and then model some of the products, but I am not a groovy enough person to want their pictures.

I asked about demographics. Who buys what kind of products?

"We send a lot of butt plugs to military addresses," Jarvis said, the top two branches being the Navy and Marines, respectively.

The rest of the office looked like any corporate office. Cubicles, carpeting, a water cooler, strap-on phone headsets for the call center. There was a room with a plasma TV and a Wii setup that "the warehouse guys monopolize." No one hanging from the ceiling.

"Is everyone here into BDSM?" I asked.

"Not everyone," I was told, "but no one hates it."

Marketing director James Medina summed it up. "We're the same type of business you'd see anywhere else, except with huge dongs."

Previously: Counting floggers on the wall: Mr. S Leather
See also: Extreme Restraints

Labels: BDSM, business, fetish, interviews, orange county, retail

posted by Gram the Man at Tuesday, December 18, 2007 | 0 Comments Links to this post

The beauty of Maria Beatty's simple Sex Mannequin is that there is just enough left unexplained in the movie to make the subtle, naturally lit scenes between Dylan Ryan and London more meaningful.

The rule in porn (and it's a good one) is that it's a good idea to not leave anything up to the imagination. Sex Mannequin is a nice exception. The choice to leave something out is different from leaving something out by mistake and then saying it was a choice.

Like Pinocchio and Andrew McCarthy, Ryan's mannequin comes to life as London and immediately begins topping from the bottom. "Harder!" she yells, before the pair reverse roles. The role reversal is important because, well, the movie ends sadly.

Previously: Beating Up Amber Rayne at the American Hotel
See also: Bleu Productions

Labels: BDSM, directors, fetish, lesbian, maria beatty

posted by Gram the Man at Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | 1 Comments Links to this post

I went to Rodney Moore's Vampires party the other night and, in a corner behind the bar, encountered Aiden Starr and Caroline Pierce. The balloon contained something like 30 or 40 souls.

"I met her in Tampa," Starr said of Pierce. "She told me she was an excellent bottom."

"That's nice," I said. But what am I supposed to do with that information? Everyone's a bottom when you're Grams.

Previously: Erotica L.A 2007 in review; Barbed Wire Kiss
See also: Rodney Moore

Labels: aiden starr, BDSM, because, caroline pierce, events, fetish

posted by Gram the Man at Monday, October 15, 2007 | 0 Comments