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--Wednesday, July 16, 2008--

PSK gets wood

As you know, the fifth anniversary is the wood anniversary, and it is clear from this morning's Porn Star Karaoke anniversary celebration (I arrived at 2 a.m.) that Nicki Hunter inspires wood wherever she goes.

I will admit that the lights were on at Sardo's when I arrived, but there were still dozens of people milling around, and I won't say how I got a shot of Jagermeister long after closing time. Well, yes I will: I brought it myself and served it from a container in my possession without any official sanction of my actions. In fact, a union-busted employee at Von's supermarket sold it to me.

Host Wankus, with a newly shaved head, regaled and revolted the audience with songs and tearful anecdotes. Selena Silver showed up. Tony Batmann was there. I saw none of this because I was five hours late. But people had a great time. Why else would there be a party in the parking lot until nearly 2:30?

But Nicki Hunter was there, standing next to a No Smoking sign, taunting it, daring it to tell her, of all people, to stop smoking. Nicki Hunter could have burned that building down looking like that and people would have said "Oh thanks Nicki! That was great! Ouch it burns! Ouch! Ouch! You're not wearing underwear! Ouch my skin! Yay! Thanks!"

I drove home thinking this way.

See also: Sardo's, Nicki Hunter

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--Tuesday, April 22, 2008--

RudeTV sprouts from the grave of KSEX

It's one thing that adult-oriented Internet TV station RudeTV has taken a good deal of the staff of the former KSEXRadio, but it must seem a little on the nose that the new station has moved into KSEX' old studio.

KSEXRadio was a beloved old garage band of a business that was characteristic of the porn industry; often disorganized, brutal on its enemies, forgiving of its friends, and a wealth of information about the porn industry from people getting paid about 20 bucks an hour to run their shows.

Nestled for years on the top floor of a nondescript Burbank office building, KSEX was purchased in 2006 and revamped, somewhat, with big plans to move the company closer to the heart of Porn Valley. This eventually happened in May when the company moved its offices to Canoga Park.

Not everyone made the move, however. KSEX program director Wankus, who had been feuding with the ownership, was publicly fired earlier that month. This news was broken when one of the owners called in to a KSEX show and declared Wankus' termination over the air. Bad blood ensued.

But KSEX took six more months to die. Though some "Porn Jockeys" resigned in protest of the manner of Wankus' dismissal, others began to see the writing on the wall. The company was being managed from New Jersey and things were falling apart. KSEX struggled to keep talent and original programming, advertisers began dropping out, and eventually the remaining staff was asked to go without pay and do the job for the "exposure."

KSEX finally died in late January of this year.

Meanwhile, Rude.com, an Internet entertainment site launched by the founders of webcam pioneer Camz.com, heard that there was some studio space available, and called Wankus to be its program director and main host, as he had been at KSEX.

"They flew me to Bangkok for the job interview," Wankus said.

Rude.com wanted to expand its market to adult television, and threw tens of thousands of dollars into outfitting the space KSEX had occupied as a TV studio. RudeTV boasts two studios with greenscreens separated by a control booth (in which Powder and Socks, both late of KSEXRadio, dwell), a reception area, a ready room for talent, and a large room outfitted with a stripper pole.

But can an adult Internet broadcast site be self-sustaining? KSEX never was, and its short-lived competitor PrimeTime Uncensored also failed. But Rude has a little money behind it, and it is being run by people familiar with the adult industry.

Rude.com co-owner Brett LaMar told me he will be 32 in a week. He and his wife, Sammy (of Samm4u.com) live in Thailand, as does Rude.com's other co-founder, Robb. Active swingers, LaMar and his wife also started housecamz.com.

"We knew that the KSEX space was going to be available," LaMar said, "and Rude.com was getting ready to make its move to Internet TV."

Rude.com has come under attack by adult industry webmasters for hosting stolen content and employing traffic hijacker/adware giant zango (see sample thread). The adult industry will forgive most things, but stealing content is never one of them. I am assured everything is now copacetic and attributable.

But after the unpleasantness with KSEX, Wankus is hopeful about his new bosses.

"They're putting a lot of time and money into this place to do it the way it should be done," he said.



Last night's opening party was well-attended and, despite the fact that the station went live at 6 p.m. with a show called "Guitarded," in which two pornstars play strip-"Guitar Hero," the mood was laid back. There was also a Make Your Own Drinks open bar, which also helped.

Powder told me that there had been a couple of test runs of the new studios and shows, and that he was expecting the evening to be tough but successful. As it happened, the night went off without a hitch, though sometimes callers weren't loud enough and the various greenscreen motifs were a little busy.

Mika Tan who, after a family-related hiatus ("No, I wasn't in Afghanistan with the Army or in Iraq with the CIA," she said. I hadn't heard the story about the CIA), has returned to performing, last night hosted "Whispers," an occasional Mika hour in which she uses dildos for callers' enjoyment.

RudeTV schedules 20 hours of original programming, broadcasting from 6-10 weekday nights. Currently free, it will soon switch to a subscription model with various free incentives, and will begin archiving its shows for On-Demand access.

Among its shows are "Guitarded," "Smell My Finger" (also hosted by Wankus with a different co-host every night, such as Sunny Lane, Kylee King, and Cleopatra of the Nile), "Penis or Plastic?" hosted by Alanna Thomas remotely from Gilbert, AZ, BDSM-themed "Baadmaster's Dungeon," and "Road Whore," Lexi Lamour's stories of stripping and strippers.

Guests at last night's opening party included photographer Ken Marcus, Kylee King, Alanna Thomas (pictured), Trinity Saij (pictured), Cleopatra (pictured), Carrie Moon, Dakoda Brookes, Sammy LaMar, Mika Tan (pictured), and Sunny Lane.

Previously: Energy drink-drinking nudes; Wankus out at KSEX, fired by phone
See also: Rude TV

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--Friday, March 07, 2008--

Mug shot revisited

Since performer Kurt Lockwood's return to the porn industry after announcing his retirement last September, he has been appearing in transsexual and bisexual videos. According to friends, "he has been telling everyone he is only doing gay movies from now on."

But unless anything has changed in Lockwood's understanding of himself from one year ago this week, he only plays a gay man in movies.

On March 1, 2007, I arrived at the set of a movie only to be attacked by an irate Lockwood, who said I'd called him a "fag." He shoved me several times in the middle of the street, and I halfheartedly broke my thermos of lukewarm coffee on his glasses.

The cash-strapped production (the company went out of business soon after the movie was released), rather than boot Lockwood off the set, instead demanded that I and a blogger named Luke Ford leave, lest Lockwood become more upset.

It turns out I had arrived as the movie's director, Jennifer James, was trying to calm Lockwood down from a previous threat he had made against the manager of the filming location. The manager hadn't allowed Lockwood's dog in the building and Lockwood threatened to kick his ass.

The day was already going poorly for Kurt. He was an hour late and had just been told by Bo Kenney, owner of SexZ Pictures, that Lockwood's "The Real Boogie Nights" was unsalvageable, containing whole pages of dialogue plagiarized from P.T. Anderson's 1998 "Boogie Nights" and, according to a SexZ director, being "almost unrecognizable as a movie."

While there are a number of lifestyle heterosexual male performers who are "gay for pay," appearing in the (on the whole) more lucrative gay movies, Lockwood's boastful demeanor and frequent chatboard feuds with other adult industry employees drew criticism and scorn aimed at deflating his ego. Among these were numerous accusations of Lockwood's own homosexuality with liberal doses of the word "fag."

Unfortunately for me - otherwise I would have known what was coming - I had never called Lockwood a fag.

But I had written that, for a person who was once a go go dancer at gay clubs, who appeared in "pegging" movies, who had performed in all-male films aimed at gay consumers in the early part of his porn work and who, even in his stalled music career as "Stevie Sexyxrist," had appeared in flamboyant drag, it seemed unseemly for him to act surprised that people might suggest he might be gay himself and downright weird for him to protest his heterosexuality so violently.

I had the chance to tell Luke Ford he did not have my permission to post the video he said he'd taken of the assault, but he posted it as soon as he got home. I was driving to another set, irritated with James and freaked out by Lockwood's behavior, when I got a call from a former L.A. Times reporter who told me the video was on the web.

This is when the story evolved from something that could be dealt with privately in a day or two to something I still hear about. I filed battery charges against Lockwood with the L.A.P.D. Rampart Division and consulted a lawyer about suing the company that had allowed a demonstrably violent person to continue working after attacking an invited member of the press.

The lawyer correctly predicted that the company would have no money to pay me, "but there's a case there if you want one."

The day of the assault, Ford wrote Lockwood to ask him for his side of the story. Lockwood wrote back: "You're next."

Lockwood's friends, the performers Jack Lawrence and Josh Hunter, both speculated to me that Lockwood thought I was Ford, who had also never called him a fag but who had printed more defamatory material on his former website.

But I did not believe this, as I'd heard Kurt ask Jennifer James who I was before he started shoving.

I kept notes of my interviews with city employees and they gave me details of their conversations with James and Lockwood.

Lockwood was questioned by an L.A.P.D. detective two weeks after the incident. He brought the shirt that he'd taken off in the street, said that I'd burned him with coffee, and filed a battery charge against me. This was immediately dismissed.

Meanwhile, Jennifer James had called me to apologize, saying it was not her decision to have me kicked off the set. "My hands were tied," she said.

She had never given me any reason to believe her before; I'd determined after James had lied to me in an interview I'd published that I would never give her any publicity again, but I'd changed my mind, and then regretted it.

The movie's producer, a newcomer calling himself Brian Scott, also wrote me and offered to take me to dinner. I wrote back and asked him his real name and the physical address of his business. He didn't contact me again.

James was then interviewed by the L.A.P.D. She admitted that Lockwood had already appeared "out of control" earlier in the morning and that when he had gone after me, James was in the process of trying to calm him down.

When James was asked why she chose to have me and Ford leave the set rather than send Lockwood home, she said that the budget wouldn't allow it. Producer Scott said Lockwood couldn't be replaced that quickly, and the location had already been paid for. Later, James told others that she had "written the part" for Kurt and that, after the distractions had been sent away, he had done a "sizzling" scene.

In the coming months I dealt with two representatives of the City of Los Angeles. Both in their turn seemed at times bemused, fascinated, and repelled by the workings of the adult business.

The detective conducting the initial interviews, Dollie Swanson, would give me updates. She seemed, at times, shocked at the way people conducted themselves in the porn industry.

"In any other business people would bend over backwards to make sure you didn't write anything bad about them," Swanson told me after talking with James. "These people are on these chatboards all the time, getting into it."

I said that in a business where the margins are so small and where one director's product looked a lot like another's, any publicity is good publicity.

Swanson told me that Lockwood brought her printouts of my work - or had searched a computer in her presence - and was still not able to find evidence of my having called him a fag.

But performer Kami Andrews had. She'd had dealings with Lockwood and called him a fag, on my site, when she wrote a guest column while I was on vacation. But it was clearly marked that she was the writer.

"I find no evidence of your having called him that," she told me, "but there is enough on your site that clearly derides him about his sunglasses, and someone would be able to tell that you're making fun of him."

Lockwood told Swanson that sometimes others, such as girlfriends, wrote posts for him on chatboards. He said that the porn industry was homophobic and that it would not give him work if people thought he was gay.

"Is this true?" Swanson asked me.

I pointed out that since the incident, people had been mailing me undoctored photos of Lockwood in situations a reasonable person might call gay. These included pictures of his former band and some DVD covers. I also said that , whether or not it was true of Kurt's orientation, "gay" was a word that people used in the adult business to describe him - but not necessarily pejoratively.

I said that I don't think people call the director Chi Chi LaRue a fag, and she has often directed on the straight side of porn. I said that I didn't think people cared.

But, I said, it was not his sexuality that people had trouble with. It was this business of freaking out on people. I suggested that it was Lockwood who was sensitive about his sexuality, and that he shouldn't be.

But even if certain directors would no longer hire him for his belligerent behavior, enough would continue working with him because he's a handsome dude and fans like him.

"I'm looking at some of these stories on the websites," she said, "and it doesn't seem like you can really get blacklisted enough to keep someone from hiring you."

The police obtained statements from Abby Ehmann, who was with me on the set, from blogger and director Mike South, whom Lockwood had assaulted at the AVN Expo, and from radio host Wankus, whom Lockwood had assaulted - also on the "you called me a fag" pretext - at a memorial service for the director Jim Holliday.

Detective Swanson waded through Lockwood's extensive digital paper trail of heated backs and forths with detractors. The case was kicked up to Civil Court.

By this point I was wondering why the two major adult "news" organizations, AVN and XBiz, had not done a story about an assault on a movie set involving a well-known director, a well-known performer, and a former employee of both their companies. XBiz finally wrote something on March 12.

Then James and Scott went to various websites saying that people like me should not write whatever they wanted with impunity and that I should apologize for disrupting the set of the movie. Lockwood told XBiz that sldiers were dying in Iraq and people interested in this story should get a life.

The backlash against James, Scott, and Lockwood was immediate, harsh, and educational. But James, having hired publicist Jeff Mullen for the movie, marketed it as "porn's most dangerous movie" and capitalized on the assault.

I wrote Mullen that I would not print any of his press releases until he had distanced himself from James, which he has.

Other than people connected with the movie, the only person I know of who defended the production's actions in asking me to leave was the late Jim Holliday's friend, former porn performer Bill Margold.

The 60-something Margold comes from a time when porn was illegal, and believes in the strong bonds of something he calls "The Family of X."

Of my decision to call the cops he wrote:
"Obviously the man is clueless when it comes to matters of honor and loyalty toward a business that allows him to butter his daily bread."
He went on to relate a story about working as a juvenile corrections officer and shaming tattlers rather than dealing with the people they told on. I do think the honor and loyalty approach is effective for organizations like the Mob, where there is an internal system of controls, but I didn't see any self-regulation happening on the set that day. Also, the Mob makes money - this movie lost it.

Margold works for an escort ad newspaper called the LAXPress. I'd been e-mailed one of their covers last summer that clearly identified the performer Hillary Scott as a hooker named Tiffany. I called the paper, said who I was, and was put on hold. The person who picked up the phone next had a familiar voice, but did not identify himself, but began lecturing immediately.

"You need to understand that when you allow your picture to be taken and you sign that release, that image doesn't belong to you," he said. "People can use it for anything."

"Is this Bill Margold?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Uh huh. Now, you know that's Hillary Scott, right? And not Tiffany the hooker?"

"Yes."

Family of X...

I was then interviewed by Deputy City Attorney Cydney Bensimon. Lockwood was supposed to be there with me but the City sent his notice to the wrong address. By that time - early April of 2007 - I had compiled my own evidence of Lockwood's behavior towards others and, for good measure, had brought printouts of some of his work that might be construed as gay.

"...but you know that doesn't matter," Bensimon said.

"Well, yes, but - "

"You could tell him his mother wears Army boots; he still has no right to hit you," she said.

She indicated to me that the case was probably not going anywhere; did I think I was in danger? Had Lockwood tried to contact me?

"Nope. Not even to apologize. But if he's the type of person who tries to beat up someone who didn't call him something, what might he try to do to all the people who actually did?"

"When I talk to him I will try to determine if he will do this sort of thing again."

I told her that I was concerned that, because Lockwood had lied to the detective (there was no way he got burned with coffee; I should know, because most of it had landed on me), any contrition he demonstrated (Lockwood and I were both raised Catholic) might similarly be an act.

"We'll see."

At the end of May I got a call from Attorney Bensimon. She had met with Lockwood on May 14.

"I'm not going forward with the claim," she said. "He admits he hit you, he admits he was out of control, he feels like a jerk for what he did. He's sorry."

I asked about a paper trail.

"He's in the system, but there is no 'criminal record' per se," she said. "There's no filing or conviction.

"He's going to be 38 in a week," she said. "How many years do any of these people have in your business?"

Well, several.

"I don't think he wants anything to do with you," she said.

The case was over, and the hubbub had died down. Still, whenever I see certain people they say "Call me a fag now!"

I tried several times to get Kurt Lockwood to talk for this story. I left two phone messages with numbers I'd been given, and at least three e-mails. I then mentioned it to a friend of his, and CCd him on this e-mail:

I congratulated Lockwood on the recent birth of his son, and mentioned that I had a new son in 2007, too.
...But we have some unfinished business. Whatever you were going through that day (or that year) should have not had anything to do with me, and you have not once apologized, publicly or privately, for it. Further, the police are aware you lied to them. Not that that matters (as we've seen), but I'm wondering if you want a forum to tell the truth. And I would like your apology to be part of it.

As you know, the story of that day got to be bigger than my getting jumped on the way to work. There were issues of how people cover their butts (figuratively) in this business as well as how profit margins are so low that they affect decision-making. We both know you should have been sent home that day, but they couldn't afford it. Now that company is bankrupt.

But I think it would do well for your image - and I know you're concerned about it, else you wouldn't have done what you did - to talk about the difference between gay and bi and gay for pay - and if any of those terms really mean anything anymore. I've noticed that you are venturing into the tranny/bi market again; I think you have an opportunity for that "legacy" (I think that was the word) you mentioned in your farewell AVN article to address the differences/similarities between porn and private life.

What do you think?
No reply.

So Lockwood is working again, Jennifer James can be seen at various events with a camera, ostensibly in the process of prepping a reality show, and the company that made the movie no longer has a website save for a MySpace page that hasn't been updated. The movie came and went. A salesperson at the company that distributed the DVD told me that it did not sell many copies.

"The Real Boogie Nights," the movie that Lockwood was told wouldn't be released, actually was released with some intercession on the part of Ron Jeremy with his pal, P.T. Anderson.

I've started speaking to Jeff Mullen again because he thinks he's going to Hell anyway, so why bother being mad? I feel the same about Luke Ford, who also sort of retired from porn.

I am grateful to Abby Ehmann, Wankus, and especially Mike South for giving me a little perspective in the early days, as well as the myriad chatboard commenters who were a wealth of information. Darcy Alison (now of Videobox) and Justin Berthelsen of Gamelink also provided support in the form of the first of several replacement thermoses that came in the mail the next few weeks.

And I don't have anything against Lockwood. This is a hard business to be in sometimes; fame comes a lot easier than anywhere else, but it is directly proportional to scrutiny, and the scrutiny is fierce. The detective told him to stop reading stories about him if they get him so mad, but in case he's reading: No one cares about your orientation. You have a good shot at a worthwhile third act.

I had told Detective Swanson that, when I started writing about porn, it was with the thought that I would eventually write a book about it. After a year I lost interest in writing the type of book everyone seems to write about porn; wide-eyed, titillated, sardonic and dismissive. But after this situation started playing itself out I've been thinking about it again.

I will call it "Eon McKai."

One of the last things Attorney Bensimon said before she closed the case on myself and Lockwood shocked me, because it reduced everyone to the same (non-binding) judgment:

"I think you're both nice men."

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--Wednesday, August 01, 2007--

Nautica Thorn, Jersey Jaxon on Wankus show tonight

They say they are not competing, but KSEXRadio and PrimeTime Uncensored fish from the same shallow pool of summertime porn talent.

KSEX' new studio is great, despite the steady migration of talent from there (Jason Sechrest is holding down the fort with about 70 shows weekly). And Tony Batman and Wankus more or less switched places; Batman was a mainstay of the fledgling PTU and moved to KSEX when Wankus was unceremoniously fired from his home of several years.

Wankus is now the peripatetic king of the Chatsworth low-res streaming porn video scene.

The former "Transformers" voice has had a steady gig at PTU for the past several weeks, and tonight hosts the bite-sized Jersey Jaxon, Nautica Thorn, Kayla Paige, Ashlynn Brooke, and a woman named Haileey (that's what it says here) James. (Ryder Skye will appear next week, contrary to the poster. But what are you going to do? Make a new poster?)

The Wankus Show is always fun, even if PTU's studio is uncomfortably cavernous.

Will PTU be the XBiz to KSEX' AVN? Will either ever make money? Is James Bartholet the most talented man alive? All will soon become clear - or it won't!

Previously: Energy drink-drinking nudes
See also: Prime Time Uncensored

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--Friday, May 11, 2007--

Wankus out at KSEX, fired by phone on air

It is hard to imagine KSEXRadio without Wankus, the person who undisputedly made the station the unvarnished garage band of porn industry discussion.

"Well," Wankus qualified today, "if you think KSEX sucks, that's me, too."

Wayne "Wankus" Lewis joined KSEXRadio in late 2000 after years as a radio DJ in regional markets around the country. He joined at the request of former owner the late Mike Rick.

"I coached his kid in Little League," Wankus said, "and he called me up when he'd bought the station from the former owner in late 2000. He said 'I'll stay out of your way.'"

Wankus brought an abrasive, incisive, often hilarious East Coast style to the airwaves, building a loyal fanbase with "PJ"s ("Porn Jockies") that worked for $20 an hour. Wankus is responsible for most of KSEXRadio's identifiable trademarks, from its music to its commercials.

Following Rick's death, Rick's brother, Chris, took over the station but he eventually sold to a four-person partnership that included Sean Trotter, a shareholder in Adam & Eve, a "silent partner" named Gene who was a restarauteur, Josh Aaron, and Jon Belinkie. There was talk of taking the station to satellite radio, moving the station to larger quarters from its current Burbank location, and a general restructuring managed from afar. Wankus continued as Program Director.

"There were big plans," Wankus said of the new regime, which began early last year. "But (despite Trotter's involvement) the new owners were outsiders trying to run a porn business."

Tyler Faith, who today resigned her PJ gig in protest of Wankus' firing, concurred.

"It has been a very rough year," she said.

I asked what the biggest problem seemed to be in outside ownership.

"This is a west coast industry and you have to respect that," Wankus said. "When I moved to Santa Barbara from New York, it took me four years to talk without people wanting to fight me."

(I had earlier asked Wankus to please slow down; I'm from the East Coast myself and I have grown used to people talking at a leisurely pace since I moved here.)

"...so I understood the difficulty," he said. "They have very New York-y, hard-sell tactics. You can't yell at (AVN president Paul) Fishbein about the AVN ads. I had to do a lot of apologizing for them. But you can't manage a business by vacation, which is what these guys were doing. You have to get in and get your hands dirty."

On Thursday night, PJ Lorrainiac's show started with a call from partner Jon Belinkie. He informed her on the air that Wankus was fired and that she was the new Program Director.

"I hired Lorrainiac six years ago," Wankus said. "She had just started the show, everybody was having a good time..."

Wankus and Faith are dubious of the station's continued success, because they don't feel the owners know the territory. But this pales in comparison to the method of the dismissal.

"(Wankus is) responsible for KSEX getting to where it is now," Faith said, "and you don't treat someone like that."

Many companies in the adult industry are notorious for shortchanging their employees, but this reflects the entertainment industry in general, and maybe even Los Angeles (that is why I work for myself). These companies might survive based on short-term disrespect to the people who work for them, but it could be argued that they'd do a lot better if employees were treated better.

"(Belinkie) and I would have these screaming phone calls that we'd end with 'I'm hanging up now. I'll call you tomorrow,'" Wamkus said. "We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but we all wanted the success of KSEX."

Both Wankus and Faith admit they feel relieved after what they think of as a year of struggle and butting heads with the new owners.

"Now he can devote 100 percent of his time to my company (Team Tyler)," Faith said. The couple are negotiating a new series with a major studio, the details of which will be announced soon.

"I'm getting my ducks in a row," Wankus said.

I asked what the secret of success in the porn business was.

"You can tell who's going to succeed when people stop getting the googly eyes with naked girls all around them," he added. "These guys still have the googly eyes after a year."

Previously: Tyler Faith, awake and asleep; Tyler makes honest man out of Wankus; What makes boobs real?
See also: Wankus, Tyler Faith

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--Tuesday, May 08, 2007--

Porn Star Karaoke the way it used to be - tonight

I like that Wankus dude. He is hosting Porn Star Karaoke for the first time in about a year tonight. Not that his replacements have dropped the ball, but watching Wankus host Porn Star Karaoke is like watching a train not crash.

Previously: Tyler Faith: "Just like the glitter on her nose"; Faith's Fantasies
See also: Sardo's Bar, KSEX

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While GramPonante.com is written for a tenth-grade reading level (in some countries), you must be 18 years or older to visit this site. Sorry.

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