There are many reasons to love New York; from the lushness of central park, to the art galleries in Chelsea and Soho, the city is as vibrant and wired as a triple espresso topped off with some crack. Unfortunately it’s gotten insanely costly and driven out a lot of artists, innovators, and sheer whackos by doing so; there is no question that the gentrification of New York over the past decade has whitewashed a lot of what made the town so interesting, (Sextv did a story about this in regards to Time Square a while ago), but there is still an essence, a vibe to New York that is distinctly it’s own; it’s pulsing, throbbing and still slightly mad.
I just got back from New York this week, and it took no more than a moment to realize where I was; walking out of the airport from my flight I noticed that no one makes eye-contact—which is the complete opposite of New York; in fact, no one looks at each in Toronto; everyone does the avoido... it’s as if your ex-girlfriend and boyfriend appeared on every street corner, every moment you were awake. That is never a good feeling.
I am always stunned when people say New Yorkers are cold and remote, I find it to be the opposite; New York is that rare place where I walk down a street I am guaranteed to hear a holler such as “That’s a great shirt Mr.” or “Wow! I like your hat! And now that I see it, the rest of you too!” Everything is fair game, it’s New York.
Visiting some friends in the Lower East Side, I was told of tales of how a random stranger punched my friend from behind while walking down Avenue B at 9:00 p.m. one evening, and how a recent break into their building on 14th street apartment, was met with nonchalance by the police ...all these things were comforting to me because it meant New York was still New York; the dirty, dangerous and deranged city I used to love.
It’s also the easiest place to “hook up” so maybe that’s why I like it so much but that’s a different story... sigh, back to Toronto.
Posted by Nicolas Monday, July 30, 2007 1:23pm
Sleaze Plus Time
This is “Perversion For Profit”, a notoriously over-the-top anti-porn “educational” film from the early sixties. I came across this in my pre-production work for an upcoming SexTV series called “X: A People’s History of Sex”.
The show will be a decade-by-decade overview of sex in pop culture from the 1950’s to the present day. I feel as though I’m rifling through the drawers of another generation’s bedrooms. And the artifacts that we discover – the earnest sex ed film clips , the burlesque dancers, and those naughty Tijuana Bibles – they all seem so innocent and naïve today. Even bondage porn seems somehow wholesome when it’s disguised as sorority girls indulging in some high spirited shenanigans. OK, not exactly wholesome – but nothing compared to what’s out there today.
Carol Burnett’s maxim is that comedy comes from “tragedy plus time”, and I guess sleaze plus time creates something similar. But it’s a little too easy to laugh at how sex was represented in pop culture in years past. It all just makes me think that in just a few decades, our own supposedly enlightened and open-minded 21st century views on sex will seem just as guarded and codified and old-fashioned.
And that’s not entirely an encouraging thought. On one hand, it’s nice to think that the age-old debates about gay rights and sex ed will someday seem quaint and out-dated. Scarier is the thought that the gonzo porn of today will someday seem as tame and golly-gee as the stag flicks of years gone by. But worst of all – for me – is the thought that generations to come will look back at the work we do here at SexTV, and chuckle at all our sincere efforts thinking, “Wow, they really didn’t get it back then, did they?”
Posted by Chris Friday, July 27, 2007 3:01pm
The Pressure on Marriage to Make it Work
Although most women would not want to be married to Homer Simpson, we would never want Marge and Homer to break up. Can you imagine if Marge and Homer got a divorce? Sure, they’ve had their fare share of problems, but their love always endures. Their marriage is the sacred cow of The Simpsons -- it’s basically the only traditional institution in this famous American satire that is still venerated. Most authoritarian structures and traditional role models in The Simpsons are mocked and ridiculed relentlessly, but the family structure remains intact. Children everywhere can be assured that even if the United States and all its political, educational and business leaders are corrupt, Marge and Homie will be together until death do they part.
That’s a whole lot of pressure on marriage. Yes we all learned that divorce is bad for the kids – but how can marriage survive without the help of family, and the support of our cultural and economic institutions? I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Marriage was traditionally an economic system, and romantic love was kept on the side – and usually for men. Now, we want companionship, children, economic support, respectability but on top of it all, we want our partner to be our best friend, our trusted confidante and passionate lover. Our romantic ideal says that there is one person with whom you can have everything; and increasingly, on top of it all, we are these isolated domestic units with no help from family, friends, or institutions.
Yikes! And now we have report after report – article after article – and expert after expert - questioning if Monogamy is Natural – that monogamy may be fundamentally human, but that humans aren’t necessarily monogamous. Seen through the eyes of evolutionary biologists, we can never really escape our most primal animal instincts which seek to diversify our gene pool and have some good ole monkey fun.
So, how are we supposed to reconcile all of the competing views of marriage without expanding our definitions of marriage? How can we, as a society, uphold monogamy and marriage while accepting our cheating homosapien ways? And finally, how can we as a culture whole-heartedly support the institution of marriage without giving it any institutional help?
Posted by Michelle Wednesday, July 25, 2007 4:42pm
Countdown to The Witching Hour
In honour of Harry Potter Day (Book 7 is released tonight at midnight, but I'm sure you all knew that) I've found a list of links to Harry Potter slash/fanfiction for you all to enjoy (I know, I'm such a dork). But as this day marks the end of an era for millions of devoted fans all over the world I felt the need to reassure myself that HP lives on in our hearts - well, you know, on the internet. Especially since I've been the recipient of quite a few despondent e-mails from friends, lamenting the end of a beloved series: "I feel so depressed, the book is coming out and an entire chapter of my life will close..."
Anyway, I just saw the most recent movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and not surprisingly, most of the people in the theatre were adults. My friend and I marvelled at how cool it was to have seen the actors grow up on the big screen - in sync with the book characters. The weirdest thing, though, was that I also couldn't help feeling slightly uncomfortable. Seeing the child actors - who are definitely not child actors anymore - walk that fine line between adolescent and adult, experience love, crushes, first kisses - you can't not be aware of their burgeoning sexuality. And instinctively, that feels really wrong. It was like that time the Olsen twins turned eighteen but you couldn't get the image of baby Michelle from Full House out of your head. But clearly some of the die-hard fans who write HP fanfic have overcome this small caveat, because there appears to be some pretty racy stuff out there... Enjoy!
There was an opinion piece published in the NYT yesterday about the new birth control pill that's about to become available this month - Lybrel, made by pharmaceutical company Wyeth. The thing about this pill, is that it allows women who are on it to never menstruate. Where most other oral contraceptives have one week of placebo pills to allow for a "period" (apparently to give women a sense of normalcy and security), Lybrel eliminates that.
The author of the article, Karen Houppert, warns us to prepare ourselves for an onslaught of advertising and "research" that will prove that we all benefit from the absence of menstruation. One scary example: "Dr. Ginger D. Constantine, the company’s [Wyeth's] therapeutic director for women’s health...reported that menstruating women feel less effective at work and take more sick days. Not only that, but they don’t exercise and they wear dark clothes more often, she said." [emphasis added].
There is something profoundly disturbing to me about this. Every day it seems, there is a new drug that claims to eliminate something that "plagues womanhood" (really, if we "fixed" women, our society would be better as a whole!). Let's get rid our nasty periods, we have to find the solution to our low sex drives (as if that's an exclusively "female" thing), we need to eliminate mood swings (god knows we have to make sure we stay bright and happy - otherwise we might commit infanticide), and the list goes on. As Houppert points out, American news media have already been weighing the pros and cons of menstruation in light of this new pill. Should we make everyone's lives easier by eliminating that sex-interfering bleeding, the work-interfering cramps, and the relationship-interfering PMS? Shouldn't we just take one for the team? And wouldn't we want to do it and save ourselves the hassle of dealing with tampons and maxi pads anyway?
An addendum to Michelle's March post on photo re-touching: Jezebel has been getting a lot of attention in the past couple days because they finally found someone to provide them with the best example of an un-re-touched photograph from a magazine cover. Months ago, they offered $10,000 to the person who could provide said item, and yesterday the editors posted a pre-Photoshop photograph of Faith Hill on the cover of Redbook.
I've been fixedly staring at the animated before-and-after (it's mesmerizing but after a while, I get a headache). I can't help wondering if sales numbers would really truly be lower had the magazine published the cover still without removing Faith's wrinkles, shaving her arm down to a stick, and making her skin tone whiter. (See Jezebel's "annotations" for a play-by-play). I mean, I get the benefits of being able to Photoshop. But seriously? Would any consumer really have taken a glance at the mag cover and been like, "Ugh, not so attractive, I think I'll pass on this month's issue…"?
Posted by Emily Tuesday, July 17, 2007 2:26pm
THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE...
Unless your online time is devoted to searching for online romance or naked boobs (perhaps at the same place), you have undoubtedly come across the delightful information site, Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Although this may sound somewhat dubious in terms of accuracy – proponents will argue its reliability is precisely because it involves the public. In other words, if any misinformation pops up on the site – thousands of passionate nerds for that subject will immediately set the record straight.
Just as an encyclopedia should, Wikipedia has information on anything and everything you can think of - from “aardvarks” to the “zipless fuck”. I have never thought of this source as particularly political until I recently heard about a new online encyclopedia that has been created specificially as an alternative source. Aptly named, Conservapedia – this site was created because of what they cite as “editorial philosophy conflicts” with Wikipedia. It touts itself as “a conservative encyclopedia you can trust” with the adage: “The truth shall set you free”.
I decided to poke around the site to see what kind of information this trustworthy source could provide for me.
Some initial searches unearthed some very interesting information. Apparently, “the sexual revolution of the 1950s and 1960s” was solely “based on the ideas of three men: Sigmund Freud , Alfred Kinsey, and Hugh Hefner”. Also interesting to note that there are significant connections between homosexuality and “intestinal parasites” not to mention homosexuality and “mental health” issues.
Not surprisingly, pornography is something which “usually consists of images depicting the satisfaction of the sort of ‘unnatural lust’ (their quotes, not mine) which leads to damnation”. Unfortunately – searches for things like premarital sex & pedophilia turned up empty. The site did, however, indicate that there once was something written on these subjects – however, they were “deleted and protected to prevent re-creation”.
And, finally, on this utterly enlightened and trustworthy source, penises and vaginas simply don’t exist. However, you can contribute your ideas on these two controversial body parts here.
Have fun.
Posted by Berrygirl Monday, July 16, 2007 2:21pm
Leaving Las Vegas...
Las Vegas is taking up an inordinate amount of real estate in my mind lately. I spent ten days there last month working on two Sextv projects – a special on the Miss Exotic World burlesque competition and an episode of the upcoming Erotic City series. Ten days is about eight days longer than you need to spend in Vegas. Overexposure to neon, buffet food and loose slots has left a mark on me that’s only now beginning to fade along with my desert tan. In an attempt to exorcise the last of the Vegas demons haunting me, here is a list of my top five memories of my week and a half in Sin City:
The Miss Exotic World Pool Party
15 stories up, on the roof of a rundown casino, dozens of burlesque stars in bikinis shaking and shimmying to stompin’ sixties soul as the sun set behind the mountains and the lights of The Strip began to glow in the twilight... it was one of the rare moments of the trip where Las Vegas seemed to make perfect sense.
Cruising The Strip in a stretch limo with Vanna Lace A one-time Miss Nude World who was performing that night as a feature dancer at the mind-boggling Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club – the world’s biggest strip club. Vanna turned out to be a totally charming and down to earth Canadian girl who studied at the National Ballet School here in Toronto, but her wholesomeness only made the whole experience more surreal.
Sliding through the shark pool at the Golden Nugget
This was actually totally fun – and unlike everything else in Vegas except drinks on the casino floor , it was free. Camera-guy Andy and I were repeat visitors. Could there be a better metaphor for a trip to Vegas than a waterslide through a shark pool?
Shooting a drive-thru Elvis wedding at the famousLittle White Chapel, where the likes of Britney Spears, Dennis Rodman and Joan Collins have all tied the knot. A nice couple from Illinois let us shoot them renewing their vows on their 25th wedding anniversary. They sat perched in the back of a pink Cadillac as a look-alike belted out a not-too-shabby rendition of “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”. Sure it was tacky as hell, but also strangely moving. When the wannabe Elvis got to the lines, “Take my hand, take my whole life too…”, there wasn’t a dry eye in the driveway.
Posted by Chris Monday, July 16, 2007 11:22am
World's tallest man ties the knot
We're the in the height of wedding season, and as I try to rub the blur of tulle and fondant icing pieces from my face, I’m also hoping that I will never have to endure the strains of Shania Twain's "From This Moment" or watch a drunken groom try to wrestle with the garter using his teeth ever again. But before you think I'm an unromantic cynic or a bitter spinster, I'd just like to point out that between my significant other and me, we've attended around eight weddings this year.
However, even though I'm already saturated enough, I was strangely charmed by the odd news that the world's tallest man had tied the knot today. Bao Xishun, who in addition to being 7ft. 9 is also the man who saved the lives of two dolphins by reaching into their stomachs to pull out pieces of plastic, married a girl two-thirds his height in a traditional Mongolian ceremony. My enjoyment of this, however, waned rather dramatically when I read at the bottom of the article that Inner Mongolia had turned the wedding into a branding event to promote tourism to the area. Typical, I huffed. But nevertheless, I love the very charming and slightly awkward photos of the event.
Posted by Emily Friday, July 13, 2007 10:01am
Missed Connections
Meeting people is never simple, however in this day and age, it has gotten so frustratingly complex that the hopeless romantic may long for the days of lore, when courtship and seduction entailed more than a bottle of Export and slap on the ass (which actually works for me, but that’s a different story); the internet, that wonderful mechanism that has enabled us to surf for porn, waste time, surf for porn, and occasionally gleam some useful information has complicated things even more. Online dating (a craze that is no longer a craze, yet a mainstay in today’s urban dating scene) has spawned sites such as the Missed Connections page on Craigslist. I must confess I go to this page religiously, it’s a riveting read; I am consistently fascinated and enthralled in the daily hunt for lost glances and failed opportunities. The pure drama that unfolds in the “Go train to Peterborough” or “HOT in the Gym – m4m” is better than anything provided by any Danielle Steel novel; also, the idea that I might be the “hot” guy at the gym or the lady at the Peterborough Go train never fails to suck me in (okay, I don’t take the Go Train, but you never know, I mean, I took the Go train once, a few years ago...). Though I am sure not many love connections actually occur thanks to this column, the notion that these tireless romantics have gathered the courage to articulate their longings is charmingly life affirming . So if you ever wonder if romance was dead, go to Craigslist and scour through their missed connections column... you’ll be seduced, amused, and wooed, like it’s 1674 all over again...
Posted by Nicolas Friday, July 13, 2007 9:45am
Rilo Kiley Shake Their Moneymaker
"Rockin' and rollin'" was slang for having sex long before "Rock 'n' Roll" was a genre of music, but nowhere has the traces of that etymology been more vigorously scrubbed away than in the awkward and often dweeby demimonde known as "indie rock".
Look no further if you need a little something dejectedly celibate, smirkingly smug or self-righteously ascetic - but horny isn't exactly indie's forte. However, formerly wholesome college rockers Rilo Kiley are doing their damnedest to inject a little L.A. sleaze into the aesthetic with this short film for their new single, The Moneymaker.
It begins with nine minutes of interviews with D-list porn stars, which totally eclipses the standard-issue "racy" music video that follows. In the video, sex stars with awesome names like Fay Runaway and Tommy Gunn preen in the background as Rilo Kiley unconvincingly act their naughtiest at the fore. Their front-woman is the former child actor Jenny Lewis, and she's undeniably lovely but she’s no Simon Le Bon and "The Moneymaker" is no "Girls on Film". And it’s not 1983 anymore.
The film clearly needed something more, which probably explains their decision to include that extended porny prologue which presents the performers recounting the ups and downs of their chosen careers with minimal moralizing or dramatics. In short, they all say they really like to fuck and they didn't have a lot of other options – not unlike the sex stars of the 70s and 80s who tell their tales in Legs McNeil's great oral history of porn The Other Hollywood. Some things never change, it seems.
It ain't exactly pretty, but it's an honest and unafraid sexuality that's miles away from the Belle and Sebastians of this world, God bless their wooly little heads. But not all indie rockers are clueless about porn and sex.
In a great rambling recent interview on VBS.TV, indie rock godfather Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie “Prince” Billy) talks about how porn stars may have taken the place of rock and rollers as tragically heroic figures in our culture because, as he says, "People like to see something transformative or hot. They like to see people go through changes... And when they see [porn stars having sex on camera] they think, 'Well if I was doing that, that would change me.'" Oldham's empathetic stance feels right – and it points up why Rilo Kiley’s film ultimately fails. The band attempts to bask in the reflected outlaw glow of their porn star extras, but they end up outshined by these unambivilent co-stars..
Posted by Chris Friday, July 06, 2007 12:20pm
Amo España
I just got back from a deliciously hedonistic vacation to Spain. Each day, after awakening to the bright sounds of birds outside my window, I would walk leisurely to an outdoor café to sip on café con leche and consume buttery croissants or delicate puff pastries laced with dark chocolate. Then it was off to the beach to lie in the golden sand and listen to the waves while reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After a few hours of that, it was time for drinking wine and eating saffron-infused paella which inevitably led to the most lavish indulgence of the trip - a lazy siesta with my beau.
I was reminded during this trip about an interview Sextv did a while back with Thomas Moore, author of The Soul Of Sex who talked about the importance of living sensually. Moore suggests that we all try to embrace a more Epicurean lifestyle – through which the pleasures of food, family and the natural world would enhance our sensual and sexual lives exponentially. The fact that all Spaniards take part in this daily retreat from working life is a reminder of the fact that societies can survive and thrive without working 14 hour days, 7 days a week.
Although I may not be able to incorporate a siesta into my daily life (really, who has the time) – I am inspired to think of ways in which eating, drinking and loving can become the focus of my daily life.
Posted by BerryGrl Thursday, July 05, 2007 10:46am
