Found at Sexe, love et gaudriole, the mysterious Maison Close. Or not so mysterious: it’s a fledgling high-end Parisian lingerie company that supplies boutiques worldwide, and is readying to open a brick-and-mortar store in Paris. I know, it’s just me showing you that I found more agonizingly beautiful yet totally expensive stuff, but there’s something about window shopping expensive sex goods that is very satisfying. Their Flash-tastic site doesn’t have a shop yet but it’s packed with eye candy, like this video:

Image of men’s underwear ad “JBS Nun” was sniffing the goods, via PDesai21.

While you were reading about my vague evil, manlybits were swung about. Fruit flies put the “B” in LGBT. A lame duck porn law was tossed out like an old Hustler. many discoveries were made, like sex positions for singles, and robot masturbators went into beta testing. I know, it’s all too good to be true — except it is. And hey — they tell me that well-behaved women rarely make history. Enjoy!

* Pornographic biology is really the best kind. Read the first part of Bisexuality in Drosophila to get all h-h-hot and bothered. (thanks, Praemedia!)

* Cyberbullying is becoming a crime, to the relief of many (of us). Check out Missouri governor signs Internet harassment bill to see the direction this is heading. (thanks, Ariel!)

* Many of you know I’ve been an editor and contributor at Fleshbot since 2005; right now, my fellow Fleshbotette Lux is on a campaign to provide readers with exactly the porn they want to see. I know, it’s unheard of! This week she’s fulfilling a terrific reader request in Small Boobs Need Love Too. Yay for the itty bitty titty committee!

* Also on my other bloghome away from home, pal sturtle points us to a very entertaining collection of condom ads from around the world. He writes that condom ads used to hard to, erm, come by but “Today, however, you can’t swing your manlybits without hitting at least half a dozen ads in print, broadcast, and web form.” Please do be careful when you swing the bits, dear readers. This proves that you never know what you might hit.

* A while back I wrote about the new Indiana law that required bookstores and other retailers to register with the state and pay a $250 fee if they want to sell “sexually explicit material”. Evil! Good thing a federal judge thinks it’s a bad idea, too — read Judge throws out law making bookstores pay fine to sell porn and smile along with me…

* Something for everyone: a photo exhibition of 80 Sex Positions for Singles, via Sex and Blogs.

* Some people have all the luck. Over at Booksaga: Adventures in the Book Trade, Perry Falwell writes of a very unusual find (with image). Perry met a woman while shopping for books in a Goodwill, and the woman talked him into coming over and buying about 100 books from her, belonging to her deceased husband. When he got them home, he discovered that some of them were hollow, with oodles of porny Polaroids inside. (via Viviane)

* In sex toy robot news, qDot tells us that if we want the chance to be “part of the first wave to fall to our new penis crawling donut overlords” then those with penises should not hesitate to sign up for beta testing of the Rubbot. The designers over at rubbot.com have just announced that they have reached their beta phase, and they’re recruiting. Wow, donuts?

* Thanks to Bacchus and Sexoteric for the link: The Science Of Bad Boys features an article in New Science discussing scientific proof that bad boys really do get laid more. They’re still douchier than the rest, but you know, that whole “bad boy” thing… Hm.

Image by davidyuweb.

…so I guess I know my Chronicle column has been posted to SF Gate: just got the first “save your soul” email of the week. It tells me, “Please stop “partying” and save your soul. Lesbianism and homosexuality are condemned in many places in The Bible. Chapter 1 of Romans is a good place to start. If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour, repent your sins and sin no more, you will be saved from the everlasting fires of Hell.” I guess that’s good because I’ve been looking for a place to start… Start saving money on lube, that is. This week’s column is Margaret Cho, a bottle of whiskey and a long night. Snip:

I’m not telling you what happened on Friday night because you deserve it. I’m telling you because you need it. And what began with a post Trans March surprise visit from Donna Sachet turned into a squirmy pile of bodies packed into Margaret Cho’s limo as we all got in touch with our inner drunks and invaded every transgender bar in town.

I’ve since learned that it is, in fact, remarkably easy to exit a limo without flashing anyone. Why is it so hard for Britney? I wondered, as I emerged into the cameras, lights, microphones and crowd waiting for us — for Margaret — outside Asia SF. They apparently knew we were coming, as did the owner of Asia, who’d prepared a special menu for our party. Being seated across from Donna and between Carol Queen and Margaret Cho made it difficult to not pinch myself every five minutes, and when the succulent waitress asked me what I wanted, I replied, “Something strong.” Surrounded by greatness, I felt small and too young. Nervous. I needed courage in case they made me walk the plank. One pause for timing, then the waitress winked a heavy set of lashes hung over one eye like an awning of ominous black feathers, and said to me not a word, sealing my fate.

The announcer blared over our heads that we had some special shows tonight, “twice as long and just as thick,” priming us for a stream of sexy girls who came out one by one or in teams to dance, strut, shake that ass and give us a show to remember from the top of the bar. It seemed like VH1’s camera and crew (the whole evening was being filmed for Margaret’s fall TV show) had everyone acting more cartoonish and outrageous than usual, but it may have been the strong drink talking, or the fact that there was actually no such thing as “usual” anymore. Girls worked the entire length — of the bar, OK? — while we ate and drank, and I cozied up to hottie Mikayla Connell. Meanwhile, boys had crashed our San Francisco Girls Gone Wild party: A couple of Margaret’s VH1 costars and Hacker Boy landed amidst the boobs, booze and brass ovaries.

Margaret’s boys said hi to Mikayla and she mentioned that we were having a little party this weekend, did they want to come? Thing was, I thought, this babe’s “little party” has 1.1 million people around the punchbowl, low estimate. Her “little party” was the center of the world, and I was thrilled to be invited. Hacker Boy cheekily chided her about the RSVP, “So, what’s with ‘Bound For Equality’? You know what’s a better slogan? ‘Marriage Is GAY!’” We cackled over the mammoth-mammaried performer mouthing the words to “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” in the dark room, holding flashlights like spotlights to her face, the room, her body.

Mikayla deadpanned to HB, “Where the hell were you when we were coming up with slogans?”

Meanwhile, Margaret had wandered into the clutches, thighs and bosoms of two catlike dancers at the edge of the bar. There was something going on between Margaret’s face and some legs, and boobs, or maybe some other parts… (…read more!)

In the SF Pride Parade 2008: my mom Theresa Sparks, myself, and my soon-to-be-adopted sister, Margaret Cho. Photo by Jonathan Moore, the adorable straight boy who handed out marriage equality stickers all day Pride sunday.

* Shoutout to the SFBG! Pics: Some famous faces of Pride.

It was 8:30 am sunday morning and I was downtown at the Embarcadero Hyatt Regency for the annual Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club breakfast. It was my second one, and it’s a crazy who’s-who of powerful LGBT friendly California politicians, and this being the big year for gay marriage, it was the year to really show up and *represent*. It’s a very important thing, this breakfast. Last year Elizabeth Edwards gave a stirring speech and I was introduced to everyone from Kamala Harris to Carole Migden. This year I know more people and that made it more fun; Tom Ammiano, Mikayla Connell, and even Mark Leno managed to race by the table and give me a squeeze and a hello. That I’ve come to know these incredible people amazes me to no end. I thank my lucky stars for being adopted by Theresa Sparks and Auntie Cecila.

This year we had speeches by Jerry Brown (who did indeed refer to himself as ‘Governor Moonbeam’), Gavin Newsom (as we did last year), and Ron Dellums — the first African American Congressman and current Mayor of Oakland. Hilary Clinton sent a note to be read by a delegate, as did Barack Obama. Hilary’s letter was (in my opinion) very form-like, and did not *even mention* gay marriage. Obama’s letter opened with a huge congratulations to the LGBT democratic club, and was almost entirely about marriage equality, and the wish to make it a reality on a federal level. They are very different letters. I trust politicians about as far as they can be tossed by toddlers, but I think we’re only going to get somewhere with human rights when politicians are finally honest about who the hell they’re talking to. Obama’s off to a good start.

But it was Dellums who made it all make sense. One of the first things he said is still ringing in my head today. “Be sure that every day you wake up with a fire that burns in your belly to make a significant change in the world about something that is bigger than you.” That’s it, I thought while I sat at the table, that’s it. That’s the kind of person I aspire to be. That’s the kind of people I should be around. People who seek real change for that thing that’s bigger than them — no wonder people who I’ve known whose lives are driven by money or fame or petty politics all wind up as former friends. It’s starting to make sense. Now those scars, they can finally mean something.

It’s the kind of speech where you can tell that this man, when he says he saw Martin Luther King speak, you know you’re as close as a person can be to that kind of truth and sacrifice, a fire and brimstone coming from the heart about equality and loving one another that transcends politics yet is all about political action. And like Dellums described his experience seeing King speak, I felt the same way — that for a powerful minute, there was no one he was talking to but me. And to feel King in the LGBT Democratic Club’s space — that we were winning.

His final point was that every citizen deserves the right to be with whom they choose, and to work. And everyone in our nation deserves the rights to do both in equality. I don’t know if you read the California gay marriage ruling/opinion — probably not, as it is a sprawling document (.pdf) — but it came down to something that resounds here like a clanging church bell. The court opined that any law discriminating against sexual orientation was the same as discrimination against race (and religion and gender). And that years ago in California (like 1948), it was shocking and controversial to allow interracial marriage, but now we think it’s a right and an non-issue. Just as it is shocking and controversial now with gay marriage, and thus marriage equality. Dellums tells us, because he’s been here before, people — that we won. And that after breakfast when we walked out the door to all march proudly in the parade with our family and lovers and friends at our sides and in our hearts, we were not marching in protest. We were, that day, yesterday, marching in victory. That we could be happy, and joyful and together because we won. And we did.

Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid.

I sat there in the middle of the room crying like a baby, and kept crying while we all stood to applaud Dellums in a standing ovation. Then, Gavin got up and effectively kicked me while I was down, giving a speech about how love is the most important thing in the world and the most powerful. That it is the one thing that can’t be bought, or forced on anyone. And to him, that’s what marriage equality meant. That we, as San Franciscans and Californians, were going to keep doing everything we can — and have been doing all along — to continue spreading love around the nation.

Out the door, on the way to the parade it was freezing in the fog, and holding Jonathan’s hand with our matching gothy outfits and our marriage equality stickers on our sweaters, we trailed behind my stunning sister Xtina. She’d danced her ass off friday night (hey, a girl’s still gotta work) at Asia SF and later Diva’s during the insanity of the Margaret Cho tranny bar tour (on VH1 this Fall, no kidding). Xtina and I texted each other all weekend about how much we loved each other and are fiercely proud to be sisters. Sunday, we shared a teary call where she told me no matter what, she’d always have my back because she was my sister. Just say the word, she said. I said the same, and it would never matter what anyone said against us.

I didn’t expect to ride in the car. At the last minute I was ordered to get in by Mama Sparks — sitting between Margaret and Theresa, with sexy Xtina in the front seat. Everyone looked gorgeous, and strangely, the whole ride was over in what seemed like minutes. Yelling, waving, smiling so much our faces actually ached. And here’s the thing: Margaret was there because she *wanted to be there*. She was, in fact, absolutely obviously thrilled to be there and to have an opportunity do anything to participate and meet people and have fun. Because Margaret really, really believes in Pride and everything it stands for, in her heart — I know this because I saw it on her face and in every action, and yes, also because she is now my friend and I can hear it in her voice when she talks about it. She stopped for every photo, she talked to every stranger, she took every chance to get up and make jokes and make people laugh and *feel beautiful*. She was a pale and tattooed hero. The crowd loved her, and she gave it back times a thousand. She wasn’t a Celebrity Grand Marshall or anything (and in fact, the other celeb grand marshalls behaved ungratefully, flakily and really like confused and aging pop stars — saying they were too tired or “sick” to do more than show up and leave). Margaret Cho was there because she knows it’s an honor, and she shines brighter than the rest. Period.

She is lobbying for adoption to have Theresa as a mom, too. I have zero in the biological family department, but I think I’m inheriting a family that’s, well, made of things bigger than me. And despite turning some of my fantasies into incest scenarios, that’s exactly what I want. That family, you see, *is* me. Take away my painful past, the people who have hurt me over the last year and a half, the stalkers, the death threats, the nonfriends, people disappearing me from my own online histories, take it all away and you have me. I can do it alone, but I don’t have to anymore. I think there might be at least 1.1 million others just like me (that was the SF Pride attendance estimate this year). And I’m proud of who we are. I don’t know if this makes any sense to you, but I’m feeling pretty solid about it.

After the parade, Jonathan and I unintentionally crashed the staff party in Mayor Newsom’s office — graciously, they let us hang out *on the motherfucking mayor’s balcony overlooking the city*! I lost my card reader so until I can get the fabulous photos off my camera from this weekend, I’ve got this Flickr photoset, and these videos:

* In the car during the parade!
* Crashing Mayor Newsom’s staff party, on the balcony.
* Very acrobatic gay cheerleaders practicing a routine (from the balcony).

Oh my gawd. I’ve just been told that *the* Donna Sachet is on her way to my house. It is slightly nonconsensual, but Friday has now begun.

I’m about to be picked up in a limo to join a bevy of HOT and powerful (like, as in San Francisco politics) transgender women and some very incredible bio girls for an all-night tranny bar tour of San Francisco. I know for sure I’ll be with my adopted mom Theresa Sparks, my Auntie Cecila Chung, Mikayla Connell, Margaret Cho and more, plus a mystery guest that may be Cyndi Lauper or Kelly or both. Oh, and a film crew from VH1, because we’re classy like that. I am not wearing my nice girl shoes.

Live updates as the night disintegrates on:

* Twitter + Plurk (text)
* Flickr (images via Ocean)
* Qik (video)

Update: I am very, painfully hung over but had a fabulous time! Margaret sat next to me all night (as did Carol Queen, YAY) and we literally invaded Asia SF and Diva’s! I had a blast. I’ll have photos up tonight, though I’m sad my Qik stream malfunctioned. (I updated it, that should do the trick.)

It’s really tough to go wrong with Andrew Blake. This week I’ve gone through and handpicked a smattering of free (free! do not buy!) galleries with some seriously scrumptious pretty girl friday action going on. Above we’ve got a still from the gallery featuring Elle, Erica and the uber-hot Aria Giovanni. Not much happens between Justine Jolie and Elle, but they look quite lickable. In another gallery, Aria and Valentina do that fake lesbian humping thing that never looks realistic, but with Aria and Valentina looks pretty damn good. In high-res videos — explicit, mind you — Dahlia, Celeste and Jacqueline just look incredible. I think part of the big turn on with Blake is the slowness of it all… Here’s a 2 minute clip of Dahlia with Adriana Sage (in bondage) to show you what I mean.

Image of Electra from this gallery.

Well played, Babeland! The women-focused retailer now has a complete sex toy care, safety and maintenance guide on their site, and also in a very nice downloadable .pdf (in case you wanna put it on your iPhone). They’ve got a few good tips for anal, G-spot and P-spot play as well, but what makes this a real gem are the detailed tips on taking care of and cleaning sex toys of all materials. I especially like their tips for specific brands. Superb. A must-read. And I should know, having formerly been the girl that wrote this stuff up for Good Vibes.

Recently I posted about the new line of high-end vibrators from JimmyJane exclusively in white; I’ll continue that trend with some luxury wearables I’ve discovered over the past few days. Don’t worry, I can’t afford them either, but that’s not the point. The point is to want, to drool and to dream! First up is the exquisite bondage gear from Coco de Mer: pictured above is a screencap of their Fleet Harnesses (actually everything on that bondage page is to die for). They come in black, brown, white and in one instance, patent leather with brass buckles. The product pages (like this one) have a nifty mouse-magnifying feature which lets you peep the details on the photos and had me rapt for possibly hours. I like shiny things. Shiny. Good.

Tonight I paid a visit to my friend over at 3xL, and saw the post about Ego Assassin’s new line of printed latex couture. First, I have no idea how I could continue living without knowing about this Canadian design house — their latex clothing and accessories are *incredible* and most importantly, unique and stylish. Their printed line includes stunning Japanese wave prints, stars and hearts, and — and entire line of circuit board fetishwear.

Don’t forget the sock garters, which I must own. I fell in love with this HOT cocktail dress and will pretty much do anything to get it (in black, of course). I really wish I had it for tomorrow night (the tranny bar tour with Margaret Cho and family, to be filmed by VH1, egads).

Shiny. Good.

If you dislike horror movies, hate gore and have an aversion to violence (and erotic themes mixed with it), definitely skip this post. However, if like me, you were weened on Creature Features and Fangoria, cope with depression by re-watching Evil Dead 2, loved Planet Terror and get excited by girls kicking ass in Japanese horror, I’ve got two trailers for you embedded after the jump. One is for Machine Girl which was released on DVD June 2, and is the story of a — what else — Japanese schoolgirl whose family was butchered by the Yakuza and had her hand chopped off — only to get it replaced with fittings for a machine gun, and more. The film’s vengeful “drill bra” is below.

The other eroto-horror mecha gore film is from the very same creative team as Machine Girl, an upcoming film called Tokyo Gore Police. This one’s about a girl cop who is forced to battle off a swarm of hideous, virally infected human-eating mutants, girls fighting with swords in kimonos and fetish outfits, and has a lot of truly creepy sexual and mechanical themes and a lot of fetish: latex, latex, latex a go-go.

To say that these films are over the top is an understatement. There’s tons of action and buckets of blood to the point of ridiculousness.

The trailers are very graphic, and after the jump. Check out The Machine Girl’s blog. Twitch has a post and galleries for Machine Girl, and also a post and galleries for Tokyo Gore Police. Fangoria has a mini-gallery of really awe-inspiring yet erotically unsettling stills from Tokyo Gore Police.

The Machine Girl trailer:

Tokyo Gore Police Trailer:

Image “Morning Alarm Clock” by xray1929.

Hot boy thursday is turning into quite a popular little recurring post. Because, I think, you just don’t see this sort of thing anywhere, and going to gay male sites for the same guys and “types” just doesn’t cut it for most of us. And I’ll admit freely that I started doing this because it’s what *I* want to see — even if it’s difficult finding the same quality in nekkid boys as it is in girly-babelogs. I do my best! So this week I’ve got some rather explicit solo male action in my back pocket: all from Next Door Male, which seems to be a pretty decent amateur site. This self-loving boy has videos; and they can totally wear cowboy hats as long as they smile adorably like this guy by the river and this tractor-perched cutie pie. And this boy — he’s had a long day chopping wood, evidently. Hey, I’m here all week, folks.

Image by my friend Richard Kadrey.

This week’s SF Chronicle column is an especially jubilant guide for SF Pride, Your Extra Sexy Pride Guide. I’m so excited for this weekend! Seriously, the honeymoon starts right now. In this column, I had a lot of fun doing one thing I especially love, which is calling and pestering local businesses and getting to feature them and to generally boast about our San Francisco Values. Here’s a snip:

Everyone loves a happy ending, especially here in San Francisco. Many say that the happy ending to a wedding is the honeymoon; fortunately for everyone in town for the biggest Pride celebration in the world this weekend, we’ve got newlyweds and happy endings a plenty. A whole city practically doubling its population and going on its honeymoon. We may, in fact, run out of dildos. The lube supplies could run short, prompting a citywide panic. The largest wedding reception-cum-honeymoon could drain our precious resources and begin the Great Strap-On Sally Famine of 2008.

Before you start stockpiling Astroglide and buying stock in silicone in preparation for the Y2K of San Francisco Pride 2008’s marriage bed mob mentality, relax. Think about the kittens. Then, rest assured that our fair and beautiful city saw the honeymoon juggernaut coming, and that the bunkers are lined with porn and fortified with double-A batteries. Most of all, we’ve got a honeymoon survival plan for all, er, comers.

Your San Francisco honeymoon survival guide

1. Stock up on supplies.
No one wants to be caught with their pants down when their pants are down. White wedding, Pink Saturday — San Francisco has you covered. Get your eager beavers and other bits down to a Good Vibrations (goodvibes.com) location for all your sex toy, book and video needs. Get cheap lube and marvel at the selection at Phantom, where the blazing neon “Lube 4 Less” sign is not a joke. While you’re in the Castro, enjoy the generous selection of sex toys at the revamped Does Your Mother Know. And if it’s gay porn you need, visit Superstar Satellite Video where the selection exceeds reason and possibly the space-time continuum, and is well-chosen at that. Unlike in other cities, you can get safer sex supplies a-plenty at any Walgreens — especially the Castro location.

If you absolutely can’t make it here for the honeymoon pleasure party, local online retailer Blowfish (blowfish.com) has its own honeymoon gift baskets ready for, uh, all your basket needs. Blowfish’s Here Comes The Pride, Bride(s) and Groom(s) Packages are four well-priced sex toy kits designed especially for same-sex romantic weekends, or for opposite sex his-and-her celebrations of the living-in-sin kind.

2. Be a tourist and see some art.
You have to leave the bedroom eventually, but I encourage you to not do anything in the street that might frighten the horses. OK, so we’re a little short on horses and kinda big on the ponies, but you know what I mean. Or not. Regardless, we have some of the most fantastic erotic and sex culture commentary art shows going this weekend, and you especially don’t want to miss a trip to Femina Potens. Run by brainy sexy beauty Madison Young, Femina Potens is more than a statement about sex culture and feminist sexuality: Right now it’s the most happening art space in the city. Every weekend bustles with packed openings or performances showcasing sex-positive artists and writers of all genders and orientations, and if it’s a tempest in an art world teacup, it’s a revolution in art and sex. Most of the astonishingly world-class art and performances are from locals, and you’ll hear short stories about first porn experiences one weekend, see Carol Queen perform another weekend, and have your eyes and mind cherry-popped by an art show the next. This weekend is the closing party for Untold Stories, a truly terrific show in a variety of media featuring the art of transwomen — catch it Saturday on your way to the Castro. (…read more!)

Image of Marilyn Monroe via reading.sexy.

I’m reading Mary Roach’s superb nonfiction book about the science of sex right now (while editing an erotica collection and writing the intro for Best Women’s Erotica 2009). She’s definitely squeamish about kinky sex and BDSM (sad!) and a little nervous about sex in general, but it’s still an extremely entertaining and informative read. Highly, highly recommended. And yet… the best part might just be the footnotes. To wit, and according to Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex:

* In 1999, a German team of researchers reviewed 21,000 autopsy reports and found only 39 cases of fatal heart attacks during sex.

* There are an estimated 11,250 sex-related deaths a year in the United States, putting it on par with Hep C, brain cancer and food poisoning.

* Kinsey liked to masturbate with a toothbrush. Inserted in his urethra. Bristle end first. (My legs are crossed as tight as possible right now.)

* In parts of Africa, Haiti and Indonesia the wet vagina is seen as a disgusting turnoff. To dry it, they use shredded newspaper, cotton, rock salt, detergent, bark and dried animal excretia. Aside from Bonk, in my sex ed work I’ve encountered many HIV-related discussions about the difficulties doing HIV prevention in these regions because an affinity for dryness — erm — rubs up against what’s needed to prevent HIV, namely condoms and intact, unabraided vaginal walls/cervix (which requires lubricant). I’ve been told that a popular topical agent is talc. (Cross and uncross legs.)

* An Italian study done in 2002 found that absolutely everyone in a group of 67 men seeking surgical penis lengthening has penises within the normal range (from 1.6 to 4.7 inches, flaccid).

* Vaginismus is when a woman has a “clamping vagina” which has uncontrollable muscular spasms and makes penetration impossible or painful. Recently, the newest use for Botox is to paralyze vaginal muscles for vaginismus, as well as it works for Joan Rivers’ face.

* The collagen fibers surrounding the corpus canvernosum of an erect penis are as stiff, by weight, as steel.

* According to a 1990 survey, 40% of women ejaculate — expelling a substance from their urethra during orgasm, especially orgasms from the G-spot region, a substance which is not urine. In 1970 a study was conducted to verify that, like men, women dependably get nocturnal erections (of the clitoral kind, 3-5 times a night). And in case you were curious, and I know you are, to enter a lubricated vaginal opening it takes approximately 1-2 pounds of force. Mmm, surface friction.

Image via reading.sexy.

This week I’ve been feeling like that episode on Buffy where things turn invisible, except it’s just on one corner of the blogiverse, and it didn’t really hit home for me why it means more to me than it did — especially as a blogger — than when I read the post about my deletion form Boing Boing, Violet Vanishes. Snip:

(…) And here’s where I make another disclaimer — when my responsibilities at the Chronicle involved SFGate, hell, even before that, when I was editing SFist, when people would send me enraged emails/post ranty blog posts about the policies of either publication, there was always a part of me that thought “Then don’t read us! There’s a lot of sites on the internet, and if you don’t like how we run things, well…” Just because a site is popular doesn’t make it a public utility, I get that, and folks can run things the way they want.

There are only a few people I would go back on that thinking for, and Violet’s one of them. So, I gotta ask: where the hell did her Boing Boing posts go?

Jackson suggests that she “rubbed someone at Boing Boing the wrong way,” which takes me back to hoping that their MT4 build is unstable, or maybe their site migration got fucked up (sorry, my 6A friends! Gotta consider all the possibilities!). Because, man, Boing Boing has been such a leader in web transparency, ethics, and decency (not the sex is bad! kind of decency, the be a good internet citizen! kind of decency) that if Jackson is right? That would totally fucking suck.

Of course, these questions are all just that — questions — because no one from Boing Boing is writing back to anyone who’s asked them what’s up. And maybe that’s because it’s none of our damn business, maybe it was a deliberate act based on an emotional personal decision. But if it was, I call bullshit.

My approbation or lack thereof isn’t going to impact Boing Boing a whit, and, like I said, that’s their house, and they can run it the way they want. But Violet’s my friend, and until I hear that Boing Boing’s archives are all fucked up, I’m not going to give them another damn pageview. And not just because, as Jackson says:

Because BoingBoing wields the awesome power of traffic and Google Pagerank, and to bestow such benefits on a blogger and then take them away can be a severe punishment in terms of advertising and affiliate business lost.

But because I know that — because Boing Boing taught me — that we’re supposed to call out sites that do shit like that. So that’s what I’m doing. (…read more.)

Update: See also, Boing Boing’d.

Update 2: More to read, especially this astounding post William Gibson Completely Deleted from BoingBoing Archives (also seen at worship the glitch). The comments on this post are also very thought-provoking and indicate more strange behavior.

Update 3, 06.30.08: In the comments of this post, people are noting that their (admittedly off-topic) comment queries on Boing Boing are being deleted, and over on Eve Batey’s blog a comment asking about it posted in the “comment moderation” post at Boing Boing have been deleted. Weird, weird, weird. Check out these posts: MetaFilter: Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky?, Violet Blue is Now A 404, Violet Blue Vanished From Boing Boing? (NSFW, Eros Blog), Drama Llama, Tech Macro: Boing Boing Deletes Blogger, Not the First Time?.

Update 07.02.08: Apologies for the delay in updating this post, I’ve been on deadline for my column while this has all been going on — though you’ll see I’ve been active in the comments here. I have only posted about this issue twice (including this post); a week after I posted my original item calling attention to the disappearance, BoingBoing responded to the LA Times blog post (indirectly, anyway), and admitted that it had happened (calling the removal “unpublishing”), without explaining why. My character was attacked by BoingBoing bloggers and BB’s comment moderator. There is much allusion to me being a bad person and that I had done something so egregious that I was a “strain[s] of evil”, among many other confusing things. I still have no idea what they’re talking about — except that it seems to be personal? — and really don’t understand why I’m being attacked, nor why they’re stating they kept it a secret (and are behaving this way) out of “kindness” toward me. I may have never been in a more bizarre situation. They revealed that this had actually happened a year ago. I didn’t notice the missing posts until a reader pointed it out to me last weekend. No one has explained anything to me, and no one is saying what the reasons actually are or are not, and the speculation is astonishing — and leading to more character attacks all around. Their post has over 900 comments and it is currently BoingBoing’s most commented post to date.

There is so much media about this, it’s difficult to capture it all in one update. In no particular order… Boing Boing and the Unpersoning of Violet Blue, The Boing Boing post that launched (not quite) a thousand comments, BoingBoing explains Violet Blue posts (sort of) (LA Observed), Boing Boing Responds to Violet Blue Brouhaha (SFist), Violet Blue Purged from Boing Boing, Boing Boing Talks Back (AdRants), Boing Boing Speaks out on Blue (SF Weekly), LA Times: Violet Blue still in the dark about her ‘behavior’, Regarding BoingBoing’s factual dispute on Monday’s Violet Blue post, BoingBoing and Violet Blue: Game Frakkin’ Over; Valleywag: Did the Internet’s free-speech guardians try to hush up a girl-on-girl love affair? and How Xeni and Violet’s Boing Boing affair went sour (note: except for what’s in my email, there is a lot of stuff there that I have *no* idea what they’re talking about), Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise (ZDnet, UK), The Media Cool Kids: Never As Cool As You Think (Gawker), It’s Like Watching Your Parents Calling Your Teachers A Bunch of Doody-Heads, BoingBoing vs. Violet Blue. I think there is more, and I’m sorry if I missed anyone.

Blogging has given us the power to self-publish, and gives us concrete, findable voices in a world that used to have its information sharing controlled only by the powerful few. We were tired of locked down communication channels run by people who never had to give reasons or sources because they didn’t have to. Blogging has torn those walls down. In this light, the notion of “unpublishing” is antithetical to the exact empowerment that blogging brings. No wonder so many people are upset.

Some chick with glasses, shot by the talented Paulie and Pauline.

I just wanted to point your attention at the lovely, wonderful (hardcore) post my dear darling fellow Fleshbotette Lux did at Fleshbot yesterday, Four-Eyed Monsters: Top Ten Girls In Glasses Sex Videos. I’m always wishing that when I roll out the pretty girl fridays that there will be more girls with glasses but there never are — especially because I know that you, dear reader, are exactly the kind of erotic sophisticate that would love to see bespectacled babes. In libraries, even. Until then… we do what we can.

Jonno and I especially loved this post — and we were chatting about it yesterday in the Bungalow, hoo-ray! Jonno is here to watch me become the trainwreck of love that is my SF Pride destiny this weekend, among other things and I’m SO excited to see him. He means more to me than most people on this planet.

Pride is family time for me. This year I’m reflecting heavily on friendship and loyalty: I had an epiphany a couple days ago that I’ve made some ill-advised decisions about who is my friend over the past two years. I made friends with people and got close with them because they were just kinda *there* and not because they were good for me, or healthy individuals. So I decided to re-file some people as acquaintances and seek out authenticity. I made a self-pact to stay away from people who have hurt me (and friends who are “on the fence” about people who have hurt me) because as any girl who’s been stalked will tell you there’s nothing worse than telling your friends some guy is harassing you and have the alleged friends reply with ‘oh but he’s so nice to me and says such nice things about you’. This has happened to me. The stalker befriends your friends, and then you have to realize who is really your friend. This *keeps* happening to me. I don’t tell people that the harassment is ongoing. (Why bother?) I just pull away from people who don’t believe me, and keep saving evidence. It all makes a girl feel very, very alone. Not healthy. I’ve also decided to pull my close friends closer, which is sorta funny coming from a girl who works so much I only really get out to see humans once in a while. I also realized, after all the pain and turmoil I’ve quietly been going through over the past year, that there is a certain kind of friend I have who is of highest value. I’m finding that my closest and most trusted friends are ones who have at some point performed an act of great personal sacrifice — because they felt it was the right thing to do. Not a sacrifice of money, but something that made them give up a little piece of themselves that they were not totally entirely comfortable with. I was having lunch last week with a very dear friend who is an abuse survivor who outed his perpetrators when I realized this.

Anyway, this Pride is about the meaning of true friendship for me. And that said, I have to get ready for my lunch with Thomas and Jonno! Armory tour, Armory tour, whee!!!!

I’m thrilled to see that Cinekink NYC, an indy porn film festival that tour the US, is all set for its dates in San Francisco. It looks to be a hell of a lineup, and the films for Cinekink’s 2008 tour will be showing at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from July 10-12. I went through the catalog and made my picks! Films that look intriguing to me include Anonymity by Julie Simone (pictured), The Big Blue (no relation) and Pleasure Me by Petra Joy, Highway Amazon by Ronnie Cramer, Married With Children and Something About Nadia by Erika Lust, Namaha Man by John Adams (film site), Silken Sleeves by Maria Beatty, Triple X Selects: The Best of Lezsploitation (!!!!) by Michelle Johnson, and *definitely* Madison Young’s Writers & Rockstars. My dear friend Viviane was a juror, so you *know* the films are going to be excellent and quite hot.

Image: my quick and dirty Google Trends search for “cum” in Florida.

I was wondering when the Internet was going to begin to be applied in obscenity cases with regard to establishing — or arguing — what “community standards” for porn are. In an oversimplified nutshell, something pornographic is deemed obscene and therefore illegal when a jury somewhere says it is, according to local community standards. Which is I think why a lot of obscenity cases are happening in conservative Florida. However, in a current obscenity case, one defense lawyer is planning to use Google Trends to show statistically what locals look for online — and it might show that Floridians have a whole different concept of what’s tolerably pornographic when they’re online.

The trial is for Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka Ray Guhn, who operates ejaculation fetish site cumonherface.com. A circuit court judge ruled last October that when the Ray Guhn obscenity case went to trial (that’s like, now), the jury must consider community standards of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties in Florida. Mccowen’s counsel had already argued that Florida’s obscenity laws should not be Federally applied to the internet. Today the NYT reports in What’s Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer, snip:

Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate community standards?

That is often a tricky question because there is no simple, concrete way to gauge a community’s tastes and values.

The Internet may be changing that. In a novel approach, the defense in an obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests than they might have thought.

In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” or “watermelon.” The publicly accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds that of more mainstream topics — and that by extension, the sexual material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.

It is not clear that the approach will succeed. The Florida state prosecutor in the case, which is scheduled for trial July 1, said the search data may not be relevant because the volume of Internet searches is not necessarily an indication of, or proxy for, a community’s values.

But the tactic is another example of the value of data collected by Internet companies like Google, both from a commercial standpoint and as a window into the thoughts, interests and desires of their users.(…read more. Link via Mother Jones, where I have no idea why they’re calling McCowen a “porn king”. Thanks, Praemedia!)

Update: Oooo, this piece in Reason Magazine has a nifty graph!

You know how much I’ve ranted and raved over this year’s must-have self-published erotic photo book 111??? by Merkley??? — and now I’ve got another one for ya: Katie West’s new book, low self-esteem. Mon dieu this Canadian girl is on fire! I drooled all over her web presence and proclivity for public nudity previously in this post, and now she’s taken her very best nudes (and some we haven’t yet seen) and worked really hard to put them in her fine, fine book. The great thing — besides seeing a tasty naked girl frolic in many provocative settings — is supporting this incredible woman’s work, knowing she made it herself, and is sole proprietor of the publication. To me, there’s just something sweeter and sexier about porn and erotica when you know it comes form a cool individual, you’re supporting self-publishing, and that you give money right to the artist.

No, rilly: peep the previews and then buy Katie’s book! I don’t know her or get a kickback, I just think she’s fantastic.

The Ingenues, an all-girl vaudeville band, serenading the cows in the University of Wisconsin Dairy Barn in a scientific test of whether the cows would give more milk to the soothing strains of music. Via the Wisconsin Historical Society’s photostream.

* Last night I managed to keep my attention span in one place long enough to read the nine page article on microfame over at New York Magazine. I giggled and sputtered when I read the title “Prairie Ho Companion”, but felt that the piece was more of a guesstimate-of-a-how-to about what I’m calling “flash” celebrity: people who aren’t famous for anything lasting, noticed only for being noticed. That’s the context missing from the piece. I think that microcelebrity is actually something quite different, and it would have been nice to see that distinction as well.

* Don’t miss this excellent post by Ariel Waldman about privacy and security. It’s less focused on users and consumers than networks, but the topics affect everyone and there’s a lot of good food for thought. Plus, Bruce Schneier is on the panel she discusses, and I love his blog.

* It was brought to my attention this weekend that every Boing Boing post (except one) with my name in it is gone. It might have happened a while ago, and no, I have no idea what’s going on. How do you even ask someone about something like that? Personally, I never delete posts for any reason so I just think it’s really weird.

* Best article title: Congress pats itself on back as it caves on telecom immunity. It’s a great article, too.

* Comcast’s screwing of heavy bandwidth users is being spun in the lamest way possible in the press. To wit: Online bandwidth hogs to be cut off at trough? Because using more bandwidth — for whatever reasons, video, podcasting, torrents — means you’re “extreme” or greedy. This kind of spin in the issue is to me, reminiscent of sex-negative journalists writing about the Kink.com Armory purchase. The judgmental attitude is needless when all I want is the information.

* I loved this Laughing Squid guest post by my old, dear friend mikl-em and you will too: Consumer Reports’ Vintage Test Photos.

Update: My notice of being erased by Boing Boing has been noticed. It was blogged by Valleywag, put on Digg and posted about here, among others. Seems to me like it’s a lot of work to erase over 100 posts, and I’ve never heard of a blog (especially a big blog) ever doing something like this. Especially quietly and with no comment. I think it’s weird. Something tells me it won’t be “boingboinged”.

Update 2: We’re all still awaiting news that Boing Boing’s servers got eaten by termites. Until then, the podcast with me in it has been erased, and here’s another stinging post about what it all means.

Update 3: Follow-up post, still no answers.

Update 4: More to read about blogosphere reaction to the Boing Boing deletion, most especially the post William Gibson Completely Deleted from BoingBoing Archives (also seen @ worship the glitch).

My friends over at Altporn.net have a great interview with the proprietrix of Geek Girls Online, the sexy Gothy Athena Hollow. She’s modeled for a number of altporn pinup sites and started her own homegrown geek-focused amateur pr0n site last year. Her LJ is here, you can see preview galleries of Geek Girls Online or jump to the main GGO front door, but the interview Altporn has is great. I think Athena’s brainy, sexy and fabulous and her site features hot girls of all sizes and hues that are uniformly hardcore, smart, sexy geeks. Here are a couple snips:

When did you launch your GeekGirlsOnline site and what made you decide to do it?

Well, it officially launched the first week of October 2007, although it had been in the works since late June/Early July.

As far as what made us decide to do it, it had been an ongoing conversation for the past 4 or so years with my finance. We were always wondering why there were only a handful of geeky-girl porn sites. Being a geek myself, and not having the time to really be in front of the camera lately, I felt it was a great idea to start a site that featured real girls, that had interests similar to mine, since all but a handful of previous similar ideas had failed.

Your GeekGirlsOnline site seems very gamer oriented. Has the gaming community been receptive to what you are doing so far? Have you met any resistance?

The gaming community as a whole has been very supportive. There have been a few minor incidences of single groups not particularly caring for our site, as they see the gamer community as a “family friendly” society.

I look at it this way: Our site community is growing everyday, and our gamer conversations never seem to end. GeekGirlsOnline really was made as an outlet for geeks alike, and it’s not like we are going to all ages conventions and passing out fliers, or shoving it into people’s faces. But, on the other hand, we aren’t going to hide underground somewhere because a handful of people don’t like us. A lot of people in high school didn’t like me, but it didn’t stop me from being myself.

What is your opinion of altporn sites that claim to be run by women but actually are not?

It’s actually the reason I didn’t go work for “that evil altporn empire” that shall not be named. I feel that it’s insulting to a model’s intelligence to claim to be run one way, and in the contract you sign away your life for 2 years to some guy whom you have never heard of.

What is the difference between a geek, a dork, and a nerd?

A dork is that guy who was a class clown, but wasn’t really funny. He picked on you in high school, because he liked you, but you found his personality revolting, so you never gave him the time of day.

A nerd is a braniac. Someone who spends more time in a book, than in reality.

A geek is a combination of a nerd, a dork and a gamer. And normally has a very artistic side to them, whether it’s through writing or physical artwork. (…read more.)

Image of Giorgia Palmas from this Unplug gallery, via Blography.

What a great photo. I want to go to Italy. After getting a glimpse of Italian TV personality Giorgia Palmas (above), I’d settle for Italian basic cable. She’s my piccante discovery of the week.

“I want to have a pussy like you. I want to have tits like you.”

Heatwave. Ugh. How about some cool girls? From my inbox to you… Enjoy!

Kiara is seriously cooling me off (pictured), and Mia is in a nice shady grove with all her cute curves. Angelica is in hot Hollywood but is smartly staying cool indoors; Mika and Alina have the right idea frolicking in some very refreshing looking water. Something about Olya’s set makes me think of being indoors during a hot night, and Lissa looks like a delicious cafe latte on a warm summer afternoon.

And if you’re looking for a few hardcore moments today, I just found some interesting ones. About a month ago, pro domme Princess Donna surprised everyone and underwent slave training for Kink’s The Training Of O website — I just found this gallery of her being an oral submissive for the shoot. It doesn’t look like she hated being a sub. Also recently everyone’s favorite Lorelei Lee had her moments as an oral submissive as well… Meanwhile, this pretty girl had fun with Kink’s sex machines, and I’m pretty sure this lesbian dom-sub scene was filmed at the Armory. Also, don’t forget to keep up with the free vlogging fun at Behind Kink. Yay!

I love the crazy kids at Nude in SF! Today we’re enduring sweltering heat (I was in a suit for court this afternoon and lemme tell ya it was SO not the beach), so this shot of Marie at the top of Lombard Street complete with tourists and cable car just about makes my happy hour… happier! Enjoy!