Many blogs are a-twitter today about how voting closes tonight for the blog awards. But why bother to vote if, for the eighth year in a row, the “weblog awards, aka 2008 bloggies” has consistently overlooked the category of human sexuality?

They have “sports”, “gossip”, “fashion”, “food” … and someone really ought to tell them that it’s really, like, all sweet that they have a category for people who can be sorted out of the populace for their sexual orientation. Someone should really let them know that they have the letters in the wrong order. The standard is LGBT, not GLBT, which sounds more like some blog category sexual minority sandwich their mom made at the last minute so no one would feel left out. But letters aside, someone *seriously* needs to get them up to speed on the word “transgendered”. It’s “transgender”. For fuck’s sake, you don’t call someone “lesbianed”.

I get the sense that sex blogs, from our traffic-monster Fleshbot on down to the sexual health, culture and politics blogs occupy a serious slice of the blogosphere pie. I think if any so-called blog awards are truly serving the communities that comprise the entirety of Blogistan, they need to grow up. They need to see the communities around them, acknowledge the real online world and participate in the future we’re all building. Why is there no category for “Best Sexuality Weblog”? Twice, a highly visible sex blogger snuck in the backdoor via a regional category (Girl With A One Track Mind), and we all got excited that one of us got to sit at the grownups’ table. Yeah, it feels like that.

The awards are meaningless if they’re exclusionary, for whatever reason. No sexuality category is a huge oversight, if not just plain prudishness. It’s time to act normal about sex, not treat it like Blogistan’s ghetto. If they must do so, then they make no distinction between blogging and mainstream media. No community, no conversation, and just the same people talking about the same things all the time.

Since they’re handing out the awards at SXSW, and Jonno and I will both be there — along with *dozens* of other well-known sex and culture bloggers — perhaps we should all just show up and ask them. I know I will.

Now go vote for the same people who win every year in a row. It makes them feel special. Especially when they blog the same thing us sex bloggers do five days after we’ve already posted, opined, explored, and moved on.

Lovely rubber ball gag image courtesy my sweet friends at Madame S.

Update: The Blog Herald has a nice response, Are you scared of sex?

Nope, not about sex: about pranks. Remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force marketing ploy that turned into a terrorist threat? Boston is being re-pranked as we sit here; read my techyum post for details and images/links/videos of last night’s adventures and last year’s unforgettable (and utterly repeatable) meme. Oh, and a GETV video interview with the cute locals who recovered three of the LED Marauders found here in SF.

Image via Brandon Herman.

This week’s SF Chronicle column is a writeup about controversial author Stephen Elliott’s newly edited collection, “Sex For America: Politically Inspired Erotica“. It’s fun and revealing, especially what he has to say about sex on the campaign trail in the good ‘ol US of A… And if you’re in town, go to the opening night book party tonight at the Center for Sex and Culture for reading, burlesque and more. Snip from the midsection of Stephen Elliott’s ‘Sex for America’ — Will American politics ever be sexy? Violet Blue thinks Elliott’s new book might make it so:

(…) He’s an interesting guy; cute enough, too — we went on one heated date, knowing we’d not be seeing the last of each other professionally or otherwise anytime soon (and not just because we tend to run into each other at Kink.com parties). So when I heard his newest book — this time a collection he’s edited — was bound and about to hit the stores, it made me want to do the same to him. Metaphorically, of course.

“Sex for America: Politically Inspired Erotica” is Elliott’s latest salvo; a collection of erotic fiction by authors ranging from Jerry Stahl and Steve Almond to the local Michelle Tea and even James Frey (finally in the fiction genre, are we?), the book runs the gamut of relevant, current and, of course, transgressive political erotica.

Wait a minute. WTF is political erotica? We have ways of making editors talk. I hunted Elliott down, borrowed some gear from Madame S, and asked him a few questions about the book.

Violet Blue: “Sex for America” is your newly edited collection of erotica that gets down and dirty with American politics. What in the hell made you want to do such a thing?

Stephen Elliott: Well, “Sex for America” lies at the intersection of my two favorite topics, politics and sex. I’ve worked in politics and done a fair amount of political organizing. The first nonfiction I ever wrote was about a political campaign. Then I started writing politically inspired fiction and then did a nonfiction book about the 2004 presidential campaign, which involved spending a year traveling with all the presidential candidates. While that was going on, at the exact same time I’m really getting into politics, I start openly exploring my sexuality in my writing. The result of that was my novel “Happy Baby” and my story collection “My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up” (which is actually more of a sexual memoir). So “Sex for America” makes a lot of sense to me. It’s an anthology of politically inspired erotica, and the stories are amazing.

VB: Why isn’t American politics — or why aren’t our politicians — sexy? Or, if you think they are, can you tell the rest of us the reasoning behind your twisted point of view?

SE: I guess I do think American politics is sexy, and if you’ve ever been on a campaign, it’s amazing the amount of sex going on. Every campaign season dozens, no, probably hundreds of marriages are broken up by campaign affairs. It’s a totally erotic endeavor. (…)

Link.

Image by Dustin Lacina.

I don’t do blogrolls or link trades, and I try to only link to sites and friends I think will be around for the duration. It always takes me a while because I do personal writeups based on my experiences, opinions and feelings. Tonight I added a bunch of new ones to my linklove page for resource reasons in a variety of categories:

* Boinkology An up-to-date sex news, entertainment and info site that’s women-run and features original blog content and their own video: caveat — dating and het-focused. Nice inclusion in any RSS feed. We’re not friends, but they have the right attitude.

* Savage Love (podcast, blog, column). My friend Dan could go in any of these categories, but I’ll put him in the top one where he belongs. Irreverent and accurate, he’s one of the best educators of our time. (This one took me long enough, doh).

* Sex In The Public Square Active on current sex topics, big on building community, eroticism and occasional snarkiness, this is one of my new favorite regular haunts.

* Sexual Intelligence with Dr. Marty Klein Sex and politics with a direct approach: his blog is a nice way to keep your sex news feed current and opinionated.

* Sex or Not? A very eclectic and endlessly fascinating sex entertainment blog in another language whch makes it even more fun.

* Sexoteric A very eclectic and entertaining mix of explicit imagery, art, and occasional poetry. They catch some good stuff there.

* Shake Well Before Use Ariel Waldman’s excellent sexy and tech blog — it’s work-safe but has a bite. Very fun stuff.

* Shiny Shiny Not about sex, but I am a drooling addict of thie girl-powered and -focused tech gadget blog.

* Adorkable Grrl Not too much sex blogging, but a cute, smart fun to read friend.

* Dave Naz Incredible and completely adventurous erotic photographer (of the hardcore variety) — his blog never lets me down. And he’s sweet and soft-spoken and has tons of humility.

* Dustin Lacina Friend, erotic photographer (Gawker Artist) and all-around badass. I love Dustin! (image via)

* Steve Diet Goedde An outrageously talented fetish photographer, good friend and seriously sweet guy.

* Susan Mernit Very active in tech, and a wide breadth of sex in the blogosphere, Susan is a prize, sweetheart and sublime critic. Yahoo Personals is extremely lucky to have her in charge.

* ISIS-Inc A fabulous online service dedicated to innovative strategies and high-tech solutions for sexual health education and STD/HIV prevention, with a focus on tech and getting accurate info to youth.

* The Kinsey Institute Dedicated to research, scholarship, plus events and a gallery.

* National Sexuality Resource Center A collection of online sexual lifestyle magazines chock full of mainstream sex content that isn’t full of stereotypes and typical Cosmo-Maxin sex garbage. Fun stuff, yet academic, and they’re deeply invested in advancing sexual literacy. They have an incredible religion and sexuality resource page. Also en Espanol at SexualidadesLatinas.org.

* The Midwest Teen Sex Show A fun, rambunctious video podcast that coversll all kinds of sex topics, and gets the conversation started with parents and especially for teens. Highly recommended.

* The Sexual Freedom Network They “believe that sexual freedom is a fundamental human right” and back up their mission with news, First Amendment focus, LGBT resources, and serious sex ed on all levels. A good candidate for resources and news.

* Gamelink The biggest selection of porn for sale (and most diverse): limited VoD and pay per minute, but still, they carry my friends Vivid Alt…

* I Shot Myself Women-run indy/amateur site down under that features women of all (hot) varieties making their own explicit photo shoots. Very yummy, lots of hot free content.

* I Feel Myself Women-run indy site that features really sexy amateur women filming their own explicit jack-off sessions. High quality and tasteful, with regular free content.

* Next Door Hookups A paysite with plenty of freebees — but most notably, it’s straight porn shot from a gay male perspective so the focus is on the (good looking) amateur guys. Refreshing, this girl loves it.

* Stroke that Dick Straight amateur boys making money jacking off for a basic paysite — incredibly enjoyable.

* Vivid Alt The mainstream porn’s rogue division makes some of the hottest porn around with a growing stable of art-focused directors and their site has all kinds of goodies. Love it.

And added to the free clip site list: RedTube.

I first really want to direct your attention to the video we have up on Fleshbot right now, Star Trek O-Faces: Where Lots Of Men (And Women) Have Come Before.

When I worked at the Dildo Hut, there was this butch dyke I was close friends with (we’re still pals, though we see each other less) who was really into Next Generation. Like, *really*. And she always always always had the hottest girlfriends in the world — she always had a Suicide Girl or some kind of model she was fucking. And sometimes she’d tell me about their Next Gen role-play. Sure, Data and Yar, everyone’s done that one. But she’s the reason I still call Patrick Stewart “Captain Daddy” in casual conversation, even though no one gets it when I do. The height of their fantasy play? Klingon sex. She told me about it sometimes, always reminding me that, “you know Klingons have the rough, dirty sex.” She’d describe their hot Klingon battles. Let’s just say that Worf was really into female ejaculation.

Me — sure, I’m a Next Gen appreciator, but it was the original series that did it for me. Call me old-fashioned. So, I present you with the very best Star Trek (original series) slash video I’ve seen yet (with some pretty fantastic writing and music, I might add).

Kirk/Spock: The Prize (or, The Whipped Cream Maneuver) by mortmere:

Okay, maybe it’s not as novel as David Lynch’s daily (weather) report, but mine’s more cute… It’s been rainy, freezing and miserable here in SF — but that hasn’t stopped adorable Rachel at Nude in SF; here’s the Google-licious nude map of her walk during the insane storm we had on monday. Is it wrong to want to ogle a girl *and* make her chicken soup at the same time?

Image via MeeVee.

By now you’re probably heard about the geriatrically-minded, stuck in the 1950s FCC planning a $1.4 million fine against 51 local TV stations across the Midwest and West which are ABC affiliates $27,500 each (a total of $1.43 million) for an NYPD Blue episode that aired in 2003. The issue? it showed a woman’s (actress Charlotte Ross) naked bootie calling it, “sexual organs and excretory organs — specifically an adult woman’s buttocks.”

She should get that ass insured by Lloyd’s of London for that price.

Mind you, in the episode, she was embarrassed about it and rushed to cover up. It’s part of a storyline about the difficulties facing a male single parent. She got out of the shower, gasped, and covered. Here’s the scene:

Shame over the human body (specifically female) in all its natural form should have been enough to keep it within FCC’s standards. But guess what? It wasn’t just the FCC being ignorant to the human condition all around it, as it is wont to do, or money-grubbing, which is its nature. It’s two things: a Republican majority on an anti-sex entertainment agenda led by former White House aide Kevin Martin, with help from the American Family Association. Hollywood Today’s Alex Ben Block has the best article about Martin, ABC’s response, the details (on the episode and FCC response) and why this is about to become a First Amendment case, snip:

This occurred Feb. 25, 2003, when about three quarters of American TV homes already had either cable TV or satellite TV, over which the FCC has no control. In those homes, shows air with a great deal more than a glimpse of butt, but it is beyond the control of the blue noses anointed by the Bush administration to carry out its social conservative agenda. So they take their frustration out on the broadcast networks.

This holier than thou B.S. is only the latest outrage from the FCC under a Republican majority led by Kevin Martin, a former White House aide who has offended many with his high handed manner. Only a few weeks ago Martin rammed through the FCC a rule change allowing cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same markets (at least in the 20 largest cities). The vote was called and taken with an unusually short comment period for those opposed to speak against the measure.

The FCC had sat on a number of indecency cases for months, after being chastised by a Federal Court for their ruling on brief bits of obscene language in programming.

This past June, the he FCC’s complaint against Fox have been thrown out and its “fleeting expletives” policy as currently defended found to be “arbitrary and capricious” by a federal court.

(…) There is no solution to this until there is a different administration and a different party in charge in Washington, D.C., and the new President selects FCC commissioners and judges who are part of the community, part of the future, part of the real world and not living in the past.

Link.

(post inspiration thanks, MB!)

All the sweet n00ds like the one above are in Laura J. Rickus‘ “fine art” gallery — found via AllPosters.com, where you can buy her ephemeral erotic prints for under $20. So very tempting.

I so want to be Isabella Rossellini when I grow up. Hell, I want to be her *now*. Just recently at the Berlinale Forum (film fest), three of her new short films from a series of eight entitled “Green Porno” made their debut: Green Porno: Dragonfly, Green Porno: Firefly, and Green Porno: Spider. They’re running at Sundance 2008 right now. Apparently the Sundance Channel approached her (and likely a number of other star/filmmakers, as that’s how it works in that world) to write and create a series of short films for what Hollywod’s calling the “third screen”. You know, the iPods and phones the rest of us have been making media (and erotica) for since the devices first became available to consumers. Rossellini’s concept was to make shorts about insects having sex — where she describes in accurate, clinical details (yet with insanely sexy delivery, because it’s her) how various insects have sex. And then she performs the sex acts with giant puppets, describing the sex as it’s happening.

It’s totally turning me on to write this. Bug sex and Isabella. Gawd I’m a nerd.

Anyway, she made the first three, and then Sundance signed her to make five more that are already finished: Bee, Praying Mantis, Worm, Snail and Fly. And because she’s so hot, and I know you’re wondering because you’re all geeky and pervy like me and know about the mating habits of the mantis — Isabella plays the *male* in the sex act, and is devoured during the fucking but keeps going, because that’s what they do.

How will we get to see her films? I’m not sure yet, though like I said, they’re premiering in the US at the 2008 Sundance Film fest (which is like, ending this weekend).

Here’s a link to the Sundance Diary: Rossellini debuts her horny bugs story (via Viviane) which has more descriptions and background. I’ve embedded a “Green Porno” interview with Rossellini after the jump about making the films (I could listen to her describe spider sex all night), and it’s extra worth it to see the discomfort of the interviewer to say the word “porno”. Someday I hope to be the interviewer for things like this, and then we’ll really have some fun, eh?

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Capshun by reader MB, thx!

I wish they’d caption these galleries with LOL. Last week each one would have been begging fer a hunnred invizibul cheezburgers. This week, well, I’ll let you imagine what invizibul items they have. All galleries were shot by this guy. Send me captions and I’ll make LOLbabes out of the good ones.

I’m finding Camila (Lithuanian, pictured) yummy; Russian Ira is teeny and incredibly 21 (old!), but I have to say I find her pussy really sexy.

Also, check out my highly-recommended new friends whom I’ve affiliated with, in site and spirit: I Shot Myself and I Feel Myself (with Lilie, pictured). Read the site’s manifestos and see the quality and really pretty young women of all shapes and colors, and you’ll see why I’ve been having exciting long back and forth email discussions about women and porn with them for the past two weeks. Plus, there’s a lot of hot free content to be had. I’m working on getting you more…Next: office sex! Don’t be scared of bondage mixed with hardcore sex from my friends at Kink.com — instead join me in ogling the office-girl sex punishment scene (I’m ignoring the oogey clothespin picture on the right) on Kink.com’s Sex and Submission, where a secretary is caught jacking off and gets bent over the desk (and more), phew! I also enjoyed this scene at Kink’s Whipped Ass site (fem-on-fem BDSM), where two girls gang up on the blonde office n00b and the games begin. Oh, and just to be fair: very bad men who think they’re the “boss” get punished and used like sex toys in offices too, ow. As if you never thought of office supplies like that… Okay, you don’t have to. It looks like it hurts.

… Looks fun. Pic is called “gravity plays favorites”. Indeed. Photos by my pal Mr. Nightshade, though very naughty pages of his whole set of our local Hubba Hubba Revue is here (not Flickr).

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Agent Provocateur shot of Maggie Gyllenhall by Alice Hawkins, via.

I got this idea, and then part of me was like, WTF — I hate these Hallmark holidays! Plus Valentine’s Day is still like three weeks away, so you’re probably wondering why I’m already thinking about it. I figured, the easiest way for people to ask for, get, and give exactly the right sexy gift is to create and share an erotic online wishlist. And I’ll bet most people don’t know about a few of these sites’ wishlisting abilities (and good privacy policies):

Instructions: 1) Make wishlists. 2) In the next week, send your lists to admirers/Craigslist/Facebook stalkers/local abstinence-only program directors. 3) Get stuff to use while staying home alone on Valentine’s Day lip-synching and rocking out to Britney’s “Gimme More” to self in full-length mirror. Privacy point: if you share your wish list URL with someone you don’t know, it probably doesn’t hurt to be extra careful with your privacy and use a PO/commercial mailbox (not your home or work) address. I’ve included sample links below to ones I’ve made for this post so you can see what they look like, and I was excited to see Stockroom had the foresight to create individual wishlist RSS feeds for users.

Alt instructions: Send this post (or individual wishlist signup URL’s) to someone cute. If it’s someone new, let them know there’s no obligation; if it’s your honey, tell them to “pick their poison”.

* Amazon. Duh, that’s an easy one, but now you can make multiple wishlists and share them specifically, or keep certain ones private. They have a *lot* of sex toys to choose from, erotic books and videos, shoes, and — sigh — lusty gadgets, and even computers. This is what mine looks like.

* Agent Provocateur (image via). This would mean dropping some serious dough, but this is undoubtedly the top of the line for gorgeous and utterly sexy lingerie (and assorted bedroom playthings). Oh my gawd, their lingerie is hot. To find someone’s wish list, you enter their email address here: that link also gives you wish list signup instructions — and has a link to invite your lust object to create a wish list “for your eyes only”. Second to Amazon, AP has the best wish list user interface: when you’re done making your ridiculously extravagant list, there’s a form at the page bottom where you can send the list as an email, even assigning it a send date. They send an email with a link, to a page that looks like this. And yes — that’s Maggie Gyllenhaal you see modeling some of their lingerie.

* Stockroom. They specialize in BDSM goods from the barely-innocent to the hardcore, and they also have high-quality sex toys and fetish couture. It’s super-easy: click on Wish Lists, do a simple signup and shop — do note that your account’s *email address* will be visible to whoever you share the list with. Then email the list (or post the URL) to your Bible study class: here’s my wish list so you can see what it looks like. You can even create an RSS feed for your wish list — great idea — like this one. It’s kind of like subscribing to your lust-object’s fantasies. Awesome.

* Fredericks of Hollywood and Victoria’s Secret. More lingerie — a girl can never have enough. At Frederick’s, you create a registry and then tell your lucky shopper how to find you in their database. At Frederick’s don’t make a wish list — they’re useless; make what feels creepily like a bridal registry, create a fake date, and your shopper can search for you by last name, shop and never see your mailing address. Here’s my quick and cheesy registry. Victoria’s Secret is my least recommended because you create an account and then your wishlist, yet they require your email address and don’t give the option of opting out of “special offers”. They should call it Victoria’s Spamlet. I don’t trust them.

Update: a friend emails, “there are also some cool web 2.0 wish list sites like wists and kaboodle. i use kaboodle. i keep everything private, but you can ’send to friend’, which sends the whole list, or you can send just one item.”

After the sex :: tech happy hour (my images are here), I was out to dinner with a few friends and we brainstormed what has made our favorite conferences so memorable and valuable, and how that could be applied to sex. Then in my inbox today, I got the announcement for an interesting looking upcoming convention in Los Angeles, Love LA — it’s next sunday. It’ll be in a beautiful retro deco hall, will have demonstrations and lots of sex-ed seminars and from the looks of the vendor list, showcases many (but not all) makers of health and pleasure minded sex products. It looks really interesting, and a nice answer to the gated community of unsafe product, jelly rubber, anal-eze, sex stereotype hell of AVN/AEE. I love porn, and sometimes even stuff these folks might consider “offensive” so I’m not totally behind their overall mission, but this concept is still very refreshing. Here’s their impersonal email manifesto:

The main reason for contacting you at this time is to draw attention to a very important event and cause we’ve initiated to try to steer AWAY from pornography, cheap products, and inferior information. This effort takes the form of a consumer expo we’ve dubbed LOVE LA and is happening THIS coming Sunday. Love LA features over 35 of our industry’s finest manufacturers, retail outlets, educators, and entertainers who will be on hand to show you ways to enhance your intimate lives in beautiful, sexy, and dignified ways. This event is especially women friendly and there will be no porn stars, offensive materials, or non-sexuality related products. As such, we have gone to great lengths to cater Love LA to all women, men, and couples, regardless of orientation. We support love in all its various inclinations and will make every effort to provide a comfortable, sexy, and FUN atmosphere.

Link. Image of OhMiBod (a Love LA exhibitor) by Nate Kapi.

First of all, I’d like to point out that this is one of the main problems when you hire non-sex ed people — and especially marketing and/or entertainment writers — to write sex advice columns. They steal from the rest of us, get their sex info wrong and shame readers. What is it with these TV women writers thinking no one will notice: perhaps because it’s sex they feel it doesn’t need to be dealt with in any honest or professional fashion whatsoever? Likely. And why, when there are so many great sex writers who know how to give advice, the MSM publications are too scared, or ignorant, to hire a *real* sex educator? I’m sick of this douchebaggery. Like what Stacey Greenrock Woods just did to me in Esquire, and what Claudia Lonow just got caught doing to Dan Savage. Second of all, DO NOT fuck with my homeboy Dan Savage, ‘cuz not only will he bring it, but it makes me want to put a foot up your back door, too. From Poynter Online:

Title: “Lip Service” lifted, says NY Press editor
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

Statement from New York Press editor-in-chief David Blum:
January 24, 2008

It has come to our attention that some of the questions in this week’s debut of the New York Press’s new sex-advice column, “Lip Service,” were taken from past columns by Dan Savage, the nationally-syndicated sex-advice columnist and editor of The Stranger. The author of the column, Claudia Lonow, a television writer based in Los Angeles who had not previously written for a newspaper, used the questions to provide material for her inaugural column, in the absence of real questions from readers. It had been our understanding that the questions for her first column came from friends. She has told us she was unaware that using questions from Savage’s column was a breach of journalism ethics. She has offered her resignation, and we’ve accepted it. We apologize to our readers, and to Dan Savage, for this error in judgment.

Link. (also seen @ Gawker, see the stolen content before Lonow was caught here @ Jezebel, thanks, E!)

Updates: Rachel Kramer Bussel has an excellent, sharp piece in HuffPo about this, and nails the problem with sensationalized (read: bogus MSM) sex columns from another angle saying,

“Sex is a topic that people are always interested in, and always will be, yet instead of addressing it in a straightforward way, all too many media outlets choose to try to make sex “sexier” rather than giving readers enough credit to think logically and critically about the topic.”

Exactly — again, because it’s about sex doesn’t mean you should treat your readers like they’re stupid or shameful for wanting to read about/see/ask/discuss it. Meanwhile, Dan Savage responds — eloquently and with respectful professionalism, of course — quoted in the Seattle PI saying,

“I don’t think she did this on purpose,” Savage wrote in an e-mail Thursday. “The borrowing was an accident, not malicious, and doesn’t rise to the level of plagiarism, in my opinion. She could’ve avoided this … if she’d said, ‘I don’t have any letters yet, so here are some I swiped from ‘Savage Love.” And I would’ve given her my permission to use ‘em.”

In this week’s column, I had the distinct delight if interviewing Nikol Hasler (above, photo from last night, and she’s even gorgeouser in person) and the brainy-sexy Guy Clark about their controversial vlog, The Midwest Teen Sex Show. In my column, I’m unapologetic about two things. One: how much I love the show and we really need them to make more. Two: I face off on why it makes sex educators like myself squirm and worry — but they answer my questions with no hesitation, and I hope you’ll think it’s a way deeper interview and piece on the show and what it means to all of us than what you’ll find in all the other mainstream media currently picking up the MWTSS meme. Of course, the rest of MSM is just pissing its panties that there’s sex ed in cyberspace (who the fuck told Katie Couric about us!?), but I’ve been telling you that story for close to a decade now… Here’s a snip from my SF Chronicle piece, That Midwest Teen Sex Show:

I love porn as much as the next girl, but when I see the words “teen” and “sex show” in the same line, I quickly click away from anything that might creep me out. Luckily, popular video blog “The Midwest Teen Sex Show”’s name is actually straightforward and not suggestive: It’s a video podcast that jokingly informs under-18s (and their parents) about sex. No nudity, but the situations and topics are certainly “full frontal.”

Lately they’ve been getting a lot of mainstream press, and for good reasons: Who else besides sites like Scarleteen is giving kids answers they need — answers, of course, other than “Just say no.” As if to ironically highlight the ignorance of our country’s abstinence-only sex agenda forced on kids in public schools, last week I got a nasty e-mail regarding my reference to Britney Spears’ underage pregnant little sister from the head of Washington, D.C.’s main abstinence program, ULTRA Teen Choice, saying, “Ms. Blue seems to miss the fact that perhaps Jamie Lynn Spears needed encouragement and peer support, not a condom.”

Riiight. That really helps kids with the raging hormones, media messages about sexiness and desirability, the embarrassment they face asking questions, and the need for accurate sex information when they need answers. Well, “The Midwest Teen Sex Show”’s main talking head, Nikol Hasler, has mentioned in interviews that two of her three children resulted from the “pull (out) and pray” method — which may be a large part of the impetus behind the show. In their short, well-produced segments (backed by a writing, acting and production team, albeit on a budget), they jokingly explore topics that no ULTRA-douche would dare acknowledge, such as “The Older Boyfriend,” “Birth Control” and “Backdoor Business,” to name a few.

Fresh-faced, humorous and boasting a self-identified Midwest perspective, the show seems to be just the ticket to getting the topic of sex education to the sex-phobic mainstream media — or at least to get the conversation started. But the show doesn’t come without its caveats. (…)

Link.

Update: best comment:

xoconostle wrote:

Hey at least the topic has conservatives, moderates, and liberals finding sensible common ground. Who woulda thunk it would go that way in response to a Violet Blue article? :-)

As a lover of films like “House of 1000 Corpses” and sexy altgirls, this has to be one of the best clips I’ve enjoyed in a long time. You were warned. Sorry if you love bears. It’s by Jack the Zipper, who made the great “Stuntgirl“, tho their site is sadly a reg-required storefront. No trailers without giving up your info. Tease.

The walls are weaker by the moment in the gated community of the fourth estate, but I still feel like us bloggers are the “shock troops” in this whole new media point in history. Point:

Posted by Amy Gahran 1:00:37 PM
Mini-Tidbits: Cribbing from Blogs?
The blog Silicon Alley Insider is a little miffed at the New York Times over attribution.
Yahoo Mass Layoff Plan Confirmed, Exact Number TBD (Silicon Alley Insider): Silicon Alley Insider reported this story extensively before the NYT ran with it. I don’t blame them for getting a bit snarky about how the NYT handled attribution: “Acknowledging that ’some blogs’ reported potential major layoffs at Yahoo (YHOO) over the weekend, the NYT follows up two days later with its own version of the story — which is almost the same.”

Link. (Extra link insert is mine so you can see how pissed SAI is at the NYT… thanks, Tyler!)

I don’t usually go for those typically cheesy “games for lovers” you see pushed in stores when even the faintest whiff of Valentine’s Day approaches. And believe me, I’ve seen a million of them, especially when I worked at the Dildo Hut. But anything from San Francisco based company Thrusti Kicki Grabbi is adorable and cute and to die for (or rather, to kneel for) with all their fem-dom Victoriana and sweetness. But now they’ve got something I *really* want: they made a game I’d love to play with Hacker Boy — Thrusti Kicki Grabbi’s Truth or Dare. Dice and cards, so simple, but so naughty. This game also seems like a great way to get (or try out) something you’ve wanted to ask for but don’t know how to ask for it…

It’s not that HB and I need to play any games to get more intimate; the Truth or Dare game just looks so sweet, sexy, fun, smart and very revealing. Plus, maybe we could play it with a new friend….? (Note to self: Better work on that Craigslist ad now.) I also love that it’s gender neutral and lightly kinky, perfect for pretty much every adventurous couple I know. (And no, no one’s paying me to say this, nor do I have a copy: it’s just now on my wish list). But I did email TKG and got some sample “truths” and “dares” from the cards because none of the other online marketing actually explained what was in the game — but I can:

Sample “truths”:

“If you were the teacher of a sex-ed class, what would be the one lesson you would teach your students that no one ever taught you?”

“What sexual characteristics or ability do you envy in the opposite sex? What sexual characteristic of your gender do you take the most pride and joy in?”

“If you could watch an intimate moment from your partner’s life before the two of you got together, what would it be? Their introduction to sensuality? Or a stolen moment of self-love? Something innocent or taboo?”

“Would you rather be the spanker or the spanking recipient? Why? What implement would you use to do the spanking, or what would you prefer to be spanked with?”

Sample “dares”:

“Now is your chance to woo with words. Using your best penmanship, write an erotic letter from your tongue or fingers to the particular body part of your partner that you enjoy licking or touching. You have five minutes to write the letter. When you’ve finished, read it aloud to your partner.”

“Honesty is the best policy. If your partner doesn’t already know where your most ticklish places are, you must reveal them now. With the aid of a watch or timer your partner will have 20 seconds of unfettered, bare-skin access to the area. If you do not comply with the requirement of this dare, your partner has the option of restraining you.”

“Role-Play: You know you’ve always wanted to be a naughty doctor or a saucy nurse. Your chance has finally come to take your partner’s temperature, check their pulse and evaluate their response of stimuli. Make sure to give them thorough examination!”

March is going to be a crazy month for me, and a LOT of fun — “Lips Like Sugar” photo reference fully intended:

* The dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism has invited me to speak before the students, faculty and the public on the subject of “Open Source Sex: The Life of a Sex Educator on the Web” at the school in March. How kewl is that!? Still working out the date on that one.

* I’m officiating and running the “Sexual Privacy Online” panel at SXSW Interactive, Sunday, March 9, after noon (Austin, TX).

* I’ll be giving a big talk at O’Reilly’s ETech conference, “Sexual Identity Online” Tuesday, March 3 at 4:20pm.

Another trailer — I’m a *huge* Hellboy fan, I have all the original comics. Here’s the site for Hellboy II: The Golden Army with full-size trailer (directed by Guillermo Del Toro), and the trailer is also embedded after the jump, due to its evil autoplay. But still — y4y!!!

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“CEILING CAT SEZ OMFG UR RUDE DONT TOUCH PLZTHZ”

After his ugrent msg from Gawker Media FB HQ: o hai violent blue can touch my arm lightly whever u want kthx xoxo baaaaai.

The documentary about Mac fanatics, “MacHeads: The Movie” now has the trailer up on their under-construction website, and it looks to be like Trekkies on some sort of wacked Air-acid. It’s awesome, and I think it was more than a year in the making for their dedicated team (whom I met when they filmed me). And I think you’ll love the snip of my interview that’s in the trailer :D

As soon as I find an embeddeable version, I’ll post it; the video on their site is high-quality but I think could use some compression. From the newsletter:

MacHeads is a documentary about fanaticism and unconditional devotion to a corporate brand. The film takes us through the history of the Macintosh community and how it lead the Apple revolution. MacHeads explores the human side of Apple, telling the inside story of a loyal community and its struggle to spread the Macintosh gospel. Now that Apple is world known success, is it losing its faith as a community and becoming just a… brand?

MacHeads features interview with Mac addicts including Raines Cohen cofounder of one of the the first Macintosh user groups, Guy Kawasaki Apple Chief Evangelist and his joint battle with Macheads to save the company in the mid 1990s, Bruce Damer and Galen Brandt owners of Digibarn a 19th century computer museum featuring the history of Apple, the colorful Shawn King, host of Your Mac Life, an internet broadcast with over 200,000 listeners, Adam Engst one of the first publishers of Apple newsletter and the only man in the community with his own action figure, and many others that together with the archives of legendary Computer Chronicles weave this captivating story.

MacHeads is in the final stages of post production and will be coming out very very soon. We are finishing music score, animation and sound. The production team would like to take this chance and thank all the people who participated and helped us make this dream come true.

Update: I’ve embedded a (koff, koff) MySpace copy of the video after the jump. I can only see it in Safari and not Firefox, whereas my pal Mr. Holmes (who makes superb coffee, btw) says the opposite. Good luck! I love how the focus of the trailer’s conclusion is on the importance of the fans of the brand, especially after my experience this week.

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She’s chillin’ afterward in the hot tub after quite a time with the machines — but caution: this gallery with pics and video is quite explicit. Yet there’s no denying Justine is gorgeous and cute, and I happened to come across it in my various clickings tonight… It’s from famous local studio Kink.com (at their old location). And as you may already know, my friend Siege has beautiful NSFW iPhone images of Justine Jolie here.

As we gear up for the Sex :: Tech Conference here in San Francisco next week, I’m looking over the entries for the sex ed video contest. These are videos made by teens about sex ed — what kind of sex info they got — or are currently getting, if any — what they wish they were learning about, and more.

They’re all made by teens hoping to win some scholarship cash — and they’re fresh, funny, creative and really really exciting. The image here is a screencap from the intro video by Midwest Teen Sex Show, and this link gives you all the entries. The winner will be announced on January 22. It’s really exciting and groundbreaking stuff, to give kids a voice in learning (and asking, hello!) about sex. I want to do everything I can to spread this effort far and wide… Yay for the entrants! I wish they could all win.

Kisses to Chriso for pinging me with the link!

Links from me and others, which I think you’ll particularly enjoy…

* You can now officially be afraid of me for posting this one: Come Machine Translator Needed: Mop Skills A Plus

* Yes, I kindly — nicely, we do that at Gawker Media — posted (likely) Richard Stallman’s Craigslist post.

* 2008 AVN Expo: Someone Else Was There Too? This is full of explicit, indy/amateur galleries and wraps the coverage nicely — plus I snark on AVN and the NYT for pretending Fleshbot doesn’t exist.

* Getting SaSi At The 2008 AVN Expo (video) I’d *love* to try out this vibrator that supposedly “learns” your personal fave patterns — but I wonder just how much memory can it handle?

* Just in case you missed the non-porn-looking-babe, video hotness: Three Minutes And Nine Seconds Of Hot Girls Kissing Each Other (video)

* Dan Savage’s Porn Problem (video) A fun interview with one of my favorite people (and pals) Dan Savage.

* Nudar: GPS For Boobies Find strip clubs and topless joints with your GPS; I can download maps to my awesome holiday present, my TomTom!

* Also seen @ Fleshbot: Mindwire: Metal Gear shocked me in the nuts! “Don’t fucking buy this. (…) Leave it to someone outside the US to produce something so incredibly lawsuit worthy a million lawyers just totally ripped ninja boners.”

* Not seen at Fleshbot but you really oughta click Tuesday Tasting: Making Out, Macs, And More Porn: Shake Well Before Use examines the ultimate (hopefully) “black box” of porn: ethernet connected, and similar to the streaming movie services being rolled out by Amazon, Apple, etc…

Image of (possibly retired model) Katie Jordon by Tracie Zabriskie, whom many of you wrote me about in appreciation of when I randomly blogged a recent Kern gallery of hers. Yay for Katie J fans! Let’s hope she un-retires a little bit more…

Image: a re-enactment of Steve Jobs telling me off. Location: the Pownce pre-launch party. Cast: Steve Jobs as played by Veronica Belmont; Katie Cotton as played by a PBR, a MacBook Air as played by Ariel Waldman, and Violet Blue as played by an anonymous inebriated blogger. Way better photos of us from the party are here.

There’s not enough sex in this story to keep blogging about it, so here’s the wrap:

* What Bugs Apple Fans (Forbes)
* Macworld 2008: SF Gate’s Violet Blue Gets Dissed by Steve Jobs (Wired News)
* Violet Blue: Steve Jobs snubbed me (cnet)
* Sex columnist touches Steve Jobs, and Scoble gets his jollies (Valleywag)
* His Jobsness snubs fangirl (The Inquirer)
* Steve Jobs in internet PR DISASTER! Calls fan “rude” as assistant “snort laughs” at photo request (Tech Digest)
* Quoted: Good Morning Silicon Valley (GMSV)
* Steve Jobs is not your pal (or Violet Blue’s) (TechSpace: USA Today)
* Digg: Steve Jobs Tells off Fan (Digg)
* Re: the Violent Blue controversy — you just do NOT walk up and touch me. Ever. You just don’t. (The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs)
* Flattering shout-outs from Marc Canter, Susan Mernit and more.

There’s more, but this email was most interesting:

“hey V. this is interesting. not only is your steve jobs story one of the top dugg stories the past couple days, but it has the honor of being the most buried story according to this fun little tool. not sure that it means anything at this point, but kinda of interesting i think… http://www.ajaxonomy.com/buryrecorder/topburies.php”

Image of Rin via SG teasers @ Flickr, hoping they make a guest pass for this set: with apols to all the bloggers (some, my friends) who were just axed from Suicide Girls.

Some of you are probably looking at that post title and shaking your heads… because I said that I’d only edit three volumes of the Best Women’s Erotica series and then be done — and this year’s, newly-released Best Women’s 2008 was my best-of swan-song and I made it as intense and hot as I wanted to be remembered by. But then I got to talking with Cleis Press. Both BWE 06 and BWE 07 won “Best Erotic Book” Independent Publisher awards (keep your fingers crossed for this year’s ‘08), and Cleis loves my reckless, explicit and surprising editorial style… They trust me, and let me do what I want. Oh, and I sell a lot of books for them, and could really use the (paid) work. So I agreed to do 2009, 2010, and cap it off at five years in a row and they can finally pass the mantle onto another editor, making the series fresh and shiny all over again.

So, let’s make these last two a couple doozies, shall we? Let’s win awards five years in a row and walk away with one grinning editrix (me) and a whole roster of award-winning new and well-known authors. Let’s give women readers what they really want (as sales have shown). Let’s show mainstream publishing (who are still afraid of publishing books like this) that real, hot, authentic female sexual experiences in all their wet and raw and SMART and romantic and hardcore fucking glory — that all of it sells the hell out of these books because it’s actually who we are. Our sexuality isn’t corporate fiction’s dry version of “risque” like Sex and the City: we’re empowered and erudite porn sophisticates, we love real sex, vibrators don’t scare us, and we love sexual adventure. Female erotic pleasure, in all its permutations is the centerpiece. I just submitted the call for submissions to the Erotica Readers and Writers Association and I’ll have a link for that in a bit. The call for submissions for Best Women’s Erotica 2009 is after the jump.

On a related note: other than the sex ed/erotica e- and audio books I do for my indy publishing venture Digita Publications, right now there’s only one book I’m considering writing (rather than editing) this year. My memoirs of life on the streets after I ran away from home right before I turned 14. I lived on the streets (in the gutters, parks abandoned cars, squats and rooftops) of SF until I turned 18. It’s probably too “tragic” and “ugly” for mainstream media, but I have to tell these stories. I’m not leaving this place until I’ve told my story.

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I’m on the front page of the SF Chronicle (tree paper even, whoa), front page of Google News with cNet’s piece, 3rd topic on the front page of Digg, comments are raging on my Flickr photo — and now *this*. Fake Steve Jobs responds, and he is NOT happy:

So you’ve probably heard all about this crazy woman who calls herself Violent Blue and how she’s going around complaining that she tried to get me to pose for a photo with her and I told her that she was rude. Oh, and Katie snickered and rolled her eyes. You can see Ms. Porno’s version of what happened here on her Web site. If you want to know what really happened, read on.

Yes, she did want to have her photo taken with me. But first of all, come on. You don’t just walk up to me when I’m standing in some public place and just speak to me. Everyone knows that. Moreover, this was Macworld, and I’m standing on the show floor. Does that seem like the kind of situation where I’m looking to interact with people?

Worse yet, this woman touched me. She admits as much, saying she “lightly touched” my arm. In the civilized world this is known as a violation of personal boundaries, and according to our legal team (because yes we’ve had to bring them in on this) the “lightly touched” constitutes a form of assault. In fact Violent Blue is lucky we didn’t have her arrested right there on the spot.

Instead, I let her off easy. I told her, very politely, that she was rude. Then I very politely turned my back to her. (…)

Read more.

…or something like that. This week’s SF Chronicle column at their website SF Gate is me making naughty light of a certain situation — So, I Seduced A Mac Geek, snip:

I spotted him from across the crowded Moscone West subterranean fortress of doom. As usual, the scent of burnt $15 hot dogs was already working its aphrodisiac magic: I could tell from his silhouette — so thin, so very thin — as he swayed under the fluorescent lighting, he’d be the one peeling off my now-tight, sexy Gelaskins by noon.

There’s an art to getting laid and seducing geeks at a tech convention, especially if you’re not a girl. Looking at the paltry selections on Craigslist you’ll see that Macworld Expo poses its own set of challenges. Basically, when you enter the convention floor, you know you’ve come upon a group practicing an evil ritual of sorcery and magic; they look to their leader to chant (iChant?) incantations until an unspeakable horde of gadgets arises to destroy credit card limits and steal the innocence of local virgins at will. I just know that their leader bathes in the blood of Microsoft employees to stay so young looking. Sadly, there is never a huge-breasted blonde sacrificed on an altar, the way our dearly departed local Anton LaVey would have demanded it.

That my target was in black was a good sign: He was already on the dark side, so my opening lines about finding the back end into my iPhone, or how the new ultra-thin MacBook could make it feel “so close to the real thing,” or even asking if a Touch could be “ribbed for her pleasure” were all useless foreplay. Our eyes connected like USB 2.0, but our bodies went wireless and I was scanning his ports in seconds — as obviously as he was scanning mine.

Our first stop was the Belkin booth for our first out-of-the-box experience. He kept the turtleneck on; I stripped down to my badge. He peeled open an iKlear monitor wipe and held it under my nose, and that’s when the Kama Sutra Gadgeta really began.

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian text widely believed to be the standard work on love in Sanskrit literature: It describes at least 64 sex positions — we didn’t have time for that: The expo floor is only open to the public for four days. After Belkin, we streaked over to the lusty gadget Axiotron Modbook’s area with see-through enclosures (grabbing bags of improvised sex toy swag en route). I huffed more iKlear and we broke some cheap IKEA convention booth furniture in all the wrong ways.

Kama Sutra Gadgeta, Macworld-style

Don’t try these at home, kids — try them at the Moscone. Applicable for all genders and orientations, black turtleneck required.

First position: Laptop Riser

Keep that hot laptop off those tender bits — or on them, if you swing that way. The bottom hugs a cheap IKEA booth stool face-down, while the man in black checks his Gmail with MacBook Pro delicately held on the bottom’s hips during anal or vaginal penetration.

Link.

Update/response: one of the commenters on my column said something mean about me getting paid for product placement in the article. Helio gave me a phone last year and everyone knows it, but no, no one else in the whole damn column gave me anything or even knows me or had any idea they’d end up in a sex column for a major publication. Gawd, I wish. Free porn? Sure. Gadgets, nope. Sheesh.