This has to be one of my all-time favorite videos. Today Calpernia Addams posted Bad Questions to Ask a Transsexual: The Director’s Cut. She is hilarious, pissed off, sharp, on the money, off the hook and totally fucking fierce. My favorite is, of course, #4. Having trans women as my chosen family, it hits oh so wonderfully/painfully close to home (and yes I’ve sent it around). It’s 14 minutes long, so grab a cup of coffee, try not to shoot it out your nose, and enjoy:

Image by Thomas Fricke, courtesy of Chaos, A Film Company.

I’m really excited about this week’s column “Walk All Over Me,” The Movie. “Film fest comedy-thriller hit stars Leelee Sobieski and Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer (Number Six) as dominatrices; Violet Blue asks director Robert Cuffley about all the whips and guns.” Not only did I get to interview the director and ask him about his experiences researching BDSM for the film (and the film’s tone surrounding S/M), but I established such a great repore with the film’s producer that she personally sent me the above, exclusive photo to run with my piece. So. Fucking. Cool. And Leelee Sobieski and Tricia Helfer — seem *really* awesome. I can’t wait to see the movie on a big screen. Here’s a snip:

At first blush, Canadian independent film “Walk All Over Me” (official site, trailer) looks like a farcical take on what might be best described as “the accidental dominatrix” scenario, with curious results. The plot entertainingly twists and turns, making for a very entertaining “walk on the wild side,” reminiscent of “Bound,” sans lesbianism but with a heavy serving of BDSM.

In “Walk All Over Me,” Leelee Sobieski plays Alberta, who escapes an abusive relationship and flees to Vancouver where she looks up the only person she knows, her childhood babysitter, Celene (Tricia Helfer, “Battlestar Galactica’s” Number Six). Helfer takes her in, and Sobieski works at a supermarket — until she sees Helfer raking in $300 an hour as a dominatrix. Sobieski decides to give whip wielding and rubber corsets a spin — naively impersonating Helfer, topping a male client who’s in a whole lot of criminal trouble, and getting both women into a dangerous, action-filled predicament.

It’s not difficult to imagine Number Six as a hot dominatrix. In fact, it’s been my favorite pastime since I first heard of “Walk All Over Me.” Not that it’s all that far from Number Six’s reach, but Helfer was drawn to the role beyond my more obvious fantasies. Helfer explained, “A lot of women complain about a lack of good roles but the writing was so strong in ‘Walk All Over Me.’ Additionally it also gave me the chance to do play opposite a female, which is not a type of role I usually get.”

While “Walk All Over Me” (MySpace page) is hitting an excited blogosphere (…read more!)

Here’s the trailer on YouTube, though a smaller, better quality on is on the film’s site:

And here’s a hot bonus! Check out this behind the scenes teaser:

I forgot how much I loved Tones On Tail! And spanking. Courtney sent me this truly adorable YouTube spanking video, to the tune of Go.

People are literally dancing in the streets in my hometown tonight!

The ecstatic emails are flooding my inbox.

Today, California recognized what is not a privilege of only a certain class of people, but what is a right for every citizen who loves, cherishes and devotes their lives to another.

Today California legalized gay marriage.

I have never been prouder of my native state.

Now we are a step closer to equality. Imagine falling in love with someone, committing your life to them, and then the worst happens, and you are not allowed to see them in the hospital because you are not considered a “valid” partner under the law. You are relegated to friend, less than family. A stranger. I know how that last part feels.

That will never happen here, never again. Yet all presidential candidates oppose gay marriage.

Holy shit — pride is going to be amazing this year!!!!

Hunter S. Thompson has a lot of meaning to me and he comes up in my blog now and again; when he died it was a sad shock to all of us at SRL, and I remember going down to the old SRL shop where Thompson had spent some time (20 years ago, way before me), and we watched some SRL-Thompson video. Mark told funny stories about how Thompson couldn’t really be left alone with the flame thrower, and in the videos I saw that his “mobile pharmacy” (a briefcase) had been installed on the desk across from the couch I regularly slept on during shows (the couch wasn’t there back then, but still). Right now, dear friend Phil Bronstein has a great post on his blog about remembering his *crazy* times hanging out with Thompson and being his editor. If you’re a Thompson fan like me, don’t miss Phil’s post.

Update 05.14: Image of the formerly hacked site here. Nina’s site is back in control of whoever runs it for her, and is currently just a splash page assuring viewers that they’ll be up and running in a few days with “exciting plans” for the site. Weird. They didn’t proofread their text, either.

Nina Hartley’s site Nina.com has just been was hacked. That really sucks. Updates to come. (thanks for the insta-tip, CSC)

Ariel X at Fucking Machines, about to have a full-on text-gushing Twittergasm, only we can’t see her Tweet-ready iPhone because it’s hidden in a Very Special Place ™

Please, please, please: do not fake a Twittergasm! How else will I know how to make you Tweet!!?? I’ve been huffing Fleshbot fumes lately. Here are the juicy highlights:

* No, rly. The Twittergasm has been invented. So awesome! Get all the lubey limited-character text details in my Fleshbot post and highly entertaining Twittergasm interview: Twittergasms: The Real San Francisco Treat. Yes, I made the silly art.

* I will say that the excellence of Twitgasms notwithstanding, sometimes the hype and politics around National Masturbation Month make me not want to masturbate for an entire month. It’s like, is nothing sacred? Regardless, I do remember that NMM was started in honor of former Surgeon General Dr. Jocelyn Elders, who was pressured to resign after making pro-masturbation statements. The cool thing is, you can see her in the trailer for the upcoming documentary in my fleshed-out post “Sticky: The Movie” Will Touch You In New Ways. Yes, I made the silly art.

* I got another fabulous interview and exclusive hardcore gallery with a Kink.com model: enjoy Ariel X Loves Her Job (And So Do We). I did not make any silly art this time.

* More “this week in boobs”. The title I gave this post says it all: The Nipple Gauge: Getting Our Faces Slapped Has Never Been Easier! Yes, I once again made the silly art. (thanks, Evil Signtist!)

Some of you might know that I’m a huge, big, enormous (okay, 5′4″) Hellboy fan. I was the dorky girl with the long-ish Louise Brooks bob and stripey socks and little vintage dresses way back when who actually bought the comics when they came out. I eagerly awaited each new issue of Hellboy, the guy at the comic store held them for me as soon as they arrived, and it was the guilty pleasure all my extra money went to after I got off the streets. That, and paint — for my paintings, which Hellboy’s gothic imagery and unusual coloring deeply informed.

But I digress. The trailer for Hellboy II is up and it looks: So. Fucking. Incredible. You can see it on Hellboy’s official site, or giant and really gorgeous in HD on Apple’s Hellboy II trailer page (totally worth it). From the trailer, the movie is clearly showcasing director Guillermo Del Toro pulling out all the stops, Ron Perlman at his snarkiest… And the stunning vintage sci-fi mechanical elements combined with fetishy influences has me drooling all over my keyboard right now…

You’ve come a long way, highly entertaining homosexual propaganda. I mean, baby. “Female deviation in normal sexual behavior greatly exceeds the male!”

I read two articles of note this weekend about porn laws you should check out: one is the curious case in which it’s entirely possible that swingers — those happy, freewheelin’ “wife swappers” we all know and love — may actually be the ones to break the idiocy of 2257 wide open. The other notable porn law news is that the Indianapolis Museum of Art found the state’s newest porn law to be so stifling, it’s joining a suit filed by the ACLU (thanks, Tyler!). Let’s start with that one because as Tyler Green from ArtsJournal.com put it, “the law is silly, the response is superb”. In the IndyStar Tim Evans writes, IMA, ACLU sue over rule that sellers of ’sexually explicit’ material must register:

The Indianapolis Museum of Art, which sells art books containing images of nudes painted by the Old Masters, joined a civil rights group Wednesday in suing over a law that would require a business selling pornography to register with the state. Maxwell L. Anderson, Melvin & Bren Simon director and chief executive of the IMA, said he is concerned about the law’s effect on the museum and the broader message it sends.

“Our role in this community is to foster tolerance for creativity, and this law is completely in opposition to that mission,” Anderson said. He added that the law “is not a signal of a progressive place.”

Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and attorneys for several national organizations representing sellers of books, CDs and DVDs, the lawsuit asks a federal court to bar enforcement of the law, which goes into effect July 1 and is aimed at new or relocating businesses that sell “sexually explicit” material.

The suit’s target is House Enrolled Act 1042, approved this year by the General Assembly. It requires businesses that sell such material to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state. The suit says the law also appears to require employees of the businesses to register and pay the fee.

Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana, said the law is vague and overly broad and violates the First Amendment. “Why would an institution like the IMA even have to consider whether a great work of art is somehow going to be labeled as falling within this statute?” he said.(…read more!)

Right — requiring so-called adult business employees to pay $250 and register with the state!? That seems to me like strongarm tactics to scare off adult business employees, not to mention that it would make the state a lot of money for a rather dubious end. Like anyone who works at the local dildo hut can afford to pay for the privilege of ringing up lube all day, or want to have to register with the state * like a sex offender*. You know, I’m really in favor of laws that make sense when it comes to kids, adults and porn. Too bad we don’t have any. Like, last week the Yale Law Journal covered the issue of swingers and 2257 (via + PDF @ Viviane’s). It’s framed around how 2257 affects Hollywood and targets groups that are indeed deserving of constitutional protection. That gives you an idea as to how ridiculously the law was put together — in theory it’s to protect kids from being performers, in practice it’s a totally unhelpful, rights-trampling mess for everyone involved and doesn’t protect kids at all. It’s actually one of the best articles on 2257, the law’s history, explanation and all, that I’ve ever read. The article is also chock full of links to PDFs — so very excellent. Here’s a swinger-pertinent snip:

(…) Connection III was the culmination of twelve years of litigation that had traveled up and down the federal court system. The case began in 1995 when Connection, a publisher of “swingers” magazines, filed suit challenging the constitutionality of § 2257. Along with articles and editorials relating to the “swinging” lifestyle, Connection’s magazine would also include member-submitted sexually explicit photographs of couples seeking to meet other couples.

The [Sixth Circuit] court held that the 2006 amendments to § 2257 significantly expanded what materials are impacted by the statute. Specifically, the statute covered all sexually explicit photographs and images regardless of whether they were produced for commercial purposes or with the intent to be shown to others. Consequently, “a married couple who videotape or photograph themselves in the bedroom engaging in sexually explicit conduct would be required to keep records, affix disclosure statements to the images, and hold their home open to government agents for records inspections.”

While the court did not dispute the legitimacy of the government’s goal of eradicating child pornography, it noted that this regulation of protected legal speech does not further that aim. There already exists a statutory regime that makes the production and distribution of child pornography illegal. In that regard, the court held that the § 2257 is overbroad and infringes on constitutionally protected speech.

In holding that the statute was overbroad, the court identified two constitutional rights that were being infringed. First, adults have the constitutional right to engage in sexual conduct. Second, individuals have the right to engage in anonymous speech — a right violated by § 2257’s requirement that individuals reveal their real names.

The court further warned that statutes are especially suspect when “enforcers can seek out and silence particularly disliked people or speech.” The court appeared to frame “swingers” as such a group deserving of constitutional protection. Finally, the court identified the chilling effect of § 2257 (… read more!)

My friend J just sent me Naked Girls In Our Bed, a collection of — you guessed it — naked girls in a photographer couple’s bed. And they’re fun and sexy as a free gallery of smiling naked beautiful playful girls on a Saturday afternoon. Lots of tattoos, a very nice smattering of natural bodies, and if you want, several sets of professional-alt-model Scar.

By now you may have seen at least one post about the scans from Vogue: Italy featuring Eva Mendes — but if you haven’t taken a close look at them, I beg you. or maybe you’ll be begging Eva by the time you’re done clicking on each fetish-tastic, corseted, foot-licking, toes-pinching-nipples, gorgeous shot of Mendes. She was in 2 Fast 2 Furious (which I kinda liked, but I love fast cars), but more notably she’s playing villainess Sand Saref in the upcoming film The Spirit, currently in post-production and set for release in late December. It’s directed and adapted by Frank Miller.

Because beautiful Italian vampire lesbians from the 1970s never get old… Literally. The Soledad Miranda tribute (+ Vampyros Lesbos tribute album downloads) reminds me how insanely gorgeous she was, and how much I want one just like her. (Thanks, Praemedia!)

* Her official site hurts my eyes, but has lots of images. Get a nice taste on Flickr. Or the Wikipedia article about her, if you feel texty.

Capping off the official Week Of Merkley??? here at Tiny Nibbles, I hereby invite you to help me pick the best — or maybe just your favorite — Merkley??? photograph. Email or comment — advice needed. Did I miss your favorite? You see, I have been asked to pick my very favorite, and I have it down to these three. Help!

And: for the last time, would you puhleeze buy his incredible book?! He self-published, so all money goes to him and the whiskey and Cheeze Doodles he bribes his models with. I have a copy and I can feel it getting more valuable by the damn day around here. Even Alex regards it with the proper suspicion and envy a feline should.

I also really like this one because Sparky’s is right by my house. This one’s pretty awesome, too.

I was downtown today having lunch with Hacker Boy and we stumbled across this beautiful, sexy statue from 1945 called The Star Girl. She’s in a gorgeous marble atrium at 1 Sansome Street, open to the public. She really captures a lot for me right now.

Here’s my photo set of The Star Girl, some with my Lumix and some instantly uploaded with my Helio Ocean. HB also uploaded a couple direct from the atrium with his Nokia N95 if you want to compare.

I’ll add this quote, snagged from a friend’s email sig today:

“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.”
-Oscar Wilde

Update: Flickr friend DairDair clued me in to the model for The Star Girl, a.k.a. Calder’s The Star Maiden: the stunning Audrey Munson. And guess what? It’s not updated frequently, but there’s a blog dedicated to this New York beauty, including her headstone — and the fact that she died at age 105 (according to her tombstone)!

She lives forever, actually. She was known as the “American Venus” — nude model extraordinaire — and at one point had over 30 pieces of art based on her in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’m surprised to see how well the Oscar Wilde quote fit this post, after reading the NYT quote: “‘This young women ought to be ashamed of herself,’ was the usual observation of early 20th-century moralists about Audrey Munson (…)”

Image “My First Time” by Annie Ominous.

In this week’s SF Chronicle column Death of the DC Madam Hits Home, I explore the death of the DC Madam with a local sex worker — sex worker and high level sex work blog contributor Karly Kirchner (Bound, not Gagged), and I examine the state of sex work in this light from the point of view of new media. Which is way, way different that what we’re being fed in mainstream media. I’m also getting some very weird emails about it, some of which are threatening in tone. This one really brought some — uh — interesting people out of the woodwork. Here’s a snip:

The death last week of Deborah Palfrey, the “D.C. Madam,” put a sad end to the story of a businesswoman who fought the system and lost. After offering her phone list of Washington, D.C.’s elite clients to anyone who would publish it in exchange for legal defense money — and seeing the subsequent “apology” of Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and resignation of Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias — the 13-year madam was convicted by a federal jury on all counts she faced and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Unlike outlets like Salon who still insist on calling Palfrey a “female pimp,” reactions on blogs have been overwhelmingly sympathetic. Political group blog Liberty Guys called Palfrey’s situation, “A victimless crime … until the government steps in … She never harmed anyone by supplying willing female companions to willing clients … I guess now the feds can claim that prostitution does indeed claim victims.”

The business of prostitution is indeed legal in certain parts of the United States. Recalling the Prohibition days (13 years during which the sale, manufacture and transport of alcohol were banned nationally and alcohol-related racketeering, crime and corruption were rampant), we could say that Palfrey had the unfortunate situation of being caught providing services in a “dry state.”

According to Karly Kirchner, a San Francisco escort and high-level contributor to popular sex work blog Bound, not Gagged, Palfrey’s death and the senselessness surrounding the entire situation have been felt both locally and nationally. Kirchner explains,

“Providers everywhere have been struck with this news. Whether it was suicide or murder, this is a terrible tragedy. It’s been too much for some to handle. I’ve noticed that several women have taken down their sites, announced that they are no longer seeing new clients and/or announced that they will no longer participate in community boards since Palfrey was found dead. We’re all talking about Brandy Britton, who was once employed by Palfrey and was also found hanged last year. (… read more!)

Image of Cyan from Zivity by Merkley??? whose h4wt book you should really buy.

Named after the always soothing Best of Babelogs: Hump Day Edition, <strike>which will be up any minute now… Until then,</strike> Still, I encourage you to read the sex blogs *for the articles*.

* They can’t do this before I make it to Osaka! In Japan, police have cracked down on Osaka’s “panty flashing clubs”, closing down the honorable businesses that allow patrons to see panties and more. “‘For a 500 yen tip, customers could get a fishing rod they were allowed to use to raise the waitresses’ skirts and then use a magnifying glass to get a really close look at their knickers,’ another regular tells Shukan Jitsuwa. ‘Some girls would even change their panties in front of customers for the right price.’”

* Hot blog girl of the week: Baby Sinead, whom I discovered through the comments at Fleshbot.

* When I end up like Ash in “Evil Dead 2″ I’m not going to have any ordinary chainsaw strapped to the stump that used to be my hand until it became possessed with an evil demon and I had to chop it off and make it into a weapon. No, I’ll take the Luis Vuitton chainsaw, thanks. Oh, throw the Chanel rocket launcher in for good measure. I’ll blow the Necronomicon to bits. (thanks, Praemedia!)

* It’s M-M-M-Merkley??? week: he shot Cyan from Zivity (pictured) then this week Lux at Fleshbot gave Zivity a scathing review. Ow. Lux wanted pr0n more than 800085. I really like Zivity, too… Sorry! Update: new Cyan in the server room making, er, a glowing pickle!

* I haz your FAILcat this week.

* I spent way too much time in Time Out New York’s What’s Your Fantasy section this morning (it’s their What Turns You On? issue). Hideous Kinky was amusing, but I really wish they’d fix their Pick-A-Fetish Megachart link. Duhhrrr.

* Another shortsighted anti-porn lawmaker is trying to take military restrictions on porn even further, attempting to lower the “sexually explicit” threshold for magazines and materials sold on bases. Doesn’t U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga have anything better to do than punish our already beleaguered soldiers? According to Stars and Stripes, “Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems. ‘Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,’ Broun says on his Web site.” One soldier preparing to back to the Middle East expressed dismay saying, “I’m not saying I’m depending on Maxim to keep me alive over there, but it helps.” (via Gawker)

* And finally, be careful what you say in public about your fetishes (thanks, D!)

Sassy UK undie makers Agent Provocateur just released their newest edition of their webzine, Knickers Forever — always featuring and timed with a new lingerie collection — and it’s the usual total hotness. No Maggie Gyllenhall this time, but they return to their regular model Kate Moss in a deeply sexy, very revealing wedding collection and four hot new ecards. I particularly like the Natasha set, and the fact that their models do some very tasteful, nipple-tastic full-frontal — it seems there’s no need here for the creepy “Photoshop remove nipple tool“. Phew! We girls like to see our nips left intact, thanks.

Image by my friend N Judah Chronicles.

This is where my vote is going. More here, where they’re giving away the poster file for free.

Our burning question over at Fleshbot right now, thanks to my pals Em and Lo who really mean well, they do:

The Facial Money Shot: Yes or No? Yes, there’s a video, yes, there’s a poll — which I encourage you to click — but the real fun is in the comments. Definitely worth a look!

Panels from different segments at Varla Dayne.

It’s taken me a bit to go through all the episodes of the utterly adorable, high-fetish, outer space retro infused (and occasionally incoherent) webcomic Varla Dayne. I love the site design, the playful space adventures and I’m a total sucker for retro sci-fi themes, especially when it looks like a highly feminized “Lost in Space” meets Eric Stanton. In it, dominant “renowned physicist and daring cosmatrix” Varla Dayne (”inventor of the Marmolean rocket engine and the Endless Ray Gun”) travels to outer space, only to discover a blonde, bratty submissive stowaway — and then the naughty-but-sweet interplanetary adventures begin. Whoever makes this knows their fetish fashion, that’s for sure… Do not miss. (thanks for the link, Alana!)

Admittedly, I didn’t follow the Reiser murder case as it unfolded, though I probably should have. I get the distinct sense looking through all the reporting and media post-conviction, that it’s highly possible it touched a circle of mine, some way or another. What drew my attention to the case this weekend wasn’t that Hans Reiser had been found guilty of first-degree murder of his wife — and that Reiser has been a notoriously controversial figure in the open source and Linux communities for a long time. And I wasn’t totally surprised to read that a wealthy and notably eccentric figure in our Bay Area’s rich tapestry of nutty tech entrepreneurs was practically diagnosed with Asperger’s on the stand. It was the way Ars Technica drew attention last week to the BDSM and local geek connections that hooked me:

Hans Reiser, the software developer credited with the creating the ReiserFS filesystem, has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Jurors concluded that Reiser killed his estranged wife, who vanished suddenly in 2006. A well-known figure in the open-source software community, Reiser was working on the next-generation version of his filesystem with funding from DARPA and Linspire prior to his arrest.

(…) When police officers located Hans Reiser’s vehicle, it was missing one passenger seat, had an inch of standing water in the bottom, and contained two books about police murder investigations, as well as a sleeping bag cover stained with Nina’s blood. Reiser himself was found with a fanny pack containing his passport and $9,000 when he was interrogated by police during an early stage of the investigation. Although the prosecution could not locate a body and could provide only circumstantial evidence, Reiser’s bizarre courtroom behavior and convoluted arguments largely undermined his attempts to defend himself during the trial.

(…) Although the case against Reiser was strengthened by his inability to provide believable explanations for the various incriminating details presented by the prosecution, there was one piece of evidence in his favor that was barred from being presented during the case. Sean Sturgeon, a former friend of Hans Reiser and one of Nina’s lovers during her separation from Hans, confessed to eight unrelated murders. Nina ended her relationship with Sturgeon in 2006, partly because she was disturbed by his fetish for sadomasochism. (…read more)

As Ars put it so eloquently, Reiser is fucked. And the thing I didn’t see mentioned were the footnotes about Sturgeon, who was extremely important to the whole story. He was allegedly Hans Reiser’s best friend at one point, and had cross-dressed as his “best woman” for Hans’ wedding to Nina (while Sturgeon’s gf was the “best man”) and according to ABC7, “acted as his financial agent from 1999 through 2002 and had access to and control over deposits, withdrawals and funds at the Patelco Credit Union.” In that same article, “In addition, Reiser alleged that Sturgeon wrote into a contract that Reiser must participate in ‘Death Yoga,’ which he said has the purpose of ’slowing down one’s heart to the point of death.’ (…) Reiser said Sturgeon ‘worked with my wife Nina Reiser and eventually drugged her with ecstasy and seduced her.’ Reiser alleged, ‘He then engaged in Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism techniques and continued to redrug her repeatedly over time.’”

The courtroom antics of Reiser’s crazy dad did not help. Ramon Reiser, a former Army sergeant first class and mathematician, did one-handed push-ups in the courtroom (!), then stated testified “(…) that he warned his son that he might be surveilled by people associated with the former KGB, ‘Russian mafia groups in California’ or ‘the techno-geek S&M crowd.’”

As Ryan Paul put it in his Ars piece, you can find out more grisly details in David Kravets’ detailed, gavel-to-gavel reports and article about the verdict over at Wired’s Threat Level. As for me, I hereby stand up for the reputation of our actual, local techno-geek BDSM crowd. I hate to see it used in this context, like a weapon. There’s a *huge* connection between the kink and tech crowds here, not just personally, but it’s steeped in many aspects of our geek culture: geekery and sex-positivity, and kinkiness are quite married in the Bay Area. I think it’s no coincidence that the heart of technology in this country is also at the national heart of kinkiness, LGBT values and sex-positivity — the Bay Area, especially near to San Francisco. I’m working on a column about exactly that this week.

* Amanda Congdon Returns to Web Video (newteevee.com).

The person who sent me this does not get thanked, but is expected to either a) get me drunk before next weekend, or b) commit double suicide with me using only grapefruit spoons and ten gallons of Drano before the Earth flies off its course and into the sun, which is obviously happening soon.

Photo of JeniLuv and her birthday babes by Merkley??? whose super-hot book you should *really* buy because it’s full of 111 hot San Francisco girls. Merkley??? sez, “JeniLuv - Oblivious to The Impending Party Crash By Skunk, Toilet Paper and Left Poking Weiner, She Parties With West Side Jenny, Amy, Alexia and a Satisfying Snickers While Sipping Bacardi Like it’s Her Birthday Cuz It IS Her Birthday!!!”

Also: shoes.

And, be afraid, very afraid of the muthafuckin’ TSA Gangstaz (NSFW video, via Liam, speaking of shoes).

Photo of Chritian Ristow’s machines and Michael Christian’s I.T. by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid.

Yesterday I was at Maker Faire all day with Hacker Boy, volunteering to help with Make: Play Day and messing around visiting friends and looking at some truly incredible art. Play Day was so much fun: there’s nothing as cool as watching kids smash keyboards with mallets and hammers, or seeing little girls make elaborate buildings out of circuit boards (or make their own armor and stage combat with weapons made from colorful industrial scrap). I think Play Day needs to be happening somewhere every day.

The list of friends I got to see and hang out with is very, very long: from Extra Action to Annalee, Veronica, Scott, Eddie, and lots of SRL family, to my old friend Christian Ristow and newer friends CTP and Justin Grey. Scott has a great photo set growing here (post); I decided it was a live-media-only day and only did media with the shortest route to publishing, just to see how that would turn out. So I have a small set of instantly-uploaded photos here (all shot and put directly on Flickr with my Helio Ocean). And I have a handful of live video shot with my Nokia N95 and streamed directly to my Qik channel. Extra thanks to Qik and Helio for sponsoring my gadgets and making my live media making possible: the truly great thing about the Qik/Nokia cam was that I accidentally, spontaneously got interviews with two machine makers! (I just need to remember to turn the camera off, duhhrrrr…) I’m really enjoying the possibilities with Qik’s live video: the video quality isn’t as high as I’d like it, but I’m literally using cutting, bleeding edge technology here… The fun videos from the day, below:

Christian Ristow’s lethal machines; outdoor show, demonstration and combat:

Spontaneous interview: First, squid alert, paging Scott Beale! Then an interview with the maker of the Giant Mechanical Squid, Nemo Gould. Then about 30 seconds of me forgetting to turn off the camera (sadly, nothing scandalous was captured…):

Some of the most beautifully made machines and gearing I’ve seen in a long time — the happy discovery of Twenty Seven Gears, Arthur Ganson inspired pieces. I was totally blown away by the bizarre creations of Benjamin Cowden, aka Twenty Seven Gears. Watch the creepy lollipop-licking hand-crank machine, then my spontaneous interview with the artist: