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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Luxe: Expensive Porn Makes Me Swoon
I am by no means a girl of extravagant tastes. More often than not, I am a cheapskate- $3 bottles of wine (hey, it's sweet and does the trick!), $10 haircuts, that sort of thing. I usually scoff at people who are preoccupied with how much they paid for the things they own and who tote and wear products solely for the well-understood price tag that goes with the brand name.
And yet, against all logic, I love porn that looks expensive.
Teaser 5 Sensual Stories by Erika Lust
Uploaded by lustfilms
And yet, against all logic, I love porn that looks expensive.
Teaser 5 Sensual Stories by Erika Lust
Uploaded by lustfilms
Luxurious. Naked bodies swaddled in mink, warm mahogany-panelled, fireplace-lit dungeons that are a far cry from the cold and barren cement rooms that usually house BDSM porn, sparkling cinematography that rivals Amelie. It's not that the porn needs to be expensive- it might as well have been shot on a shoestring budget. But that look and feel- the hardcore scene so cinematically sensual that it could follow seamlessly after the nude sketch scene from Titanic. It's a combination of content and cinematography- when there's a certain type of timeless beauty, gorgeous settings, perfect lighting, lovely costumery (if any), tasteful music, and really, really high-quality cameras and equipment. I love and enjoy my handheld-camera, shot-in-a-hotel-room look porn, too- if the content makes up for it. But I still long for that luxurious, expensive feel in my porn.
Click below for the preview of
Petra Joy's "Female Fantasies"
It's interesting, too- it seems like the folks who express this sort of aesthetic often share my same sentiments- their porn is trying to reach people on another level- it's about artistry, sex positivity, women's empowerment. Folks like Erika Lust and Lust Films, Shine Louise Houston and Pink & White Productions (who, by the way, just got some new equipment and says she finally feels "like I've produced something beautiful." . . . though c'mon, Shine, your other films weren't gorgeous?), Petra Joy and Strawberry Seductress. Their porn is drastically different than other porn out there, and while a good deal of what I'm drawn to is the fabulous cinematographic quality, it's not just the HD crystal-clear picture. It's eroticism blended with true sensuality, captured by an artist; it's a visual feast for your eyes. And it looks fucking beautiful.
Click below to see the short erotic film "French
Maid" from Coco de Mer.
For far too long, photographers have been given free license to make stunning erotica (I'm sorry, I mean, studies of artistic nudes), but people have drawn the line at video- as if you can take a picture of a naked woman with either a kodak in your basement or with a 35 millimeter camera in your studio, but when it comes down to filming her get her freak on, all possibilities of making art go out the window, replaced by the need for a money shot.
It's about time that porn started to get back some of its glamour, without having to sacrifice it all to become cheesy "softcore" that most people mock for its so-called pretentiousness ("everyone knows its just whack-off material"). Instead of trying to draw the line between art and porn- how about combining the two for the most beautiful and inspiring possibilities?
I just adore watching the artsy, avant-garde, take-me-back-in-time, Hollywood glamour and elegance and sensuality that seem to come from commercials for ultra-hip and quite expensive brands . . . particularly when they toss in a homoerotic subtext and delicious gender-bending with it. Could you imagine if the following commercials kept on going, into the realm of porn- that boy in girl drag and girl in boy drag having a pervy tryst, the lesbians adding more scratches to that back, and the sailor "boi" playing gay men with her lover. Umm. I think I'll take some time to myself.
Paul Gaultier's Le Rendez-Vous
Campari Red Passion
Campari Red's The Secret
So, honestly. I'm looking forward to more porn that looks like, well, a million bucks. Perhaps my standards are too high- particularly in a porn world that generally ignores the content I find sexy and even then, considers style secondary, if important at all. But I believe that there are gems hidden here and there- the kind of porn that lights my artistic inner romantic as well as my loins.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Updates
I'm just lolling around here on a lazy Sunday, no real desire to do anything productive and much more of a desire to waste time on the Internet.
So here are a few updates from my life, the Internet, and even just random junk.
I'm still here in Japan, taking part in a TESOL (that's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, for all you normal folks) program at my favorite university, Tokiwa Daigaku. Going wonderfully, as usual- busy, having fun, occasionally hung-over. I swear, while I do like my regular glass of wine, I never drink as much at home as I do in Japan. It must be something about those nomihoudai's (a flat fee for 2 hours of all-the-alcohol-you-can-drink . . . can you imagine how Americans would abuse that system!?!) and every friend I made and teacher I knew last year inviting me out to go do something. My wallet is stretched to its limit, but I've been able to go a little farther thanks to the generosity of some very kind people. Thanks, guys.
On a different and more genderqueer-y note, I found out how to write my (real) name in kanji. Sorry, folks, but Gwen is only a pseudonym. And while I'd like to maintain web anonymity, the ancient Chinese character coincidences are just too cool to not mention. My real name, like that of most foreigners, has all of those pesky sounds which they can now deal with but just weren't equipped for back in the day when kanji were drifting from the Chinese mainland to the land of the rising sun. So while I can write the hard "D" sound at the end of Candy with katakana (キャンディ), no kanji exists to express that sound. If I want to use kanji, I need my whole name, Candice, and I change the pronunciation to "day", closer to its real sound instead of the spelling. Anyways, this is just background for those who don't know how to switch borrowed English into Japanese. But with the help of some Japanese friends and electronic dictionaries, whe found some kanji that works to represent my name. Interestingly enough, there's only one kanji for the sound of the first syllable of my name (kyan), and I was amazed to find that the meaning is something roughly akin to tomboy.
So here are a few updates from my life, the Internet, and even just random junk.
I'm still here in Japan, taking part in a TESOL (that's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, for all you normal folks) program at my favorite university, Tokiwa Daigaku. Going wonderfully, as usual- busy, having fun, occasionally hung-over. I swear, while I do like my regular glass of wine, I never drink as much at home as I do in Japan. It must be something about those nomihoudai's (a flat fee for 2 hours of all-the-alcohol-you-can-drink . . . can you imagine how Americans would abuse that system!?!) and every friend I made and teacher I knew last year inviting me out to go do something. My wallet is stretched to its limit, but I've been able to go a little farther thanks to the generosity of some very kind people. Thanks, guys.
On a different and more genderqueer-y note, I found out how to write my (real) name in kanji. Sorry, folks, but Gwen is only a pseudonym. And while I'd like to maintain web anonymity, the ancient Chinese character coincidences are just too cool to not mention. My real name, like that of most foreigners, has all of those pesky sounds which they can now deal with but just weren't equipped for back in the day when kanji were drifting from the Chinese mainland to the land of the rising sun. So while I can write the hard "D" sound at the end of Candy with katakana (キャンディ), no kanji exists to express that sound. If I want to use kanji, I need my whole name, Candice, and I change the pronunciation to "day", closer to its real sound instead of the spelling. Anyways, this is just background for those who don't know how to switch borrowed English into Japanese. But with the help of some Japanese friends and electronic dictionaries, whe found some kanji that works to represent my name. Interestingly enough, there's only one kanji for the sound of the first syllable of my name (kyan), and I was amazed to find that the meaning is something roughly akin to tomboy.
How cool is that? Add in the "de" and "su" sounds that complete the Japanese version of "Candice", and the result is very interesting. There are tons of kanji for each of these sounds, respectively, but my buddies chose 出 and 州, the former which means "exit, leaving" and the latter "state". Okay, so "state" in this case refers more to a concrete demarcated land area, like the 50 American states or Japanese prefectures, but I like to be more whimsical, and call it a state as in a state of mind. If you combine all three of these, then, you get a few interesting readings. It might be leaving the state of tomboyishness- a representation of my leaving androgyny and tomboy genderqueerness to seek out my inner queer femme (as I have lately been longing to do, in a safe space)? Or is it more like I'm leaving my normal state to seek out more tomboyishness, to the point of drag and purposeful genderbending? Either way, I'm thrilled at the fact that my name isn't something trite and silly- no "beautiful child" like is so common here. It's rare and strange, just like me, 侠出州.
In other news that isn't all about me . . .
1) Butch-Boi.com is up! Members Pages are now available, which means you can participate in the forum with other hot bois and lovers of bois, and interact in a multitude of ways. Good job, Butch-Boi.com, and we look forward to more!
2) Do you belief in that old superstition about someone dying for every new child that is born? Well, it isn't that serious, but just as Butch-Boi.com has been birthed, CrashPadSeries.com is a little bit ill. She isn't dying- no way, Jose- because you can't kill something so successful and loved with such a talented and determined team behind it. But for the moment, the site is down due to its web hosting service. No more forum. No more hot sex. Just a holding page that is as depressing and yet hopeful as the old-fashioned rainbow "Technical Difficulties" that used to appear on TV's- you kept watching hoping it would disappear and the good stuff would come back. Hopefully things get remedied soon. Good luck, Crash Pad, and looking forward to your return.
That's all for now, I guess, since my brain has gone on strike until my stomach gets the late lunch it is demanding. Bye, all!
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