It's hard out here for a nymph.

Don't you know it! For months we've been ogling the posters for Black Snake Moan, with an interior monologue that was saying something like "hey, this movie looks like it might be really hot... especially in that I really shouldn't think this is hot kinda way."



Then, reported Sundance sightings of stocking cap swag bearing the inscription "It's hard out here for a nymph." (Hat tip - !! - ScreenGrab) Alright, a not-so-coy reference to director Craig Brewer's previous film, Hustle & Flow. We'll give it cute enough.

But poking around the updated (and very loud, be careful) Black Snake Moan website, our growing trepidation seemed justified when we came across the "Are You a Nymph?" quiz, with such questions as:

Have you had more sexual partners than birthdays?

Do you own more than one sex toy?

Do you have more than three porn stars on your MySpace friends page?

Maybe we're miffed because we only scored as a Moderate Nymph. (Seriously!) But the resulting diagnosis - "You ain't right yet. Sex continues to effect your everyday life. Slow down. You can't continue to rub up against anyone you find attractive" - left us feeling a little icky. Particularly considering the youthful male demographic the movie is obviously being pitched to, we're not so keen to have such hot buttons as female sexual shame and worth being pushed by some mid-level Paramount marketing flunkie. (Unless, perhaps, he/she is wearing a nicely tailored suit and we're kneeling expectantly in front of him/her.)

And, unless Samuel Jackson really has Christina Ricci chained up for the sole purpose of getting her to eat a steak dinner and put a bit of meat back on her emaciated frame, the movie's trailer has left us a wee bit squicked as well:

CineKink SF in review

Blurb-o-rama!

Fresh from our final, sell-out screenings at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, we're finally back from San Francisco with some great memories, a few new friends, several extra pounds - and a nice batch of blurbs for the collection:

"More like Wild Kingdom than Girls Gone Wild, the CineKink 2007 series ...neutrally observes sexual transgression: the forms it takes, the relief it offers, and the privacy it (often jubilantly) breaches."
- Sara Schieron, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"CineKink's entries are often injected with a refreshing dose of camp and playfulness...Equal parts raunchy and sexy, the festival succeeds because it never loses sight of sex's potential for absurdity and transcendence."
- Nirmala Nataraj, SF Weekly

"Seeing all those body parts at the AVN expo is analogous to the separation between sex and sensuality evident in AVN's typical lineup of winners. We're only going to find sexual authenticity and really hot porn when we reconnect those parts to actual people, like those behind the indie efforts found at CineKink."
- Violet Blue, SF Gate

(And there's more. Speaking of yours truly, CineKinkster ourselves, Violet Blue also deems us a "...superlative blog." We're totally blushing!)

Thanks for the kind words. And thanks to YBCA, film/video curator Joel Shepard and all of you who came out for the SF screenings, for such a fabulous welcome.

Breaking out our San Francisco values

Now that the Dems have sorta climbed kinda back on top in the national power exchange - and in advance of our pending trip to the left coast for CineKink SF - we thought it high time we check in with Speaker of the House!!! Nancy Pelosi, for a brief overview of customary San Francisco values:



Oh, crap. What was that again?!? Palisades? Um, Palermo?

Hope to see you there!

Open your golden gates!

Seems like we just got home, but it's almost time to pack our bags again and head for that city by the bay, where the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts welcomes us (back!) for another round of CineKink: San Francisco.

Cutting across orientations to celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality, film and video offerings in this kink-friendly, traveling showcase range from documentary to drama, camp comedy to hot porn, mildy spicy to quite explicit - and everything in between.

Thursday, January 18th - Saturday, January 20th

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street (@ Third)
San Francisco

The locals seem to have a voracious appetite for our kinky bits and we've enjoyed several sell-outs in the past, so get your tickets now.

(And if you happen to be looking for something worthy to do the weekend before, be sure to check out YCBA's presentation of Jean Genet - Kenneth Anger... featuring all-new 35mm prints!)