"There aren't enough X's in the alphabet..."

In a recent interview with The Reeler, director William Friedkin discusses his back-and-forths with the MPAA to get an R rating for the original release of Cruising in 1980. Sadly, for anyone hoping for a bit more detail on what ended up on the cutting room floor - and what apparently still isn't being put back for the DVD release scheduled next month - Friedkin remains pretty mum:

What didn't make it didn't make it. I'm not about to circumvent the ratings board now and describe all the scenes that aren't in the movie. There's about a half-hour to 40 minutes. But I would have to say is was mostly just more of what was going on in the clubs, and they didn't change or advance the story in any major way.

You know. Just more of what was going on in the clubs. That kinda stuff.

Much less the buzz-kill, this week's episode of ReelerTV contains a clip of the film's memorable hanky scene, along with host S.T. VanAirsdale's revelation of which color he's flagging these days. Who knew?!

Talk dirty to me.

Oddly enough, we've forgotten all about tawdry, anonymous sex in a men's room stall, but can't stop thinking about Mr. Clinton. Just how nasty do you mean?!?

(Hat-tip jwirenius)

Pick me, pick me!

It's perhaps not the same level of trepidation that used to descend as the teams were divvied up for sixth-grade slaughter-ball, but we had a wonderful time at SXSW last year and we'd love to ensure our return in 2008. To that end, we've suggested a panel discussion for the festival, inclusion of which will be partially determined by the results of the SXSW Panel Picker, which is live and online now! (Pick me, pick me!)

Inspired by the cheerful oblivion to current and pending restrictions on sexual content demonstrated by most non-porn media makers, we've proposed:

The Porn Police: Know the Rules
Already draconian regulations on depictions of sexually explicit conduct were recently revised and now apply to an even wider class of media makers. Not just pornographers, but anyone creating and working with explicit imagery, bloggers, webmasters, narrative filmmakers, documentarians; need to know the rules and the risks.

Last year we noted SXSW's sex-positive inclusivity and the possibilities for this one again look promising. While you're in the picker giving us your vote, also give a nod to:

Violet Blue -
Sexual Privacy Online

Deb Levine -
Online Sex Advice

Cory Silverberg -
The Future of Sex in Interactive Narrative and When No Means 01001: Sexual Ethics and Interactivity

Elizabeth Wood -
Pink Ghetto Blasters: Destigmatizing Sex via Online Community Building

But don't forget to pick me, pick me!

Jet Set Sex

Right coast, left coast, we've somewhat lost track in our travels, but we're off to the airport now.

Actually old enough to remember a time when everybody dressed up to fly, now we'll just have to content ourselves with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and fantastizing about the flight crew...

Pain, passion and the old grey lady.

Catching up with an article by ST VanAirsdale in today's New York Times entitled "Passion for Film Spurs New Festivals, but Grueling Work Keeps Them Going," we find ourselves staring off at the wall and nodding in mute agreement. Running a film festival is haaaard. (Though, we must admit, not nearly as hard as the mind numbingly week-upon-week "temp" data entry gig we once endured.)

An interesting overview of how the festival circuit has come to replace traditional distribution for many independent filmmakers, the article also touches upon the reward that - for us, anyway - helps propel us forward, the pleasure of connecting a work with its perfect audience.

For low-budget filmmakers New York festivals allow them to get their passion projects in front of committed moviegoers, all at an average cost of $40 per submission. Genre directors once banished to larger fests’ midnight-movie ghettos have flourishing outlets like the NYC Horror Film Festival or the sexually themed CineKink. Foreign-language works reach viewers at Polish, Cuban, Korean, Brazilian and other specialized series.

Coming up on our fifth go-round in February - slogging away, working so diligently these many years - we've often claimed that we "eat their mid-night movies for breakfast." It's delightful to have the old grey lady finally take notice.

Californicating?

Still running mind loops on just a few of the many pleasurable moments of our recent little tryst, we have to ponder one question: sex addiction... reality or media-made mythology?

But an even deeper, darker secret lurks. Too cheap to spring for Showtime, we've not as yet had the chance to give Californication, in which David Duchovny stars as a sex-addiction befuddled novelist, the fair and full once over. So, judging from the trailer alone, while it's a little hard to suss how positive a portrayal of sex the show presents, we're hardly pressed to say that there sure does seem to be a lot of it!



Okay, maybe not so positive. And maybe the producers could take our notes on "what to say to a nice girl." But possibly bears actually watching?

Get your wonk on!

Tonight's the coming out party for Sex in the Public Square, a new blog/social networking site put together by Elizabeth Wood and Chris Hall.

A little more "about" them:
We believe that sexuality is a fundamental component of human life, and that it cannot be excluded from "polite conversation" without losing an important element of democratic participation. We are working to expand the space available for discussions of all aspects of sexuality, and to build communities where respect and inclusion are the norm. We also believe that talk about sex needn't always be "serious" in order to be "appropriate" and we welcome playful conversations that focus on the fun of sex as well as serious conversations that focus on things like policy, safety, and identity.

Taking place tonight and featuring readings by such perennial favorites as Rachel Kramer Bussel, Lux Nightmare, Audacia Ray - and perhaps even a CineKink morsel or two - more info on the launch is here.

Joanna Angel wants you to submit! (Seriously, she does.)

The deadline to submit your works to CineKink-partner, the Los Angeles Erotica Film Fest, is coming up fast.

So, either do it for Joanna - or do it for us - but do it now!

Catching up with the furries.

We're not sure what it is, but lately we've been feeling several steps behind in catching up with just about everything. Hopefully we're getting a handle on that. One day... taxes nailed! The next... we're clawing through the episodes that have been stockpiling for our eventual viewing pleasure osmosis.

So, with many thanks to the wonders of digital video, we recently caught up with Entourage's "The Day F*ckers," in which assumed comic relief side-kicks, Turtle and Drama, encounter still more wacky, sexual hijinks in the wilds of Hollywood. This time, barely recovered from their humilating ordeal of sex with old chicks, Turtle comes across a hot blonde who has very specific notions of what she wants from him.



It's put a bit less delicately in the actual dialogue, but sex still being sex for one of them, no matter the trappings, herein is the storyline's, er, denouement:

CineKink's Tawdry Summer Tryst !!

It's our anniversary double-header - kinky movies followed by one wild after-party!

CineKink's Tawdry Summer Tryst - Part One!

Kinky movies @ Pioneer Theater
Tuesday, August 14th – 7 pm

Cozy up to a new best friend, sink back into air-conditioned comfort and heat up with CineKink's anniversary revisit to a few of our favorite hook-ups!

Sullivan's Last Call






Untitled First Porno





Haircut





Harigata: The Alien Dildo That Turned Women into Sex-Hungry Lesbos






Hitchcocked





Headshot





A&O Department: Supply Nurse






CineKink's Tawdry Summer Tryst - Part Two!

Kinky party @ China 1
Tuesday, August 14th – 9 pm

This month, in the true spirit of tawdry, we're skipping the free pizza and heading straight for the cocktails. Instead, it's down the block and around the corner to the dark, opulent environs of China 1, where you can cozy up with still more of your new (and/or old) best friends and help celebrate CineKink's anniversary in proper fashion!

First drink is two-for-one for all ticket holders from our 7 pm screening, but don't feel like you have to skip all of the fun, just because you missed out on the movies. Come and join the action anyway!

More info and tickets!

This just in...

Evan Shapiro of IFC, home to such bold programming as Indie Sex and This Film is Not Yet Rated, is - how shall we put it? - "...very interested in sex."

Perhaps even obsessed.

Pinch hitting for The Reeler, he explains:

What I am obsessed with are the myriad sexual hang-ups ingrained in American society and how they continue to affect and constrain our culture. I don't mean private penchants or fetishes practiced behind closed doors by everyday consenting citizens. I mean the sexual neuroses of those in positions of authority who constantly tell us that our own predilections are not "normal" or "acceptable." These hang-ups are both interesting and important, because they who possess them often seem hellbent on inflicting them on the rest of us. Fact is, America is far more obsessed with sex than I am. By exploring sexuality, and exposing society's sexual hang-ups, we've tried -- in our way -- to de-stigmatize sex in all its forms, and help treat America's collective phobia.

This refreshingly straight-forward, activist-minded stance obviously make its presence known in much of IFC's programming. And it carries through the rest of Shapiro's post, ranging from the production of the Indie Sex series to the relevance of R Kelly's Trapped in the Closest to challenging sexual stereotypes. (WTF? Just read it.)

See you in Tinseltown!

Pack your bags and dust off your headshots, then make plans to join us in Hollywood, as we hook up with the Los Angeles Erotica Film Fest, a brand-new event that debuts in September.

Produced by XFANZ, the goal of LAEFF is to create "a dynamic forum where filmmakers, industry professionals and fans can gather to enjoy and discuss films that push the boundaries of eroticism." That all sounds great by us and we're proud to be on board as an official festival partner. It's been exciting to see the boundaries between the different film worlds begin to merge over the past couple of years and LAEFF is a very welcome new ally in encouraging even more of that.

Scheduled for September 15-16 at Hollywood's Knitting Factory, the event will present short and feature-length erotic films from fans around the world, as well as from within the adult industry.

But if you'd like to have your own work considered, you'd better act soon - or, as we like to say, submit now!

The deadline is coming up fast... August 15th.

Four nights of great sex?!

If that's the case, looks like we actually have a bit of catching up to do. Somehow in our July torpor we missed the announcement that the documentary series, Indie Sex, began airing this week on IFC.

Fortunately, it's cable, so last night's missed episode will be back around shortly (and again and again). But we'll be watching closely to see if any of the footage the crew shot at last year's CineKink kick-off gala with the fabulous Wet Spots made it past network censors and into the final production.

And, if we're not lying somewhere on the cutting-room floor, would we be more likely considered the "Taboos" type - episode #2, airing tonight! - or a bit more an "Extremes" sort of girl?

Tune in and find out...

Sell-out!

Many thanks to everyone who came out for last night's sold-out screening of Pornology New York at Pioneer Theater - and our sympathies to those who ended up getting shut out in the cold!

Fortunately, Viviane's Sex Carnival was on the scene to snap a few photos. Below, Lenny Waller, former front-man of the infamous Hellfire Club and one of the documentary's key subjects, contemplates a celebratory stogie, while director Michele Capozzi and CineKink's Lisa Vandever are stunned merely to have survived the melee. (Visit Viviane's flickr for the rest of the images.)





It was a thrill to have such an enthusiastic crowd pack the theater for the documentary, a rare glimpse into the city's historic sexual underground. And with talks of another - midnight likely - screening in the works, more will have just that opportunity.

And one last thought for next time - advance online tickets!