Being Don Draper

When you think about it, patterning yourself after Don Draper makes a good deal more sense than wearing eyeliner and big, furry hats and plying your target with subtle insults.

And the suit never hurts.

No, no, please, oh yes... I mean NO!

No on Prop 8, that is! And with just one week left before the votes are tallied, here's a way to get into the fray while making sure that both activist and libidinous urges are fully sated.

For one day only--Tuesday, October 28--Comstock Films will be passing along all proceeds from the sale of their wonderfully erotic documentaries to benefit the "No on Proposition 8" campaign and support same-sex marriage.

That's 100 percent of the price of any DVD from their ground-breaking series that profiles the passions of real-life lovers--including past CineKink festival favorite, Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together--donated for every purchase made until midnight on Tuesday.

As they say...buy early and buy often!

Fire and brimstone

And likely a somewhat noxious smoke at that, as the good Reverend Eldredge--in a ceremonial burning and "holy hose-down"-- recently set flame to a cache of pornographic celluloid that was discovered in the old drive-in theater his church had recently purchased. The ritual was intended to purify the property and "make it holy" before taking full possession.

According to a Jacksonville, Florida newspaper:
Members of Christ Church Anglican discovered reel upon reel of '70s- and '80s-vintage X-rated movies recently when they took over the old Playtime Drive-In on Blanding Boulevard a few weeks ago. The Playtime showed X-rated movies in the '70s and early '80s, prompting police raids and protests, before switching to more traditional fare.

A church member, the story continues, estimated the destroyed stash at over a 100 films, with such titles as Kinky Business and Private Teacher giving pretty broad clues as to their contents. Both cited examples are from the era when the VCR was bringing about the demise of the pornographic film business--the first an obvious nod to the '80s mainstream classic Risky Business and featuring another icon of the era, Traci Lords.

But, while no one is likely to know for sure what reels were tucked away on the premises, the vintage ads posted at the Playtime Drive-In blog indicate a rich history of exploitation and other cheap, smutty fun stretching back a couple of decades.

Filth and wisdom?

Just as with dating, it might be too much to expect both qualities in one package. And the not-so-mixed reviews don't exactly make a compelling argument for a dash to the cineplex. (Though largely affectionate--"I sort of liked it"--critic Andrew O'Hehir's review also includes the observation that it "...seems like a movie Jim Jarmusch might have started in 1991 and then abandoned because it wasn't going anywhere." Yikes! That's the very fear that has kept us unproductively lodged in our creativity burrow all these many decades.)

But Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, would seem to have enough CineKink-relevant themes to warrant at least a quick go-over--and, who knows, quite possibly a Tribute? We're ever-eager to be happily surprised.

Psssst!!!

You probably won't get the inside scoop on what really goes down at the CineKink AfterGlow Party, but otherwise you'll find all kinds of useful insider knowledge crammed into Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers.

Written by Christopher Holland, keeper of a blog of the same name and Manager of Festival Operations for B-Side Entertainment , the book is available for free online perusal. And/or, for those of us who prefer something tangible in our hot, little hands, may be purchased via Amazon.

And, lest we forget our own critical niche on the film festival circuit, a reminder that the CineKink call for entries is still underway. Submit now!

Slap on your leathers and come on down!

CineKink @ New York Leather Weekend - TONIGHT!
As part of NYLW, a weekend-long celebration of NYC's almost-back-to-burgeoning leather scene, we're presenting 'Give and Take,' a kinky collection of shorts that probe, prod and play with the dynamics of sexual control and submission. Assume the position!

Date/Time:
Friday, October 10 - 8 pm

Location:
LGBT Community Center
208 W. 13th Street (bet. 7/8th), NYC

More info and full program line-up is here!

Sizzle sells! (Maybe.)

Mazel tov to one of our favorite CineKinksters, Lolita Wolf, for her prize-winning suggestion in Violet Blue's recent competition to determine the best sex-related ad campaign. Lolita's entry, last year's "Dominate Winter" interactive campaign for the Cooper Mini, which featured a cat-suit clad dominatrix encouraging the user to put the car through its paces.



Violet's criteria for the competition were pretty inclusive - by "sex-related I mean just downright sexy and hot, or incredibly clever, controversial, or just plain fun" - and a slew of tasty examples can be found in both the comments to that post and in her follow-up announcing the winners. (Both of which we've bookmarked and will be pillaging far into the future.)

And this week, Violet moves on to the question of whether sex can actually sell a product, bringing in AdRant's Scott Hall to ruminate with her on how much of it's a help and how much of it is just hype and sizzle.

Well, we're not sure how many Aspvik units it helped move. And we're way late for Violet's deadline. But for our money, our all-time favorite sex-related - and sex-positive! - ad continues to be Ikea's Neighbors.



Scratch that. We totally want an Aspvik, now!

"Excuse me, Madame Vice President. Could you take a quick look at these briefs?"

In the interest of the fair and the balanced, we also did a quick search for any upcoming Joe Biden porn--remember, we like men in suits--but turned up mainly an obscure reference to the long-ago Clarence Thomas hearings and some legislative, law-making stuff.

So, via just every other blog in the nation, on this morn of the great Vice Presidential showdown, we bring you this casting call for what's being widely dubbed as "the inevitable" Sarah Palin porn adult movie.



And, via Gawker, confirmation that the as-yet-untitled work is in the can and was produced by Hustler Video, the company of free speech activist and political meddler, Larry Flynt.

Sadness. We were somehow hoping for the title X, the inevitable next step for political revisionist auteur, Oliver Stone.