My Marie Claire interview with feminist pornographer Erika Lust is online

While I highly recommend the print edition of November's Marie Claire (Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein has a guide to Portland, Oregon a few pages past my porn articles), I'm happy to share that my interview with feminist pornographer Erika Lust is now online. It's part of the issue's women and porn package.

3 bylines, including my first in Marie Claire

I'm heading to Maine today, to visit an old friend, and will be there for most of next week to teach erotica writing Wednesday in Portland at Nomia. Therefore, I'm going to quickly link to and mention my latest writings. First and most exciting: I have two short pieces in the new November issue of Marie Claire, with Lea Michele on the cover. It's part of a porn package with articles by Amanda de Cadenet and Cindy Gallop (founder of Make Love Not Porn), and there's a piece I tore out by Carrie Brownstein about fun things to do in Portland. See pages 236 and 237 for my interview with feminist porn director Erika Lust and my porn picks. After you read my interview, if you're in Chicago, you can hear Erika Lust speak at the Chicago International Film Festival. I don't know if my pieces will run on their website, but if they do, I'll share them.





In the online world, this week I wrote about Playboy's decision to stop publishing nude photos for Salon, with musings by a Playboy contributor, the former executive editor of Penthouse and others.

Lastly, I got personal at Lady Smut, musing about my "vanilla" sex life and my very much not vanilla, kinky book of BDSM erotica, Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, which pubs on my 40th birthday, November 10th. Yes, I love dropping that tidbit because over 50 books in, I've never had one come out on my birthday!

Working at Philadelphia porn company HotMovies.com

This week I profiled Dee Viant of HotMovies.com about working at a Philly porn company.



Here's an excerpt:

Has Viant ever felt discriminated against because she’s a woman in a business largely focused on naked ladies? “Never,” says Viant, “but I’ve definitely felt that in more formal workplaces. At the office, it’s a business environment; we have to be mature about sex.”

Yet she can appreciate some of the more absurd aspects of her job. She gets to travel to Las Vegas for the annual AVN (Adult Video News) convention, where Ron Jeremy signs DVDs — and body parts — at their booth. Her most surreal ex-perience? “At AVN, it’s known that if you’re interested, Ron will lift up your top and fondle and/or kiss and suck your breasts. This year, one of the AVN staffers told me, ‘You’ve got to tell Ron the nipples have to stay covered.’ That was just hysterical. I thought, ‘What the fuck is my life?’”

Read the whole thing, check out the column archives and pitch me or tell me what I should cover at rachelcitypaper at gmail.com

Porn star jessica drake's educational video line wants to improve your sex life

This week's Philadelphia City Paper sex column is on porn star jessica drake and her educational video line jessica drake's Guide to Wicked Sex. I met her several years ago at CatalystCon West and was incredibly impressed with what she was doing by merging porn and sex ed, and this column is the result of that. Want to read my column archives? They're here. Want to pitch me a new column topic? Email me at rachelkb at gmail dot com with "City Paper" in the subject line and a detailed pitch, including URL, description, etc. As you can see from the archives (hopefully), I'm interested in a wide range of people, events, fetishes, identities, sexual practices and more.

"How to Come Out Like a Porn Star" Q&A with genderqueer porn star Jiz Lee at Salon

My latest at Salon is a Q&A with genderqueer porn star Jiz Lee about their forthcoming anthology How to Come Out Like a Porn Star. As I say in my introduction, although the book is specifically about coming out about involvement with porn, I think the book has larger relevance for those who deal with sex in their work or have any sort of sexual secret (or really, any secret) they want to come out about. Thanks for reading.

My Feminist Porn Awards and Feminist Porn Conference report

My report on the Feminist Porn Awards and Feminist Porn Conference is up at The Daily Beast! I'm so glad I attended. I learned so much and am very proud of this piece, and grateful to all my sources, including those I didn't get to include. And my apologies; I misquoted Tristan Taormino who calls her porn "fair trade," not "free trade." If any editors are reading this, I'd love to go back next year and write about it again. Hope you like the piece, and thank you to Good for Her and Tristan Taormino for putting on thought-provoking, wonderful events.

Former porn star Jennie Ketcham talks sex addiction, masturbation and healthy relationships

I interviewed Jennie Ketcham, author of the new memoir I Am Jennie and formerly known as porn star Penny Flame, about sex addiction, masturbation, reality TV, healthy relationships, female friendships and more at The Daily Beast. Here's one of the questions she answers: "Your recovery process for sex addiction included not masturbating, and making a masturbation trigger list. Why was that one of your rules?"

Closeup of me at Rough Sex 3: Adrianna's Dangerous Mind release party

Me, close up, with Porno Jim in the background - I didn't make it to the red carpet so this is what we've got of me. Taken by Igor of Driven by Boredom at release party for new Tristan Taormino porn DVD Rough Sex #3: Adrianna's Dangerous Mind, which I'll be posting about as soon as it arrives - I can't wait to watch it! Also, check Tristan's Tumblr for lots more photos. It was an amazing party - not sure what the best part was, but perhaps the Njoy Eleven toy filled with delicious marshmallow atop the cake - the two photos of that, along with the movie poster, are mine, below.


photo by Driven by Boredom

The NYC porn party you don't want to miss: March 22nd, Rough Sex #3: Adrianna's Dangerous Mind

As soon as I can cobble together my notes (umm...will try for this week) from yesterday's ethical porn panel at Cinekink, I will. Porn stars Jiz Lee, Adrianna Nicole and Sinnamon Love were smart, engaging and the clips we saw from several of Tristan Taormino's films made me very eager to see this movie and attend the release party. Click here to order it direct from Tristan and, through March 21st, get it at $10 off the retail price and a poster autographed by Adrianna Nicole.

And if you're a Tristan Taormino fan, you can follow her on Twitter (@tristantaormino) and Tumblr.



Details from the official site:

Tristan Taormino's Rough Sex 3: Adrianna's Dangerous Mind

Directed by Tristan Taormino

Starring: Adrianna Nicole, Jada Fire, Jiz Lee, Evan Stone, Danny Wylde, Nat Turnher, Keni Styles, Ramon Nomar, Prince Yahsura and Steve Holmes

The third installment of the AVN Award nominated series is an unprecedented collaboration between award-winning author and filmmaker Tristan Taormino and performer Adrianna Nicole.

She creates the scenes. She chooses her partners. She controls what happens. Watch as Adrianna shares her most intimate fantasies, tests her own boundaries, and rides the seductive line between pleasure and pain. Witness her explosive sexuality at its most extreme: raw, rough, and real. See if one person can satiate her oral fixation, why money is a strange bedfellow, how a mean Mistress takes her to the edge, what happens when four men give her a workout, and what dangers lurk in a dark alley. See what's inside Adrianna's dangerous mind...

DVD Features: Motion Menus, Scene Selection, Chapter Selection, Mini-Feature on Safer Sex, Three Bonus Sex Scenes. Shot in high definition, DVD ROM compatible, no regional coding.
Available on DVD only.
Running Time: Feature: 169 minutes, Extras: 55 minutes (Nearly 4 hours!)
Produced by: Smart Ass Productions and Vivid Entertainment
Release date: March 21, 2011

Official March 22nd release party details (and goody bag sponsors!)

Meet Adrianna Nicole, Jiz Lee, Danny Wylde,
director Tristan Taormino
and other special guests
Sip on the signature cocktail of the evening
inspired by Adrianna's favorite toy
Get your free poster signed by the stars
See a sneak preview of the third installment
of the critically-acclaimed series

Tuesday, March 22, 7-10 pm
at Fontana's
105 Eldridge Street (between Grand & Broome)
NYC

Free porn DVDs from Tristan Taormino: Rough Sex 2 & Expert Guide to Advanced Fellatio, plus penis and vulva candles, all December 16th!

I know you're going to be there next Thursday for the last In The Flesh, right? We're opening both floors of Happy Ending and there'll be an afterparty. Plus bondage burlesque, a bondage photo slideshow, pop song cabaret and hot hot readings! And prizes, sooooo many prizes.

Courtesy of porn director and author Tristan Taormino are these 2 DVDs we'll be giving away, along with a slew of other fabulous prizes, on December 16th (see below for full event listing and author bios)! Visit her site to find out more about these DVDs and many others. Thank you, Tristan!


Tristan Taormino's The Expert Guide to Advanced Fellatio


Tristan Taormino's Rough Sex 2 stars Madison Young, who famously read at In The Flesh earlier this year. Watch the video from Madison reading at BDSM Night.


Madison Young; photo by Anya Garrett; see more here

In The Flesh host Rachel Kramer Bussel is donating these penis and vulva candles, purchased at Coco de Mer, from her personal collection as prizes on December 16th!




In The Flesh logo by Molly Crabapple

There is no RSVP requirement, but if you'd like to RSVP and/or spread the word on Facebook, click here for the Last In The Flesh event listing. Note early start time of 7:30. See also the In The Flesh Reading Series fan page on Facebook.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
LAST IN THE FLESH
December 16, 2010, 7:30 pm - 10 pm
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://www.inthefleshreadingseries.com

Both floors of Happy Ending Lounge will be open for this event. We recommend arriving when the doors open at 7 for a good seat.

After 5+ years, over 200 readers, countless cupcakes and sexy moments, In The Flesh Reading Series is ending. Join us for a free, festive, sexy, cupcake-filled last hurrah, with erotica, memoir, burlesque and 500 free cupcakes to celebrate! Featuring erotic writer Laura Antoniou (The Marketplace series), memoirists Nancy Balbirer (Take Your Shirt Off and Cry), and Michele Carlo (Fish Out of Agua), burlesque performers GiGi La Femme (Revealed, Wassabasco) and Stormy Leather (Webster Hall, The Box), photographer and photocomic CulutrePOP creator Seth Kushner, memoirist Stephen Markley (Publish This Book), In The Flesh alum and famed letter writer Samara O'Shea (Note to Self, For the Love of Letters), Lambda Literary Award winner Rakesh Satyal (Blue Boy) and romance novelist Kama Spice (Sehra's Honor). Hosted and curated by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Passion, Orgasmic, Fast Girls). Prizes include sex toys from EdenFantasys, vibrator We-Vibe, porn DVDs from director Tristan Taormino Rough Sex 2 and Expert Guide to Advanced Fellatio, books Oysters & Chocolate: Erotic Stories of Every Flavor, Mastering Your Man from Head to Head and Sexy Slang's Bedroom Challenges: 69 Ways to Spice up Your Sex Life and free Sliquid lube samples. Hosted and curated by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Passion, Orgasmic, Fast Girls). Giveaways include copies of SexIs Magazine and 500 cupcakes by Baked by Melissa.