Next month is my five year blog anniversary. To celebrate I’ve been gathering lots of goodies for a contest. Here’s one of the items you could win:
Aloe Cadabra has graciously donated a gift basket of their aloe lubricant. These three bottles are Natural Aloe, French Lavender and Tahitian Vanilla. This looks like some sweet lube. The brochure says it’s 95% organic.
Stay tuned for more details on entering and other gifts.
From On Bended Knee: shaving
“Each methodical stroke, every second of intense concentration exudes sexiness.”
This is a short piece but it wonderfully captures a sensual moment. It’s funny that this post appeals to me. Normally, I prefer facial hair on men. To me, the hairy a man is the better. I even think back hair is sexy! Still, there is something incredibly sexy about watching a man shave with an old fashioned shave kit.
—
From Exploring Intimacy: Blogging For Choice – My Story
“To question the ability of women to make this choice, this decision, is to question the ability of women to make every basic decision for their own future and the futures of their communities.”
An excellent telling of one woman’s quest to understand abortion.
I can’t stand Christmas music. In the days right before Christmas the Jingle Bell Rock song makes me twitch with annoyance. But there’s one song I absolutely love-John and Yoko’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over). I heard it on the radio the other day. It made me all teary because I just love John Lennon. There’s a YouTube video here.
From the song’s Wikipedia page:
“The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven cities around the world that read: “WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko”. The cities included New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. At the time the US was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line “War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!”, as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards.”
If you’re in New York City, join $pread and out allies in honoring the lives of sex workers and celebrating our communities with a candlelit vigil. Come add your voice to the call to end violence against sex workers at our community speak-out.
Speakers will include community organizers, peer educators, advocates, artists. . . and YOU?
Where: Metropolitan Community Church
446 West 36th Street, Manhattan
When: Thursday December 17th, 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Metrocards available. Please wear red!
For more information, please contact swank @ riseup . net or 212.714.1184 x50
I debated whether to get a painted one. In the end I went for the plain steel. There used to be a local artist that made funky scultures that she never painted. The more they rusted the cooler they looked. I figure the more the Imp rusts the cooler it will look as well.
A side view:
Back view:
He signed the bottom.
The sculpture is 9.5″ high by 9″ wide. The nut is the best part. It makes me think about how our machines will eventually corrode and fade back into nature.
I’m sick with either a cold or a light flu this week. To sooth my throat I’ve been taking Granny’s Flu Remedy once a day.
Who’s Granny? When Mr. Radical and I first lived together we had a roommate named T. His grandmother was quite a character. T’s family was quite extended and she gave her remedy to all.
One time she taught me how to make it. It’s pretty simple.
Mix together:
1/3 honey
1/3 lemon juice
1/3 rum
I asked her for more specifics-1/3 of what? A cup? A tablespoon? Granny winked at me and told me I should fill up a cup with a third of each. How sick I was would determine the size of the cup. She was such a pistol. I hope I’m that spunky when I get old.
Granny’s Flu Remedy works great too. The honey soothes the throat, the lemon juices supplies Vitamin C and the rum makes you not care that you’re sick. It tastes best when warm.
My cup above is a twist on her recipe. I couldn’t find rum or lemon juice so I worked with what I had. I mixed 1/3 honey, 1/3 lime juice and 1/3 whiskey.
It did the trick. Now if only there was a drink to stop the running faucet that is currently my nose…
There’s a lot of good videos from the DC march for gay rights. But my favorite is the one above. The cast of Hair sings Let the sun shine in, one of my favorite songs.
Will Obama honor his promises to the gay community?
From the New York Times: Obama Pledges Again to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
“President Obama on Saturday renewed his vow to allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military, but failed to offer a timetable for doing so — an omission likely to inflame critics who say he is not fighting aggressively enough for gay rights.
(snip)
In the nine months since, Mr. Obama has made only limited progress on the issues that are important to gays. He has pushed for hate crime legislation, and a bill, approved in the House on Thursday, now appears headed for passage. He has put forth a package of domestic partnership benefits for federal workers, but faced criticism that the effort did not include health benefits. He has said he would push to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages in other states, but it remains on the books.”
If he doesn’t I think he’ll lose a lot of support from the gay community come 2012. I hope DOMA gets repealed at the very least.
Last year author Anna Jane Grossman contacted me for an interview. She wanted to write about the decline of phone sex for her book Obsolete. She asked me several questions and now I’m quoted in Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By. I’m on page 132. Neat!
Grossman gives definitions and anecdotes for her obsolete subject matter. Some of the items only have definitions. Here’s the definition for phone sex:
“Arousing conversations conducted via telephony, sometimes for a fee; born in 1875, with Alexander Graham Bell’s first words into a phone: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.”
It was a treat to see myself quoted in a book. One thing that irked me was that my quote sounds like I’m no longer a PSO. But she asked me the question “How would you describe your work to, say, someone living 100 years from now–someone who knows nothing about it?” So it made sense to describe myself in the past.
Is phone sex becoming obsolete because guys can get it for free online, as Grossman theorizes? The popularity may decline but I don’t see it going away completely. Especially with cell phones becoming smaller and cheaper with each passing year. Sure you can get free sexual services but will it satisfy? There’s a saying I learned from a Spanish teacher years ago that comes to mind-”What if free is often more expensive”. How many hours would someone have to spend to find someone willing to indulge their particular fantasy and do a good job of it?
She makes the point that college students are less likely to do paid phone sex. While it’s true that I don’t have many college aged clients I don’t think they’re my target audience. The bulk of my clients are middle aged or older. I guess the real question is will these college students turn to phone sex when they reach middle age? I theorize some will turn to sex workers to fulfill their needs. Perhaps new technology will change the way they communicate with said sex workers but I still think they’ll want to interact.
The book makes a good coffee table book. You can pick it up, read a few entries and then put it down again. You could read it straight through but I enjoyed randomly opening it and reading. While I don’t agree with all of her assessments-I can’t imagine email becoming obsolete. And as a knitter I know there’s a whole DIY community out there that darns socks. I know I do.
But there are some items where we’re in complete agreement-typewriters, hotel keys and lickable stamps are definitely in decline. There are cute illustrations throughout the book. They’re not needed but it makes the book fun.
I’m back after a dramatic hard drive death. Everybody always says to back up often and it’s no joke. Thanks to a backup device and Mr. Radical’s geek skills I’m back online. Woot!
First up is a blog I just found-Harlot’s Parlour. From their about page:
“‘Harlot’s Parlour’ is a group blog of sex workers and allies to discuss sex, sexuality and sex workers rights and issues in the UK, Europe and beyond.”
They expand more in their first post:
“In the very beginning, Harlot’s Parlour was going to be a UK blog. The UK feminist blog scene is dominated by radical feminists and the feminist sites that support sex workers’ rights practically all seem to be American, which means that the UK sex workers’ issues and activist sites get left out of the discussion a lot of the time. So, the idea was to set up a UK group blog in support of sex workers’ rights.
But then, I know a lot of Americans. It seemed almost churlish to ignore their voices because, when it comes down to it, the American crowd have had more influence on my feminism than anyone else. So, I decided to include them to have a wider range of experience on the blog, which in turn would appeal to a wider audience.
It was at this point I really recognised the potential of this blog. This is a fantastic way of getting UK sex workers’ issues out there to a large audience by supporting each other on a global scale. Blogging is the medium to get topics discussed, debated, thrashed out… this is one way to make things happen.”
This is a new blog but it already looks to be a good one.
“I’m not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it,” Shepherd said. “I’m an educated woman, but I never thought it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they’ll be a floozy.”
(snip)
Since her sacking made national news 15 months ago, Shepherd says she hasn’t been able to find a mainstream job.
Even at minimum wage.
Even after sending out 2,500 resumes, some as far as Idaho, some to prisons.
She’s lost custody of two of her three kids to her ex-husband. And she’s been evicted from two apartments.
Porn, she said, became her only avenue.”
What a sad story. Teachers are not asexual beings. It’s not like she was passing her bikini pics around the classroom. People that aren’t happy doing sex work shouldn’t. But if she can’t find another way to pay her bills I can see why she’s doing it.
—
From the Telegraph: Adolf Hitler sex video condemned by Aids charities
“The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line “AIDS is a mass murder”, aims to scare young people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator.
In the highly-sexualised clip which can only be shown after the watershed, a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.
But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man’s face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be Adolf Hitler.
The commercial has been released to coincide with 2009 World Aids Day, but established HIV/Aids charities have distanced themselves from its message, saying that it could make life more difficult for sufferers.”
Yes AIDS is a mass murderer. But don’t we already know that? The video says to protect yourself and yet no tips are given to do just that. The surprise ending is clever I’ll admit.
Back Off! and SWOP Chicago join forces to present the Adult Industry Professional Self Defense Program. This Program comprises of three 90 minute modules that will cover the specific needs associated with the adult industry. These classes were designed specifically for sex workers and our unique working environments.
Each of the modules targets different situational scenarios. The first module addresses general self-defense strategies. The second module deals with environmental self-defense. The third module encompasses ejecting a client from self and location.”
“The deceased was a commercial sex worker and the accused, Ananta Ler, had allegedly been her customer for a long time. Over a period of time, he developed affection for her and proposed marriage. However, she spurned his attention,” said senior police inspector Nagappa Mali from the DB Marg police station.”
This one is particularly sad and freaky. I’ve had my share of proposals as I’m sure many sex workers have.
I’m taking part in another Pleasurist review roundup.
Pleasurists is a round-up of the adult product and sex toy reviews that came out in the last seven days from bloggers all around the sex blogosphere. Did you miss Pleasurists #40? Read it all here. Do you have a review for Pleasurists #41? Submit it here before Sunday August 16th at 11:59pm PDT. Please re-post this list on your own blog if listed.
Want to win some free swag? All you’ve got to do is enter.
