the parabolic trajectory of a dynamic new author (at TFPO)

I've been horrendously negligent in keeping my blog updated with new material - usual excuses, blahbbity blah. But there's still time to catch an exhibit of art from Eddie Han's book, Parabolis. It's on display until August 23rd. For an interview with Eddie and some info about his book, mouse on over The Front Page Online.

The best thing about attending a convention like L.A.’s Comikaze or San Diego Comic-Con isn’t the big-ticket events and vendors, as exciting as they are, but the opportunity to meet dazzlingly creative independent artists. I never fail to be impressed by the diverse, idiosyncratic visions of talented individuals having a go at sharing their work with the public. One example comes from last year’s Comikaze, where I came across ...
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art you can see through (at TFPO)

X-rays may not seem the likeliest of artistic mediums, but let’s be honest. Despite potentially morbid diagnoses and comparisons to Where’s Waldo? or Rorschach tests, X-ray prints possess a distinctive aesthetic that can mesmerize even folk who don’t frequent the uniquely fantastic Melrose Boulevard curio-seller, Necromance. Beyond the otherworldly photographic effect, x-rays are laced with an ineffable aura of awesome. After all, they let us see through and inside things. It thus seems like the most likely of art mediums using technology more advanced than paint brushes and film cameras.

Enter Dr. Paula Fontaine, a podiatric surgeon and artist, with computer wizard Joseph Moisan.

Read the rest of my feature on Radiant Art Studios, which includes an interview with the x-ray artists themselves, at The Front Page Online.

Goth, Bellydance, and a Morbid Outlook - THE FRONT PAGE ONLINE

Laura McCutchan is one multi-talented lady; dancer, club promoter, DJ, and,  of course, editor of the best Goth magazine out there, Morbid Outlook. As she works towards relaunching the 'zine's website in honour of its twentieth anniversary, I interviewed her via eMail. Read all about Morbid Outlook, Goth culture, and bellydancing at The Front Page Online:

Goth, Bellydance, and a Morbid Outlook: An Interview with Laura McCutchan

who is yuyanapaq?

While waiting outside the International City Theatre in Long Beach earlier this year, I noticed a CD case resting innocuously on one of the concrete picnic tables. Curious, I picked it up and gleaned almost nothing from the abstracted, enigmatic covers other than “Yuyanapaq,” which I assumed was an artist’s name, and “Ccollanan Pachacamac”, which I assumed was the album name, and a track listing. The CD was numbered, indicating that it was a limited edition. Looking around, I didn’t see anyone rushing back to the table breathlessly claiming to have left it behind. So I took it in the belief that it had been deliberately left behind by the artist for a stranger to discover and, hopefully, enjoy.

But who is Yunapaq? What was on the CD he left behind? Find out in this two-part interview!

Interview with an Artist. Who is Yuyanapaq?

Interview with the Artist Yuyanapag, Part II.

Protest Against Animal Cruelty: Jennifer Peterson vs. Barkworks: THE FRONT PAGE ONLINE

Two-part interview with Jennifer Peterson about her efforts to shut down Barkworks, a Westside Pavilion pet stores that supports puppy mills, sells sick dogs, and is otherwise symptomatic of cruelty for profit.

Part 1

Part 2

The Treasure Hunt Is on : THE FRONT PAGE ONLINE

Mike Bruce, director of The Legend of God’s Gun, returns with Treasure of the Black Jaguar. He took a few moments to talk to me about his second feature film.

The Treasure Hunt Is on : THE FRONT PAGE ONLINE

Busting Paradigms (Among Other Things): A Conversation with Ellie Lumpesse - 3 of 3

Frédérik: Let’s take a different tack and discuss happier associations with sex, like music. In episode 6 of Bedroom Radio, you have a great interview with Mr. Melvis of Comfort Stand, a non-commercial, non-profit net label dedicated to distributing music to the interested masses free of charge. You specifically talk about the wildly popular and widely downloaded album, Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka, Porn Music for the Masses Volume 1, a fascinating project that asked musicians to submit their interpretation of what music for a porn movie (or a sexual fantasy) sounds like. It would actually be interesting to see what people would come up with if asked to create a soundtrack for sex without filtering it through perceptions of porn movies. Then again, your Bedroom Radio podcasts might very well fit the bill. What prompted you to bring music and sex together the way you did? What do you put into Bedroom Radio? What do you want listeners to take away from it?

Ellie: I wish that I could say I had some grand motivation or goal but that all came together later. The podcast actually started when I offered to help Sam Sugar find musical segments for his now defunct Podnography podcast and he turned his nose up at what I sent him. So, I decided to make my own podcast. That was episode one. From there things grew, and for me sex and music are a natural fit. See, music is deeply sexy and emotional and sex is all about rhythm and tempo and melodies interacting. Bedroom Radio has been many things at many times - a vanity tool, an outlet for exhibitionism, a place to share deeply held convictions, an excuse to flirt with the people I am interviewing, and something that I still get nagged about on an almost daily basis. (For the record, I am trying to find my muse for new episodes, perhaps I'll interview you?). As for what I want my listeners to take away - I don't have an agenda like that although I know what many of them take away. First, a surprising number are really into the music and love that I introduce them to new bands. Plenty take away an orgasm or two because they decided to join in the fun when I get down to business. I think that at least a few take away a new respect for sexuality and the variety of ways it is manifested in this world.

Frédérik: In going through the comments to your blog posts, I notice the occasional response along the lines of “if you give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile.” Describe a sexual encounter, someone will ask for pictures. Show a picture and someone will ask to see more. Do you ever feel that reader or listener expectations defy your own expectations of the kind of relationship you have with your audience?

Ellie: I think it is a natural response. Sometimes my lack of elaboration or supporting materials is an intentional tease, sometimes it is an oversight, often it is a practical reality - there is no picture or I don't have time to take one, etc. I take these sorts of request in stride and only get annoyed by them when they seem demanding. My relationship with my audience has evolved through the years and has changed most since I started doing phone work with some of them. I would be a liar if I didn't say that those readers that are clients get more access to me and perhaps more of their requests fulfilled. At the end of the day, though, I'm doing this for myself. If my podcast or blog happen to help you get off - awesome, I get off so why not you? But they aren't there for that purpose so I won't alter them to accomplish that sort of bottom line.

Frédérik: In the first post on your blog, back in March 2005, you wrote: “I am a 23 year old female in a committed relationship with a wonderful boyfriend. I have been with him for 2 and a half years and we have had some amazing sex. He has taught me everything I know at this point and I am becoming increasingly adventurous.” Since then, you’ve certainly had a many positive experiences with group sex, spankings, bondage, and so on. But you’ve also bumped into a few potentially thorny situations, like your encounter with the Professor “conspiring to cheat on his wife” through Adult Friend Finder. There has also been the plain creepy, like that guy who kept insisting he isn’t a pedophile. In other words, you’ve met many different people under varying circumstances, good and bad. How have your experiences changed your outlook on sex since that first post, (or since even before that first post)? How would you describe your journey?

Ellie: I would say that most of those examples you have mentioned are rather mild or comical. In general I haven't written about the more difficult consequences of my actions because they have been either painful or embarrassing or both. The exception to that is the breakup I went through with that boyfriend I wrote about in the intro post. We were experimenting with an open relationship and I met Jay during that time, Jay fell in love, C couldn't handle it and it was a huge mess. I chose the chance for exploring the world of truly open relationships over the man that I was madly and completely in love with. I didn't leave C for Jay but because we had reached an impasse. I knew, quite clearly and quite irrefutably that I was capable of love with more than one man because I was doing it. C knew that he couldn't share me that way because it was hurting him too much. Ironically, the end result of a year or so of experimenting with Jay was trying to excise feelings from any extracurricular activities we might engage in because I was just that afraid of what had happened before. C and I are still dear friends, and our relationship now has peaks and valleys because, well, we're still sad and there is still pain even after almost two years. When I look back on my journey that is the biggest challenge I have faced and the only time I really questioned if I was doing the right thing. I have asked myself the standard questions, am I doing this to get attention? Do I respect myself? Yes. Absolutely, but relationships are still hard especially when other people get involved. The discovery of myself as a sexual being over the last 5 years (when I first lost my virginity) has been a pleasure for me. The fact that I have gotten to share some of that with others has really influenced the way that path has taken me. And it has probably gotten me laid more often. ;)

(That's all, folks. Many, many thanks to Ellie for sharing her time and insight.)

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Busting Paradigms (Among Other Things): A Conversation with Ellie Lumpesse - 2 of 3

Frédérik: How we talk about sex, of course, is vital in considering sex within the politics of culture. In one of your posts, you bring up Michel Foucault to question “standards of sexual misconduct and expectations of men and boys to be always already sexualized.” But there’s more to the issue of seeing women as too demure and subject to victimhood to be capable of sexual predation – an assumption criticized by individualist feminists like Wendy McElroy – namely, how sexual identity is constructed (manufactured?) through language. Here’s where we drag in America’s famous paradoxical Puritanism. Just the other day, I noticed the cover of Cosmopolitan proclaiming, in bold letters, articles explaining dazzling new sex techniques and exposés of men’s secret sexual desires. There are plenty of books and magazines and other gab-fests filled with words about sex. To abuse Foucault a bit, we have sex as seen through the discursive lenses of sin (religion), pathology (medicine), and women’s bodies (culture), to which we can add sex as an object of self-help. Is it possible that sex has become too logocentric, too bound up in words? If we consider Senator Larry Craig’s unfortunate situation, or Bill Clinton and the world’s most famous blowjob, or even the fact that sex toys are banned/ restricted in states like Texas and Alabama, doesn’t it seem like where sex talk is tolerated or encouraged, it’s a heresy to actually have sex?

Ellie: I think I understand what you're getting at but as a writer and a talker primarily, I guess I bristle at the idea. I also don't think that talking about sex and having sex are particularly different things. But there are safe ways to talk about it (heterosexual, monogamous) and dangerous ways (everything that isn't that). I see sex and sexuality themselves as texts - along with every other experience in the world. There are subversive forms of this text and trite pap. That is without even mentioning that the jabber about sex clearly cuts both ways and the conservative tidal wave of repression is lowering the quality of discourse for those that are interested in really discussing sex and sexuality.

Frédérik: To delve into that paradox a bit more, we live in a culture where Janet Jackson’s nipple causes an uproar, but except for occasional mutters, it’s okay for sex to be used in another way: advertising. Sex isn’t just sex, but a means to sell. Interestingly, while it’s culturally acceptable for sex to persuade people to buy things like magazines (or cars, or clothes, or etc), a line is drawn when the sexual act itself is a commercial transaction. Provided that there’s no harm done and consent is given, what people do should, in principle, be no one’s business but their own – even if it includes an exchange of money. Logically, that would include – much to many people’s discomfort – phone sex, pornography, even prostitution. Given that you’re recently added phone sex among your many endeavors, getting paid to do something you enjoy, what’s your take on the how sex and business intersect?

Ellie: Sex and money are two things dear to my heart. Why not combine them, eh? I think what we are seeing in the phenomena of sex being used to sell is that it is capitalizing on the transference of desire. If an advertiser can inspire lust in the audience, a lust that will not be fulfilled (and perhaps the audience does not even want it to be fulfilled) then they can use that energy and momentum to sell you anything. Of course I think that audiences are getting smarter than this and in turn, advertisers are becoming more self-reflexive in their use of sex as a marketing tactic. Still, unfulfilled desire - or desire re-deployed down a variety of rabbit holes has been a mainstay of advertising forever. Selling sex is a completely different question because that allows the desire to be fulfilled. Where sex work fits in here is tricky. In my mind sex work is a monolith and I don't draw philosophical, ethical, or social distinctions between phone sex, prostitution, and pornography (although they each comprise of unique job hazards and practical considerations.) Of course among these, prostitution is legal while the other two categories are not. Again, it comes down to the fulfillment (in a physical and bodily sense) of a desire. I find that one of the primary arguments against sex work (once you get past the mumbo jumbo about social ills, etc.) is that it deligitimizes a beautiful expression of love. Sex certainly can be a beautiful expression. It can also be completely mechanical. And it can also fall somewhere in between. Many people feel that if they pay for sex they are admitting that they *have* to pay for sex and that is a deeply humiliating thing (this is why phone domination is such a bigger market than vanilla phone work - subs are more willing to admit it because they get off on the domination). My opinion on selling sexual services is straight-forward. If you are talented and passionate about any other career, no one would dream of saying "If you really cared about this, you would do it for free." Sex work is no different. It is work and passion and it deserves compensation (not to mention better political and economic recognition and protections.)

(to be continued...)

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Busting Paradigms (Among Other Things): A Conversation with Ellie Lumpesse - 1 of 3

Frédérik: Some time ago I submitted a story to a notable online erotica magazine and it was accepted. As the story went through the editing/publishing process, I considered how several contributors, past and present, chose to have their stories published under a pseudonym. Ultimately, I decided to use my own name, but I find it interesting when people decide that anonymity is better than being out in the open. Of course, stories in a magazine are relatively uncontroversial today; reading erotica seems to have regained a certain hipness. But you go beyond fiction. From blogging about the sex you’ve had, which includes threesomes and group sex, to bedroom radio, in which you podcast a blend of groovy off-the-beaten-track music and recordings of yourself masturbating or having sex with your boyfriend, you share considerably more of your sexuality than most people. Given general attitudes towards sexual expression, it doesn’t come as a surprise that you neither publish personally identifiable information about yourself nor show your face in pictures. But what does it say about our culture that we require a mask of anonymity for something as fundamental as sex? Do you ever feel restricted by having to remain anonymous to some degree? At what point, if ever, does the personal, meaning the sexual, cross over into something political?

Ellie: I desperately want to show my face and be forthright about who I am (given the confines of safety considerations, of course) but unfortunately, I'm not at a place in my life where I think that is a good decision. Nonetheless, I have grappled with these issues because I am very proud of my writing, podcasting, and sex work - as proud as I am of any of my academic accomplishments. It has been important to me to always express to my audience that shame does not cause me to obscure my identity but rather practical considerations of job security. I hope to one day create the type of career for myself that will allow me to be open with my readers and open with the other people in my life about my online activities. I have broken this boundary on several occasions by meeting people I've met through my blog and telling friends and loved ones about my writing.

As for what this says about our culture, I find it hard to draw a conclusion that broad. Certainly I could echo the pro-sex shrieking that we are still neo-Puritans and we are afraid of sex and especially afraid of women that are open and forthright about sex. However, I think the issue is more complex than that. Personally, I have a career in education and considerations of acceptable conduct for a teacher are important to me. I don't think it needs to be a secret that I have a sex life and I am open about this with my students. In fact, I've taught Melissa Gira's statements about fake women when discussing sex work with my freshman comp students. But, it would make me pretty uncomfortable to teach a classroom full of students that had read my blog or listened to my podcast. While the mask of anonymity is repressive, I don't regard it as forced upon me but rather a personal decision that is correct for me at this time. There are certainly a number of women in adult entertainment and well-known cultural critics and writers that do not keep this mask and do quite well. I guess the long and short of it is that if I ever feel I can be as successful as some of my role modes (Rachel Kramer Bussel, Tristan Taormino, Violet Blue, Melissa Gira) I will be lucky enough to be as open as them as well. The sexual is always already political - it is an expression and a text produced by each of us that can be interpreted and translated as we each see fit. I feel honored to be a small voice contributing to openess with sexuality and changing opinions one at a time. In my work as a phone sex operator especially, I feel that I am performing a political and educational function. That sounds disgustingly preachy but by that I mean that I have encountered so many men that are shocked by me and have to re-evaluate their own ideas about what is sexy and what is intelligent to accommodate me. To put it in the most crass terms, I bust a paradigm while they bust a nut.

(to be continued...)

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Busting Paradigms (Among Other Things): A Conversation with Ellie Lumpesse - Introduction

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