A few years back, a number of members of Blue Blood sites started writing in to say someone was making dolls of various Blue Blood hotties. As I recall, Mistress Domiana and Fetus de Milo were two where there were specific dolls folks felt were based on photos Forrest Black and I had shot of them. Maybe there were other girls; it didn’t seem at all significant at the time, and the Bratz have changed enough over time that the Jury in their recent court battle (more on this soon, even though it is not technically a sex trial) asked whether they could find for the plaintiff in the first generation Bratz and against for later ones. To the best of my knowledge, neither I, nor Forrest Black, nor anyone I’ve photographed has ever met any of the brass at MGA Entertainment, the company who launched Bratz as their primary toy line in either 2001 or 2002, depending on who you ask. I guess MGA Entertainment is headquartered in Van Nuys, which is at last geographically close to Hollywood, if not culturally. So who knows.
Blue Blood hottie April Flores got in her prototype this week from Topco. The prototype is of the Wild Fire Celebrity Series Voluptuous CyberSkin Pussy. So that appears to be working out, but I’ve never really found a ton of business value in that type of merch, so I never gave much thought as to whether Bratz were or were not inspired by Gothic Sluts or whatever.
Some folks who did give it a lot of thought and were positive Bratz owed them an intellectual property debt were at the doll manufacturing and marketing powerhouse Mattell, home of Barbie. Now we could start comparing Barbie and Bratz. We could discuss how generations use fashion to define themselves. We could hear opinions from parents who feel Barbie (which they played with) is classic and wholesome and Bratz (which their kids want to play with) just teaches little girls to be whores. We could go into the radical feminist view that both Barbie and Bratz give girls unrealistic ideas of what a woman’s body will and should be like, setting the stage for adult eating disorders, antidepressant abuse, promiscuous sex, and excessive submission to the patriarchy.
Those might all be valid views, but the case, presided over U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson, this week was not, as many people supposed, about the ways Bratz is or is not similar to Barbie. The Bratz concept was developed by someone while he was working under exclusive contract for Mattel. His exclusive contract specifically stated that all such creations devised while in their employ were property of Mattel. This is a pretty common type of agreement for development teams. The idea is to prevent someone, especially someone with tons of access to proprietary info, from cashing their future competitor’s checks, while coming up with what they intend to market as a hipper and more current version of their employer’s product. Basically, this type of employment contract is explicitly to prevent precisely what the Bratz creator did.
So Judge Stephen G. Larson found in favor of Mattel. Mattel and MGA Entertainment have a couple of months now to decide whether to make Bratz and perhaps MGA a Mattel subsidiary, sell Bratz to MGA, license Bratz to MGA, or force MGA and all wholesalers and retailers to return any remaining My Hip Little Hoochie Barbies Bratz and then stack them up in the parking lot at 16380 Roscoe Blvd., pour newly less expensive gasoline on the clubby doll pile, and light it up.
In the same way perhaps that Guns n’ Roses is essentially Axl Rose at this point, Sisters of Mercy is essentially Andrew Eldritch. Having different collaborators on different Sisters albums gave different ones slightly different feels, but I personally enjoy the music on all of them. I even liked Vision Thing when all my unsavory pals derisively referred to it as the “Sisters Metal Album”. (I maintained that the Egyptian iconography on the cover made it totally gothic, but whatever.)
My friend Jeanne has been emailing me nostalgic photos recently and this made me think of of an amusing related anecdote. Uncomfortable with the goth label, Sisters of Mercy has tended to tour with potentially incongruous acts. So Jeanne and I were at some stadium show. I don’t recall all the acts on the bill, but the arena was probably the New Haven Coliseum or the Hardford Civic Center. This was pre-internet, so she and I were really enjoying the people watching and deconstructing the different tribes which had come out for the various bands playing. And looking for cute boys. So Jeanne spots this totally hot guy with dark hair and pale skin, a type we both favored, and she grabs me to point him out (I’m the forward one), only the guy disappears into some door and we can’t figure out quite where.
Eventually Jeanne figured out that she had been scoping out Sisters frontman Andrew Eldritch. Apparently he had managed to walk around the arena hallways unrecognized, simply by not wearing his trademark sunglasses. Absolutely classic when one can be incognito by taking the sunglasses off.
I’m sure Andrew Eldritch is a difficult man to like in real life, so probably for the best. Sometimes you have to love the art and not the artist. Now I realize that Andrew Eldritch has repudiated the goth label, along with his former music label, bands who wanted to support him, and a laundry list of former bandmates. I find it really tragic that things went this way for someone who could create such consistently brilliant music and intriguing lyrics. I know genius is often tortured and alienated. I have days when I feel stabby too, but I try not to interact too much if I’m feeling like lashing out at everything around me; that feeling is nature’s way of saying to take the day off. I admit that I didn’t create art for years because a junior high art teacher was mean to me, but, in my defense, I was in junior high at the time. The Sisters of Mercy haven’t had a proper new album in years because Andrew Eldritch was on strike because he didn’t like his record label and hasn’t landed with a new one since breaking up with East West.
Word is, however, that you can hear new Sisters material at a live show, so I’d expect to hear some new music in the mix at The Sisters of Mercy show at The Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. If you want to win a pair of free tickets, either post in this thread or message privately here or on MySpace or VF. Your post or message should include a personal anecdote about Sisters of Mercy, such as the one I told about me and my friend Jeanne, or your thoughts about the band or one of their songs. Basically, talk about something related to Sisters of Mercy and the most entertaining anecdotes or insights win free pairs of tickets to the Hollywood show.
Blue Blood sponsored an awful lot of events this Halloween, but the one I was saddest to miss personally, because I had to work, was the Release the Bats 10 Year Anniversary party. In addition to limited edition RTB 10 anniversary commemorative Blue Blood pins, the goodie bags for the event included limited edition RTB 10 anniversary commemorative pins and all sorts of fiendish goodies, including some Sisters of Mercy tickets.
When Release the Bats started in 1998, Shane Talada wrote in his Anorexic Press zine, “It is with complete and utter disregard for all that is established, and with murderous intent we seek to tear down and rebuild a part of the underground movement that became institutionalized by greed.”
He was talking about what was being called goth or gothic by flavor du jour club promoters in the Los Angeles club scene at the time. It was a situation where something, which had seemed like the dark part of punk, had diverged into this wussy netgoth scenario with prissy clothing and a playlist limited to corporate pop dark bands only.
So Jenn Bats, Dave Bats, Shane Taleda, and Jeremy Meza set out to participate in reclaiming deathrock for the scene. I’m not sure whether Jeremy Meza is still involved. I haven’t seen him there when I’ve gone in recent years and, liking everyone involved, I’ve never asked, for fear of the answer. The rest of Element was on hand for the anniversary festivities to perform air guitar in the video featured above.
All of this, I guess, just goes to show that sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. In every cool scene, there are always good guys, always bad guys, always dramas, always pretenders, and always annoying dicks who care more about a dollar than they do about what they are involved in. While it all goes in cycles, the cool stuff hasn’t been wiped out entirely yet, not even with cool new internet astroturf technology. So keep your hopeful hats on.
As part of the Halloween festivities, a series called spiderwebs, featuring Natalie Addams shot by Matthew Cooke just posted to the Blue Blood VIP members area. (I actually meant for it to post tomorrow, but I’m a little distracted with the Halloween holiday celebration, so y’all get it a day early.) Natalie Addams busted out the gothic cobwebs beautifully for this. These sexy spooky images are the eighth Blue Blood set of Natalie Addams and mark photographer Matthew Cooke’s first set for Blue Blood. Forrest Black and I have shared a house with him before, but this is his first Blue Blood appearance, although you should expect many more. Let’s make him feel welcome! Although I promise Natalie is delightfully nude on BlueBlood.com, we can’t show you any nudity here on BlueBlood.net, but you can check out a very hot preview in this free Natalie Addams Halloween gallery. Some of Natalie’s other credits include magazine appearances in Marquis, Sonic Seducer, Rue Morgue, Bizarre, Gothic Beauty, Tattoo Savage, DDI, Drum Pro, and Secret. Blue Blood superstar hotties do tend to get immortalized in print. And now, I’d like to share the sensually artistic Natalie’s thoughts on Halloween with you all.
Amelia G: What are your favorite kinds of Halloween treats?
Amelia G: How do you like to spend Halloween in general and do you have any special plans for Halloween this year?
Natalie Addams: I love dressing up, and of course halloween seems like it’s everyday to us goths ;) I usually like to go out and strut my costume on halloween, and see everyone’s costume creations. This year I am in New York filming some amazing zombie footage for the SMack! Halloween party. Hope to show you the photos and video footage soon :)
Amelia G: Last year, you were a sexy marionette. What are you wearing for Halloween this year?
Natalie Addams: I am wearing a rad zombie costume featuring a amazing waist cincher by Eirik Aswang, lots of latex, blood, gore, medical crosses. Kinda a medical barbie doll/giesha gone horribly wrong.
Amelia G: What are your favorite holidays?
Natalie Addams: ^v^Halloween!! by far!! An excuse to dress up and make even crazier outfits!
Given the huge ad campaign HBO’s True Blood ran just about everywhere, including this site, you have probably heard that there is a new vampire show of some sort on cable television. I actually had planned to do a feature article about the brilliant ad campaign for the show, but it was one of those times when pesky life gets in the way of writing. True Blood had some damn sexy billboards, posters, and bus adverts and, of course, banners on targeted sites like Blue Blood, and some sort of sweepstakes. The show takes place in a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin” and are looking for equal rights, opposed by the expected fundamentalists, and assisted by a mysterious Japanese company which has produced a synthetic blood substitute called Tru Blood. We’ve actually still got some great background videos explaining the setting of True Blood which I’ll see about posting after the hectic rush of Halloween is past.
But the really cool thing about True Blood is that the storylines are character-driven, the themes are righteous, the sex is in-your-face varied, and the lighting and cinematography are really beautiful. The series was developed by Alan Ball, award-winning writer of American Beauty and creator of Six Feet Under, based on the Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire Mysteries. The sort of focus character is the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse played by a perky yet strong Anna Paquin, the Oscar-winner best known to dorkdom for her recurring role as Rogue in the X-Men movies. Her character would probably come across as more feisty if not for her balls-to-the-wall best friend Tara Thornton, played by powerful newcomer Rutina Wesley. I don’t know where they found Rutina Wesley, but I love everything from the way her arms are just a little butch to the way she embodies the character cussing everyone out, both when needed and when not needed. Brother Jason Stackhouse is played by Ryan Kwanten. Sookie’s romantic leading man is played by Stephen Moyer. I normally wouldn’t mention someone’s personal life, but, whether it is out there for PR or privacy invasion, the gossip blogs are abuzz with reports that Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin are real life lovers, which may account for their incredible smoking hot on-screen chemistry for Sookie and Bill the vampire. In theory, I guess the audience is supposed to wonder whether Sookie will end up with Sam Merlotte, the owner of Merlotte’s the bar where she waitresses. Some people in the fictional Louisiana town Merlotte’s is in might find the guy suspect because he is from elsewhere and has a hint of the supernatural about him. Maybe part of the reason I personally instinctively don’t like the character is that the only other thing I ever saw the actor Sam Trammell, who plays Sam Merlotte, do on camera was get murdered by serial killer Dexter Morgan on Showtime’s Dexter. But really I’m bugged by someone’s boss at their regular all-the-time job hitting on them aggressively. I know they may not enforce anti sexual harassment laws that well in the South, but, ew, so not hot. The characters who inhabit True Blood’s Bon Temps are plentiful, deepy realized, and very interconnected, so I won’t list every single one, but there are two hot boys I can’t go without mentioning. The first is camboy/hooker/drug dealer/short order cook Lafayette Reynolds, played with gusto by Nelsan Ellis who hadn’t been in a whole lot of things before, but is jump-off-the-screen charismatic in this show. The second is Viking/nightclub impresario vampire Eric Northman, played by Alexander Skarsgård, fresh off his textured starring role on HBO’s Generation Kill.
I realize that a high percentage of the Blue Blood audience has been watching True Blood all along, what with the whole vampires, sex, kink, gothic punk, clubland and bar nightlife, and both disenfranchised and entitled weirdos thing in common. But, if you haven’t treated yourself yet, all previously-aired episodes are now available via On Demand. Incidentally, True Blood showcases a variety of different moods and types of sexuality, manages to shoot each sex scene a bit different from the last, makes the sexuality feel consistent with what each specific character would be into, and is so hot that even a professional can’t tell whether some of the actors are actually having full-on real sex or not. When the acting and styling is that good, the point of insertion is just a footnote in my opinion. So, uhm, yeah, True Blood is pretty much my favorite new show this year.
This week, True Blood kicked it up another notch with a guest starring turn from Stephen Root, of Office Space fame, playing the lonely dork vampire who lives for Monday nights when he watches Heroes and then trades his blood for hot gay hooker sex with Lafayette. Plenty more grisly human nature ensues and let’s just say we definitely can’t wait until next week to see what happens to his stapler.
As you all have no doubt noticed, we’ve been working on some video stuff on BlueBlood.net here. It is still in beta, but we are making it live for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to point out anything which is not working perfectly yet, because we know Blue Blood TV is in beta.
We’ve been really enjoying putting together our first segments and I’m really excited to share them with you all. For the most part, Forrest Black has been directing and I’ve been producing. We’ve mostly been taking turns shooting, kinda the same as we do for still photography. We’ve gotten some behind-the-camera assists from the always enjoyable Michelle Aston as well. We are fortunate enough to have the incredibly talented Tim Skold on board for the project to do the Blue Blood theme music. As this is Blue Blood, you probably all know who Tim Skold is, but I’ll give you a quick overview, just in case. I first came across his work when he was in a band called Shotgun Messiah, which I thought was a great name for a band. Other bands he has been in include Kingpin, KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, and Skold. His eponymously titled Skold album is one of my favorite CDs of all time, one of those rare records I can play all the way through, enjoying every single song over and over again. Anyway, I’m really thrilled about doing this video series thang, and the way it is all coming together, and feeling very creatively inspired.
Our video section is just starting out, so, when it becomes a fabulous gigantic internet phenomenon, you can say you were in-the-know when. We’ll be both highlighting videos we think are interesting and bringing you original programming. I just posted our Deathrace Jason Statham interview and Deathrace director Paul W. S. Anderson interview. Coming up this weekend, I interview musician Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist. Forrest Black interviews writer/editor Rachel Kramer Bussel about her Cupcakes Take the Cake blog (and sex.) Forrest Black and I (and a lot of our unsavory pals) attend the Coilhouse magazine launch party and I interview editor Nadya Lev. And there is tons more to come. Feel free to message me or Forrest Black directly or in public (or sidle up to one of us in a nightclub and whisper) about what you’d most like to see us do because we are just getting started.
I know, I know, some of you were probably assuming I was about to announce the launch of a giant adult video section, probably in the members area over on sister site BlueBlood.com. Over the years, just about every major mainstream adult video company, both in Porn Valley and beyond, has pitched yours truly and Forrest Black to do the pr0nz vidz for them. I’m not saying that nobody could ever make me an attractive offer on that front, if we really were on the same page with a company which wanted to make something great. But it has been my experience that these huge multimillion dollar companies will come at us saying how much they want something gothic or punk or alt or tattooed, and then turn around and say that they figure the budget can be small because they can underpay talent with tattoos or black lipstick.
One of my personal rules is that I will work for free or cheap for someone who does not have an office, if I like them and I believe in their project. If someone has a big ol’ office, I expect a pro rate and I expect the same for those I work with. If someone owns one or more buildings, I expect them not to start being cheap when it comes to my subculture and my friends and my collaborators.
But, honestly, it really boils down to art. The thing about artists is that they do not always do what is the commercially perfect thing to do. Artists do what they feel like doing. What I really felt like doing was discussing the meaning of alternative culture with Nadya Lev and what appalling horror movies are fun to sample with Andy LaPlegua.
I hope you guys like what we’ve been making because I enjoyed the creative process and I’d like to make you more videos soon.
It has been a while since we had a contest, so here is a new one.
About our beloved sponsors:
Squishable
A couple years ago Zoe and Aaron were backpacking around Southeast Asia doing some volunteering and being bums. They ran into their first fat, fuzzy piggy in Hong Kong and bought it as a tribute to gothic comic book artist Jhonen Vasquez. When they got back to the United States, their huggable pig was immediately kidnapped by rabid fans. And so the Squishable company was born. Their stuffed octopus just wants to be friends, so we’ve got their extra-friendly alligator for one lucky winner.
Lost Boys 2 The Tribe
The movie Lost Boys 2: The Tribe is out on DVD this week. Somewhere between a sequel and an homage to the original 1987 Lost Boys movie where Kiefer Sutherland’s character led a band of vampires, his half brother Angus Sutherland takes up the vamp responsibilities this time around and the flick features references to and cameos from many of the characters from the original. The piping hot fresh DVD has one of those nifty multi-picture hologram covers, a featurette about the movie’s stunts, alternate endings, and music videos.
Blue Blood Boutique
The Blue Blood Boutique features a growing variety of Blue Blood branded swag, including plush hoodies, high quality pins, and large waterproof stickers. The primary hoodie designs were conceptualized by Blue Blood art director Forrest Black. Forrest tapped longtime Blue Blood contributor Ed Mironiuk for the store launch to do a redesign on the traditional Blue Blood royal skull. Previous Blue Blood swag has featured work by James O’Barr, Trevor Brown, Slash, Jeb Huffman, and of course yours truly and Forrest Black. Perfect attire for all your club-hopping, con touring, coffeehouse lounging, and before and after sex needs.
The talented Calan Ree, whose Gingerdead & Friends comic strip I have mentioned here before, wrote about gathering paper frogs this week. According to Calan Ree, paper frogs are these partially translucent, pale, flat, dehydrated amphibians. The frogs apparently get flat from the absence of moisture and not being run over, so recent rains may have washed away the paper frogs which could normally be found in Calan Ree’s neck of the woods this year.
According to Calan Ree, paper frogs are seasonal and normally could be found this time of year. Her searches for them, perhaps due to the weather, proved fruitless. While hunting, she was, however, approached by, not one, but two creepy guys. The first one rolled up on her in a van and asked her if she wanted a ride. The second guy asked for directions to the nearest schoolyard, despite the fact that it was eight o’clock at night. After her van suitor left, she lamented that she had
“missed a golden opportunity. I should have answered, “Oh no thank you, I’m gathering frog carcasses!” It’s so rewarding to creep out the creepy. Sigh.”
Oh, in case the part where Calan Ree does a cutesie gothic horror comic was not a tip off, she, of course, wanted the paper frogs for an art project. I will admit that my research efforts to learn more about paper frogs just lead me back to GingerDead.com, but the artist’s mother used to have paper frogs in her walls too, so they must be real.
So I was chatting with my pal Anders from the band Anders Manga yesterday. I had just been looking at some snapshots of us partying together at a Hollywood hotspot just off Hollywood Blvd. When I say Hollywood hotspot, in this instance, I mean a place variously called White Lotus, The Ritual Supper Club, the local bus station, etc. where A-listers like Mark Wahlberg can go to bang porn stars cast for the next season of Entourage on HBO. At any rate, I’ll post the pics shortly and add a link, but Anders and I were just talking about this and that and he asked if I had heard from Jennifer of The Nuns recently.
Descended from Welsh royalty and initially known as Jennifer Miro in the earliest 1970’s incarnation of The Nuns as a seminal punk band in San Francisco, Jennifer steered the band in a more gothic direction over time and was variously known as Jennifer Anderson or Tiffany Tarantula or Maitresse Jennifer. The Nuns were huge in San Francisco and opened for bands like The Ramones and The Damned and were even on the bill for the very last Sex Pistols show. Jennifer also had a role in Dr. Caligari, the seminal cinema of transgression film from Stephen Sayadian and Jerry Stahl, who were also responsible for Cafe Flesh. However, Maitresse Jennifer or Mistress Jennifer is probably best known to members of the Blue Blood boards as the Blue Blood hottie who asked all the most interesting questions about love in the kinky tumultuous world of fame, wealth, and rock and roll.
[13:10] Anders Manga: hey have you heard from Jennifer? from nuns?
[13:10] Anders Manga: she vanished?
[13:11] AmeliaG: not in ages. I was in pretty regular contact with her, so I wonder if she got married or sex murdered
[13:11] Anders Manga: i heard her friend in the band was murdered in nyc
[13:11] AmeliaG: eep, forget I just said that particular conjecture
[13:11] AmeliaG: that’s creepy
I was just thinking that Jennifer, like a lot of superstar hotties, will disappear when she gets into a new Relationship and reappear when it ends or has trouble. I wish people would not exit their normal day-to-day lives and relationships when they are in love, but it is pretty common. That is what I had assumed had happened. Now that I’ve read a bit more about what was going on at the time, I’m kind of worried.
Apparently, in the fall, Mistress Kris who performed with The Nuns and appeared in many photo shoots with Jennifer was murdered at a hotel in Times Square. Times Square in New York City is supposedly gentrified to the point of Disneyfication. I think a Disney corporation even covered the financing on a bunch of the un-sleazing of Times Square. Nonetheless, the Hotel Carter still stands and is still open for business from vagrants and creeps. At least as recently as 1999, Hotel Carter was the sort of establishment where the front desk personnel might be killing one another with a knife or hammer, and housed the sort of nightclub that Sean Puffy Combs and Jennifer Lopez would have to flee after a shooting incident. In the 80’s, Hotel Carter was the place to throw a half-dressed bound woman out the window. I’ve always liked the word defenestration but not approved of the practice.
At any rate, a housekeeper found poor Kris’ nude corpse wrapped in plastic under the bed, after a guest named Clarence Dean checked out. Clarence Dean was already wanted in the State of Alabama for (a) failure to appear for a property theft trial and (b) a rape charge and (c) not keeping the folks who track convicted sex offenders aware of his whereabouts. Apparently the vile Clarence Dean had been found guilty of attempting to do horrible things to a nine-year-old girl in Florida, but he had not maintained his sex offender registration. He was also accused of meeting college girls via online dating sites and then raping them. According to the New York Times, Clarence Dean also had prior convictions in Texas and Tennessee for sex-related offenses. Apparently, Clarence Dean got to New York by stealing the car and credit cards belonging to the Tennessee woman he was supposed to be helping care for as a home health aide. (The only other person I’ve ever heard of stealing from the person he is supposed to care for, in this sort of situation, is one of the very worst people I have ever had the misfortune to meet.) Clarence Dean’s ill-gotten gains could only take him so far because he was forced to stay at the Hotel Carter because it was bargain-priced at only $99.23 a night before tax. Consider how expensive Manhattan is if $99 a night gets you a place described by the AP as “a threadbare accommodation that stands as a throwback to Times Square’s seedy past . . . for budget travelers who don’t mind insects, grimy bathrooms, stained furniture and broken telephones.”
So anyway, the whole thing is totally appalling. It appears that the perpetrator of this awful deed is probably standing trial round about now and may get the death penalty. Certainly, given his long rap sheet, Clarence Dean does not sound like a candidate for rehabilitation and no amount of remorse on his part, if he had it, would bring Kris back. To be 100% even-handed, I’ll mention that Clarence Dean’s brother apparently claims the guy is a simpleton who is being framed, but I can’t think what the motive would be for the New York City police to frame a fugitive serial sex offender for murdering a hot girl from a goth band.
At any rate, I hope Jennifer is okay. Does anyone know how she is doing?
The event was at a Venice couple-oriented adult store called Freddy and Eddy. Freddy and Eddy has the adorable slogan “where couples can come” for their brick and mortar location and I’ve been meaning to check it out forever. I keep getting invited to cool readings there, but it took Rachel’s extra dollop of coolness to get me to venture out to new territory and I’m so glad I did. The reading area is a spacious beautiful patio out behind the well-appointed and very pink store. I enjoyed chatting with one of the owners and the smart sexpert folks who had gathered for the occasion.
Although the video above is what Rachel read at Freddy and Eddy’s, the clip is actually from the most recent right coast In the Flesh reading event. (People say left coast for Cali all the time; can you say right coast for New York?) At the California one, the theme was Survival. The first reader was Willam Belli who is an incredibly charismatic trannie whose reading, about an odd hook-up with a tattooed hottie, connected so much with the audience that it came across more as performance than reading. The way this piece tied into the theme of Survival was more punchline than actual fit, but it was very entertaining. Esteemed anthologist Maxim Jakubowski read a piece about how relationships have soundtracks, which I think is a very true insight. Stan Kent dressed like a rockstar and read an excerpt of a series of novels he has written about a gothic punk girl who can relive the sexual experiences of whoever wore the shoes she has put on. Naturally this leads her to serial kill serial killers. Stan Kent so totally seems like someone I would know that I’m shocked to have never even come across his work before. Shana Ting Lipton is a writer whose work, given her credits, it seems likely I may have read before, but whose byline I was unfamiliar with. She introduced her stuff saying it was going to come across G-rated by comparison and then read a really beautiful and creative piece about exploring her sexuality in the Netherlands which, having spent some of my formative years in Europe, really spoke to me. I’ll definitely be looking for more by her. I unfortunately missed the reading by the evening’s organizer because we were coordinating the Blue Blood limo service for Rachel and Jackson West from Silicon Valley dough gossip blog ValleyWag. Rachel Kramer Bussel herself read the piece from the video, about what Erica Jong would term a zipless fuck in an airport. The idea being that it was about surviving a horrible layover in the Atlanta airport. Having spent a lot of time there, I felt it definitely fit the survival theme.
A few years back, a number of members of Blue Blood sites started writing in to say someone was making dolls of various Blue Blood hotties. As I recall, Mistress Domiana and Fetus de Milo were two where there were specific dolls folks felt were based on photos Forrest Black and I had shot of them. Maybe there were other girls; it didn’t seem at all significant at the time, and the Bratz have changed enough over time that the Jury in their recent court battle (more on this soon, even though it is not technically a sex trial) asked whether they could find for the plaintiff in the first generation Bratz and against for later ones. To the best of my knowledge, neither I, nor Forrest Black, nor anyone I’ve photographed has ever met any of the brass at MGA Entertainment, the company who launched Bratz as their primary toy line in either 2001 or 2002, depending on who you ask. I guess MGA Entertainment is headquartered in Van Nuys, which is at last geographically close to Hollywood, if not culturally. So who knows.
