Know Your Vintage Babes

Think you know your vintage cheesecake? There are two stand-outs in this photo of See Magazine's Cover Girl Contest. Can you spot and name them?


Check here to see if you're right!

After You, My Dear Alphonse

I love it when a unique item on eBay makes me do a search and I discover pieces of a puzzle...


This old German porcelain (or ceramic) piece features three figures: a woman in bed, and two men who, as the seller says, appear to be "in the process of deciding who will be the first to "visit" the young lady in her bed for whatever pleasure may result from such visit."



The seller also says, "I dont ever remember having a similar piece in all the years I have spent in the Antique business." While one can be skeptical with seller statements -- they are at least relative to their own experience -- I'd have to agree. (Hence my researching.)

A quick search for "After you my dear Alphonse" one gets quite a number of clues, including old vaudeville skits by the Marx Brothers, but what one finally gets is Frederick Burr Opper and his comic strip, "Alphonse and Gaston".


Introduced in 1901, they remained part of the Sunday comics for years. In this strip, two French characters are so polite they are stymied when they reach a door, each offering the other entry first with what would become, at the time, quite famous lines:

"After you, my dear Alphonse."

"No, after you, my dear Gaston."


The strip pretty much vanished after 1910, but the characters continued to live on in Happy Hooligan, where they ran their bit best as a sideline rather than the lead through the 40's.

You can find remnants of Alphonse and Gaston in the Chip and Dale Mack and Tosh*, aka the Goofy Gophers, politeness, as well as other standards bits, like like two baseball outfielders each deferring to the other and letting the ball fall between them. Which brings us back to our German figurine.

Two men who likely will be so polite to defer to one another, while the lady falls asleep. *wink*


The seller says this is an "OLD VICTORIAN era GERMAN group figurine," which is rather close to the time frame -- give or take a handful of years.

Find more on Frederick Burr Opper and Alphonse and Gaston here. See Alphonse and Gaston pinbacks here. See/download a film from 1903, and see a photo from 1912-1931 from the Whitman Theatre.

* Note -- UPDATE -- Peter corrected me on the Chip & Dale thing. See comments!

Bataille and Bellmer: The Eyes Have It

I stumbled into JorgeRueda and was fascinated by the art shown.



I couldn't understand most of it, but I know what I like! So I turned to Google and did some research on the names.

Turns out these wicked erotic eye sketches are the work of Hans Bellmer, and were used in 1946 to illustrate Histoire de L'oeil, intaglio, a translation of Story of the Eye.



Story of the Eye was credited to Lord Auch, a pseudonym of Georges Bataille's. Story of the Eye was Bataille's first novel, published in 1928. There were four editions, the first in 1928 and three others, known as the "new version" because it is so very different from the first, came out in 1940, 1941, and 1967.

Here's a bit of Part One, The Tale, Chapter One: The Cat's Eye:

I grew up very much alone, and as far back as I recall I was frightened of anything sexual. I was nearly sixteen when I met Simone, a girl my own age, at the beach in X. Our families being distantly related, we quickly grew intimate. Three days after our first meeting, Simone and I were alone in her villa. She was wearing a black pinafore with a starched white collar. I began realizing that she shared my anxiety at seeing her, and I felt even more anxious that day because I hoped she would be stark naked under the pinafore.

She had black silk stockings on covering her knees, but I was unable to see as far up as the cunt (this name, which I always used with Simone, is, I think, by far the loveliest of the names for the vagina). It merely struck me that by slightly lifting the pinafore from behind, I might see her private parts unveiled.

Now in the corner of a hallway there was a saucer of milk for the cat. "Milk is for the pussy, isn't it?" said Simone. "Do you dare me to sit in the saucer?"

"I dare you," I answered, almost breathless. The day was extremely hot. Simone put the saucer on a small bench, planted herself before me, and, with her eyes fixed on me, she sat down without my being able to see her burning buttocks under the skirt, dipping into the cool milk. The blood shot to my head, and I stood before her awhile, immobile and trembling, as she eyed my stiff cock bulging in my pants. Then I lay down at her feet without her stirring, and for the first time, I saw her "pink and dark" flesh cooling in the white milk. We remained motionless, on and on, both of us equally overwhelmed ....

Suddenly, she got up, and I saw the milk dripping down her thighs to the stockings. She wiped herself evenly with a handkerchief as she stood over my head with one foot on the small bench, and I vigorously rubbed my cock through the pants while writhing amorously on the floor. We reached orgasm at almost the same instant without even touching one another. But when her mother came home, I was sitting in a low armchair, and I took advantage of the moment when the girl tenderly snuggled in her mother's arms: I lifted the back of her pinafore, unseen, and thrust my hand under her cunt between her two burning legs.

I dashed home, eager to jerk off some more, and the next day there were such dark rings around my eyes that Simone, after peering at me for a while, buried her head in my shoulder and said earnestly: "I don't want you to jerk off anymore without me."

(You can -- and should -- go here to read the rest.)

Here, an Extract from Georges Bataille's Eroticism:

As often as not, it seems to be assumed that man has his being independently of his passions. I affirm, on the other hand, that we must never imagine existence except in terms of these passions...

...We are discontinuous beings, individuals who perish in isolation in the midst of an incomprehensible adventure, but we yearn for our lost continuity. We find the state of affairs that binds us to our random and ephemeral individuality hard to bear. Along with our tormenting desire that this evanescent thing should last, there stands our obsession with a primal continuity linking us with everything that is... this nostalgia is responsible for... eroticism in man.

If you're like me, you're going to look for books by Georges Bataille.

Both Georges Bataille and Hans Bellmer will likely appear here again. *wink*

Marion: Poster Child For Transvestitism

Pistil Books presents Transvestism: Men in Female Dress, Sexology Corporation, 1956.

Found via a link at Kitschy Kitschy Coo.

Too Old To Collect?

From "Just Stuff," They Say:

Folks talk about how retiring can age a person. Just a few months, let alone a couple of years, can take a vibrant active person and shrink them into this old shell of a person we used to know. We no longer have a purpose and we fade. It's the same thing when we become 'too old to collect.' It's not just the things, but the action of collecting. If it is "I collect, therefore I am" then what's the equation when we stop?

When I get to old to drive, my kids better take turns taking the old lady rummaging. And to auctions. And to thrift stores, collectors shows and whatever else I crave. If they don't, I'll hire a damn taxi to take me all about town. To make up for the cost of the cab, I'll have to barter for better prices — but that’s part of the fun anyway. On weekdays I can have the cabby drive slowly through the parts of town which have garbage pick-ups waiting... And the taxi can be the get-away-car for dumpster dives (as quick as my brittle hips will allow). I'm not stopping collecting 'til I’m six feet under. And even then, my version of heaven has flea markets.

I concur.

And how odd is it that just after I post/link to Howard Hallis, we hear he may be forced to sell-off one of his collections?

Bone chilling thoughts.

"Come on, man. I doubt if you'd recognize a hippie. I'm a capitalist, baby. I work for my living, not suck off somebody else."

One of my favorite late night television watching is Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Sometimes, the Fox Movie Channel will play it over and over again and I can watch the last half-hour, then the whole thing, and fall asleep some time during the third viewing. Ahhhh. Heaven.



You can see why it would be so addicting, yes?

Roger Ebert, who wrote the screenplay, has this to say about the film:

Remembered after 10 years, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" seemsmore and more like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics tookover the asylum. At the time Russ Meyer and I were working on "BVD" I didn't really understand how unusual the project was. But in hindsight I can recognize that the conditions of its making were almost miraculous. An independent X-rated filmmaker and an inexperienced screenwriter were brought into a major studio and given carte blanche to turn out a satire of one of the studio's own hits. And "BVC" was made at a time when the studio's own fortunes were so low that the movie was seen almost fatalistically, as a gamble that none of the studio executives really wanted to think about, so that there was a minimum of supervision (or even cognizance) from the Front Office.

We wrote the screenplay in six weeks flat, laughing maniacally from time to time, and then the movie was made. Whatever its faults or virtues, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is an original -- a satire of Hollywood conventions, genres, situations, dialogue, characters and success formulas, heavily overlaid with such shocking violence that some critics didn't know whether the movie "knew" it was a comedy.

A cult favorite, yes. It combines sex, drugs, 'rock music,' humor, violence, sex and also explores some pretty nifty social issues. Like should you trust the lesbian who wants you to give you advice on keeping or aborting your baby?



Did I mention it has sex?



Since I'm a huge fan of the flick, you know I'm diggin' these tarot cards by Howard Hallis.




I just wish they were larger and made into PDFs or something I could print. Better yet, sell me a nice glossy set in a box (with your signature, of course!).






How am I supposed to live my life -- understand it -- without these cards?!

To paraphrase the movie dialog, "Howard, you've made me a whore -- and I dig it, you little freak!"

Typ-O's

This makeover of the traditional 'studio pin-up' calendar not only demonstrated Taylor Lane's expertise in typography, it also acted as a perpetual reminder of them throughout 2005 while refreshing itself every month. It was controversial; it provoked comment and created a 25% increase in turnover from existing and new clients. (So says Epica Awards.)



While using typography to create nude women, I don't see a single "v" or "j" to create the vajayjay. *wink*

The Friday Night Bookstore Crowd

As part time Walden Books seller (from the mid 80's to early 90's) I often worked the Friday night shift. Even in bookstores there are the cool kids who have parties and dates to attend, but really, most folks didn't like working Friday nights because of the clientele. Friday nights meant customers with weekly paychecks and those who made a bee-line for the mall bookstore were the male geeks.

Well, I shouldn't say they made a bee-line. It was more like they cashed their checks, had a meal out and then headed to the bookstore. It was an event for most of them. You'd think with the number of them it was an organized event, but it wasn't. It was a crowd of individuals, a date-night for one if you will, with the crowd consisting of socially awkward individuals who didn't speak to each other. (Again, I should point out this phenomena was seen in the male of the geek species; women are an entire other story.)

So the store is full of single men, with a penchant for computer and tech magazines, who all manage to merge at the magazine rack but never, ever mingle. There's no talking. No boasting of equipment. No eye rolling over who would pick that pc magazine. No talking at all because that would mean human connection, and clearly these boys weren't up for it.

My first Friday night, I saw the busy store with its well behaved customers (these guys waited patiently in line and never sighed impatiently or did most of the other annoying things I experienced on other busy sales days) and I wondered what the fuss was all about. Why did the other workers not want to work Fridays? It was just me, the manager who sat in back doing her weekly reports and only came on the floor to close the register, and Gary, the only male employee. So at my first opportunity, I asked Gary what the problem with Fridays was. Gary just mumbled something about other employees having plans -- but I did notice he blushed. Something wasn't quite right here...

It wasn't until my second Friday night shift that I figured it all out.

Gary had worked the register the previous Friday and he began the shift there as well. At one point he left to help a (non-geek) customer find a book, and I, seeing a line begin to form, jumped to pitch in and ring sales. As soon as I appeared at the register the first geek in line seemed reluctant to have me process the sale. He stood uncomfortably, even looked towards the back of the store where Gary had disappeared, as I stood with my hands out waiting to receive his magazines -- a huge friendly smile on my face. It was an awkward moment. But eventually he accepted that Gary's return wasn't going to save him so he handed his items to me and I saw him flush as he lowered his head.

I scanned the first pc magazine and set it to the side. Then the next pc magazine, and set that to the side. That's when I saw it. A copy of Penthouse. It all clicked then.

These guys came in to buy their computer & tech magazines and their porn.

I know I blushed a bit during this first sale. Not because of the porn shocking me, but because I wasn't expecting it. Most of the porn buyers I'd seen were men who boldly strode in weekdays, typically on their lunch breaks, and purposefully walked to the adult magazine section of the rack and still walking, used one hand to grab the nudie mag as they walked to the counter. It was more like a relay event, with a porn mag hand-off. They used speed and a bit of testosterone aggression to get the process over with as quickly as possible. They may have been embarrassed, but they seemed more like they wanted to get to the centerfolds during their lunch break and stopping to purchase was a necessary inconvenience. The geeks, on the other hand, were clearly embarrassed. They hid their porn beneath their other magazines and apparently were more comfortable with Gary checking them out than me.

With the next sale, I was prepared and I didn't blush. Now I knew the Friday Night Secret.

I stayed at the register all night. Gary seemed a bit flustered upon his return, but I wasn't moving. (It was faster work and just staying on the sales floor I had had little else to do -- these guys didn't need help finding what they wanted.)

That night when we closed Gary asked me how it was. I told him it was fine. He was clearly uncomfortable for me, so I told him not to worry, it didn't creep me out. They were just lonely guys who wanted porn, no biggie. And despite how busy we were, the store was impeccably clean. These guys were well-behaved shoppers all around.

The word got out that I liked working Friday nights and some of the full-time ladies teased me. They talked about how I must thrill the shy boys with my big bust line, and how they'd likely start lining up on Fridays just to see me. "Better they dream of you than buy porn," they'd say. Which then creeped out the other ladies who said that's what they feared most. I laughed it all off, but felt bad for these geeks who heaven forbid should ever have one of these ladies meet them at the register.

These guys were nice. Shy, but nice. Over the years I got a few of them (all regulars you know) to even exchange small talk at the register. A few had given me the old palm stroke as money was exchanged, so I was careful not to give them any indication I was flirting or interested, but I felt badly about how lonely these guys were. I figured that maybe knowing I was comfortable with them -- geek stuff, porn and all -- that they'd see that others could be too. And if any masturbated to the busty book girl whose palm they'd dared to stroke, well, who cares? You never know who is going to masturbate to mental images of you anyway.

I often wonder about the Friday Night Geeks of past years... Do they have stacks of neatly preserved porn? Boxes of pristine retro pc magazines? Do they remember the book seller who smiled and chatted with them?

And with the ease of the Internet, does this still occur?

Photo credits: Retro pc mags from GameSetWatch. Retro porn mags via Wonderclub: specifically, January, 1984, Penthouse and November, 1989, Playboy.

That's Bull Moose, Not Randy, Jackson

Bullmoose Jackson was born Benjamin Clarence Jackson in Cleveland in 1919. It was in 1943 that bandleader Lucky Millinder's band that gave him the unforgettable name "Bull Moose."

Here's more according to Schadenfreudian Therapy -- Featuring 1950-60s vintage Calypso music (the REAL stuff, not Harry Belafonte or the souvenir steel drum music sold to tourists) -- where I found Bull Moose:

His own band, the Buffalo Bearcats, earned more in the late 1940s than both Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. Bullmoose hired some great sidemen for his band, including drummer Panama Francis, bassist Red Callender, (longtime Monk tenor man) Charlie Rouse, and Sam "The Man" Taylor (best known for his work on the original Screamin Jay Hawkins classic "I Put a Spell on You"). But the song you probably know him for -- "Big Ten Inch Record" -- was recorded after his greatest fame, in 1952 with the Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra.

You can even download seven Bullmoose Jackson cuts here.

Songs in the download are:

Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style
Keep Your Big Mouth Shut
Nosey Joe
Cherokee Boogie
We Can Talk Some Trash
Bowlegged Woman
Get Off the Table, Mabel

Amazingly, I've heard Get Off the Table, Mable. But you know I'm lovin' Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style and Bowlegged Woman. Wonderful music and risque songs; how have I lived so long without these songs?

I also found the lyrics to Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style:

Listen, sister
You should wear a smile
Jump for joy just like a child
'Cause big fat mamas are back in style

Listen, brother
It's all over that dial
Hear that crowd, they're going wild
'Cause big fat mamas are back in style

You need a big fat mama
And boys you can't go wrong
A big fat mama
To rule your home sweet home

Listen, mama
You gotta keep that double chin
'Cause the big fat mamas and the little fat mamas
Are back in style again

(More info on the lyrics here.)

Bull Moose died in 1989, but his mark on the history of rhythm & blues will remain forever.

Live A Plush Sex Life

"These cuddly cloth dolls are great for playtime and can also be used as sex education props when explaining the human reproductive cycle to boys and girls ages 3 to 9." Amamanta Family Dolls



Found at Sensible Erection, apparently the image was saved on their pc and they have no information... If you know anything about this doll or others like it, please do let me know!



The maker of the Fetus Popple says, "I made this 3 years ago for Embryology class, and I was inspired by the Knitted Digestive System to post it here. The concept is ripped off of Popples, those vaguely mammalian stuffed toys that 20-somethings might remember; they could turn inside-out with a little pouch-thing on their back, so that all you could see is their tail sticking out of a little ball. I thought the gimmic would be a useful way of illustrating the various pouch-within-a-pouch structure of fetal membranes."





More plush sex dolls, note the strange proportions?



Quasi related, these stuffed tampon dolls. (I link to Slip's post as the vendor appears to be out of them now.)

Where There's Smoke...

There's an ashtray.

Only I didn't know it then.

About two years ago we bought this metal piece. It looked like a mold of some sort, each side protruding, quite detailed, showing a man putting his hand up a lady's skirt.


It has clearly, roughly, been hacked-out of something...



We wondered if it was a candy mold, or if it was the mold for some other piece.

Then a few weeks ago, I spotted this two-sided ashtray on eBay and won the auction (less than $7).



Though the dimensions listed were/are roughly the same, this ceramic piece is slightly different. The details are not as crisp, as fine, and there are enough variations in faces and attire that even before I received it I knew it wasn't made from our metal piece. But it was clearly related and I wanted a closer look.

Not long after that, Gloria had her spectacular posts on erotic tobacciana, and in one post I spotted what looked just like our metal piece.



I emailed Gloria and she said she's owned that 'model' ashtray before (and given it away to a friend) and that she spots them relatively often. She helped me with a few search terms (risque ashtray works nicely), and since then I've seen a few other variations.





Including this sailor theme.



And one that looks a bit older (with a much different shape to the ashtray).




While I am still not certain if what we have is an ashtray with the 'art' crudely cut out or if it is a mold (because ours seems unmarked from cigs like the other metal ones), I am hoping a metal ashtray in this design comes my way soon so that I can compare them better.

Vintage Cat Ballou

I'm a fan of Jane Fonda, so when I found this vintage paperback I was thrilled. The Ballad of Cat Ballou struck me for its campy sex kitten cover and it wasn't until I was in line at the thrift store that I recognized that face.


The film Cat Ballou (1965) stars Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat King Cole, and Stubby Kaye -- and was nominated for five Oscars, for which Lee Marvin did win Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film is a comedy-western, but the original novel (by Roy Chanslor) upon which the movie is based, is a serious western telling the story of a woman out to avenge her father's murder.

The Ballad Of Cat Ballou (lyrics)

Well now friends just lend an ear
For you're now about to hear
The ballad of Cat Ballou
It's a song that's newly made
And Professus and the Shade
And the Sunrise Kid are singin' it for you

Cat ballou, Cat ballou
It's a hangin' day in Wolf City Wyomin'
Wolf City Wyomin', eighteen ninety four
They're gonna drop Cat Ballou through the gallows floor

She killed a man in Wolf City Wyomin'
Wolf City Wyomin' killed a man it's true
And that is why they're a-hangin'
Hangin' Cat Ballou

She has the smile of an angel (fights like the devil)
The eyes of an angel (bites like the devil)
The face of an angel (I say she's the devil)
(She's mean and evil through and through)
Cat Ballou, Cat Ball-ou-ou-ou
She's mean and evil through and through

With her outlaw band they're now tellin' a story
Now tellin' a story how she rode the plain
The wildest gal in the we-est since Calamity Jane
And today's the day that she's goin' to glory
She's goin' to glory for the way she sinned
They'll be a-speedin' her soul on a wayward wind

She has the smile of an angel (fights like the devil)
The eyes of an angel (bites like the devil)
The face of an angel (I say she's the devil)
(She's mean and evil through and through)
Cat Ballou (Cat Ballou)
Cat Ball-ou-ou-ou (Cat Ballou)

She's mean and evil through and through Cat Ballou
Cat Ball-ou-ou-ou
She's mean and evil through and through

Lyrics by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.
Recorded by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye.

Part memoir, part review, this piece by Pam Malouf has me eager to see the film too:

Forty years later, I still find myself thinking about Cat Ballou. I lost my innocence right alongside Cat that day when the sheriff lied about her daddy's death. The bold courage and willingness to stand up to authority displayed by Cat showed me that all it takes is guts for anyone (including women) to stand up for her rights. If a young, innocent girl could ride fearlessly after a noseless killer, then nothing could stop me! Cat Ballou was an inspiration to throw caution to the wind and fight for what I believe in.

This New American Library copy (sixth printing) is clearly the movie tie-in, so I wonder if it will have the humor of the film? With Roy Chanslor listed as the author, and no mention of any screenplay, I doubt it... But I can't wait to find time to read it.

A terrific grab for 75 cents.

Photo credits: reproduction poster via Amazon.

Sex Machine Museum

Prague is home to the first ever museum dedicated to sex machines. The Sex Machine Museum is located at Melantrichova 18, Prague 1, Old Town -- just off the Old Town Square in the heart of the old town.



A result of founder and owner Oriano Bizzochi's curiosity and research, the collection was first intended for the Museum of Curiosities (in the San Marino republic).

It is an exposition of mechanical erotic appliances, the purpose of which is to bring pleasure and allow extraordinary and unusual positions during intercourse.

On an area of three floors there are more than 200 objects and mechanical appliances on view, a gallery of art with erotic themes, a cinema with old erotic films, erotic clothing and many other things pertaining to human sexuality.

Here a very complicated sex machine is shown -- and below that, what it looks like in use.




Here's a sampling of some of the old sex toys, for men and women.




These hand-cranked masturbation tools (Germany, 1910) seem not only like more work than just using your hands directly, but more suited to the wood work shop. Sure, they're early hand-operated vibrators but they look more like drills to me...



Not everything on display is of a pro-sex nature. For example, this Electric Anti-Masturbation Machine (France, 1915) was used to prevent boys from nighttime delights.



The ring was placed on his penis and if/when an erection was achieved the machine rang a bell in the parent's room. Mortifying for all I'm sure, but less punitive than what it looks like -- I thought it might give the boy a shock.

Here, a tourist recounts the trip to the museum with her father:

"I see," my father said from somewhere behind me. "You're going to pretend you're not with me!"

"You're my Dad--I love you!" I shouted sprinting upstairs to get to the third floor ahead of him. "Now stop talking to me you strange, strange man!"

Too funny ;)

If you continue reading her story, here's a photo of the wall of body piercings mentioned in the story:



Images via ahsoon.net -- more photos there!

For more on sex machines and toys: 1997 video of webcams and Dildonics, (via Fleshbot).

Fun With Dolls & A Camera

Sex Doll Polaroids, from Alta-Glamour:

Dolls, realistic human forms, lend themselves to sexual alterations. Probably as long as there have been dolls, there has been the clever little brother or sister who thought they would look better with realistic genitalia. Clay, woodwork, sewing, drilling, and painting – the materials and methods are limited only by the ingenuity and patience of the artist.

Alta-Glamour recently unearthed these anonymous Polaroid photographs. The photo sets feature commercially-available dolls with added genitalia. The maker has set up tableaus and made photographic series that tell stories of straight, gay, and group scenes. We have not definitively dated them, but they are probably from the 1970s.

The quality of some photographs is not very good. Some of them were originally out of focus, and the colors of others have faded. However, the exuberance of the maker shines through it still.

Speaking of posing sex dolls...

A giant blow-up lizard gets it on with a blow-up doll.


I guess you're never to old to play with dolls, even if you never penetrate them yourself (nor they you).

Erich von Gotha, Erotic Artist

Erich von Götha (aka Erich von Götha de la Rosière) is the pseudonym of the British illustrator and comic book artist Robin Ray. (Ray has also worked under the pseudonyms Janssens, Baldur Grimm and Robbins.) Robin Ray or Erich vonGotha, the artist has gained fame with his erotic works most of all that with sadomasochist themes.

As Gotha, he contributed to early editions of Dr. Tuppy Owens' The Sex Maniac's Diary. And then he went on to produce his own ground-breaking magazine, Torrid.




There were only 16 issues of Torrid (circa 1980's), but they not only had a cult-like following but have become hot collectibles today.

Other publications from Gotha include The Troubles of Janice Part (three parts), A Very Special Prison, Twenty (two volumes so far), and The Insatiable Curiousity of Sophie.



Erich Von Gotha's show, Twenty Chastis'd, May 5 - June 5 2007, is at the Mondo Bizzarro gallery in Rome. Here's what the gallery has to say about the artist:

Erich Von Gotha belongs firmly to the second category. Despite having worked as an artist for well over twenty years he has only just begun to give interviews.

However, besides taking delight in mistery (for many years he was obsessed by the treasures hidden by the Templar Knights) it is also important to point out that he lives in puritan England, a country with censorship laws so strict that they do not allow any of his books to be published. His works are translated and read throughout the world, apart from in his country. Erich Von Gotha is one of the greatest erotic and English comic strip artists ever.

You can also see more at the artist's own site, Erich von Gotha dot com.

Top (Hat) Of The Mornin' To Ya

Hold the phone, I've got some great links for you this morning.

(Yeah, and I'm pandering the posed art nudes for ya.)

Found at Gloria Brame's blog, a list of Fine Art Nude, Figure, Glamour and Dance Photography books.

Ms Angela of Zen Fetish has posted three poems by e.e. cummings.

Gracie at Sex Kitten has an interesting post on the difficulties of being a sex-positive female publisher. Here's a bit of it:

"Playboy's been around, been accepted, for decades. Why not Sex Kitten?"

"Because Playboy's for men."

"And men can like sex, but women can't?"

"Of course, women can like sex; but men are supposed to like and talk about it more."

"But in Playboy the women, the centerfolds, admit they like sex ~ it's probably the only true part of their bios!"

"But it's still for men; male fantasies of women."

"So men are happier fantasizing that the women they are objectifying like sex than they are in accepting that real women they could screw like sex."

It's here where he becomes silent.

I can understand why; it's rather difficult to hear that outloud and neither want to accept it nor have a defense for it.

And while you're there, check out Masturbation, Bonding and The Threat To Society by DeeDee:

But unlike other basic drives, sex is different from food and water in that we can satisfy ourselves without actually achieving the goal of the drive. Arousal and orgasm can be achieved without contact with another human being yet be just as satisfying (at least in the physical needs department), while thirst and hunger may only be sated with water and food.

Images from the "stop reading dirty books" folder.

XXX Record Albums

Somethings to delight, and somethings to offend... LP Cover Lover has Triple-X covers for you to see...




Link found via Red Blooded Thing.

Weird Cults, BDSM and Vintage Sci-Fi (aka Of Brundage and Bondage)

Once again, ptupper72 at Beauty In Darkness is intriguing me... This time with Ancient Mystery Cults.

This is from Part One:

A mystery cult or mystery religion is what might be called a boutique religion. Instead of being a total institution one is born into, people are voluntarily and optionally initiated into them. It was also possible to be a member or even an officiant of multiple cults.

Mystery cults have initiation rituals, and initiation seems to be the main point of them, for their own sake. Victor Turner distinguished between liminal rituals, which result in significant and permanent changes in status (e.g. weddings, graduations), and liminoid rituals, which don't have a permanent change in status (e.g. BDSM scenes, in my opinion).

And this is a quote from Ancient Mystery Cults by Walter Burkert, as quoted in Ancient Mystery Cults Part Two, on the subject of flagellation as (possibly) depicted in the mural at the Villa of the Mysteries:

A kneeling girl, keeping her head in the lap of a seated woman and shutting her eyes, the seated woman grasping her hands and drawing back the garment from the kneeling girl's bare back, while a sinister-looking female behind is raising a rod -- these are all quite realistic details of caning. But the threatening figure wielding the rode has black wings; she is not from this world but rather an allegorical personality.

Image of Weird Tales via Gloria Brame, and one of her readers comments, "The cover illustration is by Margret Brundage, who did most of the vintage Weird Tales covers of the 'thirties. Her covers often featured naked or nearly nude women in bondage."

For more on Margaret Brundage, see this interview with her in 1973.

Sophia "No Sheet" Loren

Sophia Loren has promised another striptease if the 72-year-old actress' favorite team, Napoli, is promoted to the Italian top flight this season. (Source.)

Some may be saying Loren is too old to promise (scare) us such a thing, but remember, not long ago she posed for that calender -- see my first link -- and so is it too hard to imagine her without the sheet? People have been doing it for decades... *wink*

Homosexuality Closeted In Historical Museum Exhibit

John Addington Symonds opened his landmark 1883 book A Problem in Greek Ethics by warning his fellow Victorians, "To ignore paiderastia is to neglect one of the features by which Greek civilisation was most sharply distinguished."

Now, 124 years later, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is still guilty of that neglect. Their astonishing new Greek and Roman Galleries reopened last Friday, and after four visits we’re left astonished that no where do they mention homosexuality. Although the cases are full of drawings depicting males together, often nude or half-clad, drinking wine side by side in bed, oiling each other up at the gym, the display cards never acknowledge the widespread same-sex relationships that other museums tell their visitors were considered "honorable." Whenever Carlos Picon and his fellow curators have an opportunity with this topic to illuminate and educate, they look away and abandon their visitors to silence. In their descriptions of thousands of images on ancient pottery, they have whitewashed homosexuality out of history.

From Erasing History at the Met at Band of Thebes (which is authored by Stephen Bottum and is most worthy of a nod all on its own -- and so has been added to the sidebar).

Amazing that Zeus cannot be shown with Ganymede, but Zeus as a swan can be in bestial (sexual) repose with Leda. And how can Sappho be 'de-sexed' as Bottum states? Sure, she had many human interactions which were not sexual, but to remove the aspect of sexuality for which we have the term Sapphic Love is rather insane.

Ah, but that's the point -- homophobia is insane.

Photo: From the Gay City News reprint of 's article.

Scissor Happy Censors

From Scissor Happy:

"History has witnessed incidents of persecution, specially for visual arts. Governed by emotions or political ideals, perpetrators have tried to stamp out anything that challenged status quo. As a ploy, it never worked," says Hari Vasudevan, professor of history, Calcutta University.

Friday Film Updates: Who's Nude?

Now every Friday MrSkin gives us film updates, pointing out all the goodies in film nudity:As this updates every Friday, I'm going to link to this in the sidebar so you can find it easily.

Vintage Black and White Nude Photos

Usually I try to bring you information regarding the images I show you. I feel the important context of most of these objects, artists and icons is the historical information. But sometimes in all of this history we lose site of the desire. None of our sexual history would matter, would exist, if we didn't desire sex and want to arouse ourselves.

So today I'm going to focus more on images for the sake of themselves; after all, it is National Masturbation Month!

Plus, these images are scans of pages found in that old Paramount Pictures 'folder,' so I don't know more than shown. (But if you don't know about these babes... Well, you must be under a rock some place.)



The lovely Bettie Page photographed by (the also yummy) Bunny Yeager. Bettie isn't credited (again) in this photo, but it's clearly her.

Also not credited, those infamous early nude photos of Marilyn Monroe taken by Robert M. Miles.



Again, Marilyn the model is not credited, but she's clearly recognizable.



Be sure to click to see larger images!

Dirty Dishes

I don't often link to new things, but I'm utterly smitten with this set of dishes:




Made by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, this pattern features scantily clad women reclining on plates, bowls, cups and mugs.

(Bonus points for the tag line, "Some dishes are meant to be dirty.")

You can buy them at the designer's website and at Fishs Eddy.

Of Nudes and Swans

One often sees images of nude women with swans.

Vintage German photo of nude and swan, circa 1910.

Limoges Leda and Swan figurine, circa 1925.

Sleeping Swan, by Michael Parkes.

Often the images seem soft and romantic, dreamy. Other times they are artistic; a sensual play between skin and feathers.

Nude woman and swan titled,"Leda and the Swan," drawn by A Juredaz.

But there's more to the story.

Leda and the Swan is a motif from Greek mythology, in which Zeus (Jupiter) took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband, King Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. (Of course Zeus had to be a swan; as a member of the Anatidae family it's one of the few birds that possess a penis.)

The motif was rarely seen in the art of antiquity, but emerged in the Italian Renaissance as a combination of a classic theme and erotica. Using the classic Greek myth exploring sex was possible as long as it was bestiality, yet explicit sex between humans was far too inappropriate.

There are many variations depicting Leda in sexual acts with the swan: love-making, copulation, beak/mouth penetration, and rape.

The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is a woodcut illustration in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published in Venice in 1499.

Ammanati's marble statue (1500s).

Marble sarcophagus from Heraklion Museum (Crete)

Engraving, early C16, Giulio Campagnola.

Marble sarcophagus from Pergamon Museum (Berlin)

Leda and Swan, Maurice Ferray, marble, onyx & bronze, 1898-199

Gustave Moreau: Leda and the Swan, 1865-1875.

Leda and the swan, Scindia Museum, Gwalior, India

In 1928 William Butler Yeats published his poem, Leda And The Swan.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Yeats' poem is often discussed and debated.

I particularly like this discussion of Yeats' poem in terms of rape:

In 'Leda and the Swan', the issue that causes heartburn in many modern critics
is not the fact that the theme is a rape, but that Yeats seems to
1. glorify the power and sensuality of the rapist - "the feathered glory".
2. accede to the (male) belief that 'women love a bit of force' - "And how can
body, laid in that white rush / But feel the strange heart beating where it
lies?"
3. use the rape as a starting point for historical and cultural inspiration -
"his knowledge with his power".

Of course, it must also be said that Yeats at least tries to represent Leda's
state of mind - "those terrified vague fingers"; compare Spenser:

'Whiles the proud Bird ruffing his fethers wyde,
And brushing his faire brest, did her inuade;
She slept, yet twixt her eyelids closely spyde,
How towards her he rusht, and smiled at his pryde.'

(This same link also refers the question of what "feminist critic" means.)

There's even large debate over Yeats' intentions with his poem. Apparently Yeats had desired a political poem. As proof, see this passage from "Pornography and Canonicity: The Case of Yeats' Leda and the Swan," and essay in Representing Women: Law, Literature, and Feminism, pages 165-87:

According to Yeats, the poem was inspired by a meditation on the Irish situation in relation to world politics. The first version was finished at Coole in September 1923, in the atmosphere of political instability resulting from the Irish Civil War. Yeats told Lady Gregory of "his long belief that the reign of democracy is over for the present, and in reaction there will be violent government from above, as no in Russia, and is beginning here. It is the thought of this force coming into the world that he is expressing in his Leda poem." The swan-god, it seems, originated as a "rough beast," an unlikely amalgam of Lenin and President Cosgrave, subduing the anarchic masses personified by Leda; but Yeats insisted that, "as I wrote, a bird and lady took such possession of the scene that all politics went out of it, and my friend tells me that his `conservative readers would misunderstand the poem.'" All politics did not evaporate in the alchemy of the creative process, however: class politics were overshadowed though not entirely effaced by the politics of sexuality.

Ah, politics and sex. Gotta love that combination.

As long as I'm quoting... More from those same pages:

Yeats knew that his name and become a byword for paganism, anti-Catholicism, opposition to Gaelic culture, and snobbery. . . .

"Leda and the Swan" can thus be read as an aristocratic liberal intervention in the cultural debate about post-Treaty Irish identity, an insistence that in bringing to birth a new, independent Ireland, "love is a lustier sire than law." Was Ireland to become, as Yeats wished, "a modern, tolerant, liberal nation," free to deploy the resources of classical mythology and to admire naked Greek statuary; or was it to surrender to the obscurantism of the clergy, soon to be reified in the legislation of the new state? Sexuality, bodies, and their representations occupy center stage in this ideological struggle. The Swan, originating in Yeats'' mind as an image of the violent imposition of the law, ironically comes to symbolize all those desires the censors found threatening: in the context of the poem's reception its brutal energy represents the forces of sexual liberation. . . .

The Greek mythology itself was conflicting about the aspect of rape. Was this seduction, god allowed trickery? Was it violent rape? Is her submission to be expected because she's a mortal? Or did she enjoy it?

The subject of rape vs. seduction and Leda's participation level (enjoyment) is often part of the art too.

In Leda and the Swan, by George O' Connel Leda is rides the swan seemingly unaware of the consequences of will follow. (1973, Lithograph on woven paper), Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia.

In this engraving on paper by Cornelis Bos (ca. 1536-1540), one copied from a painting that Michelangelo completed for the Due Alfonso of Ferrara but did not deliver because he was insulted by the Duke's agent -- or possibly because he was not sure the painting was appropriate, Leda is rather masculine and very sexual. There is no resisting the swan's advance.

There are many imaginations of Leda and Zeus the swan...

Salvador Dali, Lena & Swan.

Petrus Paul Rubens, Leda and the Swan, oil on canvas. Flemish, 1601-2.

Vladimir Suchanek, Prague, color lithograph.

Carlos Cartagena pinup, 1995.

Leda and the Swan (sixteenth century), Paolo Veronese.

Early Georgian period heavy gold ring, 15ct gold (by test) and with a gorgeous hand carved bezel and shank surround in a continuing pattern of dense flowers. The intaglio, classified as an "erotic" intaglio shows a nude Leda with her swan suitor, the God Zeus.

Neon lighted sign, outside German hotel.

Leda and the swan mosaic from a Roman house in Paphos, Cyprus, late 2nd century CE. London, British Museum.

Leda: In Praise of the Blessings of Darkness, Pierre Louys, University of Georgia.

Leda and the swan and Castor and Polydeuces, Clytemnestra and Helen; (Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519] Collection, Rome

MEERSCHAUM GERMAN PIPE-bought in Germany at end of WW 1 by consignor's grandfather. Highly carved with Leda & the Swan. Bakalite stem, leather case. Carl Hiess, Wien, Graben printed on case.

Oil on canvas, Paul Tillier (1834-1915).

Leda and the Swan, bronze, Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D., 5 13/16 inches high.

Nazi art, Leda and Swan.

Modern Leda & Swan, likely by Hilary Pollock.

The story of Leda doesn't end with that one night...

Being a god means that Zeus is going to impregnant her -- immortal sperm, and all that. Of course, she was also with her husband, Tyndareus.

From this one night we have several children, which typically hatch from eggs, and several versions of the children's parentage. In some Leda bore/hatched Helen (of Troy) and Clytemnestra, children of Zeus, and at the same time bearing Castor (Kaster) and Pollux (Polydeuces), children of Tyndareus. In others, Castor's father was Tyndareus and Pollux's father was the Greek god Zeus resulting in twins where Castor was mortal and Pollux, being the son of a mythological god, was immortal.

Further confusion continues as Castor & Pollux are sometimes both mortal, sometimes both divine. One consistent point seems to be that if only one of them is immortal, it is Pollux. In Homer's Iliad, Helen looks down from the walls of Troy and wonders why she does not see her brothers among the Achaeans and the narrator says that both are already dead and buried back in their homeland (Lacedaemon), suggesting that at least in some early traditions, both were mortal.

Mortal or not, Castor and Pollux are the twins known as Gemini, including the constellation.

Leda's daughter Helen becomes Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal. At least in some versions. There are others which say that the Helen of Troy is the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis. Adding to the confusion, there is even one story where both Leda and Nemesis have contact with the egg which is to be Helen.

One story comes from one of the Cyclic Epics, Cypria (generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC). In Cypria, Nemesis did not want to mate with Zeus and so she changed into various animals forms in attempts to avoid Zeus. Eventually Nemisis becomes a goose and Zeus, also transformed as a goose, mates with her. In this story it is Nemesis who produces the egg from which the Helen (of Troy) hatches.

In some of these stories, this egg, before hatching, is found by a shepherd. He gives the the egg to Leda to protect. Leda does and when the egg hatches, she is so enamored with the baby girl (Helen) that she raises her as her daughter. In the 5th century comedy Nemesis (by Cratinus) Leda is told to sit on an egg so that it would hatch, but there is no doubt the egg is Nemesis' (and that the Helen who hatches has Nemesis as her biological mother).

It is also interesting to note that in stories in which Helen is Leda's daughter, the sex with Zeus is not depeicted as rape. For example, in Euripides' play Helen (late 5th century BC), it says that Zeus, in the form of a swan, was chased by an eagle and sought refuge with Leda. The swan gained her affection and the two mated. Leda later then produced an egg from which Helen was born.

Apparently such beauty as helen's cannot be so tainted as to have been concieved in rape.

But back to Leda.

There has only been one coin minted with the myth of Leda and the swan. It is on the reverse of this coin with the bust of Severus Alexander (222-235 A.D.).


However, Leda and swan are on reverse of a bronze medal of Faustina the Roman. Faustina herself is interesting -- she was 'a courtesan celebrated by Joachim du Bellay, who was in Rome from 1553 to 1558, and possibly identical with the Faustina who excited the passion of Brantôme.' The legend may be completed as Favstina ro(mana) o(mnium) p(ulcherrima), or the Roman Faustina, of every beauty.

The reverse also has the legend si Iovi.quid homini which implies if Jove does this, what of men? (The Roman name for Zeus was Jupiter or Jove.)



In 1964, Kurt Kren made the film 7/64: Leda mit dem Schwan. At IMDB one reviewer says:

"Based on the poem by Yeats called also "Leda and the Swan" it features some unforgettable and disturbing imagery. We see Leonardo,who grates a large cucumber over Leda with a grater,squashes 10 tomatoes and cracks 5 eggs on her.He places a bottle containing a rose between her legs.Then he scatters bread-crumbs and coffee powder over her.Leda sets her upper body upright and draws in one leg.Leonardo places a large,uninflated plastic swan between her legs and so on.Unquestionably bizarre and edited very fast,"Leda and the Swan" is among the best short films made by infamous Viennese Aktionists.7 out of 10."

I don't even know how to follow that up.

If all these Leda and Swan images weren't enough for you, try here.

For a somewhat strange (definitely kitschy) version of Leda and the swan shown with fashion dolls, go here.

Found With Smut

In one of my auction lots, a box of vintage pornographic magazines, there was this old cover to Paramount Pictures, 1937-1938. (I do not have the publication, but I cannot get rid of it either -- like old empty boxes, there is always the possibility of finding the contents needing a cover, or a collector who does and will trade me for something I must have.)



This cover was now like a folder, holding loose pages cut out from many other vintage men's magazines and other publications with artistic nudes, risque articles and pinups, as well as some newspaper clippings and even a few nude sketches as well.




As I paged through this folder of vintage smut, article by article, I came upon this note:

You're suppose to be studying -- Not reading dirty books!

(As written, not a typo on my part.)

Clearly this young man (or woman) was left a note by mom, who didn't want to directly confront him (or was tired of not being heard for the umpteenth time) and so she left him a note where he'd be sure to find it.

Somethings never change, hm?

I'm not sure this qualifies as a "Dirty Found" item based on its location... But it sure made my day. *wink*

And yes, I'll be posting more of the pages/images from this folder of cut out goodies -- with better scans for you too. (I just wanted to show you quickly!)

Objects of Desire: Product Poster Masterpieces

International Poster Gallery announces "Objects of Desire: Product Poster Masterpieces", an exhibition that traces the numerous ways in which poster artists have made products and brands irresistible to the public since the 1890s.

"'Objects of Desire' is one of the most fun shows we've ever presented, but also one of the most thought provoking," comments gallery president Jim Lapides.

"It is a subject that graphic designers and advertisers have grappled with forever – how to make products sell through the right combination of word and image posted on a wall. Along with many classics, the show is full of unusual surprises from every corner of the globe."

Shown here are The Pet of the Halls from Yankee Girls Abroad, 1900, by James Montgomery Flagg (above) and Adolfo Hohenstein's Fiammiferi Senza Fosforo, circa 1900.

The show, which is free and open to the public, runs through Memorial Day, May 28, 2007 and is located at 205 Newbury Street in Boston. See internationalposter.com for information.

Mondo Exploitation Advertising

Another print block, measuring 8.25 x 3.5 inches; this one is for exploitation film features called MondoRama.


I had 'the tech guy' (the husband) once again monkey with Photoshop to create what the paper print would look like.


It's pretty clear that this is an ad, likely from a newspaper, promoting the Mondo Rama film triple-feature.

The text reads:

203 Minutes Of The Most Incredible Scenes Ever Recorded On Film

Mondorama

All In Raw Color!

SEE

Bloody German Duels

Black Magic In London

Human Pin Cushion

ECCO

In Technicolor

Erotica of the East

Exposes Odd Customs

TABOOS Of The World

Color

Tattooed Virgins

Male Geisha Girls

MACABRO

African Love School

Technicolor

SEE THE WORLD in the RAW
Overpowering, fascinating -- often shocking!

What little I know about the films themselves is the following:

ECCO is Italian for Look! And a review of the film, along with more information on Mondo films, is available at DVD Drive-In.

Here's the film's trailer:



Marv Miller, television's The Millionaire, went on to narrate Macabro in 1966 (and then began cranking out porno movies). Via Something Weird Video.

Also at Something Weird, Taboos of the World is part of the Twisted Sex Volume 13 DVD.

Feminist Art Shows

Does being a woman grant automatic entry into a feminist art show? Are women still oppressed, or is feminism itself a relic of the '70s?

Still Fewer Women

Given the stats, feminism, boiled down to a demand for equal rights, is as necessary as ever. Staging a show of women artists remains a feminist act, even in 2007.

From Even Great Women Artists Have a Difficult Time Showing, Selling by Carly Berwick.

Women account for barely one-fifth of solo exhibitions at New York galleries, according to the curators, who tallied the numbers from hundreds of venues. That figure is up from the '70s but down from the '90s, when the proportion peaked at 24 percent. Rather than wring their hands, the curators offer a corrective. It's a refreshing tactic amid a current wave of nostalgia for feminism.

Shibari

Shibari is a Japanese style of bondage involving tying up the bottom in intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope which not only restrains the bottom, but provides the bottom pleasure from the pressure and strain of the ropes.

It's also an art form. And photographer Lee "Bridgett" Harrington likes to give classes on the subject, including Erotic Macramé Classes.

In an interview regarding the workshops, Harrington said:

Suffice it to say that shibari derived from rope restraints used on Japanese prisoners of war. "How it evolved into an erotic art, we're not quite sure, since the only earlier documentation we have are erotic woodcuts from the 1700s," she said.

You can find out more about the artist/performer/educator at Passion and Soul, in her blog, and see more photos at her website, RopeLover.com, and Black Book Art.

Memo to self: Must meet Lee "Bridgett" Harrington.

Sugasm #78

The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #78? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you’re all set.

This Week’s Picks
Coming into my own: How I learned to masturbate (rubytellsall.com…)
“Eventually I could no longer help myself, and I stealthily slipped my hand under my panties.”

A Hard Day’s Play - part 3 (curvaceousdee.blogspot.com…)
“Together, they create a new sensation, and I savour being able to literally taste their coupling.”

Sexist Sexy Hotel Kits (blog.babeland.com…)
“Kind of sexist? How about completely, amazingly, disgustingly sexist.”

Mr. Sugasm Himself
Dancers for Democracy (sugarbank.com…)

Editor’s Choice
On my 31st birthday, I gave my boyfriend two blowjobs… (lustylady.blogspot.com…)

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday (Fleshbot.com)

(Sugasm participants should re-post all the links above. The following links may be excluded as long as you include all the above links.)

Thoughts on Sex and Relationships
Dancing ’round the giant phallus (deliciously-naughty.typepad.com…)
I’m often asked, “Gracie, does size really matter?” (www.sex-kitten.net…)
I Want To Show Off…. Tastefully! (totalsensuality.blogspot.com…)
Meat Puppet? (mrsemmakelly.blogspot.com…)
Naked Polemics (secretlifeofaman.blogspot.com…)
Sex While Sick = Interesting Results (talktovanessa.com…)

Sex Work
Armed and Talking (radicalvixen.com…)
Photo Session - part one (verdannasdiary.thumblogger.com…)

Sex & Politics
Sexual Liberation? (un-cool.blogspot.com…)
Why Is Kink Taboo? Why Is SEX Taboo? (www.quipsandchains.com…)

NSFW Pics, Videos & Audio
Audio: Celebrating Masturbation Month (www.taratainton.com…)
I Shot Myself (eroticandy.blogspot.com…)
Jenna and her sexy friend (myhotbox.blogspot.com…)
New Lingerie (imelda-imelda.blogspot.com…)

BDSM & Fetish
Al And Lynn Again?!!?!?!? (prettyfeetandlegs.thumblogger.com…)
Doors, to be opened (me.wolfhawk.net…)
Face fucking, continued (twentyfoursevends.blogspot.com…)
A girl in her cage~ (blog.atlantabondage.com…)
Half-Nekkid Sloppy Seconds (sweatshopsissy.wordpress.com…)
Happy HNT - Sexy Vancouver Canucks fantasy (darkside-journey.blogspot.com…)
Hasratda (kinkyfarmwife.blogspot.com…)
The Lady is a Tramp (shesinheat.blogspot.com…)
Pavlov’s pussy~ (www.kinkerbelle.com…)
Right Round, Baby (www.sub-burbs.com…)
Used (gentlygently.blogspot.com…)
Who’s your daddy? (cinekink.com…)
Women on Top (selinafire.blogspot.com…)

Sex News & Reviews
Caring For Your Monkey (silent-porn-star.blogspot.com…)
May is Masturbation Month! (shayssexcolumn.blogspot.com…)
Who’s your daddy? (cinekink.com…)

Sex & Humor
Man-Eating Bush (secretbrain.blogspot.com…)

Erotic Writing and Experiences
Cracks in the ceiling (junohenry.wordpress.com…)
Empowering Carpet Burn (bikersballsandteacherstits.blogspot.com…)
I Want Candy (goldslutstandard.com…)
The Jalepeno-Flavored Whore (cakeandcock.blogspot.com…)
A Moment’s Notice (dirtydetails.blogspot.com…)
More stoned sex (kimandethan.com…)
Never Doubt a Marine: The Weekend, Part Two (mrsemmakelly.blogspot.com…)
A night stand (lastbreath.wordpress.com…)
Restaurant Voyeur (www.betweensheets.net…)
She called (orangeuglad.blogspot.com…)
Tell Me (marriageishot.blogspot.com…)
Telling Stories (eroticawriter.blogspot.com…)

The History of Girly Magazines and Censorship

From Girly Mags vs. the Censors, a review of The History of Girly Magazines by Dian Hanson:

In the U.S., by contrast, the government still tries to draw a line between mere sexual explicitness, which is protected by the First Amendment, and obscenity, which is not. Because this distinction is based on “community standards,” which are influenced by what publishers manage to get away with, the line is constantly moving. By running pictures of topless women along with serious articles by well-known writers, Hugh Hefner inspired a horde of imitators (including Duke, a short-lived Playboy for black men with a button-eyed mannequin instead of a rabbit as a mascot) and helped make sexual content acceptable, if not respectable. By 1970, 17 years after Playboy’s premiere issue featuring a nude but discreetly posed Marilyn Monroe, community standards were accommodating enough to allow what Hanson identifies as “the very first pubic hair to appear on the American newsstand.” It belonged to a snorkeler photographed on a beach for Penthouse, a publication that embodied Bob Guccione’s vision of a magazine for men who thought Playboy was too hoity-toity (which makes his title choice a little puzzling).

Dirty Found Summer

Don't miss the Dirty Found Tour.

(If you don't know about Dirty Found, check their blog -- where they'll keep you up to date with more tour dates -- and this review too.)

Erotic Art in the Arab World -- Today

Two women painters show images of fetishism, homosexuality, masturbation in Beirut art show:

Artists Nayla Karam and Maria Sarkis are displaying their Warhol-like pop art in a joint exhibition at a gallery in the Lebanese capital's northern Christian suburbs.

In "Auto-eroticism" for example, Sarkis presents a sensual depiction in green and pink of a woman who may be masturbating, a hand under her panties.

In yet brighter colours but smooth lines, another painting called "The Mirror" shows a close encounter between the faces and breasts of two apparent lesbians.

"I've been working on the theme of eroticism for a year. The 'morally correct' is a relative question which changes with time," Sarkis said.

The fine arts graduate from the Lebanese University, who is in her twenties, said: "In the 19th century (French artist) Gustave Courbet was banned from the universal exhibition of 1855.

"Today, he is considered one of the great masters of the Realist movement," she added, referring to Courbet's "The Origin of the World" which shocked many people of the time with its graphic depiction of female genitalia.

These women face more than the issue of 'Time' and its passing to make themselves and their art more acceptable:

Leon Khanamirian, a 25-year-old banker, said that "in the Middle East, men are allowed to express their sexual fantasies in a vulgar manner, but when (women) artists paint sexuality, it suddenly becomes a scandal."

Hassan Mekdad, 52, called the paintings shocking, however.

"The artists would have been killed if they lived in an Islamic neighbourhood," he said.

Seeing Smut Where There Isn't Any

I consider myself an amateur sex historian as much as I do a collector of adult items, but many folks just call me 'The Smut Lady' or 'that girl who likes nudies' and while they joke it's rather clear they think I'm so into sex that I see it everywhere -- even in places it isn't. Examples are the Mary & her Monkey card and the pie postcard -- the former proves me right and the latter still eludes an answer.

However, the fact remains that folks think I see smut where there isn't any.

And maybe I do.

Ptupper72, an author researching for his book, Beauty in Darkness: A history of BDSM, runs into this same problem.

Being more scholarly, he calls this phenom of seeing smut where there isn't any or interpreting things to fit your beliefs by its proper name, confirmation bias. And he recently discussed this possible bias in viewing Venus of Urbino by Titian.

When researching and evaluating anything there is always the potential for errors. You can be androcentric (or in my case, gynocentric) in your approach, ethnocentric, have confirmation bias or any other other cognitive bias. These are things one must watch for when trying to find answers.

Because I know my mind often looks for sex, I also watch myself for this bias and all the others which affect my interpretation of items. But that doesn't mean if I see 'sex' it's not there. We've been having sex since the beginning of our time as a species. Duh. And our art and objects are loaded with it.

As the saying goes, just because you are paranoid it doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you.

Postcard Collector Tips

How to identify real photo postcards.

Sensuous Sadie's Selling Sexy 60's Smut

She's selling some of her private collection of sexy pulp novels both direct at her site and at eBay. Here are a few of the covers.

Adult Collectors

I've been contacted by a company which is thinking of creating a collectors' site devoted to risque and adult collectibles and they'd like our input.

This would be a collectibles site -- vintage men's mags, postcards, art, erotic antiques, old publications, pinups, explicit items, signed works, etc., not just a bunch of new cheap vibes and DVDs. It would be for adults only, therefore removing the problems of underage buyers and the threat of complaints about images or materials -- photos would remain hosted until you removed them. Both soft and hardcore items could be showcased here, including fetish & SM categories so you could accurately show an item and its condition. (Anything other than illegal items, of course.)

This site would not be just another attempt at an adult auction site but rather be a social site for collectors where you could network to find other collectors (and collectors could find sellers and specific items).

You would be allowed to link to your own personal website in your profile, post images of your collections as well as negotiate trades and sales of items without listing or final value fees. They also would have an informative blog with regular updates on adult collectibles so that there is a reason for folks to come visit.

If there were a site devoted to risque and adult collectibles, one which allowed you to display your collection with an unlimited number of items shown/listed until you took them down, let you network and negotiate with others collectors and sellers, where all members were adults, would you pay a monthly fee?

If so how much would you pay?

As a collector, I see the advantage being a site built around collectibles, history and artifacts not just the latest in dildo and DVD releases. I personally would love to see such a site because eBay is intolerable and it's hunt and peck and how many individual sites? In terms of sellers, this is a much more economical & practical than using eBay with it's high fees and restrictions (not just in types of items, but the fact that they hide their 'mature' category) or other outlets which have just the standard toy and DVD distributors &/or no buyers.

What do you think? Post your comments &/or email me. I promise not to disclose your personal information; just share your ideas on the platform and pricing.

-- UPDATE, May 2, 2007 --

Since many of you have asked who this company is (and I certainly understand your concerns) I've asked for permission to post who this is.

It's Collectors' Quest, which has been online over a year and will soon be expanding to the more social things mentioned above (such as profiles, being able to show your collection, trade and sell etc.).

It was during the discussion of what to do with the more mature items which members might wish to post at such mainstream site that the idea of making a site devoted to our sort of items was mentioned. This would be a separate site (different domain name).

Thanks to those who have posted comments & emailed their thoughts -- please continue!

-- UPDATE, June 11, 2007 --

For the latest update, check this post!