Peggy C, The Other Half

I have to confess that I’m feeling a little unsure where to begin with this blog. See, Tony’s got the whole burning hellfire zealotry thing going (and yeah, he’s like that at home too!) which… I don’t quite share. In fact, if I had to describe in one word, my feelings on the subject of porn*, it would be “ambivalent.”

I don’t find most porn offensive nearly so much as baffling. Shuttling through an award-nominated gonzo release with Tony not long ago, the thought actually crossed my mind that I might be an alien from another planet. Seriously. It would go a long way toward explaining how utterly removed and distant I feel from the portrayals of sexuality I see in the world around me.

I just don’t get it.

Since getting involved in Comstock Films with Tony, and learning more about the technical aspects of production, it’s become easier to see some of the things common to porn that build toward that reaction. Sometimes we pick things apart like John Madden with a telestrater — Tony will pause a DVD mid-scene and we’ll play “what’s wrong with this picture” (it’s a really sad commentary on the state of porn that I find that much more entertaining than anything happening between the performers grunting and banging away on the screen.)

And while it’s helpful to have some handle on the more concrete, or technical aspects of what’s lacking in porn, I know that those things are merely physical manifestations, symptomatic of a far deeper and more entrenched problem with how we as a culture deal with sexuality. I don’t really mean that in a flaky utopian “oh, if only we could all just grow up and be enlightened and shit” way, either.

I’m not entirely sure what I mean by it, frankly. Maybe I’ll use this blog to try and figure it out.

*I’m talking about moving image porn, now, not written smut which I quite often love — but that’s another post for another time.

I realized the other day that my “public face” (such as it is) in this company has thus far been chiefly represented by this photo which my husband Tony has published a few times in his blog:

Well, it’s been a good decade since I got drafted into this enterprise we call Comstock Films, and I guess maybe it’s time people have a chance to know me as something other than the chick with the dorktastic pink ponytail holder in that production still from the Damon & Hunter shoot.

Aside from operating the second camera on our shoots, I wear a bunch of other hats around here including: keeping up our Web site, designing our packaging, and hanging over Tony’s shoulder while he edits the films (making comments and suggestions which are intermittently useful.)

So, um… Hello! As you can see, my links list is mostly a blank slate. Drop by and say hi.