C H O C O L A T

That’s not a typo. That’s the name of Candida Royale’s new line “aimed at tastefully serving the erotic needs of women of color,” and the picture above is from the first release, AFRODITE SUPERSTAR.

I am neither a woman, nor am I of color, (unless blotchy irish pink and white counts,) but I like the the above image and the two others you can see from the sex scene between Simone Valentino and Mr. Marcus’s sex on Fleshbot. I like them a lot. These are the sorts of images that serve my erotic needs. These are the sort of images of sex that make me say, “Yes, that. I need more of that.”

And just what is “that?”

Hmmm. Hard to put into words, but look at the pictures and I think you’ll know what I mean, and I think you’ll want more of that too.

Is there more of that in AFRODITE SUPERSTAR? I don’t know. It’s a long path from three great frames to a whole movie, but the trip down that path can’t start without the first frame, then the second, then the third, and these lovely first three frame are making a big, and tantalizing promise. Here’s hoping the film delivers!

Having already fessed to being a bit neurotic about checking my stats, I don’t feel any bit of embarrassment when I tell you that last Thursday I noticed something odd in our search referrals.

Specifically, the number of visitors arriving on the search [comstock] suddenly shot up, and the number of visitors we were getting from Google’s various international versions (.it, .pl, .eg) also jumped. Together this was a pretty clear indication that someone somewhere made mention of Comstock Films in a non-linking medium.

But what could it be?

Well it turns out it was the program dISPENSER that runs on channel 2 of state-run Italian radio (sort of the Italian version of the BBC.)

I don’t speak Italian, but I do speak a little Spanish, and between that, and the Google translation and the Babblefish translation and listenning to the podcast of the show, I was able to get a sense of what they said, which it turns out was altogether very nice, which comes as a bit of a surprise.

I’ve come to accept that when mainstream journalists write about what we do, it’s going to be done with a certain degree of snark and condesension. After all, who wants to be seen taking “porn”, especially “amateur porn” seriously.

But as far as I can tell, there was no snark in the dISPERSER piece. Well actually there was plenty of snark, all aimed at Anthony Comstock, which makes folks at dISPENSER the first mainstream journalists to even notice that the name “Comstock Films” is a bit of a sly joke. (Apparently a bit too sly for the likes of Richard Corliss or Stacy Grenrock Woods.)

There also seemed to be some genuine appreciation for what we do. Yes, the name “Comstock Films” is a bit of a joke, but we’re quite sincere about the work we do, both in our desire to entertain and arouse our audience, and perhaps even to provoke a little thought about the strange way our society treats the collision of sex and the moving image.

Treating the subject of sex with respect, and especially treating people who make movies about sex with respect takes a bit of courage; it so much easier and much less risky to make what we do the butt of a bit of mean-spirited humor. I understand why Stacy feels obligued include a jab about yellowed futons in her Esquire piece, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

So thank you to Matteo B Bianchi and everyone else at dISPENSER for sharing what we do, both the silly side and the serious side, with your listeners. And thanks for showing us the same respect we try to show our subjects.

FATE L’AMORE, NON FATE IL PORNO (”Make love, not porn”) webpage

FATE L’AMORE, NON FATE IL PORNO (”Make love, not porn”) podcast

We’ve had our share of problems with Google and Adwords and the erotophobic bias of the English language. Now it’s someone else’s turn to go through the rinse cycle.

Don’t Be Evil (Or A Dyke, Or Trans), Violet Blue’s Open Source Sex

Of course you can just do what Elora’s Cave does and make sure not to use any of the Google-verborten words that are the meat and potatos of your books anywhere on your website.

It can be hard not to be ashamed when nearly everywhere you turn, if you want to reap the benefits of particpating in the larger culture, you’re told you have to act like you are ashamed; substituting coded language and knowing looks for real ideas and authentic emotions.

(I don’t know what our favorite Hells Kitchen lumber yard is going to do if they ever feel they need to do some Google Ad words.)

In his Slate column about a Dove TV spot, Seth Stevenson writes:

[T]his Dove ad is just atrocious. It uses a cheap video camera and murky lighting, and stars an average-looking woman being filmed as she takes a shower. The result bears a queasy resemblance to amateur pornography—though I’m told that even bargain-basement porn features flashier production values and more compelling actresses.

Please note, Seth doesn’t watch “bargain-basement porn”, but someone close to him does. Also note that in using the word “porn” to put down the ad and the woman in the ad, Seth hasn’t really told us anything about the ad, but he’s told us a little, maybe too much, about him about himself.

I’d also like to get a look at Seth’s porn stash. If he’s got a cache of porn that’s a lively, fun-loving, and easy on the eyes as this Dove spot, I’d like to borrow it!

Our first film, MARIE AND JACK: A Hardcore Love Story has been picked up by Amazon.com, where it’s listed as being a part of the Comstock Films “Real People, Real Life, Real Sex Series. The Amazon listing is also the first time we’ve been able to show off MARIE & JACK’s spiffy new NC-17 rating.

Many thanks to Ellinoz and Emerald for their very nice reviews of MATT AND KHYM: Better Than Ever. With their help, Amazon is doing brisk business on that title, and we hope some of you out there have some nice things to say about MARIE & JACK as well!

MARIE AND JACK: A Hardcore Love Story on Amazon.com

That’s the title of AVN’s cover story this month. In a nut shell, the article seems to suggest that since women (mostly) don’t buy what Chatsworth is selling, the women’s market is a niche market where the usual rules of making and selling porn don’t apply. Says Meredith Christopher, head of production at Adam and Eve:

“I really don’t think there’s a true women’s market. About 30% of Adam and Eve’s online customers are female and they buy primarily toys and lingerie. We think about 7 percent of women buyers actually buy video, which is a fairly small number. Women are happy with their toys. They don’t necessarily need the visual as much. My theory is that they’re open to adult video, they enjoy watching it with a spouse or a boyfriend, but I don’t know that they purchase it for solo use like men do.”

50 years ago, before most people had ever heard of Napa, or Sonoma, or Pinot Noir, one might have concluded that the American wine market was also a niche market where the usual rules for selling alchohol didn’t apply. True as that might have been, it misses the broader truth that American wine wasn’t very good, and Americans’ taste in wine wasn’t very sophisticated, and that people can’t ask something if they don’t know it exists.

I reckon that right now, all we really know about what women watch is that (most) women won’t watch crap, and that until we see erotic films that are made as well and thoughtfully made as the work of coming Njoy Toys or Fun Factory, we’re not going to have much of a clue what women do or don’t want to watch when it comes to sexually explicit entertainment.

Meanwhile here at Comstock Films, women continue to be a very important part of our audience. About half the people who buy DVDs directly from us are women, and our films do very well at stores that cater to women. We know from the letters we get that these women are enjoying watching our films both alone and with their lovers. (Hences Peggy’s tag-line for our new affiliate ads, “Women love real sex.”)

Also, while we like to think we’re equal opportunity arousers here at Comstock Films, the fact is, when I’m editing, it’s usually with a woman in mind as my audience. Call it my heterosexual bias, but when I’m cutting a film, I imagine the effect it’s going to have on a woman, particularly the effect it’s going to have between her legs. I’m not ashamed to say that making films that turn women on turns me on. It gets me fired up creatively knowing that my films are causing women to have gushy afternoon wanks, or inspire women to try new sex position with their husbands.

Does that mean I know what women want to watch? Well I suppose I know what some women want to watch. But I do know what films I want to make, and count myself lucky that enough women (and men) like watching them that I’m able to keep making them!

What’s wrong with this sentence:

“I checked the U.S. Constitution, particularly the First Amendment. Nowhere could I find the part that says you are entitled to dirty pictures.”

This is the terrible legacy of Roe v. Wade. Whether it’s dildos in Alabama, or abortion in South Dakota, two generations of Americans now labor under the misapprehension that the right to do X, Y, or Z must be found in the US Constitution, and failing that, the state has the unlimited right to regulate or even ban X, Y, or Z.

Show me in the Constitution where the state has the right to prohibit the sale of dildos. Failing that, show me in just what way the state has a compelling interest in regulating the sale of dildos.

I’m not holding my breath.