Traffic is up 100% today, the increase entirely in the form of visitors from Sweden, and a bunch of sales to Sweden today too. Must have been something in print because we’re not seeing any inbound Swedish links. I wonder what it was? If anyone knows, please tell us!
Okay, that’s going to far. Let’s try again.
Stacy Grenrock Woods Has a Cunty Job
A few years ago Stacy Grenrock Woods was a correspondent for The Daily Show. She mananged to parlay that into a gig as a columnist for Esquire Magazine, which means that instead of doing her schtick under the guise of a reporter on a fake news show, now every month she does schtick under the guise of magazine sex advice columnist. For example, from the July 2005 edition of Esquire:
“If this all seems too flashy for you, you may want to try a title from Comstock Films, a company that specializes in films of real couples having real sex, documentary style. Founder and director Tony Comstock offers an alternative for those people who find themselves turned off by the established porn aesthetic… but the real-life approach has drawbacks as well. The chance of Chinese-character tattoos and yellowed futons increases by about 70 percent with this kind of thing. Basically, it all comes down to this: There’s porn, and then there are movies Diane Keaton would like. The choice is yours.”
Nice. Thanks Stacy.
This month Stacy takes on stinky pussy (Is this really a problem? In all my bachelor years I never encountered a twat that didn’t smell and taste divine!)
And some experts (the ones who would talk to us) don’t rule out that your diet could indeed be influencing what the bloggers keep referring to as your “congealed salmon and battery acid” flavor. (But don’t let them bother you. Take it from me: They’re just jealous!) Garlic and onions spring to mind. Curry is far from innocent. Antihistamines, too. Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus author Violet Blue (who was kind enough to speak to me now that Blue Indigo Violet is no longer accepting my calls) posits that one can sweeten one’s taste by drinking “a smoothie that contains cucumber, mango, and pineapple juice once a day for three or four days,” and hopefully by that time, anyone who was considering oral sex with you will have moved on.
Needless to say, Violet Blue is kinda cheesed about this, the school yard name bullshit adn the gynophobic “sex-advice” too. I expect anyone who grew up with the name “Grenrock” knows a thing or two about the former.(Bonus: when she posed for Playboy in 1989 she listed “rudeness” as her pet peeve. Oh the irony!)
Here’s how it works.
The phone rings or there’s e-mail. An Esquire researcher wants to talk to you about an upcoming article. You are flattered, you are excited. The researcher is polite and interested. You tell them all sorts of stuff. When they ask you about other companies you list S.I.R. Productions as “female-friendly” porn. (Absolutely true, but probably not what they had in mind.) The researcher jots all of this down, thankful that he’s found a one-stop shop for all the notes he’s going to pass along to Stacy. Stacy never talks to you, she never sees your movie or anything from the other companies listed.
A month later you get a call from a fact checker. She wants to make sure that Comstock is spelled C O M S T O C K.
About a month after that the article comes out. Of course you are not happy to see something you care about, something you’ve worked hard for, made sacrifices for, treated like a joke.
But the next day the searches for [comstock films] are up, and over the next month or so sales rise too. Not enough to retire, but maybe enough to hire a baby sitter and take your wife out on a date. You feel a little less angry and disappointed, and a little more circumspect.
You will get more requests; magazines, newspapers, television. Some of these requests represent genuine interest in what you do, many do not.
You’ll feel flattered that someone regards you as an expert. But, because you feel like the “little guy” you will feel anxious when someone wants you to say something or do something that you don’t want to do. You think about how nice it was to spend an evening out with your wife, you think about the bills that come due each month–whether or not anyone buys any of your movies.
Then you say no.
When you say no you’ll get a note like this:
RE: Case Closed: Slick Transitions Story
Hi Tony,
As the editor on the Slick Transitions piece authored by Lxxxx, I wanted to deliver the news that we’ve opted to run with an alternate source for the Slick Transitions piece. With this and all stories, we confirm the accuracy of information with more than one source per article. I’ve been told that you expressed several concerns with various attributions and tips - and thus, given your reservations and our timeline, we’ve chosen to use another expert for the piece.
Best,
Kxxxxxx
The next month sales will be down, and you won’t know if it’s because your Google traffic is off, or because your name wasn’t in the that magazine. You will wonder if you should have said yes. You will wonder if you’re getting treated differently because what you do is about sex, and you’re supposed to be grateful anytime the mainstream press takes an interest. You live on coffee and bile for a few days (not a healthy diet.)
Then something will happen that will remind you why you do what you do:
I have issues with sex.
I’m a sexual abuse survivor. Anyone who’s been sexually abused comes into sexuality with a handbag and 2 trunks of emotional baggage. I’ve been on SS Denial since I was a child…
A link took me to www.comstockfilms.com. Dubbed: ‘Real People, Real Life, Real Sex’ the site explores sexuality for real. In a documentary styled venture into 2 people’s life we meet, and enjoy, the couple and then venture into the velvety movement of their bodies.
I must say. I was stunned. I’m not a fan of porn. I am disgusted by a lot of what is sold to men. The fairytale behind that isn’t charming, in my opinion.
But watching the clips I thought, wow. Oh my goodness. So THIS is sex. For real. And I loved the charming banter of the couples.
I feel grown up right now. Like a real adult. I’ve confronted one of my demons — enjoying a sexual experience — and I can actively admit that I enjoyed it.
I can only guess at what sort of personal baggage Stacy brings to her writing about sex, but I know all about the cultural baggage. It’s Tyra Banks making a cheap, undermining joke about faking orgasms; it’s ASHLEY AND KISHA getting banned, while DESTRICTED plays across town; it’s Stacy’s foul quip about congealed salmon and batteries acid. (Attributed to the blogging community, but Google comes up empty. Maybe that’s a peek into Stacy’s personal baggage after all.)
It’s that, when it comes to sex, it’s more acceptable to be flippant, condescending, disgusting, than it is to be sincere.
That’s the headline for the very nice write up of ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT in the latest issue of Bnews, and Australian Gay and Lesbian magazine.
It’s especially nice to see a write-up in Bnews, because the last time they were writing something about one of our movies, it was about the unfortunate run-in we had with the OFLC over the (ultimately cancelled) screening of DAMON AND HUNTER at queerDOC, Australia’s premiere gay and lesbian film festival.
Hopefully we’ll have better luck with ASHLEY AND KISHA on the Aussie festival circuit!
Photo from Violet Blue’s TinyNibbles.com
Ten years ago I wanted to make a film that actually showed people enjoying sex that would be good enough that HBO would put them on the TV. Then Peggy and I actually met with the producer and the director of Real Sex and decided I didn’t care if my films were ever on HBO.
Five years ago I wanted to make a film that was fully intented to make people aroused that would be good enough that Sundance would play it in their film festival. Then Sundance played Destricted and I decided that I didn’t care if none of my films ever played at Sundance.
Two years ago I was talking with Freddy, of FreddyandEddy.com about how much the media loves the “nice normal couple, but omigod! they make PORN or they sell SEX TOYS” and how yeah, it’s an angle, but it’s an angle that kind of misses the point – that most of the time, sex is nice and sex is normal.
Then Freddy went on to tell me about how he and Eddy weren’t going to do anymore magazine interviews or TV appearances or any of that stuff, unless it was….and then I finished his sentence by saying “Oprah.”
The couple of stores that sell magazines in our town are already closed. I guess I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see if they have the July issue of O magazine.
It wasn’t Italian GQ. It was “Affari Italliani” on the Libero.it website. Dig the lead:
“If he was Iranian, he’d be sentenced to death as a corruptor of the world.”
The machine translation of the rest of the article is pretty dodgy, but it seems flattering. Then the article ends with a quote from Sappho:
“My desire shakes my mind, like wind on the mount that whips through the oaks; twists the limbs and churns to them, bitter cake uncontrollable snake”.
Today the poetry of erotic love is made with images.
Am I reading this right. Did our films just get compared to the most famous erotic poet of all time? Cool!
Italy is our #1 source of traffic today, sending us about 20 times more visitors than an average day. Visitors arriving at ComstockFilms.com on the search [tony comstock] are also up about 20 fold, making it our #1 search term today.
Conclusion? Somewhere in Italy, the words “tony comstock” have appeared in print, radio, television or other non-linked medium. GQ Italia? Sounds like a good guess!
Clues:
* Visitors from England up sharply this week.
* Visitors from Italy up very sharply this week, to the point of making Italy our #2 source of visitors yesterday.
* Visitors on the search [comstock films] up about 100% yesterday.
* Visitors on the search [tony comstock] up about 700% yesterday.
I bet (hope!) it’s that interview I did for Italian GQ!
Violet told me about this a couple of weeks ago, and I hinted at it in our last newsletter. But I guess now that it’s posted on the TinyNibbles.com website it’s official – Comstock Films is getting the Oprah Winfrey seal of approval. Says Violet in her O Magazine article:
“Comstock Films’ Xana and Dax and Marie and Jack — insanely high quality production documentary style videos about couples deeply in love, who talk about how they met, and sex, and then show us all how they make love to each other. Shot on film, thigh-clenching chemistry between people who are sexy as hell and really love each other.”
Insaneley! Deeply! Thigh-clenching chemistry! I am insanely, deeply, thigh-clenchingly excited!
I am also wondering what the hell is happening. If we’re living in a world where Violet Blue is giving Oprah Winfrey advice on what to rent so she can heat things up a stay home date with Steadman, or enjoy a nice gushy afternoon wank with herself, can cold fusion be far behind?
I’m also thinking that porn (or erotica or adult films or whatever the fuck you want to call them) has officially run out of excuses for being lame, and that includes me. The bar has been raised on what’s possible, and crybaby excuses (including my own) aren’t going to cut it anymore. Thanks to Violet, the door is open (more like kicked clean off its hinges!) Who’s going to have the gumption to walk through it? Here are a few candidates:
Now I can already hear the Chatsworth old-guard, “Well O is a chick magazine and those are all chick directors.” True enough. But riddle me this, Batman: when was the last time Esquire, or Maxim, or even Playboy called out four male porn directors in one issue?
Feel free to answer (if you can) in the comments below. I’m not going to hold my breath.
(BTW, watching movie The Color Purple is a major plot point in our newest film Ashley & Kisha. I love these sorts of coincidences!)
Is there anything more embarrassing than writing about yourself in the third person? Yes there is. Writing a narrative of your accomplishments in the third person. Peggy’s away for a couple of days, which means I have no proof reader. Help!
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Tony Comstock began exploring his ideas for a new approach to erotic cinema in the mid-nineties. Working with his wife Peggy, the two began shooting unreleased studies with friends and acquaintances to work through both technical and creative questions about how love-making could be captured in a way that was realistic, arousing, and cinematic.
The resulting short films were promising enough that in the Summer of 2001, Comstock directed his first film intended for commercial release, “Marie and Jack: A Hardcore Love Story.” Finished in late 2001, “Marie & Jack” received an indifferent welcome on the film festival circuit, and was rejected from every festival it officially entered in 2002. But it was invited to two festivals devoted to erotic and sexuality themed films, where “Marie & Jack” received an enthusiastic response from both audiences and judges.
Convinced this enthusiasm was evidence there was an audience for his work, Comstock spend 2003 marketing the film directly to independent video stores and book stores. At first the reception was cautious. While store owners and buyers were personally enthusiastic about “Marie & Jack”, they were unsure there was a market for a documentary-style short erotic film, especially when majority of the 28 minute running time was taken up by a talking-head interview. But in the Fall of 2003, San Francisco sex writer and educator Violet Blue named “Marie and Jack” to her Top Five Erotic Films of 2003, and by the end of the year, the commercial response was strong enough that pre-production was begun on a second film.
“Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract” was shot in January of 2004, but a seemingly small cinemotography decision delayed its release until Spring of the following year. In the hopes of achieving a more cinematic look, Tony chose to shoot “Xana & Dax” in a 30fps progressive format, rather than the 30fps interlaced format used on “Marie and Jack”. The full ramifications of this choice did not become apparent until editing, when he realized the cadence and motion signature of the progressive format was completely different from either the traditional video or film, and his natural instincts on how to cut the film were all wrong. But after more than year of on again/off again struggle, “Xana & Dax” was release in the Spring of 2005, and has gone on to become Comstock Films highest grossing film to date.
2005 also saw new production. Not completely satisfied with either 30p or 30i video, Comstock worked with his long-time cinematographer Kiko Martin on a hybrid approach for these next films; shooting Super16 for the lovemaking portions, where exposure latitude was crucial; and 24fps progressive video for the interviews, where lighting could be more precisely controlled. Working closely with New York’s Magna Sound, he also developed a pulldown-free telecine process for the transfer of these productions’ film footage into the digital editing environment. This allowed Comstock to integrate both the loving-making footage and interview footage in a native 24fps post-production environment, rather than the industry-standard witch’s brew of field interlace and interframes usually needed to accommodate mixed media production.
The first of these productions, “Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together” was released in the Spring of 2006. That Summer it was invited to screen in the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, where it was named Best Documentary. From there the film was scheduled for two showings at Sydney’s QueerDOC Gay & Lesbian documentary film festival. But the film festival was unable to secure a waiver from the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (the OFLC objected to the explicit depictions of oral and anal intercourse and mutual mastubation,) and the screenings were ultimately cancelled. “Damon and Hunter” returned to New York for its home town premiere at the 2006 CineKink Film Festival, and finished the year by being named to several Best of 2006 lists, and receiving a GayVN Award nomination in the Best Alternative Release category along side the documentaries “Gay Sex in the 70s” and “That Man Peter Berlin.”
January of 2007 saw the release of “Matt and Khym: Better than Ever”, featuring a couple together nearly 20 years. Post-production work on the upcoming “Ashley & Kisha” distracted Tony and Peggy from the festival submission process, but even with no festival exposure, in a few short month “Matt & Khym” became Comstock Films’ fastest selling title to date.
And “Marie & Jack” the too short, too talky, too tender film that everybody loved, but nobody thought would sell? It’s in it’s fifth pressing, and available everywhere from Good Vibrations to Blockbuster Video.
“Ashley and Kisha: Finding The Right Fit” is the fifth installment in this ongoing exploration into love and sex and cinema, another declaration that sexual pleasure is a wholesome, joyous, and necessary part of love; and that the camera has no magical power to transmogrify it into anything less. Asked why he continues to devote his energies to the marginalized and marginalizing subject of sexual pleasure, Comstock borrows from Kisha’s testimony in his latest film:
“It needs no explanation,” says Comstock. “You watch these films. You tell me why not.”
“Google Strokes the Porn Guy”, that’s the headline for the article that ran in the Easter Sunday edition of The New York Post; several hours of genuinely interesting conversation with writer Damon Brown about sex and technology and art and filmmaking, boiled down to by the Post’s editors to 300 words that quite nearly get the story Google story straight. A couple of corrections:
1) I didn’t write to Google. I wrote Violet Blue, who made this post to her blog. Her post was picked up by Boing Boing. Somewhere in that chain of events is where our problem came to the attention of Google’s Matt Cutts, who was responsive and helpful.
2) The Post article makes it sound like I passed on private e-mail. I didn’t. I did point the writer to this post, Google’s Matt Cutts Wants to Know More About Sex, where, with Matt Cutt’s permission, I published our e-mail exchange.
The list of “porn guy strokers” (ugh) should also include Seth Finkelstein, Phillip Lenssen, Barry Schwartz and Danny Sullivan, SEO/Google experts who were extremely generous in helping me getting our Google situation sorted out. Shit like this is nerve-wracking, their moral support was as appreciated as the technical insight!
