By Aurora Snow

Face it, condoms aren’t sexy. Yes, they are mostly reliable and protect us against STDs and pregnancy, but nothing can compete with the thrill of skin on skin contact. So many couples get caught up in the heat of the moment, the moment when kisses turn to caresses and the clothes land in a heap on the floor. Uncontrollable attraction takes over as our pleasure centers catch fire, the world falls away and our concerns for safety cease to exist. One thing matters: sexual gratification. Having to pause and fuss around with an annoying wrapper and then figure out how to put it on correctly in a dimly lit room can ruin the moment. That’s when the condom FAILS.

Condoms have been a buzzkill for the industry, too. Since Los Angeles County passed Measure B, which mandates condom use in all porn films made locally, there’s been an estimated 95 percent drop in permits to film. While the measure does seem extreme, we can’t forget that the industry was rattled when a few performers tested positive for HIV this year.

Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded grants to their “create a new condom” contest winners in an effort to create a new generation condom, one that will appeal to even the most finicky of condom users.

I don’t know what the condom of the future looks like. Perhaps it could utilize nanotechnology. Maybe nano particles could conform to the user and create a thin breathable STD repellent condom that feels like silk and disintegrates upon contact with semen, vaporizing the semen as it goes. Maybe I’ve read too many Michael Crichton novels. It’s hard to imagine any drastic variation of today’s condom: the simple thin sheath for the human penis.

That being said, I asked several adult stars what their ideas were for improving the condom.

Derrick Pierce, former personal trainer and award-winning adult star: “If I designed a condom it would be adjustable at the bottom. Guys are built differently, not every guy needs a Magnum or Ultra Magnum even, if they think they do. Some of us fill it out more width-wise than length-wise, so I always get ring around the cock. If the feeling were improved, like what they tried to do with the lambskin condom, then condoms would be easier for us to wear because we wouldn’t have to sacrifice sensitivity.”

Joslyn James, adult star notoriously known as Tiger Woods’s former mistress: “When used correctly the condom is great. But I’m not a fan of all the ridges. All the ridges and sensation stuff is too much. Keep it simple. I wish there was a condom that was more anal sex friendly.”

Layton Benton, AVN nominated porn star:“Most condoms are too thick and even the Trojan brand condom that’s ‘barely there’ is still rather thick. I would design a thin yet reliable condom that has a slight bit of lubrication. I would also make the packaging a little easier to open.”

Read More at TheDailyBeast.com

Since, according to Gene Ross and AVN, we in the adult industry are big readers of any article out there about child pornography, child molestation, rape, sexual murder and just plain stalking, here’s an article about an app that will creep most people out, but will probably sexuall fulfill Gene Ross and AVN.

It is located at CultOfMac.com:

This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy

“Boy, you sure have a lot of apps on your phone.”

“Well, it’s my job.”

“What’s your favorite?”

“Oh, I couldn’t choose. But hey, want to see one to set your skin crawling?”

It was the flush end of a pleasurably hot day — 85 degrees in March — and we were all sipping bitter cocktails out in my friend’s backyard, which was both his smoking room, beer garden, viticetum, opossum parlor and barbecue pit. I was enjoying the warm dusk with a group of six of my best friends, all of whom seemed interested, except for my girlfriend… who immediately grimaced.

“Girls Around Me? Again?” she scolded. “Don’t show them that.”

She turned to our friends, apologetically.

“He’s become obsessed with this app. It’s creepy.”

I sputtered, I nevered, and I denied it, but it was true. I had become obsessed with Girls Around Me, an app that perfectly distills many of the most worrying issues related to social networking, privacy and the rise of the smartphone into a perfect case study that anyone can understand.

It’s an app that can be interpreted many ways. It is as innocent as it is insidious; it is just as likely to be reacted to with laughter as it is with tears; it is as much of a novelty as it has the potential to be used a tool for rapists and stalkers.

Read More…

From  erikachristakis.wordpress.com:

A modest proposal: the case for fair trade porn

This post was originally published at Huffingtonpost.com.  It was also published, in a slightly different form, in the Boston Globe.

We have fair trade coffee and humanely raised pork. So why can’t we create a market for ethically sourced pornography? A couple of decades ago, people didn’t give much thought to their food’s provenance. We didn’t care about carbon footprints or the working conditions of the poor Africans who sold us our coffee beans. Slowly, however, consumption habits began to shift under the weight of scientific evidence and cultural change. We’re becoming a little more selective in our consumer choices.

Yet not with that multi-billion dollar white elephant: pornography. We hear rumblings here and there about the sexual trafficking of women and children, and it’s always a relief when a criminal ring is busted for what’s euphemistically called “abuse.” It’s reassuring to know that whatever was going on in the far reaches of a few sick minds has little to do with our own primitive — but relatively harmless — impulses.

But do porn consumers ever think about where their porn is sourced? What a downer! No one wants to hear about drug-addicted runaways or Albanian teenage sex slaves. Nobody wants to imagine STD infections on movie sets or the life circumstances that would impel a woman to engage in physically punishing sexual acts on camera. (And just Google the word “bukkake” if you want a quick education in the mainstreaming of fringe sex acts.)

Read More….:

A semi-daily review of the best original articles from various adult industry news sources - all the news you probably missed. We skip the press releases, the re-worked press releases, the news stories that look as if they’ll be worth reading but turn out instead to be press releases.

PornNewz.com has several interesting articles up with recent commentary on the business by adult retailers around the country. These are the kind of articles you’d expect to see more of on AVN.com, XBIZ.com or the new Storerotica.com website - but you don’t. I think one reason the guys at Porn Newz have more insight into what retailers are really thinking, is that they are on the road all year, talking to retailers face to face. The other guys are content to talk to retailers through their advertising managers. I’m it’s also galling to store owners when they’re given advice on how to run their stores by writers in Los Angeles who’ve A) never run a retail store of any kind, B) have never owned a business of any kind and C) have copied any advice they given from other trade publications or retail consultants’ websites.

Adult retailers discuss the decline of their adult sections

Why The Adult DVD Business Is Dying Part 1 from a video retailer

Top 10 Selling Titles - Sensual Nights - Bunker Hill, WV

The big, currrent news item of the day of course is Christie Hefner’s resignation from Playboy, after spending twenty years struggling to keep the public corporation from running into the ground. I could link to the press release, reprinted here in the industry a few times already this morning.

But why not read it on a site that bothered to add some context, particularly in terms of Playboy’s business? The Washington Post also details Hefner’s termination compensation (per the SEC) and links to some of the bad news articles connected to Hefner recently:

Christie Hefner Out As Playboy Chairman, Will Leave CEO And Board Posts As Well; Street Cheers

A semi-daily review of the best original articles from various adult industry news sources - all the news you probably missed. We skip the press releases, the re-worked press releases, the news stories that look as if they’ll be worth reading but turn out instead to be press releases.

Cindi Loftus of LukeIsBack.com and CindisNakedTruth.com wins the “Happy Thanksgiving Award” for the adult industry, wishing us on the Left Coast a happy one while it’s still Thanksgiving Eve on the Right Coast. Now that’s news.

Mike South of MikeSouth.com has been embroiled in a mini-controversy over how he posted the AVN Award Nominees before AVN itself hoisted them onto their site. I was hot on the story as usual, but once I started to read the list of nominations, I suddenly found that I had overslept. Is it 11pm (PST) already? A day later? Luckily, I dreamt of nachos and hot dogs and hockey ring seating at the Mandalay Bay resort…so I know everything I need to know….

Here’s AVN’s list: http://avnawards.com/pdf/2009_AVN_NOMINATIONS_11_25_08.pdf

Mark Kernes’ article about recent developments in the Evil Angel obscenity case needs to be read by everyone in the industry: Defense Attorneys Encouraged By Evil Angel Obscenity Hearing. If you ignore the Santa Anas, Mark has the longest wind in the industry, but he’s a professional.

And that’s it. I have seen some new technology behind the scenes from a few studios, including live coverage of porn shoots for fans. But I’ll let you know about that when it happens - from what I’ve heard, in a couple of weeks. You’ll see it here first.