Been working some exceptionally long days lately, what with the Stop AIDS benefit I worked, a very ho-hum trip to the SF Fetish Ball, a presentation for the Good Vibes educational program and a porn watching marathon. The marathon was the true highlight. VCA sent me a bunch of women-directed porn DVD’s for review, some really great plot-driven porn written and directed by Chloe and Veronica Hart.
My all-around favorite video was Sunset Stripped (Hart), an incredibly good modern version of Sunset Boulevard starring Ginger Lynn. Lots of real female orgasms and an ensemble cast of terrific actors. It definitely tops my list of porn for couples to watch together.
We’re having a sale at Good Vibes on selected sex toys, and the sale happened kind of fast, so the store staff whipped the signs together in a hurry. At the Valencia St. store they made the fatal mistake of printing individual letters out and taping them to the front of the store, spelling out a few long phrases — that were re-arranged in the middle of the night. No one noticed until the afternoon, actually one of my coworkers called the store and said, "have you looked at your sale signage lately?" Some crafty neighborhood culture jammer had changed the letters to read "prins assliccer." Nice. I mean, if you can’t jam your own culture, whose can you jam? It’s a cautionary tale for our Polk St. store who didn’t spell out the entire sale phrases but just did the letters "s a l e" a few times — I definitely see an "ass" in there…
Today I worked at the one of the stores, which was a lot of fun. The staff is funny and friendly, like to make jokes about the stretchy pink plastic vulvas we sell, and the people who come in are very interesting. A guy came in and asked if it was okay for him to shop there without his wife. Couples bought videos and vibrators, joking about relieving tension with their "new massagers." Cute guys bought porn and dildos, solo. Dykes bought harnesses and strap-ons. A very boisterous group of ladies came in and bought their friend birthday presents, saying they were going to tape the birthday girl’s face onto the porn stars’ bodies, etc. A senior citizen told us how happy she was that we were within walking distance. A very chatty man claimed he was an amateur photographer, and asked me about finding porn with women smoking and wearing glasses. I menaced a friend with a gigantic Sean Michaels dildo…
Tomorrow, book reviewing. Watching Sex: How Men Really Respond to Pornography by David Loftus. Erotic Home Videos: Create Your Own Adult Films by Anna Span. Naked as A Jaybird by Dian Hanson. And more — comments forthcoming. Now, the boy toy is here, and he’s in for a surprise. I’ve got a mystery bag of sex toys for boys, and he’s the test bunny! I really really really love my job.
