Today is kind of a landmark day for this blog, so in honor of that, I feel like listening to my favorite country /folk singer/songwriter, and a Texas legend, Robert Earl Keen Jr. I have seen him 29 times in concert over the years, and I miss seeing him perform with all my friends while enjoying an ice cold Shiner Bock (the national beer of Texas). Here are some of his most popular songs:
The Road Goes On Forever and the Party Never Ends
Merry Christmas From the Family
The Front Porch Song (My Favorite)
Feeling Good Again
Today represents the last day of the sixth month of the year. I have officially reached the halfway mark of my year long journey into my life experiences, both the positive and the negative and everything in between. I did a quick review of this blog and I have to tell you, I am pretty satisfied so far. I never imagined that it would be as popular as it has grown to (662,000 readers from Jan 1 to Jun 30). I have traveled to other countries (Spain, England, Argentina), completed 152 scenes (including 23 this month, which totally breaks my previous best June of 16 scenes) for an average of 25.3 scenes a month. I bought a new car, met celebrities, watched a lot of football (soccer), made some friends and enemies, and had lunch and dinner with all manner of girls and guys.
I wish I could say I made a boatload of money from my blog, but honestly that has absolutely no bearing on why I started this thing. I make plenty of money doing scenes, this blog is purely for the reasons stated above. I do like publicizing the companies I work for (even Brazzers) and that I am friends with, in hopes of making them some money. Since January 1, this blog has made me 770 bucks total (and cost me much more than that, remember this is my THIRD digital camera....lol).
I might have said this before, but there are two things I underestimated when I started this blog. The first is that I never thought that the entire industry would end up reading it, or at least someone on pretty much every set reads it and then informs the others. And second, I seriously underestimated the length that fans of a particular girl will go when someone writes something negative about that girl.
I am very pleased with how this blog has turned out. I think I have done a pretty damn good job highlighting (and lowlighting...lol) the day-to-day routine of a male porn performer (I don't think anyone would call a guy a porn star do you?). Although I obviously don't write with flair or panache, according to Tricia Devereaux, and my writing is stale, bland, boring, black and white, am I missing anything? I have pumped up the websites of the companies I work for, and highlighted the girls I worked with to showcase them and their abilities in hopes of future work for them (and me!).
This little blog hasn't been all wine and roses however. I have lost a few friends from it, hurt other people's careers in a purely peripheral sense, pissed off some porn girls, scared away a few companies that might have hired me (which I think is retarded, but whatever), and most importantly I think this blog has caused me to lose a lot of my internal monitoring system. By that I mean that I rarely keep things to myself anymore, instead I say what I think and let the chips fall where they may. I am finished allowing people to walk all over me and my reputation and get away with it without any recriminations.
Speaking of that, I had an interesting conversation with Jack Lawrence today. We were having an innocent conversation, and then he began to ask me pointed questions about the business. He talked of sitting his wife at the time, Annie Cruz, down and telling her that I was more risky than other performers and that he wanted her to be informed of that risk. We had a nice little exchange on Yahoo Messenger, about "minimizing risk" as he put it. This concept is complete and utter nonsense. I would guess that 100 out of 100 adult film performers understand that there is absolutely no way to minimize your risk in this business short of doing girl-girl only. You can lie to yourself and SAY that you are minimizing risk, but really you are just deluding yourself. Let me explain. We all get 30 day AIM tests for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Now let's say you want to minimize your risk to any of these STD's. How are you going to do that? For an example, you think Jerk Williams (made up male performer) is risky, so you put him on your no list. Risk minimized? Of course not. Jerk might work 25 times a month, with a different girl each time, and you might work with that girl the day after he does, or the week after. Whichever. Additionally lets say you LOVE working with Hugh Jakksman (made up male performer #2) on camera. Well what if Hugh is having unprotected sex off camera all over town with anything that moves? You have no way of knowing any of that. What makes anyone's AIM test better or worse than someone else's? I would posit that I would RATHER a performer do what he does ON camera with AIM tested individuals, rather than hear scuttlebutt about what a performer does off camera.
The bottom line is that everyone who enters this business is fully aware of the risks inherent in it. The concept of minimizing risk is a myth, and only serves to help people's conscience (and prejudices and stereotypes). Jack asked me if I would be the 463th guy in a 500 guy creampie gangbang movie. If I saw everyone's AIM test before hand and I felt like the scene was in my best interests, why not? Then he asked me if I would work with that same girl a week after the gangbang movie. Again, if her AIM test is good, how can I say anything (realistically that girl would take a week off and retest before going back into the workforce, but still)?
Enough of the hypothetical business discussion, lets talk about my totally unproductive and worthless day today. I woke up on Laura's couch at 8am, just as she was rolling out the door to head into the office. HA HA! Better her than me. I hit the showers, packed up my meager belongings, and hit the road back to LA (in my new HONDA CR-V!). After arriving home safely, I pissed the day away playing warcraft in the nude with my trusty comforter wrapped around me.
During the day I did take care of a lot of industry business via my Blackberry. I make all my director/producer phone calls on Monday, and today it paid great dividends. I booked a content shoot on Thursday and Saturday, booked a scene on Monday for Fucking Dungeon, got two bookings later this month with Tom Byron (the legend), got a booking with Northstar Associates later this month that I am really excited about, talked to Joey Silvera about doing a second strap-on scene for his movie, cancelled my scene with Katja Kassin in August for Vivid and switched it to Chayse Evans, talked to Alicia Silver Productions about more bookings in July, Nick Milo called me about some bookings later this month, Jonni Darkko might need me for a foot worship/gangbang scene, Jimmy Lifestyles called about a possible booking this week, and last I got booked on the 15th for my friend Bobby and Cougars in Heat. Damn, that's a busy day!
After successfully wasting the entire day, I finally rolled out of bed, showered, put some workout clothes on and headed to the gym. I got a fantastic chest and triceps workout in tonight, I was really feeling it. The gym is a great place to reflect on a lot of things, it allows me to replay events in my head, and work through scenarios as well. I love the gym, it's my home away from home. I ran into a personal trainer friend of mine, who told me she was training a girl in the business, Shyla Styles. lol. I asked her what was the point of training someone who was drunk and high all the time? Whatever.
After finishing my workout, I showered again, changed again, and headed to the 4 & 20 restaurant to meet my dinner date for this evening. Hey look, it's the lovely Kayden Kross! Kayden entered the business as a Vivid contract girl, and then switched to Adam & Eve about a year ago. She is 5'5, blonde, and does a fantastic scene (although there is no way in hell I will ever get the chance to work with her). She is 22, from Northern California, and loves horses and riding horses. As a matter of fact she pulled up to dinner in a GIGANTIC F250 or F350, can't remember which (as I exit my tiny CR-V).
I met Kayden online (Kayden's Myspace Page) while we were debated the pros and cons of Shelley Lubben, an outspoken and insane critic of our industry. I thought that a part of what Shelley does serves a purpose in our business, on the other hand, Kayden has recently stood up to Shelley's rhetoric and bullshit statistics in some pointed blogs and a radio show. As a matter of fact, Kayden blogs quite frequently about Shelley and many other topics over at Mike South's Blogsite.
We enjoyed a pleasant meal of minestroganoff soup with cornbread, a tuna melt with a garden salad, and for dessert, Kayden had the Boysenberry pie ala mode, while I enjoyed the Banana Cream pie. We talked about the business and all it's facets for well over an hour, and the more she talked, the more I liked her. She understands that there is a whole world of porn out there that she knows very little about (gonzo), although the more time she spends with Erik Everhard (wink, wink) the better understanding she will have of it. For 22, she is very well put together, not just physically (she is stunning by the way, her smile lights up a room), but mentally as well. I have told you readers that quite a few girls strike me as intelligent, but really I mean more intelligent that I expected them to be. Kayden, however, is much different. Of course its easy to be up on current affairs and politics when you work 4 days a month (lol).
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Kayden, and I hope she had a good time as well. I want to take her somewhere more formal next time, so she will dress up and look like a proper contract girl, instead of the cute, down home hottie like she looked tonight. lol
After leaving the restaurant, my friend Erika (the tallest post operative TS in the world - 6'8 and over 7'0 in heels) called me because Candis Cayne was performing at the Abbey. Erika works the front desk at the 24hour Fitness in Sherman Oaks where many porn people work out. Candis is the TS (not sure if she is pre or post operative) on the hit TV show Dirty, Sexy Money. When I arrived at the club, Candis was there with Billy Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, and Robert Davi. Pretty damn cool (except that I couldn't get their pictures). Unfortunately for me, I missed her show, and she wasn't going to perform again that night. So I said my good-byes to everyone and headed back home.
Last, but certainly not least, don't forget to head over to Rouge if you are in the Los Angeles area tonight around 930pm for LA Direct Rouge night featuring:
Charisma Cappelli
Sophia Lomeli
Kacey Jordan
Angelina Ash
Rouge Gentlemens Club
14626 Raymer St.
Van Nuys, CA 91405.
Tel: 818-786-1822
www.rougegentlemensclub.com
Congrats on half a year. I've been a daily reader since March and your writing and insight into the adult industry is awesome. Stick to who you are and don't let people tell you who or what to be.
Posted by: D-Rock | July 01, 2008 at 07:13 PM