By Daniel Irish

A couple years ago, I was walking (OK, stumbling) down Freemont Street in Las Vegas, Nev., sucking on a yard-long daiquiri I’d been handed at a bayou-themed slots casino when I spotted one of those half-price ticket booths that dot the city. Goggling posters and brochures for the usual magic-, ventriloquism- and topless-dancer-based reviews, my eyes floated boozily over a stage show called Fashionistas. “Funny,” I thought, “that’s the name of a porn film.” Closer inspection led me to the name of the show’s writer/director/producer: John Stagliano. Yup, the infamous porn magnate better known as “The Buttman.” Turns out the music-loving pornographer always dreamed of creating an elaborate stage musical—and what better source material than his hardcore 2003 fetish epic The Fashionistas? The show shut down in 2008 after several successful years just off the Strip. It was handsomely mounted, quite sexy (no actual nudity, though) and deeply weird. (Watching a clutch of Japanese tourists nod off to a chorus of dancers in assless rubber chaps shaking it to a Lords of Acid tune will surely stimulate a smile of sentimental reflection on my deathbed.) (more…)

Erika Lust’s Five Hot Stories for Her was a breakthrough: a girl-friendly porn flick with real cinematic values. Sex arises from a situation; its participants are characters with motivations and just enough depth to enhance the shagging to come. You can watch this little marvel of pro-girl sex (which also has a boy-boy scene in it) on our VOD site, but Ms. Lust has been kind enough to release a short from her upcoming project for freebie Internet viewing. It’s a nice intro to her style: tension and mood wrapped around a luscious bit of hardcore sex.

Via.

By Daniel Irish

Dark Garden

Michael Ninn makes art. Michael Ninn makes porn. For certain close-minded conservatives, that’s one dichotomy too far. And for select free-thinking libertines, watching a Michael Ninn film is like trying to jerk off to the Mona Lisa. But strike the right balance and you’re apt to find Ninn’s “porno chic” work beautiful, thoughtful, psychologically charged and deeply erotic.

Like his contemporaries Andrew Blake and Marc Dorcel, Ninn’s high-tone, heavily art-directed films tend toward plotless, music video-style abstraction. His many series (Diva, Soloerotica, Fem, Exposed, Pop and Neo Pornographia) interweave random, well-dressed, highly staged set-pieces of Sapphic, soft-focus body worship and exotic, chill-out techno music. It’s an acquired taste. But it’s not to say that Ninn can’t get down and dirty. (more…)

by Daniel Irish

By 1990, adult films didn’t have the corny sense of humor they frequently displayed in the ’70s and early ’80s, but they weren’t afraid to look ridiculous on occasion. Take, for example, The New Barbarians, a late-in-the-game Conan/Ator/Deathstalker-esque porn fantasy that I still love for reasons I can barely enunciate. Not to be confused with the 1982 post-apocalyptic action film of the same name starring Fred Williamson (which has its own cheesy appeal), this film features swinging swords, galloping horses, people dressed up in fur bikinis and a plot about a magic, time-traveling crystal powered by erotic energy. In short: It’s pure porn silliness. But it’s one of the more entertaining, bring-your-friends-over-and-get-drunk sex flicks I know. (more…)