Big Ed's Place

Occasionally in my random wanderings through cyberspace, I stumble across a website that makes me go, “hmmm, that’s different. And nice.”

The Art of Blowjob is such a site. It’s essentially a one woman operation (though another woman does make an appearance for a double blowjob video) that contains nothing more than videos and photo sets of her giving blowjobs.

Can you say “niche”?

The trick is, the woman (Camille) is a very attractive redhead who definitely enjoys her ‘work.’ Camille looks at the camera as she very lovingly sucks and licks her cock until she’s finally rewarded with her partner’s orgasm. The video quality is excellent and the blowjobs are truly sensual. She appears to release a new video or photo set once a week, and there’s a decent backlog on the site. I found the videos quite enjoyable.

My one complaint is…well, it’s a niche. I’d love to have had more sets with her friend Annie, either alone or in another double blowjob. I also think I would have enjoyed a little more set-up before some of the videos–they all pretty much start with her partner already nude and hard and her face inches away. Simply watching her pull his pants down would have added a touch of variety so that the videos didn’t start to feel so similar, time after time. Or perhaps something to hint at a backstory or fantasy scene before the blowjob commences.

That said, it’s worth checking out.

So my family passes books around. Sometimes they’re recommended, and sometimes they’re just “are you interested?”

That’s how I got an action thriller from my mother, The Secret of Excalibur, by Andy McDermott. She said it was “too James Bondy” but might be good as an airplane book for me. So I started it on the recent airplane ride and it was… bad. I couldn’t believe how bad.

Furthermore, it was obvious my opinion was in the minority. The book is the third in a series, and there’s at least a fourth, according the the back cover. It’s published by Bantam Books, which is a Random House division, and was originally a hardback release instead of straight to paperback. Additionally, the cover has glowing blurbs from major UK magazines.

But I don’t think my opinion is wrong, so I figured I’d provide a full critique, particularly of the plot elements. Perhaps that’ll be of interest to readers here, in ‘what not to do.’ Or maybe it’ll just be quietly infuriating to realize that this got published when so many works without these problems do not. Obviously, I’ll have to reveal spoilers, so the whole negative review is behind the cut…

read more »

So, in my last musing, I talked about Sex Toys and the Single Guy. I figured I should post a review about my favorites of the toys I owned when I was single.

Now, as I mentioned, these toys weren’t for me, but for female lovers who graced my bedroom. Not using them directly, I’m not really qualified to discuss the quality of the vibrations, the feel of it against a clit, or all the other details that a woman might find relevant. Basically, they’re big, they’re noisy, and they have a very strong vibration.

So why did I like them?

For one, they worked rather well. Every woman who tried one was able to have an orgasm. That wasn’t the case with other toys, such as the standard dildo shaped vibrator. And let’s face it, women having orgasms are good for the single guy.

The other reason is that they worked best for use during intercourse. It did require some careful positioning, though. The way to use a large vibrator during intercourse is to have the woman kneel on the floor next to a bed or couch or chair. She can then lean forward and rest her upper body on the furniture, leaving her hands free to hold the toy. The guy gets behind her and takes her doggystyle. The large head of the vibrator makes it easy for her to hold the toy against her clit. Smaller toys are harder to hold in place, and I have yet to find an effective toy to use in missionary or cowgirl positions. There’s just not a lot of space.

Now, the practical elements–the Magic Wand has two downsides. First, the head is really a bit harder than some ladies liked. Second, it has to be plugged in, which may require an extension cord in order to be able to avoid the cord constraining where you can play.

In contrast, the Accuvibe head is more shaped, with a nub for point massage, and is a bit softer. It also unplugs, making it very portable. I had a very enjoyable bdsm scene once using one. The downside is, frankly, that the rechargable battery doesn’t last forever. I’ve owned four over the years and had two die on me (one while still under warranty, fortunately).

So, in summary, I give them between four and five stars out of five. If I hadn’t had Accuvibe battery failures, it’d be a five star, and if I hadn’t had a couple of experiences where the Magic Wand cord got tangled where it shouldn’t, I’d give it five stars. Both are recommended.

You can get more information (and purchase) the Magic Wand through Good Vibrations. The Acuvibe I purchased has been, unfortunately, discontinued (I got it from The Sharper Image). Good Vibrations does carry a mini-Acuvibe by the same manufacturer.

Sex: The Annabel Chong story is a documentary produced by Annabel and a director she’d been involved with, Gough Lewis. For those who don’t know her, Annabel Chong is a porn star who, in 1995, set the record for having sex with the most men in a gangbang. She took on 251 men in a 10 hour period for a porn video, which earned her a fair amount of notoriety before the record was subsequently eclipsed.

The documentary is disturbing…

read more »

I surrender. The Japanese are kinkier than us Americans. I thought I’d seen a lot in the bdsm community, but I had no idea until I’d read Pink Box Inside Japan’s Sex Clubs, by Joan Sinclair. This thick journalistic-style photo album pushes the curtains aside and strides right into Japan’s Red Light industry. Covering hostess clubs, nude theaters, soaplands, …

read more »

In The Ugly One, John had to teach Billy how to stand up to bullies. It’s a hard lesson–one that I struggled with, and one I hope my kid does not have to struggle with.

For the fundamental problem with bullies is that they don’t respect others. They push others around because they can. Not because the others deserve it (though there are studies that show that they will go out of their way to justify why their victims do deserve it) or because it’ll make the world a better place, but because they can.

This is particularly problematic in intimate relationships. In my uneducated opinion, much of spousal abuse, child abuse, and other dysfunctions are the result of one party sliding into the role of a bully. They push their partners around to get what they want because they can and don’t see the others as true people or loved ones.

Well, frequently bullying shows up in business. Why treat your workers right if you can push them around? That was the attitude in the late 19th century that drove unions into existence and is much of the anti-union backlash today. Walmart has crammed down their suppliers, forcing them to reduce their own profits and give them to Walmart or go under. Microsoft did it to many of their early competitors–shoving them out of business by sometimes shady means. There are many many other examples.

And now Amazon is doing it to me.

The issue is simple. I live in Colorado, if you hadn’t figured that out from where I’ve set most of my stories. Last week, the Colorado legislature passed a law requiring online retailers to collect sales taxes. Amazon retaliated by closing all affiliate accounts for everyone living in Colorado. You can read more about it here and here.

Now, there are arguments that it’s a dumb law or a bad move by the Colorado legislature. I’m not so sure about that. You see, sales taxes are really paid by the purchaser. It’s just been convenient in the past to have the businesses collect them for the government. This was admittedly burdensome in the catalog sales era of even two decades ago.

But these days, it’s trivial. In fact, Amazon itself collects VAT taxes in Europe for the Governments there. They calculate and include sales taxes in the bills for some of their business partners in the states. Target.com and other sites manage to do it. Furthermore, the CO law gives Amazon an out–they can notify the buyers of what their purchases are and tell them to pay the tax. So, Amazon just has to keep track of your purchases over a year (they already do that) and send you a summary at the end of the year (they already send you ads several times a year).

However, by not collecting sales tax, Amazon gets a small price advantage over the bricks and mortar stores that have no choice.

Now, there are some who will still disagree with this law. I myself think it’s a bit shaky to define Amazon as a Colorado business. But the important point is–it has nothing to do with affiliates. Firing their affiliates did not affect the state’s ability to collect the sales tax one bit, unlike similar laws in North Carolina and other states.

It was purely to send a powerful political message to the CO legislature. “Mess with us and we’ll cost your citizens $37million.” In other words, it was the work of a bully.

Furthermore, it was done without any respect for their affiliates. Instead of enlisting them to lobby against the law, or providing advanced notice that they were going to shut down accounts, they just did it. The letter they sent out attempted to blame it on the legislature, but that’s clearly bullshit to me. If you’re being fair to your business partners, you give them warning. You don’t just screw them. That’s the work of a bully–yanking accounts without warning without regard for the disruption (or possibly to intentionally create it?).

Now I had a small stake in this. I was an Amazon Affiliate because I thought folks might be interested in learning more or possibly even purchasing some of the items I review. This certainly wasn’t for the money–I earned a whopping $2.80 from it (though anything that helps defray expenses is good). I saw it more as a service to you, the readers.

For I see this site as being more than the stories. I’ve had a long strong interest in human sexuality and as a result have accumulated a substantial personal library. I also have found films and music that just seem to fit the mood and sense I’ve tried to create here. There’s plenty of porn in the world. There are a lot fewer thoughtful, evocative, sexually themed works that are any good. Reviews are one way I can provide a service in helping sort the good from the bad.

But since this is not a service that my livelihood depends upon, I do not need to put up with bullying. Even if Amazon decides to reinstate their affiliates, I have no desire to do business with them. I will be reassigning my affiliate links as soon as I find appropriate homes. These will first and foremost be businesses that do not have qualms about working with adult sites (unlike iTunes who believes that all adult content must be banned from their store and from the iPhone). Second, they will preferentially be Colorado-based companies. We locals gotta stick together when we can.

Anyway, I realize that nothing in this post is particularly sexy or illuminating. It’s much less of a ‘musing’ as a polemic. But thanks for understanding.

The movie Nine entranced me, even though I found the main character completely unsympathetic. Since it contained some sexy dance numbers and some musings on the creative process, I figured it was fair game for a review here.

read more »

I recently mused about how the movie sex, likes, and videotape ended up having a major role in my life (here). I figured I should do a review of it as well, for those who might not have seen it.

sex, lies, and videotape is essentially a video play about those topics, written and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The movie revolves around four characters. Ann (Andie MacDowell) is a tightly wound, almost neurotic, stay-at-home wife. Unknown to her, her husband John (Peter Gallagher) is having an affair with her sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo). Then her husband’s college friend Graham (James Spader) rolls into town. Clearly psychologically scarred, Graham admits to an unusual fetish–he can only get off by videotaping women talking about sex and then masturbating to the videos later.

What makes this movie stunning to me is the tightness of the writing. We get great lines of dialogue, like a discussion about how Graham doesn’t want more than one key, or about how Ann thinks sex is overrated. We also get to see these characters as truly three dimensional and watch them unfold and grow or change. Graham is harboring a backstory where he’s hung up on a woman he used to be with, but broke up with years ago. Cynthia reveals, through her body language more than anything, that she’s jealous of her sister. Neither woman quite knows what to think of this new guy, who’s both clearly a pervert (in the “from the way”) sense and also pretty harmless. Meanwhile, John’s lies are clearly for himself as much as they are for his wife and his boss.

For me, the other thing that stuns is the purity of “show, don’t tell.” We don’t get lectures or any long didactic pieces. There are essentially no tropes to remind us this is fiction and not just a voyeuristic look into real peoples’ lives. Yet it’s difficult not to root for Ann and Graham and even Cynthia to straighten things out and have happier lives.

Finally, I love that the movie was heavily about sex, but never sexually explicit. It played with sex as an intellectual and emotional question and not simply rubbing slippery bits together. Such films are all too rare, in my opinion. Besides, it’s this playing that I myself favor in my own writing. Let’s bring it all in sex, and not just the lust.

Five out of five stars.

I first discovered Craig Morey’s work in the early 90′s, when some of his black and white photos were published in Penthouse Letters. I bought his book, Studio Nudes, which I found to be gorgeous. Shortly thereafter, I bought a print of one of his photos to hang on my bedroom wall. A year later, I traveled to San Francisco, met with Craig, and purchased both a second print for my wall and several smaller ones for my own budding private collection. Those photos are below.

Well, now Craig is online, with his own site, MoreyStudio.com. His site’s a bit of a surprise and a revelation to me.

For starters, most of Craig’s current work is in color. This makes sense, given the current market for online nudes. However, while still beautiful, I don’t find his color photos nearly as striking as his black and whites. The color seems to downplay the striking expressions and poses he’s able to achieve. I also think he gets more out of amateur models (which are many of the b/w models) than some of the pros that all the European photographers use.

I’m also amused at how Craig is not shy about his other offerings–private commissions, workshops, and other items not normally available from one of the top photographers around. Now Craig has always offered these, back to the early ’90′s, so I can’t comment on his motives. I do know that I regret that I never had a girlfriend willing to pose for him, because that would have been an incredibly fun experience.

So… what can you find on his site? Plenty of free galleries, with a broader range of styles than many other photography sites. But at the same time, fewer photos to go through, because it’s a one man enterprise. What you won’t find is some of the more explicit couples shots that Craig has done, which is too bad. Nonethless, it’s worth checking out. I give it four out of five stars.

To see more of Craig Morey’s work, go to MoreyStudio.com.

Lost Girls, by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, is beautiful, thought provoking, and a bit disturbing. A very thick graphic novel, it’s not cheap nor, surprisingly, a quick read.  The basic premise is that Wendy (of Peter Pan), Alice (of Wonderland fame), and Dorothy (of the Wizard of Oz) all stay at the same hotel in Europe in 1914.  It doesn’t take long for their paths to cross and then… things go through the metaphorical looking glass. read more »