The proposal to create a .xxx ghetto for sexually explicit internet content appears to be finally dead. After getting out of the bath more times than Glen Close at the end of Fatal Attraction this weeks 9-5 against vote at ICANN, which included a ‘no’ vote from chairman Paul Twomey (pictured), at appears to be a fatal double-tap to a stunningly bad idea.

Ironically all of the good reasons for killing .xxx were ignored, and the final outcome appears to be a tactical anti-US vote by countries who object to the current US administration’s view that the web is an American thing other countries are being allowed to play on.

Perhaps the jizz-bizz is lucky to have such fanatical and incompetent opposition in government. Less radical, more adept conservatives might actually be able to convince sane people their ideas had merit.

This week’s best of the sex blogs by the bloggers who blog them.

NSFW Pics
There Are Some Things Out There… (pornster.blogspot.com)
Angelique and Ivonne on Sapphic Erotica (simply-sapphicerotica.com)
Lea in Lacey Blue by Abby Winters (iloveabbywinters.com)
Two Galleries of Rookie Babe Hottie Mia (sensualarousalblog.com)
A Red-headed Peach (internetisforporn.com)
HNT: Two for the Price of One (seanandmel.blogspot.com)
Abby Winters: Diana and Fuji (ethnorotica.com)
Exclusive - Justine Joli, Panties (tgp.com)

Funny
No Matter Who They Are… (janeluvsdick.com)
Conversation with the Lead Burly Dude (alwaysarousedgirl.blogspot.com)

Thoughts on Sex
Festering Degenerates (theholidaylife.blogspot.com)
Can Someone Be Cheerful and Sexy at the Same Time? (seska4lovers.com)
A Typical Spanking Model? (adelehaze.com)
Actions and Reactions (aliferestarted.blogspot.com)
A Solo Career (gentlebutfirm.blogspot.com)
Not What It Appears To Be (damnjezebel.com)
Hair (gentlygently.blogspot.com)
I Just Wanna Make Love To You - or, American Closet Mystics (Re)Unite! (totalsensuality.blogspot.com)
A Sticky Situation (wanklog.blogspot.com)
Diddling for Dollars (herknees.com)

Sexy Reviews, Sex Advice
The Big Question (blog.babeland.com)
If You Want Her (or Him) to Swallow… (spiritsex.blogspot.com)
There’s a Vas Deferens Between Men and Women (shayssexcolumn.blogspot.com)
Advice - Threesomes (part 1) (seskuality.com)
Testing a Tyre Paddle (spankingwriters.com)
Sex Toy Review: The Remote Controlled Egg (cuntinglinguist.blogspot.com)

Erotic Writing
Teenagers Again (the-sensuous-libertine.blogspot.com)
Eye to Eye (emergingontheotherside.blogspot.com)
Say It (pleasinglydebauched.blogspot.com)
Does This Look Sexual to You? (avahsascent.blogspot.com)
Her (ropegirl.blogspot.com)
Tell Me (easilyaroused.co.uk)
Gettin’ Neighborly (taratainton.com)
My First Gangbang (drtycplinva.blogspot.com)
A 6 with a 9 Nightcap (thetastetester.com)
Post-Semester Phone Fuckery (talkingdirtyblog.com)

BDSM / Fetish
Inspired by… Someone (stockingaffair.com)
How to NOT Fuck an Egg (humiliation) (spoiledebonyprincess.com)
Humiliating Tiny Dicks Endlessly (phonesexsub.com)
Saturday (masterenigma.blogspot.com)
Bathroom Trips (annies-submission.blogspot.com)
Adventures in Cookie Peddling (redvelvetropeburn.blogspot.com)
Will You Pee in my Mouth? (On Fetishes) (4thegirlnextdoor.blogspot.com)
I Like it Like That (moonstruck.typepad.com)
Fiction - Proper Form (erotiterrorist.blogspot.com)
Getting in Touch with the Inner Lizard (principalquattrano.vixenblogs.com)
Case Study of a Femme Fatale (sabrinainstockings.com)

Yesterday I arrived in LA and, amazingly, it’s good to be back.

LA is not one of the world’s great cities, but is the world’s most exciting suburb. After months in walking cities and small towns there’s something astoundingly modern about being back in a city where doing anything at all involves a trip in a car. After New Zealand and Latvia’s racial homogeneity, every time I see an Asian I want to wave and take a picture.

Of course, as this is porn central I arrived to stacks of mail containing books I’ve missed and videos I can’t explain (NB: if you’re hot and want to send me a nude DVD, please do. Thinking about editing in a little scat munching at the end? Just say no. I thought is was chocolate until ‘Hollywood Scat Munchers 5′ appeared on screen and effectively ended breakfast.)

Though I often write here as an Oracle (it’s a good look for me), I don’t in fact have all the answers (Prussia, a bell, Russia’s largest lake - hang on, perhaps I do).

The following questions bubbled up today through a fog of porn, talk radio and freeway driving. If any of you have answers, please feel free to educate me.

1. Why is there still no porn star named Katrina Relief?
2. If porn is most exciting when dealing with sexual taboos - I’m thinking of what made Bettie Page so exciting in her day - which taboos are left for porn?

Which leads to me to…

3. If you can legally have sex with an animal in Washington (and you can), why has no one filmed that yet? (I don’t want to see it but you’d think it would be out there in a ‘Midnight Prowl’ world).

I want answers.

I am totally unqualified to speak as an advocate for a porn performers union (and acknowledge the sex-workers unions that are already out there - which are different in approach and aim to the kind of organization I’m thinking about). Luckily talking about things I’m not qualified to discuss is something I am totally comfortable with.

I was looking at the history of Actors Equity and The Screen Actors Guild for clues to why those - incredibly successful - unions for performers came into existence.

From Actor’s Equity:

“By the beginning of the 20th century, exploitation had become a permanent condition of an actor’s employment. Producers set their own working conditions and pay scale. There was no compensation for rehearsals or holidays and rehearsal time was unlimited”

From Wikipedia on The Screen Actor’s Guild (N.B. Anything from Wikipedia might be wrong/stupid/written by an angry child - proceed with caution):

“In 1925, the Masquers Club [1] was formed by actors fed up with the grueling work hours at the Hollywood studios, particularly for actors without contracts, who felt the brunt of cost-cutting measures during the Great Depression.

This was one major concern which led to the creation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933.”

Both quotes could describe the porn industry today, and put the jizz-bizz about 100 years behind the mainstream. In porn it’s 1906, workers are unprotected and unorganized, business is free to exploit and discriminate.

It also makes the adult-industry studio-system, pioneered by Vivid, easier to understand. Without a performers union, they can vertically integrate their business, owning the performers as well as the product, keeping the cost of talent as low as possible.

In an ideal world, the existing acting unions would be open to porn performers but that’s as likely to happen as ‘Mary Carey - Governor of California’. Mainstream actors do not consider porn performers to be actors (and I’m prone to agree, you can act in porn, but you don’t need to act to make it). Even if the unions were open to the industry, the learning curve to understand porn’s needs would be steep.

A change is gonna come, and I’m hoping that one of the performers reading this, or a company with a sense of noble mission, will pick-up on this idea and give me something more substantive to write about. If not I guess we will know why the industry has failed to make this kind of progress thus far.

Perhaps we need an atrocity (an on-set death?) to make working conditions a hot-button issue which trumps the ‘we’ll look out for you, workers don’t need representation’ argument which history shows is never true. Sad.

You may have already heard that Mary Carey is running for Governor of California this year.

Again.

After standing in the 2003 recall election, won by Arnold Schwarzenegger, she’s back to try and feed on the media fury that saw her interviewed on every major network as the only candidate less credible than the eventual winner.

Running then was a brilliant move (I didn’t think of it, and exploiting the political freedoms people have died to protect in order to push skin flicks is the kind of thing I’m paid for) but will it work again?

Last time round Californians were reeling from the idea of a recall election, which many didn’t think would come to pass, and were shocked that the Terminator seemed to be the leading candidate. Mary’s presence, fueled by skimpy clothing, cellulite, booze and booger sugar, was a comforting reminder that the election was a joke. The thought that the world’s eighth largest economy might be taken over by John Matrix needed a punchline and Mary was it.

This time round the election’s important and being held on schedule, Schwarzenegger’s gone from comedy-candidate to struggling Governator, and Mary’s idiotically limited platform isn’t that funny anymore. Mary’s unlikely to get nearly as much attention.

Historically attempts to get buzz the same way twice are doomed to ‘Blair Witch Project 2′ scale failure. If Mary does manage another huge media hit I think it’ll say more about the stat of politics than smart marketing.

Free advice from me? Offer free roles in porn films to undocumented workers, hold an open audition and invite the press.

This weekend as the biggest movie release in years is being slammed by the press and viewed by the masses it’s worth remembering the videogame industry makes a lot more money than Hollywood.

While Hollywood tries to make the lowest common denominator interesting by dumbing down the already retarded and hoping we all pay to see the same movie, the videogame industry provides ‘GTA: San Andreas’ for some and ‘Nintendogs for others’ (I’m waiting for ‘GTA-Nintendogs: Who let the dogs out?’). It’s given up on common ground entirely.

Like the gaming market porn is an obsession acquired by teens, is hated by non-fans, significantly mis-perceived in the mass media and viewed as damaging by older generations. Like videogames porn has given up on common ground and serves niches almost exclusively.

When will sex in games get as big as sex in movies? Ask this guy…

Porn producers fight to retain customers by producing ever greater quantities of material just like the stuff they’ve sold before. Microsoft struggle to preserve compatibility with 20 year old software and produce bloated, bug-ridden, hard-to-secure software as a result. GM make big, heavy cars for people who erroneously think heavy = safe and that big outside means big inside (ever been in a Hummer?).

Their mistake? Listening to customers. Here are three good reasons not to:

• They’re vocal - That’s distracting. If you listen closely it’s easy to think the 10 people writing email represent more of your customers than they do.
• They’re already your customers - By catering to the needs of people you’ve already served your products become increasingly narrowly aimed at that group, at the expense of people who would buy from you if you did something a little different. (That’s GM’s problem - want a huge fuel guzzling truck with no ride or quality? Come right over! Want an executive saloon as good as anything made in Germany, Japan or Italy… er… Cadillac? Not so much…)
• They can’t ask for what they can’t imagine - It’s almost impossible to praise what you haven’t experienced but easy to knock holes in new ideas. If you ask before you do the negative feedback is always easier to find than the positive meaning feedback on ideas is worth far less than feedback on products. Unfortunately, critics will happily buy revolutionary products from people brave enough to innovate.

Remember, without innovation we’d never have lived to see the Mongolian Clusterfuck.

I try to tell myself that I read online discussions by porn-fans as a way of understanding the mind of the consumer. That is a lie. It’s hard to believe that some contributors to online porn forums aren’t violating probation by being online.

I don’t watch any porn outside the working environment (and I get so much back-meat offline my street-name’s Hamburglar) and have little to say about it I wouldn’t rather share here, but some of the most active hives of porn thinking and debate are online fan forums and reading them’s a hotline to what consumers think.

Actually, that’s a lie. It’s hard to believe that some contributors to online porn forums aren’t violating probation by being online, and it’s hard to deny the entertainment potential of debating porn hounds. Each conversation a useful reminder that working on the assumption your thoughts on a topic are ‘normal’ is a mistake.

This thread entitled ‘What’s Next in Porn?‘ (from Adult DVD Talk edited and condensed for your pleasure below) is a prime example of the art:

LubeNLuv
I just watched Twisted as Fuck and I’m struck at how what was once considered somewhat taboo (well post 1970’s era taboo anyways) is now coming back. Specifically rough sex and sex depicting rape or at least hinting at it.

Pedophilia gets a nod with the barely legal stuff, not the “hot young 18 year old” but the “hot young 18 year old dressed-as-a-15-year-old in catholic schoolgirl attire and talking in a little-girls voice” style.

Anal, double penetration, double anal, eating anal creampie….pretty much have the back door action covered these days. I think the shock factor is wearing thin on the stuff you can do to a sphincter now….but I’m betting I’ll be proven wrong.

Rough sex seems to be getting more play now, although rough sex with a (seemingly) unwilling partner, or one who is tied/confined, appears to be only available on the periphery. I’ve seen some of the “Sex and Submission” web-released fare and it’s getting there.

So what’s left? And I’m not talking fetish-wise. Fetish material will always be to the left or right of the aisle. What new trend in porn is just over the horizon and waiting to take it’s place as the mainstream theme, something to influence a pretty jaded buying populace? I’m watching trends of the up-and-coming teenager and given the popularity of video games with violent themes, I’m of the mind that interactivity could be the “next big thing,” but I doubt the technology is there to achieve this “for the masses” as of yet. The DVD format doesn’t lend itself well to interactivity, it’s merely a gimmick for now.

Any opinions/ideas?

BIGmike
Sex with one’s self. Computer generated facsimile of one person fucking themselves. (Not twins involved in incest, but somewhat similiar I guess.)

jayo
CGI hermaphrodites–good looking ones that really look like they have both working parts, and thus more combinations and things to do.

Ramsey
I want to see most males being replaced by some kind of biogenetic robots, why not? At least this way the directors don’t have to pay the actors also and robots will do everything you
want when you want.

Croy
Decent lighting, good camera work, excellent editing.
Sure some do it, but is it a general rule?

I can always dream.

HeyNow
Maybe usage of 80’s and 90’s popular music in porn. Not just obscure metal junk but B-52’s Love Shack or just about any tune - Don Henley even. Take these songs and set them to porn. That is what I see.
Plus fart fucking. And girls farting in faces.

Maybe even more squirting but now into any hole - girls squirting into other girls vaginas and poopholes.

UnkwnUsr2
Also sex with a plant that has tits.

Haze
Rape

kh
I think throat fucking till puking ala maxharcore.

Endless Loop
Daisy chains.
When the overabundance of man ass in all scenes reaches critical mass, fans revolt, resulting with girls taking on multiples, one quickie at a time, while each consecutive boner, awaits his turn.

jamesnadt
blood-orgies?

VincentVanGauge
As for the next completely (well, quite completely) different thing, please let it be genuine (!) vaginal cream, rubbed into men’s and women’s faces directly from the source. And I want tons of it. Yum! A man can dream

fatalbert
Considering its current rate of devolution, I predict that porn producers will accelerate their catering to the fantasies of those who possess the emotional maturity of a mean…little…boy.

CumAgain
Next big thing: body cumshots.

The great thing about body cumshots is, with a guy with a large load of medium-thick cum, he can pull out and shower a hundred of drops of cum all over the girl’s front or back… makes for a great visual IMO. Again, with the right guy doing the deed, she can sit up afterwards and talk to the camera as you watch it all stream down her chest and stomach. And if the scene continues with another guy fucking her, it’s all still there on her skin for the rest of the scene.

bigdick
What’s next and what I hope to see more of.

More anal cumfarting other girl face and in mouth
DP creampie
DAP creampie (Kelly Wells)
Gaping asshole rimming.
Hot chicks licking multiple creampie right our of a gaping butthole of another hot girl. Dive in while holding the butt cheeks wide open. This always get my money.
Milk squirting from beautifil anal babe assholes.
Anal/Vaginal fisting
More and more ATM

fatalbert

bigdick wrote:
What’s next and what I hope to see more of.

More anal cumfarting other girl face and in mouth
DP creampie
DAP creampie (Kelly Wells)
Gaping asshole rimming.
Hot chicks licking multiple creampie right our of a gaping butthole of another hot girl. Dive in while holding the butt cheeks wide open. This always get my money.
Milk squirting from beautifil anal babe assholes.
Anal/Vaginal fisting
More and more ATM

This man is obviously a hopeless romantic.

yyyyYYYYYYyyy
So howabout mother directing her daughter’s first bukkake? Mother’s commentary on the DVD, “This particular load of cum that’s gagging my daughter reminds me of a delightful vacation a few years ago in Italy.

Yeah - the future looks bright people…

This week’s best of the sex blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Way later than ususal this week due to much confusion and some generalized screwing up. Sorry.

Erotic Writing and Experiences
Lost and Found (aliferestarted.blogspot.com)
Out of Town (vivianandjack.blogspot.com)
Tara’s Private Diary: Starting the Morning Off Right (taratainton.com)
Sex Toys: Satanic and Divine (deltaofvenus.blogspot.com)
Arousal (pleasinglydebauched.blogspot.com)
Anal Fun (edinerotica.blogspot.com)
Age Before Beauty (fourstate.blogspot.com)
Ten Thousandth Blowjob (erotiterrorist.blogspot.com)
The Slutty Hostess (internetisforporn.com)
Quickie (Because I Know You’re Watching) (sabrinainstockings.com)

Audio
The Return of Bedroom Radio: Episode 10 (bedroomradio.blogspot.com)

BDSM and Fetish
Sex Questions & How to Get My Attention (alphadominablog.com)
“I Think I Love You, But What Am I So Afraid Of…” (avahsascent.blogspot.com)
Porsche Thigh High Boots (photo) (thebootcam.com)
Financial Domination (goddessjaguar.com)
Oo… la… la. Spank Me Monsieur (moonstruck.typepad.com)
Tiny Dick Contest Pictures (spoiledebonyprincess.com)

NSFW Pics
Solo Girl/Nudes/Softcore
Fine Art Nudes by Kevin Rolly (eroticandy.blogspot.com)
Black Boots - Red Panties Upskirt (upskirtr.blogspot.com)
Exclusive - Justine Joli with Laurie Wallace (tgp.com)

Personal Porn
Half-Nekkid Flower Petals Where? (alwaysarousedgirl.blogspot.com)
Happy HNT! (pillowblogs.blogspot.com)
Uninhibited Wanton Woman (totalsensuality.blogspot.com)

Thoughts on Sex
I Am I Said! (masterenigma.blogspot.com)
Ayla the Prehistoric Porn Star (msnaughty.com/blog)
Nude Vaginas! Run for Your Lives! (onaniajournal.blogspot.com)
Death Threat (radicalvixen.com)
Masturbating While… (wanklog.blogspot.com)

Sex Advice and Sexy Reviews
The Dark Side of Masturbation (and Sex) (shayssexcolumn.blogspot.com)
Bondage for Beginners: What You Need (cuntinglinguist.blogspot.com)
The Art of Erotic (Blog) Photography (darkside-journey.blogspot.com)
Tantra Chair Review (stilettodiaries.blogspot.com)

Most of the ideas I’ve had (or seen elsewhere) for marking a blogging anniversary are dressed-up excuses at self-congratulation. Great for the ego, useless for the reader. I’d like is to make the second year of SugarBank better than the first so it seems smartest to mark today with a question.

What would you like to see here over the next year?

Leaving things there would strike a few of you as cheating, so I’ve also compiled a list of the posts readers seem to have most clearly enjoyed, been infuriated by or felt moved to debate each month.

May 2005
How to Make Money Podcasting if You’re Not Adam Curry

June 2005
A Woman’s Guide To Getting Into the Porn Industry

July 2005
Boils, Blindness and other Blarney - 9 Anti-Porn Myths Debunked

August 2005
The DVD Market is Dead (pt. 2)

September 2005
A Silly Idea?

October 2005
The Death of SuicideGirls

November 2005
European vs. American Attitudes to Sex

December 2005
The Lady Game

January 2006
How to Look Like a Porn Star

February 2006
Are You as Tall as Your Penis?

March 2006
10 Lies Pornographers Tell

April 2006
3 Porn Based Urban Legends

Thanks for reading. You rock.

(N.B. Feel free to leave alternative ideas for ‘Best of’ SugarBank content in the comments - I’m sure some of you have other ideas.)