Los Angeles - Part 3

So near the end of the week we got to meet Margaret Cho (!!!), who is awesomely funny and puts on amazing shows. (Her house was fascinating - it was filled with items like butterfly and insect specimens, religious curios, old Ouija boards, human anatomy models, doll parts, mannequins, elaborate furniture, and taxidermy. Wow.) She's got a new tour coming up called Beautiful, which will premiere in February. Over the course of the interview we talked about everything from beauty and body image to her mother and the first time she realized sex existed. And - okay, so remember this old blog post of ours? Well, I posed the divine Ms. Cho the very same question: What would you do if you could change your sex for a day?

"I think just like, pee standing up. I think that’s the only thing that would be good about being a man, I don’t know! … I think guys take it for granted!" [I say: I think you can do that now.]" "Oh well they have those like, funnels. So I should get one of those."

And if she could choose a superpower?

"I would just like to fly. I think that’s a very plain power, but it would be awesome, because you would just like, fly, and then you could go anywhere you wanted to go, and you know, it'd be exciting."

Okay, so everyone on this trip said flying. What about telekinesis? Or shapeshifting? Or you know, Spidey senses? Think on it some more. Seriously. There has gotta be cooler superpowers out there. And keep your eyes out for the Margaret segment, which will be airing in January. That's all for now!

Posted by Emily
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:05pm

Los Angeles - Part 2

We met up with the superbly talented Diamondback Annie to shoot some footage for her part in an hour-long SexTV special on burlesque. I won't give anything away, but suffice to say - keep checking the SexTV - Channel website for updates on Bump & Grind: The Making of a Burlesque Diva, which is currently in production.

We also got to spend some time hanging out with Deadlee (pictured above), a gay rapper and hip-hop artist who started the Homorevolution Tour - a tour of gay, lesbian and bisexual rap & hip hop artists. Over the course of our day and a half together, we met Canadian singer-songwriter Micah Barnes, got rudely chased out of a swap meet, and learned where to get fake I.D.s (and crack) in LA.

So I have never been to a gay bar before, and my very first time was on the evening of the Homorevolution Finale. I really needed a bathroom break. So I go to the back of the bar and see two bathrooms both labeled simply, "Restroom." I open one door, and walk in on a guy at the urinal. (I'm just glad that's ALL I walked in on). Oops, that must be the men's washroom. So I open the other door, but all I see is a row of urinals and one toilet stall with NO DOOR. There's no women's washroom!! Well, I had to go, so I basically just prayed that no one would come in. I have never been in and out of a bathroom so fast in my life.

Needless to say, the Homorevolution finale was great. Check out Deadlee and his friends on MySpace. They may look like gangsters, but as Micah describes for me in an interview, Deadlee is really "a marshmallow on the inside."

Posted by Emily
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 2:22pm

Los Angeles - Part 1

So I recently went on my first major assignment to LA - my first time there since I was a kid who adored Disneyland. It was all you would expect it to be: palm trees, billboards, SUVs, and lots of unemployed actors. I really don't know what else to say about the place - oh, except that it was oddly unnerving to experience the city in full Christmas mode, because there's nothing remotely Christmas-y about LA. I stood aghast watching this at a local mall, though (see photo above).

So, our first interview was Michael Grecco, an established photographer who recently came out with a coffee table tome called Naked Ambition - a series of porn star portraits. The whole time during the interview I was trying very hard not to fall into the swimming pool (I had been placed right on the very edge, in a wobbly wrought-iron chair) while attempting to get the inside scoop on what it was to be thrown into the midst of the adult industry. Michael, on giving porn stars direction during the photo shoots:

"What I had to do mostly was keep their clothes on and keep their tongues in their mouth."

Michael also denied having ever watched porn recreationally (I am still skeptical, even though he said this twice - ahem). Anyway, definitely get a sneak peek of some of his photos at nakedambition.com.

Later that day, we met up with a couple who are featured in Naked Ambition - Kitten and Diablo, and were treated to a deafeningly loud but stellar performance by Diablo on his drum kit. Both Kitten and Diablo have a disability called osteogenesis imperfecta and ran into Michael at the AVN Awards a couple years ago. Kitten runs a disabled modeling website and Diablo has starred in a number of adult films. They both have a very positive attitude towards sex - well, towards life, really - and were more than happy to share their experiences with us. You will have to wait and see this one!

Posted by Emily
Monday, December 17, 2007 2:12pm