Protected: “With My Brothers Standing By”

Posted on September 1, 2011 in omphaloskepsis | Enter your password to view comments.

Enter your password to view comments. | Category: omphaloskepsis | Tags: alexi murdoch is a genius, character study, healing, more than heartbreak it was selfbreak, my salvation lies in your love, relationships, safety, stupid guilt and shame, surviving, things that are holding me back, trauma, video, what I'm learning

The Best Queer Porn: 100th Episode of Crash Pad Series

Posted on August 4, 2011 in swag | 2 Comments

So it’s not exactly news that the Crash Pad Series is the best queer porn currently available, and that if you aren’t subscribing, you’re seriously missing out.

The news, however, is that they’ve just hit their 100th episode! This one features the sexy, hot, talented genderqueer star Jiz Lee and the epic porn legend Nina Hartley. “Celebrating our 100th episode with a special 40-minute scene starring Nina Hartley and Jiz Lee! The keymaster writes: “I’m speechless… there are simply no words. My cameras have peeked in on the Crash Pad 100 times! 100! And to think that this time none other than Nina Hartley herself was lying in wait for her newest eager fuckpet, Jiz Lee. And after riding Nina’s giant Maverick cock and expert fist, Jiz one again lives up to their name.”

Here’s a little teaser, in case you need more:

Hot damn.

Visit Crashpadseries.com to sign up for a membership and keep up with all this amazing, (dare I say) revolutionary images of queer kinky sexuality.

2 Comments | Category: swag | Tags: affiliates, crash pad series, jiz lee, nina hartley, promotion, queer porn, shine houston is a genius, video, you are really missing out if you're not watching

For Cheryl

Posted on June 23, 2011 in events | 1 Comment

There are a few things coming up for Cheryl.

The Last Sideshow, Tuesday, July 12th, at the usual time and place (8pm, The Phoenix, East Village, NYC). Lineup TBA.

A Memorial for Cheryl B (Is For Beautiful): A Celebration of Her Life, Because This Death Stuff Sucks. Saturday, July 23rd, 3pm at Dixon Place, NYC

I still don’t know what to say.

Here are a couple videos of Cheryl reading her work. I have some clips of her from an event of mine a few years back that I want to convert and put on YouTube too, haven’t done that yet. Maybe this weekend.

Hope you can make it to Sideshow or the memorial.

1 Comment | Category: events | Tags: cheryl b., I miss her I miss her I miss her, new york city, poetry, video, when events are memorials and remembrances

In Your Dreams …

Posted on April 12, 2011 in eye candy | 2 Comments

I have to go move the car, and I only have about an hour of battery time on my computer so I can’t really be online today until I go swap out my power cord, it looks like my old one is dead, and I have about ten hours of work to do, and Sideshow is tonight, and we’re planning to do something special for Cheryl who is still in the hospital, and I’m already dressed to go to the gym—so what I’m saying is that I can’t sit here and write you a post, but then I got this via email and I just had to share it, because Kristen is a huge Stevie fan.

And hey look, her first album with new material in a decade. And it’s beautiful. The first single is already out—Secret Love—and the full album is due May 3rd. Now, to get tickets to the New York City release show!

2 Comments | Category: eye candy | Tags: anything for kristen, good thing we didn't buy tickets to the rod stewart/stevie nicks show at msg, music, stevie nicks, things that are awesome, video

“I Confess” by k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang

Posted on April 8, 2011 in eye candy | 6 Comments

This week has been nuts. More later about that, but meanwhile, I’m listening to this on repeat. And the video? Holy crap.

I can’t wait for this new album, and to see her live in New York City this summer.

6 Comments | Category: eye candy | Tags: butch, butch representation in music videos, daddy, did you catch the part where she says "I confess / I'll be your daddy"??, her voice oh my lord her voice, I feel like I lost a week, k.d. lang, music, things you really should listen to, video

“I Want To Be Fearless”

Posted on February 18, 2011 in omphaloskepsis | 4 Comments

Ever since I got Ellis’s newest album Right On Time I’ve had it playing over and over. I like to listen to it at the gym (along with the Bryan Adams anthology) because I can crank it in the headphones and hear every word, every note. Somehow she has captured every emotional state that I’ve been going through lately on that album, and I’m continually surprised by her eloquent writing.

When I ordered Right On Time I got a note back from Ellis thanking me. I kind of assume she does this with everybody, though I can’t guarantee she’ll send you a note too, maybe she just happened to have some extra time on her hands right then. So I emailed her back and we corresponded a little, which is what led to her mini-interview on Butch Lab, which I’m so happy to have there. I’m keeping a watchful eye on her summer tour schedule—I hope she’ll be somewhere in the Northeast that I can easily attend.

I just ordered her Scrapbook 2-disc set which includes a DVD and an mp3 CD with her entire backlist (64 songs for $40!). I used to have a couple of her early albums, but I’m not sure what happened to them, they disappeared in one of my moves. I’m excited to hear the other albums, can’t wait to get to know all of those other songs of hers.

Here’s one from Right On Time that I’ve been obsessing over lately, listening to a lot and trying to keep in mind while things sometimes feel tumultuous.

(She adds another verse in this live version … “Let’s pretend we’re smaller than / the ants under the grass” but these lyrics are for the album version.)

Close to You
Ellis

let’s pretend we’re taller than
the highest part of everest
giants with a lions roar
but lighter than a bird
and we build upon our shoulders
buildings high into the sky
and we look out of our windows
wishing we could fly

I want to be close to you
to know how close we are
I want to be fearless
in the face of love
and not be afraid of falling apart

each day there’s a sunrise
beauty I can barely see
if I saw it all my heart would fill so full
I couldn’t breathe

I want to be close to you
to know how close we are
but I cover up my heart
afraid I am weakening
I have ways to escape when things get hard

here we are
this is
the way it is
the sun, the rain
how things are always
changing

let’s pretend we are at the end of our lives here
all our troubles that seemed so big
have all disappeared
when we are deep in the shadows
bringing light into the dark
I will reach for you till the end of me
when I can’t tell us apart

’cause I want to be close to you
to know how close we are
I want to be fearless
in the face of love
and not be afraid of falling
I’m falling apart

4 Comments | Category: omphaloskepsis | Tags: butch lab, ellis, music, relationships are hard, right on time is my favorite album from 2010, support indie artists and buy their shit!, video

Friday Reads: Gotta Have it: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex

Posted on February 4, 2011 in swag | 3 Comments

It’s out!

I just received a copy of the newest erotica anthology, Gotta Have It, which includes my work, this time it is The Dirty Things She Says which is a piece in a lot of dirty talking dialogue that’s only about two pages long. All the pieces are extra-short, which is why they’re called “sudden sex” stories in the title—they’re short-short stories, which in my opinion make the erotica extra-condensed and hotter than usual. Not nearly as much wading through character and plot. And personally, I like that kind of thing in erotica.

Well, I mean, I still think the literary elements are important, but generally I think people spend way too much time being sure to establish those things in an erotica story. Most of the time, why are we reading the erotica? To be turned on, to get off. Of course, that’s just my opinion—plenty of other people really want to have context and plot and non-sexual build-up. But have you ever read Micro Fiction, or another short-short anthology? It’s a brilliant example of how literary you can be in very, very few words, embedding plot and character into every phrase, having each sentence hold two or three or four levels of meaning for the story. I still find them fascinating.

And the good stories in this anthology do that, too.

It includes some of my favorite erotica writers, including Cecilia Tan, Kiki DeLovely, Teresa Noelle Roberts, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Kristina Wright, D.L. King, and Maria See, and I’m sure once I read through it I’ll have a few more favorites to add to the list. So, I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Rachel Kramer Bussel edited this anthology (I haven’t mentioned that yet), and put together another one of her brilliant and fun book trailers for it, this one including video or audio of many of the contributors reading a piece of their own story.

Lots more information about Gotta Have It is over on Rachel’s Gotta Have It official book website, including a copy of her introduction, the table of contents, the author’s short bios, and announcements about readings.

Cleis Press, who published this anthology (and who publishes all of the best erotica anthologies, in my opinion, and I don’t just say that because they’re putting out my forthcoming lesbian BDSM anthology), has a special going on: “To celebrate this February 14th, receive 14% off all orders! Enter discount code HEARTS14 on your web order to receive your discount.” So pick up Gotta Have It over at www.cleispress.com, or at (or order it from) your local independent bookstore (assuming you want them to be around next year).

3 Comments | Category: swag | Tags: can't wait to read this one, cleis press, erotica anthologies, publications, rachel kramer bussel, seriously y'all what was the last book you bought at your local indy bookstore? don't you want to keep them in business?, short-short stories, video

Chris Pureka’s New Album, How I Learned to See In the Dark

Posted on January 14, 2011 in swag | No Comments

Chris Pureka‘s newest album How I Learned to See In the Dark is now available online at CD Baby, and you can listen to them on her MySpace page.

Here’s the official video for the track the title comes from, “Wrecking Ball:”

She’s on tour now.

No Comments | Category: swag | Tags: butch lab, chris pureka, music, video

Rebecca Drysdale: It Gets Better

Posted on January 11, 2011 in miscellany | No Comments

Rebecca Drysdale, actor & comic whom you might know from The Time Traveling Lesbian series on AfterEllen or the L Word Serenade, has released her own It Gets Better song & video, and it’s fantastic. Take a look.