A Few Things I Love in my Life, Lately.

Fucked up
Fucked Up’s “David Comes to Life”: First, I told some of my pals “David Comes to Life” is the best punk record of the last 30 years. Then, I corrected myself and tweeted that it was the best punk rock since the summer of ’84, when Zen Arcade, Double Nickels on the Dime, and Meat Puppets II came to life. So now I’ll just leave it as this: Fucked Up is one of the hardest of core punk rock bands I’ve had the pleasure to listen to, and “David Comes to Life” is their latest record — which was released last month — and it’s a masterpiece. It’s also a concept record, which means it tells a story, much like The Who did with Tommy (and Quadrophenia), Genesis (when they were good) did with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust…, Pink Floyd did with The Wall, Zappa did with Joe’s Garage, blah blah blahblah blah blah. The band came up with an “amorphous” character named David, and after the band released some singles about David, they dropped the bomb that is this record. The record tells the story of a dude who’s stuck in a dead end job in a light bulb factory, and he meets his love, and then she dies…then I dunno what. Even though I’ve heard it non-stop since I got the record a few days ago, I’ve still only listened up to side 3.

Porn Star Screen Tests: Is it OK to like stuff I’ve done? Even though I totally ripped-off Andy Warhol? Maybe not. So, instead I’ll just say how much I love the various reactions these are receiving, from a “waste of time” to…no reaction at all. Porn Star Screen Test #1 — Kristina Rose — went mini-viral (someone in Spain liked it enough to spread the word) and it racked up 50,000+ views in a few days, of which 20 people “liked” it. 5 times as many people didn’t like it (almost 100), which means the other 49,000 others didn’t even bother to rate it. I have to call this a success. There’s 25 (or so) left to post, and I shot them all in the fall of ’09. I can’t wait to see what you guys think of the rest. Or don’t think about ’em.

Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans: Why not stop with the screen tests? For the first time since 1962, the complete set of Soup Cans is back in LA. Bet you didn’t know Andy’s first show was in LA. Bet you didn’t the show consisted of these 32 cans. You might know the art gallery across the street was so insulted with the show, they put 32 real soup cans in the window with some sort of snarky remark about being able to at least eat the soup in their window. Bet you didn’t know Dennis Hopper was one of the few who bought one…but the gallery owner felt it was best to sell all 32 as a set, so he had to call Hopper and ask for his back. Then he sold all 32 to another dealer for $1100 ($35 a piece). In 1995, that dealer sold them to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC for $15,000,000 ($468,750 a piece). And now they’re back! I’ve already gone to see them once. I’ll go a few more times.

Michael Lohan’s behavior on Celebrity Rehab: So in one of their first group meetings, Amy Fisher (now bookable through Shy Love’s agency!) boo-hoo’d about how rehab was “like prison”. Which set off Steven Adler, to the point where I almost listed his behavior here…until Michael Lohan went off. Wow, was he pissed! Lohan started in about how, at his prison, the inmates were so terrible they actually “drew pictures” of his wife and daughter with wieners in their mouths; which, to me, is standard middle-school behavior. Looking back at it now, I was one of those dudes who drew silly pics of girls blowing dick. In fact, if Lindsay Lohan was in my 8th grade English class, I woulda been the kid drawing Lindsay blowing a goat…but only after she turned me down for Friday Night’s dance. Anyway, retelling such a horrid story made Mr. Lohan run to the bathroom and barf. No…he didn’t barf. It was more like a Power Hurl. All over the place. Which is what I woulda hoped an 8th grade Lindsay woulda done when I handed her my picture…but we all know now an 8th grade girl can handle that sort of nonsense much better than Mr. Lohan did on what is my favorite vice of late: Celebrity Rehab.

Girlvert: A Porno Memoir — I first met Ashley Blue in the fall of 2002, at Dogfart’s secret Mansion, way up high in the hills of Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t shoot her until 2010, when she was the star of an Interracial BlowBang scene. In between, we’d run into each other every now and then….mostly when our porno circles came together. Which is to say hardly ever. I went to the book release party a few weeks ago, which was a hoot, but even better yet is Ashley’s book. Ori’s book. Whatever. It is the greatest thing a porno person has achieved with something outside of porn. Her book is better than all of her scenes put together, and if you guys like reading my blog, you’ll love Girlvert. I say that cause most of the people who like I Shoot Porn like it cause of the “insider’s look” on porn. The one thing I can never, ever do is nail what goes on inside the mind of a porno princess. Ashley Blue sure did. Girlvert should be required reading for each and every girl before she gets into this biz. If I was King of Porno, you’d have to pass a test on Girlvert before you were allowed to be booked for your first scene. But then again, if I was King of Porno, you wouldn’t be able to perform your first scene til you were 21. But that’s a different blog.

Super Fun e-Mails: Financial Planning and the Porn Star

Tanner Mayes handjob movies
Joe writes: I was reading your blog yesterday and I started to wonder about the financial life of pornstars. I have always been interested in the business side of porn and your line of work has some unusual issues which would make financial planning complicated and a bit specialized. Specifically, there is an unusual curve for earning power and a shorter than normal time horizon for investments. Quite simply, I am writing to inquire whether financial advising services are currently available and utilized by talent in your industry. Do you think pornstars would even be interested in this type of advice?
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I think it’s fairly common knowledge that, for the most part, the “financial life of pornstars” can be best described as a clusterfuck. In fact, me and my pal Nicky Milo talk about it all the time, and every time we talk about it, I kinda amaze myself that I’m rehashing it yet another time.

You probably catch yourself doing the same thing. I mean not with the financial planning of a Porno Princess, but there’s gotta be some topic you and your wife (or GF or friend) talk about, over and over. Right? Well, me and Nicky will get on the phone, and start bitching about our jobs, and the next thing I know one of us will say something like, “…and can you believe she told me she’s broke? She can’t pay rent and she’s looking at hotels with weekly rates and moving all of her shit to storage and she wants to know if she can get same-day pay!”

Any why is it surprising that 95% of all the porn girls live day-to-day when it comes to finances? Let’s all think about this out loud for a sec: I don’t know any 18 to 25 year olds who manage money well. It’s really not the time in your life to do such a thing, is it? I blew through so much student loan money at that age it was crazy. Most of the shit I bought had nothing to do with my education: a cool, salt water fish tank for my apartment, a stereo, clothes, as well as drinking binges throughout most of the fall semester.

And I’m a “normal” dude who grew up in a middle-class home.

Barbie Cummings once told me she grew up so poor she ate mustard sandwiches in her double-wide, and on weekends her mom spiced up their life with Oscar Meyer hot dogs.

One of the things most people don’t talk about when they talk about the formative years of a Porno Princess is poverty.

In addition to a(n) absentee parent(s), a strict religious upbringing, lack of a formal education (GED’s don’t count for shit as far as I’m concerned), and an abusive family friend or relative, many of your favorite porn stars grew up poor. Really poor. Put yourself in that situation, and then, you turn 18, haul ass out of the house, move to Los Angeles, and suddenly find yourself earning $20,000 a month.

What are you gonna do with all that money? Run to the Northridge branch of the Charles Schwab office — or the Northridge mall? You gonna shop CD rates at the various San Fernando banks and S&L’s — or send some money home to your shitty parents in an effort to win some love and validation? It’s also very important that a Porno Princess show her True Love how much she truly loves him (especially since she’s making all this new-found money by banging other men) by financing any and all Lame-O Ideas: loaning him a large down-payment for a car and recording studio time are the first two things that popped into my head.

Let’s all chuckle a bit when I use the word “loan”, and since I’m on that topic, let’s not forget to lend all your “friends” money.

Then, there’s rent and bills to pay (you know how expensive a nice place is in SoCal); finally, there’s lots of partying to do.

Lots of parties. And partying.

What’s left?

Not to worry! There’s always another job…for the most part. (Work is drying up rapidly).

Notice how I left out the IRS? Yea…most Porno Princesses leave that part out, too.

So, no, Joe, not a lot of porn stars would be interested in your financial wisdom. Especially if they’re still wasted from the night before. You might have some luck setting up a meeting — if you catch them while they’re sober, though. But don’t expect to close any deals.

Unless you got $1000 and a clean test.