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by Darklady
01/07/2004
The relative quiet of the first day of Internext
is a thing of the past now. Whether the bulk of attendees just wait until
Tuesday to arrive or to sober up, they're here now and lively as hell. Not
sure how sober they all are, however.
Compared to conventions earlier in the millennium, this one's subdued --
but the industry as a whole has been growing up, maturing, and realizing
that it needs to take its business seriously. Yeah, sure, it's the
business of sexiness and sex -- but it's still a business. You can tell
who took that message seriously, because they're still a functioning
professional entity. This time around, not all functioning professional
entities have booths, however -- or are even in attendance. Legal fears,
finances, and weather woes have kept some companies home stoking the home
fires. Others have sent representatives but feel they're doing better
business walking the aisles than they would hosting an expensive booth. As
Belin of Homegrown
Video fame pointed out, although this convention has plenty of new
billing options, there's not much new in the content provider area. For
all I know, the best new content is being sold by people who, like me, are
wandering the aisles looking for someone to eat lunch and gossip with.
I sure wasn't going to have lunch with Jenna Jameson, that's for sure. You
didn't even have to know who the tiny blonde inside the
Video Secrets
booth was once the line started to develop. Nobody draws a crowd like
Jenna, although I frankly think she looked better last year. Others have
disagreed in print already, so who can say for sure. They may be blowing
smoke or I may just not appreciate the new 'do and look -- or I could be
picking up on something others aren't. Like, maybe she's tired. The
important thing is that the crowd loves her and she's going to continue to
be a huge force in the adult Internet. Sheís already providing a friendly
boost to Tera Patrick by affiliating with her new site,
Official Tera
Patrick. I saw Tera briefly standing with friends and assessing the
crowds, but didn't feel like it was the time to introduce myself.
On the other hand, I ran into some old friends and made some new ones.
Ed Powers was
holding court in front of his booth when I renewed our convention-oriented
acquaintance and did the laugh and blush routine while he offered me his
sexual companionship. There's something about that polk-a-dot dress from
XTC Leather of NY
that really turned men's heads yesterday. I found Ron Jeremy encouraging
men to take herbal supplements to increase their staying power, but chose
to introduce myself to his co-product promoter, Lexington Steele, instead
of strike up a conversation with The Hedgehog.
I'd never had the opportunity to meet Lex before and figured that since
I've watched him fuck and then assigned a review to it so many times, the
very least I could do was introduce myself. I was delighted to find him as
charming as I'd hoped. And tall? Oh, my. Tall, dark, handsome, friendly,
courteous, and charming. What a combination.
A bit later I sat in the food court with
Mike South, who
never misses a chance to introduce me as a Libertarian and who was
shepherding an assortment of starlets around the tradeshow floor. He and
his girly girls were discussing an upcoming trip to the Fashion Mall --
when South and Canadian videographer Brandon Steele weren't debating the
various levels of appropriate/inappropriate gossip publication.
Prostitution accusations were deemed publishable. Suicide attempts were
not. Now you know.
Once the shopping trip was embarked upon, I was beckoned over to
Lexington Steele's table to chat
with him and his lovely friend and webmistress,
Vanessa Blue.
Although Lex soon became involved with an interview, Blue and I chatted
for quite a while about the special challenges encountered in the industry
by attractive female webworkers. Although it's not as bad as it once was,
if you're an appealing-looking woman, it's pretty much assumed that you're
"talent" and not capable of being much more. It's exactly this kind of
thinking that moved Blue's shapely form and bright mind away from
mainstream porn and onto the Internet, where she has more control over
what her body does in front of a camera. She delights in helping other
women do the same, as long as they realize that this is a full-time job
that they need to take seriously. Amusingly, this seems to be a lesson
that mainstream porn girls need to learn more than the amateurs that Kylie
Ireland insulted during her KSEX broadcast with Wankus earlier in the day.
Amateur girls may not always have the same poreless perfection or enhanced
secondary sexual characteristics of video porn chicks, but they often have
a work ethic that's hard to find elsewhere.
On the other hand yet again, the Hustler booth kept its girls busy, busy,
busy, signing photos and smiling for the cameras of their fans. Gina Lynn
is the only one of the Hustler Honeys that I recognized, but the booth has
kept itself stocked with pretty girls with felt-tipped pens. In fact, with
the much more humble collection of booths this time around, Hustler's
impressive and professional construction really stands out, making it look
even more like a major porn player.
But, as any girl who's had great sex can tell you, size isn't always the
determining factor in getting noticed. The aforementioned KSEX crew have
only a tiny booth -- conveniently located next to
Adam & Eve -- and it's getting plenty
of attention. Sophomoric sex joke after sophomoric sex joke pours from
Wankus' mouth as he chats up the various porno cuties, including Alexandra
Silk, and crowds collect regularly, so you know he's earning his salary
this week. In fact, considering the existence of KSEX,
the Smut Doctors and
the growing online radio presence of
YNOT, I'd say
that this is likely to be an important part of online adult's future.
Speaking of which, I am officially seeking sponsors for my own YNOT radio
show. So, if you'd like to see Radio Darklady back on the air, contact me
or Bob at YNOT for details. This will be the perfect opportunity to find
out what your favorite porn star or production company has cooked up for
the future. And, let's face it, it's the perfect opportunity for me to
have those long conversations that I can't have at conventions. Carmen
Luvana and I only barely got to chat before it was time for her to sign
more autographs, and I once again passed up the chance to introduce myself
to Anna Malle even though we apparently have a frightening number of fans
in common.
All this potentially prurient content aside, perhaps one of the most
encouraging sights during the convention was the return of Joan Irvine and
Adult Sites Against Child Pornography.
Always an important distinction to make and battle to fight, it's
especially essential that the industry acknowledge this blight and raise
awareness about how sexual exploitation of minors has nothing to do with
the sexual conduct of mutually consenting adults. Less encouraging was the
consistently unstaffed Free Speech Coalition Booth. What's up with that?
Time for a shower and a long conversation with my feet. I've got to
convince them to hang on just a few more days, cuz we've got miles of
tradeshow floor left to hike --and hours of nighttime parties to shake and
shimmy during.
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