Wednesday, September 26, 2007

"I'm pulverized by this latest thing! " -- Little Edie Beale

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. You know what I mean? It's awfully difficult.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: No, I'm not ready; I have no makeup on... but things are getting better!



Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: You can't have your cake and eat it, too in life.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: Oh, yes, I did. I did, I had my cake, loved it, masticated it, chewed it and had everything I wanted.


Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: Oh, look. That cat's going to the bathroom right behind my portrait.

Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: Ughh, how awful.

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: No, I'm glad. I'm glad somebody's doing something what they want to do!

Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale: "The Libra husband is reasonable. He is a born judge, and no other zodiacal type can order his life with so much wisdom." God! That's all I need: order! That's all I need: an ordered life. You know, a manager. But he's *got* to be a Libran."


Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: My God, my muscles, I can't do it, I'm tellin' you! What am I going to do! They're gone, with this soft life!



Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale: Listen, kid! I'm extremely organized. I know exactly where to look for this stuff. I've got it under control right here, but I can't find it. Get it?




-Kate

Saturday, September 22, 2007

"Never complain. Never explain." -- Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn... one great Kate!

Some quotes:

"Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn't interest you, don't do it - I would have made a terrible mother."

"Death will be a great relief. No more interviews."

"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex."

"I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky."

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased."

"If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun."

"If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."


"It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack."

"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."

"Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women."

"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

"The average Hollywood film star's ambition is to be admired by an American, courted by an Italian, married to an Englishman and have a French boyfriend."

--Kate

Friday, September 21, 2007

An Extra Bit of Oomph.

Check out her interview here. But this one is better.




The ones I liked.

--Kate

Thursday, September 20, 2007

My Current Favorite Artist/Illustrator: LINDA ZACKS





______________________________________________
______________________________________________

























View her amazing website here:

http://extra-oomph.com/

-----------

A Super Sad Poem.

Dog's Death
by John Updike

She must have been kicked unseen or brushed by a car.
Too young to know much, she was beginning to learn
To use the newspapers spread on the kitchen floor
And to win, wetting there, the words, "Good dog!
Good dog!"

We thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction.
The autopsy disclosed a rupture in her liver.
As we teased her with play, blood was filling her skin
And her heart was learning to lie down forever.

Monday morning, as the children were noisily fed
And sent to school, she crawled beneath the youngest's bed.
We found her twisted and limp but still alive.
In the car to the vet's, on my lap, she tried

To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur
And my wife called in a voice imperious with tears.
Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her,
Nevertheless she sank and, stiffening, disappeared.

Back home, we found that in the night her frame,
Drawing near to dissolution, had endured the shame
Of diarrhoea and had dragged across the floor
To a newspaper carelessly left there. Good dog.

--Kate

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

14 Selected Songs By Warren Zevon (The John Updike of Rock and Roll!)


Play It All Night Long


by Warren Zevon

Grandpa pissed his pants again
He don't give a damn
Brother Billy has both guns drawn
He ain't been right since Vietnam

"Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long, Sing!

Well, Daddy's doing Sister Sally
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow

Oh, "Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

Well, I'm going down to the Dew Drop Inn
And see if I can drink enough
There ain't much to country living
Sweat, piss, jizz and blood

"Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

"Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long, Yes!

------------------------------

Carmelita

by Warren Zevon

I hear Mariachi static on my radio
And the tubes they glow in the dark
And I'm there with her in Ensenada
And I'm here in Echo Park

Carmelita hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin
On the outskirts of town

Well, I'm sittin' here playing solitaire
With my pearl-handled deck
The county won't give me no more methadone
And they cut off your welfare check

Carmelita hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin
On the outskirts of town

Well, I pawned my Smith Corona
And I went to meet my man
He hangs out down on Alvarado Street
By the Pioneer chicken stand

Carmelita hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin
On the outskirts of town

Carmelita hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin
On the outskirts of town

------------------------------

Frank And Jesse James

by Warren Zevon

On a small Missouri farm
Back when the west was young
Two boys learned to rope and ride
And be handy with a gun

War broke out between the states
And they joined up with Quantrill
And it was over in Clay county
That Frank and Jesse finally learned to kill

Keep on riding, riding, riding
Frank and Jesse James
Keep on riding, riding, riding
'Til you clear your names
Keep on riding, riding, riding
Across the rivers and the range
Keep on riding, riding, riding Frank and Jesse James

After Appomattox they were on the loosing side
So no amnesty was granted
And as outlaws they did ride
They rode against the railroads,
And they rode against the banks
And they rode against the governor
Never did they ask for a word of thanks

Keep on riding, riding, riding
Frank and Jesse James
Keep on riding, riding, riding
'Til you clear your names
Keep on riding, riding, riding
Across the prairies and the plains
Keep on riding, riding, riding
Frank and Jesse James

Robert Ford, a gunman
In exchange for his parole
Took the life of James the outlaw
Which he snuck up on and stole
No one knows just where they came to be misunderstood
But the poor Missouri farmers knew
Frank and Jesse do the best they could

Keep on riding, riding, riding
Frank and Jesse James
Keep on riding, riding, riding
'Til you clear your names
Keep on riding, riding, riding
Across the rivers and the range
Keep on riding, riding, riding
Frank and Jesse James


------------------------------

Desperados Under The Eaves

by Warren Zevon

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was staring in my empty coffee cup
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'
All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles
I'm gonna drink 'em up

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill

Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified thieves
Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves
Heaven help the one who leaves

Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands
And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me
But except in dreams you're never really free
Don't the sun look angry at me

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was listening to the air conditioner hum
It went mmmmmm..

Look away...
(Look away down Gower Avenue, Look away....)

------------------------------

Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner

by Warren Zevon & David Lindell

Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray

Through sixty-six and seven they fought the Congo war
With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore
For days and nights they battled the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living and to help out the Congolese

Roland the Thompson gunner...

His comrades fought beside him - Van Owen and the rest
But of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best
So the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead
That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head

Roland the headless Thompson gunner
Norway's bravest son
Time, time, time
For another peaceful war
But time stands still for Roland
'Til he evens up the score
They can still see his headless body stalking through the night
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun

Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg

Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
The eternal Thompson gunner
still wandering through the night
Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun and bought it

------------------------------

Excitable Boy

by Warren Zevon & LeRoy P. Marinell

Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said

He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark
Excitable boy, they all said
And he bit the usherette's leg in the dark
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy


------------------------------

Werewolves Of London

by
LeRoy P. Marinell, Waddy Wachtel and Warren Zevon

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's
Going to get a big dish of beef chow mein
Werewolves of London
Werewolves of Los Angeles

If you hear him howling around your kitchen door
Better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Brian DePalma again
Werewolves of London
Here comes that dangerous man

He's the hairy handed gent who ran amuck in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
Better stay away from him
He'll rip your lungs out, Jim
And he's looking for James Taylor
Werewolves of London

I saw a werewolf trying to buy a used car at Del Mar
It was a bloody red coupe de ville
He said he was a-drivin' it to Mexico
Going down to Tijuana
Gonna kill somebody in a film or something

Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen
Doing the werewolves of London
I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the Queen
I saw Jackson Browne "Walking Slow" down the avenue
You know his heart is perfect
Doing the werewolves of London
I saw a werewolf drinking a Perrier at Trader Vic's
His hair was perfect
Werewolves of London again
Draw blood


------------------------------

Veracruz

by
Warren Zevon and Jorge Calderon

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria crying
Late last night I heard the news
That Veracruz was dying
Veracruz was dying

Someone called Maria's name
I swear it was my father's voice
Saying, "If you stay you'll all be slain
You must leave now - you have no choice
Take the servants and ride west
Keep the child close to your chest
When the American troops withdraw
Let Zapata take the rest"

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria calling
Saying, "Veracruz is dying
And Cuernavaca's falling"

Aquel dia yo jure [On that day I swore]
Hacia el puerto volvere [To the port I will return]
Aunque el destino cambio mi vida [Even though destiny changed my life]
En Veracruz morire [In Veracruz I shall die]
Aquel dia yo jure [On that day I swore]

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard them in the harbor
Saying, "Veracruz is dying"

------------------------------

Lawyers, Guns And Money

by Warren Zevon

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck

Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan

------------------------------

Jungle Work

by
Jorge Calderon and Warren Zevon

Lear jet S.W.A.T team
On a midnight run
With the M16
And the Ingram gun
We parachute in
We parachute out
"Death from above"
We're screaming now

Where the pay is good
And the risk is high
It's understood
We'll do or die
Sten gun in hand
Where the gun is law
From Ovamboland
To Nicaragua

Strength and muscle and jungle work

Three young men
In a Russian truck
With a little MAC-10
Sent 'em running to the huts
These few young men
The few who dare
To battle in hell
Le Mercenaire!

Strength and muscle and jungle work

------------------------------

Mohammed's Radio

by Warren Zevon

Everybody's restless and they've got no place to go
Someone's always trying to tell them
Something they already know
So their anger and resentment flow

But don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

Ayatollah's got his problems too
And even Jimmy Carter's got the highway blues
I went to see the Governor 'cause I thought that he would know
(you see I knew him)
He's been up all night listening to Mohammed's Radio

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

Everybody's desperate trying to make ends meet
Work all day, still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat
Alas, their lives are incomplete

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio, Mohammed's Radio

You've been up all night listening for his drum
Hoping that the righteous might just might just might just come
I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp
"Be watchful for Mohammed's lamp"

Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long
Mohammed's Radio

------------------------------

The Sin

by Warren Zevon

It's none of my business
But if I may
Remind you of the time
When you did something you knew was wrong
It wasn't called a crime
And I'm not saying that you should give
A sucker an even break
I'm talking about the time
That you were cruel for cruelty's sake
I'm talking about the time
That you were cruel for cruelty's sake

How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for the sin?
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for the sin?
Hah?

Maybe you went and stuck your key
In somebody else's door
Maybe you went and helped yourself
To something that wasn't yours
Maybe you simply criticized
Someone you hardly knew
You ruined part of their life for them
Part of your own life, too

How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for the sin?
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for it then?

If and when you feel an ill wind
Don't be too surprised
Remember when you should have
Picked on somebody your own size

How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for the sin?
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for
How you gonna pay for the sin?
How am I gonna pay for
How am I gonna pay for
How am I gonna pay for the sin?

------------------------------

Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

by Warren Zevon

I'd lay my head on the railroad tracks
And wait for the Double "E"
But the railroad don't run no more
Poor, poor pitiful me

Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me

Well, I met a girl in West Hollywood
I ain't naming names
She really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James
She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender
She put me through some changes, Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender

Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me

Well, I met a girl at the Rainbow Bar
She asked me if I'd beat her
She took me back to the Hyatt House
I don't want to talk about it

Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me

I met a girl from the Vieux Carre`
Down in Yokahama
She picked me up and she'd throw me down
I said, "Where's George Gruel, my road manger and best friend"
"Come on out here George..."
Get up and dance
Get up and dance or I'll kill you and I got the means

------------------------------

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

by Warren Zevon

So much to do, there's plenty on the farm
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Saturday night I like to raise a little harm
I'll sleep when I'm dead

I'm drinking heartbreak motor oil and Bombay gin
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Straight from the bottle, again & again
I'll sleep when I'm dead

Well, I take this medicine as prescribed
I'll sleep when I'm dead
It don't matter if I get a little wired
I'll sleep when I'm dead

I've got a .44 Magnum up on the shelf
I'll sleep when I'm dead
And I DON'T intend to use it on myself
I'll sleep when I'm dead

So much to do, there's plenty on the farm
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Saturday night I like to raise a little harm
I'll sleep when I'm dead

------------------------------


Being A Great Actress Is Never Easy!




1975 -- Beaten By Frogs





1979 -- Eaten By Dogs

---------

Monday, September 17, 2007

Warren Zevon -- Recorded Live at the Roxy: STAND IN THE FIRE -- The Liner Notes





One of the most heinous crimes in rock ‘n’ roll was the suppression, intended or otherwise, of Warren Zevon’s mind-blowing Stand In The Fire, recorded live at the Roxy in Los Angeles. It tragically disappeared many years ago from the bins of music stores and could be found only by the intrepidly obsessed, and then strictly on the inferior format of cassette. Now, at long last, this vanquished treasure is available to decent, law-abiding citizens on compact disc.

Much has been said and written about Warren’s remarkable songwriting, but he also happened to be a sensational performer. I was a fan long before we became friends, and I’d seen him in concert many times. It was always raw and wild and unforgettable (except to Warren, of course, who later told me that there were entire tours he couldn’t recall).

In his slightly more sedate middle years, he favored solo acoustic shows, which were impressive -- but I can tell you that there was nothing quite like Zevon in his anti-acoustic mode, unchained and rampaging with a band. For those of us lucky enough to have experienced that seismic jolt, Stand In The Fire is a joyful and raucous ignition of memory. For those who never got to see Warren take the stage, this is a grand taste of a mad rock wizard in his prime. Hang on to your Thompson guns.

--Carl Hiaasen

--------------------

This is the opening paragraph of the Rolling Stone review I wrote about this record when it was first released, at the end of 1980:

“In certain ways, Warren Zevon’s fourth Asylum album is also his first real rock & roll record. Cut liver than he’s ever been this past August at the Roxy in Los Angeles, Zevon has made Stand In The Fire one of those rare and remarkable in-concert LPs that’s not just a souvenir of a successful tour or a low-cost résumé of former glories and recent hits. Like Lou Reed’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal, Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty and Neil Young’s Live Rust, Zevon’s Stand In The Fire is a portrait of the artist as a tightrope walker, defiantly dancing the hairline between emotional exorcism and mass entertainment.”

I wouldn’t take back a word.

I would do something about the ice-cream-torpedo synthesizer licks in a few of the songs, if I could. They were hip and very new wave then. They sound ancient and awkward now, like the flimsy, cosmetic modernism that Zevon found so wrong in a lot of rock ‘n’ roll songwriting. In one of his final interviews, a year before his death at 56 from lung cancer on September 7, 2003, Zevon explained to me the standards he set for himself in the very beginning: “When I was a kid, I read Norman Mailer and John Updike, John Cheever and John Fowles -- that generation ahead of me of serious, so-called ‘literary’ writers. I wanted to see what intelligent and poetic writers had to say about contemporary life.” Zevon aspired to those Big Sentiments as well, he insisted, “as a songwriter. Certainly you had Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. But nobody seemed to be trying to be the John Updike of rock songwriting.”

At the start of the ‘80s, Zevon was still alone in that work. In 1978 he scored one hit single and a Top 10 album to go with it -- “Werewolves of London,” from Zevon’s second Asylum record, Excitable Boy. He also had enough FM airplay and rave-reviews to keep him in cult-hero comfort. But no other singer-songwriter of his generation -- certainly no one else in Zevon’s L.A. peer circle of singing freeway cowboys -- addressed murder, desperate passion, espionage, crippling loneliness, and fuck-you excess with such lethal wit and confessional grace.

Or with so much John Lennon, Jim Morrison, and Jerry Lee Lewis running riot in his piano attack and party-wolf singing, especially when he got in front of an audience. Two months before the Roxy dates recorded for Stand In The Fire, Zevon played another big local date at the Universal Amphitheater. This is how critic Chris Morris, in his Rolling Stone review, described one highpoint of that night, Zevon’s outrageously theatrical performance of “Jungle Work,” from his previous album, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School:

“Zevon appeared onstage in camouflage fatigues, looking every inch the shell-shocked soldier of fortune. As Zevon and the band growled the chorus, blasts of carbon-dioxide smoke shrouded the stage. Between verses, the singer crawled and tumbled around, playing search-and-destroy behind the amps. Finally, Zevon the dog of war went down in a hall of prerecorded gunfire under a flickering strobe light, and two uniform-clad roadies bore him out on a stretcher.”

“I asked him one time if he considered himself an entertainer,” Jackson Browne said of Zevon a few years ago. “and he said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ He had no doubt. He would consider himself an entertainer more than he would an artist or writer.

“It surprised me,” admitted Browne, who had been instrumental in getting Zevon signed to Asylum and was Zevon’s producer on his first two albums for the label. “Because I’ve always regarded the people whose work I love the most as beyond that, above entertainment. And he just gave me a funny smile: ‘If you’re not entertaining, you’re not doing anything.’”

There was another, more personal intensity to Zevon’s shows in the summer of 1980. He was newly sober (Zevon’s manic, decade-long alcoholism and dramatic turnaround would be the subject of a famous 1981 Rolling Stone cover story by his friend and greatest press champion, Paul Nelson), and there is a giddy frenzy to Zevon’s singing, piano pounding, and sly lyric adjustments on Stand In The Fire, as if he’s drunk on resurrection and gratitude. “I saw Jackson Browne walking slow down the avenue/You know his heart is perfect,” Zevon ad libs in “Werewolves of London,” a nod to their long, brotherly relationship and Browne’s crucial role in getting Zevon into rehab. And for all of the hell Zevon says he’ll raise in his anything-goes anthem, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” there are new limits. “I’ve got a .38 special up on the shelf/If I start acting stupid, I’ll shoot myself,” he sang in the original version, on his 1976 Asylum debut Warren Zevon. At the Roxy, Zevon has a .44 Magnum in arm’s reach but, he promises in a scoured growl, “I don’t intend to use it on myself.”

“He had a very fierce defiance about living,” Browne told me shortly after Zevon’s death. “’I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ is about charging into that single fact of our life -- that it comes to a close. He could depict the place where these things meet, where you find the desire to go on living in spite of it all. He satirized some of our best intentions, because of that deeper truth -- that the road to hell is paved with nothing but good intentions.

“But Warren did not promote a jaded or cynical view,” Browne said. “It was not his subject -- how to save the world. He just described it.”

Much of the power on Stand In The Fire comes from the band. In the studio, Zevon had L.A.’s best session musicians at his elbows. But at the Roxy, except for his friend and lead guitarist David Landau, Zevon comes armed with an actual group, Boulder, that he picked up whole from the Colorado club circuit. Their specialty: rough-house covers of Zevon tunes. When Landau and Boulder Guitarist Zeke Zirnigiebel hook up for the Thin Lizzy-like doubled riffing in “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” you get a full metal racket that the Warren Zevon take barely implies.

“I was on the edge,” Zevon admitted, smiling, when we talked about the Roxy shows. “I had strained a nerve in doing some James Brown-wannabe dance in rehearsal. I made friends with a doctor I think the Eagles sent to me, and he had to give me these shots every night before the show. I guess it was painkillers and steroids. So there was already a lunatic quality to the show. Jackson refers to it as my ‘karate-on-speed’ period,” he added quickly with a laugh.

Zevon brought plenty of his own extra octane. There is a deliciously exaggerated Elvis Presley shiver in his voice -- part “Hound Dog,” part ghoul -- when he gets to the last verse of “Excitable Boy,” the one about the bones in the cage. When Zevon hits the big finish in “Lawyers, Guns and Money” -- “The shit has hit the fan!” -- he punctuates the exclamation with a hail of bullets, rapidly running his hand down the piano keys. And in “Werewolves,” Zevon replaces the line about the wolfman’s tailor with some celebrity fun: “He’ll rip out your lungs, Jim/And he’s looking for James Taylor!,” shouting the name with wild-animal glee. Fire and rain are now the least of that singer-songwriter’s worries.

The original ten-track sequence of Stand In The Fire also included a revised “Mohammed’s Radio,” with a compassionate reference to the then-President Jimmy Carter’s struggle with the Iran hostage crisis; “Jeannie Needs A Shooter,” cowritten by Zevon with Bruce Springsteen (who basically supplied the title); and a furious medley of Bo Diddley covers. Zevon left the impression that he threw away any tapes that didn’t measure up to that ecstatic panic with an epigram on the inner sleeve from Thomas McGuane’s 1978 novel, Panama: “The dog ate the part we didn’t like.”

The previously unissued songs in this expanded reissue prove otherwise. Two are dance-party dynamite: “Johnny Strikes Up The Band” from Excitable Boy and Bad Luck Streak’s “Play It All Night Long.” The others are striking in their quiet: “Frank And Jesse James,” a song Zevon wrote in the early ‘70s for and about his former employees, The Everly Brothers; and the reluctant-goodbye ballad “Hasten Down The Wind,” which Zevon performs here solo at the piano -- but not alone. “Turn up the house lights,” he demands cheerfully at one point. “I’ve found out the ones who are my friends.”

But the confrontation and cleansing for which Stand In The Fire became famous -- but only modestly successful (it peaked at #80 in Billboard) -- are right up front in the two originals Zevon premiered on that tour. “Stand In The Fire” is pure rock ‘n’ roll baptism, another Zevon stomp about the healing powers of twang and boom. “The Sin” is just as fierce and even faster, “a stark account of crimes against lovers and friends,” as I put it in my 1980 review. Zevon opens the song as judge and jury: “The time that you were cruel for cruelty’s sake.” Yet the guilt is all Zevon’s when he gets to the primal scream in the final chorus: “How am I going to pay for the sin?”

“The battle between these contradictions,” I wrote then, “ends in a draw: i.e., to be continued.” Zevon would stay in that fray for the rest of his life, on every record he made, including another, much different concert album, 1993’s solo, acoustic Learning To Flinch. As for my Rolling Stone review, it ended this way:

“The physical tension and emotional stress embodied in Warren Zevon’s performance in Stand In The Fire is precisely what turns this collection of great rock & roll numbers into a record of great rock & roll. ‘Where’s George Gruel, my road manager?’ Zevon yells in ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me.’ ‘C’mon out here, George. Get up and dance or I’ll kill ya.’ That goes for the rest of you, too.”

I wouldn’t change a word of that, either.

--David Fricke

Sunday, September 16, 2007

What Is Pornography? Potter Stewart wrote that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it."

Pornography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Oil lamp artifact depicting coitus more ferarum
Oil lamp artifact depicting coitus more ferarum

Pornography or porn is, in its broadest state, the explicit representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal and/or sexual relief. It is similar to erotica, which is the use of sexually-arousing imagery for mainly artistic purposes. Over the past few decades, an immense industry for the production and consumption of pornography has grown, due to emergence of the VCR, the DVD, and the Internet, as well as the emergence of social attitudes more tolerant of sexual portrayals.

In general, "erotica" refers to portrayals of sexually arousing material that hold or aspire to artistic or historical merit, whereas "pornography" (which is frequently considered a pejorative term) connotes the more direct, blunt or excessive depiction of sexual acts, with little or no artistic value, intended for mere entertainment. The line between the two is often highly subjective. In practice, pornography can be defined merely as erotica that certain people perceive as "obscene." The definition of what one considers obscene can differ between persons, cultures and eras. This leaves legal actions by those who oppose pornography open to wide interpretation.

Pornography may use any of a variety of media — printed literature, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, or video game. However, when sexual acts are performed for a live audience, by definition it is not pornography, as the term applies to the depiction of the act, rather than the act itself. Thus, portrayals such as sex shows and striptease may be considered similar, but not identical, to pornography.

Note that pornography, both culturally and legally, is treated as a separate entity from depictions of naked persons in art or photography. See "nudity" for more information.

Contents

[hide]

Etymology

The word derives from the Greek pornographia, which derives from the Greek words porne ("prostitute"), grapho ("to write or record"), and the suffix ia (meaning "state of", "property of", or "place of"), thus meaning "a place to record prostitutes".

Technology

Mass-distributed pornography is as old as the printing press. Almost as soon as photography was invented, it was being used to produce pornographic images. Indeed some claim that pornography has been a driving force in the development of technologies from the printing press, through photography (still and motion) to video, satellite TV, DVD, and the Internet.[citation needed] Calls to regulate or prohibit these technologies have often cited pornography as a concern.[citation needed] Cultural historians have suggested that every art medium and publishing medium first was used for pornography: handwriting, painting, sculpture, the printing press, printed sheet music, motion pictures, videotapes, DVDs and the Internet.[citation needed] This may not be true throughout history, but it does seem to be true for recent history. The videotape and DVD media might have flourished without porn, but they have certainly flourished very well with it: the porn industry produces more titles per year than Hollywood; it even compares to Bollywood.

Many others think pornography's role in technology adoption (like the size of actors' body parts) have been greatly, greatly exaggerated. For example according to Forbes.com, adult video income was only $1 billion in 2001 calling into question the impact any adult studio, even a major one like Playboy, could have on a videotape or DVD format war. "The industry is tiny next to broadcast television ($32.3 billion), cable television ($45.5 billion), the newspaper business ($27.5 billion), Hollywood ($31 billion), even to professional and educational publishing ($14.8 billion). When one really examines the numbers, the porn industry --while a subject of fascination-- is every bit as marginal as it seems at first glance." [1]

Curiously, porn plays in few theaters, and in many countries it is difficult to rent porn videos, because movie rental stores such as Blockbuster and other large video-rental firms avoid porn;[citation needed] most distribution is by sale.

Photo manipulation and computer-generated images

Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering.

Until the late 1990s, digitally manipulated pornography could not be produced cost-effectively. In the early 2000s, it became a growing segment, as the modelling and animation software matured and the rendering capabilities of computers improved. As of 2004, computer-generated pornography depicting situations involving children and sex with fictional characters, such as Lara Croft, is already produced on a limited scale. The October 2004 issue of Playboy featured topless pictures of the title character from the BloodRayne video game.[2]

History

For more details on this topic, see History of erotic depictions.
A French caricature on "the great epidemic of pornography".
A French caricature on "the great epidemic of pornography".

Erotic art is as old as civilization but the concept of pornography as understood today did not exist until the Victorian era. Previous to that time, though some sex acts were regulated or stipulated in laws, looking at objects or images depicting them was not. In some cases, specific books, engravings or image collections were censored or outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that restricted viewing of sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct. When large scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of sexuality, and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples, Italy and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working class. Soon after, the world's first law criminalizing pornography was enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1857 in the Obscene Publications Act.[3] The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the Hicklin test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Despite their suppression, depictions of erotic imagery are common throughout history, and remain so.[4]

Legal status

See List of pornography laws by region for detailed list

The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Most countries allow at least some form of pornography. In some countries, softcore pornography is considered tame enough to be sold in general stores or to be shown on TV. Hardcore pornography, on the other hand, is usually regulated. The production and sale, and to a slightly lesser degree the possession, of Child pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and most countries have restrictions on pornography involving violence or animals.

Most countries attempt to restrict minors' access to hardcore materials, limiting availability to adult bookstores, mail-order, via television channels that parents can restrict, among other means. There is usually an age minimum for entrance to pornographic stores, or the materials are displayed partly covered or not displayed at all. More generally, disseminating pornography to a minor is often illegal. Many of these efforts have been rendered irrelevant by widely available Internet pornography.

In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order, either against all mail from a particular sender, or against all sexually explicit mail, by applying to the United States Postal Service.

There are recurring urban legends of snuff movies, in which murders are filmed for pornographic purposes. Despite extensive work to ascertain the truth of these rumors, law enforcement officials have been unable to find any such works.

The Internet has also caused problems with the enforcement of age limits regarding performers. In most countries, males and females under the age of 18 are not allowed to appear in porn films, but in several European countries the age limit is 16, and in Denmark it is legal for women as young as 16 to appear topless in mainstream newspapers and magazines. This material often ends up on the Internet and can be viewed by people in countries where it constitutes child pornography, creating challenges for lawmakers wishing to restrict access to such material.

Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the writer Salman Rushdie, have argued that pornography is vital to freedom and that a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography.[5]

The UK Government is planning to outlaw possession of what it terms "extreme pornography" after a campaign following the highly publicised murder of Jane Longhurst.

Anti-pornography movement

Opposition to pornography comes generally, though not exclusively, from several sources: law, religion and feminism. Some critics from the latter two camps have expressed belief in the existence of "pornography addiction."

Legal objections

In the United States, distribution of "obscene" materials is a Federal crime, [citation needed] and also under most laws of the 50 states. [citation needed] The determination of what is obscene is up to a jury in a trial, which must apply the Miller test; however, due to the prominence of pornography in most communities most pornographic materials are not considered obscene by the Miller Test. In explaining its decision to reject claims that obscenity should be treated as speech protected by the First Amendment, in Miller v. California, the US Supreme Court found that

The dissenting Justices sound the alarm of repression. But, in our view, to equate the free and robust exchange of ideas and political debate with commercial exploitation of obscene material demeans the grand conception of the First Amendment and its high purposes in the historic struggle for freedom. It is a "misuse of the great guarantees of free speech and free press . . . ." Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S., at 645 .

and in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton that

In particular, we hold that there are legitimate state interests at stake in stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and to passersby. 7 [413 U.S. 49, 58] Rights and interests "other than those of the advocates are involved." Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622, 642 (1951). These include the interest of the public in the quality of life and the total community environment, the tone of commerce in the great city centers, and, possibly, the public safety itself... As Mr. Chief Justice Warren stated, there is a "right of the Nation and of the States to maintain a decent society . . .," [413 U.S. 49, 60] Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 199 (1964) (dissenting opinion)... The sum of experience, including that of the past two decades, affords an ample basis for legislatures to conclude that a sensitive, key relationship of human existence, central to family life, community welfare, and the development of human personality, can be debased and distorted by crass commercial exploitation of sex.

Attorney General for Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese, also courted controversy when he appointed the "Meese Commission" to investigate pornography in the United States; their report, released in July 1986, was highly critical of pornography and itself became a target of widespread criticism. That year, Meese Commission officials contacted convenience store chains and succeeded in demanding that widespread men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse be removed from shelves,[6]a ban which spread nationally[7] until being quashed with a First Amendment admonishment against prior restraint by the D.C. Federal Court in Meese v. Playboy (639 F.Supp. 581).

In the United States in 2005, Attorney General Gonzales made obscenity and pornography a top prosecutorial priority of the Department of Justice.[8]

Religious objections

Some religious groups often discourage their members from viewing or reading pornography, and support legislation restricting its publication. These positions derive from broader religious views about sexuality. In some religious traditions, for example, sexual intercourse is limited to the express function of procreation. Thus, sexual pleasure or sex-oriented entertainment, as well as lack of modesty, are considered immoral. Other religions do not find sexual pleasure immoral, but see sex as a sacred, godly, highly-pleasurable activity that is only to be enjoyed with one's spouse. These traditions do not condemn sexual pleasure in and of itself, but they impose limitations on the circumstances under which sexual pleasure may be properly experienced. Pornography in this view is seen as the secularization of something sacred, and a violation of spouses' intimate relationship. For example, paragraph 2354 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

"Pornography... offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each another. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants... since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offence."

In addition to expressing concerns about violating sexual morality, some religions take an anti-pornography stance claiming that viewing pornography is addictive, leading to self-destructive behavior. Proponents of this view compare pornography addiction to alcoholism, both in asserting the seriousness of the problem and in developing treatment methods.

Feminist objections

Feminist critics of pornography, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, generally consider it demeaning to women. They believe that most pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment, and contributes to the male-centered objectification of women. Some feminists distinguish between pornography and erotica, which they say does not have the same negative effects of pornography. However, many Third-wave feminists and postmodern feminists disagree with this critique of porn, claiming that appearing in or using pornography can be explained as each individual woman's choice, and is not guided by socialization in a capitalist patriarchy.

Effect on sex crimes

A lower per capita crime rate and historically high availability of pornography in many developed European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Sweden) has led a growing majority to conclude that there is an inverse relationship between the two, such that an increased availability of pornography in a society equates to a decrease in sexual crime.[9] Some researchers speculate that wide availability of pornography may reduce crimes by giving potential offenders a socially accepted way of regulating their own sexuality. Moreover, there is some evidence that states within the U.S. that have lower rates of internet access have a greater incidence of rape.[10]

Japan, which is noted for its large output of rape fantasy pornography, has the lowest reported sex crime rate in the industrialized world. However, some argue that reported sex crime rates are low in Japan because the culture (a culture that greatly emphasizes a woman's "honor") is such that victims of sex crime are less likely to report it (e.g. chikan[11]).

Effect on sexual aggression

In the 70's and 80's, feminists such as Dr. Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin criticized pornography as essentially dehumanizing women and as likely to encourage violence against them. It has been suggested that there was an alliance, tacit or explicit, between anti-porn feminists and fundamentalist Christians to help censor the use of or production of pornography.[12]

Some researchers [attribution needed] have found that "high pornography use is not necessarily indicative of high risk for sexual aggression," but go on to say, "if a person has relatively aggressive sexual inclinations resulting from various personal and/or cultural factors, some pornography exposure may activate and reinforce associated coercive tendencies and behaviors".[13]

Pornography production and violence against women

In 1979, Andrea Dworkin published Pornography: Men Possessing Women, which analyzes (and extensively cites examples drawn from) contemporary and historical pornography as an industry of woman-hating dehumanization. Dworkin argues that it is implicated in violence against women, both in its production (through the abuse of the women used to star in it), and in the social consequences of its consumption (by encouraging men to eroticize the domination, humiliation, and abuse of women). Other studies, such as two separate US government commission studies instituted in 1970 and in 1986 (as noted in the next section), do not support this claim.

Pornography in different countries

U.S. Government commissions on pornography

In 1970 and 1986, the United States government established commissions to review all available evidence on the impact of pornography on society.

1970

In 1970, the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography concluded that "there was insufficient evidence that exposure to explicit sexual materials played a significant role in the causation of delinquent or criminal behavior."

In general, with regard to adults, the Commission recommended that legislation "should not seek to interfere with the right of adults who wish to do so to read, obtain, or view explicit sexual materials." Regarding the view that these materials should be restricted for adults in order to protect young people from exposure to them, the Commission found that it is "inappropriate to adjust the level of adult communication to that considered suitable for children." The Supreme Court supported this view.[14]

A large portion of the Commission's budget was applied to funding original research on the effects of sexually explicit materials. One experiment is described in which repeated exposure of male college students to pornography "caused decreased interest in it, less response to it and no lasting effect," although it appears that the satiation effect does wear off eventually. William B. Lockhart, Dean of the University of Minnesota Law School and chairman of the commission, said that before his work with the commission he had favored control of obscenity for both children and adults, but had changed his mind as a result of scientific studies done by commission researchers. In reference to dissenting commission members Keating and Rev. Morton Hill, Lockhart said, "When these men have been forgotten, the research developed by the commission will provide a factual basis for informed, intelligent policymaking by the legislators of tomorrow."[15]

President Reagan announced his intention to set up a commission to study pornography. The result was the appointment by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the spring of 1985 of a panel comprised of 11 members, the majority of whom had established records as anti-pornography crusaders.[16]

1986

In 1986, the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, reached the opposite conclusion, advising that pornography was in varying degrees harmful. A workshop headed by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop provided essentially the only original research done by the Meese Commission. Given very little time and money to "develop something of substance" to include in the Meese Commission's report, it was decided to conduct a closed, weekend workshop of "recognized authorities" in the field. All but one of the invited participants attended. At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed consensus in five areas:

  1. "Children and adolescents who participate in the production of pornography experience adverse, enduring effects,"
  2. "Prolonged use of pornography increases beliefs that less common sexual practices are more common,"
  3. "Pornography that portrays sexual aggression as pleasurable for the victim increases the acceptance of the use of coercion in sexual relations,"
  4. "Acceptance of coercive sexuality appears to be related to sexual aggression,"
  5. "In laboratory studies measuring short-term effects, exposure to violent pornography increases punitive behavior toward women" According to Surgeon General Koop, "Although the evidence may be slim, we nevertheless know enough to conclude that pornography does present a clear and present danger to American public health"[17]

Japan

Main article: Pornography in Japan

Rates of pornography use in Japan have climbed in the 20th century. Despite this, no correlation has been found between pornography use and rape or other sex crimes. Indeed, during this period, rates of sexual assault have dropped. Japan has the lowest levels of reported rape and the highest levels of arrests and convictions in any developed nation in the world.[18]

South African Parliamentary Commission on pornography

The South African government is reviewing the Films and Publications Act, which prohibits both virtual and real child pornography. Real child pornography involves the use of real children involved in sexual conduct while virtual child pornography is made up of a number of different types of erotic material that do not involve the use of actual children (including paintings, cartoons, sketches, digitally-created images and written descriptions as well as depictions of adults represented as under the age of 18). A recent submissionto the South Parliament argued that real child pornography ought to be prohibited while virtual child pornography ought not to be prohibited. The submission process, which involved discussion between members of the public, non-governmental organizations and members of parliament, was recorded by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.

Stereotypes

Pornographic work contains a number of stereotypes. Although pornography targeted at heterosexual males often includes interaction between females, interaction between males is rarely seen, with the exception of double penetration scenes. In hardcore materials, a male generally ejaculates outside his partner's body, in full view: the so-called "cum shot". Penises are almost always shown fully erect. In heterosexual pornography, the choice of position is naturally geared to giving the viewer the fullest view of the woman, making the reverse cowgirl position and the man holding the woman in a "dog-and-lamp-post" (doggy) position among the most popular.[citation needed] Fellatio scenes usually involve the woman looking into the camera or at the man, for similar reasons. Especially in American and Japanese porn, women tend to be vocal and loud during hardcore scenes. Racial stereotypes are often played up in American pornography involving ethnic minorities.[citation needed] Additionally, male pornographic actors are perceived to have incredible holding power.

None of these stereotypes are true of "softcore" pornography, as both male and female genitals are usually hidden.

Pornography by and for women

"We came up with the idea for the Feminist Porn Awards because people don't know they have a choice when it comes to porn," said Chanelle Gallant, manager of Good for Her and the event's organizer. "Yes, there's a lot of bad porn out there. But there is also some great porn being made by and for women. We wanted to recognize and celebrate the good porn makers as well as direct people to their work."

Some recent pornography has been produced under the rubric of "by and for women". According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography."[19]

Production and distribution by region

Main article: Pornography by region

The production and distribution of pornography are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it has in political circles are matters of controversy.

Economics

Main article: Porn industry

United States: In 1970, a Federal study estimated that the total retail value of all the hard-core porn in the United States was no more than $10 million[20] Although the revenues of the adult industry are difficult to determine, by 2003, Americans were estimated to spend as much as $8 to $10 billion on pornography.[21] A significant amount of pornographic video is shot in the San Fernando Valley, which has been a pioneering region for producing adult films since the 1970s, and since then has been home to a multi-billion dollar industry which acts as a center for various models, actors/actresses, production companies, and other assorted businesses involved in the production and distribution of porn.

The porn industry has been considered to be capable of deciding format wars in media; including being a factor in VHS v. Betamax (the videotape format war)[22][23] and a major factor in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war.[24][25][26]

In 1998, Forrester Research published a report on the online 'adult content' industry, which estimated at $750 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. A $10 billion aggregate figure had been estimated, and repeated in many news stories, but this was unsourced and not accurate.[27]

Non-Commercial Pornography

As well as the porn industry, there is a large amount of non-commercial pornography. This should be distinguished from commercial pornography falsely marketed as featuring 'amateurs'. Examples are the website asstr.org, which is focussed on prose. Various Usenet groups are focussed on non-commercial pornographic photographs.

Sub-genres

In general, softcore refers to pornography that does not depict penetration, and hardcore refers to pornography that depicts penetration.

Some popular genres of pornography:

Media (non-pornographic)

See also

Forms

Lists

People and groups

Other

References

  1. ^ Dan Ackman. How Big is Porn?. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
  2. ^ Playboy undressed video game women - Aug. 25, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  3. ^ Marilyn Chambers, John Leslie, Seymore Butts. Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization [DVD]. Koch Vision. ISBN 1-4172-2885-7
  4. ^ Beck, Marianna (May 2003). The Roots of Western Pornography: Victorian Obsessions and Fin-de-Siècle Predilections. Libido, The Journal of Sex and Sensibility. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
  5. ^ “Porn is vital to freedom, says [Salman Rushdie”]
  6. ^ Politics and Pornography. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  7. ^ The Rev. Donald E. Wildmon. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  8. ^ Attorney General Gonzales' priority: porn, not terrorists [Politech. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  9. ^ Pornography, rape and the internet. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
  10. ^ D'Amato, Anthony (June 23, 2006). Porn Up, Rape Down. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
  11. ^ The His and Hers Subway. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  12. ^ The Anti-Pornography Movement - Ashland Free Press. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  13. ^ Malamuth, NM; Addison T, Koss M (2000). "Pornography and sexual aggression: are there reliable effects and can we understand them?". Annual Review of Sex Research 2000 (11): 26-91. PMID: 11351835. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (Malamuth, Addison, & Koss, 2000, p. 79-81)
  14. ^ President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Report of The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. 1970. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.
  15. ^ Politics and Pornography. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  16. ^ Wilcox, Brian L (1987). "Pornography, social science, and politics: When research and ideology collide". American Psychologist 42: 941-943.
  17. ^ Koop, C. Everett (1987). "Report of the Surgeon General's workshop on pornography and public health". American Psychologist 42: 944-945.
  18. ^ Diamond, Milton; Uchiyama, A. (1999). "Pornography, rape and sex crimes in Japan". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22 (1): 1-22. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  19. ^ Political Smut Makers by Tristan Taormino. Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  20. ^ President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Report of The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. 1970. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.
  21. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Reefer-Madness-Drugs-American-Market/dp/0618334661
  22. ^ Ron Wagner, Director of IT at a California porn studio: "If you look at the VHS vs. Beta standards, you see the much higher-quality standard dying because of [the porn industry’s support of VHS] ... The mass volume of tapes in the porn market at the time went out on VHS." [1]
  23. ^ The Inquirer, 18 January 2007: "By many accounts VHS would not have won its titanic struggle against Sony’s Betamax video tape format if it hadn’t been for porn. This might be over-stating its importance but it was an important factor." [2]
  24. ^ Porn Industry May Decide DVD Format War
  25. ^ Blu-ray loves porn after all
  26. ^ Porn industry may be decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD battle
  27. ^ Richard, Emmanuelle. "The Naked Untruth", Alternet, 2002-23-05. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (English)

Further reading

Advocacy

  • Susie Bright. "Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World and Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader", San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 1990 and 1992. Challenges any easy equation between feminism and anti-pornography positions.
  • Betty Dodson. "Feminism and Free speech: Pornography." Feminists for Free Expression 1993. 8 May 2002[28]
  • Kate Ellis. Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship. New York: Caught Looking Incorporated, 1986.
  • Susan Griffin. Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature. New York: Harper, 1981.
  • Matthew Gever. "Pornography Helps Women, Society"[29], UCLA Bruin, 1998-12-03.
  • Jason Russell. "The Canadian Past-Time" "Stand Like A Rock"
  • Michele Gregory. "Pro-Sex Feminism: Redefining Pornography (or, a study in alliteration: the pro pornography position paper)[30]
  • Andrea Juno and V. Vale. Angry Women, Re/Search # 12. San Francisco, CA: Re/Search Publications, 1991. Performance artists and literary theorists who challenge Dworkin and MacKinnon's claim to speak on behalf of all women.
  • Michael Kimmel. "Men Confront Pornography". New York: Meridian--Random House, 1990. A variety of essays that try to assess ways that pornography may take advantage of men.
  • Wendy McElroy defends the availability of pornography, and condemns feminist anti-pornography campaigns.[31]
    • "A Feminist Overview of Pornography, Ending in a Defense Thereof"[32]
    • "A Feminist Defense of Pornography"[33]
  • Annalee Newitz. "Obscene Feminists: Why Women Are Leading the Battle Against Censorship" San Francisco Bay Guardian Online 8 May 2002. 9 May 2002[34]
  • Nadine Strossen:
    • "Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women's Rights" (ISBN 0-8147-8149-7)
    • "Nadine Strossen: Pornography Must Be Tolerated"[35]
  • Scott Tucker. "Gender, Fucking, and Utopia: An Essay in Response to John Stoltenberg's Refusing to Be a Man"[36] in Social Text 27 (1991): 3-34. Critique of Stoltenberg and Dworkin's positions on pornography and power.
  • Carole Vance, Editor. "Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality". Boston: Routledge, 1984. Collection of papers from 1982 conference; visible and divisive split between anti-pornography activists and lesbian S&M theorists.

External links

Commentary
Government
History
Sociology