Category: 
Seeing the title drew me in, I eagerly awaited for a copy, purchasing it from our newest Sesa at Valencia St. We are having Simone Corday as a guest here on this Thursday night the 24th, she’ll be reading from her book and signing copies!
My partner worked at Mitchell Brothers before the slaying of Artie Mitchell. He was a DJ and cued the music and lights for the dancers. He remembers the wild stories of Artie and had seen him a few times before his murder. He later worked at other clubs as a DJ/lighting person and as a projectionist at other theatres and got to see all the classics on the big screen. I am a porn classic lover and getting to hear how the Industry was back in the day is facinating to me. All our older male customers can say ” do you have Seka?” I say “oh yes we do!” I feel personally invested since I requested that we carry her work. ( Note classic porn lovers: more classics are coming out on DVD. The Vista catalog has been bought and now classics will see the light of DVD! I am so excited! I have already requested “3 a.m.” a customer request)
Anyways back to where we were before I digressed: This book is facinating. Well written (authour was a teacher mind you) and including a few photos stealthly hidden in the pages, the ride is wild and as I read it my emotions were conflicted. I caught myself saying ” why did she put up with all that insanity?” Of course the rest of us have no room to talk we have all been there, in a toxic relationship that we just couldn’t seem to cut ourselves from. I could hear myself in her writing: the excuses, the endless waiting , wanting and waiting and waiting for that moment of bliss from the one you loved.
You can tell she hasn’t waned in her love of Artie Mitchell, such as it is when a loved one is ripped away from you and even worse, by murder.
I appreciated her posistivity towards the industry and the empowerment she felt as a the most creative dancer there. These days burlesque dancers seem to be the only ones I can think of carrying the torch of the entertaining sex(y) show. Her recollections of Hunter S. Thompson and some of the other dancers are funny and insightful. I even combed the pages to see if there was any mentioned of the sound guy aka my partner.
When I asked him if he remembered her, he said:
“If I saw her I was not allowed to talk to her. There was a No Fraternization Policy between workers. (Not Owners and workers I am guessing!) I was only allowed to ask what song they wanted and to tell them they were on next”
He later went on to tell me about how they were to dress professionally , insiting that he wear a tie. Reading about the drama in Simone’s pages I can guess that this cut down on some of the drama. I have heard that dress codes are often enforced to decrease any shenaigans. Case in point: Disneyland. During Senior night, students have to wear dress clothes. It’s supposed to keep the visitors from getting too restless and toking up on Tom Sawyers Island, I suppose.
As it is as a book/toy/video reviewer , we comb through all we submit to our buyer. I am more sensitive to print when doing so. Okay I am PC when it comes to that. After all we have guidelines and have worked hard to set a posistive example for what we hope someday the Industry will follow.As an aside sometimes watching porn with me can be trying: “okay they are doing anal, check, ass to mouth,check, …”
I only had a couple “ouch” moments. those are moments where I think “Really? You just wrote that? That will be offensive to X , Y or Ze”
One was mention of a dwarf as a “freak” and references to others weight that made me uncomfortable. The Industry being as it is and especially in the 80’s , as much as we want to say how great they were for the representation of natural bodies, they were not encompassing to all shapes and sizes of bodies. The Fat lady and the dwarf appearing in the sequel of “Behind the Green Door” are there for shock value. There does seem to be that element to a lot of porn I have seen, one recent character in “Bella Loves Jenna”. Many folks love that dark and horrific at times movie, even when they have to cover their eyes when the “creepy guy” comes out on his tricycle. People are naturally curious and I wonder if casting those parts has that in mind? Personally I love things that are different from most, it’s exciting, but I can’t say I fetishize these things they are people. I crige when I hear “Oriental” when refering to folks who are Asian. Again I am being PC. I am Asian and a piece of furniture? Well no…not today anyway.
Some folks do fetishize and spend money on it, maybe that’s why?
This is a memoir and not an educational how to book and I realize that she has every right to her opinions even if I don’t agree with them. Also this could have been her view point back then, maybe not now. With all these justifications and rationalizations of the Industry against my on PC’ness, I still say read the dang book, it’s good!
Not everything is pretty , nice and fluffy. We at GV are unusual in the Industry, a feminist force in a make dominated industry that is reconizing that women are now onto the idea of self pleasure is a -ok. (And as a matter of fact we do have a new sign in the vibe section stating that “partners need not worry a vibrators is going to replace them, nothing can replace a warm, loving parter or partners” as the case may be!)
Fantasy’s are PC and I can admit my fantasies are most likely not. I am only here to review, not to judge.
That would not be sex-positive.
