Hello everybody!

I'm back after a long hiatus! Dang, I can hardly believe it's been more than four years since I last posted on this blog. Obviously a lot of changes have taken place on Xanga! It's good to see that Xanga is hanging in there even though their progress during the transition to WordPress has been moving at a snail's pace. Hopefully, they are finally in a better position continue adding features to the site.

My forum (SRR) has been chugging along also during this time. Traffic is consistent, still about 100,000 unique visitors month. The move from vBulletin board to XenForo (forum software) has been a successful. SRR now runs on a faster server. Now that XenForo's litigation issues have been resolved, it is great to see development in full swing again. I recently added the latest update to v1.40 plus several substantial upgrades including a chatbox and robust media gallery. Check it out if you are interested in (mostly) intelligent discussion about the adult industry. It's free and only takes a couple of minutes to sign up!

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The theatrical release of "50 Shades of Grey" (released already in Europe and today in the USA) is drawing protests in London and America.

In London, spirited protesters picketed at the premiere as the stars of the film strolled on the red carpet. The group stated they objected to "50 Shades" because it glorified violence against women. One protestor was removed due for their sign that read, "“Christian Grey is a rapist.” Another sign that made a big splash (and was not censored) read, "#BlueAboutGrey because some Ana's don't survive their Christian's" -- a reference to the main characters of the BDSM movie. As of today, the Twitter hashtag is still buzzing.

One protestor in Wisconsin, Mary Jo Walters said she was picketing because “I don't think it should be promoted as a love story that's seen as a gift basket for Valentine's Day,” Walters characterized "50 Shades" more akin to a "horror story" rather than a love story. She said it was demeaning to women and an inaccurate portrayal of love that should be banned. Walters stated it was important to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence against women.

I haven't read the books or film myself, so I cannot really comment on it yet. However, from what I've heard I don't think "50 Shades" is especially well suited for Valentine's Day. I don't associate the BDSM lifestyle with romance. If you are going out on a date this weekend, there's better choices.

-- Snowman

Sources: Channel3000, The Independent (UK)

Long time readers know that I enjoy occasionally documenting adult follies involving police, firemen and other civil service workers. 

A young decorated Massachusetts patrolman resigned on June 30th after abandoned his beat to so that he could meet Bridget the Midget, "the World's Smallest Porn Star."  Officer Richard P. Bennett, age 28 admitted in a short resignation letter he visited Club Alex's in Stoughton during the graveyard shift when Bridget was appearing as a feature dancer.  He did not radio other officers of his intent to visit the club as required by the department rules.  Internal policy also requires officers to team up when responding to calls from the gentleman's club. 

There's apparently no shortage of tattle-tales at Bennett's Police Department.  Stoughton Police Chief Paul Shastany claimed "at least:" five other officers reported Bennett's indiscretion.  In an interview with the local newspaper, he stated ”The culture is such in the organization that people want to do the right thing,”  In a subsequent investigation, Bennett lied to investigators about his visit to the club and an unauthorized modification to his weapon.  Earlier last month Bennett had just received a letter of commendation for his superior performance in connection with a murder investigation.

Bennett told the Boston Herald, "“A part of me wants to say, ‘Where was the news when I pulled someone out of a burning car last year?’ ” said Bennett of Fall River. “You know all the good things you do, and I’m going to be remembered for one stupid decision. It just sucks.”

Bridget the Midget, aka Bridget Powers truly is a tiny sexual dynamo.  She is only 3 feet and 9 inches tall and weights just 79 lbs.  She began working in the adult industry in 1999 at the age of 19.  Since then she has appeared in 51 XXX DVDs plus an unknown number scenes shot for the Internet.  If you would like to see Bridget in action, a list of her DVDs currently available can be found here.  If you prefer VOD click here.  If you would like to see Bridget live, by "popular demand" she is returning to Club Alex on August 26th-28th.

-- Snowman

Sources:  The Patriot Ledger, Fox News, Boston Herald, IAFD

Readers:  This was something I posted this morning on my forum in the popular "Evelyn Lin" thread. I thought some of you guys might enjoy reading about some behind the scenes drama on a shoot, so I decided to publish it here also.  By way of background, I shot a porn scene with Evelyn Lin and Alexis Love back in 2006 for my studio Blue Syren Productions that has not yet been released.  This morning I noticed someone on another adult forum asked Evelyn if she ever intended to film a scene for Blue Syren -- he was apparently unaware of the unreleased scene from a few years ago.  Instead of answering the question in a polite, professional way, Evelyn decided to post a disrespectful, smartass response.  Below is my reply.  Enjoy!

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I'm sorry to see that Evelyn Lin is running her mouth about me again. On another forum porn fan "Manl" asked:

"Eve, Are you going to shoot with/for Blue Syren Productions?"

Evelyn responded as follows:

"HAHAHAHA god I hope you're joking. My one and only shoot for "Blue Syren Productions" aka SNOWMAN of Raincoat Reviews took 12 hours. Literally. The other girl almost walked off set because it was taking so damn long. It wasn't even a feature! Just your run of the mill B/G/G"

Maln ... thank you for your interest in Blue Syren. Since you are obviously a fan of Evelyn and aware of my studio, I am sure you will see my response here.

It is highly unlikely I would ever hire Evelyn for another shoot for a couple of reasons. First, she is too vanilla. I am mainly interested in casting starlets who perform anal, DP and the like without hesitation. Second, I think Evelyn has changed a lot since she first entered the industry and not for the better. In my view, her head has grown to gigantic proportions even though she is still a minor league porn star. On a more personal level, I would never hire someone who is disrespectful and unappreciative as Evelyn is.

Also, Evelyn misrepresents what happened at the Blue Syren shoot by omitting many important facts. First, the shoot was essentially full two scenes. The first was a girl/girl foot fetish scene I was shooting for forum member BongoGigilo and the second was the Boy/Girl/Girl scene for Blue Syren. I attempted to find a way to combine them for the eventual Blue Syren release. Naturally, it is going to take much longer to shoot twice the amount of content. Both Evelyn and Alexis Love (the second girl) got paid extra because of this. If memory serves, Evelyn received $1400 for this "run of the mill" BGG scene -- the going rate for vanilla boy/girls scenes was about $700-800 at the time.

Second, although Evelyn states it was not a "feature" film, there was an introductory set-up with dialog and costumes. As such, there was not much practical difference between shooting this scene and a "feature." Evelyn and Alexis struggled with the dialog portion even though it was very basic. The nature of the content also required them to change in and out of their costumes several times. After the shoot, male talent Rick Masters commented on how sorry female talent is today. He told me that the girls he worked with today were not true "porn stars" -- rather they were closer to whores who just want to spread their legs and get fucked on camera for easy money without making any effort at all to make a real movie. He was truly disgusted.  Rick has appeared in thousands of movies since 1990.

Third, it is untrue the shoot took "12 hours." I believe the call time was about 1:00 PM and the shoot was over about 10:30 PM. Part of the reason the shoot took so long is because of Alexis Love's behavior. It was her first week in the industry and she was totally clueless.  Unfortunately, when girls enter the adult industry today, they often have no idea what is expected of them on the set.  Nor do most of them possess any acting or modeling skills.  Many of them don't even know how to pose or position their bodies for the camera.  Literally, all that's needed to break into porn is a willingness to suck and fuck on camera.  This is one of the reasons why I prefer to shoot more experienced starlets.  I don't have the time or desire to teach newbies how to do their job on my set.  We also took a 30 minute break between scenes to eat a quick dinner from Subway.

It didn't help matters that Alexis was calling her boyfriend every fifteen minutes and taking frequent trips to the bathroom. Alexis' boyfriend appeared to be Mexican gang banger -- he was covered in tattoos and looked and talked as if he just got released from Pelican Bay. When he became impatient that the shoot wasn't over by 8:00 P.M., he tried to shake me down for an additional $500 in modeling fees.  When I refused, he resorted to threatening me.  All this stress from her boyfriend was making Alexis upset and unable to perform at her best. It is important to understand that Alexis was represented by Goldstar Modeling and her fee was negotiated in advance with full disclosure we were shooting more than one scene and it would take longer than normal.   

When the shoot didn't conclude at 9:00 PM sharp Alexis' boyfriend decided the shoot was over and invited himself into Rick Masters apartment where we were filming the scene. We had no choice but to let him in because he started to bang loudly on the door and was causing a scene. He commanded Alexis to get dressed and boldly announced she would not sign the model release. Then he practically drug her out the door. Alexis was visibly upset and fighting back tears. They sped off into the night.

At this point, we were faced with a dilemma. The entire day was going to be a bust and no one was going to get paid (other than a minimal kill fee), or we could reshoot the entire scene again without Alexis. Evelyn decided she wanted to reshoot the scene again. No one was looking forward to shooting the scene again, but we were all trying to make the best of a bad situation. To her credit, I thought this was very professional and mature of Evelyn. Just as (PA) Cougar was about ready to go on a Walgreen's run to buy more Mini-DV tape, Alexis returned to the shoot and said she would like to finish the scene. In reality, the scene was nearly done except for the pop shot and it took about thirty minutes to wrap everything up.

Evelyn also failed to mention that Goldstar Modeling fired Alexis instantly after they heard about her antics on this shoot.

In light of the circumstances, I think the shoot took a reasonable amount of time. Despite Evelyn's implication, it is not unheard of for shoots to take all day. It happens more frequently with features, but it can happen on any set. Also, since I am small start up studio, I do not have a lot of assistance on the set and do nearly everything myself. In contrast, a larger studio will have a crew to set up lighting and sound, take stills, shoot the video and handle all the paperwork.

Evelyn's griping about the shoot shows how out of touch she is with real world wages. By my calculations, she earned $147.00 an hour and only about 25% of this was in front of the camera. The rest of the time she was just standing around waiting, filling out paperwork, getting make-up applied, eating, talking on the telephone etc. That's pretty good pay in my opinion. If Evelyn Lin ever walks away from the sex industry and works a "real" job, she will have a better understanding of this. Furthermore, given her age in the industry, limited "will do" list and with the current economic state of the industry, she should be thankful if anyone wants to hire her. The last thing she ought to be doing is whining about a long day on the set. Producers don't want to hear it. Everyone is working longer hours for less pay.

One last thing. As a producer/director I am interested in capturing the very best video footage and stills I can at a shoot. I am not particularly concerned about a model's time schedule or ideas about how fast I should be working so she can get back to her leisure life. Sometimes I see directors bragging about how fast they can shoot scenes -- often citing 2-3 hours. Personally, I don't think this is anything to be proud of. Rush job and quality usually don't go together in any kind of work. When I book girls I always tell them how long I expect the scene to take (6 hours) and that I work slowly. However, if it takes longer, it takes longer. I do not apologize for trying to do the best I possibly can. If this doesn't jive with some self-important starlet out there, so be it. I'll work with someone else.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention David Aaron Clark here as he influenced me to some degree on this point. DAC was notorious for extremely long and demanding shoots. However, although girls would bitch about it behind his back, they continued to work for him over and over and often praised his desire to shoot "amazing" footage. Once on a DAC set, I commented how long it was taking and he responded, "You can't rush the process. It is what it is." And that was his attitude. He didn't care if the shoot took twelve hours. He was more concerned with his craft and bringing his vision to life.

I hope to begin releasing the Blue Syren scenes later this year. I just purchased a new, fast computer that will make editing so much more enjoyable.

-- Snowman

[Going Mainstream starlets]

Later this month, a new reality TV show is scheduled to premiere called Going Mainstream.  As the name suggests, the show tracks the trials and tribulations of the starlets as they attempt to make the very difficult transition from XXX porn into mainstream media. Four Asian girls are featured -- Evelyn Lin, Beti Hana, Asia Zo & Lucky Starr. Eight other (non-Asian) starlets are also involved. The show is being produced by Murphy Boyz Entertainment and Carpe Diem Productions.  It appears that the show is in an early proof of concept stage where a pilot or a few episodes are filmed so it can be shopped around to networks who might be interested in airing it.

I don't like being a "Negative Nelly" or "Fun Sucker", and the last thing I want to do is quash anyone's dreams, but personally I have a very serious doubts that porn stars have the ability to "go mainstream." 

It's fine to say "I'm going mainstream" but the words alone mean nothing without the actual work to back it up. From what I can tell, over the last forty years Hollywood has never permitted porn stars to cross over and I see very little evidence that is changing. The idea is given a lot of lip service from time to time, but there are precious few examples of porn stars who have been featured in mainstream productions and their resumes are generally unimpressive.  In June of 2001, Time Magazine ran a story called "Porn Goes Mainstream."  Oh really?  Ten years on, where are all these crossover stars? 

I can think of only one current porn star who truly has a shot of any mainstream success and her name is Sasha Grey, who I blogged about last time.  Sasha caught an extremely big break when she came to the attention of director Steven Soderbergh and subsequently was cast in The Girlfriend Experience.  However, one should note that she was cast as a escort, which certainly was not much of a stretch for her.  A more important point is that 99.9% of girls who perform hardcore sex on camera are never going to experience this kind of miracle.

Basically, the adult industry is not and never will be a stepping stone into mainstream TV and movies! To think so is delusional and setting yourself up for major disappointment. In some respects, a show like Going Mainstream is a cruel joke on starlets as it gives them false hope.  The producers of the show capitalize on the titillation and cheap thrills generated by the starlets' sordid past while dangling an impossible dream in front of their noses the entire time.  In the promotional clip I see how eager the girls are to cross over and become "legitimate" and I find it sad.  They would be much better off coming to terms with their choice to be a porn star and truly being OK with it, regardless of what other people think.  After all, "loving yourself is the greatest love of all."  I predict the only ones who will profit in the long run from the show are the producers, who are exploiting the porn stars in a way porn directors never could.  All the girls are doing is exposing themselves in a new way and on a much wider basis than ever before to a generally unsympathetic audience and solidifying their identities as porn stars.  This is opposite of their goal. 

The elegant sounding Narrator in the promotional clip to Going Mainstream states: "From hardcore XXX porn to an Academy Award? Well, it's never been done before. But who knows? This is Hollywood anything can happen."  What a crock. The truth is, the road to Hollywood is paved with broken dreams, and there's no room on the bus for porn stars.

-- Snowman

P.S. -- For much more information and spirited discussion about Going Mainstream, see this thread on my discussion forum.  Also, all four of the Asian girls featured on the show currently or in the past participated on the Asian Porno Hotties board.  Here are links to the main "Pipeline" threads related to the Asian starlets:  Evelyn Lin, Lucky Starr, Beti Hana, Asia Zo.  Adults only and NSFW!

Each year, Playboy magazine
publishes a list of the most sexy celebrities in show biz. Only one pornstar
made the list -- Sasha Grey -- no doubt due to all the attention she received from her
mainstream crossover projects (Steven Soderberg's The Girlfriend Experience and provocative PETA commercials). A few of the choices seem
dubious. For instance, no less than three of the picks were involved
with Hef!  I'm sure they are all sexy and beautiful women, but I just have a feeling something else was going on during the selection process. 

The Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine has burned down.  After inspection, fire officials have determined the cause was arson. 

The shop employed three men and ten women. Before the fire, The Grand View was doing a brisk
business.  The workers, who are now unemployed, are said to be "in shock."

The controversial business opened earlier this year in February on a former motel site.  Sole Proprietor Donald
Crabtree said crowds were "mobbing in" ever since.  According to Crabtree, the place was made, "to
put a smile on your face." CNN interviewed waitress Krista Macentyre after the fire.  Macentyre described the shop
as a "good, innocent business." She added "We really liked it here" and
"we weren't hurting anyone."

Unfortunately, the fire completely consumed the building and the Coffee Shop is a total loss. Owner Crabtree
was hit especially hard.  He had no insurance and lived onsite in adjacent living quarters along with his two daughters, their boyfriends and infant children.  Now the
entire family has been forced to move to a nearby motel.

“It really put the lives of seven people in danger,” Fire Marshal John
Dean said. “This is a very serious fire. We had seven people sleeping
at the time of fire, and somebody set the fire.”


The arson investigation is ongoing and evidence has been sent to the State Police Lab for analysis.

I certainly hope law enforcement catches the arsonist quickly and the local DA throws the book at him or her.  I have a strong suspicion this fire was set by an untolerant person trying to impose their moral values on others at any cost.

Source: CNN, Boston Herald

P.S. -- Lots of great pics of the shop before the blaze can be seen here.  Also, here's a CNN news report on YouTube shot shortly after the Coffee Shop opened.

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Newbie Asian MILF Lucky Starr has joined the forum.  Her main discussion thread (as well as from free galleries) can be found here.  She also posted an Introduction here.  Stop by and say "hi" to her!  The picture above is from a recent shoot for Muffia's Cum-Fu.

APH Fans!

This is your last chance to vote in the Third Annual Asian Porno Hottie Awards!  Voting will close early in the morning of Friday, May 1st.   Please support your favorite starlets, directors and websites.  The categories and nominees this year are:

2009 APH Starlet of the Year:  Jandi Lin, Jessica Bangkok, Lana Croft, London Keys and Tia Ling.

2009 APH Shooting Star Award (Best Newbie):  Amai Liu, Asa Akira, London Keys, Kimmy Thai, and Krystal Kali.

2009 APH Scene of the Year:  Jandi Lin in Evil Anal #05, Lana Croft & Priva in Invasian #03, Lana Croft in Asian Fever #34, Mya Luanna in Invasian #03 and Tia Ling in Invasion #03.

2009 Best Asian Niche Website:  Anal Nippon, Asia Movie Pass, Asian Sex Club, Cum-Fu, Mr. Chew's Asian Beaver.

2009 Best Adult Movie of the Year (Asian Genre):  Asian Fever #34 (directed by Kevin Moore), Cockasian #03 (directed by Robbie D.), Invasian #03 (directed by Jules Jordan), No Man's Land Asian Edition #05 (directed by David Aaron Clark) and Oriental Orgy World #06 (director unknown).

and last but not least, the 2009 APH Hall of Fame Award where as expected, the race is very tight:  Brooke Ashley (aka Fantasia), Jade Marcela, Mai Lin, Miko Lee and Mika Tan.

All of the nominees were chosen by APH fans like yourself!

To vote, visit the APH Awards board on the discussion forum at Snowman's Raincoat Reviews.  Please note, only registered members can vote, but it is free and only takes a minute to sign up.  I do manually validate accounts after your e-mail address is verified, so please do not delay.  This can take a few hours unless you sign up when I am away from the computer for a long time (such as when I am sleeping!).

Thanks in advance for your support!

-- Snowman  

Good Morning all!

This morning Denny's is offering a "Grand Slam" breakfast on the house between the hours of 6:00 AM and 2:00 PM!  To find a location near you, click this link!  As soon as I finish up some work here, I'm gonna take advantage of this awesome offer!

Thanks to Mystic Won for tipping me off to this!

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Speaking of "Grand Slams", I recently saw an interesting article in Japan Times that described a study that found Japanese teens who skip breakfast as middle school students tend to have start having sexual relations at an earlier age in contrast to those who start the day off with a proper meal.  The research was performed by the Japanese Family Planning Association and funded by the Japanese government.  1500 people were included in the sample and participates included both Japanese men and women from ages 16 to 49.

The average age for the first time sex for daily breakfast eaters at the time of middle school was 19.4, while the average age for breakfast skippers was 17.5.

Executive Director Kunio Kitamura believes the key lies in the family life of young people.  ""The fact that people can't eat breakfast may show something about their family environment," said Kitamura. "Before blaming individuals for having sex at an early age, it may be necessary to look into the sort of homes they are from." 

Another interesting result of the research indicated that teens who were not fond of their Mother tended to have sex at an earlier age.  Those who found their Mother annoying started having sex at the average age of 16 versus 19 for those who appreciated her more. 

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Just too see how far I can take this entry, I looked up "Grand Slam" on Urban Dictionary to see if it had any special meanings on the street and sure enough it did!  According to this trusty and endlessly fascinating resource, a Grand Slam can relate to a "4-way":

Eek!

-- Snowman

Sorry guys, the SRR forum is temporarily down due to technical problems at the server level.  My current host is Surpass Hosting.  Although I have been happy with them in the past, their ability to properly support this problem (related to the MySQL databases on the backend) has been woefully inadequate and their response time unacceptably slow.  At this point, the problem has been referred to a "Level 3 Server Analyst" where I was asked to "Await for their response."  That was thirteen hours ago and the forum itself has been down now for nearly a full day.  Plus this problem has been happening now for about three days in a row.  As a Surpass customer of 5+ years, this is pretty disappointing. 

It appears I may have to find a new hosting company if Surpass doesn't get their act together and solve these issues soon.  The good news is, the forum data is backed up and safe. 

If anyone has suggestions for reliable hosts familiar with running vBulletin and offer dedicated servers at an affordable cost, please respond here in a comment or e-mail  me at snowman872 at gmail dot com.  The host would have to be OK with adult content.  Most are, but there are still a few prudish ones out there.  I'm considering Global Gold to host of the forum who seem to have a lot of experience with vBulletin, but they are located in the UK.

In the meantime, I'll post updates on the situation here and on Twitter.  Thank you for your patience.  The forum will be back soon...!

-- Snowman