(Image: shot by Nikola Tamindzic, from Fleshbot's superb coverage (NSFW) of AVN '07.)
I filed a story for the NPR News program "Day to Day" on the odd connections between the 40th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE), both of which take place in Las Vegas this week each year: AUDIO LINK
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It's no secret that bepocketprotectored CES attendees often try to crash the porn awards, but — surprise — "porn stars like to go over to CES, too, and get their HDTV on," one adult film performer told me. Both conventions were at one time held under the same roof, but AEE split off in 2001. There are economic ties between the two: you gotta have something to watch on all those new mobile devices and home entertainment systems. And that old chestnut about "porn drives technology innovations"? If you walk around on both expo floors for a while, you'll see this is still true.
In the NPR piece, you'll hear audio from an advertisement for cloneawillykit.com. Here's the whole ad. It's pretty funny. MP3 LINK (might have to right-click and save, BB's server acts funny with audio files). They make a female version, shown at left.
You'll also hear some sound from a company called soundspublishing.com that sells smutty spoken word audio for your iPod. They're releasing a new line voices by Jenna Jameson, called — ah — JennaTales. And I spoke with Tomcat, the webmaster behind fuckingmachines.com (NSFW), a fetish site that features women having sex with robots.
Some odds and ends that didn't end up in the story: BB pal Christy Canyon, author of "Lights, Camera, Sex," is directing adult films now: Link. The most hilarious DVD I saw on the floor: Corruption (NSFW), starring Hillary Scott and directed by Eli Cross, which includes sly in-joke digs at specific politicians who've been unfriendly to the porn biz. The film's arch-villain is David Walker Helms, a Republican senator and sociopathic psychokiller whose "greed is matched only by his own dark perversions."
Previously on BoingBoing:
And see also:
Reader comment: Rodney Hoffman says,
I've only been once, in 1990, before AVN split from CES. As I wrote to friends
at the time:"… Best of all, one ballroom of one hotel was set aside for "Adult
Video." Yes, that means porn. Of all varieties. All these porn
purveyors were there trying to convince retailers and video stores to
stock their lines. Most of them brought some of their "stars"
(scantily clad, of course) to autograph photos, calendars, magazines,
and posters. (If this subject offends you, stop reading now. Myself,
I consider porn the highest and best use of video technology.)"Well, it was a wonderful time to be an openly gay man. There were
these l-o-n-g lines of men (no women to speak of) waiting for an
autograph and a few words with the female stars, and there was no
waiting at all for the male models who were there. Most of them were
delighted to talk and sign stuff. I met and brought back autographed
publicity photos and posters from Matt Powers, Joey Stefano, Dick
Masters, Joe Williams, Adam Grant, Brad Phillips, Jeff Stryker
(pushing non-gay stuff, however), Tim Lowe, and more. It was lots of
fun."Naturally, many thousands of the 80,000+ mostly male CES attendees
must have been gay, but hardly any were open enough to talk to the gay
male video stars about their work. Being gay even helped me with the
non-gay booths: One company from Australia was giving out boomerangs
autographed by some of their female stars. There were two long lines
of guys waiting to get one. I walked right in between the two lines
and asked if I could just have an un-autographed one; they handed me
one, and I avoided the 20-minute lines."
