Snarfed from Forrest's Journal

Just added some new t-shirt designs to the Blue Blood Boutique, in both regular, as well as super hot baby-t styles. I'm really pleased with the new designs and it's really cool to see folks out rockin the new stuff out on the street and in the clubs already.

Amelia G Hearts Thomas S. Roche

Whoo-hoo! An interview with yours truly is the lead feature on Eros Zine today!



The interview was conducted by the fabulously witty Thomas S. Roche. Here is his intro:

I first encountered Amelia G through Blue Blood, the magazine she and Forrest Black published starting in 1992 -- in other words, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In those days, the idea of combining horror, goth, sci-fi, comix, firearms, gaming, pornography and fetishism was just about unheard of. In fact, there were only a few dozen of us doing it.

Back then, I had like two professional publications plus a couple dozen pseudonymous porno novels and a substantial wad of published gay leather porn. The latter two categories I rarely bothered to tell anyone about, mostly because I kept writing porno books and stories and then forgetting about them as soon as I'd cashed the checks. I was far from being a high-profile writer. But the fact that I was so quickly welcomed into the fold -- despite my dorky eyeglasses and the fact that disks by Billy Joel sat between Jarboe and Joy Division on my CD shelf -- was testament to the fact that the goth/fetish/porn/BDSM/sci-fi/horror crossover community, in those days, was a very, very small world.

To be sure, sci-fi/horror and sex had enjoyed a long, lush flirtation, as had goth and horror -- the phenomena would explode over the next ten years precisely because fetish, fashion and fantasy are so undeniably right for each other. The BDSM community -- in San Francisco, at least -- was already overrun with comic-book-obsessed freaks of all genders whose pasts included frenzied adolescent wanks spurred on by everything from John Norman's Gor novels to Ziggy Stardust to Boris Vallejo to the Borg Queen to Frank-N-Furter to Darth Vader's erect syringe to Japanese anime to Philip Jose Farmer's Flesh. But at the time, the explicit connection of perversion, counterculture and science fiction/fantasy/horror drew puzzled looks from some fans -- and quivering streams of drool from others.

Blue Blood, along with Cecilia Tan's Circlet Press, Lisa Palac's Future Sex and Nancy Kilpatrick's The Darker Passions, among others, paved the way. Following close behind in a hurricane of mouth-breathing fanaticism were about ten bazillion pervy nerd boys and saucy geeksluts secreted after hours behind the gates of Ren Faires everywhere and locked in basements trying to rewire their N64s to shock their nutsacks. May the dark gods of science fiction fandom and eternal safe, sane and consensual torment just, oh, shower love upon you all. It makes me misty.

Anyway, screw the visit to the old folks' home. Let's talk monsterfucking.

Nowadays, horror porno is de rigeur, baby, de freakin' rigeur, but Amelia and Forrest are still crankin' out high-class commercial erotica with a countercultural edge and the flavor of damnation. In addition to Blue Blood, their sites include Gothic Sluts, Barely Evil, Rubber Dollies, and Scar 13, among others.

I caught up with Amelia for a late-night chat on horror and hoochies, porn and perversion.

You are going to have to visit Eros Zine to read Thomas's hysterically funny questions and my answers to 'em. Go there now.

PS The free photo gallery shot by me and Forrest Black which is featured with the interview is exclusive to Eros Zine for this fine holiday season, 2005. You gotta go there to view it.

Too Much Halloween

I love this time of year, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I know I should just be happy, but it is a little too much. We sold out of the new Blue Blood Boutique hoodies the first week. I had to reorder everything and hope I get everything in time to keep people whose orders I haven't been able to send yet happy. I've got a deadline this week that I really don't feel like making. Actually, I've got four deadlines this week and one of them is cleaning up the mess made by someone else's shirking their responsibilities and one I just don't feel like doing in the midst of everything else. Had a great time bowling Friday. Was fun seeing Kellie while she was in town. Love my comfy hoodie. Have some great photos I just need to post. Am bleeding like a CSI episode. Had a nightmare last night which was sort of a cross between Martha Stewart: Apprentice and Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS and when I used to do contract design work. It sounds funnier than it was to experience. Started my day off-kilter. A bunch of people I like are having their relationships break up right now and I feel sad for them, even though, in some cases, I'm sure they will make positive new beginnings from the lemonade. Went to too many parties last night. Have too many parties and shows I want to go to this week and more work than I feel like I can do. Feeling overwhelmed is making me lower energy than I would otherwise feel I think. That and bleeding like a CSI episode. (I just had to say that twice.) There is just so much going on both workwise and funwise that I feel like I am always dropping the ball right now. I've got friends helping me with stuff and that is awesome. I should really just chill for a day and try to recharge. But I probably won't. Fuck I have a lot to do, but I just spent precious work and fun time freaking out in type instead. Blargh.

Cool Cityscape

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Announcement Snarfed from Forrest

Hey folks, I'm very excited to announce the opening of the
Blue Blood Boutique!
We're working on adding lots of cool stuff, in addition to the awesome new Blue Blood hoodies (as seen on the lovely Scar, below), stickers, and pins!







Free shipping available for larger orders too!
Check it out: http://www.BlueBloodBoutique.com

Chaotika is right thinking she is cool and sexy!

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Battle Hymn

I have PMS. I generally try to avoid anything which could be ruffling at such times. Apparently the world did not get the memo. LOL Can a journal be considered a memo to the world? Probably not. I hope not. I really don't post my ready-for-primetime thoughts here. I wish fewer people used this medium as a memo to the world generator. I really enjoy the concept of a diary which can allow feedback. But a diary does not equal a site. If I want to communicate a finished thought to hundreds of thousands of people, this is not where I would post it.

Late late night last night. Feeling very crusty today, but slept really well.

Actually, it is not just PMS. I mean, I do try to avoid conflicts if I fear my own reaction might be too strong or otherwise off. For a long time, I was holding my tongue on a lot of things because I wanted to avoid conflict. Not sure those two things go together though. Something for me to think about. In general, as time goes on, I like to reserve my energy for conflicts which matter and not just any old thing. I would rather create than battle, unless the battle is for something important i.e. good cause gets a battle hymn from me but baseless drama does not.

Pink!

There is a leopard-spotted pink paddle in my suitcase from Comic Con. I wonder who it could possibly belong to . . .

Funerals

I can't decide if I should go to the funeral. I had kind of decided I couldn't do it, but then I woke up early this morning from one of those horrible nightmares where you are racing to get somewhere you never arrive. And I was trying to get some friend of my parents who was kind of like Eddie Izzard to get me to the DC airport so I could catch a flight to make it to the funeral, only I'm not even in DC right now and my parents would be very unlikely to be friends with anyone who was anything like Eddie Izzard.

I really don't like mortality.

There is something wrong about funerals. Like the person you are going to see won't really be there.

Morbid

I used to look forward to autumn every year. The last four years in a row, however, I've had a death in the family around this time of year. Every damn year. If I never pick up for my mother calling before noon again, will my family live longer?

Thanks!

I have a leather jacket and preserves from someone with extraordinary taste in spreadables. Thanks, baby! :-) Next time, I promise to go barefoot in your garden. Topiary pets rule.

Kellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Contest

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Photo Stuffs

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Dreaming in Apocalypse

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Profiteering Creeps, Good Charities, Pain & Optimism

It really bugs the hell out of me when there are people who try to profit off of something like the Katrina disaster. I'm talking about the sort of people who ask you to buy their products and they will donate a portion of profits. Note that most of this profiteers offer a % of profits and not actual gross proceeds. Then they just make enough expenses that there are no profits. Most of them do not have real businesses either i.e. they are thinking of throwing a club night or making arts and crafts or something and, despite lack of experience in that arena, asking other people to support their fledgling business because, although they are not a registered charity, they are planning to give later. Yeah, right.

If a genuine going concern of a business decides to donate part of a regular ongoing profit stream, I think that is decent if they are doing it that way just to make sure they are giving what they can afford. If they are doing it to make people buy their products, I think that is vile.

A Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance spokesperson pointed out that, even if the middleman asking you to give through them is legit, the middleman is taking a skim. If you want to give, you should give directly to the charity.

I'd like to add that of course giving directly to someone you know needs help makes sense too. For example, a lot of people in the Houston gothic scene are providing temporary housing to people from the New Orleans scene. There is a town in I believe Tennessee where the local churches and suchlike basically paired local families with their counterparts from a stricken town so that people were assisting each other on a personal and direct level.

You should research what charities you want to support. Besides the BBB folks, Charity Navigator the guide for intelligent giving has a specific guide for the Katrina disaster at this link. None of these is a be-all-end-all instruction manual, but I think they have good tips.

The following is the list of charities I have been supporting:


I think that housing is going to be a really important issue for recovery. I believe the people who run this charity truly intend to do good and have a track record of success.


This is a service created by MoveOn.org for the purpose of matching up people able to put up victims of the storm with people who need a place to stay for a while. I think this is a wonderful and immediate concept to help with the immediate problem. Those donating housing can state preferences for who they would be most able to give shelter and support to i.e. gender, children, families, orphans, pets, smokers, nonsmokers, etc. Those seeking housing get an intuitive interface for searching by location and so forth.


I know some people oppose their Christian message, but I think the Salvation Army actually embodies a lot of the good love-thy-neighbor stuff which the political Christians have robbed the religion of in the public eye. I saw the Salvation Army spokesperson on CNN and was impressed with his compassion. Can't say the same for everyone I saw speak during my compulsive news-watching this past week.


Again, I was impressed by the spokesperson for America's Second Harvest on CNN. Obviously figuring out how to get food shipped to people is an immediate need and these people have a track record for doing this successfully.

I'm incredibly impressed with everything Magic Johnson has been doing as well, although the Magic Johnson Foundation is not specifically a Katrina charity. For example, he has been feeding the displaced at his Burger Kings and giving them new shoes to replace the disease-ridden cardboard some people have been walking around in. A bunch of other stuff too. I feel good that it seems like the majority of people really do want to see the right things done and so many are helping in the ways available to them.

What charities do you all like and why?

WTF?

It is starting to sound like FEMA was worse than ineffective; they were actually damaging. They reportedly stopped Wal-Mart shipments of water and turned away fuel and boats and, according to the following video, even sabotaged communication systems. WTF?

At this link and this torrent mirror

This is just so much worse than merely not mobilizing on time or efficiently. How could FEMA or anyone human block other people from mobilizing help? I just can't imagine what goes through someone's head when they stop someone from handing a bottle of water to someone who is dying of dehydration. I'm no bleeding heart, but Broussard sure as hell does not come across as one either. It makes me so sick and angry and I can't even imagine how it must have been and still is for people down there sworn to help.

Outrage

I am having trouble getting anything done. I normally avoid the news, except for Jon Stewart (even though I think Anderson Cooper is one sexy boy), but I can't stop watching CNN this week. I am so appalled at how long it has taken to send the proper help. The reports of volunteers being turned away from troublespots make me sick. Everyone from private US citizens to foreign governments to the Salvation Army have been stopped from rendering aid. I don't even understand how there is aid which couldn't get there from our own American government resources. That people were stopped from helping just makes me so angry, makes me feel so impotent. I am so digesting my stomach lining. The handling of the Katrina disaster is such a travesty even the newscasters on FOX and CNN are taking over the job of shouting at the TV for us. I just found out that the last of my personal friends from NOLA showed up more or less okay yesterday. That is some relief, but, as a patriot and a human being, I am still so angry and so sad. I normally make it a policy not to post about anything remotely political online. But most of what I've been doing since this happened in watching news on TV and the web and reading message board and journal posts about it and making posts myself which I normally wouldn't, but this is just too much. How could this happen in America?

I ordered a home gym, but apparently it is going to take eight fucking weeks to ship to me. Who knows if I will still even want to be in shape then.

New Orleans being 80% underwater is creeping me out.

All work and no play makes Amelia something or other.

I kind of miss school.

Youth really is wasted on the young.

I want to go somewhere autumn is happening.

I feel sort of depressed for reasons so random and strange, I want to smack myself.

Is it hot in here?

I've had a fever for the last couple days. I don't feel sick really. Just feverish and kind of delirious.

Wow, I've been staring blankly at the screen for some time since I typed the first part of this. I bought like everything in the get-well-soon juices section of Ralph's a day ago. Maybe I will drink some juice and read a novel now. I'm not sure too much more work is getting done today. I did get to the post office which I really needed to do, so that's cool. I want to be functional by Saturday.

I've been feeling really positive and upbeat and optimistic lately, but that completely freaks me out. Is that gothic or what?