Indecent Docents are also recommended for people who are interested in the BDSM/kink scene but who have not acted on their desires (or who have done so but have not connected with community to meet like-minded others), members of the press wishing to better understand this aspect of the sexuality community, and visitors to San Francisco. A docent tour will last about two hours and costs $50. Docents will be armed with information about the Fair as well as Bay Area sexuality communities and resources. Once on tour with their clients they can even offer shopping suggestions for those wanting to experience the Folsom Street Fair in culturally-appropriate garb.

Also at the Folsom Street Fair, the Center for Sex & Culture’s “Fair HQ,” called Rest Stop, will offer much more than just a place to sit down and get out of the heat and off one’s feet. From noon until 5 pm, the Rest Stop, located at 1286 Folsom, will offer three shows an hour featuring readings, short films, performances, and artful demonstrations of BDSM technique. Interested parties may check the schedule on the door once they’re at the Fair, but CSC will post a performance schedule at its website, http://www.sexandculture.org, very soon. Admission to Rest Stop will range from $5 to $15 and is payable (as are Docent tours) via cash or credit card: CSC can accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Rest Stop will also offer a bag-check service so Fair shoppers can proceed to enjoy the afternoon unencumbered.

Indecent Docent training sessions are scheduled at CSC on Sunday, 9/14, and Tuesday, 9/16. Interested docents and Indecent Docent clients may call CSC at 415-255-1155 or email us at mail@sexandculture.org with the word Docent in the subject line.

Leather Week culminates with the Folsom Street Fair but begins the weekend before, with a packed schedule of entertaining and informative events. Here are the Center for Sex & Culture’s offerings (more detail in calendar-format paragraphs below):

On Saturday, September 20, CSC host two separate events: Sex educator and porn star Nina Hartley introduces newcomers to BDSM and kinky play with her workshop developed just for novices (10:30 a.m., $60/person and $95/couple). Also on that Saturday CSC (with the Sex Workers’ Outreach Project and BAYSWAN) co-hosts “SWEET School for Johns,” a.k.a. “S.ex W.ork E.nthusiasts E.ducation and T.raining School 4 Johns.” A non-punitive information session for clients of sex workers, this session will focus especially but not exclusively on BDSM practitioners. Then on Sunday, September 21, CSC continues its well-received Photo Club sessions, featuring noted erotic photographers who teach skills and oversee live-model photo shoots.

Leather Week proper (if that’s the right way of putting it) kicks off on Monday with a showing of Kirby Dick’s acclaimed documentary “Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist” (8 p.m., $5-20 sliding scale). On Tuesday, 9/23, we are joined by Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar, doyenne and grandfather of the Modern Primitives and Body Play communities, for “In Leather Pride,” a reception, slideshow and talk. (6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. presentation, $10-30 sliding scale). Wednesday night’s event is CSC’s regularly-scheduled Erotic Reading Circle, held the fourth Wednesday of each month and itself a Best of the Bay winner from 2007. This month’s session is hosted by Jen Cross of Writing Ourselves Whole (7:30 p.m., $5). Writers (amateur to professional) are encouraged to bring works in progress for feedback.

Thursday night, after the LGBT Historical Society’s special event featuring Gayle Rubin (which we’re co-sponsoring — see http://www.glbthistory.org/), CSC hosts internationally renowned Post-Porn Modernist Annie Sprinkle as she premieres a new slideshow and talk, “Kinky NYC, 1975-1995.” Annie was a mover and shaker in New York as its porn world grew in importance and its BDSM community, pre-HIV, burgeoned. Her very special show is a must-see for San Franciscan veterans of the sexual subcultures wanting to learn more about our East Coast cousins, as well as for Annie Sprinkle fans, history buffs, and lovers of New York City. (8:30 p.m.; $12-25 sliding scale, with $5 off for those who also attended the Gayle Rubin lecture.)

Friday evening, in conjunction with the science fiction-themed Arse Elektronika 2008 conference being held in San Francisco(”Do Androids Sleep With Electric Sheep?” http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/), CSC hosts a reading of sex- and erotica-inflected science and speculative fiction. Readers include Richard Kadrey, Rudy Rucker, M. Christian, Charlie Anders, Steven Schwartz, Carol Queen, and Thomas Roche. There is no charge, but donations to support CSC will be gratefully taken. The reading is co-sponsored by Borderlands Books.

Saturday night CSC sponsors a Folsom St. Fair Eve tradition: the notorious Perverts Put Out reading. Held at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, performers will include Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Jen Cross, Thomas Roche, horehound stillpoint, Steven Schwartz, and Cherry Terror, emceed by Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard. (7:30 p.m., $10-20 sliding scale.)

CSC’s mailing list members receive twice-monthly updates about the Center’s own sex education and cultural events as well as those of our friends and associates — other sex educators, performers, and sex-related venues around the Bay Area. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, CSC can be supported through material or financial donations, volunteer help, paid event attendance, and help in networking with like-minded supporters who can help CSC grow and get the word out. More information is at http://www.sexandculture.org.

The Center for Sex & Culture is a proud part of SF Leather Week. Folsom Street Events is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that produces volunteer-driven events for the global adult alternative lifestyle community. Comprised almost entirely of volunteers, the organization donates net proceeds to selected San Francisco Bay Area and national charities. For more information on Folsom Street Events, visit www.folsomstreetevents.org. For more information on San Francisco Leather Week, visit http://folsomstreetevents.org/leather-week.php.

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Saturday, 9/20, 10:30 am –1:30 pm — NINA HARTLEY ON BDSM FOR BEGINNERS!

Nina Hartley presents BDSM for Beginners! Noted porn performer, author, sex educator and registered nurse Nina Hartley offers an informative and thorough look at the non-vanilla sex styles usually called “BDSM” for short, with details about roleplay and power play, bondage and intense sensation, and much more. Learn about top and bottom roles, safety and negotiation, and different ways to explore your sexuality. Nina is an experienced guide to new sexual experience; she is the author of Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex and (movies here)…

At CSC, 1519 Mission near 11th. $60 person, $95 per couple

AND!!!***************************************************************************************************************************

Saturday, 9/20, 11 am — 5 pm — SWEET JOHNS’ SCHOOL

S.ex W.ork E.nthusiasts E.ducation and T.raining School 4 Johns is a 6 hour seminar about interacting with professional sex workers. It’s presented for clients and people who are interested in becoming clients. S4J deals with all aspects of professional intimate encounters, including but not limited to erotic massage, BDSM, and erotic dancing (stripping). We will have professional providers (including a pro from a legal brothel in Nevada), health experts, legal experts, and some demos of professional interaction. Presented in conjunction with the Sex Workers’ Outreach Project and BAYSWAN.

At CSC, 1519 Mission near 11th. $20-50 sliding scale.

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Monday, 9/22, 8 pm — CSC Film Night presents SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN, SUPERMASOCHIST

Kirby Dick’s amazing film, released in 1997, introduces one of the most interesting and significant characters ever to influence the BDSM community, and offers a moving and complex portrait of Supermasochist Bob Flanagan and his partner Sheree Rose and their beautifully unconventional relationship. “Sick” is a must-see! Carol Queen will introduce the movie with her essay about Bob.

RottenTomatoes.com says: Performance artist Bob Flanagan suffered from cystic fibrosis throughout his 42 years. This disturbing, poignant, and disarmingly funny documentary examines his odyssey to have control over his body through inflicting pain on himself. Through private moments captured on camera, his performances, and direct conversations with Flanagan himself, we learn of his painful fight against his affliction, the creative and disturbing things he does to his ailing body, and the importance of his long-term relationship with his dominatrix/partner, Sheree Rose. Kirby Dick’s acclaimed documentary superbly sidesteps the “freakshow” mentality by presenting the story of someone who lived a life far outside of conventionality in an exceptionally human manner.

They also say: “This film is for non-squeamish, mature audiences” — but we know that at CSC Film Night you expect nothing less!

And this is from Stephen Holden of the New York Times: The most powerful and disturbing personal documentary since “Crumb,” “Sick” examines the life of the performance artist Bob Flanagan, who died of cystic fibrosis in 1996. A masochist who cultivated the infliction of pain partly as a means to deal with this excruciating fatal illness, Flanagan survived until age 42 and had a lifelong fascination with bondage, ritualized torture and humiliation. He also had a terrific sense of humor about himself. And a good portion of “Sick” consists of excerpts from videotaped performances in which his collaborator and companion of 15 years, Sheree Rose, lovingly puts him through his paces. Not for the faint of heart.

V. Vale of V/Search, which published Bob’s autobiography, is expected to be on hand with copies for purchase.

At the Center for Sex & Culture, 1519 Mission near 11th. $5-20 sliding scale.

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Tuesday, Sept. 23, 6 pm (reception), 7:00 pm (presentation) — The Center for Sex & Culture presents an evening with Fakir Musafar and Cleo Dubois: IN LEATHER PRIDE

Start Folsom Week at CSC with two world-renowned members of our San Francisco Leather Community. Celebrate SM Magic with Cleo Dubois and Fakir! They will enthrall us all with a multitude of sizzling images from their own BDSM and shamanic explorations and those of their community friends. Come expand your consciousness and get “up close and personal” with these two very special friends, starting with a 6 pm reception. To top the evening Fakir and Cleo will be happy to answer your questions about their 30 years in the leather and bodymod communities.

Fakir is a body piercer and shaman known worldwide for his personal exploration of body rituals, BDSM and instruction in the art, skills and magic of body piercing, branding and corsetry. He is director of Fakir Intensives, a California State registered vocational school.

Cleo Dubois is a BDSM Educator, ritualist, creator of the Academy of S/M Arts, and leather columnist. She offers Erotic Dominance Intensive weekends for Men and Women. She was Leather Marshall for SF Pride 2008.

At The Center for Sex & Culture, 1519 Mission near 11th Street in San Francisco. $10-30 sliding scale; CSC can take checks, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. Come at 6:00 for the reception or 7:00 for the presentation.

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Wednesday, 9/24, 7:30 pm — EROTIC READING CIRCLE

Join Jen Cross, Carol Queen, and your fierce, fabulous community of erotic writers the fourth Wednesday of every month, as we gather to share our creative erotic endeavors! Bring whatever you’re working on, or whatever you’d like to be working on. Share your words, new or older, with other erotic writers in this lovely, sexy & supportive community!

Non-judgmental listening guaranteed, all orientations and levels of writing experience welcome.

$5-up sliding scale suggested donation, no one turned away for lack of funds (donations support the Center for Sex and Culture). At 1519 Mission.

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Thursday, 9/25, 8:30 pm — Annie Sprinkle’s KINKY NYC 1975-1995 (A slide show walk down Mammary Lane!)

Annie Sprinkle was one of the movers and shakers in Manhattan’s kinky underground. Here’s an eyewitness account from a woman who has been there and done that. She will share some stories about the people she played with and the places she frequented plus show never-before-seen slides she took in the old daze. Expect dish and virtual, vicarious visits to the Hell Fire Club, Chateau 19, Plato’s Retreat, kinky Times Square, Avon 7, Eulenspiegal’s early years, the Sprinkle Salon, the Toilet, The Tryst, the Mineshaft, the Hell Hole Hospitol. Kinky porn, fetish fashion, pre-HIV debauchery, the NYC sex community’s response to AIDS, and the growth of New York City’s amazing sex world (not to mention Annie’s own rise to fame)! Her very special show is a must-see for San Franciscan veterans of the sexual subcultures wanting to learn more about our East Coast cousins, as well as for Annie Sprinkle fans, history buffs, and lovers of New York City.

$12-25 sliding scale ($5 off if you also attended the LGBT Historical Society’s Thursday evening event). At CSC, 1519 Mission. CSC can take checks, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

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Friday, September 26, 9pm, doors open at 8 — ARSE ELEKTRONIKA READING
(@ Center for Sex & Culture / 1519 Mission Street near 11th, San Francisco)

Carol Queen, with the support of the Center for Sex & Culture and cosponsorship of San Francisco’s premiere SF/fantasy bookstore Borderlands, presents a curated erotic reading evening, featuring writers who commonly explore sexual themes in their science fiction and alt-reality fiction work. While the focus of much of the Arse Elektronika conference (see Other Events below) will be a critical deconstruction of sexual tropes in SF/speculative/alt-reality fiction, the focus of this event will be to appreciate and celebrate the fiction itself. Readers include Richard Kadrey, Rudy Rucker, M. Christian, Charlie Anders, Steven Schwartz, Carol Queen, Thomas Roche, and more.

No charge, but we will pass the hat in support of the Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco’s unique non-profit sex education resource!

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Saturday, 9/27, 7:30 pm — PERVERTS PUT OUT!

Join us for the pre-Folsom Fair edition of PPO, San Francisco’s premier salon of dirty talk and smutty performance. Performers will include Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Jen Cross, Thomas Roche, horehound stillpoint, Steven Schwartz, and Cherry Terror, emceed by Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard. A splendid (if disreputable) time is guaranteed for all.

At CounterPulse, 1310 Mission Street, San Francisco. $10-20 sliding scale.

Takes Over Flagship Site from New Kink.com Creative Director Matt Williams

SAN FRANCISCO (August 22, 2008) – Award-winning fine art bondage photographer Lochai will take over from Matt Williams as director of Kink.com’s Hogtied.com, the company announced today.“Hogtied was our first site and we still consider it our flagship,” said Kink.com founder and CEO Peter Acworth. “We’re very pleased to bring Lochai on to continue the Hogtied tradition. He’s one of the best-known bondage riggers around and for years he’s been out there in the community, both as a photographer and as an educator. Most importantly, he really gets what’s fun and beautiful and hot about women in bondage – he understands the Kink.com esthetic. I’m very much looking forward to working with him.”
Lochai’s inaugural update on Hogtied.com is a sizzling 56-minute scene with 22-year-old Virginian beauty Isobel Wren. Shot when Lochai was auditioning for his new role, the scene currently headlines the site, In it, Wren is placed in Lochai’s trademark Japanese-influenced rope bondage and subjected to a stunning number of screaming orgasms, including a copious squirt. Throughout, Lochai’s sardonic humor tempers the intense bondage and stimulation.

Said Lochai: “Everything that’s done in any of the Kink.com sites is real, so it’s not like I’m acting a part. I’m actually being myself. I’m sarcastic, I’m a smart ass, I laugh during scenes and I also console when someone’s upset. I’m going to be doing my real play, my real life, within the walls of the Armory, because that’s what’s expected by the customers — and that’s what’s expected by Kink.com. I’m going to be super comfortable there, because I feel like I’m home.”

An award winning photographer whose work appears in galleries as well as in publications like The British Journal of Photography, Secret, Skin Two, Bizarre, and in his own fine art books, Lochai is equally well known as a bondage educator, teaching classes at conferences around the United States and doing public scenes in nightclubs and at fetish events. A founding director of the Photo Artisans Guild (PAG), in West Palm Beach Florida, he was also the co-founder and co-curator of the Traveling Erotic Art Show, which spent two years touring the United States. He also moderates a group on BDSM social networking site FetLife, CommUNITY Building (http://fetlife.com/groups/354), that seeks to build BDSM and alternative sexuality leadership skills.

Lochai takes over from longtime Hogtied.com director Matt Williams, who began directing the site in 2003. Williams was recently promoted to Kink.com’s Creative Director, and will be guiding creative development on new sites as well as Kink.com’s existing sites. “I’m looking forward to helping with the overall creative level,” said Williams. “I’m going to work with existing sites and new sites both, developing the look and feel, and sharing fantasies that I have in my head — I have great ideas for each one of our sites.”

Williams will continue to direct unscripted girl-girl erotic wrestling site UltimateSurrender.com, which he calls “my little baby.” “I’m going to hang on to that – I have some great ideas for the future.”

Lochai expressed his excitement about his new role. “Every person who’s ever sat down in front of me in a classroom, or who has surrounded me out in a club to watch what I’m doing, has wanted this job. They want to get paid to tie up beautiful women and get them off – and that’s my job. It’s a wonderful feeling, and an affirmation that my kink pays off.”

A longtime Florida resident, Lochai will be relocating in September to the San Francisco area. He says he’ll continue his work teaching bondage and SM lifestyle classes, both at the half-dozen conferences he traditionally attends annually, and in the San Francisco area.

For more information about Lochai, visit his site Kirinawa.com or email the Kink.com Public Relations Manager at thomas@kink.com.  Webmasters interested in promoting Kink.com content, including Hogtied.com, please visit www.KinkyDollars.com or email the Kink.com affiliate manager at terry@kink.com.

ABOUT HOGTIED.COM: Hogtied was the first site in the Kink.com network, directed by founder Peter Acworth from 1997 until Matt Williams took over in 2003. Updated every Tuesday, Hogtied.com offers members more than 15,000 streaming minutes and more than 84,000 photos in over 400 episodes that feature beautiful women subjected to sexual rope bondage, erotic punishment, and repeated orgasms.

ABOUT KINK.COM: San Francisco erotica studio Kink.com provides authentic fetish entertainment that seeks to demystify alternative sexualities and inspire sexual adventurers. Since the launch of its first site, Hogtied.com, in 1997, Kink.com has developed a network of premium adult sites that now operate from studios in the San Francisco Armory, a decommissioned National Guard facility with sets ranging from stark dungeons to luxurious pieds-à-terre. Kink.com also operates a free documentary site at BehindKink.com and the leading fetish affiliate network, KinkyDollars.com.

San Francisco (August 22, 2008):  The Mission Street location once occupied by The Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts, the LGBTQ arts organization that served San Francisco for almost 30 years before its demise in mid-2007, has been reborn as OffCenter, a partnership between Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory Theatre: San Francisco’s Premiere Queer and Activist Performance Center and The Center for Sex & Culture. The two organizations each occupy offices and performance/workshop space in the building, located upstairs at 1519 Mission between 11th Street and South Van Ness.

The Center for Sex & Culture, incorporated in 2000 and in the works since a conversation between masturbation advocate Betty Dodson and CSC founders Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence in 1994, is a community-based sex education non-profit offering lectures, classes, workshops, salons and discussion groups, book parties and cultural events pertaining to sexuality. These are aimed at adults of all genders, orientations, and sex-and-relationship preferences. It maintains a sex library and archive, hosting interns from various colleges and universities (including Harvard, Stanford, Bryn Mawr, San Francisco State University, San Jose State’s Library Sciences program, College of the Atlantic, and Hampshire College). The Center for Sex & Culture’s community affiliates include the San Francisco Jacks, Flesh and Spirit, Writing Ourselves Whole, the St. James Infirmary, the Journeyman III Academy, and TGPraxis; other groups with a sex-and-culture focus also utilize CSC’s space and add to its informational offerings. This September the Center for Sex & Culture will collaborate for the first time with the San Francisco Fringe Festival, offering two theatre pieces by Brooklyn performance troupe Pack of Others (see below for more).
Regular events produced by the Center for Sex & Culture include its monthly Photo Club (this month featuring Phyllis Christopher), which matches photography students and amateur photographers with noted erotic photographers for in-depth shutter sessions; the Erotic Reading Circle (in earlier years a project of Good Vibrations), which won a 2007 SF Bay Guardian “Best of the Bay” award (CSC is a three-time winner) for “Best Erotic Resurrection”; a “Tarts & Crafts” artmaking night; and a Film Night where sex-related documentaries and other movies are shown, often with the filmmaker on hand. Continuing education credit-offering workshops for professionals are also planned.

CSC maintains an events calendar and a twice-monthly email list, both of which are accessible at its website, http://www.sexandculture.org. Members of the press are encouraged to join the list and also to mail CSC founding director Carol Queen separately to join its PR and Press email list. Additionally, Queen is happy to serve as a press resource about all aspects of sexuality and culture. Please include her in your resource listing at carol@sexandculture.org.

Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory Executive Director Dwayne Calizo says, “It took a miracle to resurrect this wonderful space from its deathbed, but I threw a Hail Mary pass into the end zone and this new radical queer arts community caught the ball and hasn’t fumbled yet. MCVF has been open for 18 months now and we are getting stronger every day. The closing of JSC left a huge void in the queer arts landscape of the city, and I felt an obligation to keep the heart of JSC’s mission alive. We are San Franciscan Urban Queer Artists, this is the Queer capital of the world, and we must have a performance art space that focuses on the development of queer work.”

The Mission of Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory is to nurture the development of Queer Performers, Educators and Activists by providing them with Artist in Residence Programs and Arts programming. “We believe that the process and product of creative activity have equal value, that all talent is worthy of development, and that artistic expression is essential to our community’s health,” says Calizo. “We place special emphasis on supporting the work of Queer People of Color, Trans People and artists living with HIV/ AIDS.” This year’s season has featured exciting new works by the S.F. Buffoons, Kitten on the Keys, Guerilla Rep, Heklina and Cookie Doughs, Malia Movement, Jessica Fudim and the Queer Arts Festival, to name a few.  MCVF is also home to The Experimental Performance Institute, Ko-Labs, SF Poetry Slam, Vocal JamOut, Boylesque Training Camp, Crash Cabaret: Where Queers Collide, Hazardous Waste Project, and its DIY Residency program. Mama Calizo’s is available for rent for t
heatre projects, workshops, dance rehearsal, and more, at accessibly-priced rates. www.voicefactorysf.org

The OffCenter space will be the Center for Sex & Culture’s third location in San Francisco since 2004. Says executive director Dr. Carol Queen, “We finally feel we’ve found a safe space within which to conduct our programming, and are thrilled to have a location partner like Mama Calizo’s. We look forward to developing new programming with Dwayne Calizo as well as welcoming old Jon Sims Center affiliates like San Francisco In Exile back to its old home.”

Together Mama Calizo’s and the Center for Sex & Culture have collaborated to create a new cabaret space, Back Alley Sally’s, which they will share to showcase queer community talent, sex-related arts and performance, and other marginalized cultural programming. For the time being, events at Sally’s will be listed on the web calendar of the organization/s producing them.

Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory Theatre: http://www.voicefactorysf.org/
The Center for Sex & Culture: http://www.sexandculture.org
For more information about the Jon Sims Center: http://alchemysf.org.hosting.domaindirect.com/Simshistory.htm

UPCOMING EVENT ADDENDUM featuring CSC’s next offerings:

Sunday, 8/24, 1 pm — CSC PHOTO CLUB WITH PHYLLIS CHRISTOPHER: a sex-photo-geek-love-in (fun tips to make your digital images look dreamy and erotic)!

*****

Tuesday, 8/26, 1-2:30 (and following Tuesdays) — YOGA FOR SEXWORKERS with Selina Raven
(Also Thursday, 8/28, 5-6:30 and following Thursdays)

*****

Tuesday, 8/26, 8 pm — CSC Film Night presents THE POLYMATH: OR, THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF SAMUEL R. DELANY, GENTLEMAN

Every science fiction fan has heard of Samuel R. Delany. Many readers know his as one of our earliest, and best-published, African-American writers of speculative fiction. Still others know him as a gay man whose autobiography, “The Motion of Light on Water,” is also a coming-out story. If you’re an academic you might know about his ethnography of pre-Giuliani Times Square, when the street was owned by sexworkers, porn theatres, and peep show, not Disney. And a select few readers know that Delany has also done hard-core (and nasty, very, very literate, intense, and speculative) porn, including “The Mad Man” and “Hogg.” This little-seen documentary by Fred Barney Taylor (www.maestromedia.net) is a must-see introduction to a fascinating and completely unique man, as well as information about a largely bygone erotic New York City.

At the Center for Sex & Culture, 1519 Mission near 11th. $5-20 sliding scale.

*****

Wednesday, 8/27, 7:30 pm — EROTIC READING CIRCLE

Join Jen Cross, Carol Queen, and your fierce, fabulous community of erotic writers the fourth Wednesday of every month, as we gather to share our creative erotic endeavors! Bring whatever you’re working on, or whatever you’d like to be working on. Share your words, new or older, with other erotic writers in this lovely, sexy & supportive community! Non-judgmental listening guaranteed, all orientations and levels of writing experience welcome.

$5-up sliding scale suggested donation, no one turned away for lack of funds (donations support the Center for Sex and Culture). At 1519 Mission.

*****

Thursday, 8/28, 8 pm Performances follow on 8/31 and 9/1) — Lauren LoGiudice in SKINNY GIRL: a new work in progress

Kate Bornstein wrote us again this week with “The Skinny on Skinny Girl.” Kate says:

“Lauren LoGiudice is a charming, talented actor, and Skinny Girl is a thoroughly enjoyable solo show. Much more than a simple lesbian coming of age tale, LoGiudice weaves a multi-character story of stretching the boundaries of family, culture, and gender. She’s the girl next door, as American as any apple pie lesbian can be. At the same time, she’s the girl too freaky to bring home to your parents—because she just might throw a gender fit at any moment. The show—in its late stages of workshopping—delivers a surprisingly satisfying and uplifting evening of theater. I laughed, I marveled. I left the theater grinning. What more can you ask of live theater than that? Oh! It SO totally doesn’t hurt that LAUREN LoGUIDICE IS A COMPLETE BABE. No, really. Great show, amazing babe—one small price of admission. Run, don’t walk. Sit up front. Say hello from me.”

NYC stage impresario Lauren LoGiudice, whom The New York Times calls “fierce… beautiful,” comes to San Francisco to perform her one-person show entitled “Skinny Girl”, a cutting-edge look at how to fit in with your family while maintaining your identity. Theatric chameleon LoGiudice takes on the characters near and dear to her heart: her mother, sister, grandparents and those neighborhood folks you wish you never knew, to show you that sometimes the best way to fit in is to… shave you head? wear a moustache? Well, isn’t it just all hair, after all?

Lauren LoGiudice started performing as early as age five when she choreographed routines in her living room. A NYC native, she found her way to San Francisco, lighting up the drag king stage with the infamous Transformers and other groups of her own devising. Before making her way back to her hometown she made a pit stop in Bangalore, India where she studied classical dance and made the decision to jump into show biz full time. Lauren now lives in New York City working as an actor, model and stage impresario. Ever since she has been back she has been working in a wide array of media–from wacky zombie movies to LOGO Promos to conceptual art photography to playing Hannah Arendt at The Medicine Show Theater. She was recently named as one of Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love. Catch up with her at: laurenlogiudice.com

Skinny Girl will show 8/28 and again on 8/31 and 9/1. Doors at 7:30, shows at 8. Sliding scale $10-20; CSC can take VISA, MasterCard and Discover. (If $ is a problem let us know, we have some work-trade available!) At CSC, 1519 Mission near 11th.

*****

Saturday, 8/30, 7 pm — The French-American queer connection presents: THE ORIGINAL SIN

« The original Sin » A night of lascivious and scintillating readings, screenings and performances at the Center for Sex and Culture
Featuring hot local stars and sexy imported babes:
Lynn Breedlove
Michelle Tea
Madison Young
Miss Poppy Foxheart
Billie Sweet
Miss Sadie Lune
Wendy Delorme
T.R. Moss
Hosted by Carol Queen

Curated by Wendy Delorme and Corrie Bennett

Show starts at 7pm
1519 Mission St. San Francisco (Between 11th and South Van Ness)
Doors 8-15$ sliding scale. CSC can take VISA, MasterCard, and Discover.

*****

Thursday, 9/4, 10 pm (other show dates below) — PEG-ASS-US: a presentation with the SF Fringe Festival

A tale of boy-meets-girl, but the whole involves much more than the sum of their parts! In a no-holes-barred sexploration of “pegging,” these lovers sing, dance and tease along the delicious line between fetish/preference, queer/straight, wrong and oh-so right…Sex-Ed through burlesque, song, puppetry and, of course, mythical creatures! Created and performed by John Leo & Sophie Nimmannit. **Peg – Ass – Us contains nudity and sexually explicit content. Tix $9 — purchase here: http://www.sffringe.org/fringe08/08plays/peg.html
Check out www.packofothers.org

also playing THURSDAY 4 10:00 PM
SATURDAY 6 10:00 PM
WEDNESDAY 10 10:00 PM
THURSDAY 11 8:30 PM
FRIDAY 12 10:00 PM
SUNDAY 14 8:30 PM

*****

Friday, 9/5, 10 pm (other show dates below) — FLUID: a presentation with the SF Fringe Festival

A splashy solo spectacle packed with tough lesbian raps, groping confessions and advanced bisexual linguistics. Erika Kate and her characters dexterously navigate the terms and conditions of expressing one’s sexual identity, and playfully probe the slippery realms between definitions. Written, performed by Erika Kate MacDonald
Check out www.packofothers.org

Tix $9 — purchase here: http://www.sffringe.org/fringe08/08plays/fluid.html
FRIDAY 5 10:00 PM
SUNDAY 7 8:30 PM
TUESDAY 9 10:00 PM
WEDNESDAY 10 8:30 PM
THURSDAY 11 10:00 PM
SATURDAY 13 10:00 PM

Sure not every one will like you, but hey… do you like every one you meet?

So now that Wicked City Radio has launched we invite you to expand your mind, your sexuality and your social awareness.  We have a ton of great original programs from people you should know like Darklady, Dr. Dick and Essen Em.  If you don’t know who these people are, tune in now cause you are missing out!

I am also promoting a new website I found.  Granted it’s a bit new and not as filled out as I normally like my blogs to be, but I have it on good authority that this site is going to be moving forward.  It’s dedicated to women.  Not as in it’s a for women site (not that chicks won’t like it) but it’s a really cool site that is bringing together all different kinds of photography styles as well as a wide range of beautiful women.  Here is a sample of some of the pics you’ll see over on Tease Cake Girls.com