journal Archive

I am going to stab the next person who asks me whether someone who is [fill in ethnicity of choice here] can model for BlueBlood.com or who points out that there are people who have modeled for BlueBlood.com who are [fill in ethnicity of choice here] so shouldn’t they be on there too. I might care what the color of someone’s hair is, but why the fuck would I care what the heritage of their parents or the color of their skin is? I would never reject someone for the heritage of their parents or the color of their skin, but I wouldn’t give them preferential treatment or affirmative action for it either. Have Gentlemen’s Agreements seriously infiltrated “alt”? WTF?

Anyone think that 50 Cent propped up the rapper with the moniker of The Game because he wanted to be able to say, “don’t hate the player; hate The Game”?

Do you think that the idea of hating the competition but not how someone plays it makes sense?

(Image Courtesy of Blue Blood)

Tons more photography by yours truly and Forrest Black posting to BlueBlood.net today!

Love, Amelia G

( Read more )

This is a shot from Death Guild by yours truly and Forrest Black. We’ve got three huge new galleries of our work posted to BlueBlood.net now.

(Image Courtesy of Blue Blood)

( Read more )

This picture makes me smile.

(Image Courtesy of Blue Blood)

Fear Itself and The Top 10 Scariest Movies Ever

by Amelia G : June 5th, 2008

When, in his first inaugural address, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated that, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” he wasn’t necessarily talking about the nature of horror in television and film. The main thrust of his speech was that, in wretched economic times, hope and a positive attitude were integral to pulling America out of the Depression. Nonetheless, that one expression has, in the general zeitgeist, outlasted the rest of his speech about how “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.” And it seems fair to say that the line about the only thing we have to fear certainly outlasted FDR’s exhortations that there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.”

Historically, comedy entertainment has flourished in times of economic strife and war and drama and horror have done better when the audience’s day-to-day lives have been more comfortable and free of fear. But we live in interesting times and horror is booming. NBC has an ambitious new television series starting today which showcases the works of thirteen top horror teams. In case this wasn’t obvious from my deconstruction of the origins of the expression about what we have to fear, the name of the series is Fear Itself.

I asked my unsavory pals and I asked the Blue Blood boards and I asked my sixty thousand close personal friends on MySpace . . .

( Read more )

Cupcakes and Sexperts at Freddy and Eddy

by Amelia G : June 1st, 2008

I’ve mentioned the most excellent writer/editor Rachel Kramer Bussel’s In the Flesh reading series here before. Kicking off during this week’s Book Expo, local editor/writer Carly Milne started curating a left coast version of In the Flesh.

The event was at a Venice couple-oriented adult store called Freddy and Eddy. Freddy and Eddy has the adorable slogan “where couples can come” for their brick and mortar location and I’ve been meaning to check it out forever. I keep getting invited to cool readings there, but it took Rachel’s extra dollop of coolness to get me to venture out to new territory and I’m so glad I did. The reading area is a spacious beautiful patio out behind the well-appointed and very pink store. I enjoyed chatting with one of the owners and the smart sexpert folks who had gathered for the occasion.

Although the video above is what Rachel read at Freddy and Eddy’s, the clip is actually from the most recent right coast In the Flesh reading event. (People say left coast for Cali all the time; can you say right coast for New York?) At the California one, the theme was Survival. The first reader was Willam Belli who is an incredibly charismatic trannie whose reading, about an odd hook-up with a tattooed hottie, connected so much with the audience that it came across more as performance than reading. The way this piece tied into the theme of Survival was more punchline than actual fit, but it was very entertaining. Esteemed anthologist Maxim Jakubowski read a piece about how relationships have soundtracks, which I think is a very true insight. Stan Kent dressed like a rockstar and read an excerpt of a series . . .

( Read more )

Say two people hook up at some random event. They are not in love. They do not have a relationship. Maybe the guy doesn’t even know the chick’s last name. But the condom breaks and she gets knocked up.

Should he be required to pay for an abortion?

Should he be required to pay for half an abortion?

Should he be required to support the proceeds of a broken condom with a stranger for the rest of his life or at least 18 years and nine months?

What if the chick put pinholes in the condom because she knew the guy had some money, but the kid is definitely his genetics?

Is there a point at which the man stops being responsible for a choice someone else makes or does he lose the right to make further choices when he agrees to have sexual intercourse?

Quark

by Amelia G : May 31st, 2008

So, after knowing each other for nearly a decade, and working together on multiple projects, over many years, I finally finally got to meet Scott Owens of EroticBPM fame in person! We once almost met in the flesh when he got stuck at LAX on a layover, but I’d just finished being somewhere one good friend of mine was attempting to sleep with the husband of another good friend of mine and having to give a police report on some psycho who was incoherently threatening me outside a nightclub for firing a girl she just met and barely knew but had a crush on or something. So anyway, I didn’t think I’d be at my charming best when I got to LAX, which also happens to be my least favorite California airport.

Anyway, Forrest Black, who is in charge of the look and feel of all Blue Blood sites, and I visited Portland and stayed with Scott and his charmingly negative head coder Antisocial and his beautiful bride (who, in a flash of small world, turned out to be a model from some of the earliest naughty sets I published from photographer Tom Hunscher.) We had an amazingly good time just hanging out in their gargantuan Pacific NW headquarters with them and their three very cute and almost disturbingly friendly and well-adjusted cats.

We also got to see old friends from our DC stomping grounds. We shot new stuff of the always fun Voltaire and of Rachel Face. Rachel has a new clothing line and we shot that, as well as a whole passel of new hotties. Parts of the trip were really bizarrely and gratuitously stressful, but most of it was really super nice. Portland is so beautiful and the air is so clean and we got to go up on the volcano . . .

( Read more )

PEOPLE WHO ARE COOL: The Amelia G Interview

by Amelia G : May 20th, 2008

Sean Abley (zombietruckstop) is working on a series of interviews for a possible book project entitled People Who Are Cool. The theme is, as you might suspect, people Sean Abley knows who are cool. You can read the two part interview he did with yours truly online now here and here. It is a two parter because, as Sean says, we are a couple of chatty bitches. Seriously, it is very in-depth and his questions were really interesting and unusual and I answered a lot of stuff I don’t usually talk about in interviews. This is going to post to Dark Blue Films in approx six weeks, but you all get the inside-skinny on where to read it pre-publication.

Socket writer/director Sean Abley writes:

“Somehow Amelia G and I became blog friends about 8 years ago. I’m not really sure how that happened, and when we’ve discussed it, neither is she. But somehow one of us surfed into the other’s Live Journal account and friended same, and we’ve been reading each other’s stuff for years now.

When I first started reading her blog, I was immediately struck by the photographs she’d post, taken either by her or her collaborator, Forrest Black. These were semi- (or not so semi-) naked shots of Goth chicks with beautiful lighting, styling and makeup. As I say further down in my interview with her, “[She] took two things I have no interest in – Goth culture and naked girls – and photographed them so I can’t turn away.”

Soon I realized Amelia had a mini media empire based on this subject matter, the hub of which is (are) http://www.blueblood.com and http://www.blueblood.net. Start there and you’ll find yourself winding down internet corridors full of fetish photos, films, music and art. And none of it feels exclusionary. Less “Butt out, square!” and more “Hey, we’re awesome! Check us out!” I would encourage anyone reading this to do just that. Amelia and Forrest’s work is pro and punk at the same time, and never boring.

When I decided to interview Amelia, I did some research and found out she has a crazy interesting past, from living in a punk/goth group house in D.C. to moving in the industrial music scene, to founding a magazine . She is also the kind of feminist that I love, e.g. one that doesn’t think a naked girl is being suppressed just because she’s having her picture taken. She’s also a workaholic, as evidenced by the sheer number of projects, websites, and events she has to attend to in any one week.

Although we live mere blocks from each other in Hollywood, I conducted this interview via email, which probably lead to us be much more verbose that we would in person. (I hate transcribing, so I tend to keep it short in person).

How did the daughter of a diplomat and an attorney become the reigning Queen of Goth Erotica?

Please give a warm welcome to Amelia G!”

The interview kicks off with:

Sean Abley: I read that you’ve lived all over the world and the States . . .

( Read more )

So my bags are packed and I’m heading to Portland in less than half a day.

A funny thing about the internet is that you can feel like you totally know someone and then realize that you’ve never met in person and it seems impossible that you haven’t. I’m going to finally finally get to hang out in person with Killshot from EroticBPM. We’ve known each other digitally for nearly a freaking decade, been in regular contact for a number of years, and partnered on multiple projects, but we never actually got to meet before. We once almost met in the flesh when he got stuck at LAX on a layover, but I’d just finished being somewhere one good friend of mine was attempting to sleep with the husband of another good friend of mine and having to give a police report on some psycho who was incoherently threatening me outside a nightclub for firing a girl she just met and barely knew but had a crush on or something. So anyway, I didn’t think I’d be at my charming best when I got to LAX, which also happens to be my least favorite California airport. Anyway, I’m excited about the trip. Rachel Face also invited us out to a cool fashion show thing she is doing and Voltaire is in PDX for one more week before she heads back South. And I’m going to get to see one of my pals from my old stomping grounds in DC. And a bunch of stuff . . . I should wash my hair, make sure my TiVo is programmed and go to bed.

My laundry is done. Laundry is hard or at least I suck at it.

My magazine deadline is met.

My batteries are charged. I’m ready to go.

Forrest Black and I are shooting women and real life couples for BlueBlood.com in Portland this week. We only have a couple of shooting slots left open right now, so, even if we would like to shoot you, it may or may not end up being possible this trip.

Requirements:

You must be able to do an extravagant and impressive look. Although interesting extensive tattoos and other body mods can be a plus, they are not required or sufficient in and of themselves. We are really looking for very unique individuals with strong personal style.
A minimum of full nudity is required. Comfort with explicit nudity is preferred, although we may or may not shoot it. We want to work with people who are completely comfortable with themselves in this way.
You must be in Portland between the 21st and 25th of May this week.We are looking to create the most artistic and striking images possible, so we are looking for a select few models who can really bring something extraordinary to the table.Preference for models who have really cool ideas for a shooting location or concept. Our idea of a cool shooting location includes options from artistically graffitied urban settings to beautiful woodland environments to a well-appointed personal space decorated to really reflect who you are as a person.

Refer to Forrest Black’s and my work for an idea of what sorts of people we prefer to shoot in general. Blue Blood publishes many photographers besides us, but, if you are here, you probably have a good idea which is our work and the larger images on the BlueBlood.com tour are all shot by us.

Rate is high for art and low if your usual job is Valley pr0n gangbangs or escorting for GWCs. Models appearing on BlueBlood.com are eligible for free memberships, swag, appearances, etc. and receive preference for magazine gigs.

To submit, please message me here or email submit@blueblood.net with the title PORTLAND MODEL. Please indicate where pictures of you can be viewed, what city you are near, what your nudity comfort zone and interests are, and a suggestion for a location we could shoot you in. If you have any special reasons for wanting to shoot or other information you feel is relevant, please feel free to include it. Please note that BlueBlood.com and BlueBlood.net are not the same. 🙂

EVERYONE PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REPOST THIS MODEL CALL TO APPROPRIATE PLACES.

(Image Courtesy of Blue Blood)

Madonna Viral Marketing

by Amelia G : May 13th, 2008

So, I think Madonna is pretty awesome in general, but I’m vaguely baffled by her message to YouTube video. In it, she is supposedly vacuuming the set for her 4 Minutes video because apparently other people didn’t take care of it. Then she tells the world of YouTube good job on making tons of videos for her 4 Minutes single. To date, her thanks for making essentially fanfic versions of 4 Minutes video has received 3,175,135 views on YouTube.

The actual official Warner Bros video for Madonna’s 4 Minutes has only received 846,562 views. It opens with a little rap from Timbaland and most of the song is a duet and coordinated dance moves from Madonna and Justin Timberlake. Madonna and Justin Timberlake take off some of each other’s clothes during their choreography and, unlike Janet Jackson, I guarantee Madonna won’t apologize or pretend that her clothing flying off is a wardrobe malfunction.

A search on YouTube for +”4 minutes” +madonna yields 2,860 results, including both the fanfic (or whatever YouTube people call this sort of thing) vids and multiple copies of the official video and various video responses to the go ahead and make videos based on the video video. This sort of viral marketing is all very meta. Will encouraging people to do more of what they were going to do anyway work to Madonna’s benefit? Will it sell more of her music, raise her stock for endorsements, or otherwise make bank?

I don’t know the answer and I’m really interested in hearing what other people think about how this will work as a marketing effort. Do you enjoy fanfic videos? Regardless, you should watch the real official video because it’s fun candy and Madonna and Justin Timberlake dancing is way hotter than most porn.

And, to the desperate, sell-out assholes who will say that Madonna’s boots in the video mean fetish is crossing over to mainstream . . .

( Read more )

I posted this question on a certain modeling site and some people seemed awfully freaked out by the notion and some were particularly troubled by the idea of having the whole deal with a model spelled out in one document. They seemed to think it would take two. I’m going to write something more article-like and less journal-like on this at some point, so I’d love to know what other folks think.

For many years, my standard boilerplate model release for nude shoots has given models a royalty % of any significant lump sum sale to a third party. If I pay a model at the time of a shoot, this counts as an advance against future royalties.

To me, this seems fair.

A lot of times, at the time of a shoot, you don’t really know what the images will be worth.

Giving up rights to place images, in order to do trade, seems very wasteful to me. What if the work is great? As an artist, I want my work seen. But, if the work turns out very valuable, it seems like all parties should benefit, not just the photog or just the model.

It seems kind of like bad math to pay a model $75 an hour to pose nude or semi-nude for artsy shots when the photog has no idea who he or she will sell the images to and odds are good it will be for less than that.

But it also seems unfair that, if a photog does get a windfall profit from photos of a particular model, the model does not usually share in this.

Should standard model releases give models a % of a photog’s sales?