David Aaron Clark took me to my first genuine serious BDSM club.
Whether we were checking out a new K-pop singer, attending a medievalist wedding, or standing in line at a book signing, David Aaron Clark was always kind to me. He was not a self-serving fair weather friend or a hater bad weather friend; David Aaron Clark was a real friend to me.
David Aaron Clark is one of the last people still fighting the good fight who really knew me, not my digital persona, not some press, not some rumors, not the guarded self I now present to new people, but the real me. Was one of the last people, not is. Damn it.
David Aaron Clark wrote the first big feature review of Blue Blood magazine in print.
Later, Blue Blood wrote up David Aaron Clark’s first video project which he directed, wrote, acted in, and literally spilled his own blood for.
David Aaron Clark was a brilliant writer. He had a knack for turning even the most mundane video review into something truly entertaining and readable. He was my labelmate at Masquerade/Rhinoceros with his novels The Wet Forever and Sister Radience and the Ritual Sex anthology he and Tristan Taormino co-edited. He and Charles Gatewood collaborated on the blood fetish book True Blood for Last Gasp. DAC was a prolific writer and his talents were seen in many venues from magazines and newspapers to screenplays. A lot of people will probably remember him for his porn video writing and directing, but he created a diverse body of work.
Things were really looking up in 2009 for David Aaron Clark. Evil Angel had actually given him the creative freedom to show some of his true artistry with the Pure movie, produced by Aiden Starr and starring Asa Akira. He used to joke that AVN created a Best Asian Feature category just so they would have an award to give him every year. I think he won for Best Screenplay too and they didn’t invent that award only for him. He was a good person and would really give himself to what he made and I always felt he deserved even more recognition than what he got. David Aaron Clark always deserved an award for his creative work across multiple forms of media because of how much he put in.
David Aaron Clark and I have known each other for approximately sixteen years and ten months. He welcomed me into his home when we lived far apart and I had to travel to see him. We live so close together in Los Angeles, I wish I’d made the time to see him more. Lived so close, not live so close. With the internet, it is so easy to keep up moderate communication and, being an adult, it seems like it just gets harder and harder to make in-person time.
The last thing I said to him was the trivial thought that I wish there was going to be another season of 4400. I wish there was going to be another season of the notorious DAC.
I keep wanting to add details like how he played a non-sex role as a pirate in Joone’s Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, but I could go on all day listing cool interesting bits and pieces about his life. He lived an adventurous and interesting life, dated wild women, had unusual sex, went cool places, and left behind a significant body of work. That is more and better than a lot of people, and I know this is trite, only I wish he were still here; I feel he got taken way way too soon.
When I can stop crying for any extended period of time, I’m going to look for some photographs Forrest Black and I took of him and post them.
Rest in peace, David Aaron Clark. You are missed.