Sex is Sex, But Money is Money

I arrived in New York City from Chelyabinsk, a city right in the middle of Russia, when I was 19 years old, with $300 in my pocket. I turned 24 in March and have managed to save $200,000, by fucking for money. I’ve traveled to Morocco, Paris, Beijing, and Monaco. Men have brought me tea from London, chocolates from Switzerland, lingerie from France and shoes from Italy. I’ve bought my parents a little village house. (I told them I had a rich American boyfriend who was taking care of me.)

I don’t hate men. I am not a victim of child trafficking. I have never been raped, or drugged, or done porn. I’m not an addict. I never had a pimp. I don’t suffer from what my American girlfriends call “daddy issues” and what my shrink refers to as “malformed identity centering on early childhood abandonment.” My dad had lovers. I don’t blame my parents for my job, or my life. Other kids have other problems. My parents had problems when they were kids. My therapist has helped me see that.

- Medium

Thousands of Swedes are inserting microchips into themselves – here’s why

Thousands of people in Sweden have inserted microchips, which can function as contactless credit cards, key cards and even rail cards, into their bodies. Once the chip is underneath your skin, there is no longer any need to worry about misplacing a card or carrying a heavy wallet. But for many people, the idea of carrying a microchip in their body feels more dystopian than practical.

- The Conversation

Watch: Here Are All The Ways Your City Is Surveilling You

If you live in a major metropolitan area, the odds are good you’re being watched and listened to at all times. And even if you don’t, that surveillance technology is still there—in stores, on cop cars, in schools and stop lights. Everything you do in public (and sometimes in private) is watched and recorded somewhere.

- Motherboard

Banksy: art de rue, mystère et marque de fabrique

Ses oeuvres disséminées sur les murs, de Londres à Gaza, font les délices d’Instagram et des passionnés d’art de rue. Tout en portant un message politique, l’artiste Banksy, qui vient de sévir à Paris, fascine en entretenant le mystère sur sa personne et en ayant construit sa mythologie.

- Le Devoir

Amazing Black and White Photographs Capture Scenes From Venice Beach In The 1970s And ’80s

Sun-bleached babes, roller skates, cruisers, Vans, campers, corduroy OP shorts… The smell of the ocean, the feel of sand on your feet and the burning of incense bring back the memories of a golden era in Venice Beach.

In 1978, photographer Bill Aron and his family moved to California where he didn’t want to go. His wife had landed a job as a professor here, but he was just getting established as a photographer in New York. So his wife told him that he could pick what neighborhood they would live in, and he chose Venice, which was still affordable back then.

- Design you Trust

X-rated Movie Posters of the 1960s and 1970s

The posters for the x-rated films of the early 1070s were an eruption of ‘prick-teasing’ graphic design. Promising audiences of sexy scenes that more often that not never quite arrived.

By the late 1970s the VHS had arrived which bought the end of the classic x-rated movie poster. ‘People started watching porn at home, and the films started becoming explicit, which killed the posters,’ says Nourmand, one of the authors of X-Rated Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s. ‘But what I love about them is their spirit. They are the most graphically interesting posters of that period. Look at the number of fonts used, number of techniques used. They’re beautiful.’

“Lets you feel good without feeling bad.” – Emmanuelle

- Flashbak

Porn’s Uncanny Valley

The San Fernando Valley was once the bedroom community of the adult industry. Now technology hopes to disrupt traditional pornography—and the city it calls home.

For the new pornographers like Adam Sutra, technology can erase the material world. In virtual reality, there are no limits, not even when it comes to sex. “If you can meet in your virtual-reality space, anything’s possible,” Adam observed coolly as the man bore down upon the woman, her prerecorded moans filling the air.

- The Atlantic

The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company

OneTaste is pushing its sexuality wellness education toward the mainstream. Some former members say it pushed them into sexual servitude and five-figure debts.

OneTaste is a sexuality-focused wellness education company based in the Bay Area. It’s best known for classes on “orgasmic meditation,” a trademarked procedure that typically involves a man using a gloved, lubricated fingertip to stroke a woman’s clitoris for 15 minutes. For Michal, like those at her wedding, OneTaste was much more than a series of workshops. It was a company that had, in less than a year, gained sway over every aspect of her life.

- Bloomberg

The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word

His wife was just thirty-four. They had two little girls. The cancer was everywhere, and the parts of dying that nobody talks about were about to start. His best friend came to help out for a couple weeks. And he never left.

- Esquire

L’art de se donner du (beau) trouble, selon Pinard et filles

C'était en 2012 ou en 2013. La mémoire de Frédéric Simon hésite, peut-être parce qu’elle préférerait avoir oublié. « On anticipait notre première récolte, mais il y a eu un gros gel printanier. Ici, juste là, c’est devenu lunaire. En juin, c’était brun à la grandeur. Tout était mort », se rappelle le cofondateur du vignoble Pinard et filles, en désignant d’un grand geste las le champ devant lui, qui a depuis retrouvé bonne mine. « Disons qu’à ce moment-là, on s’est demandé en s’il vous plaît ce qu’on était venus faire ici. »

« C’est parce qu’on aime ça, le trouble ! » lance l’associée de Frédéric, son amoureuse Catherine Bélanger, avec au visage un sourire espiègle permettant de croire qu’elle cumule une enviable expérience en la matière. Mais ça ressemble à quoi, le trouble, demandez-vous ?

- Le Devoir

The Terrifying Scarecrows of Britain

One of the most familiar figures of the rural landscape throughout the United Kingdom, as with many countries around the world, is the scarecrow. These hideously disfigured silent sentinels of the countryside are supposed to scare away pests such as birds, but as British photographer Colin Garratt found out, they are terrifying enough to scare away humans.

- Amusing Planet

There’s a Garden Contest on the Backs of Japanese Mini Trucks and It’s Awesome

Japanese mini trucks or Kei trucks, are small practical vehicles that meet Japan’s guidelines as a ‘light vehicle’. They are popular in Japan because of their manoeuvrability through small side streets and their ability to park in tight spaces.

According to Spoon & Tamago, there’s an annual contest sponsored by the Japan Federation of Landscape Contractors that challenges drivers to transform the back of their trucks into miniature gardens.

There are few limitations and that has inspired people to stretch the idea of a garden into wild and creative places. Below you will find some of our personal favs.

- Twisted Sifter

“Visual Necromancy”: The Amazing Art By Boris Groh

Boris Groh is one of my favorite artists, mostly because of his works that feature LARGE skeletons just doing their thing.

- Design you Trust

The ‘Sex Cult’ That Preached Empowerment

Why did female members of Nxivm follow a guru named Keith Raniere, who now stands accused of sex trafficking? He made them feel like they were in control.

- NY Times Magazine

Ethical and Feminist Porn

Pornography is a part of many people's masturbation routines. Erotic films and imagery help to turn us on, allow us to explore fantasies, and develop our desires. However, with some of mainstream pornography promoting sexist and discriminatory narratives as well as mistreating it's stars and creators, how can we ensure the porn we're viewing is ethically made with a feminist agenda? What do feminism and ethical standards even look like within the world of porn? We interviewed the most progressive names in porn to give us some insight.

- Wild Flower

Alain Goraguer : X-rated music

Our first LP with musics from X-rated movies starring Brigitte Lahaie was incredibly welcomed by you. But this was just a foreplay ! We went into digging new pornographic soundtracks, in order to bring you deeper into the thick universe of french porngroove. A brand new selection of unreleased musics composed by the great Alain Goraguer, brought together on a collector vinyl, object of all the desires, that will be available only through this campaign. Book right now your Alain Goraguer X-Rated Music LP !

The guideline of this new adventure ? The touch and the groove of the maestro Alain Goraguer, a modest genius who used to work under an alias to musicalize what was happening in the beds in the movies directed by Burd Tranbaree. Orchestrator, composer of an impressive number of monumental french pop songs, from Boris Vian to Serge Gainsbourg, from France Gall to the cult french TV show "Gym Tonic", Alain Goraguer is well known by hip-hop fans and sampling lovers for his cult soundtrack for The Fantastic Planet by René Laloux. He gave in all his experience and his unique craftsmanship in composing original soundtracks for this X-rated cinematographic adventures.

- Kiss Kiss Bank Bank