BETTIE PAGE: AN APPRECIATION

As many of you already know, Bettie Page is gone.



I’m a big Bettie fan, and there’s probably a hundred tributes and memorials out there that are better than anything I could come up with, but this isn’t the kind of thing you delegate. Also, she was from my hometown, so I guess I should say a few words.

Why am I a Bettie fan? Apart from the obvious, I suppose the main thing is that she came across as a real person. The term “girl next door” lost its currency in the porn biz somewhere in the 1980s, but Bettie embodied it completely. Very few softcore/hardcore porn stars make me want to just hang out with them after work for a drink or a coffee. Bettie had an approachability to her that you don’t really get anymore.

Aside from that, the other main thing about her is that she was fun. She had a blast making those pictures and stag films, and it shows. Even with the BDSM shots, there’s a playfulness to her work that you don’t really get with anyone else. And if erotica/porn should be anything, it should be fun.

I like to think that was the real reason Sen. Estes Kefauver never called her in to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. He didn’t want her stating for the record that she had a fun time making the pictures and didn’t see any problem with them. Women weren’t allowed to say such things in public in 1953.

In some ways, they’re still not – at least not when photography and video equipment are involved.

Anyway, respect to Bettie, last of the true icons.



Good for a laugh,

This is dF

WITH GREAT ROLLER SKATES COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

I’ve been wondering how I should wrap up Roller Skate Week, since there are plenty of angles we haven’t covered – the Playboy Mansion angle, the Heather Graham angle, the carhop waitress angle, and – it goes without saying – the Shanghai Disco angle.

But then after the previous post, a lot of people complained that comic book superheroes portrayed roller disco skaters in a negative light, and that I should be more fair and balanced.

So I should be clear – roller skates, like any technology, are neither good not evil. It’s how you use it. Indeed, plenty of superheroes have used roller skates in the name of justice. Some even specialized in skates.

Like Dazzler.



She even had a roller disco angle.

Then there’s, um, Skateman.



Oh, and don’t forget the time the Justice League Of America started a roller derby team.



And so much for Roller Skate Week.

Rock and roll over,

This is dF

KING OF BEERS? HE’S NOT AVAILABLE

Some late happy birthday wishes to dr_p_venkman , isis_lives  and fiendish_elf . Hope the festivities went well and don’t cut into yr Christmas gift stash.

Though I should add, if you need help sourcing beer for the party, I’m probably not the guy to ask – at least not if yr favorite brew is Mac and Jack’s.



[Via bedsitter23 , who knows every beer on Earth]

Still, that’s kind of respectable. If you need Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon or Tsingtao, I can help.

But then I’m more of a Jim Beam person, myself. Where’s my quiz?

It was a very good beer,

This is dF

DEF XMAS PLAYLIST 2008 (#4 OF 12): I WANNA BE YR CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Time to add another holiday song to the Def Xmas Playlist, and because Christmas is for everyone, not just Christians, this one is going out to Pat Boone: Pansy Division’s “Homo Christmas”.

Available in two versions:

1. Audio only

2. Audio with a slide show of lots of gratuitous hot guys in their underpants (great for both gay men and straight women).

( Sexytime! )

PRODUCTION NOTE: Option 2 has no “full monty” action (apart from a few bums) but does sport guy-on-guy kissing, so if you or yr supervisor have issues with that, then it’s decidedly NSFW. For that matter, so is Option 1 if you don’t have headphones.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m actually a big fan of Pansy Division.

Happy and gay,

This is dF