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Opening Night at Erotica L.A.: Babes, Botox and Boy Booty
LOS ANGELES - Attention porn consumers: if this sounds like a shameless plug for the eighth annual Erotica L.A., that's only because it is.
Opening night at the adult gala - the biggest Erotica to date with more exhibitors than ever - at the downtown Los Angeles convention center was a porn fan's wet dream with tons of adult stars signing and posing for photos.
A random cross-section included Angel Cassidy, Taylor Rain, Ashley Long, Katrina Kraven, Wicked Girls Sydnee Steele, Devinn Lane and Jessica Drake, JKP girl Cindy Crawford, Taylor Wane, Kim Chambers, Shayla La Veaux, Adriana Sage, Penny Flame, Georgia Adair, Misty Rain, Kelly Erickson, Mary Carey, etc. etc.
Day two promises to be more of the same, so porn addicts in the Southern California area should do themselves a favor and get down there (for ticket information, hours and other information, go to www.erotica-la.com ).
Erotica L.A. is more than just a raincoater's convention, however; a focus of this year's show is to attract more women and couples, and there were any number of booths and events geared towards just that. Friday's events included fashion shows, the Hollywood Men All-Male Dance Review, a seminar entitled "Boobs, Butts & Botox," and The Erotic Museum (on display for the entire convention).
But I'm a red-blooded American male, and thus for me, the main attraction is definitely the babes.
Wicked's Steele, one of the nicest, classiest acts in all of porndom, tells me that she just got back in town after seven weeks away and is looking forward to shooting a new title with label mate Lane in October. It originally had been scheduled to shoot earlier, she explains, but was postponed due to the recent HIV scare.
Cassidy, one of the most physically stunning newcomers on the scene, tells me how excited she is about being on the cover of June's AVN (our annual Fresh up and comers issue).
JKP's Crawford, meanwhile, still seems a bit disappointed at not winning AVN's Best New Starlet Award back in January in Vegas.
"I really want to win something this year," she says earnestly, "so that I know I'm good at this." I assure she is, give her a hug, then move on.
In between pressing the flesh, I engage in one of my favorite Erotica pastimes, checking out the $5 DVD bargain bins, curious what's in there. A random selection produces Colon Czech from Horizon (now that would have made a good clever title of the month), Stretch My Cute Little Ass, a four-hour comp whose manufacturer is not evident on the box and Barbie Belle and Friends, Contract Cover Girls from destinyinteractive. Hey, you get what you pay for.
Johnnie Keyes, inducted in January into the AVN Hall of Fame, snags me with a pitch for his blues/soul/jazz band to play the 2005 Awards Show, but I tell him he should be making his case to the show's producer, Gary Miller. Skye Blue a bit later pitches me on some female comedians she knows to MC the show and I refer her to Miller also.
I run into Kraven on the floor and she thanks me profusely for the mini profile AVN did on her for the June Fresh issue. "I swear, I just asked (her boyfriend) where you were," she says. Shit, she looks cute; cuter than she's ever looked to me on tape, that's for sure.
The Spearmint Rhino booth, as always, is a big draw with its endless stream of gyrating dancers. I notice that several of the other booths this year are adorned with huge, gorgeous choppers if for no other reason than they're eye-catching (the Bikers Against Drunk Drivers booth, however, is raffling off one of their hogs).
Besides the bigger adult production houses, there's all sorts of esoteric smaller companies exhibiting this year including A Violet Star Enterprises, makers of erotic art, Let's Get Started, who manufacture a sex board game, and I Love Vagina, which, according to the Erotica program, makes "clothes, toys, skateboard and events based around the empowerment of the vagina."
Of course, what would an adult convention be without some religious lunatics from central casting picketing outside with their same old, same old "Read the Bible While You Still Can" and "Smut=Sin=Hell" placards.
"But God invented sex," says a lovely young thing standing nearby, handing out passes to a new nightclub. Couldn't have put it better ourselves sweetie.
-Ron Martin
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