1. Red light? Green light
2. Porn studio puts city in a kink
3. Panicked professionals fear they were victims of 'swingers'
4. Fetish nation
5. Man convicted of holding Weston woman hostage for eight days
6. Swingers still party, host says 7. Porn director to start shooting here in a week
1. Red light? Green light
2. Porn studio puts city in a kink
3. Panicked professionals fear they were victims of 'swingers'
4. Fetish nation
5. Man convicted of holding Weston woman hostage for eight days
6. Swingers still party, host says 7. Porn director to start shooting here in a week
Red light? Green light
by Patrick Day
The Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2007
They get a lot of attention, but massive multi-user online realities (MMOR) remain a bit of a niche – a kind of higher-end playground for tech geeks who aren't interested in slaying dragons on Internet-based games such as "World of Warcraft." On Linden Labs' much-touted Second Life, for example, users can invest in real estate, start a virtual business or just run around like a crazy person. But even though there are nearly 3 million accounts registered on the site, many are inactive or duplicates, and some reports put the site's actual population closer to 100,000. To break through to the mainstream, it appears, something more is needed, and Utherverse.com Chief Executive Brian Shuster thinks he has found a focus that will provide that: It's the sex, stupid.
Instead of attempting to create an alternate economy or simulate a real estate market, RedLightCenter appeals to even baser instincts, sprucing up the seedy-sex-club subculture with a digital sheen and turning the whole experience into a kind of elaborate video game.
With a site that features a place called the Passion Pit designed for public sex and several areas catering to the BDSM community, Shuster is not coy about his community's purpose. "Sex is something everyone can participate in," he said. "By starting our first virtual world with that, we've overcome a major problem."
One of RedLightCenter's community members is Miss DawnBridget, a self-proclaimed "Chief of Security" for a BDSM "family" of 13, providing protection for them and for members of other similar "families." She agreed to speak only through her RedLightCenter avatar.
As she hunkered down near the entrance of a nightclub, with her submissives occasionally stopping by to sit on her lap as she talked, she said she was a law enforcement officer in real life, living somewhere in the American South. She claimed to spend more hours in RedLightCenter than some people spend awake. "I love [cybersex]. It's safe and I get to go to bed by myself," she said, adding that she has no relationship in real life.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-webscout4feb04,1,4267094.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo To respond, write to: the author at patrick.day@latimes.com or the editors at letters@latimes.com
Porn studio puts city in a kink
by Lisa Leff
Associated Press (via the Bloomington Pantagraph, IL)
February 3, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — It takes a lot to make San Franciscans blush, but a video porn company has managed to do it.
A studio that makes S&M movies recently took over a historic building that once housed the National Guard, unleashing a rare public debate about decency in a city famous for sexual permissiveness.
Kink.com, which distributes its videos on X-rated Web sites with names such as Hogtied and Men in Pain, bought the old State Armory in the Mission District for $14.5 million, saying the vacant building's dark Moorish architecture would make a perfect backdrop for fetish films.
"The basements in particular have a creepy, dungeony feel that is quite appropriate," said Kink.com founder Peter Acworth, who planned the first leather-clad shoot this week in the building where troops trained for six decades.
Acworth, 36, negotiated with the previous owner quietly to avoid a backlash until the deal was done earlier this year.
Although city planners said the studio meets zoning requirements, residents and civic leaders have reservations about allowing people to be tied up, spanked and poked with mechanical implements in the working-class neighborhood.
"While not wanting to be prudish, the fact that kink.com will be located in the proximity to a number of schools gives us pause," Mayor Gavin Newsom – who is caught up in his own sex scandal, admitting he had an affair with the wife of his campaign manager – said in a statement this week.
He planned to organize a public hearing on Kink's plans, even though city leaders acknowledge there is little they can do to stop production at the Armory.
Adding to the outrage: The building – erected in 1912, empty since 1970 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 – was sold after low-income housing advocates killed proposals to develop the Armory into offices or apartments.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/02/03/wtf/doc45c3a5a087202208042273.txt To respond, write to: letters@pantagraph.com or comment at the bottom of the article
Panicked professionals fear they were victims of 'swingers'
by Karla Schuster and Ann Givens
Newsday (NY)
February 2, 2007
As the Long Island couple charged with running a sex and extortion scheme remained in jail Friday, at least one Nassau attorney said he is fielding calls from panicked professionals who fear they have been caught on sexually explicit videotapes.
"Lawyers, doctors, school teachers, businessmen and other community leaders — we've heard from people from all walks of professional life," said attorney Anthony Colleluori of Woodbury.
He said most of the people who have contacted him are married men from Nassau, Suffolk and Queens who say they had sexual encounters with one or both of the defendants. Two callers were women. Some called Colleluori directly, while others had friends call on their behalf. He has not yet agreed to represent anyone who has called him.
At least two callers told him that the couple — Michael Largue, 45, of Franklin Square, and Shawn Payne, 34, of East Hampton — threatened to send sexually explicit videos to a spouse or family member. He said some of men told him that their encounters involved both Largue and Payne in "swapping" situations.
Police say the couple trolled for partners on an Internet site that bills itself as "The World's Largest Sex and Swinger Personals Community." The couple secretly videotaped their partners in sex acts and then extorted them for money, police said. His online handle was "Mr. Nice," hers was "Gina."
Police are reviewing more than 100 hours of video that were confiscated from Largue's home, along with still photos and $20,000 in cash. Police say dozens of people across New York State were victimized by the couple.
The two were caught when a Garden City man whom they tried to extort came forward, police said. Another victim, a 47-year-old upstate woman, told them that Payne said she would hurt her father and show her son explicit photos of her trysts if she didn't pay $30,000, court documents said. The woman handed Payne $1,360 and several pieces of jewelry before police made their arrest, the documents said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liswin0203,0,2692917.story?coll=ny-opinion-utility To respond, write to: letters@newsday.com or comment at article
Fetish nation
by Barbara Taormina
The North Shore Sunday (Mass.)
February 2, 2007
Was that you we saw at the Fetish Fair last weekend? If not, odds are someone you knew was there shopping for paddles and handcuffs.
Daniel Erikson thinks he has the quick answer as to why thousands of people packed the Sheraton Ferncroft in Danvers last weekend for the New England Leather Alliance's annual fetish flea market and fair.
And when you're a guy with a handlebar mustache standing in the middle of a crowded room wearing a wearing Doc Martin-style boots and a pleated black skirt with a pistol-shaped sex toy tucked in your waistband, odds are you know what you're talking about when it comes to fetish fairs.
"You'll find an inverse proportion", says Erickson, who was pitching hand-designed silk corsets for women and men. "The more uptight and conservative the community, the more free-flowing the kink".
So how does Erickson, who is from Albuquerque, N.M., rank the repression in New England?
"On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it a six", he says. "I'm not feeling Bible-belted, but there's certainly a level of propriety here".
If Edwards is right and straight laces bring out the fetish in people, then there's little doubt that the North Shore has a kinky side. And that may be convenient, since the Leather Alliance hopes to make the Ferncroft the home base for its yearly winter shindig.
Vivienne Kramer, the outgoing chairwoman of the alliance, gave the place a big plug in an open letter in this year's guidebook.
"Keep your fingers crossed. Tell the hotel staff how happy you are to be here", she suggested.
For the past couple of years, the fair has been shuffling around from town to town. The group left Mansfield after officials said the event was a zoning violation since the hotel that hosted it wasn't in the town's adult entertainment zone. So this year, the alliance moved everything over to the Ferncroft, which is actually located partly in Middleton and partly in Danvers.
Middleton doesn't have a designated adult zone, so there's no problem there. And Danvers, where town officials want to remove the bench from outside the cigar store downtown because the guys who sit there allegedly make catcalls to women, well, Danvers hasn't raised any objections about the sex-centric fair that draws people from all over the country.
"We deserve an event free of antiquated zoning laws, small-minded politicians and conservative zealots trying to tell us what we can and cannot do in private surroundings", says Kramer, who adds that the fight to be accepted in the suburbs may be "kinky Custer's last stand".
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.townonline.com/northshoresunday/homepage/8998960014328594431 To respond, write to: the author at btaorimin@cnc.com or the editors at northshore@cnc.com
Man convicted of holding Weston woman hostage for eight days
by Tonya Alanez
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 31, 2007
Sean Alfredo Dupree told Broward jurors Tuesday that his accuser was "down with" being bound and lashed with a three-pronged whip.
It was part of a business deal, he said. They planned to split the earnings that would come after photos of her bruised and welted body were published online and in magazines.
The jurors didn't buy it.
It took the three-man, three-woman jury three hours Tuesday to convict Dupree of five counts: armed kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and battery.
Dupree, 36, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Broward Circuit Judge Peter Weinstein did not set a sentencing date.
Prosecutors said Dupree met the woman, then 21, online and when she refused to become a stripper for him, he bound and gagged her in his Weston home, holding her hostage for eight days in June 2004 while inflicting a "vicious, brutal, savage" beating.
"[She] had the gall, the audacity, to say no to him, this controlling man, and he lost it," said prosecutor Dennis Siegel. "He beat her to the point she could barely move for days afterwards."
Dupree told jurors he had been involved in the bondage-domination business since about 1999, and that he engaged in such activities on a monthly basis.
Dupree said the woman agreed to recruit girlfriends to work as strippers for him. She declined to strip for him, instead agreeing to participate in the bondage photos, he said.
Defense attorney Kathleen McHugh said the woman consented to the beatings for money but turned on Dupree when she thought he was reneging on the payment.
When Dupree and the victim first chatted online, Dupree told her: "I'm going to make you a celebrity overnight," McHugh said.
"She likes that," McHugh said. "She likes the bling … She was looking to come up in the world."
McHugh told jurors that the woman was a willing participant in a "taboo" and "clandestine" lifestyle that she was ashamed to admit to. She bypassed numerous opportunities to escape, McHugh said.
"Bondage and domination is about consent," McHugh said. "It's a consensual, alternative lifestyle and as sick and twisted and disturbing as any of you think it is … it exists, and it is real, and people do these things to each other."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cverdict31jan31,0,6006661.story?coll=sfla-news-broward To respond, write to: the author at tealanez@sun-sentinel.com or the editors at letters@sun-sentinel.com
Swingers still party, host says
by Mike Goodwin
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
January 30, 2007
SCHENECTADY — Three months after the City Council passed legislation to end risque parties at his inn, Union Street Bed & Breakfast owner Bob Alexson said he's still hosting adult gatherings there and that he's received no indication the city is trying to close him down.
Alexson said he still holds the weekend parties for swingers despite threats from city officials to cite him for violating an ordinance that the city contends requires the gatherings be held in industrial zones.
"Same as always. I'm not changing. I'm not doing anything wrong," he said.
"I'm having more people come there than ever," he said, "but it's real quiet."
On Oct. 23, the City Council amended its adult entertainment ordinance to end sex parties at a north side bed and breakfast, dramatically expanding the ordinance to require that nearly all sex-themed businesses move to industrial zones.
In the three months since, Alexson said he has received no letters nor any other notification from the city that alleges he's violating the ordinance.
Alexson said he suspects the city is using undercover agents to infiltrate his parties. He said he canceled one such gathering in November with a last-minute e-mail to regular participants and then waited to see who showed up at the mansion. He said he suspects that a lone man who came to the bed and breakfast was an undercover officer.
Under pressure from some neighbors who objected to the parties at the 99-year-old mansion, the City Council overhauled its adult ordinance to force Alexson to move his parties to one of three industrial zones in the city. The ordinance already requires strip clubs and adult book stores to move into those zones.
When the parties came to light last year, the city insisted it could regulate the B&B as an adult business. But Alexson lives in the B&B and describes the parties as part of his private social life rather than an aspect of the inn's business. He charged an admission fee to couples and single men who attended the parties — a factor that city officials insisted made the parties a business — but Alexson said he does not charge. Instead, he accepts donations from anyone who cares to make one.
Alexson, who has retained high-powered Albany attorney Stephen Coffey to represent him, said he's prepared to file a lawsuit against Schenectady if they cite him. "I wish they would so I can go forward," he said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=558547&category=SCHENECTADY&BCCode=&newsdate=1/31/2007 To respond, write to: the author at mgoodwin@timesunion.com or the editors at tuletters@timesunion.com
Porn director to start shooting here in a week
by Jason Goldman-Hall
The Examiner (San Francisco)
January 30, 2007
Mayor Gavin Newsom has said he wants to bring movie production back to San Francisco. But Kink.com's selection of bondage and other fetish films was probably not what he had in mind. Within a week, founder Peter Acworth said the film company will be producing pornographic fetish films at the abandoned State Armory at Mission and 14th streets.
Acworth purchased the property for $14.5 million on Dec. 29 from Bar-K Mortgage with little fanfare, but the prospect of a porn empire being established so close to homes, schools and businesses drew ire from residents. The Kink.com studio is housed at 942 Mission St.
Mission residents and businesses have complained that the sale to Kink.com was done with little community input, but as a private sale, no legal requirements for public discourse were required. And since the movie production will not require any zoning changes, as the condos would have, city agencies – such as the Planning Commission – have little control over the private use of the building.
Acworth and members of the Missions Merchant's Association met on Jan. 16, and Acworth said he felt the group's questions and concerns were addressed. At the meeting, he stressed that Armory Studios would help clean up the building and improve the city block that it inhabits.
However, the Mayor's Office announced Monday that it is working with the Planning Commission to hold a series of public meetings about the armory amid a large number of complaints about Kink.com's purchase of the building.
"I think it will be great, it's exactly what we need", Acworth said on Monday. "I welcome this. Hopefully it will diffuse some of the fear".
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.examiner.com/a-536572~Porn_director_to_start_shooting_here_in_a_week.html To respond, write to: the author at jgoldman@examiner.com or the editors at editor@examiner.com
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