guest post by Aaron Muszalski

photo by Audrey Penven

Talk about subcultural mashups!

Newly-opened SOMA coffeeshop Wicked Grounds has created a unique space for itself at the intersection of two highly-fetishized San Francisco lifestyles, coffee drinking and BDSM. Calling itself a “Kinky Café and Boutique” Wicked Grounds offers gourmet food and drinks – including coffee from the acclaimed Ritual Roasters – alongside a selection of fetish toys and accessories. The café also serves as a gallery space, displaying fine erotic photography and painting, and hosts a diverse variety of special events. They even hosted a live Kink.com porn shoot. Keeping the café open the whole time, of course.

Located at the corner of 8th and Folsom (home to the infamous Folsom Street Fair, in the heart of SF’s leather and fetish scene) and open until 2am on Friday and Saturday, Wicked Grounds has quickly become a favored haunt for kinky and kink-curious coffee lovers alike. With a clientele that runs the gamut from Daddies and Dommes to bloggers and Web entrepreneurs, Wicked Grounds is a uniquely San Franciscan third place; sort of a Perpignan Railway Station for the black leather and laptop set.

photo by Audrey Penven

Despite their growing popularity, Wicked Grounds is currently in need of community support to offset unexpected expenses that they incurred trying to open, San Francisco being an often ridiculously bureaucratic city when it comes to permitting and licensing. You can help by making a donation, dropping in for a latte or spreading the word on twitter, Google or Yelp. All donors will receive a gift package, including a limited edition coloring book signed by noted fetish artist Suzanne Rachel Forbes.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

Marge Simpson is featured on the cover of the November issue of Playboy Magazine, along with a pictorial spread “The Devil in Marge Simpson.

The special version of Playboy with Marge on the cover is only available as a single-copy purchase or download.

via Fimoculous

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

At this year’s Arse Elektronika 2009 sex and technology conference, noted computer historian Jason Scott gave an excellent talk on “The Atomic Level of Porn”, where he discussed the early history of adult content on the internet and it just so happens that Eddie Codel captured it all on video. At one point in the talk Jason volunteered me to act with him the crudely animated sex sequence in Custer’s Revenge.

photos by Scott Beale

Here are a few photos I shot at Jason’s talk.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

A few photos from Arse Elektronika 2009 in San Francisco. The festival runs through Sunday, October 4th. Here’s are some highlights and the full schedule of events.

Photo Gallery: Arse Elektronika 2009

photo by Scott Beale

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Violet Blue

We’re absolutely sure that with the aid of super-futuristic technology that we know is being invented right now, sex in the future will be more amazing than our Cylon-Cylon (plus Replicant, plus Cameron/T9) fantasies could imagine. I mean, I just get stuck thinking of two Summer Glau’s kissing. But until then, and barring Chinese manufacturing of a cheap entry-level priced Peep Show Holodeck (patent pending), we have the annual international sex and technology festival Arse Elektronika.

This year’s theme “Of Intercourse and Intracourse” promises to be a buffet of futuristic and fantastic sexual innovations, artistic explorations, and virtual hallucinations of the sci-fi-meets-pr0n kind. The thing is, it’s in just two weeks and with poeple flying in from all over the world to participate, there are a lot of talks and happenings to choose from. Starting October 1 to the 4th, events will be at various San Francisco locations including Roxie Theater, Center for Sex and Culture, Noisebridge, Femina Potens Gallery, and PariSoMa.

Tickets to each of the three-day events are here at Brown Paper Tickets. The main site with the full schedule is here.

Don’t have time to sift the schedule to find out where to see the hot robot sex action? Here are recommended highlights:

* Thursday, October 1 is the opening night, and we’re excited to see that Annalee Newitz will be speaking at the opening gala. It officially starts at 6pm with an explicit film festival at the Roxie Theater in the Mission, and is followed by in-theater opening presentations that, if you’ve seen the Arse opening (and award ceremony) before, you’ll know they’re anything but dry. Also, not on the schedule is a hardware-hacked Atari Joydick showdown: male vs. female gaming parts. We’re sure this will be pretty outrageous.

* Friday, October 2 talks start at the Center for Sex and Culture at 8pm, but the one we won’t be missing is Johannes Grenzfurthner’s “Dating Yog-Sothoth and Fucking a Zombie.” If you’ve seen his presentations, you know he’s — rather unpredictable. The talk’s description is only, “Bizarre Sci-Fi and Fantasy in Graphic Novels. No spoilers.” Enough said.

* Saturday, October 3 is the Big Fat Future Sex Day, with talks going from 11:30am to 9pm at ParisSoMa, then a not-to-be-missed (though limited capacity) evening gala at frisky erotic art gallery Femina Potens, starting at 10pm. Daytime talk highlights include “Sex Without Meat: How Singularitarians View Sex” by R.U. Sirius, “Will You Still Love Me Like This In The Year 2300?” by Annalee Newitz, and “Biometrics in the Bedroom” by Kyle Machulis (AKA qDot). The nighttime future sex fiesta includes a bizarre installation of DIY porn tools, plus a six-piece musical act that fits the theme while putting the flesh into all this hypothetical sex. This is the party, replicants.

* Sunday October 4 is the hackfest: at hacker space Noisebridge, sex hackers will demo how to create a Joydick (and other sex/gaming hybrids), you can learn how to make your own ’steampunk’ vibrator from the expert, the Thrillhammer’s Allen Stein will show you genital-based haptic devices and much more.

We’ll see you there. Just don’t get your dangly bits too close to the moving parts. Unless that’s your fetish.

photos by Scott Beale

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

monochrom has just announced Arse Elektronika 2009: “Of Intercourse & Intracourse”, their annual conference on sex, technology and the future, which takes place October 1-4 in San Francisco, kicking off with the Prixxx Arse Elektronika 2009 Awards Ceremony on October 1st at the Roxie Theater. Here’s the full schedule.

We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and tool-using species. And that’s why our annual conference Arse Elektronika deals with sex, technology and the future. As bio-hacking, sexually enhanced bodies, genetic utopias and plethora of gender have long been the focus of literature, science fiction and, increasingly, pornography, this year will see us explore the possibilities that fictional and authentic bodies have to offer. Our world is already way more bizarre than our ancestors could have ever imagined. But it may not be bizarre enough. “Bizarre enough for what?” — you might ask. Bizarre enough to subvert the heterosexist matrix that is underlying our world and that we should hack and overcome for some quite pressing reasons within the next century.
Dont you think, replicants?

At this year’s event monochrom will be releasing their second Arse Elektronika Anthology “Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?”.

Taking up where the successful first part of our series left off, this anthology stands under the motto “future” — and the ways in which the present sees itself reflected in it. Maintaining a broadened perspective on technical development and technology while also putting special emphasis on its social implementation, this year’s conference focuses on Science and Social Fiction.

Here are a few photos I shot last year at Arse Elektronika 2008.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

Violet Blue has just launched vb.ly, “the internet’s first and only sex-positive url shortener”, built by Ben Metcalfe and hosted on our new cloud hosting service.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

PetSmiling recently announced the DoggieLoveDoll, the world’s first sex doll for dogs.

You may know or have probably heard about these dolls for men that are very popular in Sex Shops around the world. There are inflatable ones, full-body, silicone, as well as other models. So now the first doll for dogs has been launched in Brazil. That’s right, a doll for dogs to practice safe sex. The majority of non-neutered dogs spend a good chunk of time looking for something to hump. They try pillows, furry creatures, people’s legs and even other animals.

via K9 Magazine

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Burstein!

The World Air Sex Championships is like the US Air Guitar Championships, but with less fake guitar and more fake orgasms. The Air Sex 2009 Tour kicks off on June 6th in Austin traveling to 15 cities in 21 days with a competition at a The Independent in San Francisco on June 24th.

Never been to an Air Sex show before? Here’s what you need to know: it’s a lot like Air Guitar, but instead of rocking out with an imaginary guitar, you’re making sweet and/or filthy love with an imaginary sex partner. You choose a clip of music, you show up in whatever sort of wardrobe you like, and you come up on stage and show everyone how you do it. Or how you wish you could do it. Or how you once had it done to you, and oh my god was that a bad idea and while it’s embarrassing to show that act to a room of strangers, you know that you need to do it now in order to make sure that no one else falls down the same rabbit hole you got stuck inside. Or, you know, just do it however you want. The only rules we have are the laws laid down by the state we’re in. Since the Alamo serves alcohol, you can’t get naked. And since we serve food as well, all orgasms have to be simulated (or at least arguably so). Other than that, you’re free to do whatever it takes to impress the judges, the audience in the theater, and the world!

photo by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

via Violet Blue

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Burstein!

Elliot Burford turns the titles of spam email he receives in to adorable illustrations that are literal translations of the subject lines.

While the idea of converting spam (and other found objects) into art is has been around since the dawn of the internet, only a few do it well. For example, Linzie Hunter made great art from spam one-liners.

illustrations by Elliot Burford

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Burstein!

photo by Ani Niow

Ani Niow asked the question “What happens when you’re an engineering student with a minor in sexuality and you find yourself funemployed?” The answer, make steampunk vibrator, of course. It weights about a pound, is smooth to the touch, and, yes, it sorta works. When Ani tried it with steam, apparently it got too hot to touch, and I presume this meant too hot for the goonies. That said, it does work off of compressed air. If you happen to know of or have a more powerful boiler than a pressure cooker that is available, she would be interested.

In the meantime, you can see it at Femina Potens until the end of the month.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Burstein!

photo by Nemo’s Great Uncle

Kanamara Matsuri is a Shinto Festival of the Steel Phallus that takes place each Spring in Kawasaki, Japan. The origins of this festival stem from an innkeepers daughter who had the misfortune of having a demon with sharp teeth fall in love with her. As demons are wont to do, the little bastard decided to take up residency in her vagina, and then wield his sharp teeth against the innkeeper’s daughter’s male companions. Enter Hero Blacksmith who crafted a fine steel phallus, which broke the poor demon’s teeth.

photo by Jordon Cheung

Nowadays, the festival focuses on the more general theme of sexual safety and sex worker safety. The festival is also used to raise money for HIV/AIDS research. Causes we all can get *ahem* behind.

Here are more photos of the festival from Akademi Fantasia Travel Blog.

photo by Héctor Ratia

Jokes aside, we here in San Francisco have plenty of our own sex-positive festivals, but I still feel that we will be trailing Japan in the Awesome Party category until we get our own Squid Festival.

See Previously: Squid vs. Robots Featured in Hakodate, Japan Tourism Videos

via Akademi Fantasia Travel Blog

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

“Free Robot Sex”, a new t-shirt by Karl Long who runs the awesome t-shirt blog Tcritic.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Burstein!

photo by unknown

Delving into the horrors merely skimmed by the Craftastrophe we did a while back, I present with scorched eyes Woolies (for lack of a better term). The good folks at Izismile have curated some interesting photos from a French wool fetishist site.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rule 34 strikes again!

via reddit

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by mikl-em

The folks at Wilkinson Sword have a provocative ad campaign for their Quattro for Women Bikini shaver. Full of hedge and topiary imagery and metaphor.

BoingBoing posted the below ad earlier this month, but since their link has now gone fallow I’ll put it here as well:

It is notable that historically Wilkinson actually did make both gardening tools and razors. Nowadays those two lines are split into two different companies. One wonders if the personal-grooming division has some shear-envy which is being expressed in their marketing campaigns.

Here’s the catchy French version, Ma Garden Party:

And lest us guys feel left out, a tool by Phillips The Bodygroom is guaranteed to give a clean close shave to kiwi fruit or whatever else kiwi-shaped you applied it to, one assumes.

Here’s an ad / ode, from 2.5 years ago, with a sensitive bath-robed fellow singing the virtues of this grooming gadget.

I… am not comfortable with that. But their Second Puberty animated brochure, which features amongst other wonders a unicorn with a rainbow for a horn, is well worth a look.

Props to my buddy @johnrackham for the pointers to the 3 Wilkinson ads. And to Boing Boing commenter grimc for the pointer to the Bodygroom.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Violet Blue

As many of us have recently struggled through getting our taxes done, or look ahead in dread at the chasm of taxtime hate that stands between now and April 15, one video emerges to bring porny humor to the situation: Math Bus. Seen last year as a SXSW short, it flew under the radar because it parodies not just tax season, but a particularly notorious subgenre (and brand) of porn known as “Bangbus.” In the highbrow Bangbus scenario, a bunch of well mannered gentlemen called Bang Brothers drive around in a bus (or van) and pick up women to have sex with for the promise of money. This is an original concept. And then in a display of the superiority of the male species, they dump said female on the side of the road after the sexual transaction — sans cash, laughing and high-fiving. Many have asked if Bangbus is real, and in general if, or why, anyone finds this hot. All I can say is that no, Bangbus is not “real” in that the actresses are indeed pre-arranged and paid, and their contracts and all federal 2257 recordkeeping age and ID requirements are on file, meaning it’s a setup. It’s fake. I don’t have an answer for the rest of the question. Which is partly why Mathbus is a great — and pointed — satire of porn culture’s Jackass-style misogyny.

But Mathbus — man, I think it’s real. These dudes drive around and get chicks to do their taxes. It’s sick.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by RICK!

It’s that time of year again, and what better way to celebrate a holiday made popular by a corporation that loves to make you feel guilty about just not loving quite enough, than sending out some Valentine’s Resistance League e-cards from Marrow and The Society for the Advancement of Despair (see previous post)?

Happy Valentine’s Day! See you at Pillow Fight, and don’t forget to bring something for the SF Food Bank (PDF).

See Previously:

- The Anti-Cheer: Marrow, The Society for the Advancement of Despair

- Society for the Advancement of Despair Presents: A Glummy Christmas

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

Here’s the now infamous “Durex: Get It On” condom ad created by Superfad featuring horny animated balloon animals. There are also a few outtakes from the ad.

via Violet Blue

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

guest post by Violet Blue

As we all know too well, getting that perfect “MySpace angle” for our social network icons and alleged candid iPhone pics on the go isn’t easy. It’s an art form. And no one understands that more than the Mickey Rourke of Craigslist dick pics, Paul Jacoby, Penis Photographer.

Or rather, it’s Bob Odenkirk, best known as the comedian and co-creator of cult comedy hit, Mr. Show (with David Cross). Comparing himself to the greatest painters and his subjects to Grandma Moses, he takes us on a “day in the life” of a hired-hand photographic visionary, whose purpose is to lead a huge team of eager, worshipful interns. Telling us it’s for Casual Encounters but that “there’s nothing casual about what I do” to create that perfect fake self-portrait of Craigslist notoriety — the, er, seminal, “dick pic” — he screams at said assistants, then praises them for making “Horny In Burbank” look *just amateur enough* stroking himself on the toilet to get the winning responses to Horny’s Casual Encounters ad. And indeed, depending on the lighting and the angle, whether you find it dreaded or click-worthy, Jacoby speaks to a universal truth when he calls the dick pic, “modern Americana folk art.”

Something tells me that Mr. Jacoby is a very busy man. Unlike Casual Encounters, the video contains no nudity but still may not be work-safe.

via The Sex Carnival

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

XKCD presents A Guide to Numerical Sex Positions

comic by xkcd

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.