Remy LaCroix: Hula Hoop-ing To Bareness

25-years old porn star Remy LaCroix: Hula Hoop

The very definition of cutie-pie, Remy is a world class performer in the adult biz. Pocket rocket Remy takes on dicks of various sizes and thickness with ease, genuine joy, unbelievable enthusiasm and energy. There are porn performers and there is Remy. This clip is from Remy 1 (2012). The roller girl is none other than Lexi Belle - another legend in the smutland.

Remy LaCroix - The Coolest Girl



Nobody's Daughter [Soft Trailer]


UPDATED 01/01/2014

VisitorQ
I love Remy LaCroix. She, Skin Diamond and Dani Daniels were my biggest 2012 discoveries in porn business. I remember in one interview guy said to Remy: I want to marry you, and she replied: It's because I like it in my butt? 
Love her passion and energy. And that she likes it in the butt ; ) 
And one more little think about porn: surely you know one of most gorgeous porn stars Little Caprice. She is uber cute and for now exclusively contracted for X-art, but I always wanted to see her in some spanking/whipping scene, and couple days ago I found that she did in couple of short scenes: 
http://clips4sale.com/studio/52945/Cat17/9679161/Caprice-Whip-2710#9731439 
Only bummer is that they are very hard to find and to download (found 4 of them). Truth be told: If I would be a "little" more richer I would buy them but you know I'm a cheap bastard ; )

Roger
The Little Caprice whipping scene. Is it new or something she shot couple of years ago? Caprice is really popular but I wish she fucks someone else than her BF's. I can't never forget the look in her face while Kitti Jane was being DP'ed when they worked together in a scene for Pierre Woodman. And when she shakes her head every time a male talent tries to fuck her : ) 

At least we have something in common via Remy. I can't never get into Skin and her grungy look. She is a fantastic performer. No two ways about it. Dani is gorgeous but it seems she copied her moans, grimaces and style from Tori Black's handbook. I think we will see the real 'Dani' in an anal or DP scene.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/remy-lacroix-hula-hoop-ing-to-bareness.html. Thanks!

ADELINA: Heiress of the MTV Generation

from :

Anoush Abrar seizes video as a medium to accomplish his personal work, getting closer to a social and cultural investigation. 

Every two years since 2005, Adelina dances facing a fixed camera : in front of a neutral and dull background, the teenage girl develops a choreography based on video clips, heiress of the MTV Generation. 

The codes are hustled, mixed and confronted with each other: still a child, yet already a woman, Adelina calls into question in a direct way, almost disturbingly, strong themes related to the human body. The duality immediately established by a childlike body invested by movements and very sexualized attitudes, blurs references and conceived ideas by questioning the standards put in place by contemporary society. 

Touching sensitive topics such as the human body, childhood, the codification of attitudes and the integrated sexualization by youth in a precocious manner but often superficially, Anoush Abrar’s four videos (50 Cent fan, 11 years old, 2005, 2’31 ; Déjà Vu, 13 years old, 2007, 2’30 ; Boom Boom Pow, 15 years old ; 2009, 2’52 ; On the Floor, 17 years old, 2011, 2’38; Watch out for this, 19 years old, 2013, 2'39") establish a discomfort, which allows us to question our global relationship with contemporary society by means of the codification of bodies, in particular.

11 years old


13 years old


15 years old


17 years old


19 years old




You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/adelina-heiress-of-mtv-generation.html. Thanks!

Why Hollywood Should Worry About Samsung’s 110-Inch TV

Why Hollywood Should Worry About Samsung’s 110-Inch TV

 

Electronics manufacturers are sure to set off a new tech trend of mega-TVs that will encourage more consumers to stay at home

Marc Graser

Just days before the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas next week, Samsung unveiled a massive 110-inch Ultra HD TV that comes with an equally hefty pricetag of $150,000 in South Korea.

While the new TV is out of the reach of most consumers, Samsung has created a ripple that will surely turn into a wave of new mega-TVs the electronics industry will soon unleash from a variety of hardware makers looking to lure buyers with the next big thing. Although 3D TVs — also heavily promoted at CES in the past — have turned out to be a fad, 4K doesn’t look to go down that same route.

And that should have Hollywood worried.

If studios and their exhibition partners were concerned about an increasing number of moviegoers staying at home, the newest 4K TV sets hitting the market over the next year should amp up the anxiety.

Ultra HD provides four times the resolution of a standard high-definition TV currently found in most homes, displaying 8 million pixels rather than 2 million.

While movie theaters show images in 4096 x 2160 resolution, the newest Ultra HD TVs show them in 3840 X 2160, too close for comfort for theater operators. Because of that, expect exhibitors to demand a tighter hold on current release windows in order to protect ticket and concession sales.

Ticket sales this year were stable with 2012, if not slightly higher, according to the National Assn. of Theater Owners, at 1.36 billion sold.

But admissions could start to decline as prices of Ultra HD TVs decrease and consumers opt for more impressive home theaters.

Price points on the newest TV sets have already dropped fairly quickly, with Sears selling a 65-inch 4K TV from Seiki Digital for $2,999 during this holiday season.

The new 4K TVs are also smart TVs, providing access to streaming video apps like Neftlix, YouTube, Amazon and Hulu Plus. Some of those players already are experimenting with 4K streaming in order to be ready for the demand for more programming from buyers of Ultra HD screens.

Sony stepped up this summer to provide buyers of its own 4K TVs movies and TV shows through a new media streamer. And other studios already are filming their movies in 4K — Universal’s “Oblivion” was shot in the format — making the transition to homevideo easier.

The push to promote Digital HD, an earlier window than homevideo disc releases, could also bode well for studios as they look to sell more films through digital platforms and steer consumers away from rentals.

While most analysts believe consumers will likely purchase a 55-inch unit, Samsung’s 110-inch 4K TV provides a glimpse into what’s to come. Earlier this year, Samsung wowed CES-goers with an 85-inch unit providing crystal clear visuals on its massive screen. That unit cost around $40,000.

Samsung says it expects to sell most of its 110-inch TVs in China. But it already has 10 orders for the sets from buyers in the Middle East. The unit is also available in Europe but not yet in North America.

Global sales of Ultra HD TV sets are expected to grow from 1.3 million in 2013 to 23 million in 2017, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

As sales increase, Hollywood’s studio executives will likely be forced to take a closer look at the kinds of movies they greenlight, and the likely result will be slates filled with films that have a wide appeal and developed to be seen on the kind of big screens only multiplexes can provide. As a result, expect less risk taking and more sequels for years to come.

Dolby’s High Dynamic Range TV Tech Delivers a Bigger ‘Wow’ Than UHD

 

Stunning new image tech could be the killer app for next-generation TV - with or without Ultra HD

David S. Cohen
The Ultra-High-Definition 4K TV train is leaving the station, so to speak, and woe to any content provider or TV maker who isn’t on board.

Right?

“Yeah, that train is leaving is leaving the station, but other trains have left the station before, like 3D,” says Patrick Griffis, executive director, technology strategy for Dolby.

Griffis is a longtime proponent for “better pixels” as opposed to “more pixels,” meaning brighter images with more colors. And in December, at Dolby’s offices in Burbank, Griffis and Dolby offered up a tech demonstration of a new imaging technology that showed the impact “better pixels” can have, delivering a “wow” factor not even early UHD TVs can match. The company plans to unveil the name for the new tech next week at CES, where it will have its first public showing.

“We’re not trying to rain on the 4K parade,” says Griffis. “But what we want to see is that for every pixel we want to see, we want them better.”

“This may be the icing that makes the UHD cake work.”

The Dolby demo, showing a 1080p HD picture with pumped-up brightness and color, was a startling improvement over even the best TVs available today, including the early UHD models. Metallic surfaces gleam like mirrors. Colors glow, luminous and rich. Highlights and shadows alike keep their detail. What’s more, unlike 4K TV, that improvement is visible even at a distance from the screen.

It’s as striking and impressive a difference as the difference between standard-definition and HD video. If you see it, you’ll want one for your living room. Now.

High Dynamic Range imaging, which makes the highlights brighter and the shadows darker, has long been considered low-hanging fruit by technologists in the digital imaging field. Many have long wondered why Hollywood and the camera and TV makers haven’t embraced it sooner, as they watched money flow into adding more pixels (standard-def to HDTV, 2K to 4K in cinemas), higher frame rates and 3D. Ultra HD will include some improvement in Dynamic Range, but those improvements haven’t fully arrived in the early models, and Dolby’s technology is even more ambitious than UHD.

A little background on brightness: The unit for luminance, or photons per unit of area, is “nits.” TV technicians talk about nits, cinema technicians use other units; Dolby is hoping everyone will settle on nits and have a common language.

Full noonday sun is around 1.6 billion nits. Moonlight is around 0.01 nits. Starlight is 0.0001 nits. That dynamic range is far, far greater than anything that televisions, device displays or movie theaters can reproduce. Moreover, it’s far greater than anything televisions or movie projectors even try to reproduce.

The limitations on TV and cinema dynamic range come from technologies that are barely used anymore: film projectors and cathode-ray-tube televisions. Color CRT picture tubes could get up to around 100 nits, so that’s what TV programs are color-graded for. Today’s flatscreen TVs, however, are generally capable of 300-500 nits, and at least one model reaches 1,000 nits. “(Televisions) have that headroom because they know light sells,” says Griffis. “The consumer guys have already eclipsed by five times or more (the brightness from) the studios, who are still living in the world of the 100-nit color grade.”

Screen brightness and color go hand in hand. With images so dim compared to the real world, there are great swaths of the visible color spectrum that no TV can reproduce, especially lighter shades.

Dolby demonstrated a (still officially unnamed) technology consumers would never see directly: A way of encoding a picture with a dynamic range that goes from from zero nits, i.e. total blackness, to 10,000 nits. That’s 100 times the peak brightness of a standard TV image today, and far more than any consumer TV today can deliver. In fact, to demonstrate their system, Dolby had to build a custom monitor that can pump out 4,000 nits. (The company has no plans, it says, to turn its prototype monitor into a consumer product.)

“It’s no secret that within Hollywood many folks have been somewhat ho-hum about the value of 4K over 2K,” says Griffis. He is careful not to criticize the impending 4K wave that is about to sweep over the entertainment landscape, saying “We love all our pixels equally,” but he is an evangelist for better pixels, not just more pixels.

“The incremental cost to do this is much less than the incremental cost to do 4K,” he points out. “Having better pixels actually costs less than having more pixels.”

Today’s digital cinema cameras like the Sony F65, Arri Alexa and RED cameras already can record the kind of dynamic range Dolby wants to deliver to consumers, but producers and studios have to compress it and color grade it for existing standards. Much of the dynamic range information is lost along the way. Dolby is hoping to create a future-proofed container for image information, big enough that studios can return to it as display technology improves.

The International Telecommunications Union’s recently adopted standards for UHD TV include improvements in color and dynamic range. However Dolby’s HDR technology goes beyond the ITU standards, so if the kind of dynamic range Dolby is arguing for is to be incorporated in the new TVs, the standard must be adjusted. Griffis says the U.S. administration has brought that argument to the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, with support from Dolby.

The light sources for TVs will have to get much more energy efficient, however, before HDR televisions arrives in living rooms. California’s energy consumption standards wouldn’t permit a commercial version of Dolby’s 4,000-nit monitor, much less a 10,000-nit TV.

Also, in the short term, Griffis admits there is bound to be a chicken-and-egg problem: Existing content doesn’t deliver HDR, so there’s no pressure to make HDR televisions. And if no TVs can show HDR content, there’s no pressure to produce in HDR.

“People who realize this is truly disruptive and this is where more bang for the buck is, are starting to mobilize,” says Griffis. “Both the chickens and the eggs are starting to wake up.”

In cinemas, movie brightness is supposed to be around 48 nits (14 foot Lamberts, to use the measurement common among cinema technicians), which is about as bright as a film projected at 24 frames a second could be before the human eye would notice flickering. But the world’s cinemas have already mostly abandoned film. Digital cinema projectors are easily capable of overcoming the flicker of 24 fps, and new laser engines for projectors promise to make much more light available for cinema projection. At the same time, there have been arguments for brighter movie images, not least for 3D. Doug Trumbull’s proposed “Hypercinema” system would be brighter, with more dynamic range, than what’s in cinemas today.

Asked whether the kind of super-bright HDR images he’s talking about could be brought to cinemas, Griffis responded with a cryptic “Maybe,” suggesting more news on that topic is soon to come. Unlike TV, though, the addition of that much more brightness to cinemas could have major knock-on effects. It could be a highly disruptive technology.

“So was the iPhone when it came out,” says Griffis. “It changed the rules of the game. So, yeah.”


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-hollywood-should-worry-about.html. Thanks!

KLONDIKE: Man vs. Nature

KLONDIKE: Man vs. Nature

The actors and producers of KLONDIKE discuss the physical and emotional challenges of shooting on location in a cold and demanding environment. | KLONDIKE premieres Monday, January 20th at 9/8c on Discovery!

Creating an Authentic Klondike

The production crew of KLONDIKE talks about the challenges of creating historically authentic sets and shooting on location in a demanding physical environment. | KLONDIKE premieres Monday, January 20th at 9/8c on Discovery!

Gold! That one word sent shock waves across North America and stirred men to find a fortune – and lose their lives – over four extraordinary years. Prospectors knew the frozen Northwest of Canada had potential. But when men began to send millions in found gold back to U.S. cities, a fever gripped the country. Newspaper headlines fanned the flames as over 100,000 people set out. Just 4,000 struck gold. The final tally: over seven billion in gold at a price of blood, sweat and death.
Discovery Channel is striking it rich in the New Year with the much anticipated premiere of the network’s first-ever scripted mini-series Klondike on Monday, January 20 at 9 PM ET/PT.
Featuring Richard Madden,Abbie Cornish, Tim Roth and Sam Shepard, the drama tells the powerful story of the last great Gold Rush in our history.
Bonanza Creek in the Yukon Territory of Canada was ground zero for the Klondike Gold Rush. Huge deposits of gold were discovered August 16, 1896 and credited to George Carmack, his wife Kate and brother Skookum Jim. The news traveled fast. Soon the entire territory was crawling with miners in search of the next hidden treasure.

“We have wanted to get into the scripted game for quite some time but knew we needed to wait for the right script,” said Eileen O’Neill, Group President, Discovery Channel and TLC, and KLONDIKE Executive Producer.  “We had to think about the kind of story that would appeal to our audience but also be something everyone would enjoy.  When KLONDIKE came along, there was no question that this was the story we were meant to tell.  This is truly a coming of age story about love, friendship and family but also a story about greed and how it can turn people.  KLONDIKE is a beautiful, exciting and epic tale that revolves around GOLD!  There truly could not be a better story for Discovery to tell.”

Based on Charlotte Gray’s book "Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike," the three-part period drama brings to life the tale of seven strangers and their collective fight for survival and wealth in a small, frontier town in the remote Klondike. The journey begins in 1897 when two childhood best friends, Bill (Madden) and Epstein (Augustus Prew) make the perilous journey through the North American wilderness to Klondike boom town Dawson City, "The Paris of the North,” where neither law nor order prevailed.

In the untamed Yukon Territory during a period of outrageous lawlessness – murder, revenge, riches, violence and redemption awaited these two young, ambitious men who made the arduous, back-breaking journey to Dawson City. KLONDIKE is a man-versus-nature tale that places the characters in a land full of undiscovered wealth, but ravaged by harsh conditions, unpredictable weather and deceptive, dangerous individuals fueled by desperateness – including greedy businessmen, seductive courtesans and native tribes witnessing the destruction of their people and land by opportunistic entrepreneurs.
KLONDIKE is a co-production between Discovery, independent studio Entertainment One (eOne), and Nomadic Pictures, in association with Scott Free Productions.  International distribution is handled by eOne Television. Paul Scheuring ("Prison Break," "A Man Apart") is the primary writer and also serves as Executive Producer, along with Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker; as well as John Morayniss and Michael Rosenberg for eOne; Mike Frislev and Chad Oakes serve as co-producers for Nomadic.  Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz wrote episodes as Consulting Producers.  Eileen O'Neill and Dolores Gavin serve as Executive Producers for Discovery.

The mini-series is produced with assistance of the Government of Alberta, Alberta Film Development Program.







This epic six hour, three night television event kicks off on Discovery Channel Monday, January 20 at 9 PM ET/PT, followed by part two Tuesday, January 21 at 9 PM ET/PT and part three Wednesday, January 22 at 9PM ET/PT.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/klondike-man-vs-nature.html. Thanks!

Acting Tips from Mrs. Wolf of Wall Street

Acting Tips from Mrs. Wolf of Wall Street (Hint: Get a Flask)

Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio in
Debate is still raging about the moral implications of Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf of Wall Street,” but no one is saying that Mr. Scorsese and his willing producer and star, Leonardo DiCaprio, playing the corrupt stock trader Jordan Belfort, didn’t go all out in their nearly three-hour orgy of sex, drugs and greed.

“Marty is an interesting director,” said Rob Reiner, who plays Mr. DiCaprio’s father in the film, “because he’s very gutty in that — he makes the character be the plot. He doesn’t structure films in a traditional kind of way. He invests all the effort and detail into the development of the characters, and that becomes the plot.” In this film, Jordan Belfort is the story, Mr. Reiner explained, and Mr. Scorsese “knows that if he is going to make that the story, he’s got to let the actors be as inventive and original and fresh and real as they can be.”

That, of course, meant a lot of improvisation. “I stopped learning my lines,” said Margot Robbie, the Australian actress who plays Belfort’s second wife, Naomi. Instead of being faithful to the script, she waited to hear Mr. Scorsese’s reaction. “If he likes it, you hear this laughter somewhere behind the monitors,” she said at the film’s New York premiere this month. “And you’re like, O.K., he likes it, and you keep going on whatever tangent you’re going on.”

“Other than that,” she added, “I was totally in the dark, and you never know if what you’re doing is completely stupid and everyone thinks you’re an idiot.” She was eating a brownie at this point and had taken off her heels. The Bagger liked her immediately.

Ms. Robbie, who auditioned several times to win the part, worked with an acting coach to rid herself of her initial dislike of the character. As written, “she seems like a gold-digging slut, to be honest,” Ms. Robbie said. But her coach, Nancy Banks, helped her out of her judgment and into a proper outer-borough accent. “She goes, ‘Pretend like you just had your nails painted,’” Ms. Robbie recounted. “And all of a sudden like I’m talking like ” — she broke into some Brooklynese — “Oh, I’m doing the accent, all because of the nails.” For the shoot, she asked to have long acrylic nails.

“You end up doing everything different,” she said. “You can’t tuck your hair back the way you would, you can’t wipe away tears the way you would, because you’ve got nails that are an inch long. All your mannerisms change easily, when you have inch-long acrylic nails.”

She also met with the real-life inspiration for the character, a former model named Nadine Caridi, and other women who followed the same trajectory. “Had I not met them, I would’ve thought that the character I was doing in the film was so melodramatic and so unrealistic,” she said, “but then once I meet them it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m doing a dulled-down version of this.’”

Her character’s audacity is perhaps best exemplified by her rampant nudity. The production schedule didn’t allow Ms. Robbie to warm up to it. “My first racy scene was the standing in the doorway, totally naked,” she said. “So that was diving in head first. And I was petrified. I’d come to work that morning and I was shaking, so scared, like, ‘I can’t do this.’” 

A crew member took pity on her and offered her “a little liquid confidence,” she said. “And I was like, ‘it’s 9 in the morning!’ And he’s like, ‘We’re in New York!’ So I was like, ‘O.K., hook a brother up!’” He brought her a flask of tequila. “And I did three shots of tequila and then took my clothes off and did the scene and I was fine,” she said. “It really helped stopped my hands shaking, and gave me a little boost of confidence.” 

“So,” Ms. Robbie concluded, “Acting 101: three shots of tequila and you’ll be fine.”

“My publicist is going to kill me when she finds out that’s how I answered the question,” she added, smiling.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/acting-tips-from-mrs-wolf-of-wall-street.html. Thanks!

Uncle Scoopy's Top 25 Nude Scenes of 2013

Uncle Scoopy's Top Twenty Nude Scenes of 2013 - Oh, hell, make it 25!

The one year-end list actually worth reading!

If you are interested in the final numerical tally of the balloting, you can find it here.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/uncle-scoopy-top-25-nude-scenes-of-2013.html. Thanks!

Adult Performer Kacey Jordan Interview: Dubai Sex Trip

Adult performer Kacey Jordan talks about being flown to Arab countries for sex.

Kacey is a porn star, and she talks (to Howard Stern) about being flown to Arab countries for sex. She is clearly talking about Prince Hamdan, when she talks about being with a Prince. She mentions that the guy is actually hot, lives in Dubai, speaks English, and that he (his family) owns/runs a seven star hotel, and the airlines she flew in on.
They keep going back to the Prince stuff throughout the interview, so you have to listen to the whole thing.
She mentions that she got paid $35,000 for just that one sexual encounter, plus all expenses paid for. She also mentioned that the other girls said the same thing about their encounters with him. That he kept the air conditioner on because in Muslim culture, it would be wrong for her to sweat on him.
He didn’t use a condom!!!!!!, was into very aggressive sex, and he liked to quiz the girls beforehand on English American related things. She also mentioned that he was a big pill popper.
At least he did make her cum, she says. And she noted that he has a big penis.
You guys need to be careful with your celebrity worship. These guys are all human and have many, many, flaws. You don’t know them just because you see a smiling, happy, picture. It’s kind of lame to be in such denial.



You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/adult-performer-kacey-jordan-interview.html. Thanks!

Why Did “Wolf of Wall Street” Get a Pass From the MPAA.......

Why Did “Wolf of Wall Street” Get a Pass From the MPAA, When Feminist Films Don’t?


A Conversation With Jill Soloway

For the next few weeks we’ll all be talking about Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, because it’s a big movie, and an awards contender, and, as our own film editor says, pretty damn good. I have not seen the film yet, but per Deadline Hollywood yesterday, it displays the usual Scorsese love of the expletive and even a little more sex than we’ve come to expect from him:
The film begins with an assault of coarse language — c*cksucker, f*cking, and lines like “who’s ever sucked a dog’s c*ck out of loneliness,” and “f*ck this, sh*t that, c*ck, c*nt, a**hole” — and within the first hour and 15 minutes, audiences will see two orgies; heavy drug use (smoking crack, snorting loads of cocaine); a father and son offhandedly discussing (at length) what’s au courant in women’s “bushes”; a woman performing oral sex on one man while getting rammed from behind from another; full frontal nudity of women; and lots of misogyny. There is also a scene later of a prostitute pulling a candle out of the rectum of a married Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio) who then drops hot wax up and down his back.
And yet, it received an R rating, to everyone’s surprise. That light rating came about in part, Deadline Hollywood reports, to the presence of a “consigliere” named Tom Sherak who ran interference between Scorsese and the MPAA.

The item did not escape the notice of the writer-filmmaker Jill Soloway, who also had a film come out this year called Afternoon Delight. The movie stars Kathryn Hahn as Rachel, a stay-at-home mom who meets McKenna, sex worker played by Juno Temple. As you can imagine, the premise gives rise to some “racy” situations (at least, by old-fogey-MPAA lights, anyway). And when Soloway went through the MPAA ratings process, she told me, she was forced to cut quite a bit from certain scenes.

In one case, she had to cut words, or expressions of enjoyment — “oh yeah” type-stuff — from a scene in which Rachel watches McKenna do her job. “They wanted it to be less intense, less uncomfortable,” Soloway says. “And I went crazy trying to get that done.” In another, there was a problem with the length— which was under ten seconds— of a silhouetted sex scene, which was apparently too much for the MPAA folk.

Afternoon Delight was, of course, a film which only saw limited release. And the MPAA’s system is theoretically optional, in the sense that theatres have been willing to disobey it. Even Soloway told me, “Director friends of mine said, ‘Let it be NC-17,’ what do you care?” But she had a contract with a distributor, and the contract said that she had to deliver an R-rated picture, so she ended up making cuts she didn’t like.

Soloway, of course, didn’t have a consigliere like Scorsese.  She was kind enough to discuss the frustrations of this discrepancy with me. What follows is a condensed and edited version of our discussions about the ongoing struggle to either reform or get rid of the MPAA.

I’m not really that familiar with the MPAA process, but did you have any opportunity for a back-and-forth with them, on any of the cuts they asked for on Afternoon Delight?

Yes. They just said, “too sexually intense.” Tony and Joan [Hey and Graves] are nice people, I like them. And you know, when I showed the film at Sundance, I also felt like some scenes were too intense, and I cut them down a little myself for the theatrical version before the MPAA even got involved. Which I sort of regret, because this is a political process and in a way if I had started with a more intense version I could have kept in what I wanted in the end, maybe.
The fact is that when I watch the movie now and I experience that scene, something is materially missing. The [MPAA’s] cuts ended up making that scene worse in a way that I can feel— or rather, I miss what I used to feel— when watching it. The movie is not as good with those cuts.

It’s too bad you didn’t have a consiglieri for it.

Consigiliera, I would have wanted a woman!

So obviously you sensed a theme to the cuts they asked for?

I think it’s about the sexual agency of female characters. The scene portrays two women in a sexual situation connecting emotionally with one another. That might be what was “uncomfortable” for the MPAA. It’s infuriating, to encounter this editing-down after pushing through the many doors to get this movie made. I even won the Directing Award at Sundance, but that kind of lauding didn’t protect me from this organization’s opinion that sex from a woman’s perspective is somehow too dangerous. Did you see that thing about Evan Rachel Wood complaining that a scene where her character received oral sex was cut for the theatrical version of the movie?

Yeah. I mean, I think your film is a better example because now that I’ve seen Charlie Countryman, but reports do not suggest the frame of the movie is self-consciously feminist, where as yours is.

But it doesn’t matter, really, whether the film is feminist or not, it matters that what they cut is the one sex scene where she’s getting the oral sex! It’s about female pleasure making people uncomfortable, it’s insane. Particularly when you think about how much misogyny makes it through in other movies, how much violence, too. Is it weird that I even want affirmative action or reparations that reward women filmmakers for taking the risks of expressing authentic sexuality? I’m so mad that I was raised on the highly commercial, misogynistic characterizations of sexual women as disposable sluts or props for a man’s storyline, yet if I try to disrupt that portrayal, I have to minimize the parts that are “uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable for whom?

Right, which takes us to Wolf of Wall Street.

Yes, which made me so angry reading that Deadline Hollywood thing. I mean, look, I love Scorsese, and I bet The Wolf of Wall Street is a great movie. I remember seeing the trailer in a theater and having that stomach churn of, OK, if I see this movie I will have to do the switch-off thing that a lot of women have to do to enjoy a movie that glorifies misogyny. But even that isn’t what bothers me. What seems insane is that the MPAA allowed the scenes described — of a man receiving oral sex from a woman while another man is having sex with her from behind — but I had to cut far less sexual material to get an R instead of an NC-17. That’s what’s infuriating.

Well, and it’s obvious that there was some kind of double standard here for women.

But it’s not just women, it’s for anyone who’s other, who isn’t helping glorify the myth of the straight white hero male. By their nature, indie films disseminate the voices of people who are not commonly heard— women, queer people, people of color. These are pieces of our culture that attempt to dismantle the straight white male perspective, but because they don’t have the political muscle of the studio backing or the consigliore to walk them through the MPAA process — the likelihood that they’ll have to cut out what’s “uncomfortable” is much higher.

Do you have a solution?

I hear people call out to abolish the MPAA. I’m not sure. I don’t want to censor Scorsese, that is not my solution. We live in an age where teenagers can watch all kinds of porn all over the internet, but the same gatekeepers, same systems are in place that made me have to sneak into a theater to watch Blue Lagoon. This system is so unevenly applied and it ends up just reinforcing all the sexist, gender-violent, women-hating stuff. So sure, maybe the system can be changed, but maybe it is just time for a new way.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-did-wolf-of-wall-street-get-pass.html. Thanks!

Fetishisms Trilogy: Directed by Jonathan Leder

Fetishisms Trilogy, Part I

Directed by Jonathan Leder.
"A Dazzling Time Warp" .
Inspired by the under the counter nudie-mags of the 1950s, Fetishisms Manifesto is a unique bi-annual erotic publication. Featuring photographs of Emily Ratajkowski, Britany Nola, Amy Hood, Marlo Lavonne and more.
80lb Dull Coated Paper / 48 Pages / Sheet Fed Press / 4 Color BW Printing / 5.5 x 8.5 “
Limited edition print run of 1000qty.
Curated by Amy Nicole Hood

Fetishisms Trilogy, Part II


Fetishisms Trilogy, Part III

 


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/fetishisms-trilogy-directed-by-jonathan.html. Thanks!

2013's Women in Film: Strong Female Characters or Overbearing T-Rexes?

2013's Women in Film: Strong Female Characters or Overbearing T-Rexes?



I was first introduced to the concept of the Fighting Fucktoy in the 2011 documentary, Miss Representation. For the unfamiliar, the term can be applied to those female film characters who, while may be acting of her own free will, are hyper-sexualized and exist solely for the male viewer.

We’re all familiar with these characters: Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Jennifer Garner in Daredevil, even buxom Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider, who was forced to wear a padded bra during shooting while already being a busty actress. However recently the focus has shifted, or so we thought, from these sexpot characters into a greater depth of female lead. This year has seen Katniss Everdeen, a female astronaut, and Disney princesses top the box office over the usual testosterone-filled fare. But is their triumph a step in the right direction?

An article titled Goodbye to Strong Female Characters posted by IndieWire argues that it most certainly is not. The article begins:
We are so over Strong Female Characters. Strong Female Characters were useful a few years ago when there was a dearth of women on film and most were so rubber-limbed, glass-ankled, or prone to fainting spells they literally needed to be carried out of danger by a man. 
And while it offers some exceptions (Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, Swing Shift, A Cry in the Dark, Yentl) the piece admits that these were exceptions that proved the rule. And they are right. But they also argue that women in 2013’s cinema take on the role of “strong female” quite literally, where their physical strength overshadows their mental capacities. It even goes as far as comparing these women to T-Rexes. “Strong female characters have become Strong Female Characters, a mutant sub-genus that has less to do with actual women than T-Rexes: physically intimidating, but mentally nonthreatening,” it states. This, we can’t agree with.

Sure, Sandra Bullock in Gravity was wearing booty shorts the whole movie (likely a decision made by a male studio exec) and Jennifer Lawrence’s costumes were tighter and lower-cut than they appeared to be in the first Hunger Games film, but this doesn’t change the fact that these women represented intelligence, wit, sensitivity and most of all — humanness. These characters are flawed, they are ambitious, and they are regular. Yes, they are thrust into irregular circumstance, but Bullock and Lawrence were not only relatable, they were worthy of our investment. The same can’t be said for some of the male hero’s of 2013: Rush’s James Hunt, or Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort.

This is not to say that 2013 was flawless, far from it. Cinema still supports nearly five times more male dominated story lines than female ones, and the fighting fucktoy is far from extinguished. I could write a dozen other articles on what still needs to be changed, but with the flawed, strong, confused, brave, and intelligent women that appeared in films like Hunger Games, Gravity, Frozen, In a World…, Enough Said and more, I can’t help but be happy for the strides, however small, we’ve taken this year alone.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-women-in-film-strong-female.html. Thanks!

Gabrielle Union sexy scenes in Being Mary Jane

Gabrielle Union films sexy scenes in new TV series

Newly-engaged actress Gabrielle Union had no problems shooting saucy scenes in her new TV series Being Mary Jane because she accepted the shots will all emerge online as soon as the shows air in 2014.

The sexy star plays an ambitious broadcaster in the racy new series and reveals there are some titillating scenes.

She explains, "There's sex at the gym (and) I'm masturbating at my desk at work."

However, Union, who recently became engaged to basketball star Dwyane Wade, insists she had no qualms filming the raunchy material, telling Entertainment Weekly magazine, "I felt like (porn star) Marilyn Chambers toward the end with the sex scenes.

"Everyone's like, 'Clear the room'. And I'm like, 'Look, honey, you can Google it on the Internet. Let's just shoot it. We're losing the light!'"


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/gabrielle-union-sexy-scenes-in-being.html. Thanks!

Ultimate Girls Fails of the Year 2013

Ultimate Girls Fails of the Year 2013

The ULTIMATE girls fails compilation of the year! You didn't think we'd leave the girls out did you? Well not to disappoint we've compiled the best girls fails in one yearly compilation. Enjoy!
Bikini girl workout (1st Clip)- http://youtu.be/2-FfQED2puA




You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/ultimate-girls-fails-of-year-2013.html. Thanks!

Gwendoline Taylor: Girls Talk scene

Vanessa Cater, Siobhan Marshall, SPARTACUS' Gwendoline Taylor - Girls Talk scene 

VC: Working with 2 of your best friends, Siobham Marshal and Gwendoline Taylor, always makes for fun scenes



You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/gwendoline-taylor-girls-talk-scene.html. Thanks!

BJ's are ‘good for women’s health and help fight depression’

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/bj-are-good-for-womens-health-and-help.html. Thanks!

Black Sails [S1]: The Darkhorse among the New TV-Shows In 2014

Black Sails [S1]: The Darkhorse among the New TV-Shows In 2014

Black Sails
The upcoming Starz-original series Black Sails hasn’t even debuted yet, but creators Jon Steinberg and Robert Levine have already scored a second season. Many have barely –if ever – heard of the drama, but it was such a hit at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, Starz immediately renewed the show. What’s all the buzz about?

Executive produced by Michael Bay, Black Sails tells the story of Capt. Flint and his crew – including a young John Silver, played by Luke Arnold– 20 years before the action in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” According to the series’ official website, in 1719 the former British colony New Providence Island is under the control of pirates, including the formidable Capt. Flint, played by Toby Stephens. But when the British Navy returns to New Providence Island, determined to destroy Flint and his crew, the pirate captain joins forces with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of a local smuggler and played by Hannah New.

Over the course of the series, Flint’s fight to reclaim his home and ensure the survival of his crew will expose a more sensitive pirate, one who is “driven by deep, complicated, even romantic motives.” Meanwhile, he must fight rival captains, Eleanor’s father and even young Silver, a newly-recruited sailor who is always undermining his captain.

The star of “Black Sails” is Toby Stephens as Flint, the Captain of the Walrus and the most-feared pirate in the West Indies. Stephens, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, has appeared in several television programs, including the BBC’s Robin Hood, The Queen’s Sister, Waking the Dead and Poirot, as well as films such as Die Another Day and The Great Gatsby. His claim to fame, however, has come from his roles on stage in productions at London’s West End as well as Broadway.

Hannah New plays the beautiful Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the richest smuggler in the Bahamas. In fact, he leaves Eleanor to deal with the pirates as she operates the Nassau tavern she owns. New has performed since the age of 4 when she insisted she attend ballet school. Following her first American role as a lead in “Shelter,” New scored the role of “Leila” in the upcoming Walt Disney picture “Maleficent,” starring Angelina Jolie.

The legendary John Silver is played by Luke Arnold. The Australian actor is considered a rising star thanks to several starring roles on Australian television. Arnold portrays the young Silver as a born opportunist who resents authority, which of course instigates conflict with his captain.

Although the first season of Black Sails –premiering Jan. 25 – includes a mere eight episodes, any series good enough to land an encore before its premiere episode is bound to be entertainment worth of a Starz subscription.

'Black Sails': See the awesome opening credits with theme from 'Walking Dead' composer -- EXCLUSIVE


Black-Sails.jpg
Starz’ upcoming pirate drama Black Sails has a must-see opening credits sequence with a rousing theme from famed Battlestar Galactica and Walking Dead composer Bear McCreary. Gorgeous, cool, and thematically on target, these credits are like a haunting dream you might have after touring a sculpture museum and hitting Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride on the same day. And that theme! Arguably McCreary’s best, and that’s saying quite a bit (fun fact: the instrument he’s playing is called a hurdy gurdy). The last opening sequence that got us this excited was for HBO’s Game of Thrones, which won the 2011 Emmy for best credits (yes, there is such a thing; the Academy calls it “main title design”). Check out the opening below. Play it full screen, volume up. The sequence starts slow and subtle … then gets interesting. Black Sails premieres Jan. 25 on Starz.


Black Sails - Episode 1.01 - Episode 1.05 - Titles and Synopsis

Episode 1.01 - I
Pirate Capt. Flint faces a mutiny from his own crew; John Silver hides something of great value; Eleanor keeps order on New Providence as the Royal Navy grows stronger.

Episode 1.02 - II
Flint reveals a thief on his crew; Silver and Max hide in a brothel; Eleanor faces a difficult choice.

Episode 1.03 - III
Flint and Gates seek additional help in their search for the Urca d'Lima; Silver and Billy tackle a morale problem; Eleanor is impressed by Vane; Gates is promoted.

Episode 1.04 - IV
The Walrus crew suffers a disastrous undertaking; Flint receives a warning about Billy; Eleanor turns to her father for help; Vane is visited by a figure from his past.

Episode 1.05 - V
Flint and the Walrus crew play a chess match; Richard forces Eleanor's hand; Rackham makes a career change; Bonny confesses.


You have read this article Starz' Black Sails with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/black-sails-s1-darkhorse-among-new-tv.html. Thanks!

Video: Compilation Of The Most Hilarious 2013 News Bloopers

Video: Watch This Compilation Of The Most Hilarious News Bloopers Of 2013!

Posted on Shock Mansion
2013 was filled with incredible news bloopers. This massive compilations reminds us why the internet was invented, to order pizza without having to make a call and watching news blooper reel.



You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/video-compilation-of-most-hilarious.html. Thanks!

NSFW Character Portraits From 'Nymphomaniac'

Check Out NSFW Character Portraits and New Images From Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac'

by Kevin Jagernauth
Fifty shades of what? While Hollywood will spend the next year attempting to convince everyone just how hot their adaptation of the mommy porn book will be, Lars von Trier has gone ahead and pushed, ripped, burned and completely destroyed the kinky envelope with his two-part "Nymphomaniac." And with the movie rolling out abroad, the teasing continues as we get ready to experience the epic stateside.
First, in case you missed it, there was a brand new clip that dropped on Christmas Day that featured a flaccid penis, because obviously. And continuing in that NSFW vibe are a batch of new character portraits, which feature a few of the players topless, along with an array of new snaps that have a bit more clothes on. And while worldwide, distributors are priming cinemas for the theatrical cut of the two-part movie, intrigue is already building around the director's cut with part one slated for the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Check out the pics below. "Nymphomaniac: Part One" opens in theaters on March 21, 2014, and will be available On Demand starting March 6, 2014. "Nymphomaniac: Part Two" will open in theaters on April 18, 2014 and will be available On Demand as of April 3, 2014.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/nsfw-character-portraits-from.html. Thanks!

True Blood [S7] Exclusive: Luke Grimes Exits, Role Will Be Recast

True Blood Exclusive: Luke Grimes Exits Prior to Seventh and Final Season, Role Will Be Recast

Luke Grimes Leaving True Blood 
True Blood‘s upcoming seventh and final season has already claimed its first victim.

Luke Grimes, who joined the HBO hit in Season 6 as Jessica’s (Deborah Ann Woll) brooding, soulful vamp-camp lover James, has unexpectedly left the series, TVLine has learned exclusively.

When reached for comment, an HBO spokesperson confirmed Grimes’ exit, saying, “The role of James is being recast due to the creative direction of the character.”

Grimes’ rep declined to comment, but a source close to the Brothers and Sisters alum tells TVLine that the actor asked to be let out of his contract after he learned what producers had in store for James in Season 7. “He initially joined the show because he wanted to work with [his Forever co-star] Deborah Ann Woll,” says the insider. “But when he started reading the scripts for Season 7, he was disappointed to learn that they were going in a completely different direction with James.”
Grimes recently joined the Fifty Shades of Grey movie as Christian Grey’s brother.

Production on True Blood‘s farewell season begins next month ahead of a June 2014 premiere.


You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/true-blood-s7-exclusive-luke-grimes.html. Thanks!

SCHISM: Lots of Nudity in a NSFW Trailer

SCHISM: lots of nudity in a NSFW TRAILER

Ashlyn Yennie is topless around at 00:10 ...
Lily Filson full-frontal around 01:45 ...

Nicole LaLiberte topless just past the two-minute mark ...

(And lots more.)
Our hero, Dylan White, leads an easy, if unambitious life: he has a good job that doesn’t require much thought and a girlfriend who wants only so much commitment. The world doesn’t demand much of him and he’s okay with that…until terrifying experiences intrude upon his everyday life. Are they visions, nightmares, glimpses into another world? Forced onto a journey of self-discovery that takes him into the seedy underbelly of crime-ridden New Orleans, Dylan discovers that his life is not what it seems.



You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/schism-lots-of-nudity-in-nsfw-trailer.html. Thanks!

Religion as a Product of Psychotropic Drug Use

Religion as a Product of Psychotropic Drug Use

How much of religious history was influenced by mind-altering substances?
by Richard J. Miller
 
The notion that hallucinogenic drugs played a significant part in the development of religion has been extensively discussed, particularly since the middle of the twentieth century. Various ideas of this type have been collected into what has become known as the entheogen theory. The word entheogen is a neologism coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists (those that study the relationship between people and plants). The literal meaning of entheogen is "that which causes God to be within an individual" and might be considered as a more accurate and academic term for popular terms such as hallucinogen or psychedelic drug. By the term entheogen we understand the use of psychoactive substances for religious or spiritual reasons rather than for purely recreational purposes.

Perhaps one of the first things to consider is whether there is any direct evidence for the entheogenic theory of religion which derives from contemporary science. One famous example that has been widely discussed is the Marsh Chapel experiment. This experiment was run by the Harvard Psilocybin Project in the early 1960s, a research project spearheaded by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. Leary had traveled to Mexico in 1960, where he had been introduced to the effects of hallucinogenic psilocybin-containing mushrooms and was anxious to explore the implications of the drug for psychological research.

On Good Friday 1962, two groups of students received either psilocybin or niacin (a nonhallucinogenic "control" substance) on a double-blind basis prior to the service in Boston University's Marsh Chapel. Following the service nearly the entire group receiving psilocybin reported having had a profound religious experience, compared to just a few in the control group. This result was therefore judged to have supported the entheogenic potential of hallucinogenic drug use. Interestingly, the experiment has subsequently been repeated under somewhat different and arguably better controlled circumstances and the results were substantially the same.
***
It may be easy for some to accept the idea that entheogenic substances played a role in the genesis of religion. However, when we move from generalities to specifics we are on less firm ground. There has been a great deal of speculation concerning the actual identity of drugs used for religious purposes in the ancient world. For example, what is the true identity of the drug soma used by the gods in the ancient Hindu Vedas? Or the identity of nepenthe, the "drug of forgetfulness" mentioned in The Odyssey? Although it is impossible to answer such questions in a definitive scientific sense, one can speculate about the various possibilities.

For example, consider the work of R. Gordon Wasson and the story of Amanita muscaria, the "fly agaric"—certainly the world's most famous mushroom. Wasson made several journeys to Mexico to research the Mazatec people and write about the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in their ancient rituals, but his experiences there led him to tackle a different subject—the identity of the drug soma.
To understand the significance of soma one must consider some of the oldest religious texts known to man. These are the ancient Vedas, Sanskrit texts that represent the oldest Hindu scriptures. The most ancient of these texts—the Rigveda, a collection of over a thousand hymns—was compiled in northern India around 1500 BC. A parallel but slightly later development in ancient Persia was the composition of the religious texts of Zoroastrianism, the Avesta.

In both the Rigveda and the Avesta there is frequent mention of soma (or haoma in the Avesta). In these episodes soma is described as a plant from which a drink or potion could be produced that was consumed by the gods, giving them fantastic powers which aided them in their supernatural feats. People who understood the identity of the plant soma could use it to empower themselves and to communicate more effectively with the deities.
Consider the following from the Rigveda:
We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the
Gods discovered.
Now what may foeman's malice do to harm us? What, O Immortal, mortal man's deception?
Or:
Heaven above does not equal one half of me.
Have I been drinking Soma?
In my glory I have passed beyond earth and sky.
Have I been drinking Soma?
I will pick up the earth and put it here or there.
Have I been drinking Soma?
But what actually was soma? There were suggestions that it was ephedra or possibly cannabis, but Gordon Wasson concluded that it was Amanita muscariaAmanita muscaria or the "fly agaric" is a large mushroom that is instantly recognizable. This is due to its strikingly attractive appearance and its wide use in popular culture. It has often appeared in animated films (such as the Nutcracker scene in Fantasia, or in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), as well as being used in numerous types of kitschy household products and for illustrations in children's stories.

There are numerous details provided in the Rigveda suggesting how soma was prepared and used, which Wasson interpreted as indicating that Amanita muscaria was the true source of the drug. However, the most interesting and influential evidence that he considered originates from reports concerning the use of Amanita muscaria in the eighteenth century. In particular, in 1736 a Swedish colonel named Philip Johan von Strahlenberg published an account of the behavior of the Koryak people living in the Kamchatka region of Siberia. Von Strahlenberg had fought in the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia, was captured by the Russians, and was incarcerated for twelve years.

Among other things he described the use of Amanita muscaria as an intoxicant by the local people. He also noted the following unusual behavior: "The poorer Sort, who cannot afford to lay in a Store of these Mushrooms, post themselves, on these Ocassions, round the Huts of the Rich, and watch the Opportunity of the Guests coming down to make Water; And then hold a Wooden Bowl to receive the Urine, which they drink off greedily, as having still some Virtue of the Mushroom in it, and by this way they also get Drunk."

Von Strahlenberg's observations on urine drinking and other behaviors were considered extremely sensational when they were published in Stockholm and soon thereafter in other parts of Europe. Indeed, they were used to satirical effect in the writings of the English playwright and novelist Oliver Goldsmith who imagined the consequences of introducing such habits into London society. The use of Amanita muscaria by numerous Siberian tribes, as well as their habit of urine drinking to conserve the mushrooms' effects, was subsequently confirmed by other numerous travelers over the years.
Several 18th-and-19th-century reports described the use of Amanita muscaria by different Siberian tribes, and particularly by witch doctors or shamans who used it to achieve "an exalted state to be able to talk to the gods." Interestingly, it was observed that the drinking of drug-containing urine could continue for up to five cycles passing from one individual to another before the urine lost its capacity for intoxication. This was apparently often done because of the relative scarcity of the mushroom, and so preserving its hallucinogenic properties in this way had important practical benefits.

The use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, presumably Amanita muscaria, by the inhabitants of Siberia appears to be a very ancient practice. This is suggested by the discovery of several Stone or Bronze Age rock carvings (petroglyphs) in 1967 in northern Siberia near the Arctic Ocean. These seem to represent mushrooms and women with mushrooms growing out of their heads. This is an area inhabited by the Chukchi people, who were one of the subjects of the 18th-and 19th-century reports on Siberian mushroom use, so it may be supposed that they had used mushrooms continuously over many years. Indeed, the use of Amanita muscaria for its hallucinogenic actions continues in Siberia to this day, in spite of attempts by the previous communist government to stamp it out by resorting to measures such as dropping shamans out of helicopters.
 
The precise psychological effects produced by Amanita muscaria are reported to vary a great deal depending on the individual and the social context. However, one interesting property noted in these early reports was a tendency to disturb the scale of visual perceptions so that a tiny crack in the ground might appear like a giant chasm. In particular, this was noted by the British mycologist and writer Mordecai Cubitt Cooke. Although he was responsible for writing books with riveting titles such as Rust, Smut, Mildew and Mold, Cooke also wrote one of the earliest books on psychotropic drugs, The Seven Sisters of Sleep, in which he described some of the properties of tobacco, opium, hashish, betel, coca, belladonna, and the fly agaric. Such books and observations were widely read and discussed in Victorian society. One story is that the book was read by the Reverend Charles Dodgson—better known to the world as Lewis Carroll—and so appeared as the mushroom which Alice could eat to alter her size at will in Alice in Wonderland.
***
The influence of Wasson’s writing can be seen in the subsequent development of an entire sub-genre of entheogenic literature, much of which has little to recommend it from a scholarly point of view. The idea is that if Amanita muscaria is identical with soma, which had a strong influence on the development of Hinduism, then why not every other religion as well?

Pride of place here goes to John Marco Allegro's 1970 publication, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. Allegro considered the possibility that ancient peoples would have been particularly concerned with two things—procreation and the supply of food. He suggested that they may have viewed rain as a type of heavenly semen that then impregnated the earth, allowing the growth of crops and the success of the harvest. Plants absorbed this holy semen—and some plants more than others. Amanita muscaria was such a plant that, when consumed, allowed a person to commune more closely with God.

Allegro also suggested that the information concerning the use of Amanita muscaria as a religious fertility sacrament was subject to great secrecy, the provenance of a priestly sect. He speculated that these practices developed very early on in human history, even prior to the time when writing first came into existence during the ancient Sumerian civilization. He further suggested that the existence of the mushroom was secretly encoded in the use of particular Sumerian word roots.

This secret encoding of the mushroom fertility cult down through the ages eventually led to the development of the concept of Jesus to encapsulate the identity of Amanita muscaria around the time of the sacking of the second temple by the Romans. Thus, according to Allegro, Jesus never actually existed. He purported to demonstrate, using philological analysis of the structure of the ancient Sumerian language, that the name Jesus actually meant something along the lines of "semen" and that Christ meant something like "giant erect mushroom penis." According to Allegro, the Bible (and the New Testament in particular) is really just a series of myths that describe the secrets of the Amanita muscaria fertility cult rather than real people.

However, as fate would have it the stories caught on in a big way and their mythical origins were forgotten. The "Jesus myth" rapidly spread and became Christianity. Although Allegro's reasoning was mostly philological, he did occasionally refer to the other types of evidence such as the famous fresco in the Abbaye de Plaincourault in France that appears to show Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the serpent coiled around a giant Amanita muscaria. It was reasoned that this fresco, painted around 1290, gives credence to the idea that the secret mushroom fertility cult was still in existence in the Middle Ages.

Allegro's hypotheses were very interesting and his arguments were certainly consistent. However, they were not well received. Many Christians took exception to the fact that he believed that Jesus never existed and was really just a code word for a giant phallus-shaped magic mushroom. Allegro was generally excoriated in the press and in many academic circles. Nevertheless, his work did strike a chord with some individuals and many subsequent publications have endeavored to describe the role of Amanita muscaria in the genesis of virtually every religion known to man.
 


This post is adapted from Drugs: The Science and Culture of Psychotropic Drugs.




You have read this article with the title December 2013. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/religion-as-product-of-psychotropic.html. Thanks!