Sex is FREE!

So I like forensic pathology shows and movies. I started watching CHiPs when I was 8 or 9 but then discovered Hawaii 5-0. It was on much later but had bloody murder in it! At the time however, I did not dare watch Quincy because I thought I would pass out like the guy in the opening credits. Those shows may not have been appropriate for tweens but they were light fare compared to today’s gore and sex fest television. I grew up in an insular French-Canadian community (Beauport, Québec) watching US tv shows made for adults. I had access to knowledge and ideas that would only filter down to my community 2-3 years later if ever. It would be “impossible” for a teenage girl in the early 80’s to be well-read (TIMES magazine), informed (20/20) and smart so I had to endure the stigma of being weird all my adolescence. To some degree I still do because I have candor on life and can discuss most anything without getting overly emotional about it like crime and criminals.

So back to the cop shows, an enduring obsession for decades… The whole idea of reverse engineering a violent crime based on the scene is really fascinating to me especially when there is nobody to tell the tale. I watch CSI (the original) and miss the days when the writers had a dart board of perversions in their office and would randomly select a kink to fabricate a gory murder scenario (okay I only SUSPECT that’s how they managed the first 4-5 year’s plots.) I can’t say I would be good at the science that goes into forensics (especially chemistry and physics) but I always figure out the motives and psychological machinations of the murderer early on in the plot.

In the past month I have found following, documenting and analyzing a very active criminal in Montreal very interesting. After speaking with his little brother who admitted his older sibling was “like that” for about 11 years, I told him that I had testimony of his actions as young as 8 years old… and that kind of surprised him proving that EVERYONE who knows that man is obfuscated by his lies even his mom, dad and little brother. This finally proves my theory that he doesn’t actually exist in the same sense that WE do. In the end when you put his whole story together it becomes somewhat comical, maybe not to his countless past and future victims but to the rest of the world who can see that a life of crime is useless, pathetic and lonely.

In the movie Pathology we follow a rag tag of competitive forensic pathologists who enjoy discussing the perfect murder, amongst other questionable activities. I don’t believe there is such a thing; today anyway. I believe “crime solving professionals” are not as well equipped in time, money and equipment as TV shows make us believe.

I enjoyed this movie because it is mostly set in medical examiner labs (complete with a sea of dead bodies in various stages of examination.) It has long medical terms I’ve never heard before. I find that much more interesting than watching movies that follow flamboyant serial killers with inexplicable pathologies on their pre-meditated killing spree… But don’t think Pathology doesn’t have any of those!

Pathology is a very gory and dark film that leaves me with one question: “Why would a fine doctor like Grey (Ventimiglia) play along?”

Regina Lynn talks about descriptive porn for the blind in Sex Drive this week. The title made me chuckle but the article is interesting. And to think it is a non-profit that is making porn accessible to the blind. Personally I often turn the sound off because porn actors cannot keep themselves from saying mean, dumb and misogynistic things and it ruins the mood
I listened to one of the reviews which is basically a woman reviewer describing what she sees in a gallery on one of the sites. The review is quite professional and pleasant.

I watched this interesting documentary from the BBC about the era of Maisons-closes in Paris at the beginning of the century. There are interviews with historians, collectors and former sex workers. There are interesting stories of the madams, girls and artists who frequented the brothels. The documentary is filmed in former brothels, with interviews with the homeowners who inherited these beautiful richly decorated homes.

(I guess that includes me if I’m talking about it…)

I think that yesterday was the last day I will ever care to stop by PerezHilton. Perez posted a picture of Vanessa Hudgens with her mom and little sister with the headline “My sister is a whore”. Such postings are truly disrespectful to Vanessa and her family. She is a young actress who has chosen to act in family films for Disney and seems like an all around good person. She is certainly not doing anything to attract attention to herself. I had excused his inappropriate comments and annoying compulsion for drawing penises on celebrity photos to the fact that he is a sheltered Hollywood fag who doesn’t know any better but this last comment tells me he may lack a soul.

My daughter is a fan of Hudgens and will likely hear of the nudie pic scandal at some point. I do not mind explaining to her that when people take naked photos of themselves, they are usually embarrassed by it down the road. I am still thinking about what I will say to her actually because I have to try to see it the way she will (if she ever does.)

When I was 10 or 11 I found pictures of my mom naked and giving some dude a blowjob. I thought that was icky icky poo! It should have kept me from taking topless pictures of myself when I was a teen, at a Kmart photo booth no less. I have never cared to videotape myself having sex. I hope nobody else has but I fail to see how anybody would care to see that.

What Vanessa did seems to be common among today’s teens. Most have cell phones with cameras. I have never dolled up my daughter, I rarely take posed pictures of her and never keep a webcam on the computer… I tend to think that doing that will establish an expectation of privacy in my daughter. But habits change and the cell phone she will have in 5-6 years will inevitably transmit video. I do spend quite a bit of time thinking about how I can raise a confident girl who will not subscribe to the idea that her purpose in life is to be a Bratz doll.

Something doesn’t change however: Taking revealing pictures of one’s self invites people (i.e. boys mostly) to make dumb comments.

I read both the comments on PerezHilton and Vanessa’s MySpace on the day of the picture was confirmed as authentic. One comment that I saw a dozen times made me laugh. Why do teenage boys feel they must tell Vanessa to shave her pubes? When a guy brings to my attention the topic of going “bare down there” he is telling me that he is ignorant. He is telling me that he has seen so much porn that he thinks girls are genetically modified to never grow hair anywhere. He is telling me that he has only seen strippers naked in person. He is telling that maybe, if he is lucky enough, he has only ever ‘dated’ a sex worker. These are the women who do go bare down there because it is expected in their job. Women who aspire to work in the sex industry or become decorative people may have breast implants and often schedule a Brazilian wax every six weeks… The rest of us don’t really give a fuck what you think.

When I first saw Vanessa’s picture I voted on ‘No, it looks like someone else’ and I was glad that her team came forward and immediately set the record straight. The media is very harsh on actresses for every little things that they do, or don’t do… but rarely vilify actors who live a womanizing, drug and booze lifestyle. I have followed gossip about the lives of celebrities for 20 years and I am starting to think that Hollywood is Hell.

After talking to people 25-45 about movies or reading blogs I realized that there are those who like Ben Affleck and those who prefer Matt Damon. But what about me? I have an uncontrollable desire to watch Casey Affleck!!! Why can’t I get more Casey? This guy is über-tight with the crème-de-la-crème in Hollywood and I have to wait years between Oceans so I can enjoy his charming screen presence. To be fair, he will also co-star in Gone, Baby, Gone with Morgan Freeman, coming out this fall. But until then I have to wait two months for Ocean’s 13. Below is another project coming up in September The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.