Porn | Mr. Pink's Blog - Part 152

Bitcoin vs Goat

Having outlined the various adult entertainment companies now accepting payment via controversial cryptocurrency Bitcoin in a previous missive, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve covered the less hilarious parts of the discussion and we can now turn our attention to goats.

In a move that surprised everyone (except perhaps those lifelong goat herders who’ve spent hours upon hours attempting to elucidate their fellow man as to the appeal of Capra aegagrus hircus, the domestic goat), Zero Tolerance announced that it would not be joining the ranks of Bitcoin-adopting adult websites and, in fact, that it was far more likely to start taking and making payments in horned livestock than in any faddish cryptocurrency. And it kinda makes sense, too. After all, with the largest Bitcoin market offline (Silk Road).

As Zero Tolerance’s Michael Mpahlca declared in his pseudo-manifesto, “We have ‘Zero Tolerance’ for make-believe money that spikes or craters in value on an hourly basis. On the other hand, goats have proven to have real value for centuries and can easily be traded for other goods or services in just about every region of the world.” (So, goats rule in Vietnam then?) Mpahlca continued his missive: “When you look at the relevant livestock pricing index you can also quickly see that the goat market, unlike Bitcoins, moves for intelligible reasons grounded in logical and trackable analytics – something all prudent online adult companies take seriously in our planning.”

While the usefulness, even necessity of goats has long been thought to have an impending expiration date, this particular horned livestock has, according to AVN, “remained one of the most efficient methods of clearing fields, providing milk or calming other animals.” Mpahlca confirms ZTOD’s stance on payments made with goats in the final lines of his statement, easing the minds of affiliates and colleagues everywhere. “When someone sends their traffic to ZTOD, they will get paid every penny, euro, or goat they are entitled to – every time – and neither their hard-earned revenue no ours will be subjected to the rampant speculation and market fluctuation that plagues the Bitcoin world.”

Bleat that, Bitcoin!

Our Fading Erotic Heritage

A number of years ago, during one of my numerous and brief jaunts to Sin City, one tall-standing sign caught my attention in a way that the others, overloaded with neon script and flashing lights, did not. “Las Vegas Erotic Heritage Museum,” it read, “SALE: Movies from $1.” As a devoted connoisseur of all things pornographic, I immediately pulled over, parked, and headed inside where I was not only met by a cavalcade of erotic memorabilia, ephemera, and, yes, discounted movies, but by a heavy-set woman (perhaps Mercedes Zavala) intent on showing me “the goods.” Hardly a come-on, thankfully, “the goods” were two shambolic boxes pulled from a rear store room and containing nothing but vintage 8mm and Super8 porn reels. Straight, gay, kink, and softcore – I bought all 40-odd titles for less than fifty bucks and headed back to California with the acquisition of an operating projector firmly planted in the front of my mind.

The reels I purchased, now running somewhat smoothly through a Goodwill-bought projector, provided the audio-visual entertainment for a handful of drunken late-night gatherings and were stored in a spare mini-fridge when not in use. (Why a refrigerator? See my recent blog about film restorers Vinegar Syndrome!) Although I eventually tossed the mini-fridge and sold the reels to a projectionist from San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, memories of my all-too-brief visit to the Erotic Heritage Museum lingered for years until I heard of the museum’s closing this week, apparently due to an unpaid rent dispute with landlord, Déjà Vu strip-club magnate Harry Mohoney who donated the land for museum use back in 2008. Speaking to the Las Vegas Weekly, Mohoney assured visitors that the museum would not be closing its doors for good, saying of his now-former tenants, “They have been asked to vacate the property so that the Erotic Heritage Museum can be given a fresh new look at erotic history and art.”

Museum operations manager Jerry Zientara, however, see things a bit differently, claiming the museum’s collection is under the stewardship of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, the nonprofit organization that opened and has been operating the museum since its inception. “We don’t know when we’ll be loading things out,” he told Las Vegas Weekly earlier this month, “but we do expect to be doing that.” And, true to his word, a call for volunteers to help with removal of exhibits and cleaning of the space came out from the museum’s Facebook account on February 16, followed three days later but this very sad notice:

Vinegar Syndrome to Launch “Netflix of Porn”

As Martin Scorsese works and campaigns for the preservation the most neglected titles in our global cinematic history, so follows Vinegar Syndrome, a Connecticut-based company whose interest in film preservation has a distinctly risque element: it’s vintage porn. Named after a type of celluloid decay that destroys film prints, leaving little but scrap pieces of negative or positive and a distinctly acidic odor, Vinegar Syndrome, which was recently profiled in the New York Times, is a home video company focusing on the erotic, the risque, the exploitation, and the pornographic films of yesteryear.

Having already launched their line of remastered digital, DVD, and Blu-Ray releases (including the monumental dual-format release The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis), Vinegar Syndrome (or Vin Syn to its friends) has spent months readying itself and its fans for a new way to watch vintage porn and erotica in the highest possible quality… instantly.

Skinaflix aims to cut out the middle-man and allow you to view fully restored and remastered erotica classics from the comfort (and privacy) of your own living room. Now inviting users to try the service prior to launch, Skinaflix will soon providing a streaming what the New York Times described as “older X-rated films but geared toward cinephiles.” Whether this service will lead to a rush of competition or fades into irrelevancy sooner than anticipated remains to be seen. So too, thankfully, does a huge and increasing archive of beautifully restored, brilliantly HD-mastered classics like Good Luck Miss Wyckoff, Graduation Day, Sugar Cookies, Last House on Dead End Street, and The Telephone Book. Kudos, Vinegar Syndrome, you surely are doing the Lord’s work.

To see what Vinegar Syndrome and Skinaflix has in store for users, check out this trailer for Vin Syn’s recent restored Blu-Ray release of 1979’s Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff.

Betting On Bitcoin

The number of adult paysites accepting controversial online cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen significantly since Blue Blood became the first to accept membership payments made in Bitcoin back in April of 2013. Joining the ranks of Bitcoin-friendly Blue Blood, sites and companies such as MetArt Network, Score Group, VideosZ, MOFOS (via I Know That Girl), Naughty America, Grooby, and Porn.com (among other sites), as well as online toy store Dallas Novelty and UK escort agency Passion VIP. Clearly Bitcoin is making inroads into the adult entertainment world. And, at least according to Porn.com which saw a post-Bitcoin-adoption 25% sales increase, it has been largely successful. Naughty America CEO and founder, Andreas Hronopolous even looked forward to Bitcoin’s eventual integration into the rest of the porn payment world, telling AVN back in January of this year, “I think it will become an industry-wide thing within 45 to 60 days.” He added (boastfully, but rightly so), “Naughty America really sets the bar for where the industry heads.”

But, as anyone who’s been tracking Bitcoin longer than a few months would know, nothing is stable in the Bitcoin world. Silk Road, the largest online market using Bitcoin as its solely accepted currency, was seized from its deep web servers and its alleged founder and administrator, Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) arrested, charged and indicted on multiple felony counts. This seizure saw Bitcoin values fluctuate wildly for months and although they’ve now settled a bit and appear to be finding alternative trading routes now that the popular Mt. Goix exchange has closed amidst rampant speculation, there’s always the risk that a decentralized currency such as this cannot maintain a baseline value without the rigorous currency control usually handled by governments. And that, my friends, can be dangerous for consumers.

Ok, so clearly I’m not an economist, but what happens when you realize your MOFOS membership (paid in Bitcoin) cost more last week than it would have tomorrow, or when Bitcoin exchanges are brought down by hackers, DDoS attackers, and government bodies seeking complete control over all currency? You think Naughty America’s Bitcoin program will survive another hit to the already unstable cryptocurrency market? What’s the unconventional alternative payment method that’ll move in when Bitcoin falters or falls? Stay tuned to Mr. Pink’s blog for another round of Bit-porn discussion early next week where we’ll hear all about Zero Tolerance’s plan to beat out Bitcoin altogether… with livestock!?