Q: Dear Rachel & Claire,

I have a serious question about rimming. My sweetheart and I love it and want to do it all the time. If we don't use a barrier, are we going to give each other urinary tract infections? We haven't so far....

....read the rest of this wise advice column at Babeland

   Los Angeles




Top Winners of Project Sex Toy Contest Celebrated at Babeland

Duette, Via Multi-Stim Vibe, and Made To Measure Pleasure Respectively Garner 1st, 2nd & 3rd Prizes; Octopussey Scores People's Choice Award

Los Angeles, CA -- A diverse panel of "sex-perts" convened at the recently opened Babeland on Melrose last week to judge the finalists in the Babeland Project Sex Toy design contest. Cash prizes, gift certificates and goodie bags filled with over $500 worth of sensual toys were presented to First, Second and Third Place winners.

With DJs Confucius and Bunny of Rabbit In The Moon plying their craft on the turntables, a stylish crowd of industry-ites and Angelenos bopped through the uber-mod boutique and browsed its impressive selection of quality erotic toys, films, books, and a new line of sensual products called Babeland Body, while the jurors toted up their calculations on the ten designs in the final round of the international competition. Mixologists from event sponsor Smirnoff offered special Babe-a-lini cocktails to help guests beat the heat, while catering by Food Fetish provided noshables to those who managed to also work up an appetite while perusing the sexy stock-in-trade.

Babeland co-founder Rachel Venning then introduced her fellow judges: Dr. Jennifer Berman, urologist and an internationally renowned expert and pioneer in the field of female urology and female sexual medicine; Dr. Janet Lever, research scientist and regular contributor to Glamour magazine and MSNBC.com; Christian Trinker, President & CEO, Funfactory USA, Inc., manufacturer of high-end sensual toys; and Sylvie Vaught, Celebrity Stylist, Estilo Salon.

Duette, an elegant, finger ring-shaped design for the discreetly passionate, took top honors; the Via Multi-Stim Vibe, inspired by the popular rabbit-style vibrators, with a sliding "wave" mechanism in the center, was named second place winner; Made to Measure Pleasure, not a sex toy per se, but rather a customizable online ordering system allowing shoppers to select the size, shape, and material that suits them best, won third prize. The Octopussey, outfitted with eight arms that can be folded, bent or connected in numerous directions for endless erotic experimentation, was named the People's Choice award, based on customer voting on the Babeland website prior to the final competition.

Venning, who touted the creativity and ingenuity of the scores of designs originally submitted, explained that the criteria for evaluating them included marketability, originality, functionality, aesthetics, and innovation.

In addition to the winners' bags of toys, gift bags were provided for judges and attendees alike. Event sponsors Doc Johnson, Fun Factory, Vibratex, Vixen Creations, Sportsheets, Big Tease Toys, D.A.V.E., and Tantus all contributed to the tremendous assortment of products.

in Clean Sheets






"Although there's plenty of tragedy in these dichotomies and conflicts, Breakfast on Pluto -- unlike The Crying Game -- has a breathless innocence, a comedic touch, and an uplifting tone that triumphs over the depressingly bleak and brutal realism of the film. The bouncy soundtrack, the girlie-magazine-like headlines, the Disney-like chorus of songbirds, the 18th Century Picaresque pacing, all convey a sense of ironic distance, just as the very wisest female impersonators do on stage..."

Read the rest in Joy St. James' review of the movie Breakfast on Pluto.

Here's an interesting column about attending a G-spot workshop, at which 13 women discuss the G-spot's location, function, teasing, and what the interest is all about!

San Francisco


Check out Violet Blue's podcast Open Source Sex, with Thomas Roche talking about noir erotica, necrophilia, tits & gunpower, and other interesting subjects.

The AIDS monument in Durban, South Africa











The Age of AIDS, a four-hour two- night (Tuesday and Wednesday) report will air on Frontline on the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of the disease.

Obviously, this is the type of program you'll never find on commercial television, and The Age of AIDS deserves a larger audience than it will get.

Let's start with the startling figures gathered by Frontline producers: Since the first cases were diagnosed in June 1981, roughly 70 million people have been infected with the virus and 22 million have died of AIDS.

An unwelcome prediction: Over the next decade, an estimated 50 million more people around the world will contract HIV, and many millions will die.

While the four hours are full of frightening statistics of that nature, the investigation regularly plays like a well-crafted medical suspense drama, mainly through the use of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of film and video and a wide variety of interviews...

Read the rest here.

on the tube


















Your Short Sheets editor here has been slipping a bit of late, blaming it completely on one hot sexy guy who's been on television every Tuesday night for a while. Yes, that would be the grey-haired dancing guy, the guy with the Elvis-eyes, the Taylor-mania that strikes deep in the... heart.... of millions of women - or as Susie Santiago wrote a few weeks back in Clean Sheets, "In my dream it's a soul thing -- it ain't no groove thing, it ain't no country twang, it's a simple refrain. The blues can come out to play -- jazz can even leave her number -- but it's a soul thing that's creeping in my bedroom and consuming my fantasies...."

Read the rest here in Clean Sheets, take a look at a couple of the videos below if you haven't seen them...and then be sure to vote in the semi-finals of American Idol on Tuesday night!

Videos

In the Ghetto

Jailhouse Rock

Something

Play That Funky Music

in Clean Sheets this week



The idea intrigued me -- could I find my G-spot? Would I know it when I saw it? And would it really offer a pot of orgasms -- and possibly even an ejaculation? -- at the end of the rainbow? Since I didn't have a map, and hadn't been lucky enough to find an experienced guide to show me the way, I decided to turn to the G-Spot Center, an online G-spot resource from Babeland, to help me get started.

This is what I learned from the Web site: First off, unlike Bigfoot, the G-spot really has been proven to exist. Named after sex researcher Ernst Grafenberg, the G-spot is a super sensitive spongy tissue that wraps around the urethra. When aroused, the G-spot swells and fills with fluid, making it easy to find with your fingers. And, joy of all joys, G-spot stimulation really can and does give lots of women orgasms...

Read the rest in Clean Sheets

in Clean Sheets this week








I can't believe I have never heard of this woman before. At sixty-seven she has more gravity than Venus. And I wouldn't reveal her age without giving up my own. I am forty-four on this night. Not exactly elderly, but I am past the point of lifting my top at rock concerts. I am hung up on the looping rhythm section, orbiting the living room but unable to spin away from the screen, afraid I'll miss something that will never air again. I want to put in a tape and press record, but I don't want to stop and turn on the lights. I am thinking of Janet Jackson's "costume malfunction" -- how she had the effrontery to perform such an act, but lacked the backbone to admit it was choreographed.

I am undoing buttons when Etta throws out a line that Randy Newman surely never wrote.

"The older the berry, the sweeter the juice."

Yes. I draw a sharp breath and close my eyes.

"We know! We know!" Etta shouts.

I can almost hear the soft settling of my body as the grind of the work week falls away. I open my top, ease the flannel off my shoulders, and sink into my own grind as the song comes down around me like autumn leaves...

Read the rest in Sugar On the Floor: Etta James Plays Austin City Limits

Bodypainting for Peace

Better than any street protest! -- see more bodypainting at Dr. Susan Block's Web site.

"More people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance. They're questioning his character now, and they no longer consider him a strong leader on terrorism. Apparently there's a little more to this whole presidency thing than just not getting blown."

           ---Bill Maher

in Clean Sheets








"The floating world was the heart of Japanese literary and artistic culture for three centuries, the only place where the Japanese could really escape from a politically repressive society. Even today, it remains a sort of parallel universe where a man who is burdened with work responsibility by day can relax and be indulged, like a child.

That's another point Westerners tend to overlook, probably because our culture has tried its best to separate the maternal and sexual natures of women, but the dynamic between a bar owner /hostess /professional dispenser of handjobs and her client very often has strong whiff of mom. While fresh, young faces and bodies are always in demand, a skilled older woman can be even more appreciated by the connoisseur (and in fact, most geisha, especially today, are middle-aged)..."

Read the rest of Susie Bright's interview with Donna Storey, Memoir from The Floating World in Clean Sheets this week.

in Clean Sheets








"'Being with a transsexual is not gay, because the transsexual's femininity provokes the initial attraction. It is not a man's cock; it is a woman's cock,' proclaims a self-described '43-year-old married man with two great kids.' Certainly, from my own transsexual point of view, he is the kind of man I find most attractive -- legitimizing me as a woman, since he prefers to fuck me rather than the real cunt back home. Indeed, most of the men I 'date' -- a large enough sample, I'm sure, to be statistically valid -- have been married straight guys....."

Read the rest of Joy James' provocative article, I Am Desired, Therefore I Am in Clean Sheets this week.

Here's an interesting site with beautiful fine art nudes by photographer Mike Massee, including this lovely set of the 8-months-pregnant model named Kim.

To celebrate the February rustle of eros in the air, the beautiful zine Poems Niederngasse presents a special erotic supplement full of sexy poetry, wherein twenty-two poets penetrate and explore the world of the erotic -- its "sensual beginnings and fluid endings, its low-pitched growls, mid-thigh caresses, and upper hand jobs."

It's that time of year again, V-Day for lovers and partners and everyone in between. Two of Clean Sheets' favorite sponsors have sexy gift specials going on:

Valentine's Special: Between now and February 15, 2006 order any two SoundsErotic CDs, get the third one FREE by entering coupon code: Valentine2006. SoundsErotic has also just added Penthouse Audio to their selections, to bring you some new hot and wild stories.

---

Babeland is offering free shipping on orders over $80 for V-Day, and dozens of recommendations for gifts, including a Sex Toys 101 Gift Kit to spice up your love life.

When you hear even Jay Leno joking about the Justice Department trying to subpoena your Google search records (and Google protesting it, bless their do-no-evil hearts), it's time to take action -- please join the ACLU, today. You can join for as little as five bucks, but hopefully can contribute more than that on a regular basis. The ACLU is quietly fighting the good fight for your civil liberties, including this absurd COPA (Child Online Protection Act) ongoing fight. The plantiffs trying to stop it include the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Salon.com, ObGyn.net, Philadelphia Gay News, and the Internet Content Coalition. (Founding members of the now-defunct Internet Content Coalition included CNET Networks (publisher of News.com), Adobe, Reuters New Media, Sony Online and the New York Times.)

Most people are outraged by this Google news; most people don't really know what to do about it. But as a reader of Clean Sheets, we'll tell you where to start -- please support freedom of speech and your privacy today by joining the ACLU.

And here are the incredible facts about what this Google subpoena is all about, including the fact that others like AOL and Yahoo have already complied.

Here it is, just what you may (not) have been waiting for -- the Talking Head, the world's first audio-enhanced, state of the art vibrator that talks to you during the action. You can record your own voice ("God, I'm hot"), your lover's voice, or download voices from anonymous strangers to fulfill your most lustful ambitions, they say. Inquiring minds here are wondering, and can't wait to find out -- is it truly audible when it's deep inside, or does it only whisper its sweet dirty nothings to you while on a rest?

in Clean Sheets




"People continue to lump sexual, romantic, and even platonic feelings together under "sexual" orientation, when the reality is that each of the three is an independent variable. Males, in particular, have no problem separating sex from romance. For example, when a straight male says, "I'm not gay. I just like cocks in my mouth," what he means is that he is heteroromantic (straight in the romantic sense)...."

Read the rest of Antonio Galarza's article on new ways of thinking about sexual orientation in Clean Sheets this week.

the future?








"More money is being spent today on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer's research. So in the very near future there should be a large elderly population with impressive breasts and magnificent erections, but no recollection of what to do with them."

                        --Sally Feldman, New Humanist