Nanette Gonzales

After six years in porn, Crissy Moran is helping women heal from "sexual brokenness."

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Crissy Moran holds a pair of drumsticks, her long, slender fingers clanking off-rhythm as she looks up at a monitor above, following along to the directions of Guitar Hero.

Eyes smoky, lips pouty and dark brown hair flowing over her shoulders, Moran, flanked by an all-girl band, shreds "With or Without You" on a dimly lit stage in a bar tucked deep in the Valley. The lead singer, blonde and doe-eyed, hits every note -- off-key. It's so bad that members of the audience join in out of sympathy. But Moran doesn't seem to notice, her gaze trailing off in space as if she's dreaming.

The crowd of a half-dozen at the bar doesn't know what to make of the group's music, FYI, but patrons are enraptured by the beautiful disaster onstage. A few boos are mixed in with catcalls, and then silence.

Moran and her "bitches," as the bar's MC repeats on the mic, are here for her birthday. Her 26th, her girlfriends joke, taking their seats to down Cadillac margaritas and munch onion rings. Rotating in their atmosphere, a steady stream of hanger-on Casanovas crash like asteroids. She looks familiar, they say.

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This guy got away with some crazy shit.

​Porn and experimental cinema. Natural bedfellows. Unfortunately, at a certain point the porn world starting cranking out a standard set of scenes for all occasions. But before porn was an industry, notorious experimental filmmaker Fred Halsted got away with making some crazy shit in the name of art and sex.

So says filmmaker and Halsted admirer William E. Jones, author of the just-released biography Halsted Plays Himself. Tonight at Human Resources, in addition to signing his book, Jones is hosting a screening of Halsted's notorious 1972 L.A. Plays Itself.

After watching the film when it was screened in New York in the 1970s, the eccentric artist Salvador Dalí reportedly is quoted as muttering "new information for me." Have you seen some of Dalí's work? Need I say more? You might learn something new yourself.

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Actors on the set of the live action Simpsons porn parody...really.

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What's the old adage? "If it exists, someone's made porn out of it." I suppose it's not really an old adage...but I've been told it's The 34th Rule of the Internet.

Recent controversy about condom use in The Industry has cast another dark cloud over Porn Valley, as highlighted in LA Weekly's cover story this week. This controversy comes on the heels of an, er, explosion of pornographic light-heartedness in the form of porn parody -- a development that for better or for worse seems to be making more than a few folks smile. For those of you out of the loop, there's a parody of almost everything you can think of -- and some you'd rather not.

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Miles Actually

Dixie De La Tour

​ "I can't tell a story without the word 'fuck' in it. I can't tell a story without saying 'ass rape,'" says Dixie De La Tour, hostess of Bawdy Storytelling, a monthly San Francisco show that had its first L.A. outing at the downtown Brewery arts complex Saturday night.

Fortunately, De La Tour is in good company. She brought down a crack team of fellow perverts to initiate the show's Los Angeles incarnation and regale the audience with ribald tales of one-nighters, group sex, tantra, porn stars and sex changes.

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Paul T. Bradley

Nicki Hunter and her superfan: a night's expectations achieved.

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We'll get to (Fake) Bono in a minute.

Ok, you know that one where the librarian loses the glasses and becomes the master of all things sexual? All it takes is a change in music and a little lighting...and voila! Seymour becomes...wait...Seymour? Yeah, Seymour. Seymour Satin is the former corporate librarian turned kingpin behind the world famous Porn Star Karaoke.

For the uninitiated, every Tuesday night at Sardo's in Burbank, porn industry veteran and starlet alike gathers to unwind with drinks and karaoke. Yes, the favorite actors, actresses, directors, and producers behind your favorite "private browsing" sessions all have to unwind after a full day's work, too.

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