Midnight Sex Talk

EROTIC AWARDS EXHIBITION

If you can't make it on Saturday, there's more.

From 30th August to 24th September you can seen an exhibition of all the finalists in the awards. There will also be three lifetime achievement awards this year, given to Nobuyoshi Araki, Irina Ionesco (who will be exhibiting for the first time in the UK), and Sunset Strip. Alison Lapper receives this year's Outsiders award.

It's at Trolley Gallery, 73a Redchurch Street, London E2 7DJ. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am - 6pm. 30th August - 24th September.

RESONANCE - NEW LINK FOR ONLINE LISTENERS

If you like to listen online to the low-quality mp3 stream, or on dial-up, here it is:

http://icecast.commedia.org.uk:8000/resonance.mp3.m3u

That is all.

THE EROTIC AWARDS ARE HERE AGAIN! SATURDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER

Do I need to explain this unique and fabulous annual event? It's generally known as The Night Of The Senses., but you could also call it 'the Glastonbury of Sex'.

For the first part of the night, you'll get to see the awards ceremony, where we award prizes to those who've contributed to erotic excellence, whether as artists, writers, strippers, sex workers, campaigners - and more! And for rest of it - it's up to you, but there's plenty to do, and plenty of people to do it with, if you feel like it.

It's all in aid of the charity Outsiders. Brief outline here.

You can read more here about the Erotic Awards, and this year's finalists

There are still tickets for the event, available here. Please note: there's been a venue change: it's not at the SE1 club in London Bridge any more - it's at the Renaissance rooms in Vauxhall.

Go on, as I always say, you know you want to...

CURRENT PODCAST - KIDS

I am really late on this one, as it's been out for several weeks! I am the World's Worst Blogger. Ah well...

Actually, I couldn't get into the site for a while back there, as there was some weirdness with Barclays online payments, and my subscription got held up.

Blurb:

After football stories and debates about licensing hours, the next most popular subject in today's news seems to be children; and it's usually yet another crime, either committed by them, or done to them. Anecdotally, if you sit down with a group of people and talk about the worst thing about living in their area, the answer is very likely going to be the children - drugs, vandalism, stealing and violence.

On the other hand, plenty of people are still having children and then subjecting them to awful lives, whether intentionally or not. It's heartbreaking. (Despite all this, anti-abortionists are gaining ground. If they get their way, are they going to commit to looking after all those extra unwanted children?)

So where does this leave sex? If it's not teenage pregnancies (in the UK the highest in Europe), it's the spread of STIs, and, god help us, rapes - of each other, and adults too.

So what's going wrong? Because something is. Something's blocking the flow of information (and understanding about self-respect) between adults and children. Despite all the programmes, articles, books, leaflets and clinics, nothing's changing.

In the studio we've got artist and mother Tracey Moberly, and we spoke to Dr Petra Boynton over the phone.

This show was first broadcast on Sunday 30th January 2005. Midnight Sex Talk is resting for a while, but if you want to drop us a line, or tell us what you'd like to hear more of, you can email us any time at midnightsextalk at gmail dot com.

NEXT PODCAST - SEX MAGICK

Ever riffled through a book, or googled late into the night, to find the perfect spell to catch the person you really, really fancy? And then, after your shopping trip for ingredients, hurried home hunched over a plastic bag containing four candles, a sachet of cloves and a dead mackerel?

Ever wondered if there really could be a way to control others people's desires though magic, and whether Satan is involved? And have we, in the 21st century west, lost our sense of ritual? How many of you, for example, would admit to having made a voodoo doll?

Our guests in the studio were Christine Moon, adventurous priestess-in-training, who just happened to be in town and agreed to come on at the last minute; Marco Lovestar, the hero of the night; and Mystery Borealis, artist, stripper and all round party girl.

During the show, you will hear me make the mistake of saying the moon 'wasn't doing anything very interesting at the moment.' I was rapidly corrected - and I was also wrong. A lot of very strange things happened around this show, before, during, and after, some of which cannot be related here...

This show was first broadcast on Sunday 13th February 2005. Midnight Sex Talk is taking a rest from the studio for a while, but if you want to drop us a line, or tell us what you'd like to hear more of, you can email us any time at midnightsextalk at gmail dot com.

Previous blog posts: here and here.

COME ON ITUNES!

Guess what? We're STILL not in iTunes. Last year's apparent period of anti-sex censorship must have been very short-lived, because countless new sex podcasts have appeared since then. The 'report a concern' button hasn't worked for ages. No idea what's going on, but it ain't right. Requests from Resonance to put us in have met with no replies.

However, we are in fact present. Sort of. Go here and you can find a giant podcast of everything Resonance does, and we're tucked away in there.

Great. Good news for other people though - Piers Gibbon's current excellent Resonance show, Mind The Gap, a round up of the week in news, with lots of tasty guests, got in immediately!

TORTURE GARDEN BALL

God, was it really two weeks ago? Here's a pre-picture anyway, courtesy of Piers Gibbon. Taken by him, that is.

There was a slightly hysterical, touristy feel when we went in. Too many overexcited, barging people being rude to the coat check girls. One twat next to me kept demanding a small piece of sellotape and getting really arsy when she couldn't work out what he was on about. Too many drunk people as well. That level of wastedness just doesn't go with spike heels, three dimensional costumes and lengths of chain just waiting to be hooked on something they shouldn't be hooked on. Actually, there were too many people altogether. We kept thinking we were about to asphyxiate - not out of choice! - and kept having to find quiet, chilly corners to recover in. Oddly enough, having searched high and low, we found that the best place to be was actually the middle of the dancefloor.

All this said, it was a well-organised night, and lots of people made an effort to dress up. I only saw one Jesus this time though.

MORE MST PODCASTS, AND ALEX FITCH ON RESONANCE...

Slack or what! Call this a blog! My excuse - I've been on holiday, and am now buried deep, deep in my book.

Anyway, just to update you, we've got two more podcasts up since I last posted: Sex Toys, with Angel from Sh!, and Sex in the Movies with Alex Fitch and Havana Marking.

Go here for our Resonance archive.

There's more. Alex is doing a Resonance show about film, imreadyformycloseup. Last night's show was about this year's 20th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, which is now on tour nationally. Go to his site, backprojection.com for reviews. Note: the show will be repeated this coming Monday, 15th May, 8.00am BST.

NEXT PODCAST - EASTER ANAL SEX SPECIAL

One of our funniest shows ever is finally podcast, and what better way to celebrate the start of British Summertime than with a thorough exploration of anal sex. From men to women and back again, via pegging, figging and fisting - God knows how we’ve managed to fit it all in! [Note: You'll spot that this is a digested version of what I wrote last time, but hell, nothing wrong with a bit of recycling.]

In the studio we had Tim Fountain, whose seriously interactive one-man show ‘Sex Addict’ was a big hit at Edinburgh and the Royal Court Theatre, and the inimitable Mr Needham joined us by phone.

This one was first broadcast on Sunday 27th March 2005. Read the original blog post here, and the follow-up here. Note: you will find a picture of Al - almost naked!






OTHER RESONANCE SHOWS
Check out the Resonance FM podcast blog for more Resonance shows. There's a new season on right now, including (in near-total contrast to Midnight Sex Talk) Life Before Vinyl, a unique musical odyssey:

When the unbreakable vinyl record hit the market in the 1950s, millions of fragile scratchy 78s were consigned to the dustbin or the junk pile - and with them went three generations of recorded music.

Although these records still turn up in specialist shops and at record fairs, the means of playing them has also been consigned to the dustbin and even those players which still still survive in working order do not get the best out of them.

With the aid of specially built playing equipment, Adrian Tuddenham quides you through the junk piles to reveal a forgotten genre of music; and pieces-together the lost art of making gramophone records.

GMAIL PROBLEM
Apologies if you've tried to email us recently and have had deadly silence - for some reason the Gmail home page hasn't been loading in any of my browsers, on and off for the last few weeks. Bugger knows what that's about.

SUNDAY 26th MARCH - SPRING PSYCHO SPECIAL!

Brought forward from Easter, we're pondering the cult of the serial killer, and wondering why people on the extreme sexual margins of society get so much attention, sometimes to the point of near-canonisation. Al Needham will be dropping by on the phone to talk about Peter Sutcliffe (AKA The Yorkshire Ripper), I'm examining Ted Bundy, having been gobsmacked more than usual by Anne Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, and Kim is taking us on a tour round the head of Jeffrey Dahmer. Other guests, and psychos, to be confirmed...

I was going to put up some actual photos, but suddenly that made me feel a bit sick, so here instead, available from Shel-tone, are a couple of Michael H Price's Mass Murderer Trading Cards (can't find a decent link) that apparently caused such a stir among censors back in 1992. This one must have passed me by at the time. Actually, looking back through my annals, 92 was a seriously lost year for me.

And another thing. That announcement I was talking about.

*drum roll*

We're taking a break from doing live shows till the summer. Kim's got a new job and I'm writing a book, so no more late Sunday nights in the studio for a while. But please stick around: we've got lots more shows to podcast, and there will be brand new podcasts too. Check this site for details. Speaking of podcasts, Porn versus Erotica and Decline of the Gay Bar? are now available for download. Thanks for listening. :-)

GAY BARS ROUNDUP

A late quickie, this one. But aren't they all.

Pete told us about his days as a party animal, and how the arrival of ketamine Changed Everything. We spoke to Russell from Halfway to Heaven,, for a view from the other side of the bar, and we also heard from Wendy who manages the Retro Bar. I can report that, for those tired of posing, and who are looking for something new to tempt them away from 'in is the new out', there is hope. Listen to the show and find out.... I was going to go into an anecdote 12 years ago when I used to live opposite the Coleherne in Earl's Court, the trysts round the back of our flat, and the rubber clad nun getting speared out the front, but I'm up to my neck in work. Sorry.

More soon on this Sunday's show, and an announcement....

SUNDAY 12th MARCH - DECLINE OF THE GAY BAR?

We've been pondering this one for a while at Midnight Sex Talk. Back in the 1990s, gay bars and clubs were the places to be. Everyone there seemed to be partying faster and harder, and more attractively, than anyone else, including the refugee straight women who'd had enough of the beer-smelling gropers in your average pub. Anyone who piped up about remembering the activism that allowed that scene to develop in the first place was told to fuck off in no uncertain terms.

But everything's changed a bit since then. What we're asking this week is: have hook-up sites like Gaydar taken the emphasis away from the bar scene, and levelled the playing field a bit?

It's not all roses in the rainbow nation. Things are bad enough for women. I wince every time I read about any married female superstar who happens to be over 40 (or less!), talking about her two or more desperate hours in the gym every morning. But equally, I've heard too many gay men say that once you're over 30, you've had it, and listened to sad stories of gym visits increasing to the point of injury, all in the name of looking younger and more pull-worthy. So, if you can't stand the scene any more, (or don't want to go there in the first place), what better place than the internet?

Also, if you live miles away from any 'gay village', in an area where you just aren't going to out yourself, period, you might be wishing for even one bar where you could go out in safety. Again, Gaydar & co to the rescue.

What do you think? Do you hate bars, and find the whole thing a massive, pretentious bore? Or do you love them? Do you think that trying to meet someone on the internet is just for losers? Or has Gaydar changed your life?

Tune in, as usual, from 11.30pm-12.30am UK time, on Resonance 104.4 FM in London, and on the internet at Resonancefm.com. You can text us during the show on 07957 362 182, and you can email us anytime using the 'Email me' link to the left. If you want to talk live on air, send us your number and we'll you back.

CROSS BONES GRAVEYARD - EVENTS AND PETITION

There's lots happening around Cross Bones at the moment. If you've come here for the first time, welcome - and if you'd like to know more about this important part of London's sexual history, go here (about our show Dirty Old Town), and here (about our Halloween show all about this ancient prostitutes' burial place, featuring John Constable, aka John Crow (see below) and Jahnet DeLight).

Here's another link to the petition about creating a memorial garden at the site in Southwark, London SE1. Grab it and get everyone you know to fill it in.
Cross Bones Petition pdf (41.8K).

And here's what's coming up in the next few weeks...

LGBT History Walk
Tuesday 28th February 2006 at 7pm
Southwark poet and performer John Constable conducts this free walk especially commissioned for LGBT history month. John reveals the secret history of Southwark's medieval Liberty with its cross-dressing actors and prostitutes licensed by Bishops, and performs excerpts from The Southwark Mysteries, his own work inspired by it. This unusual guided tour explores the history of sexual identity, with particular reference to LGBT-related stories. You are also welcome to come and share your own knowledge and personal anecdotes, to help recover a lost part of LGBT history. You don't have to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered to come on this walk (your guide long ago outed himself as happily heterosexual - though he's always willing to discuss his youthful attempts to swing both ways!) but no homophobes please!
Meet at The George Inn, 77 Borough High Street. The walk lasts up to 2 hours. Free.

Cross Bones Graveyard, Redcross Way, SE1
Thursday 23rd March (happens every 23rd of the month)
At 7pm on the 23rd of each month, the mysterious Friends of Cross Bones meet at the gates of the old cemetery - to renew the shrine with flowers, candles, incense and other totemic offerings; to invoke and sing songs; to honour the Goose and her outcast dead who are buried there; and to envision the memorial garden of the future. If John Crow and Kate E Kaos can't be there in the flesh, they will leave signs and sigils on the gate for celebrants to find and activate. We hope you will come and help hold this sacred space.
Free. (Borough or London Bridge tubes)

and, looking ahead:

'The Great Southwark Dragon Quest'
Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd April (St George's Day weekend) £5.00
In association with Mental Fight Club (MFC) Southwark Mysteries present two guided Dragon Quests, searching for signs of St George and the Dragon around the Borough (including the area formerly known as St George's Fields).

'The Outcast Goddess': A Night with John Crow
Wednesday 10th May - 7.15 for 7.30pm start. £5.00
Performer, poet, cult figure and urban shaman: such is how people have variously described John Crow, aka John Constable. Tonight he talks on challenging fundamentalist thought and reconnecting to the hermetic Mysteries in 21st century London. To illustrate these ideas, he will perform a selection of his poems and songs. Many of these were received from his spirit guide, The Goose - the spirit of a medieval prostitute, licensed by the church yet buried in the unconsecrated Cross Bones graveyard. Go here for booking details.

More on John:

John Constable is a playwright, poet and performer. He is the author of The Southwark Mysteries, an epic cycle of poems and mystery plays which have been performed in Shakespeare's Globe, Southwark Cathedral and at many festivals. The Southwark Mysteries and a collection of his Sha-Manic Plays are both published by Oberon Books. John’s plays include Black Mas, Tulip Futures and the stage adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast (David Glass Ensemble at The Lyric, Hammersmith, and British Council world tours, due to be revived in 2006). His solo shows include I Was An Alien Sex God and Raingods Become Me. John also directs community dramas, holds storytelling workshops and leads unusual guided walks. As the shaman John Crow, he conducts rituals, initiations and workshops including his Shamanic Playhouse - teaching ways to access the vision world and transform perceptions of reality. gooseandcrow.co.uk" (film clips) and Southwark Mysteries.

SUNDAY 26th FEBRUARY - TAKING A BREAK

Yes, my lovelies - even your intrepid presenters need some time off now and again, so we won't be in the studio this week.

But wait! You will instead be able to hear our second ever show, Porn versus Erotica. With guests Robert Posner and Lou Errington, we tease out the similarities between these two supposedly dissimilar concepts. And watch out for the hand-selected worst porn movie titles ever. Here I must namecheck the dude who sat down and sourced all this stuff. Brad Yung, we salute you. If you missed it first time round, here's a chance to catch it again.

WHEN: Sunday 26th February, 11.30pm-12.30am UK time.
WHERE: Resonance 104.4 FM in London, or online worldwide at http://www.resonancefm.com.

Email us anytime at midnightsextalk at gmail dot com, and we'll be back live in the studio on Sunday 12th March.

PROSTITUTION ROUNDUP

To the left, a brief nod to yesterday's Hallmark festival. Sadly, the Natural History Museum's Diamonds exhibition, of which this was a souvenir, had to close before I got to see it.

At the last minute, we were pleased to welcome Jahnet DeLight back on the show, who always has her own take on things, and is less depressed about the law changes than anyone she knows.

Others are less patient about the continuing refusal, by policy makers, to admit that sex has been sold for thousands of years, and will continue to be so, whatever the law says. All is not lost everywhere, though, as it was generally agreed that New Zealand currently has the most enlightened attitude to sex work.

Founder of the International Union of Sex Workers Dr Ana Lopes's main point was that without unionisation, it would have been much harder to get sex workers' voices heard during the consultation, and that the government stance on sex work should be about workers' safety and rights, rather than continuing to pathologise prostitution as a social problem.

She also made the very important point that if sex workers can unionise, with all the ongoing complications in their lives, then anyone can. This has implications for any groups of women, or anyone at all, who ought to be heard as one voice, such as single mothers, and women working at home. In fact, Cari Mitchell of the English Collective of Prostitutes reminded us that the majority of sex workers are single mothers. She also pointed out that, although there was disappointment when the idea of having special safety (or 'tolerance') zones was thrown out, the reality is that they would not have been enlightened utopian enclaves, but dark car parks in already dodgy areas that would attract more trouble for those working there.

Finally, here's more from Jahnet, in an email before the show:

"It is a business like any other and we should be able to work just like any therapist or entertainer.

"The street trade will always exist. It's the first and the easiest way to be able to trade. You don't need to be hired or judged to earn fast cash. You go there when you need and you get. The young, inexperienced, alone, desperate, on drugs, can earn enough money to survive.

"Respectable sex workers are a boon to society and only in this way can we change the status quo. Porn is now mainstream. I would like to see new definitions of our work that leads to men and women regarding us with interest and discovery. Perhaps even generating the need for training places that train students how to be a surrogate, how to massage, how to deal with stress, and how to run a business.

"Some kind of amnesty is needed as well, so we can all begin again, start afresh creating an industry and a revenue not just for ourselves but also the society we live in. We have done this in the past. Many of our great buildings were built on revenue from the sex trade. Let's not give it to an ugly black market that simply builds nightmares..."

The show will be podcast soon. Meanwhile - finally, a subscription icon!