Let Me Tell Ya About Black Chicks - They Desire The Consolation of Philosophy
Teri Moniica Teri Moniica Teri Moniica Lady Armani Lady Armani Lola Lane Lola Lane Lola Lane Lady Armani Lady Armani Lady Armani Lady Armani Lola Lane Ron Sullivan after three excruciating weeks of chemo Ron, Lola Belle D'Leon the Lesbian Leone Leone Leone pic Lady Armani pic Tinker Bell Tinker Bell Silky Black, Lil Bbab, Moniica light joints Silky, Baby, Moniica Bell, Moniica Moniica Lil Baby Lil Baby Moniica Moniica Silky Black Silky Black Silky Moniica Moniica Moniica Moniica Lil Baby Lil Baby Lil Baby Silky Black Silky Black Silky Black Anthony Anthony Girls, Bill Diehl Girls, Bill Diehl Ron Sullivan Ron Sullivan Ron Sullivan Ron Sullivan Lil Baby, Belle Lil Baby Lil Baby Girls, Bill Diehl Girls, Bill Diehl
2/20/06
Once a week I drive to a porn set to teach literacy. I want to be the Stand and Deliver hero for the 21st Century. Today my students began a new book.
In porn for a year, Moniica's done 20 scenes.
As I start chatting with Lady Armani, I whip out my digital tape recorder.
"Damn, that was fast," she says.
"That's what all the ladies say," I reply.
There's an easy camraderie (and usually more alcohol and good bud) on black sets that is often missing from the more uptight white variety.
In porn for five years, Lady Armani moved from Florida to Los Angeles 18-months ago.
I walked in on the shoot and wondered who was the frail, nearly-bald, old man with the camera. It turned out to be Ron Sullivan, who's halfway through his chemotherapy.
He sucks on a rag in his mouth. Then he pulls it out and mumbles to the seven girls on the bed, "Now you're starting to get nasty. That looks good. Play with her asshole."
Ron's wife Delores is helping out today behind the scenes. She requests a condom. Lady Armani gives up her only one from her purse.
"You might need to keep that for a john on the way home," says photographer Bill Diehl.
"I don't do that," says Lady Armani starchly.
Lola Lane has natural 34F-cup breasts, not that I looked.
They sprouted when she was nine but no fella got to touch them until she was 15, when she lost her virginity.
"It was horrible growing up [in Inglewood] with big breasts, particularly in elementary school where you were the only girl with boobs. Guys would be overly playful. They'd keep trying to touch them. I was kinda ashamed and wore big shirts. It was only in highschool that I started to feel secure. My cousin and my friend went away for the summer and they came back with big boobs."
After turning 18, Tory went to college, gave birth to a boy, and worked as a manager at Nordstroms. At 23, she started posing naked. She's never been married.
"I've had the same boyfriend I've had since I started doing movies. In the beginning it was not a problem. I think the fan mail is what got to him, going to the conventions...made him think, my girl really does movies."
Luke: "How did your family react when you got into porn?"
Lola: "They didn't say much because I'm such a normal girl other than this. I'm always having family and friends over to my house. I'm always entertaining. I'm a dinner party girl. I go to church. I go camping.
"The only person I'm not sure knows is my mom because she's not a worldly person. But my grandmother knows. Aunts, sisters, cousins."
Luke: "Did they tell you when you were a kid, 'Lola, you're going to grow up to be a porn star one day'?"
Lola: "My grandmother said, 'You always wanted to be on TV.' But I wanted to be a director. As a child, I did all the auditions and the charm school and stuff like that so she felt that I always wanted to be famous. She sees my little fliers from when I do my autograph signings and my posters.
"They don't look at me any different."
Luke: "What do you love and hate about the porn industry?"
Lola: "I love that I've met a lot of interesting people that I would not have known.
"What I hate about the industry is the prejudice. The black girls really don't get as far in the industry as white girls. They'll choose one black girl and send her flying and the other black girls, whatever.
"The guys sometimes think it's not a job. They think you want to be doing them in the bathroom and on the set and after you get dressed. It's not like that. For me, it's a job. I look at myself as a real actress. When it's over, it's over. When I go home, I don't hang out with porn people. I don't do drugs. I don't drink and all the stuff that comes with it."
Luke: "Is there any difference between working in white movies and working in black movies?"
Lola: "Yes."
White movies tend to have bigger budgets.
"Some of the white guys are horn devils too, but they're so excited about even being with you that usually the scene is better. Sometimes black guys get intimidated by black girls and they do better scenes with white girls."
I ask the tall big girl for her name. "Tinker Bell," she says.
I ask the next girl for her name.
"Lady Armani," she says.
"Sorry. I didn't recognize you naked."
She laughs. "Did you mean that?"
"Yes."
Satisfaction says she was asked to the FOXE awards last night but the guy "only wanted to f--- me. Sunday is my family day."
Luke: "I don't think it was The Consolation of Philosophy that was on his mind."
Belle D'Leon, a highschool basketball player, has been in porn for two weeks. She says it would take $10,00 for her to do a guy on camera.
"I don't hate men. I just don't want to have sex with them."
She's considered herself a lesbian since 15.
Lil Baby's boyfriend Anthony hangs out on set. He's a hairdresser. He drives his girl to a lot of sets but does not work in porn.
Luke: "Did you get her into the industry? Did you say, 'Bitch! Get to work!'"
Anthony: "No."
Lil Baby: "Not one bit."
Anthony: "She just wanted to have a little fun with it anyway. She got in a couple of months ago and she's been working almost every day."
Luke: "You wipe her off after every scene?"
Anthony: "Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. Wax her down."
Luke: "Does she tell you, 'Even though I was having sex with that guy, I was thinking about you'?"
Anthony: "All the time."
Luke: "'Even when I was getting pronged in every hole, I was thinking about you, baby.'"
Anthony: "Yeah, everything."
Luke: "Do you wipe the man's seed off her face afterwards?"
Lil Baby: "No, he don't do that."
Luke: "You don't feel jealous?"
Anthony: "Oh no, I'm not a jealous man. That's what's so good about me."
Luke: "You'll hunt 'em down and kill them in a few weeks."
Anthony: "No. I'd congratulate them before I'd do that."
Luke: "How has it affected your relationship?"
Anthony: "It makes it better. It makes it more interesting. It makes things more exciting."
Luke: "After a hard day's work?"
Anthony: "Her job is never done. She takes care of the home.
"Do you like watching this?"
Luke: "I don't like watching porn but I like interviewing people."
Silky has done eight movies.
Ron Sullivan's losing his voice. The chemo tears up his lymph nodes around his throat.
"I can take anything they dish out," says Ron.
A neighbor repeatedly peaks over the fence and Delores bustles around pulling down the shades.
HollyRandall: wow these pics are great
HollyRandall: Who's the agent of Lady Armani?
Luke: I had fun taking them
Luke: then I saw them and was disappointed
Luke: but maybe they are fun
Luke: The Consolation of Philosophy.
Luke: taking it to every set and to your house.
HollyRandall: you could do a photo book on it
Vilnia writes: "I agree wholeheartedly with Holly, your latest pics are great! Plus you have the "The Consolation of Philosophy" factor going on with the porn chicks. One can't find this type of hilarious stuff anywhere else!"
James DiGiorgio writes me:
Photographing pornstars with a copy of "The Consolation of Philosophy" in their hands is such a lame attempt to show-off your belief in your intellectual (and moral) superiority. putting it in the hands of black pornstars smacks of racism. your often-seen apparent enjoyment in touting whatever (so-called) intellectual book you're currently reading is fairly pathetic and displays a sense of intellectual insecurity. If you'd like to meet my friend, Ramon Menendez, the writer and director of "Stand and Deliver," when he returns -- I believe he's in Venezuela right now -- I can arrange to have Ramon and you on one of my sets sometime in the future. Maybe Ramon can teach you something about the true meaning of helping people (including yourself) gain knowledge.
Yes, I would like to meet Ramon. As for the rest of your email, it is pure drivel. Is your citing of your friendship with Ramon Menendez your lame attempt to show off your intellectual and moral superiority? If one wanted to view it that way, one could. I don't.
The idea of photographing beautiful nude models reading The Consolation of Philosophy comes from the famous book A Confederacy of Dunces. The protagonist discovers a postcard of a beautiful naked woman reading the master work of Boethius and it shakes him up.
I remember hearing about a man who's idea of the dream woman was a Playboy Playmate who studied Talmud.
These pictures would be just as funny if they were true -- if I really came across porn stars reading The Consolation of Philosophy. Plenty of porn stars have the intellectual curiosity to read such a book.
The only racism in the pictures comes from your desire to find racism in the pictures. The pictures would be just as funny if they were of white models (whether or not these models actually read such books).
As for my needing to show my intellectual and moral superiority, that is also nonsense. If I wanted to do that, this would be way too obvious a gag. But I don't need to demonstrate that. I've rarely claimed moral superiority to the people I write about. What makes my writing on the industry exceptional is my constant awareness of my own moral shortcomings. As for intelligence, I've been accused of many things, but few people have accused me of being dumb. It's not an issue. And if I needed to show my intelligence, I wouldn't do it on a blog about porn.
As for noting the title and author of books I bring on set -- that's an essential part of who I am. I carry a book with me everywhere. On average, I read several books a week. What I read on set can often create the mood for what I write that day. It's often an essential part of my story.
When Asia Carrera began performing, she took books on physics with her to the set. But after getting teased, she switched to Stephen King novels.
I'm not going to allow teasing to affect the books I carry with me or who I am and what I believe.
While I enjoyed Stand and Deliver, I know it was not true (that whole experiment ended in failure within a few years). The facts of the story it was based on are nothing like the story given on the screen. Only a moron consciously takes his values from movies and television.
I'd like to meet Ramon, just as I like to spend time with you, Jimmy, but not because I want to be instructed by you guys on how to tell the truth and how to help people acquire knowledge. I don't regard you guys as my moral leaders. I have my own moral leaders (and they don't make movies).
Incidentally, there's nothing "so-called" about the intellectual value of The Consolation of Philosophy or the other books I tout in my writing. If you have not read Consolation, then you are the poorer for it.
If there's an element of bad taste in my humor, then that is inherent to humor. As G.K. Chesterton said, "tasteful humor is like a chaste whore."
Jimmy's email reminds me of the REO Speedwagon song Tough Guys:
Spanky: "But what about your promise to the He-man woman-hater's club?"
Alphalpha: "I'm sorry, Spanky, I have to live my own life."
I'm sorry, Jimmy, I have to live my own life.
James DiGiorgio replies:
Hehehehehe... at the risk of getting into an "intellectual" pissing contest with you, i think if the rest of my email were "pure drivel," your response would and should have ended with that "pure drivel" statement. instead, you spend more than a dozen paragraphs justifying your position. did i touch a nerve?
As for "plenty of porn stars" having the intellectual curiosity to read works such as, "the consolation of philosophy," well, that's pure drivel. a smattering of pornstars? most certainly. plenty of them? niggah please.
Please note that i didn't accuse you of being dumb. i cited "intellectual insecurity," not a lack of intelligence, and those are two very different things.
BTW, I only mentioned being friends with ramon since you used "stand and deliver" as an analogy in your post. had you not done so you most-likey would never know that i'm friendly with ramon.
I also don't see how name-dropping ramon's name serves to show off any sense of my own intellectual or moral superiority. if i believe i am morally and/or intellectually superior to you or to anyone else i would use other sorts of examples than mentioning someone i happen to be friends with.
TBar writes me:
Good slammage on "Jimmy D". He really does seem to be a bored potshot artist. You covered lots of bases in your retort. Be curious to see how he responds to that. I'm guessing it's over.
The pictures are awesome. I too think you could make a great coffe table/photo book from this concept.
I think porn offers an inviting and expansive Savannah in which to explore racism and race relations. The fact that so much of the veneer of "normal" social interraction has been peeled away just by showing up on set can't be ignored.
Confereracy of Dunces is a great book. When you ride in cars do you often find yourself wondering if the person who ended up in the rear passenger seat has any idea the statistical peril they are placing themselves in?
Is it just me or does Christy Canyon still look pretty damn good. I'll admit I have a serious softspot for her as she was really my one and only porn crush. I was in my teens when I first saw her and I think it's probably no coincidence that I dig brunettes with big natural boobs.
Whatever happened to our pal Luc Parry or whatever that jack-asses name was? Did he tire of his Law degree carrying / "porn star" lifestyle? Maybe his orange popsicle colored agent wasn't doing her job. His blog was some of the most entertaining reading available on the internet.
Who is your guess as to the actual identity of Smelly Monkey? Is it as much of a mystery as it appears. The obvious guess is Wanker Wang. Any insights?
