Save The Main

A little late…but hey i am not the best royal watcher.

sign the petition here

0911: Gentrification—NOT sexy.

This episode of Audiosmut discusses in greater detail what’s up on lower st. Laurent these days.  Last time we checked, Cafe Cleopatra and some other thriving businesses were being expropriated for a 12 story office building under a contract awarded to the Angus Development Corporation by the city of Montreal (Gerald Tremblay). 

First we talk to Emilie Laliberte from Stella (an organization for and by sex workers whose goal is to provide information and support to people in the trade so that they can work in safety and with dignity) to get a grasp on how the development of the lower main has been impacting the sex worker community.  Needless to say, there has not been much understanding or acceptance coming from the city with regards to women working the streets.  The Tremblay administration is particularly closed to including sex workers in the discussion of solutions for st. laurent.  Instead, petty policies are being enacted (expensive tickets, and quadrilatere’s restricting sex workers from entering the quartier) to remove them from the area. 

We also hear throughout this show, a special edition of Pleasures.  Loosely based on what is happening to Cafe Cleo, we return to Pleasureburg and see how our characters react to this unsexy situation.

[act 1]

Next, we hear some audio clips of the Contre Courant event, put on to rally support for Save the Main.  The dead doll dancers, who perform regularly on the thrust stage at Cabaret Cleo, put together a satire of the Public consultations that occured discussing the merits of the Angus Development contract, and whether or not Cafe Cleo and the other establishments on this part of the main are indeed historical sites that ought to be preserved. 

Lastly is the porning news, where we speak with Eric Paradis, who gives us an update on the situation.  Despite recent discoveries that the head of the Angus Development Corporation has been involved in fraud, the project is likely to go through.  Especially since Gerald Tremblay has been re-elected.  Eric brings up the injustices of the situation:

1) The proposed project–payed for with tax dollars—benefits a very small group of people

2) Pouring money into fancy architechture and clean cut edifice does not cultivate cultural richness.  Money is being put into facade rather than into real creative projects.

3) The people whose businesses are being expropriated, the people who have worked long and hard and contributed to the community in many ways, have every right to be there and stay there.

Support the inclusion of everyone in the decisions made about developing the Quartier des Spectacles.

PORNO CORNERS…

‘ >0908 Audiosmut porn

Discovering the corners of porners…this episode Audiosmut asks: how are people taking porn into their own hands, transforming meanings, and making it their own?

FIRST: Some history.  The victorian punishment.  We learn about the way that something which was never intended to be pornographic gets appropriated and eroticized, leaving a legacy of arousal surrounding flagelation.

SECOND: Pornographic ponderings of Lily Cade: representing authentic sex and sexuality in *sorta* mainstream porn

THIRD: Chelsea Chainsaw shares her experience of creating kickass DIY porn (it’s called…the Cumming of Jizzus)

FOURTH: ROBOT PORN.  We talk to the author of Robot Porn, an experimental novel with pornographic interludes, about redefining porn and what we think porn is.  The interview weaves in and out of the book-reading turned performance piece.

SEXY SENIORS: Audiosmut lends an ear to experienced voices

“The truth is, older people, and especially older women, have always been more sexual than society has been prepared to accept”

- from Dierdre Fischel and Diana Holtzberg’s Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 60

First thing’s first: The widespread denial of elderly sexuality not only restricts the sexual freedom and openness of seniors themselves, but also paints a completely distorted picture of what is actually going on between the sheets of older ladies and gents.

This inaccurate picture is further distorted by the media’s obsession with youth (and while you could analyse the biological or psychological motivations at play there, in the end it really has to do with marketing strategies to access impressionable minds and disposable incomes) which defines beauty in terms of freshness and firmness.

“Society persists in seeing aging in terms of loss rather than benefit, because capitalism is invested in this vision of its aging people. Capitalism is modeled on the idea of constant change, of what is new. Therefore to look on aging people as becoming better instead of becoming deficient would be to fundamentally challenge the way the whole system is organized and structured.”

Lois Banner, a cultural historian featured in Still Doing It

 While viagra ad campaigns have effectively brought elderly sexuality onto the stage of mainstream media, and has even in some ways contributed to breaking the taboo surrounding the sexuality of the elderly, the viagra phenomenon demonstrates one of the enduring problems in addressing sexuality in general: its focus is on the male.  Many women cite this all too familiar double standard as one of the prominent obstacles in the sexual liberation of the elderly.

SO.

This month the Audiosmut crew decided to explore eroticism that lies beyond realm of youth, and with a general focus on women, talk about the all too often omitted sexuality of the well ripened.

THE RUNDOWN:

PLEASURES episode 6: Betty’s First Client

Betty spends hours and hours listening to Dr. Eckheart’s LP on elderly sexuality.

Sexy Senior #1: GRACE MOORE 

A precocious and passionate writer-scholar-volunteer with an open mind, a girly giggle, and a lot to say about sex.Grace affirms that sexuality is broader than interactions that take place within the bounds of bonded couple-dom. “I don’t believe in what they call the ownership of people in the name of affection” says Grace. One of the biggest challenges as an older woman being the sparse selection of eligible bachelors (or bachelorettes), Grace believes that you don’t have to be in a monogamous relationship to be sexually satisfied, nor does a woman need a partner to feel complete. She talks about the role of fantasy and making love to yourself as a way to achieve sexual satisfaction, and shares a poem that was quite controversial in her writing group.

Making Love to Myself

When I make love to myself

I feel guilty

I feel like an adolescent

doing it because I am too young

to have a partner

I am 61 years old

and this is no first awakening

of sexuality

When I make love to myself

I feel that the only real sex

exists within bonded couples

regardless of the quality

I feel that I am violating a trust

convention tells me

that any old romantic fantasy

is better than this physical indulgence

When I try to make love to myself

I sometimes cannot do it

for all the above reasons

plus the one supreme one

like a wife

I am just too tired

At other times

it is perfect

I reach a climax

and then I fall asleep

Then, making love to myself

is the best sleeping pill I know

SEXY SENIOR # 2: Our Man Chris

Chris is a distinguished gent at the ripe age of 75 with toned legs and a passion for people.

Chris reveals the nuances of his sexual preferences and resulting experience. We capture a glimpse of his life history from mind-blowing acid trip inspired romps of his youth to steamy disrobings in the saunas of his older years. He illuminates the interesting mystique surrounding the ‘older man’ in gay male culture, explaining that many a youngster really get off on the idea of an elderly gent.

SEXY SENIOR #3: Roz, a vivacious and outspokenwoman shares her opinions and exeriences of sex over margaritas with a couple of friends (one of whom just happened to be Britt)

Taking a minute to listen to Roz as she relates tales of her encounters with ‘the big dong’, the ‘daisy chain’, and dating younger men will make you think twice before you assume that older women aren’t interested or indulging in sex.  This woman is living (and how!) proof that sex can get better with age.

Email us at smut@ckut.ca and we’ll send you a copy of the show!

 

Sex, stories told: February Show Notes

Well here’s the links to some of the fun thoughtful pillow talk from Wednesday, 4 February 2009!

The conclusion to the CASE of the MISSING VIBRATOR can be enjoyed here:

Stories drawings and news from funny sensual story teller, Julie is available here.

Zoe Whittall’s Polly is from With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn

Kristyn Dunnion writer, preformer, fairy tale lover, was also in With a Rough Tongue but she’s been in a lot of other pieces too and she’s known to read erotica in laundrymats so check her out!

Finally our last guest, the DEAD DOLL DANCERS have a show coming up:
The Swamp Pussy Revival Cabaret
Saturday Feb. 21,2009

Cafe Cleopatra
1230 boul.St. Laurent, Montreal
showtime : 9pm Doors: 8pm

tickets at door $10
presale: $8 available at Joy Toyz

Stealing Nasreen by Farzana Doctor

Author Reading in Montreal
Friday, November 7, 2008, 7pm at the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy

Recognizing the lack of fiction about queer immigrant subjects. Doctor responded by writing a story about an Indo-Canadian lesbian therapist who becomes entangled in the lives of an underemployed new immigrant couple from India. I am hoping to get my hot little paws on a copy to review on air. If you read it too, then why don.t we talk about it over tea and cookies?

A discussion will follow and books will be available for purchase and signing.

More information may be found on the author.s website.