I just returned from Las Vegas - and the Adult Entertainment Expo(AEE) and the AVN Awards (Adult Video News). While there, I must say Las Vegas itself was very accommodating, any problems I had were my own doing... so good folks of Las Vegas - rest easy, it would be very easy to fall in love with your city and its residents.... my comments are about the "show" itself...
I had no expectations in attending the AEE and AVN awards - ok, well maybe I did. But I get ahead of me. First, I must admit, I was excited about the possibility of “pressing the flesh” with the stars of the adult entertainment industry. Up close and personal…. That was the quest. What I failed to realize is that this industry is just that, a business enterprise that seeks to “make money”!
In fact, as I walked through the Consumer Electronics Show to get to the AEE, I could not help but notice that there was no change in the composition of the crowd as I crossed from the CES to the AEE! Same blue blazers with the same grey pants… the same identical mix of oriental, Caucasian, Hispanic, black… that I have seen at EVERY trade expo that I have been to since I was 24 years old – way back. These people had the same intensity as the FASEB scientist who argues with a hot-shot colleague that it was he who first discovered the gene for regulating boredom back in ‘aught eight… and not his everlovin’ plagiarizing asshole colleague. As I walked down the aisles and listened to the banter and chatter – it was the same tired old phrases used at LES or AUTM meetings… “we must get together and see if we can do some business together” (in otherwords, I am hoping that you are not noticing that I want to screw you out of the last nickel and dime of your existence…). The blackjack dealers in LV will at least get you a vodka and tonic to anesthetize the pain of wallet extraction…
I also saw the ladies – they were all very gracious. And to their fault, they tolerate the manhandling and demands of the crowds better than any politician who has lived within the last 50 years. They always smiled, answered questions that quite frankly should not have been asked… in short, if this were an academic meeting, they reminded me of graduate students, quietly tolerating the hassle – until they too can rise to the top and be assholes… except that is where the analogy ends. I witnessed Jenna Jameson… quizzed by a buffoon of a fan about her personal finances… to her credit, she told him very politely that she handles her own affairs and oversees to her own satisfaction the management of her portfolio. The guy kept on even with a line of 75-100 or so guys willing to kill just to be within a planetary orbit of the goddess. Jenna? Kept her composure, kept smiling and gently moved the guy to the side. Me? I would have been screaming… After observing this, I happened to notice that NONE of the big name (or for that matter no name stars) were just as gracious and generous with their time to the “fans.” I sincerely doubt that Paris Hilton, or Barbat Strident would be so gracious.
With respect to the fans, for the most part they were respectful of the talent, but there were instances, where a dude would put an appendage where the lady clearly indicated was off limits. If you were not looking, you would miss the femtosecond expression indicating a breach of protocol…. followed by the more gentle moving of the offending tentacle to a place more acceptable to her. All I can say or ask is why? Clearly these ladies are not paid enough to endure that liberty with their personal space. But I digress.
So it was with amusement that I wandered around, thinking that except for the ladies, this could have been any trade association meeting with the same old tired faces, hawking either their ideas, products or services.
For me, the journey was even more personal… I happened to go to the Cirque du Soliel’s Beatles retrospective “Love” What an incredible tour of the rise of the Beatles. The story and music were presented as the musical background of a gent who was seeking the affections of a young lady – just as the Beatles were becoming established. Of course she did not return the adoration.
For the rest of the AEE show and the AVN Awards, as I walked the aisles, perhaps through the lens of this Beatles presentation, I looked upon my fellow gent journeymen with the thought that like me, they had aspired to have a happy marriage with a loving and supporting wife. And like me, they found less than they sought. And so lacking the emotional connection that we sought, we seek that which we can attain, to some extent the physical perfection and sexual excitement that the ladies of porn and the hobby provide. If for only fleeting moments, these ladies do offer real value in providing the allusion, that we are satisfied. And finding those beyond the businessmen, there to make a buck, the young studs with they trophy SOs, I saw me or more correctly, us. The others, those that have the desire to at least use the illusion to imagine what might have been. And I saw the ladies, perhaps as I have never seen them before. Young, sweet and innocent. Yea, even Nina Heartly is young and sweet in that vision. A veteran of 3 decades of Porn acting – and still willing to stand for a solid 6 hours, chat with the fans and treat every one of them as if she had been a high school sophomore waiting for her varsity football team captain to take her to the senior prom… yea, it was JUST like that.
So, as I sat there during the awards, I was only saddened that I could not go to each and every actress and actor and tell them, you’ve made some happy, if only for a very short while…. And that is not a bad thing at all.
I wrote on the political board, that my generation – Boomers that we are… have given us no leadership – to speak of. Perhaps it is because we had no great challenges, and no mandate to do great things. So we are left with our illusions. Perhaps the generations to follow will do better… and perhaps, the ladies will lead the way… with their graciousness, intelligence, generosity, humor, kindness and beauty.
Would I go back to the AEE and AVN and do it again? I think not, I discovered all this and it will take me so long to process all that I learned that to go to another AEE and AVN would be to diminish the memory… and perhaps confuse the soul. But for those who have not gone, I would recommend the haj. Perhaps your revelation will be the same as mine, or perhaps yours will be uniquely tailored to you…. No matter, it is highly likely that you will learn something of yourself… in looking through this staged mirror.
And finally, to the young pornstars from the UK who sat behind me at the AVN show, thank you for a wonderful experience…. And allowing me to share some of the festivities with you.
