• Sex and Death in Four Colors: Pulp Magazines at the Brooklyn Museum of Art — A review of an excellent exhibit of pulp magazine covers that the Brooklyn Museum did several years ago. In the feelings of boldness, fear, and passion they depicted without inhibition, the pulp artists were in some ways more pornographic than anything in the San Fernando Valley.
• Review: Roman Sex — I love the history of sex. I love knowing that perversion didn’t start with Kinsey or the Sexual Revolution. This article goes wayyyy back; it’s a review of a coffee table book that looks at the erotic art of the Roman Empire, especially the stuff found near Vesuvius.
• The Barbary Coast: Soiled Doves and Daughters of Joy in Gold-Rush San Francisco — The Barbary Coast was the famous red-light district in San Francisco during the days of the Gold Rush. This is a short history of those times, especially focusing on the prostitution trade. Many of the stories of that time are far stranger than fiction.
• Times Square: A History of Sin — A look at Times Square’s past and present, written while waiting for the Republican National Convention to raid the city.
• Fencesitter Blues — A few words on why I refuse to make up my mind — about anything, really, but here focusing on sexuality.
• Review: The Good Old Naughty Days — A review of a film actually funded by the French government — a collection of silent filmstrips that used to be shown in French brothels back in the early days of the movies.
• Sexy Beasts! A Look At Vampires in Porn
• The St. James Infirmary — Yes, the St. James Infirmary is a famous blues song, but in San Francisco, it’s a real place, too; a public health clinic run by and for sex workers.
• Beautiful Scars — Why the bruises and wounds and stretch marks that inevitably build up on a human body through time have their own beauty.
• Two Women, One Year, and Hep C — Lisa Montanarelli and Cara Bruce, two writers from San Francisco, became friends because of a common illness — hepatitis C. Then they wrote a book about how to get through that first year. I interviewed the two of them about the book, their lives, and learned what hep c is (and isn’t).
• Looking At My Cock — Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think most men think about their cocks at all. I wrote this for Mind Caviar as an attempt to stop obsessing about my dick for a few moments and to take a close and careful look at it for a few moments.
• God is a Bullet — An essay I wrote for an anthology titled Male Lust about the time I graduated college in the late 90′s. It deals with the role of violence, especially violence against self, in the masculine ideal.