My response on the reactions caused by our AVN article on Sasha Grey

[Theo]

A few days ago when the TMZ story on Sasha Grey broke, I had a discussion with a world famous celebrity where we both shared how cool it was that Sasha was reading to kids and that it is ridiculous for people to complain or have any kind of concerns. Seeing how interesting it was as a topic of discussion here at GFY too, I asked our editor-in-chief to assign to one of our senior editors to write a story on it. Our editor decided to use satire as a literature style, using this literary device to illustrate the point of how ridiculous the critics were who were bashing Sasha for helping to educate young students.

You can read the article here:
http://business.avn.com/articles/vid...gh-454660.html

What I didn't like is the fact later on our editor decided to add the word ?Satire? at the end, but I understood because many people didn?t ?get? it at first.

Like every good piece of satire it created confusion if it was real or not. The article was intended as satire and certainly wasn't meant to insult anyone. In satire, irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack. Colbert Report anyone? If you didn't understand it or didn?t like it, it is understandable. That is what σάτυρα as we call it in my country where it was born is all about. If everyone got it, it wouldn't be satire!

If you are a 1st time reader of our adult business community, welcome and...

Go Fuck Yourself!

[Coup]

It's sad that you have to explain what is obvious satire.

[Anthony]

Great article!

[Jack Sparrow]

Amen to theo.

[epitome]

Waiting for forthcoming Xbiz article about AVN being anti-porn. ;)

[JohnRingo]

eat the babies!

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Hey Theo,

What is the status of the AVN/GFY investigation regarding allegations about Media Revenue card banging (and other issues)?

The investigation was launched back on August 15th/16th, nearly three months ago.

It would seem that something could have been learned by now. For example, if you ran tests of cards, it is reasonable to expect that after 1 or 2 billing cycles have passed, you would have some sort of data which could be revealed.

Please provide us with an update.

Thanks,

ADG

[Theo]

Out of topic - ADG, when we'll have completed it you'll see the results posted here.

[epitome]

I will let Sasha Grey come read to me. I like anal.

[porno jew]

as a literature geek and fan of satire yeah never give it away explicitly that is is satire.

that gap between known and unknown is where satire works it's magic.

if the writer was afraid of it being under his byline use a new one a la the onion or the history of satire.

[DWB]

There is simply no reason why the school would bring in some porn chick in to read to the class, but I don't have a problem with it. They have all probably been exposed to PornHub anyway.

[jimmycooper]

Instead of adding 'Yeah, It's Satire' at the end, you should put 'Warning, Satire To Follow' right before the headline. Readers need to know what they're getting themselves into before committing themselves to an article and you never know whether or not someone at the Beijing Evening News happens to be scouring the wires on a slow news day.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifesty.../2002/06/53048

[Theo]

Originally Posted by Coup

It's sad that you have to explain what is obvious satire.

I had to address it since few people went as far as asking us to fire our editor. This is the same editor who spent his Friday and the weekend away from home and family to discuss and contribute on important matters of the industry like has been doing so for over a decade. If everyone had the same degree of dedication our industry would had been far better.

[Warren]

Just fire him/her and be done with it

[porno jew]

Originally Posted by jimmycooper

Instead of adding 'Yeah, It's Satire' at the end, you should put 'Warning, Satire To Follow' right before the headline. Readers need to know what they're getting themselves into before committing themselves to an article and you never know whether or not someone at the Beijing Evening News happens to be scouring the wires on a slow news day.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifesty.../2002/06/53048

ha so lame. fuck that. your advice is so terrible.

[GregE]

Good read

And yeah, it kinda sucks that the editors thought it necessary to add the "satire" disclaimer, but then again I don't think they were necessarily wrong in reaching that conclusion.

[epitome]

Fire the editor or I am pulling my ads!

[JohnRingo]

Originally Posted by jimmycooper

Instead of adding 'Yeah, It's Satire' at the end, you should put 'Warning, Satire To Follow' right before the headline. Readers need to know what they're getting themselves into before committing themselves to an article and you never know whether or not someone at the Beijing Evening News happens to be scouring the wires on a slow news day.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifesty.../2002/06/53048

further proof that the morons are breeding....

[uno]

Is there an editorial section that could have been published in? Also, for satire to really work, it should be funny. Just IMHO, I could be offbase. I don't really give a shit if she's reading to kids, nor do I have a problem with it.

[GregE]

Originally Posted by DWB

There is simply no reason why the school would bring in some porn chick in to read to the class, but I don't have a problem with it. They have all probably been exposed to PornHub anyway.

LOL!

Well, it's not like she read lines from a porn script or anything.

Maybe the school just wanted to rattle the cages of the local teabaggers.

Nothing wrong with doing that in and of itself

[uno]

Originally Posted by GregE

LOL!

Well, it's not like she read lines from a porn script or anything.

Maybe the school just wanted to rattle the cages of the local teabaggers.

Nothing wrong with that in and of itself

I'm shocked that any of you are shocked that parents and others think its a big deal and are, themselves, shocked.

[jimmycooper]

Originally Posted by porno jew

as a literature geek and fan of satire yeah never give it away explicitly that is is satire.

that gap between known and unknown is where satire works it's magic.

if the writer was afraid of it being under his byline use a new one a la the onion or the history of satire.

Yeah, I'm also a big fan. Any novels you can recommend?

I think the only satirical novels I've read have been The Master and Margarita, which is just an absolutely brilliant piece of work, A Confederacy Of Dunces, and Catch-22. Oh, and then of course Animal Farm and Brave New World. Other than that just non-fiction. A couple Mencken books and a shitload of articles over the years. The 'Denis Salnikov' byline is a personal favorite.

Pupating with Denis
By Denis Salnikov

Since the first club review for the eXile in the last issue was considered a success for a new writer such as myself I will keep the same format to give you both an idea of what is new out there in Moscow's exciting nightlife, and I will also continue to offer you a glimpse into the world of Moscow's elite that you may not have access to due to the strict face control at elite clubs.

I was tasked this issue with reviewing two clubs, one of which, BAR CODE, was a chore for me, and the other, COCON, was a place I'd already seen and therefore didn't require extra work.

Cocon opened a few weeks ago in a splashy invitation-only party that drew crowds from all of Moscow's top clubbers: Jet Set, Shambala, Mix, Ministerstvo, and my favorite, Tsepelin.

The most exciting thing about Cocon is the crazy and innovative design. Cocon is an architect's dream even more than a clubber's dream. Each room in this four-story club is covered in a cocoon chrysalis which you enter through a large pupa hole. Winding around the cocoon chrysalises are glass stairwells. It is all very erotic.

In the basement is a cozy, tight dance floor with excellent DJs playing house, progressive and progressive house. On the rest of the floors there are bars, a restaurant, chill-outs and a VIP room that my friends and I were allowed into no questions asked.

Cocon's opening party was packed with the rich, stylish and decadent elite. Most of us know each other, and some of us cannot resist a passionate act of decadence. I saw Tanya, the twenty-year old blond girl who is beautiful and very sexual, on the dance floor. She was wearing a see-through blouse. Her breasts aren't very large but they are perky and her nipples were hard when I pressed her to me. She didn't resist.

My friend Dima (who owns a BMW 7 series) joined Tanya and me on the dancefloor. We were the center of attention, the three of us kissing into one mouth, our tongues merging. Then we took Tanya up each flight of glass stairs so that all could watch us ascend. We spoke dirty language to her. On the top floor there is a small wooden cocoon bathroom with a hatch-like door. Everyone could see the three of us enter the bathroom, which only excited us more. I sat on the toilet seat and pulled my pants down, Tanya lifted up her skirt and after a brief blowjob, sat on my erect cock. While she and I fucked, she gave Dima a blowjob. I put my cock into her ass and she sat down on it slowly, then faster. Dima put his cock into her pussy and we both entered her at the same time. We all had an orgasm together, then did some blow on the sink. We walked out after twenty minutes, down the glass stairwell, and danced. Many of the clubbers were quite impressed, you could tell by the expressions of envy and approval. I believe we were the first to christen that bathroom.

Bar Code is an entirely different club. It pretends to have the kind of strict face control and crazy, elite crowd you'd find at Cocon, but in fact, it has no face control whatsoever. Anyone can get in there, even foreigners. I heard that even the eXile and Lifestyle employees can get into Bar Code. I only managed to poke my head in on the way from Cocon to Mix last weekend. I saw a lot of Tsepelin wannabes there imitating the casual fashion style popular with my tusovka. They made me depressed. I had told my driver to wait 15 minutes for me outside of the club, but I could only last about three seconds before running back downstairs to my Toyota Landcruiser. We sped away to Mix. Interesting things awaited us there.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail....2&IBLOCK_ID=35

[Mutt]

as Uno said, satire is supposed to be funny. that editorial wasn't - sarcastic.ironic yes.

those parents are fucking idiots, it wouldn't matter to those little kids if the woman was a serial killer - the kids don't know who Sasha Grey is, they could have told the kids she was the Vice President of the United States or a soap opera star, it wouldn't matter. all that mattered to them is that a pretty lady came to their class and read to them. and that's all that should have mattered.

now if it had been Ron Jeremy............... ha.........

even if it had been Ron it still wouldn't have mattered.

if the kids were older than I can see some parents objecting to a porn star being invited into a classroom. still wouldn't agree with them but i wouldn't have a problem with porn stars being persona non gratas(sp?) in a classroom.

[epitome]

Satire is hit or miss.

There are tons of satire pieces that I do not find the least bit funny. Its up to the reader.

[Coup]

Originally Posted by Mutt

as Uno said, satire is supposed to be funny.

Totally incorrect.

Satirical works often contain "straight" humour, usually to give relief from what might otherwise be relentless preaching. Although this has always been so, it is probably more marked in modern satire. Yet some satire is not "funny", nor is meant to be. Obviously, not all humour - even on such topics as politics, religion or art, or using the great satirical tools of irony, parody, and burlesque - is necessarily "satirical"; the most light-hearted satire always has a serious "after-taste". The Ig Nobel Prize satire on trivial scientific research describes this as "first make people laugh, and then make them think" - a fair definition of satire itself.

[porno jew]

sometimes satire is the feeling of a parasitic worm churning in your guts.

[porno jew]

american psycho, naked lunch, clockwork orange, the books not the films of course. you have prob read them anyway. countless examples from swift to the onion.

Originally Posted by jimmycooper

Yeah, I'm also a big fan. Any novels you can recommend?

I think the only satirical novels I've read have been The Master and Margarita, which is just an absolutely brilliant piece of work, A Confederacy Of Dunces, and Catch-22. Oh, and then of course Animal Farm and Brave New World. Other than that just non-fiction. A couple Mencken books and a shitload of articles over the years. The 'Denis Salnikov' byline is a personal favorite.

Pupating with Denis
By Denis Salnikov

Since the first club review for the eXile in the last issue was considered a success for a new writer such as myself I will keep the same format to give you both an idea of what is new out there in Moscow's exciting nightlife, and I will also continue to offer you a glimpse into the world of Moscow's elite that you may not have access to due to the strict face control at elite clubs.

I was tasked this issue with reviewing two clubs, one of which, BAR CODE, was a chore for me, and the other, COCON, was a place I'd already seen and therefore didn't require extra work.

Cocon opened a few weeks ago in a splashy invitation-only party that drew crowds from all of Moscow's top clubbers: Jet Set, Shambala, Mix, Ministerstvo, and my favorite, Tsepelin.

The most exciting thing about Cocon is the crazy and innovative design. Cocon is an architect's dream even more than a clubber's dream. Each room in this four-story club is covered in a cocoon chrysalis which you enter through a large pupa hole. Winding around the cocoon chrysalises are glass stairwells. It is all very erotic.

In the basement is a cozy, tight dance floor with excellent DJs playing house, progressive and progressive house. On the rest of the floors there are bars, a restaurant, chill-outs and a VIP room that my friends and I were allowed into no questions asked.

Cocon's opening party was packed with the rich, stylish and decadent elite. Most of us know each other, and some of us cannot resist a passionate act of decadence. I saw Tanya, the twenty-year old blond girl who is beautiful and very sexual, on the dance floor. She was wearing a see-through blouse. Her breasts aren't very large but they are perky and her nipples were hard when I pressed her to me. She didn't resist.

My friend Dima (who owns a BMW 7 series) joined Tanya and me on the dancefloor. We were the center of attention, the three of us kissing into one mouth, our tongues merging. Then we took Tanya up each flight of glass stairs so that all could watch us ascend. We spoke dirty language to her. On the top floor there is a small wooden cocoon bathroom with a hatch-like door. Everyone could see the three of us enter the bathroom, which only excited us more. I sat on the toilet seat and pulled my pants down, Tanya lifted up her skirt and after a brief blowjob, sat on my erect cock. While she and I fucked, she gave Dima a blowjob. I put my cock into her ass and she sat down on it slowly, then faster. Dima put his cock into her pussy and we both entered her at the same time. We all had an orgasm together, then did some blow on the sink. We walked out after twenty minutes, down the glass stairwell, and danced. Many of the clubbers were quite impressed, you could tell by the expressions of envy and approval. I believe we were the first to christen that bathroom.

Bar Code is an entirely different club. It pretends to have the kind of strict face control and crazy, elite crowd you'd find at Cocon, but in fact, it has no face control whatsoever. Anyone can get in there, even foreigners. I heard that even the eXile and Lifestyle employees can get into Bar Code. I only managed to poke my head in on the way from Cocon to Mix last weekend. I saw a lot of Tsepelin wannabes there imitating the casual fashion style popular with my tusovka. They made me depressed. I had told my driver to wait 15 minutes for me outside of the club, but I could only last about three seconds before running back downstairs to my Toyota Landcruiser. We sped away to Mix. Interesting things awaited us there.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail....2&IBLOCK_ID=35

[epitome]

I smell a 10 page thread brewing over the definition of satire.

[jimmycooper]

Originally Posted by porno jew

american psycho, naked lunch, clockwork orange, the books not the films of course. you have prob read them anyway. countless examples from swift to the onion.

Funny you mention American Psycho as that's the first book I thought of after my last post. Great book. Hilarious that Bateman was based on his father. Slaughterhouse 5 and The Stranger are couple others. You really have to hand it to the Greeks. As far as contributions to society go, you'll be hard pressed to find a 1-2 punch as formidable as Satire and Anal Sex.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by AVN Theo

Out of topic - ADG, when we'll have completed it you'll see the results posted here.

Really?!? <----- (Satire)

AVN/GFY has supposedly been "investigating" Media Revenue for three months as of tomorrow. So far, zero has been revealed, and there has been no indication if or when the investigation will ever wrap up (if it ever actually started).

If the investigation is about card banging, and you were supposedly provided with evidence months ago, then a few billing cycles could have occurred already if you were conducting an independent test, so at this point I think everyone deserves to know what if anything has been investigated, and what the results are.

A quick synopsis of the events:

* We run the site xxxxx, a loyalty site for users that join adult sites, if they join via our PR link, we give them PR points then when they have enough points they can spend the points on a free 30 day membership to a site of their choice. We do this buy purchasing a 30 day membership on their behalf with our own credit card.

When we join a site on behalf of a PR member, we always use unique, random usernames and passwords.

* On 14 March 2011 we joined the site socksorority.com (a Bad Girls Bucks site), and then cancelled within the 30 day period. We used a unique username (xxxxxxxx) and unique password.

Then on 5 May 2011 an unauthorised charge was made to our credit card for $9.95 for membership to the site xmovies.com (a Movie Profits site). An email was sent and the username / password combination was exactly the same as the original join to socksorority.com. This has been recurring for a couple of months until our accountants picked this up and started to investigate further.

* When the above unauthorised transaction was detected, further investigation found another new transaction on 16 July 2011, this time for membership to wildpass.com this one for $11.32. Again this was using the same username and password combination from the 14 March transaction.

* On 30 June 2011 there was another unauthorised transaction on our card for $39.95. Whilst we never got an email I can trace for this one so I do not know the username or what site it was for, I know it is associated with mediarevenue, as the reference on the bank is PGRECINCCOM.COM which is the same processor as used for the unauthorised xmovies.com transaction.

When I initially contacted Nick / Tam about the first transaction I was told by Tam, that all was corrected and the transaction refunded. On pushing for more of an explanation as to how it could have happened, initially I had a reply from Nick,

"We recently switched to NETCASH 3rd party billing and had to switch back, when we switch billing systems we our members a discount on their membership to make up for any possible confusion..

We would never take any money fraudulently, our support agents are available 24/7 and when people want to cancel/refund their memberships we make that happen asap."

On pushing for a better response (the one above makes no sense to me), it took some chasing, then got a longer response from Tam, the shorter version of this was,

"When you signed up, maybe you didn?t uncheck the cross sales, or we had a script error that day on the processor end? This is another piece we have to research..in any case, those xsales are indeed in house and owned by us. It is not an outside entity.

Our company is quite large. And currently you are catching is in the middle of a tremendous overall. We have 40+ programs, 40+ NATS licenses, and are merging them all into 10.

This is quite the task, and involved with it is also a new 7 day hold and payout plan, moving to a 4 day...and everything involved with this. As well as moving all the processing to within those guidelines and mergers.

The processing issue did happen, we acknowledge this, and thank you for pointing it out. Hopefully you can see it was not intentional, and you can see something like this could have happened with everything going on."

With regards unchecking cross sales, (a) we always do (b) but even if we did not in error, our membership to socksorority.com ended 14 April 2011, these unauthorised transactions started in May / June / July.

There were other transactions our accounts found from 2010 that were unauthorised in a similar style (we made a paid for join using unique user/pass then a few months later an unauthorised transaction to another site using the same username/password), but these were with the old SOBV sites, and on raising these with Media Revenue, I was told they only took ownership in Jan 2011, so this needs taking up with the past owners. I cannot dispute that and did not mention these transactions further with them.

On pushing Tam / Nick for a better explanation on the charges from their sites as I still do not feel this was a good explanation, I received an email from Tam saying "this matter is closed for us, you are now verging on harassment, and its time to move on. Any more false accusations or misinformation from you, I will have sent directly to our attorneys, XXXXXX, here in Orlando."

I am posting this to the community so as you can read all this, and make your own minds up.

This industry is suffering enough with tubes sites, torrents, forums posting full site sets, and if the customer can no longer have confidence in the billing practices of sites, what hope is there for the industry to turn the tide and start growing again with confidence.

We have removed all links to any Media Revenue site from porn-rewards.com and would not promote them, or any other site / sponsor they may join with in the future.

I would hate to see AVN's investigative team get scooped by X-Biz. <----- More satire

ADG

[MaDalton]

Originally Posted by epitome

I smell a 10 page thread brewing over the definition of satire.

[SleazyDream]

seriously, now think about this. Seriously.

Can the people you had to explain that to actually understand the explanation?

[Theo]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Really?!? <----- (Satire)

AVN/GFY has supposedly been "investigating" Media Revenue for three months as of tomorrow. So far, zero has been revealed, and there has been no indication if or when the investigation will ever wrap up (if it ever actually started).

If the investigation is about card banging, and you were supposedly provided with evidence months ago, then a few billing cycles could have occurred already if you were conducting an independent test, so at this point I think everyone deserves to know what if anything has been investigated, and what the results are.


ADG

Investigation goes back to billing practices from 2 years ago. There's a time for everything, this time hasn't come yet, neither it will be limited on a post shared at gfy/avn. That would be really pointless.

[VenzuelanChick]

Originally Posted by GregE

Good read

And yeah, it kinda sucks that the editors thought it necessary to add the "satire" disclaimer, but then again I don't think they were necessarily wrong in reaching that conclusion.

[JFK]

Originally Posted by uno

I'm shocked that any of you are shocked that parents and others think its a big deal and are, themselves, shocked.

SHOCKING

[Theo]

Originally Posted by Mutt

as Uno said, satire is supposed to be funny. that editorial wasn't - sarcastic.ironic yes.

Dear Mutt, that's not necessary.

[Theo]

to refresh some memories

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler...ine_v._Falwell


Starting from the month of January we'll include in our magazine on a monthly basis a piece of satire or parody. It will be either a story or a cartoon. If you're a cartoonist you can provide some samples please send an email to [email protected]

[georgeyw]

World famous celebrity hey?

[Theo]

not Cameron Diaz

[georgeyw]

Originally Posted by AVN Theo

not Cameron Diaz

I'm guessing it is either Ricky Martin or Billy Ray Cyrus.

[CaptainHowdy]

Like or ban ...

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by DWB

There is simply no reason why the school would bring in some porn chick in to read to the class, but I don't have a problem with it. They have all probably been exposed to PornHub anyway.

where you born this cynical or has it gotten worse over the years? Nothing short of a disease...

[cherrylula]

It isn't a big deal, but if she is not a porn star anymore and wants to spend time with children now, why is she still using her PORN name? And why through all this is she referred to as her porn name?

did they introduce her to those kids, with her PORN name??? lol

[Fletch XXX]

Originally Posted by AVN Theo

A few days ago when the TMZ story on Sasha Grey broke, I had a discussion with a world famous celebrity where we both shared how cool it was that Sasha was reading to kids and that it is ridiculous for people to complain or have any kind of concerns. Seeing how interesting it was as a topic of discussion here at GFY too, I asked our editor-in-chief to assign to one of our senior editors to write a story on it. Our editor decided to use satire as a literature style, using this literary device to illustrate the point of how ridiculous the critics were who were bashing Sasha for helping to educate young students.

just curious do you have children?

Ive noticed, many people who post about this, do not.

[Caligari]

you've got to be shitting me. (que currently sober)

first off the pic of the silk Burka clad woman.

secondly the author: Ann Oui

Ann Oui is a longtime contributor to the AVN suite of editorial products, including the AVN Online and AVN magazine titles. Born in Vietnam, Ann's father, Jacques Oui, was a high ranking French delegate with international degrees in political science who married into an aristocratic Vietnamese family before being summarily executed in the waning days of France's colonial war with North Vietnamese communists. The execution was later deemed to be a mistake, however, the result of a gambling debt gone tragically wrong.

Even before getting to the article.



good piece overall, i hope you guys do more.



.

[Fletch XXX]

Also, it seems now owners of programs are contacting the school wanting their porn girls to come read to kids now.

"So impressed was he with her civic-minded move, and no doubt seeing the upside for adult, Vivid co-founder Steven Hirsch fired off a letter to the school's principal, Ms. Sydney Ritchey-Burnett lauding her for having the courage to invite Grey, along with volunteering Vivid stars Chyna and Allie Haze to do the same."

So it quickly jumps from the "I used to do porn (she was making porn less than 6 months ago?) and goes to current porn stars reading to kids. Just what we need!

Anyone can see the problems with this, but I guess once you been in this biz so long most get decensitized to common sense.

For the record, if a teen sex content producer tried reading to kids it would blow up too.... these people put their own exposure before educating kids.

[kristin]

I have kids in school, I see how broke schools are and this happened in Compton. I have a feeling they might have some issues getting volunteers. So with that, read way to the little ones. However using her porn name was retarded.

[DarkJedi]

Originally Posted by AVN Theo

I had a discussion with a world famous celebrity

you talked with Juicy?

whoa...

[cherrylula]

Originally Posted by kristin

I have kids in school, I see how broke schools are and this happened in Compton. I have a feeling they might have some issues getting volunteers. So with that, read way to the little ones. However using her porn name was retarded.

That's what makes this wrong. The name thing. It's like publicity for adults (see porn name) featuring kids. FAIL.

If she didn't use her porn name, and was kept low profile to actually do something good for children this wouldn't be an issue. But it is some press releases featuring a porn star with her porn name reading to kids. It is not okay. And yeah, the parents of those kids in COMPTON probably don't give a shit.

Let's see how many porn stars use their porn names and go read to kids in an upper class hood.

[ottopottomouse]

Originally Posted by Coup

It's sad that you have to explain what is obvious satire.

Pretty poor attempt at satire.