First Things First

Yeah, I’m still here. As I told people who checked in with me, I said I’d come back when I have something to say, and now I do. But most of it will have to wait a little longer. Like the title says, first things first.

Last week, we lost our friend, author and fellow blogger Devlin O’Neill. His longtime blog (or “blite,” as he called it) was very popular and prolific. But I had a bit more personal experience with him.

In 2005, we were cast together in the Shadow Lane film “Stand Corrected.” Eve had asked us to create the script together, and even though I hadn’t actually met him yet, we’d been in contact through my old MSN board (he was a member there during its heyday) and I was very comfortable talking with him and collaborating over our project.

I remember our trip to Vegas and our shoot well. We were both sick as dogs with bad colds, sucking down decongestants and lozenges like crazy, but we both rallied enough to create a vigorous 57-minute film. (I completely lost my voice as soon as we wrapped it up.) On the long drive, we talked and talked and got to know each other. He had a classic car — I can’t remember what type it was, only that it was cherry red and it was his pride and joy. At a rest stop, we had gotten ice cream and he let me eat it in the car, begging me to not tell his “nieces” about this, because they were strictly forbidden to have any sort of food in his beloved car. The shoot was fun, sickness notwithstanding, and overall it was a happy and memorable experience.

Years later, Devlin contacted me and asked if I would pose for the cover of his latest book, “Spanked In Her Dreams.” I was honored to do so. John took several shots in front of his bedroom window.

I love how the cover came out. But what means a lot more to me was the inscription inside the cover on my copy. ♥

(sigh) Love you too, Dev. Rest well, sir. You were one of the good ones.

Post #1000!

As many of my long-time readers know, I started blogging on MySpace many years ago, and when they tanked, I switched over to Blogger in 2010. Since then, my combined posts on Blogger and then WordPress have reached a whopping one thousand. Can’t believe I had that much to say, and I’m still going at it.

What to write for #1000… I had some good suggestions, and thanks to everyone for those. I finally decided to do a tribute post to all the men I’ve worked with in video over the years. It will be a fun retrospective for me, and hopefully for you too.

So that there is no appearance of favoritism, I will post them alphabetically.

Danny Chrighton

It’s fitting that he is first, because not only did we shoot “When Danny Met Erica,” together, but we were play partners and the best of friend for three years, before he moved out of state. We’re still in touch periodically and I hope to see him at a party one of these days. He is dear to me, and I’m so glad I have our video as a souvenir of our time together.

“Coach” Daniels

“Coach” and his partner, Ms. Burns, AKA Veronica Daniels, worked for Real Spankings Institute, then branched off as The Spanking Couple. About ten years ago, they did a filmed interview with me, and Coach and I did a spanking/caning scene. He dubbed me “Great Scott,” which tickled me. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter they were both outed in the scene and all their material was taken down. But I still have the clip and pictures, and a fond memory.

Michael Donovan, AKA The Villain, AKA the Court Disciplinarian

When Spanking Court was filming (sadly, they are no longer), I was lucky enough to do a six-clip story arc with them. Michael and I were friends and occasional play partners then, so it was a joy to be able to work with him. We did a little video on our own as well, “The Villain Strikes Erica Scott,” which I now have in my Spanking Library clips. I had so much fun with him, and with everyone involved in SC.

Steve Fuller

Now retired, Steve was quite the shining star in the video world, working for several companies, and I had the extreme pleasure of being his very first co-star, in Shadow Lane‘s “The Spanking Professor.” I also worked with him for Spanking Epics, doing a couple of their “spanklets” and being part of an ensemble with him in the Being Keith Jones Trilogy. I really liked Steve and miss seeing him in videoland!

Keith Jones

What can I say about Keith — he was my very first co-star, back in 2000 for Shadow Lane, and we went on to do five full-length videos plus a spanklet for Spanking Epics together. Working with him was amazing and we had a lot of fun times, both shooting and playing at parties. He was the one who gave me the nickname “Bionic Bottom.” (It’s not so much anymore, but it was for years!) 🙂 Here I am gleefully pointing out where I’d nicked him after beaning him with a prop bottle. (Actually, I felt awful about that, but he was a good sport!)

Paul Kennedy

I love this man; he’s a good friend to John and me, and he’s the partner of my dear friend Alex Reynolds. I met him in 2009 at a Shadow Lane party, and have wanted to work with him for years. Finally got my chance when Pandora Blake came to L.A. and shot us in “The Workaholic” for Dreams of Spanking. It was a fun shoot, full of energy and snappy dialogue, and great spanking (hand, hairbrush, belt).

Ralph Marvell

Of all my co-stars, I’ve known Ralph the longest; we met in 1999, became friends, and shot “Spank Thy Neighbor” for Shadow Lane in 2001. We got a little frisky at the end of that video, and the first time I watched it was quite the experience, sitting between Ralph and John and blushing from head to toe. We’re still buddies to this day.

(Jesus, those granny panties… not of my choosing!)

Stephen Lewis

I shot two films for Northern Spanking with Stephen, and he was a blast. He was a wonderful sport, even when I was throwing his slipper at him or dumping M&M’s over his head, and he and I had crackling chemistry and repartee on screen. He had the ability to meet all my smart-assery with his own jabs, which made it all the more fun.

Devlin O’Neill

Devlin and I did one shoot together, Shadow Lane‘s “Stand Corrected,” and it was quite the memorable experience. We wrote the script, and we did a road trip together from L.A. to Vegas. Both of us had terrible colds, but we soldiered on, sucking down Sudafed and throat lozenges, and made it through a vigorous shoot. Devlin was a sweetie, and we had a lot of laughs during our long drive to and from Vegas. He even let me eat ice cream in his car, which he teasingly told me not to mention, because his littles at the time were not allowed to do so! (That was eleven years ago, so I think it’s OK to mention it now!)

John Osborne

The busy top of Triple AAA Spanking (and partner of Sarah Gregory), John and I have shot several videos, both for his site and for Sarah’s. John is a lot of fun to work with; he’s sweet and funny and I enjoy playing with him off camera too!

Paul Rogers

In 2010, I flew to Connecticut to shoot with Sarah Gregory and Paul, for both her site and his clip site Spanking 101. I was with them four days, shot a lot of content and had a marvelous time. Paul and Sarah treated me like a queen and we ended up with some great stuff. Paul is one hell of a spanker, too — I trashed his hand, but he trashed me pretty good too! (In the best possible way, of course.)

Uncle Bob

I shot a few clips for Uncle Bob’s Woodshed clip site a few years ago, including a fun one called “Sweet Revenge” in which I blistered Bob’s hand. 😀  Ah, I love it when that happens. I’ve known Bob for many years and it’s always fun to see him at parties.

Richard Windsor

Rich and I did a little bit of filming together: we shot a vignette for Pixie’s “Cause For Paws,” a quickie clip advertising my book back in 2011, and a two-part interview for Spanking Tube. Even though the experiences were brief, they were great fun.

Robert Wolf

Last but definitely not least, Robert (Lily Starr’s hubby) and I have shot several clips together for Lily Starr Spanking, including “The Devil Wears a Red Bottom,” “The Online Menace” (in which I blistered his hand as well), and one of my favorites, “The Secret Life of the Kinky Wife.” He’s a sweetie (as is his lovely wife!).

I do need to mention Amateur Spankings — I shot for them, but the spanker likes to stay off camera and I don’t know what name he uses publicly, so it’s best that I leave it at that. But it was fun and he’s a nice guy. 🙂

Honorable mention: There is one man I’ve always wished I could have shot with, and that’s Eric Strickman, AKA Uncle Eric. He and I have never met, but we used to IM a great deal and we even talked on the phone a couple of times (those of you who know me, know what a rarity that is). Why did I want to shoot with him? Just look at him!

I’ve been so very lucky, working with such talented men. They gave me more memorable experiences than I can count and brought me much delicious pain and even more delicious pleasure. Thank you all. ♥

That’s it for #1000. I don’t know if I have another thousand in me, kids, but as long as you want to keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

More photo no-nos

I’m on a roll here, kids. Since I critiqued unfortunate butt shots earlier, now I’m moving on to another potential photo disaster — the awkward screen grab face.

A little photo 101: When producers shoot videos, they of course will want stills to post on their sites, on FetLife, Tumblr, etc. to advertise their work. There are two ways to attain photos — one, you shoot stills between/after the video scenes, and two, you get “screen grabs” from the videos. With a variety of software available — some of it free — one can play a video, freeze the action, and capture what’s on the screen as a still shot.

There are advantages to both methods. Obviously, a still shot is more posed and perfect and the participants can tweak it to achieve the right look. But there is an immediacy and authenticity to screen grabs, capturing the action in ways that a posed shot simply can’t.

HOWEVER: screen grabs also capture the people mid-sentence, mid-grimace, mid-scream, whatever. And the face can be frozen into something that looks utterly ridiculous. When taking screen grabs, the grabber should consider all aspects of the photo — the position, the action, and yes, the facial expression. But alas, oftentimes the latter is ignored, as evidenced by the plethora of screen grabs I found of Yours Truly out there.

Yup, this time, I’m featuring my own self in the Bad Picture Examples. Enjoy.

My first example is a comparison between a good screen grab and a bad one. This is from the DVD box of Spanking Epics’ “Trouble in Carson’s Gap,” with Keith Jones:

You can tell this is a screen grab, not a posed shot — my hair is messed up, I’m not looking at the camera, but it has a wonderful sense of immediacy. However, in yesterday’s search, I found this little gem. Same scene.

What the hell? I look stoned!  Who looked at this and thought it was a good screen grab?

While we’re on Spanking Epics, here’s a shot from “The Reckoning.” Keith looks fine. But what the hell am I doing?? Neck exercises?

This next one made it very clear to me that someone is out there trying to make me look stupid. Here’s a grab of me, with Devlin O’Neill, in Shadow Lane’s “Stand Corrected.” WTF is this face about? (sorry, lousy picture quality, but even a good resolution couldn’t save this)

Who put this up, dammit??? I look like a chicken trying to lay a square egg.

And finally, a comparison between a well-taken still and a poor screen grab. This is one of my favorite photos from Pandora Blake’s Dreams of Spanking, “The Workaholic,” with Paul Kennedy:

If I do say so myself, how perfect is this? I’ve got my classic “righteous indignation” face on, Paul is giving me a deliciously toppy scowl, the hairbrush is in action, our body positioning is spot on. This picture makes me happy.

But then, there’s this floating around out there — why, I don’t know:

Why? WHY? Instead of looking pained and furious, I look like I was just force-fed cottage cheese. At least this one is an equal opportunity insult, since Paul looks kinda goofy too. 😀

What’s the message here? Please, people — producers, videographers, amateurs who love screen captures — choose your end product wisely. A piece of footage will have literally hundreds of screens you can grab as a still. Make the extra effort to freeze the shots where everyone looks good… rather than making us look stunned, stoned, stuporous, or like mouth-breathing morons. OK? Sheesh.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

BUT… much more important… Happy birthday, Devlin O’Neill! Everyone go wish him a good one. Many happy returns, Devlin. 🙂

Remember the video I shot with Northern Spanking last September? It’s up on their site as of yesterday. Well, part 1 of 3, anyway, with the other two parts to follow shortly. As you may recall, I played an obnoxious diva actress to Stephen’s long-suffering agent, and among other offenses, I bitched about how the M&Ms the “fleabag hotel” supplied for me were plain, not peanut as I’d wanted. I claimed they were nutless, just like my agent. 😀  Anyway, with their typical cheeky humor, they named the video “Nutless.” LOL

I know one has to be a member of their site in order to view the film or the picture gallery. But I’ll post one photo here; I’m sure they won’t mind:

Stephen looks mad, doesn’t he! I guess you would be too, if you’d just had a dish of M&Ms dumped over your head.

By the way, I realized I’m not wearing anything green at the moment. But you’ll notice my dress in the picture has some green in the print; can I count that as my St. Paddy’s Day outfit?

For those who were wondering…

…why I was taking boudoir photos — the answer is on Devlin O’Neill’s current blog, right here. Yes, my friend and one-time co-star has written another book, and he asked yours truly to model for the cover art.

No sarcasm here — I was truly honored. I mean, let’s be honest, shall we? It is not every day that a 53-year-old woman is asked to pose for the cover of an erotic novel. Considering that his novel before this one (I think?) had a cover photo of this gorgeous girl we all know, I took his request as a high compliment indeed and told him I’d do my very best to create what he envisioned. I also told him that if what I sent him didn’t quite fill the bill, then please, please go with someone else; I would take no offense. It was his book and he had the right to have it exactly the way he wanted. Devlin graciously assured me that I’d be perfect. (blushing)

So I recruited both John and New Guy to help me. When I was at John’s last weekend, we took some shots in his bedroom in front of the window. As NG and I had done on Monday, John and I experimented with lighting, flash, candles, etc. We took it seriously, but had fun with it too.

Then last Monday, as you already know, I had NG shoot some photos in my own bedroom. I figured it would be a good idea to have two different scenarios and two different nighties. After I had a nice set from each shoot, I sent Devlin everything and hoped for the best. He and Poppy both wrote to me, full of lovely compliments, and he said it was down to a choice between one of John’s and one of NG’s. Ultimately, they went with John’s. Blogger isn’t letting me upload the cover file (it’s a .tif file and they only allow .jpg, .gif and .png), so here’s the original photo:

By the way, John really enjoyed doing the shoot… especially after I did this:

Oh, come on. Can’t a girl flash her own boyfriend? The fact that he chose to snap a photo of it is his bad, certainly not mine. 😀

(Isn’t that sticker a hoot? I found it in a photo-enhancing program called Picnik.)

So thank you, Devlin. And thank you, Poppy, for the beautiful cover design. I am really so tickled by this! I wish you smashing success with the book sales.

And of course, thanks to John and NG for all their help. You guys are the bestest! 🙂