James Courtney is a fantastic photographer and illustrator that is an honorary cyber-dyke, He has been a friend of cyber-dyke.net since our humble beginnings. I’m pleased to announce that he has an art show coming up in San Francisco, with illustrations of myself and many other familiar faces of the fetish scene.

This October the Wicked Grounds sex and coffee shop in San Francisco hosts the pin-up art of illustrator James Courtney of Nakedcomix.com! This is James’ second solo show in San Francisco and he will be presenting 15 of his favorite illustrations. On October 3rd there will be an artist’s reception from noon to 4pm, with the artist on hand to meet and greet his fans. James Courtney has been doing pin-up illustration for nearly 9 years for his web site Nakedcomix. He has worked with some of the sexiest models in the Bay Area. This show at Wicked Grounds will be featuring pin-ups of many top local models such as Cherry Katonic, Raven Le Faye, Scarlet Faux, Maggie Mayhem and others.

The Wicked Grounds is located at 289 8th Street, San Francisco CA. It is San Francisco’s kinkiest sex and coffee shop, and is now celebrating its one-year anniversary. They regularly present art from many notable members of San Francisco’s sex-positive community. To find out more about them, you can visit their web site at www.wickedgrounds.com.

To find out more about the art of James Courtney, you can visit his web site at Nakedcomix.com or email him directly at comixguy at nakedcomix.com.

I’m hoping this year to be able to do at least one day at the con. I haven’t bought tickets yet because my schedule is so booked that I’m not sure when I will be able to escape. Let me know if you might be there, I’d love to meet!!

If you are anywhere near San Francisco and have a little spare time tonight please come out to the fisting class at the Center for Sex and Culture! All genders and all orientations are welcome!

Vaginal Fisting for One and All! with Shanna Katz, a.k.a. Essin’Em
Friday, 2/26, 7pm
At CSC, 1519 Mission
$20-30 sliding scale

Why are the police spending time going after sex workers and non-violent clients and not catching rapists and other violent men?

For info: US PROStitutes Collective: uspros@allwomencount.net 415-626-4114

Crip2Nite is a queer crip performance salon featuring LGBTQ artists living with disability.

Come celebrate with our first Crip2Nite salon at Femina Potens. This month’s theme is “The Power of Definition.” Enjoy an afternoon of cutting-edge slam poetry, music and comedy hosted by the fabulous, funny Karen Ripley.

Perform at our open mic by contacting crip2nite at fabledasp dot com, or sign up at the door.

WHAT: Crip2Nite
WHERE: Femina Potens at 2199 Market St., San Francisco
WHEN: Sunday, November 23, from 3-5:30 p.m.
COST: Sliding scale $5-$20 (or more). No one turned away.

BENEFIT FOR: Fabled ASP (Fabulous Activist Bay Area Lesbians Living with Disability: A Storytelling Project) whose mission is to celebrate disabled lesbian activism, art and culture and continue the disability arts revolution in the Bay Area. Learn more at www.fabledasp.com

Femina Potens is wheelchair accessible. Please do not wear scents or scented products. Thank you.

Crip2Nite: Conceived by: Joy Taylor, Crip2Nite coined by Joy Taylor and Patty Overland.
Produced by: Joy Taylor, Patty Overland, Jill Lessing, and Laura Rifkin

Enjoy an afternoon of cutting-edge slam poetry, music and comedy hosted by Karen Ripley.
Karen Ripley has been performing comedy and improvisation for the GLBT community for over 30 years. Recently featured on Logo TV “wisecracks.”

Other performers include:
Jenni Mork, who has been outing Buck Deerborn stories with Mothertounge Feminist theatre and has proudly stroked his antlers and told his story in Sex diaries at the Dark room. Buck stories resonate with the greater truth that one sometimes has no choice but to be themselves.

Susan Kay Gilbert is the executive producer and host of “The Inappropriate Show” TV for Lesbians, and she is a Lynch-Syndrome cancer thriver and author of the song “Fuck You Cancer.”

Lesile Gordon, a Jewish Disabled woman, who is always getting into something.

Melodie Morgan Frances, a bay area writer and lesbian with an invisible to the naked eye disability

Patty Overland was one of three founders of Wry Crips Reader’s Theater.

Caera Aislingea is a singer, harper, teacher, and writer, and sings in all three Gaelic languages (Irish, Scottish, and Manx) as well as other languages.

Morningstar doing a butch drag king bit.

Barbara Ruth is a poet going for total immersion into disabled women’s culture.
She is the author of the poem, “The Fabled Asp”- written for the project.

Judy Andreas will be reading one of Pandoura Carpenter’s (may her memory be for a blessing) taxi tales.

AND OTHER SPECIAL SURPRISES!

I know several couples that got married recently under the new laws, but none of them had weddings. They were all well established couples that had been partnered for many years, so the marriage was a legal confirmation of their already existing relationship. It seems that straight weddings are traditionally a ceremony for the beginning of a new relationship. Same sex couples have not had this luxury, and seem to need to prove their commitments over time in order to be accepted. When you’re straight you can wear a ring and that’s all you need to prove your commitment. My friend’s wedding ceremony was about acknowledging a relationship that had been committed for nine years. The minister spoke about how she could not sanctify the marriage because they already sanctified it for themselves in their hearts. It was a revolution. I would have a wedding if I could have a ceremony just like that.

I think it’s really very sad that more queer couples aren’t having big weddings while they’re young, but legal marriage is still very new. I can’t imagine ever having a white wedding or spending a lot of money on a wedding, but when I find THE ONE I want everyone on earth to know. Marriage is not just about love and sex. It is truly about partnership in the journey of life, and building family. To be included in family holidays as wife rather than just as girlfriend is a dream come true.

On the ballot in California this November there is a constitutional amendment to deny same sex couples equal marriage rights. I was in a domestic partnership for seven years, and I was constantly worried about what would happen if one of us died or there was some other emergency. Who has power of attorney in a dire situation? In San Francisco people seem to be more understanding of non-traditional relationships, but who knows what the courts might decide if a homophobic family member wants to take control. There are so many questions and holes in the domestic partnership program. Marriage is really a necessity for same sex couples, just as it was a necessity for mixed race couples when the Supreme Court struck down miscegenation laws in 1967.

Eight lesbian bloggers have come together as “8 against 8� to raise money for the No on Prop. 8 campaign. California is more of a battle ground than people realize. In 2000 there was a proposition on the ballot to legally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. It passed. This was challenged in the California Supreme court and found to be unconstitutional. Now these conservative patriarchal types want to change the California constitution to suit their agenda. It won’t be long before same sex marriage makes it to the Supreme Court. “8 Against 8� is collecting donations for eight days, October 20-27. Donate or see what they have to say HERE

I’m going to be participating in Twittergasm, and you can follow me with an RSS feed reader or sign up for the twitter.com service and receive my updates as text messages on your phone.

If I had planned ahead and stayed on top of the news, I would be participating in Masturbate-a-thon, but I just now learned about the event. If you would like to sponsor me the $75 sign-up fee I can still get in!

$9 at Parkway Speakeasy Theater
1834 Park Blvd., Oakland CA www.speakeasytheaters.com

I would love to be there, but like all good red blooded Americans, I paid taxes this week. I paid a whole lot more than I expected to pay this year, which totally blew my budget for the month. No extra money for fun events this week, but at least I have fun working!