Rest in Peace, My Friend

Shadow Raven

All too soon Raven left us… but, not before putting her mark on the world.  And for those who knew her, she really did put her mark on the world and on their lives.  Shadow Raven is what she went by and to many; she was just that, a Raven.

According to her website “The Raven will come into your life at a time when you need its help. Once you no longer need its help it will leave or you will leave it behind. But either way it’s not longer part of your life.”

She lived her life as a Raven.  Always helping those who needed her help, even when it was damaging to her own health and sanity.  Staying true to her principles and defending what needed to be defended to her last breath.

In my case, she was a wonderful friend and a great dream model.  Having photographed her several times, she said my shots were always her fan favorites.  Trust me; it’s easy to get great photos when you are working with a naturally beautiful model that has some spunk!! You should have seen the video!

Raven also taught me a lot about her business.  She showed me see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  A lot of what I use in my consulting practice came from what I learned from her, or the people she introduced me to.

For that, I will always be grateful… Raven will always have a place in my heart.

She will be missed

Shadow Raven 1966-2009


Porn Convention Goes Solo

The Anuual Porn Convention in Las Vegas

Yup, it was announced last week that this year’s Porn convention in Las Vegas is going solo.  Actually it was the other convention, CES, that announced it was leaving the Sands Expo Center and consolidating most of its event into two connected locations.  The Las Vegas Convention Center and the Hilton Hotel.   Leaving the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) to be on its own.

I’m not sure this is a good thing for either show, especially in this down economy.  You need every reason you can think of to get people to come to the event.   I know the porn convention can survive, sex always attracts the crowds.  But can CES??

For many of the CES attendees, CES was the excuse to tell the boss and the wife why you needed to go to Vegas the first weekend in January.  But the real reason you went was to watch all the porn stars parade through the casino’s and the event corridors on their way to their show.

Dressed barely legal by Vegas standards and you know how low our standards are; The porn stars would strut their stuff for the entire world to see. Taking their time to walk from one side of the expo center to the other.  Making the computer geeks and overly married business executives stop, stare and drool like a puppy dog in heart.

Maybe this was just a natural occurrence and was bound to happen sometime.  When I first started to attend CES in the 80’s, the porn convention was part of CES.  Your badge let you in to both shows. Then somewhere along the line they got all politically correct and kicked AEE out on its own.

So now you will have to work at it in order to attend both shows and not make it look like you are doing what we all know you are doing anyway.  Finding a new reason to go to the Venetian….