Every Friday we send a newsletter to our global community of pleasure seekers.
Each newsletter offers five links to pleasurable, stimulating, interesting destinations on the internet. Five opportunities for enjoyment or excitement, offered up with love.
Here is an archive of past pleasure stars (text clipped right from newsletter, so may not be totally sensical / linear in some places!)
Songs and Poetry
★ This poem comes to me in my dreams, lives in my heart, I listen a thousand times over, a thousand kisses deep.
★ Some of the greatest music videos have been political statements, rallying cries of their historical moment. Here is the video rockstar Amanda Palmer made in response to the #MeToo movement, a very personal and intimate cry of solidarity in numbers.
★ Khalid’s album American Teen has been the anthem of our summer. Here is a nine minute documentary about how his music started flowing as a lonely teen relocated to Texas. Brilliant youth.
Funny Random Cute
★ In my wildest dreams, I could never think to ask for something this amazing to happen on a kayak. Life takes us beyond what we can imagine sometimes.
★ If you love fireworks like we love fireworks, check out this unique form of Japanese fireworks!
Mindfulness and Mindful Sex
★ We are doing a lot more meditation around here now, and one tool we are loving is Insight Timer – it offers a vast library of meditation teachers and styles (and we’ve had a few good giggles before hitting “next!”)
★ As we continue to deepen in our practice of Mindful Sex, and just start to take on learning more about Buddhism, meditation is becoming much more central in our days. Here is a public place meditation that you can do anywhere, anytime. Challenge yourself to do it in a crowded, noisy, public place and notice what comes up.
Consent and Sexual Health
★ We need to be able to at least imagine, at least fantasize about what a healthy, vibrant, safe sex culture would look like. Film is one way we practice new realities. This YouTube series shows the sexier, more playful side of consent.
★ Canada just legalized cannabis, and here in the States the medicinal and recreational applications are being fully explored as large states legalize one by one. We’ll do an episode soon an “high sex” but for now, if you or a woman you love suffers pelvic pain, relief is on the way in an unexpected form. Read more and sign up to be part of this Harvard study of treating pelvic pain with an ancient medicinal plant!
★The Good Men Project is a tremendous resource for ideas and inspiration on what it means (and what it takes) to walk in this world as a good man.
Art and Artists
★ This artist is recreating anatomical plates with hand chiseled mosaics, and we are lucky enough to be his neighbor.
★ We now have time to go to the gym (!) and we have totally different styles: Charlotte puts on exciting music and goes into beast mode. Chris puts on a fascinating audio book and goes meditative with heavy weights. What is your movement style? (Do you LOVE audiobooks like we love audiobooks? Click here, join Audible for free and get a free audiobook (like an erotica anthology, perhaps!) and you can cancel before getting billed (or not, and feed your brain with this membership like we do!)
★ Finally, for a glimpse of masculine embodiment beyond gender, here is one of our favorite dances from one of our favorite dance companies. Notice the combination of strength and grace, confidence and power. There is nothing “girly” about this dance, but it doesn’t play by the old rules of masculinity either. (Can’t resist, here is another one of there powerful masculine dances) And for all of us – when was the last time you danced – alone, without shame, fully moving your emotions through your body? Give it a try!
★ Several of our mentors and inspirations are featured in this portrait series of the underground artists of the 1970’s in NYC (naked in their bath tubs of course)
Food and Cooking
★ It is coming into APPLE season here in New York state! So we’ll be cooking our way through this list – starting perhaps with a simple apple crisp (with crystalized ginger, perhaps?)
★ For the past five years, we’ve returned to this same flower farm around this time of year for buckets of zinnias, sunflowers and other late summer blooms. It has become a very pleasurable and essential ritual for us to mark this moment of the year. When is the last time you went flower or fruit picking? Now might be a great time – find out what is in season near you.
Interviews With Greatness
★ This conversation with Senator Cory Booker gives us a glimmer of hope about the future of politics. This guy is literally learning a new language so he can better communicate with those he works for.
Amazing Humans
★ Video can also be a tool to make really big, abstract ideas more accessible. I have watched this video about the timeline of human population growth a few too many times – but it really does help me anchor my understanding of history in a way no book can.
★ Sometimes, video allows us a glimpse of human lives we never would have access to otherwise. Like this short video about a 101 year old tattoo artist who is the last of her kind.
The Human Body
★ With beautiful photography and intimate interviews, Bare Reality exposes the vulnerable truth we all carry in our flesh
Pleasure Mechanics Stars – our podcasts and more
★ We had a flurry of new people come our way through a reddit post about female pleasure techniques – it is always a pleasure to see our work be discussed in unlikely places. Welcome to the new comers amongst you! For all interested in female pleasure, here is an essential tip on her sexual system and our legendary Foreplay course – a master class in expanding arousal and orgasmic capacity for all bodies.
★ Did you know our very first project was all about the joys of prostate play? For 12 years we have had the honor of being leaders in teaching men about the life-changing pleasures of prostate play. We want ALL men to know the full potential of their sexual system. Here’s a link, just for this newsletter, for 50% off the Prostate Massage Mastery course. What we KNOW is that when men explore this part of their erotic system, everything changes, and tremendous amounts of pleasure is unlocked.
★ This week on the podcast we have a powerful conversation with Mark Greene of Remaking Manhood about the emotional suppression of boys, empathy and rage. This was the first podcast that brought me to tears as I edited it. Please share it with any men in your lives who are looking for support and answers.
★ This week, we got the opportunity to speak to Jill Soloway, creator of the award winning show Transparent (and a personal favorite, the show I Love Dick – watch it, it is brilliant!) Soloway’s shows offer some of the most honest, vulnerable and raw portrayals of gender and sexuality out there. As part of Amazon, the shows reach people in 230 countries around the world – and have been part of the cultural conversation about the transgender experience. We talk about desire, freedom and play and what it means to make art that changes culture.
Love and Relationships
★ With beautiful photography and intimate interviews, Bare Reality exposes the vulnerable truth we all carry in our flesh
Men and Male Sexuality
★ Deeply appreciating the advice given in this podcast episode about men’s sexual concerns and how we can release some of the pressure men face.
Sensual Art and Erotic Art
★ This video of black lesbian love is gorgeous, real and divine.
Comedy and Humor
★ In those moments when life is feeling heavy and the world feels scary, we turn to stand up comedy. This guy manages to mix ridiculous intelligence with enough humor to make Chris swoon (We would LOVE you to hit reply and share your favorite comedians with us!)