Interviews Brought to you by ...
JRL IS PLEASED TO BRING YOU OUR OWN PAUL GOLDBERG AND SPECIAL GUEST MARK KLIEM OF LAVENDERLOUNGE
EXCLUSIVELY ON JRLCHARTSONLINE
Paul Goldberg: JRL Fans, today we have a special treat for you.
I bring you the brains behind the fantastic web site www.lavenderlounge.com which features Vintage gay porn at its finest.
At Lavenderlounge.com, you have a wide variety of selections to entertain yourself. Such as the Gay Blog, the VIP room or, if you feel like hanging out, then you can click on the Lounge banner and make your choice of which genre you wish to see.
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Based in San Francisco's notorious South of Market district, Mark was fortunate to have Lavender Lounge Studios centrally located with a gay capitol city, the epicenter of the gay porn industry and a sexually subversive underground culture all at his doorstep.
Please welcome Mark Kliem, founder and president of www.LavenderLounge.com.
Paul Goldberg: Mark, thank you for taking the time out to chat with me in regards to your fabulous web site. How are you?
Mark Kliem: I'm super, thanks for asking.
Paul Goldberg: You've had Lavenderlounge.com on the web for more than a decade. Have you seen a major change in the gay porn marketplace since you first tapped into it?
Mark Kliem: I started directing porn movies in January 1996 and every one of the companies I worked for at the beginning are either completely gone or merged with other companies (except for Titan and Hot House). The short answer for the biggest change in the industry over the past ten years is the move from VHS to DVD to movies to online.
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In 1997 I was the first employee of Naked Sword and at the time nobody even knew that streaming video was even available on the web. I actually wrote a whole 10 year retrospective recently and included interviews with MaleFlixxx, Gay Hot Movies, AEBN, and Naked Sword.
http://www.lavenderlounge.com/Award-Winning-Gay-Porn-Blog/3296-Looking-Back-Ten-Years-of-Gay-Porn-2000-2010.html
http://www.lavenderlounge.com/Award-Winning-Gay-Porn-Blog/3315-History-of-Gay-Porn-Video-On-Demand-Naked-Sword.html
http://www.lavenderlounge.com/Award-Winning-Gay-Porn-Blog/3308-History-of-Gay-Porn-Video-On-Demand-Exclusive-Interview-with-AEBNs-Scott-Coffman.html
http://www.lavenderlounge.com/Award-Winning-Gay-Porn-Blog/3304-History-of-Gay-Porn-Video-On-Demand-Gay-Hot-Movies.html
http://www.lavenderlounge.com/Award-Winning-Gay-Porn-Blog/3299-History-of-Gay-Porn-Video-On-Demand-MaleFlixxx.tv.html
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Paul Goldberg: When LavenderLounge.com first debuted back in 98'? (I hope it was 98'), there weren't that many web sites targeting the Gay porn marketplace for consumers to voice their interest and explore their fantasies. Do you feel now, that there are to many web sites targeting gay consumers or is there room for even more web sites?
Mark Kliem: When talking business, I always like to compare porn sites to shoe stores. Are there too many shoe stores? Some stores have nice facilities and quality-made, good looking shoes, some have cheap, ugly shoes. If you could go somewhere to get free shoes or stolen shoes, regular shoe stores would go away. That's what's happening to the porn business. There are too many FREE porn sites and too many sites with pirated content.
Paul Goldberg: How much time do you spend on the Lavender Lounge web site per week?
Mark Kliem: Running Lavender Lounge and my various websites is my full time job, plus I work part time as Art Director for Alpha Blue Archives, a company that puts out vintage straight porn DVD's. Since 2003 I've designed over 300 DVD box covers and 4 or 5 DVD catalogues for Alpha Blue.
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Paul Goldberg: I love the Vintage Porn format that you have. What made you tap into that genre?
Mark Kliem: During one of my many thrift store adventures, I recall buying a small stack of old physique magazines from the 1950's. At the time, I wasn't specifically looking for porn, but I figured that anything 50 years old and in good shape would have some value as a "collectable", and porn has the added appeal of being something you can jack off with.
During one of my weekly visits to my favorite thrift store a few years ago, I checked the spot behind the counter where they keep the most valuable items as well and the "adults only" material. Instead of finding a stack of old magazines, I spotted a box of gay porn movies on 8mm film.
(For youngsters reading this, 8mm and Super 8 film was the format that preceded VHS tape.)
I stood there for the longest time examining the thirty or forty little reels of film, some with colorful box covers and many in mysterious plain white covers. I decided to buy a couple reels just for the kitch value, but as soon as I got to the car, I turned right around and went back into the store to buy the rest.
A few weeks later, I was back at the same store. I've had several instances of clairvoyance in my life, and that moment proved to be another example. I saw a medium sized box behind the counter with the flaps completely closed. I asked to see the box, and without the slightest peek of its contents, I opened it to find 40 or 50 reels of vintage gay porn movies on 8mm! Do I have psychic abilities or x-ray vision? I don't know, but I now had a good start on a real collection of gay porn movies from the 1970's.
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That second box of movies really tipped the scale. I've become obsessed with collecting everything in gay erotica prior to 1979. I soon discovered the joys and pitfalls of eBay. I've rounded out my collection significantly by careful shopping (and not so careful shopping) online to find items to complete various series. I've discovered that even in the days when gay porn was completely illegal or underground, there was a vast amount of product produced. There is no one source to find everything in gay erotica produced in that 30 year period, but I keep trying!
My collection of vintage gay porn magazines and films is now large enough to warrant a website of its own, hence the launch of VintageBareback.com two weeks ago. Members of LavenderLounge.com get access to both sites and vice versa. I will soon move all the vintage from LavenderLounge.com to VintageBareback.com.
Paul Goldberg: Over the years, I have watched your exclusive video feeds including your review show you had on back in the early 2000's. Would you be interested in doing another show like that? Because if you are, JRL is planning on a similar show when they launch next year the JRL Video Network. Would you be open to the possibility of stepping in front of the camera again?
Mark Kliem: Are you offering me a job?! I stopped doing regularly scheduled webcasts because I couldn't make any money from it. But I'm a whore, so I'll do whatever someone will pay for!
I actually still put together videos once in a while just for fun, so I created LavenderLoungeVideoBlog.com.
There are videos on a wide range of topics, including some skit comedy bits, with embed codes below each one to allow people to share videos, too.
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Paul Goldberg: Now the LavenderLounge.com web site not only covers the gay porn industry. You also cover the gay mainstream as well. Is it difficult managing both marketplaces at the same time?
Mark Kliem: That's a question that is troubling me right now. When I started blogging in 2003, I didn't have much competition for covering gay porn or gay mainstream news, so it was up to me to put it all together. Mainstream bloggers like TowleRoad and JoeMyGod have the three hour advantage of being on the East coast, and Perez Hilton starts his day at 5am to have 10 stories up before people read their morning email.
Plus, they now have people sending stories directly to them. By the time I find the stories, East Coasters have already re-posted it all over Facebook, so why should I bother to repeat it? For porn related news, The Sword and Unzipped have whole staffs to cover what I used to do myself, so I can't compete with them either.
I've always said, you can either choose to be a news REPORTER or a news MAKER, so the solution is I think it's time for me to start making news.
Paul Goldberg: How about Iphone presence?
Mark Kliem: I'd like to adapt my sites for Iphone, but until AT&T improves their service and Apple starts allows more use of Flash video (other than YouTube) I'm not putting a whole lot of effort into it.
Paul Goldberg: How has the VOD marketplace done for you in affiliate revenue. With the industry going through a down turn in 2009, many webmasters depended heavily on their affiliate dollars. How has it been for LavenderLounge.com?
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Mark Kliem:
I've never made much money from other webmasters sending customers to LavenderLounge.com. Just the opposite. The majority of my income has always come from the combination of promoting AEBN, Naked Sword, MaleFlixxx and Gay Hot Movies.
I used to make good money promoting Falcon, Randy Blue and sites like that, but they've become such familiar names, customers will go directly to them without having to go through me.
Paul Goldberg: What do you have in store for gay consumers worldwide in 2010 with not only the flagship web site of www.LavenderLounge.com but for your entire network of web sites?
Mark Kliem: VintageBareback.com just launched last week and I think it will be my priority this year. I have 400 pre-condom movies on 8mm and Super 8 from the 1970's, and over 200 magazines that no one of this generation has ever seen.
I will be releasing them first on VintageBareback.com and then I will make compilation DVD's for the VOD sites, each made for specific niches. "Hairy Muscle Daddy" Parts 1, 2 and 3 are already out and I will have a few more of that series. Next will be a Vintage Kink series, a Vintage Twink series and a Vintage Jock series.
Paul Goldberg: Any shout outs to the JRL fans who will be visiting your site today?
Mark Kliem: I lowered the price of VIP Membership! Ten bucks signs you up! Oone membership gets you access to LavenderLounge.com and VintageBareback.com with the same passwords!
Paul Goldberg: Will you be doing any original content for LavenderLounge.com? Any bear movies in the works that we can look forward to in 2010?
Mark Kliem: I will be releasing a few original content DVD's this year on VOD: "Muscle Bear Cubs: Solos Volume 2" , "Lavender Lounge Solos Part 1, 2, and 3", and "Lavender Lounge Couples Part 1", in addition to the vintage titles listed above.
Paul Goldberg: You are at all of the award shows every year. What do you find exciting every year you attend either the Grabby Awards, GayVN Awards, Cybersocket Awards or the Xbiz GLBT Awards although that is just a few categories?
Mark Kliem: Hmm, maybe the porn stars getting drunk and frisky partying at hotels? That's pretty exciting. I always take tons of pictures to commemorate the events. That's going the be the bulk of the VIP content at LavenderLounge.com - drunk porn stars!
Paul Goldberg: Mark, I hope to see you at the next big bash our industry will be having Any shout outs to the JRL fans who'll be visiting LavenderLounge.com today?
Mark Kliem: I come from a show business background and I approach my company as an entertainment medium rather than as a way to exploit customers and grab as much money as you can. My company slogans are: "Lavender Lounge is Porn Different" and "Join the Fun!" That pretty much sums up my philosophy of my business.
Paul Goldberg: Mark again, thank you for chatting with me today on JRL. Everyone at home or at work, click on www.LavenderLounge.com or VintageBareback.com right now to experience one of the hottest gay web sites that covers not only gay erotica but gay nightlife and more. You'll be book marking it and that's for sure.
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