In addition to those photoerotic luminaries, FLNGS also includes contributions from guest bloggers. Currently holding the guest slot? Photographer/model/self portraitist Katie West. Not yet familiar with Katie's work? Get thee over to FLNGS blog pronto, before we disown you.

· FLNGS (latenightfeelings.com, via Violet Blue)
· Photo by Chase Lisbon (latenightfeelings.com)

We Did Porn

"Then I would call it 'Who Killed Tina DiVine?' or 'Who Killed Max Clamm?' and all my observations about porn could be wrapped around that death and loaded with the sexy intensity of true crime," Smith writes.

Tina DiVine, who shares certain characteristics with Joanna Angel, is one of dozens of second degree pseudonyms Smith employs in the book. He uses this method, he explains, to remind readers and himself that "there is probably more to them than I managed to see or record."

But, save for some anonymous porn performer in Berlin, no one dies in this book, and so the reader struggles with Smith (nom de porn: Zak Sabbath) on an as-it-happens examination of this "detour" through the pornimondes of Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Vegas, Berlin, and Barcelona, as the narrator serves up judgment on what he's figuring out.

Smith's perspective as a porn tourist (we are all porn tourists unless we are Jack Fuchsmore/Max Hardcore) is one of such precision, wit, and education that one can coast through most of "We Did Porn" before realizing that it can be as heartless and passionless as an episode of "Family Guy" or a fucking machine.

Take this observation of attendees at the annual Adult Entertainment Expo:

These bumblers in lines, programmers, two-handed clutchers, these bloggers with their pictures near breasts, these meatstacks, sad-sacks, these weezing mouth-breathers, nodding Cro-Magnons, ghost-costume-sized hip-hop shirt roamers, these collectors, these enthusiasts, pederasts, Ozzytees, these waist-touchers, wasted brokers, jokers, grinners, tit-seekers, watchers, these bulky humans and beanpoles processed in bulk, these barn-door-sized target audiences, these red bosses and red employees and simultaneous electronics-convention attendees, these men, these fat-ass motherfuckers in their bloatiness and massy fat pants. Whatever, civilians.

Smith spends most of a wildly entertaining discourse on porn and art and pornographers and/as opposed to artists masturbating over the heads of masturbators with deft references to Cthulhu, Boba Fett, and "Blade Runner."

It is only as Smith/Sabbath encounters - and falls in love with - Candy Crushed/Mandy Morbid and Osbie Feel/Benny Profane, and learns to admire the work of Gina Giles/Kimberly Kane and Rob Chuckle/Bob Coulter that we find a little humanizing joy in that (as Smith describes a late night Vegas Coco's discussion with fellow travelers such as Auspicia Clay/See If You Can Guess) "sauna of listless hate" that might have been this book.

Not that a memoir of a pornographer's life should be touching. "We Did Porn" accurately describes America in the Zeros for a lot of people, and Smith can go from macro (the 2008 election) to micro (naked girls on his collapsing bed suggesting goddesses of a 1500-year-old sculptor's wet dream) as fast as the burst of pleasure and relief that is the backbone of an industry that employs thousands and serves millions.

"We Did Porn" is a satisfyingly weighty 500 pages of Taschen-textured text and art that name-checks (sort of) many people beloved of Fleshbot readers ("Tasha Rey," "Monty Pentagram" - I was there for Smith's first movie) and does a great job explaining Zak Smith (and his friends; remember the "We" in the title) to himself and their world to you.

· Zak Smith (zaksmith.com)
· Buy "We Did Porn: Memoir And Drawings" (amazon.com)

Many of Coulter's photographs are now for sale at the SexyArt Gallery and feature work from the two coasts that to Coulter matter most—the New York one and the Los Angeles one.

There's Isidora Ellison at a Yonkers Power Plant, Natalie Minx on a downtown L.A. rooftop, Priscilla at Porn Valley's Movieland Motel, and a few dozen others that collectively ask the question: Are fetish models really that different on either side of the Continental Divide?

· Bob Coulter at SexyArt Gallery (sexyartgallery.com)
· Crazy Babe (crazybabe.com)

Sure, those tributes to love and coupledom can get to be a bit much, but there's more to Valentine's Day than just sappy love songs and overpriced chocolate. In fact, sometimes hot girls decide to celebrate Valentine's Day by taking off their clothes and getting their pictures taken. You might say it's their way of giving the whole world a Valentine's Day gift... one we greatly, greatly appreciate.

· Valentine's Day Extravaganza (more @ popporn.com)

Now, we're not going to pretend that this list is in anyway definitive. First of all, it's based on Alexa rankings, which should always be taken with a very large grain of salt; secondly, it's not clear what, exactly, was used to determine a website's altness (God's Girls, which some might happily include in the genre, is nowhere to be seen on the list, despite having an Alexa ranking that trumps all but that of SuicideGirls—and don't even get us started on Zivity).

But, all that aside, we have this list, and so we might as well use it to tell you a bit about some of the world's foremost altporn sites. Who knows, you might just find your new favorite thing!

SuicideGirls: Though SuicideGirls was hardly the first alt site to hit the web, it was one of the first to garner massive amounts of attention. The combination of hot young tattooed girls, beautiful photography, fancy social networking tools, and some really slick marketing and branding all combined to make one hot site. Years of success have also meant years of drama, including a whole host of models who accuse SG of not treating them well. Some also argue that the focus on adding more and more models has diluted the site's quality (then again: nearly 2000 models!).

Burning Angel: The brainchild of Fleshbot Supreme Commandress Joanna Angel, Burning Angel brings all the best in sexy punk girls, hot hardcore vids, and all the online community you could want on a porn site. Also, Joanna Angel (nuff said, we should think).

Crazy Babe: Photographer Bob Coulter shoots just about every alt model you could ever hope to see naked, including more than a few who've earned the coveted Crush Object^TM title. However, all the photos are shot by Bob Coulter, who shoots in a dark, distinctive style. If you don't like his photos, you probably won't like the site.

Gothic Sluts: One of the first sites in the Blueblood Network, Gothic Sluts features goth girls... in the nude. Over the many years they've been in play, Forrest Black and Amelia G. have tapped some of the finest fetish models we know to appear in their work.

Lazerbunny: Along with Burning Angel, Lazerbunny is one of the few alt sites to break the hardcore barrier and go, you know, deeper. More than a few lovelies are featured on the pages of Lazerbunny, including, yes, the one and only Fleshbot Supreme Commandress Stoya, who was a Lazerbunny contract star in the days before Digital Playground snapped her up.

Broken Dollz: The founders of Broken Dollz wanted to make a porn site unlike any other—they ended up with one very much like all other alt sites. We'll forgive them that, however, as long as they continue to shoot hot models... naked.

Razor Dolls: Razor Dolls had photos, movies, softcore, hardcore, Stoya—and yet they haven't updated in over a year, so, uh, they might not be your first choice for new favorite thing.

Supercult: Though Supercult was one of the original alt sites, launching around the same time as Suicide Girls, it never quite rose to the same prominence as some of its siblings. However, now that alt legend Apnea is in the mix, perhaps that will change.

Erotique Digitale: A collection of photos by photographer Kelly Lind, who—like Bob Coulter—has attracted some of the finest models we know. Dana Dearmond, Jana Cova, Joanna Angel, and, yes, Stoya... need we say more?

No Fauxxx: Self-described as porn made by ladies, artists, and queers, No Fauxxx is a truly alternative "alt" site. Featuring every body and every gender, it's a porn site like no other. Or at least no other that we've seen.

· The AltPorn Top 10 Sites of All Time. #1 (lazerbunny.com)

· Photo by Bob Coulter (crazybabe.com)