Well bless my Star Wars! All that tassel twirling and shimmy-shimmy of burlesque, at times it seems you can't turn around with a eyeful of curves hitting you at full speed in this town. Not that I'm complaining. But I must admit, I've always been concerned – when do the sci-fi aficionados get  their very own night of burlesque beauties? One would think that more would follow in the steps of   LA's Devil's Playground, which performed a mind-busting strip down of C3PO and even Jabba the Hutt this spring. Disturbing? Hot? Both? Maybe I'm worrying too much -- but when does SF get a piece of that action? Leave it to Bombshell Betty to heed my heart-felt cry for our darling and economically life-affirming nerds (you know we're a cradle for Tech 2.0 or whatever, right?). Strutting the stage on a very special night at the Elbo Room (Tues/14) will be any number of ladies loving the heroes, the bad guys, the technology, the far-fetched cleavage of the sci-fi genre that you would think just begs for a little more spec-ta-ta-tacular exploitation. Oh wait. Lara Croft. Never mind.

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Two words to understand why sex at Burning Man requires some amount of pre-playa study: alkaline dust. You do not want the stuff getting in while you do, lemme tell ya. So it is a very, very nice thing that Pink, one of Mission Control's pansexy sex parties, is providing a primer on playa pussy (Fri/20). Subjects covered in the course? How to look for sexy in the barely clothed insta-city, tips for romping through the heat and psychedelia, and the importance of spray bottles when you're getting with that neon fur-clad bunny you met by the ice stand. Read more »

“Did you see the film? Are you one of the ones who thinks it was biased?” So begins my phone interview with Briggitte Berman, director of the new documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel. Her movie, (which Dennis Harvey will review in this week's SFBG) has been criticized for being an overly laudatory look at the life of the man who's sparked a thousand sexual hegemonies, though few would deny that Berman's put together an entertaining ride. But enough about cinematic merits. Did she get loose at the Playboy mansion while filming? What are those things like for a woman actually wearing clothes? Read more »

It's nice to see a couple of homegrown boys cinching their ties to their community. Dan and JD of Two Knotty Boys make some of the city's more evocative bondage scenes – scroll through the galleries on their website for various visions of unrestrained restrained beauty, like two Manic Panic red heads impelled by the boys' handiwork to assume an intimate “cuddle.” It's this kind of imaginative use of ropes – they also do a series of “decorative bondage” in which corsets, bras, panties, and even dresses are crafted onto models by tightly pulled knots and loops – that make them the perfect teachers of the art. Couples especially are invited to their class at Good Vibrations this week (Wed/11): just remember to bring your ropes and you're bound for inspiration.

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