XRCO 2008
New Location, New Logo, Familiar Results
Complete XRCO 2008 Gallery
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XRCO 2008 was an ushering in of a new era in many ways. After moving to Hollywood last year, the show found a new home at Highlands nightclub on Hollywood Blvd. Nestled in the Kodak Theatre complex, home of the Oscars, Highlands was a great location for the event. More on that later. Let’s get there first.
I believe this is my sixth XRCO Awards in the seven or eight years that I have been a voting member. I’ve had some great times at these and one night I’d just as soon forget. I was scheduled to get there early for dinner with Mike John, Tim Von Swine and Allie Foster. We decided to meet up at Hamburger Hamlet for a burger and a beer. I was heading up Hollywood, making pretty good time when all of a sudden the cops have the street blocked off. No big deal since the parking structure was I looking for was accessible from a side street. I make the turn and head up the little street just south of Hollywood. It’s packed with pedestrians waiting in line for something. The two block drive took close to ten minutes because it was a free for all in the street. As I got close to the structure which is right across from the Roosevelt Hotel (which I believe was the location for one of my favorite animal rights debates) I saw a stage set up in the parking lot. The mob was milling about and waiting in line to see someone play. When I parked my car I found out that Def Leppard was playing there as part of the Jimmy Kimmel show. From where I was parked I could see the stage and part of me thought about hanging out and catching a free show before heading over to the XRCO Awards.
I walked out onto Hollywood and it was a mob scene there as well. Right across the street at Grauman’s Chinese was a line of limos, press and all the usual red carpet stuff. On my side of the street, the sidewalk was packed with onlookers. There was barely enough room for me to squeeze on by. To my surprise, Hamburger Hamlet was gone. In it’s place I found a suitable substitute though, a fine family eatery that goes by the name of Hooters. I waited inside, but the traffic created by this perfect storm of mainstream fun caused Mike to run late. Yeah, having a beer and watching the Celtics on TV at hooters is a pretty tough way to spend time, but I managed to make it through.
By the time Mike, Tim and Allie found a place to park, they were on the opposite side of Hollywood and would have had to bring Allie the long way around in her heels to get some chicken wings. Instead they had me head over to their side. There was a nice steak house not far from Highlands so we sat down outside, watched the line for the show and enjoyed a quick bite. I gave Mike his 2007 RogReviews Critic’s Choice trophies as well as one I had made for him five years ago for a movie he made while still at Diabolic. (Come to think of it I have Loni’s trophy still.) We watched the stars walk by and talked about the business while downing a couple of a beers, some split pea soup and delicious popcorn shrimp. If the steaks are as good at that place as the soup then I have to go back for a big ole slice of New York Steak.
We made our way up to the front door of Highlands and it was clear from the start that this was a different event than in past years. The red carpet area was nicely set up and there was a media room set up for more photos. Things were just as nice on the inside of the club. It was a spacious main room with lots of light, a fair amount of seating and two bars to keep the lines short. As is always the case, the music inside was way too loud. I’ve never quite understood why the music has to be blaring before an event. It was tough to hear, but with a beer in one hand, I did the best I could to catch up.
I ran into Bono first. He was predicting another good night for Bree Olson and Hillary Scott. Not much of a stretch there. Indeed it was a big night for both blondes and anyone who has seen their work knows why. I ran into Tom Byron and asked him about this newest Seasoned Players movie. It is an all star cast filled with legendary performers. I wasn’t sure if I had received a copy, but when I checked at home, I do have it so look for a review very soon.
Mark Wood was standing near the bar talking to Christian. It’s become a running joke that Mark has been Unsung at XRCO for so long that he’s now actually Sung. So when does he get a nod for Best Male Performer. I’ve met Christian twice now. I honestly don’t know why anyone would want to start a beef with this guy. He’s freaking huge.
I was distracted from my conversation by the lovely Aurora Snow. She’s been out of LA for a little while and looks fantastic. I met her friend for the second time. We originally met at XRCO five years ago when Aurora was supposed to be my date, had to shoot instead and showed up with this love brunette at her side. (That was a bad night my friends, bad on many levels.) Aurora is going to be doing some video blogging for the site and I am allowed to start bugging her for the first effort this weekend.
The Awards were hosted by Gina Lynn and Carmen Hart. They kicked the show off and seemed to keep it flowing pretty well. Like so many venues, Highlands has a sound system that works fine if you’re right in front of the stage, but as I drifted back to the bar for more beer it got difficult to hear.
Stormy Daniels was named “Mainstream Adult Favorite” beating out Tera Patrick and Ron Jeremy for the honor. “Upload” took home the award for “Most Outrageous DVD Extras.” I’m not quite sure what makes them outrageous. I gave the bonus package an A when I reviewed the movie. They are quite impressive, but the award isn’t for “best” it’s for “most outrageous.” I wonder if some of my fellow voters have seen some of the BTS clips on JM Productions movies. Some of that shit is just fucked up. You can’t take your eyes off of it.
More coming later including my introduction to my next future ex wife…..
XRCO Part 2
More Awards, Hotties at the Bar and Beer
After the first few awards I sat down with Wayne Hentai who was in a booth with Tommy Gunn and his girl Ashlynn Brooke. She really is gorgeous. There was also a great looking woman named Priya? Perhaps it was Priva, it was hard to hear. With my beer running low I made my way to the other side of the hall to listen to the next few awards. Kaylani Lei was named Best Comeback. Good choice there. Shyla and Monique probably gave her a run for her money, but it is hard to argue with Kaylani winning anything and everything. While I was standing back there I talked with Terry from TheFloatingWorld.com. We talked business for a while. I only see Terry at the events and we always talk about working together on projects. One of these days we’re going to follow through on that.
MILF of the Year went to Kylie Ireland. It’s pretty hard to argue against that pick. Kylie is still a star and not reserved to just MILF genre flicks. Alana Evans is another strong performer in the category and I enjoyed seeing Kelly Madison nominated. She’s a hottie who gets overlooked far too often. Hillary Scott, who won more trophies last year than anyone in the history of the XRCO Awards, took home the title as Orgasmic Analist. She’s tough to beat in just about any category but had some stiff competition. Jenna Haze denied Hillary a sweep by taking home Orgasmic Oralist this year. We all the love way Jenna sucks cock, but I was shocked that Annette Schwarz wasn’t on the list. No one sucks cock with better deep throat right now than Annette. (Mika Tan and Kimberly Kane are close though.)
With my drink empty, I headed back over to the bar to add another beer to the collection. I ran into Sunny Lane who was looking as cute as ever. She’s doing a new show with Wankus and asked if I would be interested in a call in review segment like we did when she was at KSEX. Of course I’m interested. I get to sit in my chair and talk on the phone about porn. Not a bad gig. While we were talking, Flower Tucci came up behind us. Ironically enough, I used to do a call in show with Flower when she was at KSEX. Personally I think that a show where I site between Sunny and Flower and just drool might be in order. While I was dreaming of sexual perversion, James Deen and Joanna Angel were taking home the award for Best On-Screen Chemistry. Another solid pick, though Shay Jordan and Scott Nails were tough competition in that one.
Dissed a bit for the oral award, Annette picked up her win as Superslut. That’s a great category for raincoater porn fans and Annette certainly earned it this year.
I was standing over near the bar when I was introduced to Rachel Milan and Maya Mason. They were incredibly charming and somehow in my drunken haze I got into a discussion of ethnic porn with these two hot babes. Maya is an interesting mix and gets labeled most often as black. Rachel is in every possible Latin line though she’s not even remotely Hispanic. So instead of snapping photos and enjoying two fun and eager future supersluts, I was busy discussing the unusual casting decisions in porn. (Yeah, someone kick me in the ass.) I did manage to get some pictures of Rachel with her sister Priscilla once we were able to pull sis away from her man Talon. There are a couple of pictures of the two women together that I think you will enjoy.
Back on stage, Bree Olson (Who STILL hadn’t emailed to get her RogReviews.com trophy) was picking up her award as Cream Dream. Like Hillary last year, Bree is collecting a whole bunch of awards and certainly worked hard for them. The single-performance acting awards weren’t exactly shockers. Randy Spears one for the 84th time for his role in Black Widow. Eva Angelina was great in Upload and she deserved to win for that fine performance.
Jules Jordan took three awards this year. Ass Worship took top honors as Best Gonzo Series and Flesh Hunter 10 was named Best Gonzo Release. Jules was named Best Director- Non Feature for his body of work. It’s still Jules Jordan‘s world and the rest of us are just living in it. Belladonna’s Fucking Girls 4 was named Best All-Girl release. In an interesting vote, InTERActive was named Best POV release. I loved InTERActive as an interactive movie, but POV Pervert 9 was my pick for best all sex movie of the year and it was a true POV release. Since there isn’t an interactive category it is nice to see this movie get recognized, but it was still an unusual choice.
Best Feature Director went to Stormy and Brad Armstrong. A tie for top honors is pretty rare. A tie between two companies who work for the same company is nearly unheard of. Neither of them were behind the camera for either Best Comedy, Best Epic or Best Release. One would think that they might score one of the three. Not the Brady’s XXX took home the award for Best Comedy. I’ll bet that was a close race with Operation Desert Stormy. Eli Cross’ Upload was named Best Epic while Digital Playground scored a bit win with Best Release doing to Babysitters.
Charles Dera was named New Stud and Bree Olson made it nearly a clean sweet by winning as New Starlet. I would love to have seen Shay Jordan sneak in there and get recognition, but Bree is a very solid choice. The Unsung awards went the Roxy DeVille and James Deen. Nice calls there. For Male and Female Performer of the year we got Evan Stone and Sasha Grey. With the nominees favoring feature guys over gonzo performers I was expecting to see Manuel Ferrara take the trophy. Sasha was strong and deserves a win as well. (Though Gianna still hasn’t won and that’s just a crime.)
After the awards were over I wandered around and ran into
I tore myself away from the lovely Asa to get some work done and to make sure she didn’t feel the need to file a restraining order. I found a quiet place and interviewed Ryder Skye. She is an interesting and beautiful young woman who calls herself a pro-porn feminists. She certainly has the intellectual chops to back that up. We had to address why she was absent early in the show. Due to present the first few awards, she didn’t make it on stage. Though Gianna filled in nicely, her absence was noticed. I tried to help her come up with some good excuses, but she kept insisting that she was just doing interviews and missed her call. By the end of the interview I think I got her leaning more towards a celebrity three way in the bathroom. That’s a much better porno answer.
Tim Von Swine was next for an interview. We have been talking about doing this for years and finally got it done. It was a quick interview, but he had plenty to say lashing out at a few people along the way. Tim is working with Mike John right now and has a lot to be happy about it. I’ll try to get both of these interviews up and ready to go soon.
Not wanting to finish my night with a dude, I grabbed a final beer and found Van Styles talking with my girl again. This time we got to chat a bit more. I found out that Asa is from Brooklyn and we talked for fifteen minutes or so about NYC. It’s been five years since I went back there to do Naked New York, but those two trips back there are among my favorites. I’m even more impressed with her than I was at first glance. Hopefully her first couple of movies will hit the shelves soon. In the meantime I have some nice photos for you to enjoy.
After the show, I headed over to Mel’s diner for a late night milkshake while everyone sobered up. I sat with Mark Davis, April Storm, Monstar, Mike Moz and a guy from Club Jenna. Mel’s makes great milk shakes and it was the perfect way to wrap up the night. Monstar and April among my oldest and closest friends in the industry and they did a great job on the XRCO Awards. I had never met Mike before and we had a good laugh over the fact that at one time his wife Stormy was convinced that I called her fat. (Never did, but it makes it fun to joke about now.) We all had a great time and finally broke things up about three am. I still had a nice drive home so I headed south and got home at around 4. Long, late night, but it was a great time. No drama just good friends, beautiful women, beer, great food and a few pictures. I hope you enjoyed this recap and the photos.
Complete XRCO 2008 Gallery
