A reader of the blog recently sent me a link to Artificial Girl 2, a Japanese 3-D erotic simulation game starring a "fully customizable" young Asian girl accompanying the player on a virtual island. The game's goal is to help her finish her math homework before Monday's class.
Just kidding!
Too bad it doesn't come in a multiplayer edition :)
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
I became an avid Firefly fan after reading about the canceled TV show on the Business Summit Blog. In that entry, Teresa mentions I remind her of Inara Serra, the sci-fi show's high class courtesan (Thanks Teresa!)
Firefly was a well written, edgy and fun space western. It made it to the big screen with the release of full feature film Serenity. You can still purchase individual episodes on iTunes and Amazon.com
Enjoy the clip! Now I can go back waiting for the new season of Battlestar Galactica :)
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
Recently, a US-based women’s magazine syndicated a year old interview I gave to the UK Sunday Times. I received several dozen emails from women who are attracted to the perceived lifestyle of high-end escorts but approach the whole subject with an incredible naïveté:
(unedited text from emails I received included below)
"Lara, I'd love to learn the art of becoming a courtesan… I'm 42 yrs old, not beautiful and not educated. "
"I would like to know how to get into being a cortesan. If you would like to inform me I would be greatly indebted. Thank you so much."
I am sorry to burst your bubble. There are a handful of well known women providing high end companionship in the US and Europe at very high rates. They worked hard to achieve that status (typically several years) and made a lot of personal sacrifices along the way. The magazines don’t like to focus on the "sacrifice" part. It's not as sexy. Don’t let that fool you.
Today, for every legitimate online "modern day Courtesan", there are several dozen [otherwise smart] women chasing an illusion and setting up web sites hoping to magically attract clients willing to pay their fees. It doesn’t happen. It is sad.
The moral of the story is… Don’t try this at home!
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Reality ;)
I recently gave an interview to one of the major British newspapers, The Independent on Sunday. The article focused on the relationship and personal aspects of being a companion. It was based on a phone conversation I had with the journalist and was unedited. I hope it will help dispel some myths about the high-end escort lifestyle.
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
I was catching up on administrative stuff and looking at my server logs the other day (something I usually do on a monthly basis) when I noticed the following referral from Google:
People who like sushi tend to enjoy oral sex
I wonder why Jet Set Blog comes on top. I guess there are no more secrets in this world ;)
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
I recently joked about moving to Asia in search of an ideal lover calligrapher. Turns out I’ve had several Asian lovers in my life (and that's not even counting female lovers). I am not sure if this indicates a secret attraction to Asians on my part or if Asian men are simply more persistent in pursuing me. Hmmm, maybe I'll be able to finally make sense of this – or further confuse the situation – on my next trip to Tokyo this fall. I may even attempt a brief visit to Hong Kong, Shanghai and/or Seoul. Stay tuned!
Anyway, I recently dined at Matsuri in Chelsea, on the basement of the Maritime hotel, and very much enjoyed the sushi there. Hiro's, the Japanese themed club, is right across the door if you have a taste for overpriced sake. The "other" room at Hiro's can be quite fun on certain nights btw (but definitely not on the weekends). Lovers of sake would also appreciate the selection at San Francisco's Ozumo.
At Matsuri, the space has a cavernous f
eel and is decorated with Japanese calligraphy-painted lanterns suspended from the ceiling. I also enjoyed the artistic presentation of the plates (the picture doesn’t do justice because of the low light conditions)
Matsuri
369 W. 16th Street (in the Maritime Hotel), New York
Tel: (212) 243-6400
Open Sunday-Wednesday, 6 PM to midnight; Thursday-Saturday, 6 PM to 1 AM
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
Emily, my Scandinavian friend who I see about once a month, came to NYC the other day for a photo shoot. I picked her up from JFK and we joined my former lover, a young British playboy, for lunch at Café des Artistes while enjoying the Howard Chandler Christy murals of playful naked nymphs.
Emily and I stayed at 60 Thompson, a trendy Soho hotel that is somewhat overrated but has a happening rooftop lounge (as long as you remember to avoid the Saturday night bridge and tunnel crowd)
I managed to take a couple of pictures for the blog.
Surprisingly, we were well behaved this time around. There was no iPod scandal and no flirting with men from the hotel staff ;) Let me scratch that, we were well behaved until a morning conference call I completely forgot about. I ended spicing things up by using the mute function every now and then while focusing my attention on Emily... It gives the word "multitasking" a whole new meaning. And makes conference calls a lot more fun!
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
Café des Artistes
1 West 67th St (near Central Park West)
(212) 877-3500
Perhaps I should move to Asia? The image on the left is from one of my favorite movies, Peter Greenaway’s “The Pillow Book”, with a young, bisexual Ewan McGregor (well endowed guy btw) and Vivian Wu.
Ok, I admit I don’t really have a body calligraphy fetish, but the idea always turned me on. So I recently bought a new ink. A chocolate flavored one to be exact. Haven’t tried it yet, but the weekend is only days away…
What do you think, am I in a position to preach clean living? ;)
Quote: (McGregor) Use my body like the pages of a book. Of your book.
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;)
Once in a while I find myself in unusual or strange situations… Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
I was staying at a (supposedly) trendy NYC hotel the other day, sharing the bed with Emily, a friend from Scandinavia who works as a model in London.
There is a romantic component to our relationship but we only get to see each other about once a month. As you can imagine, our encounters are quite passionate and we tend to stay naked in the room…
The hotel’s CD selection was awful, elevator music meets soft porn soundtrack. I wanted to use my iPod but lacked a base station or appropriate cable to connect to the room’s Bose entertainment system.
My partner suggested I call the front desk. To my surprise, the hotel had Bose iPod stations for use by the hotel’s guests.
Within five minutes someone knocked on our door. I joked I was going to open the door naked. My partner went “Yeah, right!”
Well, I was in a playful mood that evening and much to my own surprise I did exactly what I said I was going to do...
The following is the conversation that ensued between the hotel employee (let’s call him Max), Emily and me, as best as I can recollect it.
Something I recently read elsewhere triggered a memory and I decided to share the following story with the readers of the blog.
A while back, I was offered by a very special someone to accompany him as a couple to an island resort that had a selection of Eastern European girls. The setting was a villa, a pool, and several young, beautiful women. He told me it used to be a popular destination for Wall St. types during the stock market bubble and most of the girls actually enjoyed working there. It was supposed to be a gift to me since he already knew I appreciate other attractive women. Just don't ask me how he knew that ;-)
I didn't go. I was turned off by the whole idea. Not because of some moral or exploitation reason, but because there was no challenge. The notion that girls I knew nothing about, had never seen, or communicated with, were ready and willing to please us in all sorts of ways was a complete turn off to me. The whole thing was just too easy.
It didn't occur to me until much later that most of the individuals I've met through this site actually share a similar "challenge" philosophy and mindset. This incident helped me gain a unique perspective into that mindset.
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure (TM) ;)
As part of the evolution of this blog towards bigger and better things I decided to start opening up Jet Set Blog to a handful of outside contributors. Some of them are friends, others are lovers. Their experiences and backgrounds are radically different: entrepreneurs, journalists, bloggers, authors and international playboys.
Sigmund Fuller, or Sig for short, is a "homeless" entrepreneur who maintains an autobiographical blog on "Opinions and Adventures on Sex and Relationships". Destiny brought us together a while back and although we now live in different continents, I will be publishing some of his posts here (with his permission of course!) as well as some fresh contributions.
Stay tuned!
Jet Set Lara, exploring the Science of Pleasure ;) (TM)
A reader of the blog shared a funny story with me the other night after reading the "Playing with roses" post. Turns out he had a female friend in college whose obsessed boyfriend kept on sending her a dozen roses a day... Until she began making rose jam out of them and serving them to his friends :)
I have always translated my fantasies into reality although sometimes that's easier said than done. My recent post about the mile-high club induced a memory flashback.
A few years ago, before my "Lara" days, I was on a transatlantic flight from JFK to London. I was seating next to a very handsome young man from Italy (maybe he was 21, but I doubt it). He was traveling with his father heading back to Milan. He only spoke basic english, but we started chatting and I was subtly flirting with him. Transatlantic flights bore me to death and I found our interaction entertaining, at least for a little while. At some point during the flight I observed that the aircraft had an unusually large bathroom, maybe 2-3 times the size of regular airplane bathrooms.
When I returned to my seat, I noticed that the young man's father was temporarily gone. I took the opportunity to write a little note to my Italian friend:
Do you know what the mile-high club is? Would you like to join?
I managed to overcome my shyness and gave him the note. He read it and was clearly confused. Turns out he didn't know what the mile-high club was. I refused to explain. But he kept the note. I've always wondered what he thought once he went back to Italy and discovered its meaning...
Regular readers know that this blog does not contain any adult content. The site is safe enough to browse from work and tends to focus on travel, various aspects of epicurean life as well as some autobiographical stories.
Nevertheless, talking about pleasure on last week's "The Homeless clients" post, reminded me of a sensual experience I had not so long ago in a city far, far away... It's a true story, although I've changed some minor details.
I've always loved roses, particularly the dark red ones. I love it when a client orders a bouquet of roses and leaves a nice note inside the limo when the driver comes to pick me up from the airport. However, this is not what this post is about.
For obvious reasons, I never talk about specific clients on my blog. However, I can share with you general information about the types of men I encounter and travel with. Particularly when their profile defies conventional norms.
It may shock you to discover that about a third of my clients are essentially homeless. That's right! They don't have a stable residence. No girlfriend or wife either. They roam around the country and the globe for business accumulating large amounts of wealth in the process. They are in their 30s to early 40s and are highly intelligent, driven and successful. Women are attracted to them but very few can actually handle their lifestyle. We become lovers and friends, respecting each other's independence in the process.
You are on business travel. You had a long day full of meetings with angry clients. You have a couple of drinks at the bar and head to relax in the privacy of your hotel room. You turn on the TV and within seconds you gravitate towards the adult entertainment channel. You enjoyed the preview, you've seen that blonde before, and decide to order the movie using the hotel's digital system supplied by a large entertainment conglomerate...
Well, a very reliable source shared something hilarious with me: in today's digital world the length of time you watch porn is measured, anonymized, and becomes part of a statistical distribution. Ever wondered what the average time watching hotel porn is?
You guessed right, it's about 7 minutes :)
I always knew men were easy to please. But I never imagined it was that easy!
What makes a face beautiful? We are all familiar with fundamental characteristics such as facial symmetry, youthful and healthy appearance, etc. Martin Gruendl at the University of Regensburg in Germany performed a study a few years back that decomposed beauty into much more specific elements by creating "virtual supermodels” based on people’s perception of beauty.
Continue reading "Beauty, Virtual Supermodels and Social Perception" »
An anonymous reader left a provocative comment the other day that went unnoticed on the old blog entry about "Brainy women and marriage". His comment might appear one-sided, but I believe it merits discussion:
"A lot of women are not at all attracted to and simply won't consider men who don't make more than they do, or who aren't smarter than they are (however you want to define that), or even aren't taller. In my opinion, this does more to skew mating, than does the supposed male taste for stupid or pliable women."
Frankly, I have found the following to be true even in the dating world and it's one of the reasons I generally don't date. However, it might simply represent the fact that intelligent women are more career focused and/or more independent. I wonder if there is a similar study examining the effect of a successful and demanding career on long term relationships and marriage.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
More women! (be careful though because at some point it can have the exact opposite effect and act as an instant turn off)
Anyway, this one made it to the New York Times almost two months ago but I missed it until recently: a dating service called WingWomen. And before you start yawning, let me say it's not your usual dating service. It employs attractive and social "WingWomen" who accompany single men to many of the city's trendy spots. The "WingWoman" then actively tries to initiate a conversation with that hot girl across the bar, without revealing she was technically "hired"...
I can see why it could work because I've helped several male friends over the years meet an attractive woman in social settings. In general, women tend to lower their defensive reflex when approached by another female, particularly one perceived as attractive, intelligent and warm.
Of course, sometimes I was the one who ended-up sleeping with her:) I never planned it that way though, I swear!
If any of you have already tried the service in New York, I'd be curious to hear your experiences or success stories. Don't be shy, share with the rest of us!
Imported comments from my old livejournal blog:
From: (Anonymous)
Date: December 1st, 2004 - 03:15 pm
Wing Women
Wow. I would hire them without a moment's hesitation! Just to have someone who understands the concept and isn't offended by the fact that she's not your first choice! I wonder if they've any plans to franchise the concept ...
-G
From: Jet Set Lara; Date: December 1st, 2004 - 06:41 pm
They actually mention franchising on their site but without giving any further info. It's not clear to me how much they can offer beyond the name. Interested in a Bay Area one? :)
Lara
From: (Anonymous)
Date: December 31st, 2004 - 12:49 am
The thing I wondered is ...
Don't the guys who have this service have any female friends?
From: Jet Set Lara;
Date: January 2nd, 2005 - 03:31 pm
Re: The thing I wondered is ...
I assume it's mostly useful to people who are new to the city and might be a bit shy.
Lara
I've been familiar with the work of Andrew Blake
for many years and always appreciated it for its high degree of
eroticism, shameless hedonism and sensuality. I recently finally
ordered one of his DVDs, HardEdge, and although a bit too
fetishistic at times for my taste, I loved it... And he always picks
amazing locations for his films! Most of HardEdge was filmed at an old
mansion in Paris.
I believe sometime in the near future he will be widely accepted to represent for erotic cinematography what Helmut Newton represented for photography.
I have no affiliation with Andrew Blake and do not benefit from his work.
The Jet Set Lara blog recently received a quality and original rating from Jane's Guide in the category words/adult journals.
Thank you Jane!
A reader of the blog sent me a humorous email on what could become the next generation speed dating phenomenon... Please be aware that it contains language that some people might find offensive. I am not quite sure where the original post came from, but I made a few edits and I am presenting it here.
Enjoy!
You've heard of Speed Dating many times. Where you meet and greet people of the opposite sex to see if there's a connection. More frequently than not, it's just a one time date.
Well, we're a little different. We got our own innovative idea called Speed Fucking. Yes, that's right! We realized that most people in the Speed Dating scene are really looking for a Speedy Fuck. I mean, why waste your time getting to know a person, take her or him out to dinner and not be able to have sex afterwards?
This is how Speed Fucking works:
1. We have equal amounts of women and men
2. All you have to do is introduce yourself and indicate if you find each other attractive. You two will then head to the back room for a quickie. Yes, that's right! You two go inside the room and do your thing
3. You only get 20 minutes inside the room, others are waiting
4. After the two of you are done, you can then exchange phone numbers if you like
Wow! It gives a whole new meaning to the word "efficiency".
Imported comments from my old livejournal blog:
From: ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sigmundfuller
Date: October 23rd, 2004 - 09:01 am
Step three
20 minutes isn't enough! If I take too long, can I just go through the line of female partners until I'm done? :)
From: Jet Set Lara;
Date: October 25th, 2004 - 10:49 pm
Re: Step three
I think what you just described is the shareware version:)
You've got to love modern language. There is an abbreviation for everything. "John is MIA tonight" (Missing In Action), "Beautiful girl, but total JAP" (Jewish American Princess). Give it another 30 years and we'll all be talking in code.
There are abbreviations even for not-so-abbreviated relationships: "I've spent most of my adult life in LTRs" (Long Term Relationships), "We had an LDR and she ended-up leaving me for someone else" (Long Distance Relationship).
So I felt compelled to invent yet another abbreviation based on personal past experiences and observations: Welcome to the world of VDRs, the "Variable Distance Relationships".
It's the state of affairs where both partners are mobile and separated by distance. As crazy as it may sound, my thesis is it's a more stable state than the traditional long distance relationship. This may be due to the fact that an LDR is generally a static situation (Mary is in New York, John in LA) and sooner or later tensions arise (ie John meets a starlet, Mary is seduced by a cover girl), whereas a VDR is closer to what a scientist would describe as a dynamic state of equilibrium, a permanent state of imbalance that somehow, almost miraculously, balances itself out...
Of course, maybe the type of individuals who would engage in VDRs are somewhat unusual (or crazy) to begin with, naturally balancing independence, growth and intimacy. On the practical side, they also tend to be addicted to their wireless PDAs, instant messaging, and mobile web cams to satisfy their communication and voyeuristic needs...
Just don't ask me how I know all this:) But expect to see them on a Nokia commercial one day.
Imported comments from my old livejournal blog:
From: (Anonymous)
Date: October 16th, 2004 - 05:10 pm
Great acronym!
"Hey, we've been a VDR for 5 1/2 years," I said to my significant other. "Who knew?"
'Dynamic equilibrium' is a really good description, and while I don't know if we naturally balance independence, growth, and intimacy ... we consciously work on it, and there's no question that it's one of the big benefits. I point out to people that it also means that we keep our weekends free to hang out with each other -- you'd think this could be accomplished while living in the same state, the same house even, but it didn't happen very often during the first 12+ years we lived together, and happens most of the time now, so it might be more than a coincidence.
One of the things that we really notice is that we really look forward to seeing each other; and at the end of a weekend, we're usually disappointed when one or the other of us has to leave ... that's a good thing.
From: sigmundfuller
Date: October 23rd, 2004 - 08:59 am
It can work ...if the main goal is to keep things exciting and unboring. But is that enough to keep it going...?
From: Jet Set Lara; Date: November 25th, 2004 - 10:48 am
A healthy relationship is able to evolve beyond excitement. When you are comfortable with someone even in moments of silence or inertia, you know there is something of substance there.
A friend recently told me this story about a relationship he had. Everything was going very well until one day the woman asked him for "M&C".
So he told her, "I know what the C stands for, its Commitment" and "the M must be Marriage, and that's no problem, we can get married". Then she broke the news: M was for Monogamy.
Well, that was the end of that relationship!
Recent Comments