Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, everybody loves smut. Trawling through Youtube, Xtube, Dudetube or whatever for sexy videos can be as arousing as it is tedious, not to mention embarrassing and kind of boring. So just like how I have come to rely on a roster of blogs with similar tastes to my own to sift through the endless streams of demo tapes (err MP3s) to pull out the most interesting new music I may or may not enjoy, I have come to rely on a number of sites that not only deliver smut I can enjoy, but do so in ways that are endlessly surprising and artful.
Brief Magazine‘s name is a pun both on briefs, the article of male clothing that is frequently displayed on its page, and also on the brevity with which it delivers its content. The site is basically an archive of images, and each time you visit the site (or obsessively hit refresh) it displays a random collection of uncredited images from the inventory. The collision of images aside one another is always amusing, whether it’s a grainy photo of Grace Jones singing on television next to a bunch of sweaty shirtless guys just finished running or a photograph of some humorous found text next to contemporary art. Sometimes approaching the sublime, it’s sort of a game of chance which region of your brain is aroused—the carnal or the lofty.
Guys with iPhones is equal parts hilarious, hot and depressing. I keep describing it to people as a sort of x-rated Everybody Poops, except instead of showing all different creatures large and small pooping, the website shows that every guy who owns an iPhone, whatever their ethnicity, social scene or sexual orientation, they will photograph themselves in various states of undress in front of the mirror.
Dickart is probably the most amazing website I’ve ever encountered. The least safe for work of the sites mentioned so far, it’s also the biggest crowd-pleaser. Animated gifs and MS Paint images sit astride vintage porn and contemporary art—the only unifying theme is, well, dicks. It is an incredibly simple idea done with elegance and humor, which manages to astonish and surprise me every day.