Robert Rosen

Why am I going off here every day about Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and his call for more vigorous prosecution of pornographers? Well, aside from the fact that he once employed a woman who became a porn star, his call for the vigorous prosecution of pornographers is a classic sign of deep-seeded political corruption. It’s like a cry for help or a symptom of a terminal disease.

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” Samuel Johnson said over 200 years ago. Today, prosecuting pornography is the last refuge of the doomed politician. Just ask Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Edwin Meese, Charles Keating, and Alberto Gonzales. Or read all about it in Beaver Street.

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I will let the Honorable Orrin Hatch, Utah's senior senator and former employer of porn star Missy Manners, aka Elisa Florez, speak for himself.

Now that's the kind of headline I'd like to see on the front page of the New York Times or at least the National Enquirer. If you've been following this blog, then you know I'm talking about the Honorable Orrin Hatch and his former aide Elisa Florez, aka Missy Manners, star of the XXX-rated film Behind the Green Door: The Sequel. And I'm hardly the only writer who's skeptical of Hatch and his 41 anti-porn colleagues. Check out this piece from Time. Read More 

Orrin Hatch of Utah is one of the leaders of the pack of senators calling for vigorous pornography prosecutions. I mentioned him in Beaver Street because his former aide Elisa Florez is “Missy Manners,” who starred in the Mitchell Brothers' XXX film Behind the Green Door: The Sequel (1986). Check out her photo here. Read More 

On the 25th anniversary of the Meese Commission and the Traci Lords scandal, 42 senators are demanding the Justice Department vigorously prosecute pornographers. This is one of the stories at the heart of Beaver Street. Every time conservatives come to power, they do the same thing, and it plays out the same way: The anti-porn warriors are exposed as criminals, and resign in disgrace.  Read More 

In the third part of my chat with Kate Copstick and Jamie Maclean of the Erotic Review, we discuss the collapse of pornography as a viable business. And as we continue to wait for the online booksellers to replenish their stocks, please order Beaver Street directly from Headpress. Read More 

Here's the second part of my chat with Kate Copstick and Jamie Maclean, in which I discuss working on both sides of the camera in the adult entertainment industry. You can order Beaver Street directly from Headpress as we await the online booksellers to replenish their stocks. Read More 

Beaver Street, my first book in 11 years, has been published today in the UK and already it's sold out on Amazon. But copies are still available directly from Headpress. Click here to order. And check out this very British interview with Kate Copstick and Jamie Maclean of the Erotic Review. Read More 

Beaver Street is being published tomorrow in the UK. It's my first book in 11 years and who knows how long it's going to be till the next one. I've launched a Beaver Street page on Facebook. You know how it works. Click here and show a little Beaver love. Read More 

Check out a Headpress slideshow of images and outtakes from the Beaver Street photo section, as well a couple of shots we considered "too hot" to publish in a mainstream book.

I've returned from a month of promoting Beaver Street and Nowhere Man in England and Italy. Click here to watch part one of my interview with Kate Copstick and Jamie Maclean of the Erotic Review.

Paul Slimak and Agnes Herrmann have graciously shot another Beaver Street promo video. Paul is a character in the book; I call him Henry Dorfman. He's a professional actor who specializes in playing Nazis. Agnes is also a professional actor and voice-over specialist. She's appeared in such films as The Road. Thank you Paul and Agnes!

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Sean Moncrieff, host of Moncrieff! on Newstalk Radio Ireland, was quite taken with the names of some of the porn stars I mention in Beaver Street. “They’re like superheroes,” he said of Deena Duo, Pandora Peaks, and Busty Dusty. But his favorite porn star was Auntie Climax, so christened by Izzy Singer, editor of For Adults Only magazine.

Singer was tickled pink to hear that a name he’d dreamed up decades ago was being discussed on an Irish radio show. “I was standing in the middle of Eighth Avenue, crossing the street, when it popped into my head,” he said.

“You never know when the Muse will speak,” I told him.

“Yes, lad,” he replied in an Irish brogue, “but she wouldn’ta given me such a lastin’ jewel had I not been supplicatin’ meself at her door for seven days and seven nights!” Read More 

My Beaver Street interview on Moncrieff! on Newstalk Radio Ireland is now archived. Click here to listen. It begins at 5:30 on part 4, Thursday, February 17.

Did my first official Beaver Street interview this morning--the Moncrieff show on Newstalk Radio Ireland. Would have posted the link here had my internet not been down. (Thank you, Time Warner.) If you'd like to read more about the book and my upcoming UK tour, check out The Macwire. Read More 

The first Beaver Street review has been posted on many sites, and it's enthusiastic. Here's the one from the Seattle PI. One small step for the literary insurgency.

Beaver Street: A History of Modern Pornography, scheduled to be published next month by Headpress, is mentioned in "Hot Type" in the February issue of Vanity Fair UK.

Here's the original English of La vida inconclusa de John Lennon, that ran in Proceso magazine.

So there we were 30 years later, onstage at Purchase College, just north of New York City, a panel of rock ’n’ roll experts and assorted journalists who’d all lived through the events of that ancient day: December 8, 1980. We’d been invited to share our wisdom with a group of journalism students who were exploring “The Myth vs. the Reality of John Lennon.” The students were full of questions. They wanted to know about Lennon’s heroin use, and about his sons, Julian and Sean. But mostly they wanted to hear our stories about what we were doing the night we heard the news that John Lennon was dead. Read More 

My story about the meaning of John Lennon 30 years after his death, La vida inconclusa de John Lennon, is now available online en español in Proceso. I'll post the original English here in a few days.

I'm riding in a minivan with Ron Jeremy and Seka. Jeremy's driving, I'm in the passenger seat, Seka's sitting behind us. I ask Jeremy if he'll give me a blurb for Beaver Street. "You talk too much," Jeremy says.

If you’ve ever googled me, you may have come across the website of a prolific conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier who’s implicated me in John Lennon’s murder. This has been going on for years and I’ve ignored it because…it’s insane. (Though I do take some comfort in the fact that Stephen King, too, has his own personal conspiracy theorist who’s implicated him in Lennon’s murder.) But now I’d like to bring your attention to a piece I found yesterday that satirizes the top three Lennon murder conspiracy theories, including the one that implicates me. When your conspiracy theories are reduced to satirical grist, the game, at last, is over. Read More 

As always on days like this they let me speak my mind in Latin America. This interview is from the Chilean paper La Tercera.

Tonight, at midnight NY time (11 PM in Mexico) there's a special radio program about my Lennon bio Nowhere Man (en español). You can listen live by clicking here, or if you're in Mexico City you can listen on the radio on 96.1 FM. The program's called Radio Etiopia and it's free-form radio the way it used to be. Lot's of Lennon and Beatles music, which is the same in any language. Read More 

For those who've been asking how the John Lennon panel at Purchase College went the other day, I offer this Twitter post from Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book Is Overdue and The Dead Beat: Incredible stories of Lennon's assassination (Bob Christgau's word), but Robert Rosen gave chills describing how he heard the news. Read More 

I've posted on my home page the long awaited Beaver Street cover. Click here to check it out. Bound galleys are now available for the media. Please e-mail your request.

Would you believe I'm 118 across in the LA Times crossword today? Click on "Featured Puzzle" for November 28.

I've posted the Beaver Street Prologue here. I hope this will entice some of you to pre-order the book and those of you in the media to request an advance reader's galley, which will be available by the end of the month. (PDF galleys are available now.) A special note to any readers from Brooklyn: The Prologue opens in my father's candy store on Church Avenue, in 1961. Read More 

I make a recommendation to Karen Lillis, a very friendly and supportive reader.

I'm making a rare local appearance on this John Lennon panel. Hope to see some of you there.

If you’ve watched any of the Beaver Street videos on my home page, you may have wondered about the actor who plays Erich von Pauli. His name is Paul Slimak and he’s a character in the book. If he looks familiar, that’s probably because you remember him from his appearance as the Weeping Nazi on the premier episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. With the second (or is it third?) coming of Conan imminent, von Pauli has written an open letter to Conan, asking him to allow the Weeping Nazi to return and contribute to the launching of his “new comedy Reich.” You can read von Pauli’s letter here.

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