Scott Tobias tries to balance the fact that “Showgirls” was an embarrassment and a disaster with the fact that he enjoyed watching it.

And isn’t coping with that kind of pickle one of the fun things about being a film — let alone an erotica — fan? What if, after all, what you really enjoy is something that your taste-brain has no respect for? Does that land you in a bit of trouble or in a bit of fun?

Not only is The Bindlestiff Cirkus one of the last touring Vaudeville shows in America, they’re also one of the weirdest. (read: best.) The new reality web series The Bindlestiffs follows Cirkus-founders Stephanie Monseu and Keith Nelson and their motley troupe as they struggle to keep this uniquely American dream alive. It’s no secret that we of THE FOLD are big fans of Burlesque, and many of our stars, including Julie Atlas Muz, Ambrose Martos, and Josh Matthews, have crossed paths with the Bindlestiffs over the course of their careers.

The series, produced by M.J. Loheed, does a nice job of balancing the nitty-gritty struggles of keeping the Cirkus business afloat, and the sexy glamour of things like riding motorcycles across a high-wire. The romantic personalities of subjects Stephanie and Keith don’t hurt either.

We of THE FOLD being huge fans of big bang for little bucks, I found this video (stumbled upon at webtvhub.com) showing 3 graphic designers recreating the D-Day beach-storming to be absolutely fascinating. It shows an impressively comprehensive time-lapsed process of Richard Hammond and company gathering the necessary video elements over the course of four days, everything from greenscreening bursting sand to filming the same three actors sprinting across the beach again and again and again. The resulting scene looks great!

“A stash of explicit pornography to which Franz Kafka subscribed has emerged for the first time after being studiously ignored by scholars anxious to preserve the iconic writer’s saintly image.”

Which I guess shouldn’t come as a shocker or anything.  But it was reassuring at least to read that Franz’s tastes in erotica were appropriately un-vanilla: “They are undoubtedly porn, pure and simple. Some of it is quite dark, with animals committing fellatio and girl-on-girl action…”

I expect nothing less from such an interesting artist, though I am kind of fascinated with how graphic the pornography that got made in 1908 was.  I was just working on a National Lampoon film that required us stitching scenes together from an impressive library of old footage, included in which was the oldest stag film still known to be in existence, also from  1908, and I gotta tell you - it’s exactly like every other porno you’ve ever watched, and just as graphic.  (I thought that perhaps the edge would be dulled by simply reading “More… More!!…MORE!!!” on a silent film title card instead of hearing it shouted out loud, but nope, still filthy.)

Read all about Kafka’s, ahem, “strongly visual imagination” in Excavating Kafka, a new book by James Hawes, and keep watching what are undoubtedly very close approximations of Kafka’s kinky fantasies right here at thefold.tv.

Most viewers of “The Fold” will recognize that we luvvvv arty-sexy films from the ’60s and ’70s. But the soundtrack of the era is great too. If you’re fond of it, or you want to get to know it, there’s no better way than to visit Brianiac’s brilliant blog Sleazy Listening. Loads of great images and posters too.

Enjoy! We suspect you will.