They said this about VHS and Betamax and the Printed Word too

Every time somebody invents a new information storage, communication and presentation technology somebody decides that porn is a fitting content for the new technology.

And then straightaway somebody else comes along to tut-tut it.

And so it is with the video iPod.

A more fundamental issue might be whether people even want to see adult entertainment on tiny, two-inch video screens?

Ralph Whittington, a former curator at the Library of Congress dubbed "the king of porn" for amassing a carefully catalogued collection of adult magazines, videos and DVDs, said in a phone interview that he does not get the trend....

Sex columnist Regina Lynn, who writes for Wired.com, thinks cell phones and iPods could find a niche among viewers who are reluctant to download X-rated video clips on their desktop or laptop computer's hard drive.

"When I first heard about this, I thought it was a novelty, but I've changed my mind," she said. "I think that the porn industry will probably be pretty quick to figure out what works and sells for mobile devices."

As an ex-New Yorker, I'd always thought the king of porn was Al Goldstein, but evidently he's been dethroned....

Ex-porn king trades sex for salami at 2nd Ave. Deli

By Mary Reinholz

Al Goldstein, the once portly clown prince of who made a mint publishing outrageous raunch in Screw magazine for over more than three decades, said he is now broke, basically homeless and attending classes with “wife beaters” after being convicted of verbally harassing one of his four ex-wives. But Goldstein seems grateful for a new job he landed late last month in the East Village.

His title? He is a host at the 2nd Avenue Deli near 10th St., making $10 an hour for now and claiming that turning people on to the joys of chopped liver, gefilte fish and brisket of beef is far more pleasurable than selling the more decadent forms of cheesecake. His duties include greeting customers and showing them to their tables.

“I love it because I’ve always preferred food to sex,” said a slimmed-down Goldstein, 68, looking as somber as a banker in a dark thrift-shop suit during an interview at the iconic kosher eatery where he also works as a salesman for its catering services. “It doesn’t tell me I’m not big enough. It doesn’t take my house and it doesn’t take a testicle. So for me, as I walk by windows of foods, it’s better than being in a topless club. But I have to watch it,” he added, noting he shed 150 pounds via a stomach stapling operation last year and has to fight a “homosexual relationship with Ben and Jerry’s” ice cream.

Goldstein claims that Screw folded last year “because the Internet will give you all the porn you want” and subsequently lost his Florida mansion in bankruptcy proceedings, forcing him into the streets. He said he walked into the 2nd Avenue Deli with a hungry camera crew who had filmed him at a homeless shelter on W. 23 St. There he spoke to Jack Lebewohl, who has run the deli for the last nine years, ever since the unsolved 1996 murder of his older Abe, who had been a longtime crony of Goldstein’s.

There's a lesson here...

technorati tags: Al Goldstein, video iPod, iPod, porn