El Corruptor
YouTube is fixated: Kevin’s Personal Hell
Although hot guys working out is an established genre in the current world of content, it usually follows certain rules of lightning, sound, hooks, and duration that are expected of videos to be engaging on social media. So, when our YouTube algorithm went on one of its fixations with Kevin’s Personal Hell, a handsome guy showing himself doing one exercise, with overhead lighting, no intention to explain or educate, in the most arid and straight-decorated space, we were drawn to it.
There is a lot to unpack here, literally. Considering the prevailing ideas in what people call the ‘manosphere’, we are aware that the main reason Kevin’s channel gets traction in the algorithm is that he fulfills the beauty standards of what is considered a masculine body. Yet, there is an unpretentious way to show off, to present himself as an object of desire, that reminds us more of the beefcake models in the 60’s photos, than the super-efficient, enhanced social media fitness model. We might be intentionally ignoring the problematic side here, but we are trying to say that maybe guys in general should show themselves more and enjoy their bodies, regarding shape or a clear goal??
Our favorite video is the watermelon challenge. We’ve seen an increasing amount -especially in some subgenres of porn- of videos that bring us back to our Art School days. Things that can perfectly be video art or a performance (or are already art). We can see it being displayed on a small screen, to make it more voyeuristic, on a wall of a huge, dark gallery room. Also, the channel is called Kevin’s Personal Hell; it cannot be more Sisyphean!
Versions of the same song
We’ve never been big fans of the 80’s; for us, it’s the decade when things stopped being fun. Yet this Raf song has been playing on repeat at El Corruptor HQ. Watching the AI retouched version of Baningna’s video, directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), we can see some charm in it… which, again, is not a good sign of our current time. You don’t want to romanticize the 80s!
We are tired
We are tired. Tired of things we should not do. Of the products that do not sell. Of the mistakes that make our art worse. The recipes that are damaging our cooking. The movements that keep our asses flat or the strategies that will finally move our career forward. Tired of the flood of experts that, even in the isolation of our basement Headquarters, manage to shout at us, through thumbnails and catchy titles, the thing we should be doing with our time instead. In a world that is becoming increasingly complex, we are fed up with being the only ones who do not have a grasp of it, still missing a chance to make a profit.
We are tired of the salesy feeling of the internet. In a moment when everybody is an expert, we kind of miss when people were stupid, and their online presence was limited to posting their hobbies and the food they ate. Yes, we miss food photos. But those times are long gone, and now everybody has a Domestika course, is an online movie critic, and has fully transformed their hobbies into side hustles or freelance careers. And between the video hooks and clickbaiting titles, we just find a constant reflux of the same sources, methods, and ideas more diluted with every cycle, which makes us wonder: if everybody knows about marketing, where is the value? How many people do we still need to teach us how to be a full-time artist, draw from imagination, or invest? How many excruciating times do we need to hear about the Pomodoro technique, Atomic Habits, or Rick Rubin?
It might be our corner of the internet, but it was a feeling that began with OnlyFans videos. We grew up watching amateur porn on xtube, where people use the cameras they have access to show us a bit of their sex life for free. Sometimes you find someone with a profile that documents their horny adventures, and you will binge on their videos with a mix of jealousy and voyeurism. You would follow them to that house party, that toilet stall; there was a storyline, and you rooted for them. But all that is disappearing with OnlyFans, where you can actually feel the labour of the creators and tell that it might be the second of five collabs that person has that week. We don’t find labour sexy.
While the rest of the world’s expertise grows, our ignorance deepens with inefficiency that hits our profitability. We are not nostalgic people, but we wish someone would bring some sense of fun again, cutting the noise and guiding us on a trip where we can actually learn something -hopefully soon- before we are expected to profit from all aspects of life and record it on video as proof. Behind the glut of guides and opinions, there should be someone tired, lost, and inefficient; we cannot be the only ones.
YouTube is fixated: Rushing On Empty
Now and then, our YouTube account dives into a run of recommended videos about oddly specific topics, things we never asked for, yet make perfect sense for us. Here, we celebrate YouTube’s fixations. On this occasion: Rushing On Empty, a two-lads channel dedicated to exploring different ways to do poppers.
It might be that we clicked on one of their videos that circulates around poppers subreddits, where they are the canonical reference for how to do the sock method, but since then, YouTube insists that we must keep up to date with whatever pseudo-scientific experiment to enhance the huffing experience they do. As YouTube educated people, this is the type of educational material we need in these dark times!
We only wish they would do actual poppers reviews. Tell us about the body, the notes, the aftertaste! With the inconsistency from batch to batch of poppers, we understand it is kind of a useless thing to do. Yet, we still believe a poppers influencer is a gap in the content landscape.
So, thank you YouTube for showing the type of videos one would make after thoroughly roasting their brain with poppers.
The Darkroom Review: Erotheek Schiedam
Welcome to The Darkroom Review, the section of the blog where we talk about the things we’ve seen at the places where you can’t see much. Today, we feature our local darkroom, a venue that is quite bright because it is the biggest XXX cinema in the Netherlands: Erotheek Schiedam.
While gay life in Rotterdam has been in intensive care since corona, with saunas and cruising bars closing around the city, the neighboring town of Schiedam -where the headquarters of El Corruptor are located- has mastered the art of giving a hint of gay to things that are officially not gay. Bars with rainbow flags and photos of the royals that are not gay bars; casual clothing stores where you can buy pumps and harnesses, and cinemas where the clientele is straight, until they are not anymore.
Part cinema, part large sex shop, the cruising area of Erotheek is located in the basement. After paying the 15 euros entrance fee, a staircase descends to a lounge area with a velvet round sofa in front of two doors. The entrance to the cinema is the door under the stairs, and the person at the register buzzes people in. Once inside, the place is divided between the cinemas and the cabins. To the left, the first room is the gay cinema, with chunky faux leather chairs that make a loud noise every time someone sits. Behind the chairs, there is a dark corridor with holes in the walls, a cabin with gay porn, and the lockers. On the other side is the hetero cinema -with the same chairs- and an adjacent room with a screen, three chairs, and an Andrew’s cross that, as is often the case in this type of establishment, serves more decorative than functional purposes. One particular feature of Erotheek is a foam platform in front of the big screens, which allows those willing to lie down to put on a show for everybody. Going back to the entrance, there is another corridor of private cabins with locks, each showing either straight or gay porn, some without the faux leather chairs.
In general, Ertotheek’s facilities are well-maintained and easy to navigate. It is dated, which gives a very particular atmosphere. Although lube or condoms are not provided, tissues and trash cans are readily available. However, there is only one toilet, and it is not only located outside the cruising area but also locked. Customers must ask for the key at the cash desk, which requires people to go upstairs, altering the cruising experience. There are numerous signs warning customers not to pee in the trash buckets, which may be the reason behind the key policy. Still, considering that toilets are a basic service in a venue where people gather to have sex, we can only find locking a toilet patronising.
The customer base is largely senior, to the extent that it makes you contemplate the possibility of reaching 75 years old and still horny. Is this my future? Yet, there is one feature that makes Erotheeks special. By not defining itself as a gay or hetero cinema, it attracts a broad range of characters that otherwise would not visit the place if it were aiming for the traditional gay cruising customer. This makes it one of the most inclusive places we have visited in the Netherlands, beyond those spaces that promote themselves as inclusive but have a rather homogenous crowd. Examples of things we have seen in Erotheek include: actual grandpas; crossdressers; lost straight couples who thought it was a swingers club; muscular guys looking for other muscular guys; a group of friends wearing biking leotards who go together to the XXX cinema after cycling some kilometers; filipinos; temporary workers from the harbour; straight men who locked themselves in a cabin and later came out fully dressed as a women; Polish workers; approachable young guys; guys with canes; mean gays; and a specturm of horny men who enjoy sex regarding gender. Still, seniors are the core patrons
Keeping in mind that the venue is also a large sex shop selling clothes, Erotheek might be one of the few places in the south of the Netherlands where customers can get, change, and fuck in a sexy outfit in a single day. As a remaining cruising place, located in a city with a diverse immigrant population, and a door policy that welcomes most, if not all, people, it should not come as a surprise that Erotheek is capable of bringing together dissimilar customers, a fact that the administration has yet to come to terms with. Like it or not, they are providing a service for an audience with a very clear need, and the least they can do is to make their customers’ experience comfortable. Looking at other stores in Schiedam, we are sure their main source of revenue is not the sex toys.
Embrace: those who have always wanted to crossdress outside home, and those ready to include “when I fucked someone else’s grandpa…“ to their stock of anecdotes.
Release: collagen chasers and those new to cruising antics.
Explore: action is slow, but the sound of the faux leather chairs guides you to it.
About this blog and El Corruptor
A couple of weeks ago, Instagram didn’t allow us to publish a story with the text “suck his dick” because it was not in accordance with its community guidelines. After 10 minutes trying to find a spelling that dodges the filter, we ignored the warning and published the story with the configuration “$*ck h1s d*ck” knowing that, most likely, it won’t be shown to our followers because of the guidelines violation. Then, the whole absurdity of the situation struck us; if we are going to talk to an empty room, we want to do it on our own terms. If invisibility is the result by default when talking about sex, we want to at least properly write suck his dick! The story was about Heated Rivalry.
This blog is an attempt to reclaim autonomy and a response to the idea of content. We hate content, or more specifically, we hate the belief that everything should be content, because it is not true. Although one can make content from everything, the perception that all online material needs to be scroll-stopping with a strong hook is a discourse pushed by the platforms, which aims to make them the main channel of communication for people, but not necessarily how said people consume the media that connects them to their contexts. Proof of that is the increasing number of creatives who are starting YouTube channels, podcasts, and newsletters, trying to escape the constraints of the 3-minute videos, looking for formats that allow them to actually develop the ideas that might relate to people on a deeper level.
Which brings us back to this blog. In the paywall era of Substack, having a public blog can be seen as outdated and not the most monetization-smart move. However, we would like to remind everybody that we are a Latino project, which basically means we like free stuff and public information. We learned digital art with a pirate version of Adobe, and we got the first legal version of Microsoft Windows just 4 years ago. Hence, we will keep the free spirit as long as we can. Rather than a new way to profit, this space should be understood as a public learning about finding the voice of a project that has been on hiatus for a couple of years now.
So, what to expect from Poppers Before Breakfast? Grammatical mistakes -English is not our first language-, videos, sex, songs we listen to while drawing, porn, images we like, podcasts we like, complaints, and all the context that make this project El Corruptor. We won’t rate places or movies, we won’t tell people what to do, what is in or out, we will only share ideas around material as a way to process them. Regarding the name, we will expand further in another post. For now, we can only say that our favorite type of poppers is isoamyl nitrite (cas 110-46-3), we like liquid colors, meta amyl, Amyl, and Everest.
