During a brainstorming session someone-it might have been me-tossed out the idea of inviting Seattle's lovers, filmmakers, kinksters, and exhibitionists to make short erotic films. We could host a screening, and give a prize to the best film!

"Seattle is too boring," someone said, "too cold and uptight."

Then someone-it might have been Stranger Lovelab/Lustlab queen Caroline Dodge-mentioned that a sex-toy store in Boston hosts an amateur erotic video contest. Sponsored by Boston's Grand Opening, that city's answer to Babes in Toyland, "You Oughta Be in Pictures" is in its sixth year.

"It's a great event," Grand Opening's Kim Airs told me when I called. "It gives people the opportunity to live out their fantasies." The films at YOBIP run the gamut from soft-core to erotic animation to hard-core porn. Who enters? "Art students, filmmakers, average folks, lots of different body types, all orientations. There are lots of submissions, and sold-out crowds at the screening. The whole community has embraced it."

After speaking with Airs I slammed my fist down on the table and said, "By God, if they can do an amateur porn contest in Boston, we can do one in Seattle!"

Like Grand Opening's YOBIP, Hump! is going to be an evening of locally made amateur erotic videos. It's a celebration of sexuality. It's a chance to live out your fantasies. It's a chance to flip off the American Taliban. It's also a chance to win a fabulous prize: We're pulling together a stunning prize package-watch the paper for more details. (I've heard rumors of a large cash prize and a trip to a city in the desert where people gamble.)

Before we got off the phone, Grand Opening's Kim Airs issued a challenge:

"Prove to me that Seattle is more sexually progressive than Boston!" she said. "I want to come and see Hump!"

Ladies and gentlemen, we have been challenged! Are we going to let a dull chowder town show us up? No! We're going to make porn and enter Hump!

Official Rules and Regulations