Like a hi-definition money shot caught in slow motion, Susannah Breslin's essay They shoot porn stars don't they? splatters the darkest realities of the porn industry across the face of a market pockmarked by the recession. The writing is immaculate.

"Nowadays, conquistadores Californianos galloping past cattle grazing under massive oaks have been replaced by depressed suburban sprawl: “FOR SALE” ranch-style houses and bloated McMansions; “FOR RENT” strip mall stores and closed gas stations; “FOR LEASE” warehouses and empty gravel lots. Between these lines, the adult movie industry conducts its business in condominiums that homeowners rent out by the day to forestall foreclosure, on soundstages where independent contractors have sex to pay the bills, next to kidney-shaped backyard pools that serve as backdrops for explicit movies in which everybody gets laid and nobody swims."