Comparing the state of the porn industry, as of late, to graveyards, I’ve been in cemeteries that have more action.

Porn started going downhill when the likes of the platitudinous Diane Duke began speaking on behalf of it. It was only this past week that writing about the industry became fun again. And I have to thank Rob Black for that.

Black, whose job nowadays is to torture and torment the porn damned, has reminded me of what I love best about this industry – the stories.

You may think Black with his new Internet show is bordering on insanity, but every word coming out of his mouth is the truth. [As I remember or heard the stories uttered by the porn chieftains in the sweat lodges of yore.]

When I first started hanging out with Rob, he, Tom Byron and Van Damage were leaving Elegant Angel to form their own company. I wrote something like a 5-page article in AVN about it in prose that would make you squirm. At least it made Paul Fishbein squirm, but he published it.

One of the most uncomfortable lunches I ever had was with owner Patrick Collins [pictured] who was convinced that the article would be as one-sided as the Measure B initiative.

The thing is, employees stole from Patrick Collins. They robbed him blind. Some even started their own companies with money they pilfered from him. It happened then and it probably still happens. Only Collins didn’t see it like that. He saw what Black was doing as the consummate act of disloyalty.

Unlike others, though, Black never took a dime from Collins and if memory serves correctly, the schism resulted over the discussion of company cars.

I guess there’s been bad blood lo these many years, but Black attempted to mend fences with Collins just recently. Black will be telling that story on his show. Maybe even today. I know the punch line, but I’ll let him tell it, inimitably, in Rob Black-speak. Like I said, I love the stories. Especially the way he tells them.