All nude all week. Oh, and giving birth live online.

June 26, 2007 10:15 PM

Ana Voog is spending the week nude online (NSFW, duh). Former leader of the long-standing Minneapolis Pop-Rock band The Blue Up? Rachel Olson reinvented herself as Ana Voog and became one of the first to put herself under near constant home surveillance online with her Anacam (wacky flash, NSFW). This August will mark her tenth anniversary online, making hers (by her own reckoning) the longest running home cam on the internet. To celebrate she's spending the week naked. Did I mention she's 35 weeks pregnant and planning to give birth online?
posted by nanojath (59 comments total)

Apparently not the first online birth, however...
posted by nanojath at 10:17 PM on June 26, 2007

Did I mention she's 35 weeks pregnant and planning to give birth online?

Not fast enough, no you didn't.

Clicked the link first, went "Ewwww," and then came back to read the rest of your post.

Fucker.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:19 PM on June 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

Give me a break, CPB.
posted by ORthey at 10:24 PM on June 26, 2007

35 weeks pregnant

Dude, we need this in months.
posted by dhammond at 10:25 PM on June 26, 2007

She spent about three months online with clothes and then they disappeared. A week nude? How about a decade?
posted by caddis at 10:26 PM on June 26, 2007

Fucker.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:19 AM on June 27 [+] [Flagged]

well, you know what they say, it takes one to know one
posted by caddis at 10:28 PM on June 26, 2007

Dude, we need this in months.

Full term is about 40 weeks. 8ish months.
posted by nanojath at 10:30 PM on June 26, 2007

And oh, now, don't be so hard on CPB. Some people are squeamish and, you know. "Delicate."
posted by nanojath at 10:31 PM on June 26, 2007

naked on the internets = preggers lol!
posted by wfrgms at 10:32 PM on June 26, 2007

how long do you think it would take to download her baby and is there a copyright law against this?
posted by pyramid termite at 10:33 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Give me a break, CPB.

I have two kids. Attended both births. Didn't faint.

I am, still, however, unapologetically, a dude. Sue me.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:35 PM on June 26, 2007

Anyone who says "ewwww" at the sight of a pregnant woman is... is... hell, I don't know, but there's something pretty messed up going on there. Maybe CPB's comment was some sort of joke?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:35 PM on June 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

Wow, synchronicity. Now it's even harder to understand your comment, given that you're a papa and all. Oh well...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:36 PM on June 26, 2007

Fact: Women who don't have perfectly flat stomachs are gross.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 10:38 PM on June 26, 2007

If I looked like that good at 35 weeks pregnant I'd be nude online too. Online, hell. I'd be nude at the grocery store, nude at the DMV, nude watering the lawn. Nude, nude, nude, all the time. That is one pretty lady right there.
posted by LeeJay at 10:39 PM on June 26, 2007 [5 favorites]

I have two kids. Attended both births. Didn't faint.

papa's got a brand new bag
posted by pyramid termite at 10:40 PM on June 26, 2007

Heh. What you said, Mr. Termite.
posted by metasonix at 10:48 PM on June 26, 2007

i had a different reaction upon seeing her. i thought she looked amazingly beautiful. but then again, i didn't click the link looking for whack-off material.
posted by cazoo at 11:05 PM on June 26, 2007

sure ya didn't cazoo.
posted by andywolf at 11:15 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

For some reason, the phrase "whack-off material" really made me laugh hard.

I maybe should have phrased the whole thing more artfully, since the... how was it put? "naked on the internets = preggers lol" aspect seems to be well in command (and I can't deny the nude week angle seemed like a good hook).

I think Ana Voog is interesting on her own merits, nakedness aside (although getting naked does seem to be sort of fundamental to her whole thing and has been for much longer than the webcam has been around - she was a stripper at some point and used to perform in various states of undress as well). The Blue Up? was a fixture in the local music scene here in the Twin Cities for something like 11 years. I can remember my brother telling me about wild sets in the 7th Street Entry before I could get into the 21+ only shows. I still listen to Spool Forka Dish from time to time and I still feel like if Columbia had made an effort to promote it properly things might have turned out very differently.

I can't remember how I got onto the web thing, though I know I became aware of it very early in (and for a while it got a pretty high profile), and I was fairly fascinated for a while, when this sort of thing was still a new and crazy idea. I hadn't dropped by for maybe a couple years when I decided to take a look on some whim a few weeks ago and discovered the new wrinkle of the pregnancy. The fact that this individual is going to start her family online seems interesting and unusual to me, and I'm curious if the whole cam lifestyle can really survive the baby trip.
posted by nanojath at 11:22 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Give CPB a break.

Consider two very different people:

1. I too had a pregnant wife, attended the delivery, etc, and I am not at all moved or aroused by the pregnant female form. In fact, it squicks me out to a surprising degree. Yet my wife is naturally round and curvy non-pregnant, and I think she's beautiful.

2. A man I used to work with had a rather developed fetish for pregnant women, preferring them in all cases to non-pregnant women. He however had a strong preference for very skinny pregnant girls, and didn't like round curvy girls at all.

Go figure. Different strokes, different folks. That's all.

Naked preggo chicks isn't CPB's thing, or my thing, but maybe it is yours. Live and let live.

It's an aesthetic, not a social statement. Relax.
posted by Ynoxas at 11:24 PM on June 26, 2007

I am, still, however, unapologetically, a dude.

Hey, me too!

Except I think she looks great. ::shrug:: Won't fault you for thinking otherwise.

And I have never heard of her until now. Nice backside. Er, backstory.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:33 PM on June 26, 2007

Different strokes, different folks.

Different folks, different strokes I think you mean.
posted by three blind mice at 11:42 PM on June 26, 2007

It's an aesthetic, not a social statement.

Personally, I made this out to be a political statement.
posted by nervousfritz at 11:45 PM on June 26, 2007

Personally, I already whacked off to that material, and I'm considering doing it again.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 11:46 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

three blind mice - is that the statement? I thought it was "different strokes for different folks".

But then, I like the Russian version that I heard better. Каждый дрочит, как хочет (transliterated in case this doesn't take: "kazhdii drochit, kak khochet", and apologies to Russian-speaking readers).
posted by volk at 11:58 PM on June 26, 2007

Crap, never mind. I missed the obvious pun.

But it'll make me feel better to tell you: the implication of the Russian is the same. Only a little easier to grasp (ahem, no pun intended but really enjoyed anyway).
posted by volk at 11:59 PM on June 26, 2007

I have been receiving her emails for years... but didn't know she was as popular as all that. Go figure.
posted by chuckdarwin at 12:16 AM on June 27, 2007

That is disgusting!

No one should ever put punctuation in the name of a band.

I'm horrified.
posted by poe at 12:30 AM on June 27, 2007

Tell that to Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Or, for that matter, !!!.
posted by Arturus at 12:54 AM on June 27, 2007

I thought it was "different strokes for different folks".

That's how Sly and the Family Stone put it:

There is a blue one who can't accept
The green one for living with
a black ones tryin' to be a skinny one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby

Mine was a deliberate play on words. Different strokes? Nudge, nudge. Know what I mean?
posted by three blind mice at 12:58 AM on June 27, 2007

Play on words shmay on words. It's the scooby dooby dooby that we're really talking about here, right? SCOOBY DOOBY DOOBY!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:21 AM on June 27, 2007

Big whoop. I've been a dude online for over 12 years.
posted by hal9k at 2:02 AM on June 27, 2007

It's hard to tell with the graininess of the image, but it looks like our old friend linea nigra has appeared. I didn't go fishing for anything more intimate to see if I could observe other classic signs of pregnancy.

I am getting a very strong "Yeah, thanks, Mom" emosneer vibe out of this, sixteen years later, when the child in question hits the 'tubes to search for himself or herself.
posted by adipocere at 4:05 AM on June 27, 2007

I really don't get it.
posted by MarshallPoe at 4:32 AM on June 27, 2007

Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America writes 'Personally, I already whacked off to that material, and I'm considering doing it again.'

I didn't, but if my testosterone levels were where they were at twenty years ago, I definitely would have done.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:32 AM on June 27, 2007

three blind mice writes 'Different strokes? Nudge, nudge. Know what I mean?'

Whut'choo talkin' about, Willis?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:34 AM on June 27, 2007

Clicked the link first, went "Ewwww," and then came back to read the rest of your post.

That grossed you out? Seriously?

That's pretty sad, man.

(btw, you know who else didn't like pregnant women? Kim Jong Ill, who banned them from Pyongyang).
posted by delmoi at 5:23 AM on June 27, 2007

It's the scooby dooby dooby that we're really talking about here, right?

Did you mean: "Ooby Dooby"?
posted by kirkaracha at 5:28 AM on June 27, 2007

Did you mean: "Ooby Dooby"?

Oooby Dooby?

I dunno. Maybe just Oobi.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:56 AM on June 27, 2007

I've seen Ana Voog naked more times than I've seen myself naked. But that is, in part, due to the fact that when I take my clothes off, all mirrors within 35 feet spontaneously shatter.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:32 AM on June 27, 2007

Has she been sitting in front of that camera ALL THIS TIME? Damn, I forgot about her when Jenni thankfully took down her shingle. That was a car crash it was hard to look away from.

I wish I could forget about the dice (die, actually) photo, but I never will. That was err....creative.
posted by pinky at 6:40 AM on June 27, 2007

Had no idea she was still doing this. Thanks for the post - always interesting to see people carry through with things like this for longer than a year or two.
posted by kokogiak at 6:47 AM on June 27, 2007

Naked preggo chicks isn't CPB's thing, or my thing, but maybe it is yours.

There's a difference between "not my thing" and "ewwww... fucker." (I guess I have to accept that we're talking primarily about how sexually attractive she is, since she's naked on the Interweb machine and all.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:53 AM on June 27, 2007

I forgot about her when Jenni thankfully took down her shingle. That was a car crash it was hard to look away from.

Ah Jenni. It seems like a lifetime ago.

She was the only person of her ilk that I ever followed, but strangely, I seldom if ever watched what made her famous: the cam. I usually read her blog entries for the day (was it even called blogging back then? I don't think so.) and scan through the archive of previous shots.

I started out visiting weekly, then monthly. By the end, I could visit once in 3-6 months and "catch-up" in 20 minutes.

I wouldn't say I actually "cared" about Jennifer Ringley, but I most certainly was "interested". I'm not sure if that counts as the same thing or not.
posted by Ynoxas at 8:00 AM on June 27, 2007

I discovered the other day that she makes really strange hats as well. Where are the photos of naked crocheting? HOT.
posted by ruby.aftermath at 8:01 AM on June 27, 2007

I'm going to file this under "Who cares?"

And, almost an advertisement, since her website is basically a paid camgirl site. (Notice the 'subscribe to anacam' links?)
posted by drstein at 10:36 AM on June 27, 2007

Sweet! I was just going to comment how I lost my AnaVoog.com cd, only to find that she now has it available for free: http://ana.livejournal.com/1760779.html

Sadly, I have to agree with drstein. I used to visit her site all the time, then she started demanding money. It stopped being art and became a site to whack off to. Shame.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:14 PM on June 27, 2007

Years and years ago, Ana Voog and I (along with Justin Hall and some others) were on the front page of The Philly Inquirer: Baring their souls, and much more, on the Web. I was "FauveGrrl." Interesting to see what she's been up to in the time since.
posted by astruc at 12:19 PM on June 27, 2007

[insert clever name here]: wow, look at this great stuff I got free off her site! Sucks that she sold out, though.

I can't imagine people going to a site like hers for the purpose of fulfilling their "whack off" needs (when did this become the lingua franca for masturbation on metafilter? I did not receive the memo). But you know, perceptions.

I posted it because I figured a lot of people, like me, followed her antics early on and might be surprised and interested that 1. she's still online and 2. she's pregnant. It's clear from comments that I was right. As far as the objection of it being an advertisement goes, whatever. Most of what is on the internet has a profit motive buried in it somewhere. There is plenty of free content on the site.
posted by nanojath at 12:34 PM on June 27, 2007

nanojath, thanks for posting this. It was good to see her again and I think she looks fantastic.
posted by astruc at 1:10 PM on June 27, 2007

I want to third the endorsement of her music. The Blue Up?, anyway; I didn't like her Ana Voog electronica as much. But The Blue Up? is superb including the "lost" album (literally lost in the mail) Cake and Eat It, and Spool Forka Dish was a favorite of mine for a long time.

If you liked The Bastard Fairies you will probably like The Blue Up? (or vice versa). I've barely ever come across anyone to compare it to directly. She rocks harder than Bjork, she's less vulnerable than Liz Phair, she's never as emo as Tori Amos. There are bits of the Deal sisters in there too, and Nina Ramsby/Salt kicks my ass the same way sometimes.

Of all the cam-girls who even pretended to be anything more than skin-for-cash whores, she's always been nearly the only one with real artistic talent and respectability, making an appearance at the Walker Art Center via her cam and so forth. The Sleepstation project was a very intriguing outgrowth that failed much too early. There's something incredibly peaceful about watching someone sleep, and something ineffable about watching half-a-dozen or more people sleep at the same time. (It doesn't get any more or less interesting over time, though, which is probably the crux of the problem.)
posted by dhartung at 5:41 PM on June 27, 2007

A man I used to work with had a rather developed fetish for pregnant women

Sounds like a real motherfucker.
posted by jonmc at 7:09 PM on June 27, 2007 [3 favorites]

Beautiful . . . just beautiful.
posted by jason's_planet at 8:37 PM on June 27, 2007

nanojath; I tried to visit her site regularly for as long as I could when she started charging for anaII. But what it comes down to is that I wasn't willing to pay a subscription for "cool exhibition art" and most of the people that did were viewing it as porn. She was even part of an erotica /"classy" porn circle for a while.

And I did buy her cd. Way back when it first came out. The ironically titled anavoog.com, which I believe to this day she still does not own.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:06 PM on June 27, 2007

Sorry for being pissy, [insert clever name here]. The ironic thing is that I don't think she really is that hung up about being conflated with porn (I recall at times she did subscription package deals with more conventionally porn-y camgirls as well) and sexual performance - she was a stripper for some time, after all, and even her music career included a nudity and overt sexuality.

When I first came on the site I didn't have regular internet access except at work so I didn't see much prior to the premium Ana2 era - so I might have missed the extent to which the transition throttled free content. And it really has never been a particularly porn-y or even erotic thing in my mind. Since I checked back in a few months ago I have found the live journal worth checking in on now and again.

And I think enough of this from me.
posted by nanojath at 12:24 AM on June 28, 2007

Hey, she's a beautiful woman and even more so by being in love with being pregnant. She's radiant.

/that is all
posted by zardoz at 7:03 AM on June 28, 2007

ruby.aftermath, her crochet kicks SERIOUS ass... and I'm saying that as a (primarily-) knitter. Good freeform is an artform unto itself.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:22 AM on June 28, 2007

spoolforkadish by 'the blue up?' is one of my all-time fav albums. absolutely great stuff. ana's other art projects are equally outstanding.

a bunch of ana voog links...including music and art, etc.
posted by glitch at 3:54 PM on June 29, 2007