With San Francisco as the home of Survival Research Laboratories, the birthplace of Combots and Robolympics, and the location of Fucking Machines secret lair, we have to wonder just what is in that good old SF tap water...

So when we heard that Bay Area resident Timothy Archibald was hosting a slideshow from his new book "Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews" at Modern Times tonight, it made perfect sense -- in the same way it makes total sense to infrequently see a remote-controlled V1 rocket engine blasting fire on 16th and Mission. Archibald spent a year stalking sex machine makers all over the US, interviewing them, and taking pictures of their nefarious pleasure devices, often having bizarre experiences of his own while meeting up with the odd cast of characters that comprise America's sex machine inventor subculture. Rather than Frankenstinian lairs with giant Jacob's Ladders buzzing behind rows of imposing glass beakers, staffed by jiggly lab assistants bearing jars of stiff dildos labeled "Abby Normal". the situational reality is more like modified power tools and dialup web access -- with the occasional babe and brilliant invention.

So while a huge exhibition of machines and photos from the book titillate the frozen tundra of New York's Museum of Sex, we can casually pack an umbrella and mosey on down to Modern Times at 7:30 PM for the free slideshow and discussion. On hand will be a few West Coast sex machine inventors and operators: meet the California-based makers of the gorgeous deco Monkey Rocker, and the Seattle creators of The Thrillhammer -- the very machine operated in the highly publicized SF-NY live teledildonics demonstration for DorkbotSF in the 'Loin's RX Gallery.

We'll be the ones wearing all of our safety gear, thank you very much. Don't miss it: Thursday December 8, Modern Times Bookstore (888 Valencia Street), 7:30 PM.

SFist Violet, contributing.