BG Review
"All the guys I shoot are Marines; if I say I'm giving you Marines, I'm giving you Marines; I take
them to motel rooms, friend's houses, as well as my own house and film them as they strip down to
their bare-ass beauty," says Dirk Yates, the master of military porn.
He's a legend, at least according to his bio, and these horny young marines seem to trust him. The
journey from military comradery to havin' a big dildo up yer butt is not a very long march at Dirk's
house. Our surprising discovery is that there are few very high quality videos to be found on this
site. Could Dirk not have kept the amateur "feel" while getting the technical quality up?
Tour
There are four large content areas on
Dirk Yates Live; the tour takes
you through the first content area: the "Men Of Dirk Yates Live" video index, which includes a total
of 173 solo, duo, and group sessions.
Click on a
thumbnail picture inside the index, and that page opens with a small gallery of 4-8
video captures, and a button for the XXX Movies. If you click on the Movies button it takes you to
the join page.
Missing from the tour are hard numbers regarding images and videos, any sample video clips, and
even limited access to the three other major content areas. The site has lots of content -- why not
tell us up front?
Navigation
DYL recently
completed a redesign. The site has a warm, slightly illicit, old-school funkiness about it. The
khaki-colored, military-themed home page is a clear and easily understood gateway to the site's
content. The majority of the page is occupied by the four large graphical entrance ways to: "Men Of
Dirk Yates Live," the "Private Collection," "Devil Dogs," and "The Few, The Proud, The Naked." Down
the left column you'll find standard navigation links for "What's New" and "The Live Show."
Inside "Live" and "Private Collection" you'll find the shoot index, with 16 thumbs per page and an
alphabetical search option. Inside "Devil Dogs" and "The Few, The Proud, And The Naked" the index
pics are of video box covers. For each individual session, you'll find a gallery of video captures
and a link for the movie. Overall, we found navigation smooth and trouble-free.
Content
The formula is straightforward: serve up fresh 19-26 year old marine meat to horny gay men with an
appetite for straight-acting, unaffected guys with buzzcuts. Some of these guys are veteran
jarheads, some are just fresh-faced boys from the mid-west. When you see them with their heels over
their shoulders, or earnestly following Dirk's direction to: "get your ass a little higher in the
air" it's hard to imagine them fighting alongside their buddies in Iraq.
The sessions are almost always indoors in a very basic living room, bedroom or hotel room.
Typically, Dirk asks a few awkward questions, the guy spouts some b.s. about all the girls he's
fucked, Dirk flips on the camera and a straight porn movie, and the guy wanks to climax, or calls in
a buddy for some marine-style funky monkey b'ness.
There are video scenes or clips to watch in each of the 4 content areas:
Dirk Yates Live - 198 archived live shows, averaging 22 minutes.
Private Collection - 208 scenes, averaging 21 minutes.
Devil Dogs - 46 scenes, averaging 33 minutes.
The Few, The Proud, The Naked - for each of the 13 DVDs in this series about 3 clips of 1-2
minutes are offered. This is a great way to survey these titles and to figure out which you prefer.
All video can be
streamed(pd) or downloaded in
Windows Media format. Of the 470 video clips and
longer scenes, only 7 are available at 1000
kbps playing in a sizable 640x480 window; 250 are
available at 512k, also playing in a 640x480 window. The remaining 220 clips and scenes are
available only at 256k, usually playing in a
320x240 window.
Sometimes the videos are one long scene and other times they are broken up into up to a dozen
clips; you don't get a choice.
DRM applies to all video and the license is restrictive: you can only
watch downloaded video for as long as you remain a member of the site.
Dirk Yates, and his trademark style have been around for a long time. We respect his longevity, and
we totally "get" why he shoots with the look and feel of amateur video. However, in this new era of
super-high-quality amateur productions we think "amateur" shouldn't be confused with "amateurish".
Many of these scenes and clips stream too slowly. They end up murky, even in the smallest viewing
window. Sometimes, there are ridiculously low light levels and a gloomy, shadowy feel to the
segment.
In many of the movies there's a lack of angles, close-ups, and poses. Too often, in an otherwise
acceptable video, we have no evidence that the model has cum, because even when warned by the model,
the videographer doesn't moves into position to capture the shot properly. Why? How does forgetting
the fundamentals of porn shoots contribute to a video's "trademark style"?
There is a gallery of video captures accompanying virtually every short and long format video for a
total of around 25,000 average quality images. There is no choice of pic sizes, and no zip files,
but a slideshow is available for each gallery.
There is one live show per week on Dirk Yates Live (hence the name), each Sunday.
Summing Up
Dirk Yates Live is
both a content-rich porn site, and the best catalogue ever for the many Dirk Yates videos. He's
earned the right to self-promote a bit because of his 20 year history of affection and attraction
for these beefy jarheads whom he has fathered, mothered, bailed out and immortalized in hundreds of
performances.
Unfortunately, many of the videos suffer from light problems, lack of poses and angles, and
relatively slow streams. Even so, if you are into amateur military boys you will most certainly
enjoy the beef on Dirk's menu -- with lots of "jus" on the side.