SUNKEN TREASURE AND HIP-HOP MAKE EBAY $TICKY

About five hundred years ago, a large ship set sail from a port in Vietnam, after loading in a cargo of precious blue-and-white ceramic ware that had been sent downriver from the towns of Chu Dao and My Xa-- towns which, at the time, since Ming China had closed its ports and imposed limits on its own ceramics industry, were home to some of the most important potteries in Southeast Asia. Scholars say the ship was probably Thai, one of many foreign ships that came calling for such cargo. Travelling southward along the coast, the ship sank, probably in a storm.

In 1993, the shipwreck was found by a fishing boat from the nearby town of Hoi An. Soon afterward, a massive marine archaeology expedition was mounted by the Vietnamese government, with the participation of Oxford University and salvage companies from both Vietnam and Malaysia. More than 150,000 porcelain vessels were salvaged-- a trove now known as the Hoi An Hoard. The most important pieces were given to the National History Museum in Hanoi, and 10% of the rest of the cargo was donated to 100 regional Vietnamese museums. The remaining lot went on the block a few days ago at Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco and you can bid on it-- welcome to the 21st century!-- via eBay.

A three-day live auction of the Hoi An Hoard ends today. Hours permitting, you can still bid live and in real time at www.ebay.com. Thereafter, items from the hoard will be auctioned online. Just check eBay's "Great Collections" section for details.

"The material is very compelling-- it speaks beyond its culture," says Dessa Goddard, Butterfields' Director of Asian Works of Art. "The craftsmanship is superb-- the drawing, the excitement and movement of the design are all exceptional. This has been an esoteric collecting field until now, but it is so readily accessible and delightful, and the price points are accessible."

(FYI, EBay bought Butterfields in 1999. And in case you didn't know how friendly archaeology, retail sales, and entertainment have gotten with each other, there was last month's hour-long show on the Learning Channel about the Hoi An Hoard, which did nothing to hurt the auction's prospects for success.)

Now, we couldn't be telling you this unless the Hoi An ceramics were incredibly beautiful, which they are, and unless there were a ton of other great stuff at eBay, too. We're big fans. A recent search there turned up 570 items under "hip hop" and "hip-hop"-- and we know you'd also be interested in the electronics, collectibles, old vinyl, sports memorabilia, and other funky material available at the site, too. (A Platform promotional t-shirt, limited edition, distributed last summer for free at a music event in Brooklyn, recently sold there for a whopping $21!) Funny how
it works: once you're poking around eBay for stuff you want, you start thinking about other stuff you like, and then it's hard to stop-- which accounts for the site's stratospherically high "stickiness quotient" (how long a viewer stays on the site) and those 15 million-and-counting registered users.

P4M BOOK REVIEW: DEVIANT DESIRES: INCREDIBLY STRANGE SEX, BY KATHARINE GATES (JUNO BOOKS)

Even a lot of so-called "normal" sex is incredibly strange, if you're not the one who's having or wanting it, so it's no great surprise to discover a book called Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex. The surprise is that the book's approach is so ick-free. Genially but with perspicacity that would shame many supposedly more scientific researchers, author Katharine Gates has gathered descriptions, anecdotes, informal case studies and some damned amazing photos that focus on fetishes including some we bet you've never heard of: pony play, balloonism, giantess worship and/or fear, crush mania (as in guys who get off of sexy chicks crushing bugs and other stuff under their feet), obesity admiration, etc.

Gates doesn't exactly "explain" these fetishes; she knows that we've had too much of that approach, which is clouded by institutional condescension, for more than a century. What she does is allow the amazing people she's found to explain themselves: people like Barbara, who describes the sensation of putting on a pair of boots filled with custard; Galen, who tells why plush, stuffed animal toys are the ideal bedfellows; and Steve the balloon guy, who sheds light on the "to pop or not to pop" question." Wanna know what's hot about a Japanese schoolgirl run over by a car, lying bandaged and expectant on a hospital bed with her panties exposed? Parisian artist Robin Slocombe has that one covered, in her notorious paintings and photographs. Rounding out each chapter are handy sidebars with explanations like "What They Call Themselves" and "What They Do."

You may not already have heard of some of this stuff, but you'd be dull indeed if you weren't even slightly turned on by some of it, even if it is weird. And that's partly due the fact that Gates' fetishists are infectiously perky-- forget merely shameless!. (After reading 22 pages about balloon sex, you kinda wonder what it might be like to fuck, as Steve does, or get fucked by, as astronomy student and single mom Carrie does, a latex bag of air-- especially if, as Carrie says, "the sensation of the cool tight skin feels so wonderful" between her legs.) Moreover, you'd be dangerously incurious if you didn't click on the link at the end of this sentence, which connects to the newly expanded Deviant Desires website, at www.deviantdesires.com. That's where you'll find feedback forums, a FAQ, a schedule of Gate's upcoming public appearances, a fascinating "Ask Katharine" column-- and quite possibly a clue to that obscure sexual practice you may not even have tried yet but next year will be calling "the most rewarding part of my life."