We had an absolute blast in LA. That’s the only way to describe it.

Thursday

We stayed in down-town LA with our hosts and for the 2 day intensive and for the additional ‘mini intensive’ that followed for DevilMaskSociety members.

We arrived in LA at a very reasonable time of day and actually went on to a rope event that night as we were feeling pretty good and not jet lagged at that time. When we arrived I sat down in a comfortable chair and instantly fell asleep (sorry folks). Actually I was awake most of the time but in the warmth I just couldn’t stave off the sleepies.

After returning to our host’s apartment where we were staying with Ojipan and Good Most Times, getting a really good nights sleep we were up and ready to go on local time.

Friday

We met up with friends from Dallas (Twisted Cupcake and Madam Lush who we were very glad to have at the intensive as they are so busy helping with Dallas’ BED event that they don’t often get time to take advantage of the teachers at the event) had a really nice lunch at a local Italian restaurant and then went to Hollywood to see the Hollywood sign Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and of course the stripper shops near Hollywood and Vine… I mean the walk of fame. We were also going to visit Johnny Cupcakes in Hollywood, we were shocked and disappointed to find that it had closed down. 🙁 Despite this disappointment we wondered down Hollywood towards Vine doing some window shopping and stopping at the Pie Hole for a good coffee and frankly some very nice pie too.

We passed the Hustler store on Hollywood Boulevard and stopped in. We picked up a couple of copies of Taboo magazine as we had sets in Taboo including one in 2016’s Best of Taboo with a 2 girl shibari bondage set. Unfortunately due to our wonderful politicians we’re able to shoot this stuff but not get a copy of the magazine mailed to us in the UK. Makes sense right?

When we got back down-town it was time for a shower then out for dinner at a Japanese fusion place. Excellent food and just right to knock us out for the night and a good sleep before the shibari intensive the next day.

Shibari Intensive day 1 (Saturday)

It’s always interesting starting a new shibari intensive, you never know  what people are going to need to improve their rope bondage and it’s a fascinating moment of discovery.

Lots of hard work to follow and people were showing real improvement by the end of the first day.

Shibari Intensive day 2 (Sunday)

As usual people were a bit shell shocked from the first day but you have to keep pushing on folks. As someone once said “We all have to be better, for the art!”. Nothing daunted we carried on pushing for the day. I’d like to think people were burnt out in a good way by the end if it and it would have been difficult to get anything else meaningful done.

The last day of the intensive was capped off with a party at a dungeon out of town (I’m really sorry but I can’t bring the name of the place to mind but they were very kind in welcoming us.) which was all pretty chill. We weren’t really in good shape to keep going all night so we got a ride back with our friends from Dallas.

Universal Studios (Monday)

A great thing about travelling is the ability to visit places for fun while we’re there. In this case Universal studios was a must see for us. We really had an excellent day and some great rides. We’re big kids and did go on the Minions adventure as well as having wonderful times on the Harry Potter ride, Soaked to the skin on the Jurassic park ride. Missed the plot on the Transformers ride, which was nevertheless cool. Finally the famous studio tour was a fun way to end the day at Universal studios.

Next it was back to our hosts for frankly the best take out Italian I’ve had. Much needed before the mini intensive to come.

Mini Shibari Intensive

The mini intensive was a bit of a challenge. How do you do an intensive in a few hours? Well fast is the answer. Though it could not be nearly as in depth as a full intensive I was able to cover some important points. I also didn’t teach any specific ties as there is obviously no way to completely teach a tie in such a short period and have it properly understood.

The day finished with some drinking and chatting with our hosts, a nice relaxed end to our teaching engagement in LA

Photo shoot with Nina Hartley (Tuesday)

Something we’d been wanting to do for a couple of years since a discussion we’d had on our 2014 trip was to do a rope bondage shoot with Nina Hartley, a woman who I can only describe as incorrigible. Equipped with borrowed lights (and many thanks to the gentleman who kindly loaned them to us), a furoshiki of rope and a ring we went off to meet with Nina and Earnest Greene (incidentally the author of ‘Master of O’). We made some awesome images and had a really great time doing it. We’ll be putting up images from that very soon!

We rounded off the day with dinner on a nice place on Wiltshire Boulevard and at long last met up with Zetsu proprietor or Ainawa.com who sell some great kinbaku books and videos. I strongly recommend that you check the site out. It’s always kind of weird meeting someone after such a long time because whatever mental picture you’ve built up, whatever you’re expecting… they’re not that.

Anyway a good evening (and in my case a good burger) was had by all. Lots of fun all around.

WykD Dave, Nina Hartley, Ernest Greene, Clover

1111 Wiltshire Boulevard. (WykD Dave, Nina Hartley, Ernest Greene, Clover)

 

Rope bombing the original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica (Wednesday)

This was a great end to our time in LA. Iconic location and a suspension from gymnastic rings on the original Muscle Beach. Not exactly torture rope on this occasion but we got some interested onlookers.

Finally we’re home and reflecting on an excellent trip.

Thanks to everyone who came to our intensives and a very special thank you to our hosts and organisers. We would not have been there without you guys and we’re very happy to have been invited again. We had a wonderful time and we hope we left some good stuff behind us.