Bound in London on the 19th of March.
We're soon to be appearing at bound in London. Come and have a great night of bondage and shows. We always have a good time at bound. Your browser does not support the video tag.
London, Waterloo, Tunnels and the Artful Badger
This Saturday just gone contained a really fun night of rope for us. Before I get onto the night itself I want to say a thank you to Nawashi Murakawa for getting us involved in this event. We were able to get us to some excellent parking opposite the stage door. Now onto the night of performances itself. The audience for these shows were not a rope crowd, but they were a very appreciative mixture of party and festival people, many of them very dressed up for the night in all manner of classy, sexy and feathered outfits. Clover was looking stunning in kimono as always. The theme of the night was 'Japanese' and the room we were in was strictly shoes off! The performances (galleries coming soon) were very enjoyable for us. We had nothing planned and not even any music prepared. This was actually an opportunity for us to just let things flow and see how they went. We were first on and the show settled into a very deliberate rhythm. We completely lost track of time and were surprised when we'd finished to be told that we'd been going for nearly an hour. It honestly felt like no time at all. Next up were shows from JackWhipper and Zahara and then us again. (If I've got that order wrong I apologise.) What I loved was that all our shows had different personalities. Those people that returned to see more than one show saw something different every time. It turned out that we had the honour of finishing as well as starting we still didn't know what we'd be doing and just went with the music (kindly put together by JackWhipper and containing only one track we'd heard [...]
On certification
There has been some 'debate' recently about people being certified for their bondage skills. There are many arguments both for and against this idea... Individual certification Attendance Firstly it's important to remember that there are teaches already that have certificates of attendance for bondage courses. These do not make any promises about the quality of the student, how completely and not how well they learned the subject matter of the class. In short they say nothing about competence, they just confirm attendance. Competence Some systems do provide certificates once people reach a certain verifiable level and have obtained competence and required skills. A very few of these are credible because of the very high standards they maintain and because of the consistency of method they use to teach and to evaluate. Most importantly they also require a long term commitment to excellence. That is to say they are not just meaningless pieces of paper handed out to anyone that turned up and paid their money on one or two days. They spent weeks, months or even years obtaining serious skills. That then seems at the moment to be the outliers of certification, such as it is in rope bondage. My problem with general certification The reason there has not been a system of certification so far is that nobody really can agree on what basic competence consists of or how to satisfactorily measure it. This is why it has been the province so far of small, defined and dedicated schools. Certification, to be widely recognised needs acceptance by a large number of people and for that to happen you need standardisation. This is where the problem for me lies. People can, and do, argue to the end [...]
Bondage at Coco de Mer
Wow it seems so long ago now but back in 2010 we came to London to do some bondage in the shop window of Coco de Mer. Along with Jon Murakawa we were doing some bondage to promote the London festival of the Art of Japanese bondage. It was a really fun day and it was really great seeing the effect on passers by. Here are some great photo memories of the day.
Shoot with Okissakki
This was one of our very first shoots and I have to say what a pleasure it was. New to shoots though we were I think we got some good stuff here. Okissakki was great to work with and Clover captured her so well. I think this was only the second shoot we had done in our new 'studio' so getting used to things a lot. Okissakki isn't around on the scene much any more from what we've seen in the past few years; wherever she is and whatever she's decided to do now I wish her the very best of luck with it.
Newness and getting out into the kink community
For many people it's a nerve-wracking step going out into the community especially to the myriad of events, workshops, munches and parties. This is especially because of uncertainty about what to expect and how to behave. Also how should they react to how other people behave? Here are a few things you should always be able to expect no matter what the event. To be treated with respect Not to be touched, slapped, spanked, groped, played with or otherwise molested without consent Not to have your personal space disregarded Never to be told that you 'have' to submit Not to be told how you 'should' behave To not have anyone make you feel uncomfortable or scared Here are a few rights that you should never forget you have or be made to be feel uncomfortable exercising You have the right say NO You have the right to your own opinion You have the right to disagree You have the right to be new and learning without that being held against you You have the right not to like some kinks, not everything's for everyone You have the right to completely disregard anything ever said by anyone who tells you you're not a 'true'... submissive, dominant etc. Common sentences beginning with or containing... All submissives/dominants are... All submissives/dominants should... All true... All real... Oh you're a natural... Oh you're not a natural... ...should be carefully analysed to determine their bullshit content. Many people come to kink via fiction of one kind or another. There's nothing wrong with this. Very many people do. Often these routes will include books, films, stories or fantasies... These things are very often not really true to life and in some cases present a very skewed view [...]
Amazing night at Bound to serve at Exodus
Wow, what can I say about this night or this venue. Wonderful place and a wonderful crowd. Exodus is truly a club with a great atmosphere. We'd been asked to go and do a rope demo. We were happy to do a little performance showing one of the kinds of rope bondage we like. I must say how kind people have been in getting in touch with us about the show. Here are a 'few' images from the night.
Shooting with Jonny Blaze
It seems a long time ago now but as I go back through old pictures I came across this shoot with Jonny Blaze. Normally you don't often seem to get much good stuff from group shoots but this one had a few good images mostly from Jonny and led to us working together again. I hope you enjoy this gallery.
Interview with Scott Smith in London
I've had the rare pleasure of interviewing some great people from all around the world. This is the very first interview I've conducted so I hope it's not too bad. Whatever I fell short on, Scott more than made up for. This first interview is with Scott Smith. I really enjoyed doing this interview and I hope you enjoy hearing it just as much. It was a real pleasure to get Scott's thoughts on the Festival, bondage performances and more.
Absent mindedness and routine cockups in rope bondage
A friend today made a very good point about when he found things most likely to go wrong in rope bondage. And I absolutely agree with him on this. Often its when you’re doing the routine things, the small things, the things you’ve done a thousand times before. It’s in those moments when you’re running on automatic pilot rather than when you’re working on something on the edge where you’re focused and paying complete attention. You should be able to do some parts of your bondage completely without thought, you should know what you’re doing so well. The mistakes in things you have done a thousand times before happen not because you don’t know how to do it but because you are not focused. It is absence from the moment. It is something unregarded and considered unimportant. All things in rope bondage are important, from the first detail, especially from the first detail. Those brings me to the main point of this article. The need to be present in the moment. Now there is an apparent dichotomy in the concepts that you should know what you’re doing so well that you can do it without conscious thought and the idea that you must be present and focused in the moment. This dichotomy is however only apparent. There is a very big difference between having practised things so well that you can do them automatically i.e. that you have developed muscle memory for an action and by contrast, simply not paying attention to what you’re doing. When you are focused in the moment you are paying attention to all things including those things that you do automatically.