New type of videos
I'm doing some new types of video. Let me know what you think. Here's the first few! More on the way.
Performing at the first London Festival of Rope Art
We had what I can only describe as a very intense and emotional time performing at the first London Festival of Rope Art. It was a wonderful time with my love and we'd like to thank everyone who shared this time with us. Here is the first gallery of that show by Amaury Grisel.
Viennese rope festival 2015 (part the first)
I meant to blog about this event right after it happened and was frankly unforgivably lazy about blogging for the longest time. Now I've blogged about an event since the guilt pressure is finally high enough that I'm going to actually write this up. This was our first time in Vienna and our first time in Austria. Aside from the fact that we would get to see some of Vienna we were excited to see some friends for the first time in what seemed like ages. Wildties, Redsabbath, Saki Kamijoo and her model Mayumi Sumi. It's incredible to think that over the last couple of years we've met up with each other variously in London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Chicago and now Vienna. It frankly is incredible to think that this kind of thing now seems so perfectly natural. As usual I'm going to have to take a moment to mention the people that organise events like this. I have to say that they very probably do a better job than I could and we were well looked after being collected from the airport and well informed about everything that was going on. I especially have to say thank you to those that spared their time to show us round some of their magnificent city. It's really spectacular. But before that the festival itself. We were really pleased to be asked to open the festivals shows and the venue was great being in a brewery in the city. The bar section where the opening was held was dark and filled with old blackened wood. It provided a great setting for the opening and a great atmosphere for the performance with the audience close around [...]
Une soirée de performance, sous le signe du semenawa, à la Place des Cordes avec Akira Naka & Gorgone.
This was an unexpected little trip for us but a really nice one. We were asked to perform in Paris with Naka Akira and Gorgone. at Place des Cordes which is a very nice rope dojo. We live 15 minutes from an Airport but in usual style appropriate flights to Paris weren't available so we first had to drive to Birmingham to catch a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The airport btw is a bit big and sprawling and it took a while to get to the appropriate customs, passport control and baggage. And then to find the exit and train. Once we'd found the right way it was only an hours journey on the train to catch a tube to get us close to the venue. Once there the first job was to get cleaned up from the unfortunate ordure of travelling. Sweaty and exhausting. It's a big of an unfortunate thing that though the flight to Paris is only about an hour, getting from your home to your destination can take over 8 hours of actual travel. Our first impresson of Place des Cordes was that it was a really good space and had a great feeling. The second was the huge grins that attend seeing Naka san again. Hugs, back slapping and greetings that make you realise how much you can miss people but also make you realise how many of your friends life far, far away. One friend there we hadn't seen in something like 4 years. It honestly didn't feel that long but when you look at it the time flies by. Not huge amounts to report on the afternoon that was left as most was spent on [...]
Une soirée de performance, sous le signe du semenawa, à la Place des Cordes avec Akira Naka & Gorgone.
This was an unexpected little trip for us but a really nice one. We were asked to perform in Paris with Naka Akira and Gorgone. at Place des Cordes which is a very nice rope dojo. We live 15 minutes from an Airport but in usual style appropriate flights to Paris weren't available so we first had to drive to Birmingham to catch a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The airport btw is a bit big and sprawling and it took a while to get to the appropriate customs, passport control and baggage. And then to find the exit and train. Once we'd found the right way it was only an hours journey on the train to catch a tube to get us close to the venue. Once there the first job was to get cleaned up from the unfortunate ordure of travelling. Sweaty and exhausting. It's a big of an unfortunate thing that though the flight to Paris is only about an hour, getting from your home to your destination can take over 8 hours of actual travel. Our first impresson of Place des Cordes was that it was a really good space and had a great feeling. The second was the huge grins that attend seeing Naka san again. Hugs, back slapping and greetings that make you realise how much you can miss people but also make you realise how many of your friends life far, far away. One friend there we hadn't seen in something like 4 years. It honestly didn't feel that long but when you look at it the time flies by. Not huge amounts to report on the afternoon that was left as most was spent on [...]
BED 2015 (part the third)
The after party performance night! I wanted to give this one a blog to itself as in the end it's a bit of a saga. To start with we'd had something like a total of 8 hours sleep over 3 days and frankly we felt like ass! I can't think of another way of describing it. We felt so bad that we had to say to DK (DallasKink) that we might not be able to do a show. We felt terrible, we looked worse, we had no music and hadn't any idea if we'd even make it through to the evening. We felt really bad for doing it but we were in truly terrible shape at that point. Five hour energy however is a thing and really helped out with a temporary boost. The more we thought about it the worse we felt. We really didn't want to let anyone down and for us we didn't want to let the event end on a flat note. So once we'd made it past the closing ceremony we went back to the room for showers and some preparation. I got a list of songs together and mailed them off. Then we just went to sleep for a couple of hours. I have to say it's amazing what even a couple of hours of sleep can do to revive you. We were ready in time and at the hotel when there was nearly another disaster. I had probably made a mistake about if we were getting a lift from the hotel. We were worried about time but then someone going to the party said that the shows didn't start till 11 and we relaxed a bit. This could [...]
BED 2015 (part the second)
Saturday, BED is now in full swing. Breakfast at the hotel and then on to teach our first class. It's an early one and we have to be there right at the crack of 10:45 in the morning! Pressure and time is about rope bondage torture and the class was packed. I've got to say that we had a great time teaching the class and especially towards the end when people had questions arising from the class. Some as usual ran slightly off the class topic but if it's contributing something useful I never mind that in the Q & A section. It's really great when a class has a positive effect for people and leaves them with something that helps them get more out of their rope play. I want to take a line here to say how very much I appreciate everyone who's said and written to say what the class gave them. It certainly also lead on to some excellent follow up conversations in the next couple of days. The next class that we were personally involved with was the Kinbaku 360 class co taught by Demonsix, Kazami Ranki, Ojipan, Faviola, Osaka Dan, Blue Risk and myself. The concept of this class looking at the development of the TK over time and the differences in execution and style even amongst today's practitioners where there is probably more variation than ever before is a very good one and I think made the point that there isn't really such a thing as a correct way to do a TK, though that of course doesn't exclude the fact that there are plenty of wrong ways to do one. As Kazami san said during the class [...]
BED 2015
Well, I'm sitting here wanting to write about my experience at BED (Bondage Expo Dallas) this year and I really don't know where to begin. This event once again was just amazing. I really haven't been to a better run and friendlier event than this one. The team behind this event really go out of their way to make this event go smoothly and to take care of everyone there and I can say as a presenter that we've never felt so taken care of and welcome. I really have to mention not just the organisers but also the volunteers that make this event so special. People really give up their time and their own chances to take classes to make other people's Expo go well. Last year we extended our stay around the Expo to have some time where we weren't teaching or performing and to hang out with the people behind the event and some of the other presenters. The hospitality we get in Dallas is second to none and we love hanging out with the friends we've made there. I'm searching for a good way to put this, the team that run this event are really nice people. That's really an inadequate description though. There's not a single person running this event who isn't someone that you'd gladly hang out with. I've never known such a concentrated group of good people in one event. The event itself has a great atmosphere and never feels too crowded. One thing I love about it is that it's still small enough to have time to talk to people and pretty much everyone fits into the classes that they want. It can be a nightmare organising [...]
Good clean dirty gun fucking bondage fun against censorship!
Inspired, if that's the right word by the new British government regulations on porn production which tries to stop UK producers making kinky stuff that has (In a broad sweep, there's a lot more fine grain that's too long to put in a caption, plus it's mainly about video)... Penetration by any object "associated with violence" represented here by a prop gun, Urolagnia (known as "water sports"), Physical restraint with all limbs tied, Gaggs and Humiliation. So... What ya gonna do? We decided to make an image with as much of these terrible things in it as possible. So here for freedom and hotness, gagged, hooded, tied up helpless, half suspended, pissed on and fucked with a gun! Hope you enjoy this little expression of kinky freedom. If you love this please direct your (adult) family and friends to this image so that they can enjoy it too! Please if you care about this then write to your MP protesting this legislation and that to follow. If you're in the UK you might want to write to your Members of parliament and as them what the fuck they're doing about this. Thanks for signing and thanks for reading. Please also read... Obscenity Lawyer Backlash UK The Mail Online The Independent The Mirror The Guardian The New Statesman
Hajime Kinoko (一鬼のこ) in Scotland
In excellent news we'll be heading back up to Glasgow in 2015 to perform with Hajime Kinoko (一鬼のこ) at STORE's January event 'Twisted' It's going to be great to see Kinoko again and it's always a pleasure to see him perform. We're excited for this! Kinoko will also be teaching a two day intensive before the show night so if you are a rope enthusiast in Scotland you should definitely try to make it to that if you can. (Tickets) Check out Hajime Kinoko's stite here.