The Control Enthusiast

Wow, so, since April 27th…

The ToroGRUE 2 happened. After a lively meet & greet Friday night, Saturday was a day full of amazing discussions from a mix of brilliant minds. Sunday, lots of pancakes happened, made by Men in Kilts, followed by a little bit more GRUEing. I don’t think any of us were expecting the Sunday session to continue quite as it did, but I for one loved it. Graydancer has a post up about his impressions of this GRUE – the second in Toronto, and certainly not the last – as well as what I think might be the best picture of him and I I’ve seen to date:

Our first ever Girls on Film Keyhole Session happened. Lots of fantastic shots came out of that night. A sure success, and one we’ll for sure be repeating. I had a LOT of fun, tying for Keyhole in a way I don’t often get a chance to. Fast, and for restraint as opposed to purely aesthetics. A pretty complete collection of shots from that night can be found here One of my favourite shots of the evening, below, was taken by VoulaVous and I think is simply lovely.

The following week The Keyhole Sessions and Art Battle Toronto teamed up for Art Battle 6. The final Battle of that night was two artists painting two of our models. I tied in front of the Art Battle crowd… not sure what they were expecting but they were certainly paying attention. Sonya shot a video of me tying, which is good as it shows the crowd around us but I still find it very strange watching myself tie on video.

As a result of my work with The Keyhole Sessions I’ve been invited to give a workshop on Tying the Female Form as part of Kinky4Play. That’s happening mid-August. I’ll post more details as they come up.

I discovered a new online artist (thanks to a blog post by Violet Blue) whose work I admire and am following with great interest. Ben Newman keeps a blog at bennewmanart.blogspot.com and is very much worth a look. Here’s a sample piece of his. (I am such a fan of the red rope in this.)

Part of the Sunday session at the GRUE was a discussion I led (after making many pancakes and watching Graydancer wrassle with my partner A.) on Philosophies of Service. I’m expanding that with more notes and thoughts, with the idea of eventually turning it into a class. Yes, I’d like to get on that touring circuit. But I don’t feel any great need to get on that circuit as a rope educator. At least, not at this moment. Who knows, that may change with time.

Tags: Events, GRUE, Images, Photography, Rope, ToroGRUE 2, Video, art, keyhole, public, theorosexual by control
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Just an update for all current – and potential! – ToroGRUE 2 participants. We’ll be holding our meet & greet on Friday night at the Rhino, 1249 Queen Street West in Toronto. Here’s a Google Maps link to the location (http://vb.ly/2822) and a link to the restaurant’s website (http://therhino.ca/contents.html). I’ll be reachable by email the whole time, for those who might need directional help.

Graydancer and I will be there as of 7pm, and we’ll grab a table near the back of the restaurant. Look for us towards the right-hand side, near the back. I’ll have a coil of red rope on the table, just so you know exactly where to go! We’ll wrap the meet & greet up around 9pm, giving us enough time to rest up and do some last-minute preparing before kicking the ToroGRUE off at 9am Saturday morning.

We still have a lot of space left at the GRUE this year. In some ways it’s a bit of a hard sell, trying to get people out to participate and not just absorb knowledge. If you know of anyone who might be interested in attending, please do feel free to forward this email to them. They don’t have to pre-register – we can accept payment at the door. I’ve said it before – the more brains we have out the better the event will be.

Thanks again to all of you who are coming out. I’m really looking forward to it this year.

Tags: Events, GRUE, Rope, ToroGRUE 2, theorosexual by control
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My good friend & rope compadre Graydancer of The Ropecast and all sorts of GRUEs (including the ToroGRUE and the ToroGRUE 2) has just launched a new content in conjunction with Monk of TwistedMonk.com in response (as I understand it) from a request from a listener of his podcast.
Gray & Monk will be giving away a 50$ (that’s US dollars, to be clear; a bit of a deal for we Canadians) gift certificate each month for the next four months. Each month has a theme, announced on the Ropecast – and ONLY on the Ropecast, so if you’re not listening to the podcast you’d best start – when the winner from the previous month is also announced. As Gray says in the post about the contest, “In other words, if you don’t listen, you won’t know you won. Or how to win the next one.” Click on the sentence for more complete information about the contest.
There will be other prizes given out each month in recognition of particularly creative or laudable work, but really, the fifty bucks is the big deal here. That’s fifty MORE dollars of rope than you had before. And there’s always room for more rope.
I’ve been thinking for a while of talking with Monk about arranging some kind of starter kit for Keyhole Session participants who might be interested in learning a little more about the kind of work I do on our models. Checking out his site, I imagine something like his Value-Line kit would work nicely. If that’s something any Keyhole readers would be interested in, let me know and I’ll start the conversation and see what I can work out.

Tags: GRUE, Rope, ToroGRUE, ToroGRUE 2, keyhole by control
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Me & Dylan, backstage at the Keyhole Sessions.*
There is something about this year, so far. Lots of good stuff coming my way and it doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. And what I’d said before about not letting opportunities pass me by, that’s still very much in effect.
So.
To start, the Keyhole Sessions continue along as wonderfully as they have been. Our new space at The Great Hall is turning out to be everything we thought it would be for us, and more. The different feeling in the room, seeing new faces almost every class, it’s a fantastic thing to be attached to and I’m SO happy I still am. We have lots of good stuff planned for the rest of the season, so keep checking here & the Keyhole website, as well as our Facebook page. We should also be appearing in some more local media over the next month or so, so keep your eyes open for that. Details to come, as they firm up.
This Saturday I’ll be doing a demo of some ropework and talking up the Sessions at an event called “We Are The Trampions”, happening at Lee’s Palace. Featuring a whole lot of Keyhole Models, both onstage and off, the night is a tribute to all things Queen (as in the band). I’ll be tying on the floor somewhere. If you show up, come by and say hello. If you ask nicely, I might tie you up too. If you ask very nicely.
The end of March sees me leaving the country for a short jaunt, and for something I’m amazingly excited about. I’ve been honoured with an invitation to perform at Madison Young’s Art of Restraint, this March 27th. Dylan Ryan – who I tied for the first time for our Valentine’s Day Keyhole Session, and who is pictured above – and I will be performing…something… for the event, along with Monk from TwistedMonk.com and some other fantastic rope performers. The Art of Restraint takes place at Madison’s gallery, Femina Potens, in San Francisco. I am looking forward to being back there; I feel like I only started exploring the city when I was there for the Folsom Street Fair last September. More exploring. More coffee. More chocolate…
Mmmmm, chocolate.
The week after I get back Toronto plays host to the 5th annual Feminist Porn Awards. I donated some rope & time to a couple of fundraisers for the awards and am very much looking forward to attending, both the pre-awards screenings as well as the awards themselves. Lots of amazing people are coming into town for the event and it’s shaping up to be a very sexy couple of days. I’m also plotting a couple of workshops around that time, featuring some out-of-towners, more of which will be revealed as soon as details firm up.
After the FPA’s are done, then all I have to think about is the ToroGRUE 2. May 1st, at Renegade. I don’t need to say too much more about that. Click the link. Come out on May Day and share your brains with us. The more the better.
I’ve also started thinking more, based on conversations and a growing interest, in doing some small-scale teaching. People have come out of the Keyhole Sessions, or approached me while I’m doing a demo, and asked if I teach ropework. Up to now, I’ve been saying no. It took two people asking me in less than a week to realize that maybe, just maybe, I could be sharing the knowledge. So that’s coming together. Feel free to email me by clicking on the Get Control link in the sidebar if you want to talk sessions or prices.
So yes – a lot going on, and none of it I’d ever dream of passing up. It just keeps going and going and frankly I’m not interested in it stopping. Bring on the opportunities.

*Thanks to Nathaniel for the pic.

Tags: Events, GRUE, Life, Performance, Press, Rope, ToroGRUE 2, keyhole by control
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Rumours have been spreading about the possibility of another GRUE happening in Toronto this year. Well, they’re not just rumours, they’re facts. I’m announcing here the dates for the ToroGRUE 2, happening this May 1st at Renegade.

I’m excited to bring Graydancer back to Toronto and to work with the fine folks at Renegade to host an even larger GRUE than last time. The reactions from the participants from 2008’s ToroGRUE at Goodhandy’s were such that as soon as it was over I started thinking of when I could make it happen again. Finding the right venue was the first hurdle, and then making sure schedules would all match up.

Details and a schedule can be found on the ToroGRUE 2 Event Page. I’ll be updating the page as more information firms up. If you’re a member of FetLife (and if you’re not, you really really should be) you can also find out more up-to-date information about the ToroGRUE 2 in the GRUEp.

As before, even though the event has the word “Ropetastic” in the title, the conversation will not be limited to only rope-based topics. Anything kink or BDSM-related can be brought to the event.

Get your brains revved up. You’ve got three months. See you all at the ToroGRUE 2.

Tags: D/s, Events, GRUE, Rope, ToroGRUE 2 by control
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