My new rope case!
I’d had this idea in my head for a while before I finally got it together to make it a reality. I think of this as being a test version, a first draft. If I like it enough, I can see myself investing in a new case and spending a bit more time on the design & aesthetic. For now, this works.
I bought an old electric guitar hardcase from craigslist, screwed some hooks into the frame of the case on top and the lower edge of an internal shelf on the bottom half. The hooks give me enough storage for at least 4 15′-30′ bundles in the top half and at least 4 30′-50′ bundles in the bottom half. When it’s open it’s free-standing, which means I don’t have to dig through a bag to find the length I need. I can grab & unhook it quickly.
I still need to figure out how & where to be able to attach my suspension ring, and probably a couple of carabiners and safety shears as well.
Obviously this isn’t something I’d carry around on a day-to-day basis, or even if I was just carrying a bit of rope somewhere for casual play. It was more made with performances or workshops in mind, something where I’d like the gear I’m using to give whatever it is I’m doing a little extra kick. There’s also the fun part of when people see me carrying the case and ask, “What you got in there, a guitar?” I can just look at them and say, “No.” And leave them thinking…

So this past Tuesday was our last Keyhole Session of the season and it was a pretty fantastic night. Not that that means we’re going to be totally absent over the summer. In August, there’s talk of doing another Girls on Film session, seeing as how the first one was so successful. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but once it is I’ll be posting about it here & elsewhere.
Before that happens, however, we have this: SneakPeek. From July 8th to July 13th we’ll be showing off some of the best artwork that’s come out of the past 55 Keyhole Sessions at the Gladstone Art Bar, here in Toronto. Click through to find more information about both the exhibition and our Gala opening on July 10th. There’s a chance, space & time allowing, that I’ll be doing a bit of a demo at the opening. Hopefully I can find myself a little corner I can tie in…

I got home from ArtCore last night around one in the morning, a very heavy bag of rope over one shoulder and a bag of chinese takeout in the other. As usual I brought WAY more rope than I used, but I just know if I’d decided to bring less than I did I would have needed more… that’s just how it goes.

The event was amazing, a packed and raucous crowd filling Bread & Circus in support of Good For Her and the Feminist Porn Awards. I’m glad I got to be a part of it. I got to have conversations with various people while I was tying, people both novice and experienced who all wanted, for whatever reason, to touch the rope.

Let me just make this clear: to touch the rope, but not the beautiful people IN the ropes. Now that’s something.

We gave away two passes to the Keyhole Sessions at the end of the night, and of COURSE I know the person who won them. It was a sort of last-minute decision to offer the passes, and having me step up onstage at the end of the night while they were being given away. I do wish, in retrospect, that I’d given a bit more thought into what I was going to say when I got up there. As it was I said nothing. Which I know will be not surprising at all to those of you out there who know me. I can’t think of a time when I’ve not preferred to be more invisible than not. What will be surprising, and what you can kind of tell from the picture above, is that I was wearing a tie. Grey, of course.

The pic above is of my second tie of the night – a bodycorset on Jen in black and orange. I knew before I arrived at Bread & Circus that night I was going to do the corset tie at some point. In many ways it’s the most crowd-pleasing tie I have, a kind of showpiece. A great many cameraphones started flashing away while I was tightening the lacing down Jen’s back. I feel I should say here again that tie was inspired by Leon of Monkeyfetish.com, based on an arm-only version I learned in one of his classes at Shibaricon 2008. Thanks, Leon. I owe you for that one.

I’ve included other pics of each of the models, as well as the piece of writing each one gave to me in advance, as I mentioned in my last post about the event, on this page here. I’m expanding the WORK section of the website. Up until now I’ve had it hidden, but it seems like since more and more work is coming my way, I might as well make note of it.

For example: at the end of the night there was talk of having me back to perform at the next fundraiser Good For Her is throwing in February. Needless to say, not only am I totally game for that idea, but I’ve already started tossing around performance ideas in my head.

I’ve been invited to perform at ArtCore, a fundraiser being thrown by Good For Her in support of the 2010 Feminist Porn Awards. The show’s happening this Friday, November 6th at Bread & Circus theatre in Kensington Market. It’s at 299 Augusta, so just a little bit south of College and west of Spadina. Here’s a link to the Facebook Event page. It’s ten bucks, 19+ only (a licensed venue), and doors open at 8pm. It is shaping up to be a pretty fantastic evening, with a great lineup of videos and performances throughout the night by Dylan Ryan, Frances Mahon and Ab Horrence.

From Good For Her’s release:

“One person’s art is another person’s porn, and one person’s porn is another person’s art. ArtCore will look at art influenced porn and porn influenced art with video screenings and performances that laugh in the face of boundaries between the erotic and the artistic.

Featuring clips from both new directors and new work from Feminist Porn Award winning directors, this evening promises you’ll never look at fruit, hot dogs, Barbie dolls or fully clothed men in quite the same way again.”

I’ll be tying before the show, during the intermission, and after the show is done. I’m not sure WHERE I’ll be working… I have a feeling that’ll get sorted out on the night. Wherever there’s space, pretty much. Pictures will be posted after the fact, as long as permission is granted by each of the three models I’ll be working with.

Two of the models – Jen & Mara – I’ve worked with quite a lot at the Keyhole Sessions. In fact, both of them were there from the very beginning, and are not only familiar now with my style of tying, but comfortable with me, which is important. The third person, and first up in the evening, is my friend Laura who I’ve tied before in a demo-like situation and am looking forward to getting some rope on again.

When I was approached to take part in this event, and found out that they wanted me to tie, I was a little apprehensive at first. Frankly, I was worried about the optics of the whole thing. I wasn’t sure how me tying up pretty ladies fit in with the context of the evening, and I didn’t want to do it if it meant I was going to stick out as being THAT guy. After talking about it a bit with Chase & Alison, the organizers of both this event and the Feminist Porn Awards, we came up with a way to have the ropework fit into the context of the evening.

Each model is giving us a piece of writing, a few paragraphs at most, about how the act of being tied or being in bondage makes her feel stronger, more empowered or connected with her sexuality in a positive and healthy way. Each model’s piece will be printed large and displayed behind her, or just off to the side, while I’m tying so that the audience has a bit of an inside view on her experience. I’m hoping as well – and I’ll encourage this – that the models will interacting with the audience to a degree while they’re being tied. The last thing I want is for the models to be disconnected or passive. I want them to be engaged, both with the audience and with me.

I hope it works. I’ll of course be answering any questions the audience might have, as best I can. Not to mention live tweeting as often as is possible.

This is what I spent the night of October 3rd, 2009 doing. And I have to say, there are much worse ways to spend an evening.

The Keyhole Sessions hosted a special event at Nuit Blanche this year, “Girls.Grease.Rope” and it was a blast. Seven models, six hours, two riggers, a lot of energy and some fantastic artwork made for a very memorable and exciting evening. Everyone pulled together and the whole night ran amazingly smoothly.

Click on the picture above for the Madame’s wrap-up post about the evening, she pretty much covers all the necessary thank-yous and shout-outs. My co-rigger for the evening, lotuslily, blogged some thoughts about the night here, and Skellington, one of our models, wrote about her first experience on stage for us here. I haven’t done much digging, but I imagine a search on Flickr  for “nuit blanche keyhole sessions” or even just “nuit blanche hot girls rope” might come up with a few images. Besides the amazing number of people who came out to draw, there certainly was no shortage of cameras, phone- and otherwise.

We took last week off of the Keyhole Sessions, giving us all a chance to recouperate. We’re back on stage this Tuesday the 13th, in the lower studio at 100 A Ossington in Toronto. If you’re around and feel like getting pencil to paper, come on by.

I arrived just before 23:00 with K and m – m in short shorts & heels, K in a short skirt and taller heels, me in kilt & combats (commando, of course) – and made our way quickly into the venue to escape the cold. I’d tied a bit of decorative rope onto K for the occasion – first time for her, and it had been a while since I’d done anything decorative like that. It turned out okay, I think :

The place was packed, everyone crowding around the stage for a good view of the fashion show. Excellent clothing, a fantastic skin suspension (and I usually don’t dig those but this was really lovely) and a great “surprise” guest appearance by Midori. She’d mentioned that she was going to be masked, so we were going to have to guess which one was her. Of course, she turned out to be the only one on stage who was masked at all. That made it a bit easier. Not that she’s not easy to pick out of a crowd, regardless. Now, next time, all the mask needs is a hole for a drinking straw…

Upstairs was a little quieter – more dancing space, the VIP lounge (ooooh, fingerfood!) and a play area. One wall of it was windows, so there was quite a crowd outside, looking in. Northbound had brought over an iron suspension frame, and when m and I walked into the play area Morpheous and Dart were already making good use of it. m’s friend Alex had two subs bent over a spanking bench, there was what looked like a mommy/daughter impact scene happening in the corner, a pillory, two St. Andrew’s crosses, a fireplace, some comfy couches, beautiful people lounging in leather… lively.

Not, however, all that inspiring to me.

For whatever reason I didn’t feel like taking out my ropes and doing any tying on m in that space. It might have something to do with the party atmosphere outside. It might have something to do with the sound & proximity of other players in the space. It might have had something to do with my energy that evening on the whole. For whatever reason, all the rope that I’d brought just stayed in my bag and I watched.

There exists a disconnect, it seems, between what sort of energy I want to exchange with partners, and where I want to do it.

I can be tying someone, mid-afternoon, in front of her primary partner, two friends & her sister and suddenly find myself caught in a very very strong shared energetic surge – one that I have to consciously push down and inwards to keep from spilling out into the room.*

I can be alone with someone in my room, kneeling on top of her and have her say to me “Is that all you got?” and have that bring a burst of joy and ferocity to my face and fingers as I lean in on her, and harder, and prove her wrong.*

I can be walking along a city street on a sunny day, simply reach over and put my hand lightly on the back of someone’s neck, feel her body soften and sigh and know how that simple gesture is making her feel, and realize in that moment just how much that little thing feeds me.*

Those moments thrill me in a way playing with someone in a crowded room just, at this point in my life, does not.

The room, however, seemed amazingly engaged. There was a fantastic sense of abandon; people were very much loving the play they were having. It was fun to watch, no question. After a while m and I stepped away & wandered back downstairs, losing ourselves in the crush of the dancefloor for a while. Eventually it got late, and we got tired. Braved the cold again and cabbed back home, where we got out of our party things and collapsed.

Next year? Yes, I think so.

* the three examples, very much from life, and very important to me

I had a meeting at Northbound Leather yesterday with the lovely Enza, talking about the ToroGRUE and how Northbound could be involved. And, frankly, it’s more than I expected.

As well as being a part of their latest newsletter, the ToroGRUE is also posted on their site, on their Upcoming Events page. Scroll down a little bit and you’ll see the posting for the GRUE. (That’s my rope, A’s arms, and KK’s photography.) To buy a ticket for the ToroGRUE from Northbound’s website (yeah, they set that up for me as well… like I said, more than expected), click on the poster for X-Posed at the top of the events page and it’ll take you to a menu with the GRUE graphic. Click on that, and you’re on the purchase page.

They are also lending me a suspension frame for the day, which will be helpful for the session on suspension harnesses I HOPE happens. Everyone gets in to the Northbound Party that night, for more playful antics. I’m looking forward to all of it.

And later that night, Lord Morpheous will be hijacking Nuit Blanche with a three hour long piece called “Salon des Refusés partie deux” taking place at Koma Designs, 1239 Queen West, just a bit west of Dufferin on the south side. Graydancer will be joining the show and tying for some of that time. That’ll just be the beginning of the evening, with the Northbound Party & the rest of Nuit Blanche to follow.

I’m going to be at this. With lots of rope. Tying pretty much whoever I can get my hands on.

I was in Montreal a couple weekends ago, working an event for my day job. My responsibilities ended on Friday night, so Saturday before my train left I went for a wander in Montreal. My first goal was to find the Fetiche Store on Ste-Catherines E and buy some more rope. I had green in mind, and I knew that they sold rope from Gargoyle Toes there. I’d bought his rope before, while in Montreal, and have been very happy with it. Of course, when I got to the location – closed. Shut down. Big For Rent sign in the window. Crap. This is what happens when you don’t do the research! So then I got back on the metro, headed out into Westmount to visit my very pregnant and dear friend Steph at her and her partner David’s new bike shop. While standing outside of the shop by the canal, I managed (?!?!) to pick up a wireless signal from somewhere and found out the shop had moved to a new location on Ontario street – essentially just up the road from where I just was.

Coffee with Steph finished and I got back on the metro (this was a mission, now) and in what seemed like no time found myself at the shop. Time was getting a bit tight to make my train, but I can’t be in a fetish store without doing a bit of browsing. So. I browsed. As I was, a lovely woman in a gorgeous corset walked up to me and started speaking to me in clear but rapid french. Most of which I actually caught. I thanked her – in English – and told I her I wanted the rope for sure but was going to look around for a bit. She switched to my language (thankfully, I wasn’t quite in the mood to murder French at the moment) and said when I was ready just let her know.

I brought the rope up to the cash (it was really all I was looking for in the moment) and about a half hour later walked out with some new dark green 6mm hemp. The half hour was filled with some good solid geek conversation, on multiple levels and always a delight, and ended with me getting an invitation to come to the event and basically deliver up some ropey eye candy in exchange for a free pass. I told her I was more than interested, caught my train, came back to Toronto & booked the time off of work. Done.

So now I’m looking at my rope tree and figuring out what bag am I going to use to bring all of this with me? Do I have enough? Should I, in fact, buy more? (That’s a dangerous question right there…)

I am very much looking forward to this event. Not only ‘cos I get to be tying new people all weekend, but also as some of my favourite people will be there. Andrea Zanin of Sex Geek is teaching two workshops; one called “Hands On Play”on Thursday and another called “Pleasures of Female Fisting” on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Midori is holding a workshop called “Scene Dynamics and Psychology of Rope Bondage” which I’m hoping to get to. The line-up of workshops is pretty fantastic – you can check it out here, in English.

Should be a fun weekend. I’ll be posting from Montreal, as much as I can.