The Control Enthusiast

Another fun bit of publicity for myself and The Keyhole Sessions! We will be appearing on tonight’s episode of Sex Matters, hosted by my old friend Cynthia Loyst.
Our appearance on her show came about pretty smoothly, and relatively quickly. I found Cynthia’s Twitter account (@sexmatterstv) through a re-tweet from the Madame a couple weeks ago. I’d appeared on another show for her a few years ago, talking about my sexual history & philosophy along with others. That was a lot of fun, and very in line with the sort of conversations she and I usuall have, so it was something I’d always known I’d like to do again. So obviously once I realized this was Cynthia’s show, I DM’d her on Twitter and asked if she’d be interested in doing a story on Keyhole. The response was quick, and positive, so we started to set it all up.
Cynthia came by the Sessions this past Tuesday night, to interview the Madame and myself about putting the Keyhole Sessions together, as well as ask me a couple of things about why I love rope bondage so much (argh, talking on camera, I have to get better at that…). Besides being interrupted MORE than once by a very annoying fire alarm (thanks to the smoke machine being used in the other room at the Great Hall), the shooting came off pretty well. Cynthia stuck around with her cameraman Ramen to shoot some of the actual session and interview some of the artists in attendance, as well as getting footage of me tying both AJ & Dolores backstage. I’m VERY curious to see how that turns out. The fact that I don’t have cable means I won’t be seeing the episode tonight, but soon.
You can check it out on CP24 tonight at 10:30pm, and again on Saturday night on Star TV. Comments are appreciated, here: let me know what you thought of the segment!

Tags: Events, Press, Rope, keyhole, media 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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“So, in the “couches” area, around a gradually growing cluster of onlookers, an older bald man (a fairly popular look in this crowd, it seems) started intricately trussing up his lithe female model — in his words, he was “adorning her body” — while maintaining a steady smile and light banter. It was a demonstration of a Japanese bondage called shibari, and it looks absurdly complicated. Bald bondage guy did explain, mostly lucidly, exactly what he was doing: touching on the purpose, intent, execution, and theory. (He even gave a brief lay introduction to the body’s pressure points and sweat glands.) Still, those strikingly symmetrical knots and twists seemed impossible to recreate without a ready, detailed set of instructions, IKEA-style. Which made it less a lesson than entertainment, and erotic appeal aside, it was — like any finely honed art — mesmerizing.”

From this article in the Huffington Post, posted on the 10th of August. A NYC-based writer attends LoveFestIV and is disappointed, it seems, that he wasn’t walking into an orgy.

Tags: Events, Press, Rope, public by control
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This article from momlogic.com brings the conversation about kink as a mental disorder into more of the mainstream. What I find important about the article is in this line:

“Why is this so important? If you meet the criteria for a DSM-approved disorder, it could affect you at the workplace — and even in child custody agreements.”

To me this is one of the key things preventing People of Kink from coming out as such. I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently, as the ToroGRUE develops, and as I think about planning other such events, and making TheControlEnthusiast.com into a bigger part of my life – in a professional way. Do I want to keep operating under a pseudonym? Statements like the above sort of prove that it is, at least for the moment, a lot safer.

Tags: GRUE, Press, Rights, theorosexual by control
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Another article from The Independent Online, this time written by author Howard Jacobson. It’s an interesting contrast with the previously posted article by Westwood the photographer. Ideas and concepts are explored in a much more in-depth way by Jacobsen. Again, certain lines leap out at me as being a bit off the mark, but it’s still a compelling read.

From the article (click for the complete text):

“”In the end,” the great French philosopher of eroticism Georges Bataille wrote, “we resolutely desire that which imperils our life.” Not accidentally, not half-heartedly, but resolutely. I do not say we want to die (though on occasions we think we do) but we want sex to take us as close to death as life allows, the paradox being – and this is a paradox which most sexual perversions celebrate, whereas love, sweet love does not – that we are never more alive than when we are staring into loss……….”

Tags: Pornography, Press, Rights, theorosexual by control
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