The Control Enthusiast

Madison Young in Toronto

control — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:17:41 +0000

Last year around this time I had the pleasure of working with Madison Young for the first time, organizing her workshop “The Zen Submissive” at Northbound Leather, while she was here attending the 2009 Feminist Porn Awards. When I heard from the lovely people at Good For Her that Madison was going to be back in Toronto this year for the Awards, I didn’t waste much time in getting in touch with her and finding out if she’d be interested in working with me again to set up some appearances and events while she’s in town.
And, well, happily, yes.
Firstly, and this is very exciting for me, Madison will be appearing as one of our models for The Keyhole Sessions on Tuesday, April 6th. She’ll be on stage with Dylan Ryan – a combination I believe will make for a VERY interesting evening.
The next night I’ve arranged for Madison to host a presentation and discussion on Feminism and Submission at Café Taste, a fantastic wine bar here in Parkdale, in Toronto. It’ll be a couple hours of chatting and snacking and drinking, with some presentation material besides. Click on the link above for more info.
Thursday and Friday of that week are, of course, the 2010 Feminist Porn Awards. Which you should go to.
Saturday afternoon Madison is giving a workshop at Northbound Leather around puppy and pony play. Check the event page here for more info and a very cute picture of Madison the puppy. That workshop starts at 2pm, so even if you were out late the night before at the FPA’s after party, you can still make it (mostly) intact.
And all that in one week!
And that’s not even all.
More to come.

From the Keyhole: Spine

control — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:31:51 +0000

From this past Tuesday’s Keyhole Sessions. An experiment that pretty much worked. Click on the image for more pics from that night.
Thanks to Nathaniel for the pictures.

Tonight!

control — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:18:23 +0000

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!

From the Keyhole: Beginning

control — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:29:03 +0000

Starting the first tie on Dolores for the evening. Click on the picture to see the rest of the shots from the night. As always, thanks go to Nathaniel for the pictures.

Graydancer’s Giveaway

control — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:54:27 +0000

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.

The Goodness, Up and Coming

control — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:23:48 +0000

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.

Helmut Newton, Paris 1977

control — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:32:49 +0000

From Beautiful and Depraved

From the Keyhole: Backstage, grinning

control — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:55:03 +0000

Every so often a picture gets taken that can really show what tying can be like, in a moment. This is one of them, from last week’s Keyhole Session. Me, tying the Madame in preparation for her (sudden and unexpected) appearance in the last pose of the evening. I wish I could remember what we were saying.

Thanks to Nathaniel for the pics.

From the Keyhole: Rope on Pandora

control — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:15:42 +0000

From last week’s Keyhole Session. Yes, that’s a leopard-print bikini top. It was a Wilma-and-Betty themed night. Click on the image to check out the other pics from the night.

Thanks to Nathaniel for the pics.

ToroGRUE 2 – Mayday!

control — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:46:08 +0000

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.