The Control Enthusiast

A pic from last week’s Keyhole Session, featuring Madison Young and Dylan Ryan posing and playing to a packed house. Thanks, as always, to Nathaniel for grabbing the shot.
This month at Keyhole we’re doing something a little special. Our first contest, TEASE, happens all through April, a celebration of moving out of the dour long winter. Each time you show up to a session, your name gets entered into a draw for one of three prizes. Bring someone new with you, your name goes in again. Show up for all FOUR weeks in April, and you get a third extra chance. Full rules and the list of prizes can be found at TheKeyholeSessions.com.

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Thanks to Nathaniel for the pic & AJ for standing still

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Sometimes all of this thinking and talking and geeking about sex & technology pays off. My lovely friend Danielle has offered me a spot on a panel at Northern Voice 2010, a personal blogging and social media conference happening in Vancouver this upcoming May 7-8. It’s the 6th annual incarnation of the event and something I’m really excited to potentially be a part of.
My potential co-panelists make the whole thing even more exciting. Dylan Ryan, my performance partner for Femina Potens’ most recent Art of Restraint event; Courtney Trouble director & entrepreneur from nofauxxx.com and Little Pink Book; and Jiz Lee, the prolific blogger and performer from jizlee.com. All of whom I would be totally honoured to share some speaking time with.
Obviously the conference’s focus on all forms of social media make it kind of an ideal fit for all of us. My blogging and social media engagement have kind of gone hand-in-hand, in many ways, with my sexual development and exploration. To say that my online community connections and support structure has played a part in my growing understanding of myself as a sexual being would be an understatement. Those connections, my online engagement, has been integral to that understanding, and continues to be so.
Then there’s my professional engagement with social media. I work for a company here in Toronto that produces digital media events, and this year, for the first time since I started working for the company, we’re addressing the adult industry head-on. Quite frankly I’m happy we’re doing it, finally, as I think it’s been lacking from our events. I feel like you can’t have a conversation about online social engagement without talking about sex, and yet, it seems to be a subject pretty easily ignored – or at least laughingly dismissed – at most digital media events. For Northern Voice to be wanting to address this topic head-on is pretty fantastic of them, and I for one look forward to the chance to throw my voice and thoughts into the discussion.
There’s a travel bursary that Northern Voice is offering, to participants in need. Flying across the country isn’t so cheap, and the travel bursary would help a lot. Hopefully I’m an attractive enough potential speaker to make me worth the grant.
Photo by @kk

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I’m bringing you yet another event I’m involved in around the time of the Feminist Porn Awards. This time I’m very happy to be presenting, with the help of both Good For Her and Northbound Leather, a workshop entitled “BDSM and Anal Play” with the lovely and talented Tristan Taormino.
I recently saw Tristan speak at U of T’s “Porn Reborn” conference and it made me even more excited to organize and participate in this workshop. She’s a fantastic presenter and a very engaging speaker. I’d written a review of her book “Opening Up” a while back – a book that remains my primary (ha!) recommendation to anyone interested in exploring ethical non-monogamy in whatever form. You can read that review here.
This workshop will take place on Sunday April 11th from 2pm to 4pm at Northbound Leather. To get more information and purchase tickets to the event, click here. It’s a small room at Northbound, and space will be limited, so if you want to hear about All Things Anal from someone who really knows what she’s talking about, grab your tickets now.

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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.

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