Trouble at dungeon

There’s nothing sexier than a lick. Other than a bite. A lick and a bite. The two sexiest things are a lick and a bite and a kiss. The three sexiest things are a lick, a bite and a kiss…and a gentle nibble on the neck. Amongst the many things sexy things are licks, bites, kisses, nibbles and gentle whispers into a lovers ear… I’ll come in again.

A Sexy LickI don’t have an attribution for this, I believe that’s Mistress Madeline and I’d guess it’s a crop of an original photograph from Kink.com. I should also add that this post originally was a sensible one that had an identical opening to its current one. It kind of got away from me after that. For anyone confused.

Ditching the dungeon

When I was down in LA a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get to play with Mistress Lucy Khan. We had a couple of great sessions with a nice mix of tormenting, torturing and teasing. She’s a very talented domme and well worth contacting if you’re in the SoCal area.

I particularly enjoyed getting to see her new play space – The Decameron. I’ve long been a critic of the classic dungeon themes that crop up so often in BDSM. I don’t have a medieval fetish and I don’t know many people who do. Why are so many spaces done in cliched black and red? They end up looking like a cross between Hollywood’s idea of a 1920’s brothel and a 1420’s castle dungeon. I like clean modern designs and I’m happy to say that the Decameron has been created along those lines. It has an elegant feel, with white, grey and teal colors, alongside custom made equipment themed to match the space. I was reminded more a boutique hotel (albeit with some seriously kinky furnishing) rather than a horror movie studio set.  You can see some shots of it here.

Setting aside the aesthetic issues, I also feel a space like this is much more welcoming to nervous newcomers. It’s tough enough to confide unusual kinky desires to a stranger, without the added pressure of a weird environment that feels like entering an alien sub-culture. In contrast this looks like a space you might actually enjoy being in and experiencing.

The shot below is of Decameron co-owners Mistress Lucy (left) and Mistress Iris (right), along with Lady Grace Marie (centre) who plays out of the same space. You can read some of their thoughts on their new space here.

Mistress Lucy Khan, Lady Grace Marie and Mistress Iris Ichiya.

Ssshhh!

I am apparently too noisy to play in a particular San Francisco play space during normal office hours. I discovered this fact recently when planning a forthcoming trip. I’m not sure if I should be proud, ashamed or indignant. I think I’m probably going to go with amused. As someone who tends to the introverted and shy in social situations, I’m entertained by the idea of my naked screaming self disturbing other people.

It’s no big deal to find another location in a kinky city like San Francisco, so I’ll just be yelling and groaning somewhere else this time around. Hopefully I’ll avoid scaring the neighbors in the alternate location. I’m a fan of communicating clearly with my top, but perhaps this is a sign I’ve been overdoing it.

SsshhhThis is the wonderful Paulette Goddard with Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator.

Wet Stuff

Michael Phelps continues in his bid to be the most interesting swimmer ever. I’ve zero interest in the sport itself, but I appreciate the fun stuff he’s got up to outside the pool. The latest story has him allegedly being peed on by a pro-domme. I emphasize the alleged part, as the story source is the National Enquirer, which is hardly a bastion of high quality journalism.

While I’m all for hot wet splashy fun, the story does seem a little odd. She claims to have peed on him on a hotel bed. What professional would do that? There would be pee everywhere. Lots of towels might help, but who wants to explain urine soaked towels to the cleaning staff? In my experience pee pads on the floor are the answer in play spaces and the bathroom is the answer in hotel rooms.

Normally when I feature a pro-domme story I link to their contact information, but given this one betrayed client confidentiality and blabbed to the press, I’m not inclined to send anyone in her direction. I can only hope she loses more money from clients staying away then she gaining from the National Enquirer. Instead I’ll finish with an image of a couple in a more appropriate set-up for some wet fun.

Couple in the bathI’m afraid I don’t have an original source for this image. If you can point me at one then please leave a comment with the relevant information. I found it via the Felm Cyber tumblr.

Getting a good buzz going

Masochists come in all shapes and sizes. For example, I give you Dr Schmidt, inventor of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index which rates certain insects (hymenoptera) by the degree of pain their sting produces. Admittedly he’s an entomologist who studies these insects in the field, so getting stung is part of the job description. I also wouldn’t say that inventing a pain scale automatically makes you a masochist. If you’re a thoughtful scientist who gets stung that seems like a logical thing to do. I think the giveaway is the descriptions he gives the stings.

A Yellowjacket sting is apparently – “Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.” In contrast the Sweet Bee is – “Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. As if a tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.” Nobody can wrote those kind of descriptions without some appreciation for the pleasures of pain.

'Eaten Alive' by XRendererThe above image is by the artist XRenderer. From the pot she’s holding I’m guessing these are supposed to be honey bees. According to Dr Schmidt they feel “like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.” I can’t imagine that can be too pleasant on a scrotum. Unless you like that kind of thing of course.

Taking notes

I’ve never really got the writing on the body thing. I do know that it’s a hot scenario for a lot of people, but up to this point it hasn’t really pushed my buttons (with some exceptions). I should probably try it, as I often find that kinks can rapidly progress from “Well OK, I guess we can try that” into “Oh my God! Why have we not done this years ago?”

WritingI’m afraid I don’t have an original attribution for this. I found it on the Classy Femdom tumblr.

Tabloid nonsense

The past week has seen the tabloid news sites posting numerous articles on Alissa Afonina. She’s a young woman who was recently awarded $1.5M in damages after being badly injured in a car accident in 2008. The reason for all the tabloid interest was that the accident resulted in a brain injury that led to changes in her social and sexual behavior, and in recent years she has earned a living working as a dominatrix. Or, to put it in the most tabloid way possible, courtesy of the Daily Mail – “Star student, 23, wins $1.5m after car crash brain trauma turned her into an impulsive sex-mad dominatrix”.

I wasn’t planning to feature the story at all. All the articles seemed like sensationalist nonsense, designed to sell page views, titillate readers and ignore the serious elements of the story. However, Jezebel put together an interview that I think is worth linking to. I can’t say I like the headline for it, but it’s a well done interview that actually digs into the pertinent issues and treats Alissa as a person rather than a story to be packaged and sold. She comes across as an intelligent and impressive person who has dealt well with a very difficult situation.

She works under the name Sasha Mizaree. You can visit her professional site, her clip store, her twitter feed or her tumblr. If you’re in the Vancouver area you can arrange in person sessions via her main site.

Sasha Mizaree

Sad day

I was very sad to read today about the death of author Terry Pratchett. He’d been suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s for some years, so it wasn’t particularly surprising, but that didn’t make it any less upsetting.

I’ve probably never mentioned it here, but his books are a regular part of my self-aftercare when playing and traveling. My vacations to various cities have a regular pattern. I meet and play with an interesting domme on an afternoon. I go for a beautiful meal in the evening. And, while enjoying a glass of wine and spacey on post scene endorphins, I read Terry Pratchett over diner. His gentle blend of humor, parody and witty references can make the end of a great day close to perfect.

His books have a great number of strong female characters (Esme Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg, Angua, Tiffany Aching, Susan Sto Helit, etc), but not a lot of kinky references. The most obvious one I could remember comes from The Light Fantastic. He’s just introduced a female warrior into the storyline…

“Now, there is a tendency at a point like this to look over one’s shoulder at the cover artist and start going on at length about leather, tightboots and naked blades.
Words like ‘full’, ‘round’ and even ‘pert’ creep into the narrative, until the writer has to go and have a cold shower and a lie down.
Which is all rather silly, because any woman setting out to make a living by the sword isn’t about to go around looking like something off the cover of the more advanced kind of lingerie catalogue for the specialized buyer.
Oh well, all right. The point that must be made is that although Herrena the Henna-Haired Harridan would look quite stunning after a good bath, a heavy-duty manicure, and the pick of the leather racks in Woo Hun Ling’s Oriental Exotica and Martial Aids on Heroes Street, she was currently quite sensibly dressed in light chain mail, soft boots, and a short sword.
All right, maybe the boots were leather. But not black.”

Terry Pratchett from the Light Fantastic

I’ll leave you an image of another of Sir Terry’s memorable female characters – Adora Belle Dearheart. She’s forceful, opinionated, sarcastic, dresses severely and has been known to put men in hospital with her spiked heels. Just the kind of woman I think my readers would appreciate.

Adora Belle Dearheart by rubendevelaThis image is by the artist Rubendevela. Her character is a support and aid to Golems, which explains the large hand holding the ashtray behind her.

Trust

Theater fans in the Miami area might be interested in a play called ‘Trust’ showing at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The Miami Hurricane has coverage of it here and here.

The show follows Harry (Nicholas Richberg), a shy nerd turned internet billionaire after he sells his website for a fortune….

However, with nothing left to strive for, he feels dissatisfied with his life and goes seeking excitement at an S&M club. He meets a dominatrix whom he knows as Prudence (Niki Fridh) from high school. Prudence enjoys her work in BDSM, but must deal with an unhealthy relationship with Morton (Alex Alvarez.)

When Harry asks Prudence out for coffee, he begins a complex chain of events. From there, the show’s four characters grapple with their relationships and identities as they explore power, love and control.

I’ve not seen it, but the reviews for it seem pretty positive. Feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got some first hand knowledge of the show. The shot below certainly shows commitment from the actors.

Scene from 'Trust' by  Paul Weitz

The good new days

After all these vintage art posts, let’s do something a bit more modern. I’m not sure where the image below is from originally, but I’d guess it’s a kink.com scene.

There’s a lot of valid criticism that can be directed towards today’s kinky pornography. However, no matter what its problems, I think it’s safe to say that it’s significantly better than what came before. Most vintage photographs look like they’re shot in someone’s front room with a model who has no idea what kink is. For example, I give you this or this. In contrast the shot below has an interesting setting, nice lighting, competent bondage and a sense that the lady concerned might actually know what to do with her new accessory. One can almost believe that the people arranging the shot might have a kinky bone or two in their body.

Modern Kink