The cloud knows all

Smart advertising is already pretty spooky. I’ll do a casual search on Expedia for a trip idea, and be bombarded with hotel ads in my Facebook feed. Or I’ll search Google for a kitchen appliance, and suddenly every website has an opinion on what toaster I should buy. The combination of smarter AI, corrupt politicians and the ever expanding amount of user behavior data stored in the cloud is only going to make it spookier in the future. Pretty soon you’ll post-coitally murmur into your partner’s ear that maybe next time you might be up for a little light anal play, and the following morning you’ll have a grinning UPS guy outside with a 55 gallon drum of lube and an inflatable gargantula dildo.

The reason I mention all this is not because a Canadian dildo manufacturer just got caught tracking the behavior of its users. That’s a great example of what the future holds, but not what prompted this post. Instead it was triggered by my Facebook feed advertising ballgags to me. At least that’s what it looked like at first glance. It turned out to be for the Jawzrsize – a weird jaw exercise device. As images like this and this show, it does really resemble a ballgag. So I’m let wondering – what do the Facebook algorithms know about me? I’ve shown zero interest in fitness products or home exercise equipment. So are they just being dumb, or really really smart? Is there somewhere a Facebook AI thinking “So far he’s not been into exercise, but based on that blog he writes, he is into freaky sex toys. Perhaps this is the crossover product that’ll finally snag him?” If the next FB ad I see is for an exciting new weights workout device for the lower body, then I’ll know Facebook is really onto me.

I’ll leave you with a happy young woman doing her best to help a man develop a firm and square jawline of his own.

I believe this is from the bondishboys site.

Bleeding Heart

As I mentioned in my last post, I caught up with Cynthia Stone and Inga Larsson last week while they were visiting Seattle. I was happy to see them in my part of the world, but I was a touch nervous about doing a session with both of them together, particular given how little I’ve played recently. I’d seen them separately before in LA (posting about it here, here and here), and our play had tended towards the intense and in-your-face end of the scale. Doubling that up, combined with a lack of match fitness, felt like it might be a challenge too far. In the end my concerns were proven both right and wrong. I was right that it’d be very intense, but wrong that it’d be a problem. It was wonderful.

We snapped some photographs, which I’ll share in the hot links below. Fair warning to those of a sensitive disposition: They include close-up shots of naked me and some very small amount of blood. I will not be offended if you choose to skip the click.

We started with a nice mix of corporal, using crops, paddles, whips and even the belt from my trousers. A particular highlight was being paddled on the ass by Cynthia while Inga was in my face prodding an acupuncture needle in my forehead. The combination of the impersonal heavy impacts and the very personalized sharp pain was a big headrush. I was also introduced to the idea of removing a nipple clamp for a short while and then re-applying it. The result is agonizing, with the clamp multiplying the pain of the returning blood flow. I think in years of playing, that’s the first time I’ve experienced that particular combination.

After that we moved onto some medical style play, with Cynthia suturing and Inga cutting. You see the suture work on the genitals here and here. While that was going on, Inga was drawing a heart on my chest with a scalpel. You can see this here and here. The combination of the bursts of sharp suturing pain and rhythmic cutting strokes was another amazing combination. I ended up shaking with the adrenaline but also relaxing completely into the sensations. There was also some nipple piecing happening, which the suture thread ended up getting tied off to, shown here.

Cynthia didn’t want to be left out of the cutting action, so decided to cut her name into my cock, shown here. That looks extreme, but was actually less painful than the suturing. What was extreme was being forced to masturbate afterwards with a mixture of lube and salt. Even with a normal cock status, salt is not something you want anywhere it or your lube. Mix in some thin paper-like cuts, and much groaning will ensue.

In the end I was left with an amazing headspace, that persisted for 3 or 4 days. I still break out in a big smile just thinking about the time we spent. I was also left with a very distinctive collection of marks to admire, both on the ass and the chest. This was the heart a couple of days later.

If you’re in LA or NYC, and looking for an imaginative and talented pro-domme, then I absolutely recommend seeking out Inga or Cynthia. And if you’re lucky enough to catch them both in the same city at the same time, then a double session will be a lifetime memorable event.

This shot is of Inga Larsson taken from her web site.

Happy puddle

A short post tonight. Typing anything is tricky. I’m a happy puddle of endorphins and smiles after playing with two wonderfully talented women. I’m also missing some blood, which I’m now replacing with red wine. Not sure my doctor would approve. Forget a long post. Even long sentences are taxing.

We did snap some photographs, which I’ll feature tomorrow.  Until then I’ll leave you with the two ladies in question. This the lovely Cynthia Stone and amazing Inga Larsson.

Happy International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day has grown in coverage and importance in the US over recent years, which can only be a good thing. This years event gives me a chance to share a couple of quote that I’ve always liked. No doubt a lot of my readers will have heard them before, as they’re far from new, but they still put a smile on my face

The first was from Charlotte Whitton in ’63 – “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult.”

The other is about the famous dancer Ginger Rogers and her partner Fred Astaire – “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, …backwards and in high heels.” This was originally from a cartoon in ’82 although widely misattributed.

This image is very much not Fred and Ginger. In fact it’s the professional latin dancers Nikolai Voronovich and Maria Nikolishina.

We need to talk

I’m not entirely convinced by the ropework in this drawing. It has a suggestion of the randomly wrapped clothesline style from 1970’s bondage magazines. He could probably escape if he wanted to, but I’m guessing he’s happy where he is.

Ropework aside, I do like this image. Being bound, straddled and grasped around the throat is undoubtedly hot. The artist is S. Yoshiko and it was created for Lady Merreth. I’ve featured their artwork previously.

Fake News

According to this Vice article, pro-dommes have seen a big upsurge in business since Trump took office. If you think that means that Vice did a thorough survey of dommes across the country, using data from both before and after the election, then I can only admire your optimism in the quality of on-line journalism. As far as I can tell, they talked to exactly three dommes. Their anecdotal comments are interesting, but I don’t think three data points qualifies as a fully representative sample set of an entire industry.

If there has been a change, I actually like Mistress Tiffany’s suggestion – it’s due to backpage closing it’s adult ads section in January. Journalists tend to know and talk to well known and well established dommes. The kind of dommes who have proper websites optimized for search engines that are easy for clients to find. Journalists are unlikely to talk to the hundreds of lower profile women working mainly from backpage ads that have seen their business evaporate in the last couple of months. It would be a surprise to me if the backpage decision hadn’t triggered changes in client patterns, but it’s obviously hard to measure what those might be.

Whatever has happened, if anything at all, the article does at least give me an excuse to feature this image of the lovely Mistress Iris. She’s an LA based pro-domme, and the third one interviewed in the Vice article.

Birching in Watercolor

There’s a lot of kinky artwork online, but it’s not often that I find examples using the medium of watercolors. It’s a style I personally like a lot, so I was therefore happy to be sent a link to a website run by Djeki featuring spanking, whipping and birching watercolors created by her husband.

The site actually boasts spanking art in a variety of styles, along with some impressive and fearsome spanking furniture, but it’s the watercolors that caught my eye. I also like the fact that the artist was identified to me simply as Djeki’s husband. That seems appropriate for Femdom themed artwork.

Birching WatercolorIf you’re also a fan, it looks like a lot of the artwork is available for sale.

State of the Kinky Union

Kink.com has published their version of a State of the Union for 2017. It’s their assessment of the top kinky cities in America based on factors like fetlife subscribers, kinky resources, porn viewing, sex toys purchased, etc. Annoyingly they don’t share the details of their algorithm, so it’s hard to see exactly how they arrive at the final top 10 list. As you’d expect places like San Francisco, New York and LA feature prominently. What does surprise me is that since 2015 Seattle has dropped from #7 to nowhere at all. I know I’ve done a lot less kinky sessions in the last 18 months or so, but I didn’t think all my fellow Seattleites had followed suit.

Even more intriguing is their list of top toys per state. There are all sorts of fun devices. Ohio is into hoods, Texans likes their zappers and apparently Illinois is full of guys in chastity cages. So what’s the number one toy in Washington State? The sex ramp – the single most boring toy in the entire world*.  It’s basically a pillow with edges, and about as kinky as a comfy duvet. To make it worse, we’re the only state with that as our favorite toy. I’m not surprised they dumped us off the top 10 city list.

Here’s someone who could never be accused of not doing her bit to keep my hometown kinky. This is Seattle based pro-domme Domina Victoria Rage, in a photograph taken from a 2013 interview with her – part 1 and part 2.

* In all seriousness, I’ve actually got nothing against the sex ramp. It’s a perfectly fine piece of equipment for the bedroom. It’s just a little dull compared to some of the kinky alternatives.

Samir Abady’s Kink Series

The title of this BuzzFeed article is somewhat silly – 18 Kinky Pictures From The Gritty Underworld Of BDSM – but the photographs and the writing with them is both interesting and revealing. It’s only a ‘gritty underworld’ if your idea of BDSM consists of perfect models posing in polished fetish gear on a studio set. What these photographs show is how some kinky people explore BDSM in the real world. Ropes get knots in them, bodies aren’t perfect and you don’t need a dungeon space to get creatively kinky.

I particularly liked the story of Josh and Mistress Blunt. As a fan of mummification and breathplay myself, I can understand a little of the meditative effect it can have. The shots of them pre-session and in session (like the one below) are great.

The photographer is Samir Abady and you can the full series of 19 images in his set entitled ‘Kink’.