MVK Newsletter

January 2009 

 

In this issue:

Messages from the Board:

Events

News

Feature Article: How to Madly Bottom to a Singletail

 

 

Messages from the Board

Season's Greetings 

We hope everybody had a good time over the holiday season, despite some abysmal winter weather disrupting many people's plans.  MVK has a lot planned for 2009, and we will continue to serve the social and educational needs of Greater Vancouver's kinky community. 

 

Incorporation

Ever since MVK was the Vancouver Dungeon Steering Committee in 2007, we've been planning for this organization to be a fully incorporated entity under the law, part of our committment to transparency. However, with one delay after another, including problems with the language in our constitution, the incorporation wasn't done by the time our second annual general meeting came around.

 

However, in early December 2008, we received the full paperwork. We are now a fully incorporated non-profit society under BC's Societies Act. This allows us to do various forms of fundraising (such as 50/50 draws) in order to support and increase our activities.  As well, we will be required to file financial information officially, have bank accounts, etc.

 

We are excited and pleased that we have finally achieved this milestone.

 

Taboo Sex Show

MVK will participate in the Dungeon at the Taboo Sex Show in January 2009.  This will be our second Taboo show, and we will be there to answer questions from the curious audience, hand out flyers and spread the word. Gravedigger is gathering volunteers to help with the Dungeon at this year's Taboo Sex Show:

 

We are looking for people who are willing to hang out in the dungeon area, socialize with general public and  answer questions about the Fetish/BDSM community and other kinky subjects. If you are interested in helping us out, please contact him by email at TheeGravedigger@gmail.com, as he will coordinate volunteers for the show. Please indicate what times you are available, and how much you can contribute. In exchange for your contribution, you will receive complimentary admission for the day.  

 

We'ld also like to thank Taboo, Aaron H. and Issac T. of Sin City for allowing MVK to participate in this space. Sin City has a great relationship with the show organizers, and they've asked us to help them make it a positive, exciting space.

 

Call for Submissions

We're looking for articles submission in January for the February newsletter. The topic is bondage and shibari related. These can be short stories, poetry, or informative articles. The winning submission will be published in the MVK newsletter, and the author will receive complimentary admission for two to the Vancouver Dungeon Workshop & Play Party. 

 

Email your contribution to contact+newsletter@metrovancouverkink.com

 

Professor Oni stepping down

Professor Oni, Director at large, has stepped down from the board due to other personal and professional commitments.  He plans to continue to be active with MVK and in the community and volunteering.  We are very happy to continue to work with him.

 

 

Events

See MVK's community event calendar.

Are you hosting a BDSM community event open to the public?  Send us the basics, and we'll add it to the calendar!  (Event title, Date, time, location, costs, link)

 

Jan 03, 2009

Metro Vancouver Kink presents JONN IRELAND, well known Seattle-based single tail master.

 

Workshop: Beginning/ Intermediate Whip Workshop

presented by Jonn Ireland, 1:00pm - 4:00pm, 1.5 hours workshop, 1.5 hours guided practice.  $20-30 sliding scale

Due to venue space, class size is limited to 30 max, to register please email contact@metrovancouverkink.com.

 

This is a “Hands on Workshop” presented by Jonn Ireland, Whip Master www.sensualwhipping.com of Seattle, so please bring your whips.  Participants will learn and practice various techniques. You will learn to use a Bullwhip for wraps and hard strikes to add spice to your Scene, several different ways to throw a Signal Whip, unusual areas to strike the body, positions to use in a Scene when you do not have a rack or a cross, techniques for limited space (like a bedroom), bondage and whips, how to use two whips at once, one in each hand for specific techniques including “9 and 3”, Cross Cracking forehand and backhand, Florentine and others.  Whip techniques can vary from light wraps brushing skin with the whip tips, to using the whip tip for cracks off and then on the skin, each one producing different effects on the bottom and being used in different places as the Scene progresses. The Scene can vary in intensity from gentle stroking, to fiery rain and progress into painful, red welted stripes, depending on the intent and skill of the Top and the interests and limits of the bottom.

 

Whip Performance

by Jonn Ireland, 7:30pm - 8:00pm.   $5 suggested donation

Join us for a spectacular demonstration of power and precision by John Ireland.

 

Vancouver Dungeon play party: with earlier start

8:00pm - 1:00am  Featuring Vendors and Red Light Room.  $20, or $35-$45 with whip workshop 

Location: Capri Hall, at the Vancouver Subud Centre (wheelchair accessible)
3925 Fraser Street @ E.23rd, Vancouver

Party Rules 

 

Food Bank food drive, and a chance to WIN a Dragon's Tongue too!

After the holiday season, the need goes on for those less fortunate in our city.   MVK has made a committment to make giving to the Food Bank an ongoing part of its events and a positive opportunity for its attendants. 

 

How, you ask? Just bring along something non-perishable for the food bank, and you will get a ticket (one ticket for each person who donates) to be entered to win a Dragon's tongue singletail whip, donated by Bound2Please.

 

Items most needed:

• Pasta and rice (bulk), preferably the whole wheat versions
• Canned fish
• Non-dairy/non-soy milk products (e.g. rice or almond milk)
• personal hygeine products (e.g. pads, tampons, soap, razors, deoderant, toothpaste)
• household items (e.g. ziploc bags, tinfoil,etc)

 

What is sliding scale?

Sliding scale means you have the option to contribute the amount you are comfortable with.  MVK believes in keeping our educational events accessible to all members of our community.  MVK is a community-based non-profit organization.   We need your support to keeping holding quality events for everyone!

Parking:

Ample parking is available on the surrounding streets.  Please respect parking regulations, dress discreetly and keep noise levels down in respect to local residents.

Carpooling:

For Facebook users, install the Facebook Carpooling application from http://www.zimride.com/. You will be able to arrange rides with other attendees, once you have the event in your list.

Transit:

#8 and #25 buses will bring you there.  After the regular buses stop running, the N8 still runs every 30minutes.

Please check Translink schedules for details

The last scheduled buses, at the nearest timing points are scheduled for:

8 Northbound: 1.07am;  8 Southbound: 2.00am

25 Westbound: 12.36am; 25 Eastbound: 12:35am 

 

Munches

MVK regularly attends the Vancouver Eastside Munch. It's a casual, low-key dinner social gathefor newcomers and veterans.

The End Cafe, 2360 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC 6:30pm-8:30pm, January 21st and the third Wednesday of each month.

There are other munches around town too, check our events calendar!

News

Goodbye Bettie Page

by Peter Tupper

 

She had the body of a goddess and the face of an angel, and her circle of acquaintance ran from pornographer Irving Klaw to evangelist Billy Graham. She was Bettie Page, fetish model turned preacher, and she passed away on December 11, 2008.

 

Back when the BDSM culture was little more than a scattered network of photographers, models and eccentric guys with handmade bondage equipment, Ms. Page starred in numerous black and white photo sequences and silent, grainy stag reels. Despite the indifferent direction and lack of sound, something about her shone through. Marilyn Monroe was a child in a woman's body, but Bettie Page knew her sensuality. We know there was some darkness in her life: parental abuse as a child and a rape as a young woman. Yet, she made being tied up and spanked look fun and beautiful. In the years before The Joy of Sex and sex positive philosophy, that was a revelation.

 

Page dropped out of the modelling world before the sexual revolution got started, and became an icon to a culture she never took part in. While she worked as a minister and struggled with short-lived marriages, schizophrenia and depression, her image became the Marilyn Monroe of alternative culture. Vancouver's own Betty Page Social Club was forced to become the Body Perv Social Club when she started enforcing her likeness rights in the 1990s.

 

It's hard to sum up a life that ran to so many extremes. Was she a vixen pin-up queen, or a Christian who strayed far from the path of salvation, or just another emotionally damaged woman in the porn business, or a wandering spirit who never quite fit in anywhere?  Regardless, she made an impact.

 

Cops suspended for being at bondage party

Two Australian police officers were stood down from operational duties after a newspaper published photos of them at the Hookers Ball in Darwin, which features bondage beds, fantasy, latex, porn stars and erotic dancers

Link

 

Florida Fetish Club Sues Competitor, Creating Legal Drama

Florida's Quest fetish club is suing his former business partner and the man who sold them the fetish facility last year, as well as the competing Phoenix club in which both defendants now are allegedly involved.

Link

 

 

Feature Article

How to Madly Bottom to a Singletail

by BootPig   wmb.bootpig@gmail.com

  

1. If you are bottoming to a less-than-experienced singletail user, stay lucid and aware of your body placement and movement. Why? Because they can't adjust their aim instantly, they are not yet fluid enough for that. If you must move, move left or right, or away from it, but don't lean back into it unless you like the idea of what they're doing and want to ramp it up. That strike that felt really good, will be a bleeding one if you lean 6 inches into it and they can't adjust on the fly. If you're moving left or right, do it slowly. A quick jump means a shoulder-intended strike is suddenly on your arm if they can't adjust quickly enough. It doesn't mean they're bad, evil, etc. it just means you must contribute to the experience by lending some of your own skill to make it the best possible for both of you while the learning curve is developing. If they are really new, you do NOT HAVE TO BE NAKED! Jeans are a beautiful thing, so is leather, so are safety glasses, etc.

 

Try and stay emotionally present when they are learning because they are very focused on the tool and may not be as acutely aware of you as they normally are. Attention spans can only be divided in so many directions at once before something suffers.

If you can't stay present, your head drops fast and hard, perhaps trying it out at another time, out of scene space would be a better bet for you.

 

2. Watch them work on someone else, and watch the map they leave behind. Thin long lines -- drag strokes -- a little less intense since they occur after the whip has expended most of its energy and what is left contacts the body and drags along it. Watch their eyes while they work, if they broke the skin and DIDN'T mean to, you'll know it. Little polka dots -- punch strokes, much more intense, the whip is expending energy at the body level and punching a little divot (or a big one) -- now that's something people forget to look at. Can they control the target AND the depth? Look for tell tale little marks up on the neck, around the shoulders and collarbone where strikes went over, or high. Repeatedly? Bad throws happen to the best, but they don't happen consistently.

 

If they are someone that you can't see work on someone else, they don't do public play, or multiple partners etc. then encourage whip games to see what they can do. Playing cards, toilet tissue, etc. Any of these should be able to be lightly brushed, or shredded, or delicately marked, or holepunched. At the whim of the user. Just hitting it doesn't count for much at all.

 

3. Watch how fluid they are with their whip. Do you NOTICE where their body ends and the whip begins, or does it all flow together. Tense people don't throw as well. Newer users are VERY worried about getting the target right, not causing undue damage, whether the bottom is having a good time, whether they're going to take their own eye out, etc. It can combine into a very disjointed sensation when you watch them working.

 

5. Don't get lost in the flashy throws and cracks in mid-air and showboating <laughs> and I think ALL whip users do it, its part of the mystique of singletails. Its cool looking, but how they throw at a body is what matters. Anyone can crack a whip. Takes 5-10 minutes to do it, sounds cool, looks neat. Every time you hear that neat crack, take a moment to savor the shivers and then repeat to yourself, "That thing is moving at over 700 mph" (no typo. 700 mph). Very yummy thought, but very sobering. There aren't too many 700 mph things I want to be around with someone that hasn't put the time in to know how to manage or thinks they have control of after less time than they've spent on their golf stroke or whatever hobby they have.

 

6. If you can stand to do it, and have never been in front of a singletail before or that particular user, I HIGHLY recommend facing it. Don't watch the whip, watch their eyes. Save that eyes-lowered sweetness for some other time, its beautiful, but its not always appropriate. That will help focus you, and you'll spot fear, uncertainty, bravado, etc. I also recommend doing it unrestrained, so you can simply walk out of range if it appears to be more (or less) than what you bargained for. Yes, this is very 'unsubmissive'. Yes, you might be called a fake or wannabe. Informed consumers are dangerous to fragile egos. Don't worry about it. So what, you'll be a fake or wannabe with still intact skin. 700 mph remember?

 

7. Singletail strokes, once past the kissy brushy level, feel like fire. That's it. Quick flash of fire. Before you panic, breathe. Wait 10 seconds. See how you feel then. That's enough time to analyze where the strike was, if it was a bad throw (unintentional wrap, unintentional placement, just plain bad, etc), or if you moved wrong, or if it was a great one that just lit you up for a moment.

 

8. LOOK AT THEIR WHIPS. Yeh, its ok to be elitist about this. Just say no to the ebay imports that look all dry, rough, rotted, and have the cheapo handles. It doesn't have to be THE most expensive thing out there, there are VERY reasonably priced singletails -- but it shouldn't be the cheapest either.

 

Learn whip construction. A lot of singletails have crackers that are braided into the whip. Now if they know how to unbraid a whip and replace that, fabulous! You'll need to decide for yourself how much you trust that a cracker can be "cleaned" and how much you trust that top's sense of ethics and responsibility. I don't trust the ability for them to be cleaned entirely so I choose not to stand in front of whips with that particular construction, unless they're Sir's and I know where they've been. Its one reason Sir and I use Patterson whips primarily, crackers can be changed out in an instant so one need never re-use a cracker. If you want a whip with a braided in cracker, buy your own, and let tops that work on you use it. So it never touches another body. That's a good way of helping ensure your safety. Hell, learn how to use it, you'll be even better at spotting people that you're willing to have work on you.

 

Pay attention to what the cracker is made of, they can cause a huge range of sensation. Machine braided nylon, horsehair, twisted, hand braided, silk, kevlar. We mostly use hand braided waxed nylon. (Doms looking for a tedious punishment, there you go, hand braiding crackers) Kevlar is mean. It can cut on the lightest of throws.

 

9. See if they have a clue what type of whip they own. A singletail? Right. Blah Blah Blah. That's just a word we've come up with to identify that whole group of whips. Is it a bullwhip? Snake whip? Stock Whip? Ask them why they bought that one, what their options were, etc. See if they're in love with their whip. See if they have any of the basic knowledge you've gotten from this post and others. Its not the end of the world to know more about a technique than a top does, and it can be managed in a way that you both enjoy, but if they really don't have a clue, just remember, "700 mph and clueless" and see if you still want to play.

 

 

Masthead

Publised monthly by Metro Vancouver Kink Society. Edited by Peter Tupper, vice-president and communications coordinator.

--30--