A Pre-Review of Esinem’s Linen Hemp

Full disclosure: I was provided with a full set of linen hemp ropes from Esinem for the purposes of review. No other expectations were…um…expected, and Bruce expressly asked me to be very honest about my experience with it. This is a pre-review, because I was asked to give the “real” review on the Ropecast. It’s[…]

The Rashomon (Consent-Incident Responders) at ROPECRAFT

A friend (who was also a volunteer for ROPECRAFT) asked me about the guidelines and training for the Rashomon at the event. In case you don’t know what the Rashomon were, here’s a link to the page, but TL;DR, here’s the summary: Their title comes from the classic movie of the same name, which is[…]

ropes provided by BastardRopes.com

Towards an Inclusive View of Rope Bondage

Reposted from my Fetlife Writing of the same name.

Recently I read an excellent article about the author Ursula K. Leguin. She spoke of “five principal elements,” which must “work in one insoluble unitary movement” in order to produce great writing.

Quote:

  • The patterns of the language — the sounds of words.
  • The patterns of syntax and grammar; the way the words and sentences connect themselves together; the ways their connections interconnect to form the larger units (paragraphs, sections, chapters); hence the movement of the work, its tempo, pace, gait, and shape in time.
  • The patterns of the images: what the words make us or let us see with the mind’s eye or sense imaginatively.
  • The patterns of the ideas: what the words and the narration of events make us understand, or use our understanding upon.
  • The patterns of the feelings: what the words and the narration, by using all the above means, make us experience emotionally or spiritually, in areas of our being not directly accessible to or expressible in words.

Since my thoughts tend towards the rope arts, I couldn’t help but see some parallels in what people talk about as being “kokoro”, “kinbaku”, or “really fucking awesome rope scene”, depending on the language you prefer. To me, the parallels went something like this: […]

Guest Appearance on the Full Disclosure Podcast with Eric Barry!

I had a great time being the object rather than the subject of a podcast! Eric Barry was a fun and interesting conversationalist, and it was a great pleasure meeting his co-host Jen Larsen (oh, and a virtual one too, Jess from San Francisco!). I get to be all kinds of controversial – talking about[…]