Whew whew weekend

[clevermanka]

From bellanorth,

What would your Anime life be like? by hearthlight
Name:
Gender:
Your looks:	Ethereal beauty.
Your best friend:	Your computer. Really.
Your powers:	No powers, just a magic sword.
Your beloved:	Mr.Wiggles the sock puppet.
Your occupation:	Magical girl.
Your ending:	Exactly as you'd want it.
Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Friday night's Sellout show at the Granada was absolutely stellar and I hope they get more gigs there. It was a veritable frenzy of LJers out on the dance floor: arian1, bellanorth, _mac_, roya_spirit, starstraf, stuology, and of course 0verdrive and myself, along with non-LJers Andrea, Mac's sister, and roya_spirit's current chew toy Jay. Am I missing anyone? The only (teeny) complaint I had was they didn't do "Push It", but after the first set I lost roya_spirit anyway and since she's my fave dance partner for that one, I suppose it's just as well.

Saturday was dedicated to doing a bit of fabric shopping with bellanorth, then car shopping with 0verdrive, radcliffe, and stuology. stuology came out ahead of the rest of us and actually found something she liked well enough to talk financing about. Hooray for her! Cuuuute car and a great deal, too. Crossing my fingers for her. 0verdrive, radcliffe, and I were too tired to work up much energy to go to Fetish night, so instead we hooked up with arian1, bellanorth and louie_d for dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. It was really good and just what I needed. Mmmmm, food.

I want to feel badly about missing the Fetish night, but I don't really. Contra Naturam has failed to impress me on at least two occasions now, and I can't say I'm thrilled with the lack of a dress code policy at the Bottleneck for Fetish Night.

My gripes with Contra Naturam:

They are doing scenes for an audience that, for the majority, has no clue about basic BDSM. They engage in dangerous and/or unsafe habits (yes, there is a difference. Danger can be fun. Unsafe isn't--ever) and don't explain that people shouldn't try this at home unless great precautions are taken.

There are no flyers explaining safewords, basic SM rules, or books or websites where more information can be found.

The show is more about young and attractive exhibitionists than actual SM (sado-masochism) or DS (domination/submission). There is no headspace, no guts, no oomph. The people doing the stage show seem more interested in showing themselves off than they do in getting the audience off. And I guess that's ok for them, but it leaves the rest of us left out in the cold.

I can hear the it now: "But it's just a stage show, it's an act!" Yes, but this group is acting as BDSM ambassadors to the vanilla world (whether they want that title or not) and they need to consider the fact they people might take their show as an educative act. I think their performance would be vastly improved by making the first act a demonstrative explanation. A sort of "This is what we do, how we do it, and why." Then follow that up with the theatrics. And literature. They need literature with references to SM 101, Screw the Roses... and other informative texts.

But why am bothering here? Sigh. I guess just to explain why I didn't attend the Bottleneck's Fetish night, and unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic, (heh) I probably won't attend many others.

Now to get some of my inbox cleaned out before I head off to lunch with starstraf and Kathryn.

Comments

whew

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Home. Alive.

Had a great time with you guys :) Next time...more dancing!

Oh..any one hear of any tech jobs, send them along. Iffin I'm gonna move out there, I want to try to do it in July when my lease runs out here.

Re: whew

[stuology.livejournal.com]

What type of tech job specifically are you looking for?

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

The idea of Contra Naturam is kind of interesting, but I think I'm predisposed towards general malaise for the group after having lived with Jericho (shown here (http://www.contranaturam.net/gallery/gallery14/crw_1985_jfr.html) being flogged with roses).

I lived in the other basement room (Jericho was already resident) and took Jericho's larger room when he left. I never could fill in the nail holes or get the wax off the walls.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

The fact that the main page of their website says "Your Invited" speaks volumes.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with you on your criticisms of that group (and their multiple typos on the welcome page, sigh). You know, if I weren't a teacher and you weren't an admin here, I'd say we should start our own fetish night somewhere that really demos BDSM stuff. Workshops, parties, and the like.

I wonder... can KU fire me for immorality?

Chris

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

This probably isn't an issue if you're tenured. =) I honestly don't know how peope would react to this as far as hiring you as a full time prof if/when you get your PhD. But it would be no big deal at all for me--I don't think anybody really cares what the secretaries do in our free time as long as it's legal.

I wouldn't mind getting more involved with the KCLU (http://www.kcleatheruniversity.com/) people, though. I have yet to go to any of their classes (grrr) but they certainly look like they have their shit together. And from what I've heard and read, draco_kc is damn cool.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Kij suggests I just get myself a simple mask, like Zorro or the Lone Ranger. But leather of course >g<

Yeah, I definitely want to do more of the KCLU stuff. They haven't posted for next month's class yet, but when they do, I say we set up a group trip.

Chris

[draco-kc.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Since I'm the coordinator for the KCLU night classes, I suppose I'm best qualified to answer that question. [*grin*]

I'm still working on finalizing all the details, but the current plan for the KCLU night class for May is to do a class/demo on flogging, likely with some hands-on time. It'll be Tuesday, May 4, at 7-8:30pm at the Lesbian & Gay Community center (http://www.lgcc-kc.org). Also, our next set of quarterly workshops will be Saturday, June 19, at the DB Warehouse (1915 Main, KCMO), starting around noon, if you want to mark it on your calendar.

As far as getting events announced, we've been having website issues, mainly due to the fact that our webmaster isn't part of KCLU and is sometimes less than prompt in making updates. It doesn't help that we're also working on completely restructuring the website soon to make it easier to update and quicker for visitors to find the info they want. In the interim, if you aren't on the KCLU announcement email list yet, bounce me an email (address is on my userinfo page), and I'll pass it along to the list coordinator.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! Thanks for the info.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Hey, Draco! Thanks for letting me know.

The May 4 workshop sounds great, especially because it's much shorter than the other workshops KCLU does -- we keep meaning to go but can't afford a full day. Also, flogging is one of my favorites!

If I were crazy, I'd offer to help update the website...

Thanks,
Chris

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because nobody will be able to recognize you with a mask on. =)

[sdemory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! When I bopped over to the site, that was the first thing I noticed. I'd like to say "They're just being transgressive with their use of English," but the editor within wants to break fingers at misuse of "your."