Checking in from SF Dojo

Hey folks,
Checking in from Midori’s Rope Dojo out here in San Fran. It’s somewhere around 4 am, so forgive if I wander a bit. 5 years on tour and never picked up the skill of sleeping in a hotel room. On a moving bus or circus train and I am out like a baby for 14 hours…give me a real bed and… *heavy sigh*

I thought I’d drain off a little excess mental energy with a little typing….

So first the yadda yadda. Flew into SF no probs, made it to Hotel Diva without a hitch.

Anyway, spent the first evening wondering the area and made the realization that I didn’t bring enough B&W film again….oh well good excuse to come back.

So Day One of the Dojo began with Delano and Midori creating a scene for us that had me afraid to swallow for fear that the noise it would make might disturb what was happening.

Really, it was that intense, and showed me just how clinical my own scenes are becoming. And I tell you what Delano, if I could take a fall half as well as you I would be twice the martial artist I am now. Nice work guys! Thanks.

Following the scene was some discussion of what dynamics we saw happening. Some great feedback from bottoms and tops both about expectations and desires and how to communicate that to each other.

Then out came the rope! (scattered clapter) We had a small discussion about rope types, plusses and minuses of each, tools to keep on hand, some basic safety.

After a short break we came back and began working on some basics. Two column-ties, as Midori calls them, and two body harnesses. One harness with knots, one without, both had an alien baby! Then to finish off we worked a traditional Japanese upper body harness (the one in Midori’s book, its name escapes me at the moment).

Next came “what you can do with bamboo” demonstrating how to add a bamboo rod or two to a scene to make things a little more interesting.

To finish off the day Midori broke us up into groups of 4 and gave us an assignment I’ll call “Fun with Barbie Beach Ball Bottoms”. Each group had 2 beach balls and 4 sticks of bamboo. The assignment: pretend the beach balls are your bondage bottoms, set an intent for the scene and tie ‘em up! 3 minutes to plan, 15 minutes to execute. I tell ya there were some cool solutions to this one. My favorite being: “well, I think our intent was to tie up the pretty girls and hang beach balls off them….”

We have been informed we will begin with speed drills in the morning! Rock on!
There it is Day One. Sorry if it came out a little general, but as my Sensei says “If you want to learn the secret techniques you’d better show up for class!”

Ok so it’s off to sleepy land (I hope). Thanks Tanya, and Loki for being my “dates” for the day! If anyone wants to find me I’ll be eating breakfast a couple of blocks over this morning. Wondering who I’ll run into today, and hoping they wont ask me to fix their lighting equipment. How come I never run into the showgirls?

Peace,
Mateo