A Must-Go show from the Jet City Improv peeps.

I am hoping to go Wing-I Productions' annual holiday show, Uncle Mike Ruin's Christmas after missing it last year.  I missed out on this run of improv hilarity and nastiness and was subjected to the "pooping out baby jesus" jokes that lasted weeks. And knowing this group, I am sure they would have been funny to me if I had seen the performance.

My dear friend Chris, an improv muscian, sent me this as a way of inticing me to attend:

This past Saturday was so over the top that the entire cast mimed masturbation as their final goodnight. I'm so proud. 

I don't know whether to be impressed with his perverse sense of pride or annoyed that he knows I am a sucker for anything having to do with masturbation. That said, I adore it when Jet City does an unscripted play. I thoroughly enjoyed "Lease" in 2008. The actor games that make up the run of the mill improv shows do nothing for me. Being witty is nice and all, but my attention span is a bit longer than a gnat's. But making the actors string it out into a fully fleshed-out and fucked up one hour length play? Now we're talking talent.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!  Remember to thank your loved ones for being in your life. They don't have to love you and the fact that they do is worthy of your gratitude.

Snow.

I promised myself that I wouldn't complain about how bad the winter was this year. Seattle had such an incredible autumn. The sun-filled afternoons that followed those often foggy mornings afforded me more sunbathing opportunities than most other years.


And I will keep that promise. I will not complain about the hard winter. I will complain about other things like scary drivers in the snow and how wrong it is that snow blew INTO my car through all the little crevices. There was SNOW INSIDE my car this morning. The Mean Man said that made perfect sense with how hard the wind was blowing last night. He went on to tell me how that was just like home, as in where he grew up in the Great White North.

Snow got inside my car and there were no windows open in the slightest.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?

I want you to make sexy art!

Call for Art!

Artists, get your creative engines turning! 
The Festival will be accepting submissions January 1-31, 2011, for the ninth annual event.

All artists age 18+ are encouraged to submit up to five (5) works of erotic art of any medium. Sculptors, multimedia artists and painters are particularly encouraged to apply. Submissions can be made online at SeattleErotic.org, throughout January.

The Festival is a jury-selected, erotic fine art exhibition and arts festival. A place where art that is rarely seen in mainstream galleries and museums can be celebrated, discussed and supported. An event where clichés of "sexiness" can be replaced with intriguing explorations of eroticism.

A different and new Festival jury is appointed every year, with careful consideration. To increase diversity of the selected art, the jury consists of an erotic artist, an art professional, an art collector, a sex positive activist, and a Festival committee member. Art is selected by a blind jury; jurors never know whose work they are reviewing during the process. Unknown and famous artists alike are given equal consideration and opportunity.

In order to show the work of successful and international artists who no longer choose to submit their work to juried shows, the Festival does include curated and invited artist sections as well, but the juried work has always represented the majority of art showcased at the Festival.

We stand by our mission to support a vibrant creative community, supporting living artists with low submission fees and commission rates. Selected art will be showcased throughout the three-day event to thousands of patrons. The Festival sells far more art than any other erotic art festival.

Artists may also choose to submit to the Festival Store, which has a later submission deadline (to be determined). Artists do not need to attend the Festival in order to participate.
Spread the word, and sign up for our newsletter to receive updates.

Do you love the Seattle Erotic Art Festival?

Hard at work.

We're already sketching exciting plans for 2011, crafting a fresh new event that will satisfy and surprise.

Join us! Give $25 and be a part of making this sexy event happen. Even $5 helps bring the Festival to life, so please give now, and spread the word to your friends. With your support we can take the Festival to new levels.

Let's create an amazing event together.

Donate!

*The Foundation for Sex Positive Culture, producer of the Festival, is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and gifts are **tax deductible** under Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Code.*

I'd like to invite you to a fundraiser for the Center and Foundation for Sex Positive Culture, Thursday, November 18th at 7:00pm, at the Little Red Studio in Seattle. There will be enticing auction items, give-a-ways, and other fun and frivolity. Tickets are available at TicketLeap. You can also see the growing list of auction items on the Center's website.

Flagging

In gay, leather & SM communities, coloured hankies are used as a signaling code for finding partners to engage in sexual activities. (Yes, I am including SM in the umbrella of sexual.)

I flag grey left to signify I am a bondage top.  There are a lot of other things I am into and tying people up isn't even the activity I do most often. However, it is a part of me that is central to my sexual identity. When my car was prowled 2 years ago and my rope bag was stolen, my initial reaction was that my sexuality had been stolen. "How will I ever come again?" Reason swiftly told me that was a bit more dramatic than the situation called for, and I was left with having to mourn all the firsts that I lost along with that bag. That experience taught me that this was a large part of my identity even though I bottom in my primary relationship.

Now, for Xmas last year, I did get a green hankie in my stocking, so I will occasionally put that hankie in my right pocket to signify I have a daddy. Occasionally,I will flag both grey and green. I think 2 hankies is plenty at one time, and may even be a bit too much advertising. Boiling your interests/identity down to one or two is not reductionism: it's focusing what you are advertising. Having more than 2 hankies in your drawer is fine; choosing the corresponding hankie to wear for the planned activities for a date or a play party is a great way to get into a specific head space. Wearing 3 or 4 hankies at one time may lead people to believe you are greedy or undecided. If you don't mind those perceptions arising in others, then, go for it.

I do know someone who has a hankie with 4 different coloured corners and he folds it so that all for corners stick out of his back pocket. I find that charming, if perhaps an overly specific partner/play request that may keep him from hooking up with fabulous people who may not be into all four of those things. I also think it looks much more tasteful than having the bulk and riotous colour that results from having multiple hankies hanging out your pocket.

When choosing which hankie you plan to flag with, decide whether you are flagging your identity or your preferences to attract partners. If I identify as a bondage top, but I am going to a play party looking to get tied up, I will be sure to have that grey hankie hanging out of my right pocket. Generally, I flag my identity rather than what I may be searching for in the realm of play or relationships. I fold the hankie so that two or so inches peek out of my back pocket. When I am on the prowl for play, I will fold the hankie fewer times so that a good portion hangs down out of my pocket in an effort to get more people to notice what my role in play is.

Be aware, the big, long "hanky code" list that can be found online started as an April Fool's Day joke.  Historically, the hankie code was a smaller number of coulours and what the colours meant varied from region to region. Take it with a grain of salt and have fun with it.

Coming out.

 I am convinced to be a happy and whole person, one must embrace their sexuality. Most of my daily life is spent inside the "love bubble", that wondrous place where all your friends are sex positive and accepting of all your kinks. I am contemplating coming all the way out of the closet.

What keeps me from doing that? Having to say this: "Hey Gramma, you know those anatomy classes I teach? Well, I'm teaching people how to tie each other up and hit each other in a more effectively & safely."

I don't think that's going to go over well.