Dr Bob's Blog

I’ve developed a new hobby! I select a photo from my vast array of downloaded porn and I “mess with it” in Photoshop. I have a lot of fun doing that and the images are totally weird. I don’t know if there is a market for this, and I’m not sure how to market them, anyway. Perhaps post them to Pinterest with the website across the image.

I’d be interested in feedback from blog readers.

Master Joe and slave kim from Melbourne, Australia, competed for the International M/s couple this year up at Southplains Leather Fest. They had asked me to be their “handler.” The problem with this was that I had no idea what was expected or required for this position, nor wise enough to ask anyone. They’d had no competition coaching and I had no handling coaching. That’s not good.

Joe didn’t need us to come up on Thursday, as it was the General Meeting for MAsT International and he, as MAsT’s Australian regional rep and president of MAsT Melbourne, had lots to do. We drove up on Friday and met with them in the late afternoon to schedule a time that evening to listen to their speeches.

There was a LOT of controversy swirling around the Australian Faction at this conference. Back in Melbourne nearly a year before, the VP for MAsT Melbourne got mad at Joe and quit the MAsT chapter and tried to form her own. Actually, she fomented a lot of trouble with MAsT International trying to take the chapter away from Joe on the grounds that he wasn’t providing enough “support” to MAsT members.

To shorten this very long story, I’ll say that this person then held an “Australian Master/slave Competition” and chose their titleholders. Now, at SPLF, this other couple (well know to Joe and Kim and people I’d met repeatedly when I was there in 2011, were claiming that Joe and Kim were not the only authorized international competitors. THIS is what had to be hashed out in the Thursday MAsT GM.)

We did what we could, but they did not win.  It may have been in part due to kim’s prepared two-minute speech. It referenced much of the challenges they’d been through over the past year and was not likely taken well by the judges.  She had been deeply hurt by the betrayal and bigotry of the “other group” in Melbourne and this was not likely received well by the judges.

Ultimately, Master figured out that a great deal of the “stumble” was cultural. Joe had been “doing” BDSM for decades. He had been a very active ProDom — a concept practically unheard of in this country. Here, there is a tremendous demarcation between ProDommes and “lifestylers.” Also, there is a very fuzzy line between BDSMers and M/s-ers in Australia. Here, the M/s people see themselves in a different sub-culture from those in BDSM clubs. The judges couldn’t tell whether Joe was really a BDSMer calling himself M/s or an M/s person who did an awful lot of work with the BDSM community.

Master and I thought both Joe and kim handled themselves extremely well, and we parted with long hugs all ‘round.

Well — another surprise turn in the publishing department. My good friend Bob decided to invest some money with my publisher in order to make three videos. Actually, it’s six videos, because each topic we recorded with a female bottom had to be totally reshot with a male bottom. Bob’s DVD was on basic rope bondage. I did two: Impact Play 101, Building your skills, and Fire Play: Your basic safety guide to fire. Ann Bryne paid to have two of her own recorded: one was on basic violet wand, the other on advanced violet wand.

Herbert (publisher) has an extensive background in live TV and video editing and rented three broadcast-quality cameras and a mixer. He sat in the booth and (essentially) created the final cut right there. Quite an amazing job, actually.

In addition to the DVD, itself, Herbert had a transcript made of the shoots and then Bob and I went over our own and edited them for flow. We also included all the safety materials we wanted. The books were 64 pages, full color. Really well done.

The result was a book/DVD combination that Herbert priced at $39.95.

The first event that we could go to after our shock-introduction to NLA-A was a benefit party being put on by a group called “Touch of Leather.”  This group is based in a community about 45 minutes north of Austin and run by a woman named Miz Lilly.

I contacted her by email and phone. I explained that we were totally new to BDSM, had never attended a play party and were a little anxious about what to wear.

“Do you have any fetish clothing?” she asked.

“Well, yes, we do.” I replied.

“Just wear that, but cover up in the parking lot.”

“Okay,” I said.  “See you there.”

The last four lines are an abbreviated version of many conversations over a two or three week period as we worked ourselves up to actually going to this event.  She was exceedingly kind, warm, welcoming, and informative.

When we walked in to “The Secret Rural Location” out in the middle of nowhere, she immediately recognized us.  Of course she did: she knew everyone else that was attending that night!!

There were about 100 people in the facility – that turned out to be a horse auction barn.  People were mostly being spanked and flogged.  My immediate reaction was: “Ah. Home at last.”

We walked over and took seats at the edge of the play area.  We noticed that people kept looking at us. We thought that was simply because we were new.  Actually, it was because we were so outrageously and inappropriately dressed.  (I was wearing a collar and leather shorts and Renee was in a fishnet body suit with a leather torso top.)

It was an accident. 

Since I didn’t know there was a kink community, I wasn’t looking for one. 

I’d always loved to look at porn photos, and because I’m somewhat of a photographer myself, I started collecting porn shots.  Over a period of a couple of years, I suppose I’d collected a thousand or so.  By then, I was able to pick out those that were professionally shot (by photographers that clearly knew what they were doing) or were “happy accidents,” or were just sort-of blah. 

I noticed that those copyrighted by Suze Randall stood out.  I looked at her website.  It turned out she had been a porn star when a bit younger, but had changed sides of the lens a few years back and now had the nicest set of models and studio set-up of anyone taking shots like these. Clearly, these were extremely sophisticated and well-designed shots that made liberal use of cosmetologists. The make-up was stunning. 

Anyway, I ended up subscribing to her site.  This was the first porn site I’d ever paid for.  

In the early years of her site (SuzeRandall.net) she had a “resources” page. It listed some of her sources for the latex the models wore: WhipLash in Los Angeles.  It also listed the owner’s name: Connie. It also had a calendar for kinky events.  

One of the events was in Houston: The Texas Latex Party.  I called Connie and asked about it. She explained that Klaus ran it, was very friendly, and to call him up and say she sent me.  

I called Klaus.  As it happened, the huge TLP was only two weeks away–second weekend in March. I asked a bit about it and he encouraged us to come. On a whim, I asked him, “About how many outfit changes to the ladies make per day?” “Oh,” he said, “I suppose 4-6.”  

Ah. 

I told him that we were not prepared this year to come, but would attend in 2001.  He understood, but invited us to Houston to a formal dinner he was giving in a few months that included most of the TLP board of directors.  “But, we don’t have that level of latex, yet.” I protested.  “No matter, just wear a tuxedo.” 

Tuxedos were not a problem. Gowns for Renee were not a problem. We had a fantastic time. 

But, to get back… 

When we attended that dinner in early May, Klaus asked how I’d heard of TLP.  I said “Through Connie, why?” He replied that most people find him through Ambrosio’s website, as he keeps the Texas kink calendar. 

Ambrosio? Kink calendar? 

After we got back to Austin, I looked up Ambrosio’s (extremely interesting) site, found the calendar and quite a bit more.  Ambrosio keeps a kind of wiki of extremely good BDSM orientation, safety, and techniques articles. This was all great news to me. I was 52 years old. Totally new concept, BDSM. Never crossed my mind. Not the kind of porn images I’d been seeing. 

On the calendar, I discovered that in about a week there would be a meeting of something called: “NLA-Austin.”  Seemed as good as anything, and the timing was off for going to the GWNN munch. As I didn’t know anything about either group, the decision to go to NLA-Austin was purely coincidental. 

(The photo is of Elorin and me.  Renee and I entered the kink world through high-end latex. I'm in my Captain's jacket and Elorin is wearing my Tails. You can see more of Elorin as we release more of my erotic and fetish art images.)