The things I do for my customers.

The amazing and talented Midori joins me to teach a quick and easy rope harness, perfect for the "I'm too lazy to tie" folks.

Thursday Mornings

Normally, on the Thursday before the long Memorial Day weekend, I’d be waking up in some non descript Chicago hotel, having flown in the night before. After much stumbling about the room and bad coffee the day, the first of 5 bone crushingly long days would begin. Today we would setup the booth, of course this meant traveling all over the Chicago metropolitan area to locate the various items needed, retrieving the hundreds of pounds of stock pre-shipped, and working frantically to fix whatever might have been damaged, lost or forgotten along the way. Eventually the day will end, collapsing in an exhausted pile on the bed, the booth will be ready for the onslaught of customers to come, the only thing left to do is try and get some sleep before they arrive.

That, that I really do not miss.

Nope, this morning as I finish my coffee and listen to the minion joke back and forth as they go about the Abbey prepping rope and pile of orders I’ve set out for the day, I find myself missing the volunteer staff. The crews of folks whose job, quite frankly, is harder than mine. The nice folks who, upon seeing me lugging a crate into the show space, would drop what they are doing, hop on a radio and announce “Monk is here, can we get him some help loading in?” Next thing I know there are a half dozen smiling faces asking, “What can I do to help?” The security guys who kept a 4 day vigil making sure nobody bothered the show attendees and were always ready to provide an escort if needed should someone need to hike out to their car in the middle of the night.

These folks, the ones giving of their time and talent, they are the ones I’m missing today.

So to those of you who have yet to depart for the event and are reading this, do me a favor. First off, travel safe today. Second, when you get to the event make a point to say thank you to one of the volunteer staff and let them know that Monk sends his love.

Don't take my word for it...

Those nice perverts at Spankingblog and SpankingBethie just posted a review of their fun with my rope and the infamous Ass Hook... (insert ominous music here)

I told you I would get you a new Color of the Month by Monday!


Green is a tricky color to hit, due to the naturally occurring golden yellow tones in the raw hemp. Finding that "perfect" shade of hunter green is a process that I am still perfecting. In the meantime our experiments with various dye combinations resulted in a green shade that reminded me of Absinthe, that oddly unreal shade of bright, emerald green. I liked the shade so much that I devoted this month's color of the month to it. May's color of the month: The Green Faerie.

This is a limited, one time color run. As usual, I am giving you the loyal blog reader first crack at this one. Once the color has been sold out, it is sold out for good!

UPDATE: As of 9PM Wednesday 5/21, the color is sold out.

Yeah I suppose I *should* have worked today....
lord knows I have plenty of orders that need filling, but after having brunch with some fascinating customers I just had to say, "nope, enough work for one week" and spend the rest of the afternoon lounging in the sun, sipping some AMAZING 18 year old whiskey (thank you again P.P), listening to Gogol Bordello and rereading one of my film school text books for an upcoming documentary project.

Go Speed Racer, Go!
I now know what it would be like if I were to freebase meth and skittles. Oh the pretty colors! I think I need to go watch some old Fritz Lang films to reset the color balance in my brain.


I have to keep reminding Tambo that her VW beattle does not come with jump jets or wheel mounted saws....

Random Friday Morning Notes While I Drink Coffee and Listen to the Trains Rumble By...

• The new color of the month is almost dry, watch for it on Monday. What is it? Here is a hint, think.... Absinthe.
• It is FINALLY warm enough to start taking passengers on Boris with out me worrying that they will get frostbite sitting in the sidecar.
  
• Speaking of warm enough, one of the Minion have convinced me to build a planter box under the massive windows that run the length of the Abbey. I've always loved having green, living things in the shop. Offsets the gray industrial feel of the place, now can we grow tomatoes here? Stay tuned to find out.
• While I was not raised catholic and have spent less than 10 minutes total in a catholic church, nun themed erotica is oddly appealing as of late. Hmm....
• Pondering doing an "ask Monk" video blog and would love to have folks submit video questions, ala the presidential debates. Still not sure the mechanics on how to pull that off, but start warming up your cameras.

OK, the Minion are starting to wander in, time to get the rope making machine re-started and fill these orders.... right after we have some coffee.