Monday, June 30, 2008

You asked for it! Basic Head Bondage How To Now on YouTube


I've literally gotten hundreds of requests for a video on how to tie head bondage, the best practitioner of it would have to be my wife Tambo. So she and Alex present to you a quick, easy to follow how to video that will get you started with this very intimate and connective form of bondage right.

Curious for to try it yourself? Check out our Exotic White Linen Hemp. It is the rope we use in the video and my personal favorite for this sort of bondage.

Labels: , , , ,

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Random Acts of Beauty

I twittered about this, but it seems the fleeting nature of a twitter just did not do it justice. So allow me to tell you the tale...

Today, as I marched along the parade route with Alex and the rest of the “leather contingent” as we were called. Really a fantastic cross-section of gay, straight, kinky, gender queer and leather folk who help make Seattle such a fantastic place to be “alternative”, but I digress. There we were, me in my tall boots and leather pants, Alex bounding along side me a spontaneous explosion of joyful puppy energy…about mid parade I’d say, the sidewalks swelling with cheering faces, waving flags and again all manner of young and old people all out to show their pride and support she emerged from out of nowhere.

Brandishing a bouquet of flowers, fresh from the farmer’s market she stepped out of the crowd and into the street. Running up along side Alex and I as we came abreast I only got a quick look at her, young and pretty. Flushed and full of life as she pressed the brown paper wrapped bundle of flowers into my hand.
“I love you” she said with a smile and dashed back into the crowd before I could thank her, before I could even ask her name. Once I fully realized what was happening, she had vanished, back into the seething sea of faces along the parade route. I carried that bundle of random color for pretty much the rest of the parade, till the limitations of keeping myself and my leather hooded companion hydrated became more than my two full hands could manage.

Now, the parade long over and no longer dressed in my all too warm leather pants I can’t help but wonder. Who was she? Had someone set aside today, taken the initiative to attend this event, visit the market, so they might me a gift and say those things? Did they wait patently as float after float passed by till they could make this fleeting connection with me? Or was this a random event. Someone performing a random act of love and generosity? Putting some good into the universe and I was simply in the right place at the right time?

If, as my ego would like to think, it was intentional then surely the girl in question is reading this right now and will hear me when I say thank you, I am quite touched. However if I am simply the recipient of some cool cosmic circumstance, then hot damn what a great idea.

The universe needs more flushed, beautiful girls sharing random bouquets of flowers.

Labels: , ,

Friday, June 27, 2008

What, you didn't like the shoes?!

In a half naked bout of extreme silliness, Matisse snapped a shot of me bounding about her bedroom clad only in my faithful red converse high tops and a smile. The shot was mostly tasteful, no dangling male naked bits to be seen, so she (with an evil laugh) announced that she would post it to her flickr stream to prove once and for all as she put it, "what a wild, wicked man you are".

Yeah, that lasted about 20 minutes till the morality police at yahoo yanked the image. Funny, half naked girls shooting photos of themselves? No problem. My half naked ass? gone faster than you can say "federal budget surplus"

So for those of you who were not up and surfing last night, here you go. Me in all my converse clad naughtiness. Oh this is SO not work safe BTW.

As to her proclamation? Me? Wild? Wicked? Hardly. I'm just this hard working small business owner from Seattle. I have no earthly clue where people get these ideas that I'm some kind of deviant prankster who pounces upon pretty girls armed with lots of rope and bad intentions. Really, no really... your not buying the innocent thing, huh? ;)

Labels:

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

i think it is a compliment?


i think it is a compliment?
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

a love note from my favorite lunch spot. we are not quite sure what "the dirt sexy" is, but I'm taking it as a compliment.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Looking like one of those "new media" sorta weeks.

Up to my eyeballs in projects here at the Abbey and on the home front this week so finding time to sit down and compose longer blog posts will be slim. So expect more slice of life photos and clips along with this, the next in our "Getting Started Volume 2" series. One of my favorite ties, the high speed chest and arm tie.

Labels:

Saturday, June 21, 2008

my cleric casts magic missle


my cleric casts magic missle
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

playing an rpg with my best pals. if I laugh any harder I may wet myself....

Friday, June 20, 2008

words to live by...


words to live by...
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

seeing ave q again, this time with tambo. yes. it is that good. if I can manage to take matisse before it closes I will.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Due to technical difficulties I had to yank the photo if Matisse from last night's podcast. While I know you would MUCH rather look at her, here is a clip of me from the session.

Call for questions!
Matisse and I are going into the studio tonight to record another block of podcasts. If you have a question for either of us and want it answered on air, drop me a line today.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Handmade cards, 4th row seats to Avenue Q and stunning ginger pear pie… When Alex wants to tell me he loves me, he picks some damned fantastic ways to do it.

Having not exchanged a civil word in nearly 3 years, I tend to dread Father’s Day and all its trappings. Yesterday my wonderful boy, Alex, took the day and made it into something really special. Dubbing it instead “Daddy’s Day” he treated me to all manner of delightful spoiling. While I’ll be the first to confess that the Daddy/boy relationship we have is hard to describe, even to kinky people let alone “normal folks”, one thing is for sure. I’m so proud and stupid with affection and love that it is hard to contain some days.

Labels:

Saturday, June 14, 2008

TWISTEDMONK.COM NOW OFFERS $10 FLAT RATE SHIPPING!

In our constant drive to create a better product at the best possible price, I am proud to announce that effective immediately. All domestic orders are now just $10, regardless of size, for fast USPS Priority mail shipping. International orders to Canada and Mexico, just $25. All other international orders, only $40.

This new shipping option will streamline order processing, reduce order wait time and above all else, save our customers some hard earned cash.

Friday, June 13, 2008

TAMBO SMAASH!


TAMBO SMAASH!
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

WHAT U MEAN THEY HAVE NO MILK DUDS? SMASH!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

A confession, of sorts

I let slip today to a friend that while I proudly have numerous fetishes (and am discovering new ones about myself everyday) I happen to have a major weakness for 70’s porn. Growing up, my earliest memories were of sneaking into my grandfather’s shop and extracting from their hiding place his stack of glossy magazines from the early 70’s. Buxom blondes with wide, curving hips, blue eye shadow, decked out in matching garters and kerchief and of course a rich, supple mound of hair between their legs. Images that would leave a lasting imprint as I thumbed through the pages, shot after shot of spread, seductive and all natural women stirring my young imagination and libido.

To this day, ask me who the sexiest woman in porn is and I would say with out a pause, Annette Haven when she did Barbara Broadcast.

While I enjoy modern porn and am a happy consumer (and producer) of SM porn, I still have a fondness for the old stuff. Maybe it is less about the era and more to do with the images. Yes, the pubic hair has much to do with the images, but it is only a part of the whole feel of the time. Women with real curves and real bodies just seem more genuine to me, more honest, and more along the lines of what I would want to find in my bed. The current trend towards anorexic girls with fake tans and boobs bigger than my head really leave me cold.

Nope, I’d rather see the girl next door, flaws and hips and hair. Now if she put on some blue eye shadow and donned a pair of roller skates? Bonus!

Labels:

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Top 10 things I really enjoy doing in a scene as a top.

10) Vulgar Language. Words are powerful things and when slung with skill they can create more sensations than any flogger or piece of rope.
9) The Golden Shower. Took me a while to really click with this one, the act is a wicked mix of tenderness and degradation. Primal yet intimate, a marking of territory in a way. That and being a guy one had to “learn” how to pee with an audience.
8) Needles and blood. I’m not too keen on seeing how many needles I can stick a person with, but rather what happens when I turn a few strategically placed ones into paper clips.
7) Sweat (both mine and my partners). If I’m not as sweat soaked and exhausted after a scene as my bottom, why bother?
6) Laugher. Lighten up, it is just BDSM.
5) Paradox. Gender bending/ beauty and dishevelment / tenderness and torment / the collision of extremes and being able to glide between the two as the scene unfolds.
4) My hands on their skin. Who needs a flogger or paddle or clam when you have such wondrous tools as hands?
3) Feedback. Nothing makes me want to give more, to push harder, than hearing my partner, gasp out “Thank you, more please” and then howl in glee and terror as I oblige.
2) Rope: In the end, it is really all about the rope.
1) Trust. The intoxicating gifts of trust, when someone asks you to push them, to expose a taboo, open a new door, and above all else share themselves with me.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Dear Monk,
both my partner and i are really into drums and were wondering if there was any way to incorporate a drumset into a sexy tie point


What do I look like, Neil Pert? I’ve got nothing here folks…absolutely nothing.



In other news, so what do you guys think of the whole twitter thing? I see a lot of familiar names on it. I think I’ll see about slipping in into the sidebar of the blog next.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Bondage with one in the oven…
From the inbox:
Hi Monk, firstly thank you for your fantastic site and especially your videos. We are yet to purchase any rope from you, because just as I was going to...we fell pregnant. Which is GREAT but I'm getting sick of abstaining from my favorite, rope play.

Any chance you know which bits are safe etc?

Thanks for any help you can give us...


First off, congratulations, the whole “kid thing” scares the bejesus out of me, so you are a far braver soul than I am for undertaking such a daunting task. Now onto your question; I’ve had the opportunity once, a long time ago to do bondage on a pregnant woman. This was pretty early in my (and this blog’s) career so the ties were more decorative. You can see a shot here. I must admit that I find pregnant woman insanely beautiful, recently a friend showed up at a party proudly displaying her swollen, third trimester tummy and I was all but transfixed by it. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I sheepishly asked to touch her tummy like a shy schoolboy getting his first kiss.

But I digress.

Not having enough direct experience to answer your question I polled the various kinky moms I know as well as a photographer friend, Jim Duvall, who in addition to being a very respected bondage instructor and community mentor has also done a lot of work with pregnant women and rope. So here is the skinny, as it were, as reported to me.

Pregnant women start producing a chemical called Relaxin. This allows the pelvis to expand to let the baby out. It also lets their other joints get really flexy. You can often do things with a pregnant woman’s knees hips shoulders and elbows you could never do before. That said, flexibility in the torso is restricted (for obvious reasons) and pressure against the abdomen should be avoided.

Also, later in pregnancy, any ropes around the breasts need to be looser than usual, because the glands around the area are swollen and she might be sore (in a not nice way) afterwards. As on put it, “Beware of milk. Boobs are huge and sore. And they squirt milk.”

Oh and, Bondage or SM that takes a person into stressed condition such as fight or flight should be avoided as it can influence the pregnancy SM is not a good way to induce labor.

So there ya go, I would say stick to limb ties. Keep pressure away from the abdomen, watch the tightness on the chest harness and watch out for squirting milk (or watch for it if that is your thing). Oh and as for suspension, I’d say no. My friends gave me a mixed result. Some did it (clear up to the end of the second trimester) and said that it was hard but ok. Others said “no way in hell”.

Labels: , ,

Friday, June 06, 2008

Titter, tatter, twitter, twat

So Matisse has convinced me to give this whole "twitter" thing a whirl. Truth be told, I am not too sure if I am cut out for the task. My worry is that most of my updates will looks something like this:
"Coffee"
".. Is there any coffee left?"
"fuck it I cold, lets make coffee"
"any coffee left?"
and so on and so on...

However the nerd in me sees the value of this sort of instant communication. Lord knows I'm totally addicted to sending text messages on my phone. So while I am not sure if I will integrate a feed into this blog, still looking for a good way to add a youtube feed as well if you have one to share let me know, I figure I'll test it out over the weekend and see how I feel about it.

If you want to check it out, here is the direct link.

In other news, this is what happens when a customer asks me to make a custom rope and to draw my inspiration from, "Listen to a LOT of Type-O Negative, please"



Sorry kids, that one is a one of a kind custom and will not be up for public auction. However here is a teaser of one that I will be putting up soon. Probably this weekend. A blue/black Bavarian mix, a 60 foot kit of it no less.


Maybe I'll notify folks when the auction goes live by using twitter? Hmm...

Labels: ,

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Too busy to say much...
There are a lot of advantages to having a small, highly dedicated crew. However when one is on vacation this week and another calls in sick it leaves Monk with %50 of his crew MIA and a pile of orders still to finish...
Well, I guess these orders won't whip themselves. Best get to it.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Overheard while cutting rope:
Monk: *Yawn*
Coffee Bitch: So you had a bit too much of the rockstar weekend I take it?
Monk: Well on Friday night there were four slightly inebriated Asians in my living room playing rockband. Then on Saturday I assaulted a dear friend of mine with a dildo mounted sawzal.
CB: Did you just say a sawzal?
Monk: Yeah, as in reciprocating saw with a rather large fake cock mounted on the business end.
CB: Sounds dangerous.
Monk: Could be, but I was wearing eye protection. The big risk is cramping in the forearms from having to hold it for so long while it is jamming away. Those things can shake filling loose if you turn them up too high. However once I figured out how to brace it against my hip it was not too bad.
CB: Um, yeah right.... on that note I think I'll go make us more coffee!

Labels:

Seeing as how this is the first week of the month and the order queue (as always happens the first week of the month) has swelled to a massive size, I think I'll answer some e-mails I've received as of late.

well this is something starting to weigh on my mind...I am right side impaired with hemiplegic who has started thinking about rope play with my fiancé now I have always been quite adaptive but am curious as to whether you you might have any suggestions as to a possible way to tie knots one handed, I have some ideas on how to do this but will not truly know until I try.

First and foremost, I'm not a "knot guy". There are guys who will argue the finer points of what knots are best for what applications and in some cases get into near fist fights over the usefulness of the Square Knot. I am not one of those people. I know a small number of useful ones that are safe and easy to use. Ask around online with some of various rope groups, Yahoo's "Adult Rope Art" is a good place to start, and there are dozens of folks who would be happy to debate the pros and cons of any knot you may want to know about...

That said, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret of the bondage world.

One of the reasons for the enduring popularity of hemp rope for bondage is that it is SO easy to use. Unlike nylon or cotton, or other fibers that are "slippery", you don't have to worry as much about the rope coming undone. Rather, hemp has just enough "bite" to it that in most cases simple wraps or an overhand knot will hold the bondage snug for as long as you need it. That said, the more complex and dangerous the tie (like suspension bondage for example) will require more specialized knots, however for most rope play don't focus on the knot but rather on the wrapping of the rope around the body.

Labels: