Erotique derrières

While I was moving house, I came across a bunch of old postcards which I'd forgotten I had. I've had them since a friend visited France a few years ago.

"Would you like me to bring anything back for you from Paris?" she asked. I'd only visited Paris once, at that point, with my parents. I remembered the fascinating stalls of art cards on the left bank, filled with tantalisingly erotic prints which I'd wanted to linger over, but hadn't dared with my parents nearby.

So I asked her to bring me some rude postcards from the left bank, and she very kindly obliged. I don't think I'd really discussed my interest in spanking with her very much, but the prints she chose were surprisingly ... focussed:


"Back is Beautiful", Jeanloup Sieff, 1986

I love so many things about this image. The composition of the light; her poise and grace; the focus on the derrière but suggestion of elegant power in her bearing. Something about the mood of this image reminds me of Olivia Manners :)


"La Prière", Man Ray, 1930

This photo is, of course, incredibly famous (and I saw the real thing in the Pompidou Centre a few weeks ago) but this postcard was my first introduction to it.

And my two absolute favourites:




"Le Régard Oblique I" and "Le Régard Oblique I", Robert Doisneau, 1948

trust and submission

In most ways I had a lovely weekend, but between Friday and Sunday there was something nagging at me, a constant undertow of anxiety. Every so often the thought would surface in my conscious mind, and I would be briefly paralysed by a sick dread as I remembered that the tawse on the hands was currently scoring second in my poll.

This wasn't a pleasurable fear. This was a genuine horror. I knew, without doubt, that undergoing ten or more strokes of the tawse - even a small, light tawse - on the hands would be a truly awful experience. Not the kind of awful that is secretly lovely. The kind of awful that normally I go to any length to avoid. The real suffering of a genuine punishment, and an undeserved one at that. The prospect filled me with the kind of horror normally reserved for those facing dental surgery without anaesthetic.

We play games with consent and non-consent in this kink, with pleas and nos, with resistance and fear. Believe me, I am nervous as hell about the ten cold strokes with a senior cane that I am facing now, and the fifteen strokes with a stiff, heavy tawse that will follow them. But that nervousness is accompanied by a secret anticipation of the euphoria that will follow. It is a challenge which, I feel, I am up to, and I am already looking forward to the feeling of triumph when I prove myself worthy.

But fifteen on the hands? No. No, no, no. Not for play. Not for fun. Not when I haven't done anything wrong.

Why did I offer the option on the poll, then, if it was something that I so sincerely did not want? Well might you ask: the same question has been going round my own head since Friday.

The conclusion which I've been toying with all weekend, and which I am now more confident in declaring, is that it was about submission and it was about trust. In opening myself to requests from the floor, I was simply gathering data; but in then offering you the choice of those requests, without censorship from me, I was making a sincere gesture of submission to the collective will of my readers. Had I simply deleted the hand-tawsing option from the poll I would, in effect, have retained control over my punishment. Not complete control, certainly, as the number of strokes remained in your hands and the manner of their delivery in my Dom's, but I would have been givng the virtual equivalent of a safeword.

I don't safeword often. I have them, of course, and I have used them once or twice, but only once or twice over seven or eight years. I feel that safewording disrupts the tension and mood of a scene, and if at all possible I prefer to register my displeasure within the D/s dynamic. How much resistance I am allowed to express depends on the Dom and the scene, but usually I am allowed my voice, and my Dom will then choose whether or not to listen to it.

Although I wasn't aware of doing so at the time, I dealt with the poll in the same way. I expressed my reluctance for a certain option, but ultimately, I did not veto it. Instead, I submitted to your will and trusted that you would listen to my fears, and not choose an option that would be ultimately damaging.

My submission to my Doms is, at its best, so secure because of how much I trust them. I'm fallible and young and learning, all relationships are imperfect, and of course we don't achieve absolute trust all the time. But when we click, when we're in that gorgeous space of absolute unity of will, mine to theirs, it is because I know that their will is, ultimately, the best option. They may test me, they may challenge me, but they will not harm me. And I know how much joy I get from obedience. It's a more elaborate version of the oldest test of trust. I close my eyes, fall backwards, and in those moments of freefall I know the bliss of feeling truly weightless, safe in the knowledge that they will catch me before I land.

In including the first option on the poll, I was making the same leap of trust. I tried to communicate the consequences of choosing it, as I saw them, but at the same time I would rather include it in the poll than undermine the authority I had offered you by censoring it. Doing so, even though I didn't realise it at the time, showed my trust that you would choose the responsible option. It was a risk. I was submitting to a virtual collective mostly consisting of people I don't know, distanced from me by hundreds of miles, and mob morality is famously unreliable. So I was prepared for the worst: I had planned how it would go if you chose that option, who I would ask to deliver the strokes. It would be gruelling and horrible and emotional, and the resulting video would be edgy and powerful, and afterwards there would be a pleasure in having filmed something so raw. The extremes of my suffering would have been my gift to you, who had asked for it, and once I'd recovered I would have felt proud of myself for enduring it.

But you didn't choose that option. You knew that that experience, intense as it would have been, was not the best experience for this time. You knew that, given my newness to hand punishment, such a harsh introduction would not have been appropriate. You repaid my trust.

My happiness about the results of my blogiversary experiment is not only pleasure in being able to help my friends at Northern Spanking, or glee at the banter and camaraderie that surrounded the game. It was also a turning point in my relationship with you, the readers of this blog. I took a leap of faith and you caught me. I submitted to your will, and you answered my submission my making a responsible choice. This probably sounds over the top given that half of you are strangers, but within the strange confines of this virtual, collective, relationship, I do feel that something important has occurred. I took a risk that could be described as brave or foolhardy without really knowing why, and you proved yourselves, in this small instance, to be sympathetic and trustworthy human beings. There's a kind of intimacy in that, small but real nonetheless, and after experiencing it I feel more invested in this blog than every before.

Happy blogiversary to me :) In true hobbit style, this blog will give all of you a present in honour of its birthday. You've earned it. xx

the results are in!

A brief and sleepy post (I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago) to note that the winner for the second implement in my blogiversary whipping is the senior tawse, at 33 out of 107 votes:




(Hand only shown for purposes of scale.)

The brute is 21" long, 2" wide, ¼" thick and stiff as a board. I hope you're happy :P

The provisional numbers (subject to Paul verifying usernames) are ten with the cane, and thirteen or fourteen with the tawse. The extra one is due to an NSI member who emailed me about their vote in the poll, but didn't let me know their username - I've asked them to confirm it, and if they get back to me before I send the list of names to Paul then that stroke will be counted. Two of the commenters didn't say whether they were new sign-ups or existing members of Northern Spanking, so I'm assuming the latter unless Paul tells me otherwise.

I'm not sure yet which order the punishment will be delivered in - like Ludwig, I'm a fan of the beautiful marks you get from cold canings, and to be honest the senior tawse isn't a warm-up implement either, so neither way would be an easy option. I think I'll leave that decision up to Mr C in the end - but if you want to weigh in, please feel free. :)

I'm tremendously proud of you all, and I'm so relieved not to be facing a hand punishment that right this second I'm - well, if not looking forward to the prospect, then at least feeling pretty good about it. I'm more nervous of the tawse than the cane, because the tawse is an unknown quantity. Ten with the cane will be tough, but I know I can do it. The rest ... well, we'll see.

Thanks for being such good sports, for taking part, leaving comments, spreading the word, putting up an awesome show of support for our favourite spanking site, and sparing me the ordeal of tawsed hands ... for now, at least. :)

eight strokes, and counting ...

Well, I've moved, and I'm back online after a few days without internet. It was actually quite nice to have a break, considering that I generally spend my life online. I've been settling into my new flat and am totally in love with it. It's the first time I've had a place of my own, and it's tiny and charming.

In general, this has been a move of joy - it's wonderful to have my own space (and much more convenient for shooting my own spanking material at home!) and it's all gone smoothly. In fact this move has blessed me with more things than a beautiful new home. While I was packing up all my possessions at my old house, I found several precious things which have been missing for months and which I thought were lost forever. Including ... can you guess?



Yep, the gods saw fit to return my Mason & Pearson to me :) My photographer friend will be pleased, and it just goes to show that the punishment had a positive effect after all! Why else would it have turned up again mere days after I was spanked for losing it?

So yes, everything's good in my world - and I was delighted (or scared; take your pick) to come back online and discover that you lot are exactly as sadistic as I thought you were! I was a bit anxious that going offline right when I was encouraging you to spend your hard-earned cash on a deserving cause (and great porn) would doom my blogiversary plan. I thought that without me reminding you every day, interest would wane. How wrong I was!

Thanks so much (I think ...) to everyone who's promoted this on their own blogs - Ludwig, Adele Haze, Niki Flynn, Prefectdt, the man behind the whole crazy idea, and even Paul and Lucy themselves. My inner exhibitionist loves the attention, my soppy side is glad that NSI are doing so well out of this, and at this rate my bottom will be sorry for days :)

Which brings us to the count so far. I haven't got Paul to confirm these numbers yet, but it looks like we're up to eight cane strokes and ten not-cane strokes, although there's apparently some dispute over the latter (yes, I'm looking at you, Ludwig and Indiana!). Which is perfectly respectable, particularly given Mr C's determination to make them count. Since he's made noises about delivering them with his Master's dragon cane, I'm torn: eight is already enough to make me nervous, but I wouldn't be playing by the rules if I didn't continue to encourage you to support NSI until the last possible moment.

One important question still needs to be answered. Which implement should I receive the first half of my punishment with? (And why do I have a sinking feeling that this isn't going to be a "warm up" at all ... ?)

The candidates, based on your suggestions are as follows:

The tawse on the hands was requested by James M, which I've never received and am incredibly nervous about, having received very little hand punishment before, and all of it with the cane. I'm really not sure ten strokes would be a fair starter, and beg you very, very sincerely not to choose this option. The tawse in question would probably be the vicious little pocket-sized one in this photo.

To make the alternatives more tempting, there's a choice of two bigger tawses which could be applied to my behind. (No, given my inexperience with hand punishment, I'm not offering you the option of either of these on my hands.) The medium one is one of my favourite implements; stingy and sensual. The senior one is a heavier, thicker, longer, brown leather two-tailed prefect's tawse from Academy Incorporated. It's very stiff with a rough finish, giving a general impression of horror and brutality. I don't know what it feels like because when it arrived I freaked out and hid it away, so I can't tell you exactly how nasty it is. But I know how savage it looks.

Smallhanded requested a cat o'nine tails. We have a few implements which could be said to fit that description. One is a leather martinet with square-cut thongs similar to this one, very sharp, very heavy. Historically, it's a French implement of domestic discipline, and it's one of Mr C's favourites so I expect it'll get his vote :) There's also a selection of floggers available, so I've picked out two.

I'm afraid that having offered it as an option, none of us, out of the three, own a strap - which is shocking, I know, and worthy of punishment in itself. The senior tawse is pretty close, I reckon, and the next best thing is a leather belt. (D. even has one without the buckle, which is handy.) So I've thrown that in as well.

not-cane strokes Which implement should be used to deliver the first half of my blogiversary spanking? Tawse (on the hands) Medium two-tailed tawse Senior two-tailed tawse Belt Martinet Leather flogger Knotted leather flogger Current Results

There you have it - voting is open until midnight on Sunday. (Please don't pick the first option. Please, please, please. I'll cry and it'll be horrible. I'll take extra strokes if you don't pick the first option...) And don't forget, you can still add to the total numbers by joining NSI and posting your username here in a a comment.

Okay. I'm going to post this before I lose my nerve!

blogiversary - redux

I've been supremely busy lately, with the move and everything else, which is why it's taken me a while to finalise the plan for my blogiversary. It's been tough to choose between the various options you came up with, but in the end I've settled on an idea suggested by Prefectdt in email.

He proposed that I offer to take one stroke (of the cane probably, although I'm open to persuasion if you'd prefer something else) per signup to Northern Spanking, as a way of showing support for Paul and Lucy after the hassle they've had this year. The idea is that anyone who wants to contribute to my blogiversary spanking should sign up to the site, and leave a comment with their NSI username which can then be verified by Paul.

I absolutely adore this idea - it's lovely to have the chance to support such fantastic people, and my favourite thing about blogging is the community aspect, so incorporating that into my anniversary celebration seems very appropriate. I wanted to check that Lucy and Paul were okay with this before I went ahead with it, hence the delay - but they seem to like the idea, hooray!

So! The rules are:

- To contribute a stroke to my blogiversary caning, please join Northern Spanking and leave a comment on this entry with the username of your account. (Not the password!)
- If you're already a member of Northern Spanking and would like to get involved, please leave a comment on this entry with your username. Existing signups will still contribute a stroke, but probably with a different implement.
- If you'd like to vote on which implements are used for each set, please let me know your preference in the comments. I'm currently thinking the cane for comments from new signups, and the tawse or strap for comments from existing members, but I'm open to other suggestions.
- If you've already done the above and still have the urge to hurt me (and help Paul and Lucy) then repost the link to this entry and spread the word :)

If you decide to play, you'll get to spend hours browsing the massive archives at join Northern Spanking, happy in the knowledge that you've helped support two of the loveliest members of the scene, and me get the thrashing I need so badly. I mean, what more could you ask?

The final numbers will be counted at midnight, August 24th 2008, which gives you just over a week to make your mark. (As it were.) The punishment will be delivered and a free video clip of it uploaded to the blog in the following week.

Is this a good idea? Have I left it too late? I guess we'll find out...

a mouthful of happy

How's this for quirky fetish art? These designs are by Myk Goldtooth of the Goldtooth collective, and I think they're fabulous. I love the surreal element in each image.





I mean, the psychedelic dunce cap is pretty cool, but the raver smileyface ball gag is awesome. I want one. :)

the historical punishment of juveniles

I've just discovered a fascinating website: an archive of historical material about the corporal punishment of juveniles. It's lovingly researched, focussing mostly on the punishment of boys, and contains a wealth of primary sources, including illustrations, press cuttings and personal accounts.

I could get lost in this collection for hours. Schools, reformatories, the military, judicial punishments, care homes are all covered here. There are sections on the cane, birch and tawse, richly embroidered with historical drawings, photos and accounts from the time. Like these two, showing the caning of boys in the navy:


1906 drawing of a shipboard naval caning, published in 'The Humanitarian', a campaigning journal

I was caught doing something which if I had been in the navy proper would have got me 'cells.' I was brought before the captain of the training ship and sentenced to 12 cuts of the cane. I was taken at once to the sickbay and told to strip off except for my socks and was given a pair of white duck punishment trousers. These are always worn by a boy who is to be caned. Then I was marched into the gym where the master-at-arms checked to see that I hadn't sneaked in any padding. I was told to stand to attention and the surgeon general came in with the regulating petty officer, who is always deputed to give the cuts and was carrying two long canes.

I was made to lay over the end of the gym horse and was held in position by two well-built boy ratings. The captain came in and said 'Carry on' and the RPO lifted the cane in a wide semi-circle to the back of his head and brought it down with considerable force. After each stroke the master-at-arms called out 'Cut delivered sir.' At the end of the 12 cuts I was taken to the sickbay where my injuries were inspected. The marks had already turned a mauve-blue in colour.

(A sailor recalls being caned as a boy in a naval training establishment; punishments of this kind continued into the 1960s and 1970s.)

Or these descriptions of 19th century judicial birching:


A 19th century birching table used in Scotland. This ingenious design subdues the prisoner by confining his arms through two holes cut into the table top.

The two boys were both found guilty of theft and sentenced to receive 12 strokes of the birch. The sentence was to be carried out at 1pm, after the birch had been pickled for two hours. It consisted of a number of long thin lashes tied to the end of a stick about 2 feet long. Each lash had a resemblance more to wire than wood. At the appointed time the magistrates arrived to witness the punishment and the sobbing boys were brought in. A move was made to the courtyard at the back of the gaol, a dull, bare piece of ground surrounded by high walls. In the middle of the courtyard had been placed a bench, similar to a school form.

"Now then, down with your trousers, quick!" said one of the constables Although the two culprits obeyed the command their movements were not very rapid. One of the constables quickly unbuttoned one of the fellow's braces, and his trousers were pulled down so as to leave his buttocks bare. Almost with lightning rapidity he was placed on his stomach on the form. One constable at one end held his hands with an iron grasp and the other took the wretch's legs.

The official who held the birch stepped forward both hands holding the rod, and with all his might and main commenced to administer the punishment. The boy began the most piteous howling and yelling and red marks appeared almost immediately across his buttocks. After three strokes his right buttock was like a piece of raw beef. After the sixth stroke the constable moved round to the other side of the form and administered six hefty strokes across the left buttock. The boy evinced the most unearthly yells and blood was immediately drawn. The constable took pride in the fact that the culprit would not be able to sit down for quite a time.

(eye-witness account of a juvenile birching, published in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1887)

There's dozens more; enough to satisfy any spanko appetite. Go, explore, indulge yourself. It's well worth a look.

my first try at spanking art

I'm in the middle of moving house at the moment, so apologies if my posting schedule is interrupted in the next week or so. I'm still planning to organise something exciting for my blogiversary, and will hopefully get the chance to post about that soon :)

I've mentioned here or there that I'm a fine artist and webdesigner in my vanilla life. I'm not completely out, which is why I've never posted any of my art here; my two selves need to remain separate. My art, too, is pretty vanilla: queer in places, but kink isn't one of the subjects I address. You could say that I don't need to create paintings to express my kinky side, because that urge is satisfied in making spanking films and writing this blog. But people have always asked me whether I do spanking art, and suggested that it would be the perfect integration of my two selves. The answer has always been no - but maybe I might in the future. To be honest, with no strong personal need to explore this side of myself through my art, the only reason to create fetish paintings is commercial, and I'm not particularly keen on that as an artistic motivation.

But a couple of months ago, a friend asked me if I could do some spanking drawings for him, and after sitting on the idea for just long enough that he thought I'd lost interest, I finally sat down and had a go a couple of weeks ago. I've never done anything like this before - line art isn't my usual style, and spanking isn't my usual subject matter. So these are very much a beginner's attempt. It was surprisingly satisfying, though. I might do more of these.





The spankee is loosely based on me, which isn't ego, just my inability to draw figures and having seen more photos of myself being spanked than any other model! These are obviously only sketches, but if I did more I'd probably try to work them up to greater levels of detail. And perhaps add colour, but I'm not sure about that one - what do you think? I'm also considering ditching the ink pen and doing a couple in my usual medium, as oil paintings, to see if I feel more at home that way.

As these were both for a friend, the subject matter was based on his tastes and preferences. I'd quite like to do some for myself, illustrating some of my own fantasies - and I'll probably find that if I do, I'll feel less like a fish out of water. I'm glad I was asked to do these, though, or I'd never have taken the plunge, and it feels good to have finally had a go. Let me know if you have any ideas for scenarios or themes - it'll give me more motivation to repeat the experiment. And I could use the practice :)

tired, sore and happy

The shoot yesterday was excellent, and very tiring. Aegean very kindly let me have free reign on story, so I was able to do three scenes that I found interesting and exciting, which really is a privilege and a pleasure when filming for someone else. Even the sexy secretary clip, which I'm sorry to say I'd been rather rude about when Aegean suggested it, turned into the hottest and hardest film of the day, very fast-paced with a real clash of wills. (I lost.) I played an executive who's visited at home by her company's compliance officer, and is threatened with dismissal for using her work computer (and work time) to write erotica. Spanking erotica, of course. You can see where this is going. And of course, no self-respecting businesswoman would submit to that sort of treatment without a fight, but I was regretting my decision to play it arrogant when I was bent over the table at the mercy of Mr Stern's wicked leather paddle. I'm still sporting some lovely bruises from that, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the clip :)

In the meantime, here are some images from the first clip, where I'm punished by my disciplinarian for losing the Mason & Pearson hairbrush he gave me. Of course, I wasn't being punished by the person who gave me the hairbrush in real life, but I hoped the discipline would at least help me remember to be more careful with my things in future.

Lacking my own lovely hairbrush, various other implements had to be tested on my bottom, including a horrid, stingy plastic hairbrush, a small wooden sorority paddle and an absolute demon of a Mason & Pearson wooden clothes brush, which was about a foot long and weighed a tonne. It was my first spanking of the day and I wasn't even allowed a gentle warm-up hand-spanking first. Sulk, pout, etc.





Unfortunately, I don't think punishment alone is going to clear my conscience for this one - I still feel bad about the lost brush. I'm just going to have to fork out and replace it. My wallet will feel this more than my bum, I think, but I have no-one to blame but myself.

(Thanks to the Sound Punishment blog for the pictures)

Sound Punishment

I'm writing this on Wednesday night to go up tomorrow, because I'm getting an early train to shoot with Sound Punishment and won't get a chance in the morning. I'm looking forward to the shoot - I haven't shot for Aegean's site before, although we've worked together for English Spankers.

We've got some good stuff lined up: a sexy secretary scene, Maggie Gyllenhaul style; an oral exam which will demonstrate quite how long it's been since I practised my Latin (or possibly one where I'm taught a lesson about appropriate outlets for my creativity - we haven't quite decided yet); and a real-life punishment scene where I'm dealt with for losing my Mason & Pearson hairbrush. (No, I still haven't found it. Yes, I'm still distraught.) I suspect my punishment will involve a spanking with a much nastier brush ... anyway, I'll find out tomorrow, and I'll tell you all about it when I'm back!

the tanning shop

I was entertained by this startle when out in town the other day:





Well, who wouldn't want to land a firm smack on an arse as shapely as that?

Roue

One of the film projects I mentioned the other day is for Roue. I knew that they were planning a redesign of their site to make films available for download, but I knew that the new site wasn't live yet and so hadn't gone to have a look. I was sending someone the url the other day and typed it into my browser to check I'd remembered it right, and was surprised to see that Mr C and I are on the front page:



That's a still from my second film with them, as yet untitled. If you refresh a few times it looks like they've got a couple of images on random selection, from the first two DVDs I've filmed with Roue. Both of them are still in the editing stage - I think when the third is filmed they'll be releasing them together as a trilogy (I posted the cover design for the first film a little while ago).

The second film has new characters and an Edwardian setting. It's a sapphic love story of guilt and desire, with Tom playing the worldly young dancing master at my character's finishing school. Miranda's crush on him leads to shame and embarrasment when she's sent to him for punishment, and despite her best efforts she keeps getting into trouble as she's dragged into a tangled relationship with a young lady whose motivations are not entirely virtuous. Not wanting to get her beau into trouble, and wracked by guilt for having what she perceives as unclean and unChristian desires for another girl, Miranda lets herself be manipulated by this devious young lady while believing herself to be the corrupting influence. Eventually, despairing of her plummeting grades and the fate of her immortal soul, Miranda seeks help with the teacher she's been seeing so much of lately, and begs him for help in seeking the atonement she needs to cut herself off from her bad news girlfriend. You can imagine what form of atonement he suggests ...

The sequel is going to deal with Miranda's expulsion from her finishing school a year later, and her enrolement in Mr Cameron's private establishment for wayward young ladies. We should be filming in September. I'm very excited! :)

spanked by her editor

Niki Flynn has uploaded a free spanking clip to her blog, in which her "editor" (played by Ludwig of Rohrstockpalast) spanks her for not working hard enough to promote her book, Dances with Werewolves. The punishment seems to have focussed her mind: she not only edited a video of the spanking into a neat little promotional clip, but she's also distributing it for free online.



Niki's been nominated for the prestigious Writer of the Year title at the Erotic Awards. Help her win the award and boost her sales figures by linking the clip - and buying the book, if you haven't already.

I've been very lax in not writing a review of Niki's book here already, so I'll take a moment to remedy that now. Dances with Werewolves starts out as a familiar, gossipy introduction to the spanking industry, full of recognisable figures and mischievous commentary. The narrative soon deepens, however, into an investigation of how Niki came to be aware of her kink and how it affected her growing up. Like many kinky people, Niki's desires manifested young, and like many of us she went through a phase of fearing that they were harmful and unhealthy, and despairing of ever having a "normal" sexuality. Her discussion of fantasy, consent, fear and discipline is sensitive and thought-provoking. Although she and I seem to be into similar things on the surface, the underlying motivations between mine and Niki's kinks are very different, and it was fascinating to read another perspective. At the same time as celebrating the broad range of human sexuality, Niki's story has enough common ground with my own for me to identify strongly her as she gradually explored her desires and her deepest self.

At this point the book deviates from my - and most people's - experience, as Niki decides to apply for a part in a Lupus film, having never done professional spanking work before in her life. This brave leap takes her further up and further in to a compelling world of political, psychological, painful films that allow her to come face to face with the extremes of human experience. Her conscientiousness and self-awareness during her voyage of discovery are to be admired as much as her courage. Niki's a fantastic storyteller with a brilliantly dark sense of humour. Her honest appraisal of her desires and experiences make for compelling reading.

The book is a celebration of kink, a wry look at an industry that is both sublime and ridiculous, and a powerful story about fear, desire, and knowing oneself. If there are any films mentioned in the book that you haven't seen, you will come away wanting to watch them. And quite right too. Niki's influence on the world of spanking films has been positive and lasting. Her imagination, spirit and bravery has left a legacy of films that are, like this book, raw, scary, honest, challenging, intelligent and funny. And, of course, incredibly hot.

blogiversary ideas

I forgot to renew my domain yesterday. To be fair, for some reason I didn't get an email warning me it was about to expire. So I don't think I deserve a spanking for the fact that pictures on my blog will be down for a day or so. I've renewed the domain now, but it always takes a little while for the DNS to start talking to the server again.

Edit: everything seems to be back up now. That was impressively fast! Thanks to gandi.net who handle all my domains, and whom I can highly recommend :)

Anyway, happy August! In twenty-four days it's my two year anniversary of starting this blog. I missed my first blogiversary, last year, as it fell right in the middle of my break from reading and posting. But I'm here for this one, and I intend to celebrate in style.

I'm having trouble deciding how, though. Obviously it should involve spanking, but ... what exactly? I thought about maybe getting a spank for every blog post that I've made by the 24th, but the number is already 228 (and will be even bigger by then) and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy signing up for that. Plus I'd like something a bit more interactive - like Prefectdt's excellent idea of a spank per comment on a designated post, as pioneered by Pixie. My blog is nowhere near as popular as hers, so I'd hopefully get off relatively lightly ...

What do you think? Any other bright ideas? I'd definitely like to involve my readers in whatever I do, as you are the reason I'm still here :) Whether or not you consider that to be a good thing, writing here has done huge amounts for my understanding of my kinky self, and each and every one of the supportive comments and emails I've received has brought me a little bit of happiness :) (Yes, I'm a comment-whore. Sp spank me!) But most importantly, I've had the honour to meet some truly awesome people, and to get involved in important issues, fascinating debates, funny conversations, and the ongoing mission to create truly hot porn. This is an amazing community, and I'm proud to be part of it.