New York, NY -- Derek and I rendezvoused at Newark Airport then took the New Jersey Transit into New York City yesterday afternoon. After settling in at the hotel in Chelsea and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed over to our first event of the weekend, Wishbone at the Eagle NYC.
Derek and I were set to perform downstairs in the main space. We didn't know whether we would be doing suspension rigging or floor work until we arrived however. As is usually the case, unavailability of a hard point becomes a limiting factor when doing bondage demonstrations. By 'hard point', I am referring to a physical element within the construction of a space with sufficient structural integrity to support a working load adequate to the needs of the scene and amiable to the creation of an anchoring system. Most bar venues including leather bars, in the United States do not have hard points for performance rigging.
The Eagle NYC is no exception to this general rule, but Max (the promoter that booked us for these appearances in New York and Philly) and his crew built a solid frame for the event. As a result, Derek and I were able to revive our dynamic suspension performance from the IML XXX Victory Party at the House of Blues in Chicago.
The rigging went well, although I had to modify the upper body harness on the fly to accommodate the boy's ever growing size. He's getting even broader in the shoulders. I used a relatively new fifty foot length of 8mm, but it wasn't quite enough to permit double wrapping across the chest around the upper arms. I didn't like the aesthetic very much so I'll probably re-engineer the upper body harness with either less wrapping at the wrists or using two thirty-six foot lengths of 8mm.
Side Bar: I'm looking forward to getting some private play time with Derek through the end of the year. It will give me a chance to get some sessions in a more forgiving environment that allows for more fluid rope work and creative rigging. Performing and playing are two very different activities.
Derek and I knew one of the other performers, San Francisco Mr Leather 2007 Travis Creston but had never met Torez. Torez is this six-foot-five, two hundred-forty pound Brazilian with one of the biggest, most beautiful uncut latin cocks I've ever seen. Apparently, Travis and Torez have developed quite an intense D/s relationship. With Torez being a mountain of a man and Travis standing in at five-short, you might think big daddy and his boy but it's Travis that's the Dom in this relationship.
For our final performance at the Eagle, Travis asked if we'd help out with a collaring ceremony for Torez, so while Travis and Derek fooled around on stage I tied Torez to the frame that had been built. Afterward Travis broke out a hulking collar that looked like it had been made from logging chain (it must weigh five pounds or more) and started dancing all over Torez in the rigging. It looked like a Spider Monkey climbing a Redwood. It was a hoot to watch and ended with Travis collaring Torez.
All in all, it was a great event even if it did make for a very long day. Contributing a huge part to the event's success was the large amount of swag (including DVDs and calendars) provided by Titan we raffled off to raise money during the event for the various local AIDS Organizations.
Today Derek and I are going to see Catherine Opie's exhibit at the Guggenheim. Since the event in New Jersey tonight was canceled at the last minute, we're going to hang out with some of our friends from the New York Boys of Leather in the East Village.
