Black As My Soul

Because I've Had Crows on the Brain

I wish I could remember where I found this illustration. I love it.

The Raven. She is a trickster.

Wow, Man

Watching VH1 tonight. They are showing a documentary series about Sex. Well, It's called "Sex: The Revolution."

Anyway, it's making me realize how fortunate I am to live in a time where I can write about sexuality and BDSM without fear of police action or obscenity charges. It really hasn't been that long since the idealists made it "OK."

So I'm thinking that I'm lucky to live in a time where society has been cracked open at least this much. And I'm thinking that it's really important to me that these rights are cherished and defended.

You Know You're Into Kink When...

There's a new sort of reality series called "Surviving History." It's a cross between, say, Mythbusters and an educational documentary. Basically there's a room full of guys from a special effects shop who, based on historical accounts, plan and build various devices from the past.

The episode I watched most recently included a sort of helmet that was designed to impede (but not prevent) vision, hearing, speech—and to induce shame in the wearer.

On some levels, that's really hot.

Allegedly, this was designed to silence a nag and to be worn in public. Also? It was a tool (the least horrific on the show dating from the same era in British history) to enforce Christian morality.

Right.

You couldn't make something more to-order for a sadist or a masochist if you tried.

The "Glory Box"

A review of the beta FyreTV unit I received last week.

I heard about FyreTV about the time of the Adult Entertainment Expo. I believe I saw it first on Gizmodo, which mentioned the service was now in beta and accepting testers. What was I to do but to sign up? I figured, worst case, I would have to wait until it was a commercial product.

Two weeks ago I received an email asking me to confirm some personal information on the FyreTV web site. Once that was done, more communications confirmed my "Master-Beta" beta tester status. Another email announced a tracking number. Yay!

Last Monday I received the unit but it wasn't until Wednesday night that I had the time to devote to the installation.

Geek/Tech Part:

The box is quite small and light. Other than the labeling on the back for the various jacks it is all black. I would say it's roughly a third as wide as a traditional stereo or video component, and about half as tall. All that is visible on the smooth front is a red power light and an activity light. No logos. No names.

Set up was no more or less difficult than installing a DVD player, if your DVD player required an Ethernet connection. So, in my case, that necessitated some quick drilling to run some an extra network cable. My TV had available inputs so it was then only a matter of finding cables, of which I also fortunately had spares. There were some cables in the package for HDMI and left and right audio, but my TV was built before HDMI so I had to go with component video.The FyreTV unit also supports DVI output, but my one DVI input was already taken by my cable box. Definitely very nice to have options. S-video is the fourth alternative.

Also nice is that FyreTV supports wide screens. My TV has a 16:9 aspect ratio screen and I was able to select that on setup. This can be changed on-the-fly.

The one set-up "gotcha" for me was that the PIN number for the beta is not the PIN number for your personal account. I did not notice mention of that in any email communication or while I was creating my account at the FyreTV web site, but did I find the solution in their support forums.

Using the FyreTV:

It's in beta (as I may have mentioned) and even in the few days I have operated the device there has already been an update to the system. Everything is still subject to change.

As of this writing, there are about 175 movies on tap. During the beta period viewing those movies is effectively free and unlimited. They have promised a significant number of movies by launch, so I anticipate this should change dramatically.

You can search by title, studio, genre, actor/actress, and probably other ways I'm not remembering. The search is designed such that you can search across all titles, or you can add criteria to keep narrowing the focus. With 175 titles from 4 studios, today, this might not be as big of an issue. But if, as they promise, they increase selection to 20,000 titles, this will be paramount.

You can also browse through the covers of the videos as though they were DVDs. That interface is reminiscent of cover-flow on the Mac or in iTunes, but it's not as fluid. While there aren't detailed descriptions of each title, I think the cover art and title tell you as much as you really need to know. Once a title has been selected, you can choose to play from the beginning or you can select chapters from a thumbnail view.

I can tell you that we-who-are-kinky have not been ignored. While their breadth of title selection is not there yet, the categories already in place show there will be content that covers my various interests and pushes my hot buttons.

Also? This is not Cinemax. This is not R-Rated, NC-17, or unrated. It's explicit porn. Streamed to you over your broadband connection.

The picture quality and the response of the device is really damned good. Honestly I was surprised that the setup went so smoothly and that once I had my PIN number entered, the porn was streaming right away.

You can choose the video quality in a sort of a "good, better, best" arrangement. They equate the best to "DVD quality." While this is in principle true, my internet connection won't stream that much data that fast without artifacts and hiccoughs, but "Near DVD" looks really very good. I would say it looks much better than the highest quality recording on my Series2 TiVo. To date, my experience has been that once the video starts, it keeps playing.

The remote is OK. It seems that there is probably a better way to group the keys by function, but it does the job. Batteries were included, by the way.

The menus aren't as intuitive as an iPod or a TiVo, but again the service is in beta, so I doubt what I'm seeing today will be the final product. The issue I have is knowing which botton will take me back or up a level at which time. But I'm learning.

Features I haven't explored yet are the playlists and favorites. My understanding from the forums is that these are not "sticky" yet and still in development, so I am going to wait before I comment on those.

I'm happy to answer any questions, but if you are interested at all in the service then the web site is the place to go: FyreTV.com See also: Fyre TV FAQ

UPDATE: The quality of the video is wonderful. The selection is fairly amazing.

Mistress Mandy

Do you guys get the commercials about the cable company parental-control tools? Where the concerned parents say they enjoy the "compelling" TV but that they can't let their kids see it so they're going to block the characters?

The one I'm talking about (Mistress Mandy Gets Blocked) features a fictional dominatrix named Mistress Mandy. She is dressed in a lovely black vinyl catsuit and stiletto boots. She's holding a whip.

What I dislike a lot is the moment when she angrily shouts "Mistress Mandy wants to punish you!"

Nope. Off by a mile. In a scene, it is always all about what the Domme or top wants anyway. This is implicit and would never need to be stated. Next, I don't think she would betray anger or even that her subject wielded sufficient leverage to affect her emotionally. So the writers got this really wrong, or, more likely, the suits didn't (wouldn't?) get it.

I think she she would have calmly stated they would be punished. Or, she would simply and suddenly strike with the whip, because it pleased her. Then she would laugh at the pain.

It is cute at the end of the commercial when the wife comments that she thinks Mistress Mandy's boots are lovely.

Celebrity Rehab

No.

Nope.

I will not watch that.

Real Sploshing, Again, or: Wishing for New Episodes

I want to really love Real Sex, but after my long, long love-affair with teh pr0n, there's not all that much new under the sun.

The good news is that there are still some episodes I haven't seen before. I do try to catch Real Sex when I can.

The bad news is that when I watch re-runs, somehow I manage to catch one or more of the following: sploshing, pony play, or that session on the blow-job instruction.

Am I wrong?

Now I do consider myself educated after being exposed to a lot of what they show, and I have seen some stuff that opened my eyes, all I'm saying is that some episodes seem to be in more frequent rotation.

I just wish there was more coverage of the BDSM spectrum, beyond the popular fetishization of vinyl clothing and objects used.

Keep Your Penis in Your Genus

I watched the new show Caveman tonight. My expectations were low, but I laughed out loud several times. The title of this post was one of the best one-liners.

Yes, I'm a fan of the Geico caveman commercials. And the "Messin' with Sasquatch" commercials.

...

Fortunately, Flower is in my Genus.

Mmm. Genus.

The Notorious Betty Page

I watched The Notorious Betty Page on cable tonight.

What I liked is that it was stylish, but reasonably accurate in its portrayal of the time period. Liked the portrayal of Betty in her sessions, and the hints of the shock and alarm that straight (vanilla) society had and still has concerning BDSM.

I admit that I didn't care for the uplifting ending. Though the movie ends with Betty saying that she was not ashamed, that statement comes while she's holding a bible in her hands preaching on the street.

Seems like it was the socially expedient course of action.

Of course I can't comment on her spirituality, or what she found, but that didn't do anything for me.

I still adore Betty's cheesecake.

Are They Mocking You?

I'm not kidding.

I just saw a commercial for pads. The pad was on a roller coaster track.

This was *not* an ad approved by women.

"I Just Dropped In…"

"To see what condition my condition was in."

Can you believe that is a Kenny Rogers song?

It's been on my mind a bunch. I keep catching reruns of The Big Lebowski on cable.

It may be my favorite movie, evar.

My favorite edited (TV Friendly) line?

"This is what happens when you find a neighbor in the alps!"