MC Erotica at the Mall

February 10, 2010

IMG_0196mcThe day after Christmas I found myself at the local mall with some friends who were anxious to spend several gift cards they had received during the holidays. There are many things I expect from a visit to the mall; pushy vendors of hand cream products, annoying people, and a full-blown mc-junkie on mannequin duty at the newest trendy fashion outlet.

Okay, I lied about that last one but it was a welcome surprise nonetheless. While my friends pretended it was completely natural (and the shoppers around us made sure I knew it wasn’t), I snapped a few photos of this delightful, tranced plastic lady. If the designer of this window display wasn’t thinking about a pocket watch or crystal swinging in front of her face I’ll eat shoes…or something.

IMG_0198mcI’m repeating myself a bit here, but the part of me that wishes I’d studied anthropology in college, can’t help but look at perfume ads,  fashion photography, and displays like this and wonder what it is about the mind control fetish that keeps it an unspoken yet consistent staple of media. Content that plays into fetishes concerning various parts of the female body are rampant. The last several years have seen latex-clad dommes and candid reference to D/s & BDSM used in television commercials to promote parental awareness and pistachio consumption. Yet, to me, it still feels as though people are quite reticent where the sexualization of hypnosis and mind control is concerned.

Maybe I’m projecting. Maybe I want it to feel more present in mainstream media to alleviate some latent embarrassment at being turned on by an ‘odd’ fetish. Maybe I’m just biased. But maybe the person who designed this mannequin did so just for us; so we could wink at each other as we pass by; so we could share the silent joke that this display is far more lurid than the Victoria’s Secret counterpart next door.

In any case, it made the trip to the mall quite worthwhile; we’ll see if next year’s visit lives up to the precedent.

Dreams

January 20, 2010

Tammy and Elise EvansI don’t have that many mind-control dreams (and I typically do remember my dreams), maybe three or four in my adult life. Even then, its usually a small facet of something else going on. Last night though, I had probably the most overt mc dream I can remember. I had come across a picture archive last night and found a particularly interesting set featuring a domme in a black leather trench coat with matching opera gloves . I saved the pics in question just before I went to sleep and as I was drifting off, I was thinking how much I wish Alina were still here to share them with…she would have gotten quite a kick out of them.

My memory of the dream picks up post-coitus. The leather-clad domme from the photos took off her trench coat and told me to put it on. She said she had something she wanted to show me downstairs. As happens often in my dreams I’m seeing myself in the third person, my body walking around with ‘me’ trailing behind. What’s odd is that my body never bothered to get dressed and ‘I’m’ the one wearing the trench coat. So both of me get on an elevator and go down (typical right?) to the basement.

In stark contrast to the large manor upstairs, the basement is abuzz with people in white lab coats filtering in and out of rooms into a small hallway. I suddenly feel very meek and submissive; lowering my head and avoiding eye contact. One of the lab coat people sees me and gets very interested. He leads me to a room at the end of the hall. When we enter, I’ve lost track of my body and its just ‘me’ who goes inside. Like the hallway there’s a number of the lab coat people inside a classroom. A couple dozen people sit in front of laptops in the rows of tables and chairs that fill the room. I’m directed to a seat at the front.

I sit down and headphones are placed on me; I’m told to listen to the music; I know it has subliminal commends embedded within. I listen. I don’t like the music; fucking techno. I’m disappointed there’s nothing on the laptop screen to look at, just the music player. After a minute or two I don’t care anymore, its like the music isn’t even there, just this throbbing wash of sound. I stay that way for little while, floating. Then, the headphones are being pulled off me by a real-life friend (who has, coincidentally, just instant messaged me as I write this; weird). I’m suddenly aware I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting there; it feels much longer than I’m aware of.

I sense there’s more I’m supposed to listen to; something my friend is sparing me from. I stand up and my body feels impossibly heavy; I was sitting in front of the laptop a very long time. My head feels strange, like my brain is congested. I walk towards the door of the classroom. I focus on the door handle and suddenly my vision explodes with line after line of repeating text telling me I’m obedient to Goddess, must serve Goddess, and the like. Its all written in the font I do my manip captions in. I have an overwhelming urge to return to the laptop and put the headphones back on. I stand frozen in place trying to decide what to do and then…I wake up.

Waiting for Azreal

August 21, 2009

15No, not that Azreal, I’m thinking more Kevin Smith’s revisionist variety: Inspiration. I want to work on something and I really can’t find anything that’s speaking to me. I’ve got a huge folder of ‘To Do’ images and in the past I’ve just made myself crank something out. The problem is that, usually, the resulting manip sucks; big time.

So I find myself in the dilemma of really wanting to write a post but having nothing to write about; wanting to work on a pic but having nothing finished to show you. So, as John Lennon once did, I’m going to take my lack of inspiration and try to use that as a backdoor to creating something. Bear in mind, its not going to be nearly as fun to listen to and in all likelihood will not include one of the greatest guitar solos ever played on a Fender Stratocaster…but the effort will be equally as sincere.

Today, I thought I’d give you a peak behind the curtain at my process; what goes in on my mind as I look at a pic and the (often slow) development of an idea to a finished manip. Ready?

The pic linked above is one of hundreds (maybe thousands) of images I’ve saved on a whim. Often I see something and I know exactly what it could be; other times I just have a sense that there’s a workable idea somewhere and save it in case inspiration strikes. Here, I found the image to be quite striking and dramatic; erotic but not overtly explicit. I love black-and-white photography and so, for me, this pic already has a special quality owing to that. But there’s more here and the longer I look, the more I see.

Continue Reading…

Congratulations Tera

August 11, 2009

tera_40kIn the event you don’t know, my friend Tera is quite a remarkable lady. Last week, she crossed quite a milestone: 40,000 posts at the Hypnopics Collective. While my own efforts aren’t quite as impressive as the manip she made to commemorate the occasion, I thought I’d put together a little something to help celebrate the event.

The source pic I found recently, during a particularly fruitful day of scouring for images. I didn’t know quite what to do at first, but a little succubi inspiration was all it took to get me going on the image. The story, I wrote this evening while tinkering with the last few aesthetic details. A bit wordy perhaps, but I never seem to be as pithy as I’d like to be.

Besides, its not about me, its about Tera: the woman who’s far too humble to acknowledge what a cornerstone of the mind control community she really is. Tera: who whips htaccess files in to submission and bends php to her will (and probably looks quite saucy doing it <wink>). Tera: who, I am honored to say, is my friend.

<big hug>
Congratulations Devil Woman.

Really Quickie

July 30, 2009

voyerI’ve really wanted to do more updating, but instead I’ve found myself falling back into my old routine and doing a bunch of nothing. Recent events haven’t made things any easier, but tonight I was feeling really sick of just sitting here.

So, in a fit of frustration I posted to twitter that I was going to finish a new manip in the following three hours. Now for those of you unfamiliar with this disease I have called ‘perfection’, know that a quick manip for me is usually measured in days.

So, when I perused my “To Do” folder to find an image I thought would be an easy project, I suddenly realized that two images I’ve had saved could work beautifully together. A quick check in Photoshop confirmed they were of comparable resolutions. So, full of new-found inspiration I set to work and here we are a few hours later and I actually have something to show for it.

Voyeurism carries with it the inherent danger of being caught, but I find that effect is deliciously heightened by some naughty mind control. What if you’re so distracted by the sheer eroticism that you don’t turn and leave quickly enough? What if you’re caught? They can make you stay…and eventually make you forget you ever wanted to leave at all…

Fun themes to explore; and it leaves me plenty to ponder as I muse over writing a caption. Though this one doesn’t have the polish I usually prefer, it feels quite nice to have something after being sidetracked for so long. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Her Name Was Alina

July 21, 2009

alinaThis is not the blog entry I had planned to be writing but as someone much wiser than I am once said, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. A little over a year ago I came across a blog on the now-defunct Yahoo 360 by a woman calling herself Blankserena. She was a major hypno-fetishist and quite a writer to boot. Her posts were filled with accounts of her real-life trance experiences. They were very exciting to read but, for me, they struck a deeper chord.

When I wrote about her blog last year, I talked about how her entries were more than just something to get hot-n-bothered over. Serena talked honestly about spending money she didn’t have on hypno-fetish videos and mp3’s, letting real-life plans take a slide to indulge her mind control fantasies, and losing the man she loved because he didn’t feel as important to her as her fetish. These things spoke to something in the very core of me…because I understood them all to well.

Shortly after my blog post, we started talking and became very close as the months went by. We formed our own little support group; encouraging each other to do constructive things with our love of hypno and mc, like writing and manniping. And I’m here to tell you, when serena, mind control, and writing got together, good things followed. She (and I) was very proud of a script she’d written for Nikki Fatale called The Black Room. It was a theme she’d later explore in a story she penned called The Brainwashing of Nina; which, after me bugging her about it for two days straight, she finally posted to the Garden where it belongs.

We shared an intense love for film making, screen writing, and all manner of creative endeavors. We dreamed up main-stream film ideas with nefarious mc plot threads like all those tv shows that had kinked us so many years ago.We marveled at all the quirky indie movies that shared a spot in our dvd collections. We talked endlessly about television and the amazing writing that’s happening there right now. We wasted many Mondays comparing notes on the previous week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica and Lost. We brainstormed dozens of ideas for scripts that we’d write together some day.

When Erik came back into her life earlier this year she was so happy; she loved him so deeply. She was so glad to have another chance to be with him and I delighted in her joy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after that her cancer returned. Over the last several months things were getting worse for her, but our friendship was as rich and alive as it had ever been and through everything we always found away to get ourselves laughing.

The day we shared our real names with each other was a good conversation; lots of humor, some poignant realizations, and some very good advice was traded that day. The last time we spoke, although the it didn’t start that way, it sort of became our “last conversation” talk. We said the things we wanted the other to know, made some promises, and said goodbye. I remember thinking afterward that if it was the last time we talked, then we went out on a good note.

Earlier today, I finally got to speak with Erik who passed along the sad news that she died over the weekend. I don’t know if its better or worse to have a great deal of time to contemplate mortality; I’ve had months to come to terms with the fact that she was going to die. Today, I don’t feel angry, or cheated, or regretful; I just miss her. I miss talking about writing and directing with her, I miss sending photos with heavy hypno overtones back and forth (one of our favorite past times), I miss our conversations.

I’ve been thinking all day about what I wanted to say about her, how to communicate how amazing she was. She was the most unique person I’ve ever known. She was delightfully vulgar; she was ridiculously funny. She was wise beyond her years and, though she disagreed, she was always the clever one between us. She was much better at giving advice than following it herself. She was supportive, encouraging, and comforting. She was very talented. She was kind. She was braver than I will ever be.

Mostly, she was my friend.

Her name was Alina and I miss her dearly.

Goodbye ‘A’, I love you, and I’ll always remember you, and I will keep my promise.

I’m Supposed to be Doing Something Else

June 12, 2009

Weekly Picks…but I’ve been stealing quick glances at sara castle’s recently completed XXX4, and I’m here to tell you…this one’s a scorcher. Sara is one of the finest authors we have in the community, so let’s get that out of the way, and  XXX4 is one of the best stories she’s ever penned.

All the usual suspects are in on this one; bleak visions of an oppressive future, a paramilitary force of ass-kicking hotties, and more cyber-punk mind controlling nasties than you can shake a steel tentacle at. Yet far from being a repetition of past ideas, XXX4 is a refined celebration of all the things that make a sara castle story great. There’s mass-quantities of mind control (three times fast), there’s love and betrayal and revenge, there’s girl-sex so hot it’ll melt your eyes right out of your friggin’ head.

I’m speaking ambiguously because I really don’t want to ruin any of the fine work she’s done crafting her narrative, but in the broad stokes, four women are in competition for a single position. They each have mind control tech, fancy weapons, and three women standing in their way. From there, sara does just delicious things with her characters; love, betrayal, see above for more.

The point is that’s its a ridiculously good story, its one of the hottest things you’ll ever read, and I am so glad I put off what I was supposed to be doing to read it. I recommend you do the same.

Congrats sara, you’ve really outdone yourself with this one (waves).

A Quickie While I Attend to Other Things

June 11, 2009

While I haven’t been quite as productive this week as I’d hoped to be (I was honestly hoping to have a full update ready by now…so naive), I have been working on some new material and I thought I’d share a sneak peek with those loyal readers (all twelve of you) who are kind enough to keep visiting.

This pic was one I’d instantly seen the story in when I laid eyes on it. It was just a matter of finding the right props and fashioning the text. I’d intended to keep the text quite breif, just a couple sentances, but what I wanted to convey simply needed more. Influenced very heavily with this one by the terrific betrayal in Daphne’s Fairie Tale, the inducer is right out of trilby’s Watering Hole, and some vibes from a very hot scene in Tabico’s Winter Flesh.

Speaking of the inducer, I wanted something flashlight-ish but nothing too recognizalbe. What I found was the K2 Porcupine tactical light. Its a self defense torch that has a retractable ring of spikes around the lamp. Somewhere, someone is butchering watermelons with one of these things.

What a month

June 8, 2009

Hey all and welcome back. Its been a hell of a month for me. My vanilla job is going really great and keeping me extremely busy. This has been a particularly trying month for me, but I’m happy to say I made it through and things are returning to some semblance of normalcy.

I’m working on some new manip material and desperately trying to return emails this evening; hopefully if I owe you correspondence, you’ll have something in your inbox soonish. I’m also doing some housekeeping on the site and trying to fix some broken things. Incidentally, the rss feed should be functional again.

Lastly, I had time earlier tonight to read a couple items from the new update at mcstories. Betrayal, by zorkmeister was quite good as was the always delicioius Jukebox with Play the Game. There’s still several I haven’t gotten to yet (including sara castle’s newest chapter to XXX4 which I’m dying to check out), but hopefully I’ll make up for lost time tomorrow night.

The announcement this week of the The Beatles Rock Band video game has me thinking about the greatest band that ever was and reminded me of a story I’ve been meaning to tell you all about the Beatles break-up and how some nefarious mind control may have played a part. But I’ll leave that as a tease for next time.


Finally…

May 15, 2009

The RoomWell, its like…a month overdue, but my new animated manip is online!

This one had a long road to completion. The actual animated frames I’ve had finished for months now, but I knew I didn’t want to just have four individual animated manips that would force the viewer to go forward and backward through browser pages in order to view each panel. That, of course, meant I needed to learn some flash.

Or more precisely actionscript, which is the programing language that drives flash. Animation I can do, but even simple user-interaction (like Next and Back buttons) takes some programing. So early this year I decided I wasn’t going to let my lack of programming knowledge hold me back anymore. I bought a book and started teaching myself how to write flash applications.

It seems almost silly, all this work for what amounts to a slideshow, but such is the nature of my illness. I’m a perfectionist you see; not always in a healthy way. Its not enough to do something, it has to be done right. Also, I’m a hopeless control-freak and know-it-all; if I can’t do something myself I get cranky.

But enough of my problems.

The point (finally) is that it took me a while before I had the programming skill to put together the interactive part of this latest manip (and truth be told I still leaned heavily on some handy online tutorials). Plus there was that whole “lets completely redesign the website” thing right as I was finishing up.

So, I’m very glad to have the new site up and running and very, very glad to finally have this new manip on display for everyone to see. As we’re all beginning to discover, I’m an Aria Giovanni…uh…enthusiast. I’d had a pic set of one of her few fetish video shoots and after looking at them for a while, finally figured out where they could go..with a little Photoshop.

The source pics required some extensive work: duplicating and blending large sections of foreground, head replacement, logo removal, and I still had to fabricate one side of the head clamps from scratch. The large “Enable” button was a 3D model dropped in from the Google warehouse, then textured and lit in Photoshop to blend into the background.

The visual fx were really inspired by an episode of Hart to Hart where a neferious hypnotist uses light bouncing off a crystal chandeler to put Jennifer under. Its a really neat effect and I sort of used that as my jumping off point. The subliminal text and images were added at the eleventh hour when I realized I had more story than would fit into three panels, and decided to insert a POV shot of what Aria is seeing.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Time to enter The Room.