Pick O’ the Week | May ’08 #1

May 5, 2008
tortex_tri_b.png

So I’m back. Where have I been you may ask? Good question. When I figure it out I’ll let you know. I wish I could just chalk it up to being busy, but truthfully I think I needed to take a break from things for a while. I needed to get focused again, find my ambition, my motivation, my passion, whatever you call it. Point is, I’m back now. Rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated, and soon to be relocated: to paraphrase a much cooler man than myself.

Updates are on their way, shouldn’t be long now. But until then, check out some of the fine work of these folks. It’ll be worth your time, I promise.

Fiction:

Several really strong updates at the EMCSA over the last few weeks. First up is the recent (and first) contribution by author Chrystal Wynd. Updated this week with its final chapter, Countermove is the tale of a headstrong erotic-female-wrestling star as she struggles with her selfish nature, destructive past, and seemingly inescapable enslavement at the hands of her greatest foe. If the premise seems kitschy, I assure you the writing is not. Between the fight-drama, the wanton mind control, and the constant erotic heat, Chrystal Wynd has crafted a wonderful and thoroughly engaging story.

Better sit down for this next one: thrall has a new story out this week! One of the finest authors in the scene is back with Queen Bee Becomes a Drone: a ridiculously hot tale of an internet-porn sensation who finds herself really getting into her submissive role during a photo shoot at a seductive and mysterious woman’s home. Thrall gives us a teasing glimpse into her process in the liner notes, and after looking up the two models she mentions, I had a wonderful time imagining what sort of things must have been rolling around in her head as she rendered this latest tale. If you find yourself getting all hot and bothered for mind control, latex, and fetish imagery right out of an Andrew Blake film, then don’t pass this one up.

Though avid readers of the MC Forum may have already seen this one, don’t pass up the chance to read (or re-read) Flibinite’s latest addition to the EMCSA. What’s in a Name? is full of the mind control, bondage, and molten girl-on-girl sex that we’ve all come to love from Jo. Revised and retooled for 2008, check this tale out and then do yourself a favor and do a search for “Flibinite” on either the Garden or the Forum. With Jo’s name in the search field, one has only to click a link to find another great piece of mc-fiction.

Sara Castle made several big contributions to a couple of her best series in recent weeks. Sara cut loose with a new chapter to her wonderful (and way hot) Augmentation, which continues the series’ trend by ping-ponging back into the past and picking up with an earlier adventure of Jill & Saphron: who are joined this time by Allyson and her yummy psychic blades (mmmm). Sara also posted the conclusion to her amazing epic A Touch of Frost. I’m not going to spoil the ending, but as someone who considers themselves a writer, I wish I had a fraction of sara’s imagination for final chapters. A perfect end for one the best tales in her catalog.

Photo-Manips:

Lots of good stuff recently from ooae10, he’s been mentioned before here, but his work is always something I’m on the lookout for. Simple, elegant and the very definition of erotic heat: Check his stuff out.

Anaximanes recently de-lurked and posted some of his fantastic manip work. His stuff reveals a long history with photoshop and a great eye for layout and color. Lots of fx work and some great captions round out a welcome addition to the Collective’s roster. Hoping to see more form him soon.

TeraS put out a fantastic new series last week, based on the Mission: Impossible show. Tera always has a knack for finding the best source images and this update was no exception. Fun, creative, and full of the red-hot-flavor, that is the signature style of our resident Queen Succubi. Happy birthday devil woman.

That’s all folks. Check out these artists and authors and please, if you like their work, take a moment to drop them an email and let them know. When people don’t feel appreciated then end up on reality tv. Don’t let that happen to someone you love.

I’m out.

Pick O’ the Week | April ’08 #1

April 8, 2008
Dunlop Medium Tortex

I love updates.

Its like playing the lottery. The anticipation as your never-fast-enough internet connection renders your favorite web page, isn’t far removed from furiously scratching at those small tickets with your lucky penny. The code solidifies, coalesces, and a moment later, if you’re lucky, its a winning ticket. A (dare I say it) plethora of new mc hotness to be downloaded and ogled.

Unless it happens to be this week’s update.

In which case its more like waking up to find a news crew on your lawn asking for your reaction to being your home state’s single wealthiest individual after you bought that single powerball ticket on a lark. This week’s update at the EMCSA is like that…except you still have to show up for work tomorrow. Analogy aside, this week’s update at the EMCSA is pretty much jackpot city. Behold my favs:

sara castle, this week, delivered on her solemn promise to me (actually the word she used was probably, but to a rabid fan like myself its pretty much the same thing) for a followup to her molten-hot Augmentation. This prequel installment winds the clock back to Jill and Saphron’s first assignment together and yields interesting contrast for the more developed relationship seen in the series’ first chapter. Oh…and its smokin’ hot. That too. Sara has the most devious imagination as evidenced by her creative (and by creative I mean smokin’ hot) use of Allyson’s psychic blades against “poor” Jill. Wondering what kind of oh-so-naughty mind control deviance one can get up to with a pair of psychic blades? Quench your curiosity and go find out. This one isn’t to be missed.

For the second time in as many months, I find myself in the enviable position of relaying to you the glorious event that is a new trilby else story. Taker is a whopping five-part opus full some of the most deviant stuff I’ve read in a good long while. Though its a bit like saying the sky is blue, its worth pointing out that trilby is a master of what I refer to has ‘headspace mc’. Witnessing the seduction, struggle, and inevitable enslavement of his characters from within their own thoughts reveals the depths of his tradecraft. Trilby’s ability to dramatize that internal struggle, to portray the waveforms as a character struggles against control, against themselves wanting that control is astounding. This tale is somewhat reminiscent of trilby’s earlier effort Inhuman, as is its particular flavor of deus ex machina. I, for one, welcome revisiting this material: its fertile ground indeed, and worth exploring again.

See you next week.

Pick O’ the Week | March ’08 # 1

March 12, 2008
Pick of the week: Dunlop Medium Jazz

Whoever said procrastination wouldn’t accomplish anything is probably dead…and they’re also wrong…so double whammy there. Anyway, I’m so glad I put off doing this post until tonight, as I’ve found some really great stuff to talk about, just in that last couple of days. Let’s do manips first:

Photo-Manips:

Happily, I just discovered the work of Nihility. While her gallery is relatively small (she just delurked and started posting last week) it shows great promise. Her work displays a healthy command of photoshop for both FX and compositing, but moreover she has a great sense of design as well. Her glowing text is enticing, dramatic and (even better) completely legible (I have an issue with hard-to-read text: there are pills but I lost them kay?). Her caption (just one as of now) is a great bit of storytelling: fleshing out the scene while still letting the reader’s imagination wander around what’s come before and what comes next. Even the “Nihility”-stamp on her pics and her forum signature belie great design sensibilities at work. All signs points to a great new manip talent. I hope you’ll join me in keeping an eye on her work.

Tera S is a good friend and as such its no surprise that I follow her work. If you dig into her gallery, you’ll discover that Tera’s manips are uniquely her own. Whether playful and humorous or dramatic and darkly erotic, the one constant is Tera’s fearless sense of exploration. Such is the nature of the Succubi. Her most recent (as of this writing) piece really got my attention for its simple, elegant, and erotic perfection. Encounters 4 – Attention is, in my mind, what manipping is all about: chic, dramatic, and sexy. I’ve always said that great manips, start with great source images: from now on, I’m just going to link to this picture. Laurus my friend.

Fiction:

Desmond is (apparently) a new author who popped up at the EMCSA this week with his very first offering. The Challenge is an earnest story of dominance, submission, and maybe even love. As a matter of fact there’s scarcely a reference to sex in the whole piece. This story is as unique and pure an expression of mind-control fetishism as you’re likely to find. Don’t let that lead you to believe there’s nothing sexy about this tale however. If mind control (in and of itself) is your kink and if you happen to have an interest in dominance and submission, you’ll find plenty here to get worked up over. And if you think you feel the author winking at you from behind the text, that’s because he probably is. As I read, I kept picking up on things that seemed to be references to other things, maybe even in-jokes: after that Aha-moment at the end, I’m all but convinced of it. I hope we’ll see some more of this author’s work soon.

I cannot tell you how completely thrilled I am to be writing this sentence: trilby else posted a new story this week! Oh man did that feel good. Legacy is everything you’d expect from a master of the medium like trilby. He is so ridiculously good at building anticipation and expectation in the reader. His ability to use tension to further the eroticism of his stories seems as effortless as it is devastatingly effective. And, like all his work, its so blisteringly, molten-hot it will melt your eyes to read. Tribly has been an enormous influence on me (and many others): this story is just the latest reason why. And speaking of stories, what are you still doing here? Go…read it now. Take ice, for your poor melting eyes.

See you all next time.

Orientation: Screen – full res and HQ: now online.

February 28, 2008
Oreintation: Screen

As I was commenting to a good friend recently: I suck at predicting what people are going to react to where my manip work is concerned. Often the things that I go for personally don’t elicit much of a reaction at all but the manip I least expect turns out to be the big hit of that update. Which is fine with me, I decry no person their fetish or flavor thereof.

The single biggest surprise for me, in this regard, was the reaction to my video manip Orientation. When I originally posted it to the Hypnopics Collective, I was very surprised when, almost immediately, several people let me know that they’d really like to have a copy of the subliminal training film that the main character is watching. This was something I’d never even considered making available. For me, the whole thing was about the story surrounding this woman and her enslavement. I thought a video of just the subliminals wouldn’t make sense outside the context of someone watching it. But I figured what the hell. I created a video of the subliminal material and sent it out into the world, doubtful (but hopeful) it would find its way.

Like I said, I suck at these things.

In the months that followed, I received more email regarding Orientation: Screen than the original from whence it came. Why? Who knows. People like what they like. Simple as that as far as I’m concerned. I’m just happy that they’re happy.

To that end, I thought it was high time I served up a high-qualiy version to go along with its progenitor. Prior to now, this was only available on bittorrent and a few file sharing sites. It does differ slightly from the subliminals you’ll see in the version of Orientation that’s on the site today, as it was taken from an early work-in-progress version.

Lastly, for all those who’ve taken the time to send an email or drop a pm letting me know you dig it, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Click here to watch Orientation: Screen.

Pick O’ the Week | February ’08 #2

February 25, 2008
tortex tri pick

Greetings and salutations. This time around I’d like to highlight a couple of authors who have been contributing for some time, but whose work I only recently discovered. One of my favorite past times is perusing through reader’s picks on the EMCSA and the MC Forum (and as of late the Garden), looking for new authors to read. I liken it to those guys with the metal detectors roaming through the forest looking for buried jewelry to give their sweethearts. Except finding mc pay-dirt is infinitely more rewarding and less…what’s the word? Stupid.

And so:

zorkmeister recently posted his fourth story Loveblind to the EMCSA, though his earliest dates back to 2004. I hardly know were to begin with him. He and I share an identical list of authors who’ve influenced and inspired us. He’s one of a handful of authors that I can point to and say if I were to ever pen a tale, I’d want it to be like that. His stories are dramatic, tense, and so very, very human. And I love that if you tear his work down to its most basic parts, its really all about relationships. He’s able to maintain very human drama while weaving some of the most blazingly hot erotica to be found anywhere. Of course he shares my predilection for brainwashing chairs, so I may be a little biased.

Flibinite or Jo to those who know her from the Garden and MC Forum was until recently a stranger to me. I stumbled onto her terrific story A Gift Beyond Imagining through an old post from the MC Forum. After finishing that, I just couldn’t believe I had never seen her stuff before, given her incredible talent. In addition to the eleven stories on the EMCSA she’s got a huge catalog of stuff posted to the MC Forum and the Garden of MC. Here’s a list of a bunch of her stuff from the MC Forum. And I’ll play favorites again and recommend this excellent series she did called Dangerous Duo. Its a Justice League Unlimited fanfic concerning the bondage and mental enslavement of all your favorite female JL members. Its fantastic, hot, and best of all true to the source material. If you’re a fan of the show (as I am) you’ll really appreciate how true-to-life her characters are. Its not to be missed. And face it, you know you want to find out about all the erotic possibilities of Wonder Woman’s magic lasso.

I’m out, I’ll see you all next time. Thanks for your listenership.

Pick of the Week | February ’08 #1

February 9, 2008
Pick of the Week

Welcome back everyone! I hope the week finds you all well. If you’ve got some mc site-seeing on the agenda this weekend, then let me recommend checking out some of these exotic locales:

Photo-manips:
Orpheus_sail has been posting to The Collective for a little over two weeks and already his work is showing great promise. Dramatic images, inventive writing, and strong technical polish leave orpheus a manip talent to keep your eye on.

Jord is no stranger to anyone who follows the Photo-manip scene. His (well earned) reputation precedes him in many online circles. His art is inventive, edgy, sometimes humorous, and always his own. You can tell by a thumbnail that you’re looking a Jord manip. His astounding technical polish and fearless sense of exploration are the hallmarks of one of the finest manip artists around. For those squick fans among us, his gallery at the Galaxy of Terror is not to be missed.

Both orpheus_sail and Jord have new work posted this week.

That’s it for this time. Remember, if you enjoy these artists’ work, let them know! Leave them some comments or drop them an email. See you next week.

More Bigger Faster Better

February 5, 2008
updates

Just finished a major maintenance update. Spent today rebuilding the site structure and making some tweaks behind the scenes. Things should be easier to get to now, as I’ve eliminated several redundant layers of folder structure. Be aware you may need to update your bookmarks.

…And we’re back.

February 4, 2008
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For everybody who’s been unsuccessfully trying to access the photo gallery and videos: sorry for the down time. A little maintenance update last night created some problems, but everything is back up and working now. Thank you to everyone who took the time to drop me a line about the outage, I owe you one. Discreet packages filled with illegal mind-control technology are on their way to you now, with my compliments.

-Callidus

Pick of the Week

January 31, 2008
weekly pick

Well as January is nearly gone and I promised myself I’d do better at keeping up with the Blog this year, I figure its time for an update. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now is a weekly update on my favorite things in the mc community. Just whatever caught my eye during the week from an artist, author or website. This week, I’ve got several since really I’m pulling stuff from the whole month of January. Sue me, they’re my rules to break. One quick note, I do try and track down an author’s/artist’s gender before I talk about them, but not everyone is on the forums and even then not everyone discloses that info. Bottom line, if I’ve got it wrong, please let me know so I can correct myself, or at the least just pretend I’m using the editorial hers/his. Anyhoo:

Fiction:
This past week, ghosthostblue added an eleventh chapter to The Art of Following. While I don’t normally go for the MD stuff, this series has been exceptional on every level. The writing is excellent, the protagonists’ struggle with the power he wields over his several hypno-playthings is handled with uncommon honesty, and every chapter has its share of some seriously scintillating mind-control sex (three times fast). While the emphasis on the act of sex itself as opposed to the eroticism of mind control is a bit of a departure from my usual haunts, its been a welcome change of pace. Ghosthostblue strikes an excellent balance between these two qualities, all while weaving a haunting tale of one man’s struggle with his own nature.

Last week, sara castle, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors, posted the final two chapters to her excellent series: Sluthack. Like many of her stories, Sluthack is set in a near-future cyberpunk/tech fantasy world. Think old-school Shadowrun (for all my fellow gen-x’ers). Lies, deception, and hot, hot, hot mc are on the menu as well as some anthropomorph-sex and sara’s superb prose. She’s amassed quite a catalog over the last year or so, all of it worth checking out.

Manips:
Ooae10 updated over the weekend with five new manip offerings. His gallery is noteworthy for his excellent captions and healthy appetite for voluptuous women. Most of his images feature models wearing the classic “trance-face” and an added hypno-bauble, usually a pocket watch, crystal, or locket, dangling before their pretty (and sleepy) eyes. His work is some of the best and most pure in terms of its expression of the mc fetish, recalling the heady days of privatepages.com and the work of William Lee.

Paladin has been posting for two years, though sadly I only recently discovered his work. His gallery is relatively small (just under thirty images as of this writing) but filled with super-hot writing and creativity running in all directions. I love the different ways he approaches his text. Just a glance at his gallery finds speech balloons, traditional captions, and almost subliminal type; all at home in his work. His latest posting is a three part series, utilizing comic-style panels, and a picture set I happen to have saved myself; filed away for some rainy day manipping. No need to do it now though: it wouldn’t be nearly as good as what Paladin’s done with them.

So there you have it: the Weekly Picks. Go check em out, leave some comments, email the authors, etc. And leave some comments here too, let’s hear what you think. Hope you’ve enjoyed (or at least had your horizons broadened a little).

Until next time.