Kink is sometimes called a full-contact sport, what with all the hitting and stuff. So what do you do when you’re kinky and have a medical condition that requires special care? DomSubFriends invites a number of lifestyle BDSM’ers with chronic conditions to discuss the issues they face at a panel discussion this Friday:

When negotiation goes beyond the scene to life and death choices about health care and treatment for cancer, diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and other sucky stuff. Whether you are a Top or bottom, a diagnosis for any illness that affects the way you look at life and do everything is life changing.

Come meet a panel of BDSM friends who are dealing with and living a life that is both challenging and fulfilling—most of the time. Listen to how they deal with lifestyle/BDSM issues as well as day to day concerns. This is not about becoming depressed, this is about becoming empowered to live the best life you can live. Information will include specific considerations for a variety of conditions, as well as treatment and resource options.

Bondage isn’t always about ropes. TES‘s upcoming bondage meeting hosted by their bondage special interest group is pulling in the collective talents of Dov, Lolita, Boymeat, and Jason to provide an opportunity to explore all sorts of bondage toys:

Vet wrap, bondage tape, chains and cuffs, zip ties, pallet wrap and duck tape will all be on hand for experimentation in this evening devoted entirely to alternative media bondage. Lolita, Boymeat, Dov, and Jason will teaching and guiding individuals with specific techniques. No lecture, the meeting will be entirely practice oriented, so bring your chains, locks, wrap, or tape, or come ready to be bound!

The Barnard College Psychology Department is pleased to host the following lecture:

In the heat of the moment: The effects of mood and sexual
excitation/inhibition on sexual interest, arousal, and risk taking.

Erick Janssen, Ph.D.
Director of Education and Research Training
The Kinsey Institute

Interested students, staff and faculty are cordially invited to attend
this lecture.

Location: Sulzberger Tower North (Sulzberger Hall, 17^th floor), Barnard
College (117^th St. and Broadway).

Michele Capozzi’s award-winning documentary, Pornology New York is back by popular demand, taking us on a bitter-sweet tour of New York’s sexual underground. If you, like me, were born in the mid-eighties, this documentary is a must see.

A paean to the New York sexual underground, circa 1970-85, this engrossing documentary brings together four of its most colorful protagonists. Guide to the action is Michele Capozzi, urban explorer and self-titled pornologist, with an up-close introduction to Neville Chambers, founder of the infamous porn-producing Fuck Factory; Lenny Waller, long-time front-man of the meat-packing district’s now-defunct Hellfire Club and renowned pornstar/mistress/shaman, Porsche Lynn – for a look back in time, an assessment of where we are today…and one very wild farewell party.

[…]

“Pornology New York reinvents a time when anybody could go to Plato’s Retreat, the Hellfire, Mindshaft, The Vault, the Anvil, Le Trapeze and even Show World, to indulge in their dirtiest, wildest fantasies and fetishes.”
- Stephanie Sellars, New York Press

Book your tickets at CineKink’s Pioneer Theater web site in advance as last month’s showing was booked out. It’s only $6 for students ($10 full price), and you have to be 18 or older to attend.

September’s Pleasure Salon is dedicated to Sexual Freedom. From the public invitation:

Sexual Freedom is a human right, and our rights are in jeopardy. [...] We’ve decided to dedicate September’s Pleasure Salon to Sexual Freedom, highlighting our desire to build community and create a sex-positive world.

For their general interest meeting this Tuesday, TES invites Mistress Harlequin to give a presentation on (presumably temporary) play piercings.

An exciting meeting on the art of piercing. Please join us as Harlequinn demonstrates and discusses this somewhat edgy form of play. Safety, technique, and a whole lot more will be discussed!

This kind of play is one for which prerequisite knowledge of anatomy, technique, and safety are obvious so if you like the idea of playing with needles, this meeting is one not to be missed.

Our friends at TES are throwing a party at Paddles:

Remember that feeling deep in the pit of your stomach when the weather got cooler, the days a bit shorter and the thought of returning to school loomed large in so many ways…? Well those days are back and the first bell just rang people! Please join your hosts August and Mike for the TES Back To High School Party! Freaks, Geeks, Jocks, Preps, Dead Heads, Goths…. Come as you were or always wanted to be! Enjoy the buffet at the TES “Cafeteria”, Redefine what being bad means when you ‘cut class’ for one of our special events and as always hang out with all the coolest kids in school at what promises to be a memorable and amazing TES party! Welcome back kiddies….

This Friday, DomSubFriends is hosting Mistress Coraline as she presents an intermediate to advanced class on caning.

You’ve learned the rules, now it’s time to get creative. We’ll talk about different kinds of canes, different positions to use, creative targets to hit, and roleplays to incorporate. We’ll also touch on how to make your own rattan canes. And best of all a super hot demo to top it all off.

Mistress Coraline, by the way, is a graduate college kinkster having been the president of NYU’s (unfortunately now defunct) BDSM club, WHAP, for two years. Here’s a 2003 NYU News article about WHAP, in case you’re interested.

Also, regardless of what university your college ID says you go to, don’t forget about Boymeat‘s Caning 101 presentation this Monday at Conversio Virium!

Some of us have a thing for black leather and lace, while some of us enjoy ball gowns and formal teas (and even more of us enjoy all of these things). If these things sound like fun to you, be sure to check out SalonCon:

[W]e embrace the ideals of the Victorian era, but seek to bring them into a modern context. We do not seek to be Victorian era reconstructionsts. We seek to provide a space for artists, thinkers, and dreamers to express themselves as well as to give people a chance to experience things such as a fancy dress ball and a formal tea. These kinds of experiences are still often reserved for people with money and class privileges, so we are also attempting to even out the playing field.

Presale tickets for $20 ($15 for students!) will stop being sold this Friday, September 14^th.

Special thanks to Nicholas of Nicholas Leather for informing us about this event!

Over at TES’s Novice Group, a long-running presentation called The Anatomy of a Scene is being presented.

Join us for one of our most popular meetings, a live BDSM scene with full analysis and commentary. We are excited to have the very beautiful & talented (and pretty darn evil), Pro & lifestyle Domme, Mistress Trish with us, as well as everyone’s favorite masochistic board member, Thrash. The meeting will start with our guests telling us a little about themselves and answering a few questions. When the scene itself starts, they will do their best to juggle “headspace” with “being coherent” and let you know what they are thinking while they are actually playing. Finally we’ll have an in depth Q&A with them, where they will be answering all of our questions about the scene we just watched. This one should be crowded so come down early!

Of course, it’s always important to keep in mind that what might feel “right” for one person might not feel the same way for somebody else, so I would suggest that this presentation be taken as an opportunity to view an example of a scene rather than be considered a dissection of what a scene “should be like.”

That said, who wouldn’t want to see Mistress Trish and Thrash play together?

DomSubFriends has invited Mistress Didi to present her techniques for wax play. From her presentation description:

There are four segments to Mistress Didi’s MaxWax™ presentation:

1. Basic Anatomy gives a quick overview of the muscles, nerves and types of skin tissue where nerve endings can be manipulated to control the receiver’s sensations.
2. Preparation offers a variety of ways to tantalize and safely prepare the flesh to anticipate and receive hot wax and other sensations. Proper skin care before and after Wax Play is strongly emphasized and the strengthening of the body-mind connection is established.
3. Wax Facts explores the types of wax and candles available to consider temperature, burning quality, ease of use and clean-up.
4. Sensory Enhancement and Prolonging Play combines the skills taught in the workshop with a variety of tools and toys for greater enjoyment of MaxWax™ Techniques for both the giver and the receiver.

Polyamorous-NYC’s September meeting sounds like a really interesting one. Their topic, polyamory and the law, is sure to touch very close to home for a lot of people living alternative sexual lifestyles. From the Polyamorous-NYC calendar:

This month’s topic is Polyamory and the Law: Radical Sexuality, Arcane Politics, and the Activism of your Personal Choices with Diana Adams, Esq. In this historic moment of questioning possibilities for state-sanctioned same-sex relationships, we have an opportunity to also question mandated monogamy, and challenge it legally and socially. In this interactive presentation, Diana Adams, Esq. will discuss the controversial movement for legal and cultural recognition of polyamorous relationships. Learn how to protect your legal rights as a polyamorous partner, parent, or family, and how to make your personal choices have an activist impact and educate your community about positive polyamorous relationships. Diana Adams is a Brooklyn-based attorney with a family law and civil rights practice. She specializes in polyamory, kink, and alternative lifestyle-aware divorce and child custody/visitation litigation, as well as domestic violence victim advocacy. After graduating from Yale and Cornell Law School, she practiced welfare law reform for New York City and worked in legal services for women and families in poverty before starting her own innovative solo law practice. Ms. Adams speaks and writes frequently on feminism, sexuality, and family law, and is actively involved in the New York City polyamory and sex workers rights communities.

GMSMA‘s first meeting of the Fall 2007 season gets started with a (very pleasurable) bang! The meeting is called S/M Orgasm and promises to introduce or reacquaint you to a number of delectable kinky delights.

Are you yearning for bondage? Felt the thud of a flogger? Been wrapped like a mummy? Locked in a chastity device? Get a taste of these and other s/m delectables at our S/M orgasm evening.

The upcoming general interest TES meeting next week is called S&M Through the Ages. This presentation, presented by Brother Leo, may be of particular interest to history buffs but sounds interesting for a number of reasons, least of which is the potential for additional fantasy material. (I know I’ve always wondered what it might have felt like to be a Roman slave….)

The description reads:

TES’s highly acclaimed series returns with a presentation about the Ancient World…the Greeks and Romans, early Christian martyrdom, practices among early monks, worship of the mother Goddess.

If you’ve not yet heard of Dark Odyssey, it’s description is mesmerizing.

Imagine a vacation where you can explore the many facets of sexuality in a private, intimate community of like-minded people. A wholly unique experience which brings together sexuality, spirituality, education, and play in a fun, supportive, non-judgmental, diverse environment where fantasy becomes reality.

[…]

Dark Odyssey is a 4-6 day, all-inclusive, clothing optional Alternative Sexuality retreat for open-minded adults from all walks of life. We gather to explore, learn and play on two hundred very private and secluded acres in Northern Maryland.

However, registration for Dark Odyssey’s Summer Camp is nearing a close so register now if you can make it this season. If not, there’s always next year. :)