Blue Skies Ahead

A funny thing has happened over the last week. There has been a flood of people – including a lot of sex workers – to the Bluesky platform. Just a few posts ago I was fretting over my usage of Twitter. Now it seems my problem might be solved. The vast majority of people I follow there are all actively migrating to the new, cooler place to be.

There have been attempts to replace Twitter in the past of course. Switter and Mastodon never really caught on. Threads got users but is incredibly unfriendly to adult content. The combination of Musk wrecking Twitter and Bluesky creating a very close equivalent seems like it might actually overcome the tricky network effects of moving people between platforms. It even got the menswear guy.

One tip for new users: If you don’t like the app, then use the web interface. The app on the iPad is terrible – just a port of the phone version with a tiny viewport – but the web version works great.

If you’re creating a new account and looking for people to follow there are a ton of starter guides floating around. For example, here, here, here and here. You can also just go look at who others follow. My profile is here and as you might expect, there’s a lot of kinky people in my follow list. Also, as Miss Pearl points out, it’s a great opportunity to find new people to follow.

I’m sure it’ll have a bunch of teething issues and technical glitches given the flood of new users. It’s a small company and there will be growing pains. However, I’d rather have a vibrant and adult friendly community with the odd glitch than the right wing cesspool that Musk seems determined to create.

Here’s some sexy media content from Bluesky. Specifically, the account of Goddess Ivy Harte, as posted here.

Vacation

I’m taking a vacation over the next week. Hitting up some good restaurants and getting hit by a wonderful domme.

Normally, at this point, I’d say something about my posting being potentially more erratic than usual. However, given that posting is already pretty erratic these days, I doubt it’ll affect the blog. Getting away from home and work might even give me a bit more time to write. I’ll at least have a session or two to report on. Assuming I can avoid any of the seasonal bugs that are floating around that is.

While I go off to pack my case and figure out what gadgets go with what USB cords, I’ll leave you with this from Servitor. Hopefully, I’ll not oversleep and find myself in similar trouble.

The Twitter Dilemma

Well that fucking sucked. A truly miserable election outcome. Competent women are out and chaotic lunatics in. After living in the US almost 25 years I’m now seriously wondering if it’s time to head back to the UK.

In the meantime I have a Twitter dilemma to consider. I dislike Musk almost as much as his new political friends. And browsing social media is definitely not good for my mental health. However, Twitter is the one mainline social media site that allows adult content and that sex workers can still use. I get a lot of blog content from it and there are lots of great dommes still tweeting. So by following them and staying on Twitter, am I supporting sex workers or supporting Musk?

Here’s a nice example of the quality content that can still be found on Twitter. It’s not all racists, spambots and Trump fans. This was posted here by the Lady Lux. She’s a Dutch pro-domme whose professional site can found here. I’m sure a lot of us could use a hug in bondage now.

Big Day

It’s a big day in America. A presidential election. We’re faced with a choice between an intelligent, competent woman and a sociopathic grifter man. In any sane world it’d be a slam dunk, but that’s apparently not the world we’re living in. I’m hopefully we’ll get our first woman president, but I was hopefully in 2016, and look how that turned out. Fortunately, Kamala is a much better politician and campaigner than Hillary ever was.

I’ve already voted using Washington State’s sensible and well run postal voting system. Of course, thanks to the wacky electoral system, my vote doesn’t really make much difference. If you are in a swing state and voting for Kama, then please do so. If you’re voting for him, then I’ve absolutely no idea what you’re doing on this blog.

Nasty Nazis

The Jewish magazine Forward has an article on Kink and Nazi roleplay. It’s a general discussion on the topic rather than putting forward a specific opinion, but interesting given the source.

I’m always a little torn on the topic. WWII has now been the subject of countless comedies, sitcoms and action movies. Alongside serious treatments like The Zone of Interest you have sitcoms like ‘Allo ‘Allo, featuring slapstick, double entendre and lots of national stereotypes. The picture below is two characters from that show – Gestapo leader Herr Flick and his sexy assistant Helga. Readers of my age may look back fondly on some of Helga’s appearances.

When a prime time BBC show from the 80’s is using Nazis as a source of light entertainment, it’s hard for me to get upset about kinksters using them to get off. At the same time, it does seem all a bit tasteless. There are plenty of severe military outfits you can combine with interrogation scenes to get a very similar dynamic, without actually having to drag real Nazi paraphernalia into it. Taboo power imbalances are fun, but surely one can kink on the concept and idea rather than specific historical reenactments.

Sleep

Apologies for somewhat slow pace of posting recently. I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. Not sure if that’s due to work stress, election stress or simply age. In an effort to improve matters I’ve been trying to cut down on late night screen time, which is typically when I write posts.

Maybe a relaxing vacation is called for. Or possibly a very tight leather sleep sack with lots of straps. This example looks suitably relaxing, although it might be tricky to get up to pee in the night with all those locks.

This is from Elise Grave’s Bondage Liberation site. I believe that’s Elise in the center and Troy Orleans lurking off to the side.

Problematic Pegging

Two interesting pegging images here to compare. I stumbled across the second one while trying to track down the artist for the first. I liked the playfulness of the first image and I’m always a fan of showing dommes having fun. Despite that, something did feel very slightly off about it. Wasn’t sure what.

The second image looks to come from the same source, but is clearly AI. The table legs don’t make any sense, there’s a weird corner to the table and he appears to have 6 toes. So rather than an artist I guess I should have been looking for a prompt creator and a really big data center.

I often track down unidentified artwork by spotting different identified works that are from the same creator. Interesting that the same approach can be taken for AI.

Monsieur Hire

Today’s post is a deep cut, triggered by reading of the death of the French actor Michel Blanc. He had a long career as a French writer, actor and director, but wasn’t well known outside that country. I only know him from the lead role in the 1989 movie that titles this post – Monsieur Hire.

He plays a lonely, middle aged man who spies on his young attractive neighbor (Sandrine Bonnaire). She catches him in the act but, rather than be angry, she is intrigued and becomes friendly with him. Matters are complicated by her boyfriend – a violent petty criminal – and an unsolved murder in their building.

I wouldn’t say it’s a femdom movie per se. There’s no explicit domination or kink. But I think it would appeal to the femdom fan. While he is clearly infatuated with her, it’s less clear what her motivations are and how she really feels about him. The movie turns around that ambiguity.

It looks like it’s available for rent/purchase via a few different stream services (e.g. Prime and Apple TV). Worth a watch if you like independent films.