Unnatural act? Gen of Society of Genitorture, topping the LA Kink Ball bill
Keeping up a blog — even a mere weekly one — when you’re also trying to launch an entire webzine is, as I discovered in February, easier said than done. So my apologies to everyone who has dropped in on FetishDayz over the last month or so to discover no new entries since my preview of mid-February’s Los Angeles Kink Ball Weekend.
There were just not enough hours in the day, in the run-up to the launch of The Fetishistas at the LAKBW, to do anything except work on the ’zine’ s debut. And after that event, my energies were inevitably focused on creating the party reportage for the new site that was a natural consequence of tying the ’zine’s launch in with the LA weekend. Not to mention catching up on all the other, ongoing editorial work that would otherwise have been done in the period when I was away. So this has been my first chance to return to blogging — but hopefully it’ll be the last time there’s such a large gap between pieces. It’s not like there’s not plenty to write about!
Anyway, the launch of The Fetishistas looks like it can be counted a success, even though what went online on February 16 was, in the end, only a taste of what a full monthly edition of the site will eventually look like. The fact that we went live with as much content as we did, looking how it was supposed to look, is a testament to the dedication of my two partners in grime, editorial associate and graphic designer Jan FetishClubPix, and webmaster Martin Pelzer.
In order for the site to launch as planned at Slave2Fashion, the Friday night opening party of the LA Kink Ball Weekend, Jan in the UK and Martin in Berlin both had to work right through their respective Friday nights. When I finally turned off my laptop at 10pm in LA on the night of the launch party, they were shutting down their computers at what for them was breakfast time the next day. Respect is therefore due to them in no small quantity.
Above, L-R: Slave2Fashion MC RubberDoll; House of Harlot’s star performer Jewell Marceau; one of Pretty Pervy’s scary alien bugs; Jolie Vaughn walks Torture Garden
Slave2Fashion had been planned as a dresscode event with the primary focus on networking, which tied in very nicely with its rôle as a media launch party. The fashion aspect was reflected both in the efforts the well-turned-out audience made to meet the party’s strict dresscode (this not being something LA audiences are accustomed to), and in the onstage fashion shows which featured Germany’s Tatjana Warnecke and three UK latex labels — House of Harlot, Pretty Pervy and Torture Garden Clothing.
MC’d by RubberDoll, S2F was undoubtedly successful in bringing a lot of the West Coast’s fetish fashion and media people together under one roof, with an impressive complement of top fetish photographers (see below) turning up to check out all the modelling talent the party attracted, both onstage and off. 
Photographers’ gallery, above, L-R: Michael Helms with fashion show co-ordinator and Fetishistas columnist Marina St Mark; Helms’ buddy Perry Gallagher on production photography duties; Christine Kessler with Howard Vacbed; Michael Diamond of ErosArtist.com and friends
Photographers’ gallery, below, L-R: Taboo’s Gerry Koehler is attacked by Talia Monet; Steve Diet Goedde (left) and Jody Cortes lean towards Imp of Satan’s Rose Algren; New LA resident Nadya Lev (left) with Toronto’s Black Widow
It was great to see out-of-towners so well represented here. There was a whole enclave from Seattle, including my favourite kinky catsuit creator Rose Algren (Imp of Satan), while Portland was represented as only Betka Schpitz can represent it. I was delighted, too, that I finally got to meet Toronto’s Black Widow, who some years ago sent such hot pictures of herself to me at Skin Two that I was obliged to create a completely new section in the magazine just so I could publish them. The section was called Model Card, which quickly became one of the most sought-after spots in the mag. (Sad to say, it no longer has a place in that publication.)
Another thing that gave me quite a buzz, as a confirmed networking addict these days, was to meet in the flesh a substantial number of people who had friended me through MySpace or Model Mayhem. People who use these sites to build up a more or less random network of ‘friends’ around the world may never meet more than a tiny percentage of them. But if you use these sites for something as focused as fetish networking, then every time you go to a fetish event outside your usual locale, you have a fair chance of connecting with some of your new virtual pals in the real world. Which makes it all seem strangely worthwhile.
Masque moments, L-R: Arachnia Webb; Betka Schpitz; RubberDoll and Anastasia Pierce; Maxine and Athena Fatale
Quite a few people whom I recognised, but couldn’t always think from where, came up and introduced themselves as recent MS or MM friends, and it was great to get to know some of them, such as bondage model Arachnia Webb and Master Liam, better during the course of the weekend. I’d first bumped into these two at Saturday’s Masque dinner, where Arachnia would find herself invited, with rope expert Charly B, to stand in for the absent Maria Shadoes at Sunday’s Bondage Brunch. There were some great performances at Masque by the likes of Athena Fatale and Maxine, though it has to be said that the night belonged to RubberDoll, whose second show, featuring Anastasia Pierce, blew fuses literally as well as metaphorically.
Socialising at events like this also produces many new MySpace friend requests, and in the wake of the weekend, I’m pleased to have added to my circle of cyber-chums the likes of V and Nikki, a couple of fun girls who shared my Masque table; and Angelique, a proper stocking-wearing miss with great 1940s style whom I met at Sunday’s Kink Ball.
If Masque belonged to RubberDoll, then the Kink Ball itself belonged to the legendary Gen, whose Society of Genitorture show predictably transgressed just about every guideline that LA venue managements could imagine laying down for live performances. Whether by coincidence or as a direct consequence, the party finished a good hour before it was scheduled to, leaving some of the billed entertainment unsampled by me. Although it has to be said that much of Kink Ball’s spectacle, such as that provided by dommes-at-play Mya and VonLivid, was of the unscheduled variety anyway (and not unsampled by me).
Kink Ball kinkery, L-R: Angelique has a quiet nylon moment; Gen and her girls givin’ it large; LA discovers that Seattle is not wearing any drawers; Mya and VonLivid provide their own floor show
Up until this point, I’d been staying at Kink Ball promoter Robert Fluty’s impressive downtown studio, but after the craziness of the weekend, I needed a quiet place to work on my report. So I decamped for my last few days to the house my good friend Veronica shares with her man Joseph overlooking Coldwater Canyon, which is a haven of tranquility even when Joseph is recording music in his studio above the guest bedroom.
Apart from a brief shopping trip to Glendale Galleria that gave me a chance to hook up for dinner with my pal Perry Gallagher, and a scouting trip with Veronica to a bisexual fetish bar (don’t ask), I hardly saw the outside world again until the following Friday. It was my last night in LA and the redoubtable Sonny Black had taken it upon himself to organised a perv dinner at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. The venue had been carefully chosen to give Hollywood — the more usual location for such gatherings — a wide berth, because this was Oscars weekend, which meant all around Hollywood the roads would be gridlocked.
The Italian restaurant Sonny picked had told him that it had recently lost its liquor licence, so everyone had to take their own booze. Then when we got there, we learned that the restaurant had miraculously regained its licence in the two days since the BYOB advice. So those of us who ended up being an hour late because we’d been searching for somewhere to buy booze in Beverly Hills were not perhaps in the best of moods at this point. However, the food and the ambience soon made up for it, and of the 30-plus diners in our party, a good few accepted the invitation to end the evening with a drink or three at Miss Kitty’s, where the genial Christos and his cohorts were on good form.
By the time I boarded my Virgin flight back to London the next evening, I felt that I’d barely scraped the surface of Los Angeles on this visit. My ten-day stay had just flown by, leaving me with insufficient time for some of my closest West Coast pals. On the upside, however, some interesting new friendships were started… and there was the small matter of launching a new fetish webzine too. So, all in all, not an entirely fruitless trip!
Above, L-R: Last supper with Sonny, Veronica and Joseph; a bit of cheek from our first Fetishistas Style File subject, Jolie Vaughn; Marina bends my ear about her next Fetishistas column
A full report on all the Los Angeles Kink Ball Weekend parties, complete with extensive photo galleries, can be found at www.thefetishistas.com. Use the menus and go to Events > Reports > LA Kink Ball or just click directly on the second link below. You can also use the menus to find all the site content not displayed in the site’s current Front Page trailers.
Fetish webzine: www.thefetishistas.com
Full LA Kink Ball Weekend photo report
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