I should start by saying that I use the term ‘nawashi’ in its broadest sense of ‘one who works with rope’, rather than through any delusions of the pinnacles of tying. This month has been full the of trials and tribulations of what is never going to be a 9-5 job, thank God (The Flying Spaghetti Monster, that is). I seem to have been plagued with Gremlins in everything technical: the edit PC died, my work PC blew a PSU and hub, my kit lens on the camera won’t auto-focus and the car is ‘twerking’ when I brake to the great mystification of my local garage. The good news is that I have an excuse to upgrade my edit PC, which should be completed this week, and I’ve had the perfect excuse to buy a better and more versatile lens 🙂 As a result of the camera and PC problems, I haven’t been able to upload as much content as usual but, don’t worry, it will be full steam ahead later this week. There are a few videos were already finished before my edit PC shuffled off its mortal coil that just need exporting, so you’ll see some new content very soon.
The past 48 hours or so have been intense as the weekend was spent clearing out my parent’s old home which I had been holiday letting, hence all the out of place items in the Other section of my eBay shop. On Sunday night, we left Devon at around 11pm for a 240m drive (nearly 400km) back to London with a Luton van full of furniture following on. It was well past 5am before we unloaded and now Esinem Towers resembles a bric a brac store more than ever. Fortunately, last week, Mo, Nina and I did a major reorganisation of my rope store by adding three new warehouse shelving racks and transformed it from an obstacle course to something resembling order. This has all gone to pot now, of course, as it has had to swallow a van load of household items 🙁 One step forward, two back.
Of course, being Monday, I still had a pile of trade orders to book out for couriers bright and early so they could go the same day. Then, there was the backlog of emails to wade through that had built up due to having virtually no internet access on the weekend. This was followed by a brief play with the Sigma 17-70mm. The new lens will give me a wider range in both focal length and aperture which will be perfect for performances and sessions. All I need now is material to shoot but as it’s BOUND on Friday, I won’t have to wait long.
Around lunch time, Nina and I had an initial creative meeting to discuss using our talents in a jewellery launch. A few ideas were thrown into the melting pot, so now we are awaiting some feedback to see what direction it will go. The idea is some photos and, to give a different slant, an interview covering the creative process. In fact, the last few days have been quite interesting with an invitation to contribute to a e-book documenting Torture Garden and another fashion shoot. The rest of the day was less glamorous, being spent doing things like wrestling a replacement washing into position, which involved Tetris-like manoeuvring of numerous pieces of furniture which now make up my replica of Steptoe’s yard. We have to reduce the chaos before the influx of house guests which BOUND inevitably brings, as I shudder at the thought of luggage and extra bodies being added to the mix. This house has never reflected a minimalist life-style but now it’s ridiculous. I have never been good at throwing things away. Now, we seem to have at least two of almost everything. It’s time to get brutal before we are engulfed by a tsunami of crap. Hopefully, normal service can be resumed shortly…whatever qualifies for normal in this house.
Still, it’s not all grovelling under kitchen work surfaces to plumb in washing machines. Ayumi is coming on Wednesday so we can try to work out a skeleton for our show on Friday. The next BOUND will be her début as a kinbaku model, although she has performed internationally at a high level as a pole dancer. As you know, I’m not one for rehearsed shows so it will be more a question of assessing her strengths and how to make the best of them. Whether what we do in this ‘rehearsal’ will bear any resemblance to what happens on the night is another question. For me, kinbaku needs spontaneity to be real. It is more about the feeling created than an impeccably performed series of stunts. Although that’s not to say they don’t have their place.
Enough waffling for now. I will be writing an article a little later on intelligent wrap placement. You see that a well placed wrap doesn’t need to be tight to stay in place and how some placements are just asking to be unstable.