TG Bondage Party Friday Night

So tomorrow night is the first of our newly revamped Club Fantasy parties, occurring every third Friday of the month. I’ve been getting quite a few emails and really hope it’ll be a good turnout. If you’re in the SoCal area, come on out:

Club Fantasy
Friday, August 18th
8:00 PM till 12:00 AM

Hollywoodland Studios (Entrance in rear – plenty of free parking)
11300 Hartland St.
(off Tujunga, 1 block north of Vanowen)
North Hollywood, CA 91605

Map: http://tinyurl.com/fnwd7

Admission is only $10 and is for 18 years of age and over.

For questions or more information on attending, please contact Sandra at clubfantasy@tranniesintrouble.com

Can We Borrow Your Manacles?

Yesterday I had the day off so I was able to help out on a little video production that was going on in North Hollywood. A friend told me that the guy making this short zombie film needed some bondage gear as props, and hoping for an interesting experience, I agreed to volunteer a day helping out. This had to be the slowest video shoot in the world. I arrived at 8:45 AM as scheduled, but was told by the Assistant Director – a very nice and able guy – that some problems had come up and they probably wouldn’t start shooting till 1:00 PM. So, okay, I went back home and edited some pictures for my website.

Later in the afternoon I went back and found that things were still running late. An actor was unavailable and someone was dispatched to Whittier to pick him up (a very long drive). At one point it was about 3:20 and I sat there on the set (the crew and actors wandering around, smoking, taking naps on couches) thinking, “Okay, I’ll give it till 4:00 PM and if there’s still no sign of activity, I’ll just leave. Fuck it.”

3:45 came and it was announced, “We’re very close to shooting.” “Damn,” I thought, “I’m stuck here.”

Well, things continued on. A couple actors in elaborate zombie makeup were with the director, working out the scene. Lighting was tweaked, the tripod lowered and raised, the lens on the camera was changed. It was pushing 6:00 PM and they still had not gotten to a single shot for the day – nearly nine hours.

I’ve worked before on TV commercials and the occasional doomed independent film back when I lived in Colorado, but this was a record for me for the amount of time to get something – anything – shot. Memories of those times came back and I remembered why I hated working on film crews. There’s endless waiting and hanging out, and I’ve never felt comfortable making chit chat with people I’ve just met. It’s like a situation designed for my social anxiety to come rushing out.

Finally when the camera did roll, the director was struck by how cool the actors feet looked walking into frame. So it was decided: they would shoot close ups of feet.

Okay, the director is actually a nice guy, whom I’d met a couple weeks before – a young film guy looking to get into the Hollywood scene – but he just seemed in way over his head. (And I sure hope he doesn’t read my blog.)

I was finally able to leave after 10:00 PM and I signed out some handcuffs and leg shackles for the next day’s shoot and let them know I was “unavailable” to return. I hope I get my stuff back Friday.

Viagra, Cialis, Online Gambling!!!

Man, the blog spammers have been really busy. Every couple days I have to check out the list of “comments” waiting to be approved, usually running well over 100 entries and they’re all spam. (They get flagged only if they contain more than three links.)

I’m reminded of the Russian spammer who was found bludgeoned to death last year in his apartment. While I would never condone murder, in this case I do understand it. One Russian media outlet called it, “An Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem.”

Club Fantasy

I’ve been bad at updating the blog the last few days, but am glad to finally have some information to post on the new Club Fantasy, TG Bondage party, scheduled for Friday the 18th. It’ll be a once a month event in North Hollywood and I’m hoping we can get off to a bang next week. If you’re in the area, come on out!

By the way, it’s for a good cause, with proceeds going to Threshold. I don’t make a dime off of it.

So here it is, reposted from the Threshold Yahoo Group:

Club Fantasy
In an effort to reach out to other lifestyles and communities, Trannies In Trouble and Threshold are proud to present the newly reconfigured Club Fantasy, a monthly TG Bondage Party! It’ll be held every third Friday of the month from 8 PM to 12 AM (this month it’s Friday, August 18th).

Although Club Fantasy is a CD/TV/TS/TG Club, it’s open to Everyone! Admirers and Friends are highly encouraged to attend.

There’ll be all kinds of play going on with an added emphasis on Transgender Bondage! If you like to see helpless damsels getting tied up, Sandra from Trannies In Trouble will be bringing lots of rope and is looking forward to doing some serious bondage. So break out your rope, tape, scarves and whatever else you’d like and come on out. Or if you’d prefer to watch and socialize that’s cool too.

Club Fantasy will be held at a fully equipped 4,000 sq. ft, air conditioned, dungeon in North Hollywood, CA., with bondage tables, racks and crosses, the medical room, the chain web, and the huge throne in the purple room, perfect for foot worship and pedicures.

Never dressed? Want to? Try this:

Club Fantasy is a place where you can safely and discretely transform yourself into the woman you really are! There is also a secure place to keep your personal items so everything will be there when you get back. And if you dress but would prefer to just attend in “guy mode” that’s okay too!

Admission is only $10 and is for 18 years of age and over.

No alcohol or drugs allowed. Sodas, bottled water and snacks will be available all evening as part of your $10 admission.

Hollywoodland Studios (Entrance in rear – plenty of free parking)
11300 Hartland St.
(off Tujunga, 1 block north of Vanowen)
North Hollywood, CA 91605

Map: http://tinyurl.com/fnwd7

For questions or more information on attending, please contact Sandra at clubfantasy@tranniesintrouble.com

Speaking of Air Travel

One odd thing I noticed on my Delta Airlines flight is that they have several video monitors all throughout the plane. And during take-off and landing they have this rather crude computer animation of a plane, well, taking off and then later, of course, landing. My question is: Why? Are the folks at Delta worried that passengers won’t be aware that the plane is barrelling down the runway and lifting into the sky, or that we’ll wonder at the end of the flight, “What the hell was that big bump and those jet engines whining, and, hey, why are we pulling G’s and slowing down?” There’s the real-life liftoff and landing and then the virtual liftoff and landing that you can follow along with on the screen. Maybe I’m over-thinking it, but it just seemed kind of weird.

Out of Town

Well, I was out of town again this last weekend, visiting my parents in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia, where the weather was actually cooler than it had been lately in Southern California.

On the plane trip home they were showing the gender bender comedy, “She’s the Man.” It looked pretty lame, but did have the cute Amanda Bynes dressing up like a guy to play on the soccer team at her boarding school. It was apparently based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Thankfully the star of the movie is twenty years old, but she looks so young that I still feel like a total perv looking at her pictures.

Last Week’s Webcam

I finally got around to these pictures from last Wednesday’s webcam session with Bettie Cho. I have much more of a sadistic side than I ever realized and playing with a masochist like Bettie makes me even worse. I love doing layers when applying a gag, as you can see here, building it up to the point where the subject starts to really worry about her situation. That feeling of maybe being in over one’s head can be such a rush.



Fun Rope Bondage Workshop

It’s been a busy few days here, and the monthly rope bondage workshop was just this afternoon. I had a really nice time with it. Last month I felt like my energy was off, but this one seemed to go pretty well and there was a lot of tying going on during the hands-on session.

Afterwards a bunch of us went to Twain’s again for dinner. It was equally nice but their air conditioner is really weak, and in the San Fernando Valley, AC is a must. (I was reading about temperatures of 119 yesterday in nearby Woodland Hills – freaky).

I usually dress when I do the workshop – just casual, jeans and a tight top – and often go out for dinner afterwards. I always notice the busboy there giving me the eye when I go, and it’s the same guy every time. I’m always tempted to nicely say, “I see you’re curious. Would you like to ask me any questions?”

Rope Bondage Workshop for July

It’s time again for the monthly bondage workshop in North Hollywood. I’m looking forward to it and hoping the weather doesn’t melt me walking from the car to the building carrying a big bag of rope. Stop by and say hi, and do some tying or get tied up.

Rope Bondage Workshop at HollywoodLand Studios

Sunday July 23, 2006
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Hollywoodland Studios
11300 Hartland St.
North Hollywood, CA 91605

http://tinyurl.com/fnwd7

Notes:
Open to all interested members of the BDSM Community. Join Sandra to
learn the basics as well as some new tricks! $5 for Threshold
members and affiliates, $10 for non members, proceeds going
to Threshold.

It’s Hot Out

I recently saw that Al Gore movie on global warning, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and found it quite disturbing. If that movie is even partly true, we are so screwed as a species. I have a friend who thinks it’s just a political move for Al Gore to score points for a future run at being president. Perhaps. The whole global warming thing is obviously a controversial subject, but I’m a bit of a fatalist so it kind of appeals to me.

Then yesterday as I was flying home I noticed all the fires raging out around San Bernardino. Looking out the window from the plane, I could see huge billows of white and orange smoke. It was both beautiful and creepy. I’ve often thought that the human creature will most likely eventually become extinct, whether it’s next year or thousands or millions of years in the future. Global warming, nuclear annihilation, a stray asteroid, who knows? But extinction happens to so many other species, why would we be spared? Especially since we’re so good at screwing things up.

Current mood: a bit dark.

Weird Return

Well, I’ve been out of town for a week, but am finally back in Los Angeles. I had a great visit back in my hometown of Colorado Springs, and am glad to be back but also a little sad saying goodbye to friends.

But what a weird day it was coming back. I was at the airport this morning going through security and the guy checking IDs “ma’am-ed” me. And I wasn’t even dressed – I was in guy mode! I walked away thinking, “What just happened?” On the one hand it’s kind of cool to be mistaken for a women, but on the other hand, being paranoid, I’m not sure if that’s what it was. I was thinking, “Is this guy just giving me shit?” Perhaps he saw a slightly femmey looking guy and wanted to insult me, similar to calling a guy “fag” or something. Wow, that just got my head all twisted around. I’m probably just being paranoid, but “ma’am” is such an old-fashioned kind of word, with possibly negative connotations – kind of like calling a woman “old bag.” My passport photo does perhaps look a little androgynous, so maybe he really did think I was a woman. I don’t know. I’m probably over-thinking this whole thing.

But later it got even weirder. The flight was fine, and I was walking along the sidewalk, just a few blocks home from the metro station. A guy and two girls, they were probably about 18 or 19, were just ahead of me. I pass them with my carry-on bag in hand and as I’m moving ahead, I hear one of the girls say something to one of her friends and then say the word “faggot.” Again, I have a moment of, “Uh, what’s going on here?” I figured I’d just keep walking and ignore them. Maybe I heard wrong or something. I keep walking and then after a moment I realize the guy has moved up right behind me on my left side, so close that he’s nearly touching, and he seems to be mimicking the way I walk. I stop walking and say, “What do you want?” He mutters something and kind of shrugs and just keeps going. I just stand there in shock as he continues on, followed by the two girls, who each make what seems to be rather hostile eye contact as they pass by.

I was thoroughly rattled by all this. I felt enraged and wanted to see them physically suffer, preferably with me administering the suffering. But I certainly didn’t want to provoke some 19-year-old kid into taking a swing at me. I watched them in shock for a while and then just let them walk off ahead. Fucking weird and a real bummer of a way to come home. Welcome to L.A.

Being Here and Away

With the holiday week here in the States it looks like I’m going to be away from the computer, at least in terms of blogging, for a few days. Everything else will be business as usual more or less, but it’ll probably be a little quiet here on this page for a bit.

Sandra Gibbons talks about what's happening in her world, both bondage related and not