Philosophy in the boudoir

“Reflections of Glamour,” Steven Meisel, for Vogue...

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:10:46 -0400

“Reflections of Glamour,” Steven Meisel, for Vogue Italia. The fur wrap is like one of my own.

Exactly what, where, and what color to lick. (Burberry, Fall...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:27:00 -0400

Exactly what, where, and what color to lick. (Burberry, Fall 2008)

My dear bijou has just given me a sheepskin rug for my salon....

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:43:22 -0400

My dear bijou has just given me a sheepskin rug for my salon. This video has all the right ideas for what to do with it.

opaque san francisco

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:43:00 -0400

opaque san francisco: “In this era of information overload, visual stimulation has reached an all time pinnacle. But imagine, just for an hour or two that you cannot see, that you are abandoning vision in exchange for a new, more stimulating dining experience – this is “Dining in the Dark”.” Exquisite, possibly, and what a marvelous opportunity to try on your new heels under the table. Or mine. The last time I went out in San Francisco with a subject, I left my purse handcuffed to his wrist. I imagine this would work even more effectively where no one could see at all.

A very distinctly mod bit of furniture, Sonny Black’s...

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:34:00 -0400

A very distinctly mod bit of furniture, Sonny Black’s Padded Wall Rack: white leather, to be sure. An Eames chair would be quite at home next to this lovely.

My instrument sends these images (shot somewhat secretly) from...

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:09:00 -0400

My instrument sends these images (shot somewhat secretly) from an installation called “Kursk” (“Silicon, metal, motors, pneumatics, sound”), part of P.S.1’s current show, Arctic Hysteria. Which sounds like a the name of a speciality retreat in a cold place covered in rubber I think I’d like to go on.

Miss Saint's Taxonomy of Servants

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:03:18 -0400

Goodness, are they servants? Playthings? Pets?

As of my most recent resurfacing, I’ve acquired an Instrument and a Femme. They are not slaves. The Instrument has that potential (and no doubt, exhibitionist that he is in part, enjoys to hear me say so in this forum), but we’ll see as that evolves. He’s sent me sweetly tortured updates on his recent chastity in New York. With that heat and all, I had to find a way to keep him sharply focused on me a coast away.

Always, there is my one and true bijou — with whom I’ve got such a natural and empathetic relationship that I can meet her in my jeans and a t-shirt and gossip as girls as we work on decorating my San Francisco Salon. Yes, my roots are here. I wasn’t sure when the year began, but that’s for certain now. (Though my calendar is already dangerously full.)

The fair thing to do, from a pedagogical sense, is to let each of these three weigh in on how I’ve classified them. bijou is so mine that I know her mind already. But the other two? I’ll have to assign an open-ended essay.

(Tiiu Kuik in Numéro)

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:28:57 -0400

(Tiiu Kuik in Numéro)

Quintessentially Escape > Bespoke Experiences

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:27:00 -0400

Quintessentially Escape > Bespoke Experiences: A luxury service custom designing thrill-seeking vacations. A three day excursion with a mistress is not one of them, but then.

Arousals: the scent of a rare book.

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:23:23 -0400

Arousals: the scent of a rare book.

Of Leashes, and Public Surrender

Sat, 17 May 2008 15:58:20 -0400

My mentor M. Cybele has a system of Leashes — short, medium, long — for maintaining communication about what depth of surrender is required of a subject at any given time. This makes for more fluid public play, but it does require some grace to slide from one “Leashed State” to another. Of course they are conceptual. I won’t take you on a leash or lead to Hermes unless we bought it there.

True, the metal ones may look my striking, but this is the only...

Sat, 17 May 2008 15:52:02 -0400

True, the metal ones may look my striking, but this is the only cock cage I personally know can make it past the metal detectors in the US Senate. My darling bijou is being trained for one.

"There is within today’s man a profound intolerance for the sense of humiliation which is..."

Sat, 17 May 2008 15:46:00 -0400

“There is within today’s man a profound intolerance for the sense of humiliation which is demanded every day of our human nature and to which we submit everywhere: we submit in the office and in the street; we submit in the country. Everywhere men feel that human nature has been profoundly humiliated, and what is left of religion finally humiliates him in the face of God who, after all, is merely a hypostasis of work. I do not think one could dream of denying this nostalgia. I imagine that if we are gathered here, whatever diverse elements could be at play in the fact of the presence of everyone in this hall, it is a dominant element which has certainly determined this presence: it is the nostalgia for a life which ceases to be humiliated; it is the nostalgia for a life which ceases to be separated from what lies behind the world. It is not a question of finding behind the world something which dominates it; there is nothing behind the world which dominates man, there is nothing that can humiliate him; behind the world, behind the precise limits where we live, there is only a universe whose bursting open is incomparable, and behind the universe there is nothing.”

- Georges Bataille, “The Absence of Myth, ” from a lecture before Club Maintenant, 24 February 1948

All one should wear in this heat. (You, or I. You choose. With...

Sat, 17 May 2008 15:21:10 -0400

All one should wear in this heat. (You, or I. You choose. With me.)

"First, they would like to see a return to lipstick, which usually costs slightly more than gloss...."

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:55:00 -0400

“First, they would like to see a return to lipstick, which usually costs slightly more than gloss. Second, the companies believe that in down times women will continue to splurge on lip lacquer even as they make do with last season’s dress. But do economists, and not just companies that need to move a lot of lip color, believe that lipstick sales could skyrocket as the economy tanks?”

- Hard Times, but Your Lips Look Great, NYT (via Kottke)

Challenging what it means to be "kept"

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:50:00 -0400

I asked him to give me the illusion that I could live without money. The woman who gave me the idea was kept herself, in the tradition one could expect. Using her looks and ability to seduce with a few dropped words and glances, she was taken care of respectably, leaving her free to pursue an advanced degree, travel as she pleased, invest in socially meaningful work. Sure, she always met me dressed impeccably and in the lounges of very pretty hotels. The champagne would always be a gift.

But would I ever be satisfied as that most conventional sort of mistress?

What would my kept life allow me? To greet the receptionist my salon, to flirt with my aesthetician (I never need to worry about distracting myself from the pain of wax when lain on her table; she’s absorbing all on her own), to be warmly recognized each time for my signature manicure, all these trappings of girlishness that even I feel somewhat indulgent for adopting as routine, to come and go as if money doesn’t exist. And I do. My pet, a sort of combined personal assistant, servant, and confidante has already attended to all the frothy details. So I may. So I don’t have to.

The reason I always come back, or, where I would like to have...

Tue, 06 May 2008 21:58:23 -0400

The reason I always come back, or, where I would like to have pressed a few more men to the window.

Me: This is my first d’Yquem. Him: You still have...

Sat, 03 May 2008 21:46:35 -0400

Me: This is my first d’Yquem.
Him: You still have ‘firsts’ left?
Me: And now you’re one of them.

On where to apply lipstick

Fri, 02 May 2008 21:53:00 -0400

I like for my pets to bear a lipstick mark somewhere, preferably beneath a pair of panties I’ve just offered them. I make my pet draw it on, of course. A little collar of pink encircling where a physical collar cannot.

Divine, bent, silk. I could lounge in these for hours. (Now do I...

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:52:00 -0400

Divine, bent, silk. I could lounge in these for hours. (Now do I want the lingerie, or the arch of her foot?)

(Letters of Marque)