Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sorry you didn't get the memo.

This is the content of a Newsletter we wrote for Erotic City. Too bad the style is lost in this post 'cuz it looked pretty cool. Someone who was not invited to participate and who did "not get the memo" is "talkin' trash" about his not being able to indulge his narcissistic desire to do what he wanted to do. Sadly, the entire conversation is happening is a world of which I know very little. Fet Life is NOT something I follow, but a friend alerted me to the drama. So...for what it is worth.If you want a pdf with all the cool format stuff email me.


June 10,11,12 2011
EROTIC CITY
Passionate public play with a purpose.
EROTIC CITY
We’re Doing it Again
Okay Leather folks it is time for us to celebrate our Pride and play for a purpose.
We invite Pride attendees to enter a sensual circus and share the darkly erotic world of the leather community We invite them to experience what they may only imagine.
The goal of this year’s Erotic CIty is to take cube but it will not be long before their attention
the next step. Long gone are the “demos” and “presentations”. NO ONE uses a microphone to tell people what they are watching. We no longer lecture people about activities they are striving to experience. The walls between those who produce the event and those who come to see it have come down.
If you have been invited to participate in Erotic City we are asking you to participate in a whole new way. You are invited to think of whatever it is that you find arousing and think of how you might share that.
As people enter the tent we want them to be overwhelmed. The music will capture and engage them as they move from the familiar to the world we have created. As though they were entering a sensual circus they will see a variety of activities all happening at the same time. They may first be drawn to the rubber vacuum
is drawn to the corner stage on which Avatar Club Los Angeles will be re-creating the hot scenes from their Axiom booklet. Maybe the smell of shaving cream will catch their attention as a hot shaving scene seems to spontaneously begin. Impact play is always a big draw and we expect there to be plenty of opportunities for MEN to play with each other and for WOMEN to do the same.
The tent will be hot and crowded and the participants will be surrounded by a kinky homoerotic environment that stimulate their senses.
If you are interested, please read on for some instructions about how to participate in this year’s Erotic City. Remember the goal is to take the NEXT STEP and make this year even better than those before.
This really SUCKS
Thanks to the guys from Hollywood House, the vacuum cube is a huge draw...too bad you have to get naked to play.
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EROTIC CITY
We’re doing it better
Erotic City has a great reputation. Rather than rest on our laurels, this year we are going to kick it up a notch and do things even better than we have done before. While some activities will be familiar, some will be new and exciting. It is up to you. Don’t miss out on this year’s Erotic City.
The goal is not so much to teach as it is to INVITE....not so much to show but to SHARE.
The chairs are gone and so are the microphones. We no longer do “demos” while our guests sit and watch. Erotic City is not a teaching-learning experience but rather an introduction that we hope will eventually lead to that teaching learning opportunity.
Rather than demonstrations and lectures, we invite you to play surrounded by those who may not be as familiar with the things we do. The hope is that what you do will be erotic, sensual, and INTERESTING. You will need to feel the energy of the crowd around you. As their interest begins to shift, you must adapt. You may choose to make yourself available to talk to the folks who have been watching you. IF APPROPRIATE you may help them experience what they have been watching. You are the link in the next important step of the process. The play in Erotic City is designed to encourage them to seek the further information they might need to be able to explore their interests. You are an ambassador for that process. Rather than lecturing to crowds as they sit in chairs, your
goal is to interact with the people who are interested and seek you out. Your goal is to find those people and interact with them in smaller more intimate groups. You may want to give them information about one of the events or activities of the LALC. You might want to invite them to a club meeting. This is the moment when you can establish a person relationship and make that PRIDE participant feel WELCOME!!!
Everything from the folks who welcome participants through the gates to the interactions in the tent are intended to be fun and positive. NO MORE “You can’t drink in here”. It has been replaced with a positive message that “we invite you to enjoy your drink before you come into the tent”. NO MORE “you have to be 21” but “hey...ya gotta wait till you are 21 and we promise it will be worth it”.
This is PRIDE....it is supposed to be fun. This is LGBT PRIDE. Scenes in Erotic City should reflect that. While we understand the nature of BDSM, it may be tougher for those not so familiar to understand, especially if the players reflect the heteronormative power dynamics.
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Some simple guidelines
As you consider what you want to do in Erotic City, you might want to take a couple of things into account:
SAFETY: The tent is crowded and it IS a tent. That means that 20 foot bullwhips are a little hard to swing safely and that fire play will make the Fire Marshall piss his pants. So you might want to consider the environment in which you are playing. Does that mean you can’t do something?...NOT necessarily. It just means you better be smart. If you really need help with this ask.
AUDIENCE: This is PRIDE. Straight guys flogging women may not be the best scene for our audience. Besides we really want the people playing to interact with the audience...not piss them off.
DONT LOSE THE LIQUOR LICENSE!! If you are not aware of recent community events, I suggest you might want to find out what has happened. The ABC does NOT allow nudity in places that are serving alcohol. CSW has a liquor license for the entire festival. Fuck with that and I guarantee you will go down in history.
THE SHERIFFS ARE OUR FRIENDS Make sure they have water and make sure they have no reason to bust you.
HAVE FUN If you are not having fun, please go home. Hey sometimes it just happens. We all have an off day. The goal is for you to GET more than you GIVE. If that is not working, lets try to fix it.
INSTRUCTIONS
You will need to let us know that you plan to participate. We ask that if you intend to volunteer that you do so for at least 4 hours if you want to skip the entrance fee. During your volunteer shift you might be playing or you might be hosting. Let us know when you would like to participate by emailing EroticCity2011@gmail.com. In your email include a few ideas of what you would like to do in Erotic City.
Impact play is aways fun and popular, can you think of something to kick it up a notch? Is there something you would like to do we haven’t done before? Remember you want to interest your audience. Do it differently. Watching somebody get tied up is like watching flies
mate...it is interesting for about a second. How could you do it differently so that it will be the talk of the event?
The PARADE
If you are planning to be part of the leather contingent during the parade, you are probably planning to come to Erotic City afterwards, This will be a prime time for shifts. If you are not on the volunteer list BEFORE the event, it is almost impossible to add you to it during the event. Remember that the only people who can authorize your entrance as a volunteer will be up to their butts in all kinds of stuff when you try to get them on their cell phones to add you to the list. In other words, it probably ain’t gonna happen.
Send an email to EroticCity2011@gmail.com and let us get you on the damn list.
MR CSW LEATHER
This year the Mr. CSW Leather Contest will take place Saturday Evening in Erotic City. The interviews and challenge will begin earlier in the day. Rather than have a Meet and Greet, the contestants will be invited to participate in some of the Celebrity and VIP events during the PRIDE month.
Those interested in competing in the Mr. CSW contest should talk to Louie Pacheco as early as possible. This will make sure that they get their invitations to the Mayor’s reception and other events to which they will be invited.
Mr CSW Leather 2012 will compete in the LAL contest next year. He will be the first of that title class and will serve his title year before he competes in LAL.
PICTURE IT.....
Somewhere in the crowd is that guy who is desperate to try the kinds of things we may take for granted. He might want to piss on his boyfriend but is too embarrassed to ask. Maybe he wants his boyfriend to tie him up but can’t imagine how to start the conversation. What about the woman who dreams of her partner slipping needles into her skin before they have sex but is sure she is the only one to ever think about it. OUR JOB is to invite people to begin their personal journey. Erotic City may be their first step in that process. We want people to feel like honored guests in our demented kinky little world from the moment that enter our area to when they reluctantly have to leave. We want them to understand that this is an introduction and that if they are interested they may be invited to join our community in other events and activities that are more extensive and perhaps challenging. This is but a taste of what the leather community has to offer...and we are inviting them to sample it.
EVERY interaction must be consistent with our values. We will not YELL at our guests. We will not tell them what to do. Rather we will powerfully and politely invite them into our world and guide them as we enjoy their company. We really want them to feel welcome and to feel as though there is MORE if they are invited to return. We want them to strive for that invitation. You might invite that guy with questions to join you for coffee, or to come to a club meeting. The woman dreaming of needles may be introduced to somebody who can answer her questions. You are an ambassador in search of those who are ready to begin the dark erotic journey.
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DOING IT DIFFERENTLY
Nothing will overwhelm past success faster than doing the same thing over again....
Erotic City provides us with an opportunity to build on success and explore new and creative ideas. Those ideas can be new activities in the Erotic City tent, new vendors, or perhaps more importantly...new ways for us to”do business”.
Are we using new and creative ideas to get the job done? How is it that we are the people who have figured out how to turn medical devices into devious erotic toys and we still conduct committee meetings like we were the damn Presbyterians? We spend hours on Recon but can’t figure out how to use our computers to save a trip to WeHo for another meeting to play our activities in Erotic City?
We use Roberts Rules of Order like we were the freakin’ Rotary and forget that we are the same people who were playing with each other in a dark wear-house last weekend. One of the dangers of this bizarre assimilationism is that we infect our world with the standards and traditions of the hegemonic heterosexual culture from which PRIDE is our best respite and refuge.
No MORE DAMN COMMITTEE MEETINGS
We have been doing this long enough that we can do it differently. We don’t need to meet face to face when we can meet electronically. Email is for all intents and purposes a VERY slow committee meeting. Since only one person can speak at a time, it is a like slow motion conversation. Each email represents a different
The Next Step....
If you are interested in joining us this year, please send us an email at eroticcity2011@gmail.com and let us know what you woud like to do. Remember while somethings are always popular, this is a chance to do it differently than you might have before. Let your nasty mind wander and share it with us.....
person making their point. This year we are going to skip the meetings and get the job done. Small work groups may need to get together but they can report electronically to the rest. We may experiment with electronic
meeting software if needed. If we are having more meetings than we are playing...we are doing it WRONG!!!
Attitude
One of the worst impacts of doing things the same old way is that it sucks the erotic energy out of what we are doing. There is nothing sexy about an agenda or minutes. That lack of erotic energy filters down into the event itself. We start imposing silly rules on our guests. Rather than acting like sexual outlaws we suck the fun out of everything with lectures and demos.
“You can’t drink in here”...IS THAT REALLY HOW WE WANT TO TALK TO OUR GUESTS??? Come on people...we have all heard it. Volunteers who just don’t get it and act like the ushers at a crappy theatre run by mormons. Rather than thinking of ourselves as ambassadors, we start acting like RentaCops No matter how cool your little plastic security officer badge is...the other kids are still laughing at you.
All kinds of things to do....
• Play in Public • Ambassdors to our honored guests • Hang out in the Cigar Lounge and share
your erotic energy • Bootblack • Massage • Sensual Actvities • Art Show
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Having this much fun...HURTS!
Beginning the Journey
We represent a powerful and important element of the GLBT community. When we abdicate our power and act in ways that are inconsistent with our values we do damage.That guy who FINALLY found a place he thought he could take the next step in his journey is turned off and turned away when some body sitting at the gate is NOT behaving as an appropriate representative of our community.
Our job is to make our guests feel valued and welcome. If this is the beginning of their journey how can we help them?
What could be more fun and rewarding than to look back in a few years and remember being there when somebody’s journey began? If you are ready to be a part of that process, volunteering in Erotic City is for you.
EROTIC CITY
June 10,11,12 2011
eroticcity2011@gmail.com