Maybe your libido is active, over active or even under active. Maybe it's fine and healthy or maybe it needs a kick start. Maybe it needs a death knell, and if so, you should really read this.
For anyone reading this, one thing we all share is that we are all human beings. Our bodies and sexuality are all unique. While we may share anatomical parts, those parts come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some folks are short, tall, wide, slim, fluid and graceful, stiff and lack mobility, black, white or a myriad of colors.
We are all sensual beings and should be proud of that fact. Some folks like their sexuality wild, some rough, others loving and teasing. Like the song says, "Anyway you want it, that's the way you need it."
Safe, Sane and Consensual is the only rule.
With this, I give you our gig yesterday at Rochester Erotic Arts Festival. This event has been growing every year since its inception 6 years ago. Harry and I, as Merry Mischief, have performed at this show every other year since it started. We have viewed its growth and progress. And it's been growing in leaps and bounds!
Yesterday was an amazing day! The event takes place annually at the Riverside Radisson Hotel in Rochester. It's a lovely hotel and very pleasing, comfortable and posh. Beautiful chandeliers greet you in the lobby. As you rise in the escalator, you start getting the vibe of the energy that is coming from the folks there.
The event planners of this event, take great care with making sure that there is something for everyone. Workshops and lectures ran the gamut of tame "Intro to Belly Dancing" and "Humor in the Bedroom", to more adventurous and racier lectures on "Polyamory and Mindfulness" and "Chastity Training" to more advanced or intricate subjects of "Coming out of the Sexually Abused Closet," or other lifestyle choice topics of "Bondage," "Predictament Ties" and even "Water Sports."
What I really liked was that if you didn't know about a particular topic, you could just sit in and learn something new! And if you did know about a topic, you could also sit in and listen and learn new things and find other people who were interested in the same subjects.
Harry and I attended several of these workshops in between our musical performance sets of "Songs of Love and Lust" on the Main Stage.
This is a great lanyard to have in our collection of stage passes! :)
Performers, Patrons and Models roamed through the event in wondrous costuming and some not in much at all. If you like People Watching then you were in Heaven here. Body paint artists made wondrous additions to many patrons who chose disrobing clothing for painted clothing instead.
Cross dressers and Transgendered felt as welcome as Exhibitionists and those who love wearing funky garb.
Vendors provided opportunity to buy wares from toys to masks to costuming to jewelry to well...so much to see.
Burlesque dancers, belly dance troupes, acappella vocalists, aerial dancers, pole dancers and hoola-hoop artists did abound.
So did titties :)
And that's OK. For what, really, is wrong about that? Men can go without shirts in some public places and women have the right as well. It was beautiful and freeing to see folks wear what they want, or to not wear what they wanted. You could be, whoever you wanted to be here! There was even stage opportunity given to the public in a "Strut Yourself Catwalk Contest" for amateurs. I loved watching this especially. You can see folks brave a stage for the first time, trying to give a sexy walk in the garb they felt sensuous in....to semi-pros (or folks who have a knack) to be able to strip like a professional and even one lady who artistically "Twirled Off" her clothing! That was beautiful to watch.
Everyone who attended was polite, civil and friendly. There was opportunity to learn, make new friends, chat with others about subjects interesting to you, but mayhaps not "mainstream."
This is a place where a person could say what they wanted to say, in a safe place, protected from ridicule for being a bit different, and to find others of like mind.
I had such a great time! I was deliriously happy.. The day was the most fun I've had in a long time! I enjoyed watching, learning, and meeting new folks as well as old friends! It was a joy to get dressed up pretty and to see others enjoying decorating their bodies to please themselves and others as well!
I also enjoyed playing music that I don't often get a chance to. Here is a perfect place to play "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" and we got a lot of compliments on our "sweet version." We also played love songs...for really, what is lust without love? :)
The staff was awesome to work with, and we felt appreciated and were helped loading our gear in and out. They did a great job and thanked us for coming and being a part of the day's fun.
Our evening plan was to go to one of the after parties, (I packed yet another and very different sexy outfit) but alas, the incoming freak storm that night, and the fact that hotel was so busy that their restaurant was booked solid for an hour, got us behind on our scheduled plans and we never made it to the party. Maybe next year!
The hotel was awesome and ferried us to the Dinosaur BBQ (it was snowing so badly we didn't want our friend with a cane to hurt himself walking it) but the Dinosaur too, was booked for dinner reservations for another hour and a half. No, we were gonna chew a table leg off in that time frame!
So we punted and ended up drinking wine, having pizza and wings at the hotel with friends. That too, was wonderful camaraderie overlooking the river downtown with the lights of the city and the snow falling so picturesque! We set off at 10:30pm to go home 12 hours after we had originally loaded in, with a lovely day in our back pocket. The roads howere, were shite coming home and it was quite a storm to traverse through snow and sleet and lots of it.
But we did get home, safe and sound and we were the better for the trip. It's nice to be able to share an event and adventure like this with your mate, who also sings and plays and is a good friend.
We are very lucky to have each other and a world that is so beautiful that it reminds us to be creative, wild, free, giving and loving. To be happy in your heart and in your own skin, while admiring others for the same is a very great gift.
So, here's to you, you sexy thing!
Oh yes. YES YOU ARE.
And so am I :)
