At Arisia 2015, Jimmie P. Rodgers (@jprodgers) and I hosted a teasecraft meetup and gave a presentation entitled “Fun with Silicone!” We covered some basics of casting and moldmaking specific to working with body-safe silicone, and we also touched on body casting and some advanced casting techniques.
Update, 7/20/16: At long last, here’s the video of the session!
Here are the notes from our talk (presented as a slide deck):
As I try to put together a budget and financial projections for my new nonprofit, I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the data that I’ve pulled together on non-mainstream crowdfunding sites. Go check it out on the Passionate Produce blog!
TLDR: I have a new preferred name and preferred pronouns. As of January 1, 2015, I’m asking people to call me “Kit,” and to refer to me using the pronouns they/their (and other gender-neutral terms).
In my quest to build a sex toy or piece of BDSM equipment using every workshop at Artisan’s Asylum, a while back I took a screenprinting class. My t-shirt isn’t exactly a toy, but…whatever. ;)
I designed and printed this shirt at Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville. It reads, “Some women have penises. Some men have vaginas. Get over it.”
If I’m going to recruit board members or try to find another nonprofit to be a fiscal sponsor to mine, I need to give them a document which explains what my organization is trying to do, where it’s at now, and where it’s headed.
Behold: The Strategic Plan.
Read the rest of this post on the Passionate Produce blog!
I wanted to give a quick shout-out to an awesome Kickstarter project: Ph.D. student Justin O’Hearn (@justinohearn) is going to buy one of only two known copies of a piece of Victorian erotica which Oscar Wilde may have a hand in writing. The public has never had access to this book before!
New blog post on the Passionate Produce blog: “So, what do you do for a living?” When I’m in my sex-positive bubble, this isn’t a difficult question to answer. Out in the Real World, though, if you’re older than me — especially if you’re an older man — I’m not likely to tell you the truth.
“If you could talk to your teenage self, what would you tell them about sex and sexuality?”
And so my letter begins:
Dear Kristen,
I know how much time you’ve been spending with certain books lately — the ones with the steamy scenes that Mom and Dad would probably not approve of, if they knew. Oh, don’t worry — it’s okay with me. …
As I was working on creating my drag king persona (doing brainstorming and collage), I knew that I wanted to work up some kind of short performance piece. I didn’t have an audience in mind…until the sex/tech conference Arse Elektronika announced its theme for 2014: Trans*.*. Perfect for a little gender play!
What would I, as a guy, say to a bunch of other nerdy guys? See for yourself:
As “Adam James”, I performed an excerpt from Arthur Chu’s amazing essay, “Your Princess is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds.” I had to make a few cuts and rework a reference to Elliot Rodger at the beginning of the passage, but the rest is from the essay verbatim. (Any other deviations were my own mistakes while performing it.)
While I was originally interested in performing with a playboy, ladykiller persona, once I realized I had the opportunity to reach out to this very specific audience, I didn’t want to waste it. Chu’s essay has already reached a huge number of people, but I thought there might still be some nerdy guys at Arse Elektronika who weren’t familiar with it.
That’s how Adam James was born: “Adam” since he is my first guy character; “James” after my father and grandfather. He’s basically a dude version of me, a nerdy guy who’s tried to dress up a bit since he’s talking in front of an audience. Adam is talking about a subject he feels passionately about, since he’s grown up with geek culture (like I have).
Judging from the number of guys shifting awkwardly in their seats during my performance, I’d say I nailed it.
Are you a sex geek in the San Francisco Bay Area? Come out to Arse Elektronika, October 2-5!
The theme of the sex/tech conference Arse Elektronika in 2014 is Trans*.* .
I’ll be performing at the Prixxx Arse gala on Thursday night! I’ll also be giving a talk on Saturday afternoon with my collaborator Jimmie P. Rodgers, “Keeping It Up Under Pressure: A DIY Vacuum Rig for Body Casting.”
There will be tons of other great talks and performances, including many of my friends and sex-positive colleagues — the folks from Comingle (@comingle_io), The Mystery Box Show (@mysteryboxpdx), Griffin Boyce (@abditum), Tina Gong of HappyPlayTime (@happyplaytime), Maggie Mayhem (@MsMaggieMayhem), and Dr. X. Treme of Orgasmatronics Inc. (@Doctor_Xtreme , @Orgasmatronics), to name a few.
Go grab your ticket, and I look forward to seeing you there!