starting off with a bang -- more videos than we can shake a camera at

Well, the theme of this week seems to be “Back to Filming with a Vengeance.” Things certainly got busy fast as soon as the holidays ended! And it's been really great lately to reconnect with some favorite wrestlers and video sponsors I hadn't seen/heard from in a little while.

Today was the inaugural shoot of the year, and it featured the return of Indra to the mats. She was brave enough to face me in a “Shiny Pro-Style 2” match, and though it didn't go too well for her overall, she did get me in a few tight spots ;)

Also, at the sponsor's request, this match included our first attempt at this hold: 

Only thing is, none of us know what this one's called! Anybody out there know this one and the name of it? I'm sure it must be pretty cool.

And coming up VERY soon...

Tomorrow, we've got a karate-in-pantyhose custom featuring Rachel and Thrash scheduled. What Rachel doesn't know is that we may very well tack her bondage wrestling rematch with me onto the end of this shoot! Well, if there's time. We're very polite like that. Though, come to think of it, a scenario along the lines of “You're never allowed to leave this shoot; I'm going to tie you up and keep you and make you wrestle for me forever!” might be a pretty fun video to do with a visiting model. ;)

On Saturday, there's a possibility we'll also be shooting a bondage wrestling match between me and Tyler Dare. This would be a little accessory project to a bigger shoot Hanz has been trying to set up with Tyler for his studio. He's been good enough to run point on scheduling this one as we've been back and forth A LOT trying to find a workable shoot time. Hoping this one will work out, but not certain, since the day's already drawing very near. If it does work, though, it'll create a four-day solid filming streak because...

The real heavy-hitting shoot in this story is set for Sunday. This one'll be a three-parter. First: Azy vs. Hanz Bondage wrestling. This will the first of the 2015 bondage wrestling projects Diablo mentioned in his Bondage Wrestling Blog to be realized (well, actually the 2nd IF we get in my rematch with Rachel on Friday - love achieving those to-do's!). I'm rooting for Azy, but I am a bit afraid for her. I would have to rank Hanz right along with Keri Spectrum as my most challenging bondage opponents to date. 

Second: a long-overdue new muscle worship video with me and Diablo – like the Pleasure and Pain video of 2013, but more vicious and sadistic ;) Not giving anymore hints than that. 

And Third: another “rematch” sort of video with me and Diablo, Volume 2 of our Immobilizing Holds judo pins video, also from 2013.

Now that's everything that's definite so far, but also ALL floating around waiting to get scheduled are requests for muscle worship with me and Mistress Trish, a 20-minute arm wrestling marathon, and new editions of our catballs, assassin scenarios, and superheroine prostyle matches.  A very exciting month coming up, with some very good connections to DM's (many!) roots.

And I'll just end with the excellent announcement that Howl is now back in NYC!  He was certainly missed all through the fall.  Plans are already in motion to get him into a new prostyle video and our first mixed catball video.  He's an adventurous one, is Howl ;)

I'll have to write some more introspective entries someday, when things are just a little calmer...

a very, very, very full month!

So here's a look at what's been going on over the past month or so.

The BIG event recently was that on Feb. 8, I finally left my office job to concentrate full time on wrestling, training, sessions, and videos.  I'd been planning and looking forward to this for a long time.  There was delicious cake and terrible snow storm to mark the occasion.  And then...

I had thought, naively I suppose, that I was going to have SO much time to do everything I wanted once I got out of the office.  I was going to increase my training schedule, never have to turn anyone down for a session due to a time conflict again, and travel several times a month.

Phew!  Well, I shot out of the gate and hit the ground running.  It was quite exciting.  I booked trips to Texas, D.C., and Chicago.  D.C., especially, was a super-trip -- I don't know what it is about that city, but the guys there love their wrestling.  I was going non-stop -- domination, competitive, boxing, and -- a rare treat for me -- a real, serious, can-actually-handle-the-pain beatdown.  Drove back to New York in the afternoon (through more snowstorm warnings), and met a favorite regular client for a late session that same night.

I cranked up training too.  I joined my academy's "elite" Muay Thai program and added sparring classes to my BJJ, MMA, and pad work regimen.  I thought I was doing awesome to have made it all the way through winter untouched by cold and flu season...then March arrived and I was finally brought low by a hideous fatigue-sinus-throat thing.  I had to admit that as much as I love being busy, I needed better planning and balance.  It was actually lucky that the sponsor for my Chicago trip, originally planned for right now, had to pull out and look to reschedule at a later date.

NOW, I can say I feel like I'm beginning to get the hang of this full-time wrestling thing.  I made a few excellent discoveries -- plan trips further in advance whenever possible.  Evening training does NOT work well for me.  That one's still killing me, actually, since my academy only offers sparring and MMA at night.  And I haven't yet figured out how to get as much lifting in around my martial arts as I want to.  But I've ID'ed the challenges, and I've got the destination in mind -- just working on the map!

There's been exciting stuff going on with other ladies at Doom Maidens too.  Indra's back in the US -- for a long stay this time!  For her welcome-back present, we got her victims!  First, we offered up Ben for some classic, cheeky Indra domination, and next it was Thrash for some bondage tickle-torture.

BUT Athena spiced up the party -- like the giver of birthday spankings, she turned the tables on Indra and dealt out some tickle torture of her own.  There will be more to come from Indra this very Sunday -- she'll be taking on a visiting victim in a new bondage wrestling match, and possibly subjecting him to some judoka foot domination too!

We've also got a new lady training with us now.  Well, not entirely new -- some may remember Sircee from her matches with Clobberetta and Athena last year.  But after a recent bondage wrestling shoot, where she had a lot of fun being introduced to bondage wrestling and even more fun showing off her wily escaping skills (to my ultimate frustration), Sircee is newly fired up and ready to start rolling in earnest.  She's been coming by the Brooklyn studio for practice to beef up her wrestling skills, and she's a quick pupil.  Must be the dance background -- show her a movement, and she soaks it right up.  The next training is this Friday with me and Orlandoe.

Ah, Orlandoe!  The ongoing drama between Orlandoe's and my secret agent characters has been the video theme of the month.  This was both really cool and a little funny.  You may recall that last year we launched the Stockholm Syndrome Collection, which was soon retitled the Lethal Leotards Syndicate series -- a video series featuring the Doom Maidens ladies as black-leotard-clad super-villians, who seduce, capture, torture, subjugate, and occasionally assassinate their male prey.


And fans loved this!  So much that they began sending custom video requests that carried on the story of the Syndicate.  It has been truly fantastic to see how different guys all writing separately have been creating different episodes of this story.  BUT here's the rub -- in the hands of our fan writers the Syndicate has strayed from its original purpose of persecuting men and fallen to in-fighting -- a continuing power-struggle between the Grand Domina herself (me) and the Second-in-Command (Orlandoe).  In the past month, Orlandoe and I have struggled through two death-matches and one bondage torture abduction.  Way to protect your own necks, guys, turning us on each other!  No worries, we'll get you soon enough!

And, finally, a look ahead -- not wrestling-related for a change.  I would like to announce that my birthday will be here in just two weeks, and I'm looking forward to a fabulous present.  My mother and two sisters are all coming to visit me, and we are preparing to hit NYC in true girls'-weekend style.  Dining, theatre, wine bars, warm springtime Botanic Gardens if we're lucky, wedding planning for baby sister, and maybe (if I can talk them all into it) kickboxing for everyone ;)  So if I'm a little incommunicado at the end of the month, it's because I'm partying on the town with my guests!

late summer wrap-up

I'm getting a little distressed as I look at the calendar and realize I'm days away from September.  Summer is my favorite season BY FAR, and this year it's been so busy, I feel like I haven't had a chance to enjoy it.  I've certainly enjoyed all the training, wrestling, and travel, of course, but I feel like I haven't gotten to really stop and appreciate the summer itself, if you know what I mean.

Mixed Wrestling Gauntlet

This past month gives the perfect example -- I had a combo get-away + session tour scheduled for early August.  The weekend before, I had a huge four-match video shoot set up with Tommi and Mahea during their NYC visit.  But just as everyone was arriving for the shoot, we got word that Tommi and Mahea were having an accommodations crisis and would need to reschedule.  Since everyone else was there already, we went ahead with the shoot...with me fighting Diablo and Hanz back-to-back in an Exhaustion Gauntlet Match.  

My match with Tommi

My match with Mahea

And THEN we proceeded to reschedule with Tommi and Mahea for various weekday times, which meant that I had to bolt out of my office on two different days to do my matches with them during my lunch breaks!

I was feeling very accomplished and super-pleased with all the fantastic wrestling action after this but also super-ready for that vacation.  But it was not to be, at least not as planned.  Diablo was coming with me on this trip, and the very day we were to leave he tore his MCL (a knee ligament) in morning BJJ class.  We still made it to Wildwood and D.C. (an especially fantastic stop, by the way, with great sessions, great people, and a lovely microbrew pub dinner with friends).  But we cut out the stop in Charleston, which was to be the most relaxing and beach-y, and brought him back to NYC for a doctor's appointment in the middle of the week.

We've since gotten good (and bad) news back from the doctor.  The tear is only partial and will heal on its own...but that will take six to eight weeks.  So I'm happy (and sad) for him, and relieved (and disappointed) that soon but not as soon as I'd like, I'll get my best training partner and video victim back.

So that brought me up to practically the end of the summer in a whirlwind, and am I ever working on making up for lost time now.  This past weekend was glorious -- on Saturday instead of going to class, I took my Muay Thai gear out into the park for a little open-air training.  And on Sunday I finally did make it out to the beach on Long Island where I soaked up sun and discovered an amazing little place that makes its own turtle cheesecake ice cream.  And I did get myself home in time for one Sunday night video shoot -- an utterly fun bondage custom with princess dresses.  Oh, how I love costumes!

Now, with Labor Day weekend up next, Indra is back in New York, and she and her plus-one will be joining Diablo and me for a holiday trip up to Montreal Fetish Weekend.  Road trip + Indra at a multi-day fetish gala -- this couldn't promise to be more fun.  I still have a little shopping to do to create the most fantastic domina attire possible, and there will most certainly be pictures.  And dancing.  And pictures of dancing.

That's it for now; more after this coming weekend adventure...

chicago & news catch-up

I know I'm criminally behind in posting about the latest wrestling adventures -- I blame this (like everything) on my day job which has been loading me with tons of take-home data entry for the past couple weeks.  But that project is SO close to done now I can taste it, and I feel I can afford a celebratory blogging session.

First story to tell: my mid-April trip to Chicago.  This was such a mix of ups and downs it was wild -- definitely one of *those* trips.  To start out with I was simply blown away by the wonderful flood of interest -- thank you, Chicago, and to everyone I simply didn't have time to see, I'm sorry and I'll definitely be making a longer visit next time.

So I catch my super-early flight out of Chicago, land, and make it to my hotel with two hours to settle in and set up before my first session.  Only to find the hotel has overbooked itself due to some conference they're hosting and my reservation is one they've given away.  There's not really time to argue, so I break out the laptop, discover there are two other hotels in walking distance, call the first to find it's gone out of business, call the second to find they have rooms available, and take off down the road lugging my travel mats on my back.

This second hotel is everything you'd expect of a rent-by-the-hour dive, but it's all I can do under the  circumstances.  When I ask for a non-smoking room, the front desk hands me a can of air-freshener.  I have to hope my session guests will find that this adds a seedy, romantic excitement to the whole affair.  I clean up, set up, and breakfast on packaged shortbread Indra had been nice enough to bring me over from London.  And then the fabulous part of the trip begins.

I really had some wonderful sessions on this trip.  A big thank you to the fellow who brought me the lovely purple opera gloves.  And also to the guy who egged me on to do my nastiest humiliation session yet -- I find people *usually* want somewhat playful and safe humiliation, but that was not where this session ended up, which was quite fun and thrilling.  Also terrific to end a long day of wrestling by seeing one of my very favorite regular clients again -- made saving the heaviest, hardest match for last a real pleasure.

Saturday was its own misadventure.  I'd come out for an event in the city as well as sessions.  This day involved a nerve-wracking clown-car carpool with some other hotel guests to get downtown (very bad driver who liked picking fights with other cars -- *never* accepting such an offer again) and my event running vastly later than I could ever have guessed completely bollocksing up my night.  But I survived!  And in the morning I lugged my mats back to the airport shuttle (at the original hotel, grr!) and came home to plan a more relaxed return visit.

The major project back here lately was a custom karate video with Indra.  I've done fantasy karate videos (Karate Nylons One & Two) before, but the premise here was a technical training encounter between two black belts. This was a big deal because I really have no background in karate and had a short time to pick it up since Indra was heading back to London April 28.  (Good-bye, Indra, we'll miss you until you come back in August!)  So I spent about a week getting a crash course in both karate techniques and attitude, along with a bit of stage combat.  Lots of fun, concentration, and roundhouse kicking.  We ended up making two versions -- a more combative sparring  match which Indra wins and a self-defense back-and-forth which I win, both finished off with a choke to knock-out and a bow to the unconscious opponent.  The combo will be released soon, but there's already a trailer up on YouTube:  VeVe vs. Indra Karate Trailer.

There have been a ton of little odds and ends going on too.  Now that warm(ish) weather seems to be coming back, I've enjoyed a bit of roof gardening and spring cleaning + remodeling around my apartment -- big improvements with more to come.

Spring and summer also tend to get me fired up to step up my training...but I managed to break my toe in BJJ class last week attempting an "experimental" cartwheel guard pass.  In its extremely inconvenient way, this should actually be good for my grappling since I'm having to take a month off from Muay Thai and can put the extra time into ground work.  No trouble with the toe at all when I'm on the ground.  I'm also just shifting into a max strength training phase in my lifting program -- those are always my favorites.  I need to do a nice comprehensive test lift, actually, and post my starting numbers; then perhaps in six weeks when I've got some results to show, we'll get out a new lifting video.

Speaking more of videos, Doom Maidens has been in the market for a new camera lately.  My role has been moral support as Diablo tests and rejects various options.  We're sensing it's time to retire the old camera but finding that new models don't surpass it for picture quality and are infinitely less compatible with our software.  Frustrating.  The hunt continues, but we've got a slew of projects lined up for next week, and for now we're newly determined not to trust any of them to disappointing "upgrades."  On the horizon are mixed competitive and armpit worship vids with Orlandoe; Athena vs. me in a catfight; and hopefully the debut of a new victim facing me in competitive straight and bondage wrestling matches.  Stay tuned for more action...

judo, L&C, Nashville, and more

A lot to catch up on since my last blog!

The first thing to report is the story of a VERY wild video shoot from last week.  There was one video on the schedule, and it was a very interesting and somewhat complicated custom request -- a judo contest, but with a messy wrestling twist.  The fighters would wear shiny leotards and tights and any time one lost a fall, she would be rubbed and massaged with bread dough while she recovered.  At the end of the match, whoever's shiny attire was still shiny (or at least less messy) would win.  Orlandoe and I were competing, and Indra was to be the ring girl in charge of the dough.

That was the plan.  But another request came through the night before for a lift and carry custom featuring Orlandoe, Indra, me, and a fourth girl.  I knew we had to do it the same night or wait a long time for everyone's schedules to line up again.  So an urgent call went out for a fourth girl who was free at exactly the right time that night.  Only an hour before the shoot we found her; a friend of Orlandoe's could do it.

Now, we often use a public rehearsal studio for our videos -- sometimes they're great.  They store our mats for us, and some of the rooms have lovely theatrical lighting.  BUT.  They've been driving me crazy lately -- getting busier and busier and more crowded, harder to book, and more full of bitchy anti-wrestling yoga and belly dancing personalities.  Not to mention drama-prone drama majors.

So, before the shoot, I'm mixing up the bread dough in the ladies' room.  "What's that?" someone asks.  No problem; it's a theater space.  "A prop," I say.  We film the judo video and it goes quite well (QUITE well -  lovely throwing and athleticism and a great match-up between Orlandoe and me), but it runs a bit late.  So after the shoot, we get the studio manager knocking on the door telling us the next scheduled group in waiting to come in.  What the fuck, little dancing group?  You couldn't knock on the door yourselves?  It prevents making an issue and it saves YOU time.  Like I said, it's the good with the bad at this place.

We sneak into another free room to do the lift and carry video.  This one is two teams performing shoulder rides and having a chicken fight, and the one major request the sponsor had was 10 minutes of continuous carrying -- no breaks or cuts in the tape.  I'd never tried a straight 10-minute lift before, so it was looking to be a challenge.  Turned out to be more of challenge than expected -- Orlandoe's friend hadn't listened to her very carefully about what the shoot would involve, so she'd decided it would be OK to show up a bit tipsy.

Orlandoe was the one carrying her, and I was carrying Indra, and we both had quite a job to do keeping our riders safe while the fourth girl got way too wild and ruthless with the fight -- for 10 minutes, with no break to calm her down!  But we succeeded, and I was quite proud of our strength, balance, and composure!  Then to top it off, the girl says she didn't realize the video would be released and isn't comfortable with that.  This is a terrible waste as it was an impressive feat in the end and deserves to be seen; I swear I get saint points for honoring her request.  Grrr.  But we definitely want to use this scenario again for a video that WILL be released.

Next item - my trip to Nashville.  Let me skip over most of it and hit the biggest highlight.  Saturday night I was supposed to meet up with a big group of friends for dinner and drinks, but everyone was coming from a different place, and no one had decided where we were actually meeting.  Everyone text everyone when you get near, was the dubious plan.  My ride and I show up first; we spot a likely looking sports bar and text everyone about it.  We go in, and honest-to-god the receptionist says to us "I don't recommend you come here.  Really.  Go to the nice place two blocks away."  And indeed, on the inside this place looks like a hell hole.  We text everyone again, and head to the new place.

Of course, they never arrive and quite possibly some of them ended up at the original miserable dive.  But we get a huge comfy booth just in case they manage to show and proceed to enjoy live bluegrass (it was an Earl Scruggs tribute), awesome ribs, and various superb Southern microbrews.  Ever had Bourbon Barrel Stout or Pecan Nut Brown Ale?  Don't wait - find them, try them.  So that was my mini-birthday celebration.  I'm STILL waiting to be un-busy enough for my proper birthday celebration.  This weekend's looking good.  And Orlandoe and Wrecks are hosting a party Wednesday that should make a nice second warm-up ;)

Third and fourth items, quickly - Taxes, killing me.  This was such a huge stressor to me yesterday.  I've gathered more receipts, and things are looking brighter, but this was a blow to my optimism about getting out of the office job this year.  I didn't need that...or, realistically maybe I did.  It's still going to happen but more likely next year.  Sigh.

AND this week's videos.  Yesterday I got to sit in on a match between my friend Hanz and Amazon Eve.  That was quite something to see!  Hanz isn't a small guy (6'-0" and 190 lbs.), and at 6'-8" Eve just dwarfed him.  Their match was for Hanz's site, not for Doom Maidens, so look for it there.  It was fun to compare notes with Eve afterwards -- I'm of course not too familiar with the giantess and height comparison corners of the wrestle/muscle/strength world, and Eve was very keen to learn more technical jiu-jitsu.

Tonight there's a judo and foot domination match coming up between Indra and Thrash, and I'll be joining the fun as well for a judo torture instructional clip.  Onward to more action...