from:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=153370603163

Women/trans event: Catalyst’s Chat and Lash
Meet, Mingle and Share Bondage Skills
Host: Catalyst BDSM
Type: Meetings – Club/Group Meeting
Date: Friday, 13 November 2009
Time: 19:00 – 21:00
Location:
Britannia Community Center – Learning Resource Center
1661 Napier Street Vancouver, BC

Description
Come and join us for Catalyst’s first event! We’ll get together for some brief introductions followed by bondage skill sharing.

Bring rope or other bondage supplies (eg. saran wrap, zap straps, duct tape, or whatever else your imaginations can muster).

Coffee, tea and light refreshments will be provided.

Suggested donation $5, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

This event is for women and trans folk only.

The site is wheelchair accessible. We are currently facilitating a full accessibility audit (check back later for details). Please contact us if you have any specific accessibility needs that we can help with.

*All participation is totally optional.*

Kona of NubianImp.com is producing this with my assistance. We’re bringing Lee up for a very intensive weekend of D/s theory and practice, in the first weekend of October.  Come stretch your brain with us!

http://nubianimp.com/projects/ds-psychology-intensive-with-lee-harrington/

Dykemarch & Pride Parade 2009

Join Canadian Mayhem / Bride of Pride as we stroll through Vancouver! Help us show a great kinky women’s presence! All women/trans welcome!

==========================

Dyke March
Saturday, Aug 1
http://www.vancouverdykemarch.com/
Gather 11:30am at McSpadden Park.
Starts at noon.

===========================

Pride Parade
Sunday, August 2
We’re tagging along with MVK in the parade, so do drop by and join us at the staging area, or at anywhere along the route!
Parade starts at Robson and Thurlow!
http://www.vancouverpride.ca/parade-route
Here’s where MVK’s doing the staging (pre-parade)
http://leatherdyke.com/u.php?19

Here’s what the banner looks like!

Pride2009

An entirely leatherdyke-centric collection of things to do this Pride.

=================================

Canadian Mayhem presents…
The Bride of Pride Party
Friday, July 31, 2009
A kinky, sexy party for all Queer Women in Vancouver

http://canadianmayhem.com

======================

Dykes on Bikes @ The DykeMarch 2009
Saturday, Aug 1

http://www.vancouverdykemarch.com/

Gather 11:30am at the west wide of McSpadden Park.
Starts at noon.

======================

Dykes on Bikes @ the Pride Parade 2009
Sunday, Aug 2
For those starting on the East Side (Oh, the joys of the queer-women
biker gang run through the heart of the city…) Commercial and 3rd Ave.
Between 10 & 10:30 arrival, leave the east end for the west end at 11 am.
Parade starts at Robson and Thurlow!

http://www.vancouverpride.ca/parade-route

Offical start time is noon… bykes arrive at Robson &
Thurlow at 11am (or earlier, or later).
Go to the head of the parade. No paperwork required.
Details, Parade Guidelines and BykeDykes mailing list!

http://bykedykes.vancouverleather.com/

======================

LEATHERDYKE Post-Pride Picnic in the Park
MONDAY, August 3
4pm –> 8pm
Where: Trout Lake / John Hendry Park 3350 Victoria Drive, southeast corner
Highly informal. Free. All welcome. A bunch o’ leatherdykes are throwing down blankets, laughs, and good company. Come on down, bring your partner/s, friends (kink-friendly), a blanket, food n drink, something to share, chairs, sunscreen…and most importantly, yourself! (*In good weather only)

map1 – http://leatherdyke.com/upload/trout-lake-leatherdyke-picnic1.jpg

map2 – http://leatherdyke.com/upload/trout-lake-leatherdyke-picnic2.jpg

======================

Queerotica
We’re back again with an evening of LIVE readings of queer erotic fiction and poetry from some of Vancouver’s hottest writers!
Thursday, August 6th, 2009, beginning at @ 7:31pm sharp
@ The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
Vancouver, BC, Canada
As part of the Pride in Art Festival 2009
$5 (suggested donation) goes to support the artists directly!
Produced by Elaine Miller and Afuwa Granger

=========================
and…
=========================

PrideInArt has a whole bunch of stuff of interest to us queer women-types.

I’m pasting a few of them below, but there’s tons more. Look here for the whole listing and purty poster pics: http://prideinart.ca/

July 28th to August 14th
Faerie Tales: Telling Our Stories Visual Art Exhibition Admission is FREE
Tuesday July 28th 7:00 pm The Art Party: Opening Night Celebrations Admission is FREE

Saturday August 1st 7:30pm
JODAIKO Taiko Drummers
tickets: $15 advance; $15-$20 sliding scale at the door

Sunday August 2nd 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Taiko Drumming Workshop
tickets: $30

Sunday August 2nd 7:30pm
Swell: So the Story Goes
tickets: $15 advance; $10-$20 sliding scale at the door

Thursday August 6th 7:30pm
Queerotica
admission by donation

Saturday August 8th 7:30pm
PiAF Cabaret
tickets: $15 advance; $12-$20 sliding scale at the door

from my good friend Mary Anne:

The Pride in Art Festival (July 28-August 14) is kicking into high
gear and we need help!

We’re looking for queers, allies, artists, techies, literary types,
arts lovers, handy folk, friendly folk, and all sorts of all ages to
help out in these areas:

-box office
-ushers
-artwork installation/takedown (don’t have to have experience but you
should be handy!)
-art gallery hosts (without hosts the doors close and no one can see
the amazing art exhibition)

You’ll get a free ticket for 4 hrs of help, get a chance to see lots
of artwork, and get loads of thanks from all us queer artists!

Check out the lineup of shows and get more info at http://www.prideinart.ca

email me at prideinart.volunteer@gmail.com with your questions and/or
letting me know how you’d like to give us a hand!

Until then,
Mary Anne
Volunteer Wrangler, artist

This is a call for writers/readers/performers of queer erotic literature (and written filthy smut and porn) to read at Queerotica, a “collective fundraiser” (to pay you, the local queer writers who read porn at this event) on August 6, 2009 during Pride week in Vancouver.

What we’re Looking For:
Writers who are willing — nay, eager — to read or recite their own pieces of queer erotica/porn/smut. Erotica must be queer-themed, which includes gay, lesbian, bi, and all flavours of queer transgender. We’d love to see raunchy, transgressive, smokin’ hot porn. We’d love erotica featuring queers of all different races, sizes, ages and abilities. We’d like to see intelligent, contemporary, mind-bending porn that leaves the listener hot, wet, hard, or dizzy. We’d like to see clever erotica that makes us laugh and sigh and smile knowingly at our lover. We’ll even look at poetry!
Restrictions (the usual suspects): no children, animals, former food, or former people.

Interested?
Drop us a line at queerotica (at) elainemiller (dot)com and introduce yourself.
We’d love a copy of the piece you’re interested in reading. We’re almost universally computer-compatible. Send it in the body of an email, or attached as a text file, or as an RTF, or a doc file, or as an HTML file, or a link to your performance on YouTube, or… whatever else you can think of.

What’s In This For You?
Since this event is “admission by donation”, we can offer only a promise of an equal share after costs for lending your talents and hotness. Amount TBA, on the night.  Besides that, there’s effusive thanks, your name in lights, a cred on your pr0n-writing resume, and the warm knowledge that you’re setting fire to the pants of Queer Vancouver.

Deadline!  Soon. Our line-up is almost complete. We need to hear from you by the 20^th of July.

Details, and the freshest news:
http://elainemiller.com/queerotica/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97833418902

Event Info:

Queerotica
Thursday, August 6, 2009
@ The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
(http://www.roundhouse.ca/)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

As part of the Pride in Art Festival 2009
(http://prideinart.ca/)

organised by Elaine Miller and Afuwa Granger

(http://elainemiller.com)     (http://afuwa.com)

Happy Birthday Kona! And Elaine! And Catherine! And Arli!

And you are invited to the

4th Annual Sexy Sweaty Kinky Sauna Party for Women!

Friday, April 17th @ 7:30 – 11:30 p.m.

COME PLAY WITH US!

It’s time to gather your towel and sandals and come bust a sweat with us as we celebrate growing older. Come naked, nude, wrapped in a towel, wearing your swimsuit, jean shorts and Tshirt, or rubber bondage gear! (eg. We don’t care what you wear.) If the last few years are any measure, expect there to be plenty of hot times, and lots of hawt women of all shapes, all sizes, all colours and sexual orientations.

THE SPACE

We’ve rented over 2000 square feet of privacy for us all to sweat, play, shower, fuck, talk, and laugh. The space contains a video area (who’s got great dyke porn?), 25 lockers, two large dry saunas (hot and hotter), two large shower rooms (ever eat melon in a shower?), and 6 semi-private areas with cots.

Do it clean and sweaty, or make it mild to wild – there’s lots of room and anything goes! This ain’t no ladies spa though. It’s grotty and rugged and perfect! Flip flops, sandals, combat boots or other footwear encouraged. Don’t forget your towel (and maybe some old sheets if you think you’ll need ‘em for back-up)!

Elaine’s bringing those damn flyswatters again, so be afraid.
THE DETAILS & SMALL PRINT
This is a semi-private event (we retain the right to refuse guests).

We’re covering our costs for the space rental, free beverages and free snacks by selling tickets — $20 per person

when:: Friday, April 17th @ 7:30 – 11:30 p.m.

where:: Hastings Steam & Sauna – 766 East Hastings, Vancouver, BC

tickets:: Tickets will be sold at the door.

gift request:: your presence and nothing more! No, wait. Elaine wants you to sing to her. And Kona wouldn’t pass up some nice new red panties.

*Bring your own towel and sandals

Direct link to the image if you can’t see it properly:
http://elainemiller.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sauna-party-vancouver-09.jpg

And on Facebook too…

I’d like to talk to someone kinky, kink-interested, or kink-friendly, who signs at a reasonable enough level to do some ammount of  interpreting — I know there’s a diff. between “interpreter” and “signer”, but I’m interested in folks in the nebulous in-between area as well. <smile> Anyone got any connections? All the hearing ASL signers I know are already busy!

LEATHERWOMEN’S CONFERENCE EVENT MATH:

200 past, present & future women
11 workshops
3 playparties
1 dance afterparty
1 meet ‘n’ greet
1 reception
1 tastings
1 energy pull
5 – 7 community caucuses
1 silent auction
2 days of vendors
1 eventy thing to do with beer (TBA)
and
1 set of tired but exhilarated organizers
————————
= $80 (canadian dollars)

(but not for much longer! early bird deadline is March 22nd, and then the price goes up!)

ps: We’re now over the half-full point! Don’t miss out!

http://canadianmayhem.com/register/

Mayhem’s website:
http://canadianmayhem.com/

Mayhem’s facebook page:
http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=50155047255&ref=ts

On an online social networking site that I co-administrate, a conversation started about the difficulties, in a poly Vee (a relationship where A is dating B and C, who are not dating each other), caused by someone “talking shit” about the other person, to the person “A” who they both share.

Someone replied hotly that it was the job of the person at the point of the Vee to be supportive and loving, and take shit-talking as a simple sign of needing more love and reassurance. They brought up the example of a poly woman in a primary relationship with a monogamous woman, and in a secondary with another woman.

I’ve had some thoughts on this “shit talking” thing in the past, and this is probably the clearest I’ve been able to put it, so I’m sharing it here as well as there.

Here’s what I think:

So, Polyamorous Polly reassuring her lover Monogamous Mona that she loves her and adores her and wants to be with her and is willing to stay and deal with Mona’s fears and insecurities around Polly’s poly is one thing; and heck, it’s a good thing.

And Mona expressing her honest fears, that’s cool too.

But Mona talking shit about Polly’s lover …um… “Hussy”… well, that’s ain’t cool.

Wait! Let’s define “talking shit”. (grin)

I don’t mean that if Hussy pees in Mona’s coffee cup when Polly, Mona and Hussy are all out together, that Mona doesn’t have the right to say “Polly, me and Hussy have an issue with each other, and it’s about her incontinence when we’re all around each other. I’m going to try to resolve it with her.”

In a more real-life sense, if Mona says “Hey, Polly. I’ve noticed that Hussy won’t speak directly to me in a social situation, and it makes me uncomfortable.”, then that’s the first half-step to problem-solving.
(A full step is saying “Hussy, I’ve noticed this thing when you, me and Polly are all out together. Can we talk about it?”)

This ain’t talking shit, in my opinion.

What I mean by talking shit is, that jealousy is someone being angryscared, and folks in that mindspace may have a little slip of a tongue which could range from “Oh, you’re going to see ol’ Bozo Hair on Wednesday, are you?” to “That conniving little bitch you’re dating has X personality faults, Y appearance faults, Z unwholesome motivations, I hate her I hate her I don’t know what you’re seeing in her, you must be crazy.”

This puts Polly in a weird situation, where she can

1) be silent, and thus seem to agree with Mona’s perception of Hussy

2) agree with Mona utterly, which would be lying (if Polly’s still interested in seeing Hussy, she’s obviously not considering her evil.)

3) defend Hussy to Mona, either in low-key therapy-speak, or in full-on hot defence.

And I think we all can see that if Mona’s really complaining hard to Polly about the evilness of Hussy, that even Polly’s mild “I’m not entirely sure that Hussy has been plotting to break us up since 1986, Mona.” could be seen by Mona (who’s probably feeling scared and off balance anyhow) as Proof That Polly Really Likes Hussy Better Than Mona.

So shit-talking of that sort makes the polyagony cycle spin faster and nastier.

Desire has to be one of the most unique women’s leather events around. The brilliant women who plan it create a kind of … I dunno… leatherwoman disneyland, where you never have to think a thought about the great big outside world unless you choose to.

I had a chance to connect in some amazing ways (social, sexual, and play-wise) with some incredible folks, and boy, did I ever build memories! Mmm. Memories….

I’m damn grateful for so many things about this past weekend — especially the people. Especially those adorable dykes who were so generous with giving me all a grrl could possibly… desire.

I could rave on and on, but… well, not in a public blog. So there.

PRIDE IN ART FESTIVAL 2008 — GENDER TWIST — CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Performance Opportunities July 25th and August 3rd, 2008
Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Center

Pride in Art is inviting Queer Artists (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersex) to participate in the following Pride in Art Festival performances:

1) Cabaret Night
Friday, July 25, 2008

PIA is looking for creative and entertaining live presentations of a professional quality, utilizing visual elements to participate in Cabaret Night.

“In the spirit of Cabaret, once named ‘Degenerate Music’, PIA is presenting an evening that celebrates the decadent and sexually transgressive world. Cabaret is an art form that criticized, sexual hypocrisy, homophobia, bans on abortion and the general dishonesty and corruption of the culture.”
Be inspired by Madame Satã, Josephine Baker, Kurt Wiell, Bertolt Brecht and many others.
Drag and genderfuck encouraged but not required.
Grand piano will be available.

ii) Wilde at Art
Sunday, August 3 2008

PIA is looking for anything Wilde! (Oscar Wilde that is!) Wit, wisdom, gaiety, tragedy and hope. Explore the brilliant and, well… wild life of Oscar. Music, theater, dance or original piece of high professional quality and visual element is welcomed.

“It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.” Oscar WIlde
Drag and genderfuck encouraged but not required.
Grand piano will be available.

Submission Deadline:
Tuesday, May 23, 2008, 6:00 p.m.

Submission Requirements:
Sample of your work if possible (via e-mail or DVD-R)
Detailed description of your proposed performance
Biography, Resume and/or Curriculum Vitae
Headshot (if available)
SASE (optional, if you would like your submission returned)

For more information:

Website: www.prideinart.ca
Cabaret Night: Shaira Holman 604.254.5869 bastardprince-at-gmail-dot-com
Wilde at Art: Karen Lee-Morlang 778.898.6487 karen-at-lee-morlang-dot-com

Mailing address: Att’n: (Specify performance: Cabaret Night and/or Wilde at Art)
Pride in Art Festival 2008 Submissions
2248 East 3rd Ave Vancouver, BC V5N1J1

An artist’s honorarium will be paid

The illustrious Kona has offered to let me share in her annual birthday women’s sexy sauna party celebrations, and we’ve picked a date in between both our birthdays, and thus, we will sweat.

Please come join us, and come.

All them details at http://nubianimp.com/sweat/

… so if you’re in Portland, too, drop me a line, eh? Friday ’til Sunday. (And if you wanna drop me off or pick me up at the airport (YVR or Portland), why, all the better.)

T and I are doing an SM drumming performancey thing on Friday night. I can’t wait!

I know I have a strange sense of humour. But I couldn’t help myself when I saw this page of The Stranger, read the article and then saw the perhaps misfortunately-placed advertisment under “Community Classifieds”. Bap! Screenshot! And now I share my strange sense of humour with you.