The Ritual Chamber

(Finally, the third, last, and longest part of the story of Kaelah's first ever spanking. You can read the first two parts here and here. My text is in normal format, Kaelah's comments are in bold text in square brackets.)

I was the first to enter the room we had prepared for the initiation ritual. While I made sure that all the props were in their place, Kaelah would wait outside for a few more minutes. She was wearing her black Tai Chi suit now and holding a jug of hot water for the opening tea ceremony. Once I had checked everything out, I would call her inside and we would perform the ceremony together, followed by the actual spanking.

[It was my idea that the master should call the aspirant inside once everything was ready. Like starting the ceremony at sunset, this was not only supposed to give the ritual a beautiful frame, it would also give me enough time to feel and memorize that very special day. In the afternoon, when I had that anxiety-attack, I wasn’t sure any more whether this was a good idea. I was afraid that I might panic again if I had to wait outside the chamber for too long. But, much to my own surprise, I was really able to use the time while I was waiting in the anteroom to take that special moment in and to prepare myself for the things to come.]

While my eyes wandered across the ritual chamber, I wondered once again how many other crazed geeks existed who put a similar amount of time and effort into a kinky first time. Some undoubtedly did, but probably not many. I was proud of that, and I wasn't even being more immodest than usual, because most of the interior decoration had been Kaelah's work, not mine. In the middle of the room, we had a ring of 24 candles on the floor. Kaelah had spent a good hour or so, with a metering rule, making sure that they formed an exact circle. [Just like it is described in chapter 3.1 of the article on the Rite of Span’qIng: “In the middle of the chamber, there is a ritual circle consisting of 24 candles. It has a diameter of 2.4 meters. […] The circle must be built by the young Klingon warrior under the supervision of the Master of Ceremonies.” Did anyone really think I had written that detailed description on the ceremony and the duties of both, aspirant and master, just for fun??? Oh, and have I already mentioned that I HATE inaccuracy?]

This ceremonial circle did not just make for a great-looking set piece, it also served as an important visible border, marking the transition between the pre-banter and the initiation itself. When Kaelah stepped inside, she would enter the phase of the ritual thought up entirely by me - where the "arms master" took the lead and she didn't know exactly what was coming.

Inside the circle, there was a sofa stool where the action would take place, suitable for the OTK position and for bending over it. Outside the circle, to the left and right, there were two torches which we would light during the opening and closing ceremonies - not during the spanking itself, so as to not run out of oxygen. There was a full-body mirror on one side of the room, my idea, I thought it would add a nice touch. Finally, on the walls all around us, we had hung inscriptions naming the set of virtues which described the relationship between the arms master and his student and which the student was supposed to attain. The virtues came in four pairs: honesty and openness, honour and respect, trust and responsibility, bravery and pain (or rather, the tolerance of pain).

[The meaning of the ritual words in the context of the ceremony is also explained in the article on the Rite of Span’qIng. However, those words are still important for Ludwig and me today – as cornerstones for our relationship as mates. Some of you might have realised that they were all part of my poem about living as mates...]

Kaelah had written the virtues down in three languages: Klingon, German and English. As Kaelah said, the English translation was there because, if all went well, I might want to write about our scene on the blog and document it with some pictures as well. Which answered the question I would have had, whether she would be comfortable about sharing her story with the readers! [I always had that exhibitionistic streak, obviously… Oh, and in case someone is asking: Yes, I really wrote down the virtues kneeling on a meditation stool and using traditional ink brushes, as required according to the rules of the ritual!]

The candles were already burning, but I still had to light the torches. It took a while until the damn things had properly burst into flames. [Yes, I could hear that from outside the chamber… ;-) ] I then sat down at the table for the tea ceremony. Like the rest of our ritual chamber, it had been decorated in an austere yet festive manner: a candle in the middle, a little stove for the tea, two mugs, two glass plates and two pairs of chopsticks. The plates and the chopsticks were for the Japanese bean paste, called Youkan, that went with the tea ceremony. [Actually, it was supposed to be a Klingon blood bean paste. Have you ever tried to buy Klingon blood beans in a German supermarket? Well, thanks to the influence the Klingon culture had on Japan, I was able to substitute the blood beans with Japanese Azuki bean paste. So, I made Japanese Youkan out of the bean paste for the first time in my life that afternoon (that was one of the few things I didn’t try beforehand), and it really worked!] Last but not least, there was a singing bowl which we would use numerous times during the upcoming ritual. I struck it with the accompanying wooden mallet, signalling to Kaelah that everything was ready and that she should come inside.

Kaelah entered the room, carrying the jug of hot water, closed the door behind her and placed herself opposite me at the table. We were sitting on wooden kneelers, pretty much on the floor. Kaelah proceeded to pour the tea, serving me first. The tea ceremony immediately established our roles as the arms master and the student, but it was also a nice way to have an informal chat right before the actual initiation. I asked Kaelah how she felt now and she replied that she felt okay - calmer and less nervous, in fact, than she would have expected. Meanwhile, we drank the tea and ate the Youkan. The bean paste didn't taste nearly as horrible as Kaelah had described it to me. Actually, I found it rather tasty in its way.

Kaelah was dismayed about the tea rose in my mug not opening properly when the water was poured, despite the fact that she had practiced that part of the ceremony beforehand, just like everything else. I told her not to beat herself up about it - a minor glitch, not that important. She's still annoyed about that tea rose, though. [As I said, I HATE inaccuracy. And of course I had tried out the tea flowers beforehand (how to place them in the mug, how to pour in the water without turning them around…). And then that damn little thing just didn’t open as it was supposed to. Ludwig indeed was very generous about the tea rose. When he realised that I was still annoyed about it a few weeks later, he even helped me to overcome my self-reproach by spanking me for my little faux pas. Ain’t I a lucky girl?]

At the end of the opening ceremony, Kaelah struck the singing bowl, we got up, extinguished the torches and began the initiation proper. To begin with, I instructed her to kneel on the floor and face herself in the mirror. I had intended the full-body mirror for this particular moment, right before the spanking. I thought it would be a nice little touch, heightening the tension and providing some self-reflection, literally as well as figuratively. "Look at yourself" I told Kaelah. "Don't think ahead to what we are going to do, just look at yourself now, and think about how you feel and who you are." While she did so, I stepped inside the ceremonial circle and fetched my instruments, the paddle and the cane. So far, they had been lying behind the sofa stool, somewhat hidden. I now draped them on the stool.

[I should add that the sofa stool upon which Ludwig draped the paddle and the canes – yes, there were two of them - was right in my field of vision when I looked into the mirror! As you might be able to imagine, that made it slightly difficult to just focus on the here and now and not to think about what was lying ahead of me…]

I then asked Kaelah to stand up and come to me inside the circle. While she got up, she accidentally scraped her knee against the mirror with a loud clang - a result of the limited space inside the room, and her own nervousness. Well, I thought to myself, it's good to see that she's getting a little jumpy! [I didn’t just knock my knee against the mirror. Thanks to the small amount of space, I also knocked over one of the candles with my foot. When I saw the mess, I was completely unsure what to do. I would have liked to re-enlighten it to bring the ceremony circle into perfect order again. But the wax was still liquid and it would have taken some time. I had read Ludwig’s accounts of his sessions with Josephine carefully and was afraid, that he would misinterpret my attempt to clean up the mess as disobedience or an attempt to gain time. So I just put the candle back where it belonged and got up as quickly as possible. Then I took off my shoes and put them on the ground outside the circle with the toe-cap pointing to the wall. Now it was really going to happen – I would hand over all control to Ludwig and I would receive my first-ever spanking! I took a deep breath and stepped into the circle fully aware of the very special weight of this specific moment.]

Once she was with me, I showed Kaelah the implements and explained the upcoming sequence to her - we would start with a traditional hand spanking, followed by the paddle, followed by the cane. We would take a short break after each segment and proceed to the next one when, and if, she felt ready. Of course, Kaelah could opt out if she did not want to continue, and she could also call it quits at any time during one of the segments by simply asking me to stop.

[It was only later that I realised we hadn’t made up a safeword! The setting of the ceremony didn’t require one; it was a consensual scenario and the aspirant was supposed to take the spanking without complaints. So it was clear that I wouldn’t use phrases like “Please stop.” if I didn’t really mean it. Interestingly, it stayed like that until today: Ludwig and I still haven’t got an explicit safeword. And we didn’t need one so far. Should I ever need Ludwig to stop in a scene where he might interpret “stop” as a phrase in character, I guess I would just say “safeword”, though. I think that would be absolutely clear. But it was great that the setting of our first play didn’t require me to think about any codes or safewords. I just hoped that I wouldn’t have to ask Ludwig to stop (at least not too soon)…]

As one last buildup step before we got started, though, we performed a trust fall together. [Due to the description of the ritual, performing the trust fall wasn’t mandatory. I didn’t know, whether Ludwig would include my idea. He decided to ask me, if I would like to do it before we started with the spanking. And I told him that I wanted to try it.] A trust fall, as some of you will know from motivational workshops or similar events, is when you deliberately let yourself fall over backwards into the arms of another person, relying on that person to catch you. Kaelah had tried it years ago while she was in a youth group and was eager to give it another go ever since. We both thought that it would make for an interesting and fitting addition to our kinky ritual, so we incorporated it.

[The trust fall wasn’t a problem for me when I was a teenager. But I knew that many adults aren’t able to let themselves fall into someone’s arms without losing their body tension and trying to protect themselves. I had tried to exercise the motion sequence by letting myself fall onto my bed. (Yes, I know that I am a control freak!) But the bed has a wooden frame and I was afraid of hitting my head. So, this didn’t really work and I still wasn’t sure whether I would be able to keep my body tension. When Ludwig told me to let myself fall, I spread my arms, tried to make my whole body as stiff as a board and did as I was told…]

In the center of the room, facing the inscription that read "Trust", Kaelah let herself fall over. I caught her, then we did it a second time. "Do you trust me?" I asked her. "Yes" she replied quietly. [I was very glad when I realised that I could still do the trust fall without trying to keep control. It was a wonderful feeling to be caught by Ludwig. I had never been afraid that he would let me fall, I just wasn’t sure whether I could control my fear. Now I was very glad that I had made the decision to give it a try.]

I ordered Kaelah to get out of her Tai Chi suit, remove both the top and the trousers. [I had expected a kind of gradual build-up (I know, I should have known better…) and was quite unprepared when Ludwig gave me the order to remove the whole suit. But then I thought: Okay, then we’ll do it nearly completely right now, so I don’t have to worry about what is going to come concerning the degree of nakedness.] While she remained in the circle, I put the discarded clothing in a corner of the room. "You don't need that anymore for the time being" I commented. Kaelah was wearing red underwear, and I quietly wondered for a moment if she always wore it underneath her suit during Tai Chi training. [Nope!]

After I sat down on the sofa stool, I instructed Kaelah to face the wall, away from me, so that I could look at her from behind. "Right! Time to get started" I said, clapping my hands in anticipation. "You are going to pull your knickers down now." [Now it was clear, there was DEFINITELY no big build-up concerning the degree of nakedness!] "You are going to do it slowly and consciously." With a smile, I added: "And as of now, you are allowed to think ahead to what we are going to do..." After a moment of hesitation [You told me to do it slowly!], Kaelah pulled down her knickers, revealing her bottom to me for the first time. It was about as well-shaped and spankable as I had imagined it to be - which is to say, pretty damn spankable indeed.

[It was the first time I had undressed myself that way in front of a man! The only thing I had been afraid of was that Ludwig might not like my bottom and legs because of the cellulites I have (like many women). So I had told him about it beforehand. Actually, I had talked about everything that made me feel insecure, like the question of being or not being shaved and so on. Having talked about all those things openly made me feel less insecure when I undressed in front of Ludwig. In fact, I realised that I really trusted him and that therefore besides of all the nervousness involved it felt okay to pull down my knickers and stand in front of him with nothing but my bra on.]

Kaelah went over my knee for the first segment, the most classical of all positions. She placed her hands and elbows on the sofa stool, her feet touched the floor, her legs formed a straight line and her bottom was over my lap and slightly up in the air. I gave her the first smack. “That was a light one” I commented. A second smack, more forceful. “That was medium.” The third one. “That one was hard!” Then I settled into a steady rhythm, towards the lighter end of the spectrum. After some 30 seconds, I stopped and asked Kaelah how she was doing. “I'm still alive!” she giggled. I went on and spanked her for another two or three minutes, increasing the speed and the severity at the end. Kaelah would sometimes squirm lightly, but she made no sound at all. Teeth-clenching reactions. It was the kind I liked best, and knowing Kaelah as well as I did by then, it was exactly what I had expected from her.

[I was glad that you had warned me about handspankings. “It doesn’t look as hard as some spankings with implements, but it can be quite painful”, you told me. And you were right! But I was glad that I could take it without making too much fuss. At least you didn’t have to quit during the very first part, I thought afterwards. I didn’t think very much whether I liked being spanked at that time. I just realised that the feeling was okay, it was painful, but not over the top.]

We made our scheduled break after the hand spanking. Kaelah put her knickers and the top of her Tai Chi suit back on. Then she sat down on the floor while I sat on the sofa stool, and we chatted a bit about the scene so far – how she had found it, whether or not the sensations were similar to what she had imagined. [The breaks and the talk between the segments were important elements, especially since this was my first spanking experience. They gave me time to process all the new impressions, and they made me feel cared for.]

When Kaelah was ready, we continued. She removed the suit top again and I instructed her to kneel on the sofa stool on all fours. “Let's up the ante a little, as far as loss of control is concerned” I said gleefully. “This time, I'm going to pull down your knickers myself.” [Actually, this was the most erotic part of the experience for me! I felt absolutely safe, because you told me what was about to happen. But we had talked about my fear about loss of control before and your words also told me that you were going to challenge my limits a bit. That heightened the anticipation and pushed very special buttons. And I realised that I loved (and still do!) the quadruped position!]

I pulled down Kaelah's knickers, as announced, and started spanking her with the leather paddle. Again, I did a few “test smacks” before settling into a rhythm. It got quite hard towards the end and I could see that Kaelah's spanking-virginal bottom was beginning to turn a deep shade of red. I didn't go overboard in terms of severity, but Kaelah had made it clear before her initiation that she wanted to experience a real, proper, no-nonsense thrashing, and since her reactions so far confirmed to me that she could handle it, I was happy to oblige. There was more squirming, but still barely a sound of pain. I made her count the last dozen swats with the paddle aloud.

[The pain the leather paddle produced was quite similar to how the handspanking felt. You also told me about that when you started the spanking. And you added that the paddle had the great advantage that the spanking didn’t hurt your hand. Poor boy! :-) Honestly, the spanking with the leather paddle seemed to be the less interesting part of the session for me, when I thought about it in advance. But it turned out that I liked the paddle and the pain it produced very much indeed! And I was glad when I found out that I was able to count the strokes during a spanking. Yes, I had wondered beforehand, whether I would be able to focus on counting and whether I would be able to speak in a clear voice during a spanking. You don’t know it when you’re a newbie and haven’t got an idea how it feels like!]

During our second break, I had to bring the two extinguished torches out of the room. There was still a fair bit of smoke coming from them and it was becoming an annoyance. [I was sitting on the floor and suddenly thought: Am I a bit dizzy from the spanking? Everything looks a bit foggy… But then I realised that the torches weren’t fully extinguished and asked you to bring them outside for safety reasons.] “Spanking in dense fog, that is new for me as well...” I muttered. The break took longer than the first one, anyway, because Kaelah asked for more time to mentally prepare herself for the dreaded cane. However, there was never any doubt that she wanted to continue. [I needed a moment to prepare myself, but I didn’t want to wait too long, because I was afraid I might back out then. As I already mentioned I wasn’t sure whether I could take a single stroke (the stories about the cane sounded so horrible!) and I was happy that I had at least gone through part one and two…]

For the caning, I wanted to up the ante even more. “Since this is the grand finale, you are going to take everything off now” I told Kaelah. “Understood?” She nodded. So, after removing her bra and knickers as instructed, she stood before me in her full naked glory. I ordered her to stand up straight and put her hands behind her head. [You also told me to spread my legs a bit!] “You are very beautiful” I said while I took a good long look at her, first from behind, then from the front. After a brief pause, I stepped up to Kaelah, touched her upper left arm which she was holding behind her head, and ran my finger down the side of her body, barely missing her left breast. She didn't say anything, but I could tell that it was having an effect. [I was at least quite irritated. I hadn’t expected something like that and was trying to integrate the situation into my mindset. It was a strange mixture. In my mindset I saw it as a kind of obedience test. That fitted to the master / student scenario. But of course standing like that in front of a man who obviously enjoyed it also raised different thoughts…]

“It's a bit different from being in the sauna, isn't it?” I remarked casually, referring to something Kaelah had said during our first talk, when I asked her if she would have any objections against being naked. Kaelah suppressed a grin. “Yes, a little” she said quietly. [Since I thought of the whole thing as a kind of test, I tried to be really honest with my answer, like we had agreed beforehand. So, I needed a few seconds to think about the question. It’s not completely different, I thought, because being naked is something natural and I feel safe with Ludwig and not very ashamed, almost like being naked in the sauna. But, on the other hand, this was an erotic situation and being naked was a part of that erotic experience, so it somehow was different. And, of course, I usually don’t stand around in a position like that in the sauna! ;-)]

After this brief (and, admittedly, self-indulgent) foreplay, Kaelah bent over the sofa stool for the final segment of her initiation. I announced that I was going to give her four light strokes with the cane, as a first taste, followed by four harder ones. Then, we would take it from there. “Alright?” Kaelah nodded vigorously. I assumed my stance and gave her the first stroke. Kaelah reacted with a slight flinch, but didn't make a sound. [I had expected the pain of the cane to be much worse than the pain the hand and the leather paddle had produced. But since I was warmed up nicely by that point and the stroke was a light one, the pain wasn't nearly as bad as in my imagination. I was a bit stunned and tried to understand what was going on…]

Kaelah did not count the stroke. I waited for a couple of seconds: “Well, that one didn’t count…” “Am I supposed to count already?” asked Kaelah. “Indeed you are” I replied. That trick worked every time. [I assumed that it must have been a slight mistake on your behalf, confusing Klingons with Betazoids. Since I didn’t have to count the strokes from the very beginning during the first and second part of the session and since you didn’t mention anything about it when the third part started, you obviously must have assumed that I had the ability to read your mind… May I add that today, my very first question at the beginning of a spanking usually is: “Do I have to count?”]

So, we started again. Four light cane strokes, then four harder ones. Kaelah was squirming visibly after each one, sometimes throwing her head back a little, but she was still remarkably composed. The latter strokes produced some visible lines on her bottom, over the reddening from the paddle. After inspecting my handiwork, I asked: “So... How many of those do you think you need to feel properly initiated?” Kaelah thought about it for a moment. “Twelve more...?” she suggested tentatively. [I was thinking very hard what could have been the right answer for that question. I didn’t want to look like a wimp, but I didn’t want to overdo it, either, since I didn’t know how much the pain might accumulate after a certain number of strokes. So, I thought that twelve would be an acceptable, round number…] I was silent. [And I started feeling like a wimp!] After a few seconds had passed, Kaelah made another stab: “Was that too little?” I nodded: “Tell you what, let's do sixteen more. That adds up to twenty-four. Two dozen, nice round number, one stroke for each candle on the floor...”

Kaelah was fine with that. I gave her the sixteen, and fairly hard ones at that – after all, I wanted her to feel “properly initiated” afterwards, as promised. Kaelah's squirming got wilder, and I thought that I could hear the occasional gasp of pain, but maybe that was wishful thinking on my part. What a brave girl! Gasps or no gasps, the final caning did produce some nice, vivid welts, and I was happy about that. I certainly wouldn't have to worry that I hadn't done my job right. As for Kaelah, she was most impressive. Which, again, was what I had expected all along.

[It became harder to deal with the strokes when you increased the force. But it was still bearable. I was very happy that I made it through the whole set of strokes without having to quit. And I was more careful at the end of the spanking! Since I had read in your accounts on your sessions with Josephine that you loved to dish out some extra-strokes when a spankee stood up without your permission after a spanking, I obediently waited until you told me to get up. Giving you one excuse for adding more strokes was really enough for the day! ;-)]

When it was all over, I inspected the stripes, then took Kaelah to the mirror so that she could take a look at them herself. [I have to admit that I was quite shocked (not really in a negative way!) when I saw the marks. They told me that the spanking really hadn’t been too soft and that I could be happy with the way I had taken it.] Finally, just like I had done immediately before the ritual, I instructed Kaelah to kneel on the floor and look at herself in the mirror. “Look at yourself now” I said. “Think about how you feel now, and who you are now...”

[I don’t know what I really thought when I was kneeling in front of the mirror. During the whole session, the most interesting development was that I was getting more and more calm and happy with every new step I had successfully taken. That is still a quite typical reaction for me today, although I have experienced a greater variety of different mindsets and reactions by now. What I remember is that I knocked my knee on the mirror again, when I was finally told to stand up…]

I left her alone with her thoughts for a moment. Then she got into her Tai Chi suit again and we sat down on the sofa stool together, talking about how she had found the scene – and how she felt, now that the Big Event had finally happened. [You asked me whether I wanted to start with the second tea ceremony right away or whether I would like to sit on the sofa stool with you for a moment. I realised how much I needed the close contact with you now and decided for the sofa stool. As much as I love rituals, a spanking session without some cuddling (at least at the end) is worth only half as much!] Afterwards, we held the second tea ceremony, which was more informal than the first one, but just as festive.

We took some photographs of Kaelah's bottom while the marks were still fresh and before I put some arnica on them. Then we packed everything up, extinguished the candles and emerged from the ritual chamber. Less than an hour had passed since we entered it, but of course, it seemed much longer. The sun had just disappeared behind the horizon. We spent the rest of the evening talking and cuddling on the sofa in Kaelah's living room. [Yes, the evening was wonderful. And we didn’t only talk and cuddle, I also received my very first erotic kiss on that evening, but that is a different and more private (yes, I really see it like that after all we have just written down here) story! :-)]

It had been an extraordinary day from start to finish, one of the best I could remember. I was so glad that Kaelah had made her big plunge, successfully, that it had gone so well, and that she had chosen me as the one to guide her through it. It was still too good to be true. This gift of trust was awe-inspiring in itself, something I had always dreamed about. The beautiful, inventive setting we then put together and the fact that it all worked out so well when the day came was almost beyond belief. It was, without a doubt, the most special and memorable kinky experience I had ever had. It still is to this day. [It’s the same from my point of view, although we’ve had many more fantastic play sessions by now! But the first time remains something very special and it was as good as even a perfectionist like me could have imagined when asked for the best possible experience when starting to live out one’s kink. And this was just the beginning of a great and crazy journey for two! :-)]

Some Questions Answered by Pedro

Originally, I was going to write down some personal thoughts about the recent Mood Pictures raid today. However, I have by now received a second email from Pedro, where he answers some questions I sent him and goes into more detail about the whole affair. So, instead of giving you my second-hand guessings about what I believe happened, I'm giving you Pedro's first-hand account of what, according to him, did (and didn't) happen.

Needless to say, I can't vouch for the truthfulness of Pedro's version of events, just as I can't vouch for the truthfulness of the police version - I may have my suspicions based on my own past experiences with Mood and plain common sense, but ultimately, I don't know what took place at that recent shoot, because I wasn't there! I am simply reprinting Pedro's answers here, verbatim and without comment, so that people can form their own opinions. Regardless of what ultimately comes out of this whole story, I believe it is only fair that Mood Pictures should get to state their own side of it, like anyone accused of wrong-doing. Since the mainstream press obviously isn't doing much balanced reporting (it rarely does about the subject of BDSM videos), I think we kinky bloggers should at least try to do better.

(Speaking of the mainstream press, I also found this article on the English website of the Budapest Times, thanks to Greg. It is shorter than the Hungarian ones translated so far, and it doesn't really say anything new, but at least is is an original, English-language source.)

Now for Pedro's email. Obviously, my questions are in italics, his answers are in normal text:

One translation I read says that the woman who went to the police was hired as a domina - not one of the spanked girls! The other translation says that it was one of the spanked girls. Can you tell me which version is correct?

Pedro: Definitely a sub. Please don't handle any articles [in the press as] 100% correct. There were many many lies in them.

For example, they mention strong security which required the SWAT team. Well, we had Popey [Mood's security guard during video shoots]. Extreme looking guy, but very lighthearted inside. They mention that we were keeping the tortured girls in boxes. Well, when they rushed in, we were making photoshots for mood art. One girl was in a box for the photoshooting. And the most important: The girl, who went to the police, did a very severe scene. But in the last 10 minutes of the scene she was not even tied. She was tied in the beginning of the scene, but shortly [afterwards] released. So that's another lie, that she was forced because she was tied.

There is also the claim in the article that you lied to the woman about the severity / reality of the spankings - she claims that she was told that it would be light and that she would only "play pain".

Pedro: No. Of course not. We do a pre-shooting and a post-shooting mini interview with each girls. At all pre-shooting interviews (which are always recorded), we always ask whether they are aware of that this will be very painful, and all whippings, canings are real? So we can prove this.

Do you have any idea why this girl at the Elite Pain shoot would go to the police to say things which, according to you, are not true?

Pedro: I can only guess. We were thinking about it quite a lot of time. What we know is that she went to the police only three days after the shooting. What we think is most likely, that she has a boyfriend or a husband. The girl did not tell the guy that she was going to go to an erotic movie shooting. Once the guy discovered the marks, he questioned the girl. The girl may have told that she was forced to do it, so the guy took her to the police. I repeat, I don't know why this happened, but this seems to be the most reasonable for me.

The girl also lied to the police that we have about 10 big security guys who keep the girls inside. Well, if you remember [the shoot last year], the girls was not forced to stay at all. And we have only Popey. So the whole police action was a silly thing. SWAT team for mood pictures??? I would laugh if it did not happen with us. But it did. They handcuffed even the girls. If you see the video [the TV footage], you can see the girls on the floor. Actually, they caused much bigger stress for those girls during the raid than we did to anyone. They even let the girl in the box bounded for about an hour. Normally the girl was going to be taken out by us for the next photo in a minute. These are the heroes of our police (as they mention in the newspaper). Twenty men with guns defeated the whole Mood Pictures staff.

Movie Review: Wheatley Manor

Producer:
Northern Spanking Films (released in 2009)

Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence:

They have rules at the manor, and particular ways

Victim Appeal:
In this category, "Wheatley Manor" might very well be the single most outstanding video I have reviewed so far. It stars Amelia-Jane Rutherford, Amy Hunter, Leia-Ann Woods and the now (sadly) retired Niki Flynn - four of their generation's best spanking actresses in the UK. The term actress really applies to each of them, especially here. It is readily apparent that "Wheatley Manor" is a labour of love from everyone involved, that they tried to create something good not just as spanking porn, but as a film. Which is how things ought to be, really, but it's still something you see much too rarely in our industry.

Because this is a labour of love, one needs to mention prominently all the collaborators behind it, not just the "professional victims". The film is directed by Lucy McLean of Northern Spanking, the story was created by Stephen Lewis. Stephen also stars as the main male top, with Henry Higgins making a cameo appearance.

Gratuitous Sadism:
"Wheatley Manor" has a running time of 2 hours 51 minutes (not including the ample bonus material), so it is a truly epic movie. I'm not going to recount every single scene here. Not only would it make the review indigestibly long, it would also give away too much - I don't want to spoil one of the few spanking films where the story and the characters are just as interesting as the action.

Suffice to briefly describe the basic scenario: Amelia-Jane, Niki and Leia are friends who know each other from school. On Leia's suggestion (she has been there before), they sign up for a week at Wheatley Manor. The other two think that they are in for a nice spa holiday, but of course, it turns out to be far more unusual than that. As Miss Hunter, one of the hosts, explains to the three friends on arrival: "You will find that Wheatley Manor has a very... particular regime. It is a lovely house with many activities, and I am sure you will learn a lot about yourselves here." Then she hands them the uniforms which they are supposed to wear at all times.

As one might imagine, Amelia-Jane and Niki are rather freaked out by the prospect. Amelia-Jane, in particular, being the most assertive and willful of the three, wants no part of it initially. However, she decides to stay (simply to prove that she can handle it, one suspects), and in time, she too benefits from the regime at Wheatley Manor. In the words of Professor Lewis, who runs the place: "Our job at Wheatley Manor is to go through your file, look at your personality traits, decide what you need for the benefit of you and your future." Of course, what is needed usually includes corporal punishment.

I'm not even sure if I should do the "body count" which I usually have in this section, recording the exact number of cane strokes or the minutes that an OTK spanking lasted. This is not the point of "Wheatley Manor". Actually, the first spanking in the film takes place off-screen (it is heard, but not seen), and parts of later scenes occur off-screen as well. How does one count that?

But I'll give you a rough overview of the CP action, because you will undoubtedly want to know about that. Needless to say, all three visitors receive hand spankings and bare bottom canings (also canings over their knickers, but let's not go into too much detail for the purpose of this list!). Niki is whacked with a wooden spoon when she is late for dinner. Amelia-Jane gets her bottom flogged by Stephen Lewis. There is some bastinado for Niki and Leia (with Henry Higgins, faceless, as the "Bastinado Host"), and a hand tawsing for Amelia-Jane. The movie has a roughly equal mix of M/F and F/F, the latter with Amy Hunter as the top. Amy also gets a caning from Professor Lewis because she broke one of the house rules herself, and at the end, she is paddled and caned by Nki and Leia in a role reversal. Followed by the very last spanking of "Wheatley Manor", but I am not going to spoil that for you... The severity throughout the film is what I would call medium, and comparable to what you usually see on the Northern Spanking website.

Best Reactions:
As much as I love Niki Flynn as a professional victim and as a friend, she was always too loud for my taste during her CP scenes. Too much over-acting. The same applies, to a lesser degree, to Amelia-Jane Rutherford. On the other hand, I always enjoyed Leia-Ann Wood's teeth-clenching reactions a lot, which are usually subtly angry and subtly lustful at the same time. The contrast is especially striking when you have all of them in one movie. Predictably, then, I like Leia's scenes best here, and Amy Hunter's. Leia receiving a sort of "welcome caning" from Professor Lewis towards the beginning of the film is my favourite scene of all in terms of action and reaction. I'm going to do the "body count" for that one at least: she gets 12 strokes (on-screen, that is, with more being heard from off-screen).

Best Line:
There is a lot of great, witty dialogue in "Wheatley Manor", thanks to Stephen Lewis' wonderful script. However, the line I liked best of all appears very straightforward at first sight, a bit bland, even. When Miss Hunter welcomes the three guests, they inquire what the theme, the concept of the manor is. "I want to know what this is about!" exclaims an increasingly exasperated Amelia-Jane. Miss Hunter replies: "Wheatley Manor is about you." As I said, there are far wittier, funnier lines in the film, but this one is awesome nonetheless. Ominous, ambiguous, and encapsulating the whole film, in a way.

Nice Psychological Touch:
The whole concept of "self-improvement through unorthodox methods" is a psychologically nice idea to begin with. It isn't exactly new in the realm of spanking videos, but I've never seen it done in quite this form before, and rarely with such well-written characters. It is obvious that Stephen Lewis tailor-made all the parts specifically and affectionately for the four actresses: Niki as the shy, awkward girl, Leia as the enigmatic, slightly freaky, but loveable one, Amelia-Jane as the headstrong princess and Amy as the head girl of sorts. They all pretty much appear "as themselves" here (or rather, as their public personas, half-real and half-fictional). From start to finish, "Wheatley Manor" lives from these contrasting, at times clashing personalities, and from the interpersonal dynamics.

There is a great, extended scene at the beginning which I liked in particular. One after the other (first Leia, then Niki, then Amelia-Jane), the girls visit the office of Professor Lewis, to get a welcome talk (and a welcome caning). Each time, what goes on inside the office is juxtaposed with the whispered conversation between the two girls who remain outside and listen in on what is happening. It is a wonderfully written and edited sequence, and stylistically interesting (they use subtitles for the whispered conversation, with different colours for the three characters, patterned after the colours of the ribbons they are wearing). Most importantly, though, it does a great job of bringing out the individual personalities, introducing the past histories of the characters and setting the stage for everything that is about to follow.

How Good Is It Really?

"Wheatley Manor" has immediately established itself as one of my favourite spanking films. In terms of action, it isn't all that spectacular, actually - Leia's welcome caning and the last scene with Amy Hunter getting her comeuppance from the other three girls are very hot indeed, but the other spankings are merely good, not great. As a film, however, this one stands on a level that very few others reach. The craftsmanship is good, the writing is excellent and the cast is outstanding (certainly the best ensemble performance I have reviewed so far). There are funny moments, sexy moments, dark moments, and it all blends well because of the setting - most films that have one ballet lesson scene and one interrogation scene would probably feel artificial, but they fit together organically here. The result is a three hour epic that captivates during (almost) every second.

In addition to the main feature, "Wheatley Manor" includes a bonus disc with 92 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, interviews with all the main collaborators and an alternate ending.

What You Learned:
I liked Stephen Lewis as a top when I saw him on Northern Spanking and Bars and Stripes, but he never figured that high on my radar as a writer. Now he does.

Mood Pictures Raided By Police

Under normal circumstances, I would now finally get on with the third and last part of the story about Kaelah's first spanking. However, we decided to delay it again - this time, because of current events in the spanking video world.

As many of you will know already, the studio of Mood Pictures, the Hungarian CP film producer about whom I have written a fair bit already on this blog, was raided by the police on the weekend of January 23rd / 24th. Fourteen people were arrested at the scene, three of them now face charges. The accusation is that, at a movie shoot in early January, they ignored a model who was repeatedly safewording, asking them to stop a scene, and continued to beat her. Mood Pictures deny these charges. There will now very probably be a court case against them.

I've been reviewing Mood's videos for years, I have an email correspondence with Pedro (one of the founders and producers) that goes back to 2004, and I even guest starred in one of their videos once, my first professional CP film. I repeatedly and in good faith defended them against urban legends about abuse (I was critical of a few points, too, like the inaccuracy of their tops). So, needless to say, I take these news very seriously indeed. In recent days, I also got a truckload of reader emails: why is the Mood website down? Are the rumours about a police raid true? Do I know anything about it?

To start with the third question: no, I didn't know anything until Tom Rohwer, who runs the German-language BDSM news site Art Noir, contacted me last Wednesday. I hadn't even noticed that Mood's site was down. So I first heard about the story in the news, like everyone else, I suppose. I've been in contact with a few people ever since - among other things, trying to get an accurate translation of the original Hungarian article(s). On Sunday, I got an email from Pedro, who denies the accusations. I will quote some passages from it below.

First off, though, the version given by the Hungarian media and the police. I'm going to take a look at both sides of the story here, as accurately and as unbiased as possible.

The police version

At this early stage, it is still difficult to separate fact from fiction. The story broke in the Hungarian newspapers on January 27th, and the translations I read so far contradict each other in at least one key point. It also seems that there is some confusion in the original articles themselves - which wouldn't be surprising, given that the average journalist, like the average vanilla person, doesn't know a whole lot about BDSM, and even less about the extreme forms practiced by Mood.

For instance, one English translation given by Adele Haze on her blog (written by Krampus) says that the woman who complained to the police was the spankee in the scene in question - the alleged victim herself. However, Tom Rohwer, in his synopsis of the same article, says that the woman who complained had been hired as a domme. Obviously this is a very important detail! After exchanging some emails with both Krampus and Tom, I tend to believe that the version by Krampus is the correct one - that the woman was hired as a spankee, not as a domme. But it is one example among others where the facts of the matter aren't quite clear yet.

Anyway, here is the story given in the Hungarian media, as best as I currently understand it (when I use quotes, I am quoting the translation by Krampus):

A woman in dire financial straits replied to an advertisement in a newspaper about a nude modelling job. She was told that it would be a BDSM video shoot, but she claims that the producers lied to her when they told her that she would only be hit lightly and that she would mostly pretend to be in pain. (Obviously, this is a serious accusation in itself - if true, it would mean that her consent was not really informed consent to begin with.)

At the shoot, she was thrashed by another woman with a cane, a whip and "a wide plastic thing" (it might be a reference to a strap, or a paddle). Beforehand, they had agreed on a safeword ("Stop it, I beg you, my lord!") which she would use if she wanted to stop the scene. However, when it got too much for her and she used the safeword, she was begging in vain - the producer took over and continued the scene to the end, beating the woman until she was bleeding.

She wrote an anonymous letter to the police afterwards, but included her cell phone number so that she could be identified. The police claim that they had received similar complaints about this producer in the past. So, they observed the studio for a couple of days, and then, during another shoot, they struck. A special police task force stormed the building (there is TV footage of the special forces team, wielding submachine guns). They arrested everyone at the scene - including the models, apparently. Three people were later charged with "violations of personal freedom" and "causing bodily harm". At the moment, the police are conducting a large-scale investigation about possible other cases where actresses were beaten and abused against their will during the BDSM shoots.

A few other issues are mentioned in the reports, such as the nurse employed by Mood to provide medical aftercare for the models, or the question of whether such videos are legal in Hungary in the first place (what level of injury can one legally consent to?). However, the most serious accusation is obviously the one that the woman's pleas to stop the scene were ignored, and the implication that there might have been other, similar cases before.

The Mood Pictures version

In the email I received from Pedro last Sunday, he denies this accusation. He has no objections against me posting it here. I am quoting verbatim - Pedro's English may not be perfect (it's better than my Hungarian for sure), but you can understand what he means, and I wanted to leave the text unaltered so that everyone can read it as an original, first-hand source:

“As you know, during the [recent] photo shot for mood-art the studio was raided with a lot of policemen (commando stile), and all of us was arrested, handcuffed. We did not know why.”

“Only after keeping us in for 10-12 hours, were we told that a girl went into the police three days after the last ElitePain shooting, telling that she was not let to quit a scene, and was forced to do it (which is obviously not true).”

“The police does everything to find evidence against us, the media showed only [reports about] us for a couple of days. You can guess the comments of the vanillas. For example: When the police raided the studio, we were doing a photo set, where a girl was bound, and placed in a big box. The media showed the photo like we were holding there kidnapped girls in boxes.”

“This will be a very long process I think. And I don’t think we will do anything like Mood in the future. So I think Mood Pictures is over.”

“That’s what I can tell you at the moment. It will be good news for many [who don't like our videos], I think.”

Pedro added that I should feel free to report what he wrote, but that he doesn't have the energy for an extended correspondence under the current circumstances. I wrote him another mail with some questions (such as, what about the accusation that the woman had been lied to about the severity of the beatings?), but have not received a reply yet. I will keep you updated about any important news I get out of Hungary, from both sides.

The debate so far - reason vs. hyperbole

Needless to say, if the accusations against Mood turn out to be true, it would be very sad and sombering news indeed - especially for people like me who have defended them in the past. On the other hand, I have seen enough awful, sensationalist reporting over the years to take everything that is written in the mainstream press about BDSM videos with a very large grain of salt. Producers who did far more harmless stuff than Mood have become the targets of over-eager police investigations in the past, and had their lives and reputations ruined by the accompanying media furore. So one will have to wait and see. I think we will only get a clear picture of what really happened when the court case is over, if ever.

In the meantime, the debate in our own kinky community will probably develop along predictable lines. Mood Pictures and their sister sites (Mood Castings, Elite Pain, etc.) have polarised fans of CP erotica like very few other producers. In part, this polarisation was actively sought by Mood themselves, in their constant quest (over the top, in my opinion) to promote themselves as the company making "The Most Brutal Spanking Videos in the World", exclamation mark. That is now backfiring on them. People who never liked Mood because of the extreme nature of their videos, or because they employed vanilla models, or whatever, will take the current events as confirmation that they were always right. On the other hand, people like me, who were fans and who had a personal correspondence with Mood, will be more skeptical about the accusations. As much as one tries to be objective, I think it's hard not to be a little biased one way or the other, simply because there have been so many debates about Mood already and because the old positions are fairly well-entrenched.

That said, the recent discussion on Adele's blog (to which I contributed as well) was very civil and matter-of-fact. Which goes to show you, once again, that intelligent blogs attract intelligent audiences. Even the commenters who strongly dislike Mood voiced their opinions in a calm, non-insulting manner, and I've always respected that (even though the vitriol-laden tirades can be fun, in their way, too - my favourite insults so far, directed at me because of my own participation in a Mood video, are "sociopath", "true Teutonic demagogue" and "sick, sick man").

I expect the debate at Adele's to remain the exception to the rule, though. Call me pessimistic, but I'm in my 30's and I'm old enough to know that, whenever the forces of reason and hysteria clash, hysteria will inevitably win in the end - at least on the grand stage. People will believe anything. Especially when it's crass and sensationalist and they read it in a newspaper somewhere, because then, it must obviously be true.

I'll give you just one example which I saw this week: this Hungarian article about Mood, in the translation by Krampus (which I believe to be the most accurate so far), mentions that "medicines and painkillers" were found in the building. It is my understanding that these were sometimes given to models after a shoot, by the nurse which Mood always employed. In another translation of the same article, this becomes "drugs and painkillers". In a third version I saw, building on the second one, it becomes just "drugs". And voilà, I've already seen the first thread on a spanking forum somewhere, where a poster mutters darkly about how "drugs were found on the premises", making it sound as if Mood were dealing in crack and cocaine as well. This is how I expect the debate to develop, in most places.

All that as it may be, the question that really matters is: will the accusations made by this model against Mood (more precisely, against Elite Pain) turn out to be true? I'll write down my thoughts on that in the next post, along with my thoughts on some related, general issues like consent, legality and safety, and a look back on my own experiences during the "Inmates" shoot. For today, I just wanted to give you both sides of the recent news, from the police / the mainstream media and from Pedro, without much comment from myself. The original sources, so to speak. It should be enough for a lively discussion already, and it will enlighten those among my readers who hadn't heard about the story yet.

Kaelah's Corner (Jan 2010): 'Til The Bitter End

(The day after. Yes, that's my blood on the cane!)

Remember when I wrote in my Anderswelt post that I'm not into severe spankings?! Well, that hasn't changed. But I also wrote that I might try a severe scene once in order to overcome the problems I have with the edgy spanking movies produced by some of the Eastern European producers and as a special present for Ludwig. It has finally happened now and as you can easily guess I have survived.

The scene was the main part of a bigger, more complex project I set up under the working title "Das Experiment" ("the experiment"). I got a 50 strokes caning from Ludwig that was as severe as the hardest caning he had ever dished out (as a warden in the Mood Pictures film Inmates). I had arranged the setting and the whipping bench we used for the caning. There was no role-play involved, no characters, no storyline. Just a room with a whipping bench, Ludwig, me and the cane. The caning was designed to be taken fully naked and I was supposed to count the strokes. Both of us could stop the caning any time we wanted or considered it to be necessary. In contrast to the movie scenes, I wasn't tied down because I wanted to show also optically that taking the caning was a free choice of mine. And there was another difference to the caning Ludwig did as a part of his video shoot: the strokes were delivered in two sets which consisted of 25 strokes each, separated by a short break that was part of the experiment design.

I'm going to give you a detailed report on the experiment in the June and July edition of Kaelah's corner. There are three reasons for the delay. First of all, I already have different topics for the editions from February to May. Secondly, since I'm not into such severe scenes, I made myself very vulnerable by trying this and I need time to think about it all, before I feel ready to give you the full story. And, last but not least, it will simply take some time and effort to go through all the material we've produced throughout the experiment.

But I would like to tell you about the caning itself today. And I would like to ask you some questions that occurred afterwards.

Doing such a hard scene raised a lot of fears on my part. For instance, I was afraid of having to quit, of showing very strong reactions that I don't find sexy, of ending up with marks I found too heavy or of disappointing Ludwig in some way. Actually, there were just very few positive pictures in my mind. Only in case I would be able to go through the whole caning and in case I could do it in a manner I found "appropriate", then I might be able to connect the scene to my heroine-fantasies. I knew from previous experiences with less hard canings that this scenario wasn't very likely and that there was a high chance that I would find the whole scene rather unerotic. I just hoped that the experience wouldn't be too bad and that the outcome would outweigh the costs.

Unfortunately, I was in a rather suboptimal mental and physical state on the day the caning was due to happen. Ludwig had always told me that I didn't have to do it, in case I wasn't sure whether it might do me harm. And he asked me again that day whether I really wanted to do it. Although I was in a rather bad mood and the negative pictures dominated my thoughts, I didn't want to back out. Not trying it would have been even worse than the negative experiences I could possibly make during the scene.

So, I finally climbed on the whipping bench and told Ludwig I was as ready as I would ever be. But I already felt shaky, sick and a bit dizzy before even a single stroke had fallen. Today, I can proudly state that, despite my negative mindset, I managed to take the full number of strokes! And I'm not completely unhappy with my reactions, either. Looking back, I can even say that I find the scene partially erotic (it surely didn't feel erotic during the caning!). But the pain exceeded my tolerance level by more than just a few per cent. In combination with my fears and negative mindset this led to rather strong reactions I wasn't prepared for. They weren't as strong as I had feared, but stronger than I had hoped for and different from what I had expected. So, looking back, my feelings towards the scene remain partly negative and I'm not completely happy with it.

I talked to Ludwig about it and we raised some interesting questions. First of all, Ludwig fortunately didn't find the part that went "wrong" from my point of view unerotic. While he prefers restrained and controlled reactions, the most important thing for him is that the reactions are genuine. And my reactions obviously weren't so much over the top that he would find them annoying. I told Ludwig that I didn't feel brave enough because I didn't really know how to deal with the pain which made me feel very helpless and somehow lost. Ludwig is into brave girls and I was afraid that he would also be of the opinion that I wasn't brave enough.

Instead, Ludwig raised the question whether it is braver to do such a scene when one can take it easily and without struggling, or going through it until the bitter end despite not knowing how to deal with it and struggling a lot? Thinking about it, I have to agree with his thoughts. Interestingly, in case someone else would have made and told me about the scene, I wouldn't have interpreted the reactions as a sign of weakness. But in my own play, not knowing how to deal with the pain, struggling a lot and showing stronger reactions doesn't fit to my heroine-fantasies.

So, the question is: What is bravery??? As you might already have realised, I haven't written how the scene unfolded exactly. Instead, I have written down five possible descriptions of the scene. They all contain reactions / events I would have been unhappy with. Based on the descriptions I would like to hear some suggestions and thoughts on the topic of bravery from you. For all the tops, who are into brave bottoms: How much would the five different scenarios attract or annoy you? How do you define bravery? Which reactions do you find particularly interesting / sexy / annoying? Comments of all those who aren’t living out their kink but watch kinky films are very welcome, too! And to the bottoms who like the thought of being brave: Would some of the events described make you feel like a wimp? What makes you feel brave? Do you judge your own scenes differently than those of others?

Here are the five possible descriptions of the scene:

Story A:

When the caning started, the pain of the first strokes already drew my breath away. With each stroke, I had less breath to count out loud. I felt more and more dizzy, which increased the panic inside me, but I didn’t want to quit. I hoped that I would somehow make it through the first 25 strokes. Fortunately, Ludwig was more reasonable than me. He stopped the caning after 17 strokes because he realised the state I was in. Ludwig told me to take deep breaths and brought me something to drink. I was completely frustrated. I didn’t even make it through the first 25 strokes! Ludwig tried to calm me down. After a few minutes of rest I felt less shaky, but I was still sad. Nearly fainting surely wasn’t a sexy reaction!

Despite Ludwig's suggestion to stop the scene, I was adamant that I wanted to continue. Ludwig told me to focus on my breathing and we finished the first set of strokes with some louder reactions but less dizziness on my behalf. After another short break, we started with the second set of strokes. At first it went quite well. But then the strokes were getting more severe and I started gasping and moaning. It was getting harder and harder to control my reactions. Several times Ludwig reminded me to breathe. Then it happened: I lost my count. Since we didn’t do any role-play, Ludwig simply gave me the right number (37) when I asked him. Angrily, I focused on the rest of the fight and managed to go through the last strokes with some suppressed moaning and some wincing but no stronger reactions otherwise.

Still, I was a bit frustrated about the unplanned break during the first half and having lost count during the second half. But Ludwig told me that he liked my otherwise suppressed reactions (given the severity of the caning). And of course, he was quite happy about my little counting problem, too. After all, I can’t make fun of his miscounting in the Comeuppance clip any more…

Story B:

When the caning started, the first strokes already burned like fire. I found myself gasping, moaning and cursing even at the very first strokes. This was definitely beyond my normal limits. Again, the thought about possible severe marks and bloody welts occurred in my mind. I started to panic which resulted in louder moans, more gasping and a feeling of dizziness. Ludwig asked me if I wanted to quit. I refused and managed to go through the first set of strokes.

During the break I tried to deal with the shock about the amount of pain and the fears about going too far. Then I made a mistake – I caught a glimpse of the marks on my bottom, dark red welts with some bloody spots. The bad feeling of playing beyond my limits became more intense. But I didn't say a word. My stomach clenched when we started the second part. I managed to go through the first strokes with some moans and gasping. But when Ludwig increased the force after stroke number 35 the fears broke lose. After stroke number 38 a started crying, and the moaning and crying became heavier after each stroke. I didn’t quit, but when the caning was over I had a tear-stained face und was shaking heavily. Breaking is definitely a reaction I don’t find attractive at all! Ludwig soothed me and calmed me down. After I had told him what had happened, he also managed to reassure me that the marks weren't too heavy and would be healed soon.

However, I was frustrated about the crying, knowing that Ludwig is into restrained reactions and those weren’t restrained at all! But Ludwig told me that he also loves a good build-up of a CP scene and that the increasing intensity of my reactions beautifully matched the increasing severity of the caning. And he was proud that despite of my fears and the crying I didn’t quit. Which, as he said, means that I wasn’t really broken…

Story C:

I’m not into cold canings and I hate the kind of pain the cane produces. Ludwig’s first strokes weren’t full force, but already very hard. After a few strokes I started to panic. I managed to keep my position for some more strokes, but after 11 strokes I started flinching. Something I normally don’t do! I tried not to move, but my reflexes were stronger than my mental control. Ludwig had more and more problems to hit the right spot. At stroke number 23 ,I even kicked my leg and nearly got my foot hit. Ludwig stopped for a moment and told me to keep still. “I really try!” I replied, nearly crying out of frustration. I managed to finish the first set without wriggling too much.

During the break, Ludwig told me that he had reduced the force of the strokes because he was afraid to injure me. He didn't want to go on with the second part, because from his point of view it was too much for me. That frustrated me even more. I definitely didn't want to quit, and I felt strong enough to go on with part two. So, I suggested tying me down for my own safety. At first, Ludwig was against it, because for him restraints are just a decorative element. But I insisted on trying it, and knowing how important the scene was for me, Ludwig finally agreed. I told him not to hold back in part two. The caning went much better being tied down. I struggled against my restraints and during the last ten full force strokes I also got louder. But I managed to go through it without crying or yelling.

Still, I was frustrated that I hadn’t managed to hold still and needed the restraints. Ludwig on the other hand was very relieved that it obviously was the right decision to go with part two. And he liked the mixture of visible struggling and rather suppressed vocal reactions…

Story D:

During the first strokes I realized that I had no plan how to deal with the pain. I managed to control my upcoming panic for a short time, but after stroke number five I suddenly started to hyperventilate. I frantically tried to control my breath (not knowing that I would have had to reduce the amount of oxygen), but it didn’t work. Panting like a dachshund after a long sprint definitely wasn’t sexy! Even when Ludwig stopped a few seconds after stroke number ten, caressed me and told me to breath calmly, I didn’t manage to calm down. Since I somehow still managed to count the strokes in a quite clear voice, Ludwig decided to go on. But I felt more and more dizzy, my mouth went try and then suddenly my hands and feet started going numb. That didn’t help to reduce my panic. But I made it through the first part of the caning without fainting. By the end, my forearms were numb, too, and my hands were cramped. I hang limb over the whipping bench breathing like mad, trying to regain my composure and struggling with the feeling of passing out any time soon.

Ludwig looked after me and brought me something to drink. I stood up and it took a while until the numbness in my hands and feet and the dizziness were gone. I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to go through the second part without another break. But quitting wasn’t an option. So, despite of my fears, I finally climbed on the whipping bench again. Ludwig asked me (twice!) whether I really wanted to go on and I said yes. This time, I wanted to keep my composure. At least for a few strokes. I focused on my breathing and managed to remain calm besides some suppressed moaning, hissing and wincing. After stroke number 35 Ludwig increased the force again and it became harder to deal with the pain. I fought with every new stroke. Realising that this time I had a chance to win the battle, I grew stronger and stronger. The last ten strokes were full force, but I wasn’t willing to lose control again. And then it was all over and I felt relieved that the second part went much better than the first part of the caning.

However, the first part was a rather bad experience for me and to my mind also very unsexy! But Ludwig told me that he liked the combination of the two different reactions very much. And from his point of view, I already had been brave during part one and very brave during the second part…

Story E:

After only the second stroke I was shocked about the wave of pain surging through my body. I howled out in pain and clawed my hands into the whipping bench. During the next strokes I frantically tried to retrieve my composure and to become more quiet. At the same time, I tried to keep my position, count the strokes and not to start crying. Of course I wasn’t able to focus on all these tasks at once, so I panicked even more and my reactions got louder and louder. After stroke number 15 I was completely exhausted and despaired and told Ludwig to stop. He stopped immediately and tried to soothe me.

I felt like a wimp and was totally frustrated. It took a while until Ludwig managed to calm me down. He reassured me that my vocal reactions didn’t annoy him and that they were pretty normal given the severity of the caning and not as loud as I thought. He told me to let go instead of suppressing the screaming. After a few minutes I felt ready to start again, and we finished the first set of strokes, again with some quite loud screams and howls on my behalf. During the break I just hoped that I would manage to remain a bit more controlled in part two. And it worked - at least for the first ten strokes. Then Ludwig started increasing the force from hard to almost full force and my screaming got louder again. During the last eight strokes I nearly screamed from the top of my lungs. Then it suddenly was over. I felt quite dizzy and again very exhausted. Now I knew what Ludwig meant when he said that much louder reactions were possible. At least I hadn’t started crying.

Still, I was very frustrated about the screaming and feeling so helpless because I couldn’t control it. But Ludwig told me that he liked how my reactions reflected the increasing force of the strokes. Had I screamed my head off during the whole caning it might have annoyed him, but the decreasing loss of control and composure going along with the increasing intensity of the caning and distress was something he found quite attractive…

So, these are five possible descriptions of my caning. I wouldn’t have predicted what really happened. But as you might already have guessed, on of the five descriptions tells you the real story. If you like, you can make a guess which one is true! I’ll post the correct answer in about two weeks.

Oh, one last question: We’ve shot a few pictures of the marks right after the scene. What is your opinion: Shall I post one of the pictures in two weeks, when I’m going go solve the little riddle, or shall I wait until the detailed account on the experiment in June and July? Any suggestions?

Second Blogiversary

Two years ago, on the 25th of January 2008, I launched this blog. Today is my second blogiversary.

In retrospect, it feels as if the second year passed even quicker than the first one did. It's hard to believe that Rohrstock-Palast, this oddly named creation of mine, has been around that long. But it has - the dates don't lie. So first off, a thank you to all of you who left comments over the past year or corresponded with me by email. You are the ones who made this ride as inspiring and entertaining as it was, and I hope that you will continue to do so.

On my first blogiversary, I noted how intriguing it is to see a vision take shape - to compare my original plans for the blog with how it turned out. This is even more true after the second year. Two things happened in 2009 that really stand out, both featuring prominently in my writing here. One, I did my first professional spanking videos, "Inmates" with Mood Pictures and "Garden Party" with Lupus Pictures. I'm proud of both of them and of how they differ - a gritty, claustrophobic "women in prison" pseudo-documentary versus a light-hearted, visually sumptuous comedy. Topping in a professional, full-length spanking film was a lifelong dream of mine and the experiences are now immortalised in the Mood behind-the-scenes report (four parts) and the Lupus BTS report (three parts), which in my opinion contain some of the best writing I've ever done.

The other, and even more significant event of last year was that I found my mate Kaelah (actually, it is more accurate to say that she found me). That one came totally out of the blue - having someone to share my life with was another lifelong dream, but one I had kind of given up on already. Which, one could argue, was a prerequisite for its fulfilment. That as it may be, meeting Kaelah was as beautiful and fortunate as it was unforseen, and it had a profound impact not just on my life in general, but on the blog as well. I can't say enough good things about her. The story of how we met is recorded in Where No Man Has Spanked Before, which also ranks among my best pieces of writing. Kaelah has her own monthly column on the blog now, called Kaelah's Corner and received very favourably by the readers. Currently, we are working on the story about our first spanking play - two parts published here and here, the third one to follow shortly.

So here I am, suddenly writing one of those "kinky couples" blogs. Quite a change. I can only wonder what is in store for me in my third year of blogging. You'll notice that none of my predictions from one year ago came true - on the first blogiversary, I mentioned that I wanted to do more interviews, more book reviews and more philosophical ramblings. Well, I conducted Niki Flynn's last interview in September, which turned out great. But apart from that, no additions to any of these three categories. All of them take vastly more time than the average post, time that I usually didn't have during the rollercoaster ride that was 2009. When I did, I was busy catching up with more immediate topics.

So, I'm reluctant to speculate too much about the blog's future. I have all sorts of plans, but they will undoubtedly materialise in somewhat different forms and in a somewhat different order than what I envision today. First off, Kaelah and I will post the final part of our "first spanking play" trilogy - it should have been out weeks ago, but 2010 didn't start smoothly for me, hence the delay. Then, in February and March, I'm going to overhaul some of the blog's features, as I announced it here. Beyond that, we will see! You will hear more about Kaelah and me, that is for sure. You will read the usual movie reviews and website reviews. There might be more movie shoots, and who knows, there might even be a long-overdue return to my philosophical ramblings!

In rock music, they say that it is a band's third album that "makes it or breaks it" .The first album is your debut, usually well-received. The second one is a sophomore effort that builds on the first. But it's the third album that really, really counts. Does the same apply to spanking blogs? I'll approach my third year as if it did.

Movie Review: Martial Law

Producer:
Mood Pictures (released in 2004)

Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence:

Court martial and CP for sadistic female sergeant

Victim Appeal:
After Rival Girls, this is the second (and last) Mood Pictures production starring bleach blonde vixen Kate Lust. Kate was (perhaps still is?) a small-time pornstar and webcam model from Budapest. It's a pity that she only ever did two spanking films. Like most Mood models, she was a mere "hired hand" (not really kinky), but she had a little bit of talent as an actress and brought some personality to her roles. There was a certain something about Kate Lust, an appealing nastiness, for lack of a better term, that simply made you want to spank her severely. I like the way she snarls when she plays the stereotypical "evil girl" character.

The other spankee in the video is Adrien Dark, a black-haired model who was apparently an acquaintance of Kate and got taken along to the shoot (at least that is what Kate implies in her behind-the-scenes interview). Hey, what are friends for?

Gratuitous Sadism:
As you can guess from the title, the film has a military setting. Actually, it must be some kind of war, because there is talk about "enemy soldiers". A cold war? A hot war? A guerrilla war? It is never specified who is fighting whom. All we know is that the female soldiers wear rather oversized uniforms and nobody seems to have any rank insignia. But I don't want to nitpick. Seriously, who cares what kind of war it is? My inner adolescent geek boy just loves the sight of babes in combat gear. It looks cool, no further justification needed.

Kate Lust plays a sergeant facing court martial because she tortured a captured enemy soldier, and it turned out that the captured soldier was actually an agent working for her own side (see, the plot is just as silly as the costumes...). She is brought before a tribunal and we see the torture in a flashback scene, which naturally involves the prisoner (Adrien Dark) getting caned by Kate. 25 strokes are given while the victim, with her camouflage trousers pulled down and her hands tied behind her back, is kneeling on a chair. It's a very light scene by Mood Pictures standards, with barely any marks appearing. Adrien's reactions are pretty strong, though, she cries and sobs audibly.

Of course, the sergeant is sentenced to corporal punishment for her transgression. The tribunal decides to make an example of her - she will receive 100 cane strokes, tied up, fully naked (yum!). Two things are noteworthy about the ensuing scene: first, the contraption they used to restrain the spankee is one of coolest devices Mood have ever come up with. It looks somewhat shoddy, but it makes for a highly sexy caning position, with the girl kneeling on a platform, bending forward, her hands tied above her head, her back forming a delicious line and her arse sticking out.

Secondly, the domme playing the female "CP Executioner" is pretty good. She goes by the name Mercedes Mercy and this, to my knowledge, is her only appearance with Mood Pictures. The lady has presence and the right looks for the role: thirty-something, pretty, but not too pretty. I like how she swaggers around the room. Moreover, she knows how to use a cane. While Mercedes places a few too many strokes on the back of Kate's legs for my taste, she isn't as woefully and dangerously inaccurate as some of the dommes Mood employed in later years. She has a good rhythm and makes the long scene work. The caning is harder than Adrien's, but not over the top.

Best Reactions:
I liked Kate Lust's punishment the most, even though I don't usually care for 100 stroke canings. I just find them too long and drawn-out to "hold together" as a filmed scene, and once you are past 50 or 60 strokes, you merely prolong the action instead of adding to it qualitatively. It gets boring. In this case, however, the suspense of the scene does hold together because they divide it into several segments - after every 25 strokes, a medical doctor (played by Betty Shy, in a ridiculously short white coat) performs checkups on the spankee. It also helps that Mercedes Mercy varies the intensity of the strokes somewhat, instead of hitting full force all the time.

Kate's reactions are enjoyable throughout. She throws her head back after every stroke, grimaces in pain and counts the numbers between gasps and sobs of anguish. Like the beating itself, the reactions are strong, but not extreme. The one thing I didn't like about the scene was the fact that, after stroke number 73, Kate fell unconscious and had to be reawakened by the doctor - the script makes a lot of noise about how soldiers getting caned "usually faint" at some stage. Obviously, the fainting episode was scripted, and I just thought it was unnecessary - silly sensationalism that contributes nothing to the scene and instead detracts from it (as a sidenote, Kate ends up getting a total of 102 cane strokes, because some are repeated after she faints).

Best Line:
Even by spanking porn standards, the dialogue in this one is excruciatingly lame. Take the following exchange. CP executioner: "The instrument has been set up for the caning." Sergeant: "Oh my God, am I gonna be tied up?" Or how about this line from the sergeant, while she defends herself in front of the tribunal: "I didn't think she was a spy! She looked so innocent!"

The least worst line comes during the sergeant's punishment, which is being watched by the tribunal. One of the officers complains that the caning is too harsh. His superior snaps at him: "Do you want me to demote you? We're not the Salvation Army!" At least that was mildly entertaining.

Nice Psychological Touch:
Connoisseurs will notice that the film follows the same arc as "Rival Girls". First, Kate Lust is cruel towards another girl, who gets thrashed as a result. In the second act, justice is done and Kate gets thrashed herself. I like how Mood play out the role reversal in both films. In "Rival Girls", the other girl is caned by a male top (the schoolteacher) after Kate gets her in trouble. When the intrigue is discovered, the girl is allowed to cane Kate in revenge. In "Martial Law", Kate tortures the spy, and when she gets her punishment later on, the spy is sitting on the tribunal and watching it. In each case, we are not dealing with a literal role reversal (the girls don't literally switch places to spank each other), but with a more indirect and, in my view, much sexier form.

How Good Is It Really?

I retain a certain fondness for these early Mood Pictures titles and "Martial Law" is no exception. Back then, Pedro and Pablo made much smaller and more amateurish films - shorter running time, fewer spankees, smaller cast overall, more basic locations and props. However, the films had a freshness and an individual charm to them that gradually got lost over the years - which is perhaps inevitable when you are churning out one video after another. In any case, it's nice to take a look back at the old days once in a while.

In terms of story, "Martial Law" is just another spanking film about military discipline, but it executes that scenario well. Kate Lust is great to watch, Mercedes Mercy also does a pretty good job as the CP executioner. Sadly, neither of them returned for another production. The main caning scene, while not exactly light, is more moderate than Mood's later work. Consequentially, it should appeal to middle-of-the-road viewers who want to see nice and proper beatings, but are put off by blood or graphic welts. In addition to the main feature, the DVD includes a behind-the-scenes segment and a four minute interview with Kate Lust, both of which are fairly interesting.

What You Learned:
Debbie Ulan Ator, the Asian girl with the hilarious model name, plays the sergeant's aide in the first caning scene (she also appears as a prison guard in Guilty Wives). Did you know that Ulan Bator is the capital city of Mongolia? I did, but what I didn't know is that the name translates to "red hero" in English. I just looked that up. Isn't it amazing what you can learn from spanking films?