Erotically Speaking....

Aphrodite, Eros, Pan and many wild Maenads and Fauns gathered this last weekend at the Erotic Arts Festival!

When we arrived at the very pleasantly posh Radisson Riverside Hotel in Rochester, NY the event was in full swing having started the night before. MUCH entertainment of many types did abound here!

The committee for Rochester Erotic Arts Festival came together to put together a really comprehensive and wide ranging array of topics for this very open minded event about Sexuality.

There were lectures/demonstrations on:
How to take erotic photographs at home
Crossdressers Make Over Day (with tips on choosing outfits, wigs, makeup)
Erotic Tickling
Erotic Hypnosis
Erotic Drawing
Rope Bondage 101
The Art of Exotic Dance
Beginning Belly Dance
Cardio Strip Exercise
Loving Our Bodies-Loving Ourselves
Hoopnosis (Hula Hoop Dance)
among many others!

There was quite a variety of stage performance as well:

Burlesque Dance (male & female),
Aerial Dance (think of a Cirque de Soleil type trapeze artist dangle dancing from 2 long lengths of silk in the ceiling),
Suspension Restraint (think of decorative bondage while being hoisted up off the floor), Bombshell Dance Troupe

Acapella singers

and Merry Mischief Bawdy tunes.

Many Artists showed off their unique talents! Artwork ranged from beautiful composition, to symbolic/abstract paintings, to in your face sexuality displayed. Beautiful photography, sculpture and paintings from landscape to up close and personal.

We really got a fun kick out of the Female Torso sculpture made from colored elbow macaroni and mung beans!! It rocked!Live performance art featured body art on nearly nude models standing as sculptures and occasionally changing position.

There was also a very wild reclining chair that had "tentacles" that you could move around for photographic opportunity.
It was like "Captain Nemo meets Erotic Art" :)

Vendors ran the gamut from sexy clothing, chain maille, phallic & feminine smoking devices, floggers and leather, of course, toys and play things....you know...the regular plus some wild occurences thrown in for good measure.

My, my what a fun time people watching at this event was! The outfits of patrons were great.

There was some AMAZING body paint! I saw a green tiger Drow Elf getting a drink at the bar. mostly unclothed, but you wouldn't think so till you got up close.
Harry actually was chatting with a woman for sometime and thought she was dressed, until she turned sideways and he got the distinct sideview of a full breast...then saw her nipple, and then he finally realized she didn't have her shirt tucked into her jeans, but had no shirt on at all. That was a kewl realization for Harry!

One sort of shockingly beautiful yet sort of disturbing yet pretty thing was a demonstration about "corseting". This is where a woman got many piercings in her back, which was then laced and pulled taut with ribbons. She also had feather quills placed in her back like angel wings.
Not for me.... But pretty in its weird, tragic beauty. Very Goth. I mean, Viola! Insta-boob job with a bonus tummy tuck, right? Your sagging boobs are now, right where you want them, and your belly can be flatter just like that!

As I said, not for me......... but weirdly wonderful and unique!

Here is what I mean....

Harry and I were hired to play as wandering minstrels for a bit then had a stage show. It was fun to let out hair down and play all the bawdy, randy, coarse, sailor type songs I wanted to from "Roll Yer Leg Over" to Barnacle Bill! LOTS of fun!

One of the funniest things I heard this day was this:

A very sweet illustrated woman...(Read: Tattooed Lady ;) came up to talk to me after our show. She was decorated with a whole garden of flowers of artwork on her body!She said: "OH! Merlyn! I LOVED hearing you sing "Barnacle Bill the Sailor!! It was one of my most favorite childhood memories!" I busted out laughing, "CHILDHOOD memories??"
Laughingly she said, "Yah, my grandma & grandpa had a fun bawdy sense of humor and taught it to me when I was little! I knew a lot of your verses!"

I personally dressed up very nicely for the occasion too! I put Harry in "stage blacks" which works for him, I decided to go a lot more fun and fancy too!

I wore a black lace Unitard, short Stewart plaid mini-kilt, black corset, flashy cubic diamond earrings and red mule sandals with heels. Couple of pretty and flashy flowers in my hair.

Oh... and a I wore a........ (wicked grin).... multi-strand pearl necklace.

Yes, a few intelligent people got THAT joke right away :)

Had my pic taken by one fellow who said, "LOVE the kilt!" and Alec commented that I looked "Fantastically Hot in that outfit" :)
Alec you made my day!

OH!
I have to tell you this....

I saw THE MOST beautiful Cross dresser. Oh my, but he/She was STUNNING! I should've stopped and chatted with her to offer my TOTAL approval of her appearance, but to be honest, she took my breath away.

It wasn't until after I had walked by her on the way out carrying instruments to the car did I recover. She looked so lovely and willing to be innocently led.

(I thought to myself, "I think I would like to kiss her".... And I haven't historically even gone for girls.... But I mused to myself, "Oh honey.... I'd make an exception for you" :)

SPECIAL THANKS TO MIKE MEAGHER most of these PHOTOGRAPHS!

MIKE YOU FREAKING ROCK!!!

Got hit on and asked by several if we were going to some of the after parties. Sounded fun, but no. Harry and I had just finished two days of some really wildly ranging gigs and we were whooped tired.

First we did a pirate show for a MS on Friday night about 2 hours drive each way away. Complete with costuming, shanties, backdrop, and sound...

Next, on Saturday morning, Harry set up and ran sound for a University Graduation ceremony,

and then Saturday afternoon, we got dolled up and put our randy-est foot forward to let loose, swear and flaunt our stuff in a looser setting here at the Erotic Arts Festival.
LOL :)

And those 3 gigs in 2 days was a wild time too~

SO~

If you ever get a chance to go to one of these Erotic Arts Festivals in your area or this one when it comes around again next time, I highly encourage any of you that are sensual, open minded and curious about learning new things to go to it! See what you can see!

Sexuality is not the Enemy.

Ignorance IS.

Our combined Sensuality and Sexual nature is part of our shared HUMANITY.

So, this is your intrepid reporter of life signing off for now~

Erotically, Piratically and Appreciatively Yours~
Merlyn

Eros~ God of Love & Passion

A Prayer to Eros
(by Merlyn)

Oh beautiful God of Love and Lust
Eros, Cupid
Thou dost make me Wanton...
Make me stupid
For the want and the wish
for any dish
that thou dost take aim at for me
Prithee my Lord...
Aim thy arrow well
Neither donkey nor ass
Craft a love for love for me
Make him handsome
Make him true
I beg ye often, I beg of you....

There are mixed stories for the beginnings for Eros:

Eros was a Primordial God of Creation. In the beginning, there was Chaos, there was Gaia (Earth) and there was the Abyss and there was Love.
I like this idea. It satisfies somehow....seems right. Symbolically that's about right.

There is also this Myth of his creation: Eros was the son of Aphrodite (Love) and Ares (War).
And man oh man, that makes sense too! (If you've ever been in love...you know it walks a fine line between love and hate...the bigger the love, the wilder the emotions on both sides).

Oh and Eros is the Greek name for Cupid. The silly little Cherub who has his quiver full of wandering arrows. He sometimes aims true, and sometimes misses. Ah love.
As Nicholas Cage's character Ronny Cammereri in "Moonstruck" says:

"I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and *die*. The storybooks are *bullshit*. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and *get* in my bed!"

And that's just about right.

I have always adored Eros in all his forms, be they the Innocent Love of Cupid's Valentines when we were 8 and opened those mysterious white folded envelopes to reveal "I think you are Sweet, Be My Valentine"....

to the Lovesick Arrow stabbed wounded Heart throbbing for your love to write....

to the Sexual Erotic Love of Wanton Pleasure and Fulfilment ...a crescendo of desire!

Yes I adore Eros in all his forms.

So did Psyche. She was a heroic human woman whose beauty made Aphrodite jealous. She told her son, Eros to go "shoot an arrow at her to fall in love with a horribly UGLY creature". And he went dutifully to do so....but when he saw her, HE, EROS, fell in love with HER!
(who shot who with what arrow?? :)
They run off together. Eros and Pysche.

The only deal is that Eros tells her that he will come to her in Darkness so that she would not die when he is revealed to her. She goes along with this for awhile...but then one night, she longs to see her LOVE. So she shines candlelight on him and admires his ultra beautiful form.

He is exquisite. She knew it inside her heart and she trembled to see him.

He awakens when a drop of wax from her trembling falls on him and burns him. He flies away, injured that she doubted him, and has seen his true form!

She mourns his loss....she wanders aimlessly. (How lost we are without Love...)

Finally Aphrodite sets some "Herculean" type tasks for her to complete in order to find Eros again....

This WOMAN had a HERO journey!

She only had 4 "Simple" things to do:

*Sorting out barley, seeds, millet and beans from a HUGE pile. Thankfully, ants helped her.*Attain some Golden Fleece from aggressive rams who would kill her.
*Fill a vase of water from the River Styx
*Bring back some lotion from Persephone who lived with Hades.

Oh isn't it the truth?

Don't WE have to sort out the chaffe and the good when in love? Don't we compartmentalize and do our likes and dislikes and pros and cons with our love and loved ones?

Don't we also have to wait sometimes till the beasts of the field go to sleep and we pluck the golden fleece from the reeds, taking what is good, what is ours without being killed and losing our power?

Don't we also have to face our fears of death while in love? Don't we have to face being lost in love while also drinking deeply from it?
and Don't we also have to go to Hell and back to really get the balm and salve we need from Love in order to find it?

INDEED the trials our own psyches have to go thru to find love....

Oh yes Eros and Psyche DID marry!!

They had a child named Voluptas ....you may know her as PLEASURE :)

And they lived Happily, Lustily, and Lovingly EVER AFTER.

THE END.


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