Romantic era music
Main article: Romantic music
See also: List of Romantic composers

The music of the Romantic era, from 1820 to 1910, was characterized by increased attention to melody and rhythm, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.[24] The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing.[25]

from the classical music page of wikipedia.
The Music in the background of my videos are a selection of Nocturnes by Chopin.

Second Session, I tried for an hour-or-so to bind myself in a way I could not escape.
The first video is the initial trial.



This next video is essentially the same binding, just with a slightly tighter neck-sling.
The tighter neck-sling kept me bound for about 15 minutes, during which time the temperature in the room raised this meant I was able to slip out of the knots because of being able to stretch a little more than earlier.

This is the unedited version of a video I found on youtube right near the start of this year, the other was removed.
I find it quite strange watching this. While I feel sorry for the kids and what they are forced to do, I go to training four or five days a week and ask people to do these same things to me. Last night we were doing partner stretches and the person I was working with was too scared they would hurt me and so hardly helped with the stretch at all.

So i've been researching kinbaku, Shibari and the general area within western style bondage that deals with similar types of binding and tying(this research is not part of this blog as I want to keep my workbook rated 'G').
I've taught myself different techniques and as an initial experiment I tied myself into an asymmetrical 'hog tie'(Hands and feet bound and connected). My left foot was tied to my right knee, my right foot was tied to my right thigh and my hands were tied to my right big toe.
This kept me in a back bend when my hands were behind my head, cut off the circulation to my toes when my hands were in front of my face, and numbed my left hand when I got the rope joining my toes to my hands wrapped around my chest/back.
When I lost the feeling in my hand I panicked and tried to untie myself as quickly as I could(this proved difficult at first because of my hand being out of action, and until the blood was running through there again properly I couldn't get any knots untied).
As I was doing this to myself I figured everything that I tied I would be able to untie just as easily, this has proven to not be the case.
I like the unexpected dynamic of not just making it look like you have been tied into a prone position, but doing it to yourself and managing to tie yourself so well that you are actually stuck in that position(I did manage to untie myself but it could be a challenge for next time, to actually get stuck tied up in the ropes).
I feel good about this. the thought that I might have actually been forced to ask my flatmates for help, or even better, to have had to wait for my girlfriend to turn up looking for me makes me chuckle.
admittedly, my rope-work is nowhere near the standard of some of the people I have been looking at, but seeing as it is my first time, and I was tying myself I am pleased with the results.
I think I need more rope.
Either another length like the one I have, or an individual piece that is really long.

Video and stills coming soon.

'When something different or unusual is presented before you -whether it's living or inanimate- you're intrigued, amazed, or maybe even disgusted. But you want to see it.'
pg1

'Throughout history, those who have been born somehow different from the rest of us have had the opportunity to profit from human curiosity, the sense of wonder at their difference.'
pg2

'To complicate matters further, the new attitude of political correctness made it wrong to stare at and profit from human oddities. This was relevant, for example, in the 1960s and early 1970s in cases in North Carolina and Florida, where two girls were offended after attending sideshows. One of these was fifteen-year-old Carol Grant, who had deformed arms and legs. "Handicapped people are seeking more in life than being stared at in a sideshow," she wrote in a 1968 letter to the North Carolina agriculture commissioner, and a copy of her letter was sent to the governor's wife, sparking controversy in the press. Grant's concern may have been justified for certain people, some said, but why take away the option of appearing in a sideshow if someone wanted to? Those who did want to fought back. They had a right to earn a living, and the sideshow was a place to do it.'
pg4

from American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman

After a Tissue performance I did I was approached by William and Miki and one of the main critiques was about my not being completely present during the performance. Since the event I have been watching others as they perform and have started noticing them doing what I interpreted this comment to mean.

I think this is very important in my performance practice, not necessarily because it is necessary to constantly be 'present' but more so that I can control this(possibly change from present to vacant conciously). In terms of my performance practice for this paper I think that it would really add something if I was either fluctuating between vacant and present or consistantly present. I expect that being consistantly present would help emphasise the difficulty of the acts, if someone is doing something painful but is in a form of meditative conciousness it removes some of the effect because of the knowledge of how this is used to remove the pain.

Like in the book/movie Fight Club:

Tyler licks his lips until they're gleaming wet. He takes
Jack's hands and KISSES the back of it.

TYLER
The first soap was made from the
ashes of heroes. Like the first
monkeys shot into space.

The saliva shines in the shape of the kiss. Tyler pours a
bit of the flaked lye onto Jack's hand.

TYLER
Without sacrifice, without death, we
would have nothing.

Jack's whole body JERKS. Tyler holds tight to Jack's hand
and arm. Tears well in Jack's eyes; his face tightens.

TYLER
This is a chemical burn. It will
hurt more than you've ever been
burned and you will have a scar.

Jack looks -- the burn is swollen, glossy, in the shape of
Tyler's kiss. Jack's face spasms.

JACK (V.O.)
Tyler's kiss was a bonfire on the
back of my hand.

TYLER
Look at your hand.

JACK (V.O.)
Guided meditation worked for cancer,
it could work for this.

SHOT OF A GREEN MAPLE LEAF, GLISTENING WITH DEW. RESUME:

Tyler looks at Jack's glazed and detached eyes.

TYLER
Come back to the pain. Don't shut
this out.

Jack, snapping back, tries to jerk his hand away. Tyler
keeps hold of it and their arms KNOCK UTENSILS off the table.

JACK (V.O.)
I tried not to think of the words
"searing" or "flesh." I imagined my
pain as a ball of healing white light.

SHOT OF A FOREST, IN GENTLE SPRING RAINFALL. RESUME:

Tyler JERKS Jack's hand, getting Jack's attention...

TYLER
Stop it. This is your pain -- your
burning hand. It's right here. Look
at it.

JACK (V.O.)
I was going to my cave to find my
power animal.

SHOT OF THE INSIDE OF JACK'S FROZEN ICE CAVE. RESUME:

Tyler JERKS Jack's hand again. Jack re-focuses on Tyler...

TYLER
Don't deal with this the way those
dead people do. Deal with it the way
a living person does.

SHOT OF INSIDE THE ICE CAVE - ON MARLA, LYING NAKED UNDER A
FUR COAT, TURNING HER HEAD TO LOOK TOWARDS US. RESUME:

Jack tries to pull his hand free. Tyler won't let go.
Jack's eyes glaze over again. Jack speaks, whiny from pain:

JACK
I... I think I understand. I think
I get it...

TYLER
No, what you're feeling is premature
enlightenment.

SHOT OF A GREEN FOREST WITHOUT RAIN. RESUME:

Tyler SLAPS Jack's face, regaining his attention...

TYLER
This is the greatest moment of your
life and you're off somewhere,
missing it.

JACK
No, I'm not...

SHOT OF TREES ENGULFED BY A FOREST FIRE. RESUME:

TYLER
Shut up. Our fathers were our models
for God. And, if our fathers bailed,
what does that tell us about God?

JACK
I don't know...

SHOT OF EMBERS POURING FROM THE HELLISH FOREST FIRE. RESUME:

Tyler SLAPS Jack's face again...

TYLER
Listen to me. You have to consider
the possibility that God doesn't like
you, he never wanted you. In all
probability, He hates you. This is
not the worst thing that can happen...

JACK
It isn't... ?

TYLER
We don't need him...

JACK
We don't... ?

SHOT OF INSIDE ICE CAVE - NAKED MARLA PULLS JACK DOWN ON TOP
OF HER - JACK KISSES HER - CIGARETTE SMOKE COMES FROM HER
MOUTH - JACK COUGHS. RESUME:

Jack is a wide-eyed zombie...

JACK
... Marla ... ?

TYLER
Fuck damnation. Fuck redemption. We
are God's unwanted children, with no
special place and no special
attention, and so be it.

Jack looks at Tyler -- they lock eyes. Jack does his best
to stifle his spasms of pain, his body a quivering, coiled
knot. He bolts toward the sink, but Tyler holds on.

TYLER
You can go to the sink and run water
over your hand. Look at me. Or you
can use vinegar to neutralize the
burn, but first you have to give up.
First, you have to know that someday,
you are going to die. Until you know
that, you will be useless.

Jack spasms with a shiver of pain...

JACK
You ... you don't know what this
feels like, Tyler.

Tyler shows Jack a LYE-BURNED KISS SCAR on his own hand.
Tears begin to drip from Jack's eyes. Tyler grabs a bottle
of VINEGAR -- pours it over Jack's wound.

Jack closes his eyes, holds his hand... slumps to the floor.

TYLER
Congratulations. You're a step
closer to hitting bottom.

it's something very different conciously taking pain rather than zoning out.

when I did the six and a half hours under my desk I spent most of the time in a meditative state in which I couldn't really tell what was going on around me.

William and Miki suggested I come to some of their Butoh training sessions to help gain this presentness.

>Hi Arron
>Finally getting that email to you about our friday night butoh workshops.
>We are at ***, ***, Wellington. It's an orange building.
>We are around back at the bottom floor of the building room *** I've attached a couple of pics and our contact info to help you find us.
>
>Hope to see you soon

***=removed word(for privacy)

Sankai Juku(Butoh Group)