Tag Archives: Metalbond

Metalbond Q&A: Meeting Van Darkholme

December 9, 2011 Metal Leave a comment

A Visit to Bound Gods Headquarters in San Francisco

By Metalbond

Armory pictures courtesy of SeriousBondage.com

While visiting San Francisco recently, I had the opportunity to accompany the men from the Serious Male Bondage website on a field trip to Kink.com headquarters. This enormous enterprise encompasses dozens of bondage-themed adult websites — including the kinky gay sites Bound Gods, Butt Machine Boys and Naked Kombat, plus many other hetero kink sites. The whole business is located in the Mission District of San Francisco — in the armory, an imposing building where the movies for all of these various sites are produced, cast, directed, filmed, edited and marketed.

I cannot even begin to tell you how massive this whole self-contained kink universe is. Even for a jaded New Yorker like me, I must say I was quite impressed. It made me think of the days when MGM and Paramount Studios had huge properties with sound stages, wardrobe departments, set designers and thousands of worker bees running around making movies — not to mention all the big talent like Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney, working under contract. In its heyday during the 1930s and 1940s the American film industry cranked out hundreds of movies every year, to satisfy the ever-growing demand of an insatiable pubic.

In a way, Kink.com is a lot like the golden age of Hollywood. To begin with, when we arrived, we were buzzed in through security and literally drove into the building and parked inside. They have a reception desk, and we had to sign in. We saw dozens of full-time employees going about their business, working behind computers, editing film, creating marketing and promotional materials, and carrying out support and administrative tasks — all cranking out new adult entertainment. These people are all professionals, and they really know what they are doing. The only difference is that, unlike Hollywood, which churned out movies the whole family could enjoy in the theater, the focus with Kink.com is on a much narrower fan base: consenting adults who want to watch very well made kinky porn. And boy do they deliver.

No matter what sexual orientation you are or what kinky fetish you might have, chances are there is a website headquartered here that will get you all hot and bothered. If you happen to get off on seeing grown men tied up and dominated by intimidating, latex-clad vixens in spiked heels, they’ve got you covered. Maybe you prefer to see women in gags and harnesses being worked over by dominant straight men. Well, they have a site or two for you as well. Into watersports? No problem! How about a site featuring athletic men wrestling on mats for real stakes — with the loser getting fucked by the winner? Yeah, they’ve thought of that, too!

And if you’re like me and you enjoy watching really well made kinky gay bondage porn featuring some of the hottest and most adventuresome gay porn stars with great bodies and dependable dicks who know how to suck and fuck like champions, you need look no further than Bound Gods. As readers of this blog know well, Bound Gods is one of my very favorite sites.

Then it’s no surprise, of course, that the highlight of the day was the chance I got to meet Van Darkholme — the man behind the Bound Gods site — in person. In the flesh. Wow. In my opinion, he looked much hotter in person than he does in videos, if you can imagine that. He’s tall and worked out, has beautiful eyes and nice dark hair, and has a healthy skin tone. You can tell he eats right and gets plenty of sleep. He greeted us wearing cargo pants, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and comfortable sneakers, also blue. (He changed into a black ribbed cotton tank top for the on-camera interview we did later) .

When we started talking, I could tell right away that that he is just a normal guy. He even told me right off that he doesn’t let his porn stardom go to his head, and this was apparent in his demeanor. I found him to be friendly, soft-spoken, gracious and polite. When I asked him casually what he likes to do outside the dungeon, he looked me in the eye and without hesitation said gardening, with a sincere grin. But don’t be fooled. Behind all of Van’s boy-next-door charm lurks a true bondage master. He has been known to have even the biggest and most muscular of men trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey and whimpering like a baby in no time flat. When we started talking about his work, his eyes lit up and he became more animated. It’s clearly something he enjoys very much. He explained that he likes to work the tops in his videos hard, and that he takes excellent care of his slaves, protecting them and making sure they get what they need. He also shared some humorous behind-the-scenes anecdotes, one of them involving the actor Nick Moretti, who … well, let’s just say he got a little “over-enthusiastic” one day with a fellow actor.

Van took us to one of the sets, and I immediately recognized it from The Slaughterhouse. He showed us the tenterhooks hanging on runners from the ceiling, the wet area complete with drain in the floor, the built-in cage in the wall, and some of the hanging meat props. He also pointed out how the walls and floors in the room had been treated for a realistic look on screen. They think of all the details.

We got to peek inside some of the other sets, including the bar, featured most recently in Bar Bondage Hookup 2. I really wanted to see the padded cell set featured in The Sex Addict and Tommy, but it was in use. In fact, many of other sets were in use, with blinking red signs outside the doors warning passers-by that filming is in progress, keep voices down. We also got to visit the infamous Upper Floor at Kink.com, where some of the group scenes and live action updates take place.

Van also showed us the equipment room, where the restraints, whips, floggers, hoods, gags, butt toys and other devices are stored. He showed us how directors can come to the room and “check out” equipment to be used in their movies. Sort of like a kinky library or depository. Van said we could not touch any of the gear that would go in someone’s mouth or ass. As he explained, all the gags and butt toys are thoroughly sanitized after each use, and then quarantined for seven days before being put back in circulation. They also have a prep room, where all the actors clean their privates before any on-camera action takes place. We didn’t go in there.

Van also took us on a tour of the rest of the Armory building itself, which really is a former armory. It has a shooting gallery and a live stream running through the basement. (An interesting side note is that when Kink.com purchased the armory building itself, the transaction generated quite a bit of local controversy. Some community activists and neighborhood groups were up in arms over what they perceived as a threat from kinky perverts about to descend en masse into the neighborhood, filling the area with nefarious characters. That didn’t come to pass, of course, and since then the new residents of the armory and its neighbors have apparently settled into a peaceful coexistence. They even host community groups sometimes for events inside the massive indoor space.)

Before we left for the day, Van told us a little about his new, soon-to-be-launched website, called Bound in Public, which will feature lots of rough play and humiliation. I for one cannot wait to see what this site will be like.

Metalbond would like to thank Van Darkholme for his time and for graciously agreeing to be interviewed, and the Kink.com marketing department for granting access to the building and for their time and consideration as well.

Metalbond would also like to express his most sincere appreciation to Mark at Serious Male Bondage for arranging and facilitating the interview.

Be sure to watch for the on-camera discussion featuring Mark, Van and Metal at Serious Male Bondage.

See the latest updates from Bound Gods here

Get access to all the KnkMen gay bondage channels here

Daily Thread

I’m product testing the chain and padlock from Alpha Designs

September 12, 2011 Metal Leave a comment

I recently wore this chain and padlock from Alpha Designs for about 10 days, and I even mailed myself the keys over Labor Day weekend. I put the keys in the mail on Saturday afternoon, and mail pickup for the mailbox I used was not until the following Tuesday. It felt great, and I enjoyed the look.

Before I left for Fire Island last Friday, I locked it on again, leaving the keys at home in my apartment in Manhattan. The picture above was taken on the beach on Sunday afternoon. It’s really a nice chain. I’m staying out here until Thursday, so it will be another whole week of chain and lock for me.

Bob, the guy from Alpha Designs who polishes up these chains and locks and sells them through 665 Leather, emailed me the following message when I told him what I was up to:

“You really are giving the collar a good test run,” Bob said. “I’m sure that by now you are aware of just how powerful that simple chain and lock is, constantly present, you feel it when you wake every morning, and it’s the last thing you feel at night. I don’t think that it is possible to ever get completely used to being chained by the neck, I just can’t completely get used to the weight or movement of the collar.”

“The real power of it, is when another man uses it to control you during sex, with a leash attached or better yet, just held in his fist,” Bob says. “The submission it demands is overwhelming and absolute.”

Hey Bob, I completely understand. That’s very well said. For me, just so all you guys know, my interest in wearing this is not that I consider myself a slave or that I want to be a slave or I want to be owned by somebody. I just like things that lock.

The chain collar shown above is available from Mr S by clicking here.

Daily Thread

Metalbond is looking for Davespeed

March 5, 2011 Metal Leave a comment

A long, long time ago I used to chat online and over the phone with a very interesting man from the Pacific Northwest, Seattle or someplace like that, who went by the screen name of Davespeed. We talked a lot about fantasies and experiences regarding spread-eagle bondage, military brig incarceration, and long-term cage confinement. He also read me a story he had written, about a prison guard who gets locked up by a former inmate whom he used to guard. I’ve never forgotten these chats, all those years ago, to the point at which I am thinking of writing my own prison story inspired by the scenario described above.

Anyway, Davespeed, if you are out there somewhere, please get in touch with me! There is a contact form in the column to the right.

Daily Thread

Clips vs locks

October 21, 2010 Metal 10 Comments

OK fuckers, listen up. This is important. Really important. In fact, I think this might be the most important blog posting I have ever put up here on Metalbond. I mean it. It has to do with the use of clips versus locks. Here’s the problem I am having: There are far too many men out there doing ineffective bondage with stupid, worthless CLIPS that can be un-clipped by the prisoner whenever he wants, rather than using LOCKS that cannot be undone without a key.

Bondage with clips makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like driving to the mall on a busy Saturday afternoon and locking your car doors, but leaving all your windows rolled down. What’s the point?

Take the picture below, for example:

Yeah, the guy is smoking hot and he looks great with his hands behind his back. But look a bit more closely at the way he is restrained. All he has to do is use his hands to unclip the clips, and he is free. What fun is that? This is not real physical restraint. It is play-acting!

Here are more examples of hot men who are “restrained” with inadequate, non-secure clips:

The men in the pictures above were restrained by lazy tops who don’t know what the fuck they are doing, or who don’t care. Is this any way to treat a prisoner? No. Fuck no. If they had been bound with PADLOCKS rather than clips, these would be some very hot predicaments, indeed!

Are you catching my drift here?

Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you do use locks, you also have to know HOW to use them. Some guys use their padlocks ineffectively, because either the restraints themselves are not locked on, or the restraints are locked on but then they are secured with clips. Remember that if you are using leather restraints, those have to LOCK ON, as well! Take these pictures, for example:

Even though padlocks ARE used in the scenarios shown above, all the guys in these pictures have to do is either unbuckle the leather restraints or unhook the clips and they are free! That is because there are not locks on both the restraints AND whatever is securing them. Again, this is an ineffective, unacceptable way to restrain a prisoner!

Then there is THIS heinous misuse of a padlock:

What the fuck does this padlock do? Absolutely nothing! It is not keeping the collar on, nor is it locked TO anything. Like tits on a bull, this padlock is just sitting there, being useless. What a waste of a good padlock!

From now on, everyone needs to start using real, locking PADLOCKS to secure the restraints and then lock them TO something. No more clips, only padlocks.

If you don’t HAVE padlocks, that is no excuse. Go to Home Depot, for chrissakes, where you can buy dozens of different kinds of locks, in all different sizes, shapes, colors and configurations. You can get multiple locks that all open with the same key. You can even get combination locks that all open with the same combination, or you can get combination locks that you can set your own combination into, and use over and over again.

Then once you are properly equipped you can do REAL BONDAGE, like THIS:

Notice how the restraints keeping these men captive are properly locked on, so the restraints can in turn be properly locked TO something. These men will not be able to get out of their predicaments on their own. They are true prisoners, locked and secure — the way it should be!

I hope I have made myself clear. Any questions?

Daily Thread

MetalbondSF

September 14, 2010 Metal Leave a comment

I am in San Francisco this week, and I am staying with the guys who run the Serious Male Bondage website. Yesterday we visited Kink.com, parent company for Bound Gods. We got to meet and interview Van Darkholme — who is much hotter in real life — and he gave us a rare, behind-the-scenes tour of some of the sets they use for the Bound Gods movies. Van told us about a brand new website he is launching, which I am sure will be a huge hit.

We also visited Mr S, and Richard Hunter gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of not only the store, but also his private playroom. Wait until I tell you about his padded isolation cell!

Tonight we are having dinner with Mikey of the popular Guys Tied Up bondage blog and his partner, Daddy Tony, and Yossie, the world-famous pervert and handcuff collector.

More pictures and information coming soon to Metalbond . . .

Daily Thread

Mentalbond

September 11, 2010 Metal Leave a comment

So I had another session with Neil the Erotic Hypnotist, and I have been meaning to write about it. (If you missed the posting on my FIRST erotic hypno session with Neil, click here.) Neil knows how to use hypnosis for bondage and control. This time, we decided to start at my place and then take the action to the New York Bondage Club for some play in public. It turned out to be a memorable evening.

New York Bondage Club

Neil came over late on a Sunday afternoon, and we spent some time discussing the various goings-on in our lives, some of the mutual friends and acquaintances we have and our respective workout routines (Neil spends a lot of time in the gym, and it shows). We also talked about New York City real estate. That’s because whenever two or more New Yorkers get together for any reason, under any circumstances, the conversation always, inevitably, touches on real estate at some point. It is an un-alterable law of nature, just like that of gravity.

Anyway, after our catching up on a social level, we decided it was time for me to go into a trance under Neil’s guidance, to be prepped with triggers for our visit a bit later to the Bondage Club. The focus of our play was again to be on bondage and control, without the use of restraints.

Neil had me lie back on my futon and get comfortable. I had darkened the room. The air conditioning was on, making the temperature pleasant. The phone ringers were turned off. The key was for me to relax, to listen to Neil’s voice as he coached me to let myself fall into a deep, almost dreamlike state of consciousness. I remember he told me at one point, after I had closed my eyes and started to drift away, that my right arm was light as a helium balloon. I did sense that my arm started to rise up off the futon, as it if really were lighter than air. It was an interesting feeling.

Neil also gave me several mental triggers that he planed to use on me later. One of them, “cuffs,” meant that I was to clasp my hands tightly behind my back as if they were cuffed, until he gave the “release” command. Another trigger, “statue,” meant that I was to remain frozen in place, unable to move, until released. He also gave me a command called “grab,” which meant that I would grab onto an object and not let go. He also gave me commands to feel “horny” and “sensitive.”

After Neil brought me out of the trance, he tested the triggers on me in my apartment, and, satisfied that they were working, we departed my place and headed for the Bondage Club. When we got there, I stripped down to just my boots and gave Neil all of my clothes to put in his backpack.

I’ve been going to the New York Bondage Club for many years, even way back when they met at J’s, and I know that some nights there are better than others. The club this particular night had an interesting crowd and a nice vibe.

One of the first things Neil did was get my hands “restrained” behind my back using the “cuffs” command. With my hands behind my back, we walked around the club and viewed some of the other scenes that were playing out. To me, it felt like my hands really were restrained, just as if they were tightly tied with rope or leather. They did not budge as we wandered about.

We weren’t the only ones playing, of course. There was a fit young man getting tied down with actual restraints on his back with his ass up in the air. Another dude with a large dick was tied inside a cage, then tickled and tormented. In another area of the club, a guy was giving erotic massages. At one point Neil had me “cuffed” around a post while we watched a particularly interesting scene, and during this time I was rock hard. He also took me over to the bondage chair the NYBC has built into a wall and had me sit down, feet firmly planted on the floor, and he ordered me to “grab” the rings so that my arms were splayed out in a wide spread eagle. Normally at the Bondage Club, a man would be TIED into such a position. But, with hypnosis, Neil was able to have me restrained here without the use of any ropes or cuffs. He kept me like that for quite a while, and it was interesting to watch the reactions of some of the other club-goers as they walked by and witnessed the situation I was in.

Later, after we had played for a while and got a bit more relaxed, we showed some of the other guys there, including several of the regulars, what we were doing. Many of these other guys were intrigued and asked some interesting questions. Mike, who runs the Bondage Club and who has seen me engage in lots and lots of play there over the years involving lots of equipment taken out of my gear bag, was impressed that I was tied up mentally, without actual physical restraints.

One thing I definitely noticed at the Bondage Club is that I seemed to respond more to the triggers involving physical restraint and control, rather than to the commands involving the way I was to feel or to perceive sensations. For example, I really did feel that my hands were actually locked behind my back for stretches of time. In fact, when Mike tried to pull my wrists apart to test this, he was unable to. My arms were securely locked behind my back. The triggers also worked very well when Neil had me grab those rings in the wall and stay that way — I was like that a long time, well past the point at which holding the position became uncomfortable.

But when Neil gave the commands to make me feel “horny” or that my skin would be “sensitive,” I can’t really say with certainty that these sorts of commands had much effect.

Maybe this is more because I enjoyed being ordered around by a hot, muscular guy, rather than I was under the effects of hypnosis. I’m not really sure. And it’s also what makes me wonder about the effectiveness of hypnosis itself. Upon discussing the session later with Neil, he insisted that the hypnotic restraints were in no way voluntary.

“It’s true that you had no problem keeping your hands behind your back, but you also didn’t have much of a choice,” Neil told me in a follow-up email. “I know that with hypnosis it’s often hard to tell the difference, since the conscious mind has a tendency to rationalize things,” he said.

I guess Neil might say he created an undeniable force for me — something akin to gravity.

Nevertheless, no matter what Neil says, and no matter how hot all this was, and despite everything I have read recently on the topic of hypnosis, I must admit that I am STILL a little skeptical of it all. Maybe I just need to experience more hypnosis sessions, as I understand it does take practice to go into deeper trances.

The bottom line is that I am glad that Neil and I had this new session — and I am definitely curious enough to do more of this type of play in the future. Next time, perhaps, we can focus on other forms of control, like getting me to exercise longer and harder at the gym. Neil tells me this type of control is another of his specialties.

To learn more about Neil, you can visit his personal website by clicking on his picture, directly below:

Daily Thread

Bondage through hypnosis

July 19, 2010 Metal Leave a comment

Thanks to the inspiration of Marknorth and others, I have been more and more intrigued lately by the concept of bondage without restraints, and that reminded me of a session I had a while back with Neil the Erotic Hypnotist. Check him out:

After reading about this guy on Ben in Leather Land, Bob Wingate and a couple other websites, I became interested in seeing what it would be like to be put in bondage through the use of hypnosis. I must admit, even after reading about this, that I was a bit skeptical. In fact, my impression of hypnosis up to that point was that it was all a bunch of hocus-pocus, and that it would never work on me.

However, the whole idea did seem rather exciting, perhaps even little bit dangerous, and so my curiosity won out. I contacted Neil, and after a few emails back and forth I set up a session with him. Immediately upon meeting him, I was put at ease by his personality and his demeanor. He’s also a rather good-looking guy, which was a definite plus.

We met in a third-party location, a rented room equipped with a couch and a massage table. We began with a simple discussion of some of my interests — specifically, to experience a feeling of being controlled and restrained. Then Neil started to explain to me what we would be doing and how it would work.

The basic concept, Neil explained, is for the subject to enter a deeply relaxing state under coaching, so that the hypnotist could then verbally implant suggestions or “triggers” in my subconscious mind that would elicit a specific behavior later on. He explained to me the difference between the conscious and the subconscious parts of the brain. The conscious mind is where all rational thought takes place, while the subconscious mind is about habits and things we (i.e. our conscious minds) see as doing on “auto-pilot.” These can be quite complex, like driving, or like locking the door when you leave your apartment. Hypnotic suggestions to the subconscious mind can cause the subject to later do things without thinking about them. (Come to think of it, I can’t tell you how many times I have left my apartment, only to wonder later whether I had remembered to lock the door on my way out. I have no memory of doing this, yet I do it every time. That is my subconscious mind at work.)

The trick with hypnosis is to tap into the subconscious part of the mind, and to do that the subject has to let go temporarily of the conscious mind. It was all about learning to relax, and so he had me lie back on the couch as he talked me through it. The relaxations exercises were fantastic, and for me they were erotically charged as well. He had me imagine I was resting on a sandy beach while listening to the waves lap peacefully against the shore, or he had me walk quietly down a long staircase into a room with a bed, where I could rest and relax. With every passing minute, I felt more and more relaxed. It was all about letting go of all my tension, all my worries, and going deeper and deeper into a state of relaxation. And it worked. (In fact, if we had done nothing more than this relaxation exercise, I would have left a very happy man.)

He had me “go under” four or five times in total, and in each instance I went deeper and deeper into this state of relaxation. And each time he implanted into my subconscious several “triggers” when I was under, that he later used to elicit certain responses or actions from me.

One of the triggers was that when he made a specific gesture with one of his hands, that I would remove an article of clothing. And sure enough, upon my waking up, he made this gesture and I actually did start to remove my clothes. Before long I was totally naked. How did he do that? Did I take off my clothes because I was under hypnosis? Or because I really wanted to get naked in front of him? Perhaps a little of both? I am not sure.

He had me go under a few more times, and he implanted more triggers. One of them was that when he touched my body in a certain location, that I would immediately place my hands behind my back as if they were tied tightly together. And sure enough, after he had me wake up again, he used this trigger to “restrain” my hands behind my back. He kept me like that for quite a while. And while that feeling of skepticism remained in the back of my head, I really did keep my hands behind my back until he later used another trigger to release me. He also used a few other triggers on me, including one that turned me into a statue, and another that made me very horny — a feeling, in fact, that lasted for several days and weeks.

Do I think that I really was hypnotized, or that I kept my hands behind my back on purpose? It is an interesting question, isn’t it?

When I departed Neil’s presence later in the evening, I left with a feeling of excitement, and also one of deep relaxation. He told me I would sleep very well that night (another benefit of the relaxation techniques he used), and I did. Mostly I felt exhilarated after having had this new experience.

Later, Neil reminded me that the conscious mind doesn’t understand the subconscious mind or the process of hypnosis, so it has a tendency to rationalize things, like “I just wanted to take my clothes off,” “it was hot in the room” or “I just didn’t feel like moving my arms,” etc. That’s perhaps why I still had doubts later, he said, as to whether I was really hypnotized or just playing along.

Was I glad I had visited Neil? Absolutely. For me, it was an interesting way of experiencing a different form of bondage and control.

To learn more about Neil, visit his website by clicking here.

Daily Thread

IML weekend

May 28, 2010 Metal Leave a comment

I bet there are a lot of bondage guys at IML this weekend!

I sure wish I were in Chicago right now … but I have to miss all the fun because I am in Montreal for work. I’ll miss the vendor mart, the lobby, the parties — and of course the endless stream of hot leather-clad men. Even if I am in the men’s room waiting to take a piss, I always look FIRST at the guy with the gray hanky in his back pocket.

And for me, another thing I always enjoy about IML is the BOOTS. That’s right. I can’t keep my eyes off a hot man in a great pair of boots.

Did I ever mention that I competed in the boot black contest at IML? This was way back in 1998 and 1999. I came in second place both years. When I was polishing a hot guy’s boots one year, I was interviewed by Cole Tucker for a video they were making. I never saw the video, but someone I know saw me in it.

I am also in this book with a picture taken with the other bootblacks from 1998.

Page 171. They spelled my name wrong in the article.

I don’t bootblack in public anymore, but I still have all the gear — the polish, the rags, the brushes, the director’s chair and the stirrups.

If you are at IML this weekend, be sure to get your boots polished, and be sure to give the bootblack a big tip!