Review: Midori’s Expert Guide to Sensual Bondage

If you're interested in trying bondage for the first time, but have trouble even tying a square knot correctly (like me), you'd be relieved to know that you don't have to become a Master Rope Rigger to do bondage. Midori's Expert Guide to Sensual Bondage, from Babeland.com, is a wonderfully put-together introduction to simple and sexy bondage.

The people behind the DVD are stellar. It's directed by Tristan Taormino, so you already know it's going to be pretty sweet, and it's written and hosted by Midori: internationally acclaimed sexpert, author, performer, and workshop instructor.

Introduction

Midori has a very calm & elegant demeanor; at times her voice or gestures seem contrived, but then she's used to working live, not on camera. She goes over some basic dos and don'ts: like communication, safe-words and other safety issues, and why people might find bondage hot. Some tips I'd already encountered in any BDSM beginner's book or workshop, but others are very specific and useful, and I probably wouldn't have thought of them myself. Examples: where on the body is ok to bind, and bondage tools you don't have to spend a fortune on, like stockings, bathrobe sashes, scarves, and belts. (Why didn't I think of that?) She also goes over the typical leather cuffs and handcuffs.

The Lesson

Next up is a demo/lesson, featuring Adrianna Nicole and Mark Davis. Midori is present to instruct them, with Adrianna and Mark throwing in the occasional question. Midori begins with some tips on how to best set up the bedroom; using bungee cords and the Under the Bed restraint system as attachment points, and scarves and leather cuffs to demonstrate the actual bondage. They run through a bunch of different positions and combinations: with the scarves, they tie Adrianna's hands together, tie her wrists to her ankles, create a "sex-sling" with three scarves, and lots of other fun things. They also do a good job of showing how four cuffs and a couple of metal snaps can result in lots of different positions.

I've been very interested in learning more about bondage, and I've perused a few books and attended a rope bondage workshop once. I found hands-on experience to be the most helpful, but written instructions and even pictures to be woefully inadequate. I guess I'm just a very visual learner. So actually seeing Mark and Midori move Adrianna into different positions was very helpful to me.

After this scene, Midori departs in order to let the porn ensue. Her voice narrates the two sex scenes, giving useful little tips, but you also have the option of a narration-less version in the "special features" section.

Adrianna & Mark

I'm not really a fan of either of these actors. I find Mark Davis kind of boring, and I really want to love Adrianna Nicole because she performs so well, but I just don't find her that attractive, and like before, I found her grunty/wheezy sex noises annoying. However, together the two had a very hot, playful dynamic and they were clearly very familiar with each other - I wondered if they had been a couple at one point. At the very least they must have performed together before.

Anyway, this scene is pretty hot, but also doubles up as a great instructional scene. It incorporates as many positions and different kinds of restraints as it can: the Under the Bed restraints & leather cuffs, a sex sling set, and leather bondage belts.

This scene contains a bunch of things I absolutely love:

- LOTS OF PUSSY EATING. Shots of Mark flickering his tongue over Adrianna's clit, getting her pussy all wet and swollen and pink? I find blowjob scenes really boring, but I love watching women getting eaten out. Why don't they have eating-out in every porn scene?! My world has been changed forever.

- Mark simultaneously fingering Adrianna's pussy and ass while she's face-down-ass-up, and then briefly rimming her. Oh yes.

- Mark coming all over Adrianna's pussy.

Madison Young & Danny Wylde

OH MY GOD. This is possibly the best scene I have ever seen. I want to watch it over and over again. I love it. Hell, I would have sex with it if I could.

Where do I even begin? Okay, first off, both of these performers are so hot that I almost came from simply watching them make out. With all their clothes on and everything. (Madison Young was wearting the best cat-eye glasses.) Danny pushes Madison around and she responds in kind ("It's your pussy, Sir!"), but he also constantly checks in with her and sometimes narrates what he's doing; which is both arousing and an example of good communication. This isn't a straight-up maledom/femsub scene; they switch in the middle, with Danny blindfolded and Madison teasing him.

This scene doesn't show off as much bondage versatility. At one point the scene devolves into more of a D/s scene, with no bondage happening at all. However, you do get to see a doorjamb restraint set in action, a cuff used as makeshift cock bondage, some creative use of neck-ties, and a scarf turned into a harness which holds a Hitachi against Madison's clit.

I think it's time for another list:

- Madison's enthusiastic blowjob-giving. Seriously. I said that I usually think blowjobs are boring; she was so into it that I couldn't be bored.

- Madison sitting on Danny's face.

- Danny spanking & playing with Madison's ass while she's restrained, and demanding that she stick it out further.

- Madison's SCREAMING ORGASM. SRSLY

My one complaint about this DVD? No femdom. The instructional scene is completely maledom/femsub. Sure, Madison tops Danny for a little bit, but it still looked like she was servicing him.

When I first got interested in domination, I naively assumed that femdom/malesub was just as common as... any other configuration, but sadly the DVDs I've watched so far have lead me to believe that it isn't. Either that, or femdom/malesub just isn't represented as much in more "mainstream" porn titles like this one, which is also disappointing.

In any case, if you're a bondage expert you might not find this DVD very useful... but if you have even a smidgen of interest in BDSM/bondage, you'll probably enjoy it.

Review: Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex

I've heard a lot of good things about director & writer Tristan Taormino. Feminist porn? Award winning guide to anal sex? I'm so there! And after reading Epiphora's review of "Rough Sex," I've really been hankering to watch some of her work. So imagine my joy to find out that she was looking for bloggers to review Rough Sex!

Tristan gives the actors a large amount of control over the scenes. The five actresses pick who, how and where they want to fuck: Adrianna Nicole is captured in her shower at home, Satine Phoenix is stranded on a desert road when a kind stranger stops to "help" her, Francesca Le is a good little housewife who decides to turn the tables on her corporate douchebag husband, Marie Luv's boyfriend confronts her after he discovers she's been cheating on him, and Sasha Grey has the switchy sex that she enjoys in her personal life.

Before each scene is an interview with the actors about what rough sex means to them. Not only were the interviews hot, but I think they're perfect for someone who is new to rough sex and might have misconceptions that it's "abusive" or that there's only one way of having rough sex. I very much liked that the actresses talked about what exactly turned them on - from hair-pulling to being slapped around. However, there's only one femdom scene - Francesca Le's - which I found a bit disappointing. It should have been more balanced! Sure, Sasha has moments where she tops, but only moments. As a mostly-dominant woman I would have liked to see more grovelling from the men.

Onto the first scene between Adrianna Nicole and Marco Banderas. Adrianna is taking a shower (hot) when Marco ambushes her and has his wicked way with her. He pushes her around, shoves his fingers and then his cock into her mouth, makes her crawl along the floor to the bedroom while dragging her by her hair, where he fucks her in the pussy and ass and throws a Hitachi into the mix.

However, it is one of the weaker scenes of the bunch. I love the inclusion of sex toys, that they manage to stay in character pretty much the entire time, with Adrianna shooting some wonderfully vulnerable looks into the camera. However, I wished there was more dialogue between the two, and for some reason Adrianna's increasingly whinny-like sex noises began to irritate me.

The second scene between Satine Phoenix and Derrick Pierce was awesome, with the longest build-up out of all the scenes. They talk and flirt a little before getting down and dirty, which made the scene more realistic for me, and had me fidgeting with anticipation.

This scene is definitely rough, and struck me as very real. Derrick verbally humiliates Satine, slaps her face, boobs and ass until she has red marks all over her (um, hot hot hot), and has her cringing, begging helplessly, and fucking him desperately while using the frame of her car for leverage.

Finally, he comes all over her while she lies in the dirt, and walks away - and that's when a big satisfied smile breaks over her face.

The third scene was my favorite. Christian comes home from work and basically acts like an asshole, griping at his employee over the phone while ignoring his wife, Francesca Le. Frustrated, she changes into a sexy outfit before wrapping her husband's own belt around his neck and pulling him into the bedroom.

Francesca insults him and orders him around. ("You don't get to speak! You only speak when spoken to." "Why aren't you kneeling down? Why are you so slow, you dumb fuck?") I loved sooo much about this scene - the shoe/foot licking, cunt worship, slapping, smothering. At one point, she uses a rubber flogger on him, makes him touch himself and stuffs her underwear into his mouth. I also really like Christian as a performer. I've seen him in Chemistry, and he's so versatile, so gentle and willing to please but also very quietly commanding when he wants to be. Not to mention mad hot.

One of the few things I didn't like about this scene was all the spitting. The one instance when I liked it was when Francesca blows him and spits his own come into his mouth. Mmm. The other thing I didn't like was the TOP collar that she wears. Tops do not wear collars, IMHO. Even if the collar says TOP on it. Finally, I couldn't help being critical of her dominance, because some of the verbal commands she used were very inconsistent. It didn't seem to matter what he did, she would praise or chastise him depending more on her mood than on his actual behavior. At one point she punishes him for making her come, which really threw me off.

The fourth scene between Marie Luv and Julius Ceazher was the other weaker scene. Marie says in her interview that she wanted to be punished for cheating because it would produce an intense "love-hate" situation, but after Julius confronts her about it, it isn't referred to again. Instead of an angry love-hate scenario, their dynamic just seems like what you would find in any rough sex scene.

Julius pushes Marie into various positions and fucks her. Yeah, the scene is pretty much as straightforward as that. The most interesting thing about the scene was when they do it against a mirror. The reflective images were pretty sweet. The scene ends with Julius coming all over the mirror, and with Marie licking it off. I personally did not like the licking. Maybe because I've never liked the taste of come? I don't know.

The last scene features Sasha Grey and Danny Wylde, who are both ridiculously hot. This scene has the least set up, as it begins with the two playing pool and discussing rough sex, before doing what they talk about. They're both into SM in their personal lives and it definitely shows; they both get very into it, exchanging intense looks and steamy, whispered words.

The scene starts with Danny topping Sasha - but really the scene is a power struggle, which is why I love it so much. Sasha says she wants him to fuck her; "you'll have to work for it," he says. "I'll have to work for it?" Cue mischievous, very un-submissive look from Sasha. Eventually Danny slaps one of Sasha's boobs, which she had told him not to do, so she switches on him to make him learn his lesson.

The DVD also comes with a safer sex clip and Penny Flame's guide to choking, which I found very useful. I was actually kind of surprised that all the scenes involved a lot of choking. I assumed that this DVD was aimed at vanilla people who were interested in BDSM or rough play but hadn't actually tried it yet, and choking seems like an odd thing to start out with because I believe that it comes with more risks than most SM acts.

All in all, though, I thoroughly enjoyed Rough Sex - it's intelligent, sexy, and has left me wanting more of Tristan's work.

Four out of five hearts!