What an amazing ride!
First things first; I am Mr. Rocky Mountain Olympus Leather 2011!
After my last post, I headed off to the mixer afterparty, I got there very late, and although I realized that the party was also part of the "fetish image" scoring, I was pretty low energy. Stress can take it's toll. The current Ms. San Diego Leather and crazy hot woman of leather, Beanstalk, gave me great advice; hydrate.
Dispite my low energy, I managed to get some food in me and put together two scenes with my singletail. One of which I'm going to rank up there with some of my favorite all time scenes.
I woke up the next morning, dressed in my Leathers for the Interview Panel, and took my lumps just like everyone else. The questions were killer, and I wasn't prepared for any of them. The only comment I recieved from the Judges about my panel was from Mistress Cyan of Los Angeles, who said, "you aren't the same person who went in to that interview last year..", and she wasn't kidding, it's been an hell of a journey to date, and now I get to tack on a title year.
So the interview is in the books, and now I just have the auction/Q&A session and my fantasy performance.
Both went very well, although I completely spaced some of the Bids and went backwords a couple of times, but I took it in stride, and more than made up for it with my fantasy performance, which dispite losing one of my props mid performance, managed to come off looking great. Who knows maybe it's going to make a showing at international too.
I'm still a little loopy, and half asleep as I'm writing this, but I'll add to it soon, and get started on my journey to International Olympus.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Day one is in the Books!
I started the day off, by heading out the Cafe Med here in Salt Lake City, where I had invited the general public to come have lunch with the contestants. I had figured on roughly 15 people, and ended up with 25, so the restaurant was pretty busy. This party, helped me score a few gift cards for my travel auction basket, while I was at it.
One of the guests came strait from the airport, Mr. South East Olympus Leather from Florida. Who has the potential to be my competition at the International Olympus Leather Competition in L.A., should I manage to win the Rocky Mountain title tomorrow. He and his girl are also staying the weekend at my place. He's calling me on a lot of my shit, so I like him a lot.
After the lunch, I had coffee with more people from the community, and then headed off to meet with a tattoo artist named Wee from Illustrated Life Tattoo, who I had met the previous night, scouting the venue of the competition. She had agreed to donate to my basket, and gave me a beautiful piece of flash art; A fantastic last second score!
I got about two hours to decompress and get ready for the "Meet and Greet" mixer at the venue. Turn out was good for 6pm-8pm, I made the rounds made sure everyone knew who I was, and managed to win my "Quiz show" style face off with my competition, where we answered Leather history questions, which helped determine the order we would be performing in for the competition. I will be going 4th, the final position, and my peer competition will be going 1st. Which is great for me, due to a last second fantasy changes forced us both to ask the same person to be on stage with us. Having said yes to us both, there was certainly potential that the wardrobe change could have been a snag, had we been seeded back to back.
The mixer broke up and we all headed our own ways to change wardrobe as needed and head off to the play party. Fetish image is still a part of the party, so my getting there an hour and a half late was not the best idea, but I settled in, had some conversations with friends I had been trying to have for weeks, and got in a couple of scenes. The later of which was one of the most impressive "no strike" single tail scenes I think I've ever performed. Woof!
Everyone has been fantastic, and supportive, I met people from San Diego, LA, Denver, Boise, Tampa, Central Florida, and I really enjoyed the experience.
I'm getting up in about six hours to start the next phase and complete the most intimidating part of the competition, the panel interview.
My next post is either my celebrating a title and getting ready for International, or my thoughts on what went wrong if the unthinkible were to happen.
Here we go!
One of the guests came strait from the airport, Mr. South East Olympus Leather from Florida. Who has the potential to be my competition at the International Olympus Leather Competition in L.A., should I manage to win the Rocky Mountain title tomorrow. He and his girl are also staying the weekend at my place. He's calling me on a lot of my shit, so I like him a lot.
After the lunch, I had coffee with more people from the community, and then headed off to meet with a tattoo artist named Wee from Illustrated Life Tattoo, who I had met the previous night, scouting the venue of the competition. She had agreed to donate to my basket, and gave me a beautiful piece of flash art; A fantastic last second score!
I got about two hours to decompress and get ready for the "Meet and Greet" mixer at the venue. Turn out was good for 6pm-8pm, I made the rounds made sure everyone knew who I was, and managed to win my "Quiz show" style face off with my competition, where we answered Leather history questions, which helped determine the order we would be performing in for the competition. I will be going 4th, the final position, and my peer competition will be going 1st. Which is great for me, due to a last second fantasy changes forced us both to ask the same person to be on stage with us. Having said yes to us both, there was certainly potential that the wardrobe change could have been a snag, had we been seeded back to back.
The mixer broke up and we all headed our own ways to change wardrobe as needed and head off to the play party. Fetish image is still a part of the party, so my getting there an hour and a half late was not the best idea, but I settled in, had some conversations with friends I had been trying to have for weeks, and got in a couple of scenes. The later of which was one of the most impressive "no strike" single tail scenes I think I've ever performed. Woof!
Everyone has been fantastic, and supportive, I met people from San Diego, LA, Denver, Boise, Tampa, Central Florida, and I really enjoyed the experience.
I'm getting up in about six hours to start the next phase and complete the most intimidating part of the competition, the panel interview.
My next post is either my celebrating a title and getting ready for International, or my thoughts on what went wrong if the unthinkible were to happen.
Here we go!
Friday, April 22, 2011
It all starts today
Anyone who may have been following my blog, may realize that I haven't posted since February. It dawned on me once my competition started to present themselves, that I would have been sharing quite a bit of information on my processes and preparations. So, I left a bit of a gap.
So let's look at the scoring, and that will help explain, why I've been getting ready the way I have been, or in reality almost ready.
Fetish Image= 100
Interview= 200
Stage presence= 100
Fantasy performance= 100
Tonight is a mixer event, where for two hours we will be judged on Fetish Image, which is how one shows concern for the community and how we interact with the Judges, VIP's, other contestants, and the general public. Now the entirety of Fetish image is judged for the entire weekend, and how well we represent ourseleves and how authentic we are in doing so. But by the time the stage performances start, Image will have been completely scored, so this is the night to make an impression.
First, since the competition will be held at a bar, I'm hosting a luncheon for the VIPs and general public at one of our local resaurants. I'm just about off to head over there, now. I'll post later about how things went. Wish me luck.
So let's look at the scoring, and that will help explain, why I've been getting ready the way I have been, or in reality almost ready.
Fetish Image= 100
Interview= 200
Stage presence= 100
Fantasy performance= 100
Tonight is a mixer event, where for two hours we will be judged on Fetish Image, which is how one shows concern for the community and how we interact with the Judges, VIP's, other contestants, and the general public. Now the entirety of Fetish image is judged for the entire weekend, and how well we represent ourseleves and how authentic we are in doing so. But by the time the stage performances start, Image will have been completely scored, so this is the night to make an impression.
First, since the competition will be held at a bar, I'm hosting a luncheon for the VIPs and general public at one of our local resaurants. I'm just about off to head over there, now. I'll post later about how things went. Wish me luck.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
So relieved I didn't win last year
I'm finding that it's not enough to think about the competition alone, but the International, and how you plan to represent yourself and your title abroad, just in case you actually win one or both.
Last year I was content just to have some exposure and share my personality with my new town, winning would have been a lot of fun, and the accomplishment would have been very satisfying but I don't believe I would have represented Salt Lake very well. I was completely unprepared for what I saw UtahRox go through and accomplish.
On one hand I'm focused on the competition at hand, and getting ready for Rocky Mountain. On the other, once I've won that title, I need to package a selection of workshops I'm willing to present on the road, put together a website or at least have a place to feature my resume as an educator.
I was talking with some of my brothers about "out of town" presenters, and current title holders who are looking to gain additional exposure by present nationally. A lot of questions couldn't be answered. What do they teach? How do we know they're going to meet the standards of our community? Who has seen them present? Where have they presented before? It seems so obvious when you ask those questions about others, that you need to realize the same questions are going to be asked of you when you try to get a gig in Atlanta, Georgia, or even Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The competition is coming up fast. The reality that follows is going to hit pretty hard if you're not ready to hit your title year at a run.
Last year I was content just to have some exposure and share my personality with my new town, winning would have been a lot of fun, and the accomplishment would have been very satisfying but I don't believe I would have represented Salt Lake very well. I was completely unprepared for what I saw UtahRox go through and accomplish.
On one hand I'm focused on the competition at hand, and getting ready for Rocky Mountain. On the other, once I've won that title, I need to package a selection of workshops I'm willing to present on the road, put together a website or at least have a place to feature my resume as an educator.
I was talking with some of my brothers about "out of town" presenters, and current title holders who are looking to gain additional exposure by present nationally. A lot of questions couldn't be answered. What do they teach? How do we know they're going to meet the standards of our community? Who has seen them present? Where have they presented before? It seems so obvious when you ask those questions about others, that you need to realize the same questions are going to be asked of you when you try to get a gig in Atlanta, Georgia, or even Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The competition is coming up fast. The reality that follows is going to hit pretty hard if you're not ready to hit your title year at a run.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Where to Begin?
For me the beginning started when I started asking myself, How can I "One Up" my stage performance from last year? I wouldn't say mine was the best performance of the night, as my First Runner-up wife, Jodi gave the most amazing performance I'd ever seen. It was so sexy, I'm kinda wishing I had it on video.
So a while back I'm sitting down with Carah, and we're talking about how to do just as well, if not better than the Lion Tamer performance, and keep in mind the same group of people expected to attend just happened to see Jodi perform last year, setting a pretty high bar.
Then the idea just kind of happened, Carah came up with a theme that really sang to me, and I immediately started to insert bits of dialog, and mixing in some pop themes in the process; I've been re-writing it for three months now, and I'm looking for a cast. I wish I could tell you more, but you'll just have to be at the show.
Alright, so now it's official, I'm confident I've got entertainment covered. What's next?
There's just so much...
A. Write a new resume
B. Find sponsors
C. Portraits
D. Work on my body
E. More leather (so far my favorite to-do)
F. More books/reading/studing (not easy to find time for when you're a finance student)
G. Plan the travel expected of holding the title, not just for me, but for my team to support me at International
H. Choreograph the skit to music
I. Get costumes as needed
J. Practice questions for the panel
K. Get involved, lend my name, lend my sweat, continue being more active than I've already been.
I've already began beefing up my leather, and I've been reading as often as I can manage, I'm teaching workshops again, hosting TNG events, and just all around prepping for a whirlwind kind of year.
So a while back I'm sitting down with Carah, and we're talking about how to do just as well, if not better than the Lion Tamer performance, and keep in mind the same group of people expected to attend just happened to see Jodi perform last year, setting a pretty high bar.
Then the idea just kind of happened, Carah came up with a theme that really sang to me, and I immediately started to insert bits of dialog, and mixing in some pop themes in the process; I've been re-writing it for three months now, and I'm looking for a cast. I wish I could tell you more, but you'll just have to be at the show.
Alright, so now it's official, I'm confident I've got entertainment covered. What's next?
There's just so much...
A. Write a new resume
B. Find sponsors
C. Portraits
D. Work on my body
E. More leather (so far my favorite to-do)
F. More books/reading/studing (not easy to find time for when you're a finance student)
G. Plan the travel expected of holding the title, not just for me, but for my team to support me at International
H. Choreograph the skit to music
I. Get costumes as needed
J. Practice questions for the panel
K. Get involved, lend my name, lend my sweat, continue being more active than I've already been.
I've already began beefing up my leather, and I've been reading as often as I can manage, I'm teaching workshops again, hosting TNG events, and just all around prepping for a whirlwind kind of year.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
I've Been Thinking About This for Awhile
Last year I had the great pleasure of competing for a leather title at the first Mr. Rocky Mountain Olympus Leather competition. The first contestant to enter the competition also happened to be a favorite within the Salt Lake Community, and there were few who expected he could be beaten.
I believe that's why I thought I would toss my hat in the ring, as it were. Expectations were not in my favor and I could always fall back on it as an excuse. So here I am, new to this city I've adopted, and my goal was to entertain as many people as I could with what ever wit I could pull out of my boots, which just happened to be the only leather I owned. Soon after UtahRox and I were Joined by Shane and we had a three man race.
I'll admit not only did I have no idea what I was undertaking, but I would have been absolutely lost without the guidance of my friends and roommates Jay & Carah, who did everything in their power to support me with choreography, music, history, costumes, make-up, and the dreaded auction basket. Then I was able to assemble a great cast of helpers for the skit, in Megan, Ari, Tawny and Josh; who were fantastic, by the way. I may not have ended up with the title at the end of the night, but everyone remembers that skit. My team was completed with Cassie who was so much help backstage.
So I'm feeling pretty good, and with this team on my side, I'm starting to think I've actually got a chance to make a run at this title. Here's where my education on title competitions gave me a nice kick in the teeth. I didn't have a clue what to do, how to act or dress. Every title competition I had seen was for entertainment and I never thought about what these men were going through in the backround. Needless to say I made mistakes, but still managed a 1st runner up medal, and the intense desire to try again and learn from the feedback given to me by the judges at the end of the night. Mistress Cyan St. James, Goddess Genesis, and Dave Rhodes made up 3/5ths of the judges panel and they were very direct about what I did wrong, and were also very encouraging.
So here I am, nine months later, and it's time to prepare for my best effort at taking home the title this year, and moving on to the International title.
This blog is here so you can follow my progress, and maybe get some insight into what's involved with a serious title run.
I believe that's why I thought I would toss my hat in the ring, as it were. Expectations were not in my favor and I could always fall back on it as an excuse. So here I am, new to this city I've adopted, and my goal was to entertain as many people as I could with what ever wit I could pull out of my boots, which just happened to be the only leather I owned. Soon after UtahRox and I were Joined by Shane and we had a three man race.
I'll admit not only did I have no idea what I was undertaking, but I would have been absolutely lost without the guidance of my friends and roommates Jay & Carah, who did everything in their power to support me with choreography, music, history, costumes, make-up, and the dreaded auction basket. Then I was able to assemble a great cast of helpers for the skit, in Megan, Ari, Tawny and Josh; who were fantastic, by the way. I may not have ended up with the title at the end of the night, but everyone remembers that skit. My team was completed with Cassie who was so much help backstage.
So I'm feeling pretty good, and with this team on my side, I'm starting to think I've actually got a chance to make a run at this title. Here's where my education on title competitions gave me a nice kick in the teeth. I didn't have a clue what to do, how to act or dress. Every title competition I had seen was for entertainment and I never thought about what these men were going through in the backround. Needless to say I made mistakes, but still managed a 1st runner up medal, and the intense desire to try again and learn from the feedback given to me by the judges at the end of the night. Mistress Cyan St. James, Goddess Genesis, and Dave Rhodes made up 3/5ths of the judges panel and they were very direct about what I did wrong, and were also very encouraging.
So here I am, nine months later, and it's time to prepare for my best effort at taking home the title this year, and moving on to the International title.
This blog is here so you can follow my progress, and maybe get some insight into what's involved with a serious title run.
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