8/16/2003: Padlocks of love
 

http://cellar.org/2003/pecspadlocks.jpg

It's Pecs, Hungary, and an odd fashion has sprung up. Lovers are secretly clamping PADLOCKS on statues and gates all over the city center -- as symbols of their enduring affection. Apparently the city tried to fight it for a while but the lovers were more persistent.

Looks more like an orgy to me.:eek:

Cropping
 

So what's with the cropping of the shot? I mean, sure, show the locks. But why include the (admittedly interesting to look at) woman on the right? It appears that she has nothing to do with the subject of the picture. Maybe for scale?

Locksmiths are a lot cheaper than a decent divorce lawyer.

I'd bet that UT posts 'em like he finds 'em.
Whomever cropped it probably wanted to show this wasn't something quaint Hungarian peasants are doing, but hip urban youth
Oh...and breasts.:D

When I saw the title I thought you were linking to this local news story.

Best quote: "Investigators had planned to raid the apartment last week, but said business was so good that they could not get an appointment for their undercover agent until Wednesday. "

wolf, that story was so juicy I just posted it to FARK with this headline: Business was so good at S/M whorehouse that undercover vice cop had to wait a week for an appointment

Funny as hell, thanks for the link ;)

Brian, you had a link to the last bust in Tacony...what about this one?

S&M? As if just being in Tacony wasn't painful enough.:D
I wonder if they really had to wait a week to get an appointment or for them all to try it out?

Knowing the Philadelphia police, both.

Re the S&M Raid
 

I thought I'd really been around, but what's a Transformation Studio?

From what I've read, it's a place where crossdressers are made up to look more like they "are," e.g. to make a crossdressing man look more like a female. Don't know if it applies to transgendered types or not...I would suspect so.

Never mind. (Secondary links are NSFW!)

There are a lot of businesses that do makeovers, sell extra-large size clothes and wigs, and help transvestites learn make-up tips and other stuff Mom didn't teach them....kinda like "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"...but different, and they don't get a new sofa.

They do seem to mostly cater to (or attract, your choice) a transvestite crowd rather than transsexuals. There's a related kind of business that calls themselves "image consultants" that'a a bit more mainstream that TS folk (rich ones, anyhow) might make more use of.

("Transgender" is a synthetic term people use when the're trying to be "inclusive" of TVs, TSs who are post-op, TS's who are pre-op, folks who identify as TS but aren't candidates for surgery, either by choice, or for financial or medical reasons, and other random folks with gender issues of various kinds.)

Especially relevant to this particular case, there's an additional thrill attached for some folks to be "cooerced" into the transformation in some way, like having it happen on orders of a dominatrx. This probably acts to relieve the guilt associatied with wanting something taboo. This whole genre of stuff is called "forced feminization", and is pretty much exclusively a transvestite thing...I suspect that's what was being done on these premises in Tacony.

Maggie is right
 

Although I will preface my comments with the standard warning that I have not ever visited those premises, but I AM familiar with the two women who were running the "business".

I was informed of the story Saturday night by Dagney, who recognised the name. My first comment: "It was inevitable."

She uses a lot of in your face tactics and doesn't seem to care about appearances or what the neighbors think, which has accounted for her (now) three arrests on the same charges. Dumb bitch doesn't learn.

I wonder how the police are going to prosecute this one...same as usual, I expect. Perhaps her lawyers from the last bust (just resolved three months ago) are still available.

She can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned.

Brian

Whoa dude. Why such venom? I thought you were in favor of free enterprise, supply and demand, the American way. :confused:

Without going into a lot of detail, I tried to help her, and she wound up ripping off my Bonneville SSEi, my Golden Retriever and ruining my life.

Thus the venom.

That said, I know several professional wimmin in the Phila area who are in that line of work and they are all nice people, albeit a tad foolish, IMO. I can think of one who has all her clients at her HOME. I wouldn't want every pervert in town knowig where I live and have told her so, and all she says is that she's never had a problem. "Until the first time" say I.

But that's me.

Brian

Brian, your dog? Now that's low.

OH! :eek:

Says in the article they arrested this woman for prostitution. Now, I've lead far too sheltered a life to be up on the S&M scene, but I was under the impression that these places offered pretty much everything BUT actual intercourse?

Oh, and Pure -- the third mistress ("Lady Gwen Severe") in your second link is also a customer, right? (or are all of them?)

Seems to me these are employees of the transformation studio in Boston -- not related to the place in the Wolf's article, which is in the Phila area. The "links" page on this site leads to some pretty unusual (well, for me, anyway) stuff. My favorite was this one :eek:

shamless plug
 

Heck, you can contact me privately about that kind of stuff.

I make it for the mass market in my woodshop. I usually do custom orders but I have some off-the-shelf pieces too.

I also have a list of links for friends who make stuff that I do not (I cannot weld yet).

Brian

The amusing thing here is, if this were in the right part of the right state, no one would care. But, according to the second link, it's evil and bad, all because it's not in the right zoning district.

It is to laugh.

Quzah.

Quzah, that's not quite true. You see, running an S&M parlor, no matter where in the Commonwealth of Penna, is illegal. Case law is on record and Nelson herself has set at least two earlier precedents. In two counties. In two years.

And the more she does this, the more precedents will be set and the further back the leather community will go. I therefore wonder when some people will just get together and either run her out of the Commonwealth or just string her up. Not that I advocate violence, mind you, but she has done more than one one individual or group to undermine the fight for freedom from persecution the leather crowd has been fighting for thirty years. The whips and welts people were getting close with several fetish-friendly nightclubs and events, stores that cater to people who wear lots of dead cow, and other positive things, but Michelene Nelson has undone much of that good work with her consistantly negative portrayal (not to mention her betrayal of friends) of S&M.

I can only hope this time she is sentenced to prison both to set an example as well as to remove her from the news headlines so the rest of the leather community can get on with the business of making up for her shortcomings and when she is released, she goes to some other state to ply her trade. New York City seems more tolerant of her line of work than Philadelphia is. It's not quite far enough away for me. Hong Kong wqould be better in that regard, but my opinion is not relevant to the proceedings. As usual.

Brian

That's why I said in the right part of the right state. Meaning Nevada. :P

Quzah.

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to get in on this conversation, but I couldn't resist a couple of comments.....(NOT directed at you Quzah, but in general)

After visiting the Dungeon Crafts site (link provided by 99), the amusing thing I find here is their emphasis on the "safety" of their suspension devices and the "comfort" of their whipping benches.

As far as "watersports" and "golden nectar".........what ever happened to water-skiing and a beer?