Those Magdalene Sisters - Again! (On My 'Tele, Too!)

As you know I said last time that I was going to paste up a short extract from the new book, and I will do - but next time.

There are good reasons (I think). (1) The piece I have been working on is still not ready in a form I would feel happy about sharing with you yet.

And (2): I became a little distracted. Partly this was due to a sojourn to the art exhibition currently running at the London Design Centre, Islington, yesterday (where they had, amongst other works on show and for sale, no less than four by LS Lowry, the asking price for one of which was an incredible £800,000 - just a little outside my league, Ha,ha!). But mostly, at least in as far as today has so far been concerned, it is to due to the showing last night on television of the wonderful, if depraved (but not for my taste), film ‘The Magdalene Sisters’– I almost had a coronary!! Of course I felt I had to mention it here, and of course I felt obliged to source a couple of suitable stills to go with the mention.

I have of course talked about this movie before. As you know it is based around the church-run homes that once existed in Ireland (up until not so long ago apparently) that were set up to house and control so-called ‘unruly’ girls - See the blog entry I posted on Tuesday, 23rd September 2008, entitled Corselletes, Corset Discipline & Institutional Hair and Fingernail Cutting (just click the title or use the blog archive search facility over in the right-hand sidebar).

Anyway, one thing led to another and while searching for a few stills from said film I stumbled across ‘The Encyclopedia of Women in Prison Films’(see right-hand sidebar under the heading ‘Useful Resources’ for a link to the homepage or click the site name). This site, which describes itself as “a work in progress attempting to catalogue and review every WIP film ever made”, does indeed host a clip from the aforementioned film. One of the best sections my opinion; the part where the inmates, having been made to strip naked, are humiliated by the Mother Superior who amongst other things has them compare breast sizes and ‘hairiness down below’ and so on - reducing one completely to tears. (See pictured top left). Unfortunately the clip on this particular site is in French, which is a bit of a pain for me personally be a typically ignorant Brit when it comes to languages, but I'm sure it'll be fine for many visitors to this blog to get a flavour of the movie.

Another clip I came across on the same site that I found worth viewing - though it has nothing to do with The Magdalene Sisters and appears to be silent for some reason - was called ‘Stuck’ (click on the film name and look on the bottom right-hand of the page when you arrive - or see clip embedded here). This one is a lovely clip of young women - one delightfully bashful - stripping out of their prison uniforms - which appears to consist of a button-through nylon overall or dress (perfect as a basis for a prison uniform) - under the stern watchful eye of wardress in what appears to be a prison block shower room. To view clip click on the 'play symbol' below.


Going back to the Magdalene sisters again for a moment, and that scene mentioned above in particular I think they miss out on a trick or two if this sort of treatment only occurs once in a girl's experience. In the type of institution I envisage, that form of belittling and humiliating treatment would be repeated on multiple occasions. On subsequent occasions - which I picture as being in a more formal, structured frame, almost along the lines of the series of ‘group therapy’ sessions and perhaps lead by a woman trained in psychology, and perhaps one specialising in the psychology of shame - I imagine it could have been taken a step further, with the girls no longer allowed to just stand passively while comments are fired at them but rather obliged to participate, discussing and describing their own breasts in relation to those others around them. Any sign of pride, a girl perhaps misguidedly flaunting her attributes under the misconception that she is somehow better than the rest, would be dealt with by a suitably scathing and confidence-undermining comment from the psychologist, pointing out her shortcomings in no uncertain terms. Similarly, after the various comments issued regarding the relative level of ‘hairiness down below’ displayed by the various girls while in line - with the Mother Superior saying at one point, as I recall “you've got more there down below then you have on your head, a girl, but I think so-and-so wins out in that department” (or words to that effect, I can't remember the name of the girl) - the next step would be an appointment with the institution's nurse or matron and the very carefully carried out and closely scrutinised close razor-shaving of their more intimate charms. On subsequent occasions, then, those comments could be made far more focused and even more intimate, perhaps with girls lined up with hands-on head over a mirrored floor or seated in a circle on steel-framed plastic chairs and a hand mirror then passed around. I'm sure you get the idea.

A couple of Blogs for You to Visit

Hi there!

Just a quick note to say that I have taken a little time out from struggling with the new book this evening to peruse a couple of blogs that I just can’t believe I’ve overlooked in the past. ‘SEXUELLE’, the creation of one Elizabeth Forster, is just chock full with some of the most erotic spanking orientated erotica I have ever come across on a blog – with an emphasis on erotic; just wonderful!. I went through page after page and just couldn’t get away – I have had a hell of a job just deciding which pics to add to my collection. Click on either picture to visit (they both came from there) or look for link in the blog list in the right-hand sidebar. Actually I really love the top left: the hair bondage thing – very reminiscent of the writing of Victor Bruno, don’t you think?

.....

‘Spanking w necie’ is another good 'un. Not sure what language it is in but there are a lot of spanking pics I have not seen before and a hell of a lot of blog links to explore. Click on blog name to link or see blog list – blah, blah, blah.

Next entry will hopefully be a shard from the new book.

And now… Back to the writing (Well International indoor bowls first on TV, the writing. Maybe a bit of sleep as well?)– enjoy!

Reader's Letters Scans Search Advice

Hi peeeps! Still hard at it here, finishing off the new book, but have also put aside a little time here and there to keep an eye on the blogI. One thing I have noted, checking through the visitor log of late, is that a number of folk are presently linking in from a bulletin board someplace looking specifically for spanking magazine reader's letters page scans. As many of you regulars will know, I have posted quite a few over time from 'Janus' and the Blushes / Whispers magazine stable, some those scanned by 'yours truly', some contributed by Alan (I hope – I have a terrible memory for names). Now, I have not always been as consistent as I might have with my use of 'tags', using insiprations (in error, obviously), inspiration, inspirational letters, Inspirations and letters pages as tags in various combinations. To help those searching for letters pages scans I carried out a little experimentation using the search window facility (look over there in the right-hand side bar). Where it says 'search tis blog' simply type in 'letters' (minus the apostrophes of course!) – this search-term was found to produce the best results – you can always then click on any of the tags that come up with the results to find related postings.

Talking of links: Quite a few folk are still attempting to follow the 'album' links in the sidebar. These all link to Picasaweb albums but as I said last time; Picasaweb have taken down all my albums. I am slowly replacing these with links to 'Dropbox' albums and at present have created 'Dropbox' albums containing spanking artwork from Thorn / Hobbs and women's workwear / uniform catalog scans from Garoulds of London and Hewett 1980s and 1960s (of these only the link to the Thorn / Hobbs artwork album is actually in place at present). There may yet be issues with 'dropbox' – I found Thorn / Hobbs artwork album to have somehow been deleted when I visited yesterday (now reinstated) – but we'll see how it goes. If necessary once the new book is completed I'll create a series of standalone pages to hold the various collections that once resided on Picasaweb – and more besides! Meanwhile, to save further confusion / disappointment, later today I am going to delete all the old Picasaweb links from the sidebar – good riddance; there's nothing worse / more irritating than a broken link.

Another Belated Greeting

A Happy new year to all, before I forget!!! You have probably read of my internet connection difficulties over the Christmas period. Well unfortunately it continued, albeit in a different guise, into the new year.

Although I didn't touch a drop over what would conventionally be considered the xmas period per se, I had determined beforehand that I would spend a couple of days in the pub upon my return to London and traditionally I always meet up with my mother - and sometimes another couple of family members, though not this year - in a suitably agreeable hostelry or alehouse. This year, though, I also chose to cerebrate Twelfth night and the Twelfth day following. Consequently I was to be found in one of the two local branches of Wetherspoons over the last few days. As always, on each tavern visit I went armed with my trusty netbook - the intention being to work on the new book, deal with emails and perhaps create the odd blog update to boot!

The lack of any recent blog activity can be taken as evidence that all did not go to plan in that direction. Both my local pub branches proved to be suffering different router problems. A third establishment I tried, though it did have a working WiFi connection - of sorts – it was running so slow that it was only really feasible to send out a few emails before the battery in my computer started to fail: and there was nowhere to plug in the power supply either!!!

Then, over the weekend I went to stay at the 'significant other's' place. And guess what... Her phone line promptly went down (and still is down) and now we are embroiled in heated discussions with the phone company (BT) as to which part of the phone line they are actually responsible for and which proportion is up to us to sort out for ourselves. I am reasonably confident that I have proved the fault to be outside of the house, which was all that was necessary previously – but not any more it seems. Things are far more complex these days.

I have been doing a little work on one of the files still waiting to be incorporated into the book. That alone extends to around 62 pages, needs a little completion and major rearrangement / editing to make sense, so still a lot to be done there. In addition I am going to have to recreate all my Picasaweb albums in a different form, as I said last time. What I still can't quite grasp is why they also objected to the various women's workwear / uniform catalog scan albums, which surely were quite harmless. I have no way of gauging how popular those particular albums actually were and whether it will be worth re-uploading them elsewhere; so please let me know if you found them of interest and would appreciate more. What ever a decide, I shall leave the links listed in the sidebar until I replace each, as a guide to myself.

Meanwhile some kind soul has chosen to slag off volume 2 on one of the ebook sites with a vitriolic attack culminating in the statement that there is "nothing nice written anywhere between its pages" or some such thing - no shit Sherlock!!! It's not supposed to be 'nice' in just the same way that the 'Saw' film franchise is not supposed to be 'nice'. What gets me, though, is that the site in question includes a lengthy extract featuring one of the more graphic punishment scenes from the book - there aren't many and I tend to deliberately steer clear of the repetitive and ever more brutal beating type of thing written elsewhere by the likes of Victor Bruno (as much as I admire his work and have to admit to owing much inspiration to his writing) et al!!!

Got to go now - I'm in a coffee house and I hate what I would describe as 'coffee house music'; incessantly repetitive and intrusive south American jungle-tango-jazz shit... Sorry but I hate it and once again they have succeeded in driving me out after only one coffee. But not before searching out some nice inspiring art work, this one being particularly relevant to the storyline – see what you think.

Best wishes from a wet and windy and grubby litter-strewn North London where this music is now driving me to distraction.,, AAAAARRRRGH!!!!!

A Belated Festive Greeting From England (not the UK - What's United About It?) What's 'United About Anything Anyway?'

Hi my little festive chums (we have 'festive' cheer here nowadays in preference to the apparently potentially offensive Chr----- nomenclature... note to self: New year's resolution - not to get upset by 'man-dresses', the upside down bramble-beard shaved headed look and the PC brigade that kowtow to them).

Talking of the latter, PicasaWeb chose Chr--------- day to inform me that they are permanently removing all of my albums and shutting down my account as 'despite previous notifications' and 'further complaint' I had neglected to remove offensive material from my albums. Well Pollocks to em: last time I was 'notified' it was to say they had removed the aforementioned 'offensive material' from my albums, and lo and behold certain 'material' – notably the artwork of Thorn / Hobbs – had been removed. Thus I took no further action, believing all else to have passed and survived their scrutiny.

Fear not, though, for as the case of some with some of the other material they have removed in the past I shall resurrect these folders, albums and files in their entirety as I did with the work of Hobs / Thorn – keep watching the sidebar for new links / demise of the old Picasaweb links.

When you come to think of it, what could have been so offensive about the covers of old magazines that once sat on newsagent shelves let alone women's workwear catalogs that once occupied the mainstream in any case. I guess what I am saying is: why delete such innocuous material in the first place? Or is it the truth that no one ever bothers to check and any allegation will do?. More likely it is the usual fear that someone - anyone, no matter how minority their point of view – shall be 'offended': well should we kowtow to every nutter on the planet – or embrace freedom?

Now as for the belated Christmas (oh no! I've said it) greeting: I neglected to take an USB cable with me to the hotel – and the wireless link cost money. So what can I say: I'm having a beer or two today on the proceeds of that saving!!!

On another lay: here are a couple of early renditions of the cover for the new volume – along with the first two for comparison –

though I doubt I'll use either in their present form as I'd like to keep to the series theme a little more and also for legal reasons (both are for artwork layout guidance only). Comments / criticisms are, as always, are welcomed.

A Yuletide Exultation? Yeah! Why Not?

Hi Chaps and chap-eses. Greetings from a largely snowed-in / snowed-under Brit-land. Snowed under is an apt term for me right now: It's the 19th December and I have just woken up and sniffed the coffee – trouble is; more often than not of late it has been more likely the barmaid's apron sniffed (a popular British saying ) than a pungent arabica bean. What am I on about? Well just as we Brits have once again been caught with our pants down as regards the weather with nary a gritting lorry (or truck, for you poor misguided USA types) nor sprinkling of salt to be seen (well...who would guess it might get cold in winter? In Northern Europe? What a bloody shock that was!) so I have been caught napping. Of course it happens every year and I am always caught by surprise by the proximity of the dreaded 'day', but bloody hell I haven't even as much as bought a Christmas card yet. I get all excited about it then hit the pubs and bars and a those great intentions I have harbored about 'being ahead of the game' this year and not getting caught on the hop go sailing straight out the window. It's at this time of the year that I most gravitate towards those older establishments that populate the backstreets of Hampstead. Of course there is the famous 'The Flask' of flask walk, Hampstead but if you know where you're going and venture up into the hills you might come across 'The Holly Bush' – think low timbers and a roaring log fire; how traditional can you get? Then a little further afield – this particular establishment claiming a rather optimistically short 15 minute walk across the heath from Hampstead tube (subway) - there awaits 'The Spaniards Inn', also boasting a log fire if not quite so 'roaring' the last time I visited. Now, if you were to just throw in a suitably 18th century flurry of snow and... well, it's just heaven, isn't it. Actually, even my local and fairly dire branch of 'Wetherspoons' looked appealing given a dusting of snow and the obligatory snowball fight that had spontaneously ignited outside. It's amazing what snow is capable of here in the UK – otherwise fairly sensible (if terminally alcoholic) 50-somethings opening up a massed barrage of snow-orientated artillery against the pub windows in second-childhood rapture is a sight to behold! No I wasn't involved – I bloody hate the cold, me!

As for the rest: today I am ostensibly out to catch up on all those Christmas tasks that have been thrown to the wayside. But guess what? Yes, I've landed in a pub... one look at that snow and what choice did I have. A tankard of ale and an open fire!!!! And in a sense I am ahead of the game – many's the year when I have been out shopping late Christmas eve (no kidding) and with enough 'Christmas cheer' in me too... well, lets just say that I'd be unlikely to later recall quite what I'd bought or who for. Yet somehow I'd get it all wrapped – just without labels or recipient names or anything as mundane as that. All a bit of a guessing game come Christmas morn!

Right, well I felt I just had to add a pic and I chose this one which I happened across on Flikr among some unnamed person's photo set, which gave the impression that that owner of the set was the photographer – unlikely given that I have myself posted another of this same set here sometime ago and I can tell you it originated from a scan taken from a copy of 'Men Only' or 'Penthouse' – I forget which – dated between 1978 and 1980-ish. Unless of course it is indeed from an impoverished photographer now reduced to publishing his work on social network sites! Forget all that though; the question is would you allow such a lackadaisical attitude to discipline and wanton display in the institution of your choice? I have to say that I do approve of the uniforms though.

The Shortest of Short Updates

Hi folks, added another chapter to the book yesterday, though it needs a little more work. Even so, at least it feels a little closer to completion now. I have a huge chunk to deal with next - a file that amounts to around 60 - 64 pages and that will push the book to just over 200 pages once placed. How to distribute this piece will be the problem here - its structure as it stands does not naturally lend itself to insertion as a standalone chapter in its own right; it will have to be split up in some manner. On another tack: after a rock-solid month of teetotalism I let loose a little last Sunday - well not such a little. In my defense I do have to point out - as I have previously - that I do have an allergy to dogs and cats; and my aunt has a dog. Because of that I often have to hang around in the garden or outside the house for long periods when visiting - and of course at this festive time of year the temptation is to wander around the local village and sample the wares of the local alehouses. One of the said establishments proved able to provide an enticing tipple indeed - 'Green King Special Reserve' at 6.7% alcohol by volume. Well, after a full month of abstainance the outcome was preordained from the start - basically I have succeeded in alienating a large and important section of my family.

On yet another tack: All that 'adoption' stuff from those old Blushes magazine reader's letters pages was brought to mind recently on watching with one of my kids a CBBC program called 'Jinx'. The central actress is called Amber Beattie - she's 17 - 18 so check her out on the net and think a little. Let your imagination roam a little! The character she plays - ironically, considering my moans of late - is named, Lulu! She has that sort of girl-next-door coquettish doe-eyed charm that just demands exploitative cruelty. This girl is bubbly, cheerful , winning / winsome - all those aspects one would want to curb with the imposition of a regime of strict discipline . One look and you'd just have to put her into a restrictive , stiff-collared school uniform. By the by _ today I am in Soho, in a pub known as The Coach and Horses - look it up if you have the time; it is idiosyncratic to put it mildly!