I made a music video recently and I wanted some pole dancing in it
Why..? Yes it’s sexy eye candy, and yes it’s featured in some big music videos of late…
But also because I felt it would speak to the female audience as well as the male

Why..? Well I’ve met quite a few women who have tried it, loved it and bought a pole of their own
And they’re not working in strip clubs, they are everyday people of all ages and backgrounds

After auditioning dancers for the music video and seeing my choreographer put a pole routine together that worked with my track, I was gutted that we couldn’t put a pole up on the shoot
But through the process I became a real fan. Here’s why…

Pole dancing is a real form of dance
Like other forms of dance it shares some common themes…

It’s addictive:
Talk to some salsa or tango dancers. It’s almost a standard joke that you will go through this
2 year cycle where you buy proper shoes, change your clothes, forget your previous life (and friends) and go dancing 3 to 5 nights a week plus weekenders, congresses and even dance holidays
After that you generally will re enter normal society but somewhat changed
A good friend of mine jokingly once said to me ‘What did I do with my life before salsa?’

It’s always new:
You want to master it and there is no limit to how far you can take it
There’s always new moves to learn and ways to combine them

It’s artistic:
Check out the Winner of Pole Art 2009 – Oona Kivelä. She looks like a ballerina crossed with a gymnast on a pole (see the videos at the end of this article)
Pole performances involve creativity, choreography and musical interpretation
No two human bodies are exactly alike and everyone develops their own style

It’s great for Fitness:
Dance fitness has been around for a long time and is very popular
It makes it fun and is a superb all body work out. If you’ve ever tried street dance you’ll know what fit means – a 3 minute song can bring you close to a heart attack!
Pole dancing combines fitness with sensuality and builds the kind of body shape and muscle tone that looks beautiful

(Last and by no means least) Personal confidence and liberation:
Getting in touch with your body, the way it moves, and sensuality
Working on your body has an effect on your mind – like yoga. Making your body feel good can make you feel good
Pole dancing is sexy and it’s empowering to explore and discover this

But there’s more…
Pole dancing scores highly in the liberation stakes for two reasons:
Firstly it’s blowing out of the water the assumption that pole dancing is about women dancing in strip clubs with money stuffed in their suspenders
Secondly it’s challenging societies attitude that being sexy is bad, which represses women and is abused in order to control

I often hear women say that they are afraid to show their sexy side for fear of being labelled slutty. For some people it’s quite a revelation to be able to express this part of themselves…

My own experience was that I think that as little girls, all women want to be admired and told how pretty they look. As we grow up we are expected to fit into a mould where we are conservative on the outside, and supposed to be wild on the inside. That is impossible to do, especially when we have lost touch with our sensuality and our bodies.

I personally wish that there had been some school that could teach me how to be sexy, but there is no such place. I became an exotic dancer, and so I taught myself, but women are starving to be let out, much like Shakira’s “She Wolf”. I think it is the right time

Natasha Williams (BodyMind Studios, South Africa)

Pole dancing is now challenging the misconception that sexy equals slutty, teaching women how to be sexy in a safe environment, and returning to them ownership of their bodies

Students initially come to class with their hair in a pony tail, no make up, baggy clothes and after a few weeks they come to class with their hair down, make-up on, showing off their new bodies and strutting in high heels. You never hear women say that about going to the gym! Pole dancing really does leave women feeling strong both physically and mentally

Tracy Gray (Aradia Fitness USA & CAN)

And inspiring confidence…

I went back to my first experience on the pole which was as an attendee of a pole party and saw myself watching this gorgeous woman teach us how to swing and flip around this narrow strip of metal and how easy and graceful she made it seem. Not only did I experience fear and elation, but obviously an instant addiction!  To this day whenever I watch a pole dancing competition or even one of my fellow instructors accomplish what seems to be a near impossible move I suffer a brief moment of doubt that I could ever do the same, and then with a little (or a lot) of work and maybe a few bumps and bruises, I do!  More importantly I’ve gotten to the point where even though that fear and doubt may never truly leave me, I now possess the confidence in myself to try and try again

from Rhae’s Blog (Instructor, Pole Dance Winnipeg)

From a mans point of view a woman who is confident and in touch with her body is going to be attractive. Further to this if she wants to bring it into the bedroom it’s going to be appreciated immensely. Not all pole dancers do but their husbands / boyfriends still appreciate the effect it has on their partners. (Although I’ve heard one story of a guy who went out and bought his wife a Rolex the next day!)

It’s also good for men to be reminded to look artistically. The curves of the most beautiful cars in the world are all modelled on a the curves of a woman. Ask any designer what a curve with tension is… If my guitar didn’t have those curves I would not have bought it
If straight lines turned me on I’d be attracted to the pole, not the dancer
I don’t think I’ve seen many other art forms that show just how stunningly beautiful and sexy a woman is at the same time

When you add all this up it’s easy to see why pole dancing is becoming so popular

The pole dancing scene is absolutely thriving
There are pole schools, classes and purpose built studios starting up all over the place

It’s not just pole dancing anymore, it’s Pole Fitness, Fantasy (or Erotic), and Acrobatic Pole.
Whether you want to learn how to be sexy, get fit, lose weight, improve your confidence, increase your strength or perform, there’s something for all tastes, ages and sizes

Pole Parties (or the Bachelorette Party) are increasingly popular and a great way of getting into pole dancing. In Las Vegas they are rapidly replacing the traditional male strip show in the Hotels
There’s even a movement to make it an Olympic sport. How many of you are now saying ‘Yeah I’d watch that!’

There are quite a few championships around the world which have produced some of the scenes real heroes (sorry heroines) like:

Jamilla DeVille – featured in magazines, TV shows and commercials and now travels the world performing and teaching
Pantera – the tattooed wildcat of pole, currently touring Australia
Felix Cane – 2009 World Pole Dance champion and now performing with Cirque du Soleil
Jenyne Butterly – Miss USPDF 2009 and due to host a TV show in production called ‘The vertical Pole Challenge’
Danielle Rueda-Watts – Michael Jacksons ‘This Is It’ tour and features in the movie

Check out the videos at the end of this article and the playlist on my Youtube channel

The scene also has it’s true ‘Champions of Pole’
Try googling Stephanie Babines…

I am the only certified instructor that had to file a federal law suit (in which I won) with the help of the ACLU in order to open my pole fitness studio.
It was a long drawn out case that i fought for the rights of freedom of speech, expression in dance, women business owners and much much more…

Her case made international news and she featured in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Inside Edition and many others. People are still writing about it today and not surprisingly as it highlights so many issues in society, not just pole dance

Fawnia Dietrich – A pioneer in the world of Pole instruction (she opened her first school in 1994). She is often credited by instructors but this is only half of the story as Fawnia’s career spans modelling, body building and acting with many appearances in magazines and film

Tracy Gray and Christine Boyer who started Aradia Fitness 7 years ago -

After opening 22 studios  across North America and training over 200 instructors we have seen pole dancing go from being a taboo subject to being a must try form of  fitness for women of all ages

The scene is rapidly organising itself. The top movers and shakers are starting schools, developing teaching systems, forming federations and holding championships. Their dedication to their art is obvious

Coming up from the underground…
Nobody said – Hey everybody! it’s safe to pole dance now! Or ‘it’s the latest thing!’
Women said ‘Wow I want to try that!’ and found a class or booked a pole party

Instructors often have really good stories to tell and few of them said ‘I knew I wanted to be a pole instructor when I grew up! What they will tell you is how it has affected their lives, and enough to want to spread that to others…

I have worked as a pole dancer for 10 years and worked all over Scotland doing music festivals and clubs. I did however start my own pole school last year and much like so many pole schools now I do my classes on a fitness basis
I have over eight classes a week and love teaching as in my classes I have all shapes and sizes and I love watching womens confidence grow within my class time
Pole dancing is an art form and this is why so many women from all over love it!

Emma McGrath – Starlet Studio, Dumfermline

My personal experience with pole is that I came from a poor back ground and I am severely dyslexic I was never really meant to amount to anything, but pole dance has made me a business woman and an entrepreneur
Through pole dancing I have qualified in various forms of fitness and even started up a new fitness business. I would have never done this without pole dancing

KT Coates: Vertical Pole (who also features on the X Pole box and promotion videos)

Ask a pole dance student why they do it and you will hear things like: because I love it! it’s fun, I’m addicted, it helped my confidence, I lost weight, I regained my strength etc

I have learnt that pole dancing is all about fitness and attitude as well as becoming more confident in who you are and what you can actually do, rather than what you thought you could never do. A truly inspirational experience and I think all girlies should at least have a go!

Shirley Eyers (a student of Soul-Pole classes in the UK)

These girls aren’t doing it for men; they are doing it for themselves. They take ownership of it.

When I hear words like ‘addiction’ and ‘empowerment’ and ‘confidence’ I’m sure there’s more to it than meets the eye. I hear these same words used in other forms of dance, martial arts and practices like yoga

It’s art, it’s sexy, and it’s meant to be… go check it out

DJ LIBRE

Special thanks go to:

Natasha Williams www.bodymind.co.za
Pantera www.panterab.blogspot.com
Stephanie Babines www.ohmyyouregorgeous.com
Tracy Gray www.aradiafitness.com
Emma McGrath: Email emma.mcgrath1508(at sign)googlemail.com
(and read a news paper article here)
KT Coates www.verticaldance.com
Sian www.Soul-pole.com
Carolyne Braid www.winnipegpoledancing.com
Rhae of Pole Dance Winnipeg: Read her excellent blog here
Dana Mayer www.rocknrollpole.com

You can find more links over on the right hand side under ‘Pole Roll’

I’ve created a playlist on my Youtube Channel for more videos as there are too many put on here!

I like this one of Felix even more than the 2009 World champs (which you can see on the Playlist)

Virtual Reality (VR) is already here

PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo all allow you to BE something, case in point is guitar hero and band hero
Simulations for all kinds of things are becoming common place and entire online gaming and virtual world communities exist

‘It’s all about you baby! …being someone else’

Or is it…

Virtual worlds have everything they need now… to grow and mimic real life. Users have:

• identities
• ability to interact with other people like mail, talk, fight, compete, share, kill! even have virtual sex
• things to do, places to go
• ability create their own things, groups, bars, clubs, homes, businesses etc

VR is already a much more attractive proposition than real life for a lot of people
I used to think that VR would take off for people who loved escapism, for whatever reason
They come home and plug in to their games console or watch TV shows where they live through the characters of soaps

but of course they can never escape themselves (who can?)

and how long before they start interacting with each other in their games and interactive TV shows before it reflects what they do in real life? So now even the pure escapists are having to deal with real issues again

In second Life there have been arguments, love affairs, theft, territorial struggles, even revolts!
Some users are discovering that power comes with responsibility. In fact just like a real country the owners have to periodically clean up and regulate

It proves only one thing

We create our own reality (be it virtual or real)
We pretend to be something and we become it – get your head around that one
We still end up in the same situations, just the surroundings are different

‘It’s all about YOU baby!’ and soon it wont matter if it’s ‘real’ or ‘virtually real’

So you don’t believe me huh? Lets see what the big players think…

MONEY MONEY MONEY

The biggest money makers are already online and serving up virtual paradise in the latest and greatest ways

The gambling industry has burst online in the UK with casinos, betting and poker
The entertainment industry… all of your music film and gaming needs in one place… Gateways like Sony – your world of entertainment provided to you by Sony exclusively
Governments: are introducing online form filling, public information services and paying your tax online
and of course the sex industry has always been one of the earliest adopters of new technology with webcams, videos galore and live chat with the girl on your TV or computer etc etc
Feeling uncomfortable yet?

They all think it’s pretty real, oh yeah, and when you can access the Internet on your TV it’s really gonna hit home

Let me repeat that word to you…HOME

HOME, YOUR LIVING ROOM, IN LARGER THAN LIFE, GLORIOUS HIGH DEFINITION
ON YOUR WIDE AS **** TV SCREEN

are you getting the message yet…?

It wont matter if it’s virtual or not

and now the REAL shocker… Virtual Currency

Any virtual world can have it’s own currency
You thought a licence to print money would be  pretty handy eh? but this is way, way better

Create a new virtual currency
What happens when enough people subscribe to a virtual currency? They have power to trade & bargain
What if they could convert it to real currency? (Second Life dollars have an exchange rate for theirs…)

Now it affects real economies…

Huge chunks of a market from the real world could go into the virtual world and re write the rule book in the process
Entire populations could start using another currency more than their own, what effect would that have?

And casino operators with their own currency? outside of real world legislation? Don’t you think they’d be delighted!

The FBI actually investigated Second Life for illegal online gambling activity… err but it’s not actually real right?
(for ‘illegal’ read ‘unregulated and untaxed by the govt’)
Governments are getting itchy about a new economy they are not part of, don’t control and can’t tax

Second Life closed down all casinos and other gambling dens…

Still don’t believe me? Got a Paypal account?

Paypal has become an online bank and an international bank
Their slogan was ‘PayPal: a New World Currency’
What if they said ‘if you want to use PayPal you have to use PP dollars now – but don’t worry we’ll give you $1PP for £1UK or $1US’ just carry on…

Brand new currency, use it pretty much anywhere, not attached to a country or a government

Trade is trade – any time any where virtual or not
and while you can have only one real world, you can have limitless virtual worlds which can extend infinitely
Now which sounds more attractive to a business?

So what’s going to happen? EVERYTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN…!

We are making it real and if we cant get to another planet to populate then we’ll god damn well make (a virtual) one…
What we do with it is entirely up to us…

Err haven’t we been here before?
———————————————–

Thanks to Slainson on Twitter and Bary Collins on PCPro

What’s really real now?

I find…
1. The hard sell – everyone is talking around the subject and using it to sell their book or service (which will make you rich/famous)

2. it’s almost impossible to find any case studies of successful indies utilising all these new techniques

3. the old pyramid network marketing trick is back (see no.1 again) and the boom time for the middle man

4. I am starting to instinctively revolt against all this new stuff and look for people saying negative things so i can agree with them (the exact opposite of the desired effect)

Even one guy online admits that his ebook threw a lot of it’s readers (bands) into confusion… so he wrote another book to help them get out of it!!!

move on to part 2 (next post) for more and how to negotiate this marketing madness!

Props to Hub Spot for the picture…check out his gallery on Flickr… it’s great!

We need your help in building a fan base… if you like the track, join up to our mailing list and get it FREE!

I’d like to thank everyone involved in making the video, it was great to work with so many great people and a hell of a lot of fun… THANKYOU

How to rule out buying a car

ohh the little light on the dash flashes at you… strike 1

hmm the inside smells a bit like gearbox oil/fish/dogs… strike 2

oh what you didn’t know that if you don’t fill up that reservoir the
brakes/power steering don’t work?… strike 3

when was the cambelt last changed?… the what? oh yeah about 3
years ago… strike 4

Got any paperwork? yes including these vinatge photocopies! strike 5
and 6 all in one hit WOW!

Is that a bullet hole on the roof or did you ‘drop’ the car on a small
spike?…strike 67

Umm the car in the pictures was silver yes? This one is white/red/black

strike 99

The tax has ran out but you know a guy who for an extra 25 quid can
tax it for me? wow what a bargain now my tax costs me £125 for 6
months!

strike 101 and out

The following is real either read in an ad or conversations on the phone…

The clutch & gearbox are in the boot as I couldn’t afford to get the repairs done

Externally its not the prettiest of cars, some rust on the rear arches especially,
and can be found in a few other areas, as well as various small dents on both doors, bonnet, boot, roof, and a scratch all along drivers side

the engine sometimes hunts on tickover…. (i’m looking for the macdonalds or a roadkill)

it’s got this security system where you have to hold the clutch down or it wont start… it was my mates car and he lived in a really bad area

I am a baptist minister so i would not lie to you.. and i have been blessed with a mercedes Benz

THE DRIVERS DOOR HAS BEEN SUPERGLUED ON AND WILL NOT OPEN FROM THE INSIDE…. I DO HOWEVER A SPARE DOOR WHICH YOU CAN FIT IF YOU CAN GET IT OFF

this cars is spears or reaper… why cant people fucin smell properly

This is very good runner with excellent engine condition, turbo charger is “briefing” very healthy, there is no licking of any liquid,

peugeot 106 fast sail required!!!

I have owned this car for the past 4 years and it has been absolutely fanstastic in all that time. Unfortunately over the past year it has had a rough time…

Smashed windscreen from when i drove off forgetting to shut the bonnet and it flew up into the windscreen
Dented Bonnet (still shuts)
Slightly flattened wipers
Dented roof from where the bonnet hit the aerial
Dented drivers door with no lock
Dented passenger door

Also, the indicator stalk is troublesome when turning right as it doesn’t seem to latch anymore. Luckily I dont tend to turn right too often so I have just lived with it.

However the good news is that the Haynes Manual for this car is included in this auction which may help any novice with changing the broken/dented items.

;p

yep the assimilation has started and they are going to educate us about chinese culture… and air music videos from the likes of me – that’s cultural exchange for you

You can watch it on SKY

But what i really wanna know is…

CAN THE CHINESE PEOPLE WATCH IT?

BTW this Bruce Lee website put together by his daughter is well worth seeing

brucelee.com

>> Visuals that respond to the music…

Remember 1 good idea is where you start, then you can crank up the style

So this blog could be updated as the idea develops, including…

• video diary: experiments and initial contacts
• the possible partners for this project
• going to see some shows and feeding back

As fans can follow it live they can also comment on it and steer the direction it goes

What do you think?

L8R