Music played a huge roll in this creation of this book. Many of the people in its pages are strongly attached in my memory to a certain song. Other chapters were written while listening to a song over and over for hours. So here's a little behind the scenes look at the making of Diary of a Rope Fiend in musical form. The first half of the mix tape can be found here.
Bon Iver--Skinny Love
Mr Chapter 16 was absolutely no fun to shoot photos with and his depressing mix of mopey music didn’t serve to improve the situation. If he hadn’t been tying me up for his lovely noir inspired images I would have run away quickly.
Milky Chance--Stolen Dance
By contrast Mr Chapter 17 was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the name of photos. He was hilarious, we listened to amazing music, scandalized a friend who dropped by in the middle of the shoot, and he was super dreamy.
Muddy Waters--Mustang Sally
So many of the naughty adventures I went on with Mr Chapter 18 started in his fancy black Mustang. I’m not into cars but something about his was kind of a turn on.
Storm Large--8 Miles Wide
Much of my time shooting photos with Mr Chapter 19 was explaining the Keep Portland Weird concept and that no matter what we did with a camera and rope we would never be the strangest thing happening. So this weird song by a local musical genius seemed fitting here.
Edge of the World--Faith No More
This is one of the creepiest songs I’ve heard, just as the lead up to the shoot with Mr Chapter 20 was intensely creepy. What with him taking me many miles out of town to an abandoned section of the woods.
Lovage--Stroker Ace
Mr Chapter 21 and I had a lot of fun together. While baking and practicing rope we also shared new music. This was one of the songs that was in heavy rotation to the sound track during our evenings of creating cake and bondage.
Miami Horror--Colours in the Sky
Given Ms Chapter 22’s interest in all things bright, happy, and psychedelic this song seemed fitting to capture the mood of our time together. Everything about her was colorful, including her crazy teal rope.
Kill Bill Theme
This was the song that started out the evening as myself and a group of intrepid kinksters put on an epic rope performance for nearly 1000 people. It was my first public rope scene and first giant play party so this sweeping musical score was a perfect way to get in the mood before running into Mr Chapter 23.
Kronos Quartet--Lux Aeterna
The way Mr Chapter 24 spoke in poetry while tying me reminded me of the wordless but intense theme to Requiem for a Dream. So it became the song I listened to endlessly to capture the feel of being in his rope while I wrote this chapter.
Hozier--Take me to Church
This scene was the beginning of the end for the tumultuous relationship Mr Chapter 25 and I shared. It was heartbreaking, passionate, and confusing much like this song which I listened to often while writing the book. It had a way of dropping me back into the difficult years of my life I was trying to describe.
Imogen Heap--Goodnight and Go
Mr Chapter 26 and I only had the briefest of acquaintances before he left the country to move onto other lands and experiences. And yet he had a rather large influence on my rope life at the time. Ours was also a requited crush that neither of us could get over our shyness long enough to do anything about.
Martha Wainwright--Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
Perhaps the only fitting song for Mr Chapter 27 who violated my trust in the most unforgivable of ways. He tried to break me but he didn’t succeed.
Spoon--I Turn my Camera On
Mr Chapter 28 and I have gone on a crazy number of photo shoots together. It’s thanks to him I’ve seen so much of the beauty the Pacific Northwest has to offer. He’s always up for nudity and sometimes rope for the sake of photos and I love him for that.
The Devil Makes Three--Do Wrong Right
This song could have been Mr Chapter 29’s theme song. He is the sweetest kind of trouble maker, always going on journeys of the road and of the mind. He was kind enough to take me on a few and introduce me to this band.
Grouplove--Let Me In
This seemed a fitting way to end. The song captures the mood of being tied by Mr Chapter 30 while knowing I’d then collected enough stories to sit down and write this book. It was liberating getting suspended off several of Portland’s bridges to draw the project to a close.