As you might already know, Nina and I have taken a break in a very quiet part of southern Spain for a few weeks away from all the usual distractions. The noisiest things here are the cow bells and the nightly frog chorus. Our little chalet is nestled amongst palm trees and monster cacti well off the tarmac road at the base of a rocky mountain ridge. We are really getting back to basics here with no mains gas, landline, power that dims every time the fridge kicks in. The water pumped from the well has a somewhat suspicious brownish hue that is undoubtedly thoroughly ‘organic’ and not necessarily in a good way. Thanks to a Vodafone SIM, we have Internet but it needs to be rationed.
After a week of barely touching the laptop beyond checking emails, I have finally taken advantage of the peace and quiet to get around to editing ‘Ground to Air’. The past few days have been reasonably productive after a somewhat slow start. After completing the rough edit of the physics and rope control sections, I have made a start on the full suspension tutorials. Having worked through the face down and yoko-zuri with transitions, it has made me realise quite how much detail is involved. I don’t often review and analyse what I do so closely but watching every move has made me appreciate how much difference there is merely showing the steps and describing every nuance. Much of what differentiates ‘just tying’ shibari style and true kinbaku is in how the tying is done. This is the difference between Shakespeare delivered by your computer’s text to speech and the finest actors to tread the boards.
It is leading me to create a new type of tutorial which focuses more on what the Japanese call ‘urawaza’, than just paint by numbers. This is often translated intriguingly as ‘hidden techniques’ which implies the cachet of secrets of the cognoscenti. However, Googling the term gives a more mundane interpretation with a myriad of guides showing clever and labour-saving tricks for day-to-day things. Watching myself tie has drawn my attention to much that has become so second nature that I am not even conscious of it. I plan to show and give a full commentary on these techniques. Many have not been deliberately developed or ever been taught to me but have rather sub-consciously evolved though years of practice and repetition. In fact, sometimes I have been surprised to notice that I have developed a new shortcut or technique. Whilst my first two DVDs went beyond tying parcels, ‘Ground to Air’ will herald a whole new era in tutorials I hope. I know that nothing has ever come close to the depth or the heart of kinbaku as in the new volumes.
Although it might sound hopelessly disorganised at this stage of the game, I still have no idea how much content I will have after the final edits. We still even have a few add ons to shoot. Thankfully, I am not editing down to a limit. The tutorials can be as long as they need to be and if that is more than two volumes this time, so be it.