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CONTACT US I I H , \\l I I /C THEY SAID II Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I I B A I W I I / THE BEATLES: “All you need i Writeusatgamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com B —B„.. —B—^B A T B B A .love, love. Love is all you need. r Top: A man in a mask is whipped by a hooded man. The Addictive Desires Ball crossed lines of race and gender. Left: Exhibitionist acts were performed in a smoke-filled room at Momentum. Tight outfits worn by performers emphasized the theme of bondage. Bottom: Several performers practiced “extreme body piercing,” inserting large hooks in their flesh. Some, like this woman, had the ropes attached to the hooks pulled while they walked forward. PHOTOS BY AARON HARK Local businessmen bring a world of pleasure and pain to Columbia club BY SHARON PANELO THE CAMECOCK Scott and Kevin Brewer, the brothers who run the Columbia piercing studio Body Rites, wanted to produce a show aimed at those who find pleasure in bondage, submission, extreme body pierc ings, multiple sex partners and anything else considered “unnatural” and “de viant.” Their vision materialized last Friday when the mainstream club venue Momentum made room for Columbia's first Addictive Desires Fetish/Formal Ball, a celebration of fetishism and BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Submission and Masochism). i ne uance ciuu s srrooe ugms, iog ma chines and blacklight-responsive decor lent itself to the ambience of the ball, while the producers of the show added their own sounds. Instead of the usual dance, trance, and techno mix, the DJs spun a soundtrack of Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Dead Can Dance and Orgy. A large video projection screen ran a loop ing clip of a bound man writhing under the whip of a dominatrix who, every few seconds, turned toward the camera in a steely, unnerving stare. The majority of the audience stood black-clad in popular fetish materials, leather, lace and PVC, with the constrict ing nature of the numerous corsets, tight dresses and tight skirts turning the clothes themselves into instruments of mild bondage. Of course, the skeptics and the curious also attended, but everyone shared a com mon goal: to witness people pushing their bodies to the limit, all in the name of ex treme physical sensation. A fun time for all Fetishism incorporates a definite the atricism, with actors, scenes and p^ops, and the Fetish Ball is essentially a the atrical event. Two different groups per formed in the show. Eclipse provided an opening act, while Addictive Desires ran the main stage show. i Performers used props on each other, their exposed skin enduring hot wax drip ping from candles; floggings by whips, chains and riding crops; spankings with paddles; stretching by clothespins; and tickling by feather dusters. Costumes of ten consisted of little more than black electrical tape applied to strategic areas of the body. Little Red Riding Hood, dressed in shiny red PVC, threw fistfuls of condoms and candy from her picnic basket. The show promoted a liberal attitude towards Sexuality, not only incorporat ing acts of bondage and submission, but doing so without regard to race or gender. Girls attached handcuffs to each other's wrists, a white male in a silver mask brought a chain whip across the back of a black male in a white mask, women wore tuxedos and men donned dresses. A learning experience Addictive Desires made a great effort to not only showcase fetishism and BDSM, but to dispel common misconcep tions about it, and the group encouraged the audience to discern between fantasy and reality. Above all, the show never took itself too seriously — the perfor mance never heightened into melodrama, the message never became too preachy. Between scenes of intense sexuality and violence, a skit known as Hell's Cheerleaders — three girls in cheerlead ing uniforms chanting “I love Beelzebub” — came onstage to cheer for freedom of sexuality and against ignorance and close mindedness. Emcee Scott Brewer also kept a sense of humor throughout the night. At the be ginning of the show, his disclaimer warned about simulations of sex, sug gested violence and religious imagery. “If any of this bothers you,” he said, “then we advise you to stand as close to the stage as possible.” Pain and politics Indeed, the show was a challenge to those with more conservative sexual and religious values. In one of the more sen sational scenes, men dressed as nuns slapped rulers across the derrieres of short-skirted Catholic schoolgirls kneel ing at prayer, until the girls revolt and tie up the nuns for their own pleasure. A sin gle blackboard stated simply, “Thou Shalt Not,” while the onstage mayhem depict ed sexual acts that thou shalt definitely not be involved in. At one point, one schoolgirl lifts up her plaid miniskirt to reveal a dildo, on which she forces the nearest priest to perform fellatio. The per formance was directed against conserva tivism and intolerance, represented by ♦ FETISH, SEE PAGE 7