About Lorelei...

Q. Did you have any interest in physical restraint when you were growing up?

A. When I was 4 years old I saw The Jungle Book movie. There's a scene where Mowgli is hypnotized and then encircled and squeezed by Kaa the Python. This scene completely excited me and inspired my fantasies for a long time. I would lie in bed at night, imagining that the python would wrap around me until I was helpless, and then stick his tail up through the coils, between my legs.

I also recall a pencil drawing I did of a king and queen strolling through a great hall with high ceilings. From the ceilings dangled live slaves, each strung up by one ankle.

This drawing frightened me later on (I thought I was wacko) and I threw it away.

Other bondage imagery that made an impression was Tiger Lily in Peter Pan (she's bound sitting on a rock as water rises around her), and the wonderful Penelope Pitstop cartoon, with the dastardly Hooded Klaw tying her up all the time.

Penelope usually rescued herself, which I liked.  I modeled my videos' Crooked Claw character after the Hooded Klaw.

Q. Did you play any childhood games that included restraint?

A. I have two memories that perhaps are relevant.

The first game was Wild Pony. The boys used a rope to make a corral out of a triangle of trees. The boys would chase the girls (wild ponies), catch them and lead them to the corral. They would put us in the corral and then go to catch more ponies. One boy would stay and guard the corralled ponies. I remember very clearly a feeling of sexual elation when I was alone in the corral, receiving the unwavering attention of my guard. If I tried to escape he would grab me and put me back in the corral. I loved that!

It's not bondage per se, but it includes important elements of bondage fantasy.

When I was a kid I loved playing "Houdini". My brother would tie me up and then I would get loose. I was proud of my ability to get out of anything he devised; once he even wrapped me up in a heavy-duty fishnet.

After a while my brother became frustrated and determined to win. He had me sit in a kitchen chair and he tied me very securely to the chair, each wrist to each armrest.

I wriggled and squirmed and couldn't get free. My hands started to turn color, they were tied so tightly. My mother came in and said what are you doing? "Playing Houdini," we replied. She suggested he untie me, seeing as my hands were turning blue. My brother and I agreed that he hadn't really won, since he had tied me securely, but he hadn't tied me safely!

Q. Did you ever tie yourself up?

A. As a pre-teen I tried self-bondage. It was an era when women were wearing a lot of long shirts with cloth belts. My mother would throw out the shirts when they got old, but I would retrieve the cloth belts, which I saved in a paper bag in my closet. At night I used the cloth belts to tie up parts of my body -- mostly my chest and crotch.

I became obsessed with the fear that someone would find the bag of belts and figure out what they were for (ridiculous, but I was paranoid!). I finally threw away the bag.

Q. What was your first sexual bondage experience?

A. My first bondage time with a partner was, unfortunately, just in fun. I was in college, and had dressed up to go to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, clad in a Frank-n-Furter costume complete with wig. (Here's an example of how I looked as Frank-n-furter.) My boyfriend tied me to the bed and we giggled our way through sex. Due to the circumstances I wouldn't even say I got much of a rise out of it.

The second time was late in college. My boyfriend Duncan tied me to a chair with my legs up and apart. He used a vibrator on me. By this age I knew secretly that I was a bondage fanatic but I was determined to conceal that fact. I enjoyed the scene but I didn't say anything about it afterward, nor ask him to tie me again.

The third time was a few years later, when I'd finally "come out" to myself and my boyfriend Chaz. We did a few bondages for photos until I became comfortable with him and trusted him, then we started adding sex with the bondage.

Q. What did you do in college?

At first I majored in music composition. I was strong in music theory and the technical side, but after two years I had to admit to myself that I didn't have a creative gift for music. I switched to an arts and business emphasis and received an Interdisciplinary Humanities B.A.  (InterDISCIPLINE-ary... there's probably a punchline in there somewhere.)

Here's my graduation picture.

Okay, just kidding. Here's a real grad portrait.

Q. How did you wind up doing bondage for a living?

A. During the time period that I "came out," I was tying up friends and getting a lot of pictures. I sent quite a few of those pictures, along with letters, in to Harmony. They got in contact with me by phone and later asked me to come out for a visit. The visit turned into an interview and the interview eventually led to a job. I started there as a clerk, and was gradually trained to direct videos, edit magazines, etc., under the director name "Kristine Imboch."

I did very little "professional" modeling. Most of the years I worked at Harmony, women on staff were not allowed to appear as captives in the videos. When I switched to work at Close-Up Concepts, I still didn't get to model as much as I wanted -- unless I wrote it into a script myself, or asked my partner to pick up the camera.

After I got onto the internet, I became obsessed with the idea of putting my bondage diary online.  That motivated me to open my first website, Bedroom Bondage.  The second year of the site, I'd had it with using a fake name, and I switched to using my real name Lorelei.

Q. Does your family know you were an editor of Harmony's Bondage Life magazine? Do they know you directed bondage videos for a living?

A. My family is quite liberal. They're aware of my hobby and my career.  They've occasionally been helpful too; my mother gave some feedback about my magazine editing when I was working on Bondage Life magazine, and my father once built me a suspension frame when I asked.

Q. When's your birthday?

A. I was born March 8, 1963.

Q. What kind of man are you attracted to?

Snidely Whiplash, Darth Vader, Dracula, men in uniform, Phantom of the Opera, men in gorilla suits, (carrying or abducting women!), and The Crooked Claw.

Real people whom I find attractive: Brendan Fraser when he has long hair, Charlie Sheen when he does comedy, David Hyde Pierce (it doesn't matter that he's gay), Gary Sinise when he doesn't have legs, and Alec Baldwin when he wears glasses. Oh, yes, and Woody Allen "back when he was funny."

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A Postscript: When I was little and I went with my best friend to see The Jungle Book, her mother, C., was the adult who took all us kids to see the movie. Our families are still in touch and C. eventually visited my website out of curiosity about my work. This is the email she sent me afterward:

"Hi, Lorelei, I saw your web page, from the beginning to the very end, and I found it very interesting. I'm specially intrigued by your reaction to the Jungle Book movie. I remember clearly the day we saw it. It was in a drive-in theater and we went with our VW camper. I'm sure Walt Disney didn't expect children to be affected the way it did you. But you were such an imaginative child, that it isn't surprising. I wasn't offended at all by your web page. On the contrary, I think it is always good to find out more about the people one cares about. It is rather well done."

I heard later on that C. is explaining my career to people by saying that I'm "The Ann Landers of Bondage."

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Visit my doggie's website:  "Alex's Funny Bone"

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I invite you to get a giggle out of this evaluation of my birthsign:
Lorelei's Astrological Horoscope

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