Calypso – John Denver

John Denver wasn’t singing about this brown-skinned Mauritian beauty, but Wow, Calypso! She’s a sight to sing about, no argument there!

This is a shoot straight out of the Abby Winters formula. Take one girl from next door, put her into her bedroom, and get her to talk about herself while she takes off her clothes and does stuff.

Calypso is from Mauritius, she’s got a lovely milk-chocolate skin, she smiles beautifully, she’s a student, she speaks French, she has a trim and very feminine body, and she sets the music playing, whether John Denver is on the playlist or not.

I’ve selected this recent shoot for review because it illustrates a little about the Abby Winters style, and because, quite apart from Calypso having a good romp on her bed, giving us some charming views of her lady parts, it doesn’t go quite as well as it should.

Criticism later, but first the basics. One of the strengths of the Abby Winters Solo formula is that the model is at home in her own room, feeling comfortable. She knows that she is here to remove her clothes, and she has agreed in advance as to how far she will go. The crew is all female, and the atmosphere is typically relaxed and friendly. This makes for some amazing viewing, refreshing in honesty and authenticity. We see several sides of a model that would not be revealed in a more conventional studio setting.

And no, I’m not talking about the obvious here. As I’ve mentioned previously, there is a huge difference between a model spreading her labia for the camera to grab “the money shot” because she’s directed to do so, and opening out her private areas because she wants to show herself off. It’s a matter of the model’s personal choices, and it just shines out from her body language as to how she feels about it.

Calypso is photographed in a room sparsely though tastefully decorated. A couple of woven handbags hang from a doorknob, presumably of Mauritian origin, and there’s a mildly erotic print on the wall. Big double bed, plenty of floorspace, a lounge against a wall.

And Calypso herself in black jacket, stripey top hugging her body, pink underwear which is later revealed to be a G-string.

She introduces herself in English and French: Bonjour, je suis Calypso pour Abbywinters point com.

“Point” instead of “dot”. Very French. Throughout the shoot, she often repeats her English statements in French. They say the best way to learn another language is through a “sleeping teacher”, and I’m sure Calypso would be excellent at pillow talk for one-on-one language tuition!

Ahem.

“Good idea – bonne idee!” Calypso smiles.

A couple of minutes into the shoot, after we’ve learned the basics about her and she gives us the French translation of “hairdressing student”, she lies down on the bed. It’s apparently very cold in the room, but the electric blanket is turned on, making it so warm that Calypso must begin to remove her clothing!

She takes off her jacket, and, without prompting, peels her top up…

And then Lottie behind the camera interrupts. “So, your top’s pretty colourful…” and goes on to talk about the colour of the stripes.

Calypso ceases disrobing and rolls the top back down.

Arrrgggh! I like to see women comfortable and proud in their clothes, but even more than that I like to see them comfortable and proud out of them!

Eventually the top comes off, and we see a pretty bra underneath. But in a break from the usual routine, it stays on, and the G-string comes off. In fact it comes off twice!

“I’m going to describe how I remove my underwears in French,” Calypso says.

“Oh yes!” Lottie says!

Oh yes!

And down they come. In French.

“Voila!”

Very nice.

And then we get another shot of the G-string coming down, this time in close-up. Oh la-la!

Calypso is standing up on her bed at this point, pirouetting for our enjoyment, camera closeup somewhere below her waist. She has a tattoo here and there, but honestly, I wasn’t paying enough attention to make out what it was, exactly. My eyes were elsewhere.

She moves off the bed and onto the couch, sitting casually with her knees well apart, apparently unconcerned of the effect she is having on her unseen audience.

She removes her bra, and again I go Arrrgh! when Lottie asks her to put it back on again. What is going on here? Apart from the bra, that is. Sure, Calypso has an interesting method of putting her bra on, but it’s the contents I’m concerned about here, not the wrapping.

And what contents! Calypso has a pair of breasts which should be declared a national treasure. A treasure chest. They are young and firm and rounded and tipped with dark points. It’s difficult to concentrate as she tells us about life in Mauritius, the flowers, the food, the beaches…

“Would you ever do any of that in the nude?” Lottie asks, on behalf of the eager male audience.

Non is the answer. Mauritius is too small and conservative a community for nude beaches. Or nude volleyball. Calypso now demonstrates some of her stretching routines, and the camera captures her beauty nicely, including some close looks at her clean-shaven lower lips in yummy chocolate brown.

About now I feel hungry.

It gets better, as Calypso climbs back on her bed and shows us how she can touch her toes and doesn’t mind if the camera does a slow pan along her body, zooming in on the interesting bits.

And then the shoot ends, with Calypso taking off her glasses, smiling and bidding us adieu. She really is a lovely girl.

I’ve got a couple of gripes here. First, Calypso apparently has a very soft voice, and it is hard to hear what she has to say. Crank up the volume to catch her sexy French accent, and the voice of Lottie, who must be sitting right on top of the microphone, blasts out.

To make things worse, Lottie is going strong in the movie director role. She doesn’t quite phrase her suggestions as orders, but she is definitely leading Calypso in a forceful manner. It’s standard to ask a few questions to get the model to open up, but by the end of the clip I’m thinking the crew/model balance has swung a little too far in the crew direction.

Overall, a delightful shoot. The still images, I think, show off Calypso’s features a little better than the video.

There are three other shoots, including a two girl Intimate Moments on a bed cleverly placed in front of a mirror. Well worth the time to look closer at Calypso enjoying herself. Possibly she holds the Abby Winters record for number of orgasms on camera within a single shoot.

She certainly holds my interest. French lessons were never like this at school!

—Guy Sez

Calypso captured me with her dazzling smile and won me with her fine trim body. Excellent choice for the preview pic – and all those shots with her legs tucked up are my favourites in this set. Actually liked what the stills did for Calypso more than the video this time. Didn’t get too far with the French lessons in the video but I did find her Mauritius French accent a delight. I’m not always a fan of glasses but I think these definitely suit her.
—Flatspin from Sydney

Shoot: Solo Calypso
Date: November 29, 2010
Model: Calypso
Backstage: Not listed
Crew: Lottie

Length: 14:46
Size: 63.12MB, 232.54MB, 330.52MB, 545.09MB
2:40 – Jacket off
3:00 – top off – and on – and off
4:30 – G-string off
7:20 – Bra off – and on – and off
11:20 – Stretching exercises, legs wide apart
14:03 – Slow pan across body as Calypso touches toes, revealing view from behind.

Discussion: New Redux: Calypso comes back…

Note: I’ve included a couple of low-res photos from the public area of the AbbyWinters.com site. Some of the links in the text won’t take you to the material, but instead to a join page. I don’t push many sites, but AbbyWinters is one I wholeheartedly endorse, mostly for its respectful treatment of the models who volunteer.

FunkyBrownChick.com

• Blog Name: FunkyBrownChick
• Type: Lifestyle
• Level: Spicey
• Author: Twanna A Hines
• Location: New York City
• First Post: June 21, 2005
• Popularity: “On a good day, upwards of 3,000+ people visit this site. Funky Brown Chick isn’t huge. It isn’t extremely tiny either.”
• Platform: WordPress

My name is Twanna and I own Funky Brown Chick.
All rights reserved. So, please, don’t be a dick.

Guy Sez: You gotta love someone with a copyright notice like that one!

Perhaps the best introduction is FunkyBrownChick’s own words in her first post:

let’s see … this is the first entry so i should probably tell you more about myself. i’m somewhat new to new york, but i’m used to big cities. i’m black; hence, the “brown” in funky brown chick. i’m single and dating so you’ll get to read about all of the crazy stories from my 30-something love-less life. i could write more, but i’m sure we’ll come to know each other better with time. best not to rush these things.

Twanna A Hines, Funky Brown Chick – photo by Bill Wadman

Twanna maintains another site at twannahines.com – a site unlike any other I’ve seen. More than a Twitter feed, less than a blog, it’s a net-bite series of snapshots of her life. The more I read of Twanna, the more impressed I am. You don’t expect deep insights from a sexblogger, usually more noted for erotic entertainment than analysis and philosophy, but here in the Huffington Post she sticks it to Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics. Then again, she has two degrees – a BS and an MA.

A self-described sexpot, she looks good enough to eat. Her chocolate skin has sent any number of delicious thoughts scampering through my hungry mind.

She gives good blog. Well written, entertaining, punchy. Not heavy on the explicit details, but she doesn’t pull her punches – if she is sleeping with someone, she sez so. It’s more a relationship blog than a sex blog; presumably you know what to do once you’re in bed together, you don’t need to be told who put what where and how many strokes per second.

There’s a “Best of First Year” post here. Even better, there’s a “Worst of…” post the very next day. Twanna doesn’t take herself too seriously! There’s a few broken links, due to a platform change or two from Blogger to WordPress and one domain to another, but it’s not too hard to find the original posts. Better yet, just read the whole first year, skimming if you wish. Her posts aren’t long. Then read the second, third, fourth and fifth years! It’s all good.

If I have a criticism at all, it’s that the blog looks very “busy” on the page. There’s a lot going on, with advertising from various sources, an archive list as long as a short arm, a category list likewise, the posts themselves, and other bits and pieces all over. Then again, blogs that are solid slabs of text turn me off.

Twanna began blogging under the pseudonym Stollie (for Stolichnaya vodka) but gave that up after a while. She’s not the sort of person who works well with deception. She’s genuine, honest, upfront. You get a good flavor in an online interview at Clutch Magazine:

Best part about being FBC is that it’s me %100. Whether I’m church, with my friends or at work, I am Twanna Hines, Funky Brown Chick.

Twanna’s interest is in men. Young, sexy, exciting, often with a foreign accent. She has regular testosterone-based posts. Manly Mondays, Testicle Tuesdays and – sigh – Wanker Wednesdays.  I must admit to a certain level of fascination. Who will be the next man in her sights? Will she date him? How will it turn out?

Not just men and relationships, of course. For any single woman (or man) aiming to live in New York City, this blog is your homework. Native New Yorkers will have it in their genes, but Twanna moved to NYC from Chicago five years ago, and she has seen it all from an outside perspective. More outside than Chicago, actually – she’s lived here and there around the world and has insights and experience that put the frosting on top.

Sometimes her life reads a little like the script for a television series. Sexie in the City, maybe. She’s always got something on her plate, from heavy-duty writing workshops to interracial dating. There’s the flavor of an active metropolitan lifestyle. Twanna’s not writing for the sake of filling up blog pages – she’s taking time out from an actual life to fill us in on things interesting and thoughtful, entertaining and stimulating, fun and funky.

Which makes the titbits about her book all the more teasing. She’s working on the book of the blog, and unlike others I’ve seen, this won’t be just the pick of the website bound and gagged, this will have new material and a theme. Perhaps like Melissa Plaut’s Hack, where the Jewish Lesbian NYC night cabbie’s blog was transformed into a book that was edgier, more personal, more comprehensive, more coherent than the blog had ever been.

Looking forward to reviewing the book. In the meantime, Twanna’s blog has become one of my must-reads. Highly recommended for a smart, funny, literate woman’s view of life, the Big Apple, and the world.

–Guy Sez

Bonus video: FunkyBrownChick and Girl With a One-Track Mind talking at SXSW

Grl sez: Heh, I’ve got iTunes on random, right now I’m listening to Slumdog Millionaire

Guy sez: Quiz show theme. I like it! Are you ready for the first round?

Grl sez: Woohoo bring it on! Shall I take us up to my bedroom?

Guy sez: Let me just tie you into the Hot Seat, here.  Unpack the secret box of interesting stuff.  Reach in for the first question…

Grl sez: Shall I take some clothes off first?

Guy sez: Only if you turn on the webcam…

Grl sez: All’s fair in love and war right?

Guy sez: Right. My first question! It’s an easy one. How old are you?

Grl sez: I’m in the mid 20s… young enough to still be cool and old enough to have some fun with it!

Guy sez: OK. You’re cool, icicles dripping off your nose. But what about orientation?

Grl sez: Haven’t you read my bio! I like (in alphabetical order) bagels, boys, chocolate, and girls…..especially blueberry bagels :p

Guy sez: I’m not as keen on b-words as you.

Grl sez: Not even the pumpkin ones?

Guy sez: Maybe pumpkin bagels are extra special. Haven’t tried one yet. Maybe next Halloween. Now that you’ve mentioned food, let me just reach in and see what we’ve got in the way of foodstuffs. Mangoes, root beer, peanut butter…

Grl sez: You can throw the root beer out thanks! Foul stuff!

Guy sez: Leaving out healthy diet aspects, if you could cover your lover’s body with something edible so you could lick it off, what would you choose?

Grl sez: That’s not hard….gotta go with the Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup…heaven in a bottle that stuff is!

Guy sez: I’ve just ordered an 8 pound can up from the Marina Safeway. I have everything else right here in the box. Chains, batteries, watermelon…

On that note, when you’re by yourself, just thinking quietly, hands nowhere in particular, what’s your favorite fantasy?

Grl sez: Hmmm, it changes fairly frequently Right now I’m loving imagining you tied up and covered in syrup…with Orlando Bloom….or Abby from NCIS…I’m easy!

Guy sez: Wow – I’m part of a double act, maybe a threesome, running through the good bits of your mind. With syrup footprints. Oh wait, no. You’ve tied me up. While Orlando Bloom has his way with you. You fiend!

Grl sez: Well at least I’m letting you watch…I could’ve had you blindfolded as well!

Guy sez: Your first love?

Grl sez: My first love would be Ben…I was a pretty tragic teenager and my best friend had to ask him out for me, while I hid behind a tennis raquet…we dated for a while but eventually realized neither of us were madly in love and would rather just be friends…and we’re still friends now..nothing big happened, a bit of kissing at best!

First real love….now that is a seriously tragic story! We’d been friends for a while after he helped get me through a tough patch in my life and then I fell madly in love with him after he shared a whole lot of his favourite music with me, after listening to What About Now by Daughtry over and over and over and over I realized just how in love with him I was….being in love with him was amazing, made me feel like I was full to bursting with joy, all the time. Sadly a whole lot of shit happened and we both changed and it ended fairly suddenly with him totally breaking my heart. It was worth it though, and I miss feeling that way about someone sometimes (not that I don’t love you to bits Guy!).

My first girl love was a girl I met while I was traveling. There’s a lot I regret not doing with her, but it was hard being on the move so much, and her job kept her working insane hours. Eventually, just before I came home, she told me she’d rather just be friends (which is fair enough, long distance is always difficult), but I still enjoy flirting with her a lot, and I miss her like crazy sometimes!

Guy sez: “Being in love is amazing, makes me feel full to bursting with joy, all the time.”

Isn’t it, just? I feel bubbly and bouncy and the world is bright.

Kind of hard to go on with my list of prepared questions, trying to get some of the sordid details, but here we go.

Have you ever masturbated in front of someone? Have you ever watched someone masturbate?

Grl sez: Yes for the first one, but I don’t *think* I’ve ever watched someone else…and (for the first one again) when he asked me if I was masturbating I got really embarrassed and told him no….that relationship was really awkward! Not exactly sure why I decided to go out with him!

Guy sez: Picking up on something you said earlier, do you have a favorite song for making love?

Grl sez: Nothing really springs to mind, but I like the idea of making love to Everybody by Sister Hazel!

Guy sez: Ah. Sister Hazel. Florida isn’t just oranges and Disney, you know. I love their latest album. Release. Sounds exactly the thing for making love! “Comes a release…”

Grl sez: Heh, me too <3

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of it in that way too!

Vacation Rain would be nice too…

Guy sez: Heh. They’ve got some good lines. There’s one about “…the taste of your tongue…” and I never kiss nowadays without sneaking in a little taste. You’re probably kind of chocolatey right now…

On the flip side – and you are probably too young to know about flip sides, it’s all CDs and MP3s nowadays, never a good honest piece of vinyl – what’s your preferred music after a relationship has ended? Your favorite comfort music. Barbra Streisand, maybe?

Grl sez: Depends on what kind of mood I’m in….if I just feel like crying then I like to listen to things like Tonight I Wanna Cry (Keith Urban), Carry Me Home (James Blunt), Best I’ll Ever Be (Sister Hazel), a cd I got given a few birthdays/christmas ago of an Australian Aboriginal singer Gurrumul (Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu), some R.E.M., some of the Lord of the Rings tracks, some Jack Johnson…that kind of thing.

If I’m mad then I’ll put on Life Got In The Way (more Sister Hazel, I’m a bit of Hazelnut!), Affirmation (Savage Garden), Nickelback sometimes…

If I’m just contemplative then I like Bernard Fanning’s Tea & Sympathy…

Guy sez: Music to avoid when hanging out with Grl, readers!

Ok, I kind of got carried away when you asked me this question. Let’s see where it leads us today. If you had to select just one moment with a lover to remember forever, which one would it be?

Grl sez: *thinking* being woken up s-l-o-w-l-y (just how I like!) by being stroked was amazing. Or falling asleep in my lover’s arms the night before. Even if his legs were cold!

Or the first time I had chat sex – that was mindblowingly good! Does that count? Even if my lover wasn’t physically there he was mentally present!

I think I’m going to go with the chat sex one…wow that was good!

Guy sez: Well, that takes care of the question I was going to ask you. You must be a mindreader. They didn’t have chatsex when I was a boy, it was all punchcards and mainframes.

Who was the lucky boy?

Grl sez: Man thank you very much! That was with my first real love….Thomas (he was a lot of fun!)

Guy sez: Right. Moving along here, looking at some of the things I’ve got in the interview box, do you have a favorite sex toy?

Grl sez: Favourite sex toy….no, I’m sadly uninitiated as yet! I’m still a bit shy at heart sometimes! Easily embarrassed….although I suspect that will change. So I’ll have to get back to you on that one…

Although I do have a rather attractive stuffed zebra toy that can be fun to play with

Guy sez: Oh well, I won’t bother asking about household appliances…

Free time here. Anything you want to get off your chest before I put the final question to you?

Grl sez: Can I get you under my chest instead

Guy sez: I thought you’d never ask! Here, let me just grab some of that freshly delivered Hershey’s sauce – Marina Safeway, ladies and gentlemen, the best supermarket in the world – and get stuck in.

But before we vanish under the covers, do you have just one line to leave our readers with?

Grl sez: I’m not sure chocolate syrup under covers is a good idea…are *you* going to clean up afterwards or leave it all to me!

Guy sez: I’m going to lick it all up! Hunt down every last luscious drop.

Grl sez: My line is: “you never know when love’s going to hit, so may as well have some fun while you wait!”

Guy sez: OK, that’s a wrap. Getting a little sticky here. Uh. Is that mike still live?

Grl sez: No comment!