Folsom Street Fair 2011: Sunday

Sunday morning came too early, and drizzly.  I’m from Seattle, but totally not my fault.

International LeatherSIR 2010 Hugh had advised me to go to the Folsom brunch hosted by Empress XXX Donna Sachet and International Mr. Leather 1992 Lenny Broberg, so Graves and I caught the MUNI to the Castro, got coffee and cash, and traipsed up the hill to 21st and Castro.  (And we’re talking HILL here.  Ugh.)  We ran into International Community Bootblack 2011 Luna on the way, who was trying to find the brunch.

Lenny’s note to Hugh had said we would know the house when we got there, and yes, the leather flag-colored streamers did cue us in.  It was a great little brunch, met a number of the titleholders who were present, not to mention a number of guys whom I lightly remembered from when I lived in the Bay Area.

We needed to be at the 12th Street Stage by 12:40, so Graves and I left with Mr. Bullet Leather Joey (cutie!) and his photographer buddy Jay.  Stopped for more coffee (hey, I’m from Seattle, bow toward SODO five times a day!) for me and 5-Hour Energy drinks for them, then hopped the F Line to Van Ness.  Got to the staging area with just a few minutes to spare.

Our Northwest Community Bootblack 2012 titleholder Ruin was also there, with her partner.  She was relieved to see me, to have someone else she knew there.  Curiously, Ruin, Luna, and I were the only LeatherSIR (et al) people there for the titleholders presentation.  But Ruin and I weren’t the baby titleholders on the block any more, as Mr. Connecticut Leather was there, having stepped up just last week.

I also got to meet the Alameda County Leather Corps titleholders, Kate and Curren.  I’m an auxiliary member of ACLC.  It was my first club, back in 1999; I joined at the same time as past International Bootblack Andrew “Bootdog” Johnson and past American Leatherwoman Joan Nory, so there was something in the Hayward water that year.

An hour later was the Mama’s Family photo at the Powerhouse.  (I am “Mama’s Rubber Cowboy”.)  After that, I headed back to the hotel for a costume change, to get rid of the sash and the leather pants and shirt, into something lighter and cruisier (chaps, jock, vest with no shirt).  The sun came out solidly by about 3 pm, which was a relief, making for a nice, warmer afternoon.  I lost track of Joey and Graves and Ruin after the titleholder presentation, but I got to have some short chats later in the day with both Donna Sachet and Lenny Broberg, separately.  Lenny said he may be coming up to Seattle for the WSMLO contest in March; this is his IML 20th anniversary year.  I also saw Mitch and Brian again, and Paul and Cole, and bootblack Paul and past Northwest Community Bootblack Scout, among a handful of other people I know.  Also: my ex, John; Arami and Washington State Mr. Leather James; Tony Buff at the Raging Stallion booth; Element and Kyle again, with Element in those killer silver boots.  Relatively few of the Seattle crew, surprisingly; I know a lot were down, but I hardly saw any of them.  Different circles, maybe.

I succumbed to some jambalaya at about 5 pm, and the Fair shut down at 6 pm.  I headed back to the hotel for a brief nap, and later wen back to the Castro for Tom’s fisting party.  He has a very nice set up, although the step ladder to the attic space was a bit rickety for my tastes, so I played mostly downstairs.  Thanks to Janeer, Tony, Eric, Raj, Nigel, and a couple other guys for some good play, and especially thanks to Tom for opening up his home for us!

Folsom Street Fair 2011: Saturday

There’s always something you forget when packing for a trip.  This time, it was earplugs and my septum jewelry.  Old hotels like the Opal have thin walls and noisy plumbing, so after about 8:30 am, little further sleep was forthcoming due to the noisy shower next door.  As for the septum jewelry, I don’t wear it during the week for work, and it has been on a shelf up above eye level in the bathroom, so I saw it but forgot to put it in.  Sigh.  (Did that for the contest weekend as well, only remembering to put it in for the brunch on Sunday.)

Continental breakfast at the hotel — toast, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs (which is kind of cool), OJ, and coffee.  Kept it light, for the potential for play later today.

I’m room-sharing (and bed-sharing; it’s a king) with Graves from Seattle, who has been doing a bunch of leather photography in recent years.  We joked that I get my own paparazzi for the weekend.  Graves has an appointment later at Raging Stallion, to do porn set photography for them.  If it can work out, I’m going to try to tag along with him.  I’m a big fan of their FistPack videos, and although I’ll never likely get to do one myself (professionally, anyway; I video some private scenes), the chance to see the back end (ahem) would be cool.  (Alas, we couldn’t synch this up for Saturday.)

Came down to the Castro at lunch time.  The naked boys are out in force at Castro & Market, to the delight of picture takers.  Stopped in at Cicatrix Tattoo & Piercing (where Gauntlet used to be; I had my PA done there in 2001) and got a septum ring — black ring with a silver captive bead.  Looks cool.

More shopping: Chaps (formerly Jaguar Books) for some lube and inhalants.  Whatever… Comics for some 50% off comics collections (aww yeah, Pet Avengers!) and a Lightning Lad figurine.  Succumbed to a slice at Escape from New York Pizza.  Worn Out West for a chain collar, in case I need one this weekend.  (Never know!)  Then a couple beers at 440 Castro, where Graves arrived and then one of my FF buddies Jose (who has the most fantastic deep ass, but I digress…).  I started yawning, though, so headed back to the hotel for nap and then dinner at Thai Stick.

Saturday night reminded me of why I’ve always disliked Folsom weekend: lines everywhere, too many people, and none of them wanting to fuck me (or at least not wanting to commit to it; there’s always someone prettier/hunkier across the room, you know?).  In fact, a couple years when I lived in the Bay Area and didn’t have the San Diego Gay Rodeo that weekend, I didn’t even go out on Folsom Saturday.  Why bother with the parking, the lines, and not getting laid?

I got the the Powerhouse at about 9:45, and the line moved okay.  I got to meet IML Eric Gutierrez and several of the IML contestants from this year.  But as noted, way packed. Headed over to the Lonestar, but saw there was a 30 minute line (at least), so chatted with some guys (Matthis, Shawn, and Dan), and then headed to Kok.  Short line there, maybe 10 minutes, and fortunately more leather than on Friday night.

I did connect with someone there.  The pec punching was good, but I can now cross two more fetish acts off my “done it once, that’s enough” list: concentration camp roleplay and knock out play. (As in “come to on the floor, twitching”.  Nope, thanks, like the knife running along my dick that time at IML, once is plenty.)

Folsom Street Fair 2011: Friday

Ugh, 4:30 comes way too early.  I hate getting up before the sun to get to an airport.  The coffee I need to just move that far then keeps me from sleeping on the plane.  Oh well, I got the Preview part of the trip report written on the plane.  (On the new iPad I got yesterday, with the indispensable — for writing — Bluetooth keyboard.  Way less to tote that the netbook.  Note to self, though: I spent way too much time setting it up yesterday than I should have.  Don’t get new tech the day before a trip!)

Staying at the Opal Hotel (Van Ness and Geary).  I know how hard to get and expensive hotel rooms can be in San Francisco for Folsom weekend, and this is just over a mile from 9th & Folsom (so it’s walkable).  At $166 a night, I snapped it up when it came available a couple weeks ago, and prepaid for a discount (which essentially took care of the hotel tax).

Got to the hotel at 11 am, but couldn’t check in yet.  So I ditched my bags and headed to Mr. S.  Saw Mitch and Brian from Vancouver walking on the street, and Earl from Vancouver online, and at Mr. S, Paul from Seattle was there (Cole wouldn’t arrive until Friday night).  Turns out Paul was on my flight, and I saw him at the baggage claim, but he was too dazed from lack of sleep to know it was me at the airport.  Saw Kyle and Northwest Leatherboy 2011 Element later, putting up posters for Element’s new video.

$230 dollars later, I was able to escape Mr. S.  (One StreemMaster, because I’ve apparently lost my previous one, god knows where.  One leather cap, handmade at Mr. S, which I quite like and will end up wearing all over town for the rest of the weekend.  One neoprene red-stripe jock, which I’ll also get some good use out of this weekend, I’m sure!  And a new pair of red boot laces, because my current ones are getting dingy — due to both age and bootblack hands.)

After too-short of a nap, I met up with Michael from Recon, who I’ll be playing with next weekend when he is in Seattle.  Daddy David has been sending me fisting boys lately; I need to start paying him a commission!

Got an offer for play with Frank from New York at his hotel, so I headed over there for some cocksucking, nipple play, and fisting.  A nice warmup for later on.

Dinner was coffee and a slice of pumpkin bread.  That’s how it goes when you’ve got a fisting party to attend.  (Food all day: a bagel, a pear, a small OJ, a soy/almond smoothie, and several cups of coffee.)  Want as little solid stuff going through the system as possible.  I can eat tomorrow.  (I lie: I’ll probably do this all weekend long!)

Friday night was the Hell Hole/Fists Over Folsom party.  Probably 20 slings and a good size (but not too packed crowd).  Had a great time, some in the sling and some in front of it.  Chatted with one of the former Northern California LeatherSIR titleholders who was there about the fact that I was there in the title vest.  (He approved.)  Thanks to Murray from New Zealand, François from the Netherlands, and Nick, Norm, and one other guy whose name I’m blanking on (all from the States) for good times; Raj will just have to wait for later (maybe Sunday) at Tom’s party. 

Folsom Street Fair 2011: Preview

I lived in the Bay Area during the 1990s.  I’ve attended the Folsom Street Fair probably seven or eight times.  The first time (1991) was as a member of the San Jose Spurs dance team, staffing a booth selling temporary tattoos.  (That seems very odd today.  I don’t recall seeing such a booth from anyone after about 1993.)

After that year, Folsom and the San Diego Gay Rodeo vied for my attention.  At the time, the rodeo was always the last weekend of September, and Folsom Street Fair was always the 4th Sunday of the month, which meant that the two would conflict roughly every three years.  One year, I took a morning flight back from San Diego to be able to also do Folsom, but I both had to cut short my Saturday night in San Diego and got to Folsom late, so what was the point?  Eventually Folsom’s organizers apparently decided that it was too confusing for people to track the dates and switched to always be the last Sunday, so it was always in conflict with the rodeo.  Bummer.

One year (1998?), I even had a vending booth at Folsom, for my fetish t-shirts.  Oy, that was an adventure.  First time in Folsom history that it rained, I was told.  And I realized that the guys attending by and large didn’t want to buy anything (and have to carry a bag around), and they even less wanted to buy something that would cover up their gym-pumped bodies.  So the booth (plus insurance) was expensive (about the same as the full weekend vendor space at IML!), and I didn't sell a lot of t-shirts, and most of the guys who came into the booth were just getting out of the rain (except for the small crew who stopped in to get out of the rain and pop some GHB or other party drugs).

After I moved to Seattle in late 2000, I never got back for Folsom.  I go down every year for Sundance Stompede in October, and dealing with two trips to San Francisco in close proximity just doesn’t make sense.  I did get down for Dore Alley once, and International Bear Rendezvous a couple times, plus a few trips for work (working for companies with San Francisco, San Jose, or peninsula offices makes that easy).  This, then, is my first trip to Folsom in over a decade.  It will be interesting to see how it has changed.

Of course, I’ve changed a lot as well.  I’m in my 40s now, where my earlier experiences were in my late 20s and early 30s.  This time, I’m attending as a titleholder, which means I will have a few specific events to attend, and I will be looking at the proceedings with a different eye.  (I long ago realized that I enjoy events a lot more if I have a task or assignment attached.  Just having to be at the 12th Street Stage for the Titleholder Roll Call at 12:40 on Sunday gives me some focus and means I won’t be wandering around aimlessly, wondering whether I should drink, cruise, or just go nap.)

(I should cruise, obviously.)

In many ways, thus, this Folsom may be a fresh and new experience for me.  Or maybe it won’t, maybe it will be pretty much just what I remember, just with new faces and new pecs and plenty of attitude.  We shall see…

Shut Up or Speak Up?

For a long time, the popular wisdom for new titleholders has been for them to not make a name for themselves, at least not in online venues.  The LeatherTitleholders mailing list — back when it was actually a viable venue for titleholders current and past to mix and converse (that stopped long ago, alas) was among the most notable such venue, where many a titleholder was told by his or her contest producers, “Join the list and introduce yourself, read everything on the list, but don’t post anything until your year is up.”

The theory there was that many new titleholders might inadvertently put their own foot (boot) in their mouth with any number of gaffes.  Many titleholders are somewhat new to the leather community; even those who may have been into kinky play for years (and thus wouldn't make some of the worst gaffes you can imagine) may not have had a lot of experience on the public side of things.  Others may not have a lot of experience in online venues and might say/do something dumb.  And of course, a list of leathermen and leatherwomen is bound (ahem) to have people who like to get into heated debates, who like to stir the shit, and who like to provoke others into emotional reactions (aka “flamewars”).

Most of all, of course, titleholders who would later be competing at one of the national or international contests might well have some of their judges on that same list, men and women who would be quietly reading all the posts and not saying anything.  Men and women who, if the new titleholders said anything — good or bad — would start to form an opinion of the titleholder which could carry through to the eventual judging.  (“Mr. Topanga Canyon Leather: back in October, you got into a nasty online fight with someone in which you wrote ‘We shouldn’t let women into our bars, our playspaces, our contests.’  Given that I, as International Ms. Leather, am here as one of your judges, could you expand on that further?”  “I… uh… um… crap.”)  So the general preference from many title producers was to have the new titleholders not make any impression on their judges ahead of time, figuring that a blank slate was better than a dirtied up one.

(I hope Robert Davolt would approve of the continued use of “Mr. Topanga Canyon Leather” as a generic leather titleholder.)

Today, of course, the Internet is in a different state.  The Leather Titleholders list and the AltLeather list which got created as a response to issues on the original one are both practically silent these days.  And so many other venues exist, from Facebook to FetLife and beyond, that if judges want to pre-research contestants, the odds of a digital paper trail existing are far greater than before.

For myself, the option to not pre-set any expectations in the eyes of the judges is pretty much impossible.  I have been online, starting with BBSes, for just shy of 30 years!  I have been at times a prolific poster in Internet/USENET venues — newsgroups, email lists, etc. — for 22 years.  This is my fifth blog; I had a collection of opinion essays online for over a decade, since almost before the word “blog” was coined.  I’ve competed and placed in several title contests over the years.  I’ve been name-checked in The Leather Journal and won a Pantheon Award (Northwest Region).  Suffice to say, there’s plenty of digital paper trail out there on me.  The odds are good that I will be an known name to at least some of my judges at International, perhaps all of them.  (I know one of them in person already.)  If there are embarrassing writings and behaviors in my past — and there probably are! — there’s not a lot I can do to cover that up.

So given that the judges will likely know at least a little about me when I’m standing in front of them — and potentially a whole lot about me, if they research the contestants a bit ahead of time (and what good contestant doesn’t research the judges in reverse, eh?) — I figure I might as well give them their money’s worth.  If my leather life can’t be a blank slate, I’ll make it an open book.  My past experience says that the best way to have a position settled for yourself and to be able to be expressed to someone else is to think it through and write it down.

If a judge wants to know my thoughts on safer sex requirements at play parties, I’ll have written a piece on it.  Where do I draw the line with drug use and why?  I’ll have tackled that.  Can a Sir bottom?  What is the value and importance of “earned leathers”?  Does the hanky code still apply in the twenty-teens?  How can the leather bar reinvent itself to stay valid?  What is the difference between a bottom, a sub, a boy, and slave?  And so on.  Some of these writings will end up on this blog — those with direct application to my title and my title year — and others with a broader leather focus will go on my Sounds Kinky-er blog (but I’ll cross-reference them here, too).

These sorts of philosophy and educational posts won’t be the total focus of this blog, though.  I’ll also have reports for events I attend, status updates about the fundraisers and workshops I do during the year, photos, and ample other light content throughout the year.

Horoscope for the Contest Weekend

The day after the contest, I got to see a copy of the Seattle Gay News and read my horoscope for the week (they carry Jack Fertig’s QScopes).  I’ve never put any faith in horoscopes, and especially not in newspaper horoscopes, since even if astrology had any validity, newspaper ones would be covering all people born across 30 days.  So at best, a horoscope column will be applicable to your day of the month one time in 30, and to you personally something way less than that.

Still, now and then one turns up that makes you wonder…

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22): As naughty fantasies come up inside your head, explore them safely there.  Putting them into reality could be delicious, but be very, very careful!  Whether you explore them in theory or practice, you can learn a lot about yourself.

What is “edge play”?How do you do “edge play” in a contest fantasy?

For our contest, we had a weekend theme of “Edge Play”.  Each of the regions for ILSb (sixteen of them) are assigned a theme (at random, I think).  In past years, our region has had Rough Trade and Outdoors, among others.  I’m not sure how tightly integrated these are into the contests for each region.  For our contest, we were supposed to include Edge Play into our fantasy, although without any discussion of what that means (and what it doesn’t mean).

Here’s what the International site says:

The themes are intended to inspire contestants’ onstage fantasies that are appropriate to the image of masculine leather sexuality and to showcase the diversity of leather interests.  The themes are not intended to be restrictive.  ILSb contestants are encouraged to be creative and expand the boundaries of their themes.

Here are a few definitions from online sources:

In BDSM, edgeplay is a subjective term for types of sexual play that are considered to be pushing on the edge of the traditional safe, sane and consensual creed.
— Wikipedia

EDGE PLAY is the action of offering new challenges to the Edges of play you and your submissive are already familiar with.  Every physical challenge is equally mentally challenging as it is asking your submissive to reach beyond where they think they can
— Steel-Door Newsletter

Refers to rough and deviant sex play, intercourse and foreplay
— UrbanDictionary.com

The most widely used definition of “edge play” at the moment is playing at the threshold of someone’s limits of fear, pain or endurance.  For someone who has never been tied up before and is terrified of bondage, that first rope around their wrists might well be edge play.  But if he or she has no fear of bondage then the first rope isn’t edge play at all.  It doesn’t become edge play until the Top and bottom go on the journey all the way out to the edge (whatever and wherever that may be) - and then stop and play there for a while.
— John Pendal, International Mr. Leather 2003

1. Edgeplay is SM play that involves a chance of harm, either physically or emotionally.  It’s also subjective to the players involved; what is risky for me might not be risky for you and visa versa.  A few examples of edge play under this definition are fireplay, gunplay, rough body play including punching and wrestling, breath play and blood play.
2. Edgeplay can also literally mean play with an edge.  Such examples of play are cutting, knives, swords and other sharp implements.  These forms of edge play also fall under the broad term in #1.
3. Any practice which challenges the limits or boundaries of one or more of the participants.
   — SubmissiveGuide.com

In my own experience, especially as comes to contest stage fantasies (which let’s be frank, are playing at Edge Play, not Edge Play themselves), Edge Play typically takes one of two forms: Abduction/Rape fantasies (that is, non-consensual/no safeword) or Gun/Knife (that is, inherent danger.  Those two forms are what people have come to expect in an Edge Play presentation.  And thus stuff which should be edgy actually becomes old hat because it has been done enough that the edge has been scraped right off it.

Personally, I like the last definition piece above: challenging limits and boundaries.  I like that because it allows any scene to tackle Edge Play — you don’t have to involve violence or physical danger, but you still have to push boundaries for what is comfortable, allowed, and accepted.  This allows more freedom to reach for the edge, but only if you are willing to take that freedom.  If the bottom can’t handle being restrained, any ropeplay can be edge for him.  Turning the tables on a 100% top can be edge play to the top.

In a contest fantasy, doing “edge play” is two steps more difficult.  First, this is a stage presentation, and most things are thus faked up to some degree.  (Things are at least somewhat pre-choreographed, both parties know the script, warm-up and foreplay get left out, and everything gets compacted to fit in a few minutes of real time.)  Depending on the venue rules, you likely can’t do actual penetration.  You can’t fellate a real gun; you can’t actually cut the bottom or put in hooks or anything resulting in blood and body fluids other than spit; you can’t use open flames.  And the audience knows this, so the power of a takedown, an abduction, a gang rape very quickly evaporates — how long can the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief last when people around them are chit chatting?  Second, the stage fantasy is performance art, and the meaning of art is in the eye of the audience.  It isn’t just you and a partner up there, it is you and a partner and the judges and the audience.  Even if what you are doing is/would be edge play to you, it probably isn’t edge play to everyone present.  (As they say, “What I do is normal, what he does is edge play.”  It doesn’t matter what it is you are doing, someone finds it scary, someone finds it hot, and someone did it three years ago at Inferno and is looking for something new.)

Is watersports edge play?  Is fisting edge play?  Is foodplay edge play?  Is suspension play?  Predicament bondage?  Blindfolded anonymous sex?  Breathplay?  Gender play?  Domestic violence?  Scat?

(Now put the word “simulated” before each of those, and “to the judges and audience” after them.)

With my fantasy, a couple of the judges scoresheets indicated that they didn’t think the fantasy was very edgy.  On the other hand two prominent leather community members who were present (both former titleholders) turned out to have hard limits with foodplay, and the themes in my fantasy totally squicked them.  For myself, portions of the fantasy were right in line with my regular kink actitivities, portions were an area I’ve only been able to explore my own limits with in the past few months, and portions were completely new ground for me.  (So it was in some was personal edge play.)

(One portion of the fantasy didn’t come off quite as hoped for; things would have been about three steps further into “edge play” if it had, and if I redo the fantasy at Northwest Sash Bash or International next year, I will ensure that component gets done right.)

In retrospect, I can see two places that I failed to accomplish the edge play aspects as well as perhaps I should have (but these are also things which can be fixed next time!):

• While deciding to not do the expected (overdone) versions of Edge Play, I perhaps ended up playing things too subtle, so that the judges and others looking for Edge Play would need to look harder, beyond their own preconceived notions, which isn’t always easy for someone to do.  I could have included some “danger” references, for example, to give people looking for something standard a tidbit to chew on.
• I relied on the uncommon nature of the activities being done in the fantasy, and the frequent setting and violating of expectations, to carry across the “edge” nature of things.  I could have been more upfront about that, having the dialogue and body language indicate reluctance and fear of the activities being done, to carry that the actions were edge play in the fantasy (rather than just another Saturday night at the bar).

For most of the audience, I don’t think they had a clue that “edge play” was supposed to be involved, nor had much thought as to what that might entail.  But niether do I think they cared.  They were just fucking well entertained by what they got!

---

Updated on September 19

Alternately, I could have just tied up the bottom and forced him to list to U2 songs.  Because then he would have heard (bad pun alert) the Edge play.

Leather Contests and Food Poisoning Don’t Mix

Early Saturday morning, I woke up at dawn with a nasty pain in my stomach.  After fitfully not quite sleeping for the next two hours, I finally got up and headed to make coffee.  Before I could get to the kitchen, I stopped by the bathroom and dry heaved over the toilet bowl.  Nothing came up, but I could taste the remnants of the salad from dinner the night before.  I instantly knew I was probably dealing with food poisoning, likely from not properly washing the farmer’s market salad mix.  (Dumb.)

Once I felt a bit better, I had coffee and a light breakfast, then headed to get dressed and head out for the Contest Interviews.  Before I could get to the bedroom, I stopped by the bathroom and wet heaved up my coffee and breakfast.  Not the best start for the day.

(I can’t think when the last time I puked was.  Well, from being sick.  Every couple years, I hit my gag reflex while sucking dick, but that’s a different scenario.  And with a whole lot less volume.)

(Oh, and for what it’s worth, this was definitely not caused by contest anxiety.  Between teaching country dancing — to over a hundred people at a shot at one event each year — and past leather and dance competitions, anxiety to the point of vomiting is not a problem I have.  I used to get nosebleeds form anxiety, but even that ended nearly 20 years ago.)

No further vomiting for the rest of the day, but very low energy (too little sleep and no food do that!), plus a low fever, diarrhea, and the accordant dehydration.  After a nap, I ate a peach and tried to have phở for dinner, but only managed to eat maybe a cup or so of it — no appetite.  But the show must go on, so I kept going.  I made it through the Contest, probably mostly on adrenaline, and put in appearances at the queer play party at the Center for Sex-Positive Culture and at the private one for the contest, but I sure wasn’t up for playing.

Sunday was only moderately better — poor sleep, no vomiting, same symptoms .  After the Victory Brunch and getting fitted for my title vest, I rode out to Lake Cushman (via Olympia; 100 miles, a bit over two hours ride).  Monday (riding back to Seattle) and Tuesday (back to work) saw gradual continued improvement, but still lousy sleep and gastric distress.  I was finally able to get some yogurt late on Monday afternoon, and started hitting Immodium at 3 am on Tuesday.  Now Wednesday night, I seem to be 90% back to normal.  Thank God.

Mostly back to normal except for the constant low-level cramp in my left thigh and calf all day Wednesday and Thursday, that is.  Vomiting causes potassium deficiency; a couple bananas seem to have resolved this.  I also don’t recommend food poisoning as a weight loss technique.  There have got to be more pleasant ways to drop 3–4 pounds.

I’m sure there’s a level of irony in this, to have my title contest Fantasy be a raunchy foodplay scene and me be fighting food poisoning at the same time.

Updated on September 8, 2011
Updated on September 13, 2011

Regional and International LeatherSIR Families

Standing: International Community Bootblack 2011 Luna, Northwest Community Bootblack 2012 Ruin, International LeatherSIR 2011 Alan Penrod, Northwest LeatherSIR 2012 Jim Drew

Kneeling: International Leatherboy 2011 Pup Nitro, Northwest Leatherboy 2012 danny Carpenter

(Photo © 2011 Malixe Photo)

First pic

The day after the contest, I went to Lake Cushman for the Rain Country Dance Association’s members retreat.  Seeing this sign on the way up from Hoodsport, I made sure to stop on the way back and get some pics taken.

Pete seems to agree.

(Thanks to Pete and Cathy for taking the pics.)

First post

I won the Northwest LeatherSIR 2012 title on Labor Day weekend (September 2–4) in Seattle, WA.  More details and thoughts about the contest forthcoming.

I have been active in the leather community since 1991, first in the San Francisco Bay Area (1991–2000) and currently in Seattle (2000 to date).  Over the years, I have served on organization boards, competed in leather contests, received recognition awards (including a Pantheon award), and mentored men on their entry to the leather community.

Currently, I am active with Seattle Men in Leather, Northwest Bears, and Rain Country Dance Association, as well as being an auxiliary member of the Alameda Leather Corps and part of Mama’s Family (“Mama’s Rubber Cowboy”).  I maintain the Northwest Leather Calendar, and I am active with the Puget Sound fisting community, hosting events and mentoring men new to the activity.

Via this blog, you will be able to track my title year, peek into my upcoming events calendar, and read my observations, opinions, and insights into the leather community.