Category Archives: Leather
Some Very Useful Guys: David Blázquez Photographs of Human Furniture
Spanish Photographer David Blazquez has a series of anthropomorphic shelves, tables, and lamps called “Mobiliario Humano” – Human Furniture. Of course the humans are all MAN humans. The series premiered in 2009 at El Fotomata gallery in Seville, Spain.
Posted in Art and Artists, Leather, Photography, Spain, Strange News
Tagged Art, BDSM, Culture, David Blazquez, El Fotomata, Gay, Human Furniture, Kink, Mobiliario Humano, Photography, Seville, Sexy, Spain
Sights seen at “Up Your Alley” Dore Street Fair – Leather Gandhi!
Who knew?
Posted in Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy Holidays, Surveillance
Tagged Culture, Dore, Gandhi, Gay, Leather, Look Alike, Photography, San Francisco, Surveillance, Up Your Alley
Guys Seen at Scene Site: SF’s “Up Your Alley” Dore Street Fair 2011 – Big Slide Show! NSFW
Guys, guys guys. Men, boys, Tops, bottoms, versatile dudes, kinksters, old and new Leathers, gear freaks, lovers, brothers and others. A wide variety of guys on parade at this year’s “Up Your Alley” Dore Street Fair. For this year’s litter of puppy boys, click here. For sights seen at last year’s fair, here. For the official buzz on the fair, here. And for the Leather Gandhi look-alike, click here!
Posted in Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy Holidays, Subcultures, Surveillance
Tagged BDSM, Culture, Dore Alley, Fetish, Gay, Gear, Kink, Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy, SOMA, Street Fair, Surveillance, Up Your Alley
Sights seen at the 2011 “Up Your Alley” Dore Street Fair: Puppy Boys
San Francisco’s K-9 Unit enjoys an afternoon of Puppy Play. Woof! Sunday afternoon at the Up Your Alley / Dore Street Fair. For more hot men and boys from this year, click here. For pics from 2010’s Fair, click here. Photos: Gay Highwaymen
Posted in Human Animals, Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Strange Holidays, Subcultures, Surveillance, Wrestling, Youth
Tagged BDSM, boys, Culture, Dogs, Dore Alley, Fetish, Gay, Gear, Kink, Photography, Puppy Play, San Francisco, Sexy, SOMA, Street Fair, Surveillance, Up Your Alley
Cool Photographer Eric Robinson gets Hotter by the Minute…
Eric Robinson. photo: Gay Highwaymen
Friend of this site Eric Robinson has been shooting us, and our friends for a couple of years now. Tintypes! Ambrotypes! Pics on metal and glass…way old school, 19th century-style. PDQ, he will be a “Master.” No, not like That! His MFA (Master of Fine Arts) show opens in August, and he is already showing all over like the worst exhibitionist ever. His ongoing Leathermen series is part of a larger archival project called Other Ways of Being. Robinson says of his work: “What I seek with my camera is the difference – visible difference – that allows us to identify or disassociate with groups, cultures or communities.” These are important cross-cultural concerns, and Robinson’s unique camera view points our brains at them. Leathermen has already shown three times nationally (Chicago, San Francisco and Vermont) and is BIG in Indonesia, where it is featured in the glossy mag, PhotoArt Contemporary. Cool. Keep watching, ’cause this fantastic old-school shutter-bug boy is going to be BIG. Well. If we have anything to do with it anyway…more here. Enjoy!
Posted in Collecting, Eric Robinson, Indonesia, Leather, Mendocino County, Photography, San Francisco, Southern Illinois
Tagged Ambrotype, Art, BDSM, California, Culture, Eric Robinson, Gay, Indonesia, Kink, Leather, Photography, Sexy, Tintype
Is Leather Dead? Leathermens Discussion Group asks some Tough Questions.
Tom...of Finland
That’s the big question. Lots of whispering in the scene. So…is Leather dead? What IS Leather? Is it a kink? A material? A lifestyle? A sexuality? A philosophy? Yes…and. But the young guys are mostly into “gear.” So…what’s that? Back in the day, tough guys who rode motorcycles wore leather. Some still do. Those of us who were kids fixated of these masculine guys in black leather on bikes in boots. And cowboys in Westerns. And other outlaws. Tom of Finland and The Hun. But kids these days? They grew up with different images, materials and memes. Kevlar. Manga. Boards. Kicks. Thugs. Different kinks, but still kinky, and still into POWER. The more things change…
On Wednesday, July 27th in San Francisco, a stellar cast of Leather Community stars will discuss the future of Leather. This historic conversation is being sponsored by the Leathermens Discussion Group. Panel participants are leatherman, author, activist and pioneering psychotherapist Guy Baldwin, organizer, educator, commentator, and nontraditional sex activist Race Bannon, Instigator editor-in-chief Michael Thorn and Leather historian and scholar Gayle Rubin. Come join the conversation. Get there early. This one will be especially popular!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm @ Andrew Spencer Ceremonial Room, 4th floor, SF LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, San Francisco.
Posted in History, Leather, San Francisco, Scholarship, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Culture, Gay, Gayle Rubin, Gear, Guy Baldwin, History, Instigator, Is Leather Dead?, Kink, Leather, Leathersmens Discussion Group, Michael Thorn, New Guard, Old Guard, Race Bannon, SOMA
GEAR UP! (New Gear Men host Old Leather in Cali’s Saratoga Springs)
Photo and Design: Gay Highwaymen 2011
Old Leather; New Gear. Same fucking twisted kinky throbbing bobbing dripping ass-kicking mind-bending challenging pervert stuff as always. Of course. Style changes but stiff pricks and throbbing balls always rise to the particular season’s occasion. It’s about what got us hot and hard when we were young, and what does it now. N’est pas? See-see bone! Leather? Kevlar? Rope? Metal? Crazy new materials fresh out of R/D labs? All the wonders of modern technology? Or go way old school: kidnap a willing victim to the woods for some paleo-punk action in private. Way past medieval. Lots of room to get lost. Or…show off under the spotlight. Or…or…or. Sure. Why not? If it gets you hard and he’s game, have at it! Do the hokey-pokey. Because that really is what it’s all about…
Gear Up! is a Mens weekend party/run happening this weekend at Saratoga Springs. (The Cali Stagecoach Stop not the NY Resort!) This is the run’s first year and it is “geared” towards the younger set, to the post AIDS-crisis generation of men who lost most of the Men who would have been their generational elders and mentors – had more survived. Thankfully, some did! So…it’s a mixer. As the GearUp guys say: “amid open playspaces and numerous educational workshops, GearUp brings together the open-minded beginner with the trustworthy player.” Sounds like a plan! For more information on GearUp click here. More on Saratoga Springs here. Plus…if you are at the run and want a cool opportunity for a little silence and solitude in the midst of so damned much hotness, check out the Nishikigoi (Koi) Pond, here. Oh, oh oh, ommmm….!
Posted in AIDS, Leather, Nishikigoi, Northern California, Photography, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged Avant Guard, BDSM, California, Culture, Gay, Gear, Gear Up, Kevlar, Kink, Leathermen, Materials, New Guard, Old Guard, Paleo-punk, Photography, Saratoga Springs, Sexy, Spirituality
Rural Dungeon Still Life…
…often occupied. Momentarily empty. The space used to be a goat barn. Now it is a dungeon. The focus of the photo is a piece of classic dungeon furniture known in the scene as a St. Andrew’s Cross. Site of many a spiritual journey…et cetera.
Posted in DIY and Maker Culture, iPhone, Leather, Mendocino County, Northern California, Photography, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Design, Dungeon, Gay, iPhone, Leather, Photography, Rural, St Andrew's Cross, Still Life
Beatitude and Beat in NorCal: Saratoga Springs Nishikigoi Pond
California’s Saratoga Springs used to be a stagecoach stop. That was way back in the 19th century day. Now it is a “retreat and conference center.” Yoga retreats, raves and weddings are part of the draw, but they also host Leather and S/m Club Runs. The 15 Association does the annual Boot Camp run every June. Leather Levi Weekend does a mixed ‘Twisted Summer Camp’ run in August, and this year, a new mens’ run called Gear Up premieres in late July.
All that hard play can be hard work, and the deeper it gets, the realer it becomes. From degradation to grace and back again, turning forever on itself like a mobius strip. Beat, Beat-Up, Beatitude: words to fly by from the jam-sweet lips of angel-headed hipsters. Top or bottom, sometimes retreat is a good option. For those times, just outside the dungeon (aka The Heart Lodge) mildly hidden in the landscaping, a small magical nishikigoi (koi) pond waits. A rock ledge provides enough room for a semi-lotus, and a fine venue for adventures in ego dissolution. Flash of Orange. Take me…OM…country roads…splash sky water…gone.
Posted in ANIMALS: Human and otherwise..., Gardening, History, Leather, Nishikigoi, Northern California, Photography, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged 15 Association, BDSM, Beat, Beatitude, California, Culture, Gay, Gear Up, Koi, Lake County, Leather, Nishikigoi, Photography, Retreat Center, S/m, Saratoga Springs, Spirituality, Stage Coach, Yoga, Zen
Running The Gauntlet – Jim Ward Book Event at Mr. S Leather
Jim Ward at LDG, May 2011. Photo: Gay Highwaymen
Friend of this site Jim Ward founded The Gauntlet, and is widely regarded as the grand-daddy of the modern body piercing phenomenon. Now he has published a history. In May, he spoke to a packed room at The Leathermen’s Disscussion Group in San Francisco. Running the Gauntlet—An Intimate History of the Modern Body Piercing Movement tells the detailed story of “how Jim discovered his own fascination with body piercing and went on to found the industry.” Full of wonderful and terrible stories and amazing photographs, it includes details of his friendship with the heavily pierced and very gay Louis Rove – the adoptive father of the notorious Carl Rove. Other interesting bits include how the color purple came to signify piercing in the hanky code, and how he was collared to his long-term partner and Master, Drew Ward.
On Saturday, July 16th, 2011, from 1 to 5 pm, Jim will be at Mr. S Leather , signing books and chatting. Mr. S is at 385 8th St at Harrison in San Francisco, four blocks south of the Civic Center BART Station. If you can’t make it to the book event, and you want a copy, you can order one at the Running The Gauntlet website, here. Jim will even sign it for you.
Posted in DIY and Maker Culture, History, Leather, Photography, Scholarship, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Carl Rove, Culture, Gay, History, Jim Ward, Kink, Leather, LGBT, Louis Rove, Photography, Piercing, Purple Hanky, Queer, Sexy, The Gauntlet
The Gay Highwaymen 