Category Archives: Leather

Fresh Foot Traffic: Got Boots?

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Boots. What other item of foot ware pulls such partisan support, draws such devotees, fosters such fans? Polished, dirty, engineer, cowboy, motorcycle. Leather. Boots. These boots were made for walking. These boots were made for licking. These boots were made for dancing on the head of a pin. Got Boots? Post Pics in GH comments!

Leather or Not? Is SF Giants’ Star Pitcher Brian Wilson Kinky? Is “The Beard” Gay?

Just For Men Wilson. B-Weezy. Flicker. Mental Assassin. The Beard. Whatever you call him, Giants star pitcher Brian Wilson is as much a performance artist as he is an athlete. But what does it mean? The look: tattoos, mohawk, shaved head, thick beard, torn t-shirt, pinky ring, a cock-ring worn as bracelet, always close at hand. The attitude. The friends. Who is The Machine? A neighbor who comes by for “sugar” as he quips to the startled interviewer Chris Rose? His team-mate Pat Burrell playing an elaborate prank as suggested by some internet commentators? And what about the gear? Described as wearing a “gimp outfit” by some in a reference to Pulp Fiction, the man in the leather harness, jockstrap and hood in the background of this video would look right at home in a private dungeon or at the SF Eagle on a Sunday afternoon. But then…so would Wilson. So the question, still open, is: “Is he or isn’t he?” Is he playing a character? Or is he really…one of us?

Sights Seen at Folsom Street Fair

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Beautiful weather for this year’s Folsom Street Fair brought out the bare skin and the bear skins, the otter skins and plenty of marked up, cut, whipped, scarred and inked skins of every color. The sun shone on all. It was a good year for garden parties, with Donna Sachet‘s Castro district annual and Mike McNamee’s patio BBQ at Stomper’s Boots bookending Rob Ford’s birthday at the Howard Langton Community Garden. A fine Folsom all around.

Three Generations of Leather: Wet Plate Ambrotype Photo by Eric Robinson

Leather Family: Three Generations. photo: Eric Robinson

We learn from our elders and teach the young. And sometimes vice-versa. As a community that has collectively lost so many and so much in the last three decades, it is more important than ever that we pass on our best traditions to the generations coming up. It is equally important that we incorporate the fresh energy and ideas of youth into our clubs, institutions, dungeons and families. Make no mistake about it: this is a family photograph. It is a scan of a wet-plate ambrotype, a singular photo on black glass, a 19th century process turned towards 21st century subject matter. Taken by Eric Robinson as part of a project in which he made portraits of Leather families in San Francisco. July, 2010. For more on Eric, click here and here.

Sights Seen at the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance Progressive Dinner

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On the 11th of September, a few dozen Leathermen and some women participated in the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance‘s annual progressive dinner. Starters were served at Mr. S Leather, soup and salad at The Powerhouse, main course at The SF Eagle and dessert at The Lone Star. The San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance is a coalition of twelve leather, fetish and motorcycle oriented clubs in the South-of-Market Area LBGT community.

Leather Week at SF’s Castro Magnet features Jok Church MENdalas

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 Magnet, the men’s health clinic slash community center slash art gallery in the Castro, is featuring an exhibit of digital prints on stretched canvases by the quirky, multi-talented Jok Church. A long-time gay activist, Church is also a Leatherman, a cartoonist and the creator of the children’s TV science series Beakman’s World. His web design includes the sites for the French artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and  for the local watercolorist Richard Bolingbroke.

Church calls these highly-manipulated photographs MENdalas, a take-off on the meditative mandalas of Hindu and Buddhist iconography.  The show opened with a splashy reception that drew such luminaries as Donna Sachet, the first lady in red of San Francisco drag, and Mark Leno, State senator for district 3, which includes the city and county of San Francisco and Marin and Sonoma counties. Church is donating 100% of sales to Magnet and to the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy. Sales were brisk at the opening, with more than half the work sold by evening’s end. Sister Dana Van Iquity, SOPI, wrote a review for the San Francisco Bay Times. The show continues at Magnet, located at 4122 18th Street at Castro, through the end of September.

That’s Mr. pony to You, Sir! Marc Owens is Mr. Alameda County Leather 2010.

Marc "pony" Owens and Trinity - Mr. and Ms. Alameda County Leather 2010. Photo: Rich Stadtmiller.

Friend of this site Marc “pony” Owens is the new “Mr. Alameda County Leather” for the 2010/11 season.

Some say the Leather contests and the titles and bearers associated with them are just butch beauty pageants, the titles mere bait in extended ego-promo games in which a leather sash can snare that night’s prize trick. And they’d be at least partly right.

But…at their best, Leather contests and the titles and bearers associated with them serve the communities in very real ways, fundraising for worthy organizations and causes and using their increased visibility in overall service to the community. It is that spirit that pony will certainly bring to the title and we congratulate him on his win. Work hard; play hard: Genuine Leather.

Eric Robinson shoots wet plate Photography at Dore / Up Your Alley Fair

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Photographer Eric Robinson set up his view camera and portable darkroom on 1oth and Folsom to take wet plate photographs at the Dore / Up Your Alley street fair in San Francisco. 19th century processes meet 21st century subject matter. He is in California working on a project that he began in Illinois. Click here for more on Eric. More later. [photoevent: July 25th, 2010]

Sights seen at Scene Site: Dore / Up Your Alley San Francisco Street Fair

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Lots to look at as always at this year’s Dore/Up Your Alley Street Fair.  Boys and men from the sublime to the ridiculous, Leathermen from the Old, New and Avant Guards, Uniform Buffs, Rubber Fetishists, Sadists and masochists, subs and Doms, Bondage Freaks, Dragsters, Masters, slaves, Merchants and Peddlers, Porn Stars, Activists in droves, a smattering of Tourists, and an assortment of more exotic permutations of perversion including furries, superheroes, cartoon characters and other kinks apparently generated in front of the television on some Saturday morning long ago. Photoevent: July 25th, 2010.

Street Art seen at Dore / Up Your Alley Fair

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New street Art seen during Dore weekend in San Francisco. South of Market. SOMA. Photo-event July 25th, 2010.