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gayhighwaymen
- Sights seen at International Mr. Leather in Chicago
- Rats! For real. Sight seen at IML.
- Noh Gaze Aloud…don’t be Meme!
- Gay Highwaymen correspondent AidanAbroad sends pics from China…
- Married at last! Gay pair make it official on 30th anniversary…
- Island hopping…
- Mussel Otter wants to…
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- Water bags for water boys?
- Inky gods’ stray musings from the Prophat of the Church of More Men…
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Maštíŋčala Sáŋ
- Spiny Lumpsucker
- Gay Activism and Iran: Do Western Activists Do More Harm Than Good? (Link to article by Scott Long)
- Emigrant: The Other White Meat?
- Obama Loves Queers! (Except Not)
- Hot (the bad kind) in the Mission
- HuffPost Gay Voices: Liberian Anti-Gay Group Issues Hit List, Governments Do Nothing
- Exotic, Fresh, and Fruity: Seen at the Asian Market
- Deadly Beauties
- More boy love/lust graffiti in SF
- “I WHAT Cock?” – Construction Sign Self-Expression
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Tag Archives: Leather
Men Kissing…sexy slide show.
Facebook, that gleaming bastion of Internet freedom, is purportedly zapping pics of same-sex kisses. FB users have responded with Kissing is Cool, a virtual public event and discussion. More on that here. For revolutionary Egyptian kisses, click here and here.
Posted in Internet, Photography
Tagged censorship, Culture, Facebook, Gay, kiss, Kissing is Cool, Leather, Men, Photography, same-sex, SCANDAL: Politics, Crime, Revolution and More., Sexy
The Beast in Me…
…is caged by frail and fragile bonds. Nick Lowe’s quiet, intense, acoustic analysis of his own shadow. Not gay per se, but it does speak to Leather aesthetics and spirituality. We should all be so well-acquainted with our own beasts. Another quiet intense man, Johnny Cash “The Man in Black” covered it here. Careful of the quiet ones. And keep the restraints handy.
Posted in Music, Spirituality, Video
Tagged Aesthetics, BDSM, Beast in Me, Culture, Johnny Cash, Kink, Leather, Man in Black, Nick Lowe, Spirituality, Video
Ouch! New Yaoi Bara Manga Style California Gay S/m Erotica from JoJo Mendoco
More here and here. And a brand new 3-panel Catholic guilt redeemed or “Bless Me, Father!” image right here. For “SirYesSir”, click here.
Posted in Comics, JoJo Mendoco, Leather, Mendocino County, San Francisco, Subcultures
Tagged Art, Bara, BDSM, Comics, Culture, Erotic, Gay, JoJo Mendoco, Kink, Leather, Manga, S/m, San Francisco, Sexy, The 15 Association, Yaoi
Gay Guerrilla Leather Bar at Straight Skylark in San Francisco #SaveTheSFEagle!
What else do we do in Leather bars other than wear leather, socialize and drink? We make out, grope, slap face and ass, suck cock, drink piss, eat cigar ashes, trade gut punches, whip and get whipped, talk trash, fuck in corners, lick boots, tap sacs, work on nips, use the slaves, and so forth. In short, we have Leathersex, or at the very least our rough version of foreplay.
In the tradition of Queer Nation Kiss Ins and the club activist Guerrilla Gay Bar scene, the San Francisco-based ad hoc Save the Eagle gang is organizing a takeover of the straight Mission district hipster bar The Skylark. Its owner is purportedly involved with underhanded machinations to acquire the lease and license on the Eagle space – and turn it into a straight bar. See more here and here.
So tonight, the Skylark goes “Leather” for the night. Well, sort of. The idea is to wear Leather, use pink highlighters to encode paper money as “gay” and spend money at the bar. If everyone “respects the space that we are borrowing tonight” as the organizers suggest, then everyone may mix just fine. This begs the question: why even have our own spaces? WE know why. But – how do we show them why…while still respecting their space? That’s a hard one!
From organizers Kyle DeVries and Anna Glendon Conda Hyde: “Tonight at 8 dress in leather and head to the Skylark bar on 16th. Mark your money with a pink pen or marker so that it is seen as coming from our community. This is not about harming the Skylark but rather showing what would be lost if the Eagle went away and showing how queer space is not always the same as “just any bar”. We as a community should be vocal and visible while respecting the space that we are borrowing tonight.
So far the Skylark has not signed a lease due to public pressure. We are the first step closer to saving the Eagle. The Board of Supervisors issued a Commendation Certificate in recognition of the Eagles efforts in raising over 3 million dollars during its 30 year run for the queer community and are working to have the space land marked. They are also hoping to work with the concerned parties to negotiate a way to keep the Eagle as a space for our community.
Thanks for showing up and especially to the 15 people who stayed till 730 to make public comment at the Board of Supervisors meeting after 6 hours of waiting.
The people united can not be divided. Deep respect Anna and Kyle”
Posted in History, Leather, San Francisco, Subcultures
Tagged Activist, Bar, BDSM, Culture, Direct Action, Gay, History, Kink, Leather, LGBT, Mission district, San Francisco, Save the Eagle, SF Eagle, Skylark, SOMA
Leather for Condos: San Francisco’s Eagle Tavern forced to close its Doors by the end of the Month.
Neighborhoods change. Once a dozen Leather bars lined Folsom. And then there were none. The Eagle Tavern has been a longtime mainstay of San Francisco’s diverse Leather communities. A friendly, informal place with a large patio, the Eagle has also been unique in being able to support a generous mix of queer subcultures in relative harmony. Sunday afternoons would see Leathermen and drag queens, queer stoners, musicians, hipsters and quipsters all sharing the same sunny patio.
Building proposed for site of current SF Eagle
Now the owner of the building and the site won’t renew the lease. The new year brought rumors that it would be sold to developers, and this latest news supports that. Money talks. The Eagle is a one-story sprawling quirky thing under the freeway. The above rendition is the slick new multi-use building that is proposed for the site. Joe Jervis of the popular gay blog Joe. My. God. said: “I’ve had some fantastic times at the ramshackle, broke down, SF Eagle. Most of my favorite bars have been in that sort of condition.” But when money talks, neighborhoods clean up. Soon it will even be safe for the children. Isn’t that nice?
A community action planning meeting to brainstorm ways to save the Eagle is taking place TONIGHT, Monday, 2011, at The Eagle. The ad hoc committee is organizing on Facebook here. The Eagle is located at 398 12th Street at Harrison, by the freeway.
South of Market has been changing for a long time. For a historical perspective on the shifts, and the political attitudes that shape them them, Leather historian Gayle Rubin has considerable insight. This is from 1989:
“South of Market has been undergoing so much rapid change in recent years that many of its current habitues are unaware of or uneasy about its recent past. The newspapers endlessly repeat a mantra of how brave pioneers — usually restauranteurs catering to an “upscale” crowd — have wrested the area away from the “lowlife” elements that once made the area “undesirable.” This point of view rests on the assumption that it is “right” and “good” when “disreputable” populations such as gay people, the poor, or people of color are displaced by wealthier, whiter, straighter, more “respectable” folk.
Gay “leathermen” are one of the most visible and least understood of the ostensibly vanishing groups of SOMA aboriginals. Reading about the world of leather in the straight press is a bit like reading the reports about indigenous peoples written by dumbfounded missionaries in the heyday of colonialism.
When I see the disappearance of its gay population used an indicator of the South of Market “renaissance,” I am reminded of the ways white settlers in North America spoke of the Native Americans they displaced.”
Excerpted from “Requiem for the Valley of the Leather Kings,” originally published in Southern Oracle, 1989
Updates here.
Posted in History, Leather, San Francisco, Subcultures
Tagged Culture, Gay, Gentrification, Leather, San Francisco, SF Eagle, SOMA
Eric Robinson’s Leathermen
Friend of this site Eric Robinson recently participated in Variations, a photography exhibit curated by Tommy Reyes of Las Manos Gallery in Chicago. Robinson is an antique process photographer. He works in wet plate collodion processes, producing one of a kind plates on glass, as well as tintypes and other antique photo technologies. In the summer of 2010, he visited San Francisco and Northern California where he produced Leathermen, the series that premiered in Chicago.
P. Raleigh of The Chicago Reader reviewed the exhibit: “Eric is able to present a quality of tenderness and everyday specialness not commonly attributed to such sexual “deviancy” by the mainstream audience. Eric will be a photographer to watch out for in the future…”
Robinson will be returning to California during the summer of 2011. More on him here, here and here. And more soon.
Posted in Eric Robinson, Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Subcultures
Tagged Art, Eric Robinson, Gay, Las Manos Gallery, Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Variations, Wet Plate
Bikers and Cigars and Bears: Sights seen at Smokeout XI Las Vegas
Bellagio Fountains, Floating Bear Conga Lines, Butkus Autographs in the Las Vegas version of a mall, Kush Fine Art. Srsly? Billboards of course. Surveillance like mad. The Arturo Fuente Cigar Lounge abuts an escalator in the Forum Shops on The Strip. Everything in Las Vegas is the Las Vegas version of…whatever, wherever. Paris and New York in plaster, Venice in Sherwin Williams. Covers the Globe in Amalgamated Capital. Or something like that.
The Las Vegas version of a run is Smokeout, an informally structured event now in its 11th year. Smokeout is billed as “an uncomplicated, fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas for Cigar Studs, Pipe Studs, Bikers, Leathermen, Bears and their friends from all over the world.” No run fee; events are on a pay/per basis and include dinners, cigar parties, bar nights, a Leather party, friendly low-stakes poker, a rollercoaster outing, a piss party, and a motorcycle ride hosted by the Desert Brotherhood M.C. Good times poolside at the Hotel Alexis Park Resort. Great times in the suites.
Posted in Las Vegas, Leather, Signage, Subcultures, Surveillance
Tagged Alexis Park, Bear, Biker, Cigar, Culture, Desert Brotherhood MC, Gay, Las Vegas, Leather, Photography, Pool, Sexy, Signage, Smokeout, Surveillance
Homeboy Art! Hector Silva at Tom of Finland Fair in WeHo
Friend of this site Hector Silva will be showing and selling his erotic “Homeboy Art” at the Tom of Finland Foundation’s 16th annual Art Fair. The Gay Highwaymen recently had dinner with Hector and his partner Napoleon at La Casita restaurant in Bell. Of course, snaps were shot. On our next LA trip, we will make a studio visit. Hector is a remarkable artist who is beginning to get the critical attention his work deserves, and collectors should pick up his work while it is still affordable. The Fair takes place Saturday, March 26th at the West Hollywood Park at 647 N. San Vicente Blvd. West Hollywood, California. Noon until 6pm.
Posted in Collecting, Food, Hector Silva, Leather, Los Angeles, Scholarship, Southern California, Subcultures
Tagged Art, Art Fair, BDSM, Bell CA, Chicano, Culture, Gay, Hector Silva, Kink, La Casita, Latino, Leather, Los Angeles, Sexy, Tom of Finland
Yaoi Bara Manga & Gai Comi influenced New Cali Gay Leathersex Art: JoJo Mendoco
This is new from JoJo Mendoco. “XV.1” 2011. Mixed media on paper. Based on a drawing from 1989 by “Les” for the 15 Association, San Francisco. Influenced by Japanese Manga forms and European and American 20th century gay erotic artists. Want more? For a red-headed bukake boy, click here; for a hot two-on-one: here.
Living on a Fault Line: SF Shibari Relief – Kinky Artists to benefit Quaked Japan
Last year, Chile. Last month, New Zealand. Last week, Japan and now its aftermath, ongoing. What next? Who knows. What now? Do what we each can. In that spirit, a loose group of kinky artists in San Francisco are presenting Shibari Relief: “We know what it’s like to live on a fault line.”
From their website: “Mark I Chester and Patti Beadles are organizing Shibari Relief. There will be a silent auction/sale and raffle of BDSM art, sexual art and other related items. There is no door fee, but a suggested $20+ donation can be given at the door. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. 100% of the proceeds will go to the American Red Cross earmarked for disaster relief in Japan.
As a special added bonus, anyone making a donation at the door will get a ticket to get two free digital pix taken by San Francisco gay radical sex photographer, Mark I Chester at his studio at 1229 Folsom St., just 1/2 block from Wicked Grounds, from 3-5pm during the fundraiser.”
Shibari Relief takes place in San Francisco at the kink-oriented Wicked Grounds Cafe at 289 8th St. on Sunday, March 27, 2011 from 2 – 5 pm.This is an all orientations and genders event. Artists who may be of particular interest to readers of this site include Mark I. Chester, Charles Gatewood and Michael Rosen.
Artists interested in contributing to the relief effort can contact Mark I. Chester through his website.
Posted in Collecting, Japan, Leather, San Francisco
Tagged Art, BDSM, Culture, Earthquake, Fundraiser, Gay, Kink, Leather, LGBT, Mark I. Chester, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy, Shibari Relief, Tsunami, Wicked Grounds
The Gay Highwaymen 