Here’s another shot of the clouds in SOMA this morning. At the cross streets of Division and Brannan.
-AidanAbroad
Tag Archives: SOMA
SOMA Clouds, Part II
Posted in iPhone, Photography, San Francisco
Tagged clouds, iPhone, Photography, San Francisco, SOMA
SOMA Clouds
There are particularly beautiful clouds over the Bay Area this morning… Here’s a shot of some clouds over San Francisco’s SOMA (South of Market) district this morning.
-AidanAbroad
Posted in iPhone, Photography, San Francisco
Tagged clouds, iPhone, Photography, San Francisco, SOMA
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
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
Beautiful SOMA Banksy – Hot Rat!
Banksy on 9th St. SF. Photo: Gay Highwaymen, Dec 2010.
Banksy! We snapped this shot on 9th St between Folsom and Harrison Streets in San Francisco’s SOMA (South of Market) district some time back. Popped up “just so” during last year’s run of Exit Through The Gift Shop.
Hey, B,…if you ever want to extend your marvelous marks into the rural fabulosity of NorCal, you are invited. Hospitality, anonymity, great groovy walls and other cool surfaces guaranteed!
Posted in Activism, ANIMALS: Human and otherwise..., Art and Artists, Collecting, DIY and Maker Culture, Photography, San Francisco, Signage, Street Art, Grafitti, etc., Subcultures
Tagged Art, Banksy, Culture, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Film, Folsom St, Grafitti, Photography, Rat, San Francisco, SCANDAL: Politics, Crime, Revolution and More., Signage, SOMA, Street Art, Grafitti, etc.
Eric Robinson’s “Leathermen” at QIY: Queer It Yourself – Big Gay Art Show
Eric Robinson and "Leathermen" at Las Manos Gallery in Chicago
Eric Robinson’s wet-plate ambrotypes will be showing as part of QIY: Queer It Yourself, which opens Saturday at SOMArts. The exhibit presents alternative, queer, do-it-yourself processes and projects, collaborations, zines, posters, green architecture, activist interventions and recuperations of low-tech media. Robinson took his 19th century kit (big awkard camera, portable darkroom, an array of chemicals, beakers and trays…) to the Dore “Up Your Alley” Fair in 2010, supplementing a series of portraits of Leathermen that he began the previous year. Images from that series will be on exhibit. More on Robinson here, here, here and here.
Robinson at work making wet-plate ambrotypes. These one-of-a-kind photographs on glass were common during the mid 19th century. As it disappears into the digital realm, this work reminds us of the physical, chemical and optical origins of photography. At the same time, generic conventions suggest that “fetish” photography should be slick and polished, suitable for publication in magazines, and “straight” in the photographic sense. These images kick that cliche, their hand-hewn aesthetic underscoring the sense that we are looking into not only the history of photography, but that of Leather. Old Guard all around…QIY is part of the National Queer Arts Festival. This year’s theme is A Sustainable Queer Planet. More on the festival here and more soon. QIY opens Saturday, June 4th with a reception from 1pm until 4pm. SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan at 8th St. in San Francisco. The gallery is tucked under the freeway, just to the east of the Trader Joe’s complex.
Posted in Art and Artists, Beards, Collecting, DIY and Maker Culture, Eric Robinson, Facial hair, Leather, Men, Photography, San Francisco, Southern Illinois, Subcultures
Tagged 19th century, Ambrotype, Art, BDSM, Culture, Dore Alley, Eric Robinson, Gay, Kink, Leather, Leathermen, LGBT, Old Guard, Photography, QIY, Queer Arts Festival, Queer It Yourself, San Francisco, Sexy, SOMA, Somarts, Up Your Alley Fair
The end of the San Francisco Eagle…or is it? Pics and rumors.
The San Francisco Eagle Tavern closed its doors this last weekend. Rumors that it would stay open another month proved unfounded. Is this the end of The Eagle? Self-styled San Francisco “Master of Real Estate” Seth Munter thinks it isn’t. He writes on Facebook: “The Eagle will rise again. John and Joe have no choice but to make sure the Eagle re-opens. They can and they will. Why? Because they cannot AFFORD to do anything else but see that the Eagle reopens. Otherwise, they will lose The Hole In The Wall…” Interesting political logic. For the entire post, click here. For pictures of condos that have been proposed for the site, click here. For a list of all the gay Leather bars called The Eagle, here.
Posted in History, Leather, San Francisco, SCANDAL: Politics, Crime, Revolution and More., Subcultures
Tagged Culture, Gay, History, Kink, Leather, San Francisco, SF Eagle, SOMA, Tavern
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
The Gay Highwaymen 