Kinkidiver collared Drew, his partner for life, for life.
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It Gets Better even if you are kinky
Last night I met Dan Savage, who founded the It Gets Better online video project.
Hundreds of people from all walks of life, even Hillary Clinton and President Obama, have created videos. Even a couple of guys who are into kink — Dart and Tynan — have posted videos.
I must say it is fantastic to see men who wear their fetishes so proudly. Way to go, Dart and Tynan!
To learn more about the It Gets Better project, you can visit their official website. And also be sure to watch Dan Savage tonight (Monday night) on the Colbert Report. I’ve already set my DVR.
David Blaine
I think the magician David Blaine is totally fucking HOT! Many of his stunts involve long-term confinement and other forms of physical restraint. For example, check out some of the stunts he has pulled in the past:
Premature Burial
Beginning on April 5, 1999, Blaine spent seven days buried inside a glass coffin at the bottom of an open pit in New York City. Passers-by could peer into the coffin and see him for seven days.
Frozen in Time
On November 27, 2000, Blaine began a similar stunt called “Frozen in Time,” which was the subject of a television special. Blaine was encased in a box of ice for 61 hours, 40 minutes, and 15 seconds before being removed and taken to the hospital to be treated for acute hypothermic dick shock.
Vertigo
Blaine’s next stunt was called “Vertigo.” On Monday, May 22, 2002, Blaine stood on a pole 90 feet high and 22 inches wide for more than 34 hours without food or water.
Above the Below
Blaine sat for 44 days in a plexiglass box suspended over the River Thames in London.
Drowned Alive
On May 1, 2006, Blaine was submerged in a water-filled sphere measuring eight feet in diameter in front of New York’s Lincoln Center. Blaine’s plan was to remain inside the sphere for seven days, then attempt to break the world record for holding one’s breath underwater while freeing himself from handcuffs and chains. (Blaine failed in this attempt and had to be rescued by support divers.)
Revolution
On November 21, 2006, in Times Square, Blaine was suspended 50 feet in the air while strapped by shackles inside a giant gyroscope.
His official site is here.
Houdini museum exhibit
This site is all about putting men in physical restraints that they cannot get out of. But every year at Halloween, I like to pay tribute to someone who took delight in being able to defeat such restraints. That person is the great Harry Houdini, of course. He died on Halloween in 1926, at the age of 52.
Although he got locked up in handcuffs and strapped into straitjackets to ESCAPE from them, there was also an element of exhibitionism and homoeroticism in his performances. He sometimes even stripped — to his underwear or even naked — before he was locked up. And, he was also smokin’ hot.
This year, there is an exhibit at the Jewish Museum here in New York City, featuring vintage photographs and memorabilia from Houdini, including those pictured below:
To learn more about the Jewish Museum’s Houdini exhibit, click here.
And if you are not in New York City, take heart. After March 27, the exhibit will travel to Los Angeles and San Francisco — and then to Madison, Wisconsin, of all places!
Everybody needs to read this
Hey guys, this is really important, seriously.
Yet another one of us — “Spuds” — has apparently died in a play accident. I read about this on the blog of Rubber Canuck. Spuds is one of many others, including the men listed below, who have lost their lives in scene-related accidents:
James (Bodisama)
David (TieGuy) in the UK
Alejandro Bulaevsky (BikeRubber) found dead in full rubber in his NYC apartment
Bill (Bostoncuir)
David (Gummidawg)
Rubberpanther
Adrian Exley
I do not claim to have any firsthand knowledge of how any of the men listed above died. I only know what I have read online.
But it is really important that if you are playing with hoods, gags, breath restriction, or chemicals of any kind, that you know what the fuck you are doing. Yes, bondage and edge play can harden the dick, but don’t be careless with your life. Have a safety mechanism in place, a failsafe, a backup plan, a bondage buddy, whatever.
To read Rubber Canuck’s report on this latest incident involving Spuds, click here.
Clips vs locks
OK fuckers, listen up. This is important. Really important. In fact, I think this might be the most important blog posting I have ever put up here on Metalbond. I mean it. It has to do with the use of clips versus locks. Here’s the problem I am having: There are far too many men out there doing ineffective bondage with stupid, worthless CLIPS that can be un-clipped by the prisoner whenever he wants, rather than using LOCKS that cannot be undone without a key.
Bondage with clips makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like driving to the mall on a busy Saturday afternoon and locking your car doors, but leaving all your windows rolled down. What’s the point?
Take the picture below, for example:
(picture)
Yeah, the guy is smoking hot and he looks great with his hands behind his back. But look a bit more closely at the way he is restrained. All he has to do is use his hands to unclip the clips, and he is free. What fun is that? This is not real physical restraint. It is play-acting!
Here are more examples of hot men who are “restrained” with inadequate, non-secure clips:
The men in the pictures above were restrained by lazy tops who don’t know what the fuck they are doing, or who don’t care. Is this any way to treat a prisoner? No. Fuck no. If they had been bound with PADLOCKS rather than clips, these would be some very hot predicaments, indeed!
Are you catching my drift here?
Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you do use locks, you also have to know HOW to use them. Some guys use their padlocks ineffectively, because either the restraints themselves are not locked on, or the restraints are locked on but then they are secured with clips. Remember that if you are using leather restraints, those have to LOCK ON, as well! Take these pictures, for example:
Even though padlocks ARE used in the scenarios shown above, all the guys in these pictures have to do is either unbuckle the leather restraints or unhook the clips and they are free! That is because there are not locks on both the restraints AND whatever is securing them. Again, this is an ineffective, unacceptable way to restrain a prisoner!
Then there is THIS heinous misuse of a padlock:
(picture)
What the fuck does this padlock do? Absolutely nothing! It is not keeping the collar on, nor is it locked TO anything. Like tits on a bull, this padlock is just sitting there, being useless. What a waste of a good padlock!
From now on, everyone needs to start using real, locking PADLOCKS to secure the restraints and then lock them TO something. No more clips, only padlocks.
If you don’t HAVE padlocks, that is no excuse. Go to Home Depot, for chrissakes, where you can buy dozens of different kinds of locks, in all different sizes, shapes, colors and configurations. You can get multiple locks that all open with the same key. You can even get combination locks that all open with the same combination, or you can get combination locks that you can set your own combination into, and use over and over again.
Then once you are properly equipped you can do REAL BONDAGE, like THIS:
Notice how the restraints keeping these men captive are properly locked on, so the restraints can in turn be properly locked TO something. These men will not be able to get out of their predicaments on their own. They are true prisoners, locked and secure — the way it should be!
I hope I have made myself clear. Any questions?
Marching to the beat of a different drummer
JOHN H. EMBRY 1926-2010
John H. Embry, pioneer gay author, publisher and activist, died in his sleep at the age of 83 on the morning of Thursday, September 16, 2010 at his home in San Francisco.
After a successful career in advertising and marketing, John founded the groundbreaking magazine Drummer, which became the most successful national publication for gay men in the leather lifestyle.
John published the magazine from its inception in 1975 until 1986, when he sold it.
John and founding Editor Jeanne Barney shared a vision: To produce a magazine that celebrated the masculine gay male, while embracing the literary values of the Evergreen Review, a publication famous for content that was counter to the culture and sexy. As such, they attracted such talent as Phil Andros (Sam Steward), Scott Masters (Edward Menerth), Fred Halsted, Tom of Finland, Harry Bush and Robert Opel, among others.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of Drummer. For the first time, gay men across the country – particularly gay men in small-town America – saw masculine images of themselves and not the stereotypes presented in mainstream media. Through their encounter with Drummer, many gay men realized that there were others like themselves “out there.” At the same time, the magazine highlighted gay leather bars and businesses and gave those establishments a national venue.
The impact became even greater when, because of police harassment in LA, the magazine moved to San Francisco in 1977, generating an influx of gay Leathermen to the Bay Area.
Drummer was a significant contributor to the creation of the international Leather Community and gave birth to such famous San Francisco social events as the California Motorcycle Club (CMC) Carnival and the Mr. Drummer contest.
“Drummer presented an image of gay men previously unknown to me. When I saw the photos of the hot guys having fun at the Drummer parties in San Francisco, I gave two weeks notice and headed West.”
— Jerry Lasley, Embry’s business partner and husband
“John Embry was a pioneer of Leather who made gay male Leather/SM writing and art available to a whole generation of Leathermen. Those men were inspired and creatively brought out by his Drummer and other magazines over a 35-year period of Leather history. His influence is still felt today in gay men’s mass media, not just porn, but in mainstream gay media of all kinds from movies to art and writing!”
— Peter Fisk, longtime San Francisco Leather community organizer
“Most of us may never have had the introduction to this Leather scene had it not been for John Embry and the Original DRUMMER Magazine he started and published. I know it’s how I first realized I wasn’t alone in all my perverted fantasies. Finding that Drummer magazine on a newsstand in New Orleans in 1981 changed my life, and you can see where it all led for me. Tens of thousands of guys worldwide read Drummer every month and felt a bonding connection to each other because of it. John died peacefully last month here in San Francisco. His legacy stands for itself. I wonder if he realized what he was creating when he was in the middle of it all.”
— Richard “Big Daddy” Hunter, owner of Mr S
“When I was a young teen, my family moved to a new city (Bedford/Temperance, Michigan) in the middle of the school year (one of the worst things you can do to a kid) where I was thrust into to a very WASPy school. Yeah, it was rough. I knew nobody and they were just looking for a target. What made matters a bit worse was that I was one of those future Gay Kinsters who was discovering he was KINKY … before he discovered he liked MEN. I remember lusting over football uniforms, wrestling singlets, the motorcycle leathers in the SEARS catalog, etc.
“Since my parents didn’t pick up on how scared shitless I was to go to school each day and that I didn’t have friends (and my father could really care less), I’d go to the library after school. I tried to figure out my fascination for fetishes. This led me to books on sexuality where they always had a few pages on Fetish … and BDSM. And at the back of the book were the references. Where I found DRUMMER MAGAZINE.
“*A lot* of who I am today is by Drummer Magazine. At first, with a Post Office Box, I just ordered back issues with money orders. Got a subscription shortly after. Yes, at age 16.
“Each month that I got the magazine, I would have a masturbation marathon. Reading each magazine from front to cover several times. I’d also get on other mailing lists that I found in the advertisements. Which is where I discovered another influence, Mr S Leather (great article at that link on Drummer Magazine)
“I read today that the Publisher of Drummer, John Embry, passed away recently. While I never knew the man, I read his stuff and wish I could tell him thanks. I learned much from his magazine. I learned about HIV/AIDS prevention from his magazine wayyy before I got any kind of education at School or anywhere else. There was also many articles about the importance of respect, safe & consenting sex, roles and brotherhood.
“So, many thanks to you, John. I’ll see you later in that big dungeon in the sky.”
— Ruff, author of the popular Ruff’s Stuff bondage and SM blog
Drummer magazine publisher John Embry, who has died (1926-2010), hired me as founding San Francisco editor in chief of Drummer in 1977. Developing Drummer during the Titanic 1970s, Embry and I worked on leather articles intensely and then intermittently through 2002. He will be missed by the thousands of writers, artists, photographers, and staff who created Drummer.
— Jack Fritscher
Nathan Hale statue
Two Metalbond readers who were recently visiting Chicago sent some pictures of this statue in front of the Tribune Tower:
Here’s what they had to say:
We were walking around Chicago this weekend and walked past the statute of Nathan (“My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country ” ) Hale that’s outside the Chicago Tribune building on Michigan Avenue. We never really looked closely at it before, but … gee … the guy is hot, if green, and his hands are tied behind his back. And it looks like he has a pretty rocking body under all that bronze 18th Century finery. We thought of your blog and took these pics for you.
Intrigued, I looked this up online, and learned that the statue is a replica of Bela Lyon Pratt’s 1912 statue that stands on the campus of Yale University — pictured below flanked by two hot Yale servicemen on Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut in November 1917:
Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Widely considered America’s first spy, he volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission but was captured by the British. He is best remembered for his speech before being hanged following the Battle of Long Island, in which he reportedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to give my country.”
The 6-foot tall sculpture depicts Hale, hands tied behind his back, the moment before his execution.
There are several other replicas of the statue in addition to the one in Chicago. Copies also stand at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry; the Connecticut Governor’s Mansion in Hartford; Fort Nathan Hale in New Haven; the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; and at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.
Does anyone else know of other works of public art depicting hot guys in bondage — maybe with less bronze on?