Folsom Street East is canceled for this year

Folsom Street East

This is a message from the organizers of NYC’s Folsom Street East street fair

 

Dear Friends and Fans of Folsom Street East

It is with sadness that the Producers and Board of Directors of Folsom Street East have to announce that the 17th annual Folsom Street East Street Festival this June is going to be cancelled. Though we continue to receive support for this community-building and fundraising event from Community Board 4 and our neighbors on the block (including our producing partner The Eagle NYC), the ever-growing construction on the north side of 28th street has made it impossible for us to successfully and safely hold our annual street festival. Thank you for the years of support from our attendees, sponsors, partners, exhibitors, vendors, performers and volunteers; we are sad that we will not be able to celebrate Pride with you at our fetish-friendly event this year.

We also hope you continue to join Folsom Street East at our other events, including our various LGBT Pride Month events, our annual “A Fetish for Fashion” fashion show this fall, and at  the many partner events we participate in throughout the year, and hope to see you back on the kinky streets of NYC next year!

The Folsom Street East Street Festival has always been a benefit event, and we will continue to support our beneficiaries:

 

The Anti-Violence Project  

The National Coalaition for Sexual Freedom 

The LGBT Center 

 

We hope that you – even though you won’t be supporting them through your Street Fair entrance donation –  will continue to support these organizations as they do their important work with and for our community.

Thanks for 16 great years celebrating sexual freedom with the Folsom Street East Street Festival, and we hope to see you back on the kinky streets of New York City in 2014!

 

 

 

Rigid wrist restraint for Lewis Thornton Powell

This is a famous picture of Lewis Thornton Powell, who was one of the people arrested after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865:

gay bondage

This is an early police mugshot of Powell (also known as Lewis Paine or Payne), who was one of the people put on trial and later executed for taking part in the conspiracy to kill the 16th president of the United States. What I like about this picture, of course, is the rigid wrist restraint he’s locked in.

According to the website A Little Touch Of History, strict security measures were put in to place during the trial, including the use of canvas hoods for the prisoners, to prevent them from talking with each other.

During the trial, the Military Governor showed compassion towards the prisoners and said the inmates who wore the canvas hoods could be allowed to take them off — EXCEPT for Powell, because “The hood didn’t seem to bother him as much as the others.”

Powell and George Atzerodt were also reportedly restrained with a ball and chain, although I was not able to find pictures of the ball and chain.

Here are more pictures of the restraints, and a shot of Powell just before the execution:

 

gay bondage MetalbondNYC_Powell_03 MetalbondNYC_Powell_04

 

Apparently all the Thumblogger sites are down

It appears that ALL of the Thumblogger sites — including Metalbond’s OLD site (the “classic” version if this page) and the popular Mr Kristofer bondage blog, and many other sites — are down.

I don’t know what happened, nor do I have any way of finding out, since they have zero customer service over at Thumblogger, which was one of the reasons I paid money to have my site redesigned and professionally hosted last year.

So, for now and possibly forever, the “Archives” tab here on Metalbond won’t work. (But don’t worry, I have it all the old contents saved on hard drives.)

I will update you guys when I learn more.

Oh, and for all of you who have been emailing and IM’ing me about Mr Kristofer’s site, you’ll want to click for his Tumblr page.

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