Tag Archives: San Francisco

Daily Thread

Remembering Mr. Bratman

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The leather community has lost a kind-hearted Old Guard Master.

Mr Bratman

 

Mr. Bratman was a true bondage enthusiast who dished out plenty of restraints, discipline and protocol — and lots and lots of love. He grew up in Baltimore and lived in New York City and San Francisco before moving to North Carolina, where he frequently hosted play parties at his facility.

“He died peacefully of complications from his heart condition. He was alert and socially active up until the end,” wrote Dan in an email.

Richter says there will likely be a memorial in the fall.

I spent an entire week with Mr. Bratman in San Francisco back in the early 1990s. He took me out in public every day with a fresh mohawk and a VERY big collar. The picture of myself in front of my then-employer’s corporate headquarters that I posted recently, was taken by Mr. Bratman on that visit! Each night it was a different form of bondage. I’ll never forget those experiences.

I am sharing this with love and respect for Mr. Bratman. There will never be another like him.

— Metal, June 9, 2021

Story

The Jacket – Part 1

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By Rubrpig

When I was in my teens, I spent a lot of time cruising the web and one night I discovered a website devoted to men wearing straitjackets. My cock got rock hard as I clicked from one image to another of men tightly strapped into heavy straitjackets.

One image really got to me and that was a very muscular man tightly strapped into a gleaming black leather straitjacket. The jacket was heavily padded and featured straps to make sure he could not raise his arms or shift his biceps. The jacket also had straps that passed between his legs highlighting the bulge in the tight jeans he wore. I copied that image and spent many hours jacketing off staring at that image.

I finished up my college years by being a star lineman on the football team. I had shot up during my teen years and filled out my frame in the gym getting worked over by the strength coaches for the team. By the time they were done with me I was a 6’4” slab of hard muscle. My abs were heavily defined and my pecs jutting out from my torso. The heads of the sorority girls turned when my buds and I walked past them but I did not party as I was focused on my studies and the team.

Continue reading The Jacket – Part 1 →

Daily Thread

What color are you flagging with your facemask?

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Available from Mr. S in a variety of “hanky code” colors, these masks are made from a double layer of material. The top layer is a traditional hanky pattern, while the backside is a black cotton. Wear it either way. Stylish, breathable and machine washable. Nylon/spandex ear straps keep the mask comfortably secured to your face. Look hot and be safe all at the same time!

kinky face mask

Click for Reversible Hanky Face Mask

Note: Mr. S has announced a donation of 500 masks to local organizations in San Francisco. It’s their way of giving back to help keep everyone safe.

Click for Mr S

Bondage / BDSM gear from Mr S here

Iron restraints from Mr S here

male bdsm gear

Daily Thread

Video: Hal Fischer talks about signaling with keys and hanky code

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Check out this video in which artist Hal Fischer discusses “gay signifiers” — namely keys, earrings and the hanky code — worn by gay men in 1970s San Francisco:

 

Hal Fischer’s work, Gay Semiotics, is a photographic study of visual coding among homosexual men.

You can see many of his photographs on the SFMOMA site.

Also visit gaysemiotics.com

Thanks to my buddy Grey for passing along this link!

Daily Thread

Photographer Mark I. Chester: Street Sex Photos and Other Perversions

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For those who are in Palm Springs, LeatherSex Conversations, presented by the Desert Fetish Authority, are held the first Friday of every month. On Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, Mark I. Chester will present “Street Sex Photos and Other Perversions,” which is described by organizers as 40-plus years of images from San Francisco’s gay radical sex underground.

Mark I. Chester

 

“Mark I. Chester’s work work is politically provocative, artistically taboo and socially conscious,” an announcement from the Desert Fetish Authority says. “In documenting his life, Mark has also documented these tumultuous times in San Francisco, giving a glimpse of the people and times that we have lived through. One focus of this presentation will be Mark’s new project, Street Sex Photos, which documents gay men being sexual on the streets of South of Market in San Francisco.”

The presentation will take place Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, from 7-9 p.m. at the LGBT Center of the Desert. It’s not to be missed, if you are in Palm Springs!

Details on the event available here.

Desert Fetish Authority official site here

Desert Fetish Authority

Daily Thread

This is a really good book

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I recently finished “My Leather Life: Early Years” by Peter Fiske, narrated by Thomas V. Peterson, and I can’t recommend this book enough!

It’s available for purchase on Amazon.

Peter Fiske book review

 

Peter is one of our most passionate and loving of leather elders, who is well known in gay s/m circles as an expert in flogging and whipping. For anyone interested in learning more about this topic — as well as anyone who wants to understand more in general about who we are as kinky folk and where we came from — this book is highly recommended!

Peter shares personal stories of growing up in New York City and discovering a sexual interest in bondage and spanking at a young age. He also tells of serving in the military in the segregated South and finding leather sex at a dirty movie theater in Times Square. All of this takes place pre-Stonewall! Speaking of Stonewall, Peter was also a patron of this famous bar and tells of being present at three different raids before the famous rioting took place in late June 1969.

Peter was also active in the leather scene in San Francisco, meeting many of the “old guard” leather men of the day and joining a back patch club and attending leather runs. Peter later became active in brotherhood organizations, including The 15 Association, the Chicago Hellfire Club and Delta.

“‘My Leather Life’ reads like porn, but it is my life,” Peter shared in a recent posting on Facebook.

“All of our stories matter. Mine is no different than any of my readers,” Peter continued. “I have been lucky to live at the center and to find love. If you take one thing from my book, it is that it’s in your power to live authentically and to find your love and your friends. Drag queens told me that in the 60s. Be real. You can be real too. All it takes is courage and a glad heart.”

The group picture shown in this blog posting is in the book and is also from Peter’s Facebook page. The caption states that it is from the Folsom Fair in San Francisco in September 1991 and shows, from left, Shadow Morton, Coulter “Colt’ Thomas (who was the fifth International Mr. Leather and Peter’s lover), Sky Renfro, Peter himself, and John.

Colt Thomas IML

 

I absolutely loved reading this book. I’m inspired not only by Peter’s passion for leading an authentic life but also of his stories of standing up for those being discriminated against, including men of color, drag queens and those who are transgender.

But for me the most moving passages were those in which the author describes the way he plays. When Peter flogs or whips a bottom in a leather scene, he does it as an act of love.

We should all be more like Peter.