This is one of Kymara‘s mannequins at the exhibit. Those are antique love letter accessorized with a leather blindfold, collar and leash from Purple Passion, a sponsor of the show.

Some really cool people showed up. Mike and Nayland were there!

Photo by Nayland Blake

Screwed up and left my camera at home so not many photos this year. Here’s a cell phone shot of my sexy Daddy. It was a hot sunny day and it seemed everybody was at the fair.

This year was different for me because I got introduced on stage with the other titleholders. That was fun.

Spanky at Folsom Street East 2008

Spanky passed away this week after a long battle with cancer. I met Spanky in the early 90′s when we were both active with National Leather Association. He was friendly, fun and a tireless volunteer.  I remember when he became the Northeast Drummerboy in 1993; there was a travel fund for Northeast Drummer but not for him and that struggle was the seed of his “boy” activism.

Spanky dropped out of the community for a few years but he came back and was more active than ever. He was Mr. New Jersey Leather 2008, a founder of Jersey boys of Leather, a member of Team Eagle, and was was involved in both The Imperial Court of New York and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. He was also a very dedicated member and hard-working of the Leather Pride Night committee.

There will be two viewings on Saturday April 9 (2-4pm and 7-9pm) at Buckley Funeral Home, 509 Second Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ. Club Colors and Title vests welcome. Please no flowers, donations may be made in his honor to the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties or to a charity of your choice.

A Memorial Celebration of his Life will take place the afternoon of Saturday, May 7 at Paradise in Asbury Park.

Spanky at Night Of A Thousand Gowns 2010

This brief bio was written by Gil Kessler and reprinted with permission.

August Kalin passed away in New York City on April 4, 2011 following a major stroke two weeks earlier. Augie was 55. He was born in Syracuse, NY and lived most of his life in the state. For the last 5½ years he lived with me in a wonderful Sir/boy relationship, both in New York City’s Greenwich Village and at our country home near Port Jervis, NY.

Augie was intelligent, creative, loving, and handsome. He was “harleyxr” on Recon, and had many dear friends. We first met at the 1993 March on Washington for Gay Rights when a group of us in leather left the hotel and passed this innocent waif standing on the corner. He asked if we knew where the Eagle was. “Come with us, little boy” was our response, and later in the evening I took him “home.” That began our friendship, culminating in Augie’s moving in with me in October 2005.

He had several careers, including managing a 12 million gallon petroleum bulk facility for Sunoco, working for the NYC Parks Department as a gardener, and reorganizing and running the offices of a Brooklyn construction company. He converted the second floor of our country garage into a large dungeon (including innovative equipment), and had many fun scenes there. He especially loved clothespins, bondage, flogging, and rubber, and his interest in photography leaves me with many wonderful pictures.

Augie was an avid motorcyclist, and rode all over the US. His first trip abroad was with me to London, then Costa Rica, then Turkey and Greece. Very favorite book: Lord of the Rings; favorite opera: Barber of Seville; favorite music group: ABBA; favorite classical music: Gil playing Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# Minor on the piano; beloved pet: Jake, the basset hound, still living upstate with Augie’s previous lover (and our good friend) Paul.

For many years, Augie was a member of GMSMA, Delta, and TES. He took the Novices SIG in 2005, then we shared the teaching of the course each year since. He took very good care of me (now I’ll have to even relearn how to cook!), and I will miss him so very much.

Augie is survived by his mother, sisters, and brother. He passed peacefully in hospice, his hand in mine.

Ya know, marriage is not the ticket to romance. Sure, getting married is romantic. Oh, the engagement! Oh, the wedding! Oh, the big white wedding dress! Oh, finding “the one!” Being together forever and ever. Dreaming of what your life will be like together. So romantic.

After a few years of married life, there’s often divorce. Look at the statistics. Even when married people don’t divorce, there’s an abundance of lying and cheating. Again, look at the statistics.

Some marriages do succeed. Some can keep the romance alive, but there has got to be more than romance to keep them together. And some marriages are non-romantic and very successful.

Maybe I just hate that my family held marriage up to me as the big goal. That marriage was the ticket to a lifetime of happiness and security – very middle class bourgeois. I always preferred being self-sufficient. I don’t want or need anyone to “complete me.” Maybe I am a rebel. Or maybe I just want to live my life the way I want to live my life.

There are some really good reasons to marry. Our society offers bonafide legal and social advantages to people who marry: tax breaks, ease of raising children, health care advantages, etc. It’s why marriage equality is so important.

So, I’ve got a romance going with Don Quixote. Of course, if he wins the lottery, I’ll marry him. I doubt that will happen, but I think that his playing the lottery is very romantic.

This is probably a really bad time to be so negative about romance and marriage. It should be a post congratulating Boymeat and Kitten for getting engaged. I am happy about that. Really.

Mazel Tov!

Leo of The Pretty Boi Diaries organized a Queer/Leather happy hour at the NY Eagle last week. It was a fun night out at the leather bar.

I also got dressed up.

We enjoyed the show. I especially loved the performance by Madison Young and Lookout.

Once again, I got lucky and won the best raffle prize! Original art by Annie Sprinkle.

Much butt action t the fair

John Weis is the founder of Folsom Street East

Spanky and Nayland

Kathryn and Boymeat

Doc