There has been concern for while now about the apparent collapse of the leather community at the local level. Not at OUR local level, which is fine, but at the local level in other areas. Sure, the big national events are still popular and well attended. I’m thinking of International Mr. Leather (in just a couple of weeks – are you going?) and Mid-Atlantic Leather. But local events are not succeeding nearly so well because the venues where they are held are closing. There are now no leather bars per se in either San Francisco or New York, for example. The reason they are closing is a matter for speculation: people are cruising on the internet and don’t need bars, you can’t smoke in the bars any more, and so on. Pessimists think the whole thing is probably getting close to its end.

Suddenly an energetic young man comes on the scene and actually does something about it. Not the scene in our desert, unfortunately, but up north in the San Francisco area. He is a person who signs himself boydavid; his name is David Morgan and he’s very much a boy, but it’s well known in the leather community that it’s generally the boys who do all the work and the daddies who take the credit! So they say, anyway.

Boydavid has started a group called "Men in Gear," a group that encourages men to show up at a specific place at a specific time in their full leather and suddenly it’s working! A huge crowd turned up at the SF Eagle on the night in question, and it was the biggest Tuesday night the bar has seen in years! Maybe all those leather men had been just waiting for an excuse to put everything on and go out and show it off. Maybe somebody down here should plan an event like that. We already have the Boots and Breeches group that turns up in uniform, and the rubbermen who are very visible and have a West Coast Rubber weekend here in the desert on Labor Day Weekend.

How about a full leather night somewhere, where you don’t get in unless you are all togged-out, as we used to say in England? And Folsom Street Fair is a huge leather event in SF, why don’t we have a Folsom Street Fair South here? I’m going to see what I can do about that. Anyone want to help?

David has other projects too; he’s very much involved with Leather/Levi weekend and that brings me to news about that event. Leather Levi Weekend 5 (LLW2006), a "Twisted Summer Camp" for gay leather men and women (and other gender orientations) occurs every year and continues to increase in popularity. Tickets for this year’s event went on sale March 18. August 10-13 (Thursday thru Sunday), participants in LLW2006 will gather at the Saratoga Springs Resort, in the hills between San Jose and Santa Cruz., CA.  As with past LLW’s, it’s a sure sell- out and tickets are going fast. LLW is designed as a safe and fun introduction to the leather/levi scene for people curious or new to the scene.  First-timers get a break on registration fees.  For the experienced, it's a great weekend to relax, meet other players away from the traditional bar scene, and play in the outdoors! It’s also a wonderful excuse to get away from the triple digit temps and humidity that we have here at that time of year.

Saratoga Springs Resort is clothing optional, with a large pool, hot tub, volleyball court, and plenty of sun, in a secluded valley surrounded by oak woodland.  Price includes all meals (Thursday dinner thru Sunday breakfast), open bar, camp site (lodging supplements are available), SM workshops and demos, motorcycle skill events & group rides, erotic massage workshop, leather sex and spirituality workshop, country western dance (sponsored by Sundance Association), entertainment, two dungeons and play spaces, and more. 

You’ll very probably meet a lot of hot men that you normally wouldn’t run into down here. Every one who goes comes home raving about it, so give it a whirl this year!

Log on to the LLW web site for additional information www.leatherlevi.org, or:

Contact: Richard Sprott sfleatherdaddy23@earthlink.net

David A. Morgan david@DAMpr.com