Adieu, weekend. Back to work tomorrow. Happily, it will be a short week as I'm taking off of work on Thursday and Friday. Friday will see me traveling with Past President up to Boston to attend the Leather Leadership Conference. Wednesday will be the final night of Pork at the Lure. After that, all will be shuttered and dark at that august establishment, and I'll be finding out what's on television on Saturday nights.

VERY EXCITING THOUGH UNCONFIRMED AND COMING FROM AN UNRELIABLE SOURCE RUMOR ALERT: (Sorry to shout) One who is "in the know" hinted that a subset of those who brought us the LURE may be intent on opening up a new venue, closer to me, and where "you can smoke." Could it be that a leather bar will soon grace my humble hometown of Jersey City? It almost seems too good to hope for. On the one hand, I cannot imagine that the Jersey City (or Hudson County) Department of Health is anywhere near as perspicacious as the NYC Department of Health is known to be. So possibly, it will be anything goes. And Lord knows there's lots of funky warehouse space available for double-digit dollars a square foot near to the PATH train. And won't it up my chances of hooking up with hot boys in a bar when I tell them that I live a mere few blocks away. But, it seems too much to hope for, as I doubt very much that many Manhattanites will be lured (so to speak) into exploring the foreign and frightening phenomenon known as PATH, the train that runs from 33rd Street right to downtown Jersey City in about 10 minutes. I think it would need to be part of an overall trend of nightlife as a whole crossing the river. But, no doubt when the LURE opened up in the Meat Packing District ten years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that nobody was gonna go down there to go to a bar. (Although as the neighborhood that had been home to both the Mineshaft and the Anvil, that was probably less of a concern.) And, so many guys I know live in or are moving to or are considering moving to Jersey City, that it could possibly spark a Fort Lauderdale/Palm Springs situation, where Leathermen colonize a city that the larger vanilla gay community brushes off.

So how was the demo? How was the last night at the Lure? Lemme tell ya, it was grand. I used good old rope in my scene that I did at the demo, first fashioning a head harness. And it worked pretty well! It wasn't as tight as I've been able to achieve when practicing on myself, but it was alright. Interestingly, the post that I was using for my scene was immediately adjacent to the man known on line as Joey Rope, who is one of the pre-eminent bondage Tops in New York City and therefore the world. What, me worry? I did alright, keeping it simple, securing my partner at the ankles, the thighs, and the sternum, as well as with wrist restraints bound around the back. He was pretty much immobilized. Just how I wanted him. I started with a flogging using a kangaroo flogger with very think tails. It works so well in that it can either be whispy and light or hurt like hell depending on what flick of the wrist I decide to apply. Then, after he was red (beautifully so) in all the right places, I applied lines of clothes pins to each of his pectorals and to his thighs. I played with them for a while, getting his endorphins really going. Then, then, when he was just flying, I stood back, and picked up my heavy (and by heavy I mean, weighs a ton) elk flogger. Getting hit with it is like getting kicked by a mule through a sofa pillow. Wielding it is like throwing around a Laz-E-Boy recliner at the end of a rope. Two hands for beginners! "Take a deep breath" I said, and then WHAM! Off came all the clothespins on his left pec. He howled, somewhat. He steeled himself again, I yelled, "Take a breath," and WHAM! Off came the clothespins on his right pec. So with his right thigh, leaving only the row on his left thigh. Here it got tricky, because I couldn't quite position myself to swing comfortably. I did a backhand off of my shoulder which did the job on the second or third swing. Luckily, I had used the heavy flogger to just catch the ends of the clothespins on each line before doing the knock-off job, so I think the clumsiness was invisible to on-lookers.

Oh. A fun footnote. My partner was late. I was anxious. The coordinator of the dungeon demo said he would see what he could do about rounding up a substitute submissive (a "sub sub"?) for me. A guy approached and said he might be interested. I described the scene to him, and when I said I'd then use the flogger to take the clothespins off, he said, "I'm not sure I'm up for it." Good man! I like a bottom who knows his limits.

Onlookers? Yes, I guess there were on-lookers. I was totally in the Zone. The Alpha Waves were emanating from my cranium like Spider-Man when his spider senses are tingling, alerting him to danger. Focus! That's what it's all about. Just losing yourself in concentration. Nobody else on the planet for awhile, just me and him.

After the demo, I was famished, so I repaired to dinner to Sazerac. Walking over, I thought that I'd prefer company for dinner, and put in a call to Current President. He was available and hungry, so we met at Sazerac and had a nice dinner together.

And then, off to the LURE. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a line extending halfway down the block to get into the place. Once inside (the line moved pretty quickly), the place was packed. Just about everyone I'd seen at one time or another at the LURE was there. Sighted also was the author of the book that became the movie The Hours, the producer of the original Off-Off-Broadway play Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and (I wouldn't know as I don't watch the show much) one of the actors from the HBO series OZ.

And such great energy. I spent some time making out with a very hot bear I've flirted with a few times in the past, and met up (by pre-arrangement, sort of) with a guy I had chatted with on line earlier. I ended up going home with him, just to sleep over. What bliss to share a bed with another warm body. We have a date for Wednesday night.

The hour grows late, so here's the poem. It's by Robert Frost. Too often, Frost is discounted as suitable for Hallmark cards, thinking no doubt of his poem, "Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood." Unfairly so. There's so much sorrow, nuance, and darkness in Frost that's overlooked. The only poem I know by heart--infallibly--is 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' ("Whose woods these are, I think I know...") We had to memorize it when I was in the fourth grade. I know snatches of many other Frost poems. Once, in a job interview, I quoted from 'Two Tramps in Mud Time': "My goal in living life is to unite vocation and avocation, as these two eyes make one in sight."

Anyway, here's one of the creepiest and most nihilistic poems ever written, by good old Maple Syrup-y Robert Frost. Just goes to show you, people from the country know despair, and move on.

Design
By Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like ingredients of a witches' broth--
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the withe moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appaul?--
If design govern in a thing so small.


...so next time you take comfort in thoughts of "His eye is on the sparrow, so I know he's watching me," think of the white spider, atop the white flower, holding the white moth.

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