San Francisco, CA –- Yesterday marked the first anniversary of my art film debut with the release of Fear, the release of my seventh feature Folsom Undercover and the second Folsom Street Fair with my boy Derek. This entry also marks the one year anniversary of this blog which has chronicled what has proven to be a wild and unexpected adventure.
Wild is definitely the adjective I'd use to describe yesterday's festivities at the street fair. Derek and I arrive a little after noon to work our shifts at the TitanMen.com/NakedSword mega booth and the streets were already crowed asshole to bellybutton with people. Titan provided headshots for all the performers to sign, calendars to give away and a large stack of my 'trading cards' from NakedSword for me to hand out. As soon as we got into the booth there were calls from the crowd for autographs and photo ops. Derek and I jumped right in greeting both fans and friends as they came to the booth, giving away studio swag and a gift of our own.
Derek and I brought 300 black & white checkered hankies to hand out at the booth this year (photo above). The checker hanky is the hanky code flag for safer sex and represents a commitment to responsible play. Over the past year we've learned of far too many of our friends and acquaintances seroconverting, witnessed a cavalier attitude toward safer sex practices grow to become nearly normative and risk behavior touted as transgressive, edgy and cool. Bull shit.
The checker hanky was introduced in the 80's, when as a community we worked hard to advocate safer sex and get the message out. And it worked; HIV transmission rates decreased through the 80's and 90's. Now, as we begin the 21st century, HIV transmission rates are on the rise among men who have sex with men. Something's gone terribly wrong.
I was lucky; I got the message early. I realized I love sex and learn at an early age that the safer I was doing it the longer I'd be around to do it. I know a couple of 'art film' personalities handing out checkered hankies isn't going to make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but if we can encourage even a few people to stand fast in their personal commitment to sexual health and the health of their partners regardless of HIV status then perhaps the message will reach more people than 300 checkered hankies.
Last year might have been larger than life but this year was mobile. Titan had wrapped the studio's production van with the images of several exclusives, including yours' truly (image above). We were playing the Blu-Ray™ edition of Folsom Undercover in the back of the van, but I wasn't in a position to see the movie. I don't think we would have had much time to take it in anyway. Titan seemed to have everyone on hand for the event. François Sagat, Dean Flynn, Diesel Washington, Alex Baresi, Dirk Jager, Frank Philipp, Eduardo, Rick van Sant, Chad Manning, Dominic Sol and Marco Blaze were all at the booth in addition to Derek and me.
Bonus: In addition to all those beautiful men, there was one more wonderful surprise, my boy from Seattle. Jeff (photo right) had been vacationing in Hawaii and had changed his flights home to include a stopover in San Francisco to join Derek and I at the Folsom Street Fair. It was great to have him there, but I wish I had gotten a chance to spend more time with him and I'm sure the whole thing was rather bizarre for him. He was a great help throughout the day and I need to think of a way to thank him for being there... oh, wait, I've got a pretty good idea how I can thank him, same way I thanked him yesterday morning for coming into town.
Toward the end of the day, NakedSword ask if Derek and I would come over to their booth to create a crowd. It was our pleasure to help out our friends at NakedSword. A little impromptu rope bondage and impact play seemed to do the trick quite nicely (photo below by Darwin Bell for TheSword.com). I tied Derek down in one of my favorite ties for sex, his arms and legs securely bound beneath him with his ass exposed, then proceeded to deliver a good spanking with my hands and belt. The crowed seemed both horrified by and attracted to the intensity of this spur of the moment scene, which was really quite timid by our standards. At one point I overheard someone in the throngs say, "its okay they're partners."
Afterward, we did a little instructional bondage work, stuck around for some photo ops/autographs and handed out the last of the hankies.
When the street fair closed down Derek, Jeff and I walked over to the Hole in the Wall's new digs and finally got some quality time together. While many of our friends decided to go to the Real Bad party, we preferred the music and surroundings of one of our favorite dive bars. And did we have fun. There's nothing like cutting loose after being 'on' all day.
This morning we sent Jeff off to the airport for his flight home. Derek and I just got back from brunch and some shopping in the Castro and are about to head out to the airport ourselves. I'm exhausted, have picked up a cold and am not looking forward to saying goodbye to my boy. Luckily we get to see each other again in a couple weeks at ILSb.
