lobolance

I went (with kingwyatt) to the San Francisco Eagle the day before Dore Alley to support the NorCal Community Bootblack Competition. We knew one of the competitors, which is always fun at a contest. The Eagle was hosting an entire day of leather events; we stayed for 3 out of 4 (leaving before the BLUF evening event).

The bootblack competition made for a good day. Both contestants put in a full six hours of blacking; I doubt I was on only one who suggested mine take a drink of water while she did my boots. It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and warm out of the wind which blew outside the Eagle's backyard walls.

One area was mishandled: no list was initially kept of who had purchased a ticket to get their boots done, which made for some misunderstandings about who was in line next once a list was created. They ended up, really, with too many people for the bootblacks to comfortably serve (which created some stress) and some very tired bootblacks (who handled the stress admirably, though also - understandably - they started skipping unlacing boots). However, the organizers clearly understood the problem and won't make the same mistake next year. I think they weren't expecting the turn out they had, which I guess is a pretty good problem to have as problems go.

I spoke with a few folks, including an interesting discussion with Henry, the current International Community Bootblack titleholder. In addition to the judging of their skills (I did see a couple of judges watching the work), the bootblacks were interviewed, and each had a pop up question on stage (one was pretty good, the other pretty lame; so it goes with pop up questions). In the end, boy Jean won, and Will got the first runner up medallion. Good for them.

Next up was a cigar and pipe event, hosted by the Bay Area Cigar Buddies. They sold a beer bust package which included a raffle ticket, a decent cigar, and a hot dog lunch; not too bad for $10 (boy I wish beer busts would include an amber or dark selection!). I'd already purchased a hot dog earlier in the day (home made salsa! coulda been spicier for my tastes, but still, yum!), so kingwyatt got to have the kosher dog (fine by me; in truth neither of us are big hot dog fans). The end of the bootblack contest (it ran til 3p) and this time period (3-6p), were the busiest hours of the day. Oddly, a number of dogs had free roam of the place, including some very small ones. And some were tied up; a tough situation socially for dogs. Anyhow, as far as I know, none got stepped on, and at least one fight was avoided. Dogs make good icebreakers, but when the bar got busy (and the day got hotter), they also made those who like dogs concerned for the critters.

Kingwyatt ended up with a humidor from the silent auction; it seemed a deal at $50; it's a pretty big humidor. He was informed AFTER the purchase however that one of the drawers didn't close properly. That seems pretty poor form to me. :-(

The crowd thinned as the dinner hour came up, and the NorCal Sir/boy contest came on deck. It seemed half the folks who showed up for that contest were titleholders of the same brand. Most of the others were there as we were from earlier in the day (bootblack supporters) and some guys just out getting ready for Dore. In truth, the audience seemed almost rude at times; it was hard to hear the speakers on the stage. I think mostly the audience wasn't too interested in the competition.

This was no doubt partly because in the end there was only one contestant on stage, for the Sir title. He did a reasonable job with his speech, I thought, though his fantasy was IMO rather unoriginal. It was cool to see a guy over 50 in competition. In the end, he won the title. ...oddly, the contestant was from Bakersfield. Why didn't he run for the So. CA title?

Then, quickly and startlingly, a boy winner was brought out and given the title. Which brought up even more questions: why only make one compete? Why not just give both if you're gonna give one? You could still have a show, letting the winners give their speeches and fantasies and such as were available... all told, it left a bit of an odd taste in my mouth (to disclose fully: I don't support these Sir/boy contests on principle, but I did not stay for it expecting a poor show).

All told, I'm glad we went, especially for the bootblacks, and the nice day with friends and a cigar at the Eagle.

Other contest related stuff:

Karen "Ultra" was the emcee for the Sir/boy contest, as she had been for the Talent Contest at Thunder in the Mountain the previous week (we'd also seen her at Ms. World a year or two back, and loved her). She is generally very funny, and has a fun classy look. I didn't mind that she reused material from Denver; after all, very few repeat attendees were there. However, she did 'joke' about an us/them split, referring to leather folks and apparently queer/het (though she is het), and that was disappointing to me. Thunder is a cool event and I wish the queer community would reclaim it; but here is one substantial group which will now never attend. And I've surely seen plenty of heavy and/or inappropriately dressed folks who qualify as 'leather' (as some of her humor was about). So that was pretty disappointing to me. Hopefully she'll skip that part next event.

Snatch did a very funny, hugely glam performance. She is always a marvel (seeing her as him in makeup and chaps was rather remarkable as well :-) ).

And a final note: a purse was stolen from one of the women we were hanging out with. Pretty depressing occurrence at a leather event.