Lots of things seem to happen at my grocery store and this one hasn’t happened in a long time, since maybe when I was in my early twenties.

I’m getting my groceries for my week at work, clocking the college age (or older) hotties: workers, skaters, punks, etc. and occasionally somebody clocks me back. Hard. Really hard. Repeated glances. Again. Again. Again. Okay, I’m getting cruised.

Just like that old ska song by Symarip (changing she to he), there he was, swinging down the high streets, yeah, his hair cut short, boots set firm, I couldn’t believe my eyes, like a story out of a book. He was height, my weight, my size, he wore braces and blue jeans. Okay, no braces and blue jeans, but damn close, he had on big docs, Dickies shorts and was very SoCal skinhead.

Raised eyebrows and a smile in passing, then in the line turning around to catch my eye 3 times, leaving line with his Schlitz and turning around to say good-bye, then waiting outside for some reason to say hello to me and I just tell him ‘see ya round’. Lame. I know I’m on my ‘no sex’, year long challenge, but… but… grrr!

I get in my car and loop the parking lot, scrambling to pull out one of my cards with my number on it. Damn! No number on these? Argh! Grab a pen. Fuck! Purple and exploded – ALL OVER MY HAND! FUCK! Are you kidding me? Write. Wipe my hand. Oh no… he’s going behind the grocery store. Back around into the rear parking lot, parking… where did he go? I see him over by the dumpster, drinking his beer.

I march on over and say hello and hand him my card and he asks a question that takes me back.

“So are you a skinhead?”

I smile and tell him I used to be. Kind of a stretch now at this point, but I have a Fred Perry shirt on.

“What kind?”

There’s that nervous knot in my stomach that totally takes me back. Yep. Right back again. The sniffing out begins.

“I was a S.H.A.R.P.,” charm turned away up, smile, and he stops me dead as soon as I got the letter ‘P’ formed. Like car-wreck dead. I can still hear the screeching tires in my head. Over. And over. And over. Followed by the sound of the crumple zone and steam shooting out of the engine.

“I’m white power,” complete with Sieg Heil salute and then very aggressively defensive, “so why are handing me this card with your number on it?”

My face contorted, my eyebrows cocked, and a look of disgust. His back against the wall of the dumpster container and both of us sizing each other up – not for sex, but whether or not this is going to start to go badly. Ice in the pit of my stomach. Him looking the card over and then shooting daggers at me.

“You know what, just give me that card back.” Cooly taking it back, shaking my head and back into my car. What a waste of my time fraught with misdirection and ultimately some of the most uncomfortable bunch of bullshit I’ve been part of in some time.

Yep. That’s the theme. If you are in Seattle this weekend, head on over to The Cuff for the Northwest LeatherSir, Leatherboy and Bootblack contest events! And while you are there, check out the art I did for the event. They should be also auctioning off the print of the work that is on all the posters, brochures and advertisements. Enjoy!

Lucky for me, I bought my tickets way in advance as I had a feeling this sucker was going to sell out this year and that hunch paid off. My first two days at the Con was basically popping in and out of the call out sessions and staying clear of the marketplace downstairs. I did this for two reasons – to avoid people I knew and to avoid the temptation to buy stuff. If I ran into people I knew or had yet to meet – I’d stay and gab their ears off. Plus, I’m on a budget.

Taking the trolley down from my house was a godsend as that meant little to no road rage on my part. A happy and calm Drub makes everyone else around me happy and pleasant as well, plus 5 bucks for an all day pass is a no brainer.

My 3rd day was very eventful. Instead of popping in and then popping out to go home, I went around to see who was manning the Prism booth, who else that I knew had booths and check out all the cool indy published stuff. I don’t know if it was me or if it was the weather or what, but it was very very…um… cruisy. Boy-candy everywhere. Or maybe I just need to get laid. Anyways, it was a blast and I don’t think I could have wished for a better time. At this point in the posting, I’d like to point out that it’s going to get rather heady and ridiculous in here with all the name-dropping.

Last Gasp has finally released Best Erotic Comics 2009 and the printing is excellent, so I urge you all to snap up your very own copy. “Dem Bones” which originally appeared in Hard To Swallow #3 was included, and even though it has received mixed reviews, I urge you to pick it up and judge for yourself.

I had two celebrity run-ins in which I totally embarrassed myself. One being Amber Benson and the other being John Barrowman. I like to pride myself at not gushing inappropriately nor interrupting people speaking but I seemed to throw all that out the window and practically laid eggs right there on the carpet as each of these people seemed to magically appear in front of me. All said and done, Amber is as funny and down-to-earth as one can imagine. No sooner had that happened and Amber left, I told a couple friends what a geek I was, stopping in mid-sentence as I heard a distinctive voice right behind me. I turned around, gasped and turned away and my pals must have thought I lost my marbles all over the floor. I then pointed out the the actor from Torchwood, our very own Jack Barrowman, was right behind us which brought various expressions of confusion and delight to those that understood my fangasm. Soon, every gay man with a camera or iPhone was gunning for a snapshot and all I could do was watch as this maelstrom (Fagstorm?) developed right in front of my eyes. I became flush, wet palms, frozen in place, sweaty brow – the works! He touched my back! I began to get even more giddy to the point where I had to force myself to calm the fuck down. I seriously thought somebody was going to slap me to just shut me up. Pathetic displays, for sure, but at least everyone was gracious about it and it makes for a good story.

If you didn’t get to draw in Lynx Delirium‘s “Snow White” book, you missed out on a lot of laughs and fun.

Now completely high on life, I decided to check out some video games Sean Z had suggested I check out. Aion looks amazing though I don’t know if I could ever spend time on an online game such as this, with the subscriptions and whatnot, but it was definitely breathtaking. I also enjoyed the demos for City of Heroes – again another MMORPG with magnificent graphics and details though with my iMac I’d have to boot both into boot camp to run the Windows emulator.

Aman’s Big Gay Dinner at Bandar. So full of food. So crazy. So fun. Especially with Steve MacIsaac, Sam Saturday, and Eden Bradley.

Some other things worth checking out:

Sina Grace‘s Cedric Hollows in Dial M for Magic – an illustrated novel about a sorcerer sleuth in Orange County. The graphic design alone will make you tingly.

Ed Luce’s Wuvable Oaf. If you don’t pick up this comic, you’re missing out. I grabbed a copy after seeing what he did in the Bent Comix Sampler. It’s got great line work, excellent story telling, and lots of bears and kitties.

Sean Z’s Myth – Do check out the online comic and buy the prelude book to get caught up if you aren’t already in ‘the know’ on the developing story.

Remember that image I did a long, long time ago when we were all much younger, hung out in packs, was part of the loose group QSB and went to ska shows in NYC or Boston?

Just because I wanted to see what came up googling on the word “skinhead” – I was shocked and flattered that somebody out there took my illustration and made a patch out of it! Awesome!

It’s been a little while since I was at a show last and a couple of months ago the Rancid show was postponed due to an injury in the band. Thankfully, the tickets were honored and a new date was set for the show I just got back from.

I’m probably going to crash in the next hour as one can only be so wired for so long before falling into a coma. Meanwhile, while I write this the 7 layers of funky, stinky boy sweat cools and dries on my skin. I’ll probably have a few bruises as well, but I don’t give a shit. The Rancid show tonight was a friggin’ blast!

SOMA, while not my favorite venue and an all-ages event, sure can pack them in. I worry that this place is a fire trap as I would hardly want to be in a building with all these people screaming and running for an exit.

Anyway, the opening act was on stage already warming up the crowd – Danny Diablo, a hardcore punk and rap act. Not my thing at all, but I guess teenage males with anger issues may like it. I dunno. What I do know is that he’s sexy in that hypermasculine way that you’d be hard pressed to show me a gay guy with that much swagger and testosterone and if he told you to suck his dick – you totally would. Besides that, the base from the speakers was so strong that it was hitting me right in the chest and I swore several times I was vibrating across the cement floor.

Buck-O-Nine were up next. San Diego’s local boys of ska-punk. They’ve been around forever and it was cool to finally catch one of their shows! Definitely a crowd-pleaser and a good choice for an opening act. Again, not my favorite band but glad I saw them.

Then Rancid come on with a 30 song set of old and new, B-sides and even an OpIvy song, whipping the crowd into a surprisingly controlled and well-behaved frenzy. The pit swirled and swayed from one side of the floor to the other, taking on larger and larger mass and I caught a few misplaced elbows in the ribs swirling around amongst the mounds of boy flesh (some men too) until I was drenched and high from the pheromones. I still am! The crowd was a friendly bunch, singing along and there were only a few dicks that needed a boot in the teeth, as Lars, Matt, Tim and new drummer Branden Steineckert (formerly The Used) hammered out the tunes and announced they’d be releasing a brand new album with the new line up very, very soon. As a long-time fan, you can count on me to be adding that to my collection.

Mohawk flopped down in my face and dripping with sweat, Rancid are coaxed out on stage for a two song encore – Ruby Soho and Timebomb. Classic stuff.

Now, the bad stuff. And it has nothing to do with the music, but people at the show.

Your camera on your iPhone can’t take pictures in a dark hall of stuff up on stage, you retards. This isn’t the goddamn red carpet so put all that shit away you suburban twats. I nearly fell over laughing several times watching the confusion on people’s faces as they tried in vain to take photos as they jostled about in a crowd that was not exactly still.

And to the girl in the wife beater t-shirt who scurried around like a rat looking for cheese, pushing people and jockeying for a better view. I almost felt sorry for you, being a short person and all, but instead of excusing yourself to get by people, you pushed people and I’m glad you got pushed back – hard. I hope you fell on the floor, you cow. At once point, you were so close I could smell you menstruating! I wanted to wretch! Can you not smell yourself!? Holy fuck! We all shouldn’t have experienced your heavy flow day with you. And yes, it was me who pulled your ponytail, you cunt. Next time I’ll rub your face in my rank armpit.

As I said before, I have been working on my first skate deck and it’s now done! I’m thinking of sending it over to the printers to get actualized. What do you think?

I know all you sock freaks (yeah, yeah, takes one to know one) will enjoy this one and as an extra bonus – if you like it so much you can download some desktop images I did of it to enjoy over in the downloads section. There’s one for 1024×768 pixels and one for guys with monitors like mine at 1920×1200.

Enjoy!

In London, The Gay Sex & Fetish Awards are on!

Spike Rhodes, a seasoned club promoter whose past clubs include Warriors, Renegades, Sleaze and DNA, announces the launch of London’s first Gay Sex & Fetish Awards at Union on Saturday 6th December, together with his newest Club “Filth!” on the dance-floor making it a dance party with awards and a fundraiser for GMFA.

At “Filth!”, I’ve kindly donated my art to be projected onto the walls of the club night to help create an atmosphere and lend some color to a very likely colorfully night!! So…

The Awards website londongayfetishawards.com lists categories of clubs, events, artists (cough! cough! ahem! me!) and organizations. During the first weeks you will be also able to nominate others to be considered in the first stage. The site will be monitored by scene-out.com who will count and adjudicate votes, so it’s all above board.

Two weeks prior to the event, the most popular nominees will be shortlisted for the final vote and then once the votes have been counted, the winners will be announced at the event. There will also be a few special awards on the night honoring the pioneers and heroes who have been at the forefront of the S&M and fetish scene and have been overlooked by the gay scene for far too long.

The site has links to all websites and for some less experienced visitors, it could be a chance to discover new clubs, groups or organizations and maybe find something out about them.

London has 14 fetish venues with over 18 different club nights dedicated to all things pleasurable, yet still many customers don’t feel comfortable saying that they go to these nights, fearing they may be judged by their friends. By doing these awards, it’s like coming out of the dark and celebrating what we do.

So register, log on and VOTE!

The London Gay Sex & Fetish Awards 2008 will take place on Saturday 6 December at Union, 66 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall SE11.

You see them all over the place and in a wide variety of personal styles. The UK gave us skinheads and the more enduring image of what a punk is and Southern California answered back with their own subculture – guys on skateboards. Sporty, sweaty, sinewy daredevils on planks of wood and tacked on trucks and wheels. Scourge of public sidewalks and police everywhere, rulers of the abandoned drained, below-ground pool, and seemingly closet sneaker fetishists! My heart skips a beat when I hear the oncoming CLACK CLACK CLACK of ball bearings and board on the cracks of the sidewalk.

My love of boys on boards goes long and deep and I’ve nearly wrecked several cars craning my neck, mesmerized, to look upon such youthful beauty and rebellion, soaking in every drop of sweat and flouting fashion norms back in the day, and clocking every scratch and scrape of an all-balls-out ride of their life as if to say, “I’m fuckin’ invincible!”

Always having a soft spot for certain subcultures and all they encompass on so many levels for me, and loving some of the most amazing art personalizing these boards they ride, I thought, “What a great place to plunk down some kinky art!”

I’ve stuck a deal with a skateboard deck art/design company to produce 3 unique new designs made specifically for the wooden canvas, which I will make available to you all as well!

The themes? Well, it wouldn’t be me without the fetish exploration, but whereas I usually approach something from the position of a cherished memory, this time I’m focusing purely on the idea of a chosen specific fetish near and dear to my heart.

My first fetish I ever came to grips with was my love of sweaty socks and socked feet – so the first board will deal specifically with that theme. The second deck will be adorned with a very similar styled board dealing with very sniffable and lickable leather boots. The third perverse panel drips with piss and watersports. Watch this space, true believers.

I think I better go take care of this stiffy.

My friends in NYC have called upon me to help them out with the weekends festivities of the leather kind, albeit from the other coast.

I donated a two sets of greeting cards for a raffle at the Gearblast.com / Gearfetish.com party this Saturday the 21st in New York City and I was happy to oblige. The beneficiaries are The National Council for Sexual Freedom, Scarleteen, Sylvia’s Place, Youth Enrichment Services, Leather Archives & Museum and Heritage of Pride.

Also, my very good friend Jake the Barber will be wielding his danger machine at Folsom Street East. So go on over and get your head buzzed, ‘hawked, and high-n-tighted and tell him I sent you. You’ll be able to find him with the 3 foot tall and 2 foot tall banner with the two skinheads shaving the dreads off a punk on it!

Me? I’ll be here moving to my new house.

The New York Boys of Leather are having a Boy Auction at the Stonewall Inn (Yes! That Stonewall…) on April 5th. It’s a benefit for SAGE so if you are in the New York area – attend – you may get your hands on the piece below (sans advertising text – that was for the posters and palm cards) at the auction!

Click To View Full Sized!