dead cows

[growler_south]

"Who is Robert Mapplethorpe and what is his significance to the leather community?"

There was a room full of quizzical looks. "Hang on", said one, "He was the guy from the Village People." "No," said another,"He was an artist who introduced leather to the mainstream, and is most famous for his Tom of Finland drawings".

I had to leave the room in a hurry.

Other than that incident of laughing till I went purple, the inaugural Mr Urge Leather competition went fantastically. We followed much the same format as Bears- 2 rounds of question and answer time with the judges, followed by raffle ticket sales. I think everyone had a great time, and we raised $800 for Body Positive.

I also managed to bid for and win a pair of Dr Wildbore's boots. The plan was to start the bidding and get things going- I think most people were a bit wierded out by bidding on Matt's shoes- but as it turned out no-one else was brave enough to put their hand up. Whoops.

Comments

[boyshapedbox.livejournal.com]

You mean the photographer?

He did document a lot of bdsm (when he was not photographing flowers and other boring shit that I had to study in art school). I didn't realize he was that influential. Well, YAY! Thank you mr. mapplethorpe!

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

His photographs treated BDSM with the same dignity as his floral work and portraiture, and introduced a whole debate about how content and form interact with context. Because he was such an esteemed photographer it got a lot of press, and in the process exposed middle America to a lot more BDSM than they imagined existed, effectively introducing the idea that BDSM might not be all that perverted or inaccessible.

He wasn't in the Village People.
Tom of Finland drew his own pictures, though he was introduced to and photographed by Mapplethorpe in 1978.

I'm still giggling at those answers.

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

Read about his exhibition "The Perfect Moment". The vice squad closed it down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mapplethorpe

[mikeybill.livejournal.com]

Glad it went so well.

I hear there's something else on there tonight... not sure what though...

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

There is? I might pop along and see what it is.

[prisoncitybear.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, let me see, was it the self portrait with the whip shoved up his ass or the super hot pic of the two leather daddies?
I'm confused.
: )

Bears are cute, but gawd are they dumb sometimes.

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

I was imagining his self-portraits as a series of four:
Y,
M,
C,
and A.

That's just wrong.

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

Good on ya!

It's really up to us, the (dare I say?) older and more experienced members of the gay community, to make sure that younger gay people know who Robert Mapplethorpe, Harvey Milk and Alan Turing are, and why Virginia Woolf is someone they should care about. The mainstream media are not carrying this stuff to them.

[saintcahier.livejournal.com]

Oh, being cutely stupid should be a requirement for any contestant of a beauty pageant.

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

One of those answers was from the compere....