Review of Gear Invasion of Mo's Universe

Photos by Scott Smith, who is becoming quite the Event Photographer!

Aaron and Boot Boy Scotty

From Mr. San Diego Leather 2012 Aaron:

Last night's Gear Invasion was incredible. We are leathermen. We do not define it by the kinky activities we like to engage with one another, or by the gear we like to wear. It is what is in our hearts. We had many conversations with people in the greater LGBT community of San Diego, and educated them on the many facets of the leather community. 

Our brother James in Afghanistan. 

He organized this similar event just 

before shipping out to Afghanistan. 

Thank you to everyone who came along during our journey and a special thank you to the staff of the Mo's Universe restaurants for welcoming us. To our leather brother James, AKA Corium-puer Jacobus, this is for you buddy. I was so glad to honor your request and facilitate this event while you are away. I can't wait to have my BLUF brother back in San Diego.

---

From Papa Tony:

Let's start right out with the most important point:

EIGHTEEN NEW GUYS SIGNED UP FOR THE FMSD LIST IN JUST ONE NIGHT.

This is big news.

In my time as a Flogging Top, I have learned about what I call "The Zone". This means, when I'm done flogging somebody, I've learned to look around me.  JUST close enough not to get hit by the flogger flying around, but not so far that they won't get noticed, the men with the big, big eyes and hopeful smiles are standing inside The Zone. They are hoping to be invited to play.

If you don't LOOK for it, you won't see it, and the opportunity for mutual joy will be lost.

That's exactly how it was during the Gear Invasion of Mo's Universe. Only in this case, the attraction was a crowd of joyful, brotherly, warm and friendly fetishmen with obviously deep levels of affection between us. We were 180 degrees out from the stereotype of "I'm Hot And You're Not" Big Attitude Leather Queens. Instead of being a closed-down, hard-shell clique facing inward, our social circle was permeable and welcoming.

Interested men would gather closer, enticed by the camaraderie, and reassured by the friendly smiles. Then, I would pounce, as I tend to do, showing them pictures from recent events, and telling them of our thriving local Tribe.  It was actually funny to me, when several of them said the equivalent of "It's okay - I'm SOLD - Sign me up!"

Folks were READY to be welcomed into such a clearly successful, friendly Tribe. On a subconscious level, you can tell when men have invested in each other for a long time: holding each other close when we cry, chuckling at (and accepting) each others' foibles and frailties, and cheering-on each others' successes. Men who hunger for such male intimacy were lining up all around us.

Adding new, eager and motivated members to the FMSD list was like shooting fish in a barrel.

We started out at Baja Betty's, and were showered with affectionate attention by all of the staff. We were particularly pampered by our gracious bartender Tiger, who made sure that we got little extra "goodies" every few minutes.  We felt like celebrities, since nobody could merely walk by us without commenting, and always in a positive way.

Mr. San Diego Eagle 2013 First Runner-Up Derek, with Tiger, our splendid bartender.

An important point:  I'm old enough to remember when gay leathermen HAD to stay in a tight, self-protective cluster, because the culture around us was harshly judgmental, and quick to find fault. Thanks to the Internet, gay leathermen are FASHIONABLE nowadays. We are TRENDY.

In an area and a time when we live amongst younger folks with neck-tattoos, dreadlocks, earlobe plugs and other signs of Tribal affiliation, an honest-to-goodness, open and honest Gay Leatherman WINS for sheer Awesomeness Points in any crowd. Try it - You'll see.

I think that the current cultural shift is just dandy, thank you very much. More and more folks are realizing that kinky play is just Extreme Intimacy, thanks to Fifty Shades of Gray and the like. Rather than maintaining the "Us Against The World" attitude from the old days, the men of FetishMenSanDiego are now representing the Good Men of the Community… Admirable, respectable, honorable, lovable. That's certainly the way that we were treated by the folks around us. 

Then, we headed over to Hillcrest Brewing Company for some excellent pizza and beverages. I had a chocolate-coffee-flavored beer, and when I expressed delight, our waiter brought me the same beverage with vanilla ice cream, called the Mad Cow Milkshake.

Clearly, we didn't have 183 guys in our group, but frankly, we couldn't have handled more than five more guys in our group. There was no place to PUT us. Each place was JAMMED and noisy, but that also meant that plenty of friendly folks came up to us almost continuously, to talk and learn more.

We had JUST the right amount of friendly, warm and affectionate brothers to maintain the magic.

Then, we were off to Gossip Grill, which is our local lesbian bar. I didn't sign up any new members there, but it was easily the friendliest place to be. The women were keenly interested and welcoming.  I spoke to a lot of folks, and I'm pretty sure that if we had stayed longer, we would have been hugged by most of the regulars. We were CLEARLY really nice guys, and everybody likes that!

Final stop: Urban Mo's, for Country-Western Night.  I admit it: I showed off for my brothers, and for the crowd closely watching the leathermen in their midst. Even though I'm a six-foot-five, 270-pound, 57-year-old white male, I can dance as well as anyone in the building, and I threw some of my "Fancy Dan" moves into the mix while I two-stepped, shadowed, waltzed and line-danced in 32 pounds of dead cow apparel!

By this time, the men of our group had scattered throughout the DENSELY packed crowd, chattering away, answering questions, distributing hugs, being photographed with eager strangers, and being ambassadors for our Tribe. I had promised to get one more Group Photo, but it was hard to set up, since we were all so widely dispersed. Eventually, it came together, but things changed from moment to moment, as you can see in the pictures above.

We will DEFINITELY do this again. By encouraging a constant flow of new, energized and eager new brothers, our Tribe is constantly renewed. As I have mentioned before, each one of the men in our happy gathering acted as "titleholders for a day", representing how we can be, when we are at our very best.  Great job, men!