One for the memory book for sure!
Many of you out there are aware of the incredibly hard road the Palm Springs Leather Order of the Desert (PSLOD) has had this past year. After the 2009 Leather Pride weekend two of their board members made off with all the cash from the weekend and left the club holding the bag on thousands in unpaid debt.
Something like that would have broken a less dedicated club in a less dynamic community but leather folk from all over stepped up to help and the members of PSLOD really sucked it up and rebounded in a major way.
This weekend was the culmination of those efforts and the Palm Springs Leather Pride weekend for 2010 was, by all accounts, the best ever. Attendance was way up for all of the events and the energy was through the roof!
Friday night was the Meet and Greet, followed by the Formal Leather Dinner and then it was off to the Tool Shed for A Night in Black Leather sponsored by Pulp magazine. Leatherati was covering the Mr Regiment contest on Friday and couldn't make the Friday night fun so we'll have to rely on the second hand rave reports of what a hot time everyone had.
We arrived in Palm Springs early afternoon on Saturday and after a quick stop at Tuff Stuff Leather and Gear it was off to the Barracks for the Leather Pride Vendor Market. Definitely a much smaller event this year but the vendors were top quality and were doing a brisk business. It's really kind of cool having the market accessible directly from the bar!
Panic is a pretty good word and a natural reaction. But they got busy rescuing the event and, long story short, the Convention Center stepped up as did a lot of other folks to make it happen. And man, did it happen! The Convention Center was an awesome venue for the contest with plenty of seating for the 300+ geared up leather people in attendance, plus there was a huge lobby for the requisite schmoozing around the bars and the silent auction table and a convenient, and gorgeous, patio for the cigar aficionados to enjoy.
Once we all were seated and more or less quiet the presentation of colors kicked off the evening and then emcee god Lenny Broberg took us right in to it with the parade of club colors, the titleholder introductions and finally the judge's introductions.
Judges for this year included - Mistress Cyan, American Leatherman 2009 Randy Carmenaty, International Mr Drummer 1989 Brian Dawson, Mr Russian River Drummer 2009 Robert Espindola and Roger Greg of Palm Springs Piercing.
We followed up the intros with a first look at our contestants. Contestants for Mr Palm Spring Leather 2010 are contestant #1 Mr Barracks Leather Tod Parker, contestant #2 Mr Street Bar Leather, Scott Anthony, Contestant #3 Mr Toucans Leather Larry Galston, contestant #4 Mr Toolshed Leather Chris Bates.
A quick adult bevie break and it was back for the jockstrap portion, yum! But first Lenny presented a live auction of a gorgeous custom made leather jacket from 665 in Los Angeles. The stage model fell so much in love with it that he kept outbidding the audience and ended up snagging the beauty for $500.
Next up was the quasi obligatory "tease the interpreter" segment where we get the ASL interpreter to sign all of our faves like fisting and tampon. But this time it all came together in an entirely unexpected way for Lenny when he brought a grandmother to the stage to help interpret a truly nasty sequence about fisting. Lenny wasn't going to make her say it but she trumped him by saying that she knew perfectly well what it was, that she didn't do it, but knew what was what. Then she took the mic from Lenny (no small feat that!) and let the audience know in no uncertain terms that she thinks it's obvious that all people should have the same rights and that she damn well did vote for our right to marry last year. She brought the place to it's feet with that one! We rarely see Lenny at a loss for words but he was after that. Well, for a minute anyway.
Things rolled along at a good clip after that priceless diversion and before we knew it we were ready for the envelope and a new Mr Palm Springs Leather. PSLOD President Ken Blokowski took the stage and Todd Parker, Mr Barracks Leather 2010 was announced as 1st runner up. Big drumroll and contestant #1, Scott Anthony, Mr Streetbar Leather 2010 was sashed as Mr Palm Springs Leather for 2010. Scott will go on to compete at IML in May.
While the post-contest pics and posing was going on, the convention center staff turned the auditorium into a night club and we rolled right in to the Recon Dark Victory Party, which throbbed well in to the morning hours. We enjoyed the dance for a while and then polished off the night at the Barracks Bar which was packed with a hot, geared-up crowd of leather guys.
The Vendor Market continued into Sunday and the legendary, and huge, Barracks beer bust capped off a fantastic Palm Springs Leather for 2010. Only problem now is that the bar has been pushed pretty high for next year's Leather Pride. But we know the studs at PSLOD will carry it off. After they've had a few days of rest anyway!
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