Autumn brings us to the beginning of the end of another Mr. Leatherman Toronto’s title year and without question my congratulations go out to those 2009 titleholders, Peter Dillon and his crew. I have experienced first hand the ups and downs that unkowingly await a leather titleholder and Mr. Dillon has done both Toronto and those who came before him proud.

As for MLT the organization, honestly I cannot say much, I know what the average Joe on the street knows. Despite many disgruntled opinions from the unknown masses, it appears business as usual and MLT 2010 is holding strong. Joshua McPherson has won Mr. Black Eagle 2010, Graham-Martin Campbell took the title of Mr. Barn Leather 2010, Mr. Firkin Leather is to be named at Leather Brunch on October 18th, Mr. Spearhead will be announced at the Eagle on October 15th and Mr. Gladman’s Den is currently looking for contestants to find successor. There has been no word from the Priape/Woody’s and Steamworks camps and with Zeldas in admidsts its rellocation I do not expect a Mr. Zeldas this year. So all in all things seem to be shaping up well and I am looking forward to the new reign.

After my year as MLT I have opted to stay out of the politics and what boards of Directors do, he said/she said and rumours of poor behaviour are enough to turn anyone off anything. My support and dedication will always lie with the individual(s) who put themselves under the microscope and represent. So to the class of 2010 good luck, have fun and I look forward to meeting you. Just by stepping forward you have shown you got balls, and as anyone who knows me can attest to, I do so admire balls.

For most people the 21st of September marks the official end of summer, but for a reality TV junkie like myself the crowning of Jordan as season eleven Big Brother Champion means fall has arrived.

Television has influenced much of my life since my early sexual attractions to Mr. Grant as a youngster. That in itself should have been an early warning system to a lifetime of off centre sexual behaviours, not that it would have changed my fate anyhow. How excited was I though when this summer it all came together? My love of internet cruising, sexual adventures, and the Mary Tyler Moore Show landed me in Minneapolis.

Now I was doing long distance hookups back in the time BI(Before Internet) when you may have had a fifty word personal ad and maybe a poloroid, if you were lucky, to base a horny decision on. With decades of experience I have honed my spidy senses a bit better than the average jet setting cocksucker. So when that initial spark told my gut I had to go to the Twin Cities and meet this Man that clicked so well to my personality like a missing puzzle peice. I had to go, but unlike Mary who drove into Minneapolis every week in the opening credits, I hopped on a plane and flew in to meet this Man, and it was good! So good that three weeks later I had to return to see if lightening indeed could strike twice, it did. Far exceededing any such experience of the past and as a result leaving me without any frame of reference with which to compare.

Where does this leave me now? With a plane ticket eagerly awaiting Canadian thanksgiving so I can return to this Minnesotan who has not only captured my interest but my heart and my head as well, and loving every minute of it. I must advise the novice that my Minneapolis experience is the exception and not the rule. Not to say that I have not met some great guys along the way, but when lightening strikes sometimes yah just gotta throw your hands up, take the risk and enjoy the ride, cause yah just never know what might be waiting. All I can say is I am glad I was a Mary Tyler Moore Fan because it could have been WKRP and god knows what perils may have been waiting in Cincinatti.

London in the past for me had always been a hotbed of seedy sexcapades. Since my first visit in 1992, when I crashed in the flat of my international whore mate that I had befriended in San Francisco the previous year, had pretty much set the barre of a trip filled with sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Okay, who am I kidding, it had sex, drugs and showtunes. Even my last visit in 2005 holds the esteemed status of one of my most memorable sexual nights in my lifetime January 2, 2005 at the Hoist. With several moments of forced intentional unconsciousness followed later by a very greasy me trying to collect pieces of my leather outfit crawling in the crevices of the darkroom floor.

I hate to disappoint but this time it was total r&r, I read three novels, saw three plays, took walks along the canals and generally caught up on some much needed rest. So as a kink reporter I guess I will disappoint this go round, but for me it was far from a disappointment. The moral of the story is we all should treat ourselves with kit gloves. Take that time for yourself, sex and mayhem is readily available around the corner. Its all about balance.

My ‘Handy Lerner’s Dictionary’ defines pride as “pleasure in what you (or someone connected with you) can do or have done well.” Here we are 2009 on the precipice of another pride and looking at this rather broad yet simple defenition leaves me cause to reflect on prides of my past. Have I been a good faggot? Have I done it well? Do I find pleasure in it?
My first pride in the mid-eighties sent chills of happy excitement through my body and maybe even a single tear of joy as I danced behind a float blaring the disco version of “I am what I am”, I was moved by the crowds, the energy, the acceptance and the plain old fashioned good time being had by all. I was feeling the pride the pleasure in what I was doing and the pleasure of as many as I could connect with. Fast forwarding over twenty years later and I can honestly say I am still feeling it. I have had sober prides, less than sober prides and much more less than sober prides, I have had prides as a single, and prides with a significant other. I have also experienced pride celebrations with community commitments, work and social commitments and others where I just let the celebration evolve on its own. At the end of the day pride still brings out that ingenue wide eyed little cock sucker that got the chills of excitement way back when.

You will always hear complaints and grumblings from those that aren’t feeling i’t’ but pride is what you make it. I will always get my Pride moment, I know I would not have had the incredible life experiences that I have had if I had not been the kinky twisted gay male that I am. No matter where you fall on the Kinsey scale I urge you to find and embrace your pride moment and I will end with my slightly overused quote from my favourite author Dr. Suess “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Happy Pride!

In his four year absence from my life Robin had lived in Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, Vancouver again, Windsor and spent sometime in Winnipeg. Spring signifies fresh starts and new beginnings and Robin self admittedly was afflicted with “the grass is always greener” syndrome. Just like a robin redbreast, Robin returned to Toronto now pines for the places he has been. Many people – and gay men in particular – suffer from the idea that there islways something better somewhere else: a better life, a more exciting party, a bigger cock, whatever. What they are forgetting in this analysis is that in all aspects of their life they are the only consistent factor and if one needs a big change they must look within themselves, because even after crossing the country they themselves will still be there.

Many people within the leather community are famous for this kind of griping. I cannot remember how many times I have heard “the Toronto Leather scene is dead”, “there is nothing going on in this city”, “Europe is where it is happening”, or “the U.S. is much more open”. Okay, with that last phrase you know that something there is beyond fucked up logically. Not to sound cliché but the answer is simple: Stop your god damned whining and smell the fucking roses. It is spring and the leather community is alive and thriving in Toronto. MLT’s ‘Ressurection’ (www.mrlt.com) kicked off on Easter weekend. Just last month Northbound Leather hosted a lecture with renowned Master Mike Zule, and Spearhead just celebrated its 39th year as a leather organization, The Toronto Boys of Leather(Tbol) just reformed (torontoboysofleather@yahoogroups.com). So you want to be Kinky just launched its own website (www.2bkinky.com) and continues to offer regular seminars on kink bd/sm topics. Mr. Leatherman Toronto 2009 continues his “Leather on Top” the last Saturday of every month as well as the Churchmouse and Firkin’s Leather Brunch the third Sunday of every Month. Northbound continues to host their fetish nights at Goodhandy’s. This is just the tip of the iceberg no matter what your thing, leather or not, the bottom line is there is a lot going on in this city yah just gotta get up off your ass and find it.