Houdini museum exhibit

This site is all about putting men in physical restraints that they cannot get out of.  But every year at Halloween, I like to pay tribute to someone who took delight in being able to defeat such restraints. That person is the great Harry Houdini, of course. He died on Halloween in 1926, at the age of 52.

Although he got locked up in handcuffs and strapped into straitjackets to ESCAPE from them, there was also an element of exhibitionism and homoeroticism in his performances. He sometimes even stripped — to his underwear or even naked — before he was locked up. And, he was also smokin’ hot.

This year, there is an exhibit at the Jewish Museum here in New York City, featuring vintage photographs and memorabilia from Houdini, including those pictured below:

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To learn more about the Jewish Museum’s Houdini exhibit, click here.

And if you are not in New York City, take heart. After March 27, the exhibit will travel to Los Angeles and San Francisco — and then to Madison, Wisconsin, of all places!

Everybody needs to read this

Hey guys, this is really important, seriously.

Yet another one of us — “Spuds” — has apparently died in a play accident. I read about this on the blog of Rubber Canuck. Spuds is one of many others, including the men listed below, who have lost their lives in scene-related accidents:

James (Bodisama)

David (TieGuy) in the UK

Alejandro Bulaevsky (BikeRubber) found dead in full rubber in his NYC apartment

Bill (Bostoncuir)

David (Gummidawg)

Rubberpanther

Adrian Exley

I do not claim to have any firsthand knowledge of how any of the men listed above died. I only know what I have read online.

But it is really important that if you are playing with hoods, gags, breath restriction, or chemicals of any kind, that you know what the fuck you are doing. Yes, bondage and edge play can harden the dick, but don’t be careless with your life. Have a safety mechanism in place, a failsafe, a backup plan, a bondage buddy, whatever.

 

To read Rubber Canuck’s report on this latest incident involving Spuds, click here.

Clips vs locks

OK fuckers, listen up. This is important. Really important. In fact, I think this might be the most important blog posting I have ever put up here on Metalbond. I mean it. It has to do with the use of clips versus locks. Here’s the problem I am having: There are far too many men out there doing ineffective bondage with stupid, worthless CLIPS that can be un-clipped by the prisoner whenever he wants, rather than using LOCKS that cannot be undone without a key.

Bondage with clips makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like driving to the mall on a busy Saturday afternoon and locking your car doors, but leaving all your windows rolled down. What’s the point?

Take the picture below, for example:

Clips vs locksYeah, the guy is smoking hot and he looks great with his hands behind his back. But look a bit more closely at the way he is restrained. All he has to do is use his hands to unclip the clips, and he is free. What fun is that? This is not real physical restraint. It is play-acting!

Here are more examples of hot men who are “restrained” with inadequate, non-secure clips:

Clips vs locksClips vs locksThe men in the pictures above were restrained by lazy tops who don’t know what the fuck they are doing, or who don’t care. Is this any way to treat a prisoner? No. Fuck no. If they had been bound with PADLOCKS rather than clips, these would be some very hot predicaments, indeed!

Are you catching my drift here?

Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you do use locks, you also have to know HOW to use them. Some guys use their padlocks ineffectively, because either the restraints themselves are not locked on, or the restraints are locked on but then they are secured with clips. Remember that if you are using leather restraints, those have to LOCK ON, as well! Take these pictures, for example:

Clips vs locksClips vs locksClips vs locksEven though padlocks ARE used in the scenarios shown above, all the guys in these pictures have to do is either unbuckle the leather restraints or unhook the clips and they are free! That is because there are not locks on both the restraints AND whatever is securing them. Again, this is an ineffective, unacceptable way to restrain a prisoner!

Then there is THIS heinous misuse of a padlock:

Clips vs locks

What the fuck does this padlock do? Absolutely nothing! It is not keeping the collar on, nor is it locked TO anything. Like tits on a bull, this padlock is just sitting there, being useless. What a waste of a good padlock!

From now on, everyone needs to start using real, locking PADLOCKS to secure the restraints and then lock them TO something. No more clips, only padlocks.

If you don’t HAVE padlocks, that is no excuse. Go to Home Depot, for chrissakes, where you can buy dozens of different kinds of locks, in all different sizes, shapes, colors and configurations. You can get multiple locks that all open with the same key. You can even get combination locks that all open with the same combination, or you can get combination locks that you can set your own combination into, and use over and over again.

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Then once you are properly equipped you can do REAL BONDAGE, like THIS:

Clips vs locksClips vs locksClips vs locks

Notice how the restraints keeping these men captive are properly locked on, so the restraints can in turn be properly locked TO something. These men will not be able to get out of their predicaments on their own. They are true prisoners, locked and secure — the way it should be!

Clips vs locksClips vs locksI hope I have made myself clear. Any questions?

Marching to the beat of a different drummer

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JOHN H. EMBRY 1926-2010

John H. Embry, pioneer gay author, publisher and activist, died in his sleep at the age of 83 on the morning of Thursday, September 16, 2010 at his home in San Francisco.

After a successful career in advertising and marketing, John founded the groundbreaking magazine Drummer, which became the most successful national publication for gay men in the leather lifestyle.

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John published the magazine from its inception in 1975 until 1986, when he sold it.

John and founding Editor Jeanne Barney shared a vision: To produce a magazine that celebrated the masculine gay male, while embracing the literary values of the Evergreen Review, a publication famous for content that was counter to the culture and sexy. As such, they attracted such talent as Phil Andros (Sam Steward), Scott Masters (Edward Menerth), Fred Halsted, Tom of Finland, Harry Bush and Robert Opel, among others.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of Drummer. For the first time, gay men across the country – particularly gay men in small-town America – saw masculine images of themselves and not the stereotypes presented in mainstream media. Through their encounter with Drummer, many gay men realized that there were others like themselves “out there.” At the same time, the magazine highlighted gay leather bars and businesses and gave those establishments a national venue.

The impact became even greater when, because of police harassment in LA, the magazine moved to San Francisco in 1977, generating an influx of gay Leathermen to the Bay Area.

Drummer was a significant contributor to the creation of the international Leather Community and gave birth to such famous San Francisco social events as the California Motorcycle Club (CMC) Carnival and the Mr. Drummer contest.

 

“Drummer presented an image of gay men previously unknown to me. When I saw the photos of the hot guys having fun at the Drummer parties in San Francisco, I gave two weeks notice and headed West.”

— Jerry Lasley, Embry’s business partner and husband

“John Embry was a pioneer of Leather who made gay male Leather/SM writing and art available to a whole generation of Leathermen. Those men were inspired and creatively brought out by his Drummer and other magazines over a 35-year period of Leather history. His influence is still felt today in gay men’s mass media, not just porn, but in mainstream gay media of all kinds from movies to art and writing!”

— Peter Fisk, longtime San Francisco Leather community organizer

“Most of us may never have had the introduction to this Leather scene had it not been for John Embry and the Original DRUMMER Magazine he started and published. I know it’s how I first realized I wasn’t alone in all my perverted fantasies. Finding that Drummer magazine on a newsstand in New Orleans in 1981 changed my life, and you can see where it all led for me. Tens of thousands of guys worldwide read Drummer every month and felt a bonding connection to each other because of it. John died peacefully last month here in San Francisco. His legacy stands for itself. I wonder if he realized what he was creating when he was in the middle of it all.”

— Richard “Big Daddy” Hunter, owner of Mr S

“When I was a young teen, my family moved to a new city (Bedford/Temperance, Michigan) in the middle of the school year (one of the worst things you can do to a kid) where I was thrust into to a very WASPy school. Yeah, it was rough. I knew nobody and they were just looking for a target. What made matters a bit worse was that I was one of those future Gay Kinsters who was discovering he was KINKY …  before he discovered he liked MEN. I remember lusting over football uniforms, wrestling singlets, the motorcycle leathers in the SEARS catalog, etc.

“Since my parents didn’t pick up on how scared shitless I was to go to school each day and that I didn’t have friends (and my father could really care less), I’d go to the library after school. I tried to figure out my fascination for fetishes. This led me to books on sexuality where they always had a few pages on Fetish … and BDSM. And at the back of the book were the references. Where I found DRUMMER MAGAZINE.

“*A lot* of who I am today is by Drummer Magazine. At first, with a Post Office Box, I just ordered back issues with money orders. Got a subscription shortly after. Yes, at age 16.

“Each month that I got the magazine, I would have a masturbation marathon. Reading each magazine from front to cover several times. I’d also get on other mailing lists that I found in the advertisements. Which is where I discovered another influence, Mr S Leather (great article at that link on Drummer Magazine)

“I read today that the Publisher of Drummer, John Embry, passed away recently. While I never knew the man, I read his stuff and wish I could tell him thanks. I learned much from his magazine. I learned about HIV/AIDS prevention from his magazine wayyy before I got any kind of education at School or anywhere else. There was also many articles about the importance of respect, safe & consenting sex, roles and brotherhood.

“So, many thanks to you, John. I’ll see you later in that big dungeon in the sky.”

— Ruff, author of the popular Ruff’s Stuff bondage and SM blog

Drummer magazine publisher John Embry, who has died (1926-2010), hired me as founding San Francisco editor in chief of Drummer in 1977. Developing Drummer during the Titanic 1970s, Embry and I worked on leather articles intensely and then intermittently through 2002. He will be missed by the thousands of writers, artists, photographers, and staff who created Drummer.

— Jack Fritscher

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Boot Slave

By Lars

Originally published in Drummer magazine

Part 1: Preliminaries

In our introductory correspondence, when the cowboy first used the term, it turned me off. Boot slave. Hell, I craved boots, leather and bondage—even rigid bondage—but somehow I preferred the image of “prisoner” or “convict” not slave. The gay connotation of “slave” was, well, too slavish to suit me. Homosexual slaves, it seemed, service their masters voluntarily, wimpishly, without genuine compulsion. Conversely, prisoners and convicts pulled time involuntarily.

Continue reading Boot Slave

Nathan Hale statue

Two Metalbond readers who were recently visiting Chicago sent some pictures of this statue in front of the Tribune Tower:

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Here’s what they had to say:

We were walking around Chicago this weekend and walked past the statute of Nathan (“My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country ” )  Hale that’s outside the Chicago Tribune building on Michigan Avenue. We never really looked closely at it before, but … gee … the guy is hot, if green, and his hands are tied behind his back. And it looks like he has a pretty rocking body under all that bronze 18th Century finery. We thought of your blog and took these pics for you.

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Intrigued, I looked this up online, and learned that the statue is a replica of Bela Lyon Pratt’s 1912 statue that stands on the campus of Yale University — pictured below flanked by two hot Yale servicemen on Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut in November 1917:

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Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Widely considered America’s first spy, he volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission but was captured by the British. He is best remembered for his speech before being hanged following the Battle of Long Island, in which he reportedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to give my country.”

The 6-foot tall sculpture depicts Hale, hands tied behind his back, the moment before his execution.

There are several other replicas of the statue in addition to the one in Chicago. Copies also stand at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry; the Connecticut Governor’s Mansion in Hartford; Fort Nathan Hale in New Haven; the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; and at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.

Does anyone else know of other works of public art depicting hot guys in bondage — maybe with less bronze on?