INIQUITY NEWS #7
Wednesday, 30 September 1998
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Greetings folks. It's been a great start to....what shall we call it? "Fetish
Season?" Seems like as of September, not only have we seen our usual
burst of Autumnal Fetish activity, but a whole host of additional utterly
cool events. Rather than noting that Autumn is becoming "that time
of year when a whole bunch of Fetish & S/M stuff happens," why
don't we start a new trend by officially calling September 1 through November
30 "Fetish Season," aye?
In this Special Events Edition of INIQUITY NEWS we
have a good half dozen or more premier Fetish events to tell you about,
many in the S.F. Bay Area and a few in other places. You'll also get a review
of Folsom, BOUND, and towards the end the very special night of TRANCEPTOR.
Note that soon we will have a continuous EVENTS page at the INIQUITY WebSite for things going
on all over the world listed in chronological order. :-)
As of now, INIQUITY also has a Hotline for special INIQUITY
private events. That number is: 415-289-2167
The Table O' Contents:
INIQIUITY:
A Definition
What is INIQUITY?
INIQUITY is a Concept, a Monthly Gathering, a Club, a
Newsletter, a Meeting Point, and a List. Anyone can join the List just by
sending me an e-mail. INIQUITY's focus is clear, and everything we talk
about, write about, and celebrate about is all linked to our central theme:
The Union of the BDSM Arts and Fetish Fashion. INIQUITY NEWS is a semi-whenever
"newsbitmap" (no paper) which centers around these very specific
areas where FETISH FASHION and Good S&M meet. There are plenty of places
to find purely S&M stuff, and an equally a good selection of places
to find Fashion items of a Fetish nature. There are far too few places in
America, IMO, which deal with BOTH Fetish Fashion and S&M as an Ideal
and a Reality towards which we can strive to achieve a Classier Fetish and
S&M Scene Overall. INIQUITY is also a "password" for those
of you wondering what our "sacred password" is (q.v. the website,
clubs, discounts, etc).
INIQUITY NEWS comes out when I get enough stuff to
put out an issue, roughly monthly, sometimes more often. It's a SOURCE to
find out what's going on and how to get involved for like-minded Pervs who
want to see some Style with their S&M. Anyone can contribute to INIQUITY
NEWS, and Everyone is invited to send in Reviews, Articles, Stories, or
whatever, from any part of the globe. Although centered in the San Francisco
Bay Area, INIQUITY gladly reports on activity in the Fetish/S&M world
ANYWHERE. All correspondence should use the Contact Form
Any part of INIQUITY NEWS may be reprinted and posted
elsewhere as long as: A) proper credit is given to the author of the portion
copied, and B) no money is made from said copying (i.e. no posting portions
of INIQUITY NEWS into a Pay-Site. Free Sites are A-OK). :-)
The Core Idea for INIQUITY came from several years
I spent in Europe during which I ate Fetish, I drank Fetish, I lived Fetish
and I breathed Fetish. I write INIQUITY NEWS in my spare time because I
enjoy it. I don't make a dime from writing this. There is a gap in the Fetish
Fashion & S/M world that I hope to help fill because I find a tremendous
amount of beauty in that world. This is my motivation. I hope you enjoy
the results.
Sincerely,
Arcane
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THIS SATURDAY, Oct. 3rd -- INIQUITY PARTY @ the Power Exchange
Yes indeed, it's time once again for our monthly just-about-the Full-Moon-Party
at the Power Exchange for those amongst us who take our S&M festivities
to heart.
For those of you who have never been to one of the
INIQUITY Power Exchange Parties, here's some details: Women free, $10 single
men, $5 men with a play partner only if you use the INIQUITY Password ("Iniquity")
AND arrive in Fetish Attire (otherwise you pay full price). The club opens
at 8 p.m. and closes at 6 a.m.
The Power Exchange is located at 86 Otis Street, one
block West of Mission & 12th/Sth. Van Ness. The Power Exchange is an
S&M/Sex club. To be more accurate, it is a venue filled with S&M
furniture so that people who do not have their own can go down to this nightly
"dungeon" and play to their heart's content, including having
sex if they feel so inclined. To be honest, except in the gay community,
actual sex rarely is seen there. Everyone with INIQUITY as I have seen so
far uses these monthly parties as a chance to do a good S&M scene (omitting
sexual penetration as the conclusion) amongst others of our kind who in
general are into Fetish Fashion as part of the total aesthetic. It's a chance
to meet others who share this aesthetic as well.
Overall, our scenes are the best and most interesting
to watch, the INIQUITY crowd is easy to spot as we're all in Fetish Attire
and generally the best looking people there, and it turns into a very fun
and easy-going atmosphere amidst a great deal of outstanding S&M. With
a little assistance from a few INIQUITY readers, we will be claiming the
KING ARTHUR ROOM as our "home base," providing a mellower stop
and a more focused, intimate environ for our people. Of course the whole
downstairs dungeon is open as well. There is ALWAYS furniture available
in the well-stocked lower dungeon for you to tie someone to, wrap them around,
over, etc. ;-)
You can always home in on the INIQUITY crowd by asking
the front door guys -- they always know where we are. Bring your favorite
S&M scene music too -- they happily play whatever we want to hear. FYI,
I would guess the average age of the INIQUITY folks at these events to be
about 26-27.
See you there!
__________________
Review -- Folsom Street Fair 1998: Party vs. Weather.....Party Wins!
I'm not sure if my favorite thing about the Folsom
Street Fair is the die-hard attitude of it's devotees or the fact that the
numbers of visitors gets exaggerated by a new magnitude every other week.
In 1997 I was told we had 30,000 visitors. That I could believe -- it's
about the same number of people you'd see at an almost sell-out concert
at the Oakland Stadium. Sounds about right. A week before the fair it had
suddenly become 300,000 -- 2/3 the population of Santa Cruz county. I DON'T
THINK SO. ;-)
At the farewell concert for Bill Graham, HUGE portions
of Golden Gate Park were covered standing room only with one of the most
massive assembled crowds since Woodstock. The estimated total for that event
was honestly 300k, and it was a veritable sea of people. Last figures I
heard for this year's Folsom Fair was 25,000, within a few days bumped up
to 250,000. I think the people tacking the "0" onto the end need
to go to more rock concerts (then again, don't we all?).
Enough numbers. It was the Folsom Fair, a concept that
inspires even the jaded to rise from their weekend slumber and head on down
once a year to Folsom Street, between 6th and 11th, to dive into an S&M
gathering that leaves most others behind. Most people in "The Scene"
would agree that it's easier to count who didn't attend amongst one's Scene
friends than who did. It was an opportunity to wear something a little (or
a LOT) spicier than usual for your outdoor Fetish attire, to see and be
seen amongst the VERY MIXED crowd of Gay, Het, Les, Bi, Trani, etc, etc,
etc. All kinds came out in this pan-sexual celebration of BDSM. If you have
been in the Scene long enough, you know how rare it is for all the different
BDSM sub-communities to come out and party together, and this is one of
the many things that makes the Folsom Fair magic.
Nonetheless, the gods of weather decided to test the
Perv community this year. After last year's unseasonably hot weather, everyone
had kind of been expecting to dress a little lighter in case we had a repeat.
A few days prior to the Fair however, the clouds came in stayed put, bringing
little showers here and there along with.
The morning of the Fair came and most people decided
they'd rather dress warm and chance a freak sweltering heat spell rather
than risk freezing their butts off. Well, a lot of us thought that way anyhow.
Seems some of the Fair people had made their minds up that they were going
to traipse around in a bondage harness and short-shorts, or some other less
thermal-oriented outfit, no matter what the weather decided to do. The booths
this year were definitely a cut above last year, with many more displays
catering specifically to the Perv community. There were a thousand things
to spend your Fetish dollars on, and walking from one end of the fair to
the other could easily take half a day with all the items to see.
The real test of the power of the party came when the
water finally fell. First the lightest sprinkles, then a bit more and a
bit more until finally it was undeniably showering. Being prepared for said
eventuality, both with an umbrella and the fact that rubber and PVC clothing
has the distinct fringe benefit of being waterproof, I pretended not to
notice the rain for as long as I could. The less prepared masses however,
also trying to ignore the weather for as long as they could, finally conceded
and took shelter under awnings, in shops or wherever else they could find
a dry spot. About 20 minutes passed and a number of people decided to call
it a day. The overall mass of attendees stayed and waited for the rain to
stop however.
Then came the moment of truth -- the rain wasn't going
to let up, and goddamnit we had some partying to do. Suddenly a wave went
through the Fair where it seemed like everyone just said "what the
f*ck," and they came out from under the awnings and out from the shops,
and universally decided that they Party Must Go On (albeit in a moister
fashion). The dancing in the streets continued sans some of the live bands
expected who couldn't perform in the rain. DJ's spun, people shopped, and
the Folsom Fair of 1998 remained pleasantly packed until the usual closing
at 6pm. Seems like the main people the rain "washed away" were
the gawkers and the clueless press. No complaints there. ;-)
"Food, munchies, etc., and (soft) drink will be
provided; you don't need to bring anything except yourself, your friends,
and your toys. There is parking on the street near the party space, and
there is a fabulous outdoor courtyard for folks who smoke. It's a Leather
Tea Party (chips, dips, chains, whips...and Circus Animal cookies, of course!),
as well as being a standard Dark Knights play party, and tea will be served.
(If anyone would like to be a "tea server," do please let me know;
other non-paying "volunteer" positions available as well.)"
The Fair became pure Fetish/BDSM Pan-Sexual Community,
a wonderful environment to be in. Oh, and although the clouds remained,
the rain did clear up for the last few hours as well. :-)
__________________
CLUB BOUND -- Gaining Its Wings
We've all heard how Club BOUND (Every Weds. @ DNA Lounge, 11th at Harrison)
got off to a slow start, had a few problems, shut down for a few weeks while
the DNA refurbished, and then recently re-opened. Well, I went to check
out the new set up there and I gotta tell you, this is the beginning of
something GOOD. The place had the best turn out I have seen since day one,
the music mix was almost spot-on all night long, a 2nd DJ was doing a different-yet-similar
mix in what WAS the dungeon area (kind of creating a darker, more Gothicky
dance space), the Dungeon has been relocated to the MUCH more visible and
easily accessible up stairs balcony, and....and.....and.... :-)
Seems that the proprietors of BOUND listened to what
people were saying they wanted, and the people responded. A very cool crowd,
the most people in Fetish Attire that we'd seen there ever. Several good
S&M scenes started even as we stood by the upstairs balcony bar, scenes
which were visible from anywhere on the balcony. The St. Andrews crosses
had also been secured in place for safety yielding a total of four distinct
play areas.
I had business to attend to elsewhere, but I have to
tell you I didn't want to leave. Even people (Pervs) from other clubs were
showing up and commenting that the energy was better and more interesting
at BOUND. Now mind you that when we arrived at 11pm it was pretty sparse.
There was a very distinct WAVE of people who showed up between 11:30 and
Midnight, so if you go early and it's less-than-full, try sticking around
a while, or come back a bit later. Everyone I talked to who came early,
went away and came back was very glad that they'd come back. I looked around
and honestly felt like I was witnessing the start of something very cool......
;-)
INIQUITY FOLKS can get into BOUND FOR FREE for the Entire Month of October!!!
You MUST be in FETISH ATTIRE and use the INIQUITY Password ("Iniquity")
to be admitted for FREE.
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Coming Around The Corner -- Yes! It's Perv Weekend #2!!!
I said it before and I'll say it again -- get a lot of sleep by next Thursday, because after that you'll be up all weekend long (well, most of it anyhow).
Friday, October
9th --
Stormy Leather 15 Year Anniversary Party, $15 Advance, $20 Door
The Location will be Club Townsend, at 177 Townsend St. @ 3rd. This event
will be 21 and over.
Fetish attire STRONGLY recommended (but not mandatory).
Tickets are available at: Stormy's shop, Body Manipulations, & Good
Vibrations all in San Francisco, as well as Whip Lash in San Diego. There
will be performers, dancing, liquid latex, and of course the Stormy Leather
Fetish Fashion Show at 11pm. The event runs from 9pm to 2am.
This is the first event of a weekend of serious FETISH
FASHION. Pull out your two BEST Outfits, and wear the first one to this
event! Fetish Attire is not mandatory, but I'll bet you 95% of the people
arrive in Fetish Outfits. ;-)
Expect an excellent party......
For More Info & To See The Online Flyer, check
out the Stormy WebSite at: http://www.stormyleather.com/pages/calendar.html
Sunday, October
11th --
SLICK Fetish Ball.
The event will be held at The Sound Factory, 525 Harrison Street @ 1st.
Tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door.
This semi-annual event has been a San Francisco tradition
and a serious groundbreaker for the West Coast Fetish Scene for going on
4 years now. The proprietor of SLICK promotes an "INIQUITY-esque"
aesthetic (Good S&M and Serious Fetish Fashion), and has been doing
so since long before the inception of INIQUITY. In a sense, SLICK has been
San Francisco's only truly European-style Fetish Ball for quite some time
now.
Like past SLICKs, expect good shows, DJ's spinning,
well dressed people (especially in light of the Strict Fetish Dress Code)
and hopefully as good a dungeon as ever to play in (the venue is new this
time, so no claims can as of yet be made how well the dungeon will function.
Bring a toybag anyhow). There will also be an art exhibit and a fashion
show by Wild Designs London.
One of the high points of this SLICK will be The Court
Of The Black Lotus, a 2 hour show which will run on the main stage while
the audience is dancing. The chief choreographer told me personally that
the show is designed to run this way, and that he will not let people stop
dancing!
Advance tickets available at Stormy Leather, Reckless
Records, and online at www.ticketweb.com. This will be a 21 and over event.
For more info: 415-536-9424 or visit the website at http://www.clubslick.com
If anyone hears of anything happening on the 10th,
let me know ASAP. After all, who needs sleep? ;-)
YES,
there's more!!
Click here to go to Part II of Iniquity Newsletter
#7
For
any and all comments, stories, reviews, or just dropping digitally by to
say hello, please use my Contact Form.
Please direct issues regarding glitches or problems with the actual website
to DrarkMoon.
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