Black leather afternoon.

Last Saturday afternoon found me enjoying a beer as I leaned against the brick wall of my local pansexual playground, Goodhandy's. My leather shirt creaked comfortably as I shook my head in admiration while watching Derek spin. His muscles strained under the thick red ropes, the knots around his boots securing his weight to the pulley dangling high above the stage. Also weighty and dangling was his dick, clearly aroused by the work his Top had been putting him through. Tony knew exactly what he was doing.

Suddenly my weekend entertainments seemed miles away from the upscale condominiums of horny, longhaired, blonde Catholic women with big tits.

With my new friend, Bootblack Boy, the Fates found me enjoying the 2009 Leather Sir/Leather Boy Canada competition. I hadn't been to this club since last summer, when I attended one of its playparties, but this afternoon was all about the guys in black.

I arrived just as the competition was ending, the muscular and tattooed jocks strutting and bending over for the smirking panel of seasoned leathermen. Sipping my beer, I enjoyed reading the colours on the vests surrounding me, and it took me back to the days when I lived in Boston and was the token straight guy when Diva and me hung out with the all-women T-Bears MC. The competition over, guests were treated to an extraordinary shibari demonstration by expert Tony Buff and his partner Derek Da Silva that can only be described as suspension bondage gymnastics. Tony handled his ropes fluidly, coiling them in decorative knots around Derek's thick biceps and chest, followed by loops around his boots from which he would balance his weight. But rather than move into a bdsm scene, the demonstration showed impressed onlookers how the bondage allowed for varieties of movement as Derek twisted himself prone, into sitting positions, spinning, and various other postures with twisted leg and bent knee that revaled how an imaginative Top could easily have access to any angle of his body at any time.

I've remarked before about how impressed I am with the gay community when it comes to the leather scene. The het kinksters in my region have a strong crossover with the goth crowd, and often it seems as though that playspace has more to do with music and fashion and emo posturing than with down 'n dirty, old guard, straightforward (sorry...) fetish power exchange. Even before the hot on-the-job training I enjoyed while working the bdsm clubs, I remember cutting my teeth on Larry Townsend's Leatherman's Handbook as my primer for leathersex. God knows that Townsend's detailed descriptions about power, protocol, and the various forms of S&M got me off just fine, the fact he wrote about man-to-man sex regardless. It didn't take much to adjust the gender specifications and still get a lot out of it.

And speaking of 'adjusting gender specifications,' I have to say that my new friend is really very cool. Bootblack Boy is a early40s transman (FtM) with an expertise in (wait for it...) bootblacking, and we share common interest in over-the-knee spanking play. He's relaxed, open-minded, informed, and playful. Thank you, Fetlife.

I haven't witnessed proper bootblacking technique since dating the Tomboy, and that was only because she's in the Canadian Forces. I've been intrigued with this nuance of the kink community for some time... and, for that matter, have been intrigued with transgendered dudes (an extension of my dyketyke tendencies, mayhaps?)... so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Boy and I agree that straightforward (dammit again, sorry...) OTK play almost seems like a 'too-vanilla' subtext for most in the broader kink scene, so I'm pondering and pondering.

The post-Leather Sir Canada schmoozing was fun and relaxed. Before Boy and I left for coffee and a chat about engineers, Rangers, and my new pair of Snap-On steeltoes, it was a treat to shake hands with Mr. International Leather Sir 2008 Raul Mendez II, who had come up from Florida. Miss Toronto Leather 2001, a very cool woman with a very hot vibe, bought me a Jager shot while we discussed kink-community networking. And it's always a treat to be around good-natured, sex-positive people no matter what sexybits bring them to orgasm.

Boy and me hooking up at the club? Boy, Morgan, and me hooking up together at some fetish night? He and I have already talked about the possibility of his genderqueer ass across my lap, and God knows I also miss tugging down Morgan's panties. Hrm.

But really, it was just another snowy Saturday afternoon in Toronto.

Ho hum.