Go Chicago!

I had never seen so many buttless chaps in one 24-hour period than at the International Men in Leather weekend at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago from May 22-26. And that being said, I don't think I want to see that many in one weekend for awhile again.

A group of four of us flew down from Calgary on Thursday and fought the Memorial Day long weekend traffic to get to the hotel. The boy and I made it to the hotel relatively quickly since we arrived at O'Hare before noon. The other two came at different times later in the day and were stuck in traffic on the Kennedy Expressway for one hour and three hours respectively. There were already throngs of people in the lobby and public areas when we arrived. One thing that struck me immediately was that we were in the lower end of the age range at the event. Most of the men there were in their 40s and 50s, many older than that and a small percentage in their 20s and 30s. I think the fact that this is a very 'manly' -- and expensive -- event keeps the more flamboyant and youthful of the family from attending!

We had an opportunity to do some exploring Thursday afternoon before everyone else showed up so we walked around the Loop and Millenium Park, taking pictures of Sears Tower, the numerous statues and fountains, and the unique and beautiful architecture throughout the south downtown area.

Despite the fact there were dozens of parties going on at any one time, some on-site and many others off-site around the city, some of the best times and most interesting sights were to be seen in the hotel lobby and main bar, the Big Bar on the second level. On Thursday night that's where we ended up and it was packed! Everyone had still not arrived yet but there were no major parties going on so the bar was the main place to see and be seen.

The four of us decided to dress up a little bit that evening. I wore my rubber hot shorts and blue polo shirt with TredAirs. Prior to leaving Calgary I took the boy to Priape and outfitted him with a nice pair of Nastypig motorcycle pants and a leather shirt and he debuted them on Thursday. I also picked up my Polymorphe pants prior to the trip. I was hoping to find a pair of rubber boots that would complement the pants while in Chicago. As it turned out, I never got to wear the pants this weekend, so I even had more rubber in Chicago than was necessary. Talk about overpacking!

This was the hotel bar...

I think Thursday was the night we spent the most money since we spent the whole evening in the hotel bar. Everything at the hotel was horrendously overpriced (as you might suspect), and it was only on Friday that we started to import bottles of booze into our hotel rooms for pre-partying's sake before heading out for the evenings once we realized how much money we were hemmorhaging.

I got up earlier in the morning on Friday than everyone else, so I decided to walk the Magnificent Mile and the Lakeshore and Navy Pier before heading back to the hotel. Once back at the room, we all got ready and headed back up the Magnificent Mile on North Michigan Ave. to find food and coffee. We got back to the hotel later in the afternoon and headed down to the IML Leather Market for the first time. I couldn't believe how much interesting, depraved stuff there was out there for purchase! Friday was definitely the least crowded day at the Market which provided us the opportunity to browse the place completely. I had my eye on a few things at such vendors at FortTroff and SlickItUp (BTW - those SlickItUp boys are freaking hot! The main guy - who I assume is the main model on their website - was in a mesh fullsuit for the afternoon. I couldn't take my eyes off of him!).

I was completely disappointed in the boot selection (no rubber, and only one or two vendors selling leather boots at all). Don't leathermen need/want/crave boots? I ended up not buying anything for myself that day except some football socks and grey 20-hole boot laces from Recon (who knew I would ever find laces to match my pewter suit?). However, that day I bought the boyfriend a nice pewter rubber shirt from Syren (being sold by JT's Stockroom) which he wore out that night.

Around dinnertime we started pre-partying and getting dressed up. I wore my STR catsuit with TredAirs, red laces and socks, Mr. Rubber Calgary vest and brought my rubber STR backpack for my Blackstyle mask and Russian gasmask. We went up to our friend's room at the top of the West Tower and drank there until we were ready to head down to the Chicago Rubbermen 'Greet the Meat' party in the West Tower conference rooms. That night there was also a Chicago Rubbermen GearBlast party immediately after the Meet and Greet plus a Uniform Party, San Francisco Party and the hotel bars that were all going at full blast.

At the Greet the Meat party, I finally got to meet some of the guys I had been chatting with for years but never previously met in person. Rubberwilli hosted the party, and I got to talk with him at length. Also BJ and Rubbermade from Montreal, Cdncyclist and Speedobuddy from Ottawa, Ruff from Chicago, CJRough from Calgary, J from North Carolina, TORubber from Toronto, Mr. Rubber Montreal 2008, Kai from Tallahassee, plus many many others. Rubberwilli also graciously acknowledged Stephane and I as Mr. Rubber Montreal and Mr. Rubber Calgary 2008 by letting us assist pulling draw names from a rubber boot for MIR trips and packages.











Just another victim...

The party ended up early and most of the guys went to some of the other options. We went up to the room for another refill, and realized that the elevators were all moving at capacity and this was going to become problematic over the next few days. After that, we did all of our pre-partying in our room, which was on the third floor of the East Tower and completely accessible by the stairs without having to wait 20 minutes for the elevators.

When we went back down the next time, I had taken my vest off and put on my Blackstyle mask, so I was already completely rubberized and moved around from party to party, getting lots of interesting looks. TORubber was at the Gearblast when we showed up and once saw I was completely in rubber decided to put his mask on as well. We looked pretty cool standing side by side! We went to the San Francisco party which was much more conventional (lots of women and pretty boys at that one) and got a lot more looks there. We went back down to GearBlast and shut that party down and finally ended up at the Big Bar again.

TORubber and Speedoguru...STR rules!

Saturday we decided to head down to Boystown and check out what all the talk was about. We found a very nice gay village; nothing spectacular, pretty standard. I bought a couple of gifts there and we headed back to the hotel. The long weekend traffic was madness plus there was construction on Lakeshore Drive so we spent an inordinate amount of time in cabs.

We went back to the Leather Market in the afternoon to look at a few things again. I chatted with BJ and Eric, Jim and Stephane at the Priape booth for awhile. We went back to Syren to see if the rubber cap was still there at JT's Stockroom, but the medium size was gone, so that didn't work out even though I could've ordered one on the spot. I finally bought a beautiful custom tank top, wrist money belt and rubber thong from Eva at Latexworks. I had a lengthy conversation with her on Friday and learned that she had worked with the guy who still does Mor Rubber from Vancouver Island before she moved east to Peterborough, Ontario a few years ago and set up Latexworks there.

Just another day at the market...

Her and her designer do beautiful work and I had discussed with her about doing a rubber Mountie outfit which she sounded very interested in doing.

However, I went back to Priape and found out from Stephane and BJ that Polymorphe is considering actually doing a line of RCMP Serge this fall, so I will wait to find out what that is all about. I talked to Rubberwilli again at the Chicago Rubbermen booth and learned that most of the rubberguys were going to the invite-only play party in the basement of Cellblock after the Recon Gear Party. The boy and I talked at length about whether we were going to go or not and decided against it. First of all was the hassle of getting there (we didn't have weekend packages so couldn't have gotten on the buses....I don't think), and I found it sort of a weird concept to be messing around with all of these guys that I had just met and had a particular relationship with, plus the bf wasn't into it that much, especially after hearing about the pee troughs.

Like I've said before, for me, a large part of the attraction of rubber is the esthetic of a beautiful male form in the skintight stretchy stuff as much as having sex in it and how it feels/smells/sounds -- this is something a lot less important to a lot of rubbermen. I wasn't really wanting to fuck or get fucked by a rubberguy for the sake of us both being in rubber -- on this trip, anyways -- but many others would tell me that this is the main reason for dressing in rubber in the first place for them - to have 'anonymous' rubbersex in a private group setting like that. I had been curious to maybe try out some bondage equipment like a rubber Hogsack or sleepsack, vacuum cube or something but Rubberwilli said that there wouldn't be any props at this party like that. He said that his intent was to have everyone forget they were in the United States for an evening -- to have an environment that would seem more like Berlin than Chicago. I talked to him again on Monday before we left and he said the party was amazing -- now I'm sort of sorry I didn't go, even to simply witness and observe.

Anyways, back to the story. Once we were out of the Market, we went out for dinner along the river, had a conversation with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and then came back to the hotel to get geared up for the evening. We decided to stay at the hotel bars for the night and attend any other parties that were going on. Fortunately our weekend-long quest to find tickets for one of the big parties, the Tony Moran House of Blues party on Sunday night was a success when the boyfriend came back from inquiries into unattached party tickets with a pair in his hands.

I wore my pewter catsuit with the military accoutrements. This was definitely the biggest hit of the weekend for me. Lots and lots of positive comments...Everyone was looking and commenting on it. As expected there weren't that many rubbermen sticking around the hotel this night, so I certainly stood out!

After a drinks in the room, we went down to check out the BLUR Uniform Party but there was an entry fee so we decided to hang out in the lobby Big Bar again. The bf and I were waiting for another in our group to meet us when I noticed a man standing with a group close by. I was convinced he was Dan Savage so I went over and asked. He was there with a group of friends. We had a brief conversation about his books and his interview on CNN about gay marriage. I told him he was an inspiration and to keep fighting the good fight. As I was leaving, he said, "that's great catsuit, by the way!". When I told the story later my friend was impressed that he actually knew that it was called a catsuit; however, when you're the author of an international sex column, you get paid to know these things. And to top it off, he's actually hotter in person than in print and TV! I really wish I had thought to get a picture of us together at that point.

It's an ongoing quirk that I have a weak spot for geeky dark-featured Jewish guys. Mmmm....Israeli soldiers....

Things went late into the night again....the bf and I actually went back to the room before the party buses brought everyone back from the off-site parties. Our other friends told us that the place got crowded and crazy again once everyone came piling back in from Boystown.

I groggily woke up Sunday morning and had to do something physical to remove some of the guilt I was feeling about packing away huge amounts of food and booze over the past few days, so even though I knew I was pretty dehydrated, I couldn't lay in bed all morning. I finally put on the running shoes for the first (and fatefully last) time over the weekend and went for a 10Ker run along the Lakeshore. It was a beautiful morning and a lot of people were already out on the beaches as well as the beach volleyball courts. Man, there are a lot of pretty boys in Chicago! It must be all that healthy Midwest living. There seems to genuinely be a culture of health in Chicago - much like the West Coast, there were certainly a lot less obese people that one would find in a place like Texas...or even Alberta, perhaps. I've commented before how there seems to be a cluster of fetish perviness in the Chicago area as well; why aren't we making plans to move there yet?!?!

One of our crew headed back to Calgary on Sunday and the third went out on his own to explore the city in the afternoon. The bf and I walked Navy Pier and the Chicago River ourselves. We got some deli takeout for dinner prior to getting ready for the House of Blues party. We knew the event at the House of Blues was going to be packed and hot and sweaty (along with being excessively full of metallic thingies to catch on latex) so the intent of the outfit for the evening was to be as minimal as possible, therefore I wore my black latex hot shorts and new tank top. The main room was certainly packed full of many hot and many not-so-hot men in various states of undress. Apparently there was even nudity on the dancefloor, I learned later on. Tony Moran was dressed in a beautiful blue leather cop outfit -- he's not bad to look at -- and the dancers...a variety of porn stars that were at the hotel, market and events all weekend...were absolutely stunning. However, I think I'm starting to have this 'been there, done that' attitude about the gay circuit scene.

Yawn.

I think that unless you're doing E, K, or something else at these parties, there is something repetitive about the whole thing. I won't judge; it's just not my thing anymore, although generally the music is. I mean, the music is pretty predictable and unless it's a DJ that I particularly want to see (which I usually have to go to straight clubs/events for in Calgary), the music and raunchiness becomes a bit much. Am I a prude? No - I think I'm just more of a House person than a Tribal person.

Sweat was pouring from my hot shorts all over my pretty boots, we couldn't leave the building for smoke breaks, and there was only one bathroom available for 700 or so men. Oh yeah, and $7 bottles of water. This didn't help matters much either.


My new top!


Around 2am we pulled the plug and headed back to the hotel with a few other people heading back at the same time. Instead of waiting for the party bus, we decided to walk the six or so blocks to the hotel. We got a few comments from people on the way, like the old woman that said, "I want to go and party with those guys" to her group of friends as they met us on the street. We rejoined the party back in the Lobby for another few hours and then went to bed.

Monday came far too soon. We got up, packed, checked out, went for brunch, and headed to O'Hare. I would strongly suggest taking the train between downtown and the airport. It's 45 minutes, $2 and only a few blocks away from any of the downtown hotels. It sure beats the $40 to $50 cab ride which doesn't even guarantee to get you downtown quickly at all. Road congestion, as everywhere else in North America, was ridiculous and presumably is just getting worse as construction season starts.

Picks of the trip?
The rubber and gear parties were a blast. I wish I had attended even more and that we had gone off-site on Saturday night. I am excited to try and get down to Chicago again for MIR.

We were smart not to buy weekend packages. We weren't particularly interested in watching the Leatherman competitions so we didn't feel a need. Our friends bought the packages - close to $200, and never attended any of the Events. Yeah, I realize the 'support the community' thing applies here, but whatever....but some of those men in the competition were amazingly beautiful........so much to pick from; was that not really one of the main frustrations of the whole weekend for me?

Chicago - what a beautiful, clean, colorful city. I will definitely be back. Very similar to Toronto but prettier and cleaner (could it be being alongside Lake Michigan vs. Lake Ontario makes the difference?? :-D); a bit of San Francisco's desire for beautiful, unique architecture and preservation of historic landmarks and flower boxes everywhere is thrown in the mix as well....

Chicago men - very friendly, handsome, and kinky!

Hyatt Regency staff - generally very courteous and helpful. Kudos to the cleaning staff that had to go into some of those hotel rooms in the mornings. Yikes. Double up those latex gloves folks...

It was very exciting having thousands of leathermen and gearmen and their followers hanging out in a hotel lobby and surrounding venues for an entire weekend. Unfortunately by the end of it all I was suffering from ACFS - Assless Chaps Fatigue Syndrome! Lots of hair, bears, puppies, delicious asses, nasty asses, and lots of naughty things happening in the stairwells. I'm sure some of those guys have come to this event for years and years and many of them are in leather gear 24/7 for the weekend. Many probably don't even leave the hotel at any point anymore!

Pans of the trip?
The Hyatt Regency - everything was ridiculously overpriced, rooms were so-so adequate, service in the bars, restaurants, etc. was so-so adequate too; everything was literally sky-high. But then again, they did host this event. Not sure what that means. They just know that gay men LOVE to spend money and many would be spending ALL of their money in the hotel without leaving the facilities at all -- on a slow Memorial Day long weekend.

The volume of people in the hotel was ridiculous -- but to be expected for events like this I suppose. It was like a swarm of locusts; eventually the entire hotel was decimated of food, supplies, etc, etc. I would suggest having the weekend in a series of close hotels instead of EVERYONE in one hotel. We noticed they opened up the hotel to general reservations mid-weekend and many of the 'Gender Neutral' bathrooms had been converted back to their standard male/female distinctions.

I should have hung out with the rubbermen more on the weekend. I was leery of getting too close to buckles and chains all weekend (and there were a fuck of a lot of both), I had the bf with me therefore the play party was sort of not an option. It was the weekend for the leather boys so I had to accept that the potential for disaster had to be an acceptable risk in order to even leave the hotel room! I hadn't even thought of bringing any lycra and there was plenty of that around on the weekend as well, so in the future I would bring far less civvies and more fetish gear.

Chicago drivers - you suck. I'm used to pedestrians having the right of way in the city, but this is apparently not the case here; Chicago drivers have some sort of special status and actually drive AROUND and THROUGH pedestrians while turning left at an insection. I mean, WHAT THE HELL?!?

Chicago cab drivers - you suck even more. I will never support your racket in Chicago ever again. What the hell do you mean you refuse to cab us six blocks if that's what we want? What a bunch of rude, poor etiquette dicks.

Samsung camcorders - a half hour at the Leather Market on Friday and then the thing decides to completely stop working on me. No battery power, no charge, no nothing. At least I can pull out the memory card and all the evidence of my perversions before sending it in for repair!

So, all in all it was a very fun weekend, but I think in the future I will leave it to the leather boys. Some of those men this weekend were completely depraved lunatics. It was a marvel to watch the insanity unfold!

At the same time, we made the collective observation that in some ways we expected the public activities to be more depraved than they actually were. I'm not sure what to make of that, so I think instead I would prefer next time to check out the Mr. International Rubber and hang out with rubber-minded comrades.

I think any kinky individual should check out IML at least once, though. It was pretty amazing that the selection of things to do was so numerous and varied that you couldn't possibly fit everything in.

Even though Rubberwilli said that MIR is smaller and not so fun, I think that type of event might suit me a little better. The highlight of my weekend was certainly the opportunity on Friday night to go out in public COMPLETELY rubberized. Saturday night was a close second.

And gay men, once again, did not disappoint in prolonging the stereotype that they are the biggest crazy group of alcoholic lushes on the face of the earth. Yay! Way to go guys!

It was all very encouraging, amusing, and neat to see.