Up Your Alley

2010 Official Poster

It’s deep winter here in Queeristan – and you know what holiday that brings! Yes, it’s the Dore Alley Street Fair. Or, as the party producers would have us refer to it – “Up Your Alley.” Originally a little local thang that was preferred by some to the much bigger Folsom Street Fair, Dore Alley took on a life of its own and now occupies not only a far greater number of blocks than just Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom (the original fair) – it occupies a much bigger mindshare for tourists and promoters alike.

It was just four years ago that I heard of a special circuit party event being produced for Dore Alley – the appropriately named “Bay of Pigs.” Now quite a few promoters are throwing them parties all weekend and even during the week before.

And what your intrepid blogger doing this weekend? Well, let’s start by reporting that after a two-week exercise hiatus, the combination of Body-Pump squats and deadlifts yesterday with this morning’s Les Leventhal Yoga class has me not wanting to do a lot of walking right now!

That said, I will be at the street fair tomorrow. You know – just to check out the scene!

Steve Cruz calling Naked Twister for a fundraiser at previous Dore Alley

Dore Alley – not the wrap-up

I totally have not posted on Dore Alley this past weekend yet.  Too much going on.  I did clip a fun pic taken of / by Steve Cruz who was doing some of the ‘calling’ at the Twisted Twister booth, which I’m sure you all watched!  He’s going to do it again at the Folsom Street Fair, btw.

It was a typical ‘winter in July’ afternoon South of Market, so the people baring the flesh were going the extra mile.  I retreated to the warmth of a house party on the Alley.  You know, one of those very-out-of-place lofts built right on the Alley.

Is it Folsom yet?

I came across a photo that made me think of San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair in all its hard-muscled fetish-wear Tom of Finland macho fabulousness.

These guys are in training for the NFL Combine (Yo sport-tard, don’t even ask me!) at a private camp called Perfect Competition. It’s America’s answer to Japan’s infamous system of juku (cram schools)  except for muscles and reflexes not brain power.

“At Perfect Competition, they train with specialists, learning tricks that will add a few inches to their vertical jump, teach them how to take the corners on the 3-cone drill and ultimately shave a few tenths of a second off these timed drills.”   Yow, all this stuff about tricks, inches, and that 3-cone drill sounds almost dirrrty!

If any of these guys does not make the draft,  they’ve got some assets to fall back on.  Uh huh!  In the meantime they’re going to be too busy to make it here for Folsom at the end of September, so perhaps we can send them an invitation to Dore Alley instead?

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