If You're Going To San Francisco...

Whilst in San Francisco I made sure to couch surf with a group of people living in the Castro district, known worldwide as a the place gay was invented.
Whilst there I learnt several new genus' of gay; Bears (a large hairy gay men), Otters (a skinny or thin Bear) Wolves (an aggressive species of Otter) to name but a few.
On one street I saw a homeless woman with the cardboard sign that read 'Need money, drink or 420. Every little helps.', whilst the back read 'Need help: have terminal case of the munchies'.

As you may have noticed by now, I am fascinated by niche publications, as they tend to offer an insight into subcultures that are second only to tracking someone from said subculture down and quizzing them thoroughly. Since I didn't fancy walking round Castro asking if anyone knew where I could find an Otter, I instead found a gay magazine shop and spent a fair bit of time browsing what was on offer.

The magazines had odd names, such as Tom of Finland, Genre, and Beefcake, but the most fascinating thing in the shop was a bucket full of old photos, none of which looked professional. They were either amateur porn shots or simply taken by couples mid-shenanigans, but some of them were odd enough to warrant being purchased so I could write about them here, store them, and have my grandchildren ask me some very difficult questions when they uncover them in 60 years.

The first is a merely a dirty playing card from the 40s that I thought was pretty cool, and the second could just about be called artsy when I suspect it was taken in the 80s, but still baffles me.

















The last is quite literally balls-out ridiculous, and begs the question as to why Burt Reynolds is balancing a naked man on his shoulder.


So that I don't have to end this post on a picture of a naked man with a butterfly tattoo, I'm going to leave you with a limerick from a 60's straight porn mag I bought in the shop (Rogue, in case you were wondering) which I thought was quite charming.