There's a new podcast called 619 Bearcast. This weekly show is broadcasted from the area code of San Diego, CA consisting of 5 cute men (Brian, Dave 'Pinner', JP, Justin and Vito 'BigVBear') that talk about life love, TV and more. They have already aired 4 shows including their intro, which means I have some catching up to do. I just caught word of 619 Bearcast so here's hoping that they pump out a ton of shows like BearPodCast and BTalk.

The Bear Café in New York City (Yahoo!Groups) "is a place where you can sit down, kick back, talk and make friends with woofy guys of all ages, races, types and interests. We're an alcohol / noise / attitude-free space. Bring and play cards and board games. We have low, eclectic, but pleasing music - now all in a 2000 square foot space.

The Bear Café is not-for-profit and volunteer-operated. Currently all Bear Café events are cancelled through December 31st. The organization is currently in a transitional phase. We hope to resume a new schedule of events sometime in the new year".

It's a well known fact that the Bear world and the Leather world are, if anything, kissing cousins. The Bear community party sprung from the leather community back in the 80s... and tell me you do not get hard anytime you see some hot Daddy Bear all leathered up...?

But did you know there was actually a Leather Archives and Museum? Since '91 in Chicago. From their site: "In August 1991, the LA&M was incorporated in the state of Illinois. From that date until May 1993, the Leather Archives was, in effect, an idea struggling to take form. In '93, '94 and 95, the LA&M existed as a growing collection and appeared in public only as exhibits at International Mr. Leather in Chicago (plus a couple of abortive attempts to appear on the road). In fact, most members of the Leather Communities of the world - even in North America - were still unaware of the LA&M. In '96, a storefront home for the LA&M was opened in Chicago. Much larger exhibits were mounted in this space, but the collection outgrew the space very rapidly.

In July '97, Joseph W. Bean arrived to take on the job of Executive Director of the LA&M. Within three months, he had started a series of changing exhibits and proposed to the Board of Directors a capital campaign to raise funds to buy a building. The capital campaign was announced in December of '97, and met with immediate success.

The LA&M moved into its permanent home in late '99. The 10,000 sq. foot building provided for exhibits and the effective storage of the ever-growing collection of leather history. In January of '02, Joseph Bean retired from the LA&M, and then volunteer Rick Storer was hired to continue the work started by Bean and the entire leather community. In August of '04, the leather community made a $225,000 balloon payment to pay off the mortgage of the LA&M. Also during '04, the exhibit space was expanded from one 2,000 sq. foot gallery to a full building tour of eight galleries".

Team Bear has added a new look to their website. They have added more photos to their gallery and there's a new discussion forum as well. They have also raised a ton of dough for the San Francisco AIDS foundation - 145k.

"Team Bear is a community project of PrideWorks, a San Francisco-based non profit organization. PrideWorks absorbs administrative, marketing and development costs so that 100% of all net proceeds raised by Team Bear goes to AIDS LifeCycle, benefitting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Gay & Lesbian Center of Los Angeles".

In other news, they need volunteers for the Hairrison. "Several fundraising efforts for Team Bear will take place over the Labor Day Weekend during Hairrison Street Fair this year. We need volunteers 1) to staff the Team Bear Beverage Tent (selling drinks during the fair), 2) to act as bar managers for other Beverage Tents, 3) to sell Bear Tags, and 4) to help out at fundraisers that week".

Ever wanted to go to Istanbul, Turkey? You have to admit that a lot of the men from Turkey are Bearish and very hot. Well if you ever plan to go, make sure to hook up with the Istanbul Bear Club (IBC). As they state, they are the 1st Bear Club in Istanbul.

From IBC: "Istanbul Bear Club organizes local and international Bear meetings, parties and events for Bears, Chubs, Cubs, and admirers to build communication between Turkish Bears, Kurdish Bears and Bears from all over the world. Istanbul bear club is a not-for-profit social organization".

Here's more news from the Team Bear guys (articles): "Fundraisers over the weekend at The Edge, Bench and Bar and Lone Star helped push the team up and over $100,000 plus several more riders have asked to join the team. This more than doubles our goal for the year and we still have more fundraisers and t-shirt sales yet to come!

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence donate $4,500 to Team Bear. Several sisters are riding with the team, including Sister Mary Juanita High who presented the check to the team at the B-Unit fundraiser on Sunday. These fund will be given away on Saturday (day zero) to help riders in need of last minute help to make their minimums".

Team Bear ~ (B)ears (E)ngaged (A)gainst (R)etroviruses ~ is a group of men who bike in California to raise money as well as awareness for those living with HIV and AIDS. Here are a couple of news articles sent in by them.

#1 - "When the Steering Committee first met in the fall of 2007, we set ourselves an ambitious first year goal of $50,000, 10% of which we wanted to raise collectively through events. As of today the tally from official team riders and roadies stands at $68,394 plus we have raised over $4,000 through events - and we still have more fundraisers and t-shirt sales yet to come!".

#2 - "For years Team Bear has been symbolized by a bear holding a bike over his head (view here), created by noted bear artist Fran Frisch. We also now have a team logo. Designed by Pete King, it is meant to capture the spirit of accomplishment and triumph that the ride engenders by representing a bike at the top of a hill (or the world). But look a little closer and you’ll see that the wheels of the bike also make the ears of a bear and the dot becomes either his nose or his tail, depending on your viewpoint".

I need to make a correction; In a previous article I wrote entitled Antinoo Calendar - I mentioned about Antinoo (website), his calendar and his work he has done with the Mad Bears of Spain... ok no correction needed so far... however I go on to mention that the Norway Bears ~ Den Norske Bamseklubben ~ wrote an article about the calendar. I need to make a small rectification here... or this could also be considered an announcement:

Antinoo is going to be working with the Norway Bears and he is going to be making images using motifs from classical Nordic paintings (much like he did with the Mad Bears)... what Antinoo does is that he manipulates these images by placing cute Bears into the paintings. My bad for not getting the whole story straight... it's because I was pretty much guessing what this article from the Norway Bears was all about.

Sitges is a small city in Spain not far from Barcelona and it's also where you'll find some hot Bearish men who make up the Bears Sitges Club. These gents just had a major event in September and by going to this page, you'll get to see a ton of pics as well as some video slide shows.

When is their next major event? From what I can tell from their webpage, it will be at the beginning of May 2008, an event they call International Bears Meeting BSC. There is no info about this event on their site as of yet, but I'll keep you posted when they update their pages. For now, go enjoy all those photos of cute Spanish Bearish men.

There some of us who adore Bears and there are some of us who love our bikes... but what about Bears on bikes...? Just the thought of husky rugged men in leather and boots cruising along the highway on their motorcycle just might make some of you salivate. Well here's a group for you European men - it's called Biker Bears of Belgium aka B3. Whether you speak Dutch or French, just check out their modest gallery and you'll see that mature good looks will override all languages anytime. And from their news section, they had their first 'ride-out' in April and it was a success... ok so they had 3 members but it's a new group so here's hoping more will join.

Bienvenue, Willkommen and Welcome is how they greet you over at WOOF Party.

From their site: "WOOF Party organizes for you gay events in Geneva and in the French speaking part of Switzerland. Our goal? To make friends and have fun! We organize all our events with our partners. Do you like Bears, Sneakers or just being with nice guys? Join us ! This is your home, feel free to exchange honey or salmon with other Bears. Den sweet den, to be shared with friends. It is hunting's open season! But hunting with tenderness! No shooting! Just hugs and licking. Beary hugs".

Now that sounds like a ton of fun. Check out their upcoming events... oh... and yes, they said Bears and 'Sneakers'. I thought it was some German term for Cub or something, but it's not... they have parties celebrating sneakers, the one Bears will be wearing, and I guess you'll be sniffing. Sign me up. 

If God came down and said to me, 'Forrest, what would be one of your wishes', I'd probably say to him that I wish I knew all languages on this planet so this way I could talk to everyone and understand all. I think a lot of confusion in this world is due to simple miscommunication.

This being said, I just visited the SwissBears' website and yup, I wish I could understand what they were saying, but I don't, so I have to resort to looking at all the pretty pictures (like this one - very sexy - I love seeing men dance). From their members page, they look like a seriously fine bunch of good looking fellas, and from the pics I've seen of Zürich (Wiki page), it's one of the places I'd love to visit when I'm rich.

Hey now... what's this... Ursus Planet... that's like... a Spanish version of PlanetBears? Nope, not at all. Actually this is who they are. From their site: "Ursusplanet was created in 2003 in Sitges (Spain). Since then our main goal has been to humbly promote the Bear movement by organizing meetings, collaborating with other events and organizing parties".

Their next big event will be in September, from the 21st thru the 23rd, and if you ever wanted to visit a little slice of Spanish paradise, Sitges definitely looks like the area to visit (Wiki page).

The Bears of San Francisco - the gents who run IBR every year, have raised a ton of money for charity. These guys should aspire anyone to start up their own Bear group in whatever part of the world you live in.

The following is from Richard Tramontozzi, prez of BOSF: "It is my pleasure to announce that IBR 2007 has awarded to our IBR Beneficiaries $33,000! Our 3 beneficiaries were blown away by their $11,000 checks. This is an all-time IBR record, and BOSF was also able to raise a record $51,000 for our fiscal year, due to a combination of favorable weather, our hard-working volunteers, and our partners. We think that it's important that you know that most of this money, minus a very low operating cost, has been given out to our selected non-profit organizations. We had a special BOSF Check Distribution 2 weeks ago and gave out $10,500 in grants to selected non-profits in the Bay Area".

Head on over to their website to see pics in their gallery section and videos as well as info to join their group.

Team Bear ~ (B)ears (E)ngaged (A)gainst (R)etroviruses ~ is a group of men who bike 585 miles in 7 days (June 3rd thru the 9th) beginning their road trip in San Francisco and arriving in Los Angeles in order to raise money as well as awareness for those living with HIV and AIDS. Team Bear has a couple of 'Beer Busts' coming up ~ one on May 12th at the Eagle Tavern and then one on May 26th at the Lone Star. For more info, check out the AIDS LifeCycle site.

First off, if you have any club news you'd like to share, send it in and we'll post it here on PlanetBears.

Now the following is from the Bears of San Francisco: "It's time again from the 2006-07 BOSF Board of Directors. We'd like to invite you to consider applying as a candidate for the Board of the Bears of San Francisco. To help you in deciding if you would like to be a candidate for this year's election, we'd like to give a brief description of the general Board member responsibilities, and specific Board Chair duties. If you have talents in these areas, we'd especially like you to consider applying as a candidate".

Sometimes you land on a site by chance, and this is what happened when I landed on the South Bear site, a group of men who gather in the wondrous place called Sevilla in Spain. How is it wondrous? Well, look at the gorgeous man called Reply (BearWWW profile), the cover Bear on their site - "Yes, I'd like to take 3 of those types of Bears to go, thanks"... I think we need to invent some kind of Bear 'Drive Thru' a la fast food style.

Anyhow, going back to Spain, I'm not sure exactly what events these fine South Bears have in store for its future as a club, but just check out the gallery from a prior event and I doubt they'll have a hard time figuring out how to get back together again.

Now here's a group called AgroBear that is situated in Extremadura, and if you are geographically challenged such as myself, well thank God for Wikipedia because, "Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain".

There's the Spanish version to the site and there's also the cleverly translated version of it in English which does the trick. They have tons of good links such as their Bear of the Month, Bear art galleries as well as the real deal with good looking men galleries. It's definitely a worth to visit Extremadura, even if it's online and for just a 'lil while.

Never be alone in Italy... ever again. When you have something as amazing as the Roman based New Age Group, well, being alone just might be a thing of the past.

The group of guys that run it look like a terrific bunch and they organize incredible amounts of activities for Bears and Bear minded folks. If you don't believe me, simply take a look at their galleries from prior events. Also it's great how some sections are translated, altho this site is simple enough to navigate you don't need to know the sexy Italian language... but you can admire it, like me!

Hey...! How come every time you come around, my London, London Bridge wanna go down like...

erm...

There's a British band of merry (hairy?) men known as BearHug who are based in London. They meet every Friday at the Kings Arm. Some other events include walks and movies (sounds actually romantic)... as well as bowling. Check out their other site ~ BowlingBears.com ~ 'cause if grabbing big heavy balls and swinging them about is your thing, then this is for you... and why does every single sport have some kind of sexual connotation to it...?