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Thursday, June 12, 2008

A long time ago when the internet was innocent and full of life, there was a popular Yahoo! group called Bear Mythology. I was a member of it and I remember it having more topics being covered than any other Bear mailing list (even moreso than the original Bear's Mailing List).

Many years later, I chanced upon BearMythology.net, and guess what, it's run by the same chap who ran the Yahoo! group. What's great is that he has brought over the greatness of his newsletter onto this blog. His name is Will and you can learn more about him here, and I asked Will to describe his blog, and this is what he had to say:

"BearMythology is a personal blog dedicated to admirers of Bearish men. If I find someone 'Bearish', whether he be gay or straight, then I will post about him. I tend to post about media personalities (celebrities, athletes) and personal sites. I have a personal preference towards the bigger Bears (Grizzlies, Chubs), but I also keep an open mind and celebrate the smaller Bears. I post as much photos, videos, and information about these Bears, as well as injecting some humor, personal opinions, and even stories (fan fiction I refer to as BearFics). My armpits fetish tends to dominate my blog posts; and I also have this fetish towards bondage, gut-punching and ball-busting (which I refer to as BearBeat).

BearMythology started out as a Yahoo! Group, but it's time to evolve into the Blogosphere so that our normally lesser-known/unknown Bearish men are exposed into the mainstream and be appreciated by all (from Bear admirers to our heterosexual brethren).  BearMythology strives to provide a positive image towards men who are typically stereotyped and ridiculed in our current media outlets. Do stop by once in a while. I'm positive that you will enjoy your visit".

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Monday, May 12, 2008

There's a new magazine coming out... but it's name is one we all know and love. It's called BEAR magazine and PlanetBears was lucky enough to conduct an interview with the guys who are behind this hot new rag.

Check out the interview here.

Now way back in August 2007, PlanetBears mentioned about the resurgence of 'BEAR Magazine' (article here). At the time of that posting, there was very little known about the mag aside that it was being published by the same guys who give you 'Muscle + Fur = Butch Bear'.

Now for those of you who don't know ~ BEAR Magazine has been considered an important chapter within the history of Bear culture as it was the 1st magazine to truly celebrate the Bearish man. Its roots stem from 1984 as it was initially a flyer created by Richard Bulger in San Francisco who, over time, turned the mag into an internationally known symbol that became one of the staples to recognizing Bear culture, the community and what a Bear man looks like as well as what a Bear man represents. Richard then sold the company 'Brush Creek Media' to Bear-Dog Hoffman who, to make a long story short, ran the business into the ground. Brush Creek went out of business and the last issue of BEAR Mag was sent around the summer of 2001 (more about BEAR Magazine here on Wikipedia).

Ok, so what happened... near the end of BEAR Mag's reign, a lot of people were taken for a ride; models and photographers were not paid; advertisers who bought prepaid spots in their magazine lost their money, and of course; all those who had a subscription... nobody was refunded. Kicker to all this? The Brush Creek website still exists to this day and is still selling stuff. Now I am not going to link it here simply because I don't want someone who is not reading this article and is simply clicking the pretty links to go to that webpage and then decides to buy something since they will be spending their money on things that do not exist.

Once BEAR mag went belly up, there was a lot of online talk about it, especially in the now defunct 'Bear's Mailing List'. However, like all things, the 'BEAR mag buzz' simply buzzed out and nobody cared about the issue any more.

Now fast forward to 2007 and there's a few leaks about BEAR coming back. Since then, the buzz has started all over again - both off and online - however it's mostly been gossip since nobody really knows anything about the new BEAR.

Well I was fortunate enough to get a hold of the guys who are manufacturing the new BEAR mag and they were more than cool to conduct an interview with me. Read the interview here ~ it'll definitely clarify any misconceptions you might have had and it will also enlighten you to this new BEAR mag era which is just upon us.

So... does this new mag interest you? Guess what... they are giving the 1st issue to you free. How? Head on over to bear-magazine.com (you simply pay the postage).

Is the world ready for a new BEAR Mag? I'm more than positive it is. Will it live it up to its name? Time will only tell however the Butch Bear material has always been A level material so I'm also positive that the new BEAR mag experience will simply be better.

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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Does anyone remember 'The Bear Handbook' (cover)? The full title is: 'The Bear Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Those Who Are Husky, Hairy and Homosexual, and Those Who Love 'Em'. Now that's a mouthful.

It was written by the extremely cute Ray Kampf (image) and published in 2000. It was a highly talked about book at the turn of millenium, both on Bear websites and on the now defunct 'Bear's Mailing List'. There was even a site for it (also defunct), and Ray had also had a Bear page (all pics have been removed) linked from his main site Artwhore.

so yes, 8 years have gone by, however it's still available on Amazon (everything including your grandfather is available on Amazon) and you can see a really cool preview of it on Books.Google.com. It's just fun to go back into our 'Bear history' and remember what came before that brought us to where we are now.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

I remember way back over 5 years ago a now defunct Bear's Mailing List (of QueerNet) was all abuzzed about a certain San Francisco rag going belly up - this mag known as Bear. Some of the guys that were working for this mag decided to get together and wanted to create a new mag by compiling images of what they considered to be good looking men. They wanted to slightly move away from the 'Bear' tag (since the last mag didn't do so well) yet this mag was still all about husky hairy and mature looking men. Thus was born 100% Beef Mag (website ~ TubeBear profile). 5 years later and the magazine is still going strong, publishing their 35th issue (cover) which you can pick up from their website (via subscription) or at your local XxX store. And as of right now, Beef Mag is truly the only real 'Bear' magazine out there, ever since American Bear and American Grizzly went belly up as well a couple of years back (AmaBear - all gone now).

ps - 5 years later and Bear mag 'still' has their website up - Brush Creek Media - and they are 'still' selling stuff like hats and magazines, however there is no store that exists, meaning if you send your money to that site, it's like donating it to some fundamentalist religion... meaning... you're just donating your money to thin air. Instead, go to Beef Mag's site and get yourself a copy of a real subscription.