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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Joe Mannetti aka Joe Falconi (articles - profile) has been seriously busy within the Bear and Gay community of late, it's almost kinda hard just to keep up with him. And all the while he's running around gathering funds for charities, he's also been winning a lot of Bear titles.

The following is from Joe: "I cannot believe that I won the Mr. International Daddy Bear 2009 title! A big thank you to all the great men that were a part of 'Team Bear' (website - articles) that weekend! The Bears of San Francisco (BOSF) selected the best organizations as the beneficiaries this year. The Transgender Law Center, Positive Resource Center, and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission represent the diversity in our LGBT communities beautifully. BOSF proved that their city is still 'the progressive city' by choosing them as the recipients for the funds that were raised at IBR.
 
I have never been more proud to work side by side with a more caring and attractive group of individuals in a more wonderful city. Thank you for letting me be a part of your family, and thank you for offering me the chance to give back to our communities. Please, let me know what I can do to help out in any way, and I will do my best to be there for you.

In other news - John Clifton has graciously offered to hold a champagne reception at Pistons in Long Beach on Saturday, February 28th to welcome me back to LA! You are all welcome, and I would love to celebrate with you there! I would also like to give a heads up that a documentary film-maker named Julian Dahl will be present and filming there that evening. Be ready to volunteer to be a part of a documentary titled 'HEAVY' that he is filming that evening if he chooses to shoot you, and you are willing to be a part of it! The documentary is about larger sized people in the community. But it is also about diversity, acceptance, and support for others who do not fit certain stereotypical standards of beauty".

Click here for some recent photos of Joe.

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Last weekend was IBR ~ International Bear Rendezvous ~ a major event in California hosted by the San Franciscan Bears. It's a full week full of gorgeous Bear men. There's also a ton of events one can participate in, tons of parties to attend, tons of bars and dances, tons of vendors, and then there's the big Mr. IBR contest. With IBR, they have 4 titles and here are the winners from this year's contest:

"From top-left going clockwise that’s Mr. International Bear 2009, John David Elam from Lexington, Kentucky; Mr. International Grizzly Bear 2009, Barry Welch from Madera, California; Mr. International Cub 2009, Jose Ignacio Zurbano from Sevilla, Spain; and Mr. International Daddy Bear 2009 Joe Manetti from Toluca Lake, California" (photo & credits to Bearotic).

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Sunday, November 2, 2008

Can you tell me what you're looking at...? That's the very 1st cover of the very first BEAR magazine (full cover) which was published back in '87. Were you ever curious as to what those early BEAR rags looked like? Well you'll soon be able to see all the back issues online. Bear Fund is working right now on posting the complete archives ~ issues #1 thru #64. All the proceeds will benefit the Bear community through the Bear Fund and the Bears of San Francisco.

A little Bearish history lesson: Richard Bulger and Chris Nelson started the mag back in '87 as a photo-copied flyer. As the magazine grew in popularity, they decided to 'inc' it and they formed Brush Creek Media (archived website) as well as grab the brand name 'BEAR' as a registered trademark.

In '94, they sold the company to BearDog Hoffman who at decided to expand Brush Creek into several 'special-interest' mags (such as 'International Leatherman', 'Hombres Latinos', 'Foreskin Quarterly' to name a few). However, by '00 the company was having financial issues and by '02, BearDog had run the company into the ground. This forced Brush Creek to go bankrupt.

For years the brand name 'BEAR' was actually up for grabs, and either nobody knew about it or nobody actually cared. It wasn't until '06 when Butch Media Ltd of Las Vegas, a creditor's of Brush Creek, decided to go court and they were judicially assigned the name BEAR. Since then, Butch Media has formed Bear Omnimedia and has already published their very 1st BEAR Magazine ~ issue #65, with issue #66 slated for the winter '09 (website - interview - profile).

Once they acquired the BEAR name, they also acquired all the back issues (1 thru 64) as well as the videos. After speaking with the guys at Bear Omnimedia, they told me that they might put up a pay section for guys to view the back issues and whatever proceeds they make from doing this, it will to be benefit charitable groups.

So there's your Bear history lesson for today. Keep an eye out on the Bear Fund website, and we'll be sure to let you know here at PlanetBears when you can start perusing them very 1st BEAR issues... 'cause it's real important to know where your Bear roots come from, and what better way than to look at naked photos of Bearish men (some sources from Wikipedia's article on BEAR Magazine).