Share, RSS
Sunday, June 7, 2009

A few months back, John David (photo) took the title of International Mr. Bear at IBR hosted by the Bears of San Francisco. This seriously handsome hunk sent in a few words of what he's been up to and what's up and coming for him. From John:

"Hey guys, just a note from the International Mr. Bear front. I have been very busy with several fund raising events in several different states. I have been working closely with the Imperial Court of Kentucky raising money for local charities and was named Leather Daddy of the Year by the court a few weeks ago. With the help of my Bear brothers we have built from the ground up 3 new Bear events one of which will be the first Mr. Virginia Bear/Cub contest in Virginia Beach at The In-Between on July 10th & 11th, and I am in the early stages of planning an appearance at Bear Pride, Cologne, Germany in November. With all of this the focus has to be raising awareness and funds for our charities. In a small city like Lexington, Kentucky that can be a challenge, however, all of the events I have gone to so far have displayed a great willingness to reach out to their communities and do their part and no effort can be too small, every little bit helps".

Share, RSS
Thursday, April 30, 2009

The extremely handsome Joe Mannetti aka Joe Falconi (articles - photo - profile) has been very busy of late. I asked Joe if he could let us in on what he's up to, and this is what he sent. From Joe:

"After winning the Mr. International Daddy Bear 2009 title at IBR in San Francisco, I have been keeping busy with outreach and fund-raising events. I do have a few issues that I consider top priority. One of my main concerns is the HIV/AIDS situation. As an HIV Testing Counselor, I got to witness that people testing HIV-Positive are getting younger and younger. We are losing an entire generation of teenagers and 20-something-year-olds to HIV/AIDS who are getting infected. Older people who are living longer with HIV/AIDS are also experiencing the combination of medical side effects from long-term HIV medication use, living with HIV/AIDS long-term, plus the health issues that many of us experiencing from simply growing older. None of this is good for anybody. I think that we need to start a dialogue with our LGBT youth. We need to listen to them, and we need to do a better job of mentoring them as adults. Ignoring or avoiding a frank discussion about sexuality with youth that are showing high rates of teenage pregnancy and HIV infection is ludicrous! Clearly, they are sexually active! Deal with it! So far, I have given three public speaking presentations in which I got to address youth about homophobia, the importance of diversity, sexuality and LGBT issues. One was at Bienestar La Casa LGBT Center in East Los Angeles at their 15 year anniversary reception on March 20th. The other two were at W University High School in Los Angeles and Pierce College in Woodland Hills, CA, where I met with their campus GSA (Gay/Straight Alliance).

I have a few fund-raising events planned for the future. My first event will be my very first step-down from one of my Bear titles. On May 2nd (Saturday), I will be co-emceeing the Mr. Bear/Cub Gay Pride Long Beach contest at Pistons Bar in Long Beach, California! This marks the first event co-hosted by The International Imperial Court of Long Beach and BearsLA ! It is also my step-down as we announce a new winner. On May 8th (Friday), I will be co-hosting an event called Saddle Up LA  with Mr. Long Beach Leather (Matthew McLean) and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at The Bullet Bar in North Hollywood, CA.  The money raised goes to support The Life Group which provides outstanding support services for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. I am leaving for Connecticut in June to be there for their Gay Pride Weekend. At the end of July, I will be in Columbus, Ohio for their Bear Camp Christmas  in July event which should be a lot of fun. I am organizing a fund-raising event tentatively scheduled for August to promote and raise money for the Community Clinics Campaign . I feel very strongly about making this event a success since it is about supporting much needed improvements in clinical care provided to our Transgender friends in Los Angeles. Life is good! More to come!".

Share, RSS
Saturday, April 4, 2009

Joe Mannetti, aka Joe Falconi (articles - photo - profile) who recently won the 'Mr. International Daddy Bear' title at IBR is asking for our assistance. He is promoting Life Group and his goal is to raise at least $400, yet Joe says "I would like to raise more for them since they do such outstanding work for the community. I am part of a team of title holders for the Saddle Up LA event". Life Group raises awareness and educates others about HIV/AIDS.

Share, RSS
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.

Share, RSS
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).

Share, RSS
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

 On Saturday, January 31st, Bearracuda (website - articles - profile) are having their very first UnderBear party.

From Bearracuda: "This is also the long awaited return of our beloved friend, DJ Sam Storicks, to Bearracuda's decks.  Along with Boyshapedbox, they'll be tearing up the dance floor in their undies. IBR Weekend is a mere 2 weeks away and we have a triple threat of parties for your pleasure. Check out the details here. Bearracuda is located inside Deco at 510 Larkin @ Turk in San Francisco. Free Massages upstairs; smoking on the patio; Hot and Cold snacks in the pool room".

Share, RSS
Friday, January 16, 2009

Open 'er up and take a look under the hood... whaddya find...? That IBR is just around the corner. International Bear Rendezvous is hosted by the Bears of San Francisco and it's all happening from February 12th thru the 16th. This year's theme is 'Mechanics - Bears under the Hood'.

From their site: "The event fosters a sense of community among participants while at the same time raising money for agencies serving the gay and HIV communities at the local, state, and national level. Fundraising is accomplished primarily through raffles, auctions, and direct donations from participants and the community. Since the first Rendezvous in 1995, the net proceeds have resulted in donations totaling over $435,000 to many non-profit organizations".

Share, RSS
Thursday, November 27, 2008

We have some good news surrounding the 'Bear Run ~ The Movie' (website - article): if you missed seeing it on TV, then you can always purchase the DVD... however... by clicking this secret link you will save $5. That's a present from director Dan Hunt to you.

With the DVD you will get a much longer version of the movie, including extra stories surrounding the main characters Louie, Mikhael, Mike and their friends. There's also some Bear history and insights about the Bear community from the experts. You also get to see Louie's wild home movies. And there's more hot footage of Bears and Cubs at IBR, Lazy Bear, Bear Week at P-Town and Bear Trek.

Share, RSS
Monday, November 17, 2008

Joe (photo - articles - profile) is on fire. Some know him as Joe Mannetti, others as Joe Falconi... I think I'll just call him Joe since he's the only famous Joe Bear that I know of. After winning Mr Long Beach Pride Bear/Cub '08 and recently Mr. Los Angeles Bear '08, Joe took home this weekend the title of Mr. Southern California Bear '08. Triple wow...! As he says "IBR, here I come".

In other, sobering news, check out Joe's latest article entitled Can't we all get Along?. It's about Prop 8 (article) but not just about 'straight vs gay' but more 'what colour voted more for Prop 8', as in, the news keeps bringing up the issue that "Black support for 8 was larger than any other group, including Hispanics". Alas, Joe is super cute yet he does tackle some hard hitting issues as being a Bearish supporter, fund-raiser and an upcoming important voice in the GLBT community.

Share, RSS
Friday, March 21, 2008

The latest issue of BearParty Magazine is out for March and April. You can find a copy at your local Bear bar and you can also it read it online for free with a membership at BearParty.com. BearParty Mag is associated with CyberBears.

From the introduction to the current issue: "March and April are the start of the mid-year Bear season all around the world, and as usual, they're kicking it off in Europe with Bearcelona. We're doing our best to make BearParty Magazine available for free to attendees of as many events and customers of local Bear businesses as possible. As always, if you don't see BearParty Magazine somewhere you think it should be, ask the folks who run the local event, bar, or club to get in touch with us.

Our hot CoverBear this month, Alfa Bear, was discovered at IBR in San Francisco this year. We've got more pictures of him inside, along with part two of Ken Slater's series on hooking up with Bears online, some sound health advice from Frank Strona, a revealing interview with hottie Thornton Grey of Grey Rose Productions, and a detailed look at the growing Bear scene in hot and friendly Phoenix, Arizona by local reporter Kurt Von Behrman. Or if taxes have got you down, take a sip from our Open Bar column about the Income Tax Cocktail".

Share, RSS
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Back in December I caught word of a new site called Cubby Talk - a site which involved 2 cute guys chit chatting about everything Bear (article here). Their show sometimes leans towards controversy and sometimes it's just about Joe making fun of Matt and vice versa. Well on Valentine's Day they put out their latest episode (#6) which is all about the Do's and Don'ts on how to act, behave and look like at a Bear run. They also chat about IBR and Bear Pride.

Make sure to also check out their YouTube page.

Share, RSS
Friday, February 15, 2008

The following is from Les Wright, editor of Bear Book I and Bear Bear II and of Bear History Project: "Bears' artistic creativity has exploded in recent years. As the Bears' subculture has flourished world-wide into gay-mainstream community everywhere, opportunities for Bear creative types to find an audience has not kept pace.
 
The Bear world has changed since the early days of the Bear History Project and the Bear Icons art exhibitions on the East Coast, and the first Bear Paws, then Ursology literary salons here at IBR. We are bigger, better, brighter than ever. The old venues are far too small and have outlived their usefulness. It is time to renew and redevelop the Bear arts – Bear writing, Bear photography and painting, Bear music and performing arts, Bear history and memoir. It is time for a new vision, bigger, bolder, broader, of these Bear arts.
 
Ursology brought a small taste of Bear writing and Bear visual arts to IBR. Bear cultural events have sprung up all over the US and overseas, Bear Café in New York, the Bear Film Festival in Vermont, and no doubt much, much more is happening today. Bears as subject matter of serious, established painters, theorizing Bear as homomasculine homoerotic ideal
 
This is a call to all Bear arts devotees – Bear creative types, arts nonprofit professionals, writers, scholars, film-makers, archivist, web publishers, commercial supporters of Bear community, friends with deep pockets, with vision, with big hearts, with creative drives to come together: to transform Ursology, or its next generation incarnation – into a Bear cultural phenomenon, into the Bear cultural event of the year.
 
Rather than mount a very small event, with little opportunity to do artists and writers justice, Ursology 2008 is being devoted to an open-ended forum, a call to plan a whole new kind of event. Spread the word!".

Ursology has its showing on February 16th at the Washington Gate Holiday Inn in San Francisco.

Share, RSS
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

If you ever plan to head on over to San Francisco, there's certain things you must do. Take a picture of yourself on the corner of Haight & Ashbury, walk the Golden Gate bridge, hang out with the Bears of San Francisco at the Lone Star Saloon, and on Friday night, play bingo with The Sisters of Perpertual Indulgence.

The sisters work very closely with the Bear community in San Francisco and for IBR they are managing 2 fundraisers. Visit their site to learn more about these hairy nuns and find out what's on their upcoming schedule of angelic good deeds.

Share, RSS
Sunday, December 23, 2007

It's time to get busy and register with IBR - International Bear Rendezvous, with only a couple of months left until the event happens (February 14th thru the 18th). The following update from the Bears of San Francisco should be reason enough to get your registration in soon: "on behalf of the IBR 2008 Coordinators and planning committee, we'd like to cordially invite you to International Bear Rendezvous 2008. While there's plenty of time until the event, we'd like to let you know of some reasons to register as soon as possible: IBR has registered 75% of our capacity on Gold and Platinum packages. The Host Hotel is similarly booked . 'An Evening With Kathy Griffin' at the Castro Theatre is 57% booked after just 12 days of public sale. This is planned to be filmed for Kathy's Emmy award-winning Bravo reality show! Some optional events are at or over 50% of their capacity quickly, such as the new Napa Valley Wine Experience, SF Bus Tour, Beach Blanket Babylon".

Share, RSS
Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Bears of San Francisco have been doing their best to keep their well kept secret concerning their 'special' guest that will be putting on a show during IBR (articles). The guest is the well known comedian Kathy Griffin (website). IBR will be taking place in San Francisco, CA from February 14th thru the 18th. It's just shy 2 months away so it's best to get your registration in soon which you can order online from their site.

Share, RSS
Sunday, October 28, 2007

It's hard to believe but IBR is under 4 months away ~ the event which is hosted by the Bears of San Francisco from February 14th thru the 18th.

The following is from BOSF: "IBR is pulling all the stops to make this a year to remember ! We have a full entertainment line-up that we hope you'll like a lot: The Bearitones, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Mark Alan Smith and our weekend Emcee will be the Bear extraordinaire, Dominick Zurlo. Our Mr. International Bear contest will be wowed by members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.

Remember that all IBR packages include unlimited draft beer in our hospitality suite/bar (suspended during cocktail hours and nightly show hours), two Vendor Maul daily beer samples, our IBR shuttle buses to get you safely from door to door to our official events, and much more! That alone is worth your registration, but we're adding on more partner events like 'B'Eros', the extremely popular and spectacular IBR dance-partner events including Sweat, Play, Bearracuda and Kandy 3: Kavity.

Please sign up ASAP while all registration packages and optional events are still available, including our new Napa Valley Wine Experience and Golden Gate Experience.  You will be able to easily edit your registration to add the Castro Theatre event after your register, and we will have separate tickets available just for IBR attendees so that the public doesn't buy them all! Because there is a limited capacity for this event, we recommend advanced registration. Click on the link to register online".

Share, RSS
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Press Release from the Bears of San Francisco - International Bear Rendezvous '08 registration is open, and that means it's time to visit our website to register for IBR! While it's many months away, there are a limited number of packages available.

This is our 14th year. The event will take place on President's Day Weekend - February 14th thru the 18th (yes, it starts with Valentine's day this year - awww!).

This year the theme is Bear Patrol - Bears in Uniform. We are celebrating those who are uniformed and/or badge-wearing. There will be plenty of opportunities to break out that fireman, security guard, and cub scout uniforms.

If you're interested in donating something for IBR's silent or live auctions, or would like to become a contestant, vendor, advertiser, sponsor, or partner, please feel free to use the downloadable forms on our website. If your Bear organization would like to host a free Club Day table, and/or be willing to staff a block-hour shift at our Hospitality Suite/bar, please let us know!

Share, RSS
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

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.

Share, RSS
Saturday, April 7, 2007
One of the sites I like visiting a lot is Beargi, a Bear e-zine created by the Bears of Turkey. Ok so I don't understand a word but I like looking at the pretty pictures (yes I am an adult). This issue has some nice shots of some of the winners from the International Bear Weekend contest. It also has other fun stuff and if you can read Turkish then your mind should be in Mecca while browsing thru Beargi. Also browse thru prior issues.

Share, RSS
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Ok so this is from 2006 but it's still a fun website Pedro Veral is truly easy on the eye. He won International Mr. Bear at IBR for 2006 and this very Spanish friendly site is all about this handsome lad. There's galleries and info.

Here's an interview in Spanish on YouTube.