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Thursday, December 4, 2008

First off, I'm not sure how come this video has not been flagged nor removed from YouTube yet (this is coming from someone who has had his videos flagged and they were a lot less graphic than this one). Secondly... I gotta admit... I never heard of Zune before. From what I understand, it's like an iPod from Microsoft with software... and with TV.

Oh... and this site is excellent.

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

You remember that song in which they chant 'the roof... the roof... the roof is on fire...'... well it's from a band called Bloodhound Gang (the title of the song being Fire Water Burn). Anyhow, the cover to the last album they put out. I'm sure it's from a Bearish porn photo set. The album is called Hefty Fine. From what I read (here), this album was a bomb (2nd worse album on Metacritic), but you be the judge.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

And now for your 'Bear History' of the day... as we take a moment to look back in time to see the cuties which came before us, and to check out some great beards from centuries ago. This is composer Georges Bizet (Wiki - photo), born 1838 (some 40 years after Mozart) and died quite young, at the age of 36, on his 6th wedding day anniversary. So yes, a straight Bearish man, however that does not mean I cannot appreciate his accomplishments.

To be honest, I don't know Bizet's work all that well. I have heard of 'Carmen' but not of his other work. I'm going to have to find his music, close my eyes, and lose myself in what many hail as a classical master.

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Friday, November 7, 2008

I usually skip over 'gay' news and leave it to the bigwigs like Gay.com and PlanetOut, however the recent news about Prop 8 in California has caught my attention. I first sent out a RIM to my buddy list about it, asking if people knew about it. I got a few people saying they either don't follow gay news either or they don't live in the States. I myself live in Canada and same-sex marriage is legally binding from coast to coast (thanks CBELA).

About this Prop 8... in California, back in May '08, they became the 2nd state to recognize same-sex marriages. I remember the hoopla it caused and saw the stream of photos that poured thru as gays and lesbians took pics of their newly bound matrimony. Well just very recently, Proposition 8 surfaced... it's a ballot and the title of this ballot wants to 'Eliminate (the) Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry'. From Wiki (article): "Proposition 8 is a California State ballot proposition that would amend the state Constitution, to limit marriage to unions between a man and a woman".

From what I understand, not all the ballots have been counted for yet, however if it's reversed - meaning if it goes thru and same-sex marriages are no permitted in California... what happens to all those who did get marry? There's lawsuits right now involving those who did get married and those who planned on getting married.

2ndly - what interested me about this case - is that the church has gotten involved. 8 such religious groups have supported this ballot (the Mormons being the best known) and have poured a ton of money into it.

So... from what I understand... it's still up in the air. Here's a few videos I found in relation to this. This one a little cartoon which explains this Prop 8 (it's more for Prop 8 than against)... and here's one showing people protesting (chanting 'separate church and state' and 'shame on you').

Anyhow, as I mentioned, I sent out a RIM (Recorded Instant Message) to my buddies on TubeBear and I got quite a few responses back. Here's a fine response from DJ Reed (profile - what a fantastic beard he's got going there). DJ is one of the coordinators for Maximus - a group that organizes quarterly socials for butchy men who enjoy a good smoke:

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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).

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

In the last poll, I asked what your thoughts were about in regards to Felching. The results were kinda split down the middle: 27% said it's disgusting while 26% found it a turn on.

42% said they don't know what it means. So I figured it was my Beartriotic (patriotic?) duty to fill you in on what felching means. The following is from Wikipedia (article): "Felching is a sexual practice in which semen or other fluids are sucked out of the anus of a partner. The acts of sucking the semen and then passing it, mouth to mouth or open mouth kissing, is referred to as 'snowballing'; although the latter is typically associated with semen ejaculated into a mouth from fellatio. Felching can also mean the licking or sucking of another person's anus, similar to the act of a rimjob. In the United states, felching is using a straw or tube to remove semen from the rectum".

So there you have it ~ the delicious art of felching. It's important to know these things such as 'felching' and 'snowballing'... it is... you never know when the word might come up in a conversation.

As for the image, that's a photo from John Rand's collection (website). I'm pretty sure that's spit but after learning more about felchism... I'm just not sure anymore. Check out more of John Rand's excellent photography here.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

On the main page of UrsusMag.com, it reads "It's Over", meaning they are no longer running their site... however... they point us over to UrsusWeb.com, and once we go there, it brings us to 'another' Ning site.

What UrsusMag (articles) used to be (before it expired) was a profile site for Bears: create a profile - add photos - add a description, etc. We all know what a profile site is - the biggest for Bears being BearWWW and Bear411 and BearWWW... and the next-generation TubeBear right behind them. But they decided to no longer work on their own design and went over to Ning.

You don't know what Ning is...? Well from Wiki (here) "Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks". So what does that mean...? Well say you like buttons and you want to have a website which will connect people who digs buttons... rather than making your own site, you use the 'Ning' platform and everything is preset for you... all you have to do is wait for the people to sign up; essentially, Ning gives you the tools to make a profile page.

That's fine and dandy, however there are more and more people who are making Ning sites, it's almost becoming out of hand. There are at least a dozen Bear Ning sites, one for Chubs that I know of and several for Leather. And each time you want to join that Ning site, you have to make a new profile (altho you can use the same user/pw).

Again, from Wiki, Ning "Ning hopes to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills"... In my opinion, Ning is a good idea, however once there are 100 Bear Ning sites and you have to create a profile for each one and add pics to all of them and remember which buddy belongs to what group, then these Ning sites become a chore.

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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

This is an interesting article that I found on CNN this morning. It's about an inmate, Richard Cooey, who is making the plea that he's 'too fat to execute'. Cooey is 5'7" and weighs 267 pounds. He murdered 2 women back in 1986 and is scheduled to be executed on October 14th.

Seems Cooey is taking a drug for migraines, one which could affect the execution process. Also, Cooey has bad veins, and he's afraid that they have worsened in the past 5 years, as he's been gaining weight. Why does it worry him that he has bad vein? It's because he is reminded of what happened to Christopher Newton (video), an inmate that was executed a year ago. From Wiki: "The controversy surrounding Newton's execution was primarily attributed to the many problems associated with the administration of the injection. In particular, because he weighed 265 pounds, Newton's veins were very difficult to find. It took over two hours and 10 attempts before the execution was completed. It took so long that Newton was given a bathroom break".

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Monday, August 4, 2008

I remember the first 'search'-like engine when I was in university... back in '93 or so. It was called Archie (taken from the comics, dunno why). I wasn't very good at using Archie, nor understanding it. The net was without pictures back in those days... but then... I saw pictures on the net with NetScape... and then... there were some great search engines that sprung, like WebCrawler and Yahoo! (and I remember we used to have discussions on which site was better and would last... we all thought WebCrawler would be king... oh were we wrong)... then Google took over the planet... now Cuil is squeezing it's way in (...?). Probably not, who knows.

Ok, why am I talking about the history of the 'Search'? Because search is what the net is all about. Just try and imagine how much time you spend 'searching' for stuff on the net. With the net getting bigger by the nanosecond, it's both easier as well as harder to find what you're looking for.

And sometimes, it's never obvious... sometimes, new words or concepts sprung up as well, and we gotta follow these trends or be left behind. Take a great site like Flickr, you can spend all day browsing for 'more Bear photos'... but sometimes... it's the keywords and tags that are most important.

I like a new tag that I found... it's called 'DadSafari'. Not sure how long this word has been around nor who started it, yet it's comprised of photos of Bearish Dads... but it seems that these guys do not know their photo was taken. Ah the net is a voyeur's heaven, don't you find? Check it out, also check out the guys who've been posting their photos with this tag and you'll find even more Bearish photos... and if you find any cool 'search' tags, let me know... it's fun to follow the trend sometimes, even begin 'em.

ps - unrerated... whenever I goto Flickr, I'm always reminded of a 1999 movie called Election starring Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick. She made cupcakes with her name on it but the letters were capitalized, so it looked like FLICK... which of course looks like FUCK... I wonder if Flickr saw that movie as well.

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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Every now and then Wikipedia features a guy who definitely could be considered a Bear. Today they are featuring the General Winfield Hancock. From Wiki: "He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army colleagues as 'Hancock the Superb', he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863".

I'm not one who cares anything for wars, but soldiers do look good in their uniforms, and you gotta love this picture of the general, a picture of him taken after his warring days. You can see that he'd put on the pounds a bit and he's kinda busting a little at the seems in his old uniform which he probably had to dust off for the pic.

And that beard 'n stache... very funky... 

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Monday, June 23, 2008

There's a group in Spain called Bear Sitges Club, situated in Sitges (Wiki) and they are a very active bunch, as I have written several articles about them in the past. They have an upcoming event entitled 'El Planeta De Los Osos' aka 'Planet of the Bears' which will be taking place from September 8th thru the 14th'. It's their International Bear Week and they hold their Mr. Bear Sitges.

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Friday, June 13, 2008

I was checking out the featured flicks on YouTube and today they had one called ToyBoize. It's a mockumentary about a boy band that had a #2 album back in 1988 and most of gang gets back together 20 years later so as to whether they've still 'got it'. It's really well done with fine British humour, and one of the characters Tim is a Chub Bear who's a bit sick and twisted in very subtle ways.

Check out their series they've done. So far there's 3 episodes with a handful of short clips of them making video diaries. They actually make you feel embarrassed for them. Visit their site as well.

ps - after seeing this, I immediately thought of the NKOTB (New Kids on the Block), and how my sister used to love these guys when she was 7 (I was 22 at the time). So I check out NKOTB on Wiki (I check out everything on Wiki) and lo and behold, they are getting back together and are coming out with a new album. There's even a new video out. Oye...

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Monday, June 9, 2008

My partner Roger (gallery - profile) loves getting and receiving email. He has a bunch of friends he emails with and they all send each other either inspirational letters, funny videos or beautiful pictures from around the world... among other stuff. And every now and then, Roger will forward me an email he think I'll enjoy. So I get this one email he sent me and it's got incredible images... however it was the song that hooked me. I had heard before... somewhere... so I did a bit of searching and found it on the net. The singer's name was Iz ~ Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. He was 38 when he died, and at one point in his life he weighed 758 pounds which is pretty incredible.

By the way... I keep getting choked up each time I listen to it. Why? I don't know, but it strikes a chord somewhere deep within me. The song is a medley of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and 'It's a Wonderful World'. Listen to it here and tell me what you think. For more info about Iz, check out his Wiki page.

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Saturday, May 31, 2008
The Bristol Bear Fiesta #5 (BBF5) is just around the corner, so best make your plans now if you want to join in on the fun; "Back for it's 5th year with new organizers, new ideas and some tried and tested favourites". BBF5 is taking place from June 6th thru the 8th in Bristol which is in the South West England area (Wiki). Also, the very cute Mitch (TubeBear profile - articles) from Come To Daddy will be there as well. I'd go just to see him, however it looks like they have a lot of great things planned.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I really know nothing about art. I don't know why one painting is sold for millions while another painting is sold for nothing. There's way too much politics within the art world that I know nothing about, however some artist make it, some don't (how insightful of me, huh...).

However, what's interesting here - altho this is a painting of a woman - it's a painting of an obese woman... and while many people will find that disgusting, I know that a lot of people get equally turned by that. I know a lot of guys who get turned on by men who look like that or else there would be no need for sites like SuperChubs.

What's even more interesting - this painting went for $33.6M at an auction. The painter is Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud, and this painting which is entitled 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping' (Google) sets a price record for a work by a living artist.

Anyhow, what's interesting here is - the model is an overweight woman and not some gorgeous skinny young lass, and the amount of money it received is just phenomenal. So can someone explain to me... just what it beauty?

Anyhow... 'Big Sue' is the model... and what did she have to say: "I think he probably picked me because he got value for money. He got a lot of flesh".

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

His name is Chris Knight Capone and at a very young age, he discovered something most of us would be too freaked out to even imagine. He found out that he is the grandson of the notorious gangster Al Capone, also known as Scarface.

Chris has written a book about all this called Son of Scarface: A Memoir by the Grandson of Al Capone. Check out the great website SonofScarface.com for more info about the book, a bio of the author and some scrapbook photos. You can get to know Chris a little better by checking out his blog, and here's a great article about Son of Scarface on Wikipedia. From Wiki: "Son of Scarface is the true story of a 13-year-old who discovers at his own elusive father’s funeral that his grandfather was none other than the infamous Chicago gangster, Al Capone (aka Scarface).

The autobiography by Chris W. Knight (Chris Knight Capone) chronicles the author's broken childhood as he tries to uncover family secrets that his abusive mother violently forbids him and his sister from pursuing. In this stranger-than-fiction story, Chris Knight Capone is not allowed to have any friends or to even to leave the family compound as a child.

Only as an adult is Chris Knight Capone able to uncover the dark secrets of his grandfather Al Capone and of his own father, William Knight, a man who had a fraudulent birth certificate and lived under an assumed identity.

After years of meticulous research, the help of private investigators, genealogical research, and a courage to face the truth of his own identity, Chris Knight Capone confirmed that he was in fact the offspring of the world’s most notorious gangster".

And... what's completely interesting about all this is that this very handsome and debonair Chris Knight is a Bear. He will be at Bear Trek this upcoming weekend (May 1st thru the 4th), an even held by the Bear Albany group of New York. Chris will be presenting a one hour Q&A session about his book and his life as the grandson of Al Capone and he will be selling autographed copies of his book at Bear Trek and donating the proceeds to the Bear Life Fund to benefit charity.

Here are some pics of Chris. I repeat... very handsome. He definitely inherited Al Capone's looks.

Read more here.

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Earth Hour, according to Wikipedia (here): "Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8PM local time until 9PM to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions".

If you haven't checked Google today, well they turned off their lights as well. I signed up as well... it doesn't feel like I'm doing much, turning off the lights for an hour, but imagine 6.7 billion people doing it.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

This is not Bear related but it's what I would consider interesting internet news. Trent Reznor of NIN has been trying to change how music is spread - 1st with his release of Saul William's CD Niggy Stardust (which Trent produced - article here) and now with his very own compilation entitled Ghost I-IV. He has made Ghost I available to download - either pay him $5 or grab it for free (from his site or via torrent).

Now it might be easy for him to give away his music because he's a mega superstar musician, and starving artists cannot afford to make music and just hand it out for free, so I don't know what to say about that ~ however whether or not you're a fan of making music free, a lot of people already know about torrents and how to share music (Wiki #1 - Wiki #2), so what Trent is doing is simply following a trend, but it's a good trend. Also, a buddy of mine said that musicians make more of their moneys from concerts and not CD sales, so what Trent is doing is a truly ingenious way to market himself.

As for the Ghost I-IV - it is going to be 36 songs and he's made the 1st 9 available. I'm listening to it now and it's nothing like NIN. This new music does not compare to Trent's previous stuff however most of it is easy to listen to and it will sure to appeal to those who were never a NIN fan to begin with... oh and it's only $5... or it's free... you decide.

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Monday, February 11, 2008

For the past couple of weeks, Bear With Me has moved away from the men in this great cartoon strip drawn by Bruin (TubeBear profile)... and the attention has been focused on a pair of woman - one being the main character's mother and the other is the main character's new assistance...

I mentioned last week that I thought a cat fight was surely to ensue and I'm sure there will at some point, but right now we learn that Mo - the assistant - not only knows about Constance - the mother - but that Mo has meticulously studied her tactics to a tee. Seems like Constance is learning all about Karma.

I'm still waiting for Paul and Andy (the main character) to show up again. I miss their love story they were creating. Makes me think of Luke and Noah from As The World Turns. Have no clue what I'm talking about? Check it out for yourself (Make sure to start at #1). Sure it's soap but it's the 1st gay soap couple and it's actually fun to watch their story evolve.

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Monday, February 4, 2008

This has nothing to do with human Bears and everything to do with the four-legged kind of bears. I rarely write about anything about the four-legged kind or about the plush kind (like teddy bears) but this morning when I went to Wikipedia to read their featured article... well... this was one article that strung a few chords in my heart. It's about a polar bear named Knut.

I never heard of Knut before however he's quite the celebrity. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was subsequently raised by humans and has attracted many crowds to the Berlin Zoo.

On a personal note - I am truly glad that the men that I find attractive have used the bear animal to symbolically represent them. They have to be the most incredible creatures - being able to be so ferocious while equally tender. They are definitely cute as, just like the men they represent.

While you're at it, check out a few videos of Knut on YouTube.