Episode Transcript
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Edge (00:00):
Welcome to full cow, a
podcast about leather kink and
(00:03):
BDSM. My name is edge Mypronouns are he him and I'm your
host. And this is anotherinterlude. The episode between
episodes offered raw andunedited but with leather
creaking. And in this interlude,I wanted to discuss my recent
experience attending leathergetaway, which was last weekend.
(00:24):
Leather Getaway is only in itssecond year, and it is in Los
Angeles over Thanksgivingweekend. So for those of you not
in the United States, that is inlate November. Now, the first
thing to know about leather getaway is nobody was calling it a
leather get away. We were allcalling it claw. Because last
year it actually was cloth,because it's put on by the same
(00:47):
people who put on cloth. Andbecause it's easier to say cloth
and leather get away. Sotechnically, it's slow to get
away. functionally it is claw. Ihad a really wonderful time. I
had a great time last year,which is part of the reason why
I went back. And I think it's agreat event. It is held at the
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Westin Bonaventure in downtownLos Angeles, which is a
humongous hotel 35 floors, Ithink, with class elevators,
which I will tell you areterrifying if you're afraid of
heights like I am not a lot offun, particularly when you're in
a class elevator high up in theair in a place prone to
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earthquakes. So you can imaginewhat would go through my head.
In any case, what are the nicethings about the hotel being so
big is that the event never feltoverwhelming or crowded. You
could go to different spaces,and you would find people, but
it was always manageable. Andfor me as an introvert. That was
one thing I really enjoyed. Theother thing that's great about
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the event is that it is a clawtype event. That means there's
always something to do. Thatincludes classes, the vendor
Mart, different partiesspeeddating, it provides a lot
of options for someone so younever run out of something to
do. And I think that'sfantastic. There were a couple
of spaces that I thought theydid particularly well this year.
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They have a cigar deck, which issort of outdoors and last year
was just sort of with a littletemporary fencing, couple of
tables, some sad little chairs.
It was nothing to write homeabout. But this year, thanks to
the sponsorship of Ben Orsonleather who I interviewed in the
episode on whether the space wasreally fantastic. There was sort
of very clear entryways thatprovided some privacy. The hotel
set up a bar right there, so youdidn't have to go half a mile to
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get a drink. They had a sort oftent like structure a couple of
sofas and heaters, which came inhandy because as it turns out,
Los Angeles does get cold atnight. The other space that
needs to be talked about is theone every single person at claw
was talking about, and that isthe 20,000 square foot play
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area. Now, they always had theHercules play area, which was
sponsored by avatar, which wassort of more of a kink play
area. But this downstairs clawafter dark area was set up like
a sex club. There were beautifullabyrinths, you would run across
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slings, little nooks, littlecrannies, places to rest, deejay
playing music gloryhole booths,it's not really my thing, but I
walked through it and it wasstunningly designed. And I tell
you, every single person was allabout that space. And assuming
they do another one of these, Iexpect attendance to go up quite
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a bit simply because of thisspace because it was the talk of
the event. The rest of the eventwas really well done. The vendor
Mark was small, and but I wasable to get a few items I
usually am. And the big vendorthere for leather was Rough
Trade, which is located in LosAngeles in Palm Springs. They
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make some beautiful items. I'mparticularly fond of their
uniform shirts, those of you whoknow my signature bright
electric blue uniform shirt withthe black quilted accents. That
is from Rough Trade, I was ableto get another one that I think
I might have to have altered alittle bit a little tailor just
a little bit feels a little bigon me. I will say that this
time, my clever strategy ofbeing intentionally social about
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events, a strategy I developedfor international Mr. Leather
earlier this year. That strategybackfired on me a little bit. I
had so many plans with so manypeople that I really felt like I
was going kind of nonstop. Andin fact, on Friday, I didn't
even get a nap and now I know ohpoor me. That sounds horrible. I
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nap every single day of my lifeso for me to not get a nap in.
That's actually prettysignificant. I do not regret it,
though at all, I had blockedlarge chunks of time, like half
a day or a day with people whohad a certain significance in my
life. And I wanted to make sureI spent extended quality time
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with them. And I'm reallygrateful I was able to do that.
In addition, I had smaller planswith people that I knew or that
I wanted to meet, that I wantedto really invest in a kind of
friendship or relationship. Andso even though I was going kind
of nonstop, I don't regret it atall, I had a really wonderful
time because I was able toreally connect with people.
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Unfortunately, I had thought tokeep Sunday mostly free. And so
I was also able to have a coupleof surprise encounters, which
were significantly delightful, Iwill say. So despite having a
really booked schedule, I alsodid manage to have some
spontaneous fun. And thatspontaneous fun was really,
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really, really fun. I am sograteful for the people I was
able to meet, and the friends Iwas able to see. Now the
downside of this sort of hotel,so big little clusters of people
everywhere, great for anintrovert. The downside of that
is that when I came home andlooked on Facebook, I realized
that I had friends who wereattending that I never saw ones
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I didn't even know they werethere. So the thing that's
missing at claw LA or lock law,or law, or live or get away,
however we want to call it isthat sort of central lobby, at
events like Mid Atlantic leatheror international Mr. Leather,
that central lobby is a centralgathering place. And that is
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great, because you see everyone,it's awful, because it can be a
little intimidating andoverwhelming. I do think claw la
would benefit from some sort ofcentral space, there was the
sort of bar cafe area in thecenter of the lobby, and I would
wander through there and runinto people. The vendor Mart had
a really nice kind of, outsideof animart, there were some
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tables to hang out. And theninside the vandermark, they had
some sort of lounge area, whichwas also quite nice. So there
were gathering spaces, but therewas no central gathering space.
I wouldn't say that's a reasonnot to go. But understand that
you may never see everyone atthe event. I couldn't even tell
you how many people were at theevent, I have no conception. I
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mostly stayed on site, I willsay the hotel restaurant was
perfectly serviceable, the foodwas great, very expensive, I was
really quite shocked at what Iwas paying for meals. But for
me, that's part of the leatherevent experience, I go with a
very large budget, because Idon't necessarily want to be
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wandering off site. Part of thatis, I don't know the city, I
don't know where to go eat. Partof it is I don't necessarily
want to be tromping throughdowntown LA and my full gear.
And part of it is I'm there forthe event, I want to spend as
much time at the event aspossible. So even though I
wasn't thrilled with thepricing, I didn't mind it
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because I had budgeted for it.
And for me, it was worth it tobe able to spend even more time
interacting with people. Infact, a lot of the plans I set
were around meals, and we theywere almost all at the hotel. I
did do one meal off site. And itwas delicious and delightful
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with really quality company, Ireally enjoyed my time with him.
But other than that I was at theevent. I will say that for
someone on the East Coast, it isa fucking haul to get to the
West Coast. And I really feltthe jet lag this time. I didn't
feel it as much last time, andI'm not quite sure why. But I
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was very kind of low energy forthe first day and a half or so.
And then when I came home, ithit me even harder. Worth it
completely worth it. But it is agood reminder to myself that a
lot of times when I go to theseevents, I want to make sure to
block out some time in myschedule before and after the
(09:14):
event to make sure I don't haveanything, particularly anything
social planned before and afterbecause I need some recovery
time. Speaking of recovery time,I did experience some event drop
which is a little unusual forme. So if you're new to the
leather world event drop is aknown phenomenon. So you go to a
leather event. It's a veryintense nonstop weekend where
you are constantly surrounded bypeople who see you recognize you
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and understand you andeverywhere you look. There's the
delicious piece of eye candy nomatter what your aesthetic is,
no matter what you're into.
You're in this place where thereis something for you everywhere
and it's fantastic and it isaffirming and it is exciting and
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it is thrilling and it is alittle exhausting, and then you
go home, and then you return toyour regular life. And a kind of
depression sets in because youhave to make this very sudden
gear change back into going towork feeding the cat, getting
(10:19):
groceries, and you are no longerencompassed by people who see
you recognize you affirm you,you're no longer able to see a
delicious piece of eye candyWherever you look, because
you're back home. And let's faceit, you've already seen all the
eye candy at home that you'reever gonna see. I'm generally, I
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think, a little immune to eventdrop. And mostly because I feel
so much of my life here in FortLauderdale is kind of lived in a
leather saturated environment,not that I wear leather all the
time. But we have a greatcommunity here. So there's not
as jarring a transition from anevent to non event regular life.
(11:01):
But this time I felt it. And Ithink it was probably related to
the quality of the connections Iwas having. In Los Angeles, I've
met some really wonderful peoplewho are becoming very special to
me, and was able to spend somereally significant quality time
with them. And I was missingthem. I was missing that
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connection. Because the truth ishere locally, I like to say I
only have two friends in town. Ihave a lot of acquaintances. I
have a lot of people I know Ihave a lot of people who know
me. But there are only twopeople here in town who I would
consider deeply on the inside ofmy life, my two best friends.
And so I don't have this sort ofover abundant plenitude of
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connection locally. A lot ofthat I have virtually, and
that's okay. But it doesn'tdoesn't compare at all, to the
quality, the energy, thesustenance gained from
connections in person. And Ithink this year in particular, I
was feeling that, and thejetlag. So, you know, I got
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there on Thursday, ThanksgivingDay, all of my flights were
booked, travel is definitelyback. I came home Monday,
leaving very early in themorning, getting home in the
evening here, and then dealingwith that rough transition of
the jet lag and the time changeand the temperature change and
the environment change and theconnection change. And it took
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me, I would say until aboutThursday, to really recover. I
plan on returning to this event.
Now claw, classic claw,Cleveland claw has always been
probably my favorite event thatI've been to their love events,
I still have to check out right.
And I hope to attend claw inCleveland in April 2023. But
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what's nice about this is thatit's you know, well balanced
with claw claws and April, quoteunquote leather get away, which
we all call claw lock, la, laclaw law, claw LA. That's in
November. So it's a way for meto have two of these events that
I really love any year with morethan enough time between them to
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budget, save up, find goodflights. I'm also starting to
think about my travel for 2023.
Now the truth is, I'mspecifically not I returned home
from claw wanting to nevertraveled again. I think that was
a part of the event job and partof the jetlag. But I know that
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sometime I'm recording this onDecember 4 Sunday, sometime
soon, I'm going to want to starttargeting the events I want to
hit in 2023. I know I have awork trip to Chicago in
February. Right now that is theonly travel on my calendar. I am
thinking about Cleveland claw.
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It's really complicated and 2023Because it's scheduled for
Easter weekend. Smoke out in LasVegas is scheduled for Easter
weekend. Easter Berlin, inBerlin is scheduled on Easter
weekend. That's three majorevents on the same weekend and
that is likely to split andSplinter King stirs. So I'm not
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sure what attendance at any ofthose three are going to be.
People have to make somedecisions about which they want
to attend. So I'm not sure youknow, I kind of want to get to
smoke out because I found a lotof people meeting people at
smoke out. I haven't been tosmoke out in five or six years I
think. I love claw. I would liketo get back to claw. I'm
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certainly not going to be ableto make Berlin this year that's
not in the budget. So I want tochoose a kind of spring event.
And that may even be IML I don'tthink so I think it'll be claw
or smoke out. And then I didhave a great time at
Provincetown mates in October, Iwould like to get back to that
my beautiful, wonderfultraveling companion can join me.
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And then I think claw, la, la,la, la claw, LA, CLI, LA,
whatever we call it. I reallyhave enjoyed that event, in part
because I have so many wonderfulWest Coast friends, and it's
very easy for them to reach it.
And therefore for me to connectwith them. I will also say that
it is pig week here in FortLauderdale. It is in fact the
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last day of pig week. I havedone almost nothing at pig week.
I went to ramrod last night,which technically was pig dance,
which is always the firstSaturday of every month, but it
was pig dance for pig week. AndI had a very nice time. But pig
week as an event doesn't appealto me because it's nothing but
public sex parties. That's it.
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That's like sex party at 321 sexparty leatherworks sex party at
Inlander Pool Party sex party,circuit party sex party at sex
party here a sex party there,that's fantastic for people who
really, essentially are thatfree in their expression of
sexuality. I'm not I'm not Iprefer my genital sex in
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particular to be far moreprivate. And those public spaces
I ended up feeling very awkwardat and so I know there are a lot
of people in town, I was able tomeet a couple of them very
grateful for that. And thatevent is coming to a close. Now
there's a sort of beautiful,quiet time as the holidays in
the end of your approach. AndI'm looking forward to that as a
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way to rest and recharge andrenew. I'm also need to get on
top of this podcast, and get afew episodes in the bank. And
I've got a couple topics inmind. So I'm gonna work on that.
But that is the story of my timeat quote unquote leather getaway
wonderful event. I absolutelyrecommend it if you're looking
for a new event to check out,particularly if you're on the
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West Coast. And then we'll seewhat 2023 brings. So thank you
all as always for joining me.
And I hope whatever events youattend, I hope you're able to
make some events. I hopewhatever events you attend, are
simply amazing.