IML 2012 Single Tickets on Sale Wednesday

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International Mr. Leather, Inc.

For Immediate Release
(April 20, 2012)

IML 2012 SINGLE TICKETS GO ON SALE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25TH


Ticket Prices are as follows:


Opening Ceremonies (Friday): $30 
Pecs & Personality (Saturday): $35 
34th Annual Contest (Sunday): $50 
Black and Blue Ball (Monday): $30


For tickets to House of Blues, please visit the House of Blues website at
http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/chicago/


Weekend Packages which include the ‘goody bag’, t-shirt, poster and pass for the vendor market and busses start at $165.


Link for all ticketing can be found on our website, www.imrl.com.


Non-weekend Package holders will need to get a daily wristband to enter the Vendor Market. Day Pass registration is in Columbus Hall, Gold Level at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Suggested daily donation is $5 and wristbands are color-coded for each day of IML.


A full Weekend Market “Pride Pass” is available for a donation of at least $25 and will provide immediate access to the Vendor Market during open hours. “Pride Pass” holders will receive a special wristband, a certificate good for $25 off a Weekend Package for IML 2013 and will be good for free admission to the Leather Archives and Museum thru June 30, 2012. These passes can be purchased in the Vendor Market Day Pass registration area in Columbus Hall.


All net proceeds of Day Pass and “Pride Pass” donations benefits The Leather Archives and Museum.
All attendees to IML events must be at least 21 years of age and carry a government issued ID. 


We look forward to seeing you in a few short weeks! 


ALSO– 

Be an IML Volunteer…You get to meet a lot of amazing people and you get FREE TICKETS to Official Events! Click on this link….a few choice shifts are still left:

 http://www.imrl.com/volunteer001.php

How Big is that Ego in the Window?

Leatherati

How Big is that Ego in the Window?

By Olivier Pratt 

…. next time you see someone behaving from a place of ego, call them on it. Explain to them how their actions and behavior reflects upon all of us. Let’s see if we can return to a day, where it really was special to be a Leatherman and not just an exercise in ego inflation and personal glorification…..
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE 

————-
“RUFF THOUGHTS”


This is a fantastic article.  It’s sad to hear that the author had to go what he did to find his place in the community.  Talk about a negative helping hand.

All too often we see “THAT GUY” at events, in clubs or groups.   One individual that is always finding his/her way onto stage repeatedly, always the MC, reminding people of the porn they’ve been in or ALL the things they have done for the community.  “Welcome to my Little Swaray” is something heard often.   Instead of showboating, they should be finding the new people in the crowd and making them feel welcome.   

We’ve all been there. We all know how overwhelmingly scary at your first event.  It’s a second coming out.   We all need a Mentor or two to help hold our hands when we start this journey of self discovery.   I’m still very close friends with my original “De-Mentor” (as I call affectionately call him) here in Chicago.  Don’t know where I’d be without him!   

(Probably Toledo Ohio…)


Personally, I feel I’ve been “THAT GUY”.  It can be intoxicating. And obnoxious. It’s easy to loose track of who you are (and loose friendships) in that spotlight.   These days, the honest truth is… I reject that sort of attention.  Turning down many opportunities unless my heart is into it and for the benefit of others.  It’s all about Quality Friendships (and playtime) these days.


If anyone slaps your hand as you’re getting into the Kink Scene,  let me know.  I will kick their ass.  (Or viciously rearrange all their iPod playlists with Kylie).

Real Purpose of Leather Events?

My husband and I were just sitting here thinking about how many Kink Events with Contests that we have been to in our 18yrs together. There’s no way we can come up with an exact number.  Shaking our heads as we said it, we think the number is close to 100.  

Which makes the article below very fascinating to us.  I suggest anyone who’s been to an event (or about to go to their first) to give this article from LEATHERATI a quick read.

-Ruff

———————

09/14/2011

Ask Leatherati: Real Purpose of Leather Events?

Marc_webb_lucesco Dear Lucesco,
What is the real purpose of a leather event and why should we keep having them?
Thanks,GetOutaTheHouse

Dear GetOutaTheHouse,

Your question has hit a nerve with a number of kinky people all over the world in the last few years; identified in all sorts of sub-categorizations such a leatherfolk, rubberists, fisters, tea partiers, I mean tea baggers… Technology has added a new and disruptive layer to meeting and connecting with other like-minded sexual explorers. Along with other factors, such as associations assigned to certain generations of men and women, costs of doing business, and the ebb and flow of leaders or mentors, our kink culture and identifiable community is changing over time.

In reality, this has always been the case. There have always been gradual or sudden shifts in the way we communicate and collect. When the telephone was invented, people wondered why they would use a device to say hello to people who they saw on the street everyday. As usual, the need to connect and gossip fueled the industry. The very leather bars that we lament losing were not always present and yet kinky people have always found a way to find one another. And this is the crux of the issue, what are the ways that we can keep finding and connecting to one another. 
 
Leather events offer a variety of ways to achieve this. Events can be centered around a method to lose inhibitions (such as drinking alcohol), a shared sexual interest (a piss party), a process (electing contest winners), or something unrelated but completely enjoyable to do together (such as the new Leathermen at the Movies group in SF).

For many reasons, alcohol is simply losing its mojo to be the sole attraction for people to get together. It definitely is time to analyze which leather events still serve their purpose to connect like-minded people together. Some bridge the live and online world better then others, some remain vital and responsive, others not so much. We can debate what events are worthwhile endlessly, but while we do, a voting process is taking place beside us. Players are voting with their time and money every day. And everyone has the power to vote, so don’t lose yours.

Respectfully yours,
Lucesco for Leatherati

Leatherati’s kinky librarian has been an actual librarian for most of his career. Thirty-five years ago while reading the Hardy Boys novel While  Clock Ticked ( http://bit.ly/nzb7es ), he realized that he wanted to be one of the boys tied up and its been a drive on the side roads ever since.

Lucesco has been in several Daddy/boy, Master/slave, and polyamorous relationships in addition to his non-rolebased ones. His relationship to the kink community evolves as his relationship to himself evolves as well.
With this evolution in mind, he is now accepting your questions about having consensual and respectful kink sex in the real world. Doors are open at the Kink Public Library at Leatherati.
Feel free to submit your own questions with our easy online form or directly via email to askleatherati@leatherati.com