Race Bannon
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Articles by Race Bannon
Mel Odom's kaleidoscopic queer eye drew stunning art through AIDS
Mel Odom’s intricately detailed, unmistakably homoerotic work has captivated generations, transforming everything from spank mags like Blueboy and Playboy to classic novels, albums, even a 1989 Time Magazine cover into highly stylized queer art. Now, a short documentary called Eyes of Mel Odom is in development to memorialize Odom’s life and remarkable body of work. Odom discovered his love of creating art at age three, and by seven had started drawing classes.
The Magic of Daily Flow
Living your life in a more relaxed, flowing manner might end up making you more productive and perhaps also happier. I have written before about my lifelong struggle with self-enforced and acculturated productivity, rabid adherence to goals, and other life hacks for getting things done that have proven to be more problematic than helpful for me. Along the way, I’ve learned an important lesson.
Stop Relying Solely on Social Media
To effectively get your marketing, messaging, or announcement out, utilize a multitude of communication mechanisms. The other day I bumped into a neighbor as I was returning from an in-person action to add my voice to the millions of disgruntled Americans right now. He asked where I had been, and I told him. He said he had no idea that the event was happening. This was an event that was all over social media, everywhere.
All Forms of Resistance Matter
Race Bannon · Follow 3 min read · -- At this horrific time in our country’s history, every form of resistance matters. It’s the cumulative effect of all of them together that have a bigger impact than a single act alone. A friend reached out to me on Bluesky recently. We discussed the current political nightmare the United States is currently going through. With his permission, I’m replicating his initial message to me here. You recently posted something about protests and their importance.
My live interview with actor Cary Elwes about the devastating wildfires in LA... and his road back to recovery.
, and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.
Making Time to Resist
Race Bannon · Follow 4 min read · -- To best resist the horrors we’re now experiencing from the new administration, carve out a bit of time each day to stay informed and take action. Well, here we are. Our country is now sadly being led by a man who clearly wants to install himself as a supreme leader and destroy our democratic foundations. It’s understandable that you’d want to throw up your hands in disgust and dismay and check out of involvement entirely. That’s what they want us to do. We can’t.
Where Is Home?
Race Bannon · Follow 4 min read · -- One some level, the old adage “home is where the heart is” rings true when we take the time to ponder where home is for us. I’m currently more than a week into a two-week stay in Palm Springs, a place I consider my second home. But when I thought about that this morning, it made me wonder what home is to me. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the noun home these ways.
My old pre-pro died. What's a decent midrange to value pre-pro?
After about 10 years, my old budget Emotiva UXM-200 died (nonresponsive). I use 3 Crown separates for amps to a Polk 5.1 system, so I'm looking probably again at just a Processor. I will go ahead now and upgrade to 4K, so that means a new projector (I'm wanting to get a laser projector, and I'm sort of up to speed there). But what would you get for a processor? I suppose I could be talked into a receiver, but those Crown separates sound so good with my current speakers, why mess with success?
Gaining Peace of Mind with Income Backup Plans
Maintaining a list of possible jobs or income streams can improve your peace of mind. For the past few decades, I have maintained a constantly updated list of personal income backup plans. Although it started on paper, it’s now a simple list in a digital file. It lists all the things I can imagine myself doing were I to lose an employment or revenue stream and need to fill in that income gap. Why do I do this? It brings me peace of mind.
My Last Day As 69
As I experience my last day as 69-years-old, I have a suggestion. Today is my last day walking the face of the planet as 69-years-old. Tomorrow I turn 70. 70 is a big number. For some reason it feels like a major milestone. I don't know why. I feel much like I did a year ago, or five years ago. Sure, there are a few more body creaks here and there, but I'm lucky to be in rather good health. My schedule today is a light one.
What Smart home brand is the best to try?
I have replaced every light switch in my home and many wall outlets with the Kasa system of smart switches. Really good control from Alexia (amazon echo). I have not had any fail and they are very quick to respond. For my theater room - I went with Kasa smart bulbs that can be any of 16million colors. The one thing that I did is to bypass the light switch so the power goes directly to the bulbs. This stops someone from physically cutting off power to the lights.
There’s No Perfect Process
No matter what a supposed expert says or writes, the only best process to achieve what you want in life and to become the person you want to be is the one that works for you, and that process can change over time. Productivity. Goals. Achievement. Self-improvement. Success. Those objectives have been hammered into me throughout my life. Starting at a young age, directly or indirectly, I was cajoled to worship at the altar of those ambitions. The results have not always been good. Don’t get me wrong.
Repeat Repeat Repeat
One of the simplest learning retention tips is to repeat what you’ve learned in spaced intervals over time. “Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.” Plato Educators and those who research and study how we learn best have always been trying to figure out how to optimize learning. Over time it’s been concluded there are various ways we can improve retention.
Stand Up Straight
Standing and sitting up straight with good posture has a multitude of benefits. I was walking in my neighborhood today and saw someone I know slumped over. At first, I thought maybe something was wrong. A few moments later they walked away, and they seemed fine. When I saw them, it immediately reminded me to stand up straight. I know many people have reasons why their posture is slumped over or otherwise not ideal.
If Only Everyone Lived Like This
Anyway, the point of this post isn’t about what we were doing, although the joyous mood we were in probably affected our experience when our Uber driver picked us up from the beach. As background, my partner and I have yet to encounter anyone in Maui, resident or tourist, who hasn’t been incredibly friendly. I know some think the locals do that only because tourism is their business but spend some time here and you soon realize a certain type of communal love permeates the island.
When a Friend Inspires
Today is the birthday of one of my closest friends, Kristofer Weston, or as he’s typically known throughout the kink communities, Mr, Kristofer. Certainly within the gay men’s kink and leather realm, Kristofer is one of the world’s most high-profile kinksters. Although his main audience is gay men, he has fans and followers from all walks of the scene. He’s known for his adult entertainment work. He’s ubiquitous across social media.
Why Proactive Self-Advocacy in Healthcare Matters
Accompanying my partner throughout his 12-year ordeal with a misdiagnosis that was instantly cured with a simple diet change taught me the necessity for self-advocacy for our medical care. Many years ago, I was sitting in our local hospital’s emergency room. This was unfortunately an experience my partner had to endure every 2–3 months for the 12 years prior. Every so often, my partner’s gastric symptoms and pain were so great there was no choice but to visit the emergency room.
There Is Art In All Of Us
Everyone has the seeds of artistic creation in them if they ignore the naysayers. Creating art is a worthwhile endeavor for everyone because we all have art in us. Back in 2012, I decided to download a drawing app to my mobile device to play around with it. The app I chose was Sketchbook. The app was originally developed and supported by Autodesk, but has since transitioned to Sketchbook, Inc. There are many good drawing programs on the market these days.
On Mortality
Thoughts about our morality shouldn't depress us. Rather, it should energize us to make the most of the life we have. As I age and friends around me deal with physical challenges far worse than I've yet experienced, mortality is on my mind lately. Don't get me wrong. I'm not afraid of my inevitable demise. These aren't morbid thoughts. Rather, I see it as a staring into the face of obvious reality. What comes to mind is a quote attributed to Marcus Aurelius, "You could leave life right now.
My New Kink Mantra
During my 50+ years in the kink and leather world I’ve adopted a number of mantras that have guided me as I’ve navigated the scene from neophyte to what I hope is a wiser and experienced kinkster. Each mantra has proven useful. Some might not call these mantras. A mantra is typically considered a type of mystical incantation or an often-repeated prayer. In my case, it’s simply something concise I consistently repeat to myself to guide my mindset and behavior.
Interviewing to Learn
Leverage interviews with subject matter experts to focus and improve your learning. A while back I read Timothy Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life. While I found the cooking content quite interesting (I still haven't started to cook - maybe someday), the reason I read the book was for the "learning anything" part of its content.
Why I Love Living in a City
Living in a city offers me convenience and a lifestyle I can't usually find in non-urban settings. People often ask me why I enjoy living in a dense urban area so much. Currently I live in San Francisco. Before I lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago, with occasional longer stint residencies in places like Palm Springs and Las Vegas. Cities have thus far appeared to be my thing most of the time when choosing where to live.
Random Acts of Learning
By Race Bannon Practicing occasional random learning can expose you to new ideas and information you might not otherwise discover. Sometimes it's fun to poke around various places to see what we can learn. Sure, learning that has a specific objective makes sense most of the time, but there are occasions when random learning suits a purpose.
Nine to Five - A Poem
By Race Bannon Reflecting on my past 9-5 work life In May of 1980, I was sitting at an office desk working a temporary job as an administrative assistant for a big corporation in Los Angeles. At the time, I was amid trying to decide if I was going to halt my dance career I loved so much, transition to becoming a dance teacher, or abandon the stage entirely for some other professional option.
How much I save not owning a car
By Race Bannon If your situation allows it, not owning a car can save you money and have significant lifestyle benefits. About 13 years ago, a weird random thing happened to my 10-year-old clunker of a car. I had taken it in for a routine oil change. The service center suggested a radiator flush. I said sure, go ahead and do it. An hour later I got the call to pick up my car.
Feel It, Don't Count It
By Race Bannon Achieving more happiness by moving from a quantitative to a qualitative mindset Our American culture is obsessed with counting as are most Western cultures. We count just about everything. Money. Personal and business achievements. Education accomplishments. Possessions. Sports scores. All sorts of things. What we don't count in specific amounts, we judge based on a scale that is essentially...
The 500-Year Exercise
By Race Bannon Imagining scenarios far into the future can alleviate the feeling that you're not being productive or successful enough today Advocating to look to the future to alleviate the stress and anxiety of the moment has been around for a while. One example is temporal distancing, a self-distancing strategy in which we view a negative experience from a future time perspective to get a more calm and grounded...
How to Improve Your Writing
By Race Bannon Having the ability to craft good writing will serve you well personally and professionally. The ability to write well is one of the vital skills that improves our chances in the employment marketplace as well as in life generally. I can attribute much of my career and personal success to my writing skills. So, how does one improve writing skill. Here are some tips based on my experience.
The Folly of Arguing Religion
By Race Bannon When you're an atheist or non-religious person arguments about religion can be problematic because one side of the argument is predicated on believing in a deity or religion In 2011, a member of the LinkedIn TED: Ideas Worth Spreading group (that appears to be presently living on in this form) posted a question to group members asking how they would teach a child about Christianity without denying evolution.
The Allure of Collars
I was getting ready to write a post about another topic, but I randomly tuned into a Watts the SafewordTwitch stream and heard Pup Amp use the term “collar blindness.” I found the phrase on the mark for so much of what I see in various kink communities that I had to write about it immediately. Pup Amp is a friend and he does Watts the Safeword with Mr. Kristofer Weston. To the best of my knowledge, Amp coined the term during one of their videos or broadcasts.
Keeping Things Safe and Consensual
I’ve been around kink territory long enough to have seen the emergence of a variety of communal mantras by which these communities abide to ensure safety and consensual behavior within their ranks. Underlying all these various phrases is something that makes me proud to be affiliated with these communities. Kinky people care about each other. They care about ensuring physical and emotional safety. They care about consent.
The Trap of Rules
“At birth a person is soft and yielding, and at death stiff and hard. All beings, the grass, the trees: alive, soft and yielding; dead, stiff and hard. Therefore the hard and inflexible are friends to death. The soft and yielding are friends of life. An unyielding army is destroyed. An unbending tree breaks. The hard must humble itself or be otherwise humbled.
Reframing What Is Kink Community
The verticalization of kink communities and what does this mean for their future Recently I read a brilliant post by Noah Smith who writes mostly about economics but also other topics. I enjoy what he writes and recommend subscribing to his Substack blog. It’s excellent. When I read the article, Vertical communities: The internet has changed what “community” means, I immediately had one of those aha moments.
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
I delivered this speech on October 15, 2016, as the keynote address at Beyond Vanilla event held in Dallas, Texas. It’s a bit different than many of my usual speeches. Good evening. I’m having a great time here at Beyond Vanilla. I hope you are too. Thanks to everyone involved in creating and running this event. I’m impressed. Job well done. Thanks to the organizers for asking me to be here. And a special thanks to all of you in the audience for taking the time to listen to what I have say today.
It Takes a Village
On November 3, 2018, I delivered this keynote address at Wicked in the West held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For those unfamiliar with the event, it’s a pansexual event for leather and kink community members in that region of Canada. The speech was for the kinky crowd that was assembled that day, but I think its message applies to all types of communities.
Asking ChatGPT About BDSM
Lately I've written a couple of articles on my Substack blog about the new OpenAI technology, ChatGPT: Conversing with an AI Chatbot and The Future of Technical Writing. I have a technology background, so this sort of stuff fascinates me. Despite have written articles about ChatGPT, I hadn't actually used it yet. I was relying on reports and tests others had done as my source material.
Conversing with an AI Chatbot
What I watched: “New AI chatbot 'ChatGPT' interviewed on TV” by Channel 4 News (United Kingdom) with Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Posted December 8, 2022. Recently, I wrote about how OpenAI’s new ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) technology might impact my former profession of technical writing. So much has been said and written about ChatGPT. It’s caused quite a stir and in some cases a bit of consternation among those who fear AI’s future impact on society.
So, You're New to Kink
Of all the questions I've been asked over the years about kink, without a doubt the most frequently asked is "I'm new to kink. How do I get started?" As someone steeped in kink culture and communities for approximately 50 years (wow, I'm old), it makes sense that people would ask me for such advice. I have my opinions, but I thought I'd ask my extensive network of kinksters around the world what advice they would give.
Guest Opinion: Matt Haney, progressive champion for Assembly
If you follow San Francisco politics, you know Matt Haney. An effective, progressive leader, Haney has been an advocate and public servant for nearly two decades having worked as a pro bono tenant attorney, state legislative aide, president of the San Francisco Board of Education, and most recently as District 6 supervisor and chair of the board's Budget and Finance Committee.
We Did It! QNF Completes Its Mission
Thanks to a final surge of donations, especially as the QNF was named beneficiary of the Juanita More Pride party, we were able to offer an 8th and final round of monetary grants to workers in local queer nightlife who have struggled financially during the worst of the pandemic. QNF has just completed the distribution of that final round of 93 grants totaling $83,290. This effectively completes the mission that QNF decided to undertake at the beginning of the pandemic.
50 years of Leather in the B.A.R.
One of the qualities I love about the Bay Area Reporter is their stalwart support for diverse communities from their founding, including leather. In honor of the B.A.R.'s 50th anniversary, let's look back on the past five decades of local leather seen through the lens of the paper, which is admittedly but a smidgen of the entirety of local leather history. 1950s-1960s Prior to 1971, the year of the B.A.R.'s founding, leather culture in San Francisco was in full tilt mode.
Emergency Grants Available for Queer Nightlife Workers
The SF Bay Area Queer Nightlife Fund (QNF) has opened up our next round of applications for emergency grant awards to workers in Bay Area queer nightlife who are still having financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this round, QNF is providing emergency grants for food (normal basic maintenance) and medical expenses (prescriptions and essential care) only, up to $500. Applications must be submitted by Wednesday, February 10, 2021.
QNF Continues to Help Bay Area Queer Nightlife Workers
2020 has been a rough year for everyone. Between the general state of our country, election churn, and a raging pandemic, few escaped unscathed. Sadly, workers in queer nightlife took an incredibly bad hit. When Phil Hammack convened a small group of friends with ties to local Bay Area queer nightlife to discuss what specifically could be done to help, there was no initial thought to create a nonprofit.
QNF Presents Career Development: “You, Inc.” Reimagining Your Career
This event takes place on 3 consecutive Tuesdays, September 22, 29, and October 6. It is expected registrants will attend all 3 sessions. Please register ahead of time on Zoom. If you have historically made some or all of your income from San Francisco Bay Area queer nightlife, you already know times are rough due to the pandemic.
Everyone Is A Little Bit Kinky
What I read: Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life by Justin Lehmiller, PhD. Published (reprint edition) July 14, 2020. I read this book before but decided to read it again because the first time was so informative. I wanted to revisit some of the great insights and data it contains. In May 2019, I was lucky enough to be in Chicago and that allowed me to attend the Multiplicity of the Erotic Conference (MOTE).
Here is what I have learned: Leather columnist bids adieu
Race Bannon. photo: Alex Ray It is bittersweet that I am announcing I will no longer be writing this column. The legacy of this column is something I have tried to honor by elevating discourse about LGBTQ adventurous sex and the cultures and relationships they spawn. But the time has come for me to focus my energies elsewhere. Coming to this decision was difficult.
Negotiating Risk: Sex in the Time of Pandemics
by Race Bannon . Wednesday Jun 17, 2020 Kristofer Weston (left) and Mike Gaite (right) demonstrating a creative way to have sex amid the pandemic (Source:Kristofer Weston ) The San Francisco Bay Area is slowly beginning to open from the rigid shelter-in-place restrictions necessitated by the pandemic. This week I walked down Castro Street and felt a vibrancy returning to the city with restaurants serving customers at sidewalk tables.
The power of story: Bawdy Storytelling's tempting tales
The power of story: Bawdy Storytelling's tempting tales by Race Bannon Tuesday Jun 2, 2020 Dixie De La Tour surrounded by one of her casts during final bows. Clockwise: Justin Hall (in the cape), Dixie De La Tour, Jeffrey Allen Hayes, April Kidwell, Mosa Maxwell-Smith, and Rachel Lark. photo: Brenton Corns - 4xFarPhotography Through stories people share parts of themselves with others. The stories we tell are central to human existence. Every culture has a storytelling aspect.
The Power of Story: Bawdy Storytelling's Tempting Tales
Through stories people share parts of themselves with others. The stories we tell are central to human existence. Every culture has a storytelling aspect. We are wired to share stories and by the telling of those stories we also better understand ourselves. Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, said, "We are, as a species, addicted to story.
Sexuality: Calm amid the storm
Race Bannon with his latest reading selection, Brent Heinze's Redefining Normal 2. Originally, I was going to write an entirely different column this week than what is before you now. I was going to stand on a metaphorical mountaintop overlooking all the happenings and goings on amid the pandemic among the many people who read what I write and offer a bunch of advice.
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