Coastal Traveler - Fall 2008 - (Page 40)

while rejecting others.” Wright sees a duality in their image, much like in the animal itself: masculine and nurturing. This mix can be found in Dax Berg and Christopher Smith, hosts of the Lazy Bear wine and cheese garden party. Better known as Dax and Smitty, these two Guerneville residents turned an old gas station into the stylish Sonoma Nesting Company. Dax and Smitty don’t look like a couple that would run a shop full of Italian glass chickens and hand-painted furniture. Dax, who served in the military, has red and black tattooed arms, a shaved head and an orange beard. Smitty, quieter and brooding, has dark hair and a pierced ear. The two met at a leather convention in Chicago before moving to San Francisco to enter a three-way relationship with another man. After it fell apart, the two left leather for a life of scouting for décor. I asked Dax what kind of bears he and Smitty were, and was happy to learn that I wasn’t the only one who was confused. “You’ve got bears and then you’ve got muscle bears,” he said. “We were muscle bears but then we started working at the shop so much that we stopped going to the gym. So then we kind of turned into otters, which are thin bears. “And then there are pups, which are kind of like baby bears, or cubs,” he went on. “No, cubs are baby bears. Pups are kind of like a cross of, um, leathery bear pup-cubs.” Dax took a breath and laughed. “It’s almost silly.” “Then there are muscle mutts,” Smitty said with a sly smile. Dax rolled his eyes. “You just made that up.” In Ancient Greece, homosexual relationships were not only tolerated—they were revered. Homosexuality was an important aspect of military life, as it was thought that men would fight harder to defend their lovers in battle. This is seen in The Iliad when Achilles avenges the death of his lover Patroclus. Achilles, at least as played by Brad Pitt, was beautiful, bronzed and hairless. Throughout history, from Adonis to Matthew McConaughey, the image of the ideal male body has endured: a chiseled, toned torso and defined buttocks. But perhaps Socrates––who was older, bearded, and not renowned for his beauty (a college history professor of mine described him as “goat-faced”) — was a bear. In some early Native American cultures, homosexuals were considered spiritual leaders known as “Berdaches.” Harry Lit, the founder of Lazy Bear Weekend, could be called a “Berdache,” or “Beardache.” As a former movie publicist, Harry knows how to organize a party. Lazy Bear has grown almost tenfold since its beginning in 1995. What started as a congregation of a few hundred San Francisco bears has become an international event, attracting thousands of bears to the Russian River every summer. Even though the number of bears overwhelmed Guerneville’s Main Street, Lazy Bear was—for a lack of a better word—lazy. I watched as 30 or more naked, hairychested men sunbathed, some with books propped on their enormous bellies, a few floating on inflatable lounges in the pool. I felt surprisingly comfortable surrounded by these burly, hairy, undressed men. And even though the clothing optional pool party was sponsored by Pantheon Productions, a bear porn company whose newest titles include “Florida Fuck Fest” and “Amateur Daddy Orgy,” I found the whole scenario far less offensive than watching hormone heavy teens in string bikinis rub against each other on MTV’s “Spring Break Cancun.” From July 30 through August 4, Lazy Bear Weekend offered more than 40 events, ranging from mild to wild: from ice cream socials to pool parties, bingo to Morning Bear Fitness, to the Underbear and leather “durty” dance parties. The classic Pyro’s Bonfire was cancelled this year due to fire safety concerns. But even without the bonfire, more than 7,500 bears from all over the world came to Guerneville. Over 30 percent of the attendees pre-purchased Bear Tags, metal dog tags that, at $110 each, provided discounts at local establishments and free entry to most parties. Some bears proudly bore several tags around their necks. The metal tags nestled in their chest hair or in the cleavage of their meaty pecs, proof of their Lazy Bear seniority. Even during a down economy, Lazy Bear raised $175,000 for The Positive Resource Center, which assists HIV and AIDS patients. Les Wright notes in The Bear Book how “the rise of a bear community is inseparable from the AIDS epidemic.” In the early days, he writes, “thin equaled sick or dying from AIDS, while fat equaled healthy, uninfected.” Guerneville’s close proximity to the homosexual hub of San Francisco makes it an ideal vacationing spot for urban gays. And, as Harry Lit mentioned to me, during the AIDS epidemic Guerneville became a quiet, serene place for the sick to spend their last days. An hour and a half north of San Francisco, Guerneville sits amid manicured wine country towns, humbler and a bit wilder, perhaps thanks to its history. Originally named Stumptown for the heavy logging that occurred there in the 1800s, the main attraction of Guerneville is the Russian River. By the early 1900s the Northwestern Pacific Railroad had transformed Stumptown into a popular resort. But even with the influx of tourists, Guerneville attracted a different crowd than its Sonoma neighbors. “Guerneville has always been an outlaw place. It wasn’t a dry town in prohibition, and then the 70s brought the Hells Angels. It’s always been a place of difference and diversity,” said Taylor Poff, a bartender at the Rainbow Cattle Company, who moved to Guerneville in 1989. The Cattle Company was founded in 1979, ten years after the Stonewall Riots and just when the gay rights movement was hitting its stride. Harvey Milk, the openly gay mayor of San Francisco, had been assassinated the year before. Ancient redwoods line the road that winds alongside the Russian River. Families can be spotted kayaking, swimming, or otherwise engaged in middle class vacationing Guerneville is far from San Francisco in every way; it is not the little Castro in the country. The four-block Main Street has no Pottery Barn, Whole Foods or Gold’s Gym. Housing is incredibly affordable. Red and brown squareroofed, clapboard buildings line downtown. An army surplus store sells a bewildering array of tie-dye fashions. There is a pizza place, a general store, and the Rainbow Cattle Company bar, whose fluttering rainbow flag is a reminder that this small American town is different than the rest. Because Lazy Bear has become the largest event for Guerneville, it was almost impossible to find lodging last minute. Margaret Kennett, an Englishwoman who is the President of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce and owner of Fern Grove Cottages, told me that she was already fully booked for next year’s event. “My bears—I call them my bears,” she said, “come year after year, looking for a home away from home.” The entire town had prepped for the event. The Mercantile, Guerneville’s general store, was selling shirts printed with slogans like, “I just want to cuddle,” or “There is nothing like a bear hug,” or “Bears love to bare it all.” There was even a desperate “I’d love a Bear Claw” shirt. It was almost as if the makers ran out of puns. And puns do run rampant at Lazy Bear, as well as in the 40 coastaltraveler fall

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Coastal Traveler - Fall 2008 Contents Coastal Connoisseur Coastal Picks Coastal Flyer Coastal Driver Coastal Eco Coastal Sociologist Coastal Biker Coastal Snaps Coastal Valet San Diego La Jolla Laguna Beach Malibu Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Big Sur Carmel Monterey Santa Cruz San Francisco Sausalito Mill Valley Stinson Beach Bolinas Sebastopol Olema Point Reyes Station Fairfax Inverness Marshall, Tomales Petaluma Sonoma Coast Redwood Coast

Coastal Traveler - Fall 2008

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