Folsom Street East 2008

On Sunday I went up to New York City for the day to go to the Folsom Street East block party, and needless to say I had a blast. My train arrived at Penn Station at 1pm, so I had a salad at a nearby Cheslea restaurant before heading over to where Folsom was, which on 28th Street between 1oth and 11th Avenues. By mid-afternoon about ten thousand leathermen, leatherwomen, fetishists and bears had packed the block party. The weather that day was kind of schizo to say the least; it rained a bit that morning but then it cleared up for a while, and then it started raining again around 5:15pm and would go on for about 45 minutes, yet strangely the sun was simultaneously shining for half that time as well. But hey it did clear up for a bunch of porn actors to bump and grind onstage and a closing solo set by Bob Mould. Then I was off catch the 8:14pm NJ Transit train back home. (I wouldn't get home until three and a half hours later since I took the local rail-lines all the way home.)

Anyhow, here are the pictures I took:




I saw quite a few Philly people up at FSE, such as fellow Philadelphians Ron and Marc.


This was taken up on the roof deck of the Eagle around 4pm.


Crowd shot of the beer garden section outside the Eagle at 5:15pm, just when it started to rain again.


Same shot a few minutes later with it pouring down. Luckily I had the smarts to stash an umbrella in my backpack. But for the rest trying to find cover, Joe My God would say that, "we all just left our cakes out in the rain."


Chi Chi LaRue MC'd the FSE stage, and was perpared for the weather and to say what Rihanna ought to really do with her umbrella.


The rain died down by 6pm, so a batch of gay porn stars were brought onstage to perform a steamy gropefest behind a semi-transparent shower curtain. I liked the short, dark, muscular one in the center with the Nasty Pig cap and green plaid shorts, but I forgot what his name was, dammit. (One of the porn performers has just blogged about it, so it's clearly NSFW.)


Around 6:30pm Chi Chi introduces seminal rocker Bob Mould.


Bob opened his half-hour electric solo set with Sugar's "Hoover Dam." The set consisted a mix of his Sugar-era material and his solo work, with Husker Du's "Makes No Sense At All" concluding his performance.


And I got to meet Bob backstage for a quick photo. A good ending to a very enjoyable day.