These fine gentlemen had parked themselves on this chunk of The Wall earlier in the day and had remained in essentially the same place for the several hours that I was there.  And why not?  With such great muscularity they deserved to be in such a high visibility position.  Their attributes certainly made for a nice backdrop to the day's fun.

Things did change by day's end.  Once the fair was officially over, the crowds left.  So too did those hanging on The Wall.  After it had been so crowded with such hot men so recently, their absence made The Wall seem empty indeed.

Both Dore Alley and Folsom are places where you can get away with a lot of wild behavior.  While public nudity isn't legal even in San Francisco it is tolerated at these two street festivals. 

I first found this out at one of the first Folsom's I went to when I saw several men who were either wearing nothing to cover themselves up or were wearing so little it didn't make a bit of difference otherwise.

Most of these guys at Folsom will simply pick themselves a nook along the street and stay there.  They leave it to the passersby to find that they are nude or have their dicks out.  Dore Alley is different.

I guess because it is a shorter length of street and has more of a raunch history the nudists seem to feel more comfortable there.  As a result there are a number of them who simply walk around the alley buck naked.  Their casual nudity is something to see.

I can appreciate it for the self-confidence they show and for the taboo breaking element to it as well.  That's about it.  The shock value and notoriety wears off real fast.  Not so for some though.

Some guys actively pursue such displays of flesh.  I think of them as "wankers."

He is dressed all wrong for the event.  He is not wearing anything that would identify him as part of the leather tribe and nor is he obviously a tourist.  I would imagine he didn't drive all the way to Dore Alley and most likely took the BART or MUNI to get there.

I will also imagine that he has albums full of his favorite subject: dick shots.  Nothing but dick shots.  Or perhaps maybe butt shots too.  At the least they have to be of guys in public places who also happen to be showin' their plumbing.

This really kills me when I see it.

The guy on the right here looks a little bit more slimy than otherwise and you could easily imagine him lurking around some adult bookstore.

This isn't always the case.  Just look at this guy here:

What sets wankers apart is the way in which they try and get their shots.  Most of the guys showing it at these events would only be too happy to stand there and pose for you.  Either that or stand there in such a way as to let you get your shot of them and their dicks hanging free.  All you have to do is ask them.  That is the key and it is something which wankers never do.

Late in the afternoon San Francisco showed one of the reasons why it is so unique when it comes to its weather.  Here it was a nice warm day in late July and all of a sudden the temperature drops by at least ten to fifteen degrees and a really strong cold breeze picks up as well.

Dore Alley is not just on Dore Alley.  The manage to close off the block of Folsom that it ends in to.  This greatly lessens the crowding on that end.  It also provides an interesting effect for a late afternoon wind.  By this time in the day most of the crowd had gone home.  What crowd remained was comfortably ensconced along Dore Alley itself.  But there had been a crowd along that chunk of Folsom and that crowd had made use of the beer stands to buy their brews.  They had not, however, made use of enough of the trash cans to keep their beer cups from winding up on the pavement.

I noticed this when one of the first strong breezes came through and it produced this really unique noise.  It sounded to me like the hooves of a number of horses riding along hard pavement.  But there were no horses to be seen that day.  I looked around for its sources and then I saw it.  It was the beer cups.

There were so many discarded beer cups and the breeze was so strong that it was sweeping along great numbers of them at once.  This combined to make a very distinct and notable sound.  A sound that you usually would not get at Folsom.  The set-up for Folsom wouldn't allow for this.  Oh, there are a lot more beer cups discarded on the street.  It is just that there are too many booths set-up on the street as well and those would break up any wind before it could sweep up so many of those beer cups.  So, this sound is unique to Dore Alley.  You know it is time to leave Dore Alley when you hear the roar of the cups...

The Shroud

I forget where, exactly, this building is along Market Street.  I'm pretty sure it is above Church and closer to Castro than Duboce but I could be wrong.  In any event its covering made for a really interesting shot.  I tried my best here to capture the effect of the wind as it roiled through the protective screening over this building.  Its color, size, and overall placement made this seem a very somber shrouding.  The billowing made it seem almost Gothic.

Another thing I like to do is look around.  There is so much in our urban environment that we simply look over and no longer see.  San Francisco is somewhat unique in that it still has a working network of electrically powered buses which make use of overhead lines for their power.  This system is very effective, very efficient, doesn't pollute either with diesel fumes nor even with as much noise pollution as the buses themselves are all but silent.  There is, however, some visual effect (pollution might be too strong a term here.)

I was struck by this as I stood at 18th and Castro waiting for one of those buses to come by and take me up hill to where I was staying for the weekend.  San Francisco has too many damn hills in my opinion and they really should do something about that. ;P  Until that happens though, I'll get my exercise walking up and down them and also making use of their excellent mass transit systems.

On this day the wind was really fluttering all the Gay Pride flags atop this building but the sky was its beautiful stark blue.  The contrast of the flags and the overhead power lines was striking.  There is one electric bus line which runs up 18th and another which runs along Castro.  Where they intersect makes for a somewhat crowded mass overhead.  Usually the power lines are not thick enough nor thickly enough placed to make much of a difference overhead.  Not so here.  Yet most San Franciscans seem pretty much oblivious to this.  It is simply part of the urban landscape much the same way as are manhole covers, utility boxes on the curbs, and fire hydrants.  Yet this can still be striking visually.

In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed your "stay" at this site.  Check back again to see what new images I have added.  Until then, stay well, play hard, play safe, and have fun!

Madoc