The Juice Box

Another milestone of the summer has now passed, and the annual migration of the bears to Guerneville has cleared out and come to an end – yes it was Lazy Bear Weekend, which is not at all a lazy weekend but certainly all about the bears. This event is one that has so much to do with community as old friends from across many continents come together to frolic and play in the wooded resort town of Guerneville, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco. The setting of lush redwood hills and a cute, albeit a bit run down, river town, plays the perfect host to get away for some fun in the sun, at the pool and some fun dance parties too, while all the time raising money for charities. Congratulations to Castrobear himself, Harry Lit, for pulling together (with his amazing husbear Allen) a great weekend to join in celebration and celebrate together as a community. Thanks to friends old and new for making it a giggly, silly and fun weekend! So, on to the reviews of some of the key parties below.

Pool Parties – Russian River Resort

Rating: N/A

by Jim Hauck

I wanted to take a minute to review the pool parties at the Russian River Resort (Triple R) for the Lazy Bear Weekend. Centrally located, with a pool, large sunning area and rooms all along the central space, this is the perfect gathering place for the more “WILD” pool parties of the weekend. This year we had DJ Pete Savas driving the sounds of the Friday pool party, which for my tastes were a little harder than I would have expected for a daytime, fun, silly, easy going party. Saturday, new comer to the San Francisco scene, the young and cute DJ Matt Effect had the prime slot on Friday for playing a more high energy and fun set appropriate for these pool parties. Sadly, the sound system for the Triple R was not up to snuff and it was often hard to hear the music very far from the front pool area. Also, for as much as we have been told that there would be less microphone usage, it certainly seemed someone was on the microphone, with very garbled results most of the time, and sadly overshadowing the music from these two DJs. No ratings for the pool parties, after all, they are just fun gathering times during the full Lazy Bear Weekend experience.

SWEAT

Rating: 3 out of 5 Bottles of Water

by Jim Hauck

The SWEAT parties are quite the franchise for the bear crowd, showing up in places like Chicago, Boston and many others. However, SWEAT at LAZY BEAR is all about working out a great Saturday night dance party for a crowd hungry to get down on the floor and dance. SWEAT is held at the old Ziggeraut, Fab or now River Space, which in days of old was an old movie theater. Over the years this little club has changed names and tried hard to survive a challenging resort community. However, for it being a basic black box, it has good and bad things going for it. The dance floor is an adequate size for the crowd attending Lazy Bear, and the party sells out each year, but this year some strange things were going on, including what was a trash can bolted to the dance floor in the one corner of the space. The space is showing its age as well, with the floor having some soft spots that can be slight concerning when you feel them. But heck, it is just this type of space that makes a party like SWEAT work. Minimal decor, decent dance lighting, strobes (sorry Ray) a stage for flaggers (that seemed overly guarded and protected from even such flaggers), a smoke machine in the corner blowing from under the stage, and voila, it’s a dance party. Shuttle in a hot, furry, friendly crowd of bears eager to dance and get the sweat going and the magic starts.

Musically, this party was harsh to start. As DJ Pete Savas started on what was a very hard hitting sound at 10PM and drove from that hard, darker beat to a more light and happy sound before his set ended. Wearing a surgical mask as he spun, as he was reported to be very sick before Saturday night, it seemed that Pete did not really read the crowd and put down the music that makes the boys want to dance, throw their hands in the air occasionally, and just have the appropriate fun for a SWEAT party. I personally found that it took until nearly 60 o more minutes into the set before the music seemed more appropriate and fun. Thankfully at midnight, DJ John LePage took the helm and drove us to a higher place on the dance floor, with a mix of chunky fun beats and some anthems to keep you smiling and your toes tapping. John’s set kept many of the bears at the party to the very end, including yours truly, to enjoy what I feel was some of the best DJ work I have heard from John.

So overall, SWEAT at Lazy Bear was sweaty, sexy, and fun, delivering a party worthy of Saturday night at Lazy Bear.

SUNDAY FURRY SUNDAY

Rating: 3 out of 5 Bottles of Water

by Leif Wauters

This afternoon of hi-jinx seems to get sillier and sexier every year, and since we moved to the estate a few years ago we’ve really made ourselves at home. Folks started streaming in when the gates opened with tents, chairs and coolers in hand and soon most stretches of the lawn were blanked. The beautiful summer weather also brought out a very aggressive band of bees, one of which brought down an attendee who we all hope is fully recovered after a fur-raising ordeal.

Yes, everything was as it should be, with the sun beating down and DJ Rotten Robbie providing the bouncy and eclectic soundtrack for the afternoon. He started out mellow and built it up through the afternoon until the grassy dance floor in front of his tent was jammed with revelers getting down to his brand of summer hits. Despite a handful of aggressive mixes and a lonely and desperate version of this summer’s anthem “When Love Takes Over”, it was another jubilant set of music by this mainstay of the Bay Area’s decks.

Other than that, though, I personally didn’t get any particularly special kick out of this year’s Sunday Furry Sunday. I know all too well that a huge amount of work goes into this annual gathering, but this year in particular felt a little turn-key. There was little fan-fare coming in to the event and once you got inside there were no real bells and whistles. In the past the pool had an abundant supply of toys and floating fun, and even that was scaled back to a few beach balls. Sure the fun was there and my friends and I walked away content with the day’s revelry, but I was longing for a little more that would help this year stand out. Maybe next year for the 15th LBW we’ll get that extra kick that was lacking.

Woofclub

Rating: 4 out of 5 Bottles of Water

by Leif Wauters

Many years ago Ed Martinez used his arsenal of giant props to create luxurious scenes and visuals that added volumes to every event held at his club that was then called FAB. Since then the space has fallen greatly. Now each dance held here involves little more than adequate lights and sound, and some fans to imply that the space might stay cool. But the second installment of Australia’s sleazy bear dance, WoofClub, needed little more than these simple accoutrements to make it a success. Actually, with this crowd the more minimal, dark and hot the better.

We got there just after the 9 PM opening when Chicago’s DJ Ted Eiel was kicking off his signature Chunkhouse set. This was his return engagement as Sunday night’s opening DJ and he did not disappoint. The party was slow to fill but that first hour was bliss for those of us who long for the space to stretch out and let go. By 10:30 the floor had built in volume and so had the energy of the music until Ted handed over the decks at the peak of the night to Sydney’s resident WoofClub DJ George Russo. Bringing the music down to a sultry pitch, George wove a perfect late-night journey onto the tips of Ted’s meatier take-off and led us to the last drop and his progressive and driving grooves at 3 AM.

Although the crowd never really maxxed out, it was the perfect blend of quantity and quality. The bathrooms were never overrun and the bar was easy to access. You could maneuver easily throughout the night, and always had a great shot at the enchanting moves of the hoola-hoop mistress on stage and the Risky Business dancers, George and Rich, grinding high above the crowd.

Always a huge fan of Sunday night closing parties, I wanna truly thank Steve, Cal and Rover for taking lessons from last year and successfully recreating the dirty vibe that has made WoofClub the huge down under success it is. Please come back for round three in 2010!