All Tied Up With the Essefficist
You may recall from our post on Tuesday that the Essefficist is working on answering our colleague Rita's question as to how the Power Exchange works. While we still haven't heard back from the Power Exchange, and therefore are unable to give you any inside juice on the arrangement thereof, we're glad to report that we can give you two firsthand accounts of friends' experiences there. Before that, however, we'll give you a brief rundown of how the place works, or at least as much as can be gleaned from the website.
The place is broken up into two sections: the gay club, called the Mainstation, and the mixed club, called the Substation. The Mainstation is open Friday and Saturday from 9 PM to 6 AM, and Thursday and Sunday from 9 PM to 4 AM and it costs $15. The Substation is open Thursday nights 9 PM to 4 AM (single men, $15.00; couples: $10.00; women and transgender, free); Friday and Saturday nights 9 PM to 6 AM (dress code and price as follows: single men dressed in street clothes: $75.00; single men in a towel that the venue provides: $35.00; couples: $20.00 total; women and transgender: free); and Sunday nights 9 PM to 4 AM (single men: $15.00; couples: $10.00; women and transgender; free). Once you get inside, there's a bunch of theme rooms with all kinds of props and you can do pretty much anything you want as long as no one gets hurt and the sex is safe (condoms, lubes, gloves, and all that kind of stuff are provided by the club). And there's no drugs or alcohol. The Power Exchange also hosts monthly couples nights and ladies nights (Wet Wednesdays) and regular special events like the Halloween Ball, Spanksgiving, and other cheerily-themed fetish parties.
So there's the details. Did you get any mental pictures? Nope, didn't think so. That's where our eyewitness reports come in. So, without further adieu, off we go to the dirty stories!
First, let's hear from our dear friend Tubular Belle, who doesn't like the shift key and who, it should be mentioned, so that you may understand the full connotations of certain aspects of this story, is asian:
so at one point in my multi-faceted dating history, a few years ago, i was seeing this scientist who liked to boss me around. the biggest things in this guy's life, seriously, are being a dom and playing ultimate frisbee. (in, like, tournaments. whatever.) so he takes me to power exchange on a monday. barely anyone is around; i guess restaurants and sex clubs suffer the same slow mondays. there's maybe 20 people there, and 16 of them are, sadly, single men of color (asian, latino) circling around me and my tall, white ultimate frisbee dom. this immediately depresses me; i feel terrible being part of the continued elevation of white men in the dating pool. the lights are dim, and i don't want to touch anything. there are theme rooms -- there's one that's all viking-ed out with huge wood thrones and a banquet table on which damsels in distress are meant to be ravaged. there's a doctor's nook with an examination table on which more damsels in distress are meant to be, uh, probed. there are jail cells. basically someone's most predictable fantasy scenarios. there's also this totally grody obese blonde woman who's clearly loving being the center of attention. she's hovering around the doctor's nook as the men of color are eyeing her, creepily. at one point this rubber masked and costumed guy starts asking for attention too -- rattling his chains, moaning for no good reason. he reminds me of the gimp in that tarantino movie and is clearly a feature planted by power exchange management in hopes of giving us more bang for our buck. my immediate thought is to wonder how much he gets paid. then this cute white girl gets tied up to a st andrews cross (shape of an X) and gets whipped. she shudders impressively. she's also getting paid. the scientist frisbee nerd wants me to give him a blowjob but i'm like, "are you joking? we're leaving now." we were there all of 20 minutes.
that's kind of about it. the "relationship" was interesting for a minute, but, i mean let's face it, he's an asshole.
Next, we hear from our pal Donkey, who, it should be mentioned, so that you may understand the full connotations of certain aspects of this story, is a big tall white guy with a lot of tattoos who, at the time, impressively enough, was dating a Suicide Girl. Last year, Donkey went to the PE for their big annual Halloween event last year, which, we're happy to report, is coming up on the 30th. Here's Donkey:
I took my girlfriend to the special Halloween night at the Power Exchange. This was my first time ever going. We were greeted at the door by a topless woman and I thought that it would be a good start to the evening. Upon milling around for a while, we didn't notice that many other couples there. There is a lot of themed rooms and we saw a small asian girl getting whipped by an older man while others in the room watched. We didn't know what to do at this point so we just walked around some more. The later it got in the evening, the more random men came to the club. It was rare to see another couple, the men out numbered the couples by 8/1. The random couples we did see were either older or not that attractive.
We decided to "play" in a room on a toy so we started inside a room. We soon had a crowd outside of the door of the playroom. It got really creepy when men kept coming into the room and telling me to do different things... which made me and her uncomfortable. Only then did we learn by an older guy there that if we don't want people coming into the room, that there are chains that block the doorway. This made things very interesting since we could keep all the creepies at a distance.
We were basically chased around by single guys all night. We started to call them "couple chasers" since we couldn't even sit down long enough until 3-4 naked men sat around us waiting for us to do something... anything. All in all, it was a fun experience. The random single guys fully dressed in street clothes put a damper on the evening... but they do have couples nights where single guys aren't allowed. I don't think I'll ever go back except on couples night.
There were a lot of rooms there with different themes. I definitely will bring baby wipes next time since you always wonder who was there before you. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the themed rooms. Just wish there were more attractive couples that went. I'm definitely looking forward to the next couples night.
So there you have it, the Power Exchange. Hmmph. For more info on the everyday things going on around you, email your questions about San Francisco or your own exciting life to the Essefficist (or just post 'em in the comments).