Let's remember that Halloween also exists outside of the Castro. (It's not all about you, Castro denizens.) No, it's true. If you don't believe us, check out the many, many scary events going listed on I'm Staying Home for Halloween's site. A sampling:

-- Balkan Halloween Masquerade at Ashkenaz (Eek!)
-- All Hallow's Eve at DNA Lounge (Spooky!)
-- Ghost Walk starting at City Hall (Blasphemous!)
-- Kelly Rowland at Mezzanine (Boo!)
-- Good Vibrations Kinky Carnival of Halloween at Good Vibrations on Valencia (Burn them at the stake!)
-- Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple at the Orpheum Theatre (Vomit!)

Anyway, be sure to bookmark this page if, you know, getting raped and killed under a golden shower is too spooktacular for you.

Image and costume credit: mecredis

While we can think of about fifty places in the Mish to practice your Downward Dog without even trying, it's nice to find places where we can practice our favorite set of postitions without looking like we were stranded by our dates in the Cow Palace parking lot after Exotic Erotic. Since none of those Yoga Tree joints will let us practice our California Roll and the Metereon threw us out after our last Popcorn Bucket, we have to look a little further afield, like, at those places where people are to have sex in public -- sex clubs.

Now, every gay man in San Francisco worth his gag reflex already knows where to go (Eros comes to mind), and the Power Exchange dominates as the destination for the heaving, humping tourists that leave lube stains on our fine city every weekend. Ever eager to find a place that embodies something we don't usually run across, we're excited to see the sticky, sweaty emergence of all-genders, all-orientations, utterly queertastic Deep Ocean Productions, who promises to:

...model sex-positive attitudes and promote erotic well-being through a unique array of services including private parties, fantasy weekends, retreats and classes designed to cater to the diverse needs of our customers and foster a safe environment for erotic empowerment. We create an open and non-judgmental atmosphere for people of all ages, body types, ethnicities, experience levels, genders and sexual orientations to explore their fantasies.

Translation: sex parties a taxi cab ride away with themes that include "Swingers, Bisexuals Bashes, Girls Take Charge, Blatino 'DL' Thug-a-Thons, SM/Bondage Power Play, MTF Lust-Capades, FTM 'Man on Man' Parties, The Bears Dens: Bears, Cubs & Otters, Kink and Fetish Balls, Dykes who Crave Cock & the Pricks who want them, Pansexual Pandemonium, The Ultimate Debauchery: A Sexual 'Freak For All', Kinky Family Fun: Age Play for Mommies, Daddies & Their Naughty Girls & Dirty Boys." Anyone hungry for a roll?

Please welcome native San Franciscan, sexpert, artist, bestselling author and Bay Blogger Thursday alum SFist Violet, nee Violet Blue of Tiny Nibbles.

Sorry to plagiarise the title, but there's something about Austin that makes us think of Dylan, both the good parts and the bad. If Austin were a person, we have a feeling that it would be a folk-singing kid from Minnesotta with a talent for songwriting. It also makes us think of Kinky Friedman, but we're not sure if that isn't just because he wants to live in the Texas Governor's mansion. Now there's a celebrity politician we would vote for. Of course everything we know about Austin we learned from Richard Linklater, Molly Ivins, and the few chances we had to get away from the convention center.

So Wednesday was our day to just hang out. Only a few geeks remained, and they were lost in a sea of pretty kids wearing ripped jeans and fauxhawks. Wenesday night is the official kickoff the music portion of the event, and even we had no idea the scale of the event -- we're talking over 1,300 bands all playing in a ten mile radius over five nights. Of course, if you got a spare DVD-R lying around, might we suggest you download the 2.6 gigabyte file of recordings from bands who agreed via BitTorrent?