Boy Butter breaks sales record at this years IML 2011 Marketplace

Boy Butter kicked butt this year at Chicago's 33rd annual International Mr. Leather and I wanted to share some highlights of the weekend. IML is the world's largest Leatherman competition and gathering that started in 1979. IML is a five-day international conference that attracts around 15,000 people from all over the world. In addition to the International Mr. Leather title competition, the event includes speakers, workshops, socials, dances and of course a marketplace. It is in this IML Marketplace which I have been working at since the year 2000 when I used to work at industry powerhouse, Nasty Pig. In 2003 I brought to market my own product and have been slinging Boy Butter at IML every year since. We had a lot of fun this year as my beau Brendan and best friend Xavier Caylor helped make this the most successful IML in the 8 year history of our company.

I am ready to make a sale :  )

Me Ken, from CheapLubes.com and Brendan at Hyatt Regency bar

A sister of perpetual indulgence and her little one. 

Well catholic nun's do not believe in abortion.

The boy behind the butter.

Xavier and me at the booth

My love and amazing accountant Brendan McGovern

VIDEOS:

Sales were so good, Xavier actually went crazy and

 had to be restrained at the hotel Saturday night. 

Video of my booth right before the show began.

Sneak Peak of the Boy Butter Booth at IML 2011

I am proud of my psychedelically inspired Boy Butter booth this year. 

Ill make sure to update photos of when there is product on display ready for the market.

If you are in Chicago please come and bring your support and we accept all major credit cards, 

come to the International Mr Leather Market Place

 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago

Booth # 924

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY BOY BUTTER!

Front view

Side view

Video of booth on the eve of the market opening 

Netanyahu Rocks Congress with 29 Standing Ovations

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Speaks to the Joint Session of Congress. He says that Israel would be generous with the size of a Palestinian state, but would not return to the "indefensible" 1967 borders or divide the city of Jerusalem. In case you missed the speech Netanyahu’s Facebook page has a transcript. I’m stealing the headline from Philip Klein, but only because his metaphor is so apt: Given the entire joint session of Congress was whipped into a frenzy of enthusiasm, all that was missing here were glow sticks. If you ever want to understand what the issues in the Middle East are, just listen to this speech. It's the very best speech I ever heard on the issue.

Boy Butter Propaganda Machine in Chicago for IML 2011

Well the eighth anniversary of Boy Butter Personal Lubricants happens this very weekend. In Chicago at the marketplace section of the annual International Mr. Leather competition in 2003, Boy Butter was first brought to market. I was but a 25 year old kid in speedos and sneakers slinging my almost homemade personal lubricant to a crowd of gay fetish enthusiasts and those that love them and sold out completely. Eight years later of slippery wonderfulness at the same event and I am proud to say Boy Butter is still here and going strong. The beautiful Windy City of Chicago has hosted IML every year since 1978 and like me is 33 years old. To prepare I always arrive into town a few days early to prepare the city and it's famous gay village of Boystown on Halstead Street where my product is available in almost every adult and gay novelty store around. My posters are put up in stores, bars and landmarks so everyone walking about can feel the Boy Buttery goodness and know that this is the time of year when Chicago celebrates the birth of my little brainchild. 

Goodbye Oprah, Hello Boy Butter!

 

Boy Butter poster on gay landmarks along Halstead St.

BB poster on Cupid's adult store

Boy Butter poster next to the entrance to Chicago's oldest gay bar from 1977, 

the year I was born ; )

Buttered up stop sign

I took advantage of some abandoned stores

The window of Beatnix second hand store proudly displays my poster

A perfect place for a poster, wouldn't you say?

Inside the restroom of Bucks bar, over the urinals, 

well everyone will see it won't they?

Rep. Steve Simon of Minnesota is making the Gays proud

Representative Steve Simon (DFL Hopkins/St. Louis Park) says a proposed anti-gay Minnesota constitutional amendment is largely about religion. He says if sexual orientation is innate as science is showing us, and not a lifestyle choice, then God created gay people. He asks how many gay people must God create before we accept that he wants them around.

This was one of the most eloquent and persuasive arguments for Gay rights I have heard in a long time.

Netanyahu sets Obama straight over his speech for Israel to retreat to 1967 borders

President Obama welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House Friday, one day after the president's policy speech on the Arab world and Israeli-Palestinian relations called for a return to pre-1967 borders, a state Mr. Netanyahu called "indefensible." After a closed door meeting, Netanyahu reiterated that "Israel has certain security requirements. 

New Boy Butter Fresca Window Display Unveiled in Chelsea

The mean streets of NYC have been graced yet again with an illustrious photo of me lounging on a hammock trying to cool off in the searing summer heat. Boy Butter Fresca, the new cooling and tingly personal lubricant infused with a hint of menthol. By the way I want to give props to my gorgeous sister the ultra super model and genius photographer, Donna Feldman took this photo and Boy Butter is proud and better for it. Oh how proud my mother is to know her son is displayed under the bright lights of a neon peep show sign, heh heh.

 The permanent Boy Butter display at the Blue DVD in Cheslea NYC

 on 8th Ave between 19th and 18th Street. Next door to Gym Bar.

A closer look at the BB Fresca window display

Please click here to purchase Boy Butter Fresca

Don't forget to use coupon code "Fresca" for 10% off 

Boy Butter Fresca is the way to cool down this Summer

If you have not heard of Boy Butter Fresca yet, than today is your lucky day. After six months of grueling laboratory work and countless batteries of enjoyable product testing, I had discovered a new masterpiece Boy Butter formula. Boy Butter Fresca is a mildly cooling and tingly personal lubricant with a slight hint of menthol, it is ever so subtle yet extra more fun. A perfect addition to the Boy Butter Personal Lubricant family of products and formulas. Please know that I do consider the Boy Butter Fresca formulas to be my masterpiece formulas. Fresca means fresh in Spanish (and also a famous soda pop), and the effect it has gives one a fresca perspective to our sinful little pleasures. We have 2 different types of Boy Butter Fresca, one is oil based and the other Boy Butter Fresca H20 which is 100% vaginal and latex safe, they come in travel size 3 oz and 5 oz EZ Pump.

Please click here to purchase Boy Butter Fresca

Nothing warms my heart like Iceland

I cannot say enough about Iceland and it's many arctic charms. If you have ever been curious about this amazing country (located midway between the U.S. and Europe) I suggest a visit during the summer where there is almost 24 hours of sunlight a day or in the winter when there is almost none at all. The country was first settled in the 10th century by Vikings and their Irish slaves and today's Icelanders have pretty much retained Old Norse their ancestrsal language. The country itself is about the size of Kentucky and is the most volcanically active place on Earth today. Located in the North Atlantic just south of the Arctic circle where the American and European continental plates meet and split apart creating a hyperactive geologic hotspot where the island positively erupts steaming with volcanos, geysers and hot springs. In the past 500 years 1/3 of all volcanic eruptions happened in Iceland, so often in fact that a volcano erupts on average once every 5 years. 

Don't let the name Iceland fool you because the weather is warmed by the North Atlantic current which makes the country's winters more mild than in NewYork City and it's summers are sunny, comfy and cool, so it never gets too cold or too warm. The Icelandic terrain is rugged with majestic snow capped mountain ranges and long valleys, which are easily navigable through a network of accessible roads. Brendan and I rented a car and toured the southwest portion of the country with ease and privacy. The hotels are not cheap so we rented a gorgeous penthouse apartment (cheaper than most hotels) in downtown Reykjavik, the northernmost capital in the world home to about 60% of the country's 300,000 people. From Reykjavik we toured most of the southwest of Iceland through Thingvillir Lake and the famous Golden Circle where the original Geysir can be found and where the world's first parliament met and still does. We also took a dip in the geothermal spa of the Blue Lagoon, the most visited spot in Iceland and it's healing waters are like taking a dip in warm bluish milk. Of the many cities we visited on our 100 day tour around the world Reykjavik left a deep impression and I cannot wait to return and explore more of what the city and the country has to offer.

Photos

In downtown Reykjavik standing in front of Church of Iceland, Hallgrimskirkia, the tallest structure in Reykjavik and a dominant part of the city's skyline.

Reykjavik's only two gay bars 

 Iceland's National Library

Tjörnin, (The Pond)  in central Reykjavík

A monument to their Old Norse heritage a large 

Viking ship looks over Reykjavik's shore

Mountain ranges along our drive

Öxarárfoss Waterfall one of the main attractions of Thingvellir National Park

Horses grazing on the land

Beautiful rivers all over the place

Brendan walking in front of the Althing (literally means All Thing or General Assembly)

 is the world's first parliament from the year 930 AD and it still exists and functions today.

View of Thingvillir Lake and National Park

Hot springs of the Golden Circle

The Kerio volcano is an inactive volcano crater in Iceland containing a small lake.

Brendan standing in front of Gullfloss, or Golden Falls

More waterfalls

Approaching the Geysers of Haukadalur, the first Geysers recorded in history by Europeans settlers and it where we get the name.

We are in pretty hot water here

The hot tub is ready

Blue algae growing in the hot springs

Entrance to Blue Lagoon Spa and Clinic

Blue algae is responsible for making the Blue Lagoon really blue

People taking a healing dip in the Blue Lagoon

Me standing on the edge of the Blue Lagoon

A close up view of the half salt water half fresh water on volcanic rock

View of the midnight sun atop our penthouse in Reykjavik

Powerful Gullfloss Waterfall

Boiling Little Geyser

Just a minor glimpse of the energy being released from the center of the Earth

Visiting Hitler's Paradise Camp

    Brendan and I took a powerful sightseeing tour to Terezin, or Theresienstadt, a World War II concentration camp and Jewish ghetto town located north of Prague. This former garrison town was built at the end of the 18th century by Emperor Joseph II as a system of military fortresses to protect Prague and the northern part of the country. However, when the Nazis took control of Czechoslovakia during World War II, they converted the whole garrison town into a concentration camp and Jewish ghetto. Jewish War Veterans, the elderly, musicians, artists, actors, and otherwise internationally famous Jews were sent here from all over Europe. It was considered Paradise Camp because it had slightly better conditions than all other Nazi camps though it served as a short transit camp and you were likely to be transported to a death camp within a few months. 

      Terezin is eerily preserved in it's 1940's state and is sparsely populated today feeling more like a quasi ghost town frozen in time as many of it's citizens are involved in the town as a Holocaust tourist site. During the 3.5 years the town served as a concentration camp more than 150,000 Jews were sent there. Although it was not an extermination camp about 33,000 people died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density and lack of adequate food and medicine. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps that by the end of the war there were only 17,247 survivors only 123 children survived out of the 15,000 children sent there. This was our first visit to a concentration camp and it left an incredibly powerful impression on the psyche about how this place could exist the way it did. If you ever go to The Czech Republic make sure you get yourself over here, it only take an hour to get to from Prague and it will give you a deeper knowledge about life in the not so distant past about the horrific struggles so many normal modern people like yourself experienced during the war years.

 
Former main entrance into Terzin ghetto and concentration camp

Town church and streets at Terezin

Streetview in Terezin

A building in town that was the barracks of men and boys of working age

 
The museum of ghetto

Jewish stars that were required for Jews to wear on their clothes.

Normal view of beds in the barracks

Tiny warehouse room that served as a synagogue for the many thousands of people, it was in the very back of a building and was about 250 square feet

Ceiling decoration of Star of David

Terezin’s “Hidden Synagogue.” This site was discovered during 

the remodeling of a private home in 1997.

I am in awe of this little synagogue and

 the people that prayed here for relief and sanity.

A railroad track and memorial plaque

A close up view of plaque

View of mortuary

Jewish memorial prayer room for the departed, at it's overpacked capacity 35 people died every day, at first buried in coffins, then mass graves without coffins, then cremated and ashes thrown into nearby river. 22,000 ashes of victims scattered in river Ohe.

Initial coffins for ghetto dead

View inside where bodies were prepared for burial

A white paper box containing ashes of each victim

 

Cemetery next to crematorium 

Terezin Crematorium 

Entrance to crematoria

Room where bodies were prepared for cremation

2 of the 4 crematoria ovens

For many the only way out of the ghetto

Cemetery of Terezin

Star of David and memorial at new cemetery 
near Small Fortress at Terezin

Entrance to Small Fortress which was the prison of the ghetto

The infamous "Arbeit Macht" Frei sign,

 (Work Will Set You Free)

Block A entrance at Prison camp

Beds in prison rooms

Toilet for prisoners

Washroom at prison camp

Hospital room at prison camp