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Post-Gathering Pool Party / Pot Luck

July 15, 2019 by thegarrick

California Men’s Gatherings Sacramento presents…

Come jump in, the water is fine!

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Time: 2:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Fair Oaks, California (address given to those who RSVP)
RSVP: Call Rich at 916-768-9151 or email bearmasage@aol.com
Event Cost: No Charge
Parking: There is street parking at the house.
CMG encourages carpooling whenever possible!

Pool Party / Pot Luck

Come jump into summer at our Pool Party / Pot Luck, Saturday, September 21, 2019

POOL PARTY: The pool party is clothing optional, swimsuits or not, up to you. We will start at 2:00 p.m. for pool time until around 5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. and then we will have dinner. Bring your own towels and drinks.

POT LUCK: Bring food to share for 6 – 8 people. Refrigeration is limited, so a cooler might help if you need to keep things cold. Bring your own DRINKS. Beer and Alcohol are OK for this event.

Please bring Pot luck for your last name.

Please bring Pot Luck for your last name.

A – I = MAIN DISH

J – R = SALADS OR SIDES

S – Z = DESSERTS

Hope you can join us for our post-gathering pool party and pot luck.

CMG Hugs,
Rich

Join the company of warm & wonderful CMG men at our next event — bring a friend or two OR THREE OR MORE!

All CMG events are drug-free. This event is NOT alcohol-free.
Sponsored by the CMG Sacramento Local Events Committee. All persons identifying as male 18 and older, local or visiting, are welcome.
To see all events we have going on in the near future, visit the Local Events Page.

Return to the Sacramento Local Events page.

Michael’s First Gathering

May 21, 2019 by thegarrick

“I first heard of the CMG in 1993. A good friend of mine pitched it to me, and it took him 13 years of selling it to me to finally go. I decided to register for the Spring Gathering in 2006, after moving to LA from the Bay Area a few months beforehand. I felt at home in the CMG community, so much so that I ended up joining the planning committee the following year and have been volunteering ever since. This was a game changer for me. My only regret was taking 13 years to attend!”

~ Michael Kramer

“Binky’s List”

May 13, 2019 by thegarrick


California Men’s Gatherings presents . . .
May 1, 2019 Volume 12, Issue 5
	*Binky’s List* CMG Community News, Events of Interest, & Marketplace Classifieds

Welcome to Binky’s List, CMG’s very own community news publication, named in honor of one of our most beloved elders, Al-Binky Hoch. _______________________________________________________ Did you ever wish you could use the CMG email list to tell everyone about anything you wanted? Well that is EXACTLY what this newsletter is for. It’s NOT for CMG events. It’s for everything else. So send us your own items: News, events of interest in your area, items for sale, apartments for rent, jobs wanted, personals, community links, etc., by clicking here. _______________________________________________________ CMG does not necessarily endorse the events or organizations listed here, nor guarantee the quality of the goods/services offered.		CMG Website CMG Gatherings CMG Local Events Contact CMG************** Join our Mailing List!
Quote of the Month
Authenticity is simply the soul made visible. Lisa Jaffe

Events & Items of Interest
A Passing to Note We are sad to report the passing of CMG brother Paul Pastor on February 23 from complications of diabetes. He was 54. Paul Anthony Pastor was born and raised in Thousand Oaks, CA, the only brother of four siblings. He attended seminary as a young man but ultimately did not pursue that path. Paul earned an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Redlands and then lived in Oak Park, CA. He worked for GTE for 30 years as an engineer in customer support. Paul was brilliant, could remember anything, and was passionate about everything. He was very generous and giving, was extremely active in the Catholic Church, and was an out and proud gay man as an attendee of the CMG. He enjoyed travel, especially liking British Columbia where he went many times. Paul is survived by sisters Mary, of Bakersfield, and Angela and his parents, of Flagstaff, AZ. Rear Opening (Los Angeles) Saturday, May 11, 3:30 – 5 PM CMGer Jason Jenn will perform “Rear Opening: A Performance Tribute to the Gutter Art of Stephen Varble” at the ONE Gallery in West Hollywood. Featured on the front pages of the NYTimes Art Section, Stephen Varble resurfaced recently as an important ancestor of drag and performance art, thanks to photographs by Greg Day and curatorial research of David J. Getsy. Andy Warhol admired Varble’s ground-breaking work in the ’70s of transforming trash into wild costumes worn for crashing high-end gallery art openings. Details: https://www.onearchives.org/rear-opening/. Let Love Flourish (Los Angeles) May 22nd, 6:30 PM & June 30th (various times) CMGer Jason Jenn opens and closes the City of West Hollywood’s One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival on, delivering “Let Love Flourish: Queer Poetry Pop-up,” a spoken word celebration of historic LGTBQ poets and their affectionately inclined works of literature. Jason offers up a pleasure-filled experience for audiences to enjoy while illuminating audiences about the various poet’s lives and the historical conditions surrounding their poems. Free, outside the West Hollywood Council Chambers and other select appearances/locations throughout June. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1234149923429274/. Cuddle Puddle (Palm Springs) What is a Cuddle Puddle? It’s CalComMen’s version of a cuddle party–very sensual, lots of touch, no sex, clothes on/shoes off! 🙂 Imagine men–yes, with their clothes on!–and you’ve got the idea. It’s an hour or two of relaxed, quiet conversation, fun, music, cuddling, fellowship, perhaps just being held in a loving way by a new friend. We ask participants to honor this safe sensual-but-not-sexual environment. All men-who-love-men of all ages, sizes, shapes, & colors are welcome, and please feel free to bring along a friend! Saturday, May 11th, 7 PM, $10 donation. RSVP to Info@CalComMen.com for details!
CMG Marketplace – Part 1
Bowling (Los Angeles) Join Gay Guys Having Fun for Bowling and dinner afterward on Sunday, May 19, 2019, at 4:30 PM at Pickwick Bowl in Burbank. You don’t need to know how to bowl. We’ll show you how. Cost is $20 for two hours of bowling including shoes and ball rental. RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/gayguysfun or send your name and phone number for more information to Louis at lab@grad.com.
Did You Know . . . ?
Mourning My Childhood Bully: He Teased Me for Being Gay—Now He’s Dead When my mother told me of Dan’s death, I felt a pang of unexpected sadness, but for different reasons than his loved ones. by David Toussaint 2/5/2019Dan’s obituary was simple and lovely: a tiny photo accompanied by a mention of the job he held for over two decades, a wife who he’d been married to for almost as many years, his love of sports, his active involvement in the local church, a young son.There was no mention of the kid he used to traumatize. Me.He’s holding some sort of award in the photo (yet another accomplishment in a list that started in elementary school), and, like so many of the popular, athletic kids I grew up with, was now paunchy and overweight. If I’d not known it was him from the caption, I would have only recognized the eyes, those twinkling brown pupils that captured the hearts of girls and filled me with terror every time they stared me down.I met Dan in kindergarten, and he came to either my first or second grade birthday party. We started out as friends and I still remember laughing with him. He was kind of a dork like me. His family lived two blocks away in our suburban, northern California town, and they were known to be strict and conservative. They had one of the few two-story houses in the neighborhood, which loomed over all the others.By the time we reached seventh grade, our worlds had changed. We both started junior high together, but, while Dan had prematurely transformed into a muscular jock, I was overweight and unpopular, devoid of athletic skills, and teased for being feminine. Our differences came to head in the one class we had together: P.E.…The rest of this article: http://www.newnownext.com/gay-bully-dead/02/2019/
CMG Marketplace – Part 2
Heart2Heart Touch Workshops (Los Angeles) Monthly Heart2Heart Touch Workshops are held at the LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The activity is a safe, space for men to connect with men using supportive, nourishing, non-sexual touch. In structured fun activities, fully clothed participants experience what it feels like to be safely held, to receive warm hugs, to have their heads tenderly stroked, or to dance a slow dance cheek-to-cheek. The workshops establish healthy boundaries, creating guidelines for safety, communication, and support. John Soroczak, LMFT, facilitates. Information at Facebook.com/Heart2HeartLA and www.Heart2HeartTouch.com. Men’s Nude Yoga Classes (Los Angeles) Men’s nude yoga-basics: Saturday, May 11th, 9:30 AM and Saturday, June 1st, 9:30 AM. Men’s nude total body massage: Saturday, May 11th, 10:45 AM and Saturday, June 1st, 10:45 AM. Men’s nude partners Thai whole body massage: Saturday, May 25th, 9:30 AM. Men’s nude hot yoga: Saturday, June 22nd, 9:30 AM. Email for more details: urbanbodies@hotmail.com. The Eros Circle Massage Exchange (Palm Springs) The Eros Circle is a small group of men, who meet as often as possible, to brush up on and practice new sensual bodywork & invigorating breathwork skills; to re-connect with old friends, and to make new ones. The day includes structured and facilitated experiences in a safe, supportive and confidential space, plus a hearty potluck lunch! Open to all men-who-love men, especially first-timers. Sunday May 19, 10 AM – 3:30 PM $40. Private home – details will be sent. Questions? Reply by email to Info@CalComMen.com for details. Are you shy? (Orange County) Are you a shy guy? Shy about being nude in a group? Or about using a urinal in a men’s room? Or have some other body shyness issue? Come to a WHYP-SoCal support meeting in Garden Grove and get over your fears! Check us out at: http://WHYP-SoCal.ba-men.org. Yahoo Group & Facebook Group forums are online to help, too. There’s no membership fee for this, but a $2 door fee is requested (though no one is turned away for lack of funds). 1-on-1 meeting times are available, too. Confused by Technology? (Los Angeles) Computer Repair You-Name-iT Special – $20 for the first hour. Let me help you solve your information technology issues – whatever the season. Are you receiving errors or warnings on your PC/Mac or Android device? I have seen most everything and can make recommendations to fit your budget. Maybe a Chromebook (http://www.google.com/chromebook) is best? I will always be helpful (http://xkcd.com/627/) for any decisions. Standard Rate is $60/hr. Leave me (Harold Felton) a message at (626) 398-6864 anytime, day or night. Freshen Your Photo (statewide) “This is the only photo of my mom’s whole family together. Can you help this treasure?” Absolutely…and the color really brings it so much more life! Through www.FreshenYourPhoto.com, longtime CMG member Milo Shapiro saves old pictures, improves current ones, and even removes people/things from photos. Email him photos for a free estimate. What photo in your desk drawer or desktop folder needs fixing? Wish decades-old photos looked fresh or had color? Sun bleaching, water damage, scratches or tears on old shots? Email Milo your photo for a free estimate. Sensual Massage by Tall, Bearish, Nurturing Man (Los Angeles) Come and relax in a Zen-like atmosphere. Take an hour out of your day to enjoy being pampered. Strong intuitive hands. You create the type of massage you would like. You will also enjoy the soft music and candles. In a Van Nuys house with a private room. Shower and easy parking available. Large oversized massage table, and clean sheets. Times available: after 6 PM on weekdays. On weekends, call to see what I have available. Cost is $85 for over an hour. Book your appointment with Randy (323) 236-5150. Offering Place to Stay (Tucson AZ) Any CMG coming to or through Tucson is welcome to stay in my home. You’ll have your own bedroom, a dog who will love you and hosts who will entertain you as you wish or leave you to yourself as you wish. Please let me know as much in advance as possible when you’ll be here, and please do take advantage of this. Phone: 520) 398-6826 (no calls before 10 A.M. please) and email is threemsnguys@outlook.com. I’m looking forward to having you here. Merlin Spillers. Massage and Yoga (San Francisco) CMGer and CMT Brian Swager offers serious, therapeutic, healing bodywork with a warm, sensual approach incorporating Swedish, deep tissue, shiatsu, lomi lomi, craniosacral, and Body Electric style tantric techniques. Warm, quiet, clean studio, quality table, Sacred Earth lotion, shower. Also available for private yoga sessions, naked or clothed. Additional info: www.sfomassage.com. (415) 551-7866 brian@sfomassage.com. BA-MEN (So Cal) BA-MEN (Beach Areas Men Enjoying Naturism), a club in Orange County, Long Beach, and nearby, invites all 18+ men! Upcoming events include: 5/5 1-7pm Star Wars Day/Cinco de Mayo Party; 5/19 1-7pm Movies & Nat’l. Pizza Party Day; plus more in May; also (date change) Oct. 12-14 we’re taking a trip to Tecopa Hot Springs, which is sulfur-free! Visit BA-MEN at: http://BA-MEN.Org. Questions? Write: BAMENClub@GMail.com. And see our newsletter (NSFW!): http://BA-MEN.Org/newsletters/current/.
Links of Interest
LGBT Social & Recreational Organizations CMG (California Men’s Gatherings) OUT4FUN (Gay Calendar of Events) SAGA-LA (Los Angeles Gay Ski & Snowboard Club) SAGA-SD (San Diego Gay Ski & Snowboard Club) Great Outdoors APGF (Asian/Pacific Gays & Friends) POZabilities (San Diego Social Network) GLTA (Gay & Lesbian Tennis Association) IGBO (International Gay Bowling Organization) IAGSDC (International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs) Fun and Games Club Arriba (Ski & Snowboard Club for Gays & Lesbians) LA Blades Hockey Club Gay Outdoors LANG (Los Angeles Nude Guys) CMEN (California Men Enjoying Naturism) BA-MEN (Beach Areas Men Enjoying Naturism – for O.C., Long Beach, & South Bay) Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council (Facebook Page) Satrang (South Asian Queers of Southern California) Avatar Bienestar Black & White Men Together (Southern California) FaeLA (radical Faeries Los Angeles) Menstuff Menstuff Events Calendar So CA Bondage Club East Bay Network Men’s Massage Network (Los Angeles) Southern California Gay & Lesbian Club (and Friends!) Southern California Cycling Group The Billys Gaysurfers.net CalComMen Unusual Attitudes Jonathan’s Circle (Fresno) MAX (San Francisco) Gay Elder Circle (Los Angeles)Community Organizations Los Angeles LGBT Center San Francisco LGBT Community Center Oakland LGBT Community Center San Diego LGBT Community Center Sacramento LGBT Center Palm Springs LGBT Center Antelope Valley OUTtreach Center LA LGBT Center Social Services & Housing AIDS Project LA Shanti Orange County Lifeworks Mentoring Project Angel Food Project Chicken Soup (Los Angeles County) Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic SCA (Sexual Compulsives Anonymous) L.A. Youth Supportive Services (Teen and Young Adult Hotline) Southern Oregon Pride Lotus Rising Project Pacific Center (Berkeley) Red Circle Project One (National Gay and Lesbian Archives) Pop Luck Club Trevor Project L.A. County 211 Mankind Project Los Angeles Mankind Project San Diego The Discovery Community (Bay Area) Gay For Good Starland Community HSD (Homeless Shelters) UCSF Alliance Health Project (San Francisco) The Lavender Effect North County LGBTQ Resource Center (Oceanside) HIV Long-term Survivors Outfest Wildwood RetreatPolitical Organizations Equality California Human Rights Campaign Stonewall Democrats (Los Angeles) Log Cabin RepublicansMiscellaneous Organizations & Listings Gay Business Directory (LGBT Yellow Pages) Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (L.A.)

We told you Binky’s List would be fun, informative… even helpful! Send us your news, events, items for sale, links, etc., by clicking here. Stay in touch, CMG Hugs
CMG \| 1049 Havenhurst Drive #123 \| West Hollywood \| CA \| 90046

Testamonial

April 30, 2019 by thegarrick

A note from Marco about his first gathering:

“I was hesitant to sign up for the event because I have always seen CMG events but I did not know anyone who went. Once I signed up, I felt relieved because I was assigned a buddy. Andy, my buddy, literally went through a checklist of everything that I needed. We talked right up to the minute before I got on the road to get to the camp.

I felt so uncomfortable at first because I didn’t know anyone, but the guys at check-in helped me feel comfortable. I felt so welcomed. Then I made friends with my bunkmates. We shared meals throughout the whole weekend. The Men of Color Breakfast was very stimulating. I made some good friends.

My favorite events were the community assemblies and the bonfire. I had some really great heart to heart conversations under the stars with some of the men I met. It was awesome! At the end of the weekend, I attended the newcomers’ debrief. I felt so moved to help that I decided I wanted to be more involved in the group.

Now I’m on the Planning Committee for the gathering that starts in just a few weeks (May 24th, Memorial Day Weekend). It’s been great being on the team. I’m getting to know the great men who are working together to invent a weekend that will include something for everyone. If you’ve been thinking about coming but haven’t decided, just go for it! It would be nice to meet you and I’d love to meet you there!”

~ Marco Ramirez

Testamonial

April 22, 2019 by thegarrick

A note from Jack about his first gathering:

I’ve always been somewhat of an introvert. The type of guy that has a handful of very close friends rather than tons of friends that are just more of an acquaintance. Like most people, as I got older and life became busier, I found it harder and harder to make new friends. This was fine, as I had my small group of friends that really were amazing. That is until I found myself needing to relocate for work.

My partner and I found ourselves in a new city, where we knew no one. My partner and I worked very different schedules (I had a typical Monday through Friday 7-3 job, he worked evenings, nights and weekends). I found myself with a LOT of free time with nothing to do. I was starting to feel more and more disconnected, and feeling very lonely. To add to my feeling of being disconnected, I work from home 4 days a week, so my opportunities to go out and meet new people were very limited.

I remembered seeing a booth for CMG at San Diego pride several years earlier. Now thinking I need to do something to meet new people and feel more connected with other like-minded men, I did a quick Google search for their website. I discovered they had a Gathering coming up soon and decided to attend.

I attended my first CMG Spring Gathering in 2017. I know it might seem cliché, but I was hooked. Honestly, knowing me, and my personality, I did not have high hopes, but opened my mind and decided to give it a shot and try to make the best of it. I decided not only would I attend, but I would also volunteer to help set up camp. I arrived early and started to feel the nerves of facing something unknown bubbling to the surface. I gave myself a quick pep talk, and went for it.

I was immediately greeted by friendly faces that made me feel so welcome. This was something that happened throughout the weekend. Everywhere I turned, there was someone looking to get to know me. The feeling I felt throughout the weekend is a bit indescribable… the closest I can come is just “joy.” Every aspect of this weekend just brought complete joy to my life. I left camp forever changed by my experiences. I had made some amazing new friends and acquaintances, had some incredible experiences and returned home feeling happy and centered for the first time in a long time. My partner even remarked several times about how much happier I seemed. I had such a transformative experience at that gathering that before I left, I expressed my desire to volunteer for the next Spring Gathering Committee – and here I am!

We ALL need to feel connected. That connection with our fellow man is sadly missing from most of our lives. I managed to build some incredible connections with some amazing men at the last spring gathering, and THAT is what THIS gathering is all about CONNECTING HEART TO HEART.

If you are looking for a deep, meaningful, cerebral experience where you get to explore yourself and your emotions in a safe, supportive environment, then THIS gathering is for YOU. If your idea of connecting is a fun weekend at camp, with a group of incredible men taking in the beautiful mountain surroundings, then this gathering is ALSO for YOU! This gathering is all about making those connections that we want and need in whichever way you see fit!!

If you are finding yourself on the fence about attending, whether this would be your 1st or 91st gathering, I would strongly urge you to take a chance – like I did. There is something to be found for everyone, and you may just finish the weekend with a whole new outlook. At the very least, you will leave with an incredible sense of connection.

If you have ANY questions whatsoever, please feel free to reach out at any time!

Hugs, Jack Lanzillo