City Spa Today

With seasoned sweatsmen Mr Eric Helin. The end of a two week cleanse. Nothing but time. Can't wait.

PS This picture makes a bold claim. The only? Really? Mental note: Investigate the boldness of this claim.

New Terminology - MAN TRAP

Picked this one up over at City Spa a few weeks back. I was there with Mr. Helin and was talking to an older gentlemen about the facilities, and he began extolling the virtues of the man trap in the sauna.

"The what?"

"The man trap."

"What's a man trap?"

"The man trap! It's that little room between the sauna and the outside! You know what I mean! The man trap!"

Where I'm from, we call that a vestibule, which is a strange and lovely word, but I like man trap much better.

Fighting Cruisers at Century - Last Resort

I've written a letter to the proprietors at Century Spa. I'm going to keep it private for now, though I suppose there's nothing in there that I haven't already said here. But still. I'll be sure to let you know how they respond.

It goes out today. Exciting? No. Not at all.

I'm just so tired of it. The sauna, the schvitz, the bania is a sacred place to me. And I'll forgive the occasional wandering eye of a gay dude. Kid in a candy store. I get it. But to have a really great facility that's ruined by with dudes on the make is just unacceptable. I won't stand for it.

And, as I said in the letter, if they don't take action, I'm calling the health department. It's a spa, not a sex club.

Results ... gross

I don't think my Craigslist post had any impact. I checked later in the day, and three other people posted looking to hook up at Century Spa. And not only that, but people responded. Things like, 'Hey, liked your post. Where u live?"

For cry eye.

It looks like I'm going to have to do things the old fashioned way. To the snail mail mobile (aka, Microsoft Word)!!

Fighting back on cruising at Century

Really really tired of it. Starting an internet campaign. Going to hit as many sites as possible.

Was at Century yesterday, enjoying the scene and relaxing, and things in the clay room were just about to get hot. These two guys on were on the floor and one reached over, and this guy with a big beard FREAKED OUT. He jumped up and started yelling for security!! I've never heard ANYONE yell so loud in that spa! People cleared out of the clay room fast, including me. Two of the employees came and the bearded guy pointed out the two guys who'd been jerking in the main spa. They were escorted out. It REALLY shook the spa up. About HALF the people left after. I stayed, so I don't know, but I heard the POLICE were called. BE VERY VERY VERY CAREFUL if you're going to cruise at Century. They are CRACKING DOWN and CALLING POLICE.

I'll let you know if it works.

Korean Mist Room at Century Spa is an A+++

The redesign of the facilities at Century Spa are overall a 1000% improvement of what they were before. They spared no expense in this effort. You can read the details in an earlier entry, but what you need to know right now is that the Korean Mist Room is finally open, and that room alone is worth the $20 and fairly heavy presence of looky-loo gay dudes.

It's a rock room - small egg sized rocks sank into mortar - and it's heated with a sauna oven. And it's relatively small. It's about half the size of the weird, towel lined dry sauna they have there, room enough for 8 gentlemen max, I'd say. There's an unnecessary feature mounted on the ceiling: this weird, three nozzled mister which sends out hot mist. Weird, but not a detriment in any way. This room is HOT.

It's effectively a turkish sauna: radiant heat with high humidity. There aren't any faucets, but there is a cold shower.

Added plus: The cruisey gay dudes don't like this room so much. Too hot for them. I know because I asked them. Loudly.

It's my new tactic with dudes at Century. I talk really loud about how I like a really hot heat, how I like the Russian style heat, how I'm serious about this shit. For the furtive cruisey dude, volume and calling direct attention goes against their looky-loo code of creepiness.

Amazing siting at the Russian Baths

It should be first stated that every man deserves privacy and sanctuary at the Russian baths. The whole point of the venture is to get away from it all, to relax, unwind and enjoy.

But a couple weeks ago at a much needed trip to one of the Russian baths in the area, I couldn't help but get excited when I heard a familiar voice a locker row over. Kind of nasal, pitched kind of high, slightly neurotic but definitely lovable.

"Ahhhh, I feel clean. I feel like a man."

"Yeah," Familiar Voice's friend said.

"You know what? I feel free for the first time in my life."

I walked over to get my towels and took a peek and sitting on a bench putting on his shoes was Oscar winning actor Paul Giamatti.

I went back to my locker and listen as he extolled the virtues of the Russian bath, and talked about smoking pot with some guy in DC.

I was sorry that I didn't get a chance to schvitz with Mr. Giamatti. Not because I would have liked to gawk or trouble him, but because it was all Russians when I got in there and that was infinitely more boring than Paul Giamatti could ever have been.

But none-the-less, I was glad to know that Paul and I share a love for the crisp, searing heat of the Russian baths. And he pretty much summed up how I feel every time I leave there, and I'm fairly sure that from now on, his weird voice will ring in my head as I change.

I feel clean. I feel like a man. I feel free for the first time in my life.