9/13/2026/SUNDAY/10:326AM
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
photographer @jonahhodari
The archive is brought to life with 12 essays from leading gay voices including Peter Berlin, Rick Castro, AA Bronson and Michael Bullock who share their stories of love, loss, lust and possibility.
Cruising is both a design book and a time capsule. The matchbooks reflect a time when queer spaces had their own distinct visual identities—designed by and for the people who gathered there.
Each unique matchbook delights and surprises with bespoke typography and imagery tailor made for the bars and baths. Design for marginalized communities is so often focused on protest, but the matchbooks exude pleasure. The pleasure of being out and going out, the pleasure of lighting a cigarette, the pleasure of getting a stranger’s number with the promise of fun.
Cruising is an homage to the legacy of gay matchbooks and a celebration of pleasure.
THE OTHER SIDE-
The first gay bar I ever entered was The Other Side on Highland Ave in Hollywood.
I was 16 yrs old during the spring of 1975. High school friend Charlotte Swan was going on about how this rock opera film Tommy was the flick to see. We decided on a foursome date to Hollywood to check it out. My best friend Eric took Charlotte, and I took Sandy. I drove my 1967 Mercury Cougar picking up Eric, Sandy, then Charlotte, who came out of her house resplendent in the largest Elton John style glasses, and the highest platform shoes I’d ever seen.
After the movie Charlotte said we must go to this club called The Other Side. Standing outside were Charlotte’s friends; the feyest boys with matching Bowie shag haircuts, long wide legged pants, over towering platform shoes. For some reason they scared me. I had never been around these types of personas. They were so otherworldly and foreboding. There was a hint of something supernatural or doomed.
by Darian Newman @bettyfordcenterofficial
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
THE MEATRACK
On another Friday I met this absolutely sexy blond boy wearing full leather. I was pleasantly surprised when he followed me into a private stall. Clearly he was out of my league in the real world. There was an entirely different lust driven motivation that allowed guys to have sex here with guys they would never talk to in real life.
He gladly took my lead as we sucked face for what seemed like hours. I then rubbed my willie between his buns until we both came in unison. Postcoital we actually had a great chat in the lobby. I asked if I could see him again and he stated that he was in a committed relationship. Sneaking out to the sex club was a rarity. I tried my best to get his phone number, but he just wouldn’t give. I did walk him to his motorcycle, gave him the deepest passionate kiss, then watched him put on his helmet with black-out vision, black leather biker boots, fitted motocross leather pants, tight leather jacket and gloves. The helmet now made him anonymous. I watched him drive off west on Santa Monica Boulevard and thought to myself, this is what dreams are made of.
After much debate with the residence and East Hollywood city council, the MeatRack closed in 1996, converting into a secondhand clothing store.
The Meatrack and other bars I’m memorializing signify the end of a golden queer era. One which will never come again.
Rick Castro~ April 2026.
by Darian Newman @bettyfordcenterofficial
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
photographer @jonahhodari
The archive is brought to life with 12 essays from leading gay voices including Peter Berlin, Rick Castro, AA Bronson and Michael Bullock who share their stories of love, loss, lust and possibility.
Cruising is both a design book and a time capsule. The matchbooks reflect a time when queer spaces had their own distinct visual identities—designed by and for the people who gathered there.
Each unique matchbook delights and surprises with bespoke typography and imagery tailor made for the bars and baths. Design for marginalized communities is so often focused on protest, but the matchbooks exude pleasure. The pleasure of being out and going out, the pleasure of lighting a cigarette, the pleasure of getting a stranger’s number with the promise of fun.
Cruising is an homage to the legacy of gay matchbooks and a celebration of pleasure.
Cruising :Gay Matchbooks
by Darian Newman @bettyfordcenterofficial
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
photographer @jonahhodari
The archive is brought to life with 12 essays from leading gay voices including Peter Berlin, Rick Castro, AA Bronson and Michael Bullock who share their stories of love, loss, lust and possibility.
Cruising is both a design book and a time capsule. The matchbooks reflect a time when queer spaces had their own distinct visual identities—designed by and for the people who gathered there.
Each unique matchbook delights and surprises with bespoke typography and imagery tailor made for the bars and baths. Design for marginalized communities is so often focused on protest, but the matchbooks exude pleasure. The pleasure of being out and going out, the pleasure of lighting a cigarette, the pleasure of getting a stranger’s number with the promise of fun.
Cruising is an homage to the legacy of gay matchbooks and a celebration of pleasure.
RICK CASTRO: CRUISING LOS ANGELES: excerpts from Cruising: Gay Matchbooks
by Darian Newman @bettyfordcenterofficial
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
GRIFF’S
The first leather bar I ever went to was Griff’s. Located on Melrose Ave and Gower Street, directly across from Paramount Studios. In hindsight this was no coincidence. At least one gay bar was always walking distance from the studios.
I had driven by Griff’s for years not yet ready to take the plunge. One summer night in 1979 I decided I was ready. Griff’s had a great look. Motorcycles were parked outside in the lot shared by an auto mechanic shop.
For some reason I wore Fiorucci cigarette leg jeans tucked into cowboy boots, a red Fiorucci shirt and red Annie Hall style glasses. I guess I didn’t own any leather yet.
Inside the bar was dimly lit, with displays of former leather title holders studded leather sashes and trophies. I guess it was a weekday, because the crowd was sparse. I was the youngest person there by twenty five years and the thinnest by sixty pounds… At least. This is before the terminology of bear was used. The bartender served me Jack & Coke with a grimace. I sat in the same barstool for the entire time. Nobody had any interest in me, not even eye contact. Of course I wasn’t interested either. Although the bar looked great, this wasn’t my crowd. I left not so much disappointed as aware that I need to find my people within the kink community.
RICK CASTRO: CRUISING LOS ANGELES: excerpts from Cruising: Gay Matchbooks
by Darian Newman @bettyfordcenterofficial
publisher @darkentriesrecords
distributor @artbook
THE MEATRACK
On another Friday I met this absolutely sexy blond boy wearing full leather. I was pleasantly surprised when he followed me into a private stall. Clearly he was out of my league in the real world. There was an entirely different lust driven motivation that allowed guys to have sex here with guys they would never talk to in real life.
He gladly took my lead as we sucked face for what seemed like hours. I then rubbed my willie between his buns until we both came in unison. Postcoital we actually had a great chat in the lobby. I asked if I could see him again and he stated that he was in a committed relationship. Sneaking out to the sex club was a rarity. I tried my best to get his phone number, but he just wouldn’t give. I did walk him to his motorcycle, gave him the deepest passionate kiss, then watched him put on his helmet with black-out vision, black leather biker boots, fitted motocross leather pants, tight leather jacket and gloves. The helmet now made him anonymous. I watched him drive off west on Santa Monica Boulevard and thought to myself, this is what dreams are made of.
After much debate with the residence and East Hollywood city council, the MeatRack closed in 1996, converting into a secondhand clothing store.
The Meatrack and other bars I’m memorializing signify the end of a golden queer era. One which will never come again.
Rick Castro~ April 2026.
