Performers - Part 87

 Zachary Stains in
Ercole su'l Termodonte

Vivaldi wrote the opera Ercole su'l Termodonte (Hercules on Thermodon) in 1723.  It's about one of the labors of Hercules in which he has to fight a tribe of Amazon women.  The opera was revived in 2006 at the Spoleto Festival in Italy.  See the opening of the opera above.

The music is rather repetitious (there's a reason this opera hadn't been revived in almost 300 years), but keep watching, because after around 20 seconds, Hercules appears, played by American tenor Zachary Stains wearing the legendary lion skin of the lion that Hercules killed, and almost nothing else.

The set, featuring large marble broken phalluses, has been called the gayest thing ever.

Hercules' lion skin does not cover his nudity, and Stains does not try to hide it.

In fact, later, he doffs the lion skin entirely for a while.

Here's the aria in which he gets completely naked.  Before that, we see him kissing another guy.  What's up with that?  The other guy is his male companion Theseus, whose part was written for a female voice but originally played in 1723 by a castrato (a castrated male singer with a high voice) because a papal edict forbade women to sing in Rome.  In the 2006 revival, Theseus was played by a woman in a male costume.

It's interesting that the Church viewed the idea of a woman singing as so awful that it needed to be banned, but the Church had no problem with the idea of castrating a boy to preserve his high voice.

In any case, Hercules kisses Theseus, which seems rather gay, and then proceeds to take off what little clothes he has on.  Enjoy.

Photographers - Part 87

Dave Martin

Dave Martin (1923-2014) was one of the most important photographers of the male nude.  Born in Pennsylvania, he moved to the West Coast after World War II, taught himself photography, and began photographing male nudes in the late 1940s.  He had a studio in San Francisco from 1952 to 1974.  His favorite models were college athletes and military men. 

He produced hundreds of photos of nude men.  Today we are going to look at a few taken at one of his favorite locations, Baker Beach in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  This is Paul Dixon.

A second photo of Paul Dixon.

And a third photo of Paul Dixon.  I got this photo and the following photos from Vintage Muscle Men, which over the years has featured some 400 photos by Dave Martin.  Thanks, Jerry!

This is Roy Lang at the iconic Baker Beach location.

A second photo of Roy Lang.

And a third.  You can barely see the bridge in the background.

We end with a rear view.  The model was not identified, but it may be Roy Lang.

Calendars - Part 88

Geoff Smith Foundation

The Geoff Smith foundation is a British foundation that helps people with multiple sclerosis.  In October, 2008, they gathered a group of members to create a nude fundraising calendar.  Like most of these British nude calendars, they did not show frontal views.  Unlike calendars made by university teams, showing athletic hunks, these guys were considerably less hunky.  They gathered for a photoshoot at the Hampshire Golf Course.

Not a college hunk, but not completely ugly.

Same here.

Perhaps a bit chunky.

Old, but otherwise rather fit-looking.

And we end with my favorite.  The cheeky calendar became a surprise hit, with 300 calendars selling out almost immediately for £10 each.

Protests - Part 87

Taiwan Nuclear Protest

In June, 2006, a group of protesters in Taiwan demanded that the government cease construction of its fourth nuclear power plant.  The protest was titled "Rather nude than nuke" and about 30 demonstrators took part.  These six covered their fronts, but not their rears.  I was puzzled by their chest message EKUNON, until I realized that it said NO NUKE backwards.  Why backwards?  The protesters had simply each turned around to face the opposite direction for this photo.

Here's a rear view of them before they turned around.  Note that the guy with the head scarf, who is on the right end of the line in the previous photo, is now on the left end of the line when viewed from the other side, so their chest message would read NO NUKE from left to right.

I can't read Chinese, so I don't know what the message on their backs says.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 66

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of five more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire. 

This is Yale freshman H. K. on October 7, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

This is Yale freshman Edwin L. Johnson on October 7, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman G. J. on October 8, 1953.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.  If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman Peter W. Johnson on November 11, 1953.

Freshmen were told to report to Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium, and once there, they were told to strip.  The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of the gymnasium.  Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Edwin Snell Weaver on March 5, 1951.

Photos taken before the fall of 1952 show only a side view.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

*          *          *

Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Bodybuilders - Part 39

Arthur Harris

Arthur (Art) Harris (1933-2003) was a bodybuilder in the 1950s.  He won the Mr. National Capital contest in 1955.

People today are surprised that, despite his physique, he only scored 8th in the 1959 AAU Mr. America contest.  It's because racial discrimination was rampant.  The first black man to win the contest was Chris Dickerson in 1970.  This photo is by Al Urban, who appreciated Harris' physique.

A back view by Al Urban.

I got the next two photos from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!  They are also by Al Urban.  Here Harris holds a staff.

We close with him brandishing a sword.

Events - Part 87

Twister at Folsom Street Fair 2011

Each September, the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco caters to the gay leather/BDSM crowd.  Many of the fair-goers are naked.

The Steamworks gym and bathhouse hosts a public outdoor game of Twister at Folsom.  Above, some of the Steamworks employees wearing jockstraps in 2011, ready for a game.

Other fair-goers are also ready to play Twister, like this guy giving a "Folsom handshake" to his naked friend.

For those not familiar with it, Twister is a game played on a large mat of colored circles.  After spinning the wheel, the announcer calls out the next move, which will be to put a hand or foot on a particular color, e.g. "left hand on green."

After a while, the players get tangled together, which is the point of the game.

At Folsom, where the players aren't wearing much, it can result in some interesting encounters, like this one ...

and this one ...

and some guys take advantage of that.

I don't think the announcer said "left hand on dick."

But after a while, some players pay less attention to the game and more attention to each other.