Olympics - Part 17

 Olympic Art

From 1912 to 1948 the Olympics included art competitions.  The winners were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, just like the athletic competitions.  Art competitions included painting, sculpture, architecture, even literature and music.  Entries were supposed to be related to athletics.  Many of the sculptures were nude, as is traditional in classic sculpture.  Here are some nude sculptures that won awards.

In 1924, Greek sculptor Konstantinos Dimitriadis won a gold medal for The Discus Thrower, above.

The 1924 bronze medal in sculpture went to Danish sculptor Jean René Gaugin, the son of French painter Paul Gaugin, for The Boxer, seen above with its creator.

In 1928, French sculptor Paul Landowski won a gold medal for Le Pugiliste (The Boxer).

A bronze medal in 1928 was awarded to Swiss sculptor Renée Sintenis for Football Player.

In 1932, a bronze medal was given to Czech sculptor Jakub Obrovsky for Vraždící Odysseus (Odysseus Killing), depicting Odysseus killing his wife's suitors when he returns from the Trojan war.  A nice work, but it's hard to see what it has to do with athletics.

In 1936, German sculptor Arno Breker won a silver medal for Decathlete.

A bronze medal was given in 1936 to Swedish sculptor Stig Blomberg for Wrestling Boys.

We end in 1948, the last year these Olympic art medals were given out.  The 1948 gold medal for sculpture was won by Swedish sculptor Gustaf Nordahl for Homage to Ling.  The sculpture honors Per Henrik Ling, a Swedish gymnastics pioneer.

Performers - Part 83

 Patrick (Paddy) Costello

Dillinger Four is a punk rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1994.  One of the band members, Paddy Costello, occasionally strips naked onstage.  Above, playing at The Fest music festival in Gainesville, Florida in 2005.

Here he is again at The Fest in 2006.

At the Insubordination Fest punk rock music festival in Baltimore, Maryland in 2009.

Another view of him at the 2009 Insubordination Fest.

At the Now That's Class music bar in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009, a fan seems to be stuffing a piece of paper into his butt.

We end with this undated photo.  Paddy is certainly not a muscle god; in fact, he's a bit on the chubby side, but he's unashamed and he doesn't care.  His tattoo says "How much art can you take?"

St. Patrick's Day 2026

St. Patrick's Day

Today's the day when we all get to be a little bit Irish through the wearing of the green ...

whether it's green socks ...

or a green scarf ...

or green shorts ...

or whatever.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photographers - Part 83

Llevellyn Lightsey

Llevellyn Lightsey, born in 1954, is a commercial photographer on the island of Maui, Hawaii.

His website, Light Sea Images, includes photos of Maui scenery, portraits and wedding pictures.  But it also includes another kind of scenery, like Jim on the beach, above.

Koty.

Nate.

Peter.

Armen in a Japanese garden on Maui.

We end with Armen assuming the pose of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

Calendars - Part 84

Leek Calendar Boys 2025

Today we look at a calendar produced by a group of friends in Leek, England to raise money to fight prostate cancer.

The group of 20 men got the idea while sitting in the Blue Mugge pub.

They were chatting over a pint about fundraising after most of them had experience with cancer or knew somebody who had.

Nigel Maycock (Mr. October) said "It's a group effort, yeah, but it stemmed from something we were talking about in the pub."

Above, Pete Lymer, the town butcher, shows off his sausage.

Said Maycock, "We were on about the calendar girls, raising money, and a lot of us have experienced something to do with cancer."

Is that a cock pheasant?

Maycock continued, "And then before you know it, it goes from a couple of pints of 'shall we do it, shouldn't we do it.  Well let's do it.'  And that was it."

Mr. June, Paul Harrison, is the pub landlord.  He holds the mug after which the Blue Mugge pub is named.

A little night music?

Hold on to your hats.

Mr. September, Wayne Thomas, poses at his place of business, the Mill Street Kitchen.

At right, Nigel Maycock and others pose on the stone lion in the center of town.

We end with Andrew Cordon posing with his pet ferrets.

Protests - Part 83

Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement, founded in Britain, that uses civil disobedience to promote goals such as avoiding biodiversity loss.

On March 21, 2024, the Dutch branch of Extinction Rebellion staged a protest at Keukenhof, the biggest flower garden in the Netherlands.  

They were protesting the use of pesticides in flower bulb cultivation.  The banner "Sluit de gifkraan" means "Close the poison faucet."

The group demanded poison-free flower bulb cultivation to protect health and the environment.

Some of the protesters were naked to symbolize vulnerability (and to get the public's attention).

Other protesters wore bee suits (with the stripes) to represent the vulnerable pollinators, and fake dead bees were scattered on the pavement.

The naked protesters were covered in red "blood", which was supposed to represent the danger to health from pesticides, though the danger doesn't actually involve blood.

However, they presented a striking image.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 62

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 nine more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.

This is Yale freshman James Wilson Rayen on November 3, 1953.

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

This is Yale freshman John Adam Joh III on October 7, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.

This is Yale freshman John Rodney Jonas on October 7, 1953.

The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Robert Clifton McCollough on January 31, 1951.

Photos taken before 1952 show only a side view.

This is Yale freshman William Howard McEachen on January 31, 1951.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman Harry Bruce Mahoney on March 6, 1951.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman J. W. on January 12, 1951.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

This is Yale freshman H. Stewart Dunn on October 16, 1947.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Harry Richard Schumacher on October 20, 1947.

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.