Hiking - Part 83

NinjaAndi - Harz Mountains, Germany

In June, 2025 a man who calls himself NinjaAndi visited Harz National Park in north central Germany.   It contains the Harz Mountains, the only mountains in northern Germany.  Here he is by a map at the park entrance.

This road sign points the way to the Brocken, the highest mountain in the park.

Some roadside grass and a landscape of mainly spruce trees.

Resting at a picnic table.

He hiked up to this rock formation called the Grosse Zeterklippe.  You can see him about a quarter of the way from the left side of the photo.  Click on the picture for a larger image.

We end with the view from the Grosse Zeterklippe.  The mountain in the background is the summit of the Brocken, with a radio antenna at the top.  It's only 1141 meters (3743 feet) high, but it's the highest mountain in northern Germany.  Danke, Andi!

Weighing In - Part 84

Dixon Flores

Dixon Flores is a Nicaraguan boxer.  This clip is from a longer video showing boxers weighing in for an event at Nuevo Gimnasio Nicarao in Managua, Nicaragua on July 29, 2017.  The longer video starts with the headliners for the event weighing in, not shown here.  Then the undercard boxers weigh in.  This clip shows one of them, Yamil Alcevedo, weighing in, but over on the side we see the boxer due to weigh in next, Dixon Flores, who has already stripped naked in preparation for weighing in.

After this clip, Flores weighs in nude, but the photographer aims the camera so we can only see him from the waist up, which is why I didn't include his weigh-in.  But we have already seen a nice view of him over on the side.

In this event, Dixon Flores fought Sergio Gonzalez, and the match was suspended after Gonzalez suffered a wound to his eyebrow, so neither of them won.  Dixon Flores' overall record is 17 wins and 13 losses.

Poem of the Day - Part 84

Monday's Child

Today's poem is a traditional 19th century English nursery rhyme.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

And the child that is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

Artists - Part 87

Pierre et Gilles

Pierre Commoy, born in 1950, and Gilles Blanchard, born in 1953, are a French couple who produce artworks combining photography and painting.  They met in 1976, fell in love, and have lived and worked together ever since.  Much of their work features nude males.

Pierre is a photographer.  He photographs the models.  The photo is then printed on cloth, and Gilles, the artist, adds to the piece, painting by hand.  The result is a combination of photo and art.  No Photoshop or digital manipulation is involved.

Above, Midnight Cowboy, 1995.

Presque Rien (Almost Nothing), 2000.

Many of their works feature mythological characters.  Above, Ganymede, 2001, is mesmerized by an eagle representing Zeus.  In Greek mythology, Ganymede was a handsome mortal who became the cup-bearer and gay lover of Zeus, the king of the gods.  Zeus was bi.

Mercury, 2001, the Roman god of messages and communication.

Apollo, 2005, considered to be the most beautiful of the male Greek gods.

David and Jonathan, 2005, illustrates the Biblical lovers.

Vive la France, 2006, features models Serge, Moussa and Roberto as football (soccer) players.  The black, Arabic and white players represent France's multi-ethnic population, and the French national colors blue, white and red are everywhere.  This work caused public controversy because of its frontal nudity when it was displayed on large street posters in Vienna for an art exhibition.

Matador, 2011.

Narcissus, 2012.  In Greek mythology, he was so beautiful that he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. 

Pierre and Gilles are still active.  We end with Petit Matin (Early Morning), painted in 2024.

Beach Bums - Part 81

Mazo Beach, Wisconsin

Mazo Beach, Wisconsin was the site of the National Nude Beach Weekend in 1985.

Unlike other beaches we have seen, this is not a beach on the sea or on a lake.  It's a beach on a river: the Wisconsin River, which flows into the Mississippi.  It was one of the most popular nudist spots in the Midwest.

Playing bocce on Mazo Beach.

Mazo Beach is a nickname.  Officially, it's part of the Mazomanie Bottoms State Natural Area, about 6 miles southwest of Sauk City.

Although Bottoms refers to bottomland, which is low-lying land along a watercourse, I think the name Bottoms is appropriate for a nude beach.  We will see a few bottom views of a guy on Mazo Beach who calls himself Love It Wet.  Above, looking across the river.

A side view shows that he's well-equipped in front.

Here he is looking at and being looked at by some canoes heading down the river.

Hi, there, canoes!

Unfortunately, the state closed the beach in 2016, citing illegal drug use and public sexual activity on the beach.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 78

Phallic Rocks, Hawaii

All over the world, people have seen certain rock formations as giant penises and made up stories to explain them.  Today we look at phallic rocks in Hawaii.

Above is the phallic rock on the island of Molokai called Ka ule o Nanahoa, which means the penis of Nanahoa.  Nanahoa was a fertility god.

You can see the size of the rock next to this visitor, who seems to have been inspired by the phallic idea.

This sign explains the legend of Nanahoa and the phallic rock.

Another phallic rock is the 1200-foot-high Iao Needle on Maui.  There are two Hawaiian legends about it.  One is that it is the phallus of Kanaloa, the god of the ocean.  The other is that the god Maui had a daughter, Iao, and she was in love with a demigod Pu'uokamoa.  When Maui found out, he was so angry that he turned Pu'uokamoa into this stone pillar.

Continuing the phallic theme, here is the late Kirill Tokarev, one of my favorite unashamed males, in front of the Iao Needle.

Iao Needle is also historically significant.  A battle was fought here in 1790 by Kamehameha in his successful bid to become the first king of all the Hawaiian islands.

This stone is in the Kawaiahao churchyard cemetery in Honolulu.  It was said to be culturally significant to ancient Hawaiians.  Then Christians turned it into a gravestone.  Although the cultural significance was not described, I'm betting that it was a phallic rock.

This is one of the "lava trees" in Lava Tree State Monument on the island of Hawaii.  The lava trees were formed by a lava flow that swept through a forested area in 1790 and apparently congealed around some tree trunks.  Although there is no mention that this was considered a phallic rock, how can you look at it and not think of a penis?

We end with the famous Ka ule o Kamehameha, the penis of Kamehameha, inside the crater of the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii, with a tourist inspired by the phallic subject.

OK, I lied.  This is a fake photo.  I started with a photo of man who was really naked in the crater of Kilauea, and I added the "phallic rock" in Photoshop.  But if it did exist, it would be quite a tourist attraction, wouldn't it?

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 87

 Philadelphia 2025

The Philadelphia World Naked Bike Ride is one of the world's largest, in terms of the number of participants.  Last year it was held on August 23, and riders gathered at Lemon Hill in Fairmont Park before the start of the ride.

I was surprised to see one guy doing an improvised tightrope walk in the park.

A rear view of the tightrope walker.

A rider posing with a park statue called Maja.

In most World Naked Bike Rides, some riders get slogans painted on their bodies to support the WNBR goals: first, educating drivers to be careful around bicycles, and second, encouraging people to ride bikes instead of driving cars, because cars generate pollution.

But I didn't see such slogans on the Philly bike riders.  However, riders had a few other painted slogans.  Many of them just said PNBR, for Philly Naked Bike Ride.  This guy is telling you not to eat animals (presumably he's a vegetarian), but it's OK to eat something else.

This guy claims that tall bikes save the world.  I have no idea why.  We'll see him later.

And this political message has become ubiquitous.

Then the ride began through the streets of Philadelphia.

A local college student smiles as the ride goes down Market Street.

Here's the guy on the tall bike.  Is he saving the world?

The riders pass City Hall, the building in the background.

Like all World Naked Bike Rides, not everyone rides a bike, and not everyone is naked.  It's "as bare as you dare".

We end with a video clip of the riders from above, shot from a tall building.