Events - Part 6

Streak for Tigers

Yesterday's poem The Tyger leads us to today's event.

You've heard of a school of fish and a pride of lions. A term for a group of tigers is a streak.  That gave the zookeepers at the London Zoo an idea for a fundraising event involving people streaking around the zoo.  Streak for Tigers is now an annual fundraiser held at the London Zoo.  This is zookeeper Grant Kother in a 2013 publicity photo promoting the event.

Participants pledge to raise money for the zoo.

Some participants wear tiger body paint.  All are naked.  After all, it's a streak!

This guy's sign has the "i" strategically cut away.

Over the years, Streak for Tigers has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, all of which goes toward conservation of tigers in the wild.  That should make anybody smile.

Poem of the Day - Part 9

 The Tyger
by William Blake, 1794

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night: 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire? 
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art, 
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 
And when thy heart began to beat, 
What dread hand? & what dread feet? 

What the hammer? what the chain, 
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp, 
Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 

(Blacksmith, Eadweard Muybridge, 1887)

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears: 
Did he smile his work to see? 
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

(Michaelangelo, Creation of Adam, slightly altered by me)

Tyger Tyger burning bright, 
In the forests of the night: 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

(John Holliday with tiger, Playgirl magazine, 1995)

Tomorrow: Streak for Tigers at the London Zoo.

Performers - Part 4

 McFly

McFly is a British boy band named after the Marty McFly character in Back to the Future.  They are probably unfamiliar to Americans but popular in the UK.  In 2004 they were the youngest band ever to have their debut album reach #1 on the charts in the UK, a distinction previously held by the Beatles.

The band members are all straight, or claim to be.  Three of them are married.  Their music video "Please" has this very brief scene of them playing naked (though you can't really see anything).  Is there a subliminal message here about being in the closet?

They also don't shy away from exposing themselves in gay venues.  This photo was taken for a feature story in Attitude, a British gay magazine.

Another photo from Attitude magazine.  No full frontal nudity, though.

Danny Jones, lead singer and guitarist, at a performance at G-A-Y, a nightclub in London.

Dougie Poynter, bass guitarist, at another performance at G-A-Y.

Tom Fletcher, lead singer and guitarist, at a performance at G-A-Y.

Harry Judd, drummer, didn't get naked at those performances, but he did some modeling on the side.

This is the end of their Oct. 21, 2006 performance at G-A-Y.  They didn't perform naked (they wore boxer shorts), but at the end, three of the boys stripped off their shorts before running offstage.

Ads - Part 3

 Fragrance for Men

One product category whose ads have repeatedly featured nude men is fragrance (perfume or cologne) for men.

This 1971 photo for the Yves Saint Laurent fragrance "Pour Homme" featured Yves Saint Laurent himself.  Though the photo has become famous, it was not a great idea for an ad.  Sorry, Yves, but you may not have been everyone's idea of a sex symbol.

Apparently Yves learned his lesson.  His 1999 ad for "Rive Gauche" featured good-looking nude male models with a clothed female, a witty reversal of the Manet painting Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe in which the men are clothed and the woman is nude.

This 2002 ad for the fragrance M7 goes even further.  It features a full-frontal view of hunky martial arts champion-turned-model Samuel de Cubber.  The ad ran in French fashion magazines as well as magazines directed at the gay community.  I guess Saint Laurent, who was gay, had figured out his audience.

Clavin Klein, on the other hand, followed the theory that it's not gay to show a naked man as long as there's a woman in the ad, too, like this 1990 ad for Obsession.

This 1994 ad for "4711" cologne by a little-known company, Richard Barrie Fragrances, offered a poster of the ad for $6 in the fine print.  Maybe they thought if they couldn't sell the cologne, they could make some money from selling posters of a naked guy.

We end with this 2002 commercial for "Pour Homme" by Lacoste, featuring Australian model Ian Lawless walking nude through a stylish apartment and ending with him smiling when someone opens the door to join him.  Now that's what naked advertising is all about!

Roman Emperors - Part 5

 Antoninus Pius to Caracalla

Yesterday we saw the Baths of Caracalla.  Today we see some more Roman emperors leading up to Caracalla, who built those Baths.

The emperor after Hadrian was his adopted son Antoninus Pius.  Remember that the heads of these Imperial statues are realistic representations, but the bodies are idealized forms.

(Statue of Antoninus Pius in the Palazzo Altemps, Rome, 140-147 AD)

After Antoninus Pius, two of his adopted sons became co-emperors: Lucius Verus (above) and Marcus Aurelius.

(Statue of Lucius Verus in the Vatican Museums, 150-160 AD)

After seven years, Lucius Verus died, and Marcus Aurelius (above) became sole emperor.  Marcus Aurelius followed a Stoic philosophy of self-restraint, duty, and respect for others, which he wrote about in a book called Meditations.  He is sometimes called the philosopher king.

(Statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Hermitage museum, St. Petersburg, 2nd century AD)

In contrast, the next emperor, Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, was a tyrant.  Commodus scorned the philosophy of his father and was proud of his physical strength, having statues made depicting himself as Hercules (above, in the Vatican museums).  In the movie Gladiator, Russell Crowe fights the evil emperor Commodus in the Colosseum and kills him.  In real life, Commodus did actually perform as a gladiator in the Colosseum, which the Romans found disgraceful, but he wasn't killed there.  He was assassinated by being strangled in his bath.

Commodus left no heirs, so after his death men struggled for the crown in the "year of the five emperors," 193 AD.  The eventual winner was Septimius Severus, above.  This bronze statue was discovered in 1928 by a farmer plowing his field in Cyprus.  The statue was in pieces and was reassembled and restored by the Cyprus Museum, resulting in this impressive likeness.

(Statue of Septimius Severus, Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus, 197 AD)

Septimius Severus was succeeded by his son Caracalla, one of the worst emperors, tyrannical and cruel.  In this series, I have only been including emperors with nude statues, but I make an exception for Caracalla because he built the Baths of Caracalla that I featured yesterday.

(Bust of Caracalla, Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, 212 AD)

Since I could find no nude statue of Caracalla, I'm substituting a nude statue from the Baths of Caracalla.  This is a larger than life-size statue of Hercules that was made for the Baths in 216 AD, known as the Farnese Hercules.  It is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples.

Vintage Athletes - Part 6

 Ancient Rome

Yesterday we saw American troops enjoying an ancient Roman bath.  Today we get an idea of the people the baths were built for.  A mosaic in the Baths of Caracalla depicting Roman athletes has survived to show us what they looked like.

The Baths of Caracalla in Rome were public baths built by the emperor Caracalla and his successors in the early third century AD.  Today the baths are in ruins.  This is an artist's reconstruction of what the building once looked like.  When Penn Station was built in New York City, its architects, seeking to impress, modeled it after this room in the Baths of Caracalla.

Among the artworks in the building was a mosaic floor depicting Roman athletes.  Today, what is left of the mosaic (above) is in the Vatican Museums.

Here's the only athlete with a name, Iovinus Alumnus.  He's holding a palm frond and a crown, both symbols of victory.

The athlete on the right is wearing the victory crown.  The guy wearing a toga is an official, perhaps a referee, not an athlete.  Like the Greeks, Roman athletes were naked.

The athlete with the arrows is presumably an archer.  Note that all these athletes' faces are different, which suggests that they are all real people being depicted by the mosaic artist.

What is this guy holding?  Not a discus; that would be round.  Perhaps it's some kind of oblong ball, like a modern rugby ball.

This guy's hands and arms are wrapped, indicating that his sport may be pancratium (Greek pankration), a combination of boxing and wrestling somewhat like today's mixed martial arts.  He's holding up two fingers with his right hand, but with his left hand he seems to be giving us the middle finger, and on that note we end.

Vintage Military - Part 7

 WWII American Soldiers in Roman Baths

The Allied campaign to win back Europe in World War II started by retaking North Africa, fighting against Hitler's Afrika Korps.  These photos were taken in 1943 by LIFE photographer Eliot Elisofon, who accompanied the American troops. 

When the American troops reached Gafsa, Tunisia, they found Roman baths, including this swimming pool, still working after thousands of years.  What a relief after marching through the desert!

The men lost no time in taking advantage of the pool.

A soldier working up his courage to dive in.

Another soldier atop the wall on the right, even higher up.

And there he goes.

Swimsuits?  We don't need no stinkin' swimsuits!

Beach Bums - Part 1

Little Makena Beach, Maui

Of course, nude beaches are great places for unashamed males.  In the state of Hawaii, where I live, nudity on beaches is officially illegal, but there are some secluded beaches that have become unofficial nude beaches where you won't get hassled.

One of the best is Little Makena Beach on Maui, also known as Little Beach.  The ridge in the background separates it from the much larger non-nude Makena Beach.  You park at Makena Beach and then take a trail over the ridge.

Though small, it's a beautiful beach.  This is Corbett Harper with the island of Lanai in the background.  Nice view.

Here's David Asset by the trees at the back of the beach.

The trees provide some welcome shade.

There are trails going into the trees for those looking for more action.

But mainly, it's a beautiful place to relax and enjoy the sun, the ocean and the company.  What could be better?

Festivals - Part 5

 Powder Ridge

Powder Ridge has been called the rock festival that never happened.   To understand why, view this video clip from the Huntley-Brinkley nightly news on July 1, 1970.

Scheduled musicians included Sly and the Family Stone, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, the Allman Brothers, Little Richard, Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, and Chuck Berry.  None of them showed up.

The crowd was told they would have to create their own show.  Although there was no music, there were plenty of drugs.

And there was a pond for swimming ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

or floating ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

or beating the heat ...

(Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

Or just hanging out naked.

One scene, attested to by several witnesses, occurred in the woods nearby. A boy and a girl, both naked and approaching from different directions, met under the trees. On impulse they suddenly embraced. She dropped to her knees, he mounted her from behind, and after he had achieved his climax they parted—apparently without exchanging a word.

Well, there was nothing else to do.

It was a festival with sex, drugs and rock & roll – minus the rock & roll.  Said one participant, “It all goes to show that you can have a rock music festival without rock music.”