Beach Bums - Part 4

 Maspalomas Beach, Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is one of the Canary Islands, owned by Spain and located off the coast of Africa.  It's a favorite vacation spot for Europeans.

Maspalomas Beach is at the southern tip of the island.  Between the beach and the town is a huge area of dunes (above).

The beach stretches for miles.  Some areas of the beach are clothing-optional.

One area is clothing optional and gay.

Looking for the gay area?  The flag on beach kiosk #7 might be a clue.

You can get refreshments at the kiosks.  No need to get dressed.

What can I say about this guy?  The term "trouser snake" comes to mind.  Possibly a python.

I call this photo "beach balls."  I'm not sure exactly what the guy at left is trying to do.

This is Kirill Tokarev, one of my favorite unashamed males, on Gran Canaria.  Sadly, Kirill died in 2018, struck by a car while riding his bike.  He left a lot of great photos for us to remember him by.

Here's a couple enjoying the sun.

The same couple.  One of them has found a nice pillow.  A little bit of heaven on the beach?  Yes, if you're with the right someone.

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 10

South America

We continue our survey of cities that have hosted WNBR events.  The dates are the dates of the photos; some of these cities host the event every year.

Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2011.  His message says "Now you see me," a reminder to drivers that they should pay attention to bikers even when they're not naked.

Brasilia, Brazil's capital, 2010.

Florianopolis, Brazil, 2012.  His message is not exactly a public service message.  It says "Media films my ass."

Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2013.  I don't think she understands the naked part of World Naked Bike Ride.  He does.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015

Sao Paolo, Brazil, 2015  His message is "Fragile."

Taquara, Brazil, 2005

Santiago, Chile, 2011

Caracas, Venezuela, 2015

We end with a rider conversing with an onlooker in Lima, Peru, 2014.

More WNBR to come. 

Miners - Part 8

 Holland

The Netherlands has a coal mining district in the province of Limburg, just west of the German Ruhr mines.  Like all coal miners, they get dirty and need to clean up at the end of their shift.

A closer view of a Limburg miner.  I "stole" this and the previous photo from my friend Jerry's blog Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

These are miners at the Oranje Nassau Mines in the province of Limburg.

(Photo by Dutch photographer Nico Jesse, 1952-1953, Nederlands fotomuseum.)

More miners at the Oranje Nassau Mines.

(Photo by Nico Jesse, 1952-1953, Nederlands fotomuseum.)

And a final shot of the changing room at the Oranje Nassau Mines.  Note the clothes hanging from the ceiling, which seems to be standard practice in mines everywhere.  The Oranje Nassau Mines closed in 1974.

(Photo by Nico Jesse, 1952-1953, Nederlands fotomuseum.)

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 1

 Thor

Our heritage does not just come from Greece and Rome.  Western culture has many roots, though some have been celebrated in art and literature more than others.  Who hasn't heard of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the epic poems about Greek gods and heroes?  On the other hand, how many people have ever heard of the Elder Edda, the epic poem about Norse gods and heroes?  The poems in the Elder Edda were transmitted orally for centuries and finally written down in Iceland in the 13th century.

Our months of July and August may be named after Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, but our days are named after the Germanic and Norse gods.  For example, Thursday is Thor's day.

Thor was reintroduced to modern audiences in the movie Thor and its sequels, although secondhand via a comic book character.  You probably picture Thor as Chris Hemsworth (above, from the movie Thor, 2011).  That's actually not a bad image.  Thor was the god of thunder, but he was also the god of strength and a protector of mankind, and his weapon was his famous hammer.

The Norse and Germanic gods were not usually depicted nude like the Greek and Roman gods were, perhaps because it's colder in Northern Europe.  But there have been some nude representations.  This is an 1880s image of Thor by Hans Thoma from a calendar called Fest Kalender.

Thor is in many of the Norse myths.  Today we tell the story of Thor and the Midgard Serpent from the Elder Edda.  The Midgard Serpent, also called Jörmungandr, was a sea serpent that lived in the ocean that encircled the world.  The serpent was so long that it stretched all around the world and bit its own tail.

This illustration for the Elder Edda shows Thor and the serpent.  Thor is depicted as being suitably muscular, but the we don't get a feel for the size of the serpent.

The story begins with Thor visiting the land of the giants, where he meets the giant Hymir (above, by Lorenz Frølich in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark).  They decide to go fishing.

Thor asks for bait, but Hymir tells him to find his own bait.  So Thor cuts off the head of Hymir's finest ox to use as bait (above, by William Collingwood, 1908).

They go out to sea, and Thor tells Hymir to row farther and farther out.  Hymir is afraid, because the Midgard Serpent lives below.  Thor casts out his ox-head bait, and sure enough, the serpent takes the bait.  Thor begins to haul in the serpent.  The serpent spits poison, and Thor goes after it with his hammer (painting above by Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1790).  Thor's crotch is blurred in the painting, perhaps the 1790 equivalent of pixellation.

Thor fights the serpent in this sculpture by Anne Marie Carl-Neilsen, 1887.  No crotch-blurring here.

The story ends when Hymir, afraid for his life, cuts Thor's fishing line (above, by William Collingwood, 1908)).  The Midgard Serpent escapes back to the bottom of the sea, where it waits for the battle of Ragnarök at the end of the world.

We have many more stories of gods, myths and heroes.  Stay tuned.

Protests - Part 7

  National Penis Day, New Zealand

In 2002. the New Zealand AIDS Foundation declared National Penis Day "to highlight the need for men to be able to talk about sex in a healthy way and to be able to take seriously their own sexual health and that of their partners."  However, the group was prohibited from putting up billboards (above) to advertise the day.  Dare we say the AIDS Foundation couldn't get it up?  Under New Zealand law, the billboard was considered obscene.

AIDS Foundation director Ken Hague said, “What we wanted to depict in the billboard would have been acceptable on Swedish children’s television, for goodness’ sake. It is no coincidence that Sweden has much lower rates of sexually transmitted infections than does New Zealand when we men are continually told that we should be ashamed of our sexuality.  It’s about time we got over this silliness."

The following year, the foundation reached out to media outlets.  A rock FM station in Christchurch, New Zealand organized a protest in the city's Cathedral Square on National Penis Day, Sept. 4, 2003.  Listeners were asked to participate naked.  The guy standing is Alex Behan, a DJ at the radio station.

Several dozen participants showed up, plus hundreds of spectators.

Participants were told to arrange themselves in a pattern on the square, like a Spencer Tunick art piece.

Then they knelt down to form the finished pattern, a giant penis.  We're looking at two ovals, from which the shaft extends away from us.

At the tip of the shaft, Alex Behan addressed the crowd.  Hopefully, this event helped the AIDS Foundation get their sexual health message across.

Festivals - Part 8

Sunbury Rock Festival, Australia

The Sunbury Rock Festival was held from 1972 to 1975 on a farm near Melbourne.  Although there had been previous rock festivals in Australia, the 1972 Sunbury festival has been called Australia's Woodstock.

The festival was held on the Australia Day weekend in January, which is summer in Australia, and the weather was hot.

No problem.  There was a creek next to the festival grounds.

Here are some guys playing in the creek in 1972, with a brief bit of music from the festival: Australian group SCRA singing "Roly Poly."

Cooling off at the 1973 festival.

Nudity was not confined to the creek, like this guy strolling through the crowd in 1973.

Or this guy in 1973.  The woman is not showing the reaction that one hopes for after stripping.

This photo from the 1974 festival, by Australian fashion photographer Rennie Ellis, was called "Sunbury confrontation."  I'm not really sure what's going on.

The 1974 festival was notable, in retrospect, because the British band Queen, not yet famous, played at the festival and was booed, possibly because of their glitzy costumes, unlike the other down-to-earth rockers.  At the end of their performance, they were about to do an encore when the announcer asked the audience, "Do you want to hear these pommy poofters a little more or do you want to hear Madder Lake?"  Of course, the audience wanted Madder Lake, an Australian band.  As they left the stage, Queen singer Freddie Mercury told the audience, "When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world."

The 1975 festival was plagued by rain (it was nicknamed Mudbury), which caused poor attendance and financial losses, and that was the festival's last year.

College Streaking - Part 10

 Indiana, Iowa

We continue our un-coverage of the 1974 college streaking craze in alphabetical order by state.

Marian University, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 19, 1974.

Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, from the 1974 yearbook, the Quax.

Drake University, from the 1974 yearbook, the Quax.

Drake University, from the 1974 yearbook, the Quax.

University of Iowa, March 7, 1974.

University of Iowa, March 7, 1974.

Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, from the 1974 yearbook Fortress.

Much more to come.