Artists - Part 16

Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley, born 1952, is a British sculptor best known for his image of Queen Elizabeth II that appears on all British coins since 1998, and his memorial statue of Princess Diana that was unveiled this year.  But his favorite subject seems to be male nudes.  Here he is in his studio with a male model.

This is Torso of Aron.  Aron was and continues to be one of Ian's favorite models.

This is St. George Slaying the Dragon, a quintessentially British subject.  Portraying St. George naked is, surprisingly, somewhat traditional, as we'll see in a future Gods, Myths and Heroes post.

The statue above is called Towards Another.  Talking about his predilection for male nudes, Rank-Broadley says, "I realised that the female nude had, to a large extent, been robbed of its power by the commercial world of advertising, whereas the the male nude still retained a power that could excite, grab attention and shock. The reaction of the spectator to the male figure was stronger, whether out of competition, fear or embarrassment. It proved to be a potent image. For me, the sculptor, this fact reinforced the work with a greater resonance and meaning."

Although many of his sculptures echo classical Greek and Roman works, those works always had a tiny nub for a penis (anything larger was considered vulgar).  Rank-Broadley's nudes are more realistic in the penis department.  In his statue of wrestlers in the Malmesbury Abbey gardens, above, one wrestler seems to be getting excited.  Perhaps that  illustrates Rank-Broadley's observation that "the male nude still retained a power that could excite, grab attention and shock."

This statue is called Helios, God of the Sun.  It's very different from classical statues of gods, because instead of portraying a powerful, fearsome deity, it portrays a playful youth.

This statue is called Lord Rochester, His Whore and a Monkey.  It was commissioned by British publisher Felix Dennis for his sculpture collection called Garden of Heroes and Villains.  Lord Rochester was a 17th century English poet at the court of King Charles II in the Restoration era, in which people reacted against the previous Puritan era with openly bawdy behavior.

Both Lord Rochester and Felix Dennis, who commissioned the sculpture, drank and whored while writing poetry, which made this subject dear to Dennis' heart.

We end with Heroic Torso.  Note the lizard perched on the statue's penis.  Rank-Broadley wrote, "The lizard attempts to conceal the maleness of the figure, and yet becomes a focus of attention."  This statue could give a whole new meaning to the term "drain the lizard."

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 17

2021 Other Than Britain and U.S.

Judging from the relatively small number of WNBR photos this year, it seems that many WNBR events were cancelled.  But quite a few still went forward.  We've already looked at WNBR riders in Britain and the U.S.  Today we look at the rest of the world.

Toronto, Canada (above).

Montreal, Canada.

More riders in Montreal.  One seems to have racing stripes.

Mexico City, Mexico.

Two riders getting ready for the ride (or just showing off) in Rennes, France.

Pinocchio and friends pose at the WNBR in Amsterdam.

Brussels, Belgium.  You don't often see a reclining bike.

We end with another rider in Brussels talking to an apparently friendly policeman.

Protests - Part 14

Extinction Rebellion, London

Previously we showed a protest in Cambridge, England, by the international group Extinction Rebellion, which is pushing for action to combat climate change.  This time, we see a more recent Extinction Rebellion protest that was staged in a bank in London on Sept. 3, 2021.

The video above explains what they're protesting while the protesters strip.  Unfortunately, the nudity is pixellated.

No problem, because I found some uncensored photos of the protesters.  Here they are, stripping.

There were six of them, three men and three women, but one of the men was shy.  I'm glad to see that they were all responsible citizens and wore COVID masks.

HSBC stands for Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, but HSBC UK is a British corporation, and it's a major British bank.

We can see here that the naked protest actually took place inside the bank, not outside on the sidewalk.

My sympathies are with the protesters.  When Greenland and Antarctica melt (and with the current level of inaction, it's a matter of when, not if), sea level will rise by 70 meters (230 feet).  That will wipe out every coastal city on the planet, not to mention almost the entire state of Florida, and almost the entire country of Bangladesh (population 165 million).  Yes, it won't happen for a long time, but the time to act is now, before global warming becomes irreversible.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 8

Maui

Maui is a demi-god in Polynesian mythology, not to be confused with the Hawaiian island of Maui.  Stories of Maui the demi-god existed long before the Hawaiian islands were discovered by Polynesian voyagers from Tahiti.

If you saw Maui in the Disney movie Moana, that's not a very good representation of him.  According to Polynesian legends, Maui was not a big hulking guy.  Instead, he was small, but very strong.  He was called a trickster, but unlike the Norse trickster god Loki, Maui was not evil.  His tricks demonstrated that he was clever.

There are many stories about Maui.  Polynesia extends across a vast distance from New Zealand in the west to Easter Island in the east to Hawaii in the north, plus many other islands in between.  The legends in the different islands have similarities, indicating common origins, but there are also differences, to be expected in places that are thousands of miles apart.

For example, there is a Maori legend in New Zealand that Maui, while fishing with his magic fishhook, caught it on something and pulled up out of the ocean the island of Te-Ika (the North Island of New Zealand), as depicted on the New Zealand stamp above.  There is a similar legend in Hawaii about Maui going fishing and pulling up the Hawaiian Islands.

On the stamp, Maui is tattooed, as is traditional among the Maori.  Above, a recent New Zealand tattoo design.

Today we're going to concentrate on two legends.  The first is the story of how Maui slowed down the sun.  This legend exists across Polynesia, with variations.  We'll look at the Hawaiian version.

In the story, Maui's mother complained because the days were so short, she could not dry the kapa cloth that she was trying to make.  Kapa, called tapa in southern Polynesia, was made by pounding the bark of certain trees into a pulp, then spreading the pulp very thin and drying it out in the sun.

Maui vowed to help his mother.  He climbed to the top of the mountain Haleakala (on the island of Maui).  Hale means house in Hawaiian, a ka means "of the", and la means sun.  Haleakala is literally "house of the sun."  In the story, the sun traveled directly over Haleakala.  In one version, the sun had 16 legs (presumably the "legs" were rays of the sun).  Maui. using ropes, snared the 16 legs until the sun was helpless.  Maui made the sun promise to travel more slowly before letting it go.

The linoleum block print above by Hawaiian artist Douglas Po'oloa Tolentino shows Maui snaring the sun, not by its legs but around its middle.

This is a 1992 statue by Shige Yamada at the airport on the island of Maui.  It depicts Maui releasing the sun after the sun promised to go more slowly.

Our second legend is the story of Maui and Te Tuna.  Te Tuna, sometimes just called Tuna, was not a tuna fish.  He was a giant eel, a kind of sea monster.  (Tuna is the southern Polynesian word for eel.)  This is the version of the story from the Tuamotu Islands, south of Tahiti.

In the story, Te Tuna lived under the sea with a woman named Hina.  She was not satisfied with him and went in search of a better lover.  Coming up on land, she found Maui, who took Hina as his wife, and they lived happily and loved passionately.

The illustration above by Ul de Rico, showing Maui and Hina making love, is from the book The Legend of Te Tuna by Richard Adams, author of the fantasy classic Watership Down.  Adams had visited Tahiti where he heard the legend of Maui, Hina and Te Tuna, and The Legend of Te Tuna is an early work of his with semi-pornographic illustrations.

Anyway, Te Tuna found out about his wife living with Maui.  When he asked about Maui, he was told that Maui was small and had an inferior penis.  Encouraged by this information, Te Tuna approached the island where Maui lived and exposed his penis, which was so large that it caused a tsunami (I am not making this up – that's in the myth).  Maui's mother Huahega urged her son to reveal his own penis.  Maui did so, causing the tsunami to roll back and expose the ocean floor.  Apparently, Maui's penis wasn't so inferior after all.

After that, strangely, Te Tuna, Maui and Hina all lived together for a while, but then Maui and Te Tuna decided that they had to fight it out to see who would get Hina.  The legend now gets even stranger.  The rivals agreed that their combat would consist of each entering the other's body.  You can interpret this how you want, but some versions of the legend talk about entering the intestines.  First, Te Tuna shrank down to a small size and entered Maui.  Above is one artist's porn depiction of the eel entering Maui.  I have to say that it seems consistent with the legend.  (Update: as Joseph pointed out, it looks more like a fishhook, not an eel.  So we'll have to imagine the eel entering Maui.)  Anyway, Maui suffered no harm. and the eel exited from Maui.  Then Maui entered the eel (perhaps with his not-so-inferior penis?) and the eel exploded.  Afterwards, Maui (or his wife or his mother) planted the eel's head, and out of it grew the first coconut tree.

In the New Zealand version of the legend, Tuna attacked Hina, who was Maui's wife but was not previously Tuna's wife.  Maui then killed Tuna with his club, as shown on the New Zealand stamp above.  I don't know what all the things projecting from Tuna's body are.  Some of them seem to have fish heads, but some look suspiciously like penises.

In the Hawaiian version of the legend, Hina was Maui's mother, not his wife.  Hina lived in the great cave formed by a lava tube behind Rainbow Falls in Hilo (above), on the island where I live.  The monster was named Kuna (the Hawaiian version of the word Tuna), and it was not an eel but a giant lizard, something like a dragon.  Kuna attacked Hina by blocking the river below the falls with a great stone.  Behind the stone, the river began to rise and Hina would have drowned in her cave.  She called to Maui for help.  Maui was far away at Haleakala, but with two mighty strokes of his canoe's paddle, he reached the river, smashed the rock dam with his stone club, and then killed the lizard Kuna.  A long black stone in the middle of the river below the falls is said to be the remains of Kuna.

NOTES:

1. Tsunamis.  The myth of Te Tuna shows that the Polynesians knew about the phenomenon that, in a tsunami, the ocean retreats, exposing the sea floor, before rushing in again in a flood.  Modern science explains this as the trough and peak of a wave traveling through the ocean, not as the result of a contest to see who has the biggest dick.

2. Polynesian linguistics.  Polynesian languages are closely related, but the spelling differs.  The letter T in other Polynesian languages such as Tahitian does not exist in Hawaiian.  T always becomes K in Hawaiian.  So Tuna becomes Kuna and tapa cloth becomes kapa.  Another example: the Hawaiian word kapu, which means "forbidden", corresponds to the Tahitian word tapu and the Tongan word tabu, noted by Captain Cook, which became the English word taboo.

College Streaking - Part 17

Ohio, Oklahoma

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

Above, Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, from the 1974 yearbook Chestnut Burr.

Kent State University, from the 1974 yearbook Chestnut Burr.

Kent State University, from the 1974 yearbook Chestnut Burr.

Kent State University, from the 1974 yearbook Chestnut Burr.

Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, from the 1974 yearbook Athena.

Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.  An Unidentified Streaking Object, March 1974.

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, March 8, 1974.

University of Cincinnati, March 8, 1974.

University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, from the 1974 yearbook Kendallabrum.

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving, conjuring up images of good things on the table.

A time to get together with friends, like this 1974 photo by Pat Rocco of SPREE members at Chet Sampson's house.

Or a time to get together with family, like these Germans in a 1935 photo.

This year, because of the pandemic, many of us won’t be getting together physically.  But we can always stay in touch by phone, and this year, there's Zoom, as demonstrated by favorite unashamed male FKK lad.

The cook has his own way of kneading the dough.

He's stirring up something good.

And he's checking on the turkey.  Is everyone hungry?

Who wants stuffing?  Raise your hands.  (1942 photo by LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel.)

This guy looks ready for pumpkin pie.  Or maybe he wants stuffing.

And let’s not forget those who are less fortunate.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Vintage Athletes - Part 16

1955 World Series

The 1955 World Series pitted the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Above, a typical locker room scene after a game.  Yankees pitcher Don Larsen is being interviewed at right while the naked player at center is ignored by the crowd.

(Photo by LIFE photographer George Silk)

A celebration in the Dodgers locker room.  The Dodgers won the World Series for their first time ever.

(Photo by LIFE photographer Grey Villet)

Dodgers pitcher Karl Spooner heading to or from the showers.

(Photo by LIFE photographer Grey Villet)

I don't know who the player is who's receiving manly kisses from his teammates, but he must have helped them to their sweet victory.

(Photo by LIFE photographer Grey Villet)

Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres, right, pitched a shutout in the 7th game, clinching the series for the Dodgers.  He was awarded the first MVP in World Series history.  Even his foes congratulated him.  Here, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra (left) is giving Podres what the caption called a "congratulatory pat."  To me, it looks a little friendlier than just a pat, more like Yogi is about to pull Johnny in for a congratulatory smooch.

(Photo from New York Daily News)