Protests - Part 20

Republican Presidents

Democratic presidents have come in for their share of criticism, but it seems that critics of Republicans are more likely to get naked.  Above is a photo that we have seen previously of protesters at the Republican National Convention in 1972 that nominated Richard Nixon.  There were some naked women protesters, too, who I have cropped out.

A protester in a Nixon mask in 1974 as the Watergate scandal headed toward impeachment, which Nixon avoided by resigning.

Protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention that nominated George W. Bush.  They are AIDS activists protesting cuts in AIDS funding.

A 2007 protest in San Francisco was called Beach Impeach.  Protesters opposing the war in Iraq were calling for impeachment of President George W. Bush.  There only seems to be one naked protester.

The protesters, including the naked guy, lay down on the beach in a photo labeled "A is for Ass."  What's going on?

That's what's going on.  Although you can't see it, the naked protester was part of the letter A.

Another George W. Bush critic in 2009 poses by a street sign that conveniently says "End Bush."

in 2016, these World Naked Bike Ride participants were protesting Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Accords on global warming.

Protesters at Trump's inauguration on January 17, 2017.

These guys were part of a march in San Francisco supporting impeachment of President Trump in July, 2017.  I'm sure there will be more naked political protests in the future.

Boys and Their Balls - Part 18

 Basketball

Basketball is a favorite American sport.  I previously showed this 1967 photo of Bill Bradley, player for the New York Knicks, taken by LIFE photographer John Zimmerman.  Bradley went on to become a U.S. Senator.

Another vintage photo: Phil Jackson of the New York Knicks in 1973.

We have more recent pro basketball player photos thanks to the ESPN Body Issues.  Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers made the cover in 2015.

Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers.

Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics.

Above is Polish basketball player Iwo Kitzinger, in a photo that is certainly not from ESPN, because it's full-frontal.

This short video clip shows Anthony Davis of the LA Lakers in some kind of naked hazing rite when he was a freshman at the University of Kentucky.  Judging by his smiling and mugging at the end of the clip, he doesn't seem to mind too much.

But of course, basketball isn't just for professionals.  Amateurs everywhere like to shoot some hoops, like the guys above.

Here's a video clip of the same guys playing.  They're not great basketball players, but they're having fun.  And we're not really watching for their basketball skills, are we, as acknowledged at the end by the guy giving us a very brief wink.

Weighing In - Part 21

 Weigh-In Bulge

I had no information about this weigh-in video, but the athletes are wearing wrestling singlets that say RUS on the back, so they must be Russian wrestlers.  The fact that many of them are wearing masks means that it presumably dates from 2020 or later.  "Alrosa" on the front of their singlets is the name of a Russian diamond mining company.  Do Russian athletes have corporate sponsors now?  Alrosa is partially state-owned, so the athletes are presumably still state-supported one way or another.

Our hero is sporting quite a bulge, which he fondles both at the beginning and the end of this clip.

However, he's wearing his mask wrong, not covering his nose, as this helpful cartoon explains:

Beach Bums - Part 17

 Gunnison Beach, New Jersey

We previously saw this photo of a guy posing with a sign at Gunnison Beach, New Jersey.

Gunnison, sometimes referred to as Sandy Hook, is the only nude beach in New Jersey.  New Jersey state law allows towns and counties to prohibit nudity on beaches, and they do, but Sandy Hook is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which is Federal land, so state and local regulations don't apply.

Located right outside New York City, it can get quite crowded on a nice day.

But it's large enough that there are also empty stretches of sand.

Beach volleyball.  In the background, you can see the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.

Here's a better view of the bridge, and of something else.

And here's a view of the Manhattan skyline across the bay.  Sandy Hook is a hook-shaped peninsula to the southeast of New York harbor, so although we're in New Jersey, we're looking at Manhattan from the east, not the west.  That's lower Manhattan at the left and the Empire State Building at the center.

On July 10, 2010, Gunnison Beach participated in an attempt to set a record for the largest number of people skinny-dipping simultaneously in multiple locations, for the Guinness Book of World Records.  The event was sponsored by the American Association for Nude Recreation.  A total of 14,110 people skinny-dipped at over a hundred locations.

Performers - Part 20

 Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was a band that played from 1968 to 1985.  The name was inspired by the eyepatch worn by co-founder Ray Sawyer, who had lost his eye in a car crash, and a reference to the pirate Captain Hook in the fairy tale Peter Pan.

Above, the band posed naked for the cover of the gay magazine Zipper in 1973.

Although not known for nude performances, they did do a few.  Here are Sawyer and the other band members onstage for a Danish TV show before a live audience in 1973.

This is a higher-resolution photo of that Danish TV appearance.

Here's Sawyer apparently playing air guitar at another performance, date and location unknown.  This is not from the same event as above, because the decorations on his hat are different.

We end with some excerpts from a performance at the Roskilde festival in Denmark in 1976, where all the band members stripped naked, perhaps inspired by Roskilde's famous naked race event.  "It's too goddamn hot in Denmark, man," says a band member into the microphone.  "If you can do it, we can do it.  Shit."

Instruments - Part 14

 Viola

The viola is the slightly larger cousin of the violin.  Its sound is a bit lower-pitched and richer.  It's used in the orchestra and in string quartets, but it's almost never used in popular music.  It usually ends up playing the harmony while the violins play the melody.  Because of this secondary role, it's not a very popular instrument.  Far more people learn to play the violin than the viola.

That made it a challenge for me to find photos of naked viola players.  After much searching, I found one man, who appears in all of today's photos.  He is Victor Botene, a professional violist who plays in the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira (Brazil Symphony Orchestra), one of Brazil's foremost orchestras, in Rio de Janeiro.  The photo above is his official photo on the orchestra's website.

Here's a somewhat less official photo of him.

It turns out he is also a model and has done some nude modeling.

However, frontal views are always artfully concealed in his nude photos.

And this shot, partly obscured by curtains, is the only nude rear view of him that I could find.

I guess some things just have to be left to the imagination.

Events - Part 22 - Cambridge Best Bum Contest 2017-2018

 Cambridge Best Bum Contest 2017-2018

Each year, The Tab, a student media site run by students of Cambridge University, England, runs a Best Bum contest in which students send in rear-view naked photos of themselves at various sites around Cambridge.  All current Cambridge students can then vote for their favorite, and the first- and second-place winners are announced.  Both male and female students can enter the contest, but of course we're concentrating on the guys.

In the 2017 contest, this is Clive, above, studying Classics.

This is Morgan, studying engineering.

This is Roger, studying English.

This is Duncan, studying architecture.

in 2017, both first and second place were won by girls.  Sorry, guys!

In the 2018 contest, this is Giles, studying land economy.

This is Theodore studying vet med (I assume that means veterinary medicine).

This is Antonio, studying philosophy.

This is Leonard, studying geography.

The 2018 first place winner was a girl, but second place went to this duo: Barry, studying law, and Clive, studying mathematics.  Congrats, guys!

Who would get your vote for Best Bum in 2017 and in 2018?

I have more photos from other years, so we may see more Cambridge Best Bums in the future.

Vintage Military - Part 24

WWII - Australian Troops in New Guinea

We've previously seen American troops in New Guinea in World War II, photographed by LIFE magazine war photographers.  But the Allied offensive in New Guinea was a joint effort of American and Australian troops.  Here are some photos from the Australian War Memorial photo archive.

Above: Australian troops sharing an outdoor shower in Port Moresby, New Guinea in 1942.  Port Moresby, on the south shore of New Guinea, was held by Australia before the war, and the Japanese effort to capture it failed.  As the only port serving Allied operations in New Guinea, it was critical to the campaign.

Troops in Port Moresby relaxing in a stream after a march in 1942.  Of course they're swimming naked, because that's what soldiers did in those days.

Troops bathing in the Basari River in Soputa, New Guinea in 1942. 

Another photo of troops bathing in the Basari River in Soputa.

Somehow an American got into the Australian War Memorial photo archive.  This is Private Sal Corona from California swimming In a bomb crater in Buna, New Guinea on Jan. 8, 1943.  The photo is by LIFE photographer George Silk, but it's in the Australian War Memorial archive, not the LIFE photo archive.

Sergeant Ron Nation washing and bathing on Goodenough Island, an island off New Guinea, in June 1943.  The Australian War Memorial site lists the names of the men in these photos, which are now publicly available on the Internet, even when the photos show frontal nudity.  As I've said before, there's no privacy in the Army!

M.C. Curnow (left) & M. McPhail (right) on a tire In a stream in Tsili Tsili, New Guinea, November 1943.

Donadabu, New Guinea, Nov. 9, 1943  Troops of 7th Australian infantry brigade hold an impromptu swimming carnival in the Laloki River.  Lieutenant L. Hatton is standing at left. 

We end with RAAF pilot W.O.K. Hewett shaving in a stream in the Buna area in 1943.  New Guinea is almost on the Equator, and it gets hot.  Who needs clothes?