Calendars - Part 26

 Red Hot 2018

Last time, we saw how British photographer Thomas Knights began producing a series of Red Hot calendars to try to fight British prejudice against gingers by presenting redheaded men as positive and desirable.  In 2018 he produced two calendars.  The first, Red Hot British Boys, followed the same rules as the previous year.  No frontal nudity, just a little teasing, like Mr. April pulling down his pants to reveal his red bush.

And, like the previous year, Red Hot British Boys included rear nudity, like the shot above.

But Knights' second 2018 calendar, Red Hot Cocks, broke new ground.  Every image in it was full-frontal.  It wasn't hard-core porn – there was no sex – but it was certainly not the kind of calendar sold at your local bookstore.

Last time we saw Mr. January.  Now we'll see the rest of the months.  Mr. February, Myke, has quite a mustache, but you may not have been looking at his mustache.

Mr. March, David.  Note that all the models are giving us the finger with one or both hands.

Mr. April, Harley.  So, are those fingers a threat or a promise?

Mr. May, Andy.  Given their smiles, I think it's a promise.

Mr. June, Nathan.

Mr. July, Shaun.

Mr. August, Steven.  I thought this guy looked familiar.  It turns out his name is Steven Di Costa, and he's a neuroscientist in London, but while he was studying for his PhD, he did gay porn under the name Leander (search for "Leander gay porn" and you'll find him).  This guy is multi-talented!

Mr. September, Robert.

Mr. October, Andrew.

Mr. November, Nils.

And Mr. December, Jorgen.

In 2019, in addition to another Red Hot Cocks calendar, Knights produced a Red Hot Butts calendar.  Stay tuned.

College Athletes - Part 5

 College Locker Rooms

The guy in the foreground is recording a video in the locker room of the Indiana University Hoosiers football team.  I'm guessing he's doing some kind of victory dance after a win.  But if you take a video in a men's locker room, you have to expect there will be naked men there.  In this case, his victory dance gets totally photobombed by the guy walking past.

A similar thing happened to this guy in the locker room of the Purdue Boilermakers football team.

I don't know what this video in the Rutgers football team's locker room is about, and why it says "Ft ABC Pants."

In any case, my attention was on the guy without pants, who I have zoomed in on (above), offensive lineman J.D. DiRenzo.  DiRenzo transferred to Rutgers this year, so the video must be recent.

And sometimes there's nobody in the foreground, and it's just a scene in the locker room, in this case, the Syracuse Orangemen.  By the way, in 2004 they were renamed the Syracuse Orange (instead of Orangemen) so as not to be sexist.  But viewing this gif, I think we can confirm that they're men.

Performers - Part 27

 Hamlet

Shakespeare in the park is nothing new for New Yorkers.  But in 2017, Torn Out Theater presented a nude version of Hamlet in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan.  Jake Austin Robertson (at center) played Hamlet.

The theater company does projects that "push the boundaries of how we see the human body and what we assume about modern sexuality."

This version was not only nude, but the cast was all-male.  Ophelia was played by Marcus Stewart, above.  Ironically, this is ultra-traditional.  In Shakespeare's time, women weren't allowed to act on the stage, and all of the female parts in his plays were played by male actors.  Of course, they weren't naked.

Mike Press played Laertes.

And Giordano Cruz played Hamlet's friend Horatio.

The actors all started out clothed and then gradually lost their clothes.  Here's Hamlet with two others, maybe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who seem to be in the process of losing their pants.

"To be (naked) or not to be (naked)?  That is the question."

"Get thee to a nunnery!"

Nude public performances are legal in New York, but only performances, not rehearsals, so the cast had to rehearse indoors.  The first time they got naked in public was at the first performance.

"Alas, poor Yorick!  I knew him, Horatio."

At the end of the play, Laertes (above) and Hamlet fight and mortally wound each other.

But let's end on a more upbeat note.  To quote Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man!"

Instruments - Part 21

 Cymbals

Cymbals are a percussion instrument used in orchestral, rock and pop music.  They are descended from an ancient instrument called crotales, which consisted of small metal hand-held disks that were struck together.  Above is a Roman statue of a dancing faun playing crotales.

Modern cymbals are large metal disks that can be smashed against each other at an orchestral climax, or they can be mounted on a vertical rod as part of a drum set and played by striking them with a drumstick.  Above is the drummer of the Brazilian band Das Bandas do Oficina playing the drum and cymbals.

A variant of the cymbals in a drum set is the hi-hat.  This consists of two cymbals mounted on a pole with a foot pedal that brings the cymbals together.  Above, the drummer of Das Bandas do Oficina is playing the drum and striking the hi-hat.  Most of the time, he keeps the hi-hat closed (the cymbals are pressed together) so it produces only a muted sound when struck, but from time to time he opens the hi-hat to produce a different, louder sound.

Here's a guy with a drum set in his back yard in San Francisco in 2011.  He's playing the drums and cymbal.  He also has a hi-hat at the back of the drum set, but he's not using it.

One final instrument related to the cymbals is the gong.  It's also a metal disk, and it produces a similar sound.  The larger the gong, the lower the pitch.  This brief clip with a large gong is from the opening credits of the 1955 movie The Ladykillers.  By the way, I recommend the movie.  It's an early Alec Guinness black comedy in which a bunch of crooks are foiled by a little old lady.

Vintage Military - Part 31

 World War II - Finland, 1944

Finland continued fighting the Soviet Union, which had invaded Finland shortly after World War II broke out in Europe.  Because the USSR was fighting Germany and was therefore an ally of the U.S. and Britain, the U.S and Britain refused to help Finland fight the invading Russians.  So Finland turned to Nazi Germany, and in this period, Germany helped Finland against Russia.

These photos are all from SA-Kuva, the great Finnish archive of World War II photos.

Finnish soldiers having a naked snow fight after taking a sauna, April, 1944.

Some Finnish soldiers at the doorway of a sauna in June, 1944.  The guy sitting down has a nice set of low hangers.

An officer and three men in June, 1944.

An improvised outdoor shower, July, 1944.  It looks like this will be a very quick shower unless he has a buddy to keep refilling the bucket.

A group of soldiers around a lake in July, 1944.  Finland has 188,000 lakes, and the Finns love playing in and on their lakes.

Need to lay cable across a lake?  No problem.  Strap a reel of cable to a naked guy's back and have him wade or swim across.  Note another cable-laying guy in the background.

August, 1944. I think these guys are washing up.  The guy in the center is shaving.

Another guy shaving.  I think he's holding a small mirror with one hand so he can see what he's doing.

We end with another sauna group in September, 1944.  If there wasn't a sauna handy, soldiers would make one, like this one dug into the ground and roofed with logs.  Finns gotta have saunas!

Events - Part 29

Castro Street Fair

The Castro Street Fair is an annual LGBT street festival held every October in the Castro district of San Francisco, the city's main gay neighborhood.  Hardly any attendees are naked, but hey, this is San Francisco, so there are always a few.  Above is Samuel Clarendon at the fair in 2018.

The event was started by Harvey Milk and the Castro Valley Association in 1974, and by 1977, attendance was 70,000.  In 2012, supervisor Scott Wiener introduced legislation to ban public nudity in San Francisco, resulting in nude protest demonstrations, including these folks at the Castro Street Fair.

Nudity activist Trey Allen tried to influence politicians with his "Naked People Vote" sign.  But it didn't work.  The following month, the politicians passed the anti-nudity legislation.

This guy at the 2012 fair didn't seem political.  I guess he just liked to hang out naked.  Here's a front view of him ...

And a back view.  What's up with the pink beehive hairdos?  It's a San Francisco street fair, where the unusual is usual.

Others rallied to the cause, like this guy on a rooftop waving a flag with the sign on his chest "Stop Censorship!"

Nudity activist George Davis, above at the 2013 fair, decided to run for Supervisor against Scott Wiener.   The Board of Supervisors in San Francisco is like the city council in other cities.  His nude campaign attracted media attention, but he lost.

If you like bears, you might appreciate this 2018 attendee.  How do people get away with being naked, now that it's against the law?  Because the law made exceptions for certain events, like street fairs, that had traditionally allowed nudity.

These guys set up a booth in 2019 offering to pose with you for a photo for free.  Who wouldn't want to pose with someone with such a big ... heart?

The fair is for people of all ages.  Here are a couple more attendees in 2019.

Here's Samuel Clarendon, who we saw in the first photo, with a friend in 2019.

The fair was cancelled in 2020, but it was back in 2021.  Here's our friend Samuel again.

A cute couple in 2021.

We end with this 2021 cat in a hat who looks like he stepped out of the 1960s.  Groovy!  Like, peace and love, man!