New Year's Eve 2022

 New Year's Eve

For some of us, New Year's Eve means watching the ball drop on TV.  But for others, it's time to party!  One of our favorite unashamed males, the late Kirill Tokarev, at center, got to be the DJ for Young Nudists and Naturists America at their 2010 Nude Year's Eve Party in New York.

His new friend Mark (at left) was getting into the music.

Mark's tattoo says "Music lives on."

At some point they joined most of the crowd on the building's rooftop.  They didn't get to see the ball drop at Times Square, but they were right next to the Empire State Building, which is lit up in the background.

If you're going to a New Year's Eve party, be sure to dress for success.

Of course, champagne is a must.

And then it's Happy New Year!

Instruments - Part 25

 Synthesizer

The synthesizer is a keyboard instrument that generates sound electronically.  Most synthesizers can generate a wide variety of sounds, imitating other instruments as well as making non-traditional sounds.

Most synthesizers have a built-in amplifier and speaker to play the sounds, so the instrument can be played stand-alone ...

Or it can be connected to a computer through a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) connection.

Synthesizers are not much used in classical and jazz music (despite the success of the early synthesizer album Switched-On Bach by pioneering transgender musician Walter/Wendy Carlos), but they are used by many rock groups.  This is Russian rocker Sergey Shnurov with the band Leningrad.

Earlier, we saw the digital piano, above, which has a full 88-key keyboard and produces one sound: the sound of a grand piano. 

Synthesizers produce all kinds of sounds, but they have smaller keyboards.  The 5-octave (61 key) keyboard above is typical.

This synthesizer keyboard is only 4 octaves (49 keys), but that seems to be enough to make this guy happy

Playing just one key seems to be making this guy happy.

We close with a short clip from singer-songwriter-producer John Legend's video Funny or Die showing him at his synthesizer.  This guy is multi-talented: he has won the Academy Award, the Emmy, the Tony, and twelve Grammy awards.  Sorry the video is pixellated, so you'll have to use your imagination.

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 34

 Bristol 2015

Here's something you don't see every day.  I'm talking about the tricorn hat that this guy wore in the 2015 WNBR in Bristol, England.

The tricorn hat was popular in the late 1700s, but it went out of style around 1800 and has not been seen since then.  You may associate it with the American Revolution, or possibly with pirates, but it was a popular style both in America and in Europe.  Someone commented "Poldark?" on the photo above, referring to a British TV mini-series that was shown on PBS Masterpiece Theater in 2015.  It was set in Cornwall, England in the late 1700s, and the title character wears a tricorn hat just like this (except he's not naked).

Anyway, this rider was wearing his tricorn hat with style.  Here he is waving his hat near the front of the group as the riders pass through Frog Lane in Bristol.

Someone made dozens and dozens of photos of the WNBR riders from above as they rode down Frog Lane, allowing me to put together this gif showing our Poldark doffing his hat as he rides.  Hats off to all the naked bike riders!

Events - Part 33

Mr. America - Part 1

Last time we looked at male beauty contests, clothed and unclothed.  There's another male parallel to the Miss America and Miss Universe contests: bodybuilding contests.  Contestants wear skimpy briefs but are not nude.  However, many of the winners, understandably proud of their bodies, have posed nude outside the contest.  Today we look at winners of the Mr. America contest.

The beginnings of the Mr. America contest were confusing, with several bodybuilding contests in 1938 and 1939.  Bill Hillgardner, above, won the "Finest Physique" contest in 1938, and some consider him the first Mr. America.  I got this photo from Men From Back Then.

Bert Goodrich won the "America's Finest Physique" contest in 1939, and some consider him the first Mr. America.

But in 1940 the first contest actually called Mr. America was held.  The winner was John Grimek, above.  He also won the 1941 contest.  After that, the rules were changed so you could only win once.

Jules Bacon was Mr. America 1943.  Photo by physique photographer Al Urban.

Clarence Ross was Mr. America 1945.  Photo by physique photographer Russ Warner.

Steve Reeves was Mr. America 1947.  Later, he became an actor and showed off his muscles in sword-and-sandal films such as Hercules.

John Farbotnik was Mr. America 1950.  I got this photo by physique photographer Al Urban from Vintage Muscle Men.

Roy Hilligen was Mr. America 1951.  I also got this photo from Vintage Muscle Men.

Jim Park, at right, was Mr. America 1952.  He's seen here with Vic Seipke in a photo by Clifford Oettinger that I got from ... guess where ... Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Next time: more Mr. America photos.  Stay tuned.

Ads - Part 30

 Chiaro's Pizza

Chiaro's Pizza & Restaurant in Sellersville, Pennsylvania ran this ad in a free magazine sent to local residents in February, 2022.  Nothing remarkable, right?

Take a closer look at the pattern that the milk is making in the cappuccino.

Somebody had taken this original cappuccino photo ...

and Photoshopped this image of Wardy Joubert, aka Barry Wood, onto the cappuccino.  This photo, which has become a meme, itself had been Photoshopped (his dick is big, but not that big).

Here's the X-rated result.  IMHO, it was very skillfully done.

The pizza shop was mortified that their proofreaders had approved the ad without noticing anything, and they apologized to their customers on Facebook.  But the public reaction seems to have been amusement.  One person commented, "Next week's special will be sausage pizza, yes?"

Boxing Day 2022

 Boxing Day

In Britain and some Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day, much to the bemusement of Americans who imagine a holiday devoted to boxing matches.  Actually, the name originated from the custom of giving a "Christmas box" of money or small gifts to servants and tradesmen on the day after Christmas.  Nowadays, it's another shopping holiday.

But that doesn't mean we can't celebrate Boxing Day with photos of pugilists.

We start with John L. Sullivan in 1892, the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing and the de facto first heavyweight champion of boxing with gloves (from 1882 to 1892).  He was the first boxing superstar.

Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926.

German boxer Max Schmeling, world heavyweight champion from 1930 to 1932.

Joe Louis, world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949.  He is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time.

Rocky Graziano, world middleweight champion in 1947, in a photo by Stanley Kubrick that appeared in LOOK magazine.

Sugar Ray Robinson, world welterweight champion from 1946 to 1951.  Some regard him as the greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound.

Mike Tyson, world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990.

We end with Cassius Clay at the 1960 Rome Olympics.  He later changed his name to Muhammad Ali and was world heavyweight champion, with some interruptions, from 1964 to 1978.  He is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

Happy Boxing Day!

Christmas 2022

Christmas

Here's another version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  As usual, I slightly altered some of the wording – for example, who wants four calling birds when you could have four (naked) college nerds?

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Twelve drummers drumming

Eleven pipers piping

Ten lords a-leaping

(Members of the Royal Australian Air Force diving into a water hole, Darwin area, Australia, 1943)

Nine laddies dancing

Eight men "got milk"ing

Seven swimmers swimming

Six guys a-laying

Five golden rings

Four college nerds

(Cal Poly State University students streaking in 1974)

Three French men

(French rugby players Arthur Garrigue, Alexandre Didy and Thomas Lode)

Two purple gloves

And a partner who'll bare with me.

(Favorite unashamed male FKK lad, at right, with his boyfriend Toby.)

Merry Christmas to all of you!