Halloween 2023

Halloween

Several cities have held naked pumpkin runs on Halloween, with people running around naked except for footwear and a pumpkin (or pumpkin facsimile) on their head.  

Previously we saw naked pumpkin runs in Boulder, Colorado.  Today's photos are from the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

I'm afraid this guy's headgear – a paper bag and some leaves – doesn't look much like a pumpkin, but I can't complain about the rest of his body.

Here are some naked pumpkin runners in Fremont in 2007.

In 2008, these pumpkin runners stopped into a garden store called The Indoor Sun Shoppe.

Then they went out by the statue called Waiting for the Interurban, greeting the Ride the Ducks tourists going by.

Here's a group in 2010 crossing the street.  As in many of these naked events, some women, like the one on the right, don't seem to grasp the concept of "naked."  Naked does not mean topless.  Naked means naked.

The same group crossing another street.

We end with the same group posing by the statue of Lenin in Fremont.  Wait a minute!  We know that Fremont is a very liberal neighborhood, but why is there a statue of Lenin there?

It turns out the statue came from Czechoslovakia.  After the USSR fell, many Communist monuments were toppled.  In 1993, an American found it in a Slovak scrapyard.  He bought it and brought it to Seattle, but he died before he could display it.  Since 1995 it has been "temporarily" displayed on this prominent street corner in Fremont.  Despite conservative criticism of the city government for endorsing "communist chic," the statue is actually on private property and the city had nothing to do with it.

But it makes for an interesting photo.

Happy Halloween!

College Streaking - Part 48

 Aarhus University 2015

Today we return to the annual nøgenløb (naked race), the opening event of the Kapsejlads spring festival at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark.  The runners, mostly male but with a few females, run a course that goes around the side of a pond. Then they jump into the pond and swim across. The first one to make it to the other side of the pond wins.

Today's photos are from the 2015 race.  Above, the race begins.

The pack of runners at the front.

This guy is running for laughs, not to win ...

as is this guy.  Written across his chest is "nøgne Jacob" (naked Jacob).

As you can see, Jacob has nothing on beneath his flotation device.

The leading runners jump into the pond to swim across ...

while Jacob spends more time hamming it up for the audience.

At the other side of the pond, the swimmers wade out ...

and this guy is the winner.

We end with a video of the race, from the serious contenders to the also-rans to naked Jacob bringing up the rear.

Calendars - Part 43

 Naked Rugby Players 2018

The Naked Rugby Players Calendar was the result of six gay-inclusive British rugby teams coming together to celebrate positive body image and gay/straight inclusiveness in sports with a nude calendar.  Money raised from calendar sales supports Balls to Cancer, a charity that assists people fighting cancer and their families.

March featured the Manchester Village Spartans, the second gay/inclusive team in the UK.

April featured the King Cross Steelers, based in London.  They were the first gay/inclusive team in the UK.

June featured the Northampton Outlaws.

July showed the Newcastle Ravens exercising with tires (tyres, if you're British).

August showed the Swansea Vikings in a line-out.

We end with a nice rear view of the Caledonian Thebans.

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 47

Jérôme Jolibois

Previously, we saw this man with a green mustache at Christopher Street Day celebrations in Berlin (above, in 2017).

I also noticed him in photos from several World Naked Bike Ride events, including London, Amsterdam, and Brussels, Belgium.  Above, at the WNBR in Brussels in 2018.

One of the Brussels photos gave his name, Jerome Jolibois, and said that he's not just a rider, he's the organizer of the Brussels WNBR.  Jerome moved to Brussels from Paris, France in 2004.  He quickly discovered that Brussels was not well set up for cyclists.  He launched Brussels' first WNBR in June, 2005 to get public attention for bicycle safety and better bike routes, and he has been running the Brussels WNBR ever since.

This is the earliest photo of him that I could find, from the 2006 WNBR.  He looks much younger – he hadn't grown a beard or mustache yet, and his hair was just starting to go gray.

Here he is at the end of the 2013 Brussels WNBR.  Now he has a beard and mustache, but it isn't green.

The 2014 Brussels WNBR is the first one where he dyed his mustache green.

The 2015 Brussels WNBR.  In addition to organizing the event, he always participates in it.  In fact, he leads the cyclists out of the park where the ride begins.

Here he is in Square Frère Orban at the end of the 2015 Brussels WNBR.  The writing on his back seems to be a reference to zero grams of carbon dioxide being generated by riding a bike (compared to cars, which burn fossil fuels and generate CO2).  Thanks to Descamisado for this interpretation.

Organizing the WNBR includes hosting other events like this party, held months before the 2015 bike ride, to publicize it.  As a dedicated naturist, he shows up naked, here accepting the embrace of a fellow naturist (or is the guy just taking a selfie?).  By the way, Jerome's mustache wasn't green at this party, leading me to believe that he only dyes it green for special events like WNBR and CSD.

Here he is at the 2016 Brussels WNBR.

The 2017 Brussels WNBR.

You may not realize how prominent he is at the Brussels WNBR events.  He's pretty much front and center.  Above is a video that I edited down from a 12-minute video of the 2018 Brussels WNBR.  I removed everything not showing Jerome.  The footage of Jerome that remains still fills one and three-quarters minutes.

Jerome's activism goes beyond advocating for bicycle safety.  He is the first naturist elected to the Brussels City Council.  He belongs to the Ecolo-Groen party, which pushes "green" environmental issues.  Perhaps that's why he dyes his mustache green.

We end with the "Dan Late Show", a Belgian late night TV show, with Jerome as a guest on May 27, 2016. He walks onto the set and is interviewed stark naked. I cut it off after he tells the host "Bonjour."  After that, it's the same view of him on the couch, as they talk about the upcoming 2016 Brussels WNBR.  The show is in French.  If you speak French (I'm thinking of you, Laurent) and want to see the whole interview, it's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E26ruNvgTE0

Instruments - Part 37

Violinist Chris Marchant

When producer Mark Cortale saw a young man playing Mozart and pop songs on the violin on a street in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2010, he snapped photos and posted one on Facebook.  "My Facebook page exploded," Cortale recalled.  "I had a lot of friends in the classical world who wanted to know who this guy was."

The violinist was Christopher Marchant (above).  This isn't the Facebook photo (he wasn't playing naked on the street), but he was shirtless, and you can see why people were interested in him.

Cortale took Marchant to lunch, pitching the idea of performance that would mix pop and classical genres.  Marchant proposed doing it as a quartet.  Within a year, three more musicians were found and the Well Strung Quartet (above) was born.  From left: Trevor Wadleigh, viola, Edmond Bagnell, first violin, Daniel Shevlin, cello, and Chris Marchant, second violin.  All the musicians are young, gay and good-looking, but Marchant is the hunkiest.

Marchant is the only member of the quartet who has posed nude ...

though not full-frontal.

Another nude photo shoot ...

and another, this one by photographer Marco Ovando for a story called Grind n' Roll.

Another Grind n' Roll photo.  Marchant is at right.

Then a set of casting photos of Marchant was leaked, including this rear view ...

this side view ...

and finally, this front view.  Click on the photo for a larger image.

Oh, and in case you forgot, Chris Marchant plays the violin. The Well Strung Quartet does mashups of classical and pop music. This video is a mixture of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone. I extracted and merged some clips from the video to shorten the song, but it should give you an idea of what they sound like. You can see the full video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJTVSyt7eMQ. Chris Marchant is the violinist, second from the left.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 38

David and Goliath

You're probably heard the Biblical story of David and Goliath.  David, a Jewish shepherd boy, kills the Philistine giant Goliath with a slingshot and a stone.  The most famous representation of David is of course the statue by Michelangelo, above, c. 1501.

Why is Michelangelo's David uncircumcised?  Because Michelangelo's models were all uncircumcised Italians.

But Michelangelo was not the first artist to depict David.  Around 1440, Donatello made this sculpture of David standing on the head of Goliath, which he has just cut off with Goliath's sword.  This was the first standing nude male sculpture created since the fall of the Roman Empire.  By the way, he's uncircumcised, too.

To us, this David looks campy, with long hair, hand on hip, and an effeminate hat.  Did it look like that to the 15th century Florentines?  I don't know, but we do know that Donatello and Michelangelo were both gay.

Here's a rear view of copies of Michelangelo's David and Donatello's David in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Mantegna painted David with the Head of Goliath c. 1490, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.  Although it looks three-dimensional, it's a painting.  And he's uncircumcised.

David and Goliath has been a popular subject for artists.  Above, David Remerciant Dieu d'avoir Frappé Goliath (David thanking God for having struck Goliath) by J.E. Chaponniere, 1834, in Geneva, Switzerland.

David Vainqueur de Goliath (David Conqueror of Goliath) by Antonin Mercié, 1870, in Toulouse, France.

David and Goliath, painted by Arthur Kampf, 1905-1915.  A good-looking blond David, even if he looks nothing like a Middle Eastern shepherd boy.

David och Goliat by Swedish sculptor Ivar Viktor Johnsson, 1921, in Zurich, Switzerland.  From this angle, we can just see the tip of his uncircumcised penis.

The Boy David memorial for World War I machine gunners, by Francis Derwent Wood, 1925, in Hyde Park, London.  What does David have to do with machine gunners?  In small print, the memorial quotes the Bible: "Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands."

David nackt (naked David) by Garl Geiser, 1959, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.  Geiser also made a clothed David statue.

The Boy David on the Chelsea Embankment, London, by Edward Bainbridge Copnall, 1963.

The story of David in the Bible continues.  After David's victory over Goliath, Saul, the King of Israel, was jealous of David's success and hated him.  Saul proclaimed that David could marry his daughter, but her dowry price was a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, thinking that David would be killed fighting them.  Whereupon David and a band of men killed two hundred Philistines, and David brought the foreskins to the King.  Above, a bowl of foreskins (don't ask).

Here's this weird Bible story illustrated with Lego blocks.  Well, somebody had to count those foreskins!

But there are two sides to every story.  We end with some evidence that Goliath has his admirers, too.