Events - Part 78

 Burning Man 2024

Burning Man is an annual event focused on community, art and self-expression.  Today we'll look at Burning Man 2024.

Burning Man is held in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, a featureless playa (dry lake bed).  As part of the focus on self-expression, the event is clothing-optional, and many attendees are naked.

Overnight, a tent city springs up consisting of hundreds of "camps".  

This guy found a way to attract even more attention with the placement of "eyes".

Can I say things are looking up?

In recent years, Burning Man has featured a Naked Pub Crawl.  These participants seems to have been issued yellow mugs.

More Naked Pub Crawl participants.

And two more in the shade.  It can get hot in the desert sun.

But what could be hotter than all those naked men?  It's a heaven for unashamed males.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 69

 Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain is a song written in 1929, but it was popularized by Gene Kelly singing it in his 1952 romantic comedy of the same name.  My version uses Gene Kelly's version of the song.

Weighing In - Part 78

 Clifford Starks

Clifford Starks (born 1981) is an American mixed martial arts fighter who competes as a Middleweight.  At the UFC 137 event in Las Vegas in 2011, he did not strip naked to weigh in, but as he was stripping down to his undershorts, the camera caught sight of something (above).

He won the fight against Dustin Jacoby.  In an interview afterwards, he was happy with the fight, and he joked that while weighing in he had "let it all hang out."  Well, it happens.

Starks' overall record is 14 wins and 5 losses.

Poem of the Day - Part 78

 Limerick by W. H. Auden

The great 20th century British-American poet W. H. Auden, in addition to his major social and psychological works such as The Age of Anxiety, wrote some bawdy limericks.  We saw one earlier.  Here's another one.

As the poets have mournfully sung

Death comes to the innocent young.

To the rolling in money,

To the screamingly funny,

And to the very well hung.

Artists - Part 81

 Bror Hillgren

Bror Hillgren (1881-1955) was a Swedish painter, author and fairy tale illustrator.  Above, self-portrait, 1902.

Aktstudie (nude study), above.  

Hillgren mainly painted clothed subjects, but he produced a number of nude paintings, almost all male.  Above, L'Enfant Nu (Nude Child), 1931.

Bathing Boy.

Boy by Water.

Nakenstudie (Nude Study).

Two Youths in a Bathhouse.

Nakenscen (Nude Scene), 1943, is an unusual subject.  It appears to be illustrating a play or other nude production onstage.

Nakenmodel (Nude model), 1943.

We end with Male Nude in Landscape, 1940s.

Beach Bums - Part 75

 Studland Beach, England

Studland Beach is an official nude beach in Dorset on the south coast of England.  The boundaries of the nude area are clearly marked.

Another entrance sign with a guy showing us that naturists may be seen ...

from the front and the rear.

The beach is wide and sandy.  You can see that some people have put up tents or shade cloths.  You might make a new friend ...

or get together with a bunch of old friends ...

or play in the sand or the water ...

or laugh at a friend's joke.  Altogether, it's a place to have fun.

No, not that kind of fun.  The beach is far too open for public sex.

And when it's time to go, there's a sign for that, too.

What to do afterwards?  Perhaps you could pig out at this nearby hotel and restaurant.

Gods, Myths, and Heroes - Part 72

Hakada Matsuri

Hadaka Matsuri is the Japanese Naked Festival, a time-honored festival in the Shinto religion that is held in many places around Japan.  Depending on the location, it may be held in February or November.  Participants wear only a fundoshi (loincloth) and tabi (socks).

Part of the festival is a ritual for getting rid of bad luck.  In Japan, it is considered unlucky for a man to be age 25 or 42, so many men aged 25 and 42 participate.

One man is chosen as shin-otoko (God man).  The chosen man is not lucky.  He is literally unlucky.  His purpose is to draw bad luck from everyone else.  He is 42 years old, or 25 if no 42-year-olds can be found.  Sometimes the shin-otoko is completely naked (above).  He is carried through the crowd.  The belief is that if you touch him, your bad luck will be transferred from you to him.

The shin-otoko is mobbed by the crowd of nearly-naked participants trying to touch him, so he is accompanied by attendants who throw buckets of cold water to try to ward off the mob (above).  Remember that this happens in February or November in Japan, when it is very cold.

Above, the men in the crowd are jostling to try to touch the shin-otoko before he is carried into the Konomiya shrine in Inazawa.

We end with a short video of the naked shin-otoko being dragged into the Konomiya shrine.  Drenched with cold water or not, they try to touch him.  In fact, they try to hit him, because they believe that the harder they hit him, the more bad luck will be transferred to him.

In the olden days, after the shin-otoko had received everyone's bad luck, he was driven out of the village.  Nowadays, the Shinto priests perform a special ceremony to cleanse him.  He ends up covered in bruises from being touched and hit.  So, even if you don't believe in the Shinto religion, you have to admit that it's unlucky to be the shin-otoko.

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 81

Melbourne, Australia 2019

Today we look at the World Naked Bike Ride held in Melbourne, Australia on March 16, 2019.  Above, a participant paints himself with tiger stripes, though he seems to be a chartreuse tiger, not an orange one.

Another rider getting painted with a happy face on his back ...

and another happy face on his front (and he seems to have been caught red-handed).

The ride begins.  I like the clever slogan on the rider at right: "pubic transport."

The riders pass the unique Pixel Building in Carlton.

They stop to rest (and for a photo) at the Old Melbourne Gaol.  ("Gaol" is an archaic spelling for "jail".)

In front of the gaol, one rider's slogan "See me now" expresses one of the World Naked Bike Ride's goals: to get drivers to pay attention to bike riders all the time for safety's sake, not just when they're naked.

The rear view of See Me Now.

"Fragile Treat With Care" expresses the same goal: to get drivers to pay attention to bike riders and treat them with care on the road.

This guy expresses the other main goal of the World Naked Bike Ride: to try to get more people to ride bikes instead of driving cars, thus reducing the harmful emissions that cars produce.

Riders pose in front of the Department of Education building at Treasury Place.

Riding past St. Patrick's Cathedral.

WNBR riders pass a wedding party, giving this couple something extra to remember about their wedding day.

Riders stop for a photo at the Melbourne Museum.  The weirdly tilted building in the background is the Children's Museum.

Back on the road.

Passing the North Melbourne Town Hall.

The ride ends where it began, outside The Third Day, next to its street art painted by Australian artist LushSux.