You're the Top is a song by Cole Porter from the 1934 musical Anything Goes. A number of different versions of the song have been recorded. This recording is by Bing Crosby.
I don't think Cole Porter had any idea of what the lyrics "Baby, if I'm the bottom, you're the top" would mean today, as the terms top and bottom describing sexual roles only became common in the 1950s. In any case, I couldn't resist illustrating this song.
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Frank Leight (1912-1990) won the Mr. America contest in 1942. I could not find a photo of the 1942 contest. Above, in the 1940 Mr. America contest, Frank Leight, at left, came in 2nd. At right is the 1940 winner, John Grimek.
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Leight was a New York City policeman. He worked at the NYC police academy as a physical training instructor. In 1943 he posed for Lon of New York, above.
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Another photo by Lon of New York. Leight was 6 feet tall and weighed 210 pounds. He held the unofficial record for the weighted abdominal raise, which is doing a sit-up while holding a barbell. Leight was said to have done the abdominal raise while holding between 110 and 150 pounds – accounts vary.
Daan Breeuwsma, born in 1987, is a Dutch short track speed skater. He competed in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. Above, Daan skating in the World Short Track speed skating championships in Rotterdam, 2017.
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He was photographed by Dutch photographer Ewoud Broeksma, who specialized in nude photography of athletes, especially Olympic athletes.
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Another photo of Daan Breeuwsma.
We end with this color photo.
Today is Election Day. Get out there and vote if you haven't already! It's the only way that we can save our democracy.
This isn't a political blog, but I suspect that most of you are gay, and most of you are appalled by what has been happening politically.
So when Donald Trump says to vote as if he's on the ballot, please do.
Today is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico. The holiday is traditionally celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, though it can extend to other days depending on the location.
The purpose of the holiday is to remember and pay respects to family members and friends who have died. Holiday traditions include using calaveras (skulls or skeletons).
When we think of death and skeletons, we tend to think of scary things, like the sculpture above of Collin Maillard by sculptor Daniel Hourde that was exhibited in Paris in 2016. Collin Maillard was a 10th century warrior who had his eyes gouged out during battle, but he continued to fight.
But in Mexico, Dia de los Muertos is not a scary occasion. Its spirit is closer to this picture of Naked Jeff at the Burning Man festival, 2014. People put flowers on the graves of relatives. The message is that death is part of life, and the dead are not forgotten.
For Halloween this year we present a bunch of rather minimal Halloween costumes designed by nudist model and photographer Marco Arkoudakis. Marco is modeling the costumes himself. Above, Batman.
A ship's captain.
A doctor.
A king.
The god Pan.
An old-time aviator.
A pioneer.
We end with a plague doctor. In 17th century Europe, doctors treating outbreaks of the plague really did wear beak-like masks, though they also wore long robes.
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These are the winners of the 1965 Mr. Universe contest. At left, English bodybuilder Reg Park won in the professional division, and at right, New York bodybuilder Elmo Santiago won in the amateur division.
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Reg Park did not pose nude that I am aware of, but Elmo Santiago posed for photographer Lon of New York.
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Another Lon of New York photo, with Santiago at left and Raul Pacheco at right.
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We end with a side view of Santiago by Lon of New York.
Calixto Bieito, born in 1963, above, is a Spanish opera director known for his radical interpretation of operas, including nudity. Here are scenes from some of the operas that he has directed at opera houses throughout Europe.
Duncan Meadows, above, played the executioner in Salome by Richard Strauss at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008.
Above, Armide by Gluck at the Komische Oper, Berlin, 2009.
Andrew Richards played Parsifal in Wagner's Parsifal, Stuttgart, 2010.
Ina Krigleborn as Agatha and Vincent Wolfsteiner as Max in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz at the Komische Oper, Berlin, 2012.
Under Bieito's direction, Vincent Wolfsteiner leaves nothing to the imagination.
The plot of Der Freischutz involves a shooting contest, but Bieito seems to have updated the weaponry.
Bieito is still doing radical opera staging. Above, the whole chorus is naked in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Vienna State Opera, 2022.
Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu (1800-1874) was a very early French photographer. He had a career as a civil servant, rising through the ranks until he was dismissed and forced into retirement in 1850 for reasons that are unclear.
Meanwhile, he had become interested in the new technology of photography. The daguerrotype was first publicly demonstrated in 1839. Durieu may have been taking daguerrotypes as early as 1842.
Durieu became friends with the artist Eugène Delacroix, and together in the 1850s they experimented with Durieu taking photographs and Delacroix making art from them. Durieu was particularly interested in nudes, both male and female, which provided Delacroix with suitably artistic subjects. Above is an undated Durieu photo of a nude man with a pole.
Here is an undated Durieu photo of a sitting nude man.
And above we see a drawing by Delacroix where the figures at the center and right are clearly based on the previous two photos by Durieu. The figure at left probably was, too; but I couldn't find the corresponding photo.
Here's a nude man resting on a leopard skin c. 1854.
And a side view of another man on the leopard skin, c. 1854.
A nude man that Durieu presumably photographed for Delacroix, c. 1855.
And what looks like the same man holding a different pole, c. 1855.
Durieu's photos are very old, so naturally they are not all in prime condition, but I think the photo above, labeled Male Nude Studies 1853-54, is still in remarkably good shape.
Today we look at the 2021 Naked Men of Color calendar produced by Concharts.
It was printed in magazine format, with each date page facing a photo page. This calendar had none of the prudishness about showing the penis common to many nude calendars, as you can see in January, above. But note that the the same photo on the cover is missing the penis. Presumably they did that so the calendar could be displayed for sale in public as a closed magazine.
But once you open the calendar, nothing is hidden. Here's February.
There are rear views as well. March.
April.
May.
June.
We end with July, which is as far as my source went.
