Tadeas Ruzicka, born in 1997, is a Czech kickboxer.
Ruzicka competed as a light middleweight at the W5 Grand Prix Kitek 32 event in Moscow in April 2016.
While weighing in, he was slightly over the weight limit and had to strip off his shorts.
Here he covers up, but we got a peek at him. No need to cover up, Tadeas! You're looking good!
Ruzicka went on to fight Sergey Chadon. Chadon won.
Today's poem is the nursery rhyme Star Light Star Bright. When we grow up, we can still wish, but we may wish for different things.
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.
Yesterday we saw some of photographer/artist Douglas Simonson's photos and paintings of Diamond Head Beach. Today we'll look at more of his artwork.
Born in 1950, he grew up in Nebraska and studied art at the University of Nebraska. In 1971, he fulfilled his dream of escaping to the tropics by moving to Honolulu, Hawaii.
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In 1979 he began photographing, drawing, and painting the male nude, which has been his focus ever since. Above, a Hawaiian surfer.
This is called Happy Couple in Hawaii.
Yellow Wall, 1995.
Kneeling Darin in Color, 1999.
Jonny, 2000.
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Under Sail, 2007. The model is Renato.
In 2012, Simonson moved back to Nebraska; then in 2014 he moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he has lived ever since.
Above is an untitled drawing from Mexico in 2020. Note to Big Dude, who likes photos with penis shadows: here's an artist's drawing with a penis shadow.
Simonson has been depicting full-frontal nudity in art since 1979, but some of his art goes further. A relatively tame example dates from 2007, above, called Heads Up, and indeed it depicts a head that's rising up.
But in recent years he has gone further still. Above, A Helping Hand, 2017.
On the Daybed, 2021.
Jet Propelled, 2023. Does he get live models to pose for these artworks?
We end with a 2022 painting called Goteando, which is Spanish for "dripping". I don't think I've ever seen this depicted in a painting. It brings artistic realism to a new high – or is it a new low?
Honolulu, Hawaii is famous for Waikiki Beach, above, fronted by luxury hotels, with Diamond Head in the background of this view. Diamond Head looks like a mountain, but ...
It's actually the crater of an extinct volcano, seen here from above. Between Diamond Head and the ocean is another beach, Diamond Head Beach.
This is Diamond Head Beach, with a lighthouse on the slopes of Diamond Head. It's harder to get to than Waikiki Beach, so it's not thronged by millions of tourists.
Some locals use it as a nude beach, although nudity is officially illegal. Above, Michael Mayer on the sandy part of the beach.
This guy calls himself Keyblade Master.
Here's Kyle Michaels on a more rocky part of the beach, where authorities are less likely to bother nude beachgoers.
Hawaiian photographer and artist Douglas Simonson, whose art and photos we have seen in previous posts, likes to photograph models nude on Diamond Head Beach, especially in the early morning when the beach is usually deserted. The rest of today's images are by Douglas Simonson. This photo is called Antonio Jogging.
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Above, Early to the Beach with model Tommy.
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Here's Tommy again in Sand Everywhere. And it does look like Tommy got sand everywhere 😊
A result of that session at the beach: Simonson's drawing above called Tommy Nude at Diamond Head Beach.
Here's Simonson's painting of Rod at Diamond Head Beach.
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We end with Simonson's painting of Diamond Head Beach called Shawn's Sunrise Stretch, 2002.
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Tu'er Shen is a Chinese Taoist god. The story goes that in the 17th century, a soldier named Hu Tianbao fell in love with a handsome local magistrate in Fujian Province in southeast China. One day he spied on the magistrate taking a bath (above). He was caught peeking, and he confessed his affection for the other man. The magistrate had poor Hu Tianbao sentenced to be beaten to death.
After death, because this was a crime of love, the officials in the next world corrected the injustice by making Hu Tianbao into the god of homosexual love, Tu'er Shen.
The new god appeared in a dream to a local villager. The village then built a shrine to Tu'er Shen, which became very popular
Tu'er Shen is also known as the rabbit god (above). Note that in the second image he has rabbit ears. Why a rabbit? In Chinese folklore there are several stories of rabbits relating to gender and sexuality. Over time, the term rabbit evolved into a slur meaning a queer person. Making the god of gay men a rabbit can be interpreted as an ironic reclamation of the once-derogatory term.
Here's another depiction of Tu-er Shen with small rabbit ears.
And another, on a more explicit Valentine's Day card.
Subsequent governments got rid of the shrine to Tu'er Shen in Fujian province. But in 2006 a temple to Tu-er Shen was built in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Known as the Wei-ming temple, almost all of its congregants are gay. It is visited by over 9000 gay pilgrims each year. Above, Stefan and Sebastian, the Nomadic Boys, visit the Wei-ming temple.
In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to recognize gay marriage.
As far as I know, the Taoist religion is the only one in the world that has a god of gay love.
Today's photos are from the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) in Mexico City in 2016, by Mexican artist Felix d'Eon, whose art we have covered in earlier posts. This is Felix being uncharacteristically modest and covering up.
Here's Felix (at left) with some friends.
You don't have to be naked at the World Naked Bike Ride – it's "as bare as you dare" – and you don't even have to ride a bike. This guy rode on skates.
A rear view of the riders for those who appreciate rear views.
This guy's body paint expressed one of WNBR's goals: to get drivers to pay attention to bike riders on the road all the time, not just when they're naked, because they're fragile compared to cars. The other main goal is to encourage people to ride bikes rather than driving cars, because cars cause pollution that bikes don't.
We end with a rear view of Felix d'Eon (at right) and friends.
We continue our series of photos from the Tartu Ãœlikooli museum of anthropology in Estonia.
For those who haven't seen my previous posts in this series, a few words of explanation. The museum provides no information about the men, other than the photos came from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu. In particular, it does not say who these men are, or when or why the photos were taken. However, the photos are labeled "Füüsilise antropoloogia pildistus" (physical anthropology photography).
Who are these men? My best guess is that they are military recruits. The very short haircuts suggest that these photos were taken during or shortly after the enlistment process.
Many of the men in this series have dark faces and hands. Are they are tanned from working outside like farmers, or are they dirty from some dirty occupation? We don't know.
Note: the dark faces and hands are not as visible in today's post as in some previous posts, but still faintly visible in some of the side views. Perhaps the photos in today's post were taken in the winter, when farmers would not be spending as much time outside getting tanned.
When were the photos taken? My best guess is between World War I and World War II, when Estonia was an independent country with its own military. Before WWI, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, and after WWII, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
A clue to the time frame is that these photographs were made on glass plates, not film. Dry glass-plate photography started in 1871 and began to fall out of use in the 1920s. I found some references to it in Estonia through the 1930s.
One other clue to the time frame of these photos is that in two previous batches, one of the men is wearing a wristwatch. Wristwatches were considered to be for ladies before World War I. (Men used pocket watches.) However, during the war, wristwatches proved very useful for soldiers and pilots. After WWI, wristwatches came into fashion for men.
Although wristwatches were evidently rare in Estonia (only two men wore a wristwatch among the hundreds that were photographed), it suggests that these photos are post-World War I.
Since the use of glass plates fell out of use in the 1920s, I think the photos were most likely taken shortly after World War I.
Although these appear to be military recruits, these are probably not military photos. We know that the museum that currently has the photos got them from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu. If these are military photos, why would they end up at the Institute of Anatomy?
I believe the photos were taken by academics doing a study of physical anthropology. Scientists at the Institute of Anatomy were trying to measure what they considered racial characteristics of the population by measuring the body, including phrenology (measuring the skull), ideas which are now discredited.
I think that the scientists at the Institute of Anatomy may have persuaded the military to let them take photographs of the naked new recruits for "research" purposes. I have no written evidence to support this idea, but since the photos were at the Institute of Anatomy, and the photo subjects appear to be military recruits, it's now my best guess as to what happened.
One other question that perennially arises from these photos is: why were the men photographed in pairs? Was it to save film?
The answer is that these photos were made on glass plates, not film, but glass plates were more expensive and involved more labor than film, so yes, it's likely that the men were photographed in pairs to save on glass plates.
So, bottom line: My best guess is that these photos were taken after World War I, the subjects are new or recent Army recruits, and the Estonian military allowed scientists from the Institute of Anatomy to take photos of the naked recruits for a study of physical anthropology.
