Night in the City was the highlight of Joni Mitchell's debut album in 1968, featuring Joni singing a duet with herself using what was at the time some fancy multi-track tape recording technology. I've accompanied it with some photos and video clips so that, to quote the song, "night in the city looks pretty to me."
Today we look at an aspect of the Hindu religion that the British found shocking when they ruled India in the 1800s.
The lingam, also known as Shiva linga, is an abstract representation of the god Shiva. Above is a stone lingam, representing the god Shiva, resting on a base representing the god Vishnu, which in turn rests on a base representing the god Brahma. These are the three primary gods of the Hindu religion: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.
What's so shocking about that? Although the form of the lingam is abstract, the lingam represents the penis of Shiva, and the yoni, which the lingam rests on, represents the vagina of his wife Parvati.
Some Hindus vehemently deny that the lingam represents a penis. I'm no expert on the Hindu religion, but I think they're being disingenuous. Yes, today, the lingam is an abstract representation of Shiva, but historically, it's pretty clear that it originally was a penis.
To see that, just look at the lingam statue in the Sri Kapileswara Swamy Temple, above, dating from the 3rd-1st century BC.
Chapter 12 of the 10th-11th century religious text Shiva Purana explains the lingam this way: There were once a group of sages devoted to Shiva living in the Daruvana forest. Shiva decided to test their devotion. He appeared as a naked old man. Holding his penis, he began to do perverse things. (The text doesn't say what perverse things, so we'll use our imagination, above.) The sages, deluded by Shiva's maya (illusion) cursed Shiva, saying "Let your penis fall on the ground."
Shiva's penis fell to the ground and started roaming around, burning everything wherever it went (above: penis art car at Burning Man 2009).
The sages asked the god Brahma what to do. Brahma told them that they had been despicable in not welcoming a guest who was the lord Shiva himself. Then he told them to pray to the goddess Parvati, the wife of Shiva, to hold Shiva's roaming penis. Parvati did so in the form of a vagina, and the penis stopped wandering and burning everything. This was the origin of the lingam. At the end of the story, it says that by worshiping that penis, all the people were happy.
But the association of Shiva with the penis is much older than that story. This coin of the Kushan dynasty, 130-158 AD, represents Shiva with an "urdhva linga" or erect penis.
This is an ithyphallic (erect penis) statue of Shiva from the 3rd century.
This statue of Shiva as the Lord of Dance, c. 800 AD, also has an erection. Are we starting to see a trend?
This is Kala Bhairava, a manifestation of Shiva with an erection and a garland of skulls
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Another statue of Shiva with an "urdhva linga."
Lakulisha, above, was considered an ascetic manifestation of Shiva, and his erection is said to represent ascetic seminal retention and carnal renunciation, the opposite of eroticism. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, it's a representation of blue balls.
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This 4th century statue represents Divilinga Lakulisha, an ascetic with great spiritual powers. And by the way, he had two penises.
In some parts of the Hindu world, the lingam is still openly associated with the penis, and penis-shaped objects are considered lucky, like these bottle openers for sale in Bali.
There's much more to the Hindu religion, including temples with sexually explicit carvings of gay sex, but that's a subject for another time.
The 1974 college streaking craze spread to Canada, too.
Above: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta on March 12, 1974.
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia on April 14, 1974.
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia on April 14, 1974.
Vancouver, British Columbia, April 14, 1974. A streaker takes the microphone at the annual Easter Be-In in Stanley Park.
Western University, London, Ontario.
Western University, London, Ontario.
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, March, 1974.
Loyola College, Montreal, Quebec.
A final bonus photo: a Western streaker (probably American) in Roppongi, Japan on March 15, 1974.
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But we're not done with the 1974 streaking craze! During the many months that I have been posting streakers, state by state, I've found more college streaker photos in states already posted. Stay tuned for more.
Every year, the summer solstice is also World Naked Hiking Day. Today's photos are all from the Appalachian Trail.
It's a day to celebrate being out in nature, like Brad McCartney on the Appalachian Trail in 2020.
You can hike alone or with a group of friends, like this group that did a summer solstice hike on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont in 2012.
It's a day to enjoy the sights of nature, like Bob Ogle on McAfee Knob in Virginia in 2015.
Or this unnamed hiker on Humpback Rocks, off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.
So, just get out there, like Danny Strayer on Moose Mountain in New Hampshire in 2018.
Of course, there are always some spoilsports. This sign was posted on the solstice in 2011 in a store in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, which the Appalachian Trail passes through. Well, that's no fun!
In Hawaii, where I live, the summer solstice this year officially happens today, June 20, at 11:13 pm, but because Hawaii is so far west, the solstice is tomorrow for most of the world. Tomorrow I'm posting another solstice event, so I'm going to start today with the celebration in Latvia.
Latvia celebrates the summer solstice with the festival of Jāņi. Traditional celebrations include making a bonfire and getting naked and skinny-dipping in a lake, as I posted last year.
The town of Kuldiga, Latvia celebrates with a naked run in the middle of the night, as shown in the video above that was taken from a broadcast on Latvian public TV in 2012. The narration is in Latvian, but you don't need to speak Latvian to enjoy the video.
The town is known for its 500-foot-long brick bridge across the river Venta – the longest bridge of its kind in Europe. At 3:00 am on the night of the summer solstice, which is the shortest night of the year, a group of locals, almost entirely male, run across the bridge naked.
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For those of you who celebrate the solstice tomorrow, not today (almost everyone), the summer solstice is World Naked Hiking Day. So if you like to hike and you know a spot where you won't get hassled, get out there and get naked!
Here are some more photos from the 2019 Fremont Solstice Parade.
The annual Fremont Solstice Parade is held on a weekend near the summer solstice. The parade begins with a bike ride where most of the participants strip naked and paint their bodies. The guy above is painted in a design like a Piet Mondrian painting.
Not everyone in the bike ride is on a bike.
I take it these are cowboys, from their hats and bandanas, but I'm not sure what their body painting was all about.
This lion is more orange than tawny, but it goes with the mask.
A minimalist costume that seems to have been made out of cock rings.
I think he's a faun.
Covered with rainbow stripes, is he trying to tell us something about his orientation?
Painted-on clothes, always a favorite motif. Or is this a comic book character that I'm not familiar with?
At the end of the ride, the participants end up in Gas Works Park where they continue to enjoy the day. Someone must have been playing music, because a bunch of people were dancing, including this guy.
The naked bike ride is only the start of the Fremont Solstice Parade, which includes musicians, dancers, and creative floats. Interestingly, printed words, signs and logos are banned from the parade. Motor vehicles are also banned, so the floats have to be carried or pulled by hand. Although he wasn't part of the naked bike ride, I couldn't resist showing you this guy with his orca.
The Fremont Solstice Parade happens today. It's an event in Seattle that's scheduled on a weekend near the summer solstice. The event was cancelled for the last two years due to COVID, so these photos are from 2019.
The parade begins with a bike ride where most participants strip naked and paint their bodies. Some very creative body-painting can be seen. Above, painted clothes are a favorite theme.
This guy is going as a British Grenadier Guard, with a painted-on uniform and fake bearskin hat.
Here's a referee and a guy who just went with artistic handprints.
Some are painted as specific characters, like Deadpool ...
and Captain America.
These guys went as bees. The guy in front was modest (riders are not required to be naked), but the guy in back is unashamed.
After the ride is done, the riders gather at Gas Works Park.
This body painting is a work of art. Van Gogh, to be precise.
There's usually a unicyclist or two in the parade.
We'll end with this group that went for a coordinated flower theme. The end guys are apparently green plants with giant flowers growing from them. There are three smaller female flowers, plus a bee to the left of them and another insect to the right (the orange guy – a wasp?) 2019 was before the war in the Ukraine, so I think these were meant to be daisies, but I can't help seeing them as Ukrainian sunflowers.
More 2019 Fremont Solstice Parade photos tomorrow.
