Not the Same Old Song - Part 46

Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat

Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat is from the 1950 Broadway musical Guys and Dolls.  In the plot, in order for a gambler to win a $1000 bet, he has to bring a bunch of his fellow gamblers to a meeting at the Save-a-Soul religious mission.  At the meeting, the gamblers are asked to confess their sins.  Gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson sings Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat.

It occurred to me that there were other ways that one could rock the boat.  My boat-rocking excerpts are from a video starring Adam Killian (top) and Chris Daniels (bottom).  And one of the whiskey photos is from Big Whack Attack.  Thanks, Pat!

Calendars - Part 52

 Red Hot Motel 2022

British photographer Thomas Knights has produced a series of Red Hot calendars fighting the prejudice in Britain against redheaded men or gingers.  His calendars present redheaded men as positive and desirable.  

The Red Hot calendars raise money to help fight testicular cancer, but unlike other British charity calendars, the Red Hot calendars do not hide frontal nudity; they revel in it.

Today's calendar is the 2022 calendar called The Red Hot Motel.  Above, the cover photo.

January shows a group of hot redheads.

Mr.  February enjoying a drink.

Another group in March.

April shows them out by the pool.

Mr. May seems to have been offered a bunch of cash in his motel room, and I'm guessing it's not for his guitar playing.

June shows a duo on the stairs.

Another pool group in July.  The palm trees in the background tell me that this motel is not in Great Britain.

Mr. August presents himself for our inspection.

Another group photo in September, including the cash.  The cash is American money, not British, which may be another clue to the location.

Mr.  October also has cash at his feet.

November shows a trio in a luxury tub or spa.

December satisfyingly shows an uncensored version of the cover photo.

Surprisingly, the back cover shows frontal nudity, although the front cover hid it.

We end with a bonus photo that came with the calendar, showing the whole calendar crew.

You can buy the latest Red Hot calendar (2024) for $24 plus shipping from Thomas Knight's website https://www.redhot100.com/products/red-hot-2024-calendar.  Note that the calendar images on the sales page are cropped; the actual calendar, as always, will show full-frontal nudity.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 47

Atlas

In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan, a type of early god that pre-dated the Olympian gods like Zeus.  The Titans fought the Olympian gods and lost, and Atlas was punished by banishing him to the western end of the Mediterranean (which was the western end of the world, as far as the Greeks knew) and making him hold up the sky.  This illustration from the 1665 book Tableaux du Temple des Muses shows Atlas holding up the sky.

The more conventional representation of Atlas showed him holding a globe representing the heavens.  This is the sky, not the Earth.  The images on it represent constellations and the symbols of the Zodiac.  This statue is the Farnese Atlas, a 2nd century Roman copy of an older Greek original.

A rear view of the Farnese Atlas.  Atlas was often represented nude, like many other Greek and Roman gods and heroes.  In those days such nudity was heroic, not obscene.

This 1550 painting is called Hercules Takes the Sky from Atlas.  The artist is unknown.  One of the 12 labors of Hercules that he had to perform was to fetch the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, who were the daughters of Atlas.  Hercules offered to hold up the sky for a while if Atlas got the apples from his daughters.  When he returned, Atlas decided not to take back the sky, but to leave Hercules holding it up, stranded.  But Hercules was smarter than Atlas.  He asked Atlas to take the sky back just for a moment so Hercules could put a pad on his shoulders to help him bear the weight.  Atlas took back the sky, and Hercules grabbed the apples and left, saying the ancient Greek equivalent of "So long, sucker."

In another variation of the myth, Hercules took pity on Atlas and created the "pillars of Hercules" to hold up the sky, freeing the Titan from his long labor.  The pillars of Hercules were the rock of Gibraltar on one side of the entrance to the Mediterranean, and on the other side, a mountain in Morocco now called Jebel Musa.  To this day, the mountains in northwest Africa are called the Atlas Mountains.

Above, a statue of Atlas holding up the sky at the Doge's palace in Venice, c. 1580.

But at some point, the globe of the sky that Atlas was holding up got confused with a globe of the Earth.  Also, the word "atlas" came to mean a book of maps of the Earth.  Nowadays, almost all representations of Atlas show him holding up the Earth, even though it makes no sense (where would he be standing?).

Above is a brochure from the bodybuilder Charles Atlas, showing the naked Charles Atlas holding up the Earth.  He was born Angelo Siciliano in Italy, but he moved to Brooklyn, changed his name, and became famous selling his exercise program.

I got this photo from the blog Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Here's a 1947 photo by Al Urban of bodybuilder Jack Gallagher posing as Atlas holding up the Earth.

And here's another view of Gallagher from that same photo session.

The idea of Atlas holding up the Earth remains popular.  Above, a marcher in the Vancouver Pride parade in 2010.  He's not exactly a strongman, but at least he's naked.

However, some artists and photographers have had fun with the idea of what Atlas is holding.  Here's a 2012 photo of Atlas holding a disco mirror ball.

And this 2024 photo is called Atlas of the Cube.

But some people still know that Atlas holds up the sky, not the Earth.  We end with this 2019 photo taken in a shop in Athens, showing a statue of a naked Atlas holding up a globe decorated with constellations, not continents.

Olympics - Part 1

Olympics 1896-1920

Today is the start of a series on nudity in Olympic athletes.  The modern Olympics started in 1896 in Athens.  There was no official poster for the 1896 Olympics.  Above is the cover of the 1896 Olympic program.  There's no nudity – or is there?  To the right of the woman is a small image of a famous sculpture of the naked infant Hercules battling a serpent, which is a story from ancient Greek myth and a reference to the athletes as the modern Hercules.

In the ancient Greek Olympics, the athletes were all male and they competed nude.  Unfortunately, this nude tradition was not revived in the modern Olympics, but some Olympic athletes have been photographed nude outside of the games or portrayed nude by artists.

Above, British athlete Launceton Elliot won a gold medal in weightlifting in the 1896 Olympics.

Greek runner Spyros Louis won the marathon in the 1896 Olympics.  The 1989 statue above, In Memory of Spyros Louis by Nikolaos Perantinos, honors him in a modern version of an ancient Greek kouros statue.

The 1900 Olympics were held in Paris, along with a World's Fair.  Many athletes didn't know whether they were competing in Olympic events or World's Fair events.

French scientist and polar explorer Jean Baptiste Charcot won two silver medals in sailing in the 1900 Olympics.  Ten years earlier, he had been photographed nude kicking a football (above) by motion picture pioneer Albert Londe.

The 1904 Olympics were held in St. Louis, also in conjunction with a World's Fair.  Again, there was confusion about whether competitions were Olympic events or World's Fair events.

I couldn't find any nude photos of 1904 athletes, but the statue above of Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich by Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamson won an art contest at the World's Fair.

Lurich did not compete in the 1904 Olympics, but here's a photo of him posing as Hercules, c. 1900.

This butt-naked statue of Vulcan was also exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair, above.  It's the largest cast-iron statue in the world, and it now resides in Birmingham, Alabama.

Another butt is seen on this Grand Prize certificate for the World's Fair.  Olympic gold medals were also awarded.

The 1908 Olympics were held in London, and it was finally just an Olympics, not a World's Fair, so there was no confusion about the competitions and the awards.  Above is a gold medal from the 1908 Olympics depicting a naked athlete being crowned with a laurel wreath.

The 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, had the first official Olympic poster, above, with an almost-nude figure waving the Swedish flag.

One of the Olympic athletes in 1912 was Swedish runner Ivan Lönnberg.  He later became a painter, and this is a self-portrait from 1914.

The 1916 Olympics were cancelled due to World War I.

The 1920 Olympics were held in Antwerp, Belgium.  Above, a 1920 Olympic poster.

French weightlifter Ernest Cadine, above, won a gold medal in the 1920 Olympics.

And here's a more revealing photo of Cadine.

Next time: Olympic games 1924 to 1932.

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 56

Mercury

The Roman god Mercury (known to the Greeks as Hermes) showed up at the WNBR in London on June 11, 2016.

How do we know he's Mercury?  Because of his winged helmet and sandals, though this up-to-date god's helmet is a baseball cap, and his sandals are sneakers (trainers, if you're British).

Then he showed up again the next day at the WNBR in Brighton.  For thousands of years, artists have depicted Mercury with wings on his cap and at his ankles, but otherwise naked, just like this guy.

Mercury was the winged messenger of the gods.  I'm not sure what these guys are doing.  Maybe they're sending a message.

Although the WNBR is a bicycle ride, participants don't have to ride bikes.  Some walk, some use a skateboard.  Mercury is using a scooter.  Is it powered by his wings?

He heads out onto the street.  Behind him is a policewoman.  The police in England are tolerant and supportive of WNBR riders.

He wings it down the street.

He stops for a call.  Of course this modern Mercury, messenger of the gods, has a cell phone.

Then he's off again.

We end with a rear view of our winged messenger.