Men in Full

From the Hong Kong International Art Fair of 2009, some interesting sculptures. (Click each photo to enlarge.)

( The Guardian at the Gates, and one more - all NSFW )

(from the NSFW site largermen on tumblr.)


What *is* it about big men with babies in their arms? Or kittens, puppies, lambs, kids for that matter? For one thing, to me it shows that gentleness and nurturing aren't only "feminine" qualities. Perhaps the little beings just feel safe in those arms.

From the photographer's comment:

Squatter Jesse James washes his hair in the hot spring just outside of Slab City. The spring well was developed in the 1970’s as a school project by a student studying at the University of California, San Diego. It is now the central bathing area for the community of squatters and nomads that inhabit Slab City. (NOTE: the vignette is completely in camera and not artificially created.) (Link)

( NSFW, Evening Bath )

epi_lj linked me to these excerpts from a Volstagg comic book. I don't follow comics, so this was quite a treat.





( Four more of Volstagg )

From Fast Company, via Andrew Sullivan comes a peek at the maker of the Double Rainbow viral video.



(click to enlarge)

His name's Paul Vasquez, but his alias "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant" fits him so much better. From the Fast Company interview:

When I shot the video, I was not high at all, I was not having sex, and I was not hiking, as a lot of people assume ... People think you can only have that kind of experience on drugs," he explains. "But you don't have to be--you can have the experience with nature without having to be high or having sex.

Most assuredly.

Here's another shot of Yosemitebear:

Many images of fat men, for whatever reasons, tend to focus on individuals or pairs rather than groups. I for one like shots of men with multiple subjects. There's something powerful about men in groups. Some of it might be atavistic, back to the days when cooperative and concerted effort among people first evolved. Some of it is just "the more the merrier."

In Jungian psychology, the animus is supposed to be the expression of masculinity inside a woman's mind (the corresponding element for the other gender is the anima.) So each of us is a bit androgynous. While you don't hear a lot about the group anima (multiple women), Jungian psychologists do mention the group animus, which can appear in stories and dreams. Sometimes the group animus can be frightening, when represented for instance by a gang, or aggressive sports team, or enemy combatants. But the group animus can be loving and positive as well, like Dorothy's bevy of friends in The Wizard of Oz. The images below the cut (some NSFW) show that positive group animus.

( Six, some NSFW. Click for larger image. )

There's something about guys getting dirty, whether it's through work or play, especially when they're rolling around in the mud. I guess I got inspired by my back yard, which has been underwater for weeks.




(link, NSFW text. Click to enlarge.)



( Two more, NSFW )

Earlier "Men of Earth" (also NSFW)

Thanks go to obedientlyyours, which reminded me of Orson Welles' birthday today (his 95th, although he unfortunately passed in 1985.) Above, he plays seedy and corrupt detective Hank Quinlan in his film, Touch of Evil.


( Much Orson picspam, all SFW )

ETA: Earlier, Orson Welles' cameo appearance in Theodore Roszak's novel Flicker.

South African tenor Johan Botha (below, left) played Lohengrin in London's Royal Opera 2009 performance (link.) Reviewer Melanie Eskenazi remarks, "Johan Botha does not possess the ideally heroic stage presence for the title part, nor would he be accurately described as a Heldentenor, yet his singing is always expressive, finely phrased and sensitively shaped." I wonder if his supposed lack of an "ideally heroic stage presence" was a catty reference to his being fat.






Here's Botha singing "Morgenlich leuchtend" from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg:

I'm tired tonight from gardening, and am off to watch Neil Gaiman's mini-series Neverwhere, but I thought I'd leave you all with this amusing and NSFW photo under the cut:

( Cut to save you embarrassment at work )