No Speed Bumps

2012-02-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

My Current Cyberspace Squeeze

Jackson is at the top of my cyber squeeze list, and I mean the very top - well, for the moment, fickle internet porn traveller that I am.

Curiously he's way better in action than in stills - as the clip below proves beyond a shadow of a doubt.

For me a lot of it has to do with his hairy muscular legs ...

... which for me give that seriously erotic plus factor ...

Quite naturally, some of it has got to do with ...

... and this ...

So, from my collection of his video oeuvre (oh yeah!) which mounts almost daily, some stills ...

... and a bit of a scorching hot video with 'Rudy' ...

... just can't get enough of that dick, with its thick vein down the left hand side, being sucked!

Enjoy!

2011-12-27T02:40:00.000-08:00

One of the Cutest on the Planet

I know what W C Fields said about animals and children, but his has got to be one of the most adorable YT uploads this not so cynical person has ever seen ...

... just had to share!

2011-12-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

One of THE Hottest Guys on the Planet

For me, Leon Falla has gotta be one of THE hottest guys on the planet.

And so I was everlastingly disappointed he hadn't done any videos - till today when I came across (all its doubles entendres ARE necessary) him sucking, fucking and jerking off in 'Decameron'!

So many hot hot bits - but I've snagged and edited his JO session, while he's listening to his BF fuck another guy in the next room - same ol' same ol'.

Couldn't help snagging my head off - can't get enough of him.

Enjoy the video ...

... and tell us what you think!

2011-12-16T17:58:00.000-08:00

Over-Manufactured? Does It Matter?

This new Belami number, Mick Lovell, is a bit on the over-enamelled side but would have fitted very well into my old 'Cute Blond Guys' blog, don't you think?

And with a dick this big, he fits right into any blog any time ...

Now who would be arguing that this is not one solid hunk of meat ...

Now these images put me in mind of a whole other range of activities ...

And 'back to the very beginning' ...

Apparently Belami is about to release Mike's first videos (a solo and a JO session with Alex Waters) - so it'll be DL-ing it so there'll be a postscript with the hottest bit/s.

I predict a 'bright' future for this young man - LOL!

2011-12-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

Leon Falla - Ultimate Man

Just DL-ed a movie with one of my all-time fav hotties - Leon Falla (right).

It's my first of his and I've been snagging my head off ...

... but only managed to get to the end of the JO - the fucking's next and after a quick coffee, it'll be back to 'business'

And then there's a selection of the video to upload ... life's tough!

2011-12-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

Strip - But No Tease

There's nothing quite like a relaxed strip tease that goes way beyond teasing ...

... don't you agree?

2011-11-05T01:22:00.000-07:00

The Latest Deposit in My Fantasy Bank

This latest deposit is accompanied by additions (many!) to my video vault.

You'll have to excuse me ... after looking over Donny Wright again, I've got to 'attend' to myself - yet again!

2011-10-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

If Marco Doesn't Have Your Jocks Down and Get You Off ... !

If Marco here doesn't get your jocks down quick smart ... I don't know what!

He's so totally on what I go crazy for - kinda Latin with hairy legs ... and a big downward curving veiny dick in a dark bush radiating a thick trail into his navel.

Hey, buns aren't that shabby either ...

At the risk of again getting de-Bloggered yet again, I'm uploading the final stretch of Marco's J O and humping video to FILESONIC LINK.

Dare you to not enjoy!

2011-10-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

ID Crisis Averted

Adam Ayash is the total hottie in question, and just to refresh your memory before we get to the new stuff, the photoshopped ...

... and unphotoshopped images ...

... that put my blood pressure at dangerous levels.

Furious googling only produced images such as ...

... which, while hot, don't remotely stand up well against one full frontal hard dick shot.

In the absence of real full montys, I thought I'd add some more photo-shops, from the more ...

... to even the even more successful ...

... efforts.

What do you think?

Reckon I can fantasise with these till the real thing becomes available!

2011-10-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

Serious Serious ID Issue

Ok guys, I seriously need to know who this guy is or I'll just kinda ... explode. Or worse. Don't pretend you don't know what I mean.

So please ... HEEEEEELP!

A slight confession - I'm not absolutely sure the dick is real/his/not photo-shopped - whatever!

2011-10-11T01:49:00.000-07:00

This Must Be A First

This is, if I'm not mistaken, my first muscle man post.

I think as much as anything it's that Derek Atlas is kinda cute and cuddly ... as well as hot and all the rest.

And he has THE most suckable dick - a very very big plus for me.

And THE most luscious stomach and trail.

And bush.

And pits ... .

How does he 'grab' you guys?

2011-10-11T01:38:00.000-07:00

General Knowledge Quiz

My not-so-vintage router and modem died so I've been 'out of business' for a week or so.

I thought I'd celebrate my return to the blog-o-sphere with a general knowledge quiz - so time to start agitating those little grey cells.

1.    What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

2.    How did the term 'rule of thumb' come about?

3.    What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers
       and laser printers have in common?

4.    Where did the term 'mind your Ps and Qs' come from?

5.    What was the original colour of Coca-Cola?

6.     What was the first novel written on a typewriter?

7.     Who were the first couple to be shown in bed together on
        prime time TV?

8.    How did the term 'golf' come about?

9.    Who do the four kings in a deck of playing cards represent?

10.    How did the term 'honeymoon' evolve?

11.    Where does the term 'sleep tight' come from?

1.    Honey

2.     In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was
        allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.
        Hence we have 'the rule of thumb'

3.    All were invented by women

4.    In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old
       England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell
       at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down. It's
       where we get the phrase: 'mind your P's and Q's'

5.    Green

6.    Tom Sawyer

7.    Fred and Wilma Flintstone

8.    Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was
       ruled 'Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden' and thus, the word
       GOLF entered into the English language.

9.    Spades - King David

       Hearts - Charlemagne

       Clubs -Alexander, the Great

       Diamonds - Julius Caesar

10.    It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that
         for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would
         supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead
         is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based,
         this period was called the honey month, which we know
         today as the honeymoon.

11.    In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed
         frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress
         tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the
         phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'

So guys how did you go?

Which were most interesting for you?

Crucially, are any of these answers wrong? This is part for those with highly evolved general knowledge!

And finally, has anyone got any other riveting general knowledge questions/insights to share?

2011-09-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

On A Roll

I seem to be on a roll with the rough hairy less manicured blokes.

Now Liam here's into a bit of introductory stuff - stubble and mild teasing ...

... but likes to move quickly into the 'full monty' ...

... with no objections (from me at least) ...

And he seems pretty ok with going to the full full monty ...

A quick butt flash for us aggressive tops (yep, that's you and me) ...

... accompanied by a slurp and dick hardening on our part ...

,,, and then on to the real business 'at hand' ...

And a pretty decent handful it is ...

... and not a bad load either ...

So what's the verdict on Liam guys?

2011-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I Shouldn't Have Quit The Swim Team!

Not sure I wasn't a bit hasty in giving up my aquatic career as early as I did, particularly remembering all the extra curricular locker room action ...

What do you think?

Have you any advice to offer me on the subject?

2011-09-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Post Coital Gamesmanship

I just love this quirky short film. Made me laugh out loud ... a sure sign for a post.

Won't say more about it, just enjoy ...

... and tell us what you think.

2011-09-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Just Pure Unadulterated Raw Sex Appeal

Alex Parry is one of those guys whose pure unadulterated sex appeal can get you hard in the twinkling ... of your dick.

Am I right ... or am I right!

2011-09-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Donald Gutterman - Only Thick and Juicy and Long

Donald Gutterman is an oldie but a goodie.

Movie star handsome face, a great big golden muscular bod ... and a dick that's not too shabby - thick and juicy and long, as this hot little strip reveals ...

So what's his score out of ten ... for way back then?

I'll start ... by going all the way - 15 out of 10!

2011-09-06T01:36:00.000-07:00

Recognising Value

This post is somewhat related to the one I just put up on F R Leavis and Raymond Williams, touching as it does on isses of the social construction of value by elites and what constitutes the approved canon of, here, music.

You may well know this event.

This man ...

... played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes on his violin at a Metro Station in Washington, DC, at on a cold January morning in 2007.

Over this time, about 2,000 people went through the station, most on their way to work.

At 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

Round 4 minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

After 10 minutes, a 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The child stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes, the musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour, he finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell ...

... one of the finest violinists today. He played music most certainly in the canon of approved works by any Western European elites. On a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before, he had sold out concert in Boston with the seats averaging $100 - in which he played the very same music.

This subway concert was organised by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

It raised several questions:

[1] In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

[2] If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

[3] Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

As a piece of personal self-indulgence, I remember my mother practising Bruch's violin concerto in our padded music room - odd, of course, as all you heard were the soloist's parts - my mother rocking with ferocious and scary intensity in the silences.

The indulgence is posting Bell playing the second movement of this concerto ...

... hope you are not too repelled by this archetypal Romantic work - for me it's like Proust's madeleine in 'À la recherche du temps perdu'.

2011-08-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

Giving Good Face

For some reason I can't quite fathom, faces seem to be doing it for me today. Big time.

So the question is who's giving the best face ...

... decisions being of course totally subjective.

2011-08-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

F R Leavis and Raymond Williams - Two Very Different Positions on 'Culture'

As I grew up, my idea of culture was what socialists disparagingly called 'posh culture', being positively championed and articulated by the famed literary critic F R Leavis ...

... in, among a range of contexts, 'The Great Tradition' (1948). Such high culture was seen to be embodied in a small number of seminal and critically important literary and artistic works, productions that revealed universal truths and wisdom, and the highest spiritual and moral goals to be strived for in a society. This notion of culture has developed and been controlled by elites for the past two hundred years.

Leavis was only ever recorded once and by the BBC - in a open lecture at Cambridge University, where he was a don. In this talk, he articulated his elitist position that the democratisation of culture was a great declining, as exemplified in the following extraordinary extract ...

One articulation of an alternative emerging and contemporary view of culture was given by Raymond Williams ...

... novelist, critic and Cambridge University don, in 'Culture and Society 1750-1950' (1958). Coming from a Welsh working class background, Williams widened the idea of what 'culture' could involve to mean 'the whole way of life' of all of the classes in a society, though there was a corrective and politically motivated focus on the culture of the working classes.

With my middle class plus background, I still have a sneaking affinity with elite culture - so wads of opera, ballet and classical music do me very well indeed. But through university sexual politics, theoretically based in an amalgam of Marx, Freud and Michel Foucault, I've added pop music, Manga comics and a range of other dangerously dissident interests to the mix.

Being gay, I guess we live across borders, using Williams' term, and have a natural affinity with taking a range of different often contradictory angles on the way we view the world and culture. I've never felt the needed to resolve the inherent contradictions in such a stance.

And I was wondering where you guys stood in this?

2011-08-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

Is It Or Isn't It?

Ben Godfre has been moving towards the full monty for some time, like in Jon Seneca's somewhat coy but totally beautiful photo shoot ...

... through this pretty hot butt set ...

... and on to this more explicit mock amateur snap shots set ...

Question is whether this (sadly faceless and, at the end, gas masked!) video is of Ben selfing ...

Ben's leg tat ...

... and foot tat ...

... are in evidence in the video ...

... so, rather unbelievably, I reckon this is the real thing.

What do you think guys?

Let's thrown one final image into the mix ...

... to help our decision making.

Postscript

No explanations necessary!

2011-08-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

'These Are A Few Of My Fav-or-ite Things'

These just caught my attention on some not so serious web surfing ...

... any favourites?

I bet you know choices are better with reasons - LOL!

2011-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Joseph Sayers - An Essay In Black and White

I suspect I can never get enough of Joseph Sayers - and a hot set of black and white images is all the excuse I need for yet another post.

And for the lucky last ...

... one of my all-time favourite images of this pint-sized erotic flesh pot.

2011-08-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Tango - Man-On-Man Action

I've been long long much addicted to the tango and naturally very open to the men-on-men histories of the dance that developed first in working-class port neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires in Argentina from the mid 19th century.

Good to first sort myth from fact though. So we don't get too carried away!

The hottest and most seductive fantasy, for me, was that men, while waiting to be attended to in bordellos ('prostibulos'), would dance the tango to pass the time. Raging hormones momentarily re-channelled.

However, there seem to be two strands of fact that better work together.

Being a dance of the poor, the tango tended to be performed in the streets. As a result of European migration in the early C19, there was an increasing social disapproval of women in free contact with men, such that outdoor dancing drifted into men-on-men action.

And with men far out-numbering women in Argentina in the early C20, men would practise dancing with each other in males-only prácticas in preparation for the time with women. At these prácticas, a man would first watch, then be taught by an older and more experienced dancer to follow and only finally would learn to lead. When proficient, would finally be taken by an experienced dancer to a milonga for an arranged dance with a woman.

Now what lead me on this little detour into the history of the tango was this totally charming, sweet and teasing video of the De Fazio brothers, Enrique and Guillermo, executing the 'Reliquias Portenas' ...

... much to the delight and appreciation of their audience.

2011-08-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

W Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) - Reluctant Gay Icon

"I was a quarter normal and three-quarters queer, but I tried to persuade myself it was the other way round. That was my greatest mistake."

I came across an interview with W Somerset Maugham - probably around 1960 - in which the writer talks about the relationship between life and and the inventions of his literature.

I wanted to post on him as a gay icon and browsed an article by freelance writer, Liz Highleyman - apart from the books I'd read as a kid ('Of Human Bondage' and 'The Painted Veil'), all I really knew about Maugham was a latter day extravagant European life style, something along the lines of the excesses of F Scott Fitzgerald and worthy of the best well-healed hedonistic gay men.

Maugham 1939

'But there's more', as the 'ad' promises.

'Magnetically attractive to both sexes as a young man' (Liz Highleyman), Maugham proposed marriage to Sue Jones and was refused.

He simultaneously began affaires with Gerald Haxton ...

... and Syrie Barnardo Wellcome ...

... who was married at the time to the pharacutical magnate ...

Henry Solomon Wellcome and Syrie, 1902

His daughter, Mary Elizabeth Wellcome, was born in 1915.

Mary Elizabeth Maugham, left (1957)

From this point on till an acrimonious divorce in the late 1920s, Maugham mostly travelled the world with Haxton, who had been deported from the UK in 1919 as 'an undesirable alien and a security risk' - code for he had too many indescrete gay relationships.

Maugham and Haxton settled at Villa Mauresque, on the French Riviera till the younger man's death from alcoholism in 1944 when the writer took up with Alan Searle.

Perhaps not ideal material for your typical garden variety gay icon. Or perhaps it is.

And Maugham for me comes back into seriously gay icon mode in such Oscar Wilde-ish Noel Coward-ish quotations as ...

[1] At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

[2] Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

[3] It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

[4] It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

[5] She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

[6] There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

[7] Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

[8] When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully.

[9] Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

[10] Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

[11] Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.

[12] Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

I like 2, 7, 8 and 11 best - how bout you?

So to the interview ...

Somerset Maugham was obviously complicated guy, sexually and otherwise, and I'm now so drawn to him again, I think I might just dip into one of his screen plays.

Anyone got any suggestions?

2011-08-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Voting Is A Civic Duty!

We all know that voting is our civic duty - so without further ado ...

1 Miguel

2 Vincenzo Ledford

3 Kyle

4 Erik Haaz

5 Roberto

6 Ota

7 Lucas

8 Dusty

9 Tommy Lima

10 Roman Prada

So what's the nation's verdict?

My primary vote would be for Miguel (1), with secondary preferences going to Lucas (7) and Roman (10).

2011-08-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

A man goes into The Bookshop Darlinghurst in Sydney, a gay bookstore, and asks the sales assistant:

"Do you have the new book out for men with short penises? I can't remember the title."

The assistant replies, "I'm not sure if it's in yet."

The man said, "That's the one, I'll take a copy."

Everyone knows of course that any or all of these can be ...

... growers!

2011-07-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

A Bit More Vintage - Dick Fisk

Having another vintage moment guys and so soon after the last ... not quite sure what all it means ... if anything at all.

Dick Fisk is the present object of big desire.

A man's man if ever there was. Though having said that he could bottom with the best of them, as my trusty copy of 'Help Wanted' firmly attests.

There's something totally architypal about Dick in the porn sense. Maybe it's just that his were some of the first adult movies I saw. Just kinda got stuck in my mind. And from there, it's just a hop, step and jump to icondom.

Don't reckon it'd be totally out of line to say Dick's just as good ... back to front.

To finish up, one final top down pan ...

... just to, shall we say, make sure of things.

Yep, I'm real sure!

2011-07-17T02:42:00.000-07:00

The Successful One Image Post?

Sometimes, not very often, a single image is enough.

And this vintage one of Danny Collier is in that category - not that one doesn't make you want two and three and ... well, you know.

And then the video too, of course.

As much as anything, it's Danny's big luscious hairless bod. Which has such a scorching contrast with his thick dark bush.

And his classically beautiful face.

And gag-proof accommodatable dick.

Let's just say that for me he's got it all!

If a one image post can be stretched to two ...

... and beyond ...

... then these are the extras I'd add!

2011-07-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Feast for the Eyes:

A Worthy Descendant of Leon Bakst

As you'll all undoubtably know, British gay haute couture designer Alexander McQueen died at the young age of 41. A suicide by hanging. Having had a partner depart this life in a similar way, I was doubly drawn to post on this extraordinary artist.

I remember being impressed hearing someone once say that he'd be very sorry if, at his passing, people didn't joyfully celebrate his life.

So it's in this spirit I've put together a selection from the designer's somewhat Japonaise and bold geometric ready-to-wear collection for the Paris Fashion Week of 2009.

Even if you know Sweet F A about haute couture, it's hard to imagine anyone not responding to these startlingly innovative designs.

2011-07-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

Battle of the Models

I know it's against our company policy of compulsory nudity ... but how bout trying to get your minds round the perplexing question of which is the hottest model: Kris Kranz ...

... or Philip Fusco ...

I know I lied a bit bout the nudity thing ... but what's your considered verdict?

2011-07-02T03:12:00.000-07:00

A Worthy Throw Back

This is a guy who would have fitted into my old blog perfectly - (kinda) blond and so luscious you'd find it hard not to just eat him, in a manner of speaking.

And I reckon I'd be taking my first spoonful here ...

... before I turned my gastronomic attention here - though I suspect I'd never get past this superb dish ...

... but I may be tempted to move on by one of the more exotic specialities of the house ...

If the fare is of a certain (very high) level, seconds of course are mandatory ...

An aside: if have time to linger here a little, you might like to do a quick 'Spot the Difference' thing with #3 - five points of difference is a good score!

I like a curvy dick - not to everyone's taste, but makes for easy consumption, if you get my drift. You know, goes down ya throat kinda easily - in the 69 position, that is ...

Now just to review the menu before I begin to make my choice ...

... a choice which naturally enough will include all the above.

So guys, what's to your taste of this fine fare?

If deciding is an issue, click on the images - they are so damn large they practically jump out into your living room, study, bedroom, choir pew or wherever you are doing your 'No Speed Bumps'.

2011-06-27T21:13:00.003-07:00

A Sense of Family Past

Art Mariano ('The Meaning of Art') put a powerful and moving video my way yesterday - '"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together' (LINK).

As the title suggests, it's a compilation of photographs of gay couples from I guess the Edwardian period up to the end of World War Two - an era when we were much less visible and 'kissing secretly'.

Set to the song 'Secretly', I had the strongest feeling of family past - gays from a broad range of ages and social classes in their (mostly) just being themselves in their everyday lives.

I felt as though I was flicking through an album of small-scale gay social/domestic history - a real pleasure as there is so little of this readily available. The images range from often staid-ish studio portraits to casual snap shots where the subjects and their interactions almost jump out of the photographs.

In no particular order and given that not absolutely all of those in the archive are our brothers ...

I had a great feeling of brotherhood browsing over this family album of our ancestors - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Did you end up having any favourites?

2011-06-27T21:12:00.001-07:00

Something To Be Damn Proud Of

It's not really a size thing (oh, yeah!) ... it's just that Johnny Maverick has got THE most beautiful big lollipop pink and suckable dick. Well, that I've seen in the past few ... millennia.

The kinda dick even he finds it hard to keep impossible to keep his hands off ...

Now, if your mouth's not watering now ...

.... check your wrist for a pulse.

Not too shabby back here either!

Well, I knew what I'm having for dinner tonight, metaphorically speaking.

How bout you?

2011-06-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

Étienne-Louis Boullée - Sliding Doors

Cénotaphe à Newton (1784, sphere of 150 m or 500 ft in diameter)

I was doing some serious time-travelling this morning, way way back into distant antiquity: my first degree in fine art.

I was browsing one of my trusty but now metaphorically yellowing course books for a unit I took on C20 architecture, naturally from the aesthetic rather than engineering perspective. As Isipped my coffee (I wonder why 'sipping' seems such a tea thing?), I was flicking through the tome in question, my Charles Jencks's 'Modern Movements in Architecture', and was put in mind of megalomaniac and a visionary C18 architect Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799).

Boullée's abstract geometric style, inspired by C17 and C18 French Classical architecture, took geometric forms to a giagantic and simplified scale. His proposed works that were devoid of ornament and used light and shadow and a sense of movement in highly innovative ways.

Cénotaphe à Newton: Interior

'Newton's cenotaph was designed to isolate, to reinvent, the huge movement of time and celestial phenomena. Inside, the viewer is isolated too, on a small viewing platform. Along the top half of the sphere's edges, apertures in the stone allow light in, in pins, creating starlight when there is daylight. During the night a huge and otherworldly light hangs, flooding the sphere, as sunlight. During the day, the "night effect." During the night, day.'

Entree du cimmetiere (c1780-90)

The French architect was interested in making architecture expressive of purpose, an approach his detractors termed 'architecture parlante' ('talking architecture').

Interior space is opened up to flow from one functional area to another rather than such areas being closed off in descrete separate 'rooms'.

By now you can see where this is heading!

Cénotaphe de Turenne

Cénotaphe égyptien (c1786)

Of course Boullée's work was re-discovered in the late C19 and early C20, influencing architecture, even as recently as that of Aldo Rossi (1931-1997) ...

... in his Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht ...

Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht

You'll also know Rossi from his designs for Alessi ...

'La Cupola' Espresso Maker

'Il conico', 1986

'La conica', 1982

However, apart from a number of private houses designed beween 1762 and 1778, none of Boullée's large scale works were ever built, though his designs in engravings were circulated widely in professional circles.

I can't help having a sliding doors moment, wondering about the course of C19 architeture had it moved forward on Boullée's ideas and not taken to its various backward-looking Gothic/Rennaissance/electic diversions.

PS: Boullée recently-ish popped up unexpectedly at the movies. In Peter Greenaway's film 'The Belly of an Architect' (1987), whose main character, Stourley Krackite, is obsessed with celebrating the C18 French architect's work.

2011-06-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

A Performance in Five Acts

This totally erotic guy seemed to just jump out of his folder this morning and demand to be posted - and, ever accommodating, of course I acquiesced.

What first caught my attention was Gaston's sense of drama - so, a good follow-up to the Oscar Wilde post. Drama in the sense of a well-structured performance. Of the slow strip and tease genre, without however being too teased at the end.

Act 1, 'The Trail' ...

Act 2, a diversion on the main theme of the play ...

Act 3, the a la maison main theme of the work and its 'exposition' ...

Act 4, the plot thickens ...

And Act 5, naturally the dénouement ...

I think some very high art has been achieved here, don't you?

2011-06-21T00:36:00.001-07:00

Oscar Wilde Reaches Across Time

After recently posting on gay hero Quentin Crisp, there seemed a kind of follow on logic for one on Oscar Wild as recently I came across the only recording of the poet and playwright's voice. In which he recites nearly two verses from the fourth canto of 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' ...

In Reading Gaol by Reading Town
There is a pit of shame,
And in it lies a wretched man
Eaten by teeth of flame,
In burning winding-sheet he lies,
And his grave has got no name.

[And there, till Christ call forth the dead,
In silence let him lie:]

No need to waste the foolish tear,
Or heave the windy sigh:
The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.

As we all know, Wilde was imprisoned in 1895 for two years with hard labour after the follow-up trials to his failed attempt to sue the Marquis of Queensberry for the calling card libel of 'For Oscar Wilde, posing sodomite'.

'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' was written in France in Berneval or Dieppe on or about 19 May 1897 and was initially published under the the name 'C.3.3' - for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3 of Wilde's incarceration.

Wilde in Exile in France c1900

The poem was inspired partly by the hanging in 1896 of a fellow prisoner, Charles Thomas Wooldridge, for the throat-cutting murder of his wife - 'The man had killed the thing he loved, And so he had to die.'

I am fascinated to know the particular character of the poet and playwright's voice, as it must give a clue to the delivery of those deliciously paradoxical aphorisms we love to find occasion to remember and perhaps quote ...

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

Wilde seems much more theatrical and arch than I would have imagined, even taking into account the performance tradition of the time. In this context and in retrospect, Lord Olivier used to make fun of this earlier style of delivery, likening it to singing arias in opera.

Curiously and incidentally, Wilde's voice reminds me more than a little of the vocal manner of a particular group of older queans I knew as a kid in London and so has a further resonance for me.

This audio recording, imaginatively at least, lets me know this great writer just a tiny bit better. There is something of the quality of the living breathing human voice that reaches across time and emotionally connects up.

2011-06-21T00:36:00.000-07:00

This Is How It's Done

I guess this is ...

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paris?

... don't you think?

2011-06-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

A Kinda Query Post

Just about five years ago, I posted quite minimally on Reed Massengill's near decade long photographic essay on Brian Hess LINK

Now, I have a lot more of the images charting Brian's often radical physical transformations from 1992 to 2000, photographs are just begging to be posted, like, down on their knees and 'Please, sir, we want to be the more'.

But I wanted to check first if this work hasn't been so over-exposed, in the gay community in particular, that a post would just bring groans loud enough to be heard in far off Sydney. Rather than elicit or tease out a far more positive response.

Speak, guys, and you shall be obeyed!

2011-06-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

First 'No Speed Bumps' Levity:

Murphy's 15 Other Laws

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

3. He, who laughs last, thinks slowest.

4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.

5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

8. The 50-50-90 rule: Any time you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone from California would be stupid enough to try to pass them.

10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

11. The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those, who got there first.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

13. Flash light: A case for holding dead batteries.

14. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in the dark.

15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people, who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

So guys, which 'law/s' did you like most?

I'll go first - 1, 4, 7, and 10 with 14 perhaps being my absolute fav!

2011-06-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

An Oldie But A Very Very Goodie

Look, not sure just how much vintage you guys can take ... ?

But I must say I like a bit every now and then ... and, in my humble opinion, Ray Stockwell can still hard dicks with the best of them.

Something to do with his big muscular fleshy bod?

His thick long juicy cock and natural dense dark bush?

Maybe the chunky bubble butt with its invitingly furry crack?

Of course, all the above.

Postscript

Ray did some movies ...

... and I'm chasing the one from which this still was taken.

Keep you posted guys.

2011-06-11T00:57:00.001-07:00

Memory Is A Funny Thing'

Memory's a funny thing. I recall Quentin Crisp largely as the light-weight flamboyant and distinctly mauve showman into which he evolved after gaining international celebrity with the release of the 1975 film 'The Naked Civil Servant' with John Hurt, a movie was based on Crisp's 1968 autobiography of the same name. This book grew out of a 1964 radio interview Crisp gave to friend and fellow eccentric, Philip O'Connor, which was heard by the managing director of Jonathan Cape.

I was reminded of his earlier self watching a book tour kind of interview with Bernard Braden in the year the 'The Naked Civil Servant' was published.

At times, this almost chillingly serious Crisp seems a kind of latter day Oscar Wilde but in quasi drag - in part, it's the paradoxes he delights in, such as that acceptance of homosexuality will come from boredom - that one can't legislate for changes in attitude.

With deft equanimity, the author manoeuvres into some kind of sense answers to some fairly bizzare and perhaps patronising questions, such as to whether or not gays, being uninterested in reproduction, would make good leaders. A kind of crazy 'time of your hands' approach to politics. Crisp counters that homosexuals are often first more concerned with themselves, and then their friends and only finally the outer world. And being excluded, he proposes, means queans (original spelling) have little experience and so expertise of this world at large. But such self-focus of course seems general and not specific to any one/our group.

He pithily draws in Jacob Bronowski's construct of the 'arrow of time' which 'always points in the direction of diminishing difference' to point out that gays now (1968) do not seem to see themselves as distinct and apart - which begins to sound like an individualist argument from another era. The 'diminishing difference' phenomenon has currency in gay groups I have involvement with today - the construct of 'inclusion politics'.
There is much to disagree with but I liked his analysis of the underlying differences in meaning of the British 'old girl' and the American 'sugar' and 'honey'.

I must say I'm glad to be brought back to something like the pre-chat show Quentin Crisp. Though rooted in his time, I admire his uncompromising and stringent efforts to see outside received wisdom.

And I'm happy to spend the few minutes this interview offers to reflect on a true and courageous gay hero. Someone who stood up to be counted when it was not easy at all to do.

2011-06-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

First 'No Speed Bumps' Voting Day

Voting is a noble and honourable social activity ...

... so please guys do your civic duty!

2011-06-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

And While We're On An Architectural Bender

This South African home obviously owes more than a little something to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and some of the same things that were said in the post about his Villa Tugendhat (1930) in Brno in the Czech Republic could be reiterated here.

Now, while I'm more than a bit interested in security at 'The Nest', the almost tricksy closing up / folding in box effect here, while a rather neat feat of engineering, ...

... seems slight overkill, if security is the intent.

Does anyone know anything about this structure?

2011-06-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Always Liked A Lush

For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I've always had a soft spot (oh yeah, just that, not) for lushes - articularly one with contemplative tenancies - the resemblance is striking isn't it - not so much the exact same pose but the general atmosphere - LOL ...

However, aroused, contemplation turns to something rather different ...

... which could be called ... ?

2011-06-07T06:16:00.002-07:00

The Hannibal Rising House: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat (1930), Brno, Czech Republic

I've posted on the seductively C20 modern architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe before and seeing his 1930 Villa Tugendhat in Brno in the Czech Republic this morning for the first time on the net I couldn't resist another one.

I love his bigger scale work, like the Seagrum Building in New York ...

... and the IBM Building in Chicargo...

... but I particularly love his smaller scale work, like the Barcelona Pavilion [POST LINK] ...

Mies van der Rohe's architecture at this period was typified by opening up tradition rectangular enclosed rooms into a series of interconnected spaces flowing one into another, often with solid masonry walls dissolved by the use of glass.

Spaces were finished with lavish materials, such as rare woods, polished marble and onyx feature walls and slim elegant chromed support columns.

The Villa Tugendhat has all these features to perfection - the images don't need any more blah blah blah as they speak for themselves ...

Okay, so when are we moving in - seems plenty of room for all.

BTW, you may have a strange deja vu thing going with the interiors - they were used in 'Hannibal Rising'. Just a nice bit of trivia!

2011-06-07T05:59:00.002-07:00

Kurt Madison - To Get Us Under Way Again

Guess we're under way again - be the first to comment!

2011-03-31T09:35:00.005-07:00

It Can All Be In The Kissing

Kissing for me is key - often a pretty good indicator of things to come (oh dear, this kinda punning and so damn early in the post!).

Kissing of course can take place in the near fully dressed position (as above) or totally starkers - best, for me, is going from one state to the other, seemlessly ...

Kissing is often/usually (depending where you fit of the Romantic-Lothario cline) accompanied by other activities, such as butt grabbing ...

Now, chest kissing is a particularly erotic sub species ...

... but there's a nine out to ten chance of it spiralling into a jocks down situation ...

... and serious dick work ...

Good every now and then to check the efficacy of your work ... yep, seems to be going well - one satisfied customer ...

Now, with dick work, there can be many potential intricacies involved ...

... if you get my drift?

The whole video, guys, can be yours with a simple click of this LINK- but of course you know the drill.

So enjoy my current potential squeeze material!

2011-03-31T09:35:00.004-07:00

The Circus Really Does Eventually Come To Town

Being in Australia can at times leave you feeling just that little bit disconnected from the rest of the world and the things that go on out there.

And, as a kid, I guess this was probably one of the driving forces for me living in England and France for five years. With numerous European top-ups since - and a year in the Peoples' Republic of China.

But then sometimes the big things come to us here.

Like the Ballets Russes visits from the mid thirties to the early forties, taking the opportunity to perform during the disruptions of World War 2 elsewhere. It came in various guises - The Original Ballets Russes, Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Covent Garden Russian Ballet.

A highlight of these visits would have been the 1940 re-staging by Serge Lifar of his ballet 'Icare' (1935), with new percussive music by Antal Dorati and with new sets by Sydney Nolan ...

Lifar took the lead role of Icarus at the premier ...

... but then it was danced on subsequent performances by Roman Jasinsky ...

Amazingly, there's quite a lot of colour film of the performances of the Russian Ballet during these visits, including of footage of 'Icare' with Jasinsky.

So I've cobbled together a video around Serge Lifar, Roman Jasinsky, the Ballets Russes in Australia and 'Icare', and included some black and white 1950s film of Lifar teaching the principle role to a dancer at Le Palais Garnier in Paris ...

Hope you like it as much as I did putting it together!

I must say I really like ruminating on all the angles of being drawn to the arts of places elsewhere on the planet other than where you live ... while not descending into some kind of cultural cringe.

2011-03-31T09:34:00.002-07:00

Caught on Film!

I'm not a royalist or a monarchist but have always had a soft spot for horny old Lothario Edward VII - known fondly as 'Edward the Caresser' (as opposed to Edward the Confessor).

And I was surprised, the other day, to find so much film existed of the king. In social as well as ceremonial occasions. Surprising given that the king died in 1910 at the very dawn of motion pictures.

So I thought a compilation seemed in order - sadly now split into three cos of Blogger upload limits ...

These little scraps of footage, some quite up-close and personal, really do give some sense of this larger than life Dionysian character.

I've added, as the audio track, part of Edward Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' as this music so strongly reflects the nostalgia an empire quickly slipping away at the turn of the C20.

2011-03-03T01:30:00.002-08:00

The Dangers of Self-Absorption

Before we get down to the more serious and hard core dick work, 'let's start at the very beginning', as someone rather sensible once intoned ...

... where Ted here likes to demonstrate his 'coin position' - consisting of, quite naturally, of an obverse ['head' or front] and reverse ['tail or back] ...

... with all the punning possibilities that just jump out at you.

Dick work usually begins in this manner ...

... and moves on to this state ...

... which has a jeans free variation ...

... and posing possibilities ...

But, Narcissist that he is, Ted is quickly oblivious of the normal obligations of photo shoots ... and becomes self -absorbed in another and more esoteric kind of dick work ...

Maybe we should just go with the flow and simply form a mutual admiration society?

2011-02-28T03:41:00.002-08:00

Serge Lifar - 'Les Sylphides

This is unique June 1928 silent film footage of the original now fabled Ballets Russes of Serge de Diaghilev.

It shows Serge Lifar and rehearsing 'Les Sylphides' with a corps de ballet outdoors at the 'Fetes de Narcisses' in Montreux, Switzerland.

What makes this discovery particularly exciting is that Diaghilev never permitted the Ballets Russes to be filmed, and so this unauthorised rehearsal footage may well be the only record of the company.

The footage was originally uploaded by British Pathe onto their website (http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=79902), unrecognised, until identified in February 2011 by Jane Pritchard, curator of the Ballets Russes (Ballet Russe) exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Susan Eastwood, a member of the London Ballet Circle.

They were aided in their identification by a photograph taken during the Ballets Russes' first visit to the 'Fetes de Narcisses' in 1923, which showed the company on an outdoor stage performing 'Aurora’s Wedding'.

The Ballets Russes, 'Aurora’s Wedding', the Fêtes des Narcisses, 1923

There are now many articles on the internet about the discovery including one by Jane Pritchard herself:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/blogs/diaghilev-and-ballets-russes

Ms Pritchard says:

What we see is I believe the June 1928 Festival (the topiary arch indicates this is the Ballets Russes second visit to Montreux when they danced 'Les Sylphides', 'Cimarosiana' and the Polovtsian dances from 'Prince Igor'). I believe that Serge Lifar was dancing the lead role – sometimes referred to as the poet. No doubt the long wig worn confused the [British Pathe] cataloguer to suggest ‘One female dancer (representing Narcissus?).

The film confirms what many have said - that while the principle dancers were often extraordinary (Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Leonid Massine and so on), the corps could be a far more ordinary affair.

I have added an audio - music from 'Les Sylphides' which does not attempt to be that of the various little mini segments of choreography in the footage.

Hope you are as bowled over by the find as I was - I never expected such a thing!

2011-02-25T06:06:00.002-08:00

Life Sometimes Presents Us With Hard Choices

I came over Ajay earlier today and then John Wahlberg a few moments ago - and, cos they're both in the exactly same erotic space so to speak, I suddenly and compulsively realised I had a mini voting situation on my 'hands'.

Obviously the choice is simple - it's either Ajay ...

... or John ...

Ok guys, so who's it going to be?

And I'm the only one who's allowed to cheat and say 'Both!'

By the way, it can't have escaped your attention that we're almost about as far as you can possibly get from that last rough and gritty skin post - we have officially penetrated deep into a Disneyesque Vanillaland.