(Little about language, mostly about one actor and his body. Shirtless photos, but nothing racier than that.)

It started with a Facebook posting about the new comedy film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, with this very brief plot line, from Wikipedia:

After meeting Joe Manganiello, Pee-wee Herman leaves his hometown of Fairville and goes on the first vacation of his life to reach New York to celebrate Joe’s birthday party, before getting caught up in wacky hijinks and trouble across the country.

The movie pairs the big (6′ 5″ tall), famously muscular, and intensely masculine actor Joe Manganiello, as himself, with Paul Reubens (at 5′ 10″, and slim, even weedy) in his flamboyantly childlike character Pee-wee Herman, who becomes infatuated with the electrically attractive Manganiello at their first meeting:

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Los Angeles Times reviewer Rebecca Keegan, in a mixed notice, nevertheless praised “an adorably self-aware Joe Manganiello as the object of Pee-wee’s man-crush”.

JM has been through a series of roles in which he enthusiastically displays his body for the admiration of some of his audience (especially straight men, who would like to look like him and project his strength and easy assurance) and for objectification by much of his audience (women and gay men). He’s immensely proud of his body (achieved through considerable hard work) and revels in his viewers’ attentions — but all with self-aware good humor. A very entertaining presentation of himself.

As the title of this posting puts it, we get

Manganiello. The Huge. The body-proud.

— in an echo of:

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A characteristic photo, from his True Blood period (2010-14):

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On JM, from Wikipedia:

Joseph Michael “Joe” Manganiello (… born December 28, 1976) is an American actor, director, producer, and author. He played Flash Thompson [Spider-Man’s nemesis] in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and had various recurring roles in television … before landing his breakout role as werewolf Alcide Herveaux on the HBO television series True Blood.

… True Blood was his favorite television show before he joined the cast. He had originally auditioned to play Coot, another werewolf in the series, but was asked to read for Alcide instead. He grew a beard and trained for five months to add muscle for the role, as author Charlaine Harris had described Alcide as having “arms the size of boulders”. He also got a suntan to set himself apart from the other characters on the series and spent time studying live wolves.

[Note on the Wikipedia article, most of which must have been written by JM himself or someone very close to him. It goes through his life, event by event, listing virtually every part he played, going back to his school days. It cries out for an editor.]

In True Blood, he regularly strips off his shirt, and sometimes his pants as well. In this role most of his body is shaved smooth, presumably to be attractive to female admirers, especially young ones, many of whom are put off by furry (or frankly hairy) male bodies. But he’s also been photographed in shots clearly meant to arouse gay male viewers, as here:

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JM in a classic white jockstrap, a potent masculinity symbol for many gay men; with his nicely furry body unshaven (or maybe just trimmed some); and with a bit of nipple play with his left hand.

On to Magic Mike XXL (2015), for which he bulked up a little more to play male stripper Big Dick Ritchie. On the cover of Details magazine (now defunct):

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(On the movie, on this blog, a 7/2/15 posting “Pecs, abs, and dancing”.)

And at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, in his fireman stripper gear:

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And then on to adventures with Pee-wee.

Bonus: Manganiello’s book:

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The photo on the cover is not, so far as I know, of Manganiello himself (though it has his face); he is bulked up, yes, but he has nowhere near the extreme bodybuilder physique in the photo. But I could be wrong.

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(Men in underwear, but no actual street talk or X-rated images.)

Yesterday’s Daily Jocks ad (with a caption of mine):

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Ben ran through the
Watermelon patch in his
Fruity jockstrap, hunting for
His boy Dino, Di, Princess Di!, in
Diamond Dash Pink briefs that
Drove Ben crazy for him,
Slim on slim, take a
Bite of the fruit, baby.

Ben’s boy Di, in the Supawear Diamond Dash Brief in Pink:

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Like the caption says, slim on slim.

DO NOT WRITE ME about the problems with the image of a black man on a field of watermelon slices. I will write separately about the racist stereotype and its long, very sad, history, and about street vendors’ calls, the watermelon woman in Porgy and Bess, Herbie Hancock’s jazz standard “Watermelon Man”, Melvin van Peebles’s in-your-face movie Watermelon Man, and more. I frankly can’t imagine what was going through the DJ ad writers’ heads when they put together the image in #1, which would have been merely heavily gay-sexual (like premium men’s underwear ads in general) and playful (with its outrageous colors and its in-your-face flaunting of the anti-gay slur fruit). if it hadn’t been for those watermelon slices. I was, in fact, affronted, but I’ll put off explaining why to another posting. This one is for a fantasy pairing of two gay men, as in the caption.

Di in the Supawear Diamond Dash Brief in Marine (with a pink pouch):

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The DJ burbling ad copy, which gave me “Take a bite!” for the caption:

SUPAWEAR FRUITOPIA: Fruitopia, Watermelon! Supawear’s latest mouth watering collection is here! It features Supawear’s iconic form fitted retro and stylings. The bright, juicy pinks and rich greens reflects summer – Take a bite!

Earlier Supawear postings on this blog (the Australian company goes for entertainingly intense faggy colors):

from 6/3/15, in “The Diamond Sweat Short, with caption”: Diamond Sweat Short from SupaWear

from 10/15/15, in “Lightning strike”: Thunder brief (Lightning is pink and yellow, Thunder is teal and orange)

from 2/20/16, in “The fearful exhibitionist”: Supawear jock in the Supacharge line, with Lightning theme

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(Ok, men’s bodies and some suggestive verse, but nothing really X-rated. And there’s even a bit of language stuff.)

The most recent Daily Jocks ad, with an accompanying on-line ad (and my caption):

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His name was McTrim,
And he called himself Tim,
But everyone knew him as Pansy.

Now he and his man, who called himself Stan.
Were in the back room making whoopee, when
Their buddy broke in, grinning a grin, growling
Move over boys, Daddy needs nookie!

(Ok, a take-off on Lennon & McCartney’s Rocky Raccoon. And yes, I’ve messed with the line divisions, while preserving the rhymes, including my half-rhyme whoopee – nookie, which introduces the item nookie, for another posting.)

On this blog,  a piece on 7/11/13:, “Steve Grand, DNA, Timoteo”: American designer Timoteo Ocampo and his men’s fashion line Timoteo.

And then the advertising copy. Two from DJ and the Timoteo firm:

New Release from Timoteo – Magnitude: Step up your game with the latest collection from Timoteo – Magnitude. Enjoy a thick waistband, roomy pouch and bold styling you expect from Los Angeles based brand Timoteo. Available in all sizes and in Jock, Trunk, Brief and Jock Brief.

[Magnitude wear comes in Blue/Red (with the blue stripe down the dickline, as above), and White/Blue] Timoteo underwear, swimwear and sportswear has grown into an internationally recognised menswear brand. As the founder of CellBlock13, the fashion company is a go-to-brand around the globe for stylish men. Known for their exceptional fit, quality and cutting-edge designs, you’ll find something for you whether you’re a football, rugby or grand prix fan. Timoteo is inspired by American Sports and Athletics culture and designed in their LA studio. Search for Timoteo swimwear, sportswear or underwear today.

Just savor their products above. And enjoy the attention paid to the models’ crotches.

Lots more on nookie in a forthcoming posting.

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From Aric Olnes, a link to this entertainment on the Dangerous Minds site: “‘Sexy’ Knitted Elephant and Snake Underwear for Men” by Tara McGinley 4/13/16 (intended for a woman to give her man, but of course a man could get (or knit) them for himself or for his guy):

Etsy shop WarmPresents makes these sausage packers if you’re interested in owning a pair.

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Now prior to this discovery, I didn’t know these cock warmer underwear were “a thing”. But. They. Are. So I added a few others I’ve found on the Internet in a similar, er… vein …

The best of the snakes (to my mind), in a side view:

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Elephants and snakes, oh my!

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Following up on my posting of the 14th on men’s knitwear with elephant-trunk and snake appendages — apparently intended as underwear but easily interpretable as soft codpieces — Arne Adolfsen posted on Facebook to ask if anyone remembered “Eldridge Cleaver’s foray into haute couture”; an advertisement (available on several sites) from the period, passed on by Arne:

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(Many would say this is basse couture.)

Also from Arne, the beginning of a piece in the Harvard Crimson, “Eldridge Cleaver’s New Pants: Every revolution needs a haberdasher, right?” by Mark Stillman on 9/26/75:

Eldridge Cleaver’s voice was soft and modulated and sprinkled with pauses as he discussed his latest venture–not his efforts to return to the United States, which he was loath to discuss, but his new role as entrepreneur, the designer of a new line of slightly obscene men’s trousers.

“Well, the ideas for these pants came out of an article I’m writing about the uni-sex movement, attacking the uni-sex movement. While I was writing the article I started thinking of tangible ways to express my ideas, you know? And these pants are the natural outgrowth of that.”

… “Well these pants look like a regular pair of men’s pants except around the groin, you know?” Cleaver said. “In a conventional pair of pants the penis gets tucked behind the pants, you know?” He imitated a tucking motion with his hands. “But in these pants, the penis is held in a sheath of cloth that sticks outside of the pants.”

“You mean the penis protrudes out — it’s hanging in this tube of cloth — outside the pants?,” Bruce [Caball, son of Cleaver’s friend Jack Caball] said loudly, his voice rising in glee. “Like a codpiece?”

“Yeah, that’s the idea. Now you see how this is a direct attack on uni-sex. Women can’t wear them, right? Take a look at what you guys are wearing. You’re wearing sissy pants,” Cleaver said.

For those of you who didn’t experience the 70s in the U.S. (or have forgotten those times), a bit from Wikipedia on the man:

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. His 1968 book Soul On Ice is a collection of essays, praised by The New York Times Book Review at the time of its publication as “brilliant and revealing”

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(Acting and a fine shirtless man.)

Re-run today of a Castle episode — S3 Ep12 “Poof! You’re Dead” from 1/10/11 — prominently featuring supporting actor Jon Huertas, playing homicide detective Javier Esposito on Capt. Kate Beckett’s team. The show is an ensemble cop drama with plenty of comic and romantic touches, well directed and well acted.

The Esposito character is both solid and amiable, with lots of interaction between him and homicide detective Kevin Ryan, played by Seamus Dever. Dever and Huertas:

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But in the “Poof!” episode, we see the character Esposito’s romance with Dr. Lanie Parish, a medical examiner and a friend of Beckett’s (played by Tamala Jones), including a really steamy bedroom scene (with carefully composed nudity in a darkened room) in which we get a nice shirtless sequence of Huertas, incuding this shot:

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He’s solidly built and really fit, but with a “natural” look rather than a gym-rat, killer-abs look. In combination with his handsome face, the persona he projects in his Esposito character, and his easy, unflashy acting skills, that makes Huertas a really attractive guy in my book.

From Wikipedia:

Jon Huertas is an American actor of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for his role as Sergeant Antonio ‘Poke’ Espera in HBO’s Generation Kill, Joe Negroni in the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love, and homicide detective Javier Esposito in Castle.

… Huertas, born Jon William Hofstedt [on October 23, 1969], enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1987 and served … as a pararescue jumper and nuclear weapons technician. He participated in Operation Just Cause [in Panama] and Operation Desert Storm.

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About the 2010 film and the two lead actors, who were immediately familiar to me, though I couldn’t say from where. Ultimately, this posting is about “ordinary working actors” (the phrase is based on Chuck Fillmore’s notion of Ordinary Working Grammarians) — people who get into acting (often via odd routes), practice the craft in children’s theater, college theater, soap operas, commercials, modeling, regional theater and other stage productions, whatever, and then become part of a cadre of accomplished professionals, very few of whom become stars or celebrities, but still give pleasure to audiences and are often liminally recognizable.

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(Yes, the Golden Gate Bridge gets demolished, along with lots of really tall buildings.)

Out in front: the excellent faces of the two lead actors:

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Cutting to the chase, I recognized Matchett from Leverage, Trucco from How I Met Your Mother.

Ok, the movie, from Wikipedia:

Meteor Storm … is a 2010 American disaster film with the tagline “The fury no one saw coming…”. The film was directed by Tibor Takács, produced by Tracey Jeffrey and Written by Peter Mohan. The movie starred Michael Trucco and Kari Matchett. The plot describes the attempts to save San Francisco from a barrage of meteor strikes.

Then the leads, very much ordinary working actors. On Matchett:

Kari Matchett (born March 25, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She has appeared in films such as Apartment Hunting (2000), Angel Eyes (2001), Men with Brooms (2002), Cypher (2002), Civic Duty (2006), and The Tree of Life (2011). She also played Mariel Underlay on Invasion, Lisa Miller on 24, Dr. Skye Wexler on ER, Joan Campbell on Covert Affairs, and Maggie Collins on Leverage. She is best known for her role as Kate Filmore in the cult favorite science fiction movie Cube 2: Hypercube.

And Trucco:

Edward Michael Trucco (born June 22, 1970) is an American actor known for his role as Samuel T. Anders on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and his recurring role as Nick Podarutti in How I Met Your Mother.

Trucco became active in television in the late 1990s with appearances in episodes of Touched by an Angel, Silk Stalkings, Beverly Hills, 90210, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, and Pensacola: Wings of Gold among others. He continued appearing in shows of similar genres like CSI, Heartbeart, Strong Medicine, CSI: Miami, and others into the 2000s.

Trucco, as it turns out, is body-proud, so we have quite a few images of him displaying his body.  As here:

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From Daily Jocks on the 28th, an Obviously AnatoMAX man, with a caption of mine:

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He scrutinized himself pitilessly in the
Mirror, as a piece of meat to feed the
Hot guys – Was his hairstyle
Trendy enough? Would his long slim torso
Excite them, or did they need
Big muscles? Was the Hipster Trunk in Mint
Too faggy, or would that be a good thing? Would the
Humongous pouch make them laugh or
Get them hard?

He’s in a Hipster Trunk, which comes in Mint, Flint Blue, Slate, and Red Brick.

Earlier on this blog, on Obviously’s AnatoMAX design, with its truly huge pouch. And now:

AnatoMAX is the most recent pouch release and it is the largest pouch design available from Obviously. It provides a naturally shaped, anatomical pouch with MAXimum size, MAXimum space and MAXimum comfort. Available in Jockstrap, Thong, Brief, Trunk and Boxer Brief in all sizes.

For some guys, Size Matters.

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Two Monday comics on linguistic topics: a Calvin and Hobbes with an unfortunate ambiguity (pitch the tent), and a Zits with a portmanteau for a combo sport (dodgebowl):

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Pitch the tent. The etymological source for the verb has a cluster of meanings in the domain ‘thrust, throw’: note the current senses in pitch a baseball and pitch an idea to the boss, and these two from NOAD2:

2 [with obj.] throw or fling roughly or casually: he crumpled the page up and pitched it into the fireplace. [with a further extension in slang: throw away, discard]

5 [with obj.] set up and fix in a definite position: we pitched camp for the night.

These are the senses in #1: the scoutmaster intended sense 5, Calvin understood it as sense 2, possibly because extended sense 2 is quite general, applying to a wide range of direct objects, while sense 5 has much tighter collocational restrictions: you can pitch a tent, or pitch camp, and that’s pretty much it (these are simply listed as idioms in many dictionaries).

Bonus on pitch tent. There’s a (metaphorical) sexual sense ‘have an erection that shows through covering, esp. while lying down so that the sheet above you stands up like a tentpole’. From a (wildly hyperbolic) site with fictional athletes to appeal to female readers:

Ladies meet Vincent QB#1 Panty Dropper Delgado: Every teen movie has the hot QB-ONE who balls hard day and night. That character was invented by Vince’s life. He has that smile that makes the bros nod and hoes wet. He is a 9 time All American. He’s been married four times and been through divorce twice. He owns 3 houses on every continent. He benches 275 lbs when he’s cutting and runs a 3.6 sec 40 yard dash with a weight vest underwater with a single breath. He has a childhood video of him dunking a basket ball the first time he ever tried (which was the second time he ever jumped when he was 8). The first girlfriend he ever had was a married Victoria Secret model. When the model’s husband found out, he divorced the model without giving a reason. The next week he tried proposing to Vince.

Here are some pictures of Vince that are just definitive proof that he is number one. He is a whole package for anyone who likes a BIG package. No homo. Just mad respect.

Look ladies he is outdoorsy. He can go camping and hike and pitch a tent for you and carry your back pack and make fires and shit.

Vincent pitching a tent:

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And a further bonus, Vince shirtless:

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Dodgebowl. That’s dodgeball + bowling, a portmanteau name for a combination sport/game (or double-sport, as some sites have it), apparently involving dodging bowling balls. Definitely a sport for the hardy.

Not surprisingly, there’s a (moderately snarky) BuzzFeed site (from 12/11/13) “10 Combination Sports You Need To Try Today”. It’s a mixed bag:

bicycle jousting, unicycle hockey, korfball [netball (Swedish ringboll) + basketball; Dutch korf ‘basket’], chess boxing, polocrosse, Segway polo, disc golf [frisbee golf], gravy wrestling, lawn mower racing, basketball derby [“there are no rules”]

Most of these are N + N compounds, and these mix cases where sports / games / pasttimes are combined (chess boxing, bicycle jousting, disc golf), with cases (unicycle hockey, Segway polo, lawn mower racing) where sports are played with non-standard equipment (plus gravy wrestling, involving wrestling in gravy, which I suppose you could consider a sport with non-standard equipment). There’s one entirely clear case of a portmanteau naming a combined sport: polocrosse (polo + lacrosse). Plus the Zits dodgebowl.

It turns out that there is a moderately popular phys-ed class team sport in the U.S. (grades 3 to 7, roughly) known as dodge-bowl or dodgebowl — but it involves foam bowling balls, not real, heavy, ones, as in Zits.

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(Not much about language.)

The Daily Jocks ad from yesterday, with a caption of mine:

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His name was
Drogo, after the legendary
Horseman, but everyone called him
Oxo, because he was so
Beefy.

On the underwear, from the ad that goes with #1:

SPECIAL EDITION COUNTRY UNDERWEAR

Show your patriotic side with these special edition undies. Featuring a soft waistband with a bold logo and printed flag, whilst the cotton/spandex blend will keep you feeling comfortable and looking great!

Available for USA, GBR, CAN, and AUS, but not (using other three-letter country codes) NZL, IRL, or ZAF. USA as in #1:

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Flaunt your country! And your package!

The guy in #1 is in fact decidedly beefy in body type. That’s one big chest.

Beef cubes. Oxo is a trade name:

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Oxo is a brand of food products, including stock cubes, herbs and spices, dried gravy, and yeast extract. The original product was the beef stock cube, but Oxo now also markets chicken and other flavour cubes, e.g. Chinese Recipe and Indian Recipe. The cubes are broken up and used as flavouring in meals or gravy or dissolved into boiling water.
… Concentrated meat extract was invented by Justus von Liebig around 1840 and commercialized by Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company (Lemco) starting in 1866. The original product was a viscous liquid containing only meat extract and 4% salt. In 1899, the company introduced the trademark Oxo for a cheaper version; the origin of the name is unknown, but presumably comes from the word ‘ox’. Since the cost of liquid Oxo remained beyond the reach of many families, the company launched a research project to develop a solid version that could be sold in cubes for a penny. After much research, the first Oxo cubes were produced in 1910 and further increased Oxo’s popularity. During World War I 100 million OXO cubes were provided to the armed services, all of them individually hand-wrapped. (Wikipedia link)

Khal Drogo. From Wikipedia:

Khal Drogo is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.

Introduced in 1996’s A Game of Thrones, Khal [‘warlord’] Drogo is a Dothraki [a tribe of horsemen] from the continent of Essos.

Drogo is portrayed by Jason Momoa in the HBO television adaptation.

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More juicy beefiness.

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Juan Gomez, surveying some of the penguiniana at Ramona St. (there is even more at Staunton Ct., where I’m trying to clear things out), noticed this very handsome silver and black tie on display in my living room:

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(The label says: “MUSEO Hand Made” — made in Korea, as it turns out.)

The tie was a gift from my friend Steven Levine, who has an enormous collection — hundreds — of ties, found in used clothing outlets, estate sales, flea markets, and the like. Funny, gorgeous, bizarre, all shedding some light on odd corners of popular culture and changes in artistic fashions over the years.

So Juan asked what the most unusual tie in Steven’s collection was. I asked Steven, he reflected for some time, and nominated six items. For your thoughtful pleasure, these ties, with Steven’s comments…

1 This one has a theme of “curling”.  For that curling fan to wear to work or church?  To wear to a game in the days when you wore suits and ties to the ballpark?

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2 This is unusual because the front part of the tie is a fisherman in winter, but the back unseen part of the tie is a bathing beauty with palm trees.

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(in a close-up:)

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3 Here’s a shiny tie to celebrate the centenary of Mankato, Minnesota.

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4 This tie has a label from Madrid, and it reproduces the “All Is Vanity” painting by Charles Allan Gilbert that looks like a skull or a woman in front of her mirror, depending.

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(in a close-up:)

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5 Strange colorful handpainted tie of grasshoppers fishing in a glass. Is this what the “grasshopper” cocktail looks like?

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6 I have no idea who Rest and Zest the turtles are, and Oakton Manor is a park in Illinois at this point. But this may be my most unusual tie, which is not the same thing as my favorite.

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[AMZ: I find nothing about turtles named Rest & Zest, but I do find some sites where the nouns rest and zest are paired, partly to savor the rhyme, but mostly to suggest that you need rest in order to have zest for living. A life lesson in a necktie.]

(in a close-up:)

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(the label:)

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Earlier in this blog: a 11/17/15 posting “Novelty ties”, with two abstract-design ties from SL’s collection.

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(Money, sex, and anthropophagy, plus killer abs and electric underwear.)

Today’s Daily Jocks ad, with a caption of mine:

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Catherine showered the boys with
Money, Sebastian traded the bounty of
His Electric jockstrap for the treasures in
Their ragged boardshorts, but the
Cash ran out — the slavering
Pack set upon the terrified Sebastian,
Ripped what lean flesh they could from
His beautiful body.

The caption sets the 2(X)IST Electric underwear ad in the Spanish beach town of Cabeza de Lobo, the location of the movie Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), in which Montgomery Clift succumbs to a pack of beach boys.

(I’d show more of the Electric line — Sprectrum Blue as well as the Violet Rose above —  but all the ads seem to show only headless models, which might as well be headless mannequins.)

On the movie:

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[in the Spanish town of Cabeza de Lobo (‘Wolf’s Head’:] A group of young men who had been watching [Catherine] from the neighboring public beach start to approach but are intercepted by Sebastian. Catherine comes to realize that he is using her to attract these boys in order to proposition them for sex. Since the boys are desperate for money, Sebastian is successful in his efforts; however, he gradually becomes “fed up with the dark ones” and, being “famished for blonds,” makes plans to depart for the northern countries. One scorching white-hot day, Sebastian and Catherine are beset by a team of boys begging for money. When Sebastian rejects them, they take up pursuit through the streets of the town. Sebastian attempts to flee, but the boys swarm around him at every turn. He is finally cornered among the ruins of a temple on a hilltop. In the meantime, Catherine has been frantically trying to catch up with Sebastian, but she reaches him only to see him overwhelmed by the boys. To her horror and revulsion, they begin to tear him apart and eat his flesh.

Montgomery Clift was one of the great closeted hunks of the silver screen — often brooding and tortured, but usually sultry-sexy, as in this photo on an Italian beach, taken by another movie star of the time, Roddy MacDowall (widely supposed also to be closeted):

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From some time ago: the morning name “Carnival of Venice”, referring to the virtuoso trumpet setting of the German folk song “Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken” by Allen Vizzutti. No doubt WQXR-FM in NYC played it during the night while I was sleeping. A name that will take us many places.

So, the trumpet piece, played by Wynton Marsalis with the Boston Pops under John Williams: you can listen to it here. On the song, from Wikipedia:

The Carnival of Venice, is a folk tune popularly associated with the words “My hat, it has three corners” (or in German, “Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken”). A series of theme and variations has been written for solo trumpet, as “show off” pieces that contain virtuoso displays of double and triple tonguing, and fast tempos.

Many variations on the theme have been written, most notably those by Jean-Baptiste Arban, Del Staigers, Herbert L. Clarke for the cornet, trumpet, and euphonium, Francisco Tárrega and Johann Kaspar Mertz for classical guitar, Ignace Gibsone and Louis Moreau Gottschalk for piano, and Giovanni Bottesini for double bass. Chopin’s “Souvenir de Paganini”, dedicated to the composer and violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, is another variation on this theme. The popular novelty song, “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”, written and recorded in 1952, is based on the tune. A more recent piece making use of the theme, by Allen Vizzutti, called “The Carnival of Venus,” is regarded as one of the most difficult trumpet pieces ever written due to range and technical demands.

The piece has also been arranged for tuba, notably played by John Fletcher and available on the CD The Best of Fletch. Also Roger Bobo on Tuba Libera (cd). Another tubist whose performance of the piece is noteworthy is Øystein Baadsvik, a Norwegian tubist.

In German, then in English:

Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken,
drei Ecken hat mein Hut.
Und hätt er nicht drei Ecken,
so wär’s auch nicht mein Hut.

My hat it has three corners
Three corners has my hat
For had it not three corners
It would not be my hat

I have a very clear recollection of having learned the German version first, in grade school, but that almost surely can’t be right; memory is a very tricky thing. On the other hand, there’s the question of which language was the original. Sources available on the net don’t seem to speak to the question, but on the face of it, it looks like the English is a f=translation of the German, or else that the English (with the archaic syntax of its third line) is of considerable age.

Side Note: from Wikipedia:

“(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?” is a popular novelty song published as having been written by Bob Merrill in 1952 and very loosely based on the folk tune, “Carnival of Venice”. This song is also loosely based on the song “Oh, where, oh, where, has my little dog gone?” The best-known version of the song was the original, recorded by Patti Page on December 18, 1952, and released in January 1953 by Mercury Records as catalog numbers 70070 (78 rpm) and 70070X45 (45 rpm) under the title “The Doggie in the Window”, with the flip side being “My Jealous Eyes”. It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1953, and sold over two million copies.

You can listen to the Patti Page recording here.

Now to the the actual Carnival of Venice. From Wikipedia:

The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday (Martedi’ Grasso or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is world-famed for its elaborate masks.

The masks (and full costumes) are quite fantastical, gorgeous and dream-like, especially for women:

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The costumes for men include a number with tricorn hats, which is where the three-cornered hat comes into it. Some of the masks and the characters they represent:

bauta: a standardized society mask, worn by men with a tricorn hat and a cloak, often black:

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Columbina: Columbine from the commedia dell’arte
medico della peste: ‘the plague doctor’
moretta: the dark lady
volto (‘face’) or larva (‘ghost’)
Pantalone:  Pantaloon from the commedia
Arlecchino: Harlequin from the commedia
Zanni: another stage character

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Processing material for the last set of CD offers — of chamber music — I was struck by the way the musicians present themselves in performance and publicity, especially through their clothing.

The classic chamber music group is all-male and dresses in dark suits (with white shirts, dark ties, dark shoes and stockings), or even formal attire. Women in such groups, or in all-women groups, tend to dress more fashionably and individually, but not flashily. Groups specializing in new music, experimental music, and genre-bending music are inclined to dress more informally, especially in publicity shots. And some groups are deliberately showy.

On to a few examples.

A classic string quartet, the Guarneri, in performance on an album cover:

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The suits are very dark brown rather than black, but otherwise…

On to Anonymous 4, seen here in a publicity photo for their final concert tour before disbandment:

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It’s a publicity photo, so they’re smiling.

Some female groups have, in contrast, taken a calculatedly flashy approasch to dress and demeanor — maybe most famously the Ahn Trio, “three Korean sisters who constitute a piano trio and are famous for their sexy dress and sometimes outrageous presentations of themselves” (from a 10/7/15 posting). Photo from that posting:

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Then to Stanford’s ensemble-in-residence, the St. Lawrence String Quartet. In performance, they’re not flashy, though violist Lesley Robertson usually provides a flash of color. The three men often perform without ties (or with a flashy tie for first violinist Geoff Nuttall, who in general is more informally attired than the other two). Their publicity shots are decidedly informal:

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Robertson, Nuttall, Christopher Costanza (cello), Scott St. John (second violin)

SLSQ is a serious exponent and sponsor of new music, and their presentation of themselves fits with that.

Finally, the string quartet most famous for its advocacy of new and experimental music (and another local treasure), the Kronos Quartet. From Wikipedia:

The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. They have been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for over forty years. The quartet specializes in contemporary and new music, with more than 750 works having been written for them.

Their dress has never been ordinary, but at some points it’s been pretty extravagant, especially in publicity shots. Here’s the group ca. 1990, on the covers of their album Pieces of Africa. The back cover, with all four members at the time looking intense, in a rock-musician kind of way:

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Hank Dutt, viola; Joan Jeanrenaud, cello; David Harrington, violin; John Sherba, violin

And on the front cover, still intense, but merely informal rather than outrageous:

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Hey, it was the 80s/90s.

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The Daily Jocks ad for the 4th, featuring their very own patriotic underwear, worn by a decidely worried-looking model (with my caption):

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Hank was always
Up for the
Hot-dog eating
Contest, but he was
Anxious about exploding
Fireworks in his pants

The DJ ad copy:

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Show your patriotic side with these special edition USA undies. Featuring a soft waistband with a bold logo and printed flag, whilst the cotton/spandex blend will keep you feeling comfortable and looking great!

(Hank’s patriotic side seems to be right out in front.)

The caption introduces the ambiguous nominal exploding fireworks, just like the famous textbook nominal visiting relatives (ambiguous Visiting relatives can be dangerous, unambiguous Visiting relatives is dangerous vs. Visiting relatives are dangerous): Vprp+ Npl, with two interpretations:

(a) as a sg nominal, with N understood as the direct object of V

(b) as a pl nominal, with N understood as the subject of V

For Hank’s purposes in the caption, there’s not much to choose between his exploding fireworks in his pants (interpretation (a)) and (his having) fireworks exploding in his pants, perhaps spontaneously (interpretation (b)); either possibility is alarming — unless, of course, the fireworks are metaphorical, as we should all hope they are.

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(Not for kids or the sexually modest.)

Today’s Daily Jocks ad, offering 2eros Black Label items (with my caption):

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The Insolent Brothers
Offer themselves
On the altar of Eros to
Needy faggots

Buddy White more
Welcoming, Bro Black more
Contemptuous; off work they’re
Tight with one another but
Certain they’d never ever
Switch teams to join

The Ecstatic Sisters, the way those
Queers Mikey Bono and
Lennie Vance did

Mikey Bono, also in 2eros Black Label, his head thrown back in ecstasy (and offering an armpit) — call the head thing the Ecstatic Pose:

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And Lennie Vance, in a Timoteo “84” model jockstrap that DJ featured on the 13th, even more ecstatic:

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An earlier posting about 2eros underwear (as in #1): from 3/5/16, “Tinging the scalene triangle”

And the Timoteo ad copy for #3:

Our newest favourite from Timoteo studio, this the new Timoteo “84” collection. It will provide you with the ultimate level of both support and style. Perfect for everyday-wear in and out of the bedroom. Made with high-quality cotton/spandex for fit and comfort.

But let’s get back to Eros / Cupid (on one account, the son of Aphrodite / Venus). Though the two names Eros and Cupid refer to the “same” ancient deity — the winged god of love, with his bow and his arrow that inspires love (or desire) —  they tend to be pictured differently: Cupid as a cute infant, Eros as a (sexy) young man.

Here’s a paimting of the latter Eros by David Ligare, Landscape with Eros and Endymion:

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In Greek myth, Endymion was a handsome Aeolian shepherd, hunter, or king, the beloved of the moon goddess Silene; he spent much of his life in (eternal) sleep. I’m not sure how Eros gets into the story, but #2 shows Endymion sleeping alongside one of Eros’s arrows — possibly shot to ensure that Endymion will return Silene’s love.

On the artist, from Wikipedia:

David Ligare is an American contemporary realist painter. Contemporary Realism is an approach that uses straightforward representation but is different from photorealism in that it does not exaggerate and is non-ironic in nature… Ligare was born in 1945 in Oak Park, Illinois. He received his formal artistic training at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

… Since 1978, he has focused on painting still lifes, landscapes, and figures that are influenced by Greco-Roman antiquity. Chief among his stated influences are the aesthetic and philosophical theories of the Greek sculptor Polykleitos and the mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, as well as the work of the 17th-century classical painter Nicolas Poussin. A resident of Salinas, California, his paintings often depict the terrain of the central Californian coast in the background.

Winged men. As I’ve noted before on this blog, I have something of a thing for winged men. Eros is another winged man.

The earlier discussion: on 4/17/16, in “Another winged man”. First of all, on

Ganymede (always a beautiful youth) and Zeus (in art, sometimes an eagle, sometimes a winged man, sometimes just a powerful male figure):

on AZBlogX: “Ganymede’s tale” (where I note my long-time fantasy of sex-in-the-air with a winged man)

on this blog: “Ganymede on the fly” (a work of photographic art in which the Ganymede figure realizes this fantasy, magnificently and joyously)

And then, in that posting, a discussion (with illustrations) of the Fallen Angel films from TitanMen.

Now, two more winged images, both from mythology. First, Hermes / Merciry, in an illustration in which his winged cap, winged sandals, and winged staff together enable him to fly:

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(I haven’t been able to track down the source of this work. I’ve been able to find a fair number of copies, all unattributed, all on astrological sites having to do with the planet Mercury.)

Somewhat less mysterious, but still rather puzzling, is this image, which I recalled having seen several times, attributing it (almost surely correctly) to art photographer Richard de Chazal (see a 5/14/11 posting on AZBlogX on the artist):

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(Initially, I didn’t find the image on de Chazal’s site; but see below. It’s on a fair number of Pinterest boards, always, so far as I can tell, unattributed, and usually labeled as an image of Apollo.)

A winged Apollo was news to me, but this is cerainly a god-like figure with wings on his shoulder blades. I don’t follow all the iconography of the image, but the heart suggests that this is Eros again.

On the other hand, he has the aureole of the sun god Helios. And Apollo is the god of sun and light.

But wait! An exhaustive, image by image, search of de Chazal’s website reveals that this figure is his conception of the zodiac sign Virgo — my sign! — which de Chazal has chosen to visualize as a sun god, akin to Helios and Apollo: he is both male (like Helios and Apollo, but unlike Virgo) and winged (rather than riding the chariot of the sun, he flies on his own power). So he’s the Eros Apollo of the Zodiac, and like his precursor gods, he’s happy with male consorts. A fine astrological deity: he flies! he fucks guys!

(de Chazal is admirably, often outrageously, queer.)

Bonus linguistic point: virgo ‘virgin’ is a 3rd-declension noun in Latin (fem-gender, in accordance with the meaning; the idea of male virgins is a recent invention), but nothing in its declension tells you it’s fem-gender. So a specifically male name Virgo would be declined just like virgo ‘virgin’, which means that a zodiacal deity Virgo could perfectly well be male, and that the name Virgo could be masc-gender.

So Eros Apollo could have the epithet Virgo Alatus ‘winged Virgo’ — in contrast to virgo alata ‘a winged virgin, winged Virgin Mary’.

Explanatory note: the title of this posting, “The Insolence and the Ecstasy” is a play on the book and movie title “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, which is about Michaelangelo Buonarotti (who appears in my caption as Mickey Bono, artistic counterpart to Leonardo da Vinci, aka Lennie Vance). On the movie:

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From Wikipedia:

The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 American film directed by Carol Reed, starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone’s biographical novel of the same name. This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.

Yes, more gay interest.

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A follow-up to my previous posting on Torchwood character Ianto Jones and the Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd, who portrays him. I’d found no shirtless photos of GD-L, but Chris Ambidge has used the resources of Google searching much more effectively than I did and has come up with two photos from fans of GD-L’s. So now: the shirtless sequel.

A tumblr page. From rangerofdiscord on tumblr, a page “In appreciation of Gareth David Lloyd”:

This tumblr is dedicated to the wonderful actor, singer and most awesome dude on the planet.

He is most known for his role of Ianto Jones on Torchwood and for being the lead singer of Newport-based rock band, Blue Gillespie.

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Heavy dark hest hair; maybe he’s sensitive about that.

An interview. On the Iris site on 4/13/16, “Interview: Gareth David-Lloyd on [the zombie movie] I Am Alone, Independent Film, and Reuniting with Torchwood Cast Mates at Supanova!”, with this photo of GD-L (as Brick) and  Catrin Stewart (as Maggie) in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:

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Smooth-shaven, and performing in an American accent.

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(Racy, but not, I think, officially dangerous to children and the sexually modest, unless the verb shag is over the line. Look, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me came out in 19 – bloody – 99, with a PG-13 rating in the U.S.)

From Daily Jocks on the 29th (with my captions):

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Dick is a CHEEKY LAD,
Bit of fun, bit of bad,
Acts the monkey,
With his banana:

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Fancied Davy in a trunk, Davy in a brief.
Davy came to my house, where ‘e shagged me beef,
‘E shagged me royally, right fine,
So I went to Davy’s house
And kissed him twenty time.

I’ve made out the narrator, Dick, and his lust-object, Davy, as working-class Welshmen. Hey, I’ve been watching the tv show Hinterland / Y Gwyll (German Hinterland ‘back country, boonies’, Welsh Gwyll ‘dusk’: “Und die anderen, die im Dunkeln, sieht man nicht.”). Welsh film noir, astounding scenery, almost painful sense of place.

What DJ said:

Check out the latest collection from British brand, Curbwear!

After the massive success of it’s initial offering, the Identity line [the firm itself keeps writing IDENTITY] is back with a cheeky range of inventive swimwear and sportswear. Curbwear takes a daring approach and puts the answer “front and center” for game night. The time-poor man who knows his preference will undoubtedly choose a Curbwear pair – roomy pouches and ultra smooth waistbands setting the standard.

Trunk first, then the brief:

Show your cheeky side with the Curbwear Cheeky Lad Brief.

White brief [#2 is the red version] with navy back panels, featuring boosting pouch and star print to attract attention, just where you want it.

(It’s a special skill, writing wink-wink ad copy like this.)

Earlier on this blog: on 2/27/15, on Curbwear’s IDENTITY line, which advertises your preferences and self-presentation. Back then the available texts were

POWER BOTTOM – POWER BTTM – BOTTOM – BLOW ME – TOTAL TOP – TOP – VERSATILE – ACTIVE

to which the rather modest CHEEKY LAD has now been added.

(The current ads are visually amateurish, no doubt by design, to make the model look a bit yobbish. But cute.)

Then on 2/7/16, in “The news for, um, monkeys”, some about the adjective cheeky, and the phrase cheeky monkey, and of course the banana connection. I don’t have to explain the banana thing for you, do I?, not once you’ve seen #2.

Finally, my caption, the second part of which tries to reclaim the scurrilous anti-Welsh nursery rhyme (cue the earnest song from South Pacific, Lt. Cable’s “You’ve got to be taught / To hate and fear … / You’ve got to be carefully taught”), the rhyme that begins, “Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief; Taffy came to my house and stole a leg of beef” (Taffy = Dafydd = David = Davy). Oh, and to insert some gay content, of course.

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Today from Daily Jocks, Teamm8 Activ8s Our Lad Lance:

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Lance leaps in his leggings,
Roguishly, ridiculously,
The Mustache Man of Manly Beach.

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Put a jacket on him and he’s
Mush Man.

The clothing is not only (to my mind) ridiculous, it’s also expensive: in US dollars, $115 for #1 (the ID Tight), $175 for #2 (the ID Reversible Jacket). Lance not included

As usual, the.ad copy has its odd charms. The overall text:

The wait is over, Teamm8’s new activewear collection has landed! The Australian Underwear, Sportswear and Swimwear label has launched its Activ8 range suitable for every type of workout, whether you run, lift, walk or stretch and everything in between!

Specifically for #1:

ID Teamm8 insignia print. Rubber grips on inside bottom of leg openings to keep them from riding up. Smartphone sized pocket on back hip.

And for #2:

When luxe styling meets sports function you get the ID Reversible Jacket. Classic black option suitable for all occasion wear or if you’re in the mood to show your graphic side reverse it and wear it with ID print on show.

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Another item unearthed today: a collage of sorts (well, an altered poster) from 1998, amended by Chris Ambidge in 2000:

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It’s all about clothing and displaying the body.

Two ingredients here. One is the poster from the 1998 exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum (then on tour elsewhere), turned into a (very expensive) paperback book that year:

Diana’s Dresses: Dresses for Humanity: An Exhibition of the Dresses of Diana, Princess of Wales Acquired From the 1997 Christie’s Auction for Charity by Joseph F. Healey

The amazon.com writeup:

A dress collection featuring 20 internationally recognized designer dresses worn by the late Diana, Princess of Wales displayed individually in full page along with the history behind each one. They were part of the charity auction held by Christie’s in 1997.

The second ingredient is images of C&A-wear (cock-and-ass-wear) from a premier supplier of such items (and cock rings, fetish toys, and all that good stuff): Koala Swim in L.A. From their site (copy untouched by me):

Exciting Men’s Swimwear Line. 
This guide will give you a nice overview of Koala extreme men’s swimwear. There are many styles of swimwear for men including racing suits, Board shorts and regular length shorts. This guide will deal with Koala Men’s bikinis, Koala micro bikinis, Koala thongs,  Koala g-strings and Koala pouch only designs along with some other more extreme Koala Lycra products.

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