Favorite Pic of the Day for April 11th

Above:

Roo by Joe Mazza

-See More Below-

Happy Birthday today April 11th

Check out today's Lucky Birthday boys HERE:

Favorite Quote of the Day:

Although from 2010, this quote deserves frequent repeating!

Image Source:

'Gay people who want to marry have no desire to redefine marriage in any way. When women got the vote, they did not redefine voting. When African-Americans got the right to sit at a lunch counter alongside white people, they did not redefine eating out. They were simply invited to the table.'

Cynthia Nixon

The Middle Son

Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy, above) was always the good son. The youngest of the Ewing Brothers, he bore the brunt of dealings with the fall out of his J.R.'s wheeling and dealing becoming the son his parents could always count on. Bobby Ewing was also at times an excruciatingly boring character. Far more interesting to watch were older brother J.R. and middle son Gary.

I have written before that growing up in the 80's, DALLAS was the only show that drew my family together to watch for an hour. I remember vividly being sent to bed before it began and sneaking back down to watch the doings of the Ewing's with my parents knowing. As I got older, I was allowed to watch with them and was fascinated by the goings on at Southfork.

I don't really remember much about Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) from those childhood viewings, but I did get to know him a bit better when I finally got to watching the most of Dallas when it was on TNN and later, when it arrived on DVD. Although I have not seen nearly as much of the spin-off Knots Landing, I always happy to see Gary strut back to Southfork in his tight jeans to visit his daughter Lucy (Charlene Tilton, below).

Shackelford in the 80's gave off a trouble, yet sexy vibe. Not evil like his big brother, or nice like his younger, Gary was a sexy mess, unable to deal with a daughter, or the pressures from his wealthy family. With his great body, and pointy, serious by sexy face, Shackleford managed to make Gary someone you wanted to know more about.

I have not really been watching TNT's Dallas reboot. I tried to give it a go last season, but with the exception of the incredibly talented and hot Josh Henderson, there was little I found to grab on to actually care about. The show seemed simply a collection of unconnected scenes with no real focus or direction. The characters I grew up watching, were almost unrecognizable.

I tuned in again briefly a few weeks back to see how the show said goodbye to J.R. Although it was great to see Gary, Lucy and other blasts from the past back, the shows creators just didn't seem to know how to properly use these wonderful iconic characters. Linda Gray's tearful goodbye made the hour watchable, but not watchable enough to bring me back the next week. It was a little sad seeing Shackelford, not so much because he had aged, all of the characters aged. It was more that there seemed a lack of caring from the show, and maybe as well the actor, to make the character interesting. It was sort of too bad, because although Shackelford looks very much his age, there was still that spark of sexiness hidden under those business suits that I wish the show had chosen to tap into.

Joe Mazza: Under Roo

'Don't swing on a string. It's much too frail. The best kind of swing is a tigger's tail. Whee!'

Roo from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

April began with my first post featuring the work of San Francisco Joe Mazza. Joe let me know in his response to the piece, that he felt it did a good job of capturing the personalities of both himself and the model Randall O'Reilly. When I began spending time with Joe's images of the model for this second post, uncovering personality required very little effort.

Joe's images of 23 year old Roo Deerhart are full of personality. Roo appears so at ease in front of Joe's camera, expressing himself naturally through fashion choice, facial expression and pose. I love the differences in expression Joe skillfully captures with the light and fun feel to the colored images and the more soulful and erotic tone captured within the black and whites.

'Roo constantly gets in trouble but he always learns his lesson. He is cheerful and enthusiastic, taking great joy in discovering the small wonders in life. He is also curious, fun, and loving; he looks at the world in a loving and sympathetic way. When speaking, Roo tends to use exclamations and frequently repeats himself in his excitement.'
Winniepedia

I am not sure how much of the character Roo, created by A.A. Milne, is in the model Roo, but given he lists his full name as Kangaroo Deerhart on Model Mayhem, I think it safe to say the connection is strong. Joe says that Roo is an artist and an incredibly free soul, working at the moment as a personal trainer at a local gym while he gets his modeling career off the ground. As a base for his portfolio, with the spectrum of personality and emotion expressed in these incredible images, photographer would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to explore more sides of Roo.

Joe Mazza:

Official Site:

Model Mayhem:

The Male Image (tumblr)