Thursday, June 17, 2021

Favorite Pic of the Day for June 18th

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Check out today's BIRTHDAYS 

Seasonal Sightings


 Ax to Grind

Instagrams That Inspire: Brinn Bevan


The adorable Brinn Bevan was part of the first men's artistic gymnastic team to win a team medal at a World Gymnastics Championships for Great Britain in Glasgow on 28 October 2015. He went on to be  part of the British team to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016.  


In late 2019, Bevan won a gold medal on the pommel horse at the Northern European Championships in Kópavogur, Iceland.  Although gymnastics is Brinn's sport of choice, that doesn't mean he doesn't like to give others a try, including swimming with divers Tom Daley and Matty Lee.





After a hard landing, a butt massage is a must!

Brinn with Jay Thompson and Nile Wilson

With Tom Daley and Matty Lee

Robert Romanus in Fast Times At Ridgemont High


'I woke up in a great mood; I don't know what the hell happened.'
Mike Damone

I don't think I've actually seen Fast Times At Ridgemont High, at least not from start to finish.  I've certainly seen bits and pieces from the 1982 Amy Heckerling comedy on television, and scenes on-line.  I moved into my teens in the late 80's, and certainly remember malls, especially loving when our parents took us to the huge three story mall.  I loved running from the toy stores to the pet stores and the hobby and book stores.  Fast Times does a great job of capturing the feel of the era of the mall.


Although I didn't see all of the movie, I certainly was aware of the unique sex appeal of actor Robert Romanus.  I think I first saw Romanus in the late eighties on The Facts of Life.  The talented actor played Natalie's boyfriend 'Snake'.  If I remember correctly, Natalie lost her virginity to Snake in one of The Facts of Life's many issue oriented 'very special episodes.' 


In Fast Times, Romanus plays the fast talking know it all Mike Damone.  Mike uses his friend Mark (Brian Backer) to get close to Stacy, (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who he ends up having sex with. Stacy ends up pregnant causing issues between both her and Mike, and between Mike and Mark. 


I've frequently written about the amount of male nudity we've lost when movies are transferred from VHS to DVD and Blu-ray.  In the case of Fast Times At Ridgemont High, that trend is wonderfully reversed. With the recent release of a new 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Amy Heckerling, restores some full-frontal nudity of Robert during his sex scene with Jennifer.


Although the original film featured a topless  Phoebe Cates, the full frontal was cut in order to avoid the film getting an 'X' rating. It’s not a brand new scene added back into the film as the theatrical version simply zoomed in to avoid showing off too much of Romanus. The Criterion cut simply restores the original framing.


Draped in Pride: Eduin by TR Pics


'It takes no compromise to give people their rights...  It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.'
Harvey Milk

Like most annual celebrations, some years I get more excited than others. I get a little jaded, thinking of those that only preach 'good tidings of joy' when it's Christmas, or who only think of race issues when February rolls around. I remember a few years ago being annoyed with the changes in my town's PRIDE parade.  Over the last decade or so, it went from an edgy, sexual celebration, to more of a family event, with not only children, but companies both sponsoring and organizing many aspects of the celebration.  


My annoyance however, eventually moved to acceptance, and now finally on to appreciation. To actually have a parade, and have a celebration that could be counted on; to have a yearly event that had moved from 'will it happen' to becoming a tradition.  A tradition not only for members of the LGBtq community, but for all who wanted to support them.  I guess you can't really fight for inclusion, only to get annoyed when it actually includes and welcomes everyone.


Despite my excitement fluctuations, there are always symbols and visuals that tug at my emotions and get my energy engines revving up.  At Christmas, it's when I see the first lights on my neighbours houses, or when I finally put my Christmas tree.  Even if I wasn't looking forward to the holiday, the visual tug at memories and emotions that evoke my enthusiasm.  

With Pride, it's when images of the rainbow flag begin making appearances, the vibrant colors so powerfully representing both unique differences and our similarities. It's especially great when the flag is draped around someone who's experienced the pain of being different, and then embraced that difference, as being part of what now makes them who they are.

Like so many, I've had my own personal struggles the past year, and I wasn't thinking too much about Pride this year, that was until, seeing a few shots of Eduin and his rainbow of colors.  Many of you remember Eduin, and his work with Tom from TR Pics from a post I did early last month. (How It Should Be) I loved Tom's images of Eduin and loved Eduin's journey to body positivity, and how posing nude was his way of taking the power back and overcoming his insecurities. 

Tom has always used his skills as a photographer to celebrate the holidays, but his daily Instagram posts inspired him to get into even more themes.  During his most recent shoots, Tom asked many of the models he was shooting to take part in posing with rainbow themed props.  Throughout their many shoots together, Tom has come to consider Eduin somewhat of a muse, so he of course asked if he wanted to participate.

'Eduin responded wholeheartedly with a "Yes"! Although we had the best intentions of gathering a lot of rainbow stuff to shoot with, time ran out and we were very limited. Fortunately, he was able to make use of a rainbow towel and some sort of boa, and had fun with it. We shot is a closed porch area with a lot of light coming in, so the soft overexposed backlight really made he and his beautiful skin stand out. I'm very pleased with the large amount of work we shot."