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Friday, December 29, 2023
12 Days: Yanks
Love during wartime
Every New Year's, I try to find a movie for my 12 Days posts. Thanks to some suggestions from FH readers, I've been fortunate to always find one. This year I struggled, and almost left it out. Every time I search for New Year's Eve themed films, the same movies come up over and over. I've tried to get creative, but I just can't seem to find a way weave When Harry Met Sally into 12 a Days post.
Before giving up, I decided to expand my search. Instead of looking for New Year's Eve themed movies, I started searching for films with New Year's Eve scenes. So many came up, but the one that intrigued me the most was Yanks. In the 1970 war Drama, US soldiers Matt, (Richard Gere) and John, (William Devane) are shipped to the UK in 1942 during WWII. Both each fall in love with local women, one of whom is married and the other engaged.
Gere by Herb Ritts
Close to the middle of the romantic drama, the holidays arrive. There are scenes of Christmas, and a New Year's Eve party at a Yorkshire dancehall. There's a lot of booze being consumed and when everyone grabs hands to sing Auld Lang Syne, drama, and then chaos ensues.
I also chose to feature Yanks as the film also has the distinction of marking the first on-screen nude scene from actor Richard Gere. Gere was one of the hottest sex symbols in the 80's and 90's with a long resume of on-screen nudity during the two decades.
Gere doesn't show much, just a brief glimpse of side butt during a love scene. The film however, does have a great shower scene featuring Gere with dozens of naked soldiers. It's short, but worth a peek, check it out on the NEXT PAGE HERE:
New Year's Special!
'I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.'
Thomas Jefferson
With all due reference to Thomas Jefferson, I like both the dreams of the future, and the dreams of the past. Sure, when we're thinking about our own personal past, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between our factual past from our rose colored glasses, but I'm thinking about a past beyond what we lived, or even when we've lived.
Since starting FH, I've gone back to the past often, often to decades and year before I was born. When I think of the art of capturing the male form, I tend to fantasize certain times and places. I dream about what it must have been like to be shooting nudes in the 40's, 50's and 60's, posing for Playgirl in the 70's, the film nudity of the 80's and doing softcore porn in the 90's. I know there were challenges, there were people being taken advantage of, their were people arrested for creating imagery deemed tame today.
But the great visuals created during those era's speak about the dreams those who created them had, and offer a glimpse into the best parts of the time and place they were taken. At Christmas, I took a look back at many at some of the magazine covers from holiday issues of classic publications focused on the male form. For New Year's, I decided to focus on ads for the many parties and bashes on and around December 31st.
Many of the images featured here came from (TWT) This Week In Texas, a weekly 8 page publication for LBGTQ readers that started in 1975. The Houston LBGTQ history society has a huge archive of covers and ads from the many years of the magazine.
The remainder of the shots came from searching for New Year's Eve posters from specific years from specific clubs and bars. I found many more than are featured here, but these were some of my favorites.
Boy Marky Mark, at least in 1992, was really leaning into his gay followers and fanbase, promoting his club appearances as only an underwear model can do.
Flutes & Glutes: Dane by John Mar
'I love modeling nude. I enjoy sensuality and the different parts of myself it allows me to explore.'
Over the years, my thoughts about the male form, especially within art and photography, has gone through some changes. Hearing from models and photographers about 'process' has had me look at images differently. I no longer just look at what I see, but the creative collaboration that inspired it. I've also grown to love images that make me feel more than images that just titillate.
It's fairly easy to stimulate arousal, a hot naked model can do that without expending too much skill or creativity. It take much more however, on the part of the model and photographer to stimulate a feeling, emotion or specific fantasy. Those are the images that I don't just see and scroll by, but images and the artists that I return to again and again.
This past year, and I'm not sure exactly why, I started asking photographers if they had 'side shots'. I love the sensuality Dane referenced. For me, it's so beautifully artistically accentuated in the lines, curves and contours of the male form in profile. That's why, when photographer John Mar sent on this series with Dane, I had to spotlight them separately.
I loved the side views and the way Dane so sensually positioned both his glutes, and his flutes. Although he only began modeling this year, Dane looks like a natural in front of the camera, especially with his poses. In part it may be his relationship with John who Dane considers a good friend after their multiple sessions together. Although this series is festively flirtatious, you can see even more of Dane, and more from the shoot on Dane's OnlyFans HERE:
'I first met John through a mutual friend who I had previously modeled for. Working with John is fun because he always allows room for the model to play around and take artistic freedom with the shot. It’s truly a collaboration.
New Year is about rebirth and focusing in on things we find fulfilling and fruitful. I’m excited this upcoming year to get more specific about my art and chasing pleasure in everything I do.'
'Dane is a great model. He’s very creative and he can really balance, thanks in part to his pole dancing background. He is so fun in the studio and I’m glad that he is welcoming us into 2024!'
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