Dad buys me a n*ked man for Christmas

  

Link to the n*de photos

When I was a kid in Rock Island, three local celebrities were praised in the media, advertized in bookstores, and assigned by teachers: 

1. Jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke

2. Poet Carl Sandburg

3. Sculptor Isabel Bloom.

Born Isabel Scherer in 1908, she grew up in Davenport, across the river in Iowa, and studied at Grant Wood's Stone City Art Colony, where she met and married fellow artist John Bloom.  In the 1950s, she began producing distinctive sculptures carved out of Mississippi River stone or molded of mud mixed with concrete.  

They were absolutely atrocious. Angels, fairies, hugging children, mothers hugging babies, cats, doves, bridal couples, snowmen, Santa Clauses, the most maudlin, sentimental, and heteronormative dreck ever imagined.

But everyone in the Quad Cities loved them.  My parents loved them.There were two or three in every room.  Dozens more crossed the state with us to give to our Indiana relatives for Christmas presents.  When an out-of-town friend visited, they always went home with a Isabel Bloom fairy or hugging child.

So I should have anticipated what would happen.

I had just discovered Greek art -- rather, statues of muscular Greek gods, so for Christmas in ninth grade, I  asked for "a statue."  

I meant a desk-sized statue of a n*ked god, like the Belvedere Apollo, but Dad said, "Sure -- let's go down to Isabel Bloom's, and you can pick out the one you want."

I couldn't tell him "No, no...I wanted a naked Greek god, not some stupid boy holding a frog!", so my boyfriend Dan and I had to fake-grin our way through a mid-December visit to the crowded studio in the Village of West Davenport, as we sorted through Angel with Wreath, Unconditional Love, Lovebirds, Boy with Flag...

Eventually Dan wandered off, but my torture continued: Girl with Pumpkin, Newlyweds, Boy Offering Girl Flowers, Baby in Crib, Sleeping Cat...  

Then Dan came running excitedly from a side studio.  "Hey, what about this one?"  It was a n*de male figure, seated, his arms around his knees.   Stylized, not muscular, but a heck of a lot better than the other stuff.

"John's Thinker, " he read from the bottom. 

"Must be a statue of her husband," I said, carefully taking it from his hands.  It felt warm to the touch.  It was thrilling to think that I might be holding an exact likeness of a real n*ked man.

"No, she didn't do this statue, her husband John did," Dad said, frowning.  "It's not a real Isabel Bloom."

"That's ok.  It's different from the others.  I'll take it." 

He looked at me oddly.  "The others are lots nicer ones.  How about First Kiss?"  He held out a statue of a little boy kissing an embarrassed little girl on the cheek.

"I don't want any statues of girls."

"It's a boy and a girl.  That's like two statues for the price of one!"

Was he objecting to the price of John's Thinker?  No, First Kiss cost twice as much.  "This one's cheaper."  

"But..you could use it as a kind of model, you know.  When you want a girl to let you kiss her, just show her the statue."

"Gross!" Dan exclaimed.

"After you discover girls, I mean."

"John's Thinker, please," I said firmly.

Dad shrugged.  "Well, if you're sure that's the one you want.  But I don't know what you're going to do with it, Skeezix." 

 Later I figured out that he always called me Skeezix, after a character in the old Gasoline Alley comic strip, when I expressed same-sex desire, something bizarre and beyond imagining at the time.

I still have the statue.  And someone put an Isabel Bloom angel and cat on my father's grave.

More after the break

Aaron Tobey: The gay boy who wrote the 4th Amendment on his chest

  On December 30, 2011, this became the most famous photo on the internet.  Not only because the guy has an impressive physique, because he wrote the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on his chest.

21-year old architectural student Aaron Tobey was grieving: his grandfather had just died, and he had to fly to Wisconsin for his funeral -- at the busiest time of the year.   He was sick of those invasive scanning machines, so he had a friend write the 4th Amendment on his chest: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

When he got to the scanner, he stripped down to his jogging shorts.  The TSA officer immediately called the police, who handcuffed him and dragged him to the airport lockup. After questioning him for an hour, they were satisfied that he wasn't a terrorist (because he knows the Constitution?), and issued him a summons for disorderly conduct.  They also confiscated his luggage.

Left: At the airport.

Aaron put on his clothes, took a later flight (after going through the scanner the ordinary way), went to the funeral, and sued two TSA screeners for violation of his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment Rights (freedom of speech, freedom to avoid unnecessary searches, and due process in criminal proceedings).  A lower court found in his favor, so the TSA went to appeal.  The Apellate court found that the the screeners did violate the First Amendment in arresting him for a text that was not inflammatory or obscene.  Who cares that he had it written on his chest?

Besides, he was just giving them what they wanted.  Those screeners (since discontinued) showed a lot more of your front and back parts than Aaron was showing.

Unfortunately, that was all of the notoriety (and beefcake) that we got from Aaron.  He completed his M.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design and Ph.D. in Architectural History from Yale University, and is now an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Wisconson, Milwaukee.  

His research interests include the hsitory of twentieth century architecture, technology, and organizations with a focus on the intersection of histories of computing, management, and postmodernism in a global context.

More shirtless Aaron after the break

Jake Rory: The Shropshire Lad plays gay-vague on EastEnders, falls in love with Mercutio, gets n*ked in third of his on-screen roles.

  

Link to the n*de photos

The media calls Jake Rory  a Shropshire Lad, reflecting the book of poetry by A.E. Housman, who was terrified of acknowledging his love for men:

Look not in my eyes, for fear
  They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
  And love it and be lost like me.

He grew up in Maesbury, Shropshire, near the Welsh border; his Mum ran the Talbot Pub across the border in Welshpool.  After secondary school at The Hammond, he attended ArtsEd, a "world-renowned" drama school in London:

There Jake appeared in:

The Cherry Orchard (who hasn't?)

 Orpheus Descending, by Tennessee Williams.  Bi actor Marlon Brando starred in the movie version.

Macbeth

And The Voysey Inheritance: Desire and social obligation, by the heavily closeted Harley Granville-Barker.

He also had a minor role in the short Renters (2024): a lesbian couple in Auckland are looking for a flat.  One seems too good to be true, until... 

Jake graduated with a B.A. in Acting in 2024, and was immediately cast in a modernized version of Oedipus on the West End (October 2024-January 2025).  Mark Strong played Oedipus. Jake was in the ensemble, and understudied the roles of Eteocles, Polyneices, and Lichas (Oedipus' son, brother, and assistant).

In 2025, Jake and Connor Monroe wrote and performed in Mercutio,  a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, at the Camden Fringe Festival.  A review mentions an "unexpected romantic subtext," but of course the gay-subtext romance betwween Mercutio and Romeo is well known.  

Connor Monroe is apparently gay.  A woman posts on "Love Is All That Matters" about her "gay brother Connor Monroe," and someone by that name mentions having a husband. 

Jake also began television work in 2025.  In Episode 1.8 of The Agency, Martian (Michael Fassbinder), a CIA agent working undercover, walks in on his daughter  Poppy and her boyfriend Daniel (Jake), both unclothed.  Danny Boy strikes a pose, planning to fight the "intruder"; but upon realizing that it's just Dad, he settles for covering up.

Martian is nonchalant about his daughter getting busy.  Later he praises her for growing into a "cool person."

More after the break

Andrew Santino: Aren't gay men hilarious? But have you heard what they do in bed?

Link to the NSFW version

Today I started a review of Royal Crackers, an animated series on MAX about a family running a cracker empire.  As usual, I checked to see if any of the actors have beefcake photos or are gay.

Andrew Santino, who plays the washed-up rock star son: About a dozen beefcake photos.

Including a group rear.  Notice that the guy on the left has a d*ck hanging down (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

And one with a sock.

Gay: he's on a list of gay male celebrities, but there are also clips saying "Andrew responds to gay rumors," "I'm not gay no more," "Andrew finds out that he's gay,"  "Andrew's gay lover," "Andrew fails the gay test," "Andrew comes out."

Well, which is it?  Is he gay, ex-gay, straight, bi, pan, straight but pretending to be gay as a joke?

Who is this guy, anyway?'

He appears in Game Over, Man and Adam Devine's House Party, and later interviews Adam on the Whiskey Ginger podcast: "What was your worst review?"

Adam: "I don't really get bad reviews, but sometimes they devote three paragraphs to my dick and only two lines to my acting."

He hangs out with the Always Sunny guys. 

He has 40 credits on the IMDB, including substantial roles in:

 I'm Dying Up Here, about the L.A. comedy scene in 1973.  All fictional comedians.

This is Us, "a heartwarming and unique story of a unique set of triplets." Andrew does not play one of the triplets.

Beef, about a road rage incident that spins into a comedy of errors.

Dave, with Dave Burt playing himself as an aspiring rapper. Andrew plays his roommate and manager.

Ricky Stanicky: Three best friends, one gay, invent Ricky to blame their misdeeds on. Andrew plays the focus character, who wants to kill Ricky to get out of attending his pregnant wife's baby shower.

More Andrew after the break