Sunday, December 31, 2006

Year End Nude Newz Revue

Its been an exciting year for nude and naked news stories, so much so that this column will not mention the recent escapades of Britney Spears or Katie Rees; Miss Nevada.

Well frankly we already did stories on them.

And of course any mention of such celebrity gossip is well frankly just a cheap attempt to gain hits.

And we would never do that.....;)


After all we all know that photographing celebraties is voyerism. Even when it is art.

Portrait of star photographer Leibovitz lacks a bit of focus

The question is: Is it art? Not surprisingly, for the most part the answer is “yes.”

There is, though, a designated scold: Vicki Goldberg, photo critic for the New York Times.

She does not think Leibovitz’s high-concept photos — Bette Midler in a bed of roses when she starred in “The Rose,” the Blues Brothers with their faces painted blue — are all that insightful. They’re not narratives, she says; they’re jokes.

(Of course, this does not discredit them as magazine covers. They have great impact, the kind that would obviously inspire impulse buys on the newsstand.)

More broadly, Goldberg has little use for the celebrity culture that Leibovitz documents, lionizes and propagates with her photography.

Photography expanded moderninst Nude Art and one of its greatest artists, again a woman, has passed on. Nudity must be good for you she lived to be 101.

Greatest photographer of the nude'

SAN FRANCISCO - Renowned photographer Ruth Bernhard, whose black-and-white images of compelling shapes from female nudes to seashells were regarded as still-life art, has died. She was 101. Bernhard, who was born in Germany, died Monday in her San Francisco apartment, the city Medical Examiner's Office said.

With the advent of capitalism in China the wealthy can now afford the ultimate bourgeois art form;

Boudoir Photography.

A 54-year-old woman in Guiyang, Guizhou Province recently took her daughter to a photography studio to have semi-nude pictures taken of her body.

The woman, Chen, said she could not afford to have pictures taken of herself when she was younger. But as she could afford it now, she wanted the pictures taken so that her daughter could appreciate them when she was older.

The studio said Chen was the sixth customer this year with this request.


If you are a politician at a nude beach make sure your companion is your wife or partner.

"Aroused media" get it...aroused... naked, nude....nudge nudge, wink wink...yeah we get it already.

Gunter Verheugen, the German Vice-president of the EU has aroused the media's interest in him in the past with his fiery tirades against fellow EU bureaucrats whom he accused of having too much power, but this time the media's interest is not in what he said, but in what he bared.

A German magazine has issued a statement that it has pictures of Verheugen on vacation in August with his chief-of-staff, Petra Erler, sunbathing and playing in the water at a nudist beach in Lithuania. His wife of 19 years was no where to be seen.

These photographs and the allegations made by some of his peers, such as German conservative MEP Markus Ferber who accused Verheugen in April of "nepotism" when he promoted Erler to his chief-of-staff have raised some questions as to how innocent their relationship is.

"In appointing Frau Erler it was apparently not only the professional qualifications which played a role," Ferber insisted.

Herbert Reul, a conservative German European parliamentarian indignantly stated: "I find it unacceptable that an EU commissioner is running around a beach nude with a high-ranking colleague." But his objection seems not against the nudity, but of him doing so with his aide.

Of course not everyone is excited about seeing men in the buff even if they are buff.

Brits decide 100 naked iron men have to leave Liverpool beach


India is less uptight about male nudity in public. It's ok for wrinkled old men to go naked in India.

Naked hermits join procession ahead of Ardh Kumbh

This is not a crude attempt to raise the dead, rather to raise money for the dead.

All I want at my funeral is a couple of strippers

In terms of sexual culture, China has come a long way since the days of the Cultural Revolution. Then, men and woman were often segregated and any overt display of sexuality, whether in dress or public affection, including kissing, invited condemnation if not worse. Today, much of China remains conservative, especially in the countryside.

In some parts of rural China one old tradition hangs on: ­ the nude funeral performance. As retold by Reuters, China's Xinhua news agency reported that the police in Donghai County, Jiangsu province, broke up two groups of strippers who gave "obscene performances" at a farmer's funeral. According to the Chinese source, "Striptease used to be a common practice at funerals in Donghai's rural areas to allure viewers." It was especially popular with wealthier families who often employed strippers to attract a crowd. "Local villagers believe that the more people who attend the funeral, the more the dead person is honored," it noted. The report claims that two hundred showed up at the farmer's funeral and five strippers were detained. Xinhua claimed that officials "issued notices concerning funeral management" and that they now must submit plans for funerals within 12 hours after a villager dies. Officials even set up a hotline so residents can report "funeral misdeeds."

In China they have discovered that nudity is not only good for advertising the dead but for advertising booze as well, gee would never have thought of that, and hey it has an environmental message as well.....

Police in central China have scotched a wine maker’s plans for a mass Christmas Eve “nude run” which the company said was a public interest event to discourage the use of “excessive packaging” in the industry.

Jixiang Ruyi Tobacco and Alcohol Company offered 284 people 10,000 yuan ($1,280) in cash and prizes to participate in a naked dash through Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, the People’s Daily reported on its website on Thursday.


And I am sure wearing a bathing or scuba suit would have made her less attractive to the shark.....

Underwater Nude Model Bitten by Shark on Book Shoot; 'We Push the Envelope'

You have heard of how addicting the Blackberry can be, it now has a medical condition associated with it, Blackberry thumb. And apparently it can also cause blindness.....

Scarlett Johanssen says she and actress Keira Knightley were ignored by the crew when they were naked during a photo shoot, it's been reported.

The Black Dahlia star had expected to receive more attention when she and Brit Keira shed their clothes for the cover of Vanity Fair earlier this year.

But according to The Sun, one worker on the set was more concerned with checking his BlackBerry.

"Keira and I, and we're totally naked, and some guy is on his BlackBerry computer," the 22-year-old explained.

Hmm too bad Christina Aguilera wasn't on the set. She wouldn't be using her thumb on the blackberry.

Pop star
Christina Aguilera wants you to let you in on all her dirty secrets and what really turns her on. She recently revealed that she often finds nude girls more of a turn-on than guys. “We should all be allowed to enjoy whatever we enjoy. Women are beautiful beings and I often find the sight of a naked female more arousing than a naked man.”


And Neve Campbell didn't have a problem getting noticed when she was nude in the shower. "The only weird bit was that I was naked and shooting the scene in the shower with four cameramen."


Not Ugly Betty?

Salma Hayek Wins Best Nude Movie Scene 2006

The popularity of public nudity has led to at least a better understanding of nudism and the naturalist movement...

According to the American Association for Nude Recreation, nude recreation and travel has grown from a $200 million business in 1992 to a more than $400 million industry. "The competition is stiff in this industry," said Bev Axelrod, president and 12-year member of the Sequoians in Castro Valley. "Nudism is a huge money maker.

Yes he did say that with a straight face and no clothes on.

Public Nudity is socially challenging for some individuals not for moral reasons but because personal feelings.

Tackling my fear of nudity — and naked people

This year saw the suicide of "The Naked Guy" who was still dealing with his own personal demons despite using nudity as a form of liberatory protest.

Andrew Martinez | b. 1972 The Naked Guy

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The nude-in made the Naked Guy a media favorite. The feminist writer Naomi Wolf hailed Martinez for making himself “more vulnerable to the eye than women were.” Playgirl magazine photographed him. And tabloid TV hosts like Montel Williams and Maury Povich had him as a guest on their shows. That Martinez was invited on these programs mainly to be mocked didn’t seem to bother him. He’d gamely take his seat alongside his fellow guests — sex enthusiasts and porn stars — and patiently, almost sheepishly, explain his cause. Martinez came off not as a freak but as a sweet kid.

Until his death, Martinez’s family and friends did their best to keep his mental illness a secret. This was at his request. “Andrew did not want people to know about his illness,” his mother said, “because then they would think he was crazy the whole time.” In his moments of lucidity, there was one thing he desperately wanted to convey: “When he was the Naked Guy,” one friend said, “he was completely sane.”


While for the voluntary nudist the experience is liberating, for some people nudity is used to humiliate those who are already the most humiliated and downtrodden . In the case of India's Racist Caste Culture, the Dalits.

Dalit woman paraded nude for stealing fruit
Web posted at: 12/26/2006 0:38:41
Source ::: IANS

Patna • A middle-aged Dalit woman was tonsured and paraded half-naked in Bihar on the orders of the husband of a woman village head for allegedly stealing a few bananas. Basra Devi, in her mid 50s, of Balua Basanta village in Vaishali district was meted out the “punishment” on Saturday. “I was forcibly tonsured and paraded half-naked in the village by the people despite pleading that I was innocent,” Besra Devi said.

According to villagers, after she refused to pay a fine her head was shaved. “How can I pay a fine when I don’t have enough to eat?” she said.

Satyanarayan Chaurasia, the landowner husband of the village woman head, has denied torturing and humiliating Besra Devi. “I have nothing to do with it,” he said.

But villagers say it was done on his orders. A few days ago, some landowners chopped off the fingers of a 10-year-old Dalit girl, Khusbu, for plucking a few leaves of spinach from a vegetable field in a village in Bhagalpur district.

But she was not the only one.

If you dare to be a tom boy or suspected of being a lesbian in India well look out.....


Girl with ‘boyish’ ways paraded nude

As usual where would we be without someone getting upset about nude art, especially nude art where women are not idealized but painted in their full glory....

A painting of a nude woman — on display after years in storage — is causing a flap at Rochester Community and Technical College.

The stir began this summer when the piece, which depicts an American Indian woman with bare breasts, was hung overlooking a cafeteria.

“I think one of the reasons the painting is so controversial is because of the powerful picture,” said RCTC art director Simon Huelsbeck. “Nudes are frequently portrayed, like Michelangelo, as being sort of idealized, and she’s a full-sized woman.”

Naked and the Nude: Representations of the Body



Emil Nolde, German (1867-1956). Christ and the Sinner, 1911. Etching and drypoint. Gift of Jane Wade in memory of Curt Valentin, 55-73/13.

KANSAS CITY.- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art presents The Naked and the Nude: Representations of the Body on view through April 29, 2007. The words “naked” and “nude” are defined as synonyms by the American Heritage Dictionary. “Naked” entered the English language from the German nakt, while “nude” derives from the French nu. Through centuries of use, the words have taken on subtle distinctions.

The ideal nude, often inspired by the poses of classical sculpture, has been viewed as the most noble subject in Western art since antiquity. During the 19th century, this tradition remained strong, even as Impressionist artists sought to represent the naked body with a new, unwavering realism.

The Modern tendency toward abstracted and expressive form means that depictions of the body diverge from classical, academic and realist ideals. Yet, the notion that to be naked is to be exposed and vulnerable, while to be nude is to be comfortable and at ease, remains valid in 20th-century art.


With this ruling Missouri remains the Show Me State.

The Missouri Supreme Court struck down a state law Tuesday barring nude dancing and touching between strippers and customers.

The Supreme Court upheld a lower judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutional because the bill changed too much from its original purpose as it moved through the Legislature.

And in Pasadena you can fight City Hall, no nude dancing ordinances......

City takes no action against all-nude club
- Neither City Hall nor a newly opened strip club appeared ready to blink in the days after new rules for adult businesses went into effect. The city has thus far taken no action against the Peppermint Garden, a week after the all-nude cabaret opened in defiance of a revised ordinance, which took effect Wednesday, that was expected to keep its doors shut.

Where would the Nude Newz be without our compulsorary story about the male who gets drunk or stoned and goes out naked into the world with nary a care. And we always say gee they should know better, and in this case it applies even moreso....

Lions assistant suspended for drunken, nude driving
The NFL has suspended him for one game as the result of two arrests -- one for drunken driving and one for nude driving. Cullen also was fined 20-thousand ...

When you have the best damn cup of coffee in town this is bound to happen. But twice?

MAN ARRESTED TWICE FOR NAKED VISITS TO COFFEE STAND

So if these guys want to really be nude in public, in the outdoors, well there is a perfectly legal way to do it.....

Nude Runners Calendar

Running Naked

So I guess all they need is nude shoes.


United Nude Shoes

mobius3.jpg

Co-founded by the Dutch architect Rem D. Koolhaas (yes, he’s the nephew of Mr. OMA himself) and shoe-maker Galahad JD Clark, United Nude elevates the shoe to a true art form—where design, architecture and abstraction meet footwear. With an aim to create nothing less than contemporary iconic shoe design, "the products are conceptual: re-interpretations of architecture, archetypes, or existing classic objects." Like, for example, the sexy form of the Mobius shoe (pictured), which is inspired by the frame of Mies Van der Rohe’s famed Barcelona chair. Made from a single strip of high-tech Kevlar, the sole and upper are an unbroken form.


And speaking of nude running where Nude Newz would be without the mandatory reference to PETA.....

Running Of The Nudes: Out With The Old-In With the Nude!

For the Nude Year make sure you do some star gazing with your naked eye....

Free Guide to Naked-Eye Astronomy

And don't forget to listen to nude radio live on New Years Eve...

X-PRESS 2 AND RADIO SLAVE PLAY NUDE YEAR'S EVE




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1 comment:

Lisa Wines said...

So...I didn't get here by way of a nudity search, but by using the search term "corporate feudalism." hehe Decidedly less interesting than this post. I'm actually researching a graffiti image I photographed here in Paris that says Corporate Feudalism - Cradle to Grave. I'm trying to learn about its origin and meaning. If you know anything, lemme know. :-)

I'm so glad I found your blog. I'll add it to my feed since I'm a big ol' lefty meself.

Thanks for the entertaining post!