(Much about gay porn, so there’s plenty about the male body and man-man sex, in very plain language, but (just barely) without the visuals. Use your judgment. There are also a few linguistic notes.)
It starts with postcards that Max Meredith Vasilatos has been sending me, including a couple with photographs by Matt Bauer (who was new to me): shots of gay pornstars that are clearly gay porn, and intended to be, but are also male art of some interest. Mark Mason in particular.
To come: material on Mason; then on Bauer and some subjects of his other than Mason; then a digression on what is almost surely a different photographer named Matt Bauer. Mark Mason then led me to a vein of humor/criticism that I hadn’t realized existed: Gay Porn Minus Gay Sex, intended as a critique of bad gay porn: when you don’t have the visuals (the meat in the sandwich, as it were), you’re forced to attend to the acting and so will begin to appreciate the deficiences of the acting. (In particular, “Tales From Two Cities” Minus Gay Sex”; Mason appears in the cast of the original “Tales From Two Cities” of 1999.)
Mark Mason. Here’s a version of the postcard photo, with Mason’s genitals cropped out:
(#1)
Here we see the muscular, mildly scruffy Mason gazing intently, invitingly, into your eyes, with the suggestion that he might smile soon, meanwhile displaying his body, especially his six-pack, for you. (Also note the erect nipples; he’s aroused.) In the postcard version of the photo, his mouth is slightly open, a further gesture of invitation.
The full photo — from the Gay Muscle Time site (“focusing on gay muscle men”) — can be seen as #1 in my “Mark Mason” posting on AZBlogX. There, Mason’s cock is half-hard, inviting you to make it fully hard. All in all, a performance signaling receptivity.
Also from the Gay Muscle Time site, another photo (pretty clearly from the same shoot as #1), with focus on his biceps as well as his abs, but this time fully open to you, in a pits-n-tits pose:
(#2)
(The uncropped photo is #2 in my AZBlogX posting.)
Brief digression (from an earlier posting here) on the photographer Jonathan Black and his book Idols; on male photography, which explores the male body, especially with a gay gaze; and on the genre of images like the two above:
What the photographer reveals. Some commenters on the Idols book dismiss it as high-class (and expensive) jack-off material. There’s no question that the images present the subjects as “objects of lust”, as one commenter put it, and I’m sure that was part of Black’s intention; there would be nothing surprising, or wrong, in jacking off to whichever of these photos move you. … But Black was also trying to evoke characters: the personas he saw in these men, and perhaps the ones they saw in themselves.
Similarly for Bauer in his images of Mason.
Jonathan Black is especially relevant here, because he too shot Mason back in the 90s. Mason on Black’s cover of Advocate Men for December 1996, with his pecs featured prominently:
(#3)
On Advocate Men, from Wikipedia:
Men was an American gay pornographic magazine originally published as Advocate Men from 1984 until 1997, when it was retitled Men. … [It offered] explicit nude male photography [typically by accomplished photographers], often featuring popular stars from the gay adult film industry, erotic fiction, video reviews and other features.
About Mason. He was born 4/20/64 in West Virginia and in the 90s identified as gay. From a gay pornstar site, somewhat edited here:
He started working in the hardcore business in 1997 at the age of 33. Mark was featured in Boy Toy Wrestling 2, which was directed by Paul Carrigan. The meaty [Mason] also appeared in Paul Barresi’s The Mentor, released in 2006. Mark Mason teamed up with Patrick Ives, Kip Casey and Kent Burke in the film The Orgy Experience. He was last seen performing in 1999 and never went back to the business.
A still from The Mentor, Mason and youngman Peter Wilder about to kiss at the dinner table:
(#4)
Mason as mentor/daddy, Wilder as student/boy. The studio’s entertaining blurb:
“These horny young students of man sex are taking their lessons the hard way. But nobody is complaining. They have discovered that their daddy mentors have a lot more than just experience to offer…”
Matt Bauer. I have no real information about the photographer of #1 and #2. He had a substantial career in male photography, specializing in pornstars as his subjects, in the 90s and then seems to have vanished. Two more images from him: pornstar Cicero Scott on the cover of the November 1996 Advocate Men, pornstar Jim Thorpe in a feature in the December 1996 issue:
(#5)
(#6)
Digression: Matt C. Bauer. Searching for information about 90s pornman Matt Bauer led me to a more recent photographer Bauer: the outdoorsy, athletic Matt C. Bauer, with a website on which he identifies himself as a “photographer, creative director, entrepreneur” in Venice CA and writes enthusiastically about himself:
Matt Bauer is a self taught photographer who’s only filter is following his passions. After completing his collegiate Division 1 swimming career with a degree in advertising, Matt left the east coast to chase his dream, working in the action sports industry. Matt broke down the stereotypes of what a surf obsessed youth from Philadelphia could do.
Outdoorsy Matt Bauer shoots surfers and skateboarders; landscapes (for instance, Yosemite); and lots of commercial photography (for instance, for GLCO, Garrett Leight California Optical).
Two photos of Bauer (by other photographers): with his surfboard; and in glasses from GLCO:
(#7)
(#8)
An interesting photographic subject in his own right.
I haven’t been able to find out how old outdoorsy Matt C. Bauer is, but I can’t imagine that he’s old enough to be a new incarnation of pornman Matt Bauer from 20 years ago.
Gay Porn Minus Gay Sex. Now, a great find via Mark Mason: the video “Tales From Two Cities” Minus Gay Sex — Bad Gay Porn Acting”:
(There is in fact, a whole series of “Bad Gay Porn Acting” videos.)
The video starts with 1999 gay porn flick from Catalina Video,”Tales From Two Cities”, breathlessly described by the studio as follows:
When this sexy couple travels out of town, they can’t help but miss each other…or avoid their sexual urges! With a muscle-clad cast led by Blake Harper and Steve Rambo, watch as these hairy studs find themselves in sticky situation after sticky situation…literally! With FOUR scenes full of chiseled manly-men, throbbing cocks and nonstop ass-pounding, this is one Catalina production you don’t want to miss!
The cities in question are L.A. and Chicago. Harper and Rambo are married, and have sworn to monogamy, but in the course of the flick, both are unfaithful, though the resolution is that they reaffirm their exclusive bond to one another, with one swearing, “Your dick is the only one I want up my ass”. Ah, the poetry of true love!
The actors, with two names boldfaced (Mason’s and for reasons that will soon become clear, Steve Hurley’s): Blake Harper, Dave Nelson, Jason Branch, Joshua Scott, Mark Mason, Perry James, Steve Hurley, Steve Rambo, Carson Cole, and Rob Lance.
The Gay Porn Minus Gay Sex version was created by suppressing the video in all the visually X-rated parts — the good stuff — with graphics of rainbow pandas:
(#9)
The audio, with its sex talk and sex noises, is preserved. The effect is to focus your attention on the acting.
The Minus version was apparently created by “Titpig”, presumably the actor Steve Hurley, a hairy, muscular bear who is sometimes known by this name, from his own sexual predilections.
Minus versions. One side point: the model expession here is, I assume, the Music Minus One recordings, in which versions of multi-part musical compositions are made with one part suppressed, so that users can perform this part themselves.
Eventually, we get to things like the Garfield Minus Garfield comics, which I’ve posted about here.
Gay tits and titpigs. Another sidepoint, which comes in two parts.
First, tits in a gay sexual context. In brief: straight men have nipples, gay men have tits. Yes, a carry-over of usage for women to usage for gay men, as in a number of other cases. Compare man pussy, boy cunt, etc, in which we have the ‘male anus viewed as a sexual organ’ (posting here). In gay tits, we have the male nipple viewed as a sexual organ.
Then to titpig in a gay sexual context, using “the snowclonelet X pig, denoting someone who’s seriously into X (sex pig, involving sex in general or specifically “dirty sex” of various kinds; dick pig; piss pig)” (posting here). Specifically, a gay man who’s seriously into titplay, either as receiver or giver (very often both), so a gay man especially aroused by getting or giving nipple stimulation or (in a BDSM context) pain. Titpigs are stereotypically big hairy men, bears, leathermen, and sexual fetishists. Steve Hurley is all of these (on the last, he has a thing for cigars), so the name fits him well.
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