In the annual NYT Magazine “The Lives They Lived” issue (yesterday in print, 12/27 on-line), “Sylvain Bromberger: He theorized about not knowing — and he lived with it too” by James Ryerson, with a story of a mysterious escape from the Nazis and a distinguished career in philosophy.
Archive for December, 2018
Sylvain Bromberger
December 31, 2018Rice and beans for New Year’s
December 31, 2018Yesterday I felt impelled to cook rice and beans for the New Year’s holiday — some association with Hoppin’ John (Carolina peas and white rice) for New Year’s Day, I guess, though back in the old days (the 60s through 80s in Columbus OH), Ann and I mostly did red beans and (white) rice, with fried cornbread, on New Year’s Eve; and I had Moros y Cristianos (black beans and white rice, served at spring festivals in Spain, re-enacting the expulsion of the Moors — African Muslims of Arab descent — from Spain in 1492) in mind as well. What I produced wasn’t any of these, but a multicultural extravaganza I think of as Black and Brown: dal (Indian black lentils) and brown rice, cooked in miso soup. Yesterday I served it with tuna fish, fresh lemon juice (bounty from neighbors suffering from the annual December citrus glut), and (French) spices. Raw material for today’s version, whatever that turns out to be:
(#1) Black and Brown, in a Chinese bowl
Sexual displays > offers: prone, supine, lateral
December 30, 2018(This posting — about the male body and mansex in plain language — is entirely unsuitable for kids and the sexually modest.)
(A version of my posting today on AZBlogX , “Offers: prone, supine, lateral”, with X-rated images either cropped or removed. Meanwhile, holiday postings continue: Santa Claus appears in #10 below.)
On this blog on the 29th, a piece “The side display”, about displays of the male body (especially in photographs — including four of Richard Vytniorgu, who will appear again below), primarily about the side display,
a standing posture, posed so that the display focuses on the model’s face and bare buttocks
concluding with mention of
horizontal body shots, with the model lying either in a supine display (face up, presenting the front surface of his body), or in a prone display (face down, presenting the rear surface of his body), or in a lateral display (lying on one side), with either the front or the rear surface of his body facing the camera.
These are just displays, depictions, which can serve many functions — as works of (male) art, as illustrations in clothing advertisements, as porn or advertisements for porn, as sexual advertisements.
But displays can be amped up from mere depictions, realizing their potential as offers of the body (and so as incitements to (sexual) action).
Ruthie x 3
December 29, 2018In my comics feed for One Big Happy: The Huskies play Oregon (11/23), Money is the root of boll weevil (11/28), ABC order (11/30):
The side display
December 29, 2018About presentations of the male body (so not to everyone’s taste) — in this case, in a side display: a standing posture, posed so that the display focuses on the model’s face and bare buttocks (everything else is lagniappe), as in Richard Vytniorgu’s 2018 Christmas card (the work of a professional photographer, reproduced here with permission):
Nighthawks in search of an artist
December 29, 2018Passed on on Facebook, this Bill Whitehead cartoon, with some broad art humor:
Before Edward Hopper discovered the sad diner and immortalized it in Nighthawks.
News for penises: Bourdain’s Bhutan
December 28, 2018(The title should be warning enough.)
Earlier today, I reported on Anthony Bourdain in Armenia on Parts Unknown, on this blog in “Yet another Switzerland”. Later in the series Bourdain and film director Darren Aronofsky moved on to Bhutan, in S11 E8 (first aired 6/24/18), where they encountered phalluses as a design element, almost everywhere. They also did a lot of eating and drinking, as here:
(#1)
And, being in a mostly Buddhist country, reflected on their places in the universe. But this is AZBlog, where the News for Penises is a regular feature, so that’s where we’re going. Fire up those phalluses.
bait and tackle
December 27, 2018A coordination of two nouns, conventionally paired in bait & tackle shop, referring to a store that provides supplies for sport fishermen. Like this place in Benicia CA:
(#1)
And elaborately played on in the Bizarro from December 23rd:
On the 8th day
December 27, 2018(Despite its theme, this posting is notably lacking in salaciousness and jokiness.)
News for penises. Mail from a colleague reminds me that on the Christian liturgical calendar, January 1st (coming up next Tuesday), is the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. And points me to the peculiar history of the Holy Prepuce.
Circumcision of Jesus, by Fra Angelico (1451-2) — one of an enormous number of representations of the subject, in both the Western and Eastern church traditions