Archive for the ‘Social class’ Category

Today’s art quiz: Skylunch III

June 28, 2019

Identify that Artwork, 6/28/19: a piece of conceptual art (what I’ll call Skylunch III) taking off on a sculpture (Skylunch II) reproducing a photograph (Skylunch I) showing construction workers eating lunch on a girder high in the sky. Skylunch II and III are mounted on trucks so that they can easily move from place to place.

Bob Eckstein caught sight of Skylunch III in NYC’s Columbus Circle this morning, on top of a pickup truck:

(#1)

Presumably just part of the composition (Skylunch I and II have 11 men, we see 8 here), and the photo is none too clear. I wondered who created it, when, with what materials, for what purpose, and why the men are — or appear to be — all clones of a single model.

Informed answers to any of these questions would be appreciated; comment on this posting, or send me e-mail. (Google Images is useless; it thinks #1 is a photo of a musical group.)

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Posted in Art, Music, Social class, Social interactions | 1 Comment »

The cable gremlins

March 7, 2019

(A version of things I posted on Facebook earlier today about my life, with glancing allusions to various phenomena of social life. Posted here to have a more permanent and accessible record, on WordPress. There will be a little bit of linguistics.)


(#1) (Not an accurate portrayal of Xfinity/Comcast staff)

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Posted in Homosexuality, Hypallage, Movies and tv, My life, Social class, Social interactions, Social life, Taboo language and slurs | 2 Comments »

Father and grandfather

June 16, 2017

… plus two grandmothers.

A bit more for Fathers Day, with photos from back in the day, more Alpen-Flora, and some reflections on social class. Starting with these photos:

(#1)

On the left (#1a): my dad, with his parents, Bertha and Melchior Zwicky, in April 1941 (on, I think, my grandparents’ farm in Sinking Spring PA, west of Reading). On the right, two photos from 1948, at my aunt Marian (Marian Rice Fries) and uncle Herb’s farm outside of New Smithville PA, west of Allentown. Top (#1b): Dad and his mother-in-law, Susannah Hershey Rice (called Sue). Bottom (#1c): Marian and Sue, her mother.

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Posted in Holidays, Language and plants, My life, Names, Social class | Leave a Comment »

Joe Gage

January 28, 2017

(About video mansex, so not for kids or the sexually modest.)

On the 24th, “A day with Danny Vox in the ultimate fantasy t-room”, an appreciation of the actor Danny Vox in Joe Gage’s Titan porn video Mens Room Bakersfield Station (2004), a long and complex production set in a fantasy t-room in the Bakersfield CA bus station. Now some words on Gage and his career in filming mansex.

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Posted in Gay porn, Gender and sexuality, Language of sex, Masculinity, Social class | Leave a Comment »

Morning name: Colquhoun

July 16, 2016

Today’s morning name was not one that came to me apparently from outer space, but had a clear basis in my recent experience — namely, watching the British detective drama Midsomer Murders episode “Blood Wedding” (S11 E1), in which a character with this name plays a significant role. As it turns out, the name (in one of its North American variants) has appeared on this blog before (on 4/21/15, “Verbatim letter”).

To come: the name, my previous posting, and the upper-class twit Randall Colquhoun in “Blood Wedding”.

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Posted in Language play, Morning names, Movies and tv, Silliness, Social class | 2 Comments »

Bruce Bruce Bruce

January 27, 2016

Or: Australia Australia Australia!

From Daily Jocks on the 25th, this example of their own AUS line (with my caption appended):

(#1)

A triple threat: proudly
Australian, proudly
Working class, proudly
Queer – “I like to get
Down under with
Me mates”

The company’s ad copy:

Say G’day to our newest underwear collection, designed downunder (for your downunder). Featuring a soft waistband with bold AUS logo and printed Australian flag, the cotton/spandex blend will keep you feeling comfortable.

To come: more on the underwear and the body of the model in #1. Then to Monty Python’s “Bruces” sketch, notes on Bruce as a particularly Australian name (and, in the U.S., as a particularly gay name), with a digression on the wattle, and then to Australian comedian and actor Barry Humphries, Dame Edna Everage, and Aussie bloke Barry McKenzie.

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Posted in Captions, Gender and sexuality, Humor, Language and plants, Language and the body, Movies and tv, Names, Slang, Social class, Underwear | 2 Comments »

Feuilleton: Allan Kayser

April 30, 2015

In a discussion of The Gospel Four (I Won’t Walk Without Jesus) on Facebook, things veered — don’t ask — onto the tv show Mama’s Family, which brought us to Allan Kayser from the show and led me to some excellent shirtlessness.

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Posted in Actors, Movies and tv, Shirtlessness, Social class | Leave a Comment »

Feuilleton: Simon & Simon

April 30, 2015

Caught in passing, in a NYT obit for Don Mankiewicz, a reference to his writing scripts for many tv shows, including Simon & Simon, which was a great favorite of my guy Jacques.

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Posted in Actors, Movies and tv, Shirtlessness, Social class | Leave a Comment »

This week’s remarkable photo

April 8, 2015

From a memoir piece by Sissela Bok in the Spring 2015 issue of The American Scholar, “Meeting the Mystics: My California encounters with Gerald Heard and Aldous Huxley”, about a time in her life shortly after she married Derek Bok (in 1955) and settled in the United States. Through her husband, she met a set of mystics, rebels, and countercultural icons. A photo from January 1960 in Southern California:

Left to right: Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood, Sir Julian Huxley, Aldous Huxley, and Linus Pauling

Rebels all, mystics, LSD explorers, and so on. All, of course, men. And all in suits; well, the ’60s had not really gotten underway yet. You can tell that Heard was the true rebel because he’s the only one with a beard.

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Posted in Academic life, My life, Social class | Leave a Comment »