I just had to say that I found this terribly amusing in the local paper (front page, with picture, natch) with the headline "'Naked' Lawyers Expect to Zip Up Safely" or some such. AJC requires registering, so no linky to THAT story.
posted
They ran it here, too. I remember my ex and I talking about it when we were thinking of going to the theater once. I wonder if it's still playing up here? Maybe I'll go after all. Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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quote: The six-member, all-male cast of "Naked Boys Singing" spend much of their performance in the nude
*snerk*
-o-
You know what, I have to admit that I would not be comfortable going to see this show. I guess the male nudity taboo is too deeply ingrained in me.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
The fact that this show bothers so many people is proof of how far we've fallen as a society. If it were six fully-clothed men who sang while sparring with martial arts weapons, people would find it amusing. But there's no violence; only nudity, and this is so shocking to people that they want to shut it down. They call it pornographic, despite the fact that there is no sexual activity in the show. It's just the human body, people. Nothing unnatural about it. If you're religious, I'll tell you that it's only what God gave them. I'm disgusted that people are disgusted by this.
Not that I'd want to go, mind you. Nekkid guys are icky. Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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The same show has played in several major cities. I think the problem may be the venue. It's a bar, and because it's a bar, they have decided that it's 'adult entertainment' along the lines of a strip club or something.
The line seems to have gotten a bit fuzzy.
Anybody remember my 'naked guy on a stick' story? I went to see my brother-in-law perform Carmina Burana with the GT Choral group in conjunction with the Atlanta Ballet. The song that's all about a Swan roasting on a spit was performed with these two very, very strong men holding a stick while this other dancer (not wearing a whole lot more than some feathers) very slowy ... well, interpreted the role of the roasting swan. I can't even imagine the incredible control it must've taken to pull himself up and over the pole so slowly. It was beautiful, amazing, and, yeah, a bit ... affecting.
Still, there was a lot more to admire than the ripple of muscle. *loses train of thought* But, um, where's the line between art and hoochie?
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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All good art is about hoochie. It's just elevated hoochie. Every time I look at an incredible painting, it takes my breath away. Same with admiring the body of my lover. Good art turns you on, brings you into the moment, and makes you feel alive. It shifts your perspective and sometimes makes you think. It speaks to you on a gut level.
Same with good "hoochie".
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Jenny, lemme just say that the miniskirt and boots you were wearing at Kamacon -- very artistic.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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Several years ago, nude dancing was outlawed in Seminole Co., FL where it had been legal before. One of the clubs responded by performing scenes from Macbeth in the nude. That way, it was deemed art and was allowed.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember any hot making out in Macbeth, so I'm not sure it would make a good stripclub act... Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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I'm afraid I agree with Jenny. Most artistic endeavors that appeal to me have a sexual element. But then, life is - on a basic level - about the hoochie. Poets, musicians, artists of all sorts do what they do to get girls (or boys).
I've never had to do much to get fellas interested, so I'm not sure if that always holds true. There is a definite thread of sensuality in most of my stories or sketches, though I think the focus is a bit more on beauty for beauty's sake. Which is still a sensual thing, I guess.
Now I'm going in circles.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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It's interesting, too, how women can open appreciate another woman's beauty and not be judged for it or embarassed by it. Men, however, get all weird when you ask them if the friend they want to set you up with is cute.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote: It's just the human body, people. Nothing unnatural about it. If you're religious, I'll tell you that it's only what God gave them.
Being natural does not make it good. Being natural does not make it bad. Being natural does not make it acceptable or unacceptable. It does not make it helpful, unhelpful, beautiful, or ugly. It just means that it's natural.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Several years ago, nude dancing was outlawed in Seminole Co., FL where it had been legal before. One of the clubs responded by performing scenes from Macbeth in the nude. That way, it was deemed art and was allowed.
posted
I saw the strip club performance. They did the witch scene from MacBeth (wearing witch hats), they performed a short play about a detective story, there was a pretty impressive sword dance by one of the dancers, and probably more I've forgotten. I had a good seat - I sat just behind the policemen who were videotaping it for later examination.
As art? Funny in places, including some that weren't really supposed to be funny. The sword dance was beautiful. The script and acting was roughly on the level of junior high school productions. As a response to the county's restrictions? Hilarious.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I’ve seen two theatre performances that involved full male nudity. In one of them it was a highly meaningful moment when the character removed his clothes and left them on the stage as he walked out. It was integral to the play, and I don’t see how he could have communicated what he did as powerfully in any other way.
In the other, it was a “funny” moment when the character was surprised by his hosts coming home at an awkward time and came running out from behind a screen wearing only his socks. In this case, I don’t think anything would have been lost by having him in his underwear. Except for the shocked giggles of the audience as he went bouncing around the stage.
But since I can’t see any way for a law to distinguish between the two, I’m in favor of letting the director decide if nudity is warranted by the show, and letting the audience decide if they agree. With proper warnings of course, so that patrons can choose in advance, similar to the warnings for strobe lights, cigarette smoke/smoke machines, and firearms/explosions.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:As art? Funny in places, including some that weren't really supposed to be funny. The sword dance was beautiful. The script and acting was roughly on the level of junior high school productions. As a response to the county's restrictions? Hilarious.
I think of this the same way I think of the swamp scene in the first Shrek - funny because it swipes Disney. If it wasn't making a statement, then it wouldn't actually be good. Is that a necessary qualifier, then? "Good for political art." is kind of like "Good for Christian fiction."
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Actually, in some ways it reminded me of "Oh Calcutta!" A lot of the humor in "OC!" was ribald and funny, but a lot had no value whatsoever except to provide another opportunity to get the cast naked. I did like the nude ballet scene, and the sequence where the cast just stands there naked and recites comments they've no doubt heard a thousand times before was fun.
[ December 16, 2004, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Let me know when you want to go back to jai-alai. Now that we've moved in, I might actually have some time.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
The difference between porn and art? The price tag.
You can argue the line blurs because art strives to create a reaction, whereas porn strives to create a very specific reaction.
Tangent: Hey Jenny - long time, no see.
Topic 2: Male nudity
I don't think it's taboo - I just don't want to see another guy's sexual organs. Any more than a woman really wants to see another woman's genetalia.
I can and will comment on and occasionally admire a good set of muscles because I can appreciate what into developing them, but that doesn't mean I find the sight sexually arousing.
Tangent 2: Admitting other guys are cute
I don't think this has ever bothered me - mostly because I don't get it. To say someone is "hot" suggests, to me, a certain amount of sexual attraction.
I can say some men are handsome and I can understand why women like (drool over, fantasize about, etc.) them, but I'd never characterize them as "hot" or even "cute." Although I'd be hard pressed to apply "cute" to a man - for me, that's a gender-specific descriptor.
James Dean I don't see as hot. Tom Cruise is handsome.
If I was trying to set up a male friend, I might lie to the prospective woman and say yes mostly because I don't think she'd be interested in the five minutes it would take for me to fully explain the truthful answer.
My required five minute soap box. If you've made it this far in the post, thanks for reading.
quote:I don't think it's taboo - I just don't want to see another guy's sexual organs. Any more than a woman really wants to see another woman's genetalia.
Personally, I don't want to look at anyone's genitalia. There's a reason sexual intercourse acquired the nickname "bumping uglies". Perhaps it's ironic (then again, perhaps not), but even on a highly attractive female, the genitalia are always the least visually appealing part. At least to me, anyway.
quote:I don't think this has ever bothered me - mostly because I don't get it. To say someone is "hot" suggests, to me, a certain amount of sexual attraction.
I don't see it quite that way. When I say that a particular man is hot (not something I do often, because I don't live in a culture where a heterosexual man can say such a thing), I don't mean it in the sense that I myself am sexually attracted to him. I mean it more in the sense of admitting that I understand what women see in him. There are a lot of guys that women are physically attracted to, and I just can't see why. But there are some few that I can see why, and I would, in the proper company, call them "hot".
For example, yes, I do think Tom Cruise is hot. Also David Bowie and Gackt. But I don't mean that I'd like to sleep with them. I mean that I wish I could look like them, so women would be interested in sleeping with me.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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But if you looked like those guys women are attracted to and you can't see why, women would still want to sleep with you. Right?
Posts: 2443 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I don't think so. One of the most attractive things about any man is confidence, so a man who can't recognize his own attractiveness probably won't have the the *zing* it takes to really get the chicks.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:But if you looked like those guys women are attracted to and you can't see why, women would still want to sleep with you. Right?
Well . . . theoretically, yes. But then I wouldn't be attractive to myself. If I looked like Tom Cruise or David Bowie, I could look at myself in the mirror and say, "Damn, I'm fine!" But if I looked like, say, Harrison Ford, then I'd look at myself in the mirror, then down at the satisfied lady sleeping peacefully in my bed, then back at the mirror, and say to myself, "What could she possibly see in me? It's not like I'm good-looking or anything."
Which, yes, would still be better than my current situation, in which I have no ladies doing anything anywhere near the vicinity of my bed. But, you know. As long as I'm dreaming about being better looking, why not dream about looking like I guy that I personally would actually like to resemble?
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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