(Not about language.)

A link from Arne Adolfsen on Facebook to this entertaining but somewhat disturbing photograph by David Blazquez, crossing the human with the inanimate:

A Human Furniture Photograph.

From a site about Blazquez’s work:

David Blazquez’s photographs present humans as furniture. The photographs “explore[s] the concept of objects, nudity and the self-portrait.” Blazquez shows himself nude, usually in multiples, with his body forming the furniture and home accessories.

The series of photos is titled ‘molbiliario humano’ and is part of David Blazquez’ first solo exhibition at El fotomata in Seville, Spain.

Two more pieces of furniture:

Bookcase, dining-room table, sofa. Blazquez naked, but not X-rated.

(Not about language.)

In a packet of film cards, this poster for Forbidden Planet (1956):

I was struck when reminded of the cast, and also tickled by the visual cliché of the young woman in the poster, hopeless in the arms of the monster, alien, brute (see King Kong), whatever.

Wikipedia on the movie:

Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and its plot contains certain story analogs. Forbidden Planet was the first science fiction film that was set entirely on another planet in deep space, away from the planet Earth. It is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s, a precursor of what was to come for the science fiction film genre in the decades that followed [in particular, Star Trek].

… Forbidden Planet features the groundbreaking use of an all-electronic music musical score. It also featured “Robby the Robot”, one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical “tin can” on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is a complete supporting character in the film [and later appeared in a long series of tv shows].

Two of the stars together:

On Robby in the poster:

While the film’s poster depicts a fierce character abducting a maiden, no such scene was actually in the film; Robby only carried one person, crewman Dr. Ostro when he was mortally wounded by his own actions with the Krell’s “plastic educator”. (link)

Then there’s Leslie Nielsen:

Leslie William Nielsen, … (11 February 1926 – 28 November 2010) was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters.

… Although Nielsen’s acting career crossed a variety of genres in both television and films, his deadpan delivery in Airplane! marked a turning point in his career, one that would make him, in the words of film critic Roger Ebert, “the Olivier of spoofs.” Nielsen enjoyed further success with The Naked Gun film series, based on an earlier short-lived television series Police Squad! in which he also starred. Nielsen’s portrayal of comedic characters seemingly oblivious to (and complicit in) their absurd surroundings gave him a reputation as a comedian. (link)

Nielsen in pre-spoof Forbidden Planet days:

A man with a gun. Don’t call him Shirley.

Other movies of 1956:

… And God Created Woman, Baby Doll, Friendly Persuasion, Giant, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Lust for Life, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Moby Dick, The Rainmaker, The Searchers, War and Peace, Written on the Wind

(Not about language.)

The weekend’s background track while working and diversion from pain and discouragement was the Legacy Collection box on The Invisible Man, a collection comprising the 1933 original and four more on the theme – The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940), Invisible Agent (1942), and The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944) — plus some extras. Unfortunately, it lacks Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), the most entertaining of the later spinoffs. But then the A&C is played for laughs, with only a hint of the Science Amok theme that drove the first Invisible Man film (as well as Dr. Moreau, Frankenstein, and Jekyll / Hyde from the great years of b&w horror movies); close to the end of The Invisible Man’s Revenge, we get the solemn pronouncement:

He probed too deeply in forbidden topics.

Background from Wikipedia:

The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells published in 1897. Originally serialised in Pearson’s Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year.

… The Invisible Man [is also] a 1933 film directed by James Whale [of Frankenstein fame] and produced by Universal Pictures. Griffin [from the Wells book] was played by Claude Rains and given the first name “Jack”. The film is considered one of the great Universal horror films of the 1930s, and it spawned a number of sequels, plus many spinoffs using the idea of an “invisible man” that were largely unrelated to Wells’s original story and using a relative of Griffin as a secondary character possessing the invisibility formula.

Griffin is a former medical student who left medicine to devote himself to optics. He invented a drug that made bodies invisible and, on an impulse, performed the procedure on himself. The film begins with his frantic, thwarted attempts to find an antidote and then follows him as he descends into madness caused by the drug.

Here’s Griffin made up to move about in the world, with his face wrapped in bandages, plus dark glasses and gloves:

The film was a challenge for the special-effects people, and is otherwise notable for its scenes of comic relief.

The later films don’t come up to the first, but they have their moments, and not all of the films pursue the Science Amok theme. In Invisible Agent, in particular, the invisible man (played by sturdy, studly Jon Hall, who also took that role in The Invisible Man’s Revenge, before going on to the role of Ramar of the Jungle on television) is a secret agent for the Allies in World War II, who performs bravely and patriotically against Axis villains.

(More discussion of classic horror movies here.)

(Not about language.)

A day away from Halloween, and already Christmas items arrive in the mail. Some of them are sticky-sweet and earnestly celebratory, and invite subversion. Here are six I tried to collage into submission some years ago in a protest against holiday sentimentality. They range from mildly critical (a composition about “women’s work”), through varying degrees of outrage and menace, to a Father Christmas as a child molester. (You’ve been warned; these are on the dark side.)

Women’s Work.

The Old Geezer.

Blessed Ste. Chaise, give us the gift of memory.

Arbeit macht frei.

Aflame for St. Lucy.

Mementos of Farley.

(Not about language.)

More collages from some years ago, this time put together on backgrounds of photos from bridal magazines. Thanks to Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky, who saw the artistic potential of the material.

In this series, we see photos from Marla and Margo’s wonderful wedding day.

(Not about language, except for the clipping of lesbian to lesb-, with the affective suffix -o added on.)

Continuing the brides collages, here are four collages from another series, Lesbo Brides.

#7, with its reference to Hothead Paisan: Homocidal Lesbian Terrorist, and #10, with its reference to Xena: Warrior Princess, will give you some clues as to when these were made.

(Not about language.)

The third and last of the wedding gown collages, this time showing lesbo brides paired with New York girls (with a kinky bent).

Another series to come, but with the women out of their wedding gowns: same-sex honeymoons in Ohio State, Prince Edward Island, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and MIT.

(Not about language.)

An arresting image posted on Facebook by Arne Adolfsen, from the Papacito site (a trove of steamy but not X-rated male photography; perfil dedicado a la belleza masculina… los mejores cuerpos, los más sexys y mucho chico guapo):

Arne comments:

This has got to be one of the funniest pictures I’ve seen in I don’t know how long. I would love to see what a semiotician makes of this since it’s such an over-determined photograph.

It’s been a week or so since my last underwear posting (“Halloween Giants”, here), and now Beemer Boy appears, spreading ‘em for us in white briefs to match the car: a powerfully built man braced on the hood of a powerful car, looking back over his shoulder at us with a Gaze Direct, presenting both an offer and a challenge.

Don’t know what it means, if anything, that the car has South African plates, from Gauteng Province — which, though small in area, is the most populous in South Africa, with both Johannesburg and Pretoria in it — and with the vanity number PHD #1.

In any case, phallic car meets receptive hunk. Take it from there. (Commenters on the Papacito site seem to be generally agreed that BB is washing the car. Hmm.)

(About art and illustration rather than language.)

In a catalog for publisher David R. Godine that came today, an offer of a set of notecards from Mary Azarian’s Farmer’s Alphabet of  1981 (Apple, Dog, Farm, Jump, Neighbor, Underwear). The Z item in her Gardener’s Alphabet of 2000:

(On zinnias, see here.) Azarian’s chosen medium is the woodcut, which gives her work a deliberately old-fashioned appearance.

Azarian in Wikipedia:

Mary Azarian (born 1940) is an American woodcut artist and children’s book illustrator. In 1999 she won the Caldecott Medal for her book, Snowflake Bentley, a picture book of the life of Wilson Bentley [one of the first known photographers of snowflakes].

More on her own website, where she tells us:

I was determined to make my work depict the landscape surrounding my home on our hill farm in Vermont and the work (and play) that are required to sustain a rural life.

Alphabets are natural for her chosen medium. So are scenes with a medieval look to them. Of her Medieval Prints series, she says:

Medieval manuscript painting, especially the art in the margins of the richly ornamented psaltery depicting peasant life, inspired this series.

Two entertaining items from this series, which I think of as The Gardener of Eden and The Archangel Electrolux:

(And there grew a garden of an amazing beauty and surpassing lushness.)

(And when she arose from her nap the house was miraculously tidy.)

Four NYT obituaries from recent weeks, not for linguists or language-related figures and not for very famous public figures (like Margaret Thatcher), but for people whose work has brought me enlightenment or pleasure: Anthony Lewis, Paul Williams, Hugh McCracken, and Carmine Infantino.

From “Anthony Lewis, Supreme Court Reporter Who Brought Law to Life, Dies at 85″  by Adam Liftak on 3/26/13:

Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Mass.

… Mr. Lewis brought passionate engagement to his two great themes: justice and the role of the press in a democracy. His column, called “At Home Abroad” or “Abroad at Home” depending on where he was writing from, appeared on the Op-Ed page of The Times for more than 30 years, until 2001. His voice was liberal, learned, conversational and direct.

Lewis became the great reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually resulted in his impressive book Gideon’s Trumpet (1964), about the case Gideon v. Wainwright.

From “Paul Williams, Father of Rock Criticism, Is Dead at 64″ by Paul Vitello on 4/1/13:

Paul Williams, a writer and critic who founded the alternative pop music magazine Crawdaddy, one of the first outlets for serious writing about rock music, and whose critical support helped rescue the science fiction author Philip K. Dick from obscurity, died on Wednesday in a nursing residence near his home in Encinitas, Calif.

The cause was complications of early onset dementia, which had been triggered by a traumatic brain injury suffered in a bicycle accident in 1995, his wife, the singer Cindy Lee Berryhill, said.

Mr. Williams was a 17-year-old freshman at Swarthmore College when he started his magazine, in 1966.

This is the saddest of the four; all the others died in the fullness of time, but Williams was taken down young by dementia.

From “Hugh McCracken, a Studio Musician in High Demand, Dies at 70″by Douglas Martin on 4/4/13:

Hugh McCracken, a virtuoso guitarist who was in such demand as a studio musician that he could afford to turn down Paul McCartney’s invitation to join the band Wings in 1971, died on Friday in Manhattan.

… Studio musicians toil in near anonymity as they support the artists whose names everyone knows. Their job is not to draw notice but to subtly enhance the stars’ work. But the elite of the music business know the best ones, and Mr. McCracken was always getting calls.

Just a partial list of the hundreds of musicians he accompanied includes Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, B. B. King, Jefferson Airplane, Billy Joel, Laura Nyro, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Carl Perkins, the Monkees, Carly Simon and James Taylor. He recorded with all four Beatles after their breakup. He recorded with Aretha Franklin and Mr. McCartney in different studios on the same day.

Wow. He did great stuff.

And from “Carmine Infantino, Reviver of Batman and Flash, Dies at 87″ by Margalit Fox on 4/6/13:

Carmine Infantino — the man who SAVED BATMAN! — died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. Mr. Infantino, a celebrated comic-book artist who also drew the Flash, was 87.

… Mr. Infantino’s dynamic, avant-garde aesthetic helped usher in the “silver age” of comic books, which held sway from the mid-1950s to about 1970. He was known in particular for his long association with DC Comics, where he began as an artist, became an editor and was later the publisher.

Sleek and streamlined, Mr. Infantino’s work married comic-book art — formerly busier and baggier — to midcentury modernism. He was considered one of the industry’s finest pencilers, as the artist who first gives a story visual form is known. (An inker follows behind, filling in the penciler’s lines.).

… He was also famed for his death-defying resuscitation of two DC heroes: the Flash, whom he reinvented in the 1950s, and Batman, who was selling poorly in the 2960s and threatened with cancellation.

Yes, I know, four men and no women. But then Maureen Dowd countered today on an op-ed page, with “A Tale of Three Women”, beginning:

One got famous wearing mouse ears. One got famous wearing brightly colored shifts. And one got famous wearing down the opposition while carrying a handbag.

The trio of famous deaths this week seems incongruous. Yet these spirited women — two quintessential Americans known by their first names and one quintessential Brit known by her nickname — were all vivid emblems of their time.

Three very different worlds are conjured up when you think about Annette Funicello, Lilly Pulitzer and Margaret Thatcher.

Three very different worlds indeed. As it happens, I never took to the Mouseketeers (even the twink boys) — they were so relentlessly perky — or to Pulizer’s shifts for society women (though they were charmingly unpretentious), and I detested Thatcher, so these three didn’t make me list above. I’m a hard man, but fair, as Monty Python would say.

(Not about language, but about clothing that displays men’s bodies.)

Seen in a 1991 episode “The Celebrity” of Matlock this morning, actor Barry Sattels filling a pair of jeans in an especially attractive fashion — short of a moose knuckle, but showing off his package very nicely in a V. I haven’t been able to find a shot of this display, but here are four of other men with similar displays.

  (#1)

 (#2)

  (#3)

  (#4)

#2 is my favorite, but because of his face as much as his package.

These photos are definitely on the good side of the X line, but there are problematic cases. As I wrote in the posting “X or not” last month:

A few days ago, an intense Benno Thoma postcard from Max Vasilatos (in an envelope), with the note: “This could probably go in the regular mail, but I’m taking no chances.” The issue is whether the image counts as X-rated or not; Max and I fairly often puzzle over the categorization of images, sometimes for the purpose of mailing and sometimes for the purpose of posting in certain places on the net (like this blog). The line isn’t clear.

… Now from art to clothing, and the concealing or revealing of a man’s package by various sorts of clothing. Here the range is from hung guys, men who naturally have large packages that will be discernible under clothing; to those with enhanced packages, wearing clothing designed to show off the genitals (dance belts, codpieces, and the like …); to men sporting moose knuckles (in trousers; in gym shorts, swim trunks, wrestling singlets, and other sports clothing; and in underwear, especially tight, abbreviated, or sheer underwear); and then to men in underwear that embraces genital nudity frankly (I’ve posted a number of times on AZBlogX about these items). For the underwear, the questions are: how tight is too tight? how abbreviated is too abbreviated? and how sheer is too sheer? And once again, the lines are hard to draw.

My 3/21 posting on a Jon Hamm moose knuckle has an inventory of moose-knuckle postings — to which can now be added an example from model Philip Fusco, #6 in this posting.

(Not about language.)

Tim Evanson reminds me that actor/model Josh Duhamel was, like Kellan Lutz, born in North Dakota, and notes that Duhamel has posed in a full-frontal shot; Duhamel nude, rear and front, in excellent photos by Greg Gorman from his 2000 book As I See It, can be viewed on AZBlogX, here. Now two shots of him merely shirtless (and not so artfully posed):

  (#1)

  (#2)

Merely shirtless in the first, with his package visible in the second.

Mostly his photos show him charming and smiling, with a nice swimmer’s body (slim and muscular, but not bulked up by training, and with merely human pecs and abs). From Wikipedia:

Joshua David “Josh” Duhamel … is an American actor and former fashion model. He first achieved acting success in 1999 as Leo du Pres on ABC’s All My Children and later as the chief of security, Danny McCoy, on NBC’s Las Vegas. He then began appearing in films, most prominently playing one of the protagonists, Captain/Major/Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox, in the box office hit Transformers as well as its sequels…

Duhamel was born in Minot, North Dakota [November 14, 1972, so he's now 40]. His mother, Bonnie L. Kemper, is a physical education teacher, and his father, Larry Duhamel, is an advertising salesman. He is of French-Canadian, Irish, English, German, and Norwegian ancestry. Duhamel was raised Catholic.

His parents divorced during his youth. Although he remains close to both, he grew up with his mother and his three younger sisters, Ashlee, Mckenzee, and Kassidy. Duhamel attended Minot State University and played as the back-up quarterback for the university’s football team.

(Not about language.)

The third in the recent shirtless series — previously: Kellan Lutz here, Josh Duhamel here — brings us to Mr. Abs (Junior Division), Taylor Lautner, seen here in a characteristic pose:

(#1)

Lautner is young, cute, and decidedly hunky. He projects athletic masculinity, usually accentuated by some facial scruff (ranging from very light to substantial), as well as (most often) sweetness.

(It’s astonishing how many images of handsome shirtless men, many of them just barely not exposing their genitals, are available on the web.)

Lautner in a head shot, looking intense, but in a really nice-guy way:

(#2)

From Wikipedia:

Taylor Daniel Lautner (… born February 11, 1992) [in Grand Rapids MI; he is now 21] is an American actor, voice actor, model, and martial artist. Lautner is best known for playing [werewolf] Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga film series based on the novels of the same name by Stephenie Meyer.

Lautner as Jacob Black, looking lycanthropic (but cute):

(#3)

Wikipedia on the character:

Jacob “Jake” Black is a character in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. He is described as a Native American of the Quileute tribe in La Push, near Forks, Washington. In the second book of the series, he discovers that he can shapeshift into a wolf. For the majority of the series, Jacob competes with [telepathic vampire] Edward Cullen for Bella Swan‘s love. In the films Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, Jacob is played by Taylor Lautner [and Edward by Robert Pattinson].

More from Wikipedia on Lautner:

The late 2000s saw Lautner become a teen idol and sex symbol, after extensively changing his physique [gaining about 30 pounds of muscle through weight-training] to keep the role of Jacob Black in further Twilight installments [Black is shirtless through much of these films], and generating media attention for his looks. In 2010, he was ranked second on Glamour’s “The 50 Sexiest Men of 2010″ list, and fourth on People’s “Most Amazing Bodies” list. Also in the same year, Lautner was named the highest-paid teenage actor in Hollywood.

Lautner in wet-t-shirt mode, tossing a football:

(#4)

And Lautner in wax, at Madame Tussauds in Berlin, with his abs being displayed:

(#5)

(Not about language.)

Having gotten off onto shirtless abs-displaying hunks in acting and modeling (Kellan Lutz, Josh Duhamel, Taylor Lautner), I pulled up shirtless tennis hunks, including two recent favorites and perennial rivals, with different body types: the very muscular Rafael Nadal and the very lean Novak Djokovic. Both wonderful to watch in play, each in his own way. Paired shirtless shots of Rafa and Djoker:

(#1 Rafa)

(#2 Djoker)

The Wikipedia articles are tremendously heavy on tennis history. The minimal stories:

Rafael “Rafa” Nadal Parera (… born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former world No. 1… His success on clay has earned him the nickname “King of Clay” and has led many sports journalists and commentators, as well as former and current players, to regard him as the greatest clay court player in history. (link)

Novak Djokovic (… born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player… He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. (link)

Both men are proud of their bodies and happy to exhibit them, Rafa perhaps more than Djoker. Steamy photos of Rafa, front and rear:

(#3)

(#4)

And (in less carefully posed photos) Djoker flashing his torso and sporting a notable moose knuckle:

(#5)

(#6)

On to the court!

(Not about language, but mostly about men’s bodies.)

This seems to be a Morning of Shirtlessness. Following on a posting about musician Steve Grand working as an underwear model, I now return to shirtless tennis stars, this time with Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and all-time great Roger Federer (yay, Switzerland!) — once again, a somewhat leaner man paired with a more muscular one (but both are hunks).

From an earlier posting on tennis hunks:

Having gotten off onto shirtless abs-displaying hunks in acting and modeling (Kellan Lutz, Josh Duhamel, Taylor Lautner), I pulled up shirtless tennis hunks, including two recent favorites and perennial rivals, with different body types: the very muscular Rafael Nadal and the very lean Novak Djokovic.

Federer is the more muscular, Murray the leaner man. On the court, in that order:

(#1)

(#2)

Murray has plenty of muscle where he needs it, especially in his legs and arms. Here he is showing off his biceps:

(#3)

And Federer looking hot in a Gillette commercial:

(#4)

On Federer, from Wikipedia:

Roger Federer (… born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who, as of May 2013, is ranked World No. 5 by the ATP. Federer had been continuously ranked as one of the top 5 in the ATP rankings for 543 weeks as of July 8, 2013 (the most of any active player). Many commentators and former and current players regard Federer as the greatest tennis player of all time.

And on Murray, ditto:

Andrew Barron “Andy” Murray, OBE (born 15 May 1987) is a Scottish professional tennis player, ranked World No. 2 and British No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the ATP for the first time on 16 April 2007, and reached a career peak of World No. 2 in August 2009, then again in April/May 2013. He is the holder of both the US Open and the Wimbledon Championships, and is the 2012 Olympic tennis men’s singles champion.

Wonderful to watch both of them on the court.

(Not about language.)

A sale notice from 10percent.com (“Shopping For The Gay Community Since 1995″) today:

(#1)

Hunk of the Month!

The cover for the calendar:

(#2)

More abs. And three more absmen from the calendar:

(#3)

(#4)

(#5)

Other calendar photos are not as abs-focused as these. (Several are cock-tease shots like #3.) Aside from all being hunks and having interesting faces, the models vary considerably in “type”.

Franklin is a poet of man-hunks. His website — The Hunk Spot — is a delight for fanciers of the muscular male body. His artist’s statement is not informative:

I have been a professional photographer since 1993. I like to think of myself as a classic artist in how I style & shoot. I don’t put on a big production. I find keeping it simple allows me to create timeless photographs. I also love pushing my limits and find beauty in everything.

But you can see that he is himself a hunk. A thumbnail photo:

(#6)

(Not about language.)

Encountered this morning: an old episode of the tv series Smallville, starring Tom Welling as Clark Kent. Welling has a sweet smile and he’s a hunk, but we don’t see him shirtless a lot. So I’ll offer three shots of him. Then I’ll look at six more of the 16 actors who have portrayed Superman on screen, and close with one of my favorite shirtless hunks, Brad Pitt (who has not portrayed Superman).

From a site on “16 Actors Who Have Portrayed Superman”, the 16 (with actors I’ll look at in boldface; the dates are for their first appearance in the role):

Ray Middleton 1939, Kirk Alyn 1948, George Reeves 1951, Johnny Rockwell 1961, Bob Holiday 1966, David Wilson 1975, Christopher Reeve 1978, Tayfun Demir 1979 (Turkish – the only non-US adaptation), James Hayes Newton 1988, Gerard Christopher 1989, Dean Cain 1993, Tim Daly 1996, Tom Welling 2001, Brandon Routh 2006, Matt Bomer 2009 (in a series of tv commercials), Henry Cavill 2013

On Welling:

Thomas John Patrick Welling (born April 26, 1977) known professionally as Tom Welling, is an American actor, director, producer, and model, best known for his portrayal of Clark Kent in the WB/CW series Smallville.

A high-school athlete, Welling initially worked in construction and, in 1998, he successfully modeled men’s clothing for several popular brands. In 2000, he made a successful transition to television. He has been nominated for and received several awards for his portrayal of Clark Kent. (Wikipedia link)

Here’s Welling modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch:

(#1)

Then, muscled up, in unposed shots:

(#2)

And in an ad for Smallville:

(#3)

Now to the other six, in chronological order, beginning with the iconic movie Superman:

Christopher D’Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, in particular his motion-picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman. (Wikipedia link)

Shirtless photos of Reeve are surprisingly hard to come. Here’s one of a young Reeve, before he bulked up for the Superman movies:

(#4)

Then athlete and Princetonian Dean Cain, shown here with a surfboard and advertising sheets:

(#5)

(#6)

Dean George Cain (born Dean George Tanaka; July 31, 1966) is an American actor. He is most widely known for his role as Clark Kent / Superman in the popular American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. (Wikipedia link)

Next up is Tim Daly, who hasn’t exactly portrayed Superman, but has voiced him in the movies:

James Timothy “Tim” Daly (born March 1, 1956) is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on The Sopranos for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. (Wikipedia link)

Daly isn’t a muscle hunk, but he has a nice body. He’s here because I find him to be an engaging actor. Here he is in the comedy Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde:

(#7)

Then Brandon Routh:

Brandon James Routh (born October 9, 1979) is an American actor and former fashion model. He grew up in Iowa before moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, and subsequently appeared on multiple television series throughout the early 2000s. In 2006, he gained greater recognition for his role as the titular hero of the 2006 film Superman Returns. He also had a recurring role in the TV series Chuck, as Daniel Shaw. Following this, he has had several supporting roles in television and film. In 2011, he portrayed the eponymous protagonist of another comic book film, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. (Wikipedia link)

Here he is shirtless and then suited up, displaying his famous bulge:

(#8)

(#9)

On to Matt Bomer, another marginal member of the list. He’s on it for a series of Prius commercials he made in the Superman character.

Matthew Staton “Matt” Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American film, stage and television actor, best known from his role on White Collar, which premiered in 2009. Making his television debut with Guiding Light in 2001, Bomer received notice with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck as Bryce Larkin. (Wikipedia link)

(#10)

Finally, Henry Cavill, seen here in costume and shirtless:

(#11)

Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill (born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. He has appeared in the films Stardust and Immortals, and played the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, on the Showtime series The Tudors, from 2007 until 2010. He played the role of Kal-El/Clark Kent in the 2013 film Man of Steel. (Wikipedia link)

Now for the non-Superman bonus, Brad Pitt:

William Bradley “Brad” Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received four Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one Golden Globe. He has been described as one of the world’s most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention.

Pitt first gained recognition as a cowboy hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise (1991). His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), and Legends of the Fall (1994). In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. He then starred in the major international hit Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and its sequels, Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). His greatest commercial successes have been Troy (2004) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second and third Academy Award nominations for his leading performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). (Wikipedia link)

Here’s the young Pitt in Thelma and Louise and then Pitt bulked up eight years later, in training for Fight Club:

(#12)

(#13)

A wonderfully sexy man.

(Not about language.)

Earlier today, five tv hunks, including David Boreanaz, the Angel of Buffy and Angel — including allusions to Spangel material, slash writing and imagery that unites Angel and the character Spike sexually or romantically. Now to pick up on Spike and the actor who plays him, James Marsters.

On Spike, from Wikipedia:

Spike, played by James Marsters, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain to anti-hero. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science fiction television, becoming “the obvious go-to guy for US cult [television]“. For creator Whedon, Spike is the “most fully developed” of his characters. The character was intended to be a brief villain, with Whedon originally adamant to not have another major “romantic vampire” character like Angel. Marsters says “Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead.” However, the character ended up staying for the second season, and then returning in the fourth to replace Cordelia as “the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die.”

(Spike’s background story follows in Wikipedia.)

(#1)

That’s Marsters as Spike, working out.  He’s lean-hunky (in contrast to Boreanaz, who’s bulky-hunky), with notable abs. On Marsters:

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel, from 1997 to 2004. Since then, he has gone on to play other science fiction roles, such as the alien supervillain Brainiac on the Superman-inspired series Smallville, the omnisexual time traveller Captain John Hart in British science-fiction show Torchwood, and terrorist Barnabas Greeley in Syfy’s Caprica. Marsters appeared in a supporting role in the 2007 movie P.S. I Love You. He appeared as a recurring character in the first season of the revival of Hawaii Five-0.

Marsters was born in Greenville, California, the son of a United Methodist minister and social worker. He grew up with his brother, Paul, and sister, Susan, in Modesto, California. (Wikipedia link)

Marsters is neither platinum-blond nor English (nor yobbish, nor, of course, a vampire); hey, it’s a role.

Angel can be viewed in my previous posting (image #2, and with the Winchester brothers and Spike in a fourgy in #9). Doug Wyman supplied a Spangel manip in a comment to that posting, and here’s another that I like:

(#2)

Apparently, in SlashficLand, Angel usually (but not always) tops Spike. Well, Angel is taller, more muscular, and darker-haired than Spike, so in Gayland he’d usually be t to Spike’s b.

(Not about language.)

Omitted from my last posting on more television hunks. the earlier history of Brian Krause (Leo in Charmed, 1998-2006). In his very early 20s, Krause did Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), in which he appeared as a cute blondish curly-haired twink (in preposterous demi-costumes).

On the movie:

Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American romance and adventure film starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause, produced and directed by William A. Graham.

The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Their life together is blissful, but not without physical and emotional changes, as they grow to maturity and fall in love. (Wikipedia link)

Not a great moment in the history of the cinema,

Two shots, a shirtless torso shot and then Krause in costume:

(#1)

(#2)

At some point between Lagoon and Charmed, BK went to the gym and transformed himself from twink to the hunk you can see in #2 my previous posting.

(Not much about language.)

Catching up on old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this morning, I noted that though I’ve posted about two of the hunky male characters (Angel and Spike), I neglected some of the others, most especially the central character Xander (played by Nicholas Brendon) and Buffy’s love interest for several seasons Riley (played by Marc Blucas). I didn’t find really stunning shirtless photos of them separately, but I did come across a manip (on the term, see here) of the two of them in carnal congress, Riley screwing Xander (viewable on AZBlogX, here).

Some previous postings on manips:

Wincest (Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural), Spangel (Spike/Angel): “Five television hunks” (link)

More Spangel: “Spike / Marsters” (link)

Leo/Cole, from Charmed: “Television hunks, separately and together” (link)

Now about Brendon, from Wikipedia:

Nicholas Brendon (born April 12, 1971, as Nicholas Brendon Schultz in Los Angeles, California), is an American actor best known for his character Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003).

Nicholas Brendon was born Nicholas Brendon Schultz on April 12, 1971 in Los Angeles, three minutes after his identical twin brother, Kelly Donovan.

As a youth, he aspired to become a professional baseball player, but he “lost the passion for it” at 20. Instead, he decided to pursue acting in an attempt to overcome his stuttering problem, which had first become apparent at age 7 or 8, and had made him so fearful of speaking or interacting with strangers that he did not begin dating until 21 or 22.

And on Blucas:

Marcus Paul “Marc” Blucas (born January 11, 1972) is an American actor, known for playing Riley Finn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Matthew Donnally on Necessary Roughness.

Blucas at first aspired to be a professional basketball player, but ended up in acting. He’s a big man, 6′ 2″, with broad shoulders. Brendon is a hunk but of more ordinary dimensions, and only 5′ 11″. (The differences in height and bulk are probably why the manip has Riley topping Xander. Well, also, Xander is a really sweet character, and Riley is a tough federal agent.)

In contrast to the men, Buffy (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, now Prinze) is tiny, 5′ 4″ tall on a small frame. The show makes a lot of Buffy’s power and strength, and in the scenes in which Buffy and Riley appear together (including some of love-making), the two act as equals, despite the physical disparity. Buffy rulz.