4th of July in Los Angeles

-
For the 4th of July I went to Venice Beach to check out the bodybuilding contest down on Muscle Beach. Place was packed with spectators, tourists, and fake tanned physiques. (You know a place cannot be that chill when, despite being sunny all year round, folks still can't find the time to actually sun bathe.) I've toyed with the idea of competing at Venice 7Beach ever since seeing the event on my first real visit to L.A. in, oh, '07, but I can never justify paying $80 participant fee for a cheap ass plastic trophy that looks like it is a cheap ass plastic trophy. The mirror and people's stares are enough validation. Hello!

I took the bus to Santa Monica and bumped into a friend from couchsurfing (incidentally neither he nor I bother with the site anymore) who I hadn't seen in two years. He and his girlfriend were exercising on the beach. We recognized one another straight away - it's great when you don't age! - and chatted for a bit. THEN I hoofed it down to Venice Beach. The walk was longer than I remembered...but it was a sunny, nice day so lalalalala. 
In the evening there was a super great B-B-Q at the USA Hostel in Hollywood.

Here are snapshots from the day at the beach.

 Santa Monica...you don't have to go to 

Venice Beach to see fitness under the Sun

 Santa Monica Beach

the crowd at Muscle Beach bodybuilding show

competitors pumping manly muscle inside the muscle pit

...and also some muscly tits

 "real people"...?

 non-bodybuilders in the sand pit

...doing some muscly tricks

 teenage bodybuilder...believe it or not!

 one helluva joke!

 finalists in teenage category. 
can you guess who placed where?

hint: check out the body language

2nd place winner greeting fans

Guest appearance at underwear store

-
Made a guest appearance at the grand opening of  The Style Council in Guadalajara. Here I am mucking around with my camera. Is red my color...?

bulto is Spanish for bulge

3D model of Flex Lewis

-
Here is a cool computer animation of British bodybuilder James "Flex" Lewis

Catching some waves----and other curvaceous things....

 not me

 me!

MEMORIES. Michelangelo & Mapplethorpe (Florence)

-

I saw one of the most recognizable wonders of the word: Michelangelo's David. Entrance to the museum cost 10€ and a line was already formed by the time I got there. But the line moved along at a nice pace and I

believe I was inside in under half an hour. There are many other things to see in the Galleria dell'Accademia but I, like most people in line, was really only there for viewing the David. For one thing, the statue is ENORMOUS. It is giant-sized and utterly amazing. The feet, the legs, hands, stomach, head, and,owing to the proportion of the masterpiece, even the tiny penis is big . Note: no fig leaf was in place. It is easy to see why this art piece stunned audiences then and now (probably due to the absence of a fig leaf). 

The David is majestic yet he is presented simply: a young man (with a healthy build, but nothing near 'muscular') with a steady gaze and slingshot over his shoulder. Granted, the piece wouldn't be as unforgettable if David were clothed but nothing grandiose is put forth by his lack of clothing.


During my visit a photography exhibit of American Robert Mapplethorpe was in house, La Perfezione nella Forma (Perfection without Form). Am familiar with Mapplethorpe and know most of his works more than border on the pornographic; this was the first exhibit of his pieces I had seen (outside of books). It was only the four photographs circling the base of the David that arrested my attention.


Whereas Michelangelo's David is white (marble), Mapplethorpe's subject is a black man. While there was nothing similar in the poses the compare and contrast of the two subjects was unavoidable. I thought that was a nice touch.

Galleria dell'Accademia
Florence, Italy
website

Striking a pose IV (in abstentia)

-
I was on the other side of the drawing pad today. I was not scheduled to model and, so, on a lark, decided to test my sketching chops by sitting in to draw. I don't draw any more (used to as a child) and was only equipped with a spiral notebook and ink pens. (Not counting golf, I haven't used a pencil since the second grade...even for math classes I insisted on using ink.)


So there I was trying to draw this female model before us and not, I admit, doing a very good job of it. As a doodle it looks great because doodles are expected to be somewhat funny or quizzical and close-but-no-cigar. Since am no longer an artist I feel no shortcomings from my efforts this evening. The other artists in the group were spot-on. I loved watching them adapt the model's ten-minute pose onto their canvases with such realism. A couple of them even made the subject look better than she actually does.

When she disrobed I soon lost interest in even bothering to draw her

I'd like to say I was distracted by the woman's nudity, which is the truth; but not in the flattering sense. When she disrobed I soon lost interest in even bothering to draw her. In fact, I turned to playing with my cell phone. My body is more refined and my poses are more evocative or engaging for the artist because I think like an artist although I am on the other immobile side of the medium; in short, I judged the female model through the eyes of another model and concluded thus:  I am a more interesting subject than was she tonight. If it were possible I would rather draw me than her. Unfortunately I am a much better model than artist so a sketch of me by me would probably be untruthfully frightful. I admit: I am not a good artist. But, yes, she was not a great model either.

Striking a pose II (Judith Ewing Morlan preview)

-

Last Friday I attended the preview for artist Judith Ewing Morlan's latest works entitled Paintings just for the fun of it. Simple. Sublime. The preview was held at the rather posh fine dining TRIO in downtown Vallarta. Mrs Morlan organizes one of the art groups for which I model and seeing each other on Friday was a bit of a shock: her, all dolled up and me, with my clothes on!  I swear I walked by the lady twice without recognizing her.

The paintings, waterfall and exotic landscapes in vibrant colors and texture, were not only on preview at our rooftop soiree but, what I thought was a nice touch, on display throughout the restaurant which remained open for regular business.  

The lot of people who go to these things always make for worthwhile people-watching; like caffeine for the imagination. And what anyone may have lacked in interesting-ness the free cocktails obfuscated. I enjoyed two glasses of red and a gin martini on the rocks (stirred, not shaken) and found everyone interesting. But this was just the preview. The opening will take place next week, February 19th, at Galeria Uno. The gallery often has live music but, for some reason or another, tends to limit refreshments to lemonade.

Galeria Uno561 Morelos Downtown
Phone: 222-0908

Judith Ewing Morlan studio
jemcontempart@prodigy.net.mx

Striking a pose for art class

-
Well it was bound to happen: earlier this month I began work as a model for art classes. It's fun. I dig it! Sometimes the classes call for nude modelling   ooh la la - and other times, athletic shorts suffice. The artists, largely older white ladies, all like having me in the center of the room.

Maybe it's my creative poses or ability to maintain a pose or my...smile.

The attendees, mainly student and hobby artists with two or three established professionals among the lot, congregate regularly to sketch the human form.

During last week's morning class I luxuriated in a repose pose -- and feel asleep. The group had twenty minutes to draw and I was, thankfully, brought back to consciousness by the instructor shouting, Cinco minutos mas. Five minutes! (it's a bilingual class). It might have been embarrassing otherwise, no? Hehehe. A break followed - whew! - and I quickly made for the coffee and cake.


At any rate, it's a sweet gig and the groups, adorable. Am looking forward to being the live model for more art sessions.

I love life!

No one likes crazy people, least of all me, but sometimes at the risk of seeming crazy I allow myself to smile and beam aloud, I love my life. Looooove it! And I do.

I don't hold off from shouting this wonderful declaration. All too often I have to hold back shouting negatives - civility demands it - at every damn simpleton, asshole, nitwit and brat so to express, it seems to me, a life affirming idea should be a good thing for civilization. Who knows, maybe the positivity will spread to somebody who overhears it. How many times does one hear I love my life? How rare is it to hear (or say) I hate my life?

At any rate, I've known misery and despair; I know what it is like to be beat, broke and busted with nary a living soul to lend a helping hand. Hence am now in the habit of acknowledging, as it were, good times with an expressive, I love my life! I don't really mind if people look at me crazy. I don't mind most people anyway.

To express a life affirming idea should be a good thing for civilization....How rare is it to hear (or say) I hate my life?

Usually when am working-out and I achieve that good pump -  I love my life! -through each repetition feeling my muscles aching and growing; swimming out to where my feet no longer touch the bottom and on all sides of me except above is the warm, salty ocean -  I love my life! - where am merely a small splashing, frolicking, treading disturbance in the blue-green vastness; smoking a premium cigar or hookah pipe and taking quiet pleasure in the exhaled smoke - ( psst, I love my life!) - or walking down the street and stopping, actually stopping, to smell the flowers, visually eating the sunny landscape and palm trees and sand and incorrigible home structures, or looking out the window of the plane, train, Greyhound bus -  I love my life!  - watching that particular speck of the world literally go

by; getting paid always makes me happy; seeing fat or badly dressed or fat, badly dressed people and then looking at myself - I love my life! - my fist flies upward, Thank you Jesus; realizing the moment is quiet and peaceful or having cooked a delicious, wholesome meal or standing under a hot shower and feeling, truly sensing, the dirt and stress run down into the drain or even watching the tip of my pen complete each letter until the word forms. Or remembering a bad time and knowing that that time is not now.

Add to resume: Underwear model

Well most times it's a tiresome pick-up line and sometimes it's legit. In this case, it was legit: when the Vancouver-based underwear company, Sweat Undergear, approached me on the beach for modelling they meant business. Now I can add "underwear model" to the 'ol resume. Ha!

You can view some of the shots that will make it into the company's new catalog at Taco de Ojo.

Sexy bookworm am I

Yesterday was my first venture back to the beach after some two weeks. As I exited the waves and sat down to resume Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea a stranger approached and called me by name. Turns out the Canadian tourist recognized my photo and spoke of modeling for his underwear catalog. What an eventful return to the beach, I thought! The company's stuff looks nice but, hey, as Madonna sings, I've heard it all before, I've heard it all before, I've heard it all before....