GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 19, 2008

•

www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Free Initial Telephone Consultation

Spice up the holidays

Nudie books make men's gifts an easy buy

Two weeks ago in this space, I wrote that it is easier to find a present for a man than a woman. The recent crop of photography books proves this with impressive holiday gifts for a variety of budgets.

There are no less than four outstanding new releases available that would be welcome under anyone's Festivus-SolsticeChanukah-Muharram-Kwanzaa-Christmas tree. (Those who celebrate none of the above don't get any presents.)

The first bit of literary crumpet is Peter Flinsch: The Body in Question (Arsenal Pulp, $27.95, trade paper), Ross Higgins' collection of works by the gay artist Flinsch.

Born in Germany just after World War I, Flinsch avoided dying with most of his comrades in World War II Russian battles by being assigned to a punitive work detail after being caught kissing a subordinate at a Luftwaffe Christmas party. Working in set design, he eventually moved to Montréal in 1954, where he also began a long and illustrious career as a painter, sketch artist and sculptor. The book collects a wide sampling of his work and Higgins' essay on Flinsch's art and life.

Then, of course, there's high-class nudie book veteran David Leddick's latest offering, The Nude Male: 21st Century Visions (Universe, $39.95, trade paper). Leddick, who has also written novels, has examined almost every facet of the male nude, closing in on individual artists like George Platt Lynes and Pavel Tchelitchev or taking a broader view of movements in photography and art in certain epochs.

In this volume, obviously, he examines contemporary photographers and artists, including Don Bachardy, Clive Barker, Tom Bianchi, Lucien Freud, Nan Goldin, Bruce LaBruce and about 140 others, running the gamut from lurid, fetishized sexuality to innocent flights of fancy.

Of course, sometimes the same nudes go from lurid, fetishized sexuality to innocent flights of fancy, and all that is required is the passage of time and the changing of mores. Case in point: Bruce of Los Angeles: Outside/Inside (Antinous Press, $150, slipcased hardcover), a monograph of Bruce Bellas' iconic 1950s physique photography with text by Vince Aletti.

It's a gorgeous effort by Antinous Press, an imprint of PowerHouse Books. PH does coffee table to die for, and this is no exception, limited to 2,500 copies.

Curbside

2008 BY R.

CURBSIDE: THE FINAL CHAPTER KIRBY

O YEAH, I'M WRAPPING UP THIS COMIC STRIP THIS IS THE FINAL EPISODE, FOR REAL. I SEE YOU'RE SHOCKED.

You ARE SHOCKED, RIGHT? I MEAN, YOU'VE BEEN LIKING ME AND MY STRIP THESE, PAST 17 YEARS, RIGHT?

The Body

in Question

Page after page of Bellas' photography captures the imagination, although it will certainly mean different things to different generations of gay men. For those around in earlier, more innocent times, the images may be achingly erotic, while for those who came out in the last three or four "anything goes" decades, the will be quaint reminders of bygone days.

Included in the book is a DVD of a dozen short films by Bellas, all of handsome young men in posing pouches doing everyday, routine things-swimming, "rassling," hanging out on the patio, dressing like Indians and shooting arrows... One keeps expecting it to devolve into tawdry sex, and it never does.

IT'LL BE HARD TO GIVE UP... THE "FAME"...THE "FORTUNE"... THE LURE OF A GUARANTEED AUDIENCE EVERY 2 WEEKS... BUT I MUST BE TRUE TO MYSELF...

I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEAS HOW AMI SUPPOSED TO DRAW IF I DON'T HAVE

TEAR

RIP REND

ANY IDEAS?!?

sigh

TEAR RIP

LONG SUFFER ING

Ross Higgins

The final book is Slava Mogutin's latest, NYC Go-Go (PowerHouse, $35, hardcover). Those who remember Mogutin's last book, Lost Boys, know that the Russian expatriate likes his men dirty and real, and NYC Go-Go continues in that vein.

Mogutin went into the strip clubs of Gotham to archive the good, the bad and the ugly of those who shake their snakes for handful of dead presidents, and the matterof-fact portrayal is at once unsettling and intensely erotic. You could have any of these men, if the price is right. Conversely, a good number of them might beat the crap out of you if you didn't pony up right at the beginning, and that perfectly illustrates the appeal of "rough trade."

by Robert Kirby

PEOPLE WILL SPECULATE

I HEARD HE QUIT BECAUSE IT WAS CAUSING PROBLEMS IN HIS "MARRIAGE"

I HEARD IT WAS BECAUSE HIS FAN BASE LOST INTEREST IN THE CONSTANTLY SHIFTING NARRATIVE.

INSECURE

LAW OFFICES OF

DAVID W. REUVEN

Office

Handling all your legal needs

Criminal Defense Former Prosecutor now fighting for you Personal Injury

Serving injury victims for over 16 years

Business Law From set-up to litigation

216-360-3000

216-338-8666

HAT WILL I DO WITH ALL MY FREE TIME NOW, YOU MAY BE A'WONDERIN'. PERHAPS NOW I WILL DRIFT OFF INTO WATERCOLORS, OR START THAT NOVEL......

I DON'T HAVE ANY SDGAS HOW CAN I WRITE MY NOVEL IF I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEAS?!?

LET'S FOR PUP

WALK

yank

Cellular

www.curb-side.com

BY THE WAY. I DO HAVE A BOOK ANYWAY,

COMING OUT IN FALL 2008... ANOTHER ANTHOLOGY OF GAY BOY COMICS CALLED THE BOOK OF BOY TROUBLE, VOLUME 2 THE FIRST 25 PURCHASERS GET A "DATE" WITH "SVEN" HERE NO, SERIOUSLY! PRESS #

These Comics

#GREEN CANDY

make me sexually excited, for you.

THE

BOOK OF

Wow, cool-

TROUBLE

BOY

better

2 Copies

buy

"CURBSIDE"? NEVER HEARD OF IT. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THAI FOR DINNER?

I'M OUTTA HERE ~ THANKS SINCERELY TO THOSE OF YOU WHO STUCK BY THE COMIC ALL THESE YEARS AND ENJOYED IT AND STUFF.... (YOU LIKE ME, RIGHT?!)

TOODLE 000! REMEMBER! BUY

G'BYE

THE

I OK?

800k!

yours truly,

Rob Kirby

X august 2008 #402