Hot Red Meat: The Official Republican Sexy Beefcake Calendar!
Hot Red Meat is Vanity Fair’s Official 2010–11 Republican Sexy Beefcake Calendar. John McCain in a jockstrap, Scott Brown in a sailor hat and pinching his nipples, Michael Steele daringly prancing in the nude…prepare to be shocked by Vanity Fair’s Republican Sexy Beefcake Calendar. The 13 bare-chested men in The Republican Sexy Beefcake Calendar are total dreamboats. Ships Ahoy, Mates!!
Actually, now that I’ve had some more time to think about it from the perspective of a quick character study, while looking more closely at the very interesting photographs of this guy, perhaps I should have described him as “alluring,” rather than “seductive.” “Alluring” suggests, I think, a less cold-hearted stance toward/with others, while “seductive” implies intentionally hard-hearted and calculated schemes to take advantage of others. But the “bare-chested masculine confidence” is certainly a fitting description of the aura he projects.
This is a very handsome, muscular fellow, who most men and women would probably find to be quite attractive. The guy recently won a national title, Mr. America, Mr. American Glamour, Mr. Fascination, or some title like that. Well, at least I know for darn sure that I’m correct about the Mister part. In almost all of the photographs of him, this manly man looks you straight in the eye. In that sense he creates an impression of invitation, with an implication of closeness.
On the other hand, his gaze has a certain vacant quality, conveying a decidedly disinterested air. In other words, there exists a paradox of social attachment or closeness, accompanied by an opposite message of social distance. I’m wondering if this social ambivalence might be somewhat characteristic of people who are celebrities, as well as of people who want or are trying to be celebrities. Anyway, at the very least my comments here have attempted to establish an underlying point that there’s nothing improper about looking closely at men who are alluring and very attractive. Perhaps it’s more a matter of how you think about it.
Herb Ritt: The Elegant Photography of Masculine Glamour
Herb Ritt began his photographic career in the late 1970s, quickly gaining a reputation as a master of art and commercial photography. Ritt was in fact self-taught. He came from a suburb of Los Angeles, near Hollywood’s stomping grounds for the fashionable set that he would later immortalize. While growing up, his next-door neighbor was to become the Hollywood “tough guy” Steve McQueen.
After studying economics at Bard College in New York, Ritt moved back to the West Coast and went to work as a sales representative for his family’s business. Along the way, he picked up a camera and began shooting photographs as a hobby. Ritt’s friendship with Richard Gere in the 1970s, as the story goes, led to a drive in the desert, a flat tire and an impromptu photo session with Gere at a service station that launched his photography career in Hollywood.
In addition to producing portraits and editorial fashion shoots for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview and Rolling Stone magazines, Ritt also created a large number of successful advertising campaigns. After 1988 he directed numerous influential, award winning music videos and commercials. His fine art photography has been the subject of exhibitions worldwide, and many significant public and private collections hold his works.
Portraiture of the nude physique is the main theme of Herb Ritt’s imagery: models, muscular men, athletes, bodies that express force, sensuality and beauty. Perhaps more than any other photographer of his generation, Ritt, who died in 2002 at the age of 50, redefined masculine glamour with his notoriously on-the-edge images of modern-day Adonises, whose highly muscular physiques he adoringly mythologized in his photographic studies.
Herb Ritt Montage Reel (The Herb Ritt Foundation)
Music Audio: Chris Isaak/Wicked
Herb Ritt: Elegant Photography of Masculine Glamour
Technorati: 
The Online Blue Ribbon
