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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Not the Oblation Run but the students are still naked....
Yes indeed it's not even that time of year and the Philippine students have stripped off for another run. And who can blame them? The Phillipine government has made all sorts of ludicrous mutterings about the University breeding malcontents so why not strip off and tell the middle aged morons to piss off. They must have been young once surely? So anyway I went looking for some pics, and though I found little about the latest run I included some photos of the Oblation as well. Hope you enjoy them.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
More pics from the performance artists
It would seem that the performance artists of Chengdu make a habit of getting naked in their work. (See previous posting August 21 2006). here are two more of their performances- these are from last year.
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Toby Rand strips to conquer
Ian Thorpe may crave anonymity in Los Angeles, but his Australian rocker neighbour Toby Rand is a different kettle of fish, having vowed to run naked down LA's trendy Melrose Avenue.
Rand is one of seven remaining hopefuls competing in television show Rockstar: Supernova.
The winner of the show will become the lead singer of rock hell-raiser Tommy Lee's new all-star band, which includes ex-Guns 'n Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted.
Rand, a blonde-haired 28-year-old surfer from Melbourne, was one of the early favourites to win Rockstar: Supernova, but seven weeks into the series his popularity has fallen, with internet and text message voters around the world.
Things, however, are now looking up.
In the latest episode, Rand stripped naked for the right to sing the Peter Gabriel classic Solsbury Hill on the show, with Clarke accompanying him on guitar.
Lee, almost as famous for his exploits away from the music scene, including an X-rated video with former wife Pamela Anderson, applauded Rand's decision to bare all.
"After seeing you run around naked there's no question in my mind about your commitment," Lee said.
"This is what rock stars are all about, dude, and it was nice to see you being a maniac, so welcome.
"And Toby, by the way, nice arse."
Rand is well known in Melbourne's music scene for fronting band Juke Kartel. He worked at a Brunswick carpet company to make ends meet, but quit the job to fly to the US to compete in Rockstar: Supernova which is filmed each week in LA.
The show is the sequel to last year's series, which found a new lead singer for INXS.
Rand said he was not sure if his parents would be so appreciative of his naked romp, although he would do it again.
"What are you prepared to do next week? That's what the ladies want to know," host and former guitarist with Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Navarro, asked Rand in front of the show's live audience.
Rand thought for a moment, before replying: "I'm prepared to run down Melrose Avenue naked to get the song next week."
Rockstar: Supernova is shown in Australia on Foxtel's FOX8 channel.
The other competing singers come from the US, Canada, Iceland and South Africa and each week one is eliminated, with viewers around the world voting via the http://www.rockstar.msn.com website or via text message.
Rand and his rival contestants live in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, just a short drive from the million dollar home Thorpe bought as his LA base while training for next year's world swimming championships in Melbourne.
Rand and the other Rockstar: Supernova contestants last week had a taste of what their lives could be if they won when Lee flew them via private jet to Las Vegas for a boozy night out.
Rand lived it up.
Footage aired from the Vegas trip showed a groggy Rand telling Newsted at a bar: "I'm smashed."
Naked ambition ... Toby Rand, left, with mate and fellow band member Tommy Kende.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
(August 23, 2006)
AAP
Rand is one of seven remaining hopefuls competing in television show Rockstar: Supernova.
The winner of the show will become the lead singer of rock hell-raiser Tommy Lee's new all-star band, which includes ex-Guns 'n Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted.
Rand, a blonde-haired 28-year-old surfer from Melbourne, was one of the early favourites to win Rockstar: Supernova, but seven weeks into the series his popularity has fallen, with internet and text message voters around the world.
Things, however, are now looking up.
In the latest episode, Rand stripped naked for the right to sing the Peter Gabriel classic Solsbury Hill on the show, with Clarke accompanying him on guitar.
Lee, almost as famous for his exploits away from the music scene, including an X-rated video with former wife Pamela Anderson, applauded Rand's decision to bare all.
"After seeing you run around naked there's no question in my mind about your commitment," Lee said.
"This is what rock stars are all about, dude, and it was nice to see you being a maniac, so welcome.
"And Toby, by the way, nice arse."
Rand is well known in Melbourne's music scene for fronting band Juke Kartel. He worked at a Brunswick carpet company to make ends meet, but quit the job to fly to the US to compete in Rockstar: Supernova which is filmed each week in LA.
The show is the sequel to last year's series, which found a new lead singer for INXS.
Rand said he was not sure if his parents would be so appreciative of his naked romp, although he would do it again.
"What are you prepared to do next week? That's what the ladies want to know," host and former guitarist with Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Navarro, asked Rand in front of the show's live audience.
Rand thought for a moment, before replying: "I'm prepared to run down Melrose Avenue naked to get the song next week."
Rockstar: Supernova is shown in Australia on Foxtel's FOX8 channel.
The other competing singers come from the US, Canada, Iceland and South Africa and each week one is eliminated, with viewers around the world voting via the http://www.rockstar.msn.com website or via text message.
Rand and his rival contestants live in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, just a short drive from the million dollar home Thorpe bought as his LA base while training for next year's world swimming championships in Melbourne.
Rand and the other Rockstar: Supernova contestants last week had a taste of what their lives could be if they won when Lee flew them via private jet to Las Vegas for a boozy night out.
Rand lived it up.
Footage aired from the Vegas trip showed a groggy Rand telling Newsted at a bar: "I'm smashed."
Naked ambition ... Toby Rand, left, with mate and fellow band member Tommy Kende.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
(August 23, 2006)
AAP
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Strip and streak earns monk defrocking
This is hilarious- I had to add this story to the blog....
August 27, 2006
A Cambodian Buddhist monk who stripped naked and raced through suburban streets after a heavy night of drinking rice wine laced with toads has been asked to leave the monkhood.
Sim Soktriya, chief monk of Russei Keo district on the outskirts of the capital, said a woman discovered the naked monk passed out on her doorstep.
Soktriya said Dem Yonly, 30, had been drinking toad wine, excusing the forbidden behaviour for Buddhist monks by saying he was drinking it as medicine to treat an unspecified illness.
Cambodians widely believe that poison in the toads helps kill illnesses.
Yonly stripped and streaked, then fell asleep near his pagoda, scaring a woman who walked outside to find the naked monk lying in her garden covered in mud, police said.
Officers turned him over to the pagoda.
"He will not face criminal charges - we have just asked him to go home. This is not the first time he has been warned, but he does not listen," Soktriya said.
He said Yonly had been a monk for nearly seven years but had showed no sign of improvement. The defrocking also bars him from rejoining the monkhood at any other pagoda in Cambodia, Soktriya said.
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August 27, 2006
A Cambodian Buddhist monk who stripped naked and raced through suburban streets after a heavy night of drinking rice wine laced with toads has been asked to leave the monkhood.
Sim Soktriya, chief monk of Russei Keo district on the outskirts of the capital, said a woman discovered the naked monk passed out on her doorstep.
Soktriya said Dem Yonly, 30, had been drinking toad wine, excusing the forbidden behaviour for Buddhist monks by saying he was drinking it as medicine to treat an unspecified illness.
Cambodians widely believe that poison in the toads helps kill illnesses.
Yonly stripped and streaked, then fell asleep near his pagoda, scaring a woman who walked outside to find the naked monk lying in her garden covered in mud, police said.
Officers turned him over to the pagoda.
"He will not face criminal charges - we have just asked him to go home. This is not the first time he has been warned, but he does not listen," Soktriya said.
He said Yonly had been a monk for nearly seven years but had showed no sign of improvement. The defrocking also bars him from rejoining the monkhood at any other pagoda in Cambodia, Soktriya said.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Naked in vermont
Given the article about teens getting naked in the streets I thought I'd check out vermont. It looks like a dinky kinda place as I found thse pics from the so-called Naked Crit. Enjoy.
Let Us Be Naked: Teens Stage Nude Sit-In
Let Us Be Naked: Teens Stage Nude Sit-In
Some have appeared naked in a downtown parking lot. Others rode their bicycles or simply strolled the streets in the nude.
Teenagers in the quaint Vermont town of Brattleboro are raising eyebrows this summer with brazen displays of nudity.
So far they haven't been arrested or ticketed: public nudity isn't illegal in the town of 13,000 people, unless it's done to arouse sexual gratification.
Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.
When the weather grew hot this year, a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing only their birthday suits.
Nobody, including the police, seemed to take offense until one local, Theresa Toney, went before the town government in August to complain about a group of youngsters naked in a parking lot.
"The parking lot is not a strip club," she said. "What about children seeing this?"
Town officials asked their attorney to draft an ordinance to ban such displays for the Select Board to vote on in September. When the teens heard about it, some staged a nude sit-in.
"I don't see why it's such a big deal," said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, browsing a thick volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Everyone's naked in this book."
His companion, Jeremiah Compton, a high school junior who plays in a local metal-and-punk band, agreed. "It's just that we're bored and expressing our right," he said.
"We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed," said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. "So why's it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?"
Source: AP
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Some have appeared naked in a downtown parking lot. Others rode their bicycles or simply strolled the streets in the nude.
Teenagers in the quaint Vermont town of Brattleboro are raising eyebrows this summer with brazen displays of nudity.
So far they haven't been arrested or ticketed: public nudity isn't illegal in the town of 13,000 people, unless it's done to arouse sexual gratification.
Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.
When the weather grew hot this year, a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing only their birthday suits.
Nobody, including the police, seemed to take offense until one local, Theresa Toney, went before the town government in August to complain about a group of youngsters naked in a parking lot.
"The parking lot is not a strip club," she said. "What about children seeing this?"
Town officials asked their attorney to draft an ordinance to ban such displays for the Select Board to vote on in September. When the teens heard about it, some staged a nude sit-in.
"I don't see why it's such a big deal," said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, browsing a thick volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Everyone's naked in this book."
His companion, Jeremiah Compton, a high school junior who plays in a local metal-and-punk band, agreed. "It's just that we're bored and expressing our right," he said.
"We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed," said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. "So why's it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?"
Source: AP
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Monday, August 21, 2006
Students' naked performance causes outrage
A total of 41 university students, both male and female, took part in the display at a golf course in Chengdu city.
According to Chongqing Morning Post, the performance art, named @41, is completed by 41 young students standing nakedly in the shape of "@", then falling down like dominos.
But the performance of the students - from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts - has caused a huge debate in China.
The organiser and director of the performance, known only as Zhang, commented on the college's website: "As the dominant power for the future world, youth is responsibility; youth is power!"
Another participant, Mr Li, also defends their art form: "It's a breakthrough. Not only to my art creation, but to our social ethics."
Many people however are opposed to their work and have been speaking out on various news websites in China. One such comment reads: "It's a seduction to youth. The organisers should be severely punished, since they do this porn stuff under the label of art".
Another disgruntled member of the public remarks: "If naked is art, then taking a shower in the bathroom is much better. Psychos!"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
According to Chongqing Morning Post, the performance art, named @41, is completed by 41 young students standing nakedly in the shape of "@", then falling down like dominos.
But the performance of the students - from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts - has caused a huge debate in China.
The organiser and director of the performance, known only as Zhang, commented on the college's website: "As the dominant power for the future world, youth is responsibility; youth is power!"
Another participant, Mr Li, also defends their art form: "It's a breakthrough. Not only to my art creation, but to our social ethics."
Many people however are opposed to their work and have been speaking out on various news websites in China. One such comment reads: "It's a seduction to youth. The organisers should be severely punished, since they do this porn stuff under the label of art".
Another disgruntled member of the public remarks: "If naked is art, then taking a shower in the bathroom is much better. Psychos!"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Gutsy City traders to strip for cancer relief
LONDON (Reuters) - City traders are set to raise eyebrows by posing for a nude calendar to raise money for a cancer charity.
The calendar will feature 12 people posing naked but with their modesty preserved, the KatCanDo charity for colon cancer told Reuters.
KatCanDo, which was set up by Kate Coles in 2004, is still looking for more people to fill the slots.
"It's a very serious attempt to raise money," said Stephen Coles, the husband of the charity's founder. "It will be tastefully done."
Kate Coles was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003 and died in March 2006.
But some traders -- a breed not renowned for being shy and retiring -- were bashful.
"I think I give the world enough amusement without taking my clothes off," said one London-based dealer.
Nude calendars of ordinary people with strategically placed objects covering their modesty has become a popular way of raising money.
The phenomenon reached a wider audience with the film Calendar Girls, which was based on the true story of Women's Institute members who posed nude for a naughty charity calendar to raise money for leukaemia research.
The project follows a similar calendar in 2005 that featured hospital doctors and which sold around 5,000 copies, raising several thousand pounds to buy equipment and facilities not normally provided by the NHS.
KatCanDo added that donations can also be made through its website, www.katcando.org.uk
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The calendar will feature 12 people posing naked but with their modesty preserved, the KatCanDo charity for colon cancer told Reuters.
KatCanDo, which was set up by Kate Coles in 2004, is still looking for more people to fill the slots.
"It's a very serious attempt to raise money," said Stephen Coles, the husband of the charity's founder. "It will be tastefully done."
Kate Coles was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003 and died in March 2006.
But some traders -- a breed not renowned for being shy and retiring -- were bashful.
"I think I give the world enough amusement without taking my clothes off," said one London-based dealer.
Nude calendars of ordinary people with strategically placed objects covering their modesty has become a popular way of raising money.
The phenomenon reached a wider audience with the film Calendar Girls, which was based on the true story of Women's Institute members who posed nude for a naughty charity calendar to raise money for leukaemia research.
The project follows a similar calendar in 2005 that featured hospital doctors and which sold around 5,000 copies, raising several thousand pounds to buy equipment and facilities not normally provided by the NHS.
KatCanDo added that donations can also be made through its website, www.katcando.org.uk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Nude photo exhibition in HK revives debate on artistic expression
By Channel NewsAsia's Hong Kong Steven Jiang | Posted: 19 August 2006 2240 hrs
HONG KONG : An unusual exhibition in Hong Kong has highlighted a long running debate over the boundaries for artistic expression.
The photo exhibition is so controversial that even discreet admirers peeping in from the streets run for cover when they see a news team.
Life-sized pictures of ordinary men and women in their birthday suits are an extraordinary sight in Hong Kong, even in the art world.
Roy Lee, who snapped all the photographs, has vivid memories of a woman who heard him discussing his exhibition with friends.
"All of sudden, she slapped me on my face, saying 'you're filthy'," recalled photographer Roy Lee.
But that is exactly the mindset that Roy and his amateur models want to change.
"Nudity in Hong Kong is always associated with pornography. But to the Europeans, nudity is something beautiful and natural," said Lee.
The photographer named his show "The Square" to highlight the government's requirement that the models' private parts be blurred.
Without the pixilation, Roy feared that he may be slapped again - with a fine of more than US$50,000.
And money, said the photographer, was why the city's tabloid media seemed to freely print licentious pictures everyday.
He said they don't mind paying the fines as they can sell more copies and recover the sum.
But most independent artists do not have such a luxury.
Roy's models echoed his frustration.
TV producer May Yu said she had been nervous as it was her first time posing in the nude.
But the rare experience, she said, had made her more comfortable with her body.
And she now questions the need to modify the photos.
"The square culture is so ironic. You can still pretty much see everything, so what's the point," challenged May.
A fellow model said the point of this exhibition was to nurture greater appreciation for fine arts in Hong Kong society, starting with the young.
"You have to build in the concept in the students' mind from an early stage. Eventually they may understand the difference between nudity and pornography, and also understand what art tries to express," said musician Kung Chi-Shing.
Until then, artists like Roy Lee and the censorship authorities will continue to square off over artistic freedom.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
HONG KONG : An unusual exhibition in Hong Kong has highlighted a long running debate over the boundaries for artistic expression.
The photo exhibition is so controversial that even discreet admirers peeping in from the streets run for cover when they see a news team.
Life-sized pictures of ordinary men and women in their birthday suits are an extraordinary sight in Hong Kong, even in the art world.
Roy Lee, who snapped all the photographs, has vivid memories of a woman who heard him discussing his exhibition with friends.
"All of sudden, she slapped me on my face, saying 'you're filthy'," recalled photographer Roy Lee.
But that is exactly the mindset that Roy and his amateur models want to change.
"Nudity in Hong Kong is always associated with pornography. But to the Europeans, nudity is something beautiful and natural," said Lee.
The photographer named his show "The Square" to highlight the government's requirement that the models' private parts be blurred.
Without the pixilation, Roy feared that he may be slapped again - with a fine of more than US$50,000.
And money, said the photographer, was why the city's tabloid media seemed to freely print licentious pictures everyday.
He said they don't mind paying the fines as they can sell more copies and recover the sum.
But most independent artists do not have such a luxury.
Roy's models echoed his frustration.
TV producer May Yu said she had been nervous as it was her first time posing in the nude.
But the rare experience, she said, had made her more comfortable with her body.
And she now questions the need to modify the photos.
"The square culture is so ironic. You can still pretty much see everything, so what's the point," challenged May.
A fellow model said the point of this exhibition was to nurture greater appreciation for fine arts in Hong Kong society, starting with the young.
"You have to build in the concept in the students' mind from an early stage. Eventually they may understand the difference between nudity and pornography, and also understand what art tries to express," said musician Kung Chi-Shing.
Until then, artists like Roy Lee and the censorship authorities will continue to square off over artistic freedom.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Macy mortified by prison nude scene
SEABISCUIT star WILLIAM H MACY was mortified when he had to appear nude in his new film, EDMOND, in a prison filled with real inmates. The actor agreed to strip off in a scene where he had to walk down a long prison corridor. But the embarrassment of appearing naked in front of convicts was nothing in comparison to the special "sock" he had to wear to protect his manhood. He explains, "The bad thing is when you do a scene like this you have to wear a sock. You can use your imagination as to where you put the sock. "I knew I was in trouble during the first take when I walked about four steps and STUART GORDON, our director, says 'cut' and walks around and looks at me and says, 'Can we get a shorter sock?'"
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Nude dance show is what market will bare
Fuse's 'Pants-off Dance-Off': 'Dumbest show on TV' unlikely hit
Monday, August 7, 2006; Posted: 3:31 p.m. EDT (19:31 GMT)
Not every idea has to be smart to make it on TV. Sometimes stupid works, too.
At the end of busy days in his New York production office, Tad Low will sometimes crank the music loud for his staff to take a dance break. One day someone observed, "How hilarious would this be if we did this in the nude?"
From that offhand remark came "Pants-Off Dance-Off," which has quickly become the Fuse network's most popular series ever. No more complicated than its title, the competition features people dancing in front of a screen playing their favorite music video, while slowly shedding clothes.
"Why hasn't anybody put naked people and rock music together on television before?" said Low, who created the "Pop-Up Videos" series for VH1. "It seems so obvious, like peanut butter and jelly."
Five dancers are featured in each show, from Tuesday through Friday at 10 p.m., and viewers vote online for each night's favorite. Those choices then compete in Saturday's "dance-off." The series is in repeats now until the second season starts September 26.
Once Low came up with the idea, he persuaded his girlfriend's friend to dance in front of a screen in his office so he could film a pilot episode.
"I was thinking, 'What is happening here? What has gone on with my life that I'm sitting here behind a camera directing a woman to remove her clothes?' But when I put it together in the edit room, it was one of those moments where you say, 'This is so funny and mesmerizing.' "
Don't expect models or strip club refugees. Low purposely sought ordinary folks, men and women, as a way of striking out against airbrushed culture. The models have included a 58-year-old retired male teacher and a woman dressed in a clown suit.
Pop-up factoids appear on the screen during the dance ("As a child, Masta Wong wanted to be a subway conductor") along with comments from host Jodie Sweetin.
Catherine Mullen, Fuse's new general manager, recalled finding the pilot originally titled "Dance Without Pants" hilarious, but admitted to many doubts about how it should be done.
"We didn't want it to be predictable," she said. "We didn't want to make it salacious. We didn't want it to be 'College Girls Gone Wild.' We wanted to make it like 'The Gong Show.' "
After she saw the pilot in February, the show debuted on Fuse in April -- a ridiculously short period of time in television. It has given the 3-year-old network a buzzworthy program, something it has lacked in trying to emerge from the large shadow of MTV and its siblings.
Contestant: 'I just went with it'
Fuse doesn't pretend "Pants-Off Dance-Off" is anything more than it is. After TV Guide called it the "dumbest show on television," Fuse proudly trumpeted that quote in the headline of a news release.
The "pants-off" part of the show is a bit of a tease. When the clothes are finally off, Fuse covers up the bodies with an electronic version of a towel. Viewers who want to see more are directed to the network's Web site, where breasts and genitalia are pixelated.
The conservative approach has annoyed some fans, and Low wishes Fuse would do a late-night version of "Pants-Off Dance-Off" that would show some of what is seen online. Mullen said it was part of Fuse's strategy to have different content available on different platforms, like online and on cell phones.
Howard Wong, a 33-year-old computer worker from New York City, saw an item in a nudist's magazine about the show. He had piled up some $200 in parking tickets, so the opportunity to earn $200 to dance for an obscure TV network appealed to him.
"I didn't know what to say or what to do," he said. "I just went with it. It was a total adrenaline rush. I knew I had made a total fool of myself. The whole thing was absurd, but I think the creator of the show knew that."
Maybe it was his androgynous dance style, or the washboard abdominals, but Wong -- who uses the name Masta Wong -- became a three-time champion.
Wong briefly worked in California as a photographer shooting pornographic videos. Now he's occasionally getting recognized on the street for his time spent stripping in front of the camera.
"I'm not going to lie," he said. "It is kind of cool."
For Low, "Pants-Off Dance-Off" completes an odd trilogy of programming about music videos. After "Pop-Up Videos," which became popular for its image-busting snarkiness, he created "Video IQ" for Fuse. On that show, viewers were invited to solve puzzles inserted into the promo clips.
"I don't know what that says about the culture at large," he said. "But we've certainly made it easier to watch. Less reading."
It's his belief with "Pants-Off Dance-Off" that ordinary people can be more interesting to watch than the Paris Hiltons and Lindsey Lohans of the world.
"Who hasn't danced around in their underwear to their favorite song?" he said. "It's one of life's moments of unbridled enthusiasm, and the notion of this show is to make that contagious."
Howard Wong -- known as "Masta Wong" -- is a three-time winner on "Pants-Off Dance-Off."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/performingmales
Monday, August 7, 2006; Posted: 3:31 p.m. EDT (19:31 GMT)
Not every idea has to be smart to make it on TV. Sometimes stupid works, too.
At the end of busy days in his New York production office, Tad Low will sometimes crank the music loud for his staff to take a dance break. One day someone observed, "How hilarious would this be if we did this in the nude?"
From that offhand remark came "Pants-Off Dance-Off," which has quickly become the Fuse network's most popular series ever. No more complicated than its title, the competition features people dancing in front of a screen playing their favorite music video, while slowly shedding clothes.
"Why hasn't anybody put naked people and rock music together on television before?" said Low, who created the "Pop-Up Videos" series for VH1. "It seems so obvious, like peanut butter and jelly."
Five dancers are featured in each show, from Tuesday through Friday at 10 p.m., and viewers vote online for each night's favorite. Those choices then compete in Saturday's "dance-off." The series is in repeats now until the second season starts September 26.
Once Low came up with the idea, he persuaded his girlfriend's friend to dance in front of a screen in his office so he could film a pilot episode.
"I was thinking, 'What is happening here? What has gone on with my life that I'm sitting here behind a camera directing a woman to remove her clothes?' But when I put it together in the edit room, it was one of those moments where you say, 'This is so funny and mesmerizing.' "
Don't expect models or strip club refugees. Low purposely sought ordinary folks, men and women, as a way of striking out against airbrushed culture. The models have included a 58-year-old retired male teacher and a woman dressed in a clown suit.
Pop-up factoids appear on the screen during the dance ("As a child, Masta Wong wanted to be a subway conductor") along with comments from host Jodie Sweetin.
Catherine Mullen, Fuse's new general manager, recalled finding the pilot originally titled "Dance Without Pants" hilarious, but admitted to many doubts about how it should be done.
"We didn't want it to be predictable," she said. "We didn't want to make it salacious. We didn't want it to be 'College Girls Gone Wild.' We wanted to make it like 'The Gong Show.' "
After she saw the pilot in February, the show debuted on Fuse in April -- a ridiculously short period of time in television. It has given the 3-year-old network a buzzworthy program, something it has lacked in trying to emerge from the large shadow of MTV and its siblings.
Contestant: 'I just went with it'
Fuse doesn't pretend "Pants-Off Dance-Off" is anything more than it is. After TV Guide called it the "dumbest show on television," Fuse proudly trumpeted that quote in the headline of a news release.
The "pants-off" part of the show is a bit of a tease. When the clothes are finally off, Fuse covers up the bodies with an electronic version of a towel. Viewers who want to see more are directed to the network's Web site, where breasts and genitalia are pixelated.
The conservative approach has annoyed some fans, and Low wishes Fuse would do a late-night version of "Pants-Off Dance-Off" that would show some of what is seen online. Mullen said it was part of Fuse's strategy to have different content available on different platforms, like online and on cell phones.
Howard Wong, a 33-year-old computer worker from New York City, saw an item in a nudist's magazine about the show. He had piled up some $200 in parking tickets, so the opportunity to earn $200 to dance for an obscure TV network appealed to him.
"I didn't know what to say or what to do," he said. "I just went with it. It was a total adrenaline rush. I knew I had made a total fool of myself. The whole thing was absurd, but I think the creator of the show knew that."
Maybe it was his androgynous dance style, or the washboard abdominals, but Wong -- who uses the name Masta Wong -- became a three-time champion.
Wong briefly worked in California as a photographer shooting pornographic videos. Now he's occasionally getting recognized on the street for his time spent stripping in front of the camera.
"I'm not going to lie," he said. "It is kind of cool."
For Low, "Pants-Off Dance-Off" completes an odd trilogy of programming about music videos. After "Pop-Up Videos," which became popular for its image-busting snarkiness, he created "Video IQ" for Fuse. On that show, viewers were invited to solve puzzles inserted into the promo clips.
"I don't know what that says about the culture at large," he said. "But we've certainly made it easier to watch. Less reading."
It's his belief with "Pants-Off Dance-Off" that ordinary people can be more interesting to watch than the Paris Hiltons and Lindsey Lohans of the world.
"Who hasn't danced around in their underwear to their favorite song?" he said. "It's one of life's moments of unbridled enthusiasm, and the notion of this show is to make that contagious."
Howard Wong -- known as "Masta Wong" -- is a three-time winner on "Pants-Off Dance-Off."
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Daniel romps naked on horse in potty new role
Daniel romps naked on horse in potty new role
by BAZ BAMIGBOYE, Daily Mail 11:12am 28th July 2006
New role: Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths
Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths, stars of the Harry Potter movies, are to appear together on the London stage in April, in a new production of Equus, one of the defining plays of the past half-century.
In one scene, Daniel will have to perform a sexual act while naked and mounted on a horse - but by all accounts, he’s not daunted by the prospect.
Teenage Radcliffe has become a household name the world over since winning the part of J. K. Rowling’s schoolboy wizard (he has played him in four films and is in the middle of shooting a fifth, The Order Of The Phoenix).
As I exclusively revealed in December, he will play Alan Strang, a troubled youth institutionalised for blinding six horses with a hoof spike.
This seemingly senseless act is at the heart of Peter Shaffer’s extraordinary 33-year-old drama, which explores the nature of passion, religion, equine worship and teenage instability.
It was a sensation when it first ran at the National, then on Broadway, and later in a movie starring Richard Burton and Peter Firth, who created the part of Strang on stage.
Griffiths, who has won a Tony for the Broadway run of the National Theatre’s celebrated production of The History Boys, is well acquainted with Radcliffe. In the Potter films he plays Harry’s awful uncle Vernon Dursley.
In Equus, he will play Martin Dysart, the psychiatrist who tries to discover why the groomsman maimed the horses.
Last night, Daniel wrote to me that he was ‘truly delighted to have been given the opportunity to work on this great play’, adding that he felt honoured ‘to be entrusted with the role’.
He recalled how he took part in a workshop of the play in an Old Vic studio last summer — with Shaffer and his formidable agent Patricia McNaughton also in attendance. This inspired a mix of ‘awe and terror at the prospect of playing such a complicated character’, Daniel said.
Awe obviously outweighed terror, though. ‘I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and one not to be missed.’
He acknowledged the amount of preparation he has to do, but says once out of ‘Potterland’, he will devote all his energies to the play. ‘I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I am totally dedicated to this production and only hope I can do it justice.’
Gala
The play will rehearse for six weeks in London from January 3, with director Thea Sharrock taking charge, and then go straight into a series of previews from February 16. It will open to the critics with a gala first night on February 27.
A theatre is being negotiated and, as you might expect, all the major theatre owners — including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh — are vying for Equus.
Daniel will perform as Alan Strang for 16 weeks. Then it’s back to Hogwarts to prepare to film the sixth, penultimate, picture in the Harry Potter canon, The Half-Blood Prince.
The castings are a scorching theatrical coup for producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers, who have spent eight years preparing to bring the play back to London.
Shaffer had told the producers they could acquire the world rights — if they found the right boy to play Strang.
Their choice was Daniel, who made his stage debut as a celebrity guest in the comedy The Play What I Wrote, the Morecambe and Wise tribute that they produced. ‘Shaffer was delighted with Daniel,’ Pugh recalled yesterday. Griffiths was then approached.
Last week, while the actor was briefly back in England to do a few days’ work on The Order Of The Phoenix, he and Daniel discussed doing the play.
The Equus team also visited the pair on the Harry Potter set. ‘One of the things that made Richard so perfect was not only does he know this part, but he understands working with young people,’ Pugh said.
Director Ms Sharrock has been meeting with set, costume and lighting designers, but final designs will have to wait until a theatre has been decided on.
Initially, Kenneth Branagh had been planning to direct the play, but he withdrew for reasons of availability and differences of opinion about how the drama would be staged.
Pugh, Daniel’s parents, the actor and his agent have discussed the script. Pugh said Radcliffe did not shy away from the play’s coup de theatre. ‘There were no issues Daniel was worried about. He said he would play whatever’s in the script.’
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