Aussielicious

Last Sunday over 200 of us got together to film a video for equality organised by Australian Marriage Equality and directed by DJ Dan Murphy. Please share the video with everyone you know. We need to drive the message home. There is a National Labor Conference in December and we are having a Rally for Equality to coincide with it in early December.

Burning Man, despite having just been, is still on my bucket list. I think for me, I need to go back to get the most out of it. As I’ve said, it took me a few days to “get it” this year and I think if I went back I’d settle in really quickly. I’d take some good friends that would appreciate it, I’d take my boyfriend and I’d have even more of a great time.

It’s also on my list still because I still didn’t lose all my uptight inhibitions and give in to the freedom and I also never got to run along behind the water truck and have a shower. That has to happen.

Reading this article this morning on StarObserver just made me so mad. I know the Government isn’t going to change their policy to make a dying man happy but waiting 6 months to get a response which wasn’t even from the Prime Minister.

Patrick and Mitchell wrote to over 200 politicians asking to be allowed to marry before Patrick dies and every single one replied, apart from the Prime Minister herself.

Julia Gillard’s constant poor handling of just about every issue that crosses her desk is going to see her go down in our record books as the most incompetent Prime Minister in Australia’s history. Sadly the opposition leader (who deserves lower case) is possibly even more of a buffoon.

Read the full article here.

I just went to have a look at the Aussielicious Facebook page and found a post from someone there which I’ve included for you all to read below.

“Very arrogant and narcistic to call yourself Aussielicious, beauty is in the others eye and not yours. I read all about u and canadian boy, he should stay away, long distance relationships dont work. Find someone who u you WILL meet, if that is fact U>”

Firstly, please, if you are going to send me hate mail, please use spell check. It’s apparent that English isn’t your first language so I will cut you some slack, but it does reduce the impact of your hate mail. The other thing you might want to check if sending me “constructive feedback” is to possibly make sense. I have trouble fixing things if I have no idea what you are talking about.

To cover off the first point. The blog is called Aussielicious, my name is and has always been Brenton and I tend not to refer to myself in the third person. Facebook status updates are the exception but that’s because it sounds weird if you don’t.

As for the reference to “u and canadian boy” I’m baffled. Firstly by the complete lack of capitalisation and secondly because I have never posted about a romance with a Canadian boy (or man for that matter) and I have a wonderful boyfriend here in Sydney whom I am very loyal to.

One final point, your photos on Facebook seem to be of models and not yourself, so I am a touch concerned with the hypocrisy of accusing me of being fraudulent. Your Facebook name also weakens your argument if your surname is indeed “Notimportant”. Does this mean I can disregard your post or is that you being ironic?

Planning my trip to the U.S. I knew that I would want to relax after the crazy nature of Burning Man, so I googled gay clothing optional Vegas and Blue Moon Resort was about my only option.

To use the word resort may be stretching the term a bit but overall I liked the place. It was a bit further from “The Strip” than I expected and not having a car it meant I paid for several cabs when I didn’t feel like the hike in. Cab drivers seemed a bit hit and miss as far as knowing where it was too but that’s not the resort’s fault. It seems a lack of the local language and knowledge of the area is the plight of cab drivers around the world.

My main problem with gay resorts is that they never seem to be quite finished off. The rooms at Blue Moon were relatively basic but quite nice and my room had a seriously comfortable bed. If you are going to play three channels of (at times a very strange selection) of free porn, maybe ease up on supplying little body lotions, and pop a tube of lube in the basket instead. The free wireless was a hit and miss but that’s probably because the modem was dangling from the socket and sitting on the ground in the corridoor.

If you want an attitude free stay in Vegas with the option of lying naked by a pool, or even cruising in their steam room (I didn’t venture in) with staff that were very helpful and friendly, then Blue Moon could be the place for you.

Looking at these images above of Lenny Kravitz, soulful superstar, we can gleam a few details. We know Lenny appears to be quite fond of piercings. He also seems to be quite fond of tattoos. Judging by the different hair styles, these photos were taken on at least three different occasions. What does that tell us? It tells us that Lenny has absolutely no qualms about being nude, but that he also isn’t big on maintaining a grooming regime downstairs.

Lenny lives on an island in Barbados and after seeing all these nude pics of him, I’m picturing him walking lazily around the white beaches and swimming in the blue waters of Barbados, nude, possibly sharing a spliff with his mates.

To be honest, I can’t really tell you what Burning Man is. Officially it’s an alternative arts festival and an experiment in gift giving and radical self expression. I would say it’s part hippy festival, part rave, part giant school camp with no teachers, and a whole lot of fun, but even that doesn’t go close to describing it.

Yes there was lots of bullshit psychology flying around, and some people felt the need to do their yoga in the middle of centre camp with an audience, but that’s part of it too. If you like being watched, then go for it.

There wasn’t as much nudity as expected, and I felt self conscious and unfit with all the 20-somethings with six packs in my camp, but I still did the nude pub crawl bike ride (4th pic from the left, I’m on the right) and happily showered outside.

The shots above are courtesy of the back country boys and scenic boys.

I was going to work on a big post about my bucket list but every time I’d start I’d get distracted. So I’m going to do bucket list items as I think of them. One that I’ve talked about for a while on this blog but still haven’t managed is to get back on a surfboard and ride the waves nude. I haven’t surfed properly since I was a teenager but I’ve been on boards etc when I was in the surf lifesaving club and I’m pretty sure I will be able to stand up and ride a wave or two.

This video is 20 years old and not the best quality but Sonny Miller is one of the famous names in surf films and Brad Gerlach was a big name in surfing when this was filmed. It was filmed at Hossegor, a nude beach in France so Brad and Rod Kerr stripped off and did their great surfing thing on the waves in their birthday suits. I’ll do it soon.

As some of you would know, I’ve been struggling to nail down the theme for my next exhibition which is tentatively booked for February 2012. Today an idea that has been germinating in my head really came together for me and ideas for specific shots have been popping into my mind.

The last exhibition was all about hiding or putting a mask on or a filter between you and the world to feel secure. This next exhibition is all about feeling completely free. So I want to know, what is it, or when is it, that you feel completely free?

I have asked the same question on facebook and lots of people said similar things with a couple of distinct recurring themes coming up which coincidentally were already at the top of my list.

If you’ve been avoiding all gay blogs for the last year or so then you might not have come across the name of Daniel Garofoli. Daniel is a model and dancer who has been treading the boards dancing with drag shows around Sydney and at lots of gay events dancing behind singers in shows. He has the most ridiculous body around and is a very good looking guy.

I have developed a bit of a problem with Daniel but I’m putting my hand up to admit that it may be unfair of me as I have never met him and don’t know him personally. Here’s my thinking. Daniel only dances in gay venues and at gay events while stating his heterosexuality all the time. I have no problem with that, but I have a problem with the attitude that seems to come from him that he knows he’s hot and that he doesn’t like gay men leering at him. Um… maybe don’t work in the gay scene then?

As I said, I have never met Daniel and if I did, then I’m more than willing to maintain the “innocent until proven guilty” policy. In that spirit I’m about to plug his new calendar that he’s bringing out, after all, he’s hot and would look good draped on your wall. The calendar was shot by the very lovely and talented James Demitri.

One final point. Daniel, you are very good looking, but as a model, PLEASE can we have a couple more facial expressions? I’m sure there’s a great smile in there somewhere.

Tim is a reader of Aussielicious who is based here in Sydney with his partner. Tim was also kind enough to buy one of the prints at my exhibition. Thanks for submitting an entry Tim!

Don’t forget, you only have until the end of this month to get your entries in for the Self Portrait Challenge. Email them to brenton.parry@gmail.com

Those crazy Scandinavians. Don’t they know that children exposed to the naked body will turn into crazy murderers and evil-doers? Wait? There’s nothing wrong with nudity? Heaven forbid.

This video shows a kids television show, with a studio full of young children talking about a nude man that is right there before their eyes. Yes he has a sock over his penis but considering that in the US they blur out any sign of butt crack a man very close to full frontally nude in front of children is very liberal.

They don’t seem to have subtitles for most of the dialogue but it’s a discussion about the man’s tattoos. I say bring on more healthy discussions with children about their health, their bodies, sex education and all sorts of things and maybe we’ll have less teenage pregnancy, body issues, eating disorders and a wealth of other problems may be lessened.

On my recent holiday I treated myself to a pampering day at a luxury spa that had a lovely roman baths set up to it. Watching the people there I learnt some valuable lessons.

If one is attracted to someone, especially in an environment where people may feel a little vulnerable due to a complete lack of clothing, it is important that one still try one’s luck by attempting conversation. It’s important to do this over and over again, following the object of your desire around and repeatedly trying to engage them in conversation.

Please, don’t take their one word answers as a no. It’s not important that they aren’t responding well, nor that they are incredibly attractive and some might say out of your league or in all likelihood even on the other side of the sexuality fence. Their lack of response is just them playing hard to get. Persist. Never give up.

Well, after 3 weeks, 10 flights, 3 cities, countless miles and millions of stories, I’m home. It’s been an amazing trip and I’ve met some amazing people. I’ve laughed. I’ve cried. I’ve laid drunk and vomiting in the desert in the middle of the night and while not all of it was flawless, I wouldn’t change a bit of it.

I will no doubt take a few days to start going through photos and video footage but to start the blogging back up again I’m sharing with you a video from the very talented Vincent from Wallaby Way who is a friend here in Sydney who went to Burning Man.

Welcome Home – A Burning Man Adventure 2011 from Wallaby Way on Vimeo.

Can I describe Burning Man? Probably not. It’s like a giant school camp without teachers, a heap more originality and TONNES of dust. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before but I intend to see it again. Did I find it life changing? Not in a big impact straight away kinda way, but the vibe, the generosity and the spirit are things that definitely should be carried on through  regular life.

Thanks to Dannation for giving me a ride to BM. Thanks to the Back Country Boys for their hospitality and generosity. Thanks to the Scenic Boys for being as lovely and gorgeous as I’d hoped. Thanks to all the gang in our camp with their youthful bodies and six packs for providing the eye candy and inspiration for the gym! A huge thank you to everyone that I met along the way and bonded with in the desert. I will post more I promise but enjoy the video!