Aussielicious

It seems to me that Tony, of LargeTony and West of Mayberry fame, doesn’t like to let the grass grow under his feet. So it is that he’s wound up West of Mayberry, as he did with LargeTony and he’s started a new blog that will combine the moods of both blogs. The new blog is called The Third Leg, which I can partly claim responsibility for. I was doing my follow-friday tweets and said that Tony had three legs, referring to his generous endowment. Thus, the name was born.

Also starting anew this year is Kirill from Active Naturists. Kirill is a very enthusiastic nudist and a lovely guy, always trying to promote the natural state of nudity amongst friends. His old incarnation of Active Naturists was shut down by blogger, being the conservative types they are. So he’s been recreating the archives and has now launched again in a new location!

It’s the last day of the 2011 here in Sydney and as can be expected, the evening will be full of introspection and reflection, and a bit of vodka.

I won’t touch on political and world events here in this post, they are being rehashed all over the globe in lists and count downs on every news station around the world. This is a post about MY 2011.

I can’t help but feel like I’ve had a fantastic year. Sure, I may be single again and some family members and people around me have had a really tiring and testing year, and I will be thinking of them tonight too.

2011 is the first year I’ve had a real, adult, healthy relationship that left me better than when I went into it and I have to thank Dan for that. I ticked off some really big bucket list items this year, fulfilling dreams of having a photographic exhibition, enjoying the craziness that is Burning Man and walking around, loving ever second of New York City.

I came a long way, introducing my family to someone special for the first time in 12 years and having them like him and accept him.

In 2012 I am hoping that some of that emotional stability continues and maybe, just maybe I’ll find someone special this year, but if not I have my next exhibition and all sorts of other good stuff to look forward to.

I hope all my readers, commenters and contributers all have an amazing New Year’s Eve, whether it’s partying hard or enjoying a low key evening like I will be, and that you all have the most fulfilling 2012 it’s possible to imagine!

A month ago I was fresh out of a breakup so was wallowing in self pity a little bit and I realised a week or two later that I completely missed the 6th birthday of Aussielicious!

The six years has been a rollercoaster of support, love, controversy, hate mail and lots and lots of nudity. This new incarnation of Aussielicious has had over 4,200,000 hits in it’s time and the old version has had 3,800,000+ hits so not only is Aussielicious 6 years old, it’s 8 MILLION hits strong. I know people like Perez get that in a day or two but I’m pretty proud of my little blog.

Thank you to everyone that has dropped by and commented or sumbitted photos or stories. It’s very much appreciated. Keep coming back!

Over four years ago I did an interview with a straight reader of the blog who is a nudist and also very comfortable with his sexuality and the fact that he is straight, and as a result very comfortable nude with gay men. Of course that post resulted in a lot of gay men claiming he’s really gay but in denial. Cleaning out my old emails from a very long time ago I came across a couple of email responses to that post and the gay mafia’s claims that the guy was really gay. I thought I’d post those emails. Here is the first of them.

I’m str8 and live with a gay guy who has become a good friend over the 10 months he has lived here. I like him. He is funny, very competitive, and likes a lot of the same things i do. In other words, we are very similar.

I was mad yesterday because it seems some of these gay guys cant be happy, won’t be happy or refuse to be happy until every str8 guy in the world acknowledges that he is secretly gay. My roommate knew the topic would set me off because I have had fraternity brothers who I’ve known for 6 or 7 years actually ask me if I’m gay because I have a gay roommate. Turns out, my fraternity brothers aren’t the only ones with twisted logic as evidenced by some of those first posts to your interview story.

The point is nudity doesnt equal sex and sex doesnt equal sexuality. And sexuality is not something anybody chooses. Haha I borrowed that last one from ‘the gay agenda’ people. I beleive its true. But if your gay readers believe it’s true, then they need to examine some of the rush-to-judgement pronouncements they made about the interview.

Heres some debunkers to think about as they apply to me:

1. I love bein naked. I dont put on clothes just because there is a gay guy in my condo. When I can be naked, I am and most of the time that means when I’m by myself. but if my gay roommate is around, it doesnt stop me. Being naked or enjoying being naked doesnt make me gay.

2. I shave my nuts. I trim my pubes. I trim my chest. I like how it makes me look. Yes, my roommate pointed out that a lot of gay guys do that. A lot of str8 guys do too. It is so mainstream now that I hardly think that qualifies for discussion. Do u think that David Beckham is gay?L ooks do not make me gay.

3. I have experimented with guys. It is something most everybody does. for me, it was mostly jackin off and some oral in junior high and high school. What I did as a 15yo does not make me gay. And whenever I see a dick, it doesnt make me want to suck it. I also tried smoking in high school. whenever I see a cigarette now I also have no desire to take a puff. Experiences growing up do not make me gay.

4. My gay roommate has a boyfriend with an enormous cock. I have seen it and I can appreciate how lucky he is. I am doing what everybody else does. All dudes check out dudes / even str8 ones. It’s part of the way our brains are wired. Anyone who tells u he doesnt is lying. Noticing somebodys cock or appreciating it doesnt make me gay.

5. I jack off a lot. Even at 26 I jack off all the time. I jack off watching porn and if u have never seen str8 porn, you wouldnt know it but probably 60% of it is focused on cock. Cock in pussy / cock in mouth / cock jettin a load on tits… it’s all cock focused and u know what? I get off on it. Obviously a lot of str8 guys do because porn is big business. But watching porn that involves a cock or getting off on it doesnt mean I’m gay.

My roommate, on the other hand, who exhibits every one of these same traits (including jackin off to str8 porn) is gay. He is gay because thats how he is wired. He cant change that anymore than I can change the wiring that makes me str8.

It’s time for everybody to get a clue. I understand a lot of guys are in the closet, but i think you have to look deeper than attitudes and surface traits. my roommate looks, talks and plays sports like my str8 friends. my girlfriend has even had the ignorance to suggest he is ‘secretly str8′ and just lacked male bonding or something during adolescence. that kind of talk (which mirrors some of your readers) is such horseshit.

Last week I had a comment from a reader on my Teamm8 post saying I really should own up to being paid or receiving gifts in exchange for posts on the blog from companies. To be honest, even though the reader has said he meant no offense, I was a little put out.

I post about companies on this blog that I like and that I want to support. AussieBum has received by far the most posts on Aussielicious over the years, but I post about them because I like them, not because I’ve had some free underwear over the years. AussieBum did indeed sponsor my photography exhibition this year and as part of that sponsorship I offered to post about all their new releases for a year. I offered, they didn’t ask. And in my defence, if I need it, my blog gets at least 2,500 hits per day, so I think my posting over the years would add up to more in advertising dollars than the sponsorship that was given plus a few pairs of underpants.

I lay my heart out on this blog and have done for years, so to suggest that I am being shady in my dealings is offensive. You’ll also note that I have not put links to the companies referenced in this post, just to prove a point.

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?

Last night a reader posted a comment about one of the self portrait entries that was mean spirited and nasty. Whether it was meant that way or not, there was not a shred of tact involved. Clearly this reader has something against foreskins and thinks it’s “sad” to have a foreskin. That reader is entitled to his opinion and to post it. However, I would expect my readers to have some common courtesy and post comments constructively and tactfully and not as a personal attack.

I debated deleting the comment but knowing my loyal readers I knew that there would be several comments pulling the commenter into line by the time I woke up this morning. The original commenter has commented again that I am entitled to delete the comment. My argument is that I shouldn’t have to. The internet has become a hotbed of insulting and rude behaviour veiled by anonymity. I don’t want to censor my readers thoughts but I do ask people to bear in mind how they would feel if they had bravely put themselves out there on the internet and someone said the same comment about them.

My upcoming trip to the US will be an interesting one. Apart from ticking off a few things that have been on my to-do list for some time I’ll also be meeting several people I’ve chatted to for a long time on this trip. I’ve been chatting to the Scenic Boys for a few years now and Fairview Sue who I’ll be catching up with in NYC.

I’m really interested to see if we all get on as well in person as we do online. We all know the virtual world is very different to face to face interaction. People are more honest, rude, blunt and possibly interesting online than they are when they interact one on one. Clearly I’m looking forward to meeting them all and getting to know them but it makes you wonder, if we don’t click as well, where does that leave us? Do we still read each other’s blogs? Who knows. It’s all part of the big adventure.

I get quite a few emails through this blog from people asking for advice, saying hello, offering criticism and just reaching out. I had an email a few days ago from someone with quite an interesting history asking for a bit of advice.

It was his second email, a reply to my reply, that I thought something was a bit off. There are a certain breed of people on the internet that seem to do things for their own amusement and nothing more. Not the hackers trying to bring down governments or people writing hateful messages on memorial facebook pages. No, this kid/person/whoever decided to make up a back story. Sadly he didn’t do it very well because it came crashing down in the second email.

Significant facts just contradicted themselves from the first to the second email. Now I just don’t know why someone would do that at all? Was the advice he was seeking really needed or was it just a way to contact me?

Every now and then on this blog I try and share something more than hot guys and nudity with you. A friend sent me a link to a tumblr blog today that made me smile and made me nostalgic. Dear Photograph is a blog that is fuelled by reader submissions. People find an old photograph, usually from their childhood and hold that photo up in the same spot as the photograph was taken and take another photograph. People have written a one line to “Dear Photograph” to go underneath the new photo and it’s beautiful reading what some people have written to go with their photographs.

Why is it that we are so bold with our opinions, especially negative ones when we are safely behind the screen of our computer? I’ve noticed on facebook  that people, regardless that they are posting with their identity visible, are very willing to post nasty comments and make fun of people when I very much doubt they’d have the same courage face to face.

It’s come up many times on this blog over the years when I’ve had some very vicious comments posted and even a comment from a reader last night dissecting why he thought the Playgirl model was “ugly”. Not just not to his taste, but ugly. I don’t expect people to agree with everything I say on this blog and I did email that commenter asking if they’d be comfortable being dissected in the same way, with ratings for individual body parts.

Most hate mail has been posted anonymously with no option for me to respond directly. I guess it’s human nature to feel safe behind the mask of anonymity. So I’m coining a new term – “anonimosity” which means to express your animosity and hate with the protection of being anonymous. Personally I think we should suck it up and stand by our opinions more often. I can honestly say that I have never posted any negative comments anonymously. If I can’t put my name to it, then maybe it’s best left unsaid.

Everyone’s favourite homoerotically-challenged blogger Scotty is back after Blogger shut him down. Head on over to the new and improved Str8jocktalking2!

After Emackinations stopped blogging in the blogger sense of the word and announced he had switched to Tumblr. I had no idea what that meant but now I realise that not only have people’s attention spans been reduced to twitter’s 140 characters, we now are reposting everyone else’s photos.

I have no problem with it. It’s like a barometer of your personal taste, as to which photos or quotes you reblog. The photos above are all from Emackinations and surprised me that I was turned on by a few of them. I have no problem with Redheads but the idea of dating one is a tough one to get my head around as I could spend all day every day at the beach but that’s not possible for a redhead. I also don’t usually go for lots of ink but the tattoo shot is very hot.

SO, I have now added Tumblr to my list of online distractions. www.aussielicious.tumblr.com is where I’m at. I’ll be deleting my formspring account soon as Tumblr has a question function too.

Well this week Aussielicious passed a fairly decent milestone. Aussielicious has turned 5. I knew it was coming up and had thought about doing something special to mark the occasion even though I had no idea what, but then life kinda kept me busy and I didn’t get to it.

I’ve posted nearly 3,500 posts over the two incarnations of the blogs and some would say (and have said) that I have nothing interesting to say. In that time I have had just shy of 7 million hits which is just astounding. I never thought anyone would stumble across my little blog. Then I posted photos of myself nude on the steps of the opera house and someone sent the link to Fleshbot and that day I had 17,000 hits in one day.

Through this blog I’ve met some amazing people, had some amazing opportunities, lots of fun and great times. There has been bits of hating from time to time but overall the response to my corner of the blog world has been tremendous. Thanks everyone.

In general I think blogging is becoming less popular, and people reading blogs has dropped as our attention spans are reduced to 140 characters at a time through twitter and now just pictures through tumbler. Having said that, I’m going to keep blogging for as long as the motivation is there and it’s still there. Thank you everyone for dropping by.

I’ve had several messages now from readers saying they can’t see images from my blog when they click on them to enlarge them, but they get an error message.

I’m trying to track down the problem as it’s not happening to everyone everywhere. Please bear with me, as there are some hot pics as usual.