Sex and Death, Part One
I learned the other day that The Naked Guy had died. That he had committed suicide in jail. If you don't know who The Naked Guy was, he was a strapping, muscular young man who attended classes at UC Berkeley in the nude. Here are a a few pictures of him.
He was 6'4", handsome, confident, intelligent and, for the most part, happy. I used to hear about him occasionally, and what I heard was always funny and sexy: when he got an erection in a Russian Lit class it was reported in the SF Chronicle, the Village Voice and every campus newspaper in the country. Anyone who can make a single erection so celebrated and infamous...well, he has my vote.
He made what little money he had by loafing (Walt Whitman's favorite word for invaluable pensive non-activity) and selling a bumper sticker he'd made.
I like the bumper sticker for several reasons. First it addresses ("Hey man...") the fact that most of the people who protested his daily public nudity were men. Also it hits head-on the fact that the general populace has a relationship with men's genitals that's based in fear and anger and insecurity. I can imagine The Naked Guy saying "Give up the shame and just enjoy your dick, man." A sentiment a pornographer can certainly stand behind.
The Naked Guy was someone I admired. His activism was based in pleasure, humor and intelligence. He said, "I don't want to facilitate the power structure with my conformity," but his non-conforming protest was, ultimately, as gentle as Gandhi.
His family said that he had emotional and mental problems, no surprise given his non-conformity. He'd had periods of joblessness, homelessness. Resisting "the power structure" can play hell with a guy's life. And late one night, in jail for having been in a fight, he tied a clear plastic bag over his head and suffocated.
I'm sorry he's gone. He was 33 years old.
---Paul Morris
He was 6'4", handsome, confident, intelligent and, for the most part, happy. I used to hear about him occasionally, and what I heard was always funny and sexy: when he got an erection in a Russian Lit class it was reported in the SF Chronicle, the Village Voice and every campus newspaper in the country. Anyone who can make a single erection so celebrated and infamous...well, he has my vote.
He made what little money he had by loafing (Walt Whitman's favorite word for invaluable pensive non-activity) and selling a bumper sticker he'd made.
I like the bumper sticker for several reasons. First it addresses ("Hey man...") the fact that most of the people who protested his daily public nudity were men. Also it hits head-on the fact that the general populace has a relationship with men's genitals that's based in fear and anger and insecurity. I can imagine The Naked Guy saying "Give up the shame and just enjoy your dick, man." A sentiment a pornographer can certainly stand behind.
The Naked Guy was someone I admired. His activism was based in pleasure, humor and intelligence. He said, "I don't want to facilitate the power structure with my conformity," but his non-conforming protest was, ultimately, as gentle as Gandhi.
His family said that he had emotional and mental problems, no surprise given his non-conformity. He'd had periods of joblessness, homelessness. Resisting "the power structure" can play hell with a guy's life. And late one night, in jail for having been in a fight, he tied a clear plastic bag over his head and suffocated.
I'm sorry he's gone. He was 33 years old.
---Paul Morris
posted by Hank Stanford at 11:06 AM
9 Comments:
I totally agree and thank you Paul for letting us know. I remeber watching nightly stories about him and admired him for being unashaned with who he is and not afraid to give the system a big old FU. I hope he has found a little peace now, wherever he is.
Will
Never heard of him. But it's still sad someone died that way.
I agree with you sentments 100%, Paul.
However, I don't agree with the way he went out.
Suicide is a choice and it is the easiest way out.
It leaves behind nothing but grief and loss and everyone wondering why this and that.
I pride myself as a gay soldier, fighting the fight on a daily basis, I am here in the trenches and I am not about to give up fighting for my rights just to ......BE.
He was'nt just sitting back saying we should all do something to make a difference....he did something to make a difference.
That's what you HAVE to do while you are here on this planet.....MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
FIGHTING THE FIGHT!!!
Muscleman30
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Guy
I have read about him, but I did not knew he became ill. I wonder how much of his illness was due to the damn judeo christian moral directives that oppress our societies.
I am very sorry that someone gets hurt and discarded because that person refuse to fit as a cog in the machine. This sadly reminds me Ken Kisey's book "One flew over cuckoos nest". Both McMurphy and the naked guy ended shttered because their resistance where it counts. I wonder too if the way I try to resist really does any difference. If the mirror of resistance is allowed by the system only to distract and make feel good the not so dangerous deissenters. I don't know. But I am sure things can be changed with subtlety and without violence. My heores are Gandhi, Russell, Luther King. Maybe it takes too much to be a sucessful dissenter without being crushed by social machinery.
This is a sad day for everybody who feels restrained in this world. For everybody who thinks is worthy to fight back and try to change this shitty world we are in.
Rest In Peace, Andrew. Let's hope your legacy lasts and help to do a better society a more free society.
PS: I am sorry for any flaws in my English, I am not a native speaker.
Hallo Mr Morris
my name is paul and i'm from south africa.I just love your website and all your movies!They'r so hot!
It is sad about the naked guy!He was so handsome!
I can't find your movies here.How can i order them from you?I don't have a credit card.
You can visit my site at http://worldofgaymen.mcommunity.biz .It's wap site!
Here's two new titles you can use! THE BREEDING GAME and CUM INSIDE .
Take care
How could the non-conformist just give up like that? Could his will of faultered in just the snap of a finger? It's not fair, the most free minded people are the ones to break the quickest! It is truley a major loss to the world....I hope he found what he was looking for where ever he may be now.
hey paul morris, i found this blog via someone's mentioning of damon dogg on the dennis cooper blog.. we have a great community of people over there..
initially i held damon dogg with an element of wonder and a little bit of horror...
i was like WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DUDE DOING WITH SEMEN ICE CUBES!?
sooorta gross and amazing at the same time..
so then i sent myself on a journey to explore what exactly this damon dogg dude was involved in..
i found myself at treasure island media.. the paul morris forum...
and then to this blog...
it's been about 2 days since i discovered T.I.M.'s existence.
i never watch alot of porn.. actually.. the only porn i own is a titanmedia dvd my boyfriend left at my house..
i dont find porn really that exciting.. sort of empty, if you ask me...
anyways.. T.I.M.'s films are really very strange creatures. i mean, obviously theyre celebrations of sex.. like extreme celebrations.. bordering on dionysiac insanity..
but something about the emotional abandonment in the films is very striking.. the films are not really just about sex.. the abandonment of condoms and the extreme semen worship
makes the movies more about some sort of crazed human celebration of life.. these guys are really obsessed with "being breed" and "seed" (phrases which are erotic but also obviously demonstrate this preoccupation with life and reproduction, the way you guys sort of discovered and use these phrases is GREAT!)
but at the same time, living in the era of AIDS.. the films are also slightly existential maybe even nihilistic.. something that adds to that is the fact that all of these men are being "bred" when obviously a man cannot be "bred". your usage of being "bred" obviously represents some sort of greater spiritual connection between men having sex, a spiritual connection usually saved for the sex between a man and a woman which can potentially lead to pregnancy. i find that sort of amazing. but also it's nihilistic because this "breeding" is a dead end figuratively and maybe even sometimes literally.. amazing..
especially after one learns of the HIV positive status of some of the performers.. these movies are really like amazing little testaments to the insanely interconnected relationships between sex, life, desire, and death..
really crazy stuff.. do you think about any of that when you make these movies? you seem to have a pretty solid aesthetic going on here. even the design of the boxes sort of lends an air of horror to the films.. with their sort of bloody splatter script and extreme covers.. and your tshirts also demonstrate amazing punkish disregard for something as potentially serious as HIV & AIDS, the "Absolutely Positive" tshirt being the one in particular.. that's a great shirt.. it’s like staring directly into the void.. seriously amazing..
it reminds me of the swastikas vivienne westwood blatantly printed on early seditionaries tshirts.. is seditionaries an inspiration? anyways, yeah.. i thought i had to sort of submit this little critique of your work, seeing as how irrelevent i found pornography to become.. i think now i'm a fan of T.I.M. for life.. I don’t want to make it sound like im critiquing artwork here, but I think if you agree with me that your works have emotive & intellectual potential similar to artworks I would consider your agreeing a great decision. do you consider the films artworks? i never believe something to be art unless the artist agrees that it IS art. But there are exceptions..
your movies are really more than just regular boring porn though, you’ve created something that looks pretty well thought out and provoking.. that’s very strange.. I hope you didn’t inadvertenly come to any of these things that seem to be really well connected strategies.. I think the way you have spearheaded the journey of T.I.M through extreme controversy and naysayers suggests that T.I.M. is obviously more than a career choice.. much more than just porn or the need to freely express sexuality.. what do you think?
I also find it amazing that you went to art school. I also went to artschool in new york, at the cooper union, but they threw me out my freshman year for a guerilla performance in which I attempted to kidnap someone.. so I moved back home to Alabama and now im starting my sophomore year here at the local college.. the institution is a horrible thing, something I wish to infiltrate and help destroy one day.. that’s a very sad conclusion to the life of “the naked guy”
suicide is something that is very complicated. Its always very sad when it’s used to escape depression.
anyways yeah. have you read anything by Cooper? he’s usually L.A. based but he’s living in Paris right now due to some personal situations you can read better about on his blog.. I’m sure you MUST have read him.. say you have just to please me! we have a great community of commentary going on over there comprised of a lot of talented writers and artists (actually dennis inaugurated the publishing on an anthology comprised of the writings of many of the authors who comment on the blog, he’s a terrifc guy and very smart to create such a legacy of great writers).. you should join in if you ever feel like it or get interested.. we’re always looking for people to lend thought provoking discussion..
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hi, i am very confused cus i love girls but i like watching guys.. wuts my problem?
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