I was too young to be a genuine hippie myself. Green with envy, I watched news coverage of the Woodstock festival while on a family vacation. (Later, in college I met people who actually went. When one said, "Yeah, after that last hit of acid, my brain has never been the same," I was glad I missed it.) However, I do think there was a lot from that era (roughly 1966-1972) worth revisiting - things like doing things for yourself, like making your own culture instead of just "consuming" what the media give you, like trying to be kinder and more considerate of others and of the world itself.

It's hard to find pictures of heavy-set hippie men (or women, for that matter) from that era. Leaving aside the question of whether or not people overall weighed less, it seems to me that the hippie aesthetic leaned towards the thin side, and so maybe fat people self-selected themselves out. Also, virtually all the visual records we have came from photojournalists, many of them straight men, who focused on the "cute hippie chicks" and probably overlooked a lot of others in the numerous depictions we have of protests, be-ins, park gatherings, and so on.

Here's one from a San Francisco protest, probably 1968 or 1969, with two heavier men in the center (click to enlarge:)





Since those halcyon days, middle age has crept up on many. So here are some old hippies for you all to enjoy, since a lot of old hippie guys got fat.

( Five more, all safe for work )

From Andrew Sullivan, this Dutch ad which featured a progressively stripping fat man. Unlike Andrew, though, we don't need "reassurance" that he didn't take it to the limit. Because that would have been awesome. Unfortunately the whole theme of the ad is that the viewer *wants* the model to stop stripping.




( Three more, probably NSFW if your workplace is prudish. )

Prince of Wales Albert Edward (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom)
Portrait by George Frederic Watts (link)


From Slate Magazine:

"In his profligate youth, the English Prince of Wales—Britain's future King Edward VII (he ruled between 1901 and 1910)—was a celebrity in Paris, thanks to his gargantuan appetites for both food and sex. Perpetually availed of champagne and cigars, his girth filled out by five high-protein meals a day, he would receive a standing ovation at the theater whenever he appeared with a beautiful new paramour on his arm.

( More under here )

I dunno, he doesn't look that fat to me, but perhaps he was by early 1900s standards. Or maybe the Parisian habitues of the brothels were a bit smaller than their Saxe-Coburg counterpart. And that chair looks like a fantastic idea.

A reader sent this link to a graphic novel version of James Joyce's Ulysses. This sprawling, dense, linguistic fruitcake of a novel thwarts most people who try to read it. Some make their way through with Spark or Cliff notes. Robert Berry's' graphic novel adaptation, Ulysses Seen not only clarifies the first chapter, but helps us visualize (and thus keep track of) this complicated story.

The first sentence introduces "stately, plump Buck Mulligan," a golden-tongued medical student who seems to exist mostly as a foil to the introspective, melancholic, and oversensitive protagonist Stephen Dedalus. Below the cut are some of the drawings; one is NSFW.

( Ulysses Seen: Buck Mulligan (one NSFW) )

"But a man’s rotundity is nothing if he only gets to the right elevation." Absolutely!

( Schuetzen Fest, or Shooting Festival - SFW )

From progbear, here.

Apologies to those readers who don't have an LJ account, but I've had to disable anonymous/non-LJ account commenting. It's gotten too tedious to keep picking off the bot-generated spam. If you're reading off the feed, one option is to sign up for an LJ account; another is to leave feedback via my profile page.

:/

Daughter Laura sent along this character model sheet art for "Juan Borgia" in the recently-released game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. While I don't play myself, I have watched the kids play its predecessor Assassin's Creed 2, as well as a little bit of Brotherhood. AC2 impressed me with its incidental crowd character designs, which included both men and women of varying sizes, including fat people (and some pretty attractive fat men.) Laura, who's played ACB all the way through, tells me that there's even more diversity among the men in that game. Am looking into ways to get still shots from the X-Box 360 version of the game(s).




"Juan Borgia" at a carnival celebration, surrounded by courtesans



(Click to enlarge)

Long-time readers know how much I love the "Ghost of Christmas Present," because so much of him hearkens back to the green spirit of the ancient Yule celebration, so often represented by a fat man. So here's a lovely "Christmas Present" from me to you.




Click to enlarge.
(link)

"Apostles of Meat," Dario Ortiz, Colombia (b. 1968)
(link)

In Spanish, the title is "Apostilicos de Carne," which could also mean "Apostles of flesh," or "Apostles of the flesh." "Meat" sounds more stark, or like a commodity to be consumed; "carne" has more implication of the sensual and immediate physical reality of flesh. The artist says, "In Antwerp the nicname for Rubens was "The apostle of the flesh". My painting is a personal homage to this great master."

Rubens also masterfully and sympathetically painted aging flesh.