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| Absolutbleu - Chris Redfield |
This is a lawman of a different sort to the one we saw at the end of Part 4 of this mitchmen review of Absolutbleu's art. His take on Chris Redfield, the government investigator of biological hazards, doesn't closely resemble his 'official portrait' apart from the trademark stubble. He doesn't even have the customary, ripped and tattered S.T.A.R.S. uniform, with it's characteristic shoulder flash, so this could really be any special agent of the games universe.
He's packing an interesting, erotic weapon in his holster and this depiction actually looks something like a stripper's parody of the character. This could also be said of many of Absolutbleu's other homo-erotic icons so it's not surprising that Night Clubs and their clientele figure amongst the gay haunts that he chronicles.
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| Absolutbleu - Night Club Stripper |
This straightforward depiction of the interaction between a Cowboy pole-dancer and his audience casts a slightly different light on 'The Flirt' and his lustful admirers, stereotypes which occur repeatedly in this artist's work. Of course, strippers are the archetypal flirts and the spot-lit stage on which they perform reflects their elevated position in gay life and the gulf that exists between such muscle-hunks and ordinary mortals. In this image, however, the stripper seems as eager as his fans to bridge that divide or is he simply mesmerised by the money?
(The money is actually being offered to his cock, it seems, rather than himself, an interesting but possibly unintentional bit of irony).
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| Absolutbleu - Wet Vest Competition |
Pole dancing has now largely passed into the crowded obscurity of personal fitness fads (along with Aerobics, Step and Pilates). This scene reflects the modern, industrial-scale commercialisation of Night Club stripping. The Gods and mortals are even more separated here with the strippers not even looking at their frustrated audience, let alone making a connection like that seen in the previous picture.
The adoring onlookers are reduced to vague silhouettes and cartoons but their lust is cleverly represented by a single, raised, clenched fist directed hopefully towards one of the strippers' dripping groins. Even the 'roadie' supplying the wetness is seemingly dazzled by this great pantheon and like the audience members, he is reduced to a mere caricature. Oddly enough the cartoons seem more like real people than the self-obsessed performers on the stage.
I don't know if the caption is attributable to Absolutblue himself but it represents another seemingly uncrossable gulf - between those, like myself, who see clothes as an essential element of erotica and those who think the exact opposite, that nakedness is the only thing that matters.
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| Absolutbleu - Merman In A Water Tank |
This most inventive image stretches that idea of a gulf into the realms of fantasy with a merman performing in a fish tank on the stage. Mer-creatures in fiction have always represented an unattainable ideal anyway, by virtue of their incompatible anatomy and undersea habitat. The tank here symbolises that additional degree of separation between muscle and mortal. There's an inherent cruelty in catching them and making a freak show out of them, but this merman (like a true A-flirt) seems to love the adulation (from the safety of his tank, at least).
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| Absolutebleu - Nightclub Lap-Dancer Groped |
You might think that this image portrays the gulf being bridged, with a dancer allowing an audience member to grope him. His face even shows his pleasure, but there's also an element of calculation in the gritted teeth. 'Make the most of it', he seems to say, 'because it's all you are going to get'. In real life these allowed touches are fleeting, a commercial transaction, they are part of the job of a lap dancer and not, usually, a precursor to genuine intimacy. The gulf is maintained, but at a cost to dignity.
It's still a highly erotic image, however, and the eagerness of the punter is nicely captured by the clenched hand gripping the dancer's pants so he can't escape. Since the moment is frozen in time, it allows us to imagine more exciting outcomes.
The dancer's face here is Absolutbleu's standard 'Flirt Face' and seen in many of his images.
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| Absolutbleu - Champagne Room |
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| Absolutbleu - Flirt At The Pool |
Swimmers are unattainable ideals in a class of their own. They have an attractive athletic aura which is enhanced by teasingly brief costumes quite unlike those of any other sport. They can be found at Swimming Pools like this with lanes marked out, but these are places for serious sport and training and don't make good cruising grounds.
Absolubleu has cast this flirt as a competitive swimmer in his cap and goggles, but his physique is not that of an avid swimmer and his ultra-skimpy costume would be more likely to raise eyebrows rather than anything else. A-Flirts are certainly audacious exhibitionists and in this setting, sexual consequences are unlikely.
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| Absolutbleu - Cooling Down At The Sauna |
I love this image of a well-worked butt cooling under a running stream of water, it's rather like having a rude, water feature in a garden. The water level plays the same role as lowered shorts in other images, giving a sense of a highly intimate area being unintentionally or grudgingly revealed, but the flirt's face shows it's far from accidental. In a sense the Sauna is the ultimate gay refuge, where Gods and mortals can relax and freely mingle but it's also a place with a strict etiquette to accommodate those who just want to be looked at. The intimate, steamy atmosphere enhances the intensity of voyeuristic encounters just as much as it does for the real thing.
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| Absolutebleu - Milk, Sir? |
After a Sauna or a night at the Club, what better than a milky coffee?
A muscle-hunk is publicly humiliated by being forced to provide a splash of milk for a customer's coffee. The half-hidden sign seems to hint that it is indeed part of his job to serve customers in this near naked state (unprotected, you'll notice, by any counter or bar top). I love that he straddles the table top to do it, overturning a phallic salt shaker and spilling other salt too.
This seems to say that muscle hunks are just human and have to do mundane jobs like everybody else when they are not being stars. No-one in this picture is admiring his muscles, but I guess they do make his milk that much more desirable. Compare this image with the waiter providing breakfast milk from IFNB and the Milk Outlets image of Catrasche.
This wonderful picture epitomises the mitchmen motto of putting men in their place. Absolutbleu has given this one the face of a rather earthy, average guy and that adds to the poignancy of his predicament. It really belongs with the exploitation images in Part 3 of this mitchmen article but it gives me a nice bridge into the sixth and final episode - 'You've Got Milk'.
~
Read this mitchmen series from Part 1
Go to Bareass No 54 (link and post pending)
This is the magnificent back musculature of Zeus model, David Stark
straining against wrist restraints
Clad only in white underwear, muscles bulging, he wrestles to free his bound wrists
A rope harness encircles his groin and his captors have inserted a device inside his shorts
It grips his sexual organs and forces them outwards through the tight loop of the harness.
His strength has failed to free him and he stops his struggling
He feels a moment of fear as he contemplates the implacable restraints.
But his torment has only just begun, he's bundled onto a couch, face down
His tied wrists are slowly levered upwards
He feels cold steel pressing against his back
His arms are trapped awkwardly, threaded through a strange, metal frame like jail bars.
It's leaning against the wall forcing him to lean too. Totally defenceless.
His captors mock his muscledom, nipping his pectoral in a fierce, metal clip
It has a strange hook-like extension which seems to beckon invitingly.
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| Absolutbleu - Park Life* |
After the gym, what better pastime for a gym bunny, than to go for a cool-down stretch in the park where he can impress other men with the fruits of his training? These efforts to attract the attention of two passing joggers go beyond the normal, cautious limits of cruising etiquette and the sight would scare off many men, but these two seem to be falling over themselves to get at him (notice how their lower and upper bodies are inter-twined in their eagerness to get there first). The clothing in this picture - both the long leggings/socks and the discarded vest and thong - makes it very sexy.
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| Absolutbleu - Jogger Tied Up |
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| Absolutbleu - Kick Boxing |
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| Absolutbleu - Boxer |
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| Absolutbleu - The Coach |
I don't know if this coach, seen exercising his authority in another part of the park, is one the bullying kind but the artist has managed to infuse him with physical strength and a firm character that brooks no argument from his team. Sports grounds are not a typical domain for gay men, they are more suited to profitless ogling rather than cruising, but this specimen's manliness and his provocative attire (with ultra-tight shorts not dissimilar to those of the assaulted jogger above) has attracted the interest of two suited, passers-by. I don't know what their finger signals mean but they are obviously plotting a practical joke.
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| Absolutbleu - Coach Propositioned |
This scene encapsulates a lure that would not be out of place in the enslavement sagas of Amalaric. The enviable ability of suited (i.e. rich and clever) men to manipulate ordinary hunks. It's somewhat surprising that fifteen dollars is enough to persuade the Coach to lower his shorts (which look just as sexy in this position as they did wrapped round his ass). In the middle of a public space too, with his team, presumably, not far away! Maybe there's some other leverage at work here. The procedure has revealed him to be wearing a skimpy thong rather than the butch, white jockstrap you might have expected. I'm glad to see it's a tasteful, manly, subdued colour but it speaks of unconventional, unmanly interests that his employers might find worrying. It's even more surprising and revealing to discover that the whole situation is a massive turn on for him.
Regulars know that I'm a fan of clothing playing a role in erotica, the pecs and shoulder details here look great, if a little over-exaggerated. It goes without saying that I love equally the moment of undressing. Especially when it reveals unexpected, bonus sights like this. Sadly such scenes are as rare in erotic art as they are in mainstream porn.
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| Absolutbleu - Coach Gives Service |
Further pictures in this series show the Coach's complete submission to the crafty manipulators in the car park and a belated realisation that he really likes it. Doh! This seduction of a hugely manly stereotype by two quite ordinary-looking, business types is the reverse of the flirtation theme of other images by this artist (like the beach bar in Part 2). The common ingredient though is the lustfulness these musclemen generate, sometimes without realising it. This scene reminds me of Etienne's memorable Night Patrol, car park arrests, it would make a fitting finale.
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| Absolutbleu - Coach in Cuffs |
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| Absolutbleu - Interrogation Room |
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| Mitchell - Y-Fronts Captive |
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| Absolutbleu - Muscle Stadium* |
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| Absolutbleu - Gym Distraction |
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| Absolutbleu - Handsome Muscle Flirt* |
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| Absolutbleu - Gym Series, Dumbell Curl |
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| Absolutbleu - Gym Series, Stretching |
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| Absolutbleu - Naked Gym Training* |
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| Absolutbleu - Car Wash* |
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| Absolutbleu - Lollipop* |
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| Absolutbleu - Muscle Service* |
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| Absolutebleu - Pay and Park* |
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| Absolutbleu - Bursting Out |
