Punishment of a Sailor

The creator of this video snippet calls it a 'Pirate Dunking'. That might suggest it's the fate of a captive, particularly as he's dressed in rags (just about!). But it's a disciplinary scenario that might be applied to any sort of vessel from the age of sail. Both civilian and military ships could be blessed with captains who applied severe punishments to excess. But, at least this unfortunate has escaped the dreaded 'keel-hauling', keeping his superb physique in tip-top condition for the next time.

An impressive example of what can be done with AI in hands not constrained by commercial considerations. He's conjured a great homo-erotic scene without causing offence to anybody! 

It would be nice to see a modern version with the dunkee dressed in white underpants, say, or other revealing, wet clothes. 

More on this artist next time.  

 

 Subscribers to the 'follow me' feed need to visit the blog to see the video:- Punishment of a Sailor

Art by Steve Masters 2

Steve Masters - Al Fresco

 If the convict image that topped Part 1 of this article is one of Master's most memorable, this must be the most intriguing. This is the best quality copy I have of it, but it's not the most complete, a version I have assembled from two other sources (below) shows more of the composition at both the top and the bottom.

Steve Masters - Al Fresco (extended)

Looking at this expanded version, you get the feeling that there's probably even more to see in the artist's original. The fragment at the top seems chopped, but it does seem to be the uppermost floor, because it doesn't have a staircase leading further upwards.

But what does it mean? At one level, you might see it as simply a vehicle for figure studies. Most of Master's compositions have that 'posed' quality, with limited interactions between the characters. In this picture, the men interact with the architecture more than they do with each other. However, one window does show a couple who might have just had sex, is this an imagined house of boys, then? 

At the other end of the scale, you might see this as an allegory of the gay lifestyle. Bedsit boys, living mostly solitary lives and constantly looking out at more showy men who have the courage to strut the fire-escape in public view. Close by, but out of reach, and ultimately just as trapped as they are, in the gay ghetto. That subtext would have had some resonance in the early sixties, when many gay men really were trapped and the gulf between the closet and the secret, 'out' world was far more substantial than it is today.

Steve Masters - Cubicles (my title)

 If you are inclined to dismiss this interpretation, this picture might make you think again. Nine men in panels depicting toilet cubicles, and one of them is having sex if you look closely. None seem to be actually using the toilet. 

This image depicts the wide variety of men that haunted restrooms. The original was clearly coloured, as many of Master's images were. and that would have enhanced the sense of variety - in dress at least. 

It's intriguing though that the individual portraits are cropped so severely. In places, it creates the illusion that the men are having sex with each other, with an impressive daisy chain in the middle. The overlaps in the outer panels create the same effect in a different way.

Squeezing the images together does create a sense of fleeting visits and of the individuals merely registering as an impression. But there's a negative flip to that, which echoes the suggestion of isolation and loneliness in 'Al Fresco'. 

The artist Rex also played with the cubicle device later on. His images contain gay men actually interacting and having sex in their own partitions (which are closer to hotel rooms or bath house cubicles than public toilets). As individuals, they have much stronger identities. Both men are reflecting their times, of course.

 

Steve Masters - Rock Climbers (1962)

A young man is helped across a crevasse to join his companion, who strikes a godlike pose. It's a scene reminiscent of renaissance art. There's a calmness about this picture and a complete absence of innuendo, although their nudity (contrasted with residual clothing and kit) does suggest a sexual context. The shedding of all clothes means there's none of the showy display that characterises so much of Masters' work.   

 

The elements of creativity and design which dominate the previous images can be seen differently here, with a relatively simple composition embellished with what appear to be fragments of commercial marble images, such as might be seen on kitchen worktops or tiles. It creates an effect of a jagged, alien reality as the background and obstacle to the climbing. 

 

 

Steve Masters - Bacchanal

 

This image has a similar, striking design featuring realistic marbling, but it couldn't be more different to Rock Climbers. The design effects almost overwhelm the whole composition. 

 

When your eyes focus, it's dominated by an image of Bacchus with a dragon headed snake between his legs, discharging his lust from its mouth into a pool. The snake seems to be actually entering his body at the rear. An incongruous cupid rides behind him, seemingly trying to restrain the creature (or simply distract unwelcome prudes). 

 

Oblivious of them, a group of naked sailors loll drunkenly on the edge of the pool, full of a milky white substance, which probably isn't asses milk. (Shades of Stephen's 'Troopship'!). The sailors are subtly connected by hands and overlaps into a chain of shared, sexual sensuality. 

 

At the very back, another humanoid creature sits cross-legged, presiding over the activities. He's shaded in a different tone to the sailors, I suspect it's a different colour in the original image, to distinguish him from them. A disembodied head like a gargoyle hovers in front of his groin, obscuring it from view. It looks like a device added later to sanitise the image. 

 

I suppose this image simply expresses the view that gay debauchery is (reassuringly) sanctioned by the Gods, nay it's directed by them. Despite the difficult presentation of the subject, its sheer complexity is impressive. The figure of Bacchus and his snake is a homoerotic gem.

 

Steve Masters - Watching Men (my title)

This earlier piece shows the same interest in placing men into places with striking design features. The less exotic chequerboard patterns show a link to contemporary commercial art, although I can't quote chapter and verse on that. There's no attempt to construct a story line, but there's a very clever message... 

 

In the background, we see a couple of attractive, scantily-clad men engaged in healthy exercise. Another two are getting undressed for a bath (together? really?).  In the foreground, a fifth man in a jockstrap sits on a platform watching them, almost furtively. He seems a lonely, excluded figure, rather like the souls looking out of windows in 'Al Fresco' - and perhaps like the figure crossing the divide in 'Rock Climbers'.

 

 

Steve Masters - Boot Clean

Words are the striking feature of this image, with enough gay innuendos and puns to satisfy the most playful mind (soles rimmed?) These signs refer us back to the key character, who we see presenting himself - alone - and in a cubicle(!)  Not exactly trapped, though - or is he? 

 

The multiple offers of service around him are supplemented and clarified by the fact he's holding his cock in his hand. Masters has cloaked him in conventionality by draping a fashionable cardigan over his shoulders, an appealing connection for some.

 

The hint of a fairground connection can be seen in other work by this artist, in Part 3. 

 

Steve Masters -Handy Man

Words serve a very different purpose here. At first, we only see a fit, muscular man with a revealing shirt and a suitcase. We can visualise him arriving in a new place, looking for work and somewhere to live. So far, so very homoerotic. 

 

Then through the blizzard of words we see he has no right arm and no, it's not just one of Masters' design flourishes. He's a veteran, returning as a casualty of war. Immediately, those sexy innuendos and offers around him take on a bitter irony. His face acknowledges the reality of being able-bodied and yet not. He, too, is alone and isolated.

 

This is 1961, the year that American involvement and casualties in Vietnam began to escalate. With the Korean War a recent memory, Masters seems to anticipate and protest the inevitable consequences and the toll it would take on so many young men.

 

~ 

 

Part 3 of this series looks at Masters' less intense work.

 

Read Part 1 of this article  

Art by Briefcase 2

 Read Part 1 of this series

  If you had trouble finding the Briefcase silhouette images from Part 1 at pixiv, look on the last page of his illustration folders.

 

Briefcase - Lifeguard

 

This image is Briefcase's more usual style, a blend of cartoon exaggeration and genuine sensuality, with a good deal of added effects - dialogue, sound effects and reaction signals. The underlying image here is quite sexy, gaining from the Lifeguard connection. There's a pleasing innocence in the humour of pulling down a man's shorts, especially one who might be regarded as an authority figure in this location.

 

The picture leaves me curious about the speech bubbles. I dare say there's a 'wtf' equivalent in there, but it might also give us clues about motivations.

 

The caption here is mine. Briefcase calls it - Human-powered Happening (Another new kind of metamorphosis). I fear something got lost in the translation. I certainly did!

 

Briefcase - Camera Surveillance

Stripped of the comic elaboration, this image is a slow burner. The darker tones reflect its less jolly, voyeuristic nature. The subject is quite a hunk, but he cuts a lonely figure. Or is that wishful thinking? The jockstrap, carelessly encircling his ankle, suggests he might just have suffered a disappointing defeat.  

 

 

Briefcase - Lack of Nerves

You might attribute the same background of sporting defeat to this image too. A rugby player seeking solace in his bedding, rather noisily, by the look of it. Chunky men like this are Briefcase's forte. 

 

Another baffling caption, you can sometimes work these out by inverting the meaning. The artist explains that the sportsman's rubbing is making weird noises, so I guess the title might mean that he doesn't mind who hears him. Playing with that Japanese thing about modesty and shame.

 

I took the liberty of editing this image to remove a detail, top left seeking to show the lurid undercover detail, not entirely successfully. You can find the full image at the link given at the foot of this post. 

 

 

Briefcase - Marine Day (National Holiday)

 

This example of cheery chunkiness seems to exemplify the opposite idea to shame - being out, happy and proud in your own body. A great ad for chubbies (and gingers). And, by the way, a great example of how sexy Speedo-style, swimming trunks can be, regardless of who is wearing them. 

 

The naughty dribble is an unusual modern example of hidden eroticism. Somewhat redundant, in view of the fully detailed projection! There's another example in the cleverly disguised, discharge arrangements in the previous image. See label at the foot of the post for more examples.

 

 

Briefcase - Just (Barely) OK

The erotic qualities of moderate chunkiness and tight-fitting clothes lie at the core of this image, too. It stands up as sexy without any explanation, but looks like a well-built footballer struggling to remove his tight, clinging pants. Possibly rubber ones, which might explain the sound effects as squeaking. The colour co-ordination adds a 'team' ingredient to an image that might otherwise seem humdrum. The gratuitous bulge between his thighs is a nice bonus.

Briefcase's captions here are exceptionally puzzling, though perhaps not if you can read the speech bubbles. His sub-caption reads, "I think he wanted to do some kind of sailor suit for a married woman". As Manuel would say, "Que?"

Briefcase - Last Train

A few years ago, I did a post called 'I'm On The Train!', about captives being transported en-masse. Since then, the wearing of shorts on hot trains has sparked an entirely different interest in rail travellers. A veritable industry of voyeuristic snapshots of fit, male commuters. This picture, though shortless, is in the same vein. It's part of a triptych, of which this is number 2, the final showdown being inadmissible in this blog!

  

Briefcase - The Mystery of the Forc

 

This is the inverse situation, where a traveller (in shorts, this time) has developed an inconvenient arousal, probably from staring at that young man opposite, sprawling open-legged in Lycra shorts which leave little to the imagination. This is number three of another triptych showing the embarrassing outcome. The gritted teeth, clenched fists and pressing together of knees has failed to prevent a surge of wetness and uncontrollable shudders - great observation!    

 

I understand the mystery bit in the title, but 'Forc'? No.

A misspelling of force, maybe.  

 

Briefcase - Firing All The Bullets

In this 6-image story, an older man (with a still-youthful physique) grapples with the same unquenchable urge before stripping off and letting nature do what it wants to do. As the title suggests, he's not lost his endurance with advancing age, an achievement that has its downside when you're in a hurry. All too soon, he is summoned back to his chores (above). It's another nicely observed and wry piece of humour with a refreshingly different protagonist. 

 

Briefcase - Living Shame Wedding Suit

The shamefulness of wearing revealing clothing in public seems to have more bite in Japan than the western world, where it doesn't really have the power to shock any more. Still, turning up for a wedding dressed like this might raise a few eyebrows amongst some of the congregation - and itchy hands amongst the rest. This smug celebrant clearly doesn't care.

  

The artist titled this as Living Shame Wedding Dress, which I adjusted to skirt round the fem ambiguities in English.

 

 

Briefcase - On Stage

 

There's an explicit fem crossover in this item, highlighted by the wearing of pink nipple covers (I don't know the technical term). Despite being showered with money for his performance, the Bunny Boy looks extremely embarrassed. We can only wonder how he was persuaded to do it. An example perhaps of one shameful act being used to force him into another. At least his outfit doesn't expose his bottom half to gropers in the audience, like the female equivalents do.

 

 

Briefcase - Experimental

This artist doesn't do bondage or medical scenarios, but this intriguing, fetus-like image is a decent substitute. I've done my own water tank images* in the past, but always feel obliged to make some provision for breathing. Perhaps that tube behind him does that, but it looks as if it's connected to an entirely different orifice! AI eh?

 

*see also Swimmers Preserved 

Briefcase - Undressing

 

This is part of an eight image series in which a man undresses with a sour expression on his face that suggests he isn't doing it willingly. It's left to the observer to imagine why he has to do it. An examination? A search? Or something more sinister? The conventional white underpants might be clue as to why he's so unhappy about it.   

 

Briefcase - Soaked in a Shower

 Raincoats ain't what they used to be! We've all experienced that feeling of returning home with clammy wet clothing after being caught out in a shower. It's the wet, clingy jeans that annoy me. A feeling which in other circumstances I might quite enjoy! 

Briefcase catches the moment of reaching home, when things can be undone and the laborious task of stripping begun. The bedraggled hair, translucent T-shirt and damp briefs (dripping with rainwater?) create a great sight for onlookers, but they are unlikely to get much time to enjoy them! 

Of course there's more to reveal and the viewpoint the artist has used plays to our voyeurism. I love the spotlight on the subject's briefs!

 

Briefcase - End of Tour

 This looks like a similar situation at first sight with its hasty shedding of clothes and wet skin. There are other explanations, though. Briefcase's subtitle - 'Ah, it's over and done with' - doesn't quite explain away the more salacious ones.

Duos are quite unusual in this artist's pictures, and so are narrative scenes like this. There are some nice shorts on show here. Why do laces suggest easy access when the reverse is usually the case? I like, too, the idea of the soldiers keeping on their helmets while they do whatever they are doing.

*The tattered shorts on the left are reminiscent of those cartoons in 60s UK tabloids, which were based round a group of standard stereotypes. The castaway (usually stranded on a 1-metre diameter island with a solitary palm tree) and the bearded prisoner, dangling by his wrists, feet off the ground, in his tiny cell were nearly always clad in tattered shorts like these!

 ~ 

 Read Part 1 of this series 

This artist's website is Briefcase on pixiv

If you are unfamiliar with pixiv, the thumbnails on the 'all-works' page link to posts containing one or more images. With this artist, some of these posts contain a variety of images which don't all match the thumbnail. If you want to quickly track down a particular image posted in my article, download it to obtain the pixiv id, then at pixiv display a random image and replace its id with the one you are looking for.

otklad - AI Spanking Art 4

1

 This is a great image that doesn't really need to be particularised. A young man in shorts is intimidated by the muscular, older man right behind him. In otklad's universe he's probably cutting a switch for his own punishment under close supervision, his offence undisclosed, but there are many other interpretations. 

 

He's already cut an enormous pile of wood, suggesting he's gardening, pruning the tree, not just a delinquent on punishment detail. I can't help thinking that he looks a lot more excited than you'd expect a gardener to look too.... 

 

Hard At Work

 

 My take, for a change, is benign. Even when they are old enough to be at work, young men often have a terrible fear of their elders seeing into their soul.

 

 

2

This one is a bit harder to fathom. The characterisations of the two men don't readily fit the 'cut your own punishment switch' scenario. They seem too mature, and the spectacles disable conventional stereotyping. 

Of course, no man is ever too old or too responsible to be spanked, and there's a certain deliciousness in that. But if he's not a pliable son, still living at home, what's he doing in his shorts in the garden?  

 

Sauna Surprise

 

I resorted to the gardener meme again, recalling those ads where women ogle the bare top hunk mowing the lawn. The spectacles give this one a bit more class. The thinking man's crumpet, but not an easy lay on the face of it.

Woodshed Switch

 

This role reversal exploits the more equal relationship in a surprising way. Normally, spanking punishment is conducted in the privacy of the woodshed, to spare the victim's blushes. These look like spacious, private gardens, but the implied proximity of the punishment to home makes the open air option much more humiliating - and dangerous too, if there is a shared secret involved, providing the leverage for the neighbour. 

 

John just has to hope that nosy, Mrs Pringle doesn't pop her head over the fence for a chat with her attractive neighbour.

 

 

3. Missed Another Practice

Ah, the locker room substituted for the woodshed and the good old, traditionalist coach enforcing discipline. He can't be left out of any spanking equation, but changes in society over the years make it increasingly improbable for younger members of our tribe. 

 

The threat of being dropped from the team is no less potent, though. Just ask any Premier League footballer.  The coach's long-suffering expression here makes this image a little bit special, and I built on that for my take.....

 

 

Home Alone

'Home Alone' was never like this, but then again, those burglars didn't find a fully grown up, young man in occupation of the house when they thought the householder was away on holiday. This one's not been left behind by mistake, but has reached an age when he makes his own holiday arrangements with his friends from Uni. 

 

This intruder has obviously done his homework and has detailed plans for enjoying their long weekend together. He's calculated that a bit of controlled aggression will ensure compliance - and it's working so far. He even brought a change of clothing and selection of toys for them to play with. Next up is adjournment to the bedroom, for a careful, military style, inspection of the younger man's shaving.

 

 

4. A Little Chat

 

Otklad draws a veil over causation here too, but the undressed 'son' in this scenario is obviously too old to submit to being spanked easily. His father doesn't look much older for that matter. Perhaps he's a step-father, in which case friction between them is almost a given. He is also allowed to be cruel. Perhaps the step-son, home on vacation from uni, is learning that the house rules have changed in his absence. 

 

It was this image that suggested the 'Home Alone' scenario to me. The father figure with the retro look here, irresistibly reminded me of one of those cute, earnest detectives from crime dramas in the days when realism played second fiddle to star appeal at the box office.  

 

  

Interview With A Victim

The keen, young detective, in his quest for the truth, asks the victim to reenact the ordeal he suffered at the hands of a cruel intruder. Being a little wet behind the ears, he doesn't realise how embarrassing his questions are, particularly for a young man who has stripped to his underwear for the demonstration - and also finds him very attractive. 

 

You might suppose that the brush was used to dish out a traditional, post-shower paddling. In fact, the intruder's modus operandi was much the same as the one above. The shower was followed by a cleanliness inspection and finding himself dissatisfied, the invader finished the job himself. With relish.

 

The victim reluctantly explained that his second cleansing included vigorous scrubbing under the armpits and between the legs. Where the brush ended up after that meant that the intruder's DNA would probably have been wiped off the handle. 

 

More to come! 

 Read this series from Part 1

search "otklad" at mitchmen  

 

~ 

The imagery of otklad on 'X' is a great archive. 

He's now creating newer art on otklad.bsky.social 

Etienne's 'Car Wash' Reinterpreted

A Clean Slave Is A Happy Slave

A while ago, I posted Planet Gay's AI makeover of the desert trek scene from Etienne's 'Sailor Beware'. Here he recreates a scene from 'Car Wash' by the same artist. 

 

In the original picture, signed by the artist, this scene was the middle section of a triptych of 3 related scenes which were joined together in a continuous panorama 

Full Size View 

Apart from renaming the image, Planet Gay's version stays pretty faithful to the original composition, but he's taken out the military flavour, which, to be fair, is only indicated in the original by the sergeant's stripes on the far right and three, not very obvious, dog tags (see if you can spot them!). The overall result is impressive but less spectacularly so than his Sailor Beware image, which benefitted from having a less complicated, easily reproducible setting, i.e. a sandy desert. 

  

There also exists a colourised version, created by Hardtop (I believe). He added a figure at the right and left extremes to facilitate the creation of an animated, endlessly repeating sweep. The figure is derived from the operative in charge of the Body Scrub Station. I have to give him credit for a seamless alteration.  

 

 

Etienne produced a coloured version himself. The original hangs in the Etienne Auditorium at the Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago. This is a segment from it, otherwise the sheer width defies easy inspection on a computer screen. You can see quite a lot of detail has been lost in the process.

 

You'll notice, that he has left out the two figures to the left, the men holding the mop and a stick device. Strictly speaking, it is correct to omit them. Those two figures actually belong to a different station, not 'Body Scrub'....

 

 'Teeth Cleaning and Mouth Disinfecting' (clearly labelled as Station 2) is sandwiched in between the 'Rectal Flush' and 'Body Scrub' stations, which each have their own, eye-catching, restraint device. Arguably, Station 2 consists only of a single man with a toothbrush strapped to an irrigation device. The foreground figure with the mop might equally belong to Station 1 (see below), but it's tempting to imagine that disinfectant-soaked mop being thrust into the mouth of the unlucky client to his right! 

 

In this framing, Mr Mop doesn't really seem to be very closely involved with Station 1. He and his pants-packing buddy seem to be waiting, quite impatiently, to get stuck into the next unfortunate on the processing line. Or perhaps he's just the cleaner, having a fag while he waits to clean up the mess left by the other guys. They are obviously having a lot of fun and taking their time! 

 

You might be wondering at this point, if these are stations 1 and 2, surely there are two more stations on the right. Aren't there?

 

 

 

There are indeed two more stations to come, Station 3 - 'Body Scrub', which is the section re-imagined by Planet Gay, and the fourth station 'Lubrication' which presumably does have a number, but we can't see it, because it's hidden behind a tin of grease. 

 

You'll notice also that this device is not slotted neatly into the line, it stands forward, slightly angled. The angling is justified by the artist's desire to clearly show what the operative's hand is doing, but there is a distinct sense of it being squeezed in (the image, I mean, not just the hand!). 

 

By obscuring its number, Etienne seems to be deliberately adding to the confusion about the number of stations, but it is more likely that it was originally drawn as a separate image in its own right. It wouldn't have needed to be given a station number, then. Hence, the difference in style and inclusion of a supervisor. It might even have been the starting point for the whole idea. 

 

If you look back at the wide, panoramic view at the top of this post, there is a distinct sense of it becoming increasingly crowded from left to right and the distinct impression that the last station has been shoe-horned into a limited space. It seems that Etienne was working to a fixed length and when it came to fitting the last piece into the jigsaw, the last Station, he hadn't allowed quite enough space for it. Giving it a number was probably the last thing on his mind.

 

Leaving not enough space or too much is a common mistake for an artist and an easy one to make, especially if your creative juices are driven by the fantasy, but in a commercial context, it may not be forgiven. In his 'History of Gay Art', Felix Falkon criticised Etienne's tendency to not plan or finish his images properly. Nevertheless, he seems to have successfully salvaged this piece, and you might argue that the final structure creatively reflects the viewer's increasing erotic tension as he traverses the scene from left to right. Etienne was a genius and a flawed masterpiece is far better than uninspiring correctness.  

 

~ 

 

I've posted another of the colourised segments, 

'Greasing Station', on X  

 

~ 

There are several other posts of Planet Gay on mitchmen
simply search for PlanetGayComic for the latest additions  

Planet Gay's current work is video oriented and web locations include PlanetGayComic on X and PlanetGay onYouTube, but I prefer his non-video, Deviant Art Gallery

 ~

 

There are numerous posts about Etienne here as well,

check out my Etienne index for articles mainly about him,

a general search on Etienne will bring up every reference.

 

There's also an 'Exclusively Etienne' Google Group 

that's easy to join.   

The Suggestive Art of dures-annees

This artist's pictures are inspired by everyday life in a French provincial village, which is evoked vividly and comprehensively. But it's a version of the world where extreme traditional values still hold sway. Men have to submit to them and to anyone in authority, giving them whatever they demand. Many are obliged to wear short trousers to demonstrate their subservient position.

 

Dures-annees - Workmen Laying Cobbles

 

 Rustic crafts and traditions are still part of everyday life, here, but these are three of those men, trapped in adolescence, still wearing short trousers at the unchallengeable behest of their employers. 

 

Still talking about sex like kids too, in this scene. The clever bib and brace kit they have to wear may leave their legs naked and exposed, but the pockets keep everything else warm - and on the boil if they want! Dures-annees is French for hard years and the pun is intentional. We're talking cobbles here!

 

The French may not know the meaning of entrepreneur (according to ex-President Bush) but this one certainly knows the meaning of double entendre!

 

Dures-annees - Workmen fixing Roofs

 This is a job everyone looks up to, keeping a roof over our heads. Wearing shorts for the job has its pro's and con's, though. It allows ease of movement with nothing loose thing to catch on things, true, but they give little protection from sharp edges.  

 

Worse still, this sensitive man is not allowed to wear underwear beneath his shorts and he has noticed how certain men gather and gawp at his backside as he goes up the ladder. 

 

Wellingtons and shorts make a sexy combination*, but climbing a ladder in them isn't recommended for safety's sake!

(*see blues, shorts and thighs) 

 

 

Dures-Annees - Cutting Willow

 

 A young man, charged with cutting willow for the thatcher, hurries back to his master. He knows that if he lingers to talk and is late, his master will use one or more on his backside. His friend smiles, secretly wishing he might be there to watch it.

 

 

Dures-annees - Labouring in the Fields

 

Labouring in the fields is a typical part of French rural life. 

This farmhand has been singled out to work in tight shorts in all weathers. As he labours, he is closely scrutinised. 

 

The artist says:-  

"The labour is hard, but slacking off is quickly corrected. A stick is never far away to stimulate flagging enthusiasm". 

 

There are two contenders for 'stimulation' in this image, the one who isn't working and the one who is distracting him! 

That's how it works!

 

dures-annees - Sounded like a Great Spanking!

 

Village life has no anonymity, unfortunately. An embarrassed youth receives commiserations and congratulations from an amused neighbour, who overheard him being spanked. That's why he isn't actually riding his bike today.

 

The bystander with a guitar, seems to be providing a musical commentary like a bad staging of Shakespeare. AI seems to have a bizarre sense of humour sometimes.

  

 

dures-annees - The Breeding Bull

 

The artist presents this image with the wry caption, 

'July's work is breeding the large and small livestock'*

 

The farmer thanks the Bull's owner for his services:- "In ten months I shall have a new batch of calves, but I can't sit down any more!"

 

To which the Bull's owner replies, "That's normal, I used the same size on your buttocks as your cows. Don't worry, in three days you won't feel anything, and I'll come back to see you again". 

  

* The author also gives a lengthy quote from 'Palladius's Rural Economy' about the need to keep the cows in good condition so they can be bred each year. Literary quotes, wise sayings and fables are included in many of dures-annees posts, contrasting with his earthy narratives. They add depth, authenticity and coherence to the picture he weaves of a real rural community still practicing traditional values. It shows a pride in literary skill that seems very French 

 

 

dures-annees - Still in Shorts

 

At the packing factory, a worker, still in his apprentice shorts after three years, complains to a colleague that his boss won't give him promotion to full worker status because he can't afford it.

 

Unfortunately, alternative employment opportunities are scarce in this community so he must continue to endure the groping of fellow workers and occasional spankings that his mandatory shorts seem to attract, like a magnet for idle hands.

 

 

dures-annees - Punished for Lust

 

Older workers fare little better. At the Saw Mill, an operative explains to a friend that the boss saw him eyeing his daughter and didn't like it, so he made him wear a chastity cage (and shorts) for a month, or else lose his job. 

 

His (surprisingly knowledgeable) friend observes that 'it' will start leaking after a while, but apparently it already is. He reassuringly predicts that his colleague's dick will end up permanently shrivelled, like a hamster's.

The author's cryptic motto is:-

"In business, the art of leadership is all about using conjecture".
 

 

 

dures-annees - Soldiers on Leave

 

Even men in the military may be required to dress in short pants, including when they go home on leave. The pleasure of returning to camp and being reunited with their comrades is coloured by the knowledge that their customary lot of physical ordeals and injustices will also resume. Which in this world means corporal punishment and sexual services.

 

 

dures-annees - After The Fête

  

Military life is full of constraints. When you are surrounded by young men in revealing shorts, it's only natural to fraternise and want to take the best ones back to meet your comrades cooped up at base. 

See 'Back to Barracks' at 'X'

 

 The artist's own caption is more philosophical. "Returning home after the celebration is not part of it sometimes, but remembered only by others".

 

dures-annees - The Mature Altar Boy

Religion is a big part of life in this village, and the artist takes a typically French, contrarian view of recent church scandals. 

 

The priest thanks a villager who has agreed to return as his altar boy. They agree he should wear nothing under his cassock, just as was their custom in the old days. The new altar boy is obviously relishing already, the prospect of new adventures in the crypt! 

 

You have to feel sorry for the priest, this liaison may be legal, but it's still not in keeping with his vows. Being offered access to a hunk in shorts as brief as this would test the willpower of any man with gay leanings! 

 

see also The Priest's Temptation at 'X'

 

 

dures-annees - The Best Equipped Win The Ball

Other men find their own opportunities to do good deeds as they fill their spare time, making the best of having to wear shorts.

The artist invents a suitably ambiguous saying to the effect of 

"When you play near water, it is he who is the best equipped that gets the ball"

 

I find this character's, oddly retro look, curiously attractive. I expect he'll be off to the local cruising area when he's finished impressing the kids.

 

Winter weather provides a great foil for making the wearing of shorts more testing. Dures-annees matches all his posts to the changing seasons and religious calendar. That alignment is lost, of course, when reading his blog retrospectively, but the sequential rhythm of the year is preserved, amplifying the countryside feel and giving perceptive readers a pleasantly immersive experience.   

 

 

dures-annees - Those Who Dare Win The Ball

 

This variant opines that it's the one who is willing to strip down to his underwear that gets the ball. The hero of the hour here is not just retrieving it, but splashing around in the water and playing with it to impress the youngsters with his wet-ball skills. 

 

There's no sign of his discarded shorts. Let's hope there isn't a mischief-maker who has hidden them, he'll need them if his underwear gets wet! In fact, it looks as if it might have done already. He'll have to go cruising to dry them out. I'm sure his boldness will be appreciated there !

 

dures-annees - Drug Mule

When he's not being literary, this artist can be shockingly blunt and simultaneously witty. He titled this post:-

 

"Narco Transit – The Underbelly of Drug Trafficking". 

 

– Come on, push! It's not hard to poop out a bag of powder! 

– That's easy to say! It's not coming! 

– Then get up and bend over! I'll get it out myself! 

– No, wait, I think it's coming now!

 

(This is as the author wrote it. I've sightly adjusted the language).

 

On a more subtle level, I love the power play here, the butch builder being manipulated by his cunning young dealer to the extent that he submits to taking off his pants or shorts at his place of work and squatting to unload and hand over his package. That proves to be embarrassingly hard, and he panics at the thought of being given a hand with it.  There's a companion piece for this with an even more vivid text.

 

The freely available AI engines are notorious for blocking attempts to produce rude pictures. Lacking an overall, real intelligence though, they are inconsistent and can be tricked with clever words into going round the rules. I'd love to know how dures-annees persuaded this one to produce an uncovered back end.

dures-annees - Cruising Area (The Spirit of Sodomy)

No gay man could mistake what this image depicts. The artist paints this as a place where two lovers have been taken by a more knowledgeable acquaintance, so they can enjoy their attraction to each other to its fullest. He says it is the 'Spirit of Sodomy' to give in abundance what one wants to give. 

 

Here no-one will see and no one will hear the noise of penetration. It's a place where they don't have to worry about hostile intruders, since there is always someone around who hasn't clicked, keeping watch. You just have to be quick when the alarm is sounded. 

 

~ 

 Dures-annees work is a master class on transforming pretty but erotically limited AI-images into something more punchy by adding an interesting and sexy storyline. It's something I try to do myself with captioned versions, some of which are linked into this post.

 

 More dures-annees can be found at his blog

Vie de Campagne

It's in French, as you would expect, but can be translated easily with Google Translate if you lack the full language skills. A somewhat tedious process and his colloquialisms cause confusion, but it's worth the effort, if only for the hidden shock value of some of his storylines.