Which Pervy Parisian Cafe would YOU prefer?

Thanks to friend of this site Jake Hale, who says he might stop in to visit Calm Papa before making his way to Daddy Whips A Lot. Original Photos by Gerard Koskovich, who adds:

Two cafés just two minutes apart on the rue Pierre-Lescot in the Les Halles district. Le Père Fouettard (Father Whips-a-Lot) is the demon who comes in place of Père Noël (Father Christmas, aka Santa Claus) to punish little girls and boys who have been naughty all year. He’s the French equivalent of the Alpine folk figure Krampus. If that scares you off, you can always have your coffee up the street at Au Père Tranquille (The Calm Father)

An ancient ritual: Beating the Bounds for Gangdays…and whipping some boys on the way.

Beating the Bounds: an ancient ritual still practiced today in the British Isles. Communities traditionally reinscribed the boundaries of their parishes by walking the edges carrying sticks, pounding on the boundary marking stones. In an era before maps were common, when literacy was rare, these annual events (also called “gangdays”) were intended to impress upon everyone where community boundaries lay. Since resources were allocated according to parish, it was vital that the knowledge was passed down accurately though successive generations. It also helped keep the neighbors in line. To reinforce the lesson, the gangs would (and d0) stop occasionally to literally beat the knowledge into the boys. Sometimes, the youngsters would also be flung against the rocky stiles. All in good fun! Part of a suite of jolly old British customs that includes flogging the peg boys.

Leathers in Mozambique

From the small volume Scouts in Bondage and Other Violations of Literary Propriety. Edited by Michael Bell, a proprietor of secondhand books from the “ancient coastal town” of Lewes, England. Scouts is a collection of amusing covers, this one from 1959 is subtitled “An Adventure Story for Boys.” What? That’s what Neo-colonial crypto-homosexuality was called in the middle of the 20th century…

Dutch photo of Russian sailor: delicious GUP cover boy

Photo: Joost van den Broek. GUP: Guide to Unique Photography. 027 Double Anniversary issue.

Kenneth Cockwhore’s Amazing Horse Head…

If something smells in the state of Denmark, it could be Kenneth Cockwhore’s strange reconfigurations of bodies that often look like they’ve been shot through refracting lenses. This one is more strait forward, with the artist donning a tin foil horse head for an equine self-portrait.

St. Sebastian of the Sea

By the French gay art duo Pierre et Gilles, 1994.

Retro Runner Poster: Swatch Forenza 87!

Hello, Mr. Blue…

Mr. Blue. Rodrigo Alzamora, 2011.

This mysterious man in a suit is Mr. Blue from the Shadows series from contemporary European painter Rodrigo Alzamora. Mr Blue was part of this past summer’s Blue Utopia exhibit at the Museu Municipal da Fotografia João Carpinteiro in Elvas, Portugal. Interesting color scheme…Mr. Blue, is your code showing?

Louis! Louis! Happy 224th Birthday to French Photo Founder Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre…

Louis Daguerre

Google anything today, and you will see a Google Doodle honoring the 224th birthday of French photographic innovator Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Google Daguerre, and you will find the Guardian UK and others describing the Frenchman as a physicist. That’s really stretching it! Daguerre was a showman, a French P.T. Barnum, a famous theatrical illusionist and the operator of the renowned Paris Diorama, the multi-media extravaganza entertainment of its day. Far from being a respected man of science, Daguerre the showman could not even get a serious audience with the French Academy of Sciences. Nor did he invent the process which bears his name. Nicéphore Niépce, who died before the process was made public, did that. And Britain’s William Fox Talbot had been successfully experimenting with an alternative process for years. Talbot was an amateur, a gentleman scientist with little need of personal recognition, and no financial need. But Daguerre was a hustler, a businessman, and hungry for profit and recognition. He joined with the respected man of science, François Arago, who was able to present the improvements Daguerre had made to the Niépce process to the Academy. The French government provided Daguerre with a nice pension, and announced the invention of the Daguerreotype: a technological gift to the world from France, and a cultural coup in their on-going post-Napoleonic cold war with the British. Daguerre became known as the father of photography, and nothing has ever been the same since.

Snap, Crackle and Pop: Big Tasty Breakfast Bears!

photo: Denis Bahus

Good Morning from David and Louis from London. These two know how to start the day. Most important meal and all that. They also know how to wear the fundoshi, the traditional, very sexy Japanese loincloth-style underwear. For their video lesson on how to tie one on, click here. Photo by Denis Bahus, via Bearotic.