Oct 1, 2009

Bodybuilder Prophets of Doom!

Getting to gno you...

Sometimes I run across an image that just... says it all. I found this video via buffmuscles.com, and I clicked because it features Armon Adibi, the hunk who kindly stood in for Dionysus in the Et Tu Dionysus? post. Armon and another bodybuilder are oiling each other up for a bodybuilding competition, and tacked to the wall behind them, a movie poster for 48 Hours to Live: "Count Down to Oblivion!!!"

But it gets even better, because the other bodybuilder has a biohazard tattoo on his back! The biohazard symbol has come to represent the trident of Shiva - that rotating, triple-pronged weapon of ultimate destruction - the destroyer of all illusion.

Here's the poster for 28 Weeks Later - an artistic vision of the aftermath of Shiva's weapon on the modern Demonic Citadel known as London.

And here's the same symbol, nicely presented on the beefy deltoid of bodybuilder Steve Christman.

Which gives us "Lord Shiva", AKA the Christ Man, oiling (anointing) "Dionysus" in a mutual ritual of undeniable homoerotic subtext - with an apocalyptic poster looming in the background. God... isn't religion great!

6 comments:

Esperanto Grrl said...

The thing I find most astonishing is the angle at which the first vid is taken, at hip level, so you get sexy muscle guys in posing briefs popping in or out of the shot. Thank goodness for all those skilled midget cameramen! Where would the entire bodybuilding industry be without them, right?

It's a general rule of symbology that the symbol has no intrinsic value in and of itself, it's only important in context.

But from what I understand, the reason the three-part, triangular symbol was chosen for medical disposal was because if an object was shifted or rotated, the symbol would nonetheless be recognizable. The shape of the symbol is thus, entirely practical and has nothing much to do with the trident of Shiva, as tempting a connection as that may be.

Anyway, what's with the looking for symbols in softcore porn vids, anyway? To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a penis.

Michael said...

Of course the biohazard sign has nothing to do with the trident of Shiva - except here at Gosporn, where it DOES! The trident is a quaint symbol for Shiva's weapon, which is not actually a pitchfork at all. Since the weapon, according to myth, is intended to attack three constantly rotating demonic citadels that lie in three different dimensions, I think a tri-radial design that has come to be associated with bio destruction works just as well as a trident, maybe better?

As for why I look for symbols in homoerotic content: its my beat. A dirty job, but someone's got to do it!

Devin said...

Haha -I agree with Esperanto Grrl -the angle that was taken -thank god indeed for midget cameramen-I liked the part where for a brief few seconds he was on his knees :-)didnt last long enough-thanks for doing this dirty job Michael-this is going to my playlist on you tube!! best to you and Var as always!!

Esperanto Grrl said...

It occurs to me that filming at that level is a really great way to hide that the muscular objects of adulation in the vid are really short, so that those that dream of big muscle guys aren't disappointed.

This is taken to its most hilarious extreme in the movie Hercules Against the Moon Men, where essentially they had to film around the laughably supervirile named "Alan Steele." For instance, you know the Errol Flynn technique of fighting on stairs with him one or two above an attacker? That movie did it all the damn time. I don't have any personal knowledge of this, but I watched that movie with a girlfriend and she said that the horse he rode in that film was actually a breed of pony designed to look like a full grown horse.

Michael said...

Sometimes I find this kind of vid more erotic than full-on porn. The imagination can be a better producer.

EG - I've been meaning to ask you, have you every seen "Hercules Returns"? It was an Australian cult hit that dubbed over a cheesy sword and sandal movie to hilarious effect. It featured a hen-pecked Samson, a flaming Ursus and a Herc who is told by the oracle that he's a poofter. Here's one of my favorite scenes - introducing Delilah.

Esperanto Grrl said...

I haven't seen it, but that looks great! Right up my alley.

True story: I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Steve Oedenkerk's Kung Pow: Enter the Fist on the exact same day.

To say Crouching Tiger was a big friggin' deal when it came out would be an understatement. In fact, it was almost as great as my high expectations and epic disappointment with that glacial paced movie that didn't have any likeable characters. I've always insisted that it was one of the worst movies to be oscar-nominated, along with the super-overrated Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button, the Aviator, and whatever now-forgotten movie cast into oblivion beat Raging Bull back in 1980.

Anyway, just to get the bad taste out of my mouth, I walked into the screwball comedy that was playing next door, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

Boy, was that a hilarious movie, a screwball editing job on a Kung Fu picture. It was yet another movie that was sold all wrong by terrible trailers. All the trailers had Oedekerk Kung Fu fighting a cow, which was quite possibly the least funny scene in the entire movie.

I loved Kung Pow! Gags like gopherchucks, trapped inside a tiny net...

Redubbing something semi-serious as a comedy is actually my favorite kind of humor...just watch Samurai Pizza Cats.

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