I was thinking I needed to go/find/post some shirt change pictures of Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open to get back to showing some beefcake... but just stumbled upon the first pictures of Rafa as the latest model for Armani underwear, and well... hot damn!
Speechless.
It has almost been two months since I've given you some eye candy, so figure I am long overdue.
No surprise that this is all over the gay Internets this morning, but didnt want to shirk my civic duty on the newest entry in Cosmo's Everyman campaign to (ahem!) raise awareness for testicular and prostate cancer awareness. You may recall, my awareness was raised with previous campaign participants Spanish tennis players, Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo.
The latest to doff his duds for a good cause is Maroon 5 front-man Adam Levine.
I am not a fan of a lot of tattoos, especially this many... additionally, I am not a fan of the falsetto voice either... but there's something very Grrrrrr! about Mr. Levine.
Two pictures from the shoot are making the rounds... I am seeing one with a more serious expression more often, but I prefer this one with the sly, come hither grin.
Don't worry I am providing the full shots, but figured they were just a bit too NSFW to share without you having to do another "continue reading" click. (Apologies to those using RSS readers... don't think there is a way to miss the "jump" there)
Alas, his stuff is covered up by these phantom lady hands... and if the trimmed chest isn't enough of an indication, it appears he also does some other manscaping a bit further south... and then there's this encouraging news from his Twitter account:
Oh, just to have my googling covered (tho I am confident everyone comes here to read my book posts):
Adam Levine naked, Adam Levine shirtless, Adam Levine Cosmo
With Gwyneth Paltrow's spectacular guest-spot as substitute teacher Holly Holiday last night on GLEE, I was thinking ... Mr. Schu Who?
But after seeing the cover of the December issue of Details, I guess he can stay!
I have to say the men of GLEE are definitely taking advantage of their fame, getting all the exposure they can get... literally! Though I am starting to suspect that shows run by a gay man typically provide pretty good beefcakey eye candy (Alan Ball's True Blood comes to mind... and at at least there, the men can really take it off).
Though I have to say, given Matt's brief shirtless scene last night (note: please get rid the ex-wife for good!) as well the extended topless bit on the Rocky Horror show, and while he is certainly very impressive... I still suspect there is a bit of Photoshopping in these shots.
This particular pic is all over the Gay Internets this morning, so a thank you to all the places I saw it. And while it may seem overkill to be yet another site to post it, I figure I have some loyal heterosexual female W&C fans who may appreciate it.
And speaking of W&C, I think it is probably due for a name change given that all it seems to be these days is Books & Hunks? Hey, that's a pretty good name!
For those looking for more Matthew Morrison shirtless... check out my new Glee category, which I think is pretty much just shirtless shots of Morrison and Harry Shum. And, of course, if you just want general yumminess... why not browse Shirtless W&C.
As Tina said to Mike Chang on last night's episode ("Never Been Kissed") of GLEE:
“With those abs, you could be my very own situation.”
Not sure where this picture is from ... but it has been making the rounds, so wasn't really planning on posting it... but then that line from Tina made me reconsider... and have to admit I am getting hits on the first picture/post from a couple of weeks ago, so what the heck!
Mike Chang shirtless, Harry Shum shirtless, Harry Shum Jr. shirtless
Update: Thanks to Jeff for doing the research and learning that this pic is from "Yellow" an Asian-American magazine out of Houston (go figure!)
Despite being a long-time fan of Mark Ballas (my first - and only - shirtless Mark Ballas post, goes all the way back to October 2007 with dance partner Sabrina Bryan.. and still, to this day, gets a lot of hits), given my political leanings, I never ever imagined that I would vote Mark and partner Bristol Palin, but alas last night I did.. even though I knew that Mark taking off his shirt was a shameless ploy for votes... but, hey it worked!
Though to be honest and bi-partisan, I didn't think the dance was as bad as judges rated it. Granted Bristol and family have pretty much chased the spotlight (and/or the spotlight chased them), but with not even a reality show under her belt, she is probably one of the most "real", non-celebrity/non-peformers that has ever been on the DWTS... and 19 years old no less, so again, I though she did pretty well.. then again, I could have just been blinded by Mark's body... which seems a bit more buff these days.
ABC.com made doing screen caps a bit tricky as when you hit pause it goes to a static ad instead of "freezing" the abs action, so had to do these on the fly... but think they came out pretty well!
Here Google, Google:
Mark Ballas Shirtless, Mark Ballas Dancing Shirtless with Bristol Palin
Apologies to whoever I "borrowed" this photo from, but I have no doubts it will spread like wildfire across the Interwebs... but a most certainly shirtless shot of Rafa from Hello! Magazine
Rafa always come across so modest and shy that it always kind of surprises me to see these posed shirtless/beefcake pix... not that I am complaining by any means!
If you'd like to see more Rafael Nadal shirtless (Rafa Nadal shirtless), be sure to browse the W&C Rafael Nadal archives.
I had planned to try and do a book post today since yet again I have fallen behind, but then these pictures cropped up on my radar this morning... and, oh well!
It seems like every year at the men's tennis tournament in Bangkok they have some player go and participate in a Thai boxing "exhibition"... which translates to a bunch of pictures of some tennis pro just wearing some boxing shorts (here's a link to Jo Wilfried Tsonga's pix from 2008). Needless to say when I saw this year's volunteer, I was quite happy. Granted Rafa Nadal is making his Thailand debut, but he was too busy planting trees... but no worries as his considerably less modest countryman (he tweeted links to these photos!), Fernando Verdasco, was up for this year's boxing lessons:
Also making a shirtless appearance (lower right) is Paradorn Srichaphan, Thailand's most successful men's tennis player who sadly had his career cut short due to injury.
It appears Singha beer sponsored this little event... and while I do get a bottle of it every time we go to our favorite Thai restaurant, I will be sure to raise a glass and thank them for this year's exhibition.
For more shirtless Fernando Verdasco, be sure to check out the W&C archive on him.
No surprise over the double-take/TiVo replay moment from last night's Season 2 premiere of GLEE:
Certainly no complaints about Mike Chang, played by Harry Shum Jr., getting up'd to series regular for this season.
Shum has quite the exotic background... an American with Chinese parents born in Costa Rica! And just in case you were feeling a bit dirty lusting after a high school student, no worries.... Harry is 28 years old (b. 1982), only 4 years younger than his "teacher" Mr. Shuester/Matthew Morrison!
Here Google, Google: Mike Chang shirtless, Harry Shum shirtless, Harry Shum Jr. shirtless
I soon learned Being Human was yet another entry in the seemingly ever-growing vampire and werewolf genre, with this particular show upping the supernatural ante with the addition of a ghost!
If you have been around here long enough you know that vampires are one of my guilty pleasures. Long before Stephenie Meyer came around with Edward and Jacob (and Bella), I was well into the Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire books... and while those faded away long ago, I ultimately relented and jumped on the Twilight bandwagon (though, to date, I have only read the first 3 books of the series and just seen the first movie)... and that lead to watching the decidedly more adult vampire series True Blood on HBO and reading the first two books of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series on which the series is loosely based.
While I find entertainment value in the Twilight series, I never found them to be particularly well-written book regardless of the target audience (though to Meyer's credit, I think she's improved with each book). Though I have understood how the the series really gained momentum thanks to the first movie and the appeal of Edward as portrayed by Robert Pattinson... and needless to say, after getting buffed up for the second movie forward, there is no discussion of where/what the appeal is regarding part-time werewolf Jacob/Taylor Lautner.
And while I loved the first season of True Blood, the 2nd and just wrapped 3rd season has seen my enthusiasm flagging. I enjoy the characters, the cast, the tone... but I think it has just been unfocused and all-over-the-place since the first season. I think it is over-ambitious and often too transparent in shock value thanks to their home on "anything goes" HBO. Even the addition of a werewolf, and one just as hot and thankfully not near jailbait age, didn't really help matters out either.
So before stumbling onto Being Human, I was definitely experiencing a case of vampire fatigue... with a little werewolf wariness as well. But I was so mesmerized by this guy.. have I named him yet? I see not!
Meet: Vampire Mitchell, played by Aidan Turner that it made me hang on enough to see what else this show was all about.
(Sidenote: I was initially confused by Mr. Turner. I was familiar with Aiden Turner (note the "e" in Aiden), a British actor from All My Children who was also on Dancing With the Stars (paired with Edyta Sliwinska)... and while I never thought they were the same person, a quick check of if imDB confirmed they were two different actors, with vampire Aidan (with an "a") of Irish origin)
Anyhow, while it was Turner that made me stop on BBC America (time and time again), when I allowed myself to looking beyond him, it seemed like the show was pretty darn good. The only problem was that I was lurking on snippets of it in Season 2. Which was pretty good news, as British TV seasons are pretty short, thus it was "catch-up-able." I asked some friends how/if BBC America repeats stuff and while it doesn't seem as if they do it that often, I was lucky enough to see they were repeating the entire 8 episode Season 2 season ahead of the season finale this coming Saturday (Sep 18th). So the only thing was to track down Season 1 (only 6 episodes), which I did via Amazon download for $2.99 a HD episode (so a bit more economical than tracking down and buying the DVD for $25-ish).
Here is the entire cast... George the werewolf (Russell Tovey) to the left and Annie the ghost (Lenora Crichlow) to the right... again, all who make the show worth watching beyond Turner as Mitchell the vampire.
While I don't like to pin myself as having a "type," at least one of the stronger ones seems to be a healthy mount of hair (but not too much) and an accent! As before this latest one on Turner, I'll admit to having a bit of a thing for Henry Ian Cusick's Desmond on Lost... even at times Battlestar Galactica's Baltar (James Callis)... and of course, it's not limited to UK accents as my obsession with Rafa Nadal is well documented... though I think his hair is too short now!
Okay, I see it's been since June 12th since I have done a post that wasn't related to either a book I've read or to Italy... and while we still are not getting totally away from Italy in this one, it is back to one of the hallmarks of this blog, some eye candy and man-crushin' (which no surprise is what that June 12th post was all about, haha).
Recently we had The Cooking Channel added to our cable line-up. I hadn't really paid it much attention because it seemed like it was an unnecessary offspring of Food Network, but alas as MTV got away from showing music videos, it seems like Food Network isn't necessarily devoted to cooking shows full-time (though still quite a bit). Anyhow, needless to say after our Italy trip a show called David Rocco's Dolce Vita caught my eye. I was immediately entranced as the show appeared to be filmed in Florence, which of the three cities we visited appears to be the place where I left my heart, and after spending a half-hour with him... as you probably can figure out by now Mr. Rocco proved to be a keeper as well!
He doesn't strike you has the most good looking guy on the planet (tho of course, I picked out the best pix I could find for the above collage)... but the whole combination of a great smile, cooking up great food ("I'm not a chef, I'm Italian!"), and breaking into Italian when he needs too... well, it's all very, very sexy. At first, my gaydar was going off a bit, but ultimately it proved to be just wishful thinking as after catching a couple of episodes, wife Nina (and show co-creator/producer, pictured above)started making regular appearances.
What research I've done says the Dolce Vita show has 4 seasons, with a 5th in with in the works...and most of what is appearing on this new Cooking Channel are shows from circa 2005, with the original programming having aired on Food Network Canada. Rocco is Canadian and according to Wikipedia splits his time between Toronto and Florence, where as mentioned most of the show is filmed. Also, while I am doing this bio stuff the Roccos also had twins in 2008. Oh, and also just turned 40 years old in July (b. 1970).
But anyhow it's a fun show that I will continue to check in on (just wish it was in HD!) as it alternately makes me swoon between Florence and Rocco... and it is really okay that my heart just breaks a bit whenever I hear a "Grazie Ciao!" on the show.
