Naturists of the Year

Ali Larter is a naturist. Ali Larter, the actress from the hit TV series Heroes. Stars have been known for appearing nude in movies, pictures and ads, but that doesn't make them naturists. In this case however, Larter said herself she was a naturist, so we can trust her, so says the web site Clothesfree International in its latest TV news about naturism.
With her declaration, Ali Larter puts herself immediately in line as a prime candidate for the title of Celebrity Naturist of the Year which will be announced about a month from now. This blog - then still under its name of Asianaturist - has announced the awards for three years in a row. Eva Mendes won in 2007 due to her avowal that she liked gardening naked, Hilary Swank in 2008 because she says walking around naked at home was no big deal, and Rosario Dawson in 2009 as she said her mother took her to naturist beaches near New York. Ali Larter should be a frontrunner for 2010, though let's not forget other celebrities who are also widely known as having taken a liking to non-sexual social nudity, including German model and Project Runway host Heidi Klum.
Each year, this blog picks the end of December to announce its awards, which also include a Real Naturist of the Year Award for someone who might not be famous but has also made contributions to the cause of naturism "on the ground" or at the grassroots level. Last year's winner of that award, by the way, was the web site ClothesFree International, where I found the Ali Larter news item.
To find the winners of the awards for 2010, visit this site again before January 1, 2011.

The Nude Guru

Asianaturist has tried for six years to report about naturism in Asia in general and Taiwan in particular, while trying to promote the practice of healthy non-sexual social nudity in the region.

Since naturism is still banned in most countries in the area and news about naturism in the region is few and farbetween - despite recent positive developments in Thailand and Malaysia - I have decided that the blog has served its purpose and a new approach is necessary.

The Nude Guru will continue on the same lines as the Asianaturist blog but on a global scale. We already brought you reports about naturism in Italy and other places, and brought you the Real Naturist of the Year and Celebrity Naturist of the Year Awards without any obvious Asian connection.

The new line will follow all that's good and bad about the naturist world and discuss it with you here and on Twitter. Free beaches, nude yoga, World Naked Bike Ride, Spencer Tunick's mass nude art, public breastfeeding and breast cancer, everything will find its place here, as long as it is related to healthy naturism. As on other naturist sites, if you are looking for exhibitionism and pornography, this will not be the place to visit.

The Nude Guru wishes you a warm naturist winter and looks forward to sharing naturism with you here on this blog and at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru.

Look! Up There! A Naked Man!

The cool weather prevented me from developing any naturist activities during my recent two-month stay in Europe, but at least, if you're made of plastic and stuff, you can do anything.
A naked man hung above a major plaza in the medieval Belgian town of Bruges for several days before the weather got too much of him. No, we're not talking about one of those naked mass groupings for Spencer Tunick nor about the World Naked Bike riders.
The man in question was an effigy of Polish artist Pawel Althamer in the shape of a balloon and served to publicize a festival of Central European art in the Belgian city. The balloon, about 20 meters long, almost deflated due to a gash caused by strong winds. By the end of the week in late October, the naked man was taken down and moved to more comfortable but cramped quarters inside a museum.
The reaction on the street? Mostly positive. Passersby interviewed on the street appreciated the art, with some women saying it was good to have a naked man in advertising for a change. Despite the discussion of what constitutes art or not, the coming of Poland's Naked Man has certainly benefited the case for non-sexual nudity - in the city which already welcomed a Spencer Tunick mass nude event a couple of years ago.
For a picture of the Naked Man, see Tom Brinckman's blog at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fototbr/5101894734/ and for a filmed report, watch http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/mediatheek_en/1.883668
And if you think I've forgotten all about my plans to convert this blog, do not worry. During my nearly two months in Europe, I had little access to the Internet, but the planning is going ahead. More about my plans in future postings.