A hundred naked members of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) fraternity had their Oblation Run early this year. It is an event started in 1977 and is normally held in December. However, this year was different......June 18, 2008 marked the 100th birthday of the University of the Philippines (UP) and the APO, at the request of the university's centennial committee, made sure that their presence would be felt and seen in a big way.

“This is our fraternity’s way of honoring UP on its centennial,” said APO member Menggie Cobarrubias.

Cobarrubias, who joined APO in 1970, said the hardest part in organizing the Centennial Run was getting 100 frat men to participate in the activity. They had to invite other APO frat men from different campuses to make up their numbers. But they did muster 100 members, the largest number of naked runners ever, for the event.

The naked runners wore golden masks and wrapped shirts around their heads to hide their identities. The 1 km run (about 1/2 mile) started shortly after 11:00am and took them from Vinzon’s Hall to the Palma Hall and finally to the Quezon Hall, where the iconic UP Oblation statue stands. It was this statue that inspired the fraternity's 31-year-old tradition of the naked run. Along the way they stopped to pose for photos and offered roses to scores of giggling female students.

Below is a clip from the 2008 Oblation Run, but as a word of caution, it contains full frontal male nudity.

The Oblation, according to Wikipedia, "is the iconic symbol of the University of the Philippines, represented by a man with arms wide-stretched and face facing up, symbolizing selfless offering of one's self to his country."

President Rafael Palma commissioned Professor Guillermo E. Tolentino with the help of Anastacio T. Caedo, his student apprentice to make the sculpture. It was to be based on the second verse of Jose Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios:

In fields of battle, deliriously fighting,
Others give you their lives, without doubt, without regret;
Where there’s cypress, laurel or lily,
On a plank or open field, in combat or cruel martyrdom,
If the home or country asks, it's all the same--it matters not.

The concrete sculpture painted to look like bronze, measures 3.5 meters in height, symbolizing the 350 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines. Tolentino describes the Oblation as:

The completely nude figure of a young man with outstretched arms and open hands, with tilted head, closed eyes and parted lips murmuring a prayer, with breast forward in the act of offering himself, is my interpretation of that sublime stanza. It symbolizes all the unknown heroes who fell during the night.....

The original statue, dedicated on March 1939, was completely naked, but in order to satisfy the morality of the time, was changed to include a fig leaf to cover the genitals.

The annual Oblation run was started in 1977 as a protest against the banning of the play, ‘Hubad na Bayani’ (Naked Hero); a political satire on the late President Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorial rule. The APO said that more than a form of protest, their running bare-naked was more like a reminder to the UP students of the symbolism of the Oblation statue – a selfless offering of the Filipinos to their country.

This year the Oblation run was such a hit among students, faculty members and other spectators that it easily surpassed the other day-long activities scheduled for the university’s 100th Birthday Day. The 2,000-strong crowd began gathering about three hours before the scheduled start of the run in front of Vinzons Hall from where the “streakers” were expected to start.

The mostly female crowd was not to be disappointed. As the runners started to come out the girls  screamed and trained their digital cameras, video cameras and mobile phone cameras on the young men who posed for pictures and handed out red roses to some of them in the crowd.

“I’ll keep this as a good remembrance of my experience here,” said a Caucasian woman holding a rose. “I never expected it would be this exciting,” she added.

As the runners made their way to the Oblation statue in front of Quezon Hall, other APO members served as marshals, protecting the runners from the enthusiastic crowd. Even some elderly women in the crowd gleefully cheered on the barefooted runners.

“It has been quite a while since I saw something like this,” a 55-year-old woman said with a laugh.

Tom and I are on the same page when it comes to the taboo topic of penises. In other countries the Schlong, dick, pole, or what ever odd name it has is praised as the symbol of life. Well here in the states Tom Ford wants you to look at the penises as an art form. Good ol' Tom wrote an essay on the subject of male nudity in the spring/summer issue of Britain's GQ Style:

But, Tom, what if we lived in a world where penises were breasts?
"Imagine … if our suits were entirely designed to show off our penises. Imagine if contemporary fashion demanded that you left your cock hanging outside your trousers, with perhaps just the head trussed up in a tiny pouch like a dick bra. Everyone would see our cocks all the time, in the same way that fashion features women's breasts."

American fashion magazines don't show breasts like European ones do. Do you think nude phobia is a uniquely American problem?
"In Sweden or Japan, or other places … casual nakedness at the sauna or the bath house is part of daily life, but in the places that I call home, the fear factor around nudity seems to be rising. I have always found it ridiculous that, in America, if I wanted to run an ad of a woman with bare breasts I had to retouch her nipples. Now why would a woman's bare breasts, created as nature intended, be more shocking than a bizarre pair of breasts with absolutely no nipples? What could be more perverse?"

He makes a lot of valid points about the peen in the interview. I bet you anything he's packing a nice one, its only obvious that when your comfortable about penises your comfortable with your own.

[source and picture]

-Manuel Paul

"A young man leaves his middle class existence in pursuit of freedom from relationships and obligation. Giving up his home, family, all possessions but the few he carried on his back and donating all his savings to charity Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) embarks on a journey throughout America. His eventual aim is to travel into Alaska, into the wild, to spend time with nature, with 'real' existence, away from the trappings of the modern world. In the 20 months leading up to his Great Alaskan Adventure his travels lead him on a path of self-discovery, to examine and appreciate the world around him and to reflect on and heal from his troubled childhood and parents' sordid and abusive relationship. When he reaches Alaska he finds he has been insufficiently prepared for the hardships to come. Despite making it through the winter his plan is ill-judged and prepares to return home in spring, only to find the stream he crossed in the snow has become an impassable raging torrent and that he is trapped. With no means of sustaining himself adequately he eventually starves to death in his so sought after isolation. Throughout his epic journey the people he meets both influence and are influenced by the person he is and bring him to the eventual and tragic realisation that "Happiness is only real when shared". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/synopsis

This movie is actually based on the real-life story of Chris McCandless back in the early 1990's. Apparently, he kept a journal that chronicled his ill-fated journey into the wilderness. I never read the book version, but I am sure it had to be better than the movie one. The movie in itself had a lot of potential, but just was not that great. It dragged out entirely too long. I could have summarized my own synopsis of the movie, but since imdb did such a wonderful job, I thought I would give them the credit they deserved.

At times, I have wondered what it would be like to just abandon everything to live such a simple life. But then, I realize how rude and selfish that would be. Personally, I did not enjoy this movie, and although what Chris did was for good reasons, it was also for very selfish reasons. Just dropping a postcard in the mail would not have hurt him just to give his family some peace of mind. I felt like this was his form of rebellion and punishment to his parents, and in the end, it bit him back. He was very ill-prepared for someone who just wanted to drop off the face of the planet and disappear. I could say I felt sorry for him, but I don't because IMO, it was quite cruel. I really would NOT recommend this movie to anyone unless they are really bored with plenty of time on their hands. Wait for it to come out on cable.

 MPAA Rating: R (for language and some nudity)

I hope you enjoy the clip, I did, repeatedly.....

**UPDATE**

The YouTube clip has been removed for some reason, so just so you're not disappointed, here's a screen shot instead. I know you only wanted to see his dick anyway!