For Father’s Day 2012, The Baltimore Sun published an essay written by alumnus Seth Sawyers ’99, history, entitled “Driving with Dad.” Sawyers, who teaches essay writing for the English Department, recounted his memories of riding around Western Maryland with his father and brothers as a boy. The piece is at times poignant, but often humorous, such as when Sawyers remembers one incident involving his father convincing another driver to go through a broken light which only flashed red.

He writes:

“Somebody behind us honked. Dad craned his neck, looking at the light. Somebody honked again. Dad yanked on the parking brake handle and opened his door. ‘Don’t let anyone touch those,’ he said to Jake, pointing at the pedals. We watched him, easy, loose, walk up to the first car. He leaned in to the driver’s-side window. There was gesturing. Dad pointed to the light and then, finally, the other guy nodded. Dad jogged back and slid into the Escort. He put the car in gear and when the cars in front of us went through the red light, we followed.

‘Light’s broken,’ he said, his front teeth flashing in the sun. ‘Had to do something.'”

LaBeouf (wearing clothes). Courtesy of www.latimes.com

Some would argue that Shia LaBeouf’s major breakout moment as an actor was playing Sam Witwicky in Transformers. But we here at USDemocrazy know that his true breakout moment occurred just this year–and he really put himself out there.

Confused? Well, allow us to take the cover off and put the naked truth out there for our devoted Democrazy followers: LaBeouf sported full-frontal nudity in a rather avant-garde music video for Icelandic band Sigur Rós.

According to the director, Alma Har’el, the video shows LaBeouf and his female costar as:

“a man and a woman locked in a never-ending cycle of addiction and desire.”

The premise of the video is quite interesting, and so is the very naked LaBeouf, but for a different reason: major male actors doing full-frontal nudity is generally a rare occurrence.

There are a few exceptions, of course, such as this music video and the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but clearly our culture is far more accustomed to seeing lady bits. Otherwise, this whole LaBeouf story wouldn’t be a big deal, right?

But perhaps that’s just the problem–maybe it shouldn’t be such a big deal. Nude (or very close to nude) women are often featured in movies, television shows, and music videos. So if seeing naked women on a screen doesn’t generate much talk, then why should one nude guy in a music video be worth discussing?

Or maybe it actually is a big deal. After all, a woman’s breasts, many argue, aren’t exactly the equivalent of a man’s genitalia.

We’d like to hear what you think about the matter. And, if you need a little more time to reflect, you can take a few minutes to view the Sigur Rós video here.

PLEASE NOTE: You should NOT watch this video if you’re uncomfortable with nudity because, as you have hopefully gathered from this post, it does, in fact, feature naked people.

A sobering reminder from David McCullough Jr., a boston area english teacher, who reminded recent graduates, “you’re not special.”

It’s an excellent speech and worth watching. If you are too lazy to watch here is perhaps the most astounding realization from McCullough’s commencement:

Even if you are one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you

Click here to watch a video produced by Maryland Public Television about Kachadourian’s work.

Gary Kachadourian ’12, MFA imaging and digital arts, will be participating in the Maryland Art Place’s Young Blood 2012: Work by Recent MFA Graduates exhibition this summer. In addition to Kachadourian’s large-scale installation, the fifth annual exhibition will feature work by artists from the Maryland Institute College of Art, The University of Maryland-College Park and Towson University.

The exhibition runs from July 18th to August 25th, and will feature an artists’ talks and reception at 6 p.m. on the 18th. For more information, visit the Maryland Art Place’s website here.

Kachadourian was one of three 2011 winners of the Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, a Baltimore-based arts award worth $25,000. To see a video produced by MPT about the prize and Kachadourian’s work, click here.

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