The Picture of Dorian Grey or Mike Rowe?

I've always liked Oscar Wilde and his story of a young man that wants to keep his outer beauty.  I stumbled a cross a blog about photographic-illustration.  Photos are touched up or photoshopped until they are aesthetically pleasing.  So, here is the blog Fawny: How to lie with photography..

Here we have a scan of the cover of the February 2008 Fast Company, a magazine that has shucked off the delusional cult newspeak of its origins without managing to become relevant in the process. (Photo credit unknown, and I can’t even ask the magazine about it, since there’s no contact information online. Scan from an eBay auction.)

Dirty Jobs is one of those alternative hits, like Buffy or Project Runway – a show everyone watches that the mainstream media, to the extent it still exists, refuses to admit everyone watches. (“Canada’s watching CSI,” surely?) Dirty Jobs was Mike Rowe’s idea. (So was converting it into a full-on Ford advertorial.) He’s an overly chatty, well-read, rough, tough, jolly sort of fellow, and an outright fetish object for legions of bears, who trade and publish screencaps of Mikey’s many episodes of shirtlessness. He has a straight guy’s indifference to partial nudity. (Is your teenage son gay? Ask him to take his shirt off.)

He’s also getting older, which gives him, on the one hand, saggy-chest syndrome (check recent episodes and the resulting bear screencaps), and, on the other hand, a face lined like a mountainside. Yet this cover shot not only has him “cleaned up real nice” (Cf. inside article photos), it spackles over his ravaged cheeks and nose, conceding only a few bemused forehead wrinkles and a single crease on the neck, as if to connote age. No doubt through a Photoshop layer mask, the designer amped up his blue Irish eyes to Boris Becker proportions.

Those aren’t eyeballs, they’re gumballs. This isn’t a photo, it’s a photo-illustration. It’s a few evolutionary steps removed from Michael Jackson’s nose. It’s the sort of treatement usually reserved for starlets with an acne problem. This isn’t Mike Rowe’s face, it’s Dorian Gray’s.

I have to agree that this is not Mike's real face but Dorian Grey's.

Yeah, I can see what those "bears" are all raving about.  Altoid anyone?

I always wonder what motivates people to have themselves augmented, whether it is photographically or surgically.  Altering an appearance gives an allusion of perfection but is it really just a way of being selfish?  Are we all internally selfish to want what we see to be perfect, enough to make us wither away inside like Dorian Grey did?  Besides, Mike earned all of his wrinkles, lines and craggy looks with time.  That is what makes the man and makes the beauty of the person.

Mike, take my advice, never have yourself altered in any way.  Never allow a photographer try to alter your visage again.  I would be the first to talk you out of anything to change the way you really look as long as you remain as adorable as a wrinkly pup.

Now, if you could only write as well as Mr Wilde, then you will reach beauty and perfection.

Mike Rowe and Ben Franklin?

I ran across this on Mike's site,  mikeroweWORKS and had to laugh at the absurdity of the idea of Mike being compared to Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was a man of HIS time.   Ben was a printer, inventor, scientist, writer, and a statesman of the First Continental Congress.  I'm sure Ben was well known in the colonies and he didn't have a television program to get his face out there.  I mean the absurdity of trying to compare Ben's accomplishments with Mike Rowe's accomplishments?  What are people thinking?  Mike has yet to do anything that will put him in the history books.  He loathes science and doing the real dirty work.  There is only a few things that Mike and Ben can be compared.  I don't need to explain when you read this excerpt from the Discovery forums:

There was no farting on last nights show, at least nothing audible.

To my knowledge, there has been no farting on any episode of Dirty Jobs. True, I have said the word "fart" on the air more than once, but I would never stoop so low as to actually include the sound of a fart in the program.

That is not to say that farting does not occur during filming. I can assure you, it does. Doug and Troy, our cameramen, often fart simultaneously. Chris, our audio technician, can fart on command. In fact, he's farting right now. Adam, our trusted supply coordinator, can fart with extraordinary volume, and often does. During the coal mining episode, Adam farted so loudly that several miners, believing a timber had snapped, began to scream and run from the mine. Barsky is known primarily for the odor of his farts - think of an old egg in a sweaty sock left to dry on a radiator. He also farts whenever he sneezes, which is unfortunate, given his many allergies. Barsky's farts have actually stopped production. Once, during the candy making episode, he created an order not too different from that of an electrical fire, which sent the owners into a panic. (Poor Messie Bessie thought she was having a stroke, and responded with a wail of dismay and fart of her own. Tragic, really.)

Point is, you have never heard a fart on Dirty Jobs, and likely never will. Personally, I have never farted. Not even once. But if I ever did, and found myself offended by it, I would take comfort in the wisdom of Ben Franklin, whose many thoughtful observations are printed in a very entertaining volume entitled, "Fart Proudly."

You should pick up a copy.

Mike

Mike just likes Ben's ideas.  About farting that is.  And only sees the humor behind Ben's idea of "flatulence freedom."

This is from the Benjamin Franklin House in London:

In the heart of London, just steps from famed Trafalgar Square, is Benjamin Franklin House, the world's only remaining Franklin home. For nearly sixteen years between 1757 and 1775, Dr Benjamin Franklin - scientist, diplomat, philosopher, inventor, Founding Father of the United States and more - lived behind its doors.

While lodging at 36 Craven Street, Franklin's main occupation was mediating unrest between Britain and America, but he also served as Deputy Postmaster for the Colonies; pursued his love of science (exploring bifocal spectacles, the energy-saving Franklin stove); explored health (innoculation, air baths, cures for the common cold); music (inventing the delightful glass armonica for which Mozart, Bach and Beethoven composed) and letters (articles, epitaphs, and his witty Craven Street Gazette), all while forging a hearty social life and close friendships with leading figures of the day.

So, many of the things done by Ben, Mike has  not done.  Mike has never embraced politics and has never sat in front of his window naked (would I like to see Mike try that one!).

I sincerely think that if Mike even attempted to try science, a city block would be blown off the earth.  But after posting such a wonderful photo of Mike sans cloths, maybe he can be at the forefront of the "GET NAKED PROUDLY" campaign.  I think it is catchy and will definitely get him famous. (Not like Mike hasn't gone shirtless on so many episodes, but that is another story for another day)