The Daily Newds

• Art of the Showgirl: The Nevada State Historical Society is paying tribute to the Las Vegas Showgirl.

  In the collection’s lime-green capes and feathered headdresses — plumed architecture for the female nude — the glamour of production numbers like "Hello Hollywood Hello,” which opened in 1978 at the MGM Grand in Reno and ran for 11 years, has been gloriously resurrected.
  
  Like medieval armor, the costumes may one day be regarded as talismans of a vanished culture, which had its apogee in the 1960s, when nearly every hotel and casino on the Strip had a lavish theatrical production.

• Cuba Libre: A photo exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe has opened in Old Havana.

  "Pure sensuality," Farah Gomez, a 26-year-old art historian, said of the black-and-white images portraying flowers, various female body parts and nude black men.
  
  Alarcon, one of Cuba's highest ranking officials, agreed. "Frankly, this really doesn't strike me as a 'sexual' exposition," he told The Associated Press. "Nudity is found in cultures dating much further back than the United States or Cuba. Classicism is full of the nude human body."

• There She Is: Miss Rural Zimbabwe will be bare-breasted again this year.
  

  The inaugural Miss Rural Zimbabwe finals held in Kariba on 27 August 2005, kicked up a storm when six contestants took to the ramp bare-breasted, sparking emotional arguments among sticklers of tradition. But the organisers, with the backing of some historians, stood their ground insisting it was a celebration of rural life.
  
  The pageant is back and the organisers say they will not stop the girls from parading with their breasts uncovered. But they insist they will not force anyone to bare their bosoms either.
  
  Instead, all 23 village beauties will not be allowed to take to the ramp in bikinis: that, they fear, might incur the wrath of spirit mediums in the Great Zimbabwe monument.

• Naturist Calendar: A group of naturists in the UK have put together a calendar to raise money for Prospect Hospice.

  "The cream bun calendar wasn't considered by us, because we wanted to do something respectable that you could give to your granny," the Greenmeadow resident said.
  
  "This is a new slant on it and quite respectable and open because that's what naturism is like.

• Nude Recreation Week: Get started in the naturist lifestyle July 9-15 as Nude Recreation Week kicks off.

  TNS and AANR recommend these "fab five" activities:
  
  1. Cool off: skinny dip in your backyard pool.
  
  2. Make housekeeping fun: ditch those clothes, turn on some music and get out the mop.
  
  3. Get in touch with nature: shed those threads and grab your garden tools for some nude gardening.
  
  4. Exercise in the altogether: hit the treadmill or dust off one of the workout videos.
  
  5. Telecommute in the nude: working from home, in the nude, is in fact increasing in popularity!

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked