Sharp dressed man

[marycrawford]

I do so love Michael Hurst and his improbable celebrity star turns - over here, he's only known (if at all) as the blond who played Iolaus in Hercules, over in New Zealand he's the kind of celebrity actor/director who is asked to host television shows, open festivals and present things like hairdressing award galas.

What does one wear to a hairdressing award gala, besides pretty hair?

If you're Michael Hurst, the answer is red velvet and thigh-high red platform boots. Or plasterer's stilts. I love this picture most of all - the pose, the pleased look on his face. Heeee.

In other HtLJ related news, masteralida, writing as Sierra, has put her Hercules stories back on the web.

In non-related news, I picked up Mary Renault's The Charioteer and am reading it for the first time. I've read all her Greek novels, but not the modern ones, and so far it's fascinating and a little sad. Someone please tell me, does this one have a happy ending? Illogically, I don't want to go hunt spoilers or look at the back of the book, but I still want to know.

ETA: Dorinda nobly told me just as much as I wanted to know (i.e., she didn't tell me who ends up with whom. Hee). Yay!

Comments

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

I heart that guy. :->

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

My very words. Heart!

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

Oh, he looks fantastic! I'm so glad he grew his hair back, too.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. And according to someone on the IML, he's shaved off the beard again, too. (Though I like it in these pics. *g*)

[elysianmusings.livejournal.com]

That look works for him a little too well, I think.

What do you think of Mary Renault's books? I want to start reading her stuff, but I'm not sure where to start. Any recs?

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Too well? And he isn't even in drag. *g*

Recs. Guh. I absolutely love her Greek novels, and I kind of want to flail and point you at all of them at once. They're all impeccably researched, and while the books are full of action, it's her characters that make the books so intense. She's masterful at letting the reader know more than the character does, and creating subtle yet hardhitting character moments.

I do have favorites, though. The Alexander trilogy - Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games - is magnificent; each book stands alone, but I'd recommend starting from the beginning nonetheless. It's the story of Alexander the Great, told from the point of the people who are closest to him: his childhood friend and then lover Hephaistion, and Bagoas, the Persian Boy in the title. I read these first when I was fourteen or so and was utterly spellbound, and they hold up for me now.

The King Must Die trilogy, about Theseus, is also very good and very atmospheric, but I could never like the main character as much as the guys above. (Okay, I thought he was a selfish prat. *g* But this may just be me!)

The Last of the Wine and The Mask of Apollo are two other favorites; the first features Socrates and Phaedo as side characters, the latter is set in the Greek theatre.

I hope you can find some of these and enjoy them. :-)

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Damn, that hair is really working for him. He just looks fantastic.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

He does! And hee, I love your icon, I hadn't seen that before.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I realized I didn't have any H:tLJ icons and had to correct the travesety.

[halimede.livejournal.com]

He looks uncannily Bowie-esque, in all sorts of ways. Delish.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

That? Is sort of scary. I had never, ever connected those two before. But yes!

So my obsessions have more in common than I might think, huh? *g*

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

Wow. Glam!Iolaus. There's a sight I never thought to see.

And he still looks hot.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

He looks sort of like the equivalent of Alternate Universe Empress Nebula in her red bondage outfit, come to think of it...

Mary, having strange thoughts

[naomi1642.livejournal.com]

Worryingly, he looks sort of like Eddie Izzard. But much hotter.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Oh, curse you. It hadn't occurred to me, but he does. I think it's the eye makeup. (Which also explains some of the Bowie-ishness. *g*)

[naomi1642.livejournal.com]

Oops! Forgive me. I will now try to distract you by pointing over your shoulder and shouting 'Look! What's that? Oh, never mind, it's gone.'

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Heee. "Look, a two-headed harpy! Aw, you just missed it."

I can just picture Iolaus doing that in the middle of a fight. *g*

[mickeymvt.livejournal.com]

*boggle*

Holy... that man is either very brave or has no fashion sense. Red Velvet and those boots? Very cracktastic, but whoa...

Not sure if I like the goatee either.. makes him look older somehow.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Heee. I think the boots are awesome, but remember, this was a theatrical performance. From con pics I've seen, in daily life he tends to wear jeans and such. *g*

I like the beard in these pics better than in others I've seen, but the word is that he's shaved it off by now and kept the longish hair - in other words, looking pretty much like a somewhat older Iolaus. Mmm.

[mickeymvt.livejournal.com]

A theatrical performance? That's what they're calling it these days, huh? ;)

And those boots- it's a sad reflection on my life that HE can rock them and I can't .*L*. I will say that I'm always impressed by men who can walk in heels, platform or not, cause as every womam knows, I ain't easy.

Now, I have this image of him doing the maid/butler from 'La Cage'... he'd be brillantly hysterical!

An older Iolaus... that's a really really really nice :)

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

One must love a man that can pull of a costume like that. :-D