Before all the flexing and posing started, the organizers of the National Bodybuilding Championship on September 11 invited a few members of the armed forces onto the stage for a brief ceremony to recognize the sad anniversary. The servicemen and women received medals, the audience sang along with the national anthem, and the patriotic preface to the main event seemed to end quietly and tastefully. But at the National Bodybuilding Championship, nothing remains quiet and tasteful for long. The bodacious Russ Testa, bulging from star-spangled bikini briefs, performed an interpretative dance to Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" Testa punctuated every verb in the song with a gesture, graciously guiding his massive muscles through an emotional gamut. His lip-synched version of "America the Beautiful" wasn't quite as elegant, but all was forgiven when a curtain raised to reveal a choir of similarly tanned and toned crooners.
