What are you doing New Years Eve?

Bless their cotton socks.
Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon-Levitt chum and strum together this lovely little ballad, originally sung by Nancy Wilson back in yesteryear. Awww.

So kids, what are you doing this New Years Eve?

Put your mittens on your kittens 'cause 2012 is upon us!

Mucho amor para ustedes mis amigos Xx

The internet knows my secrets

I found this image, somehow, in a Google search today.

It knows me so well.

2012 will be a more productive year...

Irony

He has it.

So...what are we doing for New Years?

Sarah Polley, GO 1999

Happy Birthday, Jesus...Jesus, it's your birthday!

Its always a good party...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

And so this is Christmas...

And what have you done?

Exit Music

Hollywood Sadcore

With her new album out late January 2012, its about time you took notice of Lana Del Rey.

With her bombshell looks and sultry vocals, she's been referred to as a 'gangster Nancy Sinatra' and if that alone doesnt stir up curiosities, then check her breakout single 'Video Games'.

Cindy Crawford does Guess

Earlier this year i posted a Guess campaign tribute to Drew Barrymore.

In keeping with this theme, i will be posting some other of their famous cover girls over the years for your viewing pleasure.

Starting with none other than Cindy Crawford (...meow)

Thursdays

Absenteeism

Sorry i havent been posting as frequently...

"Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground"

R.I.P John Lennon...on this day and always.

And it burns, burns, burns.

Transcript

Hey June,

That's really nice June. You've got a way with words and a way with me as well.

The fire and excitement may be gone now that we don't go out there and sing them anymore, but the ring of fire still burns around you and I, keeping our love hotter than a pepper sprout.

Love John.

Johnny Cash & June Carter, 1968.

Not quite a Haiku

Three years ago you turned my world upside down, and i couldnt imagine it any other way.

I strive every day to be the best i can be to make you as happy as you have made me.

As public displays of affection go, this is probably the most private, yet the most special to me, so i hope you hear this with the loudest of clarity.

I love you, my nearest friend, my rarest soulmate, my dearest Francis.

L is for...

Lomo.

For those unfamiliar, Lomo is not just an analogue camera or photographic format - it is a lifestyle.

To quote from lomography HQ, the motto is scribed as 'Dont think, just shoot'.

There are 10 GOLDEN rules to abide by as a philosophy:

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it any time – day and night
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don't think
7. Be fast
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards either
10. Don't worry about any rules

'Dirty Diana' - My Diana F+ Lomo...that i regretfully neglect all too often. But it still loves me. I think...

Originating in Soviet Russia, and popularised in the 1990's, it has ever since become an artistic expression of freedom and individuality.

There is no right, nor wrong, but the possibilities of what the photographer can create are limitless.

I find it refreshing in the digital age that creativity in photography as an art form is still alive and well through this medium, and can be both challenging and unique in result.

Photoshop is easy.

Composition is individual.

But lomography is stylistically exciting.

Having many lomographic tools to work with, such as different lenses, filters, flash sensors etc can create any effect you so desire - and not knowing what youve created is half of the anticipation that i personally find elusive and personal.

If you dont have one, i recommend you try it. Even for a day. I dare you. 

(Please note these are not my shots, just mere examples to get the juices flowing. Are you moist yet?)

He drank panther piss and fucked the girls youre probably married to.

HOMEBAKE DAY.

GRINDERMAN DAY.

FUCKING AMAZING DAY.

THAT IS ALL.

90's TV Guilty Pleasures #3

Baywatch

The Galerie clothing line. Just in time for summer!

I cant take credit for this.

But i wish i could.

Happy summertime!

Half moon soiree

This is the sex.

She was one of the most beautiful woman in the world and he was one of the most charismatic men, and together were arguably were one of the sexiest partnerships of the 1960's.

This one goes out to the lovers.

Celebrating shadows

Thats what you get...

Speaking of 'Freedom 90', what better opportunity than to share another of my favourite videos of all time with the Galerie. In my opinion, this is George Michaels finest moment ('cause lets face it, his finest moment wasnt met in a Californian public toilet).

All brilliance aside, it has to be said that i am indeed sensing some serious

Dorian Gray syndrome being channelled here.

Supermodels apparently do not age.

Even after 21 years.

They defy science.

They are freaks of nature.

Geniuses of the human body. 

Documentaries should be made.

Nobel prizes be given out for this shit.

...Or at least some Oil of Olay for the rest of us.

Just saying.

Girl Panic!

It's the video we've been hearing about for eternity.

A few days ago the promo for Duran Duran's latest single Girl Panic! hit Youtube in a nine and a half minute puff of fluff, sparkles, lipstick, leather and legs.

Ladies and gentleman, it's the return of the 'Supers' - Naomi Campbell (as lead singer Simon Le Bon), Helena Christensen (Roger Taylor), Eva Herzigova (Nick Rhodes), Cindy Crawford (John Taylor) and Yasmin Le Bon who is keen to point out "I am NOT a member of Duran Duran".

The girls have been draughted if to play the boys, perform Girl Panic! as the boys and be interviewed by the boys themselves about how amazing and talented they all are.

If that sounds baflling, it gets stranger. The video, directed by Jonas Akerlund (he of Lady Gaga 'Telephone' fame) appears to be a riff on Louis Vuitton's autumn/winter 2011 collection, right down to the S&M gear, hotpants and bell-hops. It was even shot at London's Savoy Hotel, a reference Marc Jacobs cited in his post-show interviews.

However, far from being the work of Jacobs, the video was in fact styled by dynamic Italian design duo, Dolce & Gabbana, who make a fleeting cameo in the film.

By this point it's clear not much is supposed to make sense (again, remember Lady Gaga's Telephone), so it's best just to go with it and soak up the glamour and blatant promotion of the various sponsors.

Highlight? Naomi Campbell's Austin Powers tribute seven long minutes in.

It's no 'Freedom 90' - a supermodel reunion isn't a supermodel reunion without Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington - but you can kind of learn to love it anyway.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Rod Stewart

In these days of changing ways

so called liberated days
a story comes to mind of a friend of mine

Georgie boy was gay I guess
nothin' more or nothin' less
the kindest guy I ever knew

His mother's tears fell in vain
the afternoon George tried to explain
that he needed love like all the rest

Pa said there must be a mistake
how can my son not be straight
after all I've said and done for him

Leavin' home on a Greyhound bus
cast out by the ones he loves
A victim of these gay days it seems

Georgie went to New York town
where he quickly settled down
and soon became the toast of the great white way

Accepted by Manhattan's elite
in all the places that were chic
No party was complete without George

Along the boulevards he'd cruise
and all the old queens blew a fuse
Everybody loved Georgie boy

The last time I saw George alive
was in the summer of seventy-five
he said he was in love I said I'm pleased

George attended the opening night
of another Broadway hype
but split before the final curtain fell

Deciding to take a short cut home
arm in arm they meant no wrong
A gentle breeze blew down Fifth Avenue

Out of a darkened side street came
a New Jersey gang with just one aim
to roll some innocent passer-by
There ensued a fearful fight
screams rang out in the night
Georgie's head hit a sidewalk cornerstone

A leather kid, a switchblade knife
He did not intend to take his life
He just pushed his luck a little too far that night

The sight of blood dispersed the gang
A crowd gathered, the police came
An ambulance screamed to a halt on Fifty-third and Third

Georgie's life ended there
but I ask who really cares
George once said to me and I quote

He said "Never wait or hesitate
Get in kid, before it's too late
You may never get another chance
'Cos youth a mask but it don't last
live it long and live it fast"
Georgie was a friend of mine

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

Today we remember those who fought and died in duty.

Behind the scenes with...

Melaine Laurent, Quentin Tarantino & Diane Kruger

On the set of Inglorious Basterds, 2008.

Elvis the Pelvis

The letter below was written in May 1956 by the editor of the La Crosse Register (which, incidently, was published by the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse) to the head of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover.




Transcript

May 16, 1956

Mr. J Edgar Hoover
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington 25, D. C.

Dear Mr. Hoover,

Elvis Presley press-agented as a singer and entertainer, played to two groups of teenagers numbering several thousand at the city auditorium here, Monday, May 14.

As newspaper man, parent, and former member of Army Intelligence Service, I feel an obligation to pass on to you my conviction that Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States.

Although I could not attend myself, I sent two reporters to cover his second show at 9:30 p.m. besides, I secured the opinions of others of good judgment, who had seen the show or had heard direct reports of it. Among them are a radio station manager, a former motion picture exhibitor, an orchestra player, and a young woman employee of a radio station who witnessed the show to determine its value. All agree that it was the filthiest and most harmful production that ever came to La Crosse for exhibition to teenagers.

When Presley came on the stage, the youngsters almost mobbed him, as you can judge from the article and pictures enclosed from May 15 edition of the La Crosse TRIBUNE. The audience could not hear his "singing” for the screaming and carrying on of the teenagers.

But eyewitnesses have told me that Presley's actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. One eye-witness described his actions as “sexual self-gratification on the stage," — another as “a striptease with clothes on." Although police and auxiliaries were there, the show went on. Perhaps the hardened police did not get the import of his motions and gestures, like those of masturbation or riding a microphone. (The assistant district attorney and Captain William Boma also stopped in for a few minutes in response to complaints about the first show, but they found no reason to halt the show.)

After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley‘s room at the auditorium, then at the Stoddard Hotel. All possible police on duty were necessary at the Hotel to keep watch on the teenagers milling about the hotel till after 3 a.m., the hotel manager informed me. Some kept milling about the city till about 5 a.m.

Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls (of whom I have direct personal knowledge) whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph. They admitted that they went to his room where this happened. It is known by psychologists, psychiatrists and priests that teenaged girls from the age of eleven, and boys in their adolescence are easily aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and hysteria, — the type that was exhibited at the Presley show.

There is also gossip of the Presley Fan Clubs that degenerate into sex orgies. The local radio station WKBH sponsors a club on the "Lindy Shannon Show."

From eye-witness reports about Presley, I would judge that he may possibly be both a drug addict and sexual pervert. In any case I am sure he bears close watch, — especially in the face of growing juvenile crime nearly everywhere in the United States. He is surrounded by a group of high-pressure agents who seem to control him, the hotel manager reported.

I do not report idly to the FBI. My last official report to an FBI agent in New York before I entered the U.S. Army resulted in arrest of a saboteur (who committed suicide before his trial). I believe the Presley matter is as serious to U.S. security. I am convinced that juvenile crimes of lust and perversion will follow his show here in La Crosse.

I enclose article and pictures from May 15 edition of the La Crosse TRIBUNE. The article is an excellent example of the type of reporting that describes a burlesque show by writing about the drapes on the stage. But the pictures, to say the least are revealing. Note, too, that under the Presley article, the editor sanctimoniously published a very brief “filler" on the FBI’s concern for teenage crime. Only a moron could not see the connection between the Presley exhibit and the incidence of teenage disorders in La Crosse.

With many thanks, and with a prayer for God‘s special blessing on your excellent and difficult work for justice and decency.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed)

Hilarious!

More Helmut

 

Old hallows eve.

What halloween evening would it be without some zombie jazz moves?

Happy Halloween!

Joyeux anniversaire, Dominic

Nerdgasm.

I dare you not to get this stuck in your head.

May the force be with you, suckers.

They had style, they had GRACE.

Things Johnny Cash does.

Transcript

THINGS TO DO TODAY!

1. Not smoke
2. Kiss June
3. Not kiss anyone else
4. Cough
5. Pee
6. Eat
7. Not eat too much
8. Worry
9. Go see Mama
10. Practice Piano

NOTES: Not write notes

Play it again, Sam.

This song makes me want to dance slowly near a junkbox in a near empty bar on the outskirts of town, with one hand in my pocket and the other clutching a whiskey (straight, no junk in it).

Awesome band i stumbled across from Sydney - if you like something bluesy, dig it.

 

The Ballad of Budd & Elle

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Annie, are you okay?

As someone who once aspired to be a film director (a long shot, yes, i know but hey a girl can dream) i take great pleasure in watching a well constructed music video. One of my favourites would have to be Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' - excellent song, excellent choreography and in my opinion one of the best clips of all time (shut up, Kanye - Beyonce's got nothing on this). Enjoy.

The Adventures of Mark Twain.

In November of 1905, an enraged Mark Twain sent this superb letter to J. H. Todd, a patent medicine salesman who had just attempted to sell bogus medicine to Twain by way of a letter and leaflet delivered to his home. According to the literature Twain received, the 'medicine' in question - The Elixir of Life - could cure such ailments as meningitis (which had previously killed Twain's daughter in 1896) and diptheria (which had also killed his 19-month-old son). Twain, himself of ill-health at the time and very recently widowed after his wife suffered heart failure, was understandably furious and dictated the following letter to his secretary, which he then signed.

Transcript

Nov. 20. 1905


J. H. Todd
1212 Webster St.
San Francisco, Cal.


Dear Sir,


Your letter is an insoluble puzzle to me. The handwriting is good and exhibits considerable character, and there are even traces of intelligence in what you say, yet the letter and the accompanying advertisements profess to be the work of the same hand. The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link. It puzzles me to make out how the same hand could have constructed your letter and your advertisements. Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a moment, they arouse in me an unkind state of mind toward the person who has puzzled me. A few moments from now my resentment will have faded and passed and I shall probably even be praying for you; but while there is yet time I hasten to wish that you may take a dose of your own poison by mistake, and enter swiftly into the damnation which you and all other patent medicine assassins have so remorselessly earned and do so richly deserve.


Adieu, adieu, adieu!


Mark Twain 

I find it fitting to also note here that Mark Twain was born during a visit by Halleys Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well.

5 years after the dating of this note, he passed away... the very day following the comet's return.