"Sometimes I sits and thinks... sometimes I just sits."

A quote attributed to good old Satchel Paige, who usually had a certain wisdom about him. I think just sitting could be good advice for a while.

Here's a couple of Danaid, recently finished and polished up. The top one was awarded my 80th OMP Showcase, for what it's worth. That's over 140 if you count model showcases of my shots, and why shouldn't you?

I got a new drug

Went to the doctor today, a different one than my usual, and she hooked me up with some antibiotics to fight back against whatever is kicking my ass, or more accurately, my chest. After a coughing jag, I feel a little like (beep) when she gets a shotgun load of rock salt in her chest in Kill Bill, Part 2. The "fire hydrants" of blood in Part 1 had me scoffing a bit, but it seemed like the story actually kicked in for Part 2. (She should have grabbed the other sword and the million bucks though.) Yes, I'd not seen them all the way through until this week. Sue me.

Turns out four more of my shots of Athena have showcased on OMP, alas unlinked. I wasn't really seeking them out, but stumbled onto them, with help from Tia the showcase machine since reactivating her OMP a week or so back. Models, please do try to link back to me when you post images, and if I fail to correctly link to you, please let me know straight away, OK?

Feels a bit overdue for the "what do showcases mean" discussion... it's been months. I guess they mean whatever they mean, and even if they're meaningless, why not claim them?

Tiana

Still feeling blah... had to cancel a shoot for this evening that the model and I had already rescheduled once. Guess it's just that time of year. Well get it done sooner or later.

Here are a couple quick images from my shoot with Tiana this summer, just saw they showcased on OMP. :) And she's even using one of my shots as her main image, a showcase of sorts in its own right.

Sick...

At the moment, it's basically a sore throat and run-down feeling, but who knows how long it'll stick around.

So, here's Sarah13, from warmer days...

Bettie Page

Bettie Page passed away yesterday at age 85. Apart from maybe Marilyn Monroe, Bettie was the most identifiable and imitated sex symbol we'll ever see. Probably the most influential, too, as she became an icon years after walking away from modeling and disappearing. She was rediscovered probably 25 years ago and has gained legendary status since then, resurfacing during the past few years to lay claim to her image and her piece of the action. There are numerous sites dedicated to her, and tons of blogs and other tributes in the wake of her passing, so I won't be more redundant than I'm already being.

Obviously, this image of Vassanta and Iris owes a certain something to Bettie and the "old school" she represented. I'm just glad she got her propers while she was still around to enjoy them.

As I mentioned before (was that really 2-1/2 years ago?), the biopic The Notorious Bettie Page does a nice job of telling her story, and the story of her times. Worth a peek...

Blast from the past...

One of the few Christmas gifts I actually recall receiving when I was a kid (although I'm sure I got my share) was the old-school electric football game. I remember we'd done the gift exchanging and things were winding up when my dad said "oh yeah, there's one more thing..." and he went out to the trunk of his car and brought in the oversized box containing the electric football game that I'd really been hoping for. Almost like the scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie gets his Red Ryder BB gun -- guess that trick is something they teach at dad school.

Sadly, the game never really lived up to the TV commercial... it was a lot of tedious set-up resulting in random motion for a few brief seconds, then more set-up. And as Ernest Hemingway said, "Never mistake motion for action." So after a few attempts, it was basically abandoned, being so large that the only place to store it was out of sight under the bed. The box did live on a good while longer though, as it was a perfect size for storing my baseball card collection, one of my first addictions.

This little trip down memory lane was prompted by seeing this morning that they still sell a version of the game.
At least it now operates off battery power, as I remember my mom being very worried that the old version plugged into the wall. I'd be curious to see if the actual game play has improved at all -- various videos on YouTube seem to indicate it hasn't. But don't get me one for Christmas -- I'd probably just play with the box.

"Shiny leather in the dark..."

Venus In Furs
by Velvet Underground
(Lou Reed)

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

...

Someday, I'll learn...

"Never enough time to do the job right, but always enough time to do it over."

I think I need to re-learn a lot of what I think I know if I'm going to get anywhere or get anything done.

None of this applies to this picture of Angela, unless of course, it does. But that's not what I had in mind anyway.

Sketchy...

Swiped this sketch off of Dreamscape's DeviantArt page, originally done by BigGunn based off my photo from this summer. I like the treatment of the image in this one... maybe he'll flesh it out at some point.

28 years ago today...

Making the rounds...

This video has been making the rounds, thought I'd share it here. If you're not a little shocked by the $8000 pricetag of Nikon's new D3x, you might not get it.

The image is Natasha again, pondering the question of acquisition, or something like that.

Unstructured

Waking up in Ann Arbor this morning, with no real idea of what I'm doing (if anything) or when. About the most definite thing is to go to the RIC in Detroit and check out Joe Crachiola's show... sounds like SLAW and some other artists will be showing stuff as well, so will probably see what they have to offer, too. From there, who knows?

Here's an illicit shot of Natasha in an elevator that's off limits to shooting... very quickly grabbed between the third and first floors, so no residents were inconvenienced and no animals were harmed in the production of this image.

The point...

...is lost on me.



Is this anything, or nothing? And does it matter?