I nearly always drank beer for breakfast unless we were hunting lion. Beer before or at breakfast was a fine thing but it slowed you up, possibly a thousandth of a second. On the other hand it made things seem better sometimes when they were not too good and it was very good for you if you had stayed up too late and had gastric remorse.
— from Under Kilimanjaro
Click on the image to enlarge.
Prostitutes playing cards in a Storyville bordello.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Nurse Transplanted, romance paperback cover, 1971.
The nurse’s face, which is what Koenig wants you to concentrate on, is sharply rendered. Everything else in the painting gets sketchier the farther it is from her face. This became a common technique when the style of story illustrations got looser in the Sixties and Seventies. It mirrored the increased use of shallow focus in movies, often achieved with telephoto lenses, as a stylistic device. It’s subtly done in Koenig’s image, and very effective — you notice the face before you notice the technique — which was not always the case with telephoto shots in movies of the same era.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Click on the image to enlarge.
My nephew Harry Rossi, filmmaker, has this to say about Beasts Of the Southern Wild:
Click on the red text above to see Harry’s piece, click on the image to enlarge.
Amy Crehore has created a lot of magical images, but this one, Blue Mirror, is one of the loveliest. You can see it and other images from various sources at her blog Little Hokum Rag.
Image © 2012 Amy Crehore — click on it to enlarge.
Ah, that Raleigh Rye . . .
Note the tiny furniture on the lower shelf of the table.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Magazine illustration for a story called Romantic Rebels: The Fall of the Rancho Queen.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Click on the image to enlarge.
I am crazy — and the world has gone wild.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Just got this set of radio dramas from the late Forties and early Fifties, starring Dick Powell. Powell moved from boy-crooner star of musicals to heavier dramatic fare later in his career, in films and on radio. In Richard Diamond, Private Detective he’s a serious but blithely wisecracking gumshoe who ends each episode by singing a song to his girlfriend. Sounds tasty.
This collection, available here from Radio Spirits, venerable purveyor of old-time radio shows, includes lively and informative program notes by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr., whom many will know from his lively and informative blog Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear.
Can’t wait to explore the world of Mr. Diamond . . .
Paiute Indians, photographed in Utah in 1872.
There is a small Paiute Indian reservation in North Las Vegas, with a smoke shop selling discounted tobacco products. I drive up there to buy cigarettes.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Use small radishes or cut larger ones into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a bowl, drizzle them with melted butter and salt to taste. Eat with a strong red wine. This is the way the French do it, though sometimes they eat the radishes on pieces of buttered baguette.
Delicious, refreshing — almost a meal in itself.