Women have a hard time being ironical about their sex appeal. Sly and cynical they can do — see Madonna and Lady Gaga and Sarah Silverman and their ilk. Pious and self-important they can do — see just about every modern movie “sex symbol”. But good-natured irony is reserved for the few geniuses of sex — Clara Bow, Marilyn Monroe, Dita von Teese and Miley Cyrus.
Men are oddly relieved when women laugh at their lust, without judgment.
With thanks to Langdon Clay . . .
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Click on the image to enlarge.
Two of my sisters eating fish tacos on the beach at Tulum, Mexico taunt me me with picture of same.
PZ please note that the beach read in the picture is Scenes Of Clerical Life.
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This is an entertaining Western from 1956, expertly directed by John Sturges. Donna Reed, who plays a tough-talking adventurer, looks hot on a horse — hotter than you might imagine, even though her horsebacking skills seem to have been somewhat limited.
I noticed something very strange while watching it, related to one of the Western paintings of Robert McGinnis, identified on some web sites by the title “Alder Point Station”:
It duplicates, almost exactly, a shot in Backlash, although McGinnis has eliminated one figure on foot, changed the time from day to night and altered the signage on the stage station from Benton’s Trading Post to Bently’s Trading Post. Backlash was a wide-screen film, and this painting echoes the composition of the shot with uncanny precision.
I can’t find any information online about this borrowing. McGinnis doesn’t seemed to have contributed to the advertising art for the picture, and one is tempted to imagine that he just remembered the shot and reproduced it unconsciously, although the change to the sign suggests something more considered.
McGinnis once partially duplicated a scene from The Searchers as a tribute to John Wayne and to the film:
This was, however, an acknowledged homage. “Alder Point Station” seems to be an unacknowledged lift from the Sturges film. In any case, it’s a wonderful painting.
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[Update: Facebook friend Todd Fletcher recognized the rock formation in the back of the McGinnis painting as Gates Pass, which is located near the “Old Tucson” Western filming complex in Arizona:
A quick search at the IMDB confirms that Backlash was indeed partially filmed at the Old Tucson location.]
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That’s me on the left helping my friend Paul Zahl on the right move into his quarters at Grace Church in NYC, where he served as curate. His sister Eda stands behind the box. The year was 1976.
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[Image via Paul Pearson & Shorpy]
Fraunces Tavern, seen above in 1900, is sometimes called the oldest bar in New York City, though it has not been in continuous operation since it started selling spirits in the 1760s. It’s presently housed in a somewhat conjectural reconstruction of its original building, where George Washington bade farewell to his officers after the Revolutionary War:
The oldest continuously operating bar in New York City is McSorley’s Old Ale House, which claims to date from 1854 but may have actually opened in the 1860s.
In any case, McSorley’s has hardly changed at all since John Sloan painted the picture above in 1912.
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“Somebody’s been a bad boy . . .”
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This is a movie about true love and manhood which doesn’t believe in true love and manhood, and feels it must show us, gently and patiently, why our belief in these things is childish, something to be put away as we come of age.
To everyone involved in the creation of this project I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, “Fuck you.”
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Wake Up Vanishing — the new album by Facebook friend Todd Fletcher, on translucent (vintage Coke-bottle) green 180-gram virgin vinyl. I’m not sure what you’d call this music — post rock fusion maybe — but what it consists of are super-cool instrumental grooves, with composer Todd playing all the instruments. The tracks are dreamy but have strong melodic shapes and an invigorating pulse.
You can buy the album in various formats here — the beyond-cool pristine vinyl pressing (limited to only 100 copies) comes with a free digital download of the album.
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Click on the image to enlarge.