Portsmouth, Alien Invasion – Women’s Defence Force
We’ve already seen that the women of Portsmouth kept their spirits high even as the Squirmy Munge attacked the city during the 1915-1923 war but don’t think for one second that their role in the conflict was limited to playing football under daylight UFO raids; the Portsmouth women were organised, aggressive, and adept in all the ways of warfare. Nothing’s really changed. A familiar sight in the city was that of the Women’s Defence Force patrols of between one and two dozen heavily armed fighters patrolling the streets making sure no Munge incursion took place. The WDF were involved in countless engagements with the aliens and were credited as being the main reason for the Defence of Copnor Road in August of 1921. Membership of the Portsmouth Women’s Defence Force was considered a great honour and rumours were rife of men allegedly donning disguises in order to fight alongside the courageous females of the city although no documented evidence of this actually having occurred...
Women In Computer Adverts
Hang on. I haven’t put up a post about sexist advertising in the computer industry yet? Really? Everyone else has. I must rectify this omission now! Women have been used to advertise inappropriately just about everything you can think of. Sex, so the saying goes, sells. No sex also quite likely sells but it’s nowhere near as much fun to storyboard as sex-selling advertisements. And so for as long as there have been marketing people and as long as there have been things that anybody might buy there have been adverts for those things featuring women. Scantily-clad women. Often with barely even a passing thought to a connection with the product being sold. I probably saw a great many of the following adverts for computer games and machines featuring provocatively-posed women in various states of undress growing up and yet I can honestly say that at no point did I ever consider the merits of a purchase based on the model showing off her wares alongside the main product. Perhaps I’m just weird or an outlier as far as the advertising execs are concerned, or perhaps the advertising execs just didn’t care and fancied some auditions and photography sessions with young starlets anyway. I’m pretty sure that’s at least partially true. Anyway, let’s marvel at some of the wonderfully awful means of promoting computer software and hardware over the past few decades. From a publication called Vidiot and maybe this was simply showing that gaming was as much something for women as it was for men. Maybe. Maybe the two references to “end” in the blurb on the picture as well as describing the gamesplayer as a “lovely miss” aren’t innuendo and sexist condescension respectively. Maybe. All I know is that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a centipede in shorts that tight and short. Although if I were in shorts that tight and short it’s quite likely any nearby centipede would scurry off in the opposite direction as fast as its multitude of legs could propel it. A roaring fire. A man in a suit – you can trust those sorts of men – and a beauty in quite possibly just bra and panties. And let’s have a read of the advert’s copy: Tuesday night Eileen dropped in and we balanced her checkbook on it. If you knew Eileen you’d know that’s a first. Wednesday, Judy and I computed the principal and interest on the new car she wants to buy. Someone fan me down; that copy is some hot, damn copy. Yeah, I think we all know what sort of balancing and computing’s been going on...
Nightmare Before Christmas Gifts
It’s almost Christmas and that means just one thing in our house: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton’s musical animation masterpiece. We have a tradition of watching The Nightmare Before Christmas before Christmas (as after or during is terribly unseemly). We don’t follow the tradition every year primarily because we’re forgetful but also we wouldn’t want it to become a ritual. From ritual it’s a short hop to religion and from there to religious wars with Corpse Bridists on one side and Jack Skellingtonians on the other, then schisms among the Skellingtonian followers as cults of Oogie Boogie Resurrectionists blossom. All of which is my way of leading in to highlighting Christmas gift ideas with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. These are the sorts of things we’d love if they were bought for us, not that you’re going to as demographic studies of the website’s visitors show a distinct lack of Mysterious Wealthy Benefactors. Jack and Sally Nightmare Before Christmas Print 8″ x 12″ Lovely print (and ridiculously cheap) from Kia Wynne featuring my favourite character, the devilishly delicious Sally. There’s something about a woman with a knowing smile, eyes the size of tennis balls, and detachable limbs that just sets my heart racing. Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington Comic Manga Heels – Made to Order No, they wouldn’t be for me. My missus, on the other hand, has a bit of a thing for shoes and this particular listing from Hero Chic Heels really appeals: your choice of shoe style, heel size, and one-of-a-kind Jack Skellington print all for a fixed price! 27×40 Nightmare Before Christmas – Full Size Retro Movie Poster – 1930s Vintage Horror Movie Inspired, Retro Alternative Pop Art If you know anything about me then you know I’m a fan of retro so this vintage-style movie poster for the film by Ehron Asher appeals highly to me. The other posters for sale in that shop would all make equally fantastic presents. Nightmare Before Christmas Tiles I’ll be honest and admit I’ve never really thought of artwork on ceramic tiles as something to desire but these particular ones for The Nightmare Before Christmas (there are 72 designs at the present time) from Terry Tiles are really quite lovely. Nightmare before christmas – Halloween Thong – Jack the Skeleton G-String underwear Again – and let me really stress this – these would not be for me. Not exactly. I mean, I’m not saying I wouldn’t get some enjoyment out of them but I wouldn’t wear them. Ugly Lightup Christmas Sweater – Sally – Doll Santa (link updated following comment 15/12/15) To finish with here’s something from...
Places I Can’t Afford In Spain
If you’ve ever wondered what sort of places currently for sale in Spain I’d like to live in but can’t afford because a lottery win and/or an obscenely rich uncle suddenly passing still eludes me then this article’s appearance may well form nearly a whole minute of your lucky day! Santa Ponsa, Mallorca Listing 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms make up this gorgeous villa but it’s the great-looking pool and those arched inside/outside lounge areas that really leap out. Well, those and the € 16.5 million price tag. I don’t have that many Euros on me right now so I can’t afford to buy this place. La Zagaleta, Marbella Listing Another villa with 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms – perhaps there’s some mystical reason for it – but this one’s in Marbella rather than Mallorca hence the far more reasonable asking price of € 15 million. For the record, I don’t have that sort of money either even though it’s a full ten percent cheaper than the first Spanish property. Bargain! This particular villa also boasts a staff apartment, sauna, heated indoor pool with jacuzzi, gymnasium, pool bar, wine cellar, and 8 car garage. It also features the thing in the image below which I couldn’t work out for ages when looking at it: a night club. A villa with a night club! How… odd! Courtyarded Villa on Hilltop, Marbella Listing Stunning views thanks to the high elevation of this Marbella villa but only 8 bedrooms and bathrooms. Eight? What sort of poor person only has eight bedrooms and bathrooms? The sort of poor person who can only afford € 9.5 million, that’s who. That’s not me, by the way. Still, the giant Van der Graaf generator in the courtyard is tempting. Santa Ponsa, Mallorca Listing Simple design and minimalism make this villa with sea views stand out and so does the asking price of a mere € 6.9 million. That’s still about € 6.89 million more than I can afford but at least it’s all heading in the right direction. Look at the marble flooring and tell me you wouldn’t slide through there in your socks. And nothing else! Yeah, you...
Floral Photography By Emi Nakajima
Another photographer I’ve come to appreciate from Google+ is Miyagi prefecture-based Emi Nakajima. Despite my fondness for street and industrial photography there’s still plenty of room to love photography of flora, whether taken with a macro lens or not, and with Emi hailing from Japan you know to expect gorgeous bokeh and occasional soft focus with high key. These first two photos show how different the leaves from possibly the same tree can look depending on the quantity of them and the amount of background light that comes through. I love the deep warmth that comes from the lower picture but no more or less than the more sparsely-filled photo above which seems to carry with it a quieter feel. I’m always happy to see a bit of lens flare or light leak and this one helps to pick out the bokeh too in this much cooler photo. What’s also nice – and most likely a happy coincidence – is how the circular bokeh patterns mimic the fruits on the tree branches. This shot by Emi is actually a crop of an earlier photo she’d taken and it’s a better composition for it in my opinion. Beautiful depth of field and a nice contrast between the richness of the flower and the pale background. I’ll be honest: I didn’t know marbles grew on tree. But now that I do know that this is a lovely, almost surreal shot from the Japanese nature photographer. And to finish from Emi’s collection a fruit in a natural cage. I love the detail in this picture and the glow from the bottom of the flower that lends this an ethereal feeling. If you’re on Google+ or just interested in seeing some more gorgeous, floral photographs then check out the rest of Emi Nakajima’s...
Doug McClure And Kevin Connor Movies
In 1978 I was taken to the cinema to see a movie called Warlords of Atlantis. It was a movie that appealed to me on a lot of levels; Atlantis!; nasty creatures!; a bathysphere! I was young and bathyspheres were cool, so sue me. The movie’s lead was played by Doug McClure and over the years that followed thanks to the explosion of VHS films and then weekend showings on television I became introduced to a few other Doug McClure films too – The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and At The Earth’s Core – all of which had a common theme of explorers exploring, adventures adventuring, and monsters monstering, and all of which were directed by Kevin Connor. The Land That Time Forgot (1975) Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs book of the same name and set during the first world war the story follows what happens when survivors of a German U-boat attack take control of the vessel but end up chancing upon an isolated, volcanic island where dinosaurs still exist alongside various types of humans. Just like in the Bible. The first lobby card from the movie shows the scene on the island of Caprona where we learn that the dinosaurs have learned over the millenia to abhor violence. Here, a prehistoric creature takes the dangerous guns from the sailors. America’s NRA launched a successful lobbying campaign of their own to get this particular scene cut from the American release of the film and to dub over the movie’s dialogue where Doug McClure’s character Bowen Tyler speaks of his admiration for the dinosaurs’ evolved sense of morality, replacing it instead with a wish that there was a good monster with a gun nearby to terminate the bad monster with his own gun. A memorable moment from the movie captured in this card when the German submarine commander performs a thrilling cabaret with some of the various creatures swimming around near his boat. The act of holding his hand within the jaws of an enormous plesiosaur demonstrates his bravery and helps to cement a blossoming relationship between himself and Tyler. The final lobby card shown from The Land That Time Forgot features a still from the middle third of the movie, the infamous hardcore sex scene between Susan Penhaligon’s character Lisa Clayton and a caveman. Gratuitous, very graphic, and highly censored worldwide it’s subsequently been very difficult to get hold of a print of the film that leaves much of the scene intact which does make the ending of the movie with Clayton nursing a hairy baby a tad confusing. The People That...
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