A Death and a Birth in the Family

Apologies guys for seeming to have disappeared. My trusty old Toshiba Satellite died - most dramatically and horribly! The screen flickered gently but ominously for a day or so. And then went irredeemably black. No amount of coaxing would bring any kind of life back - we had a corpse.

So the scene round the house was:


and:


I considered a trip to Jay's to get the right mourning gear:


or Robinson's


and would have ended up:


with female relos looking like:


Or if you were doing it round 1810:


All this seemed a bit mad and severe, so I contemplated a bit of 'half-mourning':

Girl in Half Mourning 1895

Half Mourning - Waist 1890-1910

Though I was not really sure what 'half' meant. You could have floral designs within the black? Maybe if you didn't really care that much for the deceased? Or every other day you could party on as usual?

In any case, the idea of a mourning broach particularly appealed:





With the lock of the deceased's hair in the first example obviously being replaced by a sliver of the old screen!

I even thought about being photographed with the 'remains', in good late Victorian mode:



But in the end decided against it.

It's much healthier to move on. And prepare for the new arrival. Which was delivered yesterday - in the form of a bouncing 2.8 kg baby Toshiba Tecra 8 laptop.

George de la Tour 'The Newborn' 1640's

Of course, I had to have the puter version of the new-born baby set:



Which included a new wireless modem, super fab carry bag, Comsol housing to harvest the old hard drive as a mass storage device, and so on.

Inoculations followed as virus protection. And reloading old software.

So a new life - see you again very soon guys!

Olive Cotton (1911-2003) - Another Australian Photographer

Olive Cotton is an under-rated and under-exposed Australian photographer who worked from the 1930’s on. The influences on her photography are numerous, including that of her one-time partner, Max Dupain (see my post ‘Max Dupain (1911-1992) – Australian Photographer’, Wednesday, February 14, 2007):

Olive Cotton 'Max after surfing'

Dupain in turn photographed Cotton, as a lover would do:

Max Dupain 'Only to taste the warmth, the light, the wind' (1939)

Olive Cotton photographed by Max Dupain

Cotton’s work itself often has reference to art history, such as interiors with resonances with C17 Dutch interiors in their similar tangible quality of air and lighting in internal spaces …

Olive Cotton

Vermeer Interior

... and her still lives, such as her ‘Teacup Ballet’ (1935) and ‘Glasses’ (1937) that reflect the deco formalism of her fellow country woman Margaret Preston, among others:

Olive Cotton 'Teacup Ballet' (1935)

Olive Cotton 'Glasses' (1937)

Margaret Preston 'Implement Blue' (1927)

Cotton in her turn influenced others. ‘Plum Blossom’ (1937) and similar examples had things to say to later floral photographers, such as Mapplethorpe:

Olive Cotton ‘Plum Blossom’ (1937)

Mapplethorpe

There is a masterly sense of composition, balance and lighting in Olive Cotton’s oeuvre– a sure touch that leaves the viewer totally satisfied. There is nothing small or awkward or indecisive. And all this, without being too pushed or self-conscious:

Olive Cotton 'The Sleeper' (1939) - Her friend Olga Sharp

Bet Olive was a very determined kind off person!!!

Derrick Diamond - The Legs Have It

'Derrick Diamond' is this guy's real actual birth name! Not withstanding the alliteration and the two syllables for each word. And the cunning reference.


And as well as a great square sculptural face and big hot bod, he has a seriously solid hunk of meat between his legs, and those 'bull's balls' I drool for:





And, as a bonus, the open willing hole that sorta suggests he's not a (total) top:


Derrick does, however, have one major fault - some really weird Busby Berkley thing going on with his legs, including some rather unmanly toe pointing stuff:

Now, they are very nice legs. Well, of a type I reckon are real hot. Solid, fleshy and of perfect proportions. With small broad muscular compact feet. Hairier would have been better.

But I'll let Mr Darcy ('Pride and Prejudice' yet again) have the last word. In response to Miss Bingley declaration at a certain moment to have guessed the subject of his reveries, he declares:

‘Your conjecture is totally wrong. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of very fine [legs] … can bestow.’

By now you must realise I have a serious Jane Austen problem! I live with it! Can you?