At The Beach in the 1880s

If I'm being truthful, what first drew me to these photographs by Wallace G Levison was a slight sensation of nostalgia for the past , perhaps brought on - or maybe only made the more acute - by the current world economic crisis.

What I particularly liked was the grading from the more formal photographs, such as these first two images with their rigid triangular composition taken from the precepts of Renaissance painting, ...

Mrs. Frank Montgomery and her fully-clothed children at beach (1887)

Two young girls sitting on rock, looking out on a bay, with a dog lying down next to rock (1889)

... through those images with still obviously posed groupings but without a self-consciously imposed formal geometry ...

A young woman in a print dress (1880s)

... and those recording this compositional process ...

The Montgomery family dressed up and preparing to pose by the shoreline of the beach at Stokemus, near Sea Bright (1886)

... right to images with a curiously modern organisation...

Five girls competing in a swimming match posing by the shoreline at Coney Island, Brooklyn NY (1887)

... and beyond to unstructured candid shots ...

A fully-dressed couple sitting back-to-back reading on beach, a low wooden pier spans the ocean in the background (1884)

Young girls wearing dresses and bathing outfits by the shore (1889)

Three young girls in bathing suits wading at the shore line (1889)

A fully-dressed woman wading on the shore line of the beach in Sag Harbor, Long Island, NY (1889)

An actor talking with two wet girls on beach by the shoreline, Asbury Park, NJ, US

This last image is almost uncomfortably modern in my current nostalgic state of mind ...

Mrs. Freed swimming on her back, splashing up a storm (1886)

... though when this mood passes I'll most likely find it the most satisfying of the lot!

A Tousle-Haired Blond Nature Boy

Love the slightly dishevelled look Vilem's got going here ...



... and the way he seems to take pleasure in just lolling round on the grass ...



... exuding an easy-going and casual sensuality ...



A golden tan on honey-coloured skin doesn't detract from his languid eroticism and gives him that real sexy more-naked-than naked look ...



By the way, I think I forgot to mention ...



... he's blond.

And I used to kinda like that at one time, maybe even a bit now.

But you may well know that already!

Are We Too Litigious?

Was in fact Mr Bumble, the beadle in Charles Dicken's 'Oliver Twist', right when he said 'the law is a ass ... a idiot'?

The following are either examples of 'great urban myths' (possibly!) or the current excess in litigiousness.

Example 1

Ms Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home from a football game, she drove on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. The motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Example 2

Kara Walton of Claremont, Delaware, sued the owner of a night club because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000 plus dental expenses.

Example 3
A jury ordered Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to be paid $113,500 by a Philadelphia restaurant after she slipped on spilled soft drink and broke her tail bone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor - Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

Example 4
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbour's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Example 6

Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had just burgled by way of the garage when the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the door to open. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the home owner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. The jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish.

Example 6

Carl Truman of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour's hubcaps.

Example 7

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.


Do any (or all) of these strike you as just a tad excessive?

And which one/s really took your fancy?

Just A Matter of Priorities

Now while Victor is a damn good-looking bloke and has a great lean muscular bod ...


... my eyes always seem to drift irresistably back to his absolutely perfect dick...


This being said, I now challange you to look at this next image and not start at his cock and then work your way (slowly and reluctantly) out to his other fine attributes ...


... and I bet you do the same with the next photos - where his skin is back and his cock's amazingly suckable pink head is now right out ...





Of course these next images are no challange at all ... cos Victor's back is turned ...


... to give you a chance to admire his perky perfect bubble buns ...


All that's left for our friend at this point is to start to harden up ...



... and up ...


... till he's indicating the position of Mars in the heavens ...


... and we're probably doing the same!

Sean's Great Pre-Xmas Nut Display

Sean's got a great great pairs of nuts ...


... which seem fantastically hot from just about any angle, from sitting down, legs splaid open ...



... through viewed one leg up and nestling in-the-crotch/crack ...


... to the slow reveal back view ...




Even the traditional stand-and-deliver straight-on thing ...



... works real well for our guy!

Dame E at Her Very Best

It seems to me that Dame E is at her very best in the short mostly scripted comedy festival format.

Of course, there are hallmarks of her full one-woman stage shows - such as the interaction with a single member of the audience.

This usually begins with some pretty subtle (and scary) scanning of the front few rows - left ...


... and right ...


... until a suitable victim is spied ...


... at which point, an expression of devilish delight usually passes over the face of the demonic Dame ...


The doomed soul is seized on in a pythonesque and unreleasing grip ...


... and lured into participating in their own public humiliation and destruction ...


... which they usually do with good humor ...


Watching the video, I realized I hadn't remembered how pants-wettingly funny Dame E's slow and exaggerated facial freeze expressions could be ...






So enjoy ...

... as I will cos I think I'll just look at it one more time ... or two ... or five ... .