Valentine's Day

Hercules and Omphale (getting frisky) by François Boucher circa 1724. How frisky? Two cupid frisky.

Here is a statue of Omphale dressed in a lion skin holding a club at her side and it is not Omphale sitting while standing erect and happy to see you.

I also learned from wiki that "Hercule et Omphale" is a short pornographic poem by Guillaume Apollinaire from a book called "Les onze mille verges" (The eleven thousand penises). That is one hell of a book title (assuming it isn't a sequel) but the poem doesn't impress me.

Art as a Creative Endeavor : Francesco Primaticco vs Niccolo dell' Abbate

Ulysses and Penelope by Francesco Primaticco


Venus and Cupid by Niccolo dell' Abbate


Or maybe not that creative.

I suspect that "Ulysses and Penelope" is the original and "Venus and Cupid" is the facsimile for the following reasons :

1. Ulysses touching Penelope's face looks romantic but Cupid's hand looks like he is waiting for her to spit out a quarter.
2. Cupid has a mullet.
3. Unlike Penelope who appears to be fidgeting with her hands, Venus appears to be making a rude gesture with an erect thumb on one hand between two open fingers on the other.

Happy Nude Year

Part of Jacque Louis David's study for the painting "Serment du Jeu de Paume" (Oath at the Tennis Court) which had been initially intended to be an enormous life sized testament to the idea of the republic. I hadn't realized the French Revolution had so much to do with the Rights of Man to go without pants.

The final painting was hung at the Versailles tennis court where the oath took place. That's kind of like someone having their portrait painted and then hanging it around their neck (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Merry Christmas

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Star Wars butt

One of my nephew's Legos caught my eye.


She also has painted on cleavage. Neither the thong nor the cleavage causes any rancor from me.

ElectricLightLand

(Seen at TB but posting at TB's seems broken at the moment, so...)

The great thing about a propane/butane or other torch is that it actually produces visible light. climatetorch.com didn't even remember to list that as a feature. Visible light can be useful. I'm not terribly impressed with their torch. (note the poor kid has had a 50% reduction in her carbon shoe print)

Does it even have a means to produce light on it? It may be a stick not a torch.

Next Earth Hour it may be time for GE to rerun this ad from 1939

click to enlarge