September 30, 2013

A-Listers Faking Perfection - Eleven Heavily Photoshopped Female Celebrities

Kim Kardashian

We have all seen the pictures of famous people looking like they never wake up in the morning with crusty eyes and stinking breath on drool-soaked pillows. Well, they do. Except maybe for Philippe de Montebello the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art...But I digress.

Check out the before and after pictures of the celebrities in the gallery. Look! Keira has boobs, Madonna is 100 years younger, Jennifer Love Hewitt's humongous new set of rack is desperately trying to jettison out of her garment and Jessica Alba is 20 pounds slimmer! Ain't airbrushing swell? LOL.

Madonna
Britney Spears
Keira Knightley
Mariah Carey
Eva Longoria
Fergie
Jessica Alba
Penelope Cruz
Megan Fox
Jennifer Love Hewitt
via

September 29, 2013

Sarcasm to Combat Rape - AIB's 'It's Your Fault' Drips with Irony

How do you combat rape against women, a vomit-inducing scourge that has existed since the beginning of time, and the concomitant negative reactive attitudes that oftentimes blame the victims for their own victimization? That's a long-ass question. I know. Nevertheless, an Indian comedy collective group All India Bakchod or AIB, decided to use humongous doses of irony, sarcasm and even humor to broach this difficult subject in a 3 minute public service announcement video called "It's Your Fault". "Let's be honest, girls, rapes are our fault. Studies suggest that women who wear skirts are the main cause of rape. Do you know why? Because men have eyes", says actress Kalki Koechlin at the beginning of the PSA video.

September 28, 2013

Fantastically Amazing 3D Tattoos That Boggle The Mind! - Update

I'm an admirer - if only from a distance - of those 3D tattoos that make us gasp in disbelief and amazement. The 3D tattoos presented below are done at such high levels of skills that they force our minds to reconfigure the way the images are being processed in our brains. Check out the video and be prepared for your mind to be boggled!

September 27, 2013

GENIOS - A Gorgeous Animated Short Film with Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali


Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a life-long self-described Communist and Salvador Dali (1904-1989) who was nicknamed "ávida dollars" (eager for dollars), was most certainly not. The two did not exactly get along; they had a famously tumultuous relationship full of conflicts and disagreements. GENIOS is the name of this fantastic, skillfully-crafted animated short film featuring tooned versions of Picasso and Dali really getting on each others nerves even after death. I got a kick out of watching this beautiful creation by CICE!

September 22, 2013

Blue-Blooded Black Man In Renaissance Europe - Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

                                              Angelo Bronzino (between 1555 and 1565)

Alessandro de' Medici, Duke - and ruler - of Florence from 1530 until 1537 is a seldom-mentioned historical figure I have always been intrigued by. Nicknamed Il Moro by his contemporaries, Alessandro (1510-1537), is said by many historians to have been the product of a hookup between Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici - who later became Pope Clement VII - and an African servant of the powerful family's household named Simonetta. In 1536, he married Margarethe von Habsburg, daughter of Karl V von Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor. Alessandro, who fathered 3 children that we know of (Giulia de' Medici, Giulio de' Medici, Porzia de' Medici) by his mistress Taddea Malespina, died in Florence at the hands of a distant cousin in 1537.

There are controversies as to Il Moro's ("The Moor", a moniker used in some parts of Europe to refer to a person of color) provenance but that is to be expected given the fact that the Medici dynasty is the most influential family in the history of the Renaissance having given their patronage through 300 years of rule, to such artistic uber-giants and movers and shakers as Michelangelo, Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci to name a few. The snooty, oft race conscious and panties-in-a-bunch western art establishment doesn't seem to enjoy broaching the subject that a scion of one of the most influential and powerful families in European history - in particular with respect to Renaissance art - was black. Indeed, when there have been exhibits of Alessandro's portraits in the USA (Philadelphia Museum until Feb. 13, 2005) as well as abroad, Il Moro's African ancestry is seldom mentioned. There is also the little detail that some of Europe's most titled families - including two branches of the Hapsburgs - descended from Alessandro's children.

Talk about inconvenient truths.

Jacopo Carrucci
                                                               Jacopo Pontormo c.1534-1535
Jacopo Pontormo c.1535

Giorgio Vasari 1534
Jacopo Pontormo, c. 1550
Cristofano dell'Altissimo between 1511-1537
Giorgio Vasari (1555 - 1562)
Alessandro de' Medici's Wiki