judy, you're on... get it together

wow.

a stunning rendition of 'the man that got away.' i thought it was gershwin, but i was wrong. it was written by harold arlen, who also composed 'somewhere over the rainbow.'

so feinnes

i thought i'd end the night with a shot of ralph feinnes. my discount non-crieterion edition 'schindler's list' dvd behaves quite nicely on my new video player. here's a screen shot i caught tonight. this was the first movie i'd ever seen ralph feinnes in, and i was hooked even from like, the trailer. some have given me the business about it, but i think they should keep in mind one thing: he wasn't really a nazi. but he really was gorgeous. this was a tricky shot to nail down. i had to cut out the actress, and the lighting was strange in the first place, but i'm quite pleased with the results.

denizens of darkness

wow... this is an older one. i used to keep all my text, hand-written, in those marbled mead notebooks. double-spaced. by hand. every cover decorated. every page decorated. here is an older one jean-lucien recently scanned for me. there's some slight water damage on ronan vibert's face, (that's ronan vibert as the star in the center with the goggles) but i consider slight damage like that more like, battle scars. the spot in the lens is a miniature of a still from some terry gilliam animation. i cut the phrase out of a time-life book on ocean exploration or something. the medallion stars at the top are; left to right... john-rhys meyers from 'velvet goldmine,' ; william s. burroughs, ronan vibert from 'jeeves and wooster,' ; ronan vibert from the bbc's 'the scarlet pimpernel,' ; i think that guy in black and white is harry thaw... the father of evelyn nesbit's baby, and finally, twiggy. i remember gluing all of it down. it seems like a long time ago. click-to-really-enlarge.

praying and playing with paul

i am, as usual, amazed by the resolution and color and quality available from these modern machinery we're working from these days. the original piece this was scanned from is hardly larger than a pack of gum, and that's probably being generous. and its about four years old. but thanks to state of the art scanning and artful expert tricking, it looks fresh and moist and gorgeous. from left to right you'll see sally bowles proverbial 'nun's hands,' then lucy and the diamonds from the cult classic 'sgt. pepper's lonely heart's club band,' and then of course, pre-sir paul mccartney... i'm guessing the photo is around 'rubber soul' era. its tricky and dreamy and gorgeous. jean-lucien really does amazing work. click to enlarge, yeah, yeah, yeah...

schindler's chicks

yeah i dug up my copy of 'schindler's list' this evening and decided to see what kind of results i could get with the new media player i have. i think the grain and resolution is noticeably better and sleeker. i love this shot. well, i think the entire sequence at the nightclub in the first 20 minutes of the film is one the loveliest parts. and i don't know who cast the dancing girls for that scene, but they're a bunch of foxes. it 'click-to-enlarges' nicely, and liam neeson looks good, too.

heavy homework

this is an old one. i turned down the 'shock' of the color, because it was made so early on jean-lucien and i were still teaching ourselves the subtlties of this wild machine. the chick at the center with all the books is a very young and cute miss olivia newton-john, and the dude with the gloves in the back is stephen rea from 'interview with a vampire.' he was playing santiago, right? i still like this piece, though. i can't remember where i found the groovy 'heavy' wording, but i love it. i love all forms of like, exotic fonts and alphabets. and hey, i never miss a chance to 'weigh in' on how much homework sucks! its like, the worst, you know? like, i may not be a rich girl at this point, but i can say with 100% glee, that i have absolutely no homework tonight. so ha ha ha, high school suckers...!

sultry carroll

ahhh, the breathtaking miss carroll baker, ladies and gentlemen. as i've said before, probably my favorite hollywood blonde. its hard to find good pictures of her. i know there have to be like, tons of them out there. for a while she was pretty famous... i'm sure there had to be some steamy press photos taken for 'babydoll' and 'harlow,' still... they're very hard to find. i've had this one for so long i can't begin to remember where i found it. she looks great, though... even better once i tricked the colors and contrast a bit. so unapologetically sexy. i read her autobiography, and from what i remember, she never had much of a problem with the whole sex symbol thing. in fact, i think it was pretty well established that she left the US and went abroad in the late 60's and early 70's in order to be free to, well... 'smut' it up a bit. and groovy for the rest of us. on YouTube, you can order up several clips of her in italian productions. she's the best. i love carroll.

seals and crofts : today - audio/video

here is another one of the tracks off the seals and crofts album 'down home.' just beautiful.

the heart of a bonaparte

...that line is loosely borrowed from joni mitchell's marvelous song 'lead balloon.' and the image is from terry gilliam's film 'time bandits.' the handsome gent with the wicked smile is my darling ian holm. its getting late, and my tooth is bothering me, so i'll just say that he's gorgeous and looks fantastic in the costume and leave it at that. its not as if my mad crush on ian is any kind of a surprise at this point. and just for the sake of general information, the moustache-guy in the back is none other than close 'python' associate, mr. terrence baylor.

just my type

now this is a gorgeous machine. just looking at it... it is literally almost as if i'm looking at a playboy centerfold. i can almost feel the cold steel of the casing... i can almost smell the must and light oil and the slight trace vinegar in the ink. so heavy, such quality. my first machine was not a smith-corona, it was a royal... and i remember every inch of it. still, this little lavendar smith is a fine specimen. some may think i'm crazy to rhapsodise over such a cold object as a typewriter, but all i know is this: i feel the most sane when i am at the keys. one of the finest and friendliest invention of modern mankind. its my piano, my violin, my printing press, my pet. sigh... god bless the tap-dance clatter of the Keys. (...y-yeah, the keys...!) and the picture even looks like it was taken on my porch... (you know the porch i mean. )

vintage kiss

god bless the art and science of photography. i cannot imagine what my life would be like without it. on the outer rims of its inherent technical miracles and artistic applications, so many questions arise. who are these two? i wonder what their first names were. what date was it when they kissed in front of the cameras? were either of them genuinely aroused? did they talk much afterwards? did her lipstick come off on his mouth? what did they end up doing later than day? its a lovely picture. the quality of the grain is exquisite and dreamy. (the guy is pretty good-looking.) sigh...i love this stuff.

lovely lennon

here is one of my favorite photographs of the legendary john lennon. i thought the sgt. pepper - walrus moustache look suited him very well. unfortunately, it was one of his briefest looks. it wasn't soon after that he opted for the moustache-less 'magical mystery' guise. i know i used to have a postcard of this photo on my bedroom wall back home. fortunately, its not a very difficult shot to find. man, just looking at it makes me want to roll something like 'penny lane' or 'strawberry fields.' i need to remember sometimes, how damned lucky i was to grow up in a household full of music... and perhaps more importantly, full of the beatles.

jones dog

here's a rare photo of davy jones walking a dog. h0nestly, i don't think i've ever seen it before; which i suppose makes it a 'never-before-seen' shot of the manchester man himself. i think its a terrier. and does davy look like a girl, or what? so i suppose he fits right in to 'ladies' night' here on planetcool. i love davy jones. apart from being a talented singer and showman, he was also very funny as an actor. honestly, in all 58 episodes of the monkees, he cracked me up probably more often than anyone else. so here's to you, davy. you're the best.

yaayyyy!!

it looks like ladies' night here on the planet. this is of course a screen capture from 'victor victoria,' of the incomparable miss lesie ann warren as norma cassidy. anyone who's seen the movie knows what a great film moment this is. i just love leslie. i've known some people that bag on her for being annoying, but i just love her. i love her in 'victor victoria,' and i love her in 'clue' too. if i didn't have a toothache, i'm sure i'd be more eloquent, but as it is, i just want to say 'yayyy!' and thank you, leslie, for being so great.

blue leia

so... bad news, i woke up this morning with a blazing toothache... good news, the ora-jel is numbing the pain enough for me to focus long enough to post this pretty blue picture of carrie fisher as princess leia. i think this is the costume from the medal ceremony at the end of ... are they calling it 'a new hope' now? anyway, you know its when she lays the medals on luke and han solo. i tricked this one a long time ago, and just went with the blue tint because i was basically f*ing around. like i said, it was a long time ago, and i think i was just learning how to use all the photoshop stuff. its still a very nice picture. dig it, and may the force be with you.

let's torture ora

suspected of treason, the lusty princess ora was subjected to harsh interr-

ogation, and countless lashes of the whip across her back... but nothing weakened her. until her captors utlized the ultimate in pain, endless agony, and deadly levels of boredom ... no, i'm not talking about the infamous 'bore worms,' i'm talking about the evil klytus making good on his threat to roll the 1999 cinematic fiasco 'wild wild west' with wil smith and kevin kline. now we're talking about some 'cruel and unusual punishment.'

daisy saturday

now, this one is really old. like, three years? jean-lucien pieced it together. i love the sheen and vibrance it has. you might recognize the chick as the girl who kisses all four of the monkees at the beginning of the movie 'head.' i don't think i ever found out what her name was, so jean-lucien and i have always referred to her as daisy saturday. we just thought it sounded like some girl's name dreamed up by mike nesmith, who has always seemed to be really 'into' psuedonyms. several years later, i still think it looks magnificent.

hawkeye

...he is hawkeye, right? anyway, its late and i know its probably my favorite picture of alan alda, in his M*A*S*H wear, eating rice. i love chopsticks. i'll go ahead and brag here and say that i can eat anything from fried rice to nachos bellgrande with chopsticks. honestly, you can eat almost anything but thinner soups with chopsticks. i use them every chance i get. pretentious? well, i don't mean it come across that way. i just dig the feel of them. i love the way it makes you slow down and really enjoy each bite. i highly recommend it.

france gall - 'zwei apfelsinen im haar' : song , video

the video is a still frame, but i'm posting it for the song. its german. its catchy as hell. it swings. it rocks. it had me hooked on one hearing. i find myself picturing cool stuff-to-go-with-it, like, film-wise. give it at least 45 seconds to see if it gets you. i love it. i almost never skip this one when it comes up. she's got something in her voice that sylvie vartan doesn't have, and vice-versa... in other words, i wouldn't want to be without either one.

circus of cool

here is an older notebook decoration pieced together by jean-lucien. its from a few years ago, and keep in mind, the original is about three quarters the size of a credit card... possibly smaller. the boys in the back should be easy enough to identify, and the girl is english actress sally thomsett as janice hedden in the 1971 film 'straw dogs.' and i think there's even a little nick rhodes in there near the bottom right hand side. it enlarges quite well. i love the dusty rose colors. i love the whole thing.

athena tomasina

otherwise known as the lovely playboy playmate miss jeana tomasina. she was also a zz top girl, and appeared in the mel brook's movie 'history of the world, pt. I.' but i'm just using her as cheesecake. in this shot she strikes a profile that somehow makes me think of the greek goddess athena. again, i hope i don't get too hastily flagged for the very mild yet very sexy breast exposure. i love her brunette hot looks and pouty lips. so enjoy her.

ian as napoleon

its amazing i haven't (yet) run out of pictures of my darling ian holm. here he is in a screen capture from terry gilliam's 'time bandits,' playing napoleon. i took the shot and tricked it, and let me tell you... that was some pretty damned difficult film grain to work with. not to mention the fact that ian apparently had a deep brown suntan. suntanned skin is notoriously difficult to trick. still, it came out rather nicely. i still managed to retain his facial expression. he is truly a magnificent actor. like, 85-90% of his communication is through the eyes. he would've been every bit as effective in silent parts. honestly, you can watch any scene he's in with the sound turned all the way down and still be able to tell what's going on. i love that in an acting job. he is the best there is. (click to enlarge.)

the micker

you'll have to look around pretty hard to find a more die-hard monkees fan than myself. call me crazy, but i don't think a day goes by that i don't roll some monkees either on video or audio or both. you just can't talk me out of them for like, sheer entertainment value. their music; whether played primarily by themselves or by others, is some of the best mid-to-late 60's stuff there is. granted, micky 'the micker' dolenz was an actor when he auditioned for the show, but quickly adapted to the musical side of the deal as well. hey, you know he's not the worst drummer i've ever heard. and his voice proved to be gold in hits like 'i'm a believer' and 'last train to clarksville.' but, if you think those two songs are what the monkees are all about, you probably should dig a little deeper. all things said, i love the groovy 'micker,' and he looks cool and capable here in a shot from the fliming of thier conceptual, underrated movie 'head.' check it out.

wedded bliss

i don't think i've posted this yet. its a still frame i managed to shoot from the ken russell masterpiece 'women in love.' near the start of the movie, the young bride... (i think the character's name is laura lupton, and presumably, i have to credit d.h. lawrence for that.) ...rushes from her carriage towards the church, in a vain and playful attempt not to be seen by her soon-to-be-husband before the vows can be officially exchanged. they share a veiled hearfelt kiss... which arguably seals their fate. i should be able to come up with the actress's name. ummm, its sharon gurney. i love the motion i managed to get with this shot. i managed to catch her smile and at least one of the trailing ivory ribbons. i love this movie. the costumes are so damned good they're almost a character all by themselves.

easy weaver

i hope i don't get too hastily flagged for this one. i mean, as nudes go, its pretty tame. what makes it hot-hot-hot, is that its a shot of the slinky and sexy miss sigourney weaver, undressed and reclined for our pleasurrahh! i have no idea what movie this was for or from... but she looks great. i love the smile. i've always liked nude photography when the girls looked playful and happy to be there. having read 'penthouse' and 'playboy' all my life, i never quite understood that hyper-sultry style where they girls seemd to be saying with squinted eyes and bared teeth; '...yeah, i'm naked...so deal with it!!' the playful and positive approach seems far more seductive to me. anyway, like i said, i hope i don't get flagged for it. she's very hot.

darling volume

now, you're really gonna have to 'click to enlarge' this one to get the full detail. its a journal cover i made a few years ago. the main model is none other than a giggling, young, monkees-era davy jones taken from the 'monkees mind their manor' episode. (the only episode directed by peter tork.) i seem to have over-embellished the lower left hand corner with glitter and pen work and such. the stars featured in the circles above are; from left to right: f. murray abraham as salieri, linda blair from 'roller boogie,' andy partridge, patti lupone as evita, nancy allen from '1941, and a little bit of ian holm as fluellen in 'henry v.' as much as its been handled, it still looks pretty groovy if i do say so myself. i do love that pink-and-sea-green color scheme.

ultraviolet

wow... jean-lucien just sent me this one this afternoon. its from such an old journal i almost didn't remember it. the equipment they make these days is truly miraculous. such clarity and color and fine grain from a scan of an image committed to paper at least two years ago. it looks so refreshed thanks to jean-lucien's fine handling of the scanning process you'd think it was just constructed yesterday. it has such a vital, florid look to it. the stars of the piece include, from left to right, robin gibb (blowing the bubbles), david warner, and liza minelli as sally bowles, asking that magic question: 'doesn't my body drive you wild with desire...?' mmm, you know its '...a very nice body.' just the grooviest. (click to enlarge)

marisa detail

i may not get to post a lot tonight. but i wanted to mark my place. this is a shot of the lovely and talented marisa berenson in her costume from the kubrick masterpiece 'barry lyndon.' this slice was just part of a much larger notebook cover of mine. i glued down marisa and added some hand-cut glitter and fairy dust. the entire cover was just today scanned in, despite the fact i wrote the book at least two years ago. despite the normal wear and tear of general handling, the images still come through nicely with mininal damage. marisa is truly beautiful enough that i caught myself just staring at this image today, and even used a scaled-down version for my temporary desktop. just lovely.

good-bye sydney

i wasn't going to post anything tonight, but i just looked at my homepage and saw that director Sydney Pollack just died. he directed (and acted in) one of my favorite movies of all time, 'Tootsie.' so, even if its the only thing i manage to put out, god bless you Sydney, and thanks for all the laughs i got (and continue to get) out of that single movie alone. i also should mention how great and funny he was in woody allen's 'husbands and wives.' what else can i say except thank you.

watercolors

this afternoon jean-lucien sent me some lovely scans from old books, and amongst them was this shot i hope he doesn't mind i published. i love it, although its been technically damaged. it began as a collage, but something was spilled on it before it could be scanned, hence, the distortion and bleeding. i thought this unfortunate accident added as much to the image as it subtracted from it. it didn't make it neccessarily better or worse, but it did make it different. in the words of an immortal commercial artist: '...i liked it, so i used it...' i just hope it passes jean-lucien's approval.

courtship

here is an early shot of my darling ian holm doing 'romeo and juliet,' i think. which means he was probably playing romeo. i used to know the name of the girl, but i confess i can't remember it right now. its probably just as well, as its hard for me to look at this shot anyway without feeling a tightening little wire of jealousy. i think he might have even been married to her for a while, but as i said, i really can't remember. the girl aside, ian's so damned talented... even in this decades-old photograph, the required romantic longing comes through from his eyes. his voice must have been high, practiced, sleek, and perfectly intoxicating. ian, a thousand times good-night. kiss.

van vliet duet

here's a stunning example of how oftentimes two is just enough. this marvelous slide was constructed from only two pieces. the background is an expertly-snapped frame of film, which was subsequently tricked. the hand-cut image of don van vliet (captain beefheart) was added later. the end result is a dreamy, glassy, rectangular stone. its so beautiful. jean-lucien is responsible for it, and i hope he doesn't mind that i posted it here. (and on a final note, if god hadn't meant us to take shortcuts, he wouldn't have given us memory.)

santiago

this is santiago, isn't it? i think so. i know its stephen rea, more or less half in drag from the movie 'interview with a vampire.' i don't think i've kept it a secret from anyone, but i'm going to explicitly admit it now: i've been in love with stephen rea since the first time i saw him... which must've been in 'the crying game,' now that i think about it. something about his understated style and peculiar profile just drives me crazy. i think, and have always thought, that he was absolutely gorgeous. when he's on screen, i know i can't stop staring at him. his accent is dreamy, and his profile is unlike any other i've ever seen. he's got one of those faces that i wouldn't mind seeing over my cereal every day for the rest of my life. he 'rea'-lly turns me on.

ferry dust

this is a smallish one, but i love it. i wanted something punch-colored to go in this slot, so i chose this wild, hot shot of mr. bryan ferry. jean-lucien sent me this screen capture a long time ago. i can't remember exactly where its from, and i can't glean enough information from the image to place it, like as to what year it was. i can tell its probably sometime during the roxy music days. even in this small frame, in his eyes, you can see the wild dedication to his art. whether manufacturing hard, loud, jagged glam rock, or the calmer, more serene stuff from his later days, i've never questioned bryan ferry's sincerity. he believes in what he's doing, and he always does his best. he works damn hard. and we all reap the rewards of it.

hyacinth

if anyone has followed this publication, they may have noticed my taste in male sex symbols is often, well... shall we say, unconventional? the same thing goes for the girls. for instance, for several years i've had a serious girl-crush (woman-crush..?) on the english actress patricia routledge. most will know her from her brilliant comic portrayal of hyacinth bucket (...bouquet!!) in the bbc series 'keeping up appearances.' i admit, she is still very beautiful in the program, but i also have seen her quite a bit younger in certain earlier movies such as 'to sir, with love.' apart from having milk-fine skin, smart quick eyes, and very pretty lips, she also has an unfailing talent to make me laugh. i think she's a prize. i love her.

more playtime

yes, i just can't get enough... of vintage 'playboy' magazine, that is. here's another issue i don't remember having growing up. like i've said of other issues, if my brother and i did have it, we must've gotten one without the cover, because i know i wasn't aware of this particular cover until i saw it years and years later. it enlarges pretty nicely, so click on it to see it full-size. i know with a little research, i could find out who the centerfold was, but i don't feel like looking it up right now.

passion for ash

yes, i haven't posted a shot of ian holm as science officer ash in a long time, so here goes one i just caught and tricked like, within the last ten minutes. like, i had 'alien' rolling anyway, and i thought i might as well get a close-up of him as he explains the terms of their contract to parker and brett. i know i caught him like, in between words, but its still a pretty good shot. well, in MY mind, its almost impossible for him to look bad. i'm so crazy when it comes to him. its no wonder i'm on like, three different kinds of medications-to-keep-me-sane.

sylvie vartan : cette lettre la - video

instead of going with harold hill this morning, i decided to let miss sylvie take me to 'night church,' with this moody, cool, contagious french ballad. from the first time i heard it, the charming, bluish, dated hook had me, well... hooked. it sort of brings to mind cozy rain dotted windows, the sweet musk of often-borrowed library books, and softly padding cats. sylvie looks smart in her little white suit, and her voice has a sexy, plaintive strain to it. i love this one.

thank you

thank you for visiting the planet. we love you.

amen.

ian plays dead

i don't think i've posted this one yet. here is a shot of ian holm, on stage, i think its a production of 'romeo and juliet,' but i could be wrong. but wow... how beautiful he was. he still is. i see a shot like this, and two words come to mind : time machine. god, he's lovely. when i think of all those lucky ladies he had to kiss on stage, i go crazy. i'm not a bad actress myself, but i think if i had to kiss ian holm in front of cameras or an audience, i am quite convinced i might faint. ian, if you're out there, i love you. in fact, i'm rolling 'alien' right now as i write this. i think you're better than olivier, and every bit as good as guinness. where ever you are right now ian, i wholeheartedly kiss you good-night. sigh.

le bon

here's a cool example of how just two pieces can come together to make one dreamy slide. the model is the very sexy young simon le bon... it looks like 'girls on film' era. jean-lucien just placed the well-cut scrap on top of some swirly purple he had laying around. but as simple as it is, its just gorgeous. it would make a groovy door poster, bookmark, or cigarette lighter.

shirley she will

man, its late. i don't have anything planned to post, but i wanted to mark my place. so dig it, this hot and sexy picture i found of shirley maclaine in a belly dancing outfit. i'm sure with a little research i could figure out what movie this costume test was for, but i don't feel like digging around for that information right now. you know she's warren beatty's sister. i wonder if they ever made out. i know if either one of them was my sister or brother, i'd have a hard time keeping my hands off them. then again, i'm a twisted freak! sigh... so here's to sassy shirley. i love her untanned complexion. tans are really a turn-off for me, like, 90% of the time.