happy birthday peter o toole

okay, i'll say it before somebody else does... i mark a LOT of so-called 'celebrity birthdays' here on planetcool. and... they'd be right! and hey, here comes another one! tonight is the 77th (!) birthday of the great, almost iconic peter o' toole. now, i've known who peter o' toole was my whole life. but it wasn't until my mid 20's that i started watching 'lawrence of arabia.' over and over and over again. i bought a double-tape copy on VHS, (after falling in love with the public library's copy) and i must've had that long thing on an endless loop for about two months solid. it was around that time, (the mid 90's) that i started smoking cigarettes... and yes, the fact that i chose Camels is soley, completely, 100% because i was obsessed with this movie. now, i know i could've gotten a better shot if i'd been willing to put my dvd in and snag a few screen captures from it... but hey, let's face it; its late, and that movie is LONG. so this shot is the result of a quick bit of pearldiving. but i like it, because this may be one of the most homosexual scenes in the whole flick. we see peter o' toole, as lawrence, being singled out for a stripped-down, sado-maso whip-and-switch job by the clearly bi-curious turkish officer played by jose ferrer. its some A grade rough trade... hot scene, david lean!

l is for 'lawrence of arabia'

man, one summer i had such an intense affair with
'lawrence of arabia.' i rolled it constantly. i used to have my old bedroom's audio-visual equipment set up so i could play a movie with the picture off... and i used to play 'lawrence of arabia' and fall asleep to the soundtrack, dialogue and all. i loved maurice jarre's music, and i adored the words of robert bolt's script. to me, for a while, it was one big, sprawling audiophile lullabye. i still identify with the film's 'el aurence' character. his poise, his aching and chronic identity crisis, his strange-yet-keen logical view of battle, his guilty bloodlust, his vanity.. his want for appreciation and acclaim... all of it struck me. sigh... peter o'toole's 'el lawrence,'... he IS my joan of arc. (click to enlarge)

epic birthday

today would have been director david lean's 100th birthday. he, of course, gave us such stunning films as 'dr. zhivago,' 'bridge on the river kwai,' and of course, 'lawrence of arabia.' i'm so exhausted from moving all day, so i'm afraid i don't have the energy to give mr. lean as fine a verbal tribute as he deserves, but i felt the need to mark it somehow. i know i already have one 'lawrence' picture on 'the planet,' but hey, what am i gonna post? a 'zhivago' poster...? hey, now that i think about it, that's not such a bad idea. tom courtenay and julie christie are both pretty foxy in that one. and omar sharif isn't exactly like, a dud on the 'mystery date' board game. so, thanks for tuning in, dear planetarians, despite my no doubt evident fatigue.

covered

here is the album art for maurice jarre's hypnotic soundtrack.

overture

'...we can't all be lion tamers...'

vrooom!

here's a shocking pink bookmark my mate jean-lucien made a long time ago using pictures of t.e. lawrence and his motorcycle, pink stars, and princess leia organa. it looks fast and groovy and great. jean-lucien manages to coax just the right shades out of colors. the shade of pink is very 'revved-up,' which is so fitting for the fey horsepower of 'el lawrence.' dig it.