McKaig on Eadweard Muybridge

Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change
By Bruce McKaig

Seen with 21st century eyes, the images and objects in this exhibition linger in a romantic, comfortable past, but their significance and impact on photography and cinema give the show a peculiarly contemporary presence, a mute visit from the past that coyly unveils the building blocks for much of photography and cinema today.

Eadweard Muybridge, a, walking; b, ascending step; c, throwing disk; d, using shovel; e, f, using pick. Plate 521, 1887. Collotype on paper. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, d.c., Museum Purchase, 87.7.477.
A comprehensive retrospective of Eadweard Muybridge’s explorations in locomotion and photography is now at the Corcoran Gallery of Art through July 18, 2010.

Organized by the Corcoran and curated by Philip Brookman, chief curator and head of research, Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change includes numerous vintage photographs, albums, stereographs, lantern slides, glass negatives and positives, patent models, Zoopraxiscope discs, proof prints, notes, books, and other ephemera. The exhibit runs chronologically from his earliest works in stereo photography (3-D glasses are provided) to his landscapes of the American west, his surveys and work from Alaska to Panama, ending with extensive samples of his animal and people motion studies.

Looking at the beautiful albumen silver prints is a treat for anyone who stares at a computer screen much of the day. The material quality of the vintage prints is nothing short of majestic, with all the serenity and fortitude the glorious west of the past is expected to have. They only become melancholic, or tragic, if a viewer compares these images to contemporary aerial photography that shows the state of the land today.

In Muybridge’s motion studies, the subject matter is usually less majestic than Yosemite or the Pacific Coast. Although the motion studies were technical extravaganzas to achieve, the subject matter is simple and straightforward, often boring and banal. Frozen in time-lapse sequences, people and animals parody gestures that will never headline at Cirque du Soleil – tossing a hat, pouring a cup of tea, walking up and then down steps (OK, there are some more gymnastic gestures). In his efforts to document the mechanics of movement, Muybridge proceeded by splintering the movement into chunky slices. They might have been made as quasi-scientific motion studies, but when viewed based on how they look not why they were made, there is an edgy pathos to these flickering slices of movement, a futility akin to the myth of Sisyphus. It’s difficult not to contemplate the images based on how they look. Despite sporadic controversies about the quality of programming and leadership, the Corcoran is a museum of art.

Whereas movement can be equated with change, involving departure and arrival, these short flipbook-like clips endlessly loop through the same futile gestures, never leaving or arriving or sustaining – just moving. In the 1920s, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth attached glowing lights to wrists, arms, and legs of workers then filmed them working in the dark. These films were tools for consulting work on movement and efficiency. (Observing that surgeons spent too much time digging for tools, they suggested that surgeons keep their eyes on the patient and ask for tools as needed, thus, “Scalpel please.”) Like Muybridge’s locomotion studies, Gilbreths’ films, when contemplated for how they look not why they were made, evoke more misery than celebration, not the stuff for a propaganda campaign promoting the work ethic.

The exhibition ends with the brilliant idea of installing a few contemporary works whose influences can be traced to Muybridge. His influences spread over painting, photography, and cinema. Included in this part of the exhibit are works by Mitchell F. Chan and Brad Hindson (Canadian team), Stacey Steeks, and DC’s own William Christenberry, to name a few. The motion picture industries, motivated by commercial interests more than scientific study, have turned Muybridge’s chunky movements into fluid blockbusters. Last summer, I participated in a video piece by then-local artist Lisa Blas (currently living in Belgium) that directly references Eadweard Muybridge. In the piece, called The Jump (in progress, not included in this exhibition), Blas, replete with skirt and heels, repeatedly walks down the sidewalk and leaps over a pile of books on the history of art.

Eadweard Muybridge, Valley of the Yosemite. From Mosquito Camp. No. 22, 1872. Albumen silver print. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, d.c., Museum Purchase, 2007.003.
There was a great deal of mobility in Muybridge’s life, both geographically covering vast regions of the planet, and professionally interacting with numerous individuals also working on photography, motion, and cinema. Born in Great Britain, Muybridge (1830–1904) first came to the United States in 1855 and worked as a publisher’s agent and bookseller. A few years later, following a serious stagecoach accident, he returned to Great Britain and learned photography. When he returned to San Francisco in 1866, he quickly established himself as a qualified photographer, working mostly with landscapes and architecture. These images were published under the pseudonym “Helios,” which, in Greek mythology, is the name of the god of the sun.

In 1872, businessman and race horse owner Leland Stanford – former Governor of California – hired Muybridge to use photography to answer the question: In full gallop, do all four horse hooves leave the ground at the same time? Unaided human observation cannot answer the question. Muybridge spent several years perfecting techniques to produce a series of photographs that do capture a moment with all four hooves in the air. Technically, this involved developing faster shutter speeds and faster emulsions to register the fleeting activity.

In 1874, Muybridge shot and killed his wife’s lover. Though he confessed to the crime, the court acquitted him, labeling the crime a “justifiable homicide.” Stanford had paid for his defense, which included a failed attempt to plead innocent by reason of insanity, claiming that the earlier stagecoach accident had damaged his brain.

After the trail, Muybridge traveled and worked in Central America before returning to the US in 1877. Between 1883 and 1886, he worked with the University of Pennsylvania and produced over 100,000 locomotion images. In 1893, Muybridge gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He used his zoopraxiscope –“animal action viewer” — to project his moving pictures, the first commercial movie theater. In 1894, he returned to England, published a couple of books, and died in 1904 at his cousin’s house where he had been living.

A catalog will accompany the exhibition, and with essays by Philip Brookman, Marta Braun, Corey Keller, Rebecca Solnit, and an introduction by Andy Grundberg.

Following its debut at the Corcoran, Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change will travel to Tate Britain in London from September 8 through January 16, 2011, and to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from February 26 through June 7, 2011.

For more information about the exhibition, visit the Corcoran’s website here.

For more information about Bruce McKaig, check out www.brucemckaig.com.

© giovanni cozzi

In the past few years, lubricant has become a more common fixture on drugstore shelves, often in the condom aisle. In fact, there’s more lube options than ever before: lube for him, for her, that warm, that tingle or that make your parts taste like strawberry or mint. Unfortunately, lube rarely ever comes with instructions, which leaves many men and women in the dark about how to use lube for better, more pleasurable sex. No worries – I’m here to help! Follow these 4 tips for better lube use during sex:

1. Know what you’re working with. Condoms increase friction during sex, which can make sex feel dry and uncomfortable. That’s why most types of condoms come pre-lubricated. Take a hint from condom manufacturers and add a little extra lube for more comfortable, pleasurable, feels-like-the-real thing sex. Add a small drop of water-based or silicone-based lubricant to the inside tip of the condom and then to your condom-clad penis before having sex.

2. Use lube for foreplay. Flavored lubricant is made for oral sex, but some varieties taste more like cough medicine than yummy sex. I like Climax Fruit Bomb flavors and as far as lubes for fellatio go, the Great Head brand (sometimes sold as Good Head) tastes all right, too. Lube is also good for mutual masturbation or partnered sex toy play.

3. Head for the water. Winding your way into the hot tub, shower or bath? Make sure you bring some silicone based lubricant. After all, warm water dries the vagina, which can make your idealized image of hot shower sex turn meh as you try, uncomfortably, to make it work. Add lube to your penis before you start sex, though, and you’ll be far better situated to have better sex. Just make sure to get it directly on your genitals and hand, as you then apply it to her genitals, being careful not to spill any on the shower floor, which could make the floor way too slippery for days on end.

4. Choose a vagina-friendly lube. Not all lubes are created equal. If your girlfriend or wife is overly sensitive to common ingredients in lubes, choose one that’s been developed with her body in mind. I like Good Clean Love, Just Like Me and Pink, for starters. Some adult bookstores and sex shops sell sampler packs so that couples can experiment and find the lube that works best for them. [source]

One of the best parts about sex – besides the obvious, of course – is how much fun it can be. Sure, intense and romantic sex is great too, but there is something really stimulating about being able to laugh while you’re getting down and dirty. Sex can be so good for you, and laughter can be too. So, the combination is downright irresistible.

Making sex fun is all about your mindset. The only expectation should be enjoying yourself and your partner. No dramatic, sweeping music, rose petals strewn on beds, or velvet curtains required here. Just set aside your day and relax. And if things get silly, well then, let them get silly. Giggling has never been known to ruin an orgasm.

If you’re not sure how to ramp up the fun in your after-hours play, why not introduce games into the mix? There are a zillion out there to suit nearly every taste. Here are a few ideas.

1. Group games. Don’t panic. I’m not talking about group sex. I’m talking about games you can play with close, open-minded friends that will send everyone home in the mood. Like Sexy Slang. It’s a naughty Pictionary-style game that gets you acting out all sorts of sexual expressions from the tame to the insane!

2. Go ahead, ask. The adorably packaged Bachelorette Box of Questions can be really fun in a group or just with two. I don’t see any reason bachelorettes should get to have all the fun. So invite the guys and the couples too. It’s 52 questions that will get everyone talking now and doing anything but later…read on >>

For many women exhausted by today’s doing-it-all pace of life, a night on the sofa with a Sex and the City box set is a more tempting option than a night of passion with their partner. But saying yes to sex (whether or not you’re in the mood) will increase your desire – and do wonders for your relationship.

Sarah is always full of good intentions when it comes to having sex with Paul, her husband of 12 years. It’s just that the 42-year-old mother of two never quite seems to get round to living up to them.

‘I’m acutely aware that we haven’t made love for several weeks now and each morning I wake up thinking ‘I’m going to make an effort tonight,’ she admits. ‘Then when the evening does come round I’m so exhausted from working and looking after the children that it’s as much as I can do to sit upright and watch a BBC drama, never mind find the energy to make love.’

It’s not an unfamiliar story, of course – so much so that the weary doing-it-all modern woman for whom sex is at the bottom of the to-do list has become something of a modern cliché. Certainly the statistics back it up: numerous studies have shown that women’s desire diminishes after a few years of sharing a bed. While 60 per cent of 30-year-old women wanted sex often at the beginning of a relationship, within four years this figure had fallen to 50 per cent and after 20 years it dropped to 20 per cent. Meanwhile, the proportion of men wanting regular sex stayed constant at between 60 and 80 per cent. Read more >>

© mweiler

бывали утра и подобрей. да.

© liliana sanches

One last pic from RT and now it’s really over. I had to download this one and I kept forgetting to do it!

The next stop after the family vacation in Myrtle Beach is Orlando for the RWA Nationals! I was so looking forward to being a guest at the Opryland Hotel, but I guess that will have to wait for a while. I really feel for the folks in Nashville. Flooding is one of those things that leave you feeling completely at the mercy of the weather and the recovery could take years. I’m thinking RWA will be held there again eventually, but no telling when it might be. In 2011, Nationals will be in NYC, which I was a bit leery about, but Kendra Castle and Marie Force have promised that they’ll look out for me in the Big Apple.

Of course, if it’s like any of the other conventions I’ve attended thus far, you rarely set foot outside your hotel. My “tour” of Washington, DC consisted of the cab rides to and from the airport. We went to the Sourcebooks dinner in a limo, but if you’ve ever ridden in one before (I never had) you don’t see much in the way of scenery.

So, instead of the Opryland Hotel, we’ll be staying at the Swan and Dolphin resort in Disney World. Our room will be in the Swan, though the convention center is attached to the Dolphin. Guess the Cat Master will get the opportunity to walk off a few pounds, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Like I told Marie (who will be my roomie), we will prevail!

For those of you who might have missed it on Wickedly Romantic yesterday, the title of Renegade has been changed to Virgin, and here’s the cover!

And because this is Monday, there must be moons! Enjoy!

как вам такое? и это закономерно, ибо все работы yanmcline охуительные:

френди маклина, %юзернейм%. нечего тут рассусоливать

Настоящая популярность пришла к Морану после выхода в 1940 в журнале LIFE статьи о нем. После развода с женой в 40-ых художник перебирается в Голливуд, где рисует звезд кино. Одной из самых известных его моделей была Мэрилин Монро, позировавшая ему с 1946 по 1950 годы.

В 1946 году, когда Норме исполнилось 19 лет, она устроилась ученицей в агентство Blue Book Modeling Agency в Лос-Анджелесе. В это же время начала регулярно посещать студию Sunsen Strip художника Эрла Морана, который вместе с Джорджем Петти и Альбертом Вергасом, предложил ей создать художественный плакат. Эта работа заняла много времени. Сначала ее сфотографировали, а затем Эрл Моран по большой фотографии сделал углем наброски образа, после чего картину раскрасил. Результат был необычным и слегка двусмысленным — эта композиция для целомудренной, на то время, Америки была слегка вызывающей.
Playboy в свое время представил достопримечательную, до тех пор не опубликованную коллекцию фотографий Эрла Морана. Отчасти это были портреты обнаженной Нормы Джин, которые ранее уже были использованы в популярных календарях. На протяжении четырех лет, каждый месяц, за 10 долларов в час она позировала Эрлу Морану (каждый сеанс длился два часа). Их совместный труд увенчался великолепной коллекцией снимков.

Норма в этих работах раскрыла свой внутренний темперамент, благодаря чему эти снимки могли рассказать о ее нелегком детстве больше, чем сотня нудных психоа- анализов ежегодно проводимых после ее смерти. От снимков исходила безудержная эйфория. О Норме Джин в то время говорили, что она была хорошей моделью и понятливой ученицей. Фотографам задавала бесчисленное количество вопросов, интересовалась тонкостями эмоционального воздействия отдельных поз, которые ей нравились. В результате во время работы перед камерой она умела быстро и правильно выбрать желаемое направление, демонстрируя свою привлекательность и грациозность поз. «Все делала естественно. Выполняла всегда то, что я требовал», — говорил Моран. «Ее движения, ее руки, ее тело — все было совершенным».
Ее жизнь была пронизана бесконечным стремлением к признанию. И встречи с Мораном и другими фотографами принесли ей ощущение освобождения. «Когда интересовалась какой либо позой, становилась художником: рисовала для камеры свое видение композиции кадра, и мало кто из фотографов в эти минуты не высказывал ей своего почтения».

This one begs the question:

“Why bother?”

And this one is for Suzy, courtesy of Diva Donna!

Enjoy your Sunday!

I’ve got a surprise for you on Wickedly Romantic today. Come on over!

Okay, I’m hoping to bring my readers some extra little goodies this year by the way of free reads. Basically some short stories that I’ve written in the past and touched up; most that are too short to be submitted to a publisher or doesn’t fit guidelines.

I’ve uploaded a story titled Weakness. It’s a futuristic story I wrote ages ago for a writing assignment. I extended it from its original length and find that it’s more fleshed out. There’s also potential for more stories from this world I’m creating.

The catch to getting this story is that you have to be a member of my newsletter group. It’s located in the files section under free reads. I’ve decided that it will be the only way to receive access to my free reads that are offered. To become a member, just click the Yahoo button in the sidebar or go to the group and join.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Martys_Erotic_Times/

Below is a short blurb…

Aliens are real. Earth has been turned into a slave planet. Only a small band of troopers, known as the Resistance, exist to fight against the bondage the human species has been forced into.


Zan, an assassin for the Resistance, once more crosses paths with Storm, an alien and Chief of Security for the World United Council. Will this encounter be his last, succumbing to her temptation or can he resist and escape?

Enjoy!

Title: Spank Me Twice

Author: Keta Diablo, Tara S. Nichols, Jude Mason, Amber Skyze

Anthology Editor: Keta Diablo

Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing

Publication Date:2009

ISBN:978-1-60592-037-5

Genre: Erotic Romance

Length:79 Pages

Buy Link

Author Website Jude Mason, Amber Skyze, Tara Nichols, Keta Diablo

Rating: 4.5 Diamonds

Heat Level: Erotic

Other: anal/oral play, bondage, m/m, fetish, voyeurism, exhibitionism, spanking, and that’s all I can remember, but let it be said there is variety here.

Date:5/15/10

Four very different couples, the only thing they have in common their enjoyment of a spanking when the moment is right. In Ticket to a Spanking by Jude Mason, Ken finds out he shouldn’t have tried to hide his speeding ticket from wife Julia,but if he had how would she have been able to illustrate to her friend Christ just the right way to spank a hubby who’s stepped out of line. Amber Skyze’s Rein Me In’s Delia is a shopaholic whose habit needs to be reined in. Tara S. Nichols’ Road Trip is an adventure with a bit of an exhibitionistic theme and, last but certainly not least, Lip Service by anthology editor Keta Diablo is an endearing tale of trust and lust between its two committed male partners.

By the time I’d finished the four stories, I had changed my opinion on spanking stories. So many of them follow seem to be formulaic and their characters very 2-D, but that was not the case in any of these tales. All the main characters were loving people who valued their partners and that made the difference for me. I actually have not read Spank Me Once, but I plan to pick it up. And while I have read a couple of these authors before, I really enjoyed seeing this side of them in these amusing, sexy tales.

This is a good episode! after having fun last week face painting, we get into a teaching mode. We start off with a video from “Erotic Art School”, follow that up with a review of the new LAzarides gallery show, and end with knowledge and wisdom. My favorite quote is from the very end of the video, “Manet I carry a piece of you in my heart and I love you in a way that Matisse loved you, l love you like Picasso loved you, I love you like Cezanne loved you!” which is my response to a famous quote by Matisse to Picasso in 1954, “My God! In a generation or two, who among the painters will hold a piece of US dear to their hearts as we do MANET and CEZANNE!?” be skeptical of art from “branded” galleries like LAzyrides