The Sudden Curve

Smokin' Babe :: Olga Kurylenko

Posted by Wally Conger, who loves Ukrainian models. And this one even acts!

Music Video Babe -- Tina Turner

For energy and perseverance, I can't think of Tina Turner's equal. YouTube has many videos of Tina, but I like this one for this tribute --   

I waited a bit too long to get this in on Tina's birthday, which was Nov. 26th, but Happy Belated Birthday Tina!!!

Posted by Tom Ender, who has another tribute to Tina at Memory, Making, Meaning

Surprise, surprise

Posted by Tom Ender, who thought at first he was going to see a clip from the movie within a movie in  Idiocracy, but No!!!!

The Sudden Curve looks Beautiful on the iPhone

Try it and see for yourownself!

posted by tom Novak who says look for the mobile optimized versions of TSC and ROM coming soon to a device near you....

Gorgeous leading ladies

I love faces, especially ladies' faces. Here's a kind of time capsule history of Hollywood, told through the faces of its beautiful actresses.

Posted by Wally Conger, who's always had a thing for the ladies.

The Greatest Shoplifting Video of all Time

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, it's not what you think it is.

No Nine Lives for This Cat

Last week I'm driving down a rural two-lane state highway when a mangy orange feral cat runs out in front of my car.

You know what he does? Stops in my lane and stares at me.

I didn't even have a chance to swerve or take my foot off the acelerator -- pow! Heard my front bumper hit him.
Looked in the rear-view mirror and there he was dead in the road.

What a stupid cat. Had he kept going I would have missed him. But, no, he had to stop right in front of my car.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, well, at least it wasn't a dog. I would have felt bad about that.

Armed & Dangerous Babe :: Jodie Foster

I haven't seen Jodie Foster's recent movie The Brave One yet, but I sure will when it comes to DVD in February. I've always found Ms. Foster very hot, and never more so than in this art that will grace the DVD packaging. There's nuttin' like a gun-toting dame, friends.

Posted by Wally Conger, who seldom thinks of Jodie Foster as "that little neighbor girl" from the old Courtship of Eddie's Father TV series of 1969 or so.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, sometimes words aren't needed at all.

Worst Album Cover #2

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, who does this guy think he is -- Tom Cruise?

Worst Album Cover #1

Posted by Bob Wallace, who is still screaming.

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the world's most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. He is one of the most emulated artists of these genres in the world.

Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of eight, at the insistence of his school teachers, Frazetta's parents enrolled him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts.

He attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michael Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. Falanga was struck by Frazetta's significant talent. Frazetta's abilities flourished under Falanga, who dreamed of sending Frazetta to Europe, at his own expense, to further his studies. Unfortunately, Falanga died suddenly in 1944 and with him, his dream. As the school closed about a year after Falanga's passing, Frazetta was forced to find work to earn a living.

At 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books that varied in themes: westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other contemporary themes. Some of his earliest work was in funny animal comics, which he signed as "Fritz".

During this period he turned down job offers from giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature "Shining Knight"), Avon and several other comic book companies. Much of his work in comic books was done in collaboration with friends Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel.

Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular comics.

Having emulated Capp's style for so long, Frazetta's own work during this period looked a bit awkward as his own style struggled to reemerge. Work in comics for Frazetta was hard to find, however. Comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style was deemed antiquated.

Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine. Frazetta attributes much of the violence and brutality of his later paintings to his actual experiences as a young man defending himself from the street gangs of Brooklyn, who most likely unwisely targeted a man who in all probability traveled with a baseball bat.

It was also during this time that he turned down an offer from a talent scout to play for the New York Giants. In 1964, Frazetta's painting of Ringo Starr for a Mad Magazine ad parody caught the eye of United Artists studios. He was approached to do the movie poster for What's New Pussycat? and earned his yearly salary in one afternoon.

He did several other movie posters. Frazetta also started producing paintings for paperback editions of adventure books. His cover for the sword-and-sorcery collection Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp (Lancer 1966) caused a sensation—numerous people bought the book for its cover alone.

This interpretation of Conan essentially redefined the genre of Sword and Sorcery visually and had an enormous influence on succeeding generations of artists. From this point on, Frazetta's work was in great demand. During this period he also did covers for other paperback editions of classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as those from the Tarzan and Barsoom (John Carter of Mars) series. He also did several pen and ink illustrations for many of these books.

Since this time, most of Frazetta's work has been commercial in nature, providing paintings and illustrations from things such as movie posters to book jackets to calendars. Many of his paintings are uncommissioned but have nonetheless become highly sought after commercially.

Frazetta's work has long been admired by many Hollywood personalities. Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Sylvester Stallone are fans and friends of Frazetta's, and most have commissioned works from him for their movie projects.

Once he secured a reputation, movie studios started trying to lure him to work on animated movies. Most, however, would give him participation in name only—most of the creative control would be held by others. Finally in the early 1980s a movie deal was offered which would give him most creative control. Frazetta worked with animated movie producer Ralph Bakshi on the feature Fire and Ice released in 1983.

Many of the characters and most of the story were Frazetta's creations. The movie proved to be a commercial disappointment, however, as Frazetta's fantastic imagery could not be sufficiently reproduced via then-current animation technology and methods.

Frazetta soon returned to his roots in painting and pen and ink illustrations. His son, Bill, graduated high school in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 1978, and Frank supplied the cover artwork for the yearbook.

Frazetta's paintings have been used by a number of recording artists as cover art for their albums. Molly Hatchet's first two albums feature "The Death Dealer" and "Dark Kingdom" respectively. Dust's second album, Hard Attack, features "Snow Giants". Nazareth used "The Brain" for their 1977 album Expect No Mercy. Recently, Wolfmother used "The Sea Witch" as the cover for their self-titled debut.

Wolfmother has also used other Frazetta paintings for the covers of their singles and for some of their merchandise, such as t-shirts. Frank is frequently asked (probably more than any other artist has ever been) about his secret to painting, but Frazetta believes that talent and perseverance are what really counts, and that a talented person can excel at whatever they're interested in.

Today, Frazetta's work is so highly regarded that even incomplete sketches of his sell for thousands of dollars. Frazetta's primary commercial works are in oil, but he also works with watercolor, ink and pencil alone.

He currently lives with his wife Ellie on a 67-acre estate in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. They maintain a small museum, open to the public, on the estate. Some of Frazetta's sons make a living selling reproductions of his artwork.

In his later life, Frazetta has been plagued by a variety of health problems, including a thyroid condition that went untreated for many years. Recently, a series of strokes has impaired Frazetta's manual dexterity to a degree that he has switched to drawing and painting with his left hand. He still continues to find an outlet through sculpture and other means.

In 2003, a feature film documenting the life and career of Frazetta was released entitled,  Frazetta: Painting With Fire.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who can't hardly barely draw at all.

Where I Want to Live

Posted by Bob Wallace, who's got a sword just like that.

Smokin' Babe :: Anne Archer

The last time I saw Anne Archer in a movie, oh, two or three years ago, she'd had an absolutely terrible facelift. I believe this photo is pre-lift, and she looks awfully good here, especially with that smoke. You remember Fatal Attraction? Were any of you as puzzled as I was at the time by Michael Douglas cheating on his wife, played by the gorgeous Ms. Archer? Through the whole movie, I kept shouting, "Dump Glenn and get home, you numbskull!' But maybe that's just me.

Posted by Wally Conger, who still loves Anne Archer, even if she is 60 and even if she does have a terrible facelift.