The blog is for fun. My wandering thoughts. I like satire and positive thinking. My interests are in the Arts; theatre, literature, painting, sculpture. Erotica and fetish.
“Namio Harukawa, born in 1947, in Osaka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese artist known for his realistic femdom erotica drawings. Harukawa drawings feature voluptuous women with large breasts, wide hips, round buttocks and thick legs dominating, overpowering and humiliating smaller men. Harukawa women are both Asian and European in appearance, and a few times African.
“Harukawa women usually have an aloof look on their faces as they dominate hopeless men. By far the most common Harukawa theme is the face sitting of the weaker men by the larger, voluptuous women, but his work also includes smothering, urolagnia, bondage, coprophilia and cunnilingus. Other works by Harukawa have a cuckoldry theme.
“Harukawa has developed a worldwide cult following and his works are often displayed on femdom websites.”
WIKI
Patrick Whitehurst points out that none of the paintings appear to be for sale. He wonders why that is? Maybe they are in private collections -- I don’t know.
The collection is vast: you can see the prolific scale of Namio Harukawa’s work here.
For all that we know about Sherlock Holmes there is much that is a complete and total mystery about him - and, as he would say himself, a that is a puzzle that should be addressed. Is it any wonder that so many of us have scratched our much-smaller craniums and pondered his relationships, trying to use his own maxim of "when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" to peer down deep into those mysteries? This timely collection focuses on his unmentioned private life. In short, the great detective's amorous inclinations, the part of life Victorians were so silent on, but so profligate in its practice. And the authors don't stop there - you will also find stories about the sexual side of other key characters who make up the canon: Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson, Dr. Watson, and even that most infamous of villains, Professor Moriarty. Included are many of today's most popular authors including Michael Kurland (American Book Award and the Edgar Award finalist), Angela Caperton (Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica), M. Christian (Lambda Award finalist), and such other distinguished practitioners of the short story and novelette as Cesar Sanchez Zapata, Kate Lear, Wade Heaton, Dorla Moorehouse, Ivo Benengeli, Billierosie, Zachary Jean, PM White, Violet Vernet. As Holmes himself said: "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"
Directed and written by Liliana Cavani, the controversial film “The Night Porter,” “Il Portiere di Notte”, was released in 1974. The film features Dirk Bogarde, as Max, a discreet, unassuming night porter in an exclusive Viennese hôtel and Charlotte Rampling, Lucia, as the figure from his past, who continues to haunt Max.
The year is 1957. Max tends to the hôtel guest’s needs; everything to providing a glass of cold water, to a bed-warming gigolo. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that during the dark years of World War II, Max was an S.S. officer at a Nazi concentration camp where Lucia was a beautiful, young prisoner. Lucia, became Max's sexual slave, a position that she apparently relished.
The moment where the two recognise each other in the lobby of the hôtel is compelling. Both remember. The flashbacks tell of the chilling photographs Max took of Lucia, while pretending to be a physician. Through the flashbacks appropriate to Lucia, the viewer learns of episodes of rape, sodomy, and torture. Lucia is afraid. The viewer soon realises that it is not Max that she is afraid of, but the primal, carnal power of their relationship.
Max was not simply Lucia’s tormentor. He was her protector. It is a scenario which we see rewritten in our own contemporary erotica. “The Night Porter” is a pertinent template for any “Daddy’s Little Girl”, tale; it whispers and awakens forbidden fantasies. It allows us the space to relish the darker side of desire.
Charlotte Rampling, for her part, insisted that she knew nothing about sadomasochism before embarking on the film. 'The girl had to be an innocent, both fearful, and tempted by the mysteries of unknown pleasures,' she said.
If the scene in the hôtel lobby is compelling, the scene at the opera is electric. Max is seated a few rows behind Lucia and her husband. A sensation causes Lucia to turn. She meets Max’s eyes. She turns away, then turns again. He is still there, willing her to hold his gaze. She turns away, then looks again. Max is gone.
Lucia stays in Vienna after her husband travels on. She wants to see Max, and they find themselves caught up in a renewal of their former sadomasochistic relationship. But Max is to be tried for his war crimes. His former S.S. comrades have been carefully destroying documents and "filing away" witnesses to clear all their names, and while Max tries to keep Lucia's existence a secret from them, they eventually find out about her. They consider her a threat, and they urge Max to turn her over to them. He quits his job, and he and Lucia hide out in his apartment, while his former friends keep watch, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
Filmmaker Liliana Cavani visited a Nazi concentration camp after WW II and interviewed a woman who had been involved in a sadomasochistic relationship with a guard. She then made her story the basis for this powerfully, compelling film.
Liliana Cavani certainly gives her audience a strange and unforgettable picture that questions deeply the psyches of torturers and the tortured, “The Night Porter” presents its psychoanalytically provocative material without exploitation. On another level it deals with the psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome
where the victim develops an empathy with his or her abuser.
In an iconic scene, Lucia sings a Marlene Dietrich song to the concentration camp guards while wearing pieces of an SS uniform, and Max "rewards" her with the severed head of a male inmate who had been bullying the other inmates. Max has previously described his relationship with Lucia as “Biblical,” but he cannot remember the story in the Bible that draws him. Then he remembers. It is the story of Salome. King Herod presents Salome with the severed head of John the Baptist as a reward for her display of erotic dance.
In responses to “The Night Porter”, Liliana Cavani was both celebrated for her courage in dealing with the theme of sexual transgression and, simultaneously, castigated for the controversial manner in which she presented that transgression: within the context of a Nazi Holocaust narrative. The film has been accused of mere sensationalism: film critic Roger Ebert calls it "as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering.” Given the film's dark and disturbing themes and a somewhat ambiguous moral clarification at the end, “The Night Porter”, has tended to divide audiences. It is, however, the film for which Liliana Cavani is best known.
I was transfixed by Liliana Cavani’s film when I first saw it, many years ago. I was transfixed again when I watched it yesterday. “The Night Porter” tells of terrible things, and the Holocaust tells a tale of the worst that human beings can ever be. Would Max and Lucia have entered into this distorted, warped love affair -- and it is most certainly, definitely a true love affair, without the Holocaust? Well, of course we don’t know. Would our world today be the same had the Holocaust never happened? Again, we don’t know. The Holocaust is our shame as human beings. We need to be reminded, we need the mirror to be held up to our dirty faces, and if this can be only achieved through a film such as “The Night Porter,” well that’s fine with me.
“The bulk of the Nazi war crime trials took place right after 1945. Basically, from 1945 to 1949, there were parallel Allied tribunals and German courts. The German courts largely dealt with crimes committed against German citizens; the Allied courts dealt with all others, which meant the majority of Nazi crimes. These proceedings petered out by the end of the 1940s and early 1950s largely because West German society suppressed the past and preferred not to talk about it. Nazi crimes hardly found mention in public discourse in the early 1950s.
Thus the Ulm trial in 1958 marked the reopening of criminal proceedings against Nazi criminals. It was seen as a sign that the West German judicial system was taking the Nazi past more seriously. But the most striking thing about the Ulm trial was that it made clear that Nazi atrocities were not just committed within the Third Reich but largely in Eastern Europe.”
Dieter Pohl
Isn’t this great? It is a real treat, that this week Patrick White comes to my blog with his exquisite paintings. Patrick’s art embraces life, with all of its joy, and its pain too. He’s a communicator; his art is sometimes precarious, I can feel myself falling. At other times Patrick lifts me up, so high that I feel dizzy. Here is what Patrick has to say about his art, and following that, you can see his paintings.
“I paint both in acrylic and in oils. Lately I have focused more on acrylics due to the quickness of the media, but intend to return to oils soon! What I find fascinating in the art I enjoy is seeing an image that tells a story. Raised on comic books, I appreciate art that explodes and smacks you in the face, but also paintings that make you feel like your seeing something dark and fantastic, something no one has seen before, or quite like how you see it. To me, that is the best kind of art. I appreciate landscape painters for their talent and for the beauty in the images, but I love the art that can not be seen in the real world. The art steeped in the soul of the artist, in passion and sorrow, intrigues me.
I mostly work on canvas, but have worked on paper and even card board and wood. Mostly I prefer the traditional canvas style. More recently I have decided to attempt a blend of my doodles with traditional painting. This has resulted in my Boris series, among other paintings. Boris has appeared in eleven paintings of mine to date. He can also be found on the blog boris paintings.blogspot.com With Boris I have strived to create a character that appeals to those with a darker sense of the world, those who have embraced depression rather than hide its existence. The paintings come with letters written by Boris as an accessory to the art.
I've also begun a series of four paintings that bridge the erotic writing of PM White with my paintings and will be producing sensual paintings with erotic words painted onto the canvas.”
Patrick Whitehurst can be found on Facebook. Visit the PM White website
COFFEE POT WOMAN
The woman reclines, she’s oblivious to the viewer. She’s not on display; she is comfortable with her nudity. But is she only comfortable because she thinks that she is alone? The viewer is a voyeur and if the viewer is titillated by the image, he/she deserves to be discomforted. We are intruding on a private moment. The woman’s left hand is between her thighs. Is she fondling herself? Masturbating? We do not know.
LIZARDY
It’s a precious moment; sharing a moment in time with a wild creature. The image frozen. It is a privilege. Like a photo, but nothing like a photo. It is a peaceful image; the lizard is wild, but not feral. We have nothing to fear from this creature; we can only admire his exquisite beauty.
PRODUCERS THINK
This painting is surreal, it is like a fragment from a dream. Already the dream is fading, as dreams always do. We struggle to remember. Yes, there was woodland in the dream. We shudder as we recall the ominous shadow. The feeling of something creeping up behind you. Something, perhaps awful is about to happen. THINK the Graffiti tells us. We try, but the thought eludes us.
SITTING AND BLAMING
An alarming old man. Resentment is etched in the lines on his face but despair too. What is he holding up -- painted in soft blue and pale yellow? A memory? Is that why he grinds his teeth? Sharp edges, a wooden chair. Do we know him? Do we want to? He is very old. What tales he could tell us? Would we then understand his despair?
TEXTING CLOUDS
Once I had a dream, that there were images in the sky. It was like looking up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Only I could see them. I was telling everyone to look. They looked, but they didn’t see. So I feel a connection with this painting. A lone figure is intent on his cell phone. He doesn’t see the images in the sky. The shapes of the clouds. Is it a comment on life in the 21st century. I don’t know.
DARK AND LAUGHABLE
This is a hideous clown. The stuff of nightmares. He is scary. Is the artist showing us that sometimes we are right to be scared of humour. Do we take ourselves too seriously? But why is the face gruesome? Perhaps the clown could tell us stories too. Stories that would sound familiar; stories that repel and depress.
READER OF BOOKS
She is taking time to relax, it is another moment in time. Maybe she is trying to hard to relax. Her feet are bare, but she is all sharp angles. While she reads, there are several books discarded. Is the woman as chilled as she would like us to think.
And my readings, my thoughts on Patrick’s paintings are not definitive. There is no right answer. No wrong answer either.
There’s a lot of nonsense talked about art; a lot of waffle. You don’t have to have a deep knowledge of art history to understand something on an emotional level and really, for me, it does come down to an emotional response. Do I like it? Why? Why is it so moving? Why is it so pleasing to my eye? Do I hate it? Why does it darken my mood? Why does it discomfort me? And there’s another thing, just because a piece of art gives me the chills, it doesn’t mean I don’t like it. We can all shout out “This is beautiful!” Or “This is rubbish!” The important question to ask is: “Why?” And sometimes the answer is quite simply; “I don’t know.”
This is the trailer for the latest adaptation of “Great Expectations” by the BBC. If you are in the UK, and you missed it, it should still be on the BBC iplayer. In the UK, the DVD will be available from 30th January 2012 at Amazon UK. I don’t know when it will be available in the US -- but I am sure it will be at some point.
I think that “Great Expectations” is one of Charles Dickens’ finest novels, and the BBC1 adaptation, shown on three consecutive nights over the Christmas holiday, did Dickens proud. Gillian Anderson, as the ethereal, strange, completely bonkers Miss Havisham, and Ray Winstone, as the menacing Able Magwitch, were nothing short of superb.
“It is traditional to surround yourself with familiar faces at Christmas and the BBC’s festive offering was like an old friend. In keeping with the celebrations of Charles Dickens’ forthcoming bicentenary, “Great Expectations” has to be the jewel in the BBC’s crown.”
From Anne Billson; The Telegraph
For those who don’t know Dickens’ story, here is a sort of synopsis.
Pip, is a young orphan, being brought up by his horrible sister, and her husband, Joe. Joe is a blacksmith; gentle and kind. Pip walks through a graveyard, and out onto the marshes of the River Thames estuary. It is Hackney Marshes, before 20th century drainage, and development. Pip is accosted by an escaped convict, Able Magwitch, who demands that Pip steal a file from the blacksmith’s forge, so that he can rid himself of his shackles. Magwitch tells Pip that if he tells, Magwitch will seek Pip out and kill him. Pip returns with the file and some food for the convict. But Magwitch is recaptured and taken back to the prison ship, bound for Australia.
Miss Havisham is a recluse, living at Satis House. She was jilted on her wedding day, and ever since has remained at the house, still wearing her wedding dress, with the wedding banquet set out on display, waiting for the wedding that never took place. Miss Havisham has an adopted daughter, Estelle. She wants a boy to come and play with her daughter. Pip is that boy. As a child, he falls hopelessly in love with Estella; it is a love that he carries with him into adulthood. This is what Miss Havisham desires; she wants to wreak vengeance on the male sex, because she has been betrayed.
Pip is now an adult, and apprenticed to be a blacksmith at his Uncle Joe’s forge. It is announced that a mysterious figure has stepped forward to be a benefactor to Pip; Pip is to be made a gentleman. He has great expectations.
And that is as far as I am prepared to go with Dickens’ tale. The adaptation tells it better than me. The events up to this point precipitate the rest of the narrative. If you read the book you will not be disappointed; Dickens really does know how to tell a tale and Brian Kirk’s direction of the adaptation is inspired.
“Immediately, in the opening scenes, you can see why this story is a perennial favourite. The glowering sky and gloomy wetlands, are a director’s dream, and Brian Kirk rises to the challenge here, with the sort of desaturated steel-grey look seen in many a recent Hollywood action movie. Ray Winstone as Magwitch emerges from the marsh, like Martin Sheen rising from the Nung river in “Apocalypse Now”, accompanied by the sort of chords that Bernard Hermann gave us in Psycho”.
Anne Billson. The Telegraph.
“A small boy runs frightened, from a lonely churchyard, across a flat, marshy landscape. He starts to cross a little wooden bridge over a muddy creek. Suddenly a big hand appears from underneath the bridge, it grabs the boy's legs, and brings him down. The boy shouts out.”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian.
The episode plays upon our most primal fear; the hideous troll under the bridge, a troll suddenly made nightmarishly real. It seems absolutely true to the childish fears that pervade the opening pages of the book; the evil monster, which every child knows, lurks beneath the bed -- just waiting.
"Come 'ere, shut up," growls the escaped convict, to whom the big hand belongs. "You scream again and I'll cut your throat, d'you understand?"
“Winstone is a brilliant Magwitch – rough and gruff and terrifying, but with just a twinkle of kindness and humanity under the mud and the blood. The whole opening scene is perfect; misty and spooky, with the hulks – the prison ships from one of which Magwitch has escaped – at anchor in the distance.”
From Sam Wollaston; The Guardian
Covered in blood and slime, Magwitch, is at once the monster of nightmares; a huge misshapen baby gasping its first breath. In a single sequence, the director Brian Kirk gets to the heart of Dickens’s novel as a fable of rebirth and renewal.
The scene of Magwitch rising from the water is a playful acknowledgment of what underlies all attempts to adapt classic novels for the screen. A moving body breaks out of a flat surface; two-dimensional print gives way to the three dimensions of real life.
Pip brings the file to Magwitch, under dread of being torn to pieces, but he brings the pie only because he has seen that Magwitch is starving. It is this unforced act of kindness that sets everything in motion in the novel.
“Satis House is cold, dusty and cobwebbed, forgotten and forlorn. I see some people have been moaning that Gillian Anderson isn't old enough to be Miss Havisham, that she's a cougar rather than a crone, too ravishing for Havisham. She's not that ravishing, though. They've done a pretty good job of ageing and witchifying her. And, more importantly, she feels like Miss Havisham – not overdone like a pantomime witch but quietly sad, bitter and vengeful, cruelly manipulative, and more than a little bonkers.
Dickens scholars are always going to get upset by any adaptation. They are going to get upset by the end of this one too, as it will coincide neither with Dickens' original ending nor with his revised ending, but will steer a kind of compromise course between the two. That's part of a Dickens scholar's job though, to get upset and argue.”
Sam Wollaston; The Guardian.
The defining scene in any adaptation and in the book, is the death of Miss Havisham. In Dickens’s novel, her dress catches light when she sits too near the fire; she dies weeks later from shock. In the adaptation, however, she solemnly lowers her veil, makes a pyre of her ex-fiancé’s love letters, then steps into the blaze and burns herself to death.
“At 43, Gillian Anderson is the youngest actress to play Miss Havisham. It is a shock to meet this pale yet still beautiful wraith, mouth in need of lip salve and Baby Jane ringlets slowly unravelling, speaking in an insidious singsong, instead of the usual dotty dowager tones. This is a Miss Havisham who has never really grown up.”
From Anne Billson; The Telegraph
“Many people who’ve read the book might agree that Gillian Anderson is still a little young to play the spinster who never recovered from a jilting. Yet she plays the part well and has certainly found her niche in these productions over the last few years, from Bleak House to this January’s The Crimson Petal and the White, it seems the years she spent living in London as a child have had a profound affect on her. She captures the ethereal nature of Miss Havisham brilliantly and there are also hints of her menace in this opening episode. We watch, cringing, as she trains her adopted daughter Estella to resist the lures of men, but it soon becomes clear that her twisted soul has manifested itself in a far more sinister plan and she attempts to hurt men folk through her beautiful heir. As such, Pip’s heart is her plaything. And although the novel is told through the eyes of Pip, this is just as much Miss Havisham’s story as it is his.”
From Channel Hopping on the Box.
“'You've changed," I tell Gillian Anderson. In 1996, she was chosen as the world's sexiest woman by FHM magazine's readers; this Christmas she will be bald and on fire as Miss Havisham in the BBC's adaptation of Great Expectations. So what made her take this role? Anderson bristles: "That's not really a serious question, is it? The real question is, 'How the fuck did I end up as the world's sexiest woman in 1996?' – not why would I do Great Expectations. Any actor would want to do Great Expectations. I never set out to be the world's sexiest woman."
“Anderson plays Miss Havisham in a childlike, sing-songy voice. Where did that come from? "When I read a script I hear the voice. If I don't hear the voice, the script's not for me. When I work on something, I work on it in that pitch in my head, but don't actually say it out loud."
“But what woman in 2011 could identify with a character whose life stops because she's jilted by a gold digger on her wedding day? Maybe what they're talking about is their heart being broken 20 years ago and they're still pining. But there is something twistedly romantic about the idea that someone is so in love, that their heart is so broken, that they cannot love again, and they literally stop time.
"There is something titillating and tantalising about pain, whether it's physical pain or our own sorrow or somebody else's pain. If you think about tabloids, the glee they take in somebody else's ruin – there's all of that in Miss Havisham and there's a lot of that in our contemporary existence."
From The Saturday Interview. The Guardian.
