Film of Diaghilev Ballet Russe Ballerina Absoluta At Home

Tamara Karsavina arranging things in a doll's house in the garden at home in England (1920s)

A couple of days ago I came across some footage of the great Mariinsky (now Kirov) Theatre and Serge de Diaghilev Ballet Russe prima ballerina, Tamara Karsavina ...

In 'L'Oiseau de feu' / 'Firebird' (1910)

In 'Giselle' with Vaslav Nijinsky (1910)

With Vaslav Nijinsky in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1911)


With Vaslav Nijinsky in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1911)


With Vaslav Nijnsky in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1911)

In 'Les Papillons' (1912)

In 'Les Papillons' (1912)

With Serge Lifar in 'Romeo et Juilette' (1926)

Tamara Karsavina c1960 teaching the ballerina role in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1911) to Margot Fonteyn

... doing a variety of ordinary and less ordinary things at home in England in the 1920s, such as arranging things in a doll's house ...



... choosing some material to be made into a dress ...


... reading a letter in her study ...


... exercising and dancing in the garden ...




... and leaving the house for a performance at the Coliseum Theatre in London ...


... turning to take a coat from a maid ...


... as a cat scurries past!

The footage of Tamara Karsavina in these mostly every day activities seems to make her more real and less like simply the great and remote legend of the photographs, memoirs, histories and biographies of the Ballet Russe era.

A Momentary Return To The Blond Bombshell!

Curiously, the fact that this guy is blond wasn't the first thing that caught my attention ... and I bet you can't possibly guess what did, not!

So obviously I've passed right on.

But then again, when his dick's not grabbing all the lime-light, I noticed that Florian Nemec is one of those ultimate blond hotties that used to and still does get me more than a bit interested.


Opps, my attention's drifting again ...


... and I think he's thinking 'Do you really care that much about the blond thing anyway?' ...



And to make the point even more strongly (couldn't resist that one!), he flashes the alternative gateway to paradise - first back ...


... and then front ...


And just when you thought there couldn't be anything more - he gets you right off the blond thing by featuring his big mouth-wateringly fleshy balls ...



However, when Florian slips into the 'I'm ready for my close-up Mr de Mille' position, I can't help but wonder whether, with his acres of incredibly 'naked', luscious, peaches-and-cream skin, ...


... to lick him ... or fuck him.

A pretty tasty crisis of choice!

The Importance of the Beginning?

I was re-reading Martin Boyd's 1957 novel 'An Outbreak of Love' over the past few days and again thought about how important a beginning is.

Everyone remembers the the first few lines of 'David Copperfield' (Charles Dickens) ...

I AM BORN

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.

And probably knows that one of the tenets of Greek drama held that all characters and events should introduced or foreshadowed at the outset. Which Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa does so perfectly and without seeming calculation in the opening chapter of 'Il Gattopardo' ('The Leopard'), my favorite novel of all time.

So I happily settled down, coffee in hand, after the first paragraph of Boyd's novel ...

'Our minds are like those maps at the entrance to the Metro stations in Paris. They are full of unilluminated directions. But when we know where we want to go and press the right button, the route is illuminated before us in electric clarity. We may go through life with no light ever shining along the unused tracts of our mind; or something, the influence of our parents or our friends, our environment or our own stupidity may cause us to press the wrong button, so that instead of reaching stations of which the names glow with history and devotion , Sevres Babylone, Cluny, Strasbourg St Dennis, we arrive only at Monge. The right button is more often pressed by some accident than by our own choice, as when a line of poetry or a glimpse through a doorway may show us where we long to go'

Happily cos this opening so nicely reflects, among other things, the epiphany I experienced at twenty something when I went to a party and someone told me about semiotic theory and I phoned Sydney University about a post graduate course ... and ultimately became an academic in the field. And I understood that much of life is chance - and all my anxiety at not being able to answer the question 'What are you going to do with your life?' was unnecessary.

So beginnings are important in novels and the like - but, counter-intuitively, not necessarily in life!

A Necessary Reprise

By popular request (or demand or maybe I just couldn't stop), more of Vincent - thanks to Stan.

It's in two parts - the studio set ...


... and the gritty unshaven rougher 'garage' set ...








... where you can practically smell (and taste) our bloke.

I don't know bout you, but I've had my 'fill' ... for the moment!

C12-15 Yoruba Art Across Nigeria, Benin and Togo

Head of an Oni (King) from Ife Oni Palace Vicinity, Nigeria C XII-XV

I've long been bowled over by Yoruba art of the C12-15 - though the Yoruba, who were spread across south-west Nigeria, Benin [Dahomey] and Togo, would probably rather see these as objects with particular social functions within their culture.

I got hooked a few years back after buying a late C19 Yoruba divination stick ...




The Yoruba are perhaps best known in the international tribal art world for twins figures, carved when women have twins ...

Yoruba mother holding her twins. Town of Share, North Oyo. Deborah Stokes 1980

... to mitigate the danger to one child if the other dies, as it is believed they share a single soul ...

Yoruba mother with memorial figures of her deceased twins Selia Alaka, town of Ikoyi, Ogbomoso. 1980 Deborah Stokes

Yoruba Carved Wooden Twins

But I'm getting distracted from what I set out to post - the astonishing beautiful C12-15 bronze, copper, brass and pottery heads of Oni (rulers) found at the Palace at Ife.

These sculptures speak so eloquently ...

Head of an Oni From Wunmonije Compound, Ife C12th-15th

Head of an Oni Brass CXII-XV

Head, Ife, Nigeria, 14th-early 15th century

Obalufon Mask, Ife Nigeria, C12 Copper

Copper Mask of Oni Obalufon II

Crowned Zinc Brass Head of an Oni C12-15 From Wunmonije

Terracotta Head of a Queen C12-13 From Ita Yemoo

Terracotta Head of Lajuwa, Oni's Palace, Ife C12-13

Terracotta Female Head from a Figure, C12-15

... that there's absolutely no need for any 'blah blah' from me!

A Guy Hot Enough to Turn Anyone/Everyone (At Least Momentarily) Into a Cringing Submissive Bottom

Poor old Kelson two posts ago didn't a single peep from anyone (:<) so I hope Vincent here fares a bit better.

As you must know by now, I'm 150% top (!?) but I reckon Vincent could turn me ... to perhaps 50-50.

The dick alone would do it - it's the real thick, bent, veiny thing he's got going there!

And of course there's Vincent himself - his ugly-sexiness ...


... and that hairy totally ripped stomach sure helps ...



But getting back to that primary force of nature ...


It's the way it hangs there ...


... all fat and heavy and pendulous ...


... and when it goes hard and bends slightly to the left, I'm the total begging bottom ...



But then this's the bit that'd take me back to 50-50% ...




Momentarily cos, when I check out the front again, I'm pretty much back on my knees ...






What better way to finish ...


... than where we started - that incredible crowd-stopping dick!

A Day at the Aquarium - Dugongs and Things

Nice how sitting round can turn into a walk can turn into a day at the aquarium ... depending of course on the direction the wandering takes.


Inside, we looked around a bit - and then realized the blog post potential of the outing. Though these images and the footage do not pretend to be anything other than dead dead ordinary!

I made a bee-line for the dugongs - a kind of ocean-going version of my favorite land-dwelling mammals, the orangutans ('Traveling Round The Philippines - Zambles, Vigan, and 100 Islands').


They are one of four species in the order of Sirenia - with another being the manatee, whom I love equally - or perhaps even more cos of their common name of 'sea cow'.

And cos their closest relos are elephants and hyraxes - somehow this adds to the warm fuzzy feeling.

These herbivores always seem so friendly and gentle and empathetic and cuddly - no mean feat for an aquatic creature! Obviously lots and lots of anthropomorphizing going on here!


From the excessive amount of footage I took, I've put this together ...

... with what I think is just so right as the audio track - the Gregorian Chant 'Kyrie Eleison' - seems to match the slow majestic movements of these lovely creatures.

Then on to the more ordinary denizens of an aquarium ...

... which in fact included the less-than-ordinary weedy sea dragon ...

(Not my photo - Included to give a better idea of how beautiful dragons are)

... and some of its more flora-imitating relatives ...


We then fortuitously meandered into the anemones and sponges department ...




... before we plunged into reef fish ...






The big finale was the bovver boys of the seas - the sharks.


I thought I'd been over-exposed to these guys but up close and personal they still managed to send a chill ... just about everywhere.


This last image has a curious resemblance to mid-nineteenth century naturalistic animal painting ...


... don't you think?

Okay, now for the scary stuff ...

... which I felt needed a counterpoint music track - and so George Michael's 'A Different Corner'. It works so perfectly - just listen to the words with images ... and chuckle! And it wards off the chills - very nicely!