Who says angels don’t exist?!

If you have ever doubted the existence of angels then let me assure you that they do exist! Oh, very much so! And they come both with and without wings!

I just watched the annual Victoria’s Secret show, this time in HD (I’m praying to the Goddess Victoria, to release these shows on Blu-ray. One day she will, I have faith!) and boy they do exist! In all their skimpy outfits and undersized wings! Voluptuous and glorious!

What I am particularly glad about is that this year, unlike previous years, we were able to see more shapes and sizes among the angels. Not just the fashion industry standard skinny type, an unlikely and unhealthy ideal that had started taking over even this show.

The Dutch beauty Doutzen Kroes (above) is a perfect example, she graced that angelwalk with her ample curves and proved that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes! …and in Victoria’s Secret lingeries, of course!

By the way, in case you have missed the spot directed by Transformers director Michael Bay here it is. It is basically like a Transformers movie, but with babes instead of bots! “Angels! …Transform”!lol

Men in blue

I was already a fan of Scott Schuman, even more now that we apparently share the same taste! hehe

Big is beautiful!

If there is anything that both creationists and evolutionists agree on is that man would have not been complete without woman! I don’t think that by now its a secret that I love women. Their minds and bodies alike! In all states, shapes, colors and sizes! And as an artist who gets inspired by the variety in nature and life I have always advocated diversity in the society against any standardization promotion by the elite of the industry. Therefor it glads me to see that the brand new issue (#63) of V magazine is dedicated to full-figure women. Big, bold and beautiful!

The first psychological portrait?

Gustave Courbet’s self-portrait “The Desperate Man” is one of my most favorite artist self-portraits. This kind of self-portrait is today known as psychological portrait. However back in 1844-45 when Courbet painted it there was no tradition of such kind preceding it! Portraits and self-portraits were formally composed and contrived to capture the appearance of the individual and not the essence. Basically the way that is today considered standard and conventional. “The Desperate Man” however defied all rules and conventions by going beyond the face and surface of its creator and thereby showing us a side of his existence that we would have never seen otherwise!

He returned to the scene of crime!

Well you know what they say about criminals! hehe, so I returned! This time getting myself two pieces from ZARA’s spring collection. A leather jacket and an Andalusian scarf. I really love their trademark scarfs with “termeh” pattern!

Serial Crashes

The sun doesn’t always shine on TV! As a matter of fact, as far as TV-series goes this season has been a huge disappointment. In particular when it comes to some of my favourite shows which have all fallen flat on their faces! First is “Californication” which you by now know how much I’ve loved and praised. When the third season kicked off it had all the necessary ingredients for a great season but unfortunately wasted every bit of it! In an unjustifiable manner. So much they could have capitalized on with the relations and intrigues yet nothing of the kind happened. The plot became banal and all the characters became parodies of their original selves. The show became a lame joke and lost that philosophical depth which put the comic side of it into balance. It was truly frustrating to watch it going on empty in an entire 12 episodes!

Next is “Crash” which’s second season basically went against everything that the first season had established. They miscalculatedly stripped it off all kinds of sexual tension that sharpened the edges of the intrigues compared to other series and lost many of the viewers. Halfway through the season they realized their culpa and attempted a damage-control by basically over-dosing it all with sex! But the sudden decontextualized sex just felt like fish-out-of-water and had the opposite effect on the viewers (even sex-addicts like me!lol). As the story was heading a thousand ways they ended it all with a premature wrap-up and forced closure which gave the title a whole new meaning and will most likely put the entire Crash franchise to eternal rest!

The third disappointment was the second season of the vampire-themed “True Blood“. It departed from the quality of the first season which managed to mix humor and horror in a balanced blend. The show lost nuance and its sex, just like Crash got entangled in a line that went slowly but surely to nowhere! It all ended with one of the wackiest and weakest cliff-hangers ever!

And finally was the brand new “Flashforward” which tried to tap on the whole “Lost” formula and even borrowed its title form the lost terminology. However lacking the solid structure that Lost benefits from the show got lost in its Lost imitation! Which means entangled in the mess of lose ends, much like the ill-fated “4400″. This show is also an example of the “orientalistic” ignorance which tragically still plagues Hollywood, the scene below is from the season finale which ironically revolved around a character played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, yet when Persian script was to be displayed and read it ended up in literally pure nonsense! Look at the background, don’t you recognize Persian …according to Hollywood?lol

Resolutions are recommended!

So did you make any new year’s resolution this year? I started 2009 with several resolutions, with serious intend to (for once) commit to them all no matter what! One of them was to change life-style to a healthier one. That meant eating healthy and getting back in shape. I had been bulking up while training in past but the downside with such diet is that once the related training is not attended to according to the program you just gain the weight or better said puff up! So I have been on a strict heigh protein-low fat/carb diet these past 12 months plus an intense program made of daily power-walking and power-training at home, work and the gym in order to trim down and get back in original shape. Not to mention drinking a lot of water to keep the body hydrated. As a result I’ve lost 47 kilograms (104 pounds) of extra weight! Below you can see before-and-after pictures of me, with 12 months in between. As you can see the physical change is most apparent (its not only relocation of hair form my chin to the top of my head!lol) and the most important of all; I “feel” healthier! So there you go, resolutions do work! With serious commitment, that is. No need for extreme measures, just start thinking and living healthier. Needless to say this is an achievement I’m very proud of so I thought sharing it with you guys, in case you are considering changing life-style to a healthier one don’t wait another day!

Smart and space-saving station

If you have a lack of space in your room and need to set up a workstation then MisoSoupDesign offers you their very smart and space-saving solution called “K Workstation”! I love the futuristically linear and minimalistic look of it, yet with that 70’s touch of retro.

Rasmus maximus

Rasmus is a Scandinavian boy name, but its also the name of a Finnish ROCK band which put a “the” in front of the name in order to avoid being mistaken for the Swedish singer by the same name. Hence “The Rasmus” and strangely none of the band members is named Rasmus! Anyway, these guys broke through internationally back in 2001 with the MEGA-HIT “In The Shadows”. The band has since then had minor hits here and there and has recently released their best of compilation, just in time for Christmas.

There are two different editions of the album and although the numbered book edition is great content-wise I personally prefer the ordinary digipak edition with a design that basically sums up The Rasmus. The silhouette of the singer with his feather-attired hair, which just like Jamiroquai’s Indian head-wears has become more or less the image of the band. The composition and the colour-combination is coherent with the design of the recent albums of the band, which all have been released as digipaks. I highly recommend this album as an introduction, since even though I don’t like all of the band’s songs most of their best ones is featured on it. Here is one of my favourite tracks from their latest studio-album, if you listen closely you hear inspiration from Kool and the Gang’s “Cherish the Love” in there! Sadly this is the best quality I could find:

See you in the next decade!

Since decades back Sweden and some other European countries have shown this classic sketch on new year’s eve. So it is a tradition that I thought sharing with you guys this year. Admittedly its 10 minutes have always got me down and depressed ever since I watched it for the first time at the age of 10! Because even though it is a comedy and meant to cheer people up there is an air of sadness and solitude about its ambiance and characters. Not to mention its title! Perhaps its the black and white that evokes the gloominess in me, and the fact that its everything stands in contrast to what you experience on this night of the year. It basically drags you away from the spectacles outside into a dark dungeon! Anyways, at the risk of projecting my perception on you its worth watching it once in its entirety. Especially those of you residing in America. Have a great night my friends and I see you in the second decade of the 21th century! Happy new year!

Who robbed who?!

Last Saturday was the Boxing Day, which for me and many others means the big bargain day! As many shops officially open their annual sales during that day and often extend to the following week. However the best items are often few and grabbed on the opening day (opening hour even if its an odd size!) so the early-bird strategy applies even here. And an early bird that is smart strikes even earlier than early! hehe, I often locate and lock in my most wanted items by visiting the stores minutes before they close on Christmas eve. This gives me the advantage of knowing exactly where to go to get that particular clothing (since the stands are rearranged for the sale) while everyone else run around like headless chickens on the opening day!lol This year the Spanish ZARA, which has grown to take over the retail market of Europe by storm, had the deepest discounts in town and most of their stock went for half of the original price! Needless to say I shopped ’til my both arms almost dropped!lol And the jury is still out on whether it was me who robbed ZARA or it was ZARA that robbed me clean!lol I guess we both came out rather pleased from this deal! hehe

299

Thanks to all the free publicity our vanguards of the 2500 years old Persian civilization gave Miller’s “300″ through their hysteria, Miller has now decided to once again tap on and cash in on the controversy by this time focusing on Xerxes himself! In the follow up entitled “Xerxes” he will be exploring the life of the Persian king, in particular the decade before the events of “300″ taking place. In other words this will be a prequel and Zack Snyder has already expressed interest in filming it. Now if you freaked out when you saw the king being depicted as a giant fairy freak in “300″ then get ready for a total loss of sanity! Since it wouldn’t surprise me if this comic biopic presented that creature as the offspring of a ghoul and a jinn!lol

“Who called me a fairy freak?!!!”