First up, possibly my favorite painting in the entire world, Rembrandt’s Pallas Athena. I’m well aware that many people think it may not be by Rembrandt himself, but like, whatthefuckever, the painting stands on its own two feet, or would if it had feet instead of a frame. Rembrandt would look at that and say “God, I wish I’d painted that,” I mean, assuming he did not:
Could it rock any harder? I mean, really.
Next up, this very 21st-Century image from the Guardian of a newly-graduated Iraqi policewoman firing at a target.
Beaver shots have been neglected around here of late (we even skipped the drunk Russian beaver rampage of January, shocking to say!) but we are about to rectify that, ladies and gentlemen. We are about to make up for lost time in the only way we know how: by pandering.
So here is your shot of a smooth, cool, bad beaver, via the equally not-afraid-to-go-there NagOnTheLake:
Yes, the smooth contours of this ceramic Bad Beaver Vase by Paige Russell are evocative and moving in the extreme; why, you could even say they’re patriotic, couldn’t you? Run it up the flagpole and see what salutes.
Developed in the summer of 2004, this animation visulaizes launch in August 2007 and entry, descent, and landing of the Phoenix Mars Mission in May 2008. Currently the animation is in the rough-cut phase and is being modified as the spacecraft develops. The animation was created by Maas Digital under the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Solar System Visualization Project.
Yves Saint Laurent, one of the greatest forces in fashion history, has died at the age of 71. His career was a testament not only to beauty and to women but also to his tenacity and struggle with disabilities both physical and mental. That he created so much of enduring worth is an eloquent and astonishing legacy, entirely due to his unceasing battle with and sometimes-victory over those challenges, and culture itself has been enriched by his body of work.
Here is some of it: His second collection, from 1962.
I was never a Saint Laurent woman, nor ever will be, but the immaculate, sexy, unattainable, vaguely bondage-inclined goddess is an icon of the Twentieth Century and such women as Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise, Gisele Bundchen, and Linda Evangelista owe a large part of their fame to their ability to inspire and collaborate with YSL. Whether he invented the archetype, or whether he simply discovered and dressed it is something for historians to debate. He changed the very possibilities of feminine identity, and he did it always from a perspective of deep respect and love.
The YSL Manifesto. Let his own work stand as his eulogy:
raincoaster 