The FUSION of Super and Mario

Who doesn't remember when the Mario Bros. first came out in arcade low-res 2D graphics in 1983? Wait a sec ... probably quite a few people now ;-) ...

It's all about the plumbers Mario and Luigi who have to fight of abdominal creatures crawling out of New York's sewers. The game was well received and has evolved considerably over time. The sequel called Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985 as a two player game for Nintendo gaming consoles. It remained one of the best selling video games of all time until it was outsold by Wii Sports, a sports game (and another Nintendo marketing masterpiece) for this increasing number of people who want peace of mind without actually doing sports.

Anyways, may I now present you the next generation of the game: Super Fusion Mario Bros.

Photo by MAT on Flickr, March 2011.

The boys did an awesome dance show at FUSION of York 2011, a charity fashion & dance performance that takes place every year around March time. I quite like the event as it is always an excellent excuse for taking pictures as you can see here.

For the keen folks, here are some more sources of information about the bros.

Mario Bros. at Nintendo.

Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Fusion Mario Bros. at York.

God Save McQueen

Found this picture on ModelMayhem:

Photo by Jay Mawson, 2010.

The concept in this one is just awesome: not only does the slogan God Save McQueen remind us of one of the most fabulous fashion designers of the decade, but also the fact how the models in the picture are dressed up in a McQ-ish style.

God Save McQueen was used as a headline for an article about McQueen in the Guardian in 2003; ironically long before it quite had the meaning that it has today ... In any case, McQueen seemed to have admired Queen Elizabeth I, as he (kind of) stated when interviewed by his mother Joyce McQueen. I'm actually impressed how he was able to stay calm when interviewed by his mom ;-)!

Alexander McQueen's website can be found here btw, and the Fashion Forum features a short biography.

Leg Make-up

Glorious Vintage on Flickr is one of my favourite sources of unconventional, entertaining and-of course-vintage pictures!

This one is just hilarious:

Picture from Glorious Vintage on Flickr, February 2010.

It is absolutely fascinating and astounding what fashion creates in order to make us look better! What can be done to make legs leggier? Absolutely, leg make-up! Unfortunately for the woman in the picture who gets the leg make-up applied the MUA has got a bit of a shaky hand.

On the other hand there is nothing to worry about wrecking your fancy expensive nylons on a night out; runs were yesterday!

While I was writing this I started to wonder whether people got the idea of tattooing nylons onto their legs. What can I say, entering the words tattoo nylons and leg into my google search window provided me with masses of information which I rather not want to blog here ...

However, the top hits actually lead me to sites where the exact opposite was for sale, namely stockings (and sleeves!) with tattoo prints. Examples can be found here and here. Somehow this is typical for today's fashion: one site advertises:

These have got to be the COOLEST things we have carried in a LONG time! Invisible mesh printed nylon sleeves that cover your whole entire arm to give the FLAWLESS illusion of a full arm sleeve tattoo! Now you can have the custom work without the pain or commitment!

Sounds pretty lame (and actually not exactly eye-candy) to me in all respects! I say let's paint those legs ;-) ...

80ies, Me Thinks!

Photo by Fabe-DSI, September 2009.

Which is - for me - an enjoyable thought that brings back memories (I really should look for 80ies themed photographs and blog them, in order to colour up the world a bit more).

You might ask yourself, why this picture? Beacause, oddly enough, I found it after I had joined the Flickr pool Andy Warhol's Factory, which does contain some interesting pop art pictures! For the record and those of you who have not heard of Andy Warhol: his original name is Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), he was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker and he was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. As usual, Encyclopedia Galactica knows a lot more, in case you are interested!

After immediately thinking "80ies, me thinks!" after seeing this photograph, I was curious what might have lead the photographer to submit it to an Andy Warhol pop-art pool? It is certainly not pop art from the 1960ies. Maybe it could fit in with Hollywood Glamour from the 1980ies, but that feels a bit far fetched... So I clicked on the thumbnail and read the comments and here are some examples of what I found. Allow me to translate some of the comments, as not all of your might be familiar wiesith the technical terms:

"nice bokeh": picked up a fancy word, old chap ;-)?

"beautiful picture!" : captain subtext means: "Handsome girl wearing a bikini!"

"This photo is a Spirit Of Photography" : or rather a Spirit of the Hawk? (I apologise to all of you who will not get the song out of their minds for the rest of the day, the thought did the same to me if that helps.)

"wonderful taste for nice fashion" : if you refer to all clothing as fashion, the term "nice" is spot on!

As you can see, I was not enlightened about the reason of submission to the Warholic pool, but I was so well entertained for 10 minutes (and another 15 minutes writing this post!) that this question does not matter anymore anyways!

It remains to say that if you hear me saying that I don't enjoy looking at ladies in swimwear, you are officially allowed to call me a liar! In that respect, part of my brain thinks this is an awesome shot. Luckily the picture and comments make another (still sufficiently large ;-)) part chuckle ...

My Vintage Vogue

I like fashion and fashion photography. However, a lot of today's magazines look quite similar and boring to me. Whether this is because they actually are boring and look all the same, or whether it is just the fact that everything contemporary and from the same culture is bound to be perceived so, I don't know! It could also be that the good stuff from the past is more likely to be remembered. No hard evidence for the latter though, since sometimes ugly stuff strikes us back too. Ultimately, beauty (and interestingness) does lie in the eye of the beholder.

Hence, when I came across the collection of fashion photographs from 1920 through 1965, which have kindly been collected and brought to our eyes by myvintagevogue (or on Flickr), I was delighted!

Why are Vogue no longer doing covers like this one?

Photo by Vogue, Magazine Cover from March 1958.

Just to give you an impression how the magazines used to look from the inside, here's a great Pinup style shot of a young lady which might look familiar to you(*):

Photo taken from myvintagevogue's Flickr account. (I'll try to track the source down.).

Why are they not doing these colours anymore? I mean, I know they probably would have liked to achieve more 'natural' colours back in the 50-60ies, but for me they are a crucial bit that makes the picture work. It almost seems that every decade since the advent of colour had it's own tint. My personal impression of the 70ies, for instance, is kind of yellow-ish. This might be due to the age of the film material though. I'll have to look a bit into this now ;-), so see you soon and enjoy the vintage photographs!

(*) I't good 'old' Marilyn ;-).