Imperial Trellis by Kelly Wearstler

Recently my wife showed me a wallpaper with this awesome pattern in an interior design magazine:

Photo taken from itsallinthedesign-designstyle on blogspot.

I liked the pattern so much that I used it straight away for my photography website. Ok, said and done, colours adjusted, a bit of html, a bit of ftp, looks good!

Since I liked the design so much, I did a bit of research on it in the interior design magazine and on the web. It turned out that the pattern is called Imperial Trellis and it has been designed by Kelly Wearstler.

A visit on her website rewarded me with a great variety of fantastic pieces of interior design work. (I strongly recommend having a look, she's really good!). Life is unfair, that's why the good looking woman on some of the photos on her website is not some model, but actually herself and she is also happily married and has two lovely kids! It made me chuckle though, when I read that the profession of her husband is basically to manage her and sell her stuff (lucky chap ;-)).

Here's one of my favourite photos from her site:

Photo from http://www.kellywearstler.com/, design by Kelly Wearstler

After being that impressed by all this, I found that it was appropriate to try to be a gentleman and ask for permission to use the pattern as background on my website, rather than just nick it. I wrote the sweetest email ever to lovely Kelly (which almost got me into trouble with my lovely wife ;-)) and asked whether I could use the pattern.

Unfortunately, I realised that all the sweet talking was in vain when I received a reply from one of her marketing ladies that said something along these lines: "Dear Martin, we are thrilled that you like Kelly and her designs but even YOU would have to pay for them! We are close to tears but we cannot give you permission to use Imperial Trellis!"

*Sigh* that was almost expected, was it not? I'm still looking for a nice pattern for the website ... that reminds me: I still have the pattern on there and better remove it soon with a heavy heart!

P.S.: She has done some really great work for Bergdorf Goodman, Lee Jofa and the Rug Company. And she has also published books on interior design with AMMO!

One-of-a-kind Fantasy Mermaids Reloaded

Just a quick addendum to the previous Who Said Mermaids Don't Exist?;

When looking for more Mermaids swimming around in the world wide wocean, I came across the Flickr profile of Nenúfar Blanco, where she features many interesting photos of ethereal and fantastic Merpeople.

It took me quite a few pictures before I realised that the featured Mermaids and Mermen are one-of-a-kind fantasy dolls, which are made by Nenúfar herself.

Photo by Nenúfar Blanco, Lucretia, 2008

I was quite impressed by the high level of detail and the unique look she creates. Despite I am not a particular fan of small figures or puppets, I really like them.

In case you would like to buy one, you can go to her website, where you can get your unique model for (at the time I write this) $350.-, which is not too bad considering those dolls are unique and handmade.

Most people might think: "What a strange hobby!" As far as I'm concerned this just adds to my amazement. In case you want to read more, you can also visit her blog.

Who Said Mermaids Don't Exist?

I was recently searching for underwater photographs on the web. Admittedly, I was flicking relatively quickly through a set of images on Flickr, when I was flabbergasted by this one:

Photo by mambolou, November 2008

My mind kind of registered the following things within the same fraction of a second when the picture came up:

1. The technical quality of the photo is not as great as, for instance, and airbrush work would be.
2. The technical quality of the photo is not so bad to be one of these rainbow press alien photos.
3. From this angle there is a kind of human like shaped creature peeking out of the water.
4. What is always on stand-by on a man's mind?

Is this a bloody mermaid *slam the back button of the poor laptop as quick as possible* ?!?

Next fraction of the second, the anti-climax of the story: unfortunately, it's not a mermaid.

Third fraction of the second: but it sure looks interesting, what is it?

The answer is given right below the photo by mambolou himself: "It is a Beluga whale. She was peeking above the water's surface as I snapped the shot. Ahhh, the song of the sirens!" This is another great example of how amazing our world is and how things appear totally different from different angles and in different circumstances. When specifically looking for pictures of Beluga whales on the web, I found hundreds but not a single one looked anything close to a human or had the appearance of this great picture.

All those of you who might think, is this guy blind? Please look straight into my eyes and tell me this picture of Stephen does not look similar!

By the way, this is the picture that I recently took of a lovely mermaid ;-):

Photo of Daryl Hannah from the movie Splash.

For those who don't know, Splash is a great movie that was produced when Tom Hanks was still cool.

Too Much for Jabba!

I hope the second thought after thinking Jabba is Leia! For the record: the amazing Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the real Star Wars movies back in 1977. At some point, a bad guy called Jabba the Hutt enslaves the lovely Leia and makes her wear the famous Slave Leia Costume. Much to the delight of one half (am I optimistic here?) of the Star Wars fans.

Those of you who remember the days when Star Wars featured real actors, rather than animated armies and space ships were made of steel, nuts and bolts, rather than (again) some undefined animated textures (and are slightly geeky males) will be delighted to hear that Princess Leia is alive! As the picture proves she is not only very much alive, but also brings along her numerous sisters to parties!

Photo by Kelldar on Flickr.

Who doesn't want to be Han Solo now? I was quite amazed when I learned that there is even a Slave Leia Appreciation Society on Flickr. It would be really interesting to know how many of those girls are 'professional' Slave Leias, who are supposed to fuel the dreams of comic, fantasy, roleplay etc. conventions.

On the other hand, there seem to be a lot of girls taking their alter egos quite seriously and look great in their outfits. The most impressive example for me is actually Kelldar. She fabricates her own costumes, which look really cool and does a lot of fictional characters. The thing that I like about her is that she also puts decent quality photos of her costumes on her site, rather than using a quick snap with a nuke flash that produces 400x300 pixel images.

It really amazes me how Star Wars achieved its cult status. I can only recommend watching episodes IV-VI, namely A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

For those of you who want to look at more pretty Leias, you can start here and here.

In case you were a lucky bastard when picking your wife or partner, or you are just a kinky geek, you might want to check out Costumecrazy of Exoticwearexpress. Incredible that there is almost nothing that you cannot get somewhere ;-).

I only wish the latermoviesearlierepisodes of Star Wars had the same real and charming appearance as the earliermovieslaterepisodestherealthing *sigh* ...

Stonehenge is in Germany

Being a German from the very south, where archeologists have found many Celtic relics, I always knew that those guys must have spent some time in Germany too. Despite that, I was quite surprised when I found the real Stonehenge hidden in Karlsruhe, Germany.

I figured that it has been disguised as a mere public fountain by an ancient order of the Celts these days, who themselves are undercover and pretend to be a bunch of urban planners. But there is no way to deceive my senses or to obscure my mind, upon which the unconcious knowledge of my forefathers, the very creators of this monument, is imprinted!

Photo by Martin A. Trefzer, May 2009, Karlsruhe, Germany.

My next mission will be to investigate and reveal the purpose of this ancient site. I suspect that it might be an early version of the continuum transfunctioner, a very mysterious and powerful device and it's mystery is exceeded only by it's power[1]!

It all makes sense, since there is also an ancient energy source present in this region. It is marked by the position of five mountains with flat, tree-less summits that are arranged in a large circle: Ballon d'Alsace, Schwarzwald-Belchen, Jura-Belchen, Petit Ballon and Grand Ballon. Looking from the Ballon d'Alsace, the summits of the Schwarzwald-Belchen and the Jura-Belchen mark the place where the sun rises on midsummer and midwinter respectively. The sun rises exactly from behind the Grand Ballon on the 1st of May, a celtic festive day.

Photo by André Seemelink, April 2007, Belchen Black Forest, Germany.

Furthermore, Belenus is the name of the celtic sun god. Who dares to question the astronomic purpose of this pentagon of mountains and ancient source of energy anymore? This cannot be coincidence!

Those of you who want to dig deeper into the myths and secrets of the Celts, here are a few sources:

Belchen Datasheet ;-)

Magic Mountain Belchen

... and of course on Encyclopedia Galactica

All those articles are written in a secret language, I am afraid, and I am not allowed to translate. Not everybody shall be able to read the ancient scriptures! Unfortunately, many of these modern esoterics managed to acquire skills in reading what is not meant for their eyes *sigh*!

Filey or See You in Another Life, Brother!

Beware me tampering with faith, but it has to be said that the start of the summer in North Yorkshire (UK) has been gorgeous so far! It is quite dry and we are having a good amount of sunshine. The nice weather always makes us longing for the coast, hence my wive's and my recent visit to Filey.

Filey is a picturesque small town about 8 miles south of Scarborough. Unlike Scarborough, this little jewel in the crown is a bit more quiet in terms of beach arcades (not visitors). According to Encyclopedia Galactica, it is noteable that Leo Blair (father of ex prime minister Tony Blair) was born in Filey. Whilst maybe noteable this is not what necessarily makes Filey exciting. Let's also hope the Blair Witch is not involved somehow ...

What does make Filey exciting, however, is the fact that time seems to stand still there. There are lovely narrow paths between the old houses and gardens, a nice beach, great scones and friendly locals. Admittedly, there is not much 'action' going on and apart from the lot on the beach, mostly elderly people are hangin' out on the numerous benches.

Photo by Martin A. Trefzer 2009.

We were thus not surprised when we walked into a music festival that took place in a pavilion, surrounded by a large crowd of eaglerly listening elderly. The music was rather boring and the crowd slightly apathetic when the strangest event took place: the band started to play Is This the Way to Amarillo of South Yorkshire singer Tony Christie. All of a sudden, the old ladies and chaps started to sing along and clap their hands. Some couples even started to dance around the pavilion during that song!



Sometimes it's so simple to get into a good mood. My wife and I now like the song and we are frequently listening to it ever since. We want to make sure to know the text by heart in forty year's time!

Natural Blondes, an Endangered Species

Last month (May 2009), I happened to be in Trondheim, Norway, during their National Day on the 17th of May. It was brilliant sunshine, nice and warm and 20 hours of daylight on top of that. The 17th was an amazing Sunday. It seemed like every citizen of Trondheim spent the day in the streets, most of them wearing traditional clothes that looked awesome (and I was told they cost a fortune)! It felt a bit like a time travel to the eight(ish) century, apart from the fancy sunglasses.

Of course, I took some pictures, which you can look at on my Flickr site. When I was sorting my photographs after I came back, this one caught my eye:

Photo by Martin A. Trefzer, Trondheim, Norway, 2009.

I thought the female half of this family with their equally blonde hair glowing in the sun, the traditional dresses and the fancy sunglasses looked great. When looking at the picture I remembered a story I once heard about natural blonde hair: due to the fact that the gene that is responsible for fair hair has recessive alleles, a recent scientific study from 2002 concluded that the last natural blonde baby will be born in 2202 in Finland. Stories about the disappearing blond gene have apparently periodically surfaced in media and press since 1865.

So it seemed to be a reasonable conclusion to mark natural blondes as endangered species. I came across three articles that are worthwhile reading:

Corrected-Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun

Encyclopedia Galactica: "Blond"

Encyclopedia Galactica: "Disappearing Blonde Gene"

The approaching extinction of the blonde gene lead to (fear in the male population ;-)?) wild (scientific?) discussions and conclusions: do blondes have more fun? Are blondes more successful? Are blondes more or less intelligent? etc.

I thought the most amusing theory came from Peter Frost, a Canadian anthropologist, who (according to Times) beliefs that the reason for the first blonde women to appear was when human society split up into hunters (men with a high death rate) and housekeepers (an army of women, who had to develop outstanding features in order to attract the few men left). Maybe he wrote the paper when he was 16?

Well, I was quite relieved on behalf of humanity and myself that the alleged World Health Organisation (WHO) study on the disappearing blonde gene turned out to be a hoax. The WHO issued a formal denial of such a study in 2002. Whether the blondes are relieved now I don't know. Some might have loved to be a bit special. I say look on the bright side! Despite globalism, our good old genes will keep us diverse and interesting. Now enjoy your weekends with minds at ease!

What the hell is the correct spelling 'blond' or 'blonde' ?!?