Reader Valine76 commented thus on the weekend post on Boldini: “Vera de Nimidoff (1879-1963) was certainly done a favor by Boldini’s portrait of her (1908).”
Indeed he did, but not in the way one might think. Here are the portrait and the photo, l to r:
…where the Texas Legislature is doing the People’s bidding:
Earlier today, the House approved Senate Bill 19, by an 86-60 vote, that discourages banks, payment processors, insurers, and other financial services providers from discriminating against members of the firearm and ammunition industries. The legislation prohibits businesses that engage in this practice from contracting with governmental entities in the Lone Star State. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to benefit the bottom-line of corporations that are actively working to erode the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Texans. The measure, a priority of Lt. Governor Patrick, now goes back to the Senate for consideration of House amendments.
Hubba hubba. And if this passes, and one of those bastards ever tries to mess with my gun purchases or anything like that, it’s to the TxAG’s office I’ll be sending my next email.
With news so bad, you’ll puke. Today, we start off with a large helping of INSIGNIFICA (with links and comments, this time):
…daughter “JAMES”? Poor kid doesn’t stand a chance.
…file under “Nobody’s Business”. Journalism at its most prurient and intrusive finest.
…I preferred him when he was still an executive transvestite, and funny.
…you never go Full Luddite.
…Jesus wept.
…the only “sex toy” I’d want to use on this whiny moonbeam tart would be a bullwhip.
…fighting over sports teams is only slightly more ridiculous than fighting over shampoo brands.
Now onto the REAL [snigger] news:
…don’t you just love the Third World? Next thing, they’ll believe in Socialism. And speaking of which:
…sorry, Nigel old chap, but I’ll start to believe it when you Brits privatize the NHS.
…sorry, but I had to exercise a little editorial discretion, there.
…and if you were dead, we wouldn’t have to endure bullshit like this, you smug Canucki socialist sow. (For those with short memories, this foul creature was once governor of Michigan. Yeah, I know: Michigan voters have no clue.)
And just to improve the spirit, so to speak, here’s a Michigander who isn’t ugly:
If Dita isn’t good news, we’re all in trouble.
So instead of lyin’ about, let’s try to get the ol’ smileyface working:
And:
And now, a quiz. What do all four of these ladies have in common?
A: They’re all consuming things that are considered bad for your health.
You dirty-minded bastards.
Peter Skellern: Love Is The Sweetest Thing
You’re welcome.
Oh, and if you want my favorite Skellern song of all time: Still Magic
Went back among my old posts to look something up, and ended up here, where I spoke about Giovanni Boldini.
Well, so much for that search. I ended up wandering along the highways, byways, trains of thought and their branch lines that is Teh Intarwebz.
So: some more Boldini pics — just not the commissioned portraits this time. I do love how he paints women’s faces, though:
But it’s when he gets naughty that I like him the most:
And then there was this one, which caused quite a scandal in its time:
Not yer typical society portrait, is it?
…and even some of those weren’t quite the typical Victoriana, like this one of Madame de Nemidoff:
or of Madame Pages:
Brilliant.
If you look closely at Nemidoff’s face (between portrait and photo), you can see that he captured it rather well. What Boldini did was to take her hair out of that ridiculous corseted Edwardian hairstyle and tousle it into that wild, wanton bush.
Now throw in a little non-Edwardian off-the-shoulder decolletage and a sexy pose with hooded eyes…
…and there you have it: a perfect Boldini portrait.
No wonder they all loved him and he had more business than he could handle.