S. Ross Browne
Ummm…I am so VERY into this right now!
But Black people in period or fantasy settings totally makes the stories unreal.
Also holy shit I love these.
How come I don’t run across this stuff regularly?
Because of racism and the retroactive erasure of POC in Medieval Europe. Pretty much the same reason you almost never see these works of art either unless you’re already looking for them:
um yes
I think someone cleverly said that, oh, apparently you can put dragons and wizards in medieval settings, but people of any other race than white, WHOA HOLD THE PHONE THAT’S WAY TOO OUTLANDISH AND UNREALISTIC
Josephine Baker, later known as ‘Bronze Venus’, ‘Black Pearl’ and ‘Créole Goddess’ was born in America in 1906 and later moved to France to become a singer, dancer, and actress. She was the first African-American woman to star in a major motion picture, and became famous worldwide.
Though she grew up as a maid in wealthy white households she eventually became an exotic dancer in France, famously appearing in next to no clothing, and became a French citizen in 1937.
Ernest Hemingway referred to Baker as ‘the most sensational woman anyone ever saw’ and she received approximately 1500 marriage proposals in her life time. She became a muse for Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior. She had a variety of exotic pets including a cheetah named Chiquita, a chimpanzee named Ethel, a pig named Albert, a snake named Kiki, a goat, a parrot, parakeets, fish, three cats, and seven dogs.
When WWII broke out, Baker became a volunteer spy for France, and assisted the French Resistance by smuggling messages written in invisible ink on sheet music. She made great efforts to aid those in danger of enemy attack, sent Christmas presents to French soldiers, and smuggled information she gathered in Spain back to France by pinning notes containing the information on the inside of her underwear. She was awarded the Medal of Resistance with Rosette and later named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Baker also aided many civil rights movements by refusing to perform to segregated audiences and storming out of a club in Manhattan with actress Grace Kelly after she was refused service. She worked with the NAACP and spoke at a Washington march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the only official female speaker. Baker was actually asked by Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow to take his place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, but Baker declined on the grounds her twelve adopted children ‘were too young to lose their mother’.
Baker died in 1975, four days after her final show, attended by such names as Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, and Liza Minnelli.
Oh and she was queer and had a relationship with Frida Kahlo. All around badass.
I’d like a movie about her life too, please.
Samples from AMERICAN ART DECO by Carla Breeze
absolutely beautiful. D8
The Branks, also sometimes called Dame’s Bridle, or Scold’s Bridle comprised of a metal facial mask and spiked mouth depressor that was implemented on housewives up until the 19th century. Sometimes called “A scold’s bridle”, as well as “brank’s bridle” was a punishment device used on women, as a form of torture and public humiliation. It was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head. The bridle-bit (or curb-plate) was about 2 inches long and 1 inch broad, projected into the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue. The “curb-plate” was frequently studded with spikes, so that if the tongue moved, it inflicted pain and made speaking impossible. Many men sustained in this “husband’s right” to “handle his wife”, and to use salutary restraints in any case of “misbehavior” without the intervention of what some court records of 1824 referred to as “vexatious prosecutions.” Generally a husband would need only to accuse his wife of disagreeing with his decisions, at which the Branks could be applied. The woman would then be paraded through the streets, or chained to the market cross where she was exposed to public ridicule. Wives that were seen as witches, shrews, gossips, nags and scolds, were forced to wear a brank’s bridle, which had been locked on the head of the woman and sometimes had a ring and chain attached to it as a leash so her husband could parade her around town and the town’s people could scold her and treat her with contempt; at times smearing excrement on her and beating her, sometimes to death.
Sometimes when folks say this miss the good ol days..I have a real hard time understanding what the fuck you mean. Nostalgia my asshole…
I would murder him in his sleep.
Can’t reblog this without mentioning the very similar masks used on slaves in the American colonies during the same centuries.
Kowloon Walled City | A population density nightmare
Kowloon Walled City was a largely ungoverned Chinese settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong, comprising of 350 interconnected high-rise buildings where 33,000 residents lived within a plot measuring just 210 meter by 120 meter. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II and reached a peak of 33,000 residents in 1987. When it was demolished in 1993-94, it was thought to be the most densely populated place on earth.
How wonderful are these? Illustrations by Miroslav Vasa from his book Illustrations from the Bugaboos/Little Natural History of the Spooks, Ghosts, and Phantoms (1961). You can see scans of the book in its entirety here!
DIY Know Your Shoes Guide from Enerie here. My favorite shoes aren’t listed yet - Louis Heels which were popular in the 1920s. First seen at inspiration & realisation’s Facebook page.
Well hello, fashion vocabulary.
The side characters of Rango
I love how they didn’t make the characters cute or pretty. They are all ugly in some kind of way and that fascinates me the most about this movie. Even the children of Dirt aren’t cute and fluffy and there isn’t really any “handsome” or “beautiful” characters.
All those incidental characters really helped in creating an immersive world. God I adore especially the buggy ones. :>
Cooper Thompson has a very distinctive look, like the lovechild of a porcelain doll and a Greek god statue.
Sometimes, you find a model who fits your character perfectly. And it’s suddenly the best day ever.
Oh wow
what in the
wow how is it possible to be that pretty?
excuse my jelly
Oh wow, kind of eerie!
Happy Birthday Danny Huston
(May 14, 1962)
And happy birthday to that eyebrow as well.
where has has that eyebrow been all my life