Uncouth Reflections

Naked Lady of the Week: Monika Chantal

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

This model goes by a lot of names: Anna, Nelly, Eleanora, Nata. Monika Chantal is probably the most fantastic sounding, so I’m going with that.

Monika was active a few years back on all the big European nude sites. And judging by the user comments on TheNudeEU, she was a popular cam girl. She’s classically pretty in the Russian sense — sculptured cheek bones, jewel-like eyes, a slightly protruding lower lip, and so on. She’d make a good background girl in a Bond movie — I mean the old ones, not the ones with Judi Dench. The braces are a nice touch. She seems to get a kick out of flashing them.

I believe these scaled-down shots come from Amour Angels, Femjoy, Querro, MPL, Blonde Stars, Sinful Goddesses, and MetArt.

Nudity below the fold. Have a good weekend.

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Posted in Photography, Sex, The Good Life | Tagged Monika Chantal, naked lady of the week, nude photography, Russia | Leave a comment

Starbucks Goes Kitsch

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Glynn Marshes

Glynn Marshes writes:

Okay, I’m going to say it: when Starbucks worked, as a cultural phenom, it worked because the experience was something close to art.

Yes, we sophisticates quickly wearied of the Starbucks experience. The damn franchise has been around since 1971, after all — for most of us, Starbucks was past its expiration date even before the first two shops opened on the same corner in our neighborhood.

And yes, the fact that its reason-for-being resolves, ultimately, to nothing more than a grubby little commercial transaction meant that for us sophisticates, our enjoyment of Starbucks was always tinged with irony.

But admit it. There was a moment, when the idea of Starbucks was new, that entering a darkened room full of comfy couches and buying an expensive cup of coffee laden with flavors and textures you’d never tried before had a bit of transcendence to it.

Which is, IMO, one reason for our visceral reaction to this whole stupid #racetogether marketing campaign:

The campaign is kitsch. It’s kitsch.

The ultimate reference point for kitsch it always me: my needs, my tastes, my deep feelings, my worthy interests, my admirable morality … Kitsch shows you nothing genuinely new, changes nothing in your bright shining soul; to the contrary, it congratulates you for being exactly the refined person you already are … [K]itsch objects … display their owners’ deep spirituality or elevated moral, not to mention environmental, sensitivity.

— Denis Dutton, The Art Instinct

And that, Howard Schultz, is why your stupid #racetogether idea is so terrible for the Starbucks brand. Because it is kitsch, demanding “solemnity and high seriousness” that is “entirely fake and parasitic.”

And so, it debases the Starbucks experience in a way that even its obvious commercialism could not …

Posted in Art, Personal reflections | 9 Comments

Art Du Jour

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Claude Joseph Vernet, “Storm on a Mediterranean Coast,” 1767. Download a super hi-res copy here.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Posted in Art | Tagged Claude Joseph Vernet, French art | 2 Comments

Coke Is It!

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

One thing the United States continues to lead the world in is innovative soda packaging. Would you like glass, plastic, or aluminum? Bottles, cans, mini-cans, or mini-bottles? Single serve, 6-pack, 8-pack, 12-pack, or 20-pack? All of these photographed at my local mega mart which, for some reason, incredibly, was out of traditional 6-pack cans.

Posted in Food and health, Politics and Economics | Tagged Coca-Cola, soda | 2 Comments

Juxtaposin’: Human Rights

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

It’s funny how, in the past thirty years or so, same-sex marriage has gone from something obviously ridiculous — something even the vast majority of gays had zero desire for — to an undisputed universal human right supported by all enlightened people, while free speech has gone from something sacred to, well, problematic. I realize The Atlantic is little more than a clickbait farm, but it’s still kind of astonishing that a law professor has no problem arguing that, hey, y’know, some despised, low-status people just don’t deserve to say what they want.

Related

Tumblr Du Jour/Poe’s Law Du Jour: Everything’s A Problem.

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged First Amendment, free speech, gay marriage | 3 Comments

Notes on “Always for Pleasure”

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

This Les Blank documentary, focused on the Mardi Gras traditions of New Orleans, is a zesty and clamorous memento mori, but it’s also a vision of America (and life) that in its breadth, color, and immediacy is comparable to Altman’s “Nashville.” It has none of Altman’s wryness, though. Blank’s calling cards are his positivity, his eagerness to engage, and his openness. In fact, he’s so open that sometimes you worry his movies will dissipate as you’re watching them — that they’ll turn into blurs of faces and moments, meaningless beyond what they communicate as individual parts. But when Blank is really on, as he is here, his pictures are held together by a sensibility and a musical, free-form sense of rhythm that raises them above the level of mere observation and turns them into something akin to materialized sense memories. Nothing in “Always for Pleasure” feels out of place or arbitrary. Nothing feels thought out either. Blank’s New Orleans is an ever-surging cultural estuary. You can only understand by immersing yourself in it.

Related

The Criterion Collection recently released a box-set of Blank’s work, called, in reference to this film, “Always for Pleasure.” I can’t recommend it enough. Several of Blank’s films are also available to stream via Hulu Plus.

Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged Always for Pleasure, documentaries, Film, Les Blank, Mardi Gras, movies, New Orleans | 1 Comment

Linkage

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Razib reads a book about Confucianism.
Speaking of Eastern thinkers, I recently finished and loved Grant Hardy’s Great Courses lecture series about Asian intellectual history. I found it to be a near-ideal overview of a very large field: vivid and clear, and presented with a lot of likable enthusiasm. (Unless you have money to burn, don’t buy the series until the Great Courses puts it on sale, when it’ll cost about a quarter of what they’re asking for it now.) I’m looking forward to listening to Hardy’s other Great Courses series soon.
Let’s send the policy intellectuals back to Yale where they belong, writes Andrew Bacevich. Why do we look to academia-based “experts” for advice about anything, is something I often wonder.
Lessons about parenting from Germany.
Has the time come for left and right to unite in order to battle rule-by-corporations?
How wonderful are tiny houses in reality? I’m all for living modestly, and god knows I shrink in horror from the typical American love of raw square footage as much as the next boho, but there’s also such a thing as too small.
A great piece by Laura Kipnis puts today’s anti-sex campus hysteria in context.
Now that PC puritanism is raging again, it’s a good time to revisit this 1999 Roger Scruton classic about manhood.
Even longtime lefties have begun to marvel at the censoriousness of today’s progressives.
Steve Sailer wonders if the today’s out-of-control diversity-fanaticism will make a certain group that has long been gung-ho for diversity reconsider their enthusiasm.
Joan Acocella reads a biography of genius comedian Richard Pryor. If you don’t yet know Pryor’s work, this is the place to start.
Kingsley Amis on how to be annoying.
Don’t forget to visit our NSFW Tumblr blog, where some of us share some webvisuals that set our pulses racing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Andrew Bacevich, architecture, Confucius, Grant Hardy, Great Courses, Joan Acocella, Kingsley Amis, Laura Kipniss, PC, Razib Khan, Richard Pryor, Roger Scruton, Steve Sailer | 1 Comment

Naked Lady of the Week: Stephi, of Microminimus and Flickr — Plus Bonus Interview With Her

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Stephi — who shares her pix on Microminimus and Flickr — and her photographer husband create images that often remind me of the great pinup paintings of the ’40s and ’50s, paintings by artists like Vargas and Elvgren. (What a refreshing alternative they are to the campy, knowing, often ironic work of so many of today’s pinup-art creators … not that there’s anything wrong with a little irony now and then, god knows.) On Microminimus — a gallery and forum sponsored by and promoting the products of Wicked Weasel, an Australian bikinis-and-undies line — Stephi’s a big audience favorite, routinely winning thousands of upvotes as well as enraptured cheers from her fans. She’s unfailingly appreciative of their attention and enjoyment. On Flickr she shares daring shots that can get even spicier if you send in some money for an informal membership in her private club.

With her all-American, apple-cheeked and slightly freckled wholesomeness, her physical ripeness (those thighs!), her well-tended, usually-chestnut mane, and her instant-on naughty-mindedness, Stephi is an unself-conscious sweetheart, as alive to the camera as the silent movie actress Clara Bow, and she shares her yumminess and vivacity in the friendliest imaginable way. She’s such a girl-next-door sweetiepie that her Microminimus fans often gasp in surprise when they learn how very, very frisky Stephi’s Flickr images can be — one recent album, for example, was aptly entitled “Epic Nipple Torture.” But then, like sensible people, they settle in and give over to the thrill.

Stephi and her husband enjoy dreaming up scenarios and settings that don’t just show off her physique but also her mirth, her heat and her silliness — her soul as well as her body. Her gift for dress-up and playacting remind me of such piquant performers as Jenna Elfman and Lisa Kudrow: carefree girls who are also sexy and inspired, girls it’s genuinely fun to imagine dating, fucking and marrying. Although she pitches herself into smolder-mode and glamor-mode awfully well, Stephi seems to me to be most herself in pix where she’s on the verge of bursting into giddy, “Oh my goodness, would you look at what you’ve caught me doing!” laughter.

A special treat for UR readers today is a q&a with the lady herself. Interview as well as loads of hot NSFW visuals after the jump.

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Posted in Interviews, Photography, Sex | Tagged erotica, flickr, interview, Microminimus, model, pinup, Stephi, Wicked Weasel | 6 Comments

Architecture Du Jour

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Drottningholms Palace, Sweden. Source.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Posted in Architecture | Tagged baroque architecture, Sweden, traditionalism | 1 Comment

Linkage

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Blowhard, Esq.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

Just as the right to marry has seen its stock skyrocket on the Universal Fundamental Human Rights Market over the past decade, the right to free speech has been plummeting. (H/T Fabrizio)
Steve Donoghue on the David Foster Wallace Reader: “There isn’t a page of this enormous book, not a single paragraph, that sounds human. All of it so incredibly, so glaringly ‘written’ that it all seems like a parody of the very thing Wallace was implicitly cautioning his students against.”
Looking forward to the day when architects realize they’re supposed to design buildings, not avant-garde sculpture.
P.J. O’Rourke wonders if yoga teachers should be required to get licenses.
The stereo receiver I grew up with looked a lot like this one.
The secret room where a bored Michelangelo doodled on the walls.
It’s funny how the nerds who get so worked up over canon are also the most likely to be dismissive of religious dogma. Are they aware that the very idea of “canon” is imported from theology?
A colorized photo of a newsstand circa 1942.