I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. This is the last Playmate post for today. Then four tomorrow, four Monday, the really fun final post for Tuesday in which I’m planning to crunch some of the gals’ numbers and do some trendspotting, and then I’m going to be forever done with the Miss Novembers. Whew!

The lovely and talented Cara Wakelin was Playboy’s Miss November 1999.

Photograph by Richard Fegley

That centerfold picture is largely garbage, poorly lit and ill-conceived, story-wise, just overall not as strong a composition as this project has lead me to expect from Fegley. Predictable and lacking a certain joy or playfulness. But this picture harkens back to vintage pin-up style, a great composition that is also freaking adorable!

When Cara’s mom read that the Playboy 2000 Playmate search bus was coming to their hometown of Toronto looking for new Playmates, she urged her hesitant daughter to go for a photo test. Thank goodness she did.” (“Catch of the Day,” Playboy, November 1999)

Q : This is your first modeling gig. How did your mother persuade you to try out for Playboy?
A : When she saw the newspaper article about the Playmate 2000 search, she started jumping up and down, saying, “You have to do this. You can do it.” I’ve never been very confident about my appearance. As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw ten beautiful blondes waiting in line. I said, “Mom, take me home. What am I doing here?” She said, “Cara, if you don’t get out of this car right now, I’m dragging you in there.”

Golf claps for Mrs. Wakelin, please, everyone? If you want to send her a fruit basket thanking her for her maternal powers of persuasion, airmail that shit to Canadialand, and mind you wrap it up nicely so it doesn’t get frostbitten. Do you all have even postal service up there in the icy North, or do you guys just tape your mail to a moose’s antlers, point him South, slap his ass, and hope for the best?

Besides making a cameo as the Princess in Death to Smoochy, one of my favorite movies, Ms. Wakelin also wins my love for appearing on an episode of the short-lived talk show of one of my all-time favorite athletes and a man who has always been in my top five list of People I Would Like to Be Stuck In An Elevator With: John McEnroe!! She was a guest on his show for one of the last episodes and appeared alongside wonderfully creepy gap-toothed comedian Paul Scheer.

Keeping up with the lovely and talented Jeana Keough (nee Tomasino), Miss November 1980, is purely exhausting. I will try to give you the highlights and just link to more in-depth explanations, because, holy heck, this woman has been one busy bee in the past few decades.

Photographed by Richard Fegley

Okay, first things first. She was married to Matt Keough, former All-Star pitcher for the Oakland A’s and, until four years ago, Billy Beane’s righthand man (read Moneyball. read Moneyball. read Moneyball.). After he was involved in a near-fatal drunk-driving hit-and-run accident in 2005, wherein he struck a pedestrian and fled the scene in a drunken daze, Keough was incarcerated for three months down in the sunny OC.

He and Ms. Tomasino parted ways not too long after that; in fact, according to this article (which calls her “Jenna” and quotes him as saying they are “fine”), it was a big “family fight” that lead him to leave the house after heavy drinking to begin with.

I actually didn’t know that about Keough, or forgot if I did hear about it. What I always think about with him is how he almost got killed in Arizona during Spring Training in the early 90’s. He got hit in the head by a ball. He survived, but it was really lucky. And thinking of that, despite that he was the pitcher and the batter almost struck him, always makes me think of the time in the early years of ball, when a spitball thrown by Carl Mays hit Earl Chapman in the head and killed him outright, making him the only player in the history of ball to get killed by a pitch, and how the spitball is now outlawed because of that and some other stuff … Keough’s situation was totally different, though — in fact, I actually am embarassed and wish I hadn’t run off on that tangent, but I got a shitload of pictures so at least there’s that.

Okay, so what has she done for us lately? Ms. Tomasino has continued to act — oh did I forget to mention she was in Mel Brooks’ History of the fucking World: Part I? because she WAS! amazing! She played the Vestal Virgin. Pretty rad, huh?!— but she is now playing a role more suited to her than that of a virgin: herself.

She was until last summer one of the women featured on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County. Here is her official site as a realtor, including a blog which is mainly just updates from her account on the twitter.

She is also an official co-spokesperson for Düzoxin, a duty she shares along with fitness model and infomercial poser Ali Sonoma; mixed-martial-artist and athletic products spokesmodel Jessica Pene (what the what?! HECK, YEAH! She sounds awesome! I am following up on her or my name is not Sportsy McViolentpants); and homemaker and makeup developer Ramona Singer, who stars on Real Housewives of New York.

Disclaimer: This post and the links I threw up just now to the spokespersons’ sites do not translate to an endorsement of the weight-loss product Düzoxin. First of all, never trust a product with an umlaut in it. I’m a big anti-umlaut guy from way back. Second, I think we all know crazy crash diets and pills are not a safe, sane, or lasting way to get fit.

The only healthy way to lose weight is diet and exercise, and the best way to get started is with the help of a qualified nutritionist or professional trainer. Orrrr you can do like I did and eat lots of Funyons and ready-cooked bacon straight out of the fridge, sit on your ass drinking Newcastle and watching ball all day, head out to pick up some teriyaki chicken bowl between games, hit a gypsy child with your car, get cursed by his grandma, and suddenly find the pounds are literally melting off.

Gypsy curse/diet and exercise. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Though she has quit the Real Housewives, people who care about her show have hinted that she will be coming back, so don’t go breaking out the noose just yet if you’re a big fan.

“I have to work and the summer is the best time for selling real estate.

“After four years of doing this, I really needed to focus on work and doing college searching with Colton and flying off to see Shane’s games. I needed to focus on me.”

She added: “I’ve been really busy working on a book and possibly doing another show because I am kind of missing it a little bit!” (“Housewives‘ Keough hints at new show.” Martin, Lara. DigitalSpy, 27 November 2009.)

I just bet. I have a feeling that as long as she has breath in that lovely body, Ms. Tomasino will be using it to her advantage. You keep on keepin’ on, girl!

Kaya Christian, Miss November 1967, was previously a diving and backstroke champ, then a water ballerina, and finally was certified as a SCUBA instructor just before this issue of Playboy went to print. I guess what I’m saying is, she’s in to watersports.

Photographed by Bill Figge and Ed DeLong

You know what I’ve noticed? It seems like the more vintage the playmate, the more the chance you will find a few butt shots. I don’t just mean shots where there is a naked hind end in the picture, I mean ones where the whole composition is framed around it; where it is solely the focal point, like you don’t even see boobs or anything else, practically.

It just seems like if a playmate is from the mid-60’s to late 70’s, you are practically guaranteed at least one photograph of the model looking over her shoulder or in profile with her ass aimed at the camera. Playboy has really went the boob-focused route since the 80’s and 90’s, all the way to the early 2000’s, and it seems it has been done at the price of the derriere. Sometimes the back side can be the best side, guys. It is now retro to have just-buns-pics in nudie spreads. Write that down.

A California native who spent her childhood in Georgia, Kaya enjoyed painting and music (so far, so good), late nights/early mornings (still solid), and listed as her idea of a good meal “shellfish and milkshakes.” Screeeee. What the unholy fuck?! Get out of the car, Ms. Christian. You’re walking. That’s easily the grossest thing I’ve heard all week, and most of my countrymen cooked a bird carcass in the last two days (the nasty phrases and descriptions that get bandied about when the subject is poultry roasting truly revolt me).

One of her turn-offs was “draft-card burners.” Oh, my. Sounds like the little swimming, naked girl has her some political opinions, enough so to list that in Playboy. Why don’t you go hoark down a bucket of oysters and a strawberry shake, sister, and save the sanctimonious shit for a rag that ain’t built on skin? Nobody cares if you uphold traditional family values (not to mention that the issue of the appropriateness of a draft for the Vietnam War was never, ever, except in the cheapest of rhetoric, about patriotism and being a good or a bad person).

This is what I was trying to point out in the last post, when I talked about Donna Edmondson and what she went through after admitting to being a virgin. The whole socio-religious-politics and porn thing just don’t mix. They don’t have to. I just think that if you try, you’re missing the point. It’s Playboy, honey. It’s not a pageant.

This is an example of a legit super-clever cover. See how her hips and ass form the bunny’s head and the straps that snake around the open back make his ears? Very nicely done. Another Beth Hyatt/Pompeo Posar pairing.

Weirdly, they talk about her work as

…laboring in the catacombish darkness of one of the West Coast’s largest photo-processing labs.

Thoughts on that? She talks about going to Catalina, so she’s in So-Cal. What’s down in the LA area in the way of Kodak-Eastman, etc? Because I could not at all place that reference.

Playboy’s Miss November 1986, the lovely and talented Donna Edmondson, was named the Playmate of the Year in 1987, fitting given that her high school yearbook predicted she was “Most Likely to Become a Bunny.” (What the hell kind of high school yearbook adviser approves that as a category?!) However, her more lasting claim to fame has been her reknown as The Virgin Playmate.

Photographed by Arny Freytag and Stephen Wayda

She had at least gotten to first base; that was her position on her softball team in high school (rimshot!). Actually, it was, in all seriousness — she played first base for her high school in Greensboro, North Carolina. But back to the more interesting issue. Quite the controversy was sparked by the 20-year-old real estate agent’s vow of virginity, which she discussed in her Playmate interview.

“Men are wonderful, but I haven’t really let one close enough to me that I can talk about sex the way some girls can. Virginity isn’t something you discuss. I’m not ashamed of still having mine, mind you. It’s just not something I really want to talk about — except, of course, with the man who takes it away from me.” (“Sold on Donna,” Playboy, November 1986)

I thought about that when I posed for my layout — imagining the kind of sex I’ll one day have. I don’t know when or where it will happen. But I do know it’ll be with somebody I know and love.”

That’s pretty much all she said, but some fits were pitched and fell back in because of where America was, pornography-wise at this time. Let me bend your ear a tick on this topic, if it is news to you. What Ms. Edmondson accidentally stepped her pretty feet in was a total quagmire of hypocrisy and legal issues which had not much to do with her but plenty to do with the Meese Commission and how entertainment dealt with and tacitly sold the lifestyle of the modern single, the aftermath of the Sexual Revolution including the devastating consequences of HIV, and general assumptions of viewer maturity made by media distribution outlets vis-a-vis sexual morals at that particular juncture. What you had was a total flood of the market with new porn and ever-developing potential technologies for its procurement. So you had morality cops panicking bigtime.

Think about it. There was an explosion of private media possibilities in the 1980’s, and they were readily affordable to Joe Vaseline, which means, no matter where the man of the house stashed them, the chance lurked that Junior, too, would have access. Suddenly you could get porn in a pack of spank-sock’s worth of new forms, an embarassment of riches: direct-to-VHS format, dedicated adult cable channels, and even at the good ol’ liquor store from the more and more competing –and niche– skin magazines all making porn less controlled and more widely sold than ever before. Oh, the heyday! But of course, religion and politics intervened.

Sitcom stars, rock musicians, magazine publishers, freaking everyone was caught by Tipper Gore and Edwin Meese with their dicks in their hands on Capitol Hill, and the religious right was burning Blondie records for moral turpitude. Like, Jesus Jumped-Up Christ-Bananas! That is some ticklish shit to accidentally have come your way! And you’d think they would have all been proud of her …

I will let Ms. Edmondson’s official Playboy biography tell the rest of this interesting story.

The text to my original pictorial announced my virginity — and that created quite a stir. Also at this time, the anti-pornography report of the Meese Commission had prompted all 7-Elevens to pull the magazine from their shelves. I was thrown right in the middle of the scandal! All the talk shows immediately wanted to book the virgin PMOY from the Bible Belt. Joan Rivers made a huge deal out of my virginity on her show, but I just explained that you don’t have to have sex to be sexy.

On Larry King’s show, one caller accused me of not being religious because I let men see my body. But I don’t think that posing in Playboy has anything to do with whether I’m a good person. I knew I wasn’t hurting anyone. I defended myself by saying that God made us nude. We were born that way!

But I don’t regret a single moment. I thought the pictures were beautiful and tasteful, and all the Playboy people treated me very well. It was a great experience that I will never forget.

So how did the story work out for Ms. Edmondson? Seems it worked out smashingly, so in the haters’ faces. Once again, her words:

I took a job as a tax accountant, and on my first day of work I met the man who would become my husband. It was his last day of work; our eyes met, and I just knew he was the one. So I asked HIM out, we had lunch together the next week and we were together from then on.

As for my former claim to fame — as the virgin PMOY — all I can say is: Not anymore! Lots of love to you!

Dig the cover: ironically, Joan Rivers, who gave Ms. Edmondson such “holy hell,” so to speak, over the next several months after this issue was published, was herself profiled in the magazine the very same month. So it’s okay to be interviewed but not to pose? Or is it just for young women, or ones who you perceive as less bright than yourself, that the you-cannot-be-a-role-model-and-be-in-Playboy’s-pages applies? Is it that if a woman wants to be sexy she must want to be sexual? Do you enjoy pointing out hypocrisy only when it is not you, yourself, who is being a hypocrite? Where are the lines in the sand for you, Joanie? Is it not merely the case that you want attention at any cost and have made a career of glomming on to hot button people and topics in order to clutch every possible shred of spotlight in your cruel, manicured claws? Booyakasha!

Sorry, I do not normally take such personal issue with anyone who has appeared on camera with a Muppet, but Joan Rivers literally makes her living by being a mean hag, so screw her. Her career could have been great, she could have been an important special woman in the history of females on television, and she pissed it away to keep the level of fame she was accustomed to, with no integrity. Fuck Joan Rivers.

Anyway, so, Virgin Playmate. Tight, huh!

Well its been just over a week in coming and with a slight set back with a technical error (me using a lower case P rather than the required lowercase) which rendered one of the more popular parts of the sites off line.

The new boudoir website is now online!

The new boudoir site goes live!

The new website is based on ne of the designs we have used for the City Photography websites, we have altered the layout, added some more design to the website over the past site which has taken place.

Our boudoir Website history.

Our boudoir photography service used to be linked to the grafixphoto website, which was sub hosted on National Photographer, the website was more for commercial photographer  and the service was available since mid 2007.

In 2009 we updated moved and split the boudoir photography website making Grafixphoto and Boudoir photography separate. 

We used the same site design as we  had used on the grafixphoto website until It was ordered for a new website design when the national photographer websites had an overhaul in the first part of 2009.

While initially happy with the design of the website with its feature and media rich content, we noticed issues reported from users of the website and our site monitoring.

Some of the  problems   with the sites load times,  this was due to the large back ground image and the smaller screen size settings which pushed the sites view off side and only benefited those using a higher screen size and had high speed internet.

We had problems with navigation on the website as well, this was due to fancy design work which made the pictures shown on the site a menu for getting around the site rather than what many though was some form of gallery (though ‘menu’ was  over the top) The a problem was the accociation of the calculator to the prices. Not forgetting that the sites navigation was a roll over , so text appeared telling the viewer what the button did.

This can in part be a problem caused with some users exploring software of the internet… so we have now changed the website with its launch at a little after 5pm today (friday)

The new website is more colourful and still hold little to no adult images and still retains client privacy in displaying the images (unless permission has been granted) but the idea of the images was to promote the wonder and the tease of boudoir photography.

With tomorrows (todays) photo shoot offering us more images to add more images to the site. We hope to be adding some more pin-up retro shoot images and Vargas styled images  next year in the spring.

Todays photo shoot will be centered on themed photo shoots or story photo shoots.
Stacey will be finishing off her photo shoot story (see the photo shoot link on the top of the page and the theme section) as well as  other themed story telling at our multi location shoots.

any how, I digress..

Take a look at the site and let us know what you think,  our email address is on the website if you dont have a WordPress account.

You may think the butterfly’s are not really boudoir, but what would you change them to?

I was thinking of caterpillars that turn into beautiful butterflies, but each to their own I guess!

Another playmate who began as a bunny, 1965’s Miss November was the lovely and talented Pat Russo, a Connecticut girl who modeled briefly in Manhattan for the famous Barbizon Agency(kind of scammy in my opinion but some real careers have started there, so I’m not going to hate too hard). She hated the cold, relocated to Florida not too much later, and said in her interview that, after one winter in Florida, “‘Autumn in New York’ was just another pretty song as far as I was concerned!” She was scouted for the centerfold while working at the Miami club (“Pat Pending,” Playboy, November 1965).

Photographed by Pompeo Posar

This is kind of a weird one. I believe that Playboy did two different photoshoots (very common), but the stylists communicated poorly … if they communicated at all. Here’s what I think happened with this shoot.

Maybe the people in charge of hair and makeup on the different days this shoot was done were in a fight and not speaking, or maybe they had a conversation about ideas for Ms. Russo’s “look” but came away without a unity of vision, or even maybe some other type of accident or act of God intervened vis-a-vis the two different colored hairpieces, styling, etc. I mean, the girl is blonde one time and solidly ash brunette the next; she doesn’t even look like the pictures were taken in the same year, let alone afternoon.

Whatever happened here, too much time has passed to tell. But the end result is that it appears from some of the pictures, when you take the spread as a whole, as though Ms. Russo could be two almost totally different women.

All pictures are of her, though — I verified it with her Yahoo! groups fan club leader (last post on their bulletin board was in December of 2006, but the moderator still checks his email, bless his vintage-pin-up-lovin’ heart; thanks again for the lightning-fast response time, buddy!).

Speaking of styling, the cover is a blatant and (I checked the table of contents) totally unattributed rip off of the magnificent, incredible, erotic work of photographer and personal patron saint Sam Haskins, specifically his picture book/mystery/western short story Cowboy Kate (1964). I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I am so genuinely bummed and perturbed by the fact that you might mistake the originality and brilliance of this composition –

Totally uncredited rip-off photographed by Pompeo Posar. (Model’s name is Beth Hyatt.) Pompeo, I am hella disappointed in you.

– the parted lips which echo the round opening of the gun barrel, the swinging curtain of blonde hair beneath the rounded black cowboy hat, the always-a-great-idea toplessness — as belonging to some cover designer at Playboy (all respect to their often-clever work) and not to the living god that is Sam Haskins that I do believe, holy shit, you guys, December is going to have to be Official Sam Haskins Month! I will do my best daily throughout December to scrounge up some of my saved photos from his enormous and thought-provoking body of work that are either permissible or I can reasonably say are ads and therefore in the public domain.

Boy, oh boy! Let’s see if I can continue my streak of not getting sued before the year is up!

It’s nice to have goals.

This month’s featured gallery is Artistic Nudes. The nude is a classic subject for artists and is of endless fascination and challenge. There are many types of nudes, in all degrees of undress and all manner of poses. Some are intended to make a statement, some are part of a story and some are just a celebration of the human form.

Barbara Jensen

Funk - Barbara Jensen

The human form has always fascinated me in a curious way since I was very young and I’ve been drawing and painting nudes since I can remember.  The sensual curves, the flexibility and all of the nooks and crannies of the human body.  And what I find real fun is that each one is totally different in so many ways.  Female nudes have been my focus since I got my first Barbie doll.  In my work I try to portray the softness of the skin and try to stay away from hard lines but in the future I would like to get into some more dramatic work using the contrast of shadow.  I just love experimenting with different media and styles but I have become a slave to detail so I find it hard to loosen up.  I challenge myself!

I also love an expressive face.  In my opinion the face is the hardest thing to capture and can make or break the piece.  I can’t count how many works I’ve scrapped because I mess that up, so now I always do the face first.  Live and learn! – Barbara Jensen

Chegou hoje meu exemplar do novo livro da Dita Von Teese: Striptease.

É lindo, na verdade é um estojo super bacana, com o nome em veludo em relevo e laço na lateral.

São 3 bloquinhos de fotos com 3 performances dela completas (Bird of Paradise, Classic e claro, Martini Glass).

E são como aqueles bloquinhos de cineminha que fazíamos na escola quando crianças. Voce segura em cima e passa ele correndo dando a impressão que está vendo um filme. Uma delícia de brincar e também de ver com calma todas as fotos que são lindas.

O meu eu encomendei na Livraria Cultura da Paulista e veio em 3 dias. Lá nos US custa 30 Dólares e entregue aqui, paguei 79 Reais. Vale a pena.

Ok…so im getting super excited about my new but not so new discovery: pin up modeling.

I was busy checking out old-school photos of my mujeres favoritas Maria Felix, Rita Hayworth and Dolores del Rio when I got really whimsical about adding more color and glamour to my life. Yesterday, over a free martini, I had the wildest urge to go to carnival in Brazil in February or get the cheap boob job in Colombia. Well I think the martini was wrong about the cheap boob job, but I do want to go to Brazil with my frequent flier miles!

Anyway, I remembered an attempt a while back where I tried to play with some photography and how much I loved pin up modeling.

Since I’m pressed for time and picking up photography will have to wait, I decided to look for photographers specialized in pin up photography in NYC.

I stumbled on a couple of folks any many prices ranging from $250 to $900. Clearly the quality of the pictures differed, but I think I’m gonna give this place a shot next January.

Oh snap, this is gonna be exciting. Im gonna give me and gabe this simple pleasure, no?

http://www.bombshellbetty.net/pinup.html

Olá, 

sexta-feira tem minha performance no Drops Bar. Apareça! Estou te esperando. Beijos.

Drops Bar

Localizado em um casarão branco de 1932, o bar Drops, dos sócios João Wady e Cláudia Cordeiro, é uma ótima opção para um encontro agradável com amigos ou para esquentar antes da balada. Espalhados pela casa, estão sofás, móveis de centro e luminárias que dão um toque ainda mais retro ao ambiente. No cardápio há cervejas, caipirinhas e drinques que acompanham os pratos e petiscos super exclusivos da casa.

Rua dos Ingleses, 182 -  info 25034486 -  www.dropsbar.com.br/

HEY THERE!

Are you insane?

Do you like girls?

Yes??  Well, you’re in luck.  Have I got a bat-shit crazy pinup for YOU!

this is one of my preferit girl! happy to be silly!

c also the other pin up here amalja blog

A pin-up girl or pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as pop culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display. Pin-up girls art glamuor model, fashion models, and actresses.

Pin-up may also refer to drawings, paintings and other illustrations done in emulation of these photos. The term was first attested to in English in 1941; however the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s.

The pin up images could be cut out of magazines or newspapers, or be from postcard or chromo-lithographs, and so on. Such photos often appear on calendars, which are meant to be pinned up anyway. Later, posters of pin-up girls were mass-produced. They became an instant hit.

From a trendy round up of snazzy wine bottles, this has got to be the most inventive.  A tasty shiraz complete with a small wardrobe for the retro pin-up girl shown above. Made by Some Young Punks out of Australia.

You can buy it online here for now.

Will you judge this wine by it’s label?  Or is it what’s inside that counts?

Voilà un groupe de heavy rock américain qui envoie du bois et dont les influences très seventies vous raviront pour peu que vous ne soyez pas trop limité côté cages à miel. Cerise sur le gâteau, les jaquettes de leurs Cd ( trois à ce jour) sont magnifiques; jugez plutot!

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Ain't It Beautiful

Casino Logic

Porque sempre existe um estilo pin-up que combina com você!

Je suis navrée de devoir vous faire tourner la tête mais j’ai apparemment pris la photo d’une façon qui n’accepte pas de nous la montrer convenablement une fois retournée. Hum… J’éditerai à nouveau cet article pour pallier ce problème en y mettant des photos prises de jour.

Ce sont mes pauvres petites orchidées qui ont servi de cobayes, et je n’arrive pas à maintenir la fleur présentable (peut-être la laque ?). Voilà voilà

The Beatles