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January 29, 2007

Jason Brooks and his girls

August 21, 2006

Beauty and Photoshop

Everyone of us, especially women, often upset while looking at slim and smooth magazine beauties. At the same time we all know that hard labor of photographer, expert beautician, and designer and so on stays at the background of each photo in bikini. We fail to know which material our ideals are shaped of by the professionals. Photographer Glenn Feron retouches beauties. Clicking on the photo and moving the mouse, it’s possible to watch what kind of work is hidden behind the glossy beauty, how bosoms, waist, bronzed skin appear and vanish. Perhaps the results are not shocking, but surely they are impressive.

Technorati Tags: beauty photoshop Glenn Feron retouching retouch photo

Posted by Xena at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2006

Photographers differ.

Brian McCarty is a photographer and the owner of McCarty PhotoWorks studio. The most distinctive feature of his works is that he takes photos of dolls in realistic interior. It’s a very unusual and beautiful show.

Studio’s philosophy is the following- there are no contradictions between art and commerce. Just as there are no contradictions between joy and work. Vibe and Penthouse are among his clients. You can have a look at the photos. There are not humans, but dolls on them.

I strongly recommend visiting galleries on the studio website. The pictures cheer you up considerably.

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Posted by mazoo at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2006

GZ - Glavnoye Zdanie

Author.::.Phil

By chance it happened so that I have absolutely no bearing on MSU, but I’ve got great number of friends, who are Moscow State University graduates (and even my wife is!).

That’s why when they all were students; I used to spend much time in GZ (Glavnoye Zdanie = Main Building). Of course it’s not comparable with the students themselves, but nevertheless it’s a lot. The scale and grandeur of this building impress me greatly. I’m not even speaking about the old wives' tales, connected with it!

I’ve always thought of some analogy with iceberg, and one conclusion has always been drawn: the underground GZ part is at least thrice bigger than what we see. Perhaps this point is the basis for all the rumors about the ramified cave system under the building.

One more theory that emerged while looking at GZ was the following: such a huge and vast structure can’t stand independently. And there surely exist huge machines and mechanisms the aim of which is to prevent any trouble. The most close to this theory rumor is that there are huge cooling plants, freezing the soil under the building in order to prevent it from falling away into the Moskva-river.

Why am I saying it all? I fall into nostalgia, having found the photo gallery with the category “GZ outside” and “inside” on mathematics and mechanics MSU faculty web site. It’s impossible to turn away from the web-camera located on the 13-th flour of MSU GZ.

And here it’s possible to enjoy the Moscow panorama, opening from GZ (830 kb). You may have zoomed-in fragment image, clicking on any panorama part.

Technorati Tags: MSU subway Moscow State University panorama Moscow

Posted by Xena at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2006

Metro amenities

Author.::.Phil

It has become usual for us to hear that Moscow Metro is the most beautiful in the world. We’ve got so used to it, that we even don’t think of the way other undergrounds look. Really, our metro is so habitual for us that we don’t notice its marvelous amenities. Because it’s not possible to notice them only looking under your legs.

Today I looked through the pages of "Metro Arts and Architecture", where the photos and descriptions of the most beautiful world metro-stations are collected. I strongly recommend looking it over (I was greatly impressed by Stockholm and Lille).

Technorati Tags: metro subway Moscow Stockholm Lille underground

Posted by Xena at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2006

Chris Vrenna, AMG Alice and Internet interstices

Author.::.Phil

Chris Vrenna is a musician, whose background is a complicated and a long story. The list of groups and projects he’s taken part in, is huge, and their major part is well-known. It’ll take me long to enumerate. He’s mainly famous as Nine Inch Nails drummer. He’s also well-known for the soundtracks to Doom 3 and American McGee’s Alice. The list is tremendous; it’s free at Waxploitation label page.

Having read the list of projects in which Chris took a hand, I came to the conclusion, that for a long term I’ve been the admirer particularly of his music, and not of some abstract genre or group. Chris relates to creations of such groups as Drowning Pool, Nine Inch Nails, Filter, David Bowie, Stabbing Westward and even Metallica. I know the works of these projects nearly for 60-70%, but at the moment I’m primarily interested in Chris’s solo tweaker project.

I won’t describe the compositions, as I’m not a musical critic and it’s hard for me to describe the music I like. It’s possible to download and enjoy some of his compositions from his personal site. (Composition Ruby from "2a.m. wakeup call" disk seems to be the best of what I’ve already heard).

It’s interesting, that the latest records of Chris’s activity, which I managed to find in the Internet, are the following: 2a.mm. wakeup call album, Doom 3 soundtrack and the fact that Chris used to appear/ still appears as the drummer with Marylin Manson. And he’s also given some interviews. Actually, that’s all. I wonder whether he goes on drumming with MM and does nothing else, or he just doesn’t do anything any longer.

Tweaker web site hasn’t been renewed for a long time. Just as Chris’s fans site. If any of the readers keeps informed about him, please, let me know.

Besides I was greatly surprised with the fact that official American McGee's Alice site, the reference to which can be found on many game reviews, has also disappeared (one of the best compositions, written for the game, is called Flying On The Wings Of Steam, it’s also available for downloading on the author’s site).

Additional info for the curious:

Doom 3 Chris Vrenna Interview @ UnderGroundOnline
Artist's card @ ArtistDirect
Chris Vrenna @ wikipedia
TWEAKER BY DANIEL ROBERT EPSTEIN @ SuicideGirls
Chris Vrenna:Tweaker of Sound @ Audiohead.net

Technorati Tags: Vrenna
Chris Vrenna
tweaker

Posted by mazoo at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2006

A bit about photogalleries...

Author.::.4zy

I’m keen on beautiful photos, sometimes I just stand stockstill and gaze, gaze...:-)

Once, during my London training session, I was taking an evening walk on skates, when I saw an open-air photo-exhibition in Natural History Museum’s yard. Unfortunately it was too late and it was closed. The next day I came here and didn’t regret. It turned out to be “Earth From The Air” exhibition of an astonishing photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand.

10 years of his life have been devoted to this project. 3000 hours over 76 countries of the world have been spent by him in order to make photos of chosen landscapes. When he was asked: ”In what way is Art born?” he replied that the answer is quite simple. “The Earth is Art itself and photographer is only an eyewitness..."

“Their Circular Life” is a very interesting project. The concept is great and the realization is either. Don’t forget to turn on the sound.

And one more site is UK Nights, representing very stylish photos of different places of the UK made at night.

Posted by Xena at 2:53 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2005

Lenin

Author.::.Maxx

By coincidence, Alexandra and I have visited Andy Warhol's exhibition in the Tretyakov's Gallery recently. Since I new little about Warhol's art, being vaguely familiar with world-known acid-coloured portraits of Marilyn and a can of Campbell soup images, I found most of the exhibition quite interesting.

One of the works I found truly amazing is "Lenin". Red-and-pink image on the black background has amazing resemblance with the body that is still in the Mausoleum. I wonder whether Andy Warhol had ever visited the Mausoleum.

This image I found on Ebay gives you a fair impression of the painting, although to appreciate it fully, you have to see the original. If you have a chance to see Warhol's exhibition, do not miss Lenin.

Posted by Xena at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

John Hyde and his Wild Things

Author.::.Mazoo

Today's morning I received a link to John Hyde's gallery "Wild Things Photography" and I couldn't stop until finished looking through all the works of this photographer. The photos are so beautiful that when you open this or that picture you simply hold your breath (Phil said that the photos even moved him to tears). John Hyde photos wild life of Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii Isls and all that. Here is what he says about himself:

Wild Things PhotoGraphy was born from my appreciation of all things wild and by an inherent quest to explore the natural world around me.

I can't imagine doing anything else that would provide the satisfaction I receive from sharing my work with others, opening windows that help enrich their lives and appreciation for the intrinsic values of wild things and wild places.

Students often ask me what the "perfect picture" is and that is simple: the perfect picture is the one that drives you to make another. Each image should be viewed a stepping stone to the next. That is the philosophy that drives my creative vision.

From my point of view all the pictures of this photographer are perfect. And for some inexplicable reason you begin to feel a kind of disgust for all the humanity in general. Just as in particular 

Posted by Xena at 12:12 PM | Comments (1)

November 17, 2005

A bit about photogalleries...

Author.::.4zy

I'm keen on beautiful photos, sometimes I just stand stockstill and gaze, gaze :-)

Once, during my London training session, I was taking an evening walk on skates, when I saw an open-air photo-exhibition in Natural History Museum's yard. Unfortunately it was too late and it was closed. The next day I came here and didn't regret. It turned out to be "Earth From The Air" exhibition of an astonishing photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand.

10 years of his life have been devoted to this project. 3000 hours over 76 countries of the world have been spent by him in order to make photos of chosen landscapes. When he was asked: "In what way is Art born?" he replied that the answer is quite simple. "The Earth is Art itself and photographer is only an eyewitness..."

"Their Circular Life" is a very interesting project. The concept is great and the realization is either. Don't forget to turn on the sound.

And one more site is UK Nights, representing very stylish photos of different places of the UK made at night.

Posted by Xena at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)