Cosplayers and cosplay for you to enjoy! I’ll be seeing lots of you at Phoenix Comicon 2016 this week. Come by Thursday through Sunday at booth AA330 and say hello, get your picture up on my blog, and feel free to buy one of my six books while you are there…
Monthly Archives: May 2016
When Elevators Don’t Stop
I’m sorry for the week without blog posts. I was at one of my other jobs, coming down the elevator from my office on the 24th Floor to the Lobby. The elevator did not stop as it should. If you have ever stepped off a curb unexpectedly, this felt like stepping off a 5 foot ledge.
So, my neck, back and leg hurts pretty bad but is getting better. Getting imaged for fractures in the spine. The building security had to pry the doors open. Now, I’m not really looking forward to using the elevator again…
Filed under Uncategorized
Cosplay Pictures for Your Saturday!!
Cosplayers and their cosplay for your enjoyment!
Filed under Humor and Observations
I’m Appearing at Phoenix Comicon
Phoenix Comicon is June 2-5 and I will be appearing at table AA330. Please stop by and say hello. Cosplayers Aria and Cassandra S. Kyle will also be stopping by to join me.
Filed under Uncategorized
Cute Dogs for Your Monday Blues!
Cute dogs to start off the week…
Filed under Animals, Humor and Observations
Cosplay Pictures for Your Enjoyment!
Cosplayers and cosplay for your enjoyment!
Filed under Humor and Observations
Countess di Castiglione The selfie queen of Paris society

c. 1867
IMAGE: ©RUE DES ARCHIVES/PVDE/GETTY IMAGES
When she first visited the photography studio of Mayer & Pierson in 1856, Virginia Oldoini had already become notorious in Paris society. Married at 17 to Italian Count Francesco Verasis di Castiglione, she had been dispatched to Paris to convince Napoleon III to support Italian unification — instead, she promptly became his mistress.
Their dalliance was brief but helped establish her reputation as a beautiful and enigmatic seductress.
She was enthralled with the study of her own beauty, and collaborated with photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson on over 400 self-portraits.
While Pierson operated the camera, the pose, dress, setting and angle were all conceived by the countess. She was also involved in post-production, directing the printing of the pictures and often painting on top of them herself.
The countess posed in the elaborate and luxurious gowns that she wore at court, reenacting her moments of greatest triumph. She soon expanded her oeuvre to include scenes and costumes inspired by theatre, literature and myth, and even rather voyeuristic shots of her bare feet.
As she grew older, she retreated from high society and became an eccentric recluse, living in an apartment with the curtains drawn, only venturing outside at night. She died in 1899 at the age of 62, but her extensive and distinctive record of herself endures.

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF / ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
The Countess with a child, possibly her son Georges.
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
The Countess with a child, possibly her son Georges.
IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KEMPF/ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1867
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

1894
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1895
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS

c. 1865
IMAGE: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS
Filed under Humor and Observations