Portraying nudity (female or male) is a true style exercice. Some photographers only specialise in this matter.
As a portrait photographer, I am also interested in this style, and then, it is not easy and even very difficult not to reproduce what was already done (and far much better) by other great artists. Here also one has to find one’s style, one’s originality to create amazing images.
Our names are Peter and Alex and we are a gay couple who is engaged to get married on August 25th, 2010. We plan open the door on our life every day and allow you to see what exactly we are doing as we count down to our wedding…But while we’re putting this site together, please go to the Crate and Barrel Wedding Contest site below and vote for us to win $100,000 dream wedding. We are also accepting any financial gifts through paypal to get us to our destination…Las Vegas! We are trying to raise $10,000, but any money raised over that amount will be donated to a local teen gay charity to bring awareness to teen suicide!
Please visit Crate and Barrel and vote for us HERE….
And you can donate money to our wedding by using our email address at raannt@gmail.com
While this may sound arrogant, it would be greatly appreciated and once our Big Gay Dream Wedding is complete, we will commit ourselves to helping find another couple accomplish their dream!!!
Love One Another!!!
Peter and Alex
This video of a Hong Kong girl showing off her new C-cup breasts became popular recently. In the video, she is taunting her ex-boyfriend who had dumped her. Many netizens believe that her boobs are fake and the effect is just made by the push-up bra.
The Cantonese translation goes like this:
Ng ga ching, you cheap bastard! Before you got me, you did whatever I asked of you. After you got me, we had to go Dutch on everything. Ok, that was still fine, but then you started complaining that my tits are AA cups and too small! And you dumped me because of that?
Today, 3 months after we broke up, I want to show you something. Now, take a good look, I have a C cup! Don’t you regret dumping me now? And I bet you want to do me again, right? But sorry, you don’t stand a chance anymore. I won’t see you again and I will NEVER let you touch my C’s.
Ng Ga Ching, you could say I’m a bitch or that I have princess syndrome, but whatever it is, you can never say that I am small again. Look at them, they are C’s! You don’t even have a C on your school certificate.
Basically this whole ordeal is pretty pathetic: Him for dumping her for her small breasts. Her for her poor choice in men. Her for the effort taken to “augment” her breasts and to make a video to get back at him. They both are pretty much shallow.
bron: www.chinasmack.com [24-2-2010]
Just love this girl, she has some of the most beautiful photo shots, check her out for more photos of her and enjoy.
©2010 *miss-mosh
Too warm for pants... again.
Do you sleep in the nude? Summer yes, winter no.
Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Several times.
Have you been naked in a moving car? Yes, and no I wasn’t driving.
Do you prefer sex with lights on or off? Either. 
Have you ever taken a non sexual shower with a member of the same sex? Yes.
Would you participate in a wet t-shirt contest? With a bit of peer pressure, I’m sure I would.
Besides yourself, who was the last person you saw naked? Roomie.
Have you ever gone to a strip club? Yes.
Would you undress at a nude beach with other people around? Yes, and even at a regular beach if I wouldn’t get arrested.
Are you naked now? LOL… no.
Someone dares you to drive naked through a drive-through? What is your reaction? Depends on the situation and who’s doing the daring.
Would your reaction be different if they offered you 20 dollars? Yes!
Who has the most beautiful body: Men or Women? Women!
What non-sexual body part do you find the sexiest? Hair.
Which body part of yours do you wish was bigger? Boobies.
Which body part of yours do you wish was smaller? Hmmm.
Would you ever consider cosmetic surgery to have the perfect body? I doubt it.
If you could trade bodies with any celebrity, who would it be? Carmen Electra .
Do you prefer natural beauty or surgically enhanced beauty? Natural Beauty.
Blue & Bald. Like your girls with that cue ball look, Keith Allen Phillips will make you happy!
Send in the Clowns. Signe Kristine’s stream is more than a little weird.
She’s A Very Rare Bird. Josh Exell’s stream is another offbeat photostream.
Like an Egyptian. Austin TX has girls, nude girls and definitely strange girls…
Mrs. Cyclops. When viewing Eroganza’s photostream think pretzels.
Backtalk Baby. Amazingly, the rest of Maxim Off’s ’stream is virtually normal!
Beyond Twisted. Some artists are so weird they defy definition. d.rex is for sure one them…
Masked for Painting. The rest of Cameraforaface’s stream has some fine bondage photos!
Playboy’s centerfold spread in their February, 1959 issue was an interesting shoot for the still somewhat fledgling magazine. In it, you can see that Playboy had by now moved away from prepaid-for-nudie-calendar shots and into its own photography, but was still finding its footing in terms of genuine artistic merit in the still-developing genre of the erotic nude, juxtaposed with the larger and more commercial task of bringing in strong circulation numbers.
Photographed by a valiant, early, and not-much-thereafter-rewarded, artistically-westward-stabbing Ron Vogel.
Playboy and Hef had begun to establish themselves as hallmarks of legit gentleman’s refinement, but the magazine’s output was continually looking to find its sea legs insomuchas sex could meet sophistication at the corner. This shoot, featuring the lovely and talented Eleanor Bradley, is a really interesting one in terms of composition. This for me is especially true of some of the more unsual framing — sometimes it’s cropped very close-in and tight, like the above shot, making Ms. Bradley seem larger or more looming in the viewer’s eye than she is (the upward-facing angle of the camera contributes to the forced perspective in the centerfold shot as well).
But in other instances, the framing is positioned with so much room around her, such a vast empty lookspace or headroom between her and the composition’s outer edges that you get the sense you yourself have just left the picture, stepped back to take the shot, or maybe that you are trying to memorize the total scene for maximum later recall. Do you see what I mean, contrasting the centerfold shot with the ones just above and below, and does that make sense?
Varied framing is the cut of my jib here, people. Is it translating? Are you on the trolley? Because I feel like all that may have got away from me. I’ve been sick. I really like subbing but I think the teacher I was in for on several contiguous days last week must have left her desk-things littered with germs because I’ve been in dire, Ny-Quil soaked straits for several nights now.
Anyway. As I scrolled through some of the truly well-done shots in the pictorial, I found myself paying close attention to eye-popping bursts of primary color and interesting compositions and it seemed to me like what Mr. Vogel accomplished here was an early, though somewhat curtailed (perhaps by budget??) attempt at a spread with an actual factual unified artistic theme. Yay!
Please note hi-fi rack is holding an album cover of Frank Sinatra.
The interior shots are even okay. But I must say. Though I am a huge fan of the black velvet capris and who can argue with toplessness?, I’ve always found the iconic shots of Frank Sinatra in the composition here kind of … inexplicable. No real good reason for their inclusion in the spread is to be found in the copy accompanying her pictorial nor in the very shady and shallow delving in to Ellie’s own history that the article skitters about performing before grinding to an abrupt halt.
Moreover, unlike Sinatra, she was from a small town outside Chicago, at the time Hef’s home and the magazine’s HQ — quite the enemy “second city” still at this time to NYC, Frank’s preferred stomping-grounds, and a far cry from his native Jersey, so we may also strike those connections from the list of raisons d’etres vis-a-vis this shoot and its stylings. Further, though never out-of-style in this Italian girl’s opinion, even I must admit that Ol’ Blue Eyes did not make a movie that year nor re-release any particular hits. Strange choice of prop.
In fact, during this time, Sinatra was mostly known for increasing embitterment over his flagging record sales and for criticizing rock music as widely and often as possible. He is quoted in the late 50’s as saying, “[Rock 'n roll is] sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons. It manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth.”
That’s right, you side-burned, delinquent whippersnappers. Why, when Frank was starting out as a musician, he walked uphill both ways in the snow barefoot to his heroin dealer’s house after his recording sessions, and he liked it. Fight-fixing was a dime, whores were a nickel, and gin was free if you kept your mouth shut about which gangsters were illegally hiding money in offshore accounts in Cuba. Those were the times! These corrupt, lazy beatniks and mods wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes on the mean streets of Capitol Records or the MGM Grand in Vegas. Un-American crop of Commies, is what they are. Damned hippies are all soft — soft , I tell you!
(In case your sarcasm-early-warning systems are offline for routine maintenance today, what I am driving at here is that the Rat Pack were a madly loveable but fairly goddamned degenerate bunch of pots, to be popping off and calling kettles black. Look to the plank in thine own eye, hepcats.)
Is this picture not fabulous? Very Vertigo, yes? And well ahead of that thriller’s time.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Playboy sez:A chance encounter made this small-town girl our February Playmate.
A lovely-visaged Valentine to brighten the short, drear days of the year’s shortest month, Eleanor Bradley became our February Playmate almost by accident — or was it fate? A small-town girl from the Midwest, she’d looked forward with excitement to her first West Coast vacation, to the wonderful time she’d have in sun and surf.
And fun she had; but what Eleanor didn’t anticipate — and what proved to be the high point of her vacation — was that our photographer would discover her strolling the glistening strand, and that this would lead to her becoming our valentine Playmate. We believe our readers will share our feeling — after gazing on her tawny beauty — that fate was kind indeed to bring us this sweet siren by the sea.(“Vacation Valentine,” Playboy, February 1959.
That is the entirety of their write-up on her. So while pictorial spreads were getting loads better, the Playmate interviews were still pretty much in their infancy.
Bradley was discovered by Playboy while she was in Los Angeles to visit her sister. After the pictorial, she remained active with Playboy for several years, usually with promotional trips and the like; she also was a regular on the syndicated TV show Playboy’s Penthouse and “Playboy After Dark.” She also posed for other men’s magazines in the early 1960s, along with her career as a mainstream model, mostly in the Midwest. She again posed topless for Playboy for the magazine’s 1979 feature “Playmates Forever!” (source)
Do not click the link to that source if you don’t have a pop-up blocker and/or you are at work. Then again, I guess if you’re here and haven’t already closed this browser window, you probably are not at work. Sometimes I forget my own journal is pretty NSFW, too.
Here are some more details on the Waukegan, Illinois native direct from the source herself, in an article she wrote for the Lake County News-Sun, published in 2009.I worked my way through high school at the Jewel Food Store, the first one in Waukegan, on Washington Street across the street from Waukegan Township High School. We lived in a rented room ($10 a week) in the back of Carmella Corso’s beauty shop on Butrick Street. Wow, that name just popped right back into my mind.
“Eleanor Bradley visited many Marine training bases around the United States as Miss Marine Air Reserve.” (Courtesy the Chicago Sun-Times and Lake County News-Sun).The Globe Store reminds me of when, I think in 1956, several classmates and I modeled bathing suits in their window and shocked passers-by; we pretended to be mannequins, then just slightly moved — what fun. Also did their fashion shows and some print ads.
My most influential teacher was Miss Schwinger; she encouraged me to stay in school and graduate.
I graduated in ‘57 and went to work as secretary to Fred Lawson, head of public relations for Abbott Labs.
I became Playboy’s February 1959 centerfold, went to work for Hugh Hefner at headquarters in Chicago, and traveled 100,000 miles around the country doing appearances at colleges. I did all the original “Playboy After Dark” television shows. As Miss Marine Air Reserve, I visited many Marine training bases around the United States.
After Playboy, I got married, had four children, started high fashion modeling with A+ modeling agency, became a top 10 model for 13 years.
I was on the 25th class reunion committee. The meetings were always at Bertram’s Bowl on Washington Street.
(“Modeling bathing suits: Modeling career began in storefront window.” Giannetti, Eleanor Bradley. April 27, 2009. Lake County News-Sun.)
As Ms. Bradley has very nicely summarized her achievements in her own lovely words, which is normally exposition I would cover, I will instead concern myself between the remainder of the pictures from this spread with relating a few facts about Waukegan’s surprisingly numerous sci-fi connections. (E’s journal: come for the porn, stay for the geek-talk!)
My all-time favorite science fiction author and king among personal patron saints, Ray Bradbury, was born in to a long-established Waukegan family in 1920. (His great-grandfather was elected mayor in 1882, to give you an idea of his roots there.) Bradbury grew up in the town and has used it as the inspiration for his fictional Green Town, where he’s set stories and novellas such as Farewell Summer, Something Wicked This Way Comes (my very-favoritest among very-favoritests, which I re-read at least once a year), and Dandelion Wine.
Another sci-fi writer concerned with Mars hails from Ms. Bradley’s hometown as well. Though he lives in Davis, California now, Kim Stanley Robinson, Chomskyite author of the Mars trilogy and self-described green socialist, was born in Waukegan. Mr. Robinson wrote his doctoral thesis on Philip K. Dick and he’s married to an environmental chemist, just to ratchet up his sci-fi magnificence even higher. Like Ray Bradbury and some of Vonnegut’s work, Mr. Robinson’s writing is regarded as an intersection of science fiction with genre-transcending social themes and polish: literary science fiction.
The character of Jason Blaze in Ghost Rider hails from Waukegan, as does non-fictional comedic genius Neil Flynn. You know Flynn as Janitor on Scrubs, but, if his most recent sitcom role in a pretty nerdy and delightful series is not geeky or esoteric enough to fit this theme for you, he also played a cop on an episode of Sliders in 1991. Before I wind down the sci-fi angle altogether, I need to ask:
Am I the only person who’s been stumbling over the clunky and rather laughable, upwardly mobile phrase “speculative fiction” lately in its apparent attempts to supplant “science fiction” and “sci-fi” as the new hep nomenclature for all things dorky? Because I am NOT drinking the kool-aid on that one. I don’t care if it dates me in a decade at a convention or something. I will be That Guy. I don’t care. I’ll call it sci-fi ’til you pry the replication phaser out of my cold, dead Wolverine-barbecue-mitt-covered hand.
As a final and more sobering but still sci-fi-related thought, Waukegan is home to a whopping three Superfund hazardous waste sites. To give you an idea of the slightly unnerving disproportion of that figure, the National Priorities List identifies only about 1200 in the entire country. Sadly, the hazardous waste has not imbued anyone with superpowers — quite the opposite, in fact, and it’s a major health concern. For more info on all that crazy eons-of-environmental-shenanigans and horrors of irresponsible corporate greed, pick up the book Lake Effect by Nancy Nichols, a 2008 true account of the effects of PCBs on Waukegan residents, including the death of Ms. Nichols’ sister. Troublesome and very next level.
Gotta read this article, ehrm by reading I mean drooling and making loud whoop whoop noices. (and by whoop whoop noices, I mean like Arsenio Hall, not any other righthanded noices, oki… )
hubba hubba... and more of this, click on the link.
American Apparel’s best bottom comp: top ten | Sexy | 11 Feb 2010 | FHM.com.
Today I’m hosting the lovely Nuala of Women Rule Writer for a V-day discussion of her latest story collection, Nude, which – as the title suggests – is full of naked people, in art and in life. It’s a sensual, clever, upsetting, uplifting book, and Nuala for me is the best kind of contemporary Irish writer – distinctly Irish in voice and (especially) sense of humour, but mixing it up loads in terms of setting, period, and characters of all ages, nationalities, sexualities and upbringings.
Also: FREE STUFF! After the Q&A there’s details of how to get your paws on a copy of Nude and a mug from the mighty Strand Bookstore in New York.
Here we go …
My fave stories in Nude are ‘Unmothered’, ‘Before Losing the Valise’, ‘Night Fishing’, ‘Sloe Wine’ and ‘Amazing Grace,’ I think because I was quite emotionally bothered after reading them, and kept thinking about them. They also all have neat twists and turns. What are your favourites from Nude and why?
Firstly thanks for having me here, Eimear.
I love that you were emotionally bothered by those stories! When you’re writing, you’re not always conscious of what you are doing. Sometimes I read back over stuff I have written and find it quite dark, though I would have been quite happy writing it. Odd. It’s nice to hear that readers are affected in any way by something you have written.
I like several of the stories for different reasons: e.g. where and when they were written; elements from my life I have sneaked in; moments of pure invention. I think my personal favourite of the stories is ‘In Seed Time, Learn’. I can see its flaws but it maps several places I know in Paris and I enjoy re-visiting them when I read it. I also like the characters of Dana and Sonny in all their flawed little ways. There’s nothing like doomed love either to make a story fun to tell!
In particular, I loved the ambiguity at the end of ‘Night Fishing’ (got the impression the wife might have been fully aware of what her husband was getting up to). Do you feel those moments of uncertainty are sometimes only possible in short fiction?
Oh, I love the way a short story can be open-ended. Novel readers often like a nice, safe, tied-up ending but short story readers/lovers are open to anything, I find. They relish the plotless, often.
Many of the artworks featured in Nude are real, but I was intrigued to hear that the painting in ‘Juno Out of Yellow’ is completely made up – slight Fargo effect there! Did you enjoy toying with the line between fact and fiction in the book?
Yes. It’s great to write about real paintings and readers can reference them, but I also enjoyed making that one up – complete freedom to invent! And I love inventing personalities and scenarios for real characters, like the Irish painter Micheal Farrel in the story ‘Madonna Irlanda’ when I had him have a friendship with the fictional Magda Bolding.
Nude is best described as literary fiction, but there’s also elements of historical fiction and magical realism going on at times. Is there any genre you’re dying to tackle?
Literary fiction is what I love to read and write. I absolutely love historical fiction too – I’d love to write a really good historical novel. I half wrote one but it’s lifeless. One for the bottom drawer, I’m afraid.
I love that Nude is themed. Do you think that unified story collections might leave more of a lasting impression on a reader than unthemed collections? Any favourite themed collections?
I think they might in that there is an overall mood afterwards rather than lots of disparate bits. I’m a fan of both types of collections. Publishers find themed ones easier to market/sell. I guess one knock-out story in an unthemed collection can be remembered forever too. And you’ll always find something in a group of stories to link them, however tenuous.
I enjoyed Jim Crace’s The Devil’s Larder, which was all about food. Also The Blackbird House by Alice Hoffmann where all the stories were set in the same house at different times.
Something I really enjoy in writing, and which you do a lot: loving descriptions of food, and people being likened to food etc. Are you a total foodie? Any chance of a food-themed collection?!
I love food; I am fairly obsessed with it. I’m a vegetarian and my partner is a vegan, so getting good food in restaurants can be a challenge, at times. So we tend to cook and muse about food a lot. I keep a cooking/baking blog called The Hungry Vegan.
It was pointed out to me a few years ago that food didn’t feature much in my work. It shocked me because I think about food all the time. So I made a conscious effort to mention it more in my writing. It seems to have worked!
It would be fun to write a lot about food. Joanne Harris did it wonderfully in Chocolat and, of course, the aforementioned Jim Crace. Maybe you’ve just handed me a project, Eimear!
You’ve cited Frank O’Connor’s spake that short stories are all about lonely people. Nude also involves plenty of misfits and uncomfortable situations. As delicious as that stuff is to read, do you find it emotionally taxing, at times, to write?
No, not really. Like I said earlier, my writing doesn’t come from a very conscious place. I don’t plot and plan short stories so they just seem to start and then flow on. It’s weird; I can write about horrible people – like Georgie in ‘The Woman in the Waves’ – and I don’t get too bothered by them. It’s fun, really. (Twisted fun?!)
I am very excited to read your upcoming novel, You. As a champion of the short form, did you find you had to adjust your approach in any way when writing a novel?
Oh, it was a totally different beast – I had to be much more disciplined and I had to tackle the dreaded plotting issue. In a way it was harder; well, for one thing, it took longer, and required a lot more thinking about. But in another way, I had a place to start at every day and so it was a more ‘productive’ way to write. I had to sit down day after day and get on with it. Whereas, with stories, you are constantly starting over.
What’s your typical writing routine?
I used to write when my boys were at school so I had four hours a day that were mine all mine. Now, with a new baby, I am back to snatching time wherever, whenever. So, late at night when the house is asleep, and at the week-ends when her Dad can give me a few hours at a time. Or when we go on trips, I make him drive and I sit in the back seat and write.
I’d love to have enough money to pop her in a crèche even two mornings a week. Maybe soon!
I admire you very much for being a career writer – I get the impression that no matter what job you’ve had, you’ve always prioritised your writing. Any advice for young wans trying to launch a writing career in all this economic dreariness?
It’s a tough one, Eimear. My partner earns enough to keep us afloat. I earn very little from writing. I went full-time six years ago and it’s a struggle financially. I also miss the day-to-day of seeing other people (adults) and going for cups of tea etc. I still might go back to the workplace, if I can find something part-time that suits – something bookish!
I’d say to young wans:
Are you happy, sad or unfussed about the advent of ebooks?
I’m sort of terrified. I can’t see me ever wanting to own one but then again … who knows? I used to be afraid of computers. Now I am surgically attached to my laptop.
For the day that’s in it … what literary figure, living or dead, do you most fancy? Ever have a mad crush on a character in a book?
I had quite a thing for F. Scott Fitzgerald when I was a teenager but he was a bit crushed in real-life, I later learnt. Erm, who would I give a Valentine to? Oh, Ronan Bennett is a bit gorgeous, very talented and lovely in person too. As for characters, I’ve always loved Heathcliff – the classic bad boy.
Thanks for a great chat, Nuala! Anything else you’d like to mention?
I’m taking part in the Literary Death Match in the Sugar Club in Dublin on the 5th March, doors 7.30pm. See my blog here. Watch out for my novel You in April from New Island. And I have a full poetry collection called The Juno Charm coming out from Templar Poetry in November.
THE GIVEAWAY
To be put in the draw for the book ‘n’ mug, take a cue from Nuala’s second-to-last question and leave a comment mentioning a writer or fictional character you have a crush on. (If Edward Cullen beats Mr Darcy, I’ll be miffed.) I’ll make the draw on Thursday morning.
Are you friends or in love with someone who seems more of a competitor, a criticizer, a downer, a promise breaker, or a gossip? If your answer is yes, set aside those roses and chocolates. You may be experiencing the wrath of the Quarrelers in the form of toxic friends.
The Quarrelers is my take on the onerous Cardinal T-Square involving the Aries Point, Pluto and Saturn as well as the onerous Saturn-Pluto conjunction. Transiting Pluto has been in the decan of Saturn in Capricorn dancing at square to the Aries Point for over a year, and transiting Saturn returned to the mix (as he does every few years) last fall when he progressed to 00 Libra in opposition to the Aries Point.
Love in the Time of Quarrelers: Pluto, Saturn and the Aries Point
So what is a friend? Most dictionaries define the word friend as someone with whom you share the intimate details of your life with. Now let’s put this together with the word toxic. Again, most dictionaries will describe toxic as poison capable of causing death or debilitation. As you can see, by adding toxic to the word friend something deadly or debilitating is added to the most intimate areas of your life.
Florence Isaacs, the author of Toxic Friends/True Friends, explained to WebMD last week that “a toxic friendship is unsupportive, draining, unrewarding, stifling, unsatisfying, and often unequal.” Isaacs goes on to say that “toxic friends stress you out, use you, are unreliable, are overly demanding, and don’t give anything back.” You can read the entire article by Florence Issacs at:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/toxic-friends-the-5-types-of-quot-friends-quot-you-should-avoid-580196/
Take this Personally!
In 2007-2008, I experienced transiting Saturn conjunct my natal Pluto. At the same time, transiting Pluto was trine my natal Pluto. My mother became ill and died in September 2007 leaving a mountain of estate problems. During this time, I had a dozen or so friends, associates and family (all toxic) I began to communicate with often. But before this period ended, there were problems that demanded that these toxic relationships end. While the entrance of toxic friends subsided, it didn’t go away completely. Recently, when transiting Saturn moved to semi-sextile my natal Pluto and square transiting Pluto, I started a friendship with a person who had interesting achievements and hobbies. Within a few weeks, I was forced to face some hard realities about the toxicity of my new friend. Thank God it happened quickly!
Back in 2005, another associate of mine befriended a nurse while staying for a while in a nursing home. After my friend returned home, she really believed they could enjoy a healthy friendship. When the nurse discovered my friend had made a full recovery, she went toxic and began to use my friend’s kindness as a weakness. Suddenly, the nurse desperately needed to drop her son off with my friend on the weekends. The nurses’ excuse was always work. But, some months later my friend discovered that she used some of this time for dating. As it turned out, the nurse’s son was a terror. Then a huge jar of change came up missing, bottles of wine disappeared and then a new jacket with the price tags still affixed vanished. Well, you can fill in the rest. Then one day my friend’s Army Colonel buddy showed up at the door while the nurse was on one of her visits. The nurse was stunned and barely opened her mouth to speak upon meeting the Colonel. Moments later, the nurse left quickly and never returned. Below, are charts I caste for my friend noting the Approach, Conjunction and Separation of the aspect, the nurse and a few other toxic characters who eased in and out of her life at the time. See if you can find some of these similarities and patterns in your chart or the charts of your friends?
The Fabric of Our Lives: Pluto and Saturn
As confirmed by the charts above Pluto and Saturn, regardless of their configuration are harbingers of what most pyschologists call “toxic friends.” As demonstrated, their presence can be easily detected in a horoscopic chart. These planets will work with each other, but to varying ends. You see Pluto and Saturn are competitors who gossip behind each others back, put each other down, criticize, and break promises. Saturn naturally seeks to restrict. So, under a conjunction or square with Pluto, you can expect Saturn to bring friends who really are competitors, criticizers, downers, and gossipers. Conversely, Pluto under a conjunction or square with Saturn seeks to reform but may do so behind the scenes, use back door methods and then break promises. They both are very strong and like to have their way. In fact, since Saturn began its foray into Libra last November, he and Pluto (who sits in the decan of Saturn in Capricorn) have been causing quite a stir by generating events through the Aries Point. If you caste a chart for the U.S. East Coast today more than likely you’ll find at least one of these planets or points squaring off with the other from an angular house.
The Quarrelers also have a passion for politics! For example, let’s look at the US health care reform issue. It began with the best intentions, but a number of US Senators rose to place retrictions upon the bill that diminished its purpose. Where were the Quarrelers? Sqauring off! Another great example is the World Climate Talks. It too began with the best intentions. But a number of countries walked out restricting progress because they felt they were being ‘talked at’ by wealthier countries who could afford to make the necessary ecological changes. Where were the Quarrelers? Squaring off! Make no mistake, the Quarrelers have no exclusions for the rich and famous. For me, there is no better example of the Quarrelers’ wrath then the charts of Angelina Jolie. Poor Angelina is sometimes subjected to a daily onslaught of attacks from toxic friends and associates who constantly leak to the media intimate details concerning her marriage – be they true or false. Where are the Quarrelers in Angelina Jolie’s chart? Squaring off! Yet, what makes Angelina Jolie’s chart so special is the Quarrelers’ presence in her birth chart.
Now don’t get me wrong, the Quarrelers are not your garden variety competitors or gossip mongers. Sometimes they mean to harm. To see the destructiveness of the Quarrelers all you need to do is look back as far as the Fort Hood Massacre. This was a tragic circumstance. Sadly, it was during Saturn’s foray into the cardinal sign of Libra last November that placed him exactly square transiting Pluto and opposite the Aries Point when Nidal Malik Hassan struck!
Angelina Jolie Unraveled
For most, a Saturn-Pluto coupling lasts a few years. During the separating aspect the individual is given a chance to recover as noted in my friend’s chart above. But with Saturn conjunct or in the decan of Pluto in a natal chart, the subject will have to contend with onerous and toxic family/friends for the rest of their life. The good news is that the personality is given a chance to grow, adjust and compensate for the shortcoming by learning to recognize toxic relationships early on, taking responsibility for them, ending the worse ones, and making a greater effort to build stronger relationships with non-toxic friends.
In Angelina Jolie’s case, she is being stressed out and used by a guantlet of toxic associates. What she knows that we don’t, is that some of her family members are quite toxic toward her. Let’s look at Angelina’s most recent embarassment. On or about January 23, 2010, a toxic friend or family member leaked to News of the World a United Kingdom media source (http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/) that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had visited attorneys to work out a deal for their separation. This news caused a media feeding frenzy. When the dust settled, it was learned that the couple, who enjoyed a combined income of more than $50 million dollars in 2009, were probably making a routine visit to their attorney to legalize agreements, estates, taxes, etc. But the news was so disruptive that a week later Angelina obviously had to adjust her schedule. We saw the result when she accompanied her husband to the Director’s Guild Awards (http://www.dga.org/index2.php3?chg= ) in New York. Did she go for the sole purpose of making a media appearance to quell the tide of dangerous gossip?
If you’re like me, you’re asking: What the $%&@!?! Who is so bent on slandering Angelina Jolie? After all these years, isn’t it obvious that her husband loves her? Why is there still so much hype? Then I viewed Angelina Jolie’s birth chart and a somber moment overcame me. I discovered a thread of toxic family and friends who have been present in her life since birth.
I caste the chart you see below using the decanants or decans. In my last blog I demonstrated 1 Minute Delineations with Decans in a Mini Course. You can review it at: (http://nudeprovacateuse.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/sex-chaos-lies-divorce-the-opposition-and-whats-up-with-dennis-hopper/ ).
Upon visual inspection you can see that Angelina Jolie’s Ascendant, Midheaven and Ic at birth were all in cardinal signs or on the cusp of a cardinal sign. Her birth was an event, but it may have generated some controversy. Most notable is Saturn in the decan of Pluto, Cancer, 7th house. At birth, Angelina had onerous and toxic adversaries within her family. The 7th house is considered the house of open enemies, so make no mistake that whatever occurred was made public. Furthermore, because this placement is in the 7th house, Angelina’s onerous and toxic family/friends have always tried to meddle in her contracts, relationships, partnerships and marriage.
Below are some of the more notable Arabic Parts in Angelina Jolie’s natal chart:
Purple Diamond is the Arabic Part of Enemies at 6 degrees Aries, 3rd house. It opposes Pluto and is shy of a conjunction to the Aries Point. Again, these enemies are found in the house of brothers, sisters and communications. I believe this confirms that Angelina’s 7th house toxic source is a close family member.
Orange Diamond is the Arabic Part of Mercury at 19 degrees Aries. Someone was out of money, low on cash or without the means to really take care of themselves or handle responsibility when Angelina was born. New ways of earning or obtaining money were forged. This may have opened the door to toxic associations.
Yellow Diamond is the Arabic Part of Jupiter at 12 degrees Gemini. It is conjunct Angelina’s Sun. This blessed Angelina with luck in health, work and daily affairs. The good news is that her life early on may not have been so adversely affected by the ferocity of toxic family and friends who surrounded her – but her life was affected.
Red Diamond is the Arabic Part of Saturn. It is on the cusp of the 8th house. This sextiles Pluto at 6 degrees Libra, 9th house. This part signifies heavy and weighty matters, burial or buried issues, the dead, the deep sea, someone disabled or recovering from a disability, prisons and prisoners.
Again, in review of Angelina’s birth chart you can see her Ascendant, Midheaven and Ic at birth were all in cardinal signs or on the cusp of a cardinal sign. Today, Saturn and Pluto have transited to cardinal signs and are nearing key points in Angelina’s chart. This view clearly shows the adversity Angelina may be experiencing. Despite her wealth and power she may still find it difficult to distance herself from toxic and onerous friends. The chart below depicts Angelina Jolie’s chart on the inside wheel and the transits on the outside wheel.
In 2011, life may not be all glitz for Angelina. Yes, she’ll find work, grace red carpets, and have work done to enhance her appearance. But, the stress stirred up by her toxic friends and family may begin to wear upon her vitality and spur health concerns. Let’s hope she finds a non-toxic astrologer to go over the rough points the transits of 2011 will bring.
Friends: The Spice of Life
You’ll get no argument from me that life can get pretty boring without friends. For the most part, friends are the spice of life. But the truth is not everyone can be your friend and some friendships are downright more dangerous than others. In fact, toxic friendships can adversely affect people physically and emotionally for years – and then some. This Valentine’s Day make the commitment to be a good friend without expectations or payment in kind. Raising your awareness of what it takes to be a friend is the best defense against toxic friendships and fated astrological transits like the Quarrelers that bring toxic friends into view. If you stick with the commitment, soon you’ll find yourself more effective at recognizing toxic friends, ending toxic friendships, and making new, healthier friendships at lightning speed.
Happy Valentine’s Day! And BTW, I promise to deal with the approaching quincunx to the Desire for Reforms Eclipse point next week.
The Nude Provocateuse
About the Series: Since the time of the Pharoahs, eclipses have marked our major historical events especially the rise and fall of empires. The Rise of Obama Series (TRO) by The Nude Provocateuse (aka The_Betty) is based on the premise that the Eclipse of August 1, 2008 was the astronomical event opening the road for Barack Obama’s assent to the presidency, and the Desire for Reforms Eclipse of July 21, 2009 is responsible for influencing his 2009-10 political agenda. This series is written as News, Political News, News and Commentary, and serves as basic astrological research not for profit or resale in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 USC, Section 107. To learn more about this code go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use or email me at llazaro633@yahoo.com.
