Brief History of Pretty Much Everything

Sweet E's Boob Phobia

Saudi history in four minutes taken from the movie The Kingdom. [Found @ The Daily Galaxy]

E. has been bitching and moaning about how unfair it is that his "writing art" has to compete with the base instincts of the average web surfer. He's referring primarily to the connoisseurs of free porn (or is that "pr0n"?) and particularly those who cannot seem to get enough breast viewing in their day. Well, tough nookie, Sweet E. Grow up and accept the obvious truth that more people of both sexes prefer peeking at or showing off a nice pair of boobies than they do reading "writing art".

5 Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions that would actually suck if they were real.

Warning: NSFW (not safe for work) images of Khajuraho, one of India's "lost" cities. "Khajuraho is a famous tourist and archaeological site known for its sculptured temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Jain patriarchs. Internally and externally the temples are richly carved with excellent sculptures that are frequently sensual and, at times, sexually explicit."

Bare Naked Ladies

Our neighborhood is close to the Pigalle district of Paris, part of the famous Moulin Rouge. It's a wonderfully colorful area that defiantly skims the base of the hill at Montmartre, where the dire and sinister church of Sacré-Coeur looks down upon it. Or perhaps she looks the other way.

The church hasn't much of a choice. Sex was there before she was built, and will be there long after she's gone.

Across the main Boulevard Rochechouart, lies another seething and festering haunt frequented by my errant boyfriend and many of our visitors: musical equipment world. Guitars, drums, amps, and other sexual tools.

I accompanied some friends of ours, salivating over their first harmonica purchase. They had hopes of someday bending notes with aplomb. As they oooh'd and ahhh'd at things that have no meaning to me, I stumbled upon these lovely ladies. They adorned some glass entry doors to...I don't know where.

The art is not much to speak of, but the feeling is there. Definitely.

By the way, who's Nero?

The Dark Underworld of Chocolate

I thought it might be time to post another Paris sidewalk stencil, so I surfed through my photos and found one that intrigued me. Then I began my usual research to solve the mystery behind the image. Text on the image says, "Where is Guy-Andre Kieffer?"

What I discovered wasn't all Easter baskets and soft, crushable pastel colored peeps. It was more like chocolate bunnies, with the ears bitten off.

I had no idea that the Ivory Coast was one of the world's largest producers of cocoa (43% of the world's cocoa is exported from here, 1.4 million tons). But there have been some troubling times, and a French-Canadian reporter named Guy-Andre Kieffer was kidnapped and is presumed dead, because he investigated and reported on corruption in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry, and unfortunately implicated the country's president.

From a 2004 Guardian article:

"Cocoa is a dark, confused world. You don't know where the money goes. And into it came Guy-André, obsessed about telling the truth."

A recent (August 23, 2007) France 3 television exclusive (YouTube, in French) interviews a witness who claims that Guy-Andre was held for two days in the basement of Ivory Coast's President Gbagbo, and then he was executed.

The best article, with the most up-to-date facts, comes from the US Embassy in Abidjan, via this post on allAfrica.com.

Here are some startling facts from the same 2004 CBC radio report mentioned above:

The world's cocoa is grown within ten degrees north and south of the equator -- in some of the poorest countries in the world and child slaves often work in the fields. Ninety per cent of the world's cocoa production is grown on farms five hectares or less -- allowing much of this slavery to go unnoticed. In Cote d'Ivoire, it's believed that up to 15-thousand child slaves work on the country's 600-thousand cocoa farms.

The United States is the top cocoa importer. Corruption? Murder? Child Slavery? I doubt I will be consuming chocolate any time in the foreseeable future.

Art Frahm - Celery and Dropping Panties

The dropped panty pinup artwork of Art Frahm in the 50's is still considered by some to be too campy to be art and too juvenile to be erotic. James Lileks' humorous analysis of Frahm's works points to the absurd recurring fetishes like celery and leering men that makes Frahm's works so fun.

Painted Naked Woman in Public

[Submitted by Mark W.'s Mom]