I Am Baaack

 

Thank you for the hundreds of wonderful e-mails and comments... I missed you all too!

TypePad is on my 'fatwa hit list', and the problems are still not all solved, but I just cannot stay away any longer, although after almost a month I still cannot comment on my own blog, which is a disgrace!

In my absence, I have been nominated in the 'Best of the Top 250 Blogs' category at The Weblog Awards. Of course the voting already started two days ago, hence I am severely lagging behind!

So on my first day back in the ATB Blogging Oval Office I am already asking you to click into the link on the top of the sidebar and vote ( CLICK LINK HERE FOR CONVENIENCE )  You can vote once a day every day inclusive of the closing day, which is December 15th. Thank you so much to my faithful readers who have already voted without me saying a word!

I will be back later tomorrow with an actual post dealing with some more important issues troubling the world as we speak.

UPDATES: Sissy, one of my co-nominees graciously writes:

And speaking of beauty in unexpected places, Alexandra von Maltzan of All Things Beautiful, springing full blown as if from the forehead of Zeus, announces with panache in the wake of technical issues that "I Am Baaack".

The Blinkered Thinker titles his post 'The Bergdorf Blonde is Back', and writes:

After being offline for nearly a month, the blog with the most stunning graphics has arisen: All Things Beautiful. The commentary, with an international perspective, is always thought provoking.

And in the comments:

Ever since ATB went off-line I've been wandering the streets, muttering incoherently, while knuckling the tears from my bloodshot eyes. Now I can take a badly needed shower.

Well thank you Blinkered Thinker, I am flattered. And thank you all again for the incredible e-mails of support telling me how much you have missed me! It feels good to be appreciated:

There is a God after all! All those sad mornings of going to ATB and 
finding no new presence of Alexandra are gone and life is beautiful 
and wonderful once again. It is as if you have returned from some far 
place. I could not be happier! Welcome back.

Mac Brachman, ever the gentleman, writes:

Please don't leave us again!

Comments

[Darrell]

Alexandra's back! Now there's an early Christmas present!

[Bill Faith]

Welcome back. You were missed.

[LilMissIndie]

Joy o joy, you are back! I have been voting for a site called Imago Dei in the 2501-3500 category, and was happy to find you higher up the chain. Good luck! And welcome back!

[Old Dad]

Ghost,

The bulbous projection is for safe keeping her boyfriend's "jewels." You've got to keep them somewhere.

For some odd reason, I keep thinking of Ricky Ricardo bursting through the door and shouting, "Honey, I'm home" and enter the Brom with her own special vegomatic.

[weekenderman]

Welcome back, Alexandra! I had been reduced to frequenting a blog from my college alma mater. So glad not to have to do that anymore!

By the way, I finally figured out how to post photos to my own blog, but I'll never come close to having your artistic flair. I voted for you today! :)

[Cameron]

Your Back!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you good Lord, for such a blessing as our Alexandra. Please keep her well and good, we need her in the hard times to come in the battle of ideas.

[Ghost Dansing]

Ok RR and gringo... but if you look closely, it looks like Coil is actually blushing.

Anyway... she looks pretty fearsome... but this is what the Mullahs really fear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o93GkVhmlBs

[gringoman]

In these troubling times we seek political truths, insights, answers etc, such as Alexandra's martial model might bestow. The figure is imposing, the weapon ready, the gender cryptic. More than warrior? Perhaps an armored Sybill, militant, commanding, yet also available for prophecy or revelation?

Would an encounter with Madonna (the profane one) help to clarify? For example, the scene where Madonna comes upon her and we wait to see what happens when the Material Girl (1) attempts to kiss the Alexandrian (2) asks if panty hose works with that outfit (3) Inquires, "Sweetheart, where did you score the anabolic steroids? I never saw hotter triceps!"

[mac Brachman]

GD- Thanks for the info. Happy Holidays/2007; I may be too busy to post much before the New Year. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[RunningRoach]

Yo Ghost,

I think she just likes the symbolism in this picture. If my girlfriend had arms like that I would run like hell! (Wonder what the legs look like?) Hmmm just thinking, ya know.

Best wishes for happy holidays,

JCC

[Ghost Dansing]

Mac... Brom is an interesting contemporary commercial artist... Gothic "fetish" apparently his own term, Gothic Fantasy genre. Read WIKI and this interview from Brom's official site. See also the gallery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B
http://www.bromart.com/info.html

Another interview:
http://www.cale.com/brom/bromintr.htm

Here's some interesting things from the ImagineFX site that offers some commentary:

"Brom spent his formative years hot-footing it around the globe in tow with his father, an aviator for the US Army. This he recognises as important: “I credit living in such places as Japan, Hawaii, Alabama and Germany for my somewhat altered perception of reality.”

“Art helped me to be accepted when moving into a new community and was my friend when I was alone.” Though it provided a formative creative impulse, travelling the world as a child probably isn’t all fun and games. Brom’s early subject matter makes that obvious: “I started out with monsters eating people.”

From there he progressed through standard art school fare of still life and landscapes, leading to a four-year stint “as a commercial illustrator doing cute products.” This really ran against the grain and had to be dropped: “Now I’m back to monsters eating people and am very happy.”

Dark Sun

Escaping from cuteness wasn’t that easy: “It took four years, but somehow I managed to get together a fantasy portfolio between jobs. I sent this off to TSR (now known as Wizards of the West Coast). They hired me.”

It wasn’t that Brom was mad keen on RPGs. “I had never even played an RPG before working there,” he reveals. It was the opportunity to paint fantasy full-time that made TSR irresistible.

But even at the home of D&D, things didn’t immediately click. “I did a few covers for Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, but my style clashed with those worlds.” Until then, fantasy had a clean and soft image, while Brom was anything but. Fortunately for him, Dark Sun came along. TSR wanted something completely different, something gritty and nasty. Who you gonna call? “After seeing a few of the paintings I’d done on my own, the crew putting Dark Sun together flipped,” he remembers. “It was just what they were looking for.” Brom indulged in the luxury of a free rein: “They ended up writing much of the world around my paintings. It was a blast.”

Oil and water
Brom’s work is produced in time honoured fashion: on canvas, with oils. “I do use the computer occasionally,” he says. “For pre-production and touch-up work, but nothing can replace the physical intuitiveness of brush on canvas.”

For all that traditionalism of technique, Brom is self taught: “I didn’t have the benefit of learning directly from another artist. Most of what I learned came from studying and emulating the work of artists who I admired, such as Frank Frazetta, Norman Rockwell, NC Wyeth, Waterhouse, and Mucha.” (he did go to a commercial art school for a couple years in Georgia).

"Brom: A little two-year commercial art school in Atlanta, Ga., and we'll just leave it unnamed because I really feel so little credit towards it. It was mostly focusing on mechanical things, the commercial business end. They did have a couple of air-brush-type classes, but they didn't have any drawing or painting classes. It did sharpen me towards professionalism and help me put a portfolio together, though." (From the second interview posted)

http://www.imaginefx.com/-2287754331430236193/Brom.html

Brom's pieces are loaded with Freudian/Neofreudian symbology and strike tensions between sex, violence, masochism, sadism, religion, monstrosity, fear and lust with the intensity of hormone-saturated adolescence.

While the symbolic suggestion is blatant, ambiguity is sustained... for example is "Coil"... the name of the creature Alexandra selected from Brom in this case, a ritual combatant... a gladiatorial warrior, or is she a torturer of victims already subdued and constrained... unable to resist or defend?

Note despite the overt suggestion of preparations for the conduct of offensive and defensive combat, her flesh is without mark... immaculate... no scars... note that some features of the armor suggest attention to fashion and appearance over practicality...

And returning to the possibility that "Coil" is in fact blindfolded behind the narrow slit of the helmet... is "Coil" in fact the victim prepared for violence, attired such to provide additional stimulation for a voyeur's fantasy?

Brom's stuff is loaded... check it out.

[chrys]

You are too creative for "typepad!" I know - because I was too creative for "typepad" - used it about three years ago "Tracks of Everyday Life." They "box you in" and are over controlling. I hope I don't have to move again to be able to do what I want with the helpful push of some "Frantastico" for the "techie" portions! Glad to see you here and "live!"

[mac Brachman]

GD- You often know the etiology of some Alexandra's images- any info? Shalom, Mac Brachman

[mac Brachman]

Ditto remarks by Prof. Plum and Blinkered T. (except the shower part); please don't leave us again! Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Blinkered Thinker]

Ever since ATB went offline I've been wandering the streets, muttering incoherently, while knuckling the tears from my bloodshot eyes. Now I can take a badly needed shower.

[Sissy Willis]

As a fellow contender in the "Best of the Top 250 Blogs" category, let me say first that I adore your blog -- as I do several others with whom you and I are contending -- and am wicked proud to considered by The Wizbangs that Be to be in the same category with such excellence.

On a lighter note, the Weblog Awards site was inaccessible for large chunks of time throughout the day yesterday, so you may not be as far behind as you think.

May the best blog win! :-)

[ Thanks Sissy, sorry to respond like this, but due to technical probs I am not able to post comments on my own blog for a month already, due to TypePad....Anyway I am thrilled to be in your company, and look forward to the next couple of weeks of fun! Much love ]

[Ghost Dansing]

The Brom is kewl... Alexandra's used it before. I could never figure out whether the handle-like protrusion with the red knob and leather-like strings with (some kind of loops or objects on the ends) were purely decorative or meant to be some sort of weapon.

I suppose it could be a menacing nuisance while grappling arm-to-arm; our gladiator (tress) violently switching her neck and head in attempts to pummel with the club- like protrusion... but then it could be a convenient point of control onto which an attacker could latch...

At any rate, the attacker would have to get beyond the spiked phallus that could be concealing a secondary and maybe tertiary weapon such as a sword or even a firearm.

...Visibility would be limited with the helmet... it also looks like she is blindfolded beneath the helmet... however the number "9" on her breast and other identification symbology suggest that she is arrayed to be in competition with others similarly arrayed, or that her particular armor configuration and weaponry is designed against a very specific type of opponent.

[LanceThruster]

The musculature gives it a bit too much androgeny for my tastes but what intrigued me was the "Stand with Israel - Birthpangs of an Important Alliance" description of the picture. I suppose in one way it fits with the underlying S&M quality to it, but a more befitting imagery for that alliance would be much darker. It's going to get much uglier from here on in.

[Lance, the title refers to the title of a previous post where I posted this image here. However it serves as a simple reminder of where I stand on this important issue, especially as the title of the present post is 'I am Baaack'.

[Professor Plum]

So glad you're back!

I've been reduced to reading my own swill.

http://educationation.org

I'll give you fifty bucks---that's a figure of speech---if you tell me the name of the artist of the picture of the Modern Amazon, above. [Wow. I thought that sentence would never end.]

I believe I'm in love.

[It's Gerald Brom, Professor]