Time to Talk Big Organs

Not to long ago I brought up the Self Chek scheme and where I saw the article, Osocio [Social advertising and non-profit campaigns from around the globe].  Well, they've brought another program to my attention, and it has a fashion link:  Marc Jacobs.

Unfortuantely the article points out a few hard truths and questions what the motives are behind the campaign.

I have no idea why Jacobs put his name on this project and I don't care.  It's creative, pushes buttons, and makes concern over skin cancer hip and wearable.  What I do hope is that someone will push the designer to use his clout and get the shirts in stores.  Shoot, sell them in Target, but get them out there and make the  NYU School of Medicine’s Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group some money!

I'd buy the Sean Avery tee in a heartbeat and it's not because it's blue :-)

By the way, in case you missed it, the big organ referred to in the title is our skin.

Getting Out and Talking Books!

The Romance Unlimited gang will be talking and signing books Saturday, January 29 from 2-5:00pm est, at Borders [1 North Galleria Drive, Middletown, NY].

Who will be there?

Stella Price
Cat Johnson
Allie Boniface
and me, Tilly Greene!

The original four authors and it shall be great fun - we look forward to seeing you!

When Research Gives Too Much Information

I have hit a difficult junction with my current WIP, part of the Mythological Messes Redux series, where I've unearthed a great deal of information, albeit interesting, but it's far too convoluted to put into a story.

Let me ask if you know anything about Centaurs?  Satyrs?  Yes, of course you do, but what about Ipotane?  Ipotane?  No?  What if I told you they were the "original version of satyrs" and yet have more in common with centaurs?  Confused?  Not to worry, I am as well and studied the subject for many years, but there you have it - too much information.

Centuars are part human and part horse.
Satyrs are part human and part goat.
Ipotane are part human and part horse.

Just in case you're wondering, Fauns are not listed above because they're part of Roman Mythology, although time has brought them into association with satyrs and the Greek god Pan, and I'm not even going to bring up the Silene issue.

Phrew, told you there was bit too much, and yet interesting, information.

Anyway, here's the question:  Should I be factual with my character who is actually a Ipotane, has previously been called a satyr, but use centaur instead because they're more known and that's what he looks like?  Feels a bit like a lie to me.  I guess I should also mention that my hero has a minor position in Greek Mythology, but I'm reworking his myth a bit so he can bet a redux - originally he died.  Yup, lots and lots of stuff circling this WIP, when really it's a simple tale of love discovered in the most unlikely places.

Well, I think there is a point when the reference books need to be put down and a line needs to be drawn, and I'm doing it here.  He is an Ipotane and I'll work that into the story. 

What do you think?

Hump Day Reflections

I know someone who is studying really really hard and mentioned last week about enjoying the brief timeout to drool gorgeous men present and I thought I'd seek out a few more to keep the chick working hard on the books. 

Because the weather has been so bad, here's Vertigo by Olaf Wipperfurth [careful, music on site] via Homotography - Enjoy E!

What Reading Non-Fiction Taught Me

I'm an art lover, no question about it, and it isn't just the viewing that I find enjoyable.  I read about various subjects in the art world to learn more.  Currently on my TBR stack is Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Michael Gross and for Christmas I was given Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World by Sharon Waxman.  About ready to delve into writing another Mythological Messes Redux book, I picked up Loot, and ended up with a lesson in how not to write.

There were all sorts of interseting twists and turns that were brought up, and details I knew nothing about as a bog-standard art lover.  Yes, I'm eager to revisit The Met, Getty, British Museum and Louvre, and go to others for the first time, with a fresh outlook.  However, the tone permeating the book was decidedly uncomfortable, and left me with a sour taste.  Nevermind.  It's personal how a reader reacts to a book and this one had all sorts of interesting and, oddly enough, timely events within the art world explained that I'll hold onto despite the negative flavor.

One of these was within days of finishing the chapters on Egypt, Zahi Hawass [Secretary General of Supreme Council of Antiquities], and the country's stance to protect and share the ancient monuments only to have the news come out that they were closing King Tut's Tomb for good.

A Pledge and a Challenge!

Making a difference-the pledge. I pledge-do you? I challenge you...

I challenge you to the 'reuse fashion' pledge" here are the rules and the signed pledge form. Pass along!

REUSE: The Pledge
I, Tilly Greene, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself by purchasing only what I need from a used clothing store, or make the item myself, for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo(s) of my refashioned, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on my blog (s), here on Facebook-or other online venues so that others may share the joy that reusing brings, and show the world how easy it is to make a difference, 'going green' to help the environment!

Signed Tilly Greene


The Rules
1. No buying new! (handmade- or used only) All clothing must be Recycled, Renovated, Preloved or Thrifted, or Handmade only for the term. Employment related and special needs clothing (ie sports,) shoes and undies are not part of the "used / home made" rules.

2. In extreme circumstances, maybe a special event, or the worlds greatest and most amazing never to be repeated sale that you simply can not pass up, you may use the Get out of Refashionista Jail Free card. You are able to use this card once during the 2 month part of your contract. Of course you need to fess up on the blog and display what you bought so the world can judge for itself if it was indeed a 'fashion-must-have' emergency.

3. You must post on you blog(s), Facebook or other on line venues at least once a week to let the community know what you've been up to. This will not only give you brag points, but inspire and encorouge others.

4. You need to be honest and admit when you've fallen off the Refashionista Wagon! And suffer the 'comments' that your actions caused.

And you...
Are you up for it? Can you go two months without buying anything "new"?  I'll be posting mainly on Facebook [this is the main me] because that's where I was challenge, but anything big [using my free card or actually crafting something] I'll share here as well.

One of the reasons I accepted this challenge we're in the midst of Fashionmania otherwise known as award season, oh, and because of the heroine in Missing in Paradise. Why? She just so happens to be the reuse guru - love the oddity of timing :-)

The cute dress above, made from phonebooks, was designed by Jolis Paons and posted on Crafty Crafty.  They have an entire section devoted to recycled fashion - fascinating stuff.

Movie Talk

Sometimes I pick a movie out of the blue.  Maybe there's an actor/actress/director whose work I enjoy, heard some good things about it or, like in this case, it's set in an area near where the cutie was born and we went to university.

Red Riding is a trilogy that I put into our Netflix list to watch instantly before the holidays and we finally got to them this past week.  Wow, seriously, while the write up was fairly straightforward, we were still hooked by the intensity, history, and oh yes the plot.

Let me back up.  There was a serial killer active in the 70-80's in and around Leeds called the Yorkshire Ripper - who happens to have been in the news (appealing his being told he'll never, ever, be released) whilst we were over there for the holidays.  People were still talking about it when I arrived for Uni and, as many mystery/true crime events will do, my imagination perked up.  Unbeknowst to me, for a few days over one of the holidays I stayed at a friends dorm, and behind it is where the last victim was found.  After that brief stay, my friends told me all about the Ripper - thank goodness it was after.

Anyway, the movie goes way beyond that horrible time, and shine the light on what else was going on in the area.  No good by the police, politicians, businessmen and, I won't give the very last bad guy away so let's leave it with folks from all areas of society.

A few words that come to mind for this flick:  gripping, dark, cringe-worthy and bloody good!

Oh, one more thing, they're based on a quartet by David Peace which was recently released in the US.  The covers give hints of what the big crescendo that happens in that particular book, although they do nothing to pull a reader in if they know nothing about the storyline.  After watching the movies I'll be buying all four!  But will it be paperback or ebook?  Hmmm :-)

As a side note and quoted directly from the Yorkshire website:  The term 'riding' is of Viking origin and derives from Threthingr meaning a third part. There were indeed three ridings in Yorkshire - the East Riding, West Riding and North Riding.  Okay, I'm biased, but this is a beautiful area of England, full of history and the people are wonderful.  I would strongly suggest you spend time there if you're going to England.

Golden Globes Fashion Thoughts

The award season is here and that means it's time to indulge my passion for fashion!

Sunday was full of football, both the British and US version, and then the Golden Globes started.  There were a few films noted that I hadn't heard of before and am now eager to see, and some I'd wanted to see that now I must see - but none of that matters when it comes to great, fabulous, fashion.

My favorite isn't so much a single gown as it was a color:  green.  The two that made me sit up and take notice were the Monique Lhuillier worn by Catherine Zeta-Jones, the Vera Wang dress Mila Kunis chose, and Donna Karan on Elisabeth Moss.

What else caught my eye was simple elegant drama and Eva Longoria in Zac Posen and Olivia Wilde in Marchesa were the two I liked the most.  Even though the pictures don't show it, but the latter was a chocolate brown - yummy.

Something else I quite liked that came from the former group was how refreshing it was to see curves were embraced.  Sofia Vergara in Vera Wang was my favorite in this grouping, if not overall.  There's something about the black belt on the red dress that just pulls it all together and looks totally wearable while still being formal.

There you go, my brief thoughts on the Golden Globes fashion, now, just around the corner are the SAG Awards [January 30], Grammys and BAFTA Awards [both February 13] with the Super Bowl [February 6]sandwiched in between - oh yes, I can't wait for all the fun!

In fact, there will be a contest sandwiched in there, so keep your eyes peeled!

By the way, thank you to Skinny vs Curvy for the pics above.

Do Unto Others

Remember hearing that as a kid?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, otherwise known as The Golden Rule.  Did you know that throughout time just about every spiritual group has personalized The Golden Rule, but it pretty much remains the same?  I didn't, but am now hoping people will think more often about this Rule.

Anyway, got off on a tagent there, Do Unto Others is a Self Chec advertisement.  A couple of months ago I was on Osocio, Social Advertising and Non-profit Campaigns site, and read their Love Yourself article posted by Tom Meggison.  Fabulous work and he's right, Iggy Pop is an interesting person to be inspired by and yet it suits the Self Chec objective perfectly [you may need to read the short article to understand that one].

By the way, Self Chec means just that, check yourself - in this case for testicular cancer - and if not you, then Do Unto Others.

Updated Note posted at 8:07am:  In case you didn't know, I use the Share on Facebook button found at the bottom of my blog postings, and have never, ever, had any troubles - until today.  Someone told Facebook to stop this Self Chec poster from being put onto their site because its, I assume, offensive to them - are you kidding me?  When given a chance to inform Facebook that I disagreed and why, I took it, we'll see if anything comes of it.  Meanwhile, my hackles are up!

Inspiration Shared

As I'm writing or finished with a project, I'll often share what inpsired the plot, characters, etc, but this time it's different.  This time I'm going to share the inspiration and we'll see if anything comes of it.  So here you go, The Octopus Chair by Maximo Riera.

Elegant and yet eerie.  Maybe something for next Halloween.

Naughty Thought for Monday

Sometimes I come across something that perks the erotic romance author side of me and for more than one reason, and that is what happened with this picture.

The man in the photo is Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and he's gorgeous.  The picture above is from the 2009 movie Valhalla Rising and while I missed it in the theaters, it's now on my list to see.  Now, all that said, what caught my eye was the huge carved phallic symbol he's chained to whilst on his knees.

Ummm, yeah, those are interesting tats and like I said, he's gorgeous, but the post, collar and chain thing in the middle of nowhere made me grab hold of it and see where it came from.

What's the first thing you noticed?

Friday Funny

It's been a while since I've offered a Friday Funny, but this one spoke to me so eloquently, I had to share - thank you Stephanie - and enjoy!

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders .

The man says, 'A hamburger, fries and a coke,' and turns to the ostrich, 'What's yours?'

'I'll have the same,' says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order 'That will be $9.40 please,' and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, 'A hamburger, fries and a coke.'

The ostrich says, 'I'll have the same.'

Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes routine, 'The usual?' asks the waitress.

'No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and a salad,' says the man.

'Same,' says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, 'That will be $32.62.'

Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. 'Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change in your pocket every time?'

'Well,' says the man, 'several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.'

'That's brilliant!' says the waitress. 'Most people would ask for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!'

'That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,' says the man..

The waitress asks, 'What's with the ostrich?'

The man sighs, pauses and answers, 'My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say.'

Picture Worth a 1000 Words

This is Lily, my sister and BIL's second eldest daughter's pug, who is actually theirs to spoil.  She's on my mind because this is a recent pic of her from my sister and I set it up to visually remind me of today's dental appointment - a picture is worth a thousand words.

Hump Day Reflections

I'm finishing off Missing in Paradise where the hero is a pro-surfer who retired after a shark attack and possesses some rather unique tattoos.  He has a wicked bad boy reputation who was caught by the press in a few naughty interludes.  While those happened in the past, everyone knows him to be the same person he was before, a down-to-earth guy who happens to really enjoy sex.  However, time has moved on, and the sex is best with the heroine who inadvertently turns his world upside down with a phone call.

This photo of Adam Levine of Maroon 5 by Ben Riggott [found on Homotography but featured in the UK's Cosmopolitan] reminded me of my guy.

As for the heroine, she's has no match, really, but if I had to try and find one it would sort of be Martha Stewart + Pink + Heather Locklear + a dash more of individuality.  Told you, not really like anyone else, but she is the perfect match for the hero.

AAD Philly Panel News

I'll be attending Authors After Dark 2011 which will be in Philadelphia this August and the panels have just been released.

So exciting!

You can see them here, but I'll share with you here the one's I'll be sitting on:

Myths and Magic, Sexy Shifters, BDSM panel, Menage and More, and last but not least When the details are just as important as the Story: Food and Clothing in Romance

Aren't they great?  And these are just the ones I'm sitting on, there are many others I can't wait to be in the auidence for, which, I have to say, is why this is a fabulous conference to attend.  Besides being a not for profit conference [and on that actively tries to raise money for specific charities], AAD actually understands that everyone is a reader at heart, and we want to know everything there is to know about the books/ebooks we love!

Enough, if you haven't signed up yet, you still can here, and I look forward to meeting you in person.

Naughty Thought for Monday

These underwear for men are from Andrew Christian and they're called Shock Jock Flirt Boxers w/Male Features.  To quote from the site:

"The Shock Jock Flirt Boxer features an Active Shaping Technology Cup with authentic male features for a completely natural look."

There you have it, underwear or do these offer more than you want to know?

A Bit of the Greene Holidays: Pub Stuff

Time to pull a few bits and pieces I've posted this week together.

We landed in London and had a day, one day, to get a few things done and we kind of did them all.  One thing was to visit the Cabinet War Rooms, another was to enjoy some Crispy Duck, and the third thing we wanted to do was see a friend.  There were others, but with it snowing and us getting into vacation mode, we cut it down to these three things.

What we hadn't thought to do in the snow is a pub crawl, but that is exactly what ended up happening.

After the museum we dashed to Liverpool Street station to meet our friend at a local pub once he finished with work.  It was a nice pub, but packed, so we moved on to another which was again, okay, but had no personality, and so moved to a third.  This is where we decided to have one and do a crawl to Chinatown.  Let me remind you, it's snowing, maybe mid-20's/F, and we haven't eaten all day.

The next pub found us in the Smithfield section of London with it's longstanding market, which was closed, but still some of the best pubs we've ever visited in the city.  Where we went to next was my favorite pub of the night, Cittie of Yorke, and also happens to be where the last picture I took on the crawl was taken.  Somehow the camera was put onto panaromic and ended up with one picture showing the pub sign and front so we can find it again and the third [right] is we think the street, sideways, and have know idea why this was taken.

Okay, moving on from there we visited two more historic pubs, and then to Chinatown for Crispy Duck.  Unfortunately, we didn't check our watches, and after eating discovered the tubes had stopped [12:30am] and so we walked.  First to Russell Square [our hotel] and then our friend went on to the train station where he picked up a train for home.  After an hour ride and thirty minute walk, he made it home, and slept for three hours - had to be at work early the next morning, we merely took the train north and beat the blizzard [relative really because it was maybe 5" in the city] that had been building since we arrived.

Told you the pub crawl could be fun, but also very bad.

There you go, a very small snippet of our time in England for Christmas :-)

A Bit of the Greene Holidays: TV Stuff

Oz [Clarke] and Hugh [Dennis] are two guys we enjoyed last Christmas and so when we noticed they had a show on again this year, we made time to watch it.  The first series was 'Drink to Christmas' and this year it's 'Raise the Bar'.  The fun part of not knowing what going to happen is that we enjoyed it even more when they did the Otley Run pub crawl and visited some of our old university haunts in Leeds.  I'm not sure if you can watch the show here, but if you can, enjoy! 

Oh, and yes, Leeds was the city Ann and Tom visited in My Angel.

There's lots of Agatha Christie repeats, however, this time there was not only a new David Suchet as Hercule Poirot doing 'Death on the Orient Express'.  It was great, stayed true to the story - at least as far as I remember it.  'Suchet on the Orient Express' was also good, there were many interesting bits about the notorious train that were shared, and I would love to take that ride!  Two shows over a couple days, fantastic!  Now, because it came to mind, I thought I'd remind you all that Michael Hoeye's Hermux Tantamoq [a Hercule Poirot of the animal world] trilogy is wonderful, and both you and your young reader will enjoy.  Love those books!

A few others I caught were 'Upstairs, Downstairs' was a popular series from the 70's [I never saw any episodes when it did play on public tv in the US] and they've revamped it.  We also watched 'Countryfile Winter Special' in the Outer Hebrides and want to go up there for a visit!  Others we caught were Top Gear, Have I Got News For You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and Rebus - yes, that would be Ian Rankin's Rebus!

And as for that most important show of all - the Queen's Speech - we missed it.  The kids were playing on the Xbox instead - oops - but it was on the importance of sport.  So go out and be sporting :-)

A Bit of the Greene Holidays: Food Stuff

This is one of a few must have's whenever we make it back to England and have time to stop in London.  It's crispy duck and something we share.

We generally choose a restaurant in Chinatown that has a duck hanging in the window, gruesome, I know, but it's a part of this area.  There's only one restaurant we've been to more than once and that wasn't because it was the best, we were just hungry, and knew we could get served fairly quickly.  This place was picked because it just so happened to be opened at midnight, although I suggest you do wherever the toursits aren't :-).  Anyway, we lucked out, the one we chose had some duck still in.

So, to the picture I took above.  That's a steaming pancake with plum sauce smeared around, a bit of crispy duck piled on and followed by thin strips of both cucumber and scallions.  Once everything is there, you roll it up, and chow down on the goodness,  Within seconds it's time to prepare another.  While this is served as a starter, in general we each get 4 pancakes, and that's a favorite dinner of ours to partake.

In short, if you make it to London, go to Chinatown [behind Leicester Square, which is a few short steps from Trafalgar Square] and enjoy the shops, but also indulge yourself with some crispy duck :-)

Something else we usually have is fish and chips or, in my case, deep fried sausage and chips with scraps.  The latter is the bits of fried batter that fall off in the fryer and are collected to sprinkle on top of an order upon request.  Our lady gave me a huge portion of chips and loads of scraps - we were talking about the lack of fish and chip places in America.

There is nothing remotely good for you with this take away, but the fish and chips is something the cutie misses and since I don't eat fish, I get a friend sausage.  Now, I admit it, the scraps bit is probably the worst bit, however, they are so very good, we remind ourselves it's a vacation and no one eats properly on vacation!  On top of all this and can't be seen is salt and vinegar.  Yummy!  I guess I should also explain that if you happen to order fish and chips in a restaurant [there are loads of places that you order take away on one side and sit down to eat properly on the other] you might, particularly if you're the cutie, order mushy peas.  I personally like my peas firm, but these are so beloved you can buy them by the tin in America [Batchelors is the best brand according to an expert I know :-)] at Amazon or your supermarket.

Since it was Christmas, I'll tell you all about what was on our plates, actually the cutie's plate because mine didn't have everything on it.  So, let's start at the 12 o'clock position [and go clockwise] with mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey with cranberry sauce, sausage wrapped in bacon, sprouts with bacon and walnuts [there were also sprouts with nothing on them], and finally roasted parsnips.  I know the cutie had carrots, although they can't be seen in the pic.  Of course we did the cracker thing [pulled with resulting cracks, hats put on, jokes shared and toys played with, and then we dug in].  We were crowded at the table which always makes it fun to pass the gravy while not spilling it into the wine.

Of course there was much more than this, but I don't want to bore you, so I'll leave you here to go plan a meal where scraps can join the party :-)

A Bit of the Greene Holidays: Book Stuff

I write erotic romances and read them, so when I go into a bookstore - okay, any store that sells books - I check out the romance section to see if there's anything I want to read or to see which ones they have.

Knowing this about me, you won't be surprised I made time for a personal trip to Waterstones [the big chain bookstore in England], and thought I'd share what I found: not much for a large store!

One and a half columns - a bit of erotic fiction and classics shared the other half - of just a few authors.  Nora Roberts had the most space, she starts on the second from the bottom on the left through three shelves on the right.  Now, to give Waterstone's a little less grief on the romance selection, they do have a section for "Dark Romances" over by the Sci-fi/Fantasy section - it was pushed by Christmas around the corner to kick off the Teen Section - oops.  Oh, and they did have four or five ereaders at the front of the shop.

End result, if you like Elizabeth Chadwick, Georgette Heyer or Nora Roberts, you have copious choices, otherwise you're pretty much out of luck.

But wait, there's books in ASDA [I think they're now owned by Walmart], so here's their romance section.

Don't recognize any of the bottom shelf books?  But they're part from a huge publisher, visibly known around the world.  They're Harlequin!  Mills & Boon!  Fab and seriously hot covers, hence they won't be at eye level, you'll have to look for them.

However, this doesn't mean I'm returning with no books, that just doesn't happen - despite the lack of options :-)

A Bit of the Greene Holidays: Museum Stuff

Okay, so you've been following my tweets, you'll know I've spent the past few weeks in England and thought I'd share a bit of the Greene Holidays with you here.

So, today. let me tell you about our visit to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum.  You can go at anytime or schedule an a time and you'll want more time there than you think you will.  This entrance [no my picture, it was snowing and we dashed in, so borrowed this one from Sabrina's London Diaries] can be seen if you're walking from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square [The Mall], although the road above is steps from 10 Downing Street.

Now, even though we were there for two hours, we both agreed we hadn't been there long enough.  The shop isn't huge, but I saw so many things I wanted to bring back, and ended up with none - had to think of luggage space and Christmas - although I will be shopping online :-)

The Churchill Museum is attached, seamless entrance, and has one of the most technically advanced timeline displays we've ever seen.  Read up on it before visiting so you can take advantage of all it offers.

Okay, enough of that, time for the exhibit itself.  The walking wand commentary is a must use as it gives all sorts of interesting tidbits.  For instance, I now know quite a few of the secretaries [women] were amongst those who slept below the Cabinet War Rooms, and often were caught in their jamma's walking past gorgeous military men in uniform on their way to the toilets.  There were no private facilities either.  Also, did you know that when the women married, they were no longer able to work down there?  I didn't!  Anyway, the track through the CWR puts WWII in a different light for me.

You get a close up view of the maps they used to conduct a war and it often looks like the old road maps we saw our parents and grandparents use.  The most fascinating map had to be the one showing how Europe was carved up after it all ended.  Yes, very interesting, especially considering how those general lines with a pen affected actual people.

From the very serious to the surreal.

Sir Winston Churchill, whose mother was an American, slept below ground in the CWR [reinforced against bombs - hopefully] three times and wore a velour romper [an Austin Reed "Siren Suit"] during the air raids for comfort.  That's right, the leader of Great Britain during WWII wore a one piece velour romper.  I could swear the one we saw was a claret color, but I didn't get a good picture.

So, which do you like better:  Siren Suit or Romper?

Hello 2011!

I'm choosing to greet the new year by sharing with you a few pics from a fabulous calendar and it just so happens to embrace two of my personal favorites - fashion and Ancient Greek Mythology!

The Pirelli Calendar was shot by Karl Lagerfeld, fashion icon, and he just so happened to have done a wonderful job.  To make the calendar even better, Lagerfeld focused the monthly pictures on and around Greek Mythology!

Now that is beyond words for me to express how exciting it would be to own this calendar.  I can't, but I can share a couple pics with you that I found at WWD, and we can all bask in the glory that will be 2011.

I suppose you want to know who that is [to the right] playing Apollo.  He's a Frenchman, model named Baptiste Giabiconi and I think this is a pretty fabulous picture of him.  Oh, and the codpiece, well, yeah, it's also spectacular!

You can read more about the shoot, brrr, and check out more of the pics, they are so cool.

And, with my love for the Ancient Greeks in mind, I'll share something else with you.  I'm in the midst of finishing my 5th tale in the Mythological Messes Redux series. Put a satyr together with a nymph and the loving is going to be wild.

Here's one more pic because I can't resist.  This is Erin Wasson, an American model, as Ajax.  So cool!