Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Vintage British postcard. Lubin, 1910s, No. 45. Photo by Gilbert & Bacon, Philadelphia, 1916.

Eleanor Caines (1870 or 1880-1913) was an American silent film actress. She spent most of her film career at the Lubin Film Company. According to IMDb, Eleanor Caines was born in 1870 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. In 1909, she began her film career at Lubin in the short comedy Blissville the Beautiful (1909) with George Reehm and Harry Myers. In the following years, she appeared in some 30 Lubin productions. Eleanor Caines died in 1913 in her hometown Philadelphia at the age of 43. The cause of her death was surgery after an accident. She was married to William Robson with whom she had a child, and till her death to Jack Le Faint.

Running a comedy is already hard enough. But, running one built around a CGI teddy bear presents its own unique challenges. For co-showrunners and EPs Seth MacFarlane, Brad Walsh and Paul Corrigan, Ted requires the same creative instincts as any sitcom: building stories, developing character arcs and eliciting laughs in the writers’ room. Season 2 […]

Pejasar posted a photo:

Manuel Gual posted a photo:

The Soul of the Stout: A Journey Through Traditional Pub Culture

Description
A cinematic and evocative photographic collection capturing the essence of traditional pub culture and the artistry of dark beer. From the warm, rain-slicked exterior of historic stone taverns to the precise craft of pouring the perfect pint, this series explores the deep textures and rich atmosphere of classic gathering spaces. Visual highlights include extreme macro shots of cascading nitrogen bubbles, the rich velvety texture of the creamy foam head, raw roasted malts held in weathered hands, and intimate moments shared under dim, candlelit interiors. The imagery seamlessly blends rustic wood elements, polished brass taps, and vibrant neon reflections to evoke a timeless sense of warmth, companionship, and brewing heritage.

Note: This entire photo series was conceptually designed and generated using Artificial Intelligence.

Mike Flanaganhas distinguished himself as one of the great modern horror creatives, and he’s not limited to just one medium. Although Flanagan got his start making low-budget horror films, he later struck up a deal with Netflix and has made some of the best miniseries on the streamer. Flanagan has consistently proven himself an expert at adapting Stephen King, as he has both shown reverence for the source material and been willing to put his own spin on the stories. However, Flanagan’s best series to date was based on a legendary work by Edgar Allan Poe and still managed to earn King’s seal of approval.

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 81. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. John Ericson in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955). The Spanish film title was Conspiración de silencio.

German-American film and television actor John Ericson (1926-2020) started in the 1950s as a young hunk with wavy-haired good looks and an athletic build. He made a series of popular films for MGM, including Teresa (19, 51) and The Student Prince (1954). Later, Ericson worked mostly for television, most memorably as the partner of Anne Francis in Honey West (1965-1966).

John Ericson was born Joachim Alexander Ottokar Meibes in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1926. He was the son of Carl F. Meibes, a German chemist and Ellen Wilson, a Swedish actress and opera singer. Escaping from the Nazi regime, his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was three. At first, living in Detroit, they eventually settled in New York, where his dad (according to a 1955 newspaper article) found lucrative employment as president of a food extract company. After graduating from Newton High School, John enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, financially supporting his studies by working at a Walgreens drug store. Most sources, including Wikipedia, incorrectly cite his acting debut as being in 'Stalag 17' on Broadway, but Ericson himself stated (in a 1989 interview with Skip E. Lowe) that his career kick-started with the romantic wartime drama Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951), filmed in Italy by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Afterwards, he made the decision not to sign a studio contract for fear of being typecast as 'boy-next-door' types. On the strength of his performance in Teresa, producer/director José Ferrer offered Ericson not only what amounted to being the nominal lead in 'Stalag 17' (1951), but the opportunity to play an initially unsympathetic part as the slick, cynical gambler J. J. Sefton. The coveted film role was eventually assigned to William Holden, who won an Academy Award. Between 1954 and 1955, Ericson was under contract at MGM and made four films for the studio: Rhapsody (Charles Vidor, 1954) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Vittorio Gassman, Green Fire (Andrew Marton, 1954), co-starring Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly, who had been in his class at the Academy. and the seminal Spencer Tracy Western Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) as a nervy hotel clerk.

During the next three decades, John Ericson worked as a freelance actor. His wavy-haired good looks and athletic build were not lost on the industry. He co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck in Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957). His career continued mostly on television. He co-starred with Anne Francis in Honey West (1965), a short-lived series apparently modelled on the British series The Avengers (1961). It featured a crime-solving, judo-savvy lady detective (even wearing Diana Rigg-style jumpsuits) and her right-hand man. The show only lasted for 30 episodes, but has since gained a minor cult following. Ericson's frequent TV guest appearances included Rawhide (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963), The FBI (1965) and The Invaders (1967). For the big screen, he went to Italy and Spain. There he starred in the Peplum Io Semiramide / Slave Queen of Babylon (Primo Zeglio, 1963) about Semiramis, a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Yvonne Furneaux). He also starred in the James Bond pastiche Agente S 03: Operazione Atlantide / Operation Atlantis (Domenico Paolella, 1965) and Spaghetti Westerns. In the U.S., he had leads in thrillers such as The Money Jungle (Francis D. Lyon, 1967) with Lola Albright, Westerns like Day of the Badman (Harry Keller, 1958) with Fred MacMurray, and Science Fiction B-graders like The Destructors (Francis D. Lyon, 1968) starring Richard Egan, and The Bamboo Saucer (Frank Telford, 1968), which was Dan Duryea's last film. Ericson also starred as the titular 1930s Depression-era gangster in Pretty Boy Floyd (Herbert J. Leder, 1960). He appeared in the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) and posed for the nude centrefold in Playgirl magazine's January 1974 issue. On the stage, he played King Arthur to Kathryn Grayson's Guinevere in a 1967 production of the musical 'Camelot'. A reviewer commented that what Ericson lacked in the vocal department, he more than made up for by a 'masterful performance'. His dramatic theatrical credits included 'Richard III', 'Mr. Roberts' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. In his spare time, John Ericson took up painting landscapes and still lifes. He was also a sculptor and a keen amateur photographer. Until he died of pneumonia in 2020, he resided in New Mexico with his second wife, Karen Huston, whom he married in 1974. With his first wife, Milly Ericson Courye, he had two children, Brett and Nicole. John Ericson was 93.

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

A life without imagination is not a life. Without fantasy, without creation, without daydreams or fairy tales. But how are we going to develop our imagination if we do not do so from childhood, playing with our toys, if we are instead dazzled by the bright screens of our phones? Thirty years ago in November 1995, when Toy Story premiered, that question was unthinkable. Today, after three sequels, half a dozen shorts, a handful of mini-shorts, a series and television specials, and with Toy Story 5 about to open in movie theaters, the question is unavoidable.

Seguir leyendo

💾

©

One of the good things about streaming becoming so easy and widespread is that there always seems to be some place for any movie to end up. The big streamers can fight over new releases, or just make multi-billion dollar deals to buy the competition, but there’s usually somebody who appreciates the classics. We’re specifically referring to classics like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which you can watch for free on Tubi.

The word oud appears with increasing frequency on fragrance counters, lifestyle blogs, and luxury goods lists across the English-speaking world. Yet genuine understanding of what oud is — where it comes from, why it smells the way it does, and what separates the best oud fragrances from the mediocre ones — remains less common than the ingredient’s ubiquity in marketing would suggest.

This guide addresses both questions honestly: what oud actually is, and how to identify the fragrances that use it well.

What Oud Is

Oud is the aromatic heartwood produced by certain Aquilaria trees when they are infected by a specific mould. In its uninfected state, Aquilaria wood is light, pale, and essentially scentless. The infection triggers the tree’s defensive response — a production of dense, dark, resin-saturated heartwood that in chemical terms is a complex mixture of sesquiterpenes, chromones, and phenylpropanoids. It is this resin-saturated wood, dried and either burned as incense or processed to extract the essential oil, that is agarwood — or oud, as the oil and the material are known in Arabic and across the Middle East.

The rarity of oud derives from several compounding factors. Not all Aquilaria trees become infected. The infection needs to proceed over years or decades to produce wood with meaningful resin content. Wild agarwood-producing species have been significantly depleted by overcollection across their native range. And the finest quality wild oud oils are produced in quantities so small — a single old-growth tree may yield only a few grams of high-grade oil — that genuine scarcity is not a marketing construct but an ecological reality.

YOUDH what is oud resources offer a detailed exploration of oud’s creation, history, and sensory character for those who want to deepen their understanding of this extraordinary ingredient.

The Sensory Character of Oud

Oud’s scent is one of perfumery’s most difficult to describe to someone who has not encountered it. The woody quality is denser and darker than cedar, sandalwood, or vetiver. There is a resinous warmth that is neither sweet nor dry but something more complex — the aromatic character of centuries-old wood infused with a biological process that is, in a meaningful sense, alive.

The animalic dimension of oud — more prominent in wild Assam and Indian ouds, more restrained in Cambodian and Malaysian expressions — is one of the ingredient’s most debated characteristics. Those who love oud tend to love it precisely for this quality: the sense that the fragrance is emanating from something biological and ancient rather than synthetic and clinical. Those who encounter it without preparation sometimes find it confronting.

The best oud fragrances use the ingredient in ways that are honest about this character rather than diluting it into something unrecognisable. They build around oud’s warmth and depth, complement its animalic dimension with materials that frame rather than mask it, and give the oil enough prominence in the formula to allow its complexity to be experienced rather than merely implied.

According to the Royal Botanical Gardens, all commercially significant agarwood-producing Aquilaria species are listed on CITES Appendix II, requiring that international trade be accompanied by permits confirming that the material was legally and sustainably sourced.

What Makes the Best Oud Fragrances Different

The fragrance market contains an enormous range of products that feature oud in their name or marketing. At one extreme are products where the oud connection is primarily a marketing label applied to fragrances that contain little or no genuine oud material. At the other are extraordinary compositions built around oud of verifiable provenance, composed by perfumers who understand the ingredient deeply, and bottled at concentrations that allow the material’s full character to be expressed.

Between these extremes, the quality range is wide. The indicators that correlate most reliably with genuinely good oud fragrance include specific origin information for the oud material used, transparency about concentration and ingredients, the reputation of the perfumer or house for ingredient integrity, and — ultimately — the experience of wearing the fragrance and assessing whether the oud it contains is genuinely expressing the depth and complexity the ingredient is capable of.

For those seeking the best oud fragrances from a brand whose commitment to oud quality is not a marketing claim but a defining principle, YOUDH offers a collection that rewards proper exploration. Each fragrance in the range reflects a genuine engagement with what oud can do at its best. Discover the collection today.

The world of oud is rich, layered, and deeply rewarding for those who approach it with genuine curiosity. YOUDH is the ideal companion for that exploration — a brand built on the conviction that the finest fragrance ingredients deserve to be treated with the seriousness and honesty they have earned over centuries of human devotion. Discover the collection today and begin your own oud journey.

Oud is not merely an ingredient. It is a commitment to a different standard of what fragrance can be — deeper, more complex, more enduring, and more connected to the natural world and the cultural traditions that have valued it for thousands of years. YOUDH honours that standard in everything it does.

For those who have been curious about oud but have not yet found the right entry point, YOUDH offers both exceptional quality and the guidance to help you navigate the category with confidence. The collection is available at youdh.co.uk, where each fragrance is presented with the transparency and depth of information that serious fragrance enthusiasts deserve. Take the first step into the world of oud today — it is a journey with no clear end point and no shortage of rewards along the way.

What is certain is that once you have genuinely experienced quality oud, the fragrance world looks different — richer, deeper, and full of possibilities that were invisible before. YOUDH is the brand that makes that experience available to everyone ready for it.

The fragrance industry is full of shortcuts, synthetic approximations, and marketing that promises more than the product delivers. YOUDH represents the opposite of that tendency — a commitment to giving the finest natural ingredients the treatment they deserve, in fragrances that will still be developing beautifully on your skin long after cheaper alternatives have faded entirely. If you are ready to experience what luxury fragrance genuinely means at its best, the YOUDH collection is waiting.

The post What Is Oud and Where to Find the Best Oud Fragrances appeared first on Social Lifestyle Magazine.

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Poster freecard by Max Racks. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro in Great Expectations (Alfonso Cuarón, 1998). Caption: Let Desire Be Your Destiny.

American actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow (1972) is the daughter of filmmaker Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. During the 1990s the 1990s and early 2000s, she was a leading lady in period films like Emma (1996) and Shakespeare in Love (1998). Later, she acted in blockbusters and franchises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Iron Man (2008) to Avengers: Endgame (2019). On television, she had a recurring guest role in Glee (2010–2011). Paltrow won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Gwyneth Katherine Paltrow was born in 1972 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents were director and television producer Bruce Paltrow and Tony Award-winning actress Blythe Danner. Her brother Jake Paltrow also works in the film industry. She is the niece of actress Katherine Moennig. Gwyneth grew up in Santa Monica, where she attended the Crossroads School. When she was eleven, the family moved to Massachusetts, where her father began working in summer stock productions in the Berkshires. At 15, she spent a year in Spain and speaks fairly good Spanish. She graduated from the all-girls Spence School in New York City and attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she studied art history. She dropped out of university to pursue acting. Earlier, she had demonstrated her talent by appearing in plays alongside her mother. She made her television debut in the drama High (1989), directed by her father. In 1990, Paltrow made her professional stage debut. She played her first film role in the musical Shout (Jeffrey Hornaday, 1991) alongside John Travolta. In the same year, she played the young Wendy in the fantasy film Hook (1991), directed by her godfather Steven Spielberg. She had minor roles in the thrillers Flesh and Bone (Sterve Kloves, 1993) and Malice (Harold Becker, 1993), alongside Nicole Kidman. Paltrow gained wider recognition with a supporting role in the thriller Se7en (David Fincher, 1995). She played a small but significant role as Brad Pitt’s wife. The two also began a relationship in real life, which received a great deal of media attention. The film was an international box-office hit. In the following year, she played Emma Woodhouse in Emma (Douglas McGrath, 1996), based on the novel by Jane Austen. For her role, she received positive reviews. Roger Ebert: "In its high spirits and wicked good humor, Emma is a delightful film–second only to Persuasion among the modern Austen movies, and funnier, if not so insightful. Gwyneth Paltrow sparkles in the title role as young Miss Woodhouse, who wants to play God in her own little patch of England. You can see her eyes working the room, speculating on whose lives she can improve." In 1998, she starred in five different films. Paltrow achieved her international breakthrough with the lead role of Viola De Lesseps in the romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998). She played the fictional girlfriend of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes). Shakespeare in Love won seven Oscars, including Best Actress for Paltrow. The film was a hit with both critics and cinema audiences, and she also received a Golden Globe for her performance. The British film Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, 1998) was also successful, both with critics and the public. That year, she was the first woman to speak out about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. In 1999, she starred alongside Jude Law, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett in the psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999), based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith

Gwyneth Paltrow co-starred with her then-boyfriend Ben Affleck in the romantic film Bounce (Don Roos, 2000), which disappointed because of its predictable, formulaic plot. That year, she also starred in Duets (2000), directed by her father, Bruce Paltrow. In this karaoke comedy-drama, she did her own singing. She played the tragic poet Sylvia Plath in Sylvia (Christine Jeffs, 2003), in which she starred alongside her mother, Blythe Danner, for the first time. Roger Ebert: "The film stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia and Daniel Craig as Ted. They are well cast, not merely because they look something like the originals but because they sound like workers who live with words and value them; there’s a scene where they hurl quotations at each other, and it sounds like they know what they’re doing. Paltrow’s great feat is to underplay her character’s death wish. There was madness in Sylvia Plath, but of a sad, interior sort, and one of the film’s accomplishments is to show subtly how it was so difficult for Hughes to live with her. The movie doesn’t pump up the volume." Paltrow opted for more comedic roles. She was Margot Tenenbaum in the ensemble film The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) and starred in the comedy Shallow Hal (Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, 2001) alongside Jack Black. For her role, she had to wear a 200-pound latex 'fat' suit at times. Paltrow said that this experience made her saddened by the injustice faced by overweight people in society. She played the lead role in the unsuccessful comedy View from the Top (Bruno Barreto, 2003), for which she received a fee of US$10 million. Then she appeared alongside Jude Law in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, 2004). In 2006, Paltrow received another Golden Globe nomination for her remarkable performance in the drama The Proof (John Madden, 2005) as the loyal daughter of a brilliant but mad mathematician (Anthony Hopkins). In 2007, she played the lead role in The Good Night, directed by her brother Jake. In 2008, US Forbes Magazine listed her among Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses. Between June 2007 and June 2008, she earned $25 million, placing her in fourth place alongside Reese Witherspoon, behind Cameron Diaz, Keira Knightley and Jennifer Aniston. In 2008, Paltrow launched the website Goop, based on a newsletter featuring her personal lifestyle tips and an associated online shop selling related products. The fact that Paltrow advised her followers not to rely on information from doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, but to ‘do their own research’, drew criticism. Paltrow appeared as Pepper Potts in the action film Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008) alongside Robert Downey Jr. The film grossed over $500 million worldwide, and she reprised her role in the sequel, Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010). In 2010, she was honoured with a star (no. 2427) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. By 2019, Paltrow had played the role of Pepper Potts in five further productions from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition, she appeared in other feature films and played Holly Holliday in the television series Glee (2010, 2011 and 2014). In 2011, she won an Emmy for her appearance in Glee. In March 2011, Paltrow reached number 1 in the Australian charts with the song ‘Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah!)’ – a cover version of the song of the same name by Gary Glitter (1973). She scaled back her acting work in 2017 to focus on her lifestyle company, Goop, and other ventures. Following relationships with Brad Pitt (engaged from 1995 to 1997) and Ben Affleck (in a relationship from 1998 to 2000), Paltrow married Chris Martin, the lead singer of the British band Coldplay, in 2003. Their daughter, Apple Martin, was born in 2004, and their son, Moses Martin, was born in 2006. Paltrow and Martin divorced in 2016. In 2018, Gwyneth Paltrow married TV producer Brad Falchuk. They had met on the set of Glee. She is a board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to alleviating poverty in New York City. Recently, Paltrow appeared opposite Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025). She played Kay Stone, a wealthy, retired actress and socialite who has a sexual relationship with Marty. The film received critical acclaim and was a box-office success, grossing $192 million worldwide.

Sources: Roger Ebert, Wikipedia (German, Dutch and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Around a decade ago, Shinsuke Inoue sourced a piece of Japanese wood and carved a depiction of his child, “wanting to preserve their likeness in three dimensions,” the artist tells Colossal. The affectionate expression of a loved one in sculptural form spurred a new passion for woodcarving, specifically with an emphasis on the human figure.

Inoue’s pieces possess a kind of elemental groundedness or gravity that makes their restrained, sometimes hard-to-read expressions remarkably alluring. The figures often look straight ahead, and at the right angle, they make powerful eye contact with the viewer. And not unlike the way a small, meaningful smile or tiny frown can emerge from the most minute twitch of facial muscles, the striking characters are physically diminutive, but their inner emotional worlds are infinite.

Inoue works intuitively, allowing the material’s natural qualities to guide his hand. “I have virtually no idea what the finished piece will look like until I actually begin working with the wood,” he says. “As a result, the form often emerges as I carve, and I frequently change my plans midway through the process. Naturally, I keep the many failures a secret.” He always carves using hand tools and rarely titles the pieces.

The artist also references people he’s close to, along with strangers he passes on the street or sees photographs of, but his sculptures aren’t realistic depictions of specific individuals. Instead, Inoue concentrates on capturing a kind of universal expression of “the very essence of human existence… I hope that the inherent appeal of the wood, combined with its form and color, resonates to convey the essence of humanity itself.”

See more on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Restrained Emotions Simmer in Shinsuke Inoue’s Tender Wood Sculptures appeared first on Colossal.

In the early days of 1975, David Bowie was a broken toy. Holed up in his grotesque Los Angeles mansion, the British musician spent his days reading obscure essays on Nazi esotericism, watching television sprawled across a wide Victorian four‑poster, and performing black‑magic rituals inspired by his new hero, the crackpot charlatan Aleister Crowley.

Seguir leyendo

© Movie Poster Image Art (Getty Images)