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Yeah, indeed.  Although I truly wonder if the women at hand were really that beautiful or the men that handsome...:-D.  A lot of commissioned paintings of those times depict the person in such a good looking and glamorous light.  Unfortunately, there are no digital photographs to confirm if this was in fact the case...

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Does anybody have any ideas on why my junkyard galleries don't get much in the way of responses or participation (from new posters in particular) ?  

My guess is that GBD just doesn't get as many hits as it once did in general. Its the same thing with the poll and competition portion. I wouldn't take it as a measurement of the quality of said material. The model threads with the most views alone can tell us that .
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I've always been somewhat interrested in what was considered beautiful in different eras. I know that what many currently call a 'plus size' was apparently popular in different places based on a lot of the paintings although I'm not always as sure with the face. In mideivel literature, there's a lot of talk of 'hair of gold and eyes of blue' but then it seems that not as many 'beauties' from their paintings seem to fit that profile. That's something I need to do more reading on though, but I look forward to it .

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For most of human history, the bulk of the population was thin or walking skeletons until the 1950s.  Only wealthy people were overweight.  Commissions for artworks were exclusively done by the wealthy and influential.  

I love visiting art, technology, and history museums/galleries. I really enjoy talking to people about these things.

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My Junkyard thread is probably the most efficient thread on the forum if one likes the 70+ models that I like...I'm up to gallery 77 x less than 100 photos each. However, over its year of existence, only a handful of posters ever posted there..and less on a consistent basis.   Right now, there's only two posters that comment.  And only one poster (stormbringer) actually contributes regularly.  

My thread gets lurked regularly by posters that never say a word or participate.  So naturally I wonder about the boundaries that have lead to this state.

It looks to me that most posters are only interested in a handful of models (and at an more intense level) or even just a single model (they follow their careers, their lives, read stuff about them, etc.).  I, on the other hand, just collect photos that I like and pay no attention to anything else.

There was a more even distribution of food in the hunter gatherer days. Back then, you ate what you could catch and find and rich and poor didn't matter as much. People ate mostly vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, honey and wild game so even eating as much as one wanted would have made it difficult to become overweight. The fruits and vegetables were (and are) loaded with enzymes and fiber and the wild game has far less saturated fat (due to the exercise of roaming), more Omega-3 fats, monounsaturated fat and more nutritional value due to the animals eating a healthier diet compared to commercially raised animals. Even comparing pigs, you would have to eat way more wild boar to get the fat of a commercially raised pig. The invention of agriculture and farming really changed all of that and with time, the wealthy gained an increasing monopoly on resources. With time too, land inevitably become more valuable which also gave the wealthy an even greater monopoly on resources because they could afford to hire people to protect that land (like in feudalism). All of this led to them having a greater and greater monopoly on food obviously. By the 1950s, we took farming and agriculture to the next level. We gave hormones to animals to make them grow faster and speed up milk production and genetically modifying crops to make them grow faster. The confining of commercially raised animals to tight quarters and feeding them feed to fatten them up rather than their natural diet and allowing them to graze also increased their saturated fat content and lowered their Omega-3 fat content. All the while, preservatives, bleached, degerminated carbohydrates and simple sugars were being added to foods, all of which resulted in even homeless people being able to become overweight which would have been unheard of in the past. Its worth mentioning that free range, commercially raised animals and cold water fish are a good alternative for those without access to wild game.

As to the subject at hand though, yeah, they had a monopoly on art like everything else. I sometimes wonder if we monopolize art in the same way. For example, the obesity rate is higher than even in this country whereas if you look at our television, there are less overweight characters being portrayed. Most of the female characters to me seem to be the same size.

Oh, as to the boundaries that have lead to it, maybe some of the lurkers may not be clear on the theme. They may not be sure whether the theme is stuff they think Cult might like or stuff that they like. I assumed that it was just for general fashion pics. I couldn't agree more about the not being interested in their personal lives though. I can't for the life of me understand any use for what their baby wore to school or them sipping coffee in shades or whatever .

The history of the most ancient civilizations (what would be called Egypt, China, Mesopotamia) until today is punctuated by famines that were frequent and large enough to reduce the size of the population once they had passed.  Besides the 'tragedy of the commons', famine and war often came hand in hand.  Famines and shortfalls in food production were still killing millions of people in China, India, Africa and Eastern Europe well into the 20th Century (Mao's Cultural revolution, Ukraine in the 1930s, USSR and many countries in europe during WW2).  People were generally quite thin globally before the 1950s.  

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I don't know about that.  My intent for the thread was clearly stated in page 1.   But posters may have missed it.  I am in the process of making a full index and that may help clarify things since the thread has been going on for almost a year.

Well, there are international media and entertainment corporations now so the bulk of production has been oriented towards the mass market and easy accessibility (to the extreme disappointment of cultural elitists, paris and new york).  One of the tactics of making a global hollywood blockbuster, for instance, is to create a film that is so universal in theme that the most important markets of three landmasses (North America, EU, Asia) can appreciate......And this is why being politically correct is important for production as well.

Yeah, I find the focus on other people's lives and paparazzi photos of them taking out the trash/walking their dog/grocery shopping to be incredibly boring.

Though poor people can get fat now, the rich still hold a disproportionate percentage of the resources in general. I think the top 1% controls like 40% of the wealth or something like that.

The premise seems pretty clear to me although the index is a nice touch . Here's one of my favorite failed ones . http://www.bellazon.com/main/topic/17300-rate-the-picture-above/page-26

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Come to think of it, your food thread also disappeared and so did Lyon.......I liked that thread....

Without Jennka, Baron, Mahi, and Donbot helping to provide color, my JY thread has pretty much lost momentum.  Candlevixen and Dave used to post too, but I ran out of Fabriana pictures... The entire GBD forum isn't moving much outside of the VS thread.

This is a goldmine of Vogue galleries featuring my favorite models:  Hope you guys get something out of this.

Samantha Gradoville is a model that I once ignored but now I'm totally smitten. She's getting older and more adult in appearance....Cristina Kruse is also impressive.  Finally, new models to add..

She reminds me of a mix of Arizona Muse, Daria W., and Kendra Spears for some reason.  Truth be told, I remember looking at her thread and skipping because I thought that she had an oversized, overly harsh nose..( ) and was Arizona Muse lite.  But she's not, and she's a beauty head to toe with a good bust and a lithe waist.  I like her nose more now.

http://www.listal.com/samantha-gradoville/pictures//2

http://postimg.org/gallery/b5la2y2w/0a925385/

Damn!

I love the blush one.

^She's quite lovely, and I see much of Kendra in her too. I find that Blush shot, and another from the same set kind of amusingly out of context, smiling the way she is

For some reason I laughed at the 'more adult in appearance' part . Its a good thing I'm not a drinker, I'd definitely be in the loony bin  . I'd definitely like to see more from the shoot with the pockets in the front . *edit* Oh yeah, after clicking the link I recognized her. I just didn't know her by name.
 

I'm glad you guys like her. When I accumulate enough, I'll post a gallery and give you guys a heads up!!

Damn!

 

I love the blush one.

I think Maryna is extremely versatile because although for her high fashion is natural, her personality and body allow her to succeed in commercial modeling as well. Seeing as how I haven't kept up with her career in chronological order, but moreso in a random way, I haven't been able to notice how much or how little she's worked at any given point though.

I actually thought Candice started off as a technically good model. She started off great on the runway and was generally fairly expressive. I think the VS 'blonde ambition' phase probably stunted her modeling growth somewhat, but she seems to have gotten it back. My boycott of the thread is still on outside of reports though .
 

Yea, Maryna was extremely prolific post 2006 and hit the ground running.  I think Candice has posed better for VS in 2012-2013 than in 2010-2011.  But it's within the limiting confines of VS...haha...

Yea, and there's her thread... I couldn't bear to go into Tori Praver's thread either but then she popped one out and her thread disappeared.

Hayeo Miyazaki (the talented Japanese cartoonist of 'Spirited Away' 'Princess M, ') has retired from filmmaking.

To my delight and pleasure, I recently encountered his 6 series panels detailing a trip to Estonia to observe a lost battlefield depicted in the war memoir 'Tigers in the Mud'.   I read this book when I was 19 and have been  interested in this subject for years.  So it was pretty neat to find out that, besides making films, Miyazaki was also a person who was interested in military history (the war in Russia) and had used his talent to draw a series about Otto Carius in 1999.  

This is the series in 6 parts.  It is not only intricately done, but factual, heroic, tragic, and gratifying.  He tells one personal account from the greatest and most important war mankind has ever fought (In my view) and managed to depict all the hardship with Pigs.

http://www.mangatank.com/manga/otto-carius-tigers-in-the-mud/v1/c1/all?zoom=original

http://www.mangatraders.com/view/file/158554/page/1

http://postimg.org/image/6wnfkpmkn/

So we are one genius short don´t know what to say for now, I love every movie from Ghibli studio and Miyazaki was a phenomenon of his own.

btw, have you seen The Grave of the Fireflies movie, Andy? Written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Ghibli. To say it was touching and moving would be a harsh underestimation of the whole film. I´ve seen it years ago, but it´s still very strongly vivid.

I know I´ve missed some of our conversations here, and I will get back to them - just wanted to say quick hi to let you know I missed you and hopefully, I´m back now

You make traveling on trains sound like a Miyazaki film... Would you prefer to go on a cruise? 

How about a road trip? I've done many.

Love how adorabe Frida looks here

rodeo.net

 

 

 

love your new lais avi! Discovering her and Cintia Dicker have almost identical bodies..possibly these two have the longest torsos ever Still they're bodies are amazing!