You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Options
The Controversial Photos We Didn't Know Existed.
No 'deceptive' photoshopping allowed! The extraordinary winners of a 'natural' landscape photo contest with strict rules on picture editing, from Scotland to Arizona
The Natural Landscape Photography Awards celebrates 'realism and authenticity' in landscape photography
Wisconsin-based landscape photographer Brent Clark has been named the awards' Photographer of the Year
The winning pictures are said to showcase 'the true wonder of the landscape in a way that people can trust’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-11439541/The-amazing-winners-2022-landscape-photography-contest-strict-rules-photoshopping.html
The Natural Landscape Photography Awards celebrates 'realism and authenticity' in landscape photography
Wisconsin-based landscape photographer Brent Clark has been named the awards' Photographer of the Year
The winning pictures are said to showcase 'the true wonder of the landscape in a way that people can trust’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-11439541/The-amazing-winners-2022-landscape-photography-contest-strict-rules-photoshopping.html
Comments
'Brecon in Winter'
© Will Davies
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/the-stunning-welsh-picture-which-has-won-an-illustrious-photography-award/ar-AA14iSlW?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=6011d53958804ed6893597dcb822adfb
t's quite a combination - some of the best photographers in the world capturing some of the planet's most fascinating historic sites. The upshot? Difficult decisions to be made by the judges of the 2022 Historic Photographer of the Year competition. But the verdicts are in and the shortlisted and winning entries are breathtaking. The contest calls on photographers to 'explore and capture the very best historic sites that the world has to offer'. The rules? Judges are 'looking at originality, composition and technical proficiency', as well as the historical impact of the subject. Read on for MailOnline Travel's pick of the commended and winning entries.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-11465847/The-2022-Historic-Photographer-Year-winners-misty-islands-awe-inspiring-abbeys.html
Scratch that last one that's just me and the wife
Lol @ the Stoke City shirt.
The Controversial Photos We Didn't Know Existed
The Beastie Boys chasing Madonna around the stage with squirt guns in 1985.
Oh hey, it’s two MCs and one famously over-sexed megastar. and one Madonna’s “Virgin Tour” strutted across American in 1985 with its tongue firmly in cheek. Her opening act was none other than New York hip hop mainstays the Beastie Boys, but at the time they were just three punks who looked like they crawled out of the sewer. In a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon, the Beastie Boys Ad Rock (not pictured) discussed how much Madonna’s fans had the group, and how much Madonna loved that she had the worst opening act ever.
He told Fallon, “We played the first couple shows and they hated us. She realized that [the audience] hated us so much, that by the time she got on stage, it was the greatest thing ever." Hey, Madonna didn’t become the most famous singer of the ‘80s and ‘90s by not understanding her audience.
James Dean and girlfriend Ursula Andress at a party in Los Angeles, 1955.
James Dean sure was a scamp, wasn’t he? With East of Eden out in theaters and his calling card Rebel Without A Cause yet to be released, Dean was so hot that he was able to steal 19-year-old Swedish beauty Ursula Andress away from none other than Marlon Brando.
Dean and Andress were only together for a few weeks, and this is the only real proof that they were hooking up. About a month after this photo was taken Dean was dead after he smashed his Porsche Spyder 500 head on into another car while flying down route 466 toward Paso Robles. After Dean’s death Andress went onto appear as Honey Ryder in Dr. No.
Baby You Can Drive My Car! John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce Phantom V and George Harrison's Mini Cooper S.
Get back! These fine and freaky automobiles could only belong to the guys who turned the world of rock music on its head with the British Invasion before getting weird in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While Lennon’s approach to painting his Rolls Royce Phantom V in all manner of psychedelia was somewhat of a dig at the English upper crust, Harrison was all about peace and love when it came to designing his 1966 Mini Cooper S.
The designs on his car were culled straight from Tantra Art: Its Philosophy and Physics, and he apparently thought the designs were pretty goofy. After all, this is the guy who once said, “I’m the biggest lunatic around. I’m completely comical, you know? I like craziness. I had to in order to be in the Beatles.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in the middle of Wilt Chamberlain and Andre the Giant on the set of "Conan the Destroyer" in 1984.
Isn’t Arnie supposed to be um… big? Or something? Did someone shrink him down? Or did a witch cast a spell on him? Okay so neither of those things happened, he just happens to be standing in between Wilt Chamberlain and Andre the Giant, easily two of the biggest mother effers to ever grace the silver screen. This photo was taken while filming Conan the Destroyer, the not so great 1984 follow up to Conan the Barbarian. You may remember this as the movie where a mirror wizard turns into a giant bird and captures a princess. Or maybe you’re like the rest of America and you didn’t see it.
You know why Wilt Chamberlain was on set, he co-stars in the film as Bombaata, but why was Andre the Giant on set? At the end of the movie Conan fights a very **** demon named Dagoth (seriously, he has a giant horn) and Andre was the only person big enough to fit the suit!
Debbie Harry in Tokyo, 1978.
Debbie Harry is the essence of sex, and in 1978 there was no one hotter than the Blondie frontwoman. After their inception in the mid-70s the band released three timeless albums (self titled, Plastic Letters, and Parallel Lines) in quick succession, and while their music got punks and disco freaks alike on the dance floor, it was Harry that turned everyone gaga.
Her sexy, streetwise style was so synonymous with Blondie that the band had to start a button campaign to let everyone know “Blondie Is A Group,” and not Harry herself. Keep that in mind for the next time you bump into her.
Ho ho, no! Quentin Tarantino sits on Santa Claus’ lap in 1970.
Ah, Christmas in California. The sun is shining, the palm trees are shifting in the breeze, and Santa is sweating like a hooker in church. After being abandoned by his father, Tarantino moved to California with his mother at the age of four where began diving into his love of film. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At this point in time young Tarantino was busy watching movies that were definitely over his head while his mother dealt with Hodgkins lymphoma.
Little did anyone know that this smiling young man would go on to describe in explicit detail the backstory of Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”
Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville poses with a wax cast of her husband's head in the refrigerator, 1972.
Doesn’t every housewife dream of chopping off her husband’s head and shoving it in the refrigerator? If you’re married to Alfred Hitchcock then you’ve definitely got a macabre sense of humor, so it’s no wonder that his wife, Alma Reville, kept a bust of her beau’s noggin hanging around.
This shot is likely based on the episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “The Jar,” where a man kills his wife and stuffs her head in - you guessed it - a jar. Or maybe this was Alma’s way of keeping her portly husband in check. Either way, these two were made for each other.
Sophia Loren's Summer Outfit At Age 18
Before she signed a five picture deal with Paramount Sophia Loren was a girl to talk about on the European pageant circuit. At 15 she competed for the title of Miss Italia under the Sophia Lazzaro, and while she didn't take home the highest honor there was a special prize created just for her, "Miss Elegance."
Loren didn't start acting for another two years, but at the age of 17 she appeared as an extra in Quo Vadis, an epic set in ancient Rome, and Era lui... sì! sì!. The latter was an Italian comedy where she appeared as a saucy dream woman to a beleaguered department store owner.
It would take until 1953, when she starred in the film Aida, for heads to really start turning for this Italian sex bomb.
Mick Jagger looking like a naughty little boy put in timeout in this photo!
Poor little Mick Jagger, what do you think he did to get in so much trouble? Steal Keith’s heroin? Hide Ronnie Wood’s telecaster? Mick was truly up to no good throughout the Stones’ run at the top in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but judging by the hair this was taken in 1967, just around when Mick was arrested on a narcotics charge. Specifically, he was hanging out at Keith’s place when the bobbies busted in to nab the immortal guitarist.
Jagger didn't exactly go on the straight and narrow after his arrest, but he notably stopped palling around with a geezer like Richards as the decades wore on.
Jerry Lewis, Adam West, Richard Shawn, Connie Stevens, Cesar Romero and Jane Wald on the set of "Batman" (1966)
Holy star power Batman! No, you’re not looking a picture from the world’s worst orgy. This is actually a behind the scenes photo from the set of 1966’s Batman series starring Adam West. While Lewis would have been a huge get to play the Joker, he actually just pops up for a gag in the episode “The Bookworm Turns.”
In the episode, Batman and Robin are walking up the side of a building when Lewis pops his head out a window to say hello to the Dark Knight and his pal Robin - whom Lewis seems to know from a previous engagement. This just goes to show that you never know who’s going to show in Gotham City.
Anti-hippie protesters, 1960s.
For all the good that hippies did throughout the 1960s, people really hated them. It wasn’t just that they were anti-war and pro peace, it was that they had long hair, wild clothes, and they listened to music that old timers just couldn’t get behind.
During the Vietnam War, anti-war protests brought the fight for freedom and the pursuit of happiness to major cities and college campuses across the nation, but it was only a matter of time before squares began their counter protests. Eventually the war came to an end, but the generational rift remained.
Philippe Petit walks a tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974.
Phillips Petit was only 24 years old when he walked on a tight rope shackled between the Twin Towers, at that age most people are still figuring out what they want to do with their lives but he was making history. Petit’s balancing act would have been impressive no matter where he was, but at 1,300 feet in the air this death defying is absolutely stunning.
At the time of his walk Petit said that he didn’t have a specific reason to walk between the two towers, but that it was more of a compulsion. He told the press, “There is no why, just because when I see a place to put my wire I cannot resist.”
Rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran and his Gretsch in 1958. He would be killed in a taxi that was hit in an accident while on the way to an airport in England, at the age of 21 two years later.
There are for sure more well known guitar players - Hendrix, Clapton, Plant - but Eddie Cochran’s raucous songwriting informed generations of country, rockabilly, and pop artists in ways that you can still hear when you listen to the radio. His down and dirty style of roots rock is audible in artists like The Cramps, Kurt Vile, and even San Fransisco’s Dead Kennedys.
Unfortunately, Cochran’s life was cut short in 1960 while he was on a UK tour with fellow rocker Gene Vincent. While riding back to his hotel on the A4, the car transporting Cochran lost control near Chippenham and careened into a lamp post. Cochran was sent through the roof and after smashing into the concrete the star never regained consciousness. He passed away at St. Martin’s hospital later that day.
Members of The Runaways and David Lee Roth at an interview in a Pasadena radio station, 1978.
I don't know who's prettier in this photo, David Lee Roth or Joan Jett. By 1978 The Runaways were just about the disband and had just released their final album “And Now… The Runaways.” The very same year Van Halen released their debut, self titled album. While Van Halen’s virtuosic, shred heavy sound may be at odds with the four chords and the truth attitude of The Runaways, Roth was a tireless promoter who did everything he could to get the word out about his new band.
With both groups being from the Los Angeles area it makes sense that Roth would end up on a radio show with the four rockin’ babes from The Runaways.
Tom Cruise in middle school, 1970s.
After spending his early years in Syracuse, New York, Tom Cruise and his family moved to Beacon Hill, Ottawa in 1971. At the time his father was working as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. This was when Cruise first got a taste for acting, and he began treading the boards in elementary school. Cruise did his best to scratch his itch for acting whenever he could, but because of his father’s work with the military the family was constantly on the move.
When this photo was taken Cruise was dealing with dyslexia and abuse at home. It’s a wonder to believe that he made it out of his downtrodden life to become one of the most famous people on the planet.
Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in 1964.
While most music neophytes are aware of Bob Marley and The Wailers legacy from the ‘70s, a version of the band was kicking around Jamaica from the early ‘60s. The initial iteration of the band featured Marley on guitar, Tosh on keyboards, and Bunny Wailer on drums with a series of different luminaries of the early rocksteady and reggae scene.
The initial version of the band disbanded in ’1974 over a disagreement about what kind of venues they wanted to play and while that put the first version of the band to bed, each member would go on to find fame under their own names.
George Harrison and Pattie Boyd visiting Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco for the "Summer of Love" in 1967.
In 1967 there was nowhere cooler to be than the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. It was the epicenter of the hippie counterculture and kids from all over the world flocked to the city so they could get in on the weirdness. The draw of the Haight was so strong that it pulled in George Harrison and his then wife Pattie Boyd.
As much as Harrison was all about peace and love, he was a little freaked out by the sheer number of people hanging around the Haight. He discussed his trepidations about the area in later interview, saying that he thought it would be more like “something like King’s Road only more. Somehow I expected them to all own their own little shops. I expected them all to be nice and clean and friendly and happy.” Unfortunately he found the hippies of the Haight to be “hideous, spotty little teenagers.”
Elvis starting his 1956 Harley Davidson KHK.
Was there ever anyone as cool as Elvis in the ‘50s? He didn’t just sing about the counter culture greaser style that drove girls wild and enraged parents, he lived it. In 1955 Elvis bought a Harley-Davidson ST 165 in order to get his bearings on the bike, and a year later he splurged on a 1956 Model KH.
Elvis was such a faithful biker that he appeared on the cover of The Enthusiast, a magazine published by Harley that was all about chrome and the feeling of the wind in your hair. in fact, Elvis was such a fan of Harley that he allowed the magazine to run with the news that he’d stopped working with Sam Phillips of Sun Records and was moving onto RCA.
Arnold Schwarzenegger walking around Munich to promote his new gym. (1969)
Prior to immigrating to Southern California and becoming the muscle bound A-lister that we know and love, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the King of the Meatheads. He competed in body building competitions across the world and after gaining some cache in the world of muscles, bronzer, and oil he started buying his own gyms.
What better way to let people know how good your gym is than to parade around town in a pair of briefs while you show off your bodacious bod? Honestly the only thing truly shocking about this photo is how cavalier Arnold is about walking around barefoot. Imagine the grime on those ancient sidewalks.
Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston were a cool couple in the 1970s.
If there’s one couple that truly defines Hollywood in the 1970s it’s Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. Huston was the daughter of director John Huston, and by the time she met Nicholson in 1973 she’d already been a model and had her sights set on the film industry. She met Nicholson at a party he was hosting and for the next decade the two were embroiled in a tumultuous on again, off again relationship.
In Huston’s memoir, Watch Me, she writes that Nicholson was incredibly possessive of her while throwing his lax attitude about monogamy directly in her face. In spite of their ups and downs the two of them stayed together for 17 years until he broke it off to have a baby with Rebecca Broussard - a woman 11 years her junior.
Nicole Kidman and her very 1980s curls!
Nicole Kidman’s really made a run for superstardom since her humble beginnings in Australia. Before she was the queen of HBO Kidman made a series of low budget, maybe best not seen films like BMX Bandits and Watch the Shadows Dance. However in 1988 she appeared in Emerald City, a film where two Australian screenwriters clash over their differing beliefs about their country’s film industry.
After Emerald City Kidman went on to appear major American motion pictures, but as lauded as her career would become she never received an award for having easily the most bodacious hair of the ‘80s.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/movies/news/the-controversial-photos-we-didn-t-know-existed/ss-AA14E4J8?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=746bc91c41764cb19a479f22b583821b&fullscreen=true#image=29
Blues legend Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins, 1961.
Growing up in Centerville, Texas Hopkins didn’t have much else to do but learn how to the blues. He began playing guitar at a young age, but before his career could take off he was sent to prison in the 1930s. After his release from prison Hopkins took off to Los Angeles where he started recording for Aladdin Records.
Hopkins never had a hit, and after moving to Houston he rarely performed outside of the city. That didn’t stop him from playing. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s Hopkins continued to perform in South Texas while occasionally recording albums. He passed away from esophageal cancer in 1982.
A young Gordon Lightfoot was interviewed by host Alex Trebek on CBC's "Music Hop" in 1963.
Even without the mustache Alex Trebek looks like a high school principal. Long before his tenure on Jeopardy began, Trebek hosted a Canadian music series called Music Hop! The series format was essentially like Top of the Pops in England. An artist would come to the show and discuss their newest single with the host and then teens would dance to groovy music. Trebek only hosted for one season before he was replaced.
Don’t feel too bad for Trebek. He bounced around the game show circuit for 20 years, but in 1984 his pilot for Jeopardy sold and he’s never been let out of that studio since.
Beastie Boys, 1980s.
Forming in 1981, the Beastie Boys began as a bratty trio of New York City upstarts with punk rock in their veins and rhymes on their tongues. Their first album, Licensed to Ill is full of sophomoric songs that spewed out of a speaker as if they were concocted in a lab specifically to shock parents across America.
In hindsight it’s hard to know whether the group were goofing on frat boys cliche’s in their lyrics or if they were truly the dum-dums they were pretending to be. What is clear is that the group was musically ahead of the curve. They spent time in the studio reversing beats and working with members of Run DMC to craft a sound that was more complex than any hip hop album of the time.
Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson in a scene from the film, “Where The Buffalo Roam” 1980.
Hunter S. Thompson has long been a person of obsession for mainstream artists that feel left of center. Long before Johnny Depp portrayed the gonzo journalist in the trippy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, comedy enigma Billy Murray took a crack at playing Thompson in 1980s Where The Buffalo Roam. While there are some similarities between the two Thompson films (neither of them are exactly biopics) they both differ enough to make these essential watching for any fan of Thompson who’s slept on them.
Murray’s turn as Thompson is more manic than you’ve ever seen him act. The film’s trailer presents the movie as a mad camp romp though the life of Thompson, but it’s so much weirder than anyone could have guesses. And really, how do you whittle down the insane life of Hunter S. Thompson into a couple of hours?
Dean Martin spends his 50th birthday filming the western, "Bandolero" in 1967.
In Bandolero! Dean Martin plays the charismatic criminal Dee Wallace, who’s about to be hanged with his entire gang. After escaping the public execution thanks to the fact that his brother is the hangman (what luck!), Dee kidnaps a woman and his gang take off for the badlands. There’s only one problem with their plan - bandoleros are afoot and they hate gringos. Also Sheriff July Johnson is hot on their trail. So make that two problems.
Even though Martin was filming during his birthday, getting to play cowboy with your friends sounds like a heck of a way to turn 50.
Journey, 1978
By 1978 Journey had actually been playing together for five years and they had three albums under the belt. However their sales were poor and people just weren’t digging them. Their label, Columbia Records, stepped in and told them that if they didn’t enlist a singer and write some hits then they could pack their bags look for employment elsewhere.
Not wanting to become a group of also-rans the band hired Robert Fleischman before going out on tour. In this brief version of the band they wrote the hit “Wheel in the Sky,” but Fleischman was quickly fired after the band’s manager felt that he was being “tough to deal with.” According to Journey legend, future vocalist Steve Perry was brought into shadow Fleishchman under the auspices of being the “Portuguese cousin” of a member of their management. Before long, Fleischman was out and Perry was in.
Natalie Wood, early 1960s.
Before the 1960s everyone thought of Natalie Wood as strictly a child actress. She appeared in The Searchers and Majorie Morningstar, but in the 1960s her career really went into the stratosphere. She worked on huge films like West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a film that not only still resonates with audiences but that continues to inform romantic dramas.
During this time Wood proved to be both a profitable actress and someone who didn’t take themselves too seriously. In 1966 she received the Harvard Lampoon’s Worst Actress of the Year Award and turned up in person to accept it. The Harvard Crimson wrote she was "quite a good sport.”
"UFO" (British sci-fi series, 1970)
UFO, the cult British science fiction series that premiered in 1970, may have only lasted for a scant 26 episodes but they’re some of the most interesting and conspiratorial shows that have ever been produced. Taking place in 1980, the series follows a secret government agency that’s trying to figure out whether or not aliens who’ve come to Earth are planning a full scale invasion or if they’re just abducting a few people.
Anglophiles and science fiction fans should do themselves a favor to check out this series, which influenced many of the shows you definitely love.
Angie Dickinson as 'Sgt. Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson' in the TV series, "Police Woman," which was the first police show with a female lead. (1974-78)
Before Detective Olivia Benson was busting creeps on Law & Order: SVU, “Pepper” Anderson was going undercover to investigate the underbelly of Los Angeles. Anderson’s M.O. was to get as close as she could to a crime in order to get information before making a big time bust. The series ran for four years and 91 episodes before going the way of the buffalo, and in that time it influenced a lot of the procedural shows that followed.
This series wasn’t the first time Dickinson held her own in a sticky situation. Prior to the series she co-starred with John Wayne in Rio Bravo and she mixed things up with the Rat Pack in Ocean’s 11. But don’t get it twisted, Dickinson is more than ready to hold her own in Police Woman.
Black Sabbath original lineup in 1973.
The original line up of Black Sabbath got together in 1968 under a few different names, but after seeing the words “Black Sabbath” on a local Birmingham theater marquee (it was showing the classic Boris Karloff film) the band adopted that as their moniker and never looked back. Around the same time the band began to work on darker material which not only fit their new name but also jived with their doom and gloom world view.
In 1970 the band recorded their first album in two days, one of which was blocked off for mixing. So rather than hem and haw about their bad luck the band jammed themselves into a studio and banged every song on the album out on the same day - with Ozzy singing live. According to guitarist Tony Iommi the band never had a second chance to record most of the songs.
Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt released the album, "Trio" in 1987. It sold over 4 million copies worldwide and also received several awards, including two Grammys.
By the time Dolly Parton got together with Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstadt to record “Trio,” these women were already musical icons. Even though they were all friends they’d never been able to actually get together and record a proper album together. They tried a decade earlier but the sessions didn’t work out and that was that - or so they thought. When these women finally came together they knocked out a country pop record for the ages.
Each gal takes lead on at least two songs, and while they each have writing credits on the record they also brought in some big songwriting guns to help out. Porter Wagner, Phil Spector and Johnny Russell all lent their talents to this album that would go on to bring Parton and company to a new generation of fans.
REO Speedwagon, 1979.
By 1979 REO Speedwagon were gearing up to release their eighth album, “Nine Live.” This is the last heavy album that the band released before setting their sights on the Billboard charts with more pop oriented releases like “Hi Infidelity” and “Wheels Are Turnin’.”
It’s likely that the band leaned into their pop sensibilities when “Nine Lives” severely underperformed on the charts. Their previous album, “You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish” went double platinum, but their 1979 effort only achieved gold status when it sold 500,000 copies.