American Football As Seen By Photographer Elvis di Fazio

A little Terry Richardson, a little Marc Van Dalen and a little vintage Helmut Newton, Elvis di Fazio's photography style is sexy and raw. Combining a little smut with a lot of beauty, he describes his own work as Kitsch Erotic.

Not For Metrosexuals or Euro Trash, The Duke Cannon Supply Co. Caters To The Manliest of Men.

I'd never heard about the Duke Cannon Supply Co. until my friend Joel posted one of their "Big Ass Bricks Of Soap" on Facebook. Intrigued and amused by the "Smells like naval supremacy."  line and the great bold package design, I did some research. I was thrilled to find their site peppered with a great sense of humor as well as some very fun, albeit über-Macho, Military-inspired grooming products for men.

The Chicago-based company's products make you smell and feel laden with testosterone , while also helping out military veterans. A portion of the proceeds directly supports Veteran causes. For more details on that, go here.


above: Their manifesto of sorts, as it appears on their home page.

With legit military guidance and an industrial design flavor, the brand offers 5 different Duke Cannon Soaps (there's even a set available with a hatchet), two shampoos and shaving cream. The copy on the packaging is smart and witty and not for pansies or those who expect to be pampered.

I had to include their clever descriptions along with their product images for you.

BIG ASS BRICKS OF SOAP


This soap product is designed to meet the high standards of hard working men who want to get clean & smell good without using feminine shower gels and accessories. This product is modeled after the rough cut, "brick" style of soap used by GIs during the Korean War and is manufactured in the same plant that was the primary supplier of military soap for over 20 years.



Big Ass Brick Of Soap - Black Bar 3-pack

Smells like accomplishment.
This new soap product from Duke cannon Supply Co. is designed to meet the high standards of hard working men. The incredibly masculine scent of bergamot and black pepper evokes the feeling of drinking a fine scotch in a wood-paneled den. Simply put, it is the scent of accomplishment. Like all Duke Cannon soap products, each brick is large (10 oz.) and contains steel cut grains for maximum grip.

Big Ass Brick of Soap - Green Bar 3-pack

Smells like Victory.
The Duke Cannon Supply Co. Big ass brick of soap is designed to meet the high standards of hard working men who want to get clean and smell good without using feminine shower gels and accessories. True to its name, our soap is big (10 oz.) and will last much longer than the chick-sized bars in your local grocery. It also smells awesome (clean, fresh scent) and contains steel cut grains for maximum gripability. If you enjoy activities like drinking american beer or using power tools, then frankly, this is the only soap meant for you.

Big Ass Brick Of Soap - White Bar 3-pack

Smells like productivity
For the early rising man who leads a life of productivity, duke cannon created a soap with a hint of menthol to cool the skin and wake him up so he can get things done. This new superior grade product from duke cannon has a fresh mint smell and contains steel cut grains for maximum grip. Net wt. 10 oz.

Big Ass Brick of Soap - Blue "Naval Supremacy" 3-Pack

Smells like naval supremacy.
Introducing the latest home run from Duke Cannon. While other blue soaps are named "Ocean Force" or "Summer Mist," our blue soap is the only one big enough to be named "Naval Supremacy." With a package sporting the official colors of the U.S. Navy, this superior grade product weighs in at a hefty 10 oz. and has steel cut grains for maximum grip.

Duke Cannon Heavy Duty Hand Soap 3 Pack

Duke Cannon doesn't spend all day typing emails on a laptop. And he damn well sure has never gotten a manicure. His hands build tangible things like v8 engines and two story decks. And hard work makes hands dirty. That's why duke cannon offers a heavy duty hand soap, a rough cut brick formulated with pumice to clean the hands of hard working men. It is modeled after heavy duty soap supplied to GIs during the Vietnam war. Like all duke cannon bricks of soap, this one weighs in at a hefty 10 oz., almost 2x the size of other pumice soaps.

Duke Cannon "El Cuatro" 4 Ct. Variety Pack

We understand it can be difficult to choose among victory, productivity, accomplishment, and naval supremacy. Hell, they all sound good, and they certainly are. Therefore, hedge your bet by purchasing this 4 ct. "El Cuatro" variety pack, featuring one each of our outstanding big ass bricks of soap. You will never get a better smelling package in the mail.

Limited Edition U.S. Military Field Box Gift Pack


Back by popular demand. While clown soaps offer a free loofa, The Duke Cannon Gift Pack offers a Variety Pack of 5 Big Ass Bricks of soap (one of each variety + one heavy duty hand soap), and an authentic Military Field Box used to carry .30 Cal Ammunition. These cans are reusable and watertight and they make for great hunting/camping storage cans or the greatest lunch pail ever. And, as a nominal bonus, we are offering a free Stanley Screwdriver, proudly made in the USA like all Duke cannon products
NOTE: CANS ARE IN USED CONDITION, AND THEREFORE HAVE DENTS AND SCRATCHES.

The American Soap and Hatchet Set


Duke Cannon’s American Soap & Hatchet Set is to be used by workers, explorers, and craftsmen—NOT FOR CLOWNS. Each item has been built for general purpose use or combat, as needed:
• Duke Cannon Hatchet made of razor sharp US steel forged to genuine American hickory
- Color: Stealth
- Specs: 19oz head weight, 18” handle length
- Each Duke Cannon Hatchet is hand crafted, so no two are exactly the same
• Carhartt IFD Cold-Weather Skull Cap. Protects against all elements. Not to be worn by guys named Skyler when the weather reads above 50 degrees. IMPORTED FROM DETROIT.
All Five Big Ass Bricks of Duke Cannon soap:
- Smells Like Victory
- Smells Like Accomplishment
- Smells Like Productivity
- Smells Like Naval Supremacy
- Heavy Duty Hand Soap

HAIR PRODUCTS:

Duke Cannon 2-in-1 Hair Wash - Hard-Working Clean



Duke Cannon has little patience for skinny jeans, veggie burgers, or products of inferior quality. His new Hard-Working Clean 2-in-1 Hair Wash has been engineered with only Superior Grade ingredients:
- Protein for strength
- Vitamin E for antioxidant protection
- Vitamin B5 for conditioning
- No harsh sulfates or parabens
Duke Cannon 2-in-1 Hair Wash is for men of higher taste, not clowns.

Duke Cannon 2-in-1 Hair Wash - Thickening Formula



For "News Anchor Thick" Hair
Duke Cannon has no interest in salads, male capri pants, or products of inferior quality. His new Thickening Formula 2-in-1 Hair Wash has been engineered with Superior Grade ingredients:
- Protein for strength
- Tea Tree Oil and Menthol to wake you up
- Vitamin B5 for conditioning
- No harsh sulfates or parabens
Duke Cannon 2-in-1 Hair Wash is for men of higher taste, not clowns.

SHAVING CREAM

Superior Grade Shaving Cream


If left untouched for three days, Duke Cannon's beard would grow a beard. Therefore, he needs a shaving product that will clean him up without the burn. His barbershop formula shaving cream is engineered with only Superior Grade ingredients:
- Aloe Vera for relief
- Shea Butter for hydration
- Macadamia Nut Oil for the closest possible shave
- Calendula Extract for recovery
Duke Cannon Superior Grade Shaving Cream is for men of higher taste, not clowns.

ASSORTED KITS

Duke Cannon Class VI Supply Kit 1.0


Like a set of tools for the bathroom, the Duke Cannon Class VI Supply Kit contains grooming essentials for the man of higher taste. The clear gift box contains:
- Super Grade 2-in-1 Hair Wash (Hard-Working Clean) (10 oz.)
- Superior Grade Shaving Cream
- Big Ass Brick of Soap (Smells Like Victory)
- Big Ass Brick of Soap (Smells Like Naval Supremacy)
The chances of a man returning that sweater from Express? Pretty high. The chances of returning this collection of home runs from Duke Cannon? Pretty damn low. For excellent giving, consider the Class VI Supply Kit.

Duke Cannon Class VI Supply Kit 2.0


Like a set of tools for the bathroom, the Duke Cannon Class VI Supply Kit contains grooming essentials for the man of higher taste. The clear gift box contains:
- Super Grade 2-in-1 Hair Wash (Thickening Formula) (10 oz.)
- Superior Grade Shaving Cream
- Big Ass Brick of Soap (Smells Like Productivity)
- Big Ass Brick of Soap (Smells Like Accomplishment)
The chances of a man returning that sweater from Express? Pretty high. The chances of returning this collection of home runs from Duke Cannon? Pretty damn low. For excellent giving, consider the Class VI Supply Kit.

CUSTOMER REWARDS


As if buying these fun and unique products weren't enough, they offer customer 'rewards'- very macho types of items. As they hilariously state on their site:
"If you buy lots of Duke Cannon Supply Company products, you get free stuff. Not stupid crap you don't need. Instead, we offer items that are Duke Cannon certified -- actual things he likes and uses. So save your UPCs, and when you have enough, email us at the address below, tell us what you want, and we'll send you some useful stuff."


Shop Duke Cannon Supply Co.

Buy Duke Cannon Soaps here as well

Classic Romantic Paintings Get Subtly Animated in BEAUTY Video by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro

In this 10 minute video, BEAUTY, director Rino Stefano Tagliafierro takes 116 classic romantic paintings (all of which are listed at the end of this post) and slowly and subtly animates them, bringing the beauty in them to life. A slight tilt of the head, a dress raising ever so gently, petals falling from flowers - tiny, almost imperceptible movements, are expertly executed without changing the general composition or color of the original painting.



William Adolphe Bouguereau's original painting of The Nut Gatherers compared to a screen grab of the subtle animation. Note the arms, hands and grapes on the figure on the right:


The Manifesto: The Enigma of Beauty

«Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;»
(W. Shakespeare, Sonnet no. 19)

Over Beauty, there has always hung the cloud of destiny and all-devouring time.
Beauty has been invoked, re-figured and described since antiquity as a fleeting moment of happiness and the inexhaustible fullness of life, doomed from the start to a redemptive yet tragic end.

In this interpretation by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro, this beauty is brought back to the expressive force of gestures that he springs from the immobility of canvas, animating a sentiment lost to the fixedness masterpieces.

Its as though these images which the history of art has consigned to us as frozen movement can today come back to life thanks to the fire of digital invention.

A series of well selected images from the tradition of pictorial beauty are appropriated, (from the renaissance to the symbolism of the late 1800s, through Mannerism, Pastoralism, Romanticism and Neo-classicism) with the intention of retracing the sentiment beneath the veil of appearance.

An inspiration that returns to us the sense of one fallen, and the existential brevity that the author interprets as tragic dignity, with an unenchanted eye able to capture the profoundest sense of the image.

Beauty in this interpretation is the silent companion of Life , inexorably leading from the smile of the baby, through erotic ecstasies to the grimaces of pain that close a cycle destined to repeat ad infinitum.

They are, from the inception of a romantic sunrise in which big black birds fly to the final sunset beyond gothic ruins that complete the piece, a work of fleeting time. - Giuliano Corti (english translation: Thomas McEvoy)

The short film:


The paintings, in order of appearance:

Asher Brown Durand - The Catskill Valley‬

Thomas Hill - Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

Albert Bierstadt - Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Ivan Shishkin - Forest edge

James Sant - Frau und Tochter‬

William Adolphe Bouguereau - L'Innocence

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Song of the Angels

Ivan Shishkin - Bach im Birkenwald

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Le Baiser

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Nature's Fan- Girl with a Child

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Motherland

Ivan Shishkin - Morning in a Pine Forest

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Nut Gatherers

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Two Sisters

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Not too Much to Carry

Thomas Cole - The Course of Empire: Desolation

Martinus Rørbye - Entrance to an Inn in the Praestegarden at Hillested

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Sewing

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Difficult Lesson

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Curtsey

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Little Girl with a Bouquet

Claude Lorrain - Pastoral Landscape

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Cupidon

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Admiration

William Adolphe Bouguereau - A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Dawn

William Adolphe Bouguereau - L'Amour et Psych

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Spring Breeze

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Invation

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Nymphs and Satyr

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Youth of Bacchus

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Birth of Venus

William Adolphe Bouguereau - The Nymphaeum

Gioacchino Pagliei - Le Naiadi

Luis Ricardo Falero - Faust's Dream

Luis Ricardo Falero - Reclining Nude

Jules Joseph Lefebvre - La Cigale

John William Godward - Tarot of Delphi

Jan van Huysum - Bouquet of Flowers in an Urn

Adrien Henri Tanoux - Salammbo

Guillaume Seignac - Reclining Nude

Tiziano - Venere di Urbino

Louis Jean François Lagrenée - Amor and Psyche

Correggio - Giove e Io

François Gérard - Psyché et l'Amour

John William Godward - Contemplatio

John William Godward - Far Away Thought

John William Godward - An Auburn Beauty

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Flora And Zephy

Louis Jean François Lagrenée - Amor and Psyche

Fritz Zuber-Bühle - A Reclining Beauty

Paul Peel - The Rest

Guillaume Seignac - L'Abandon

Victor Karlovich Shtemberg - Nu à la peau de bete

Pierre Auguste Cot - Portrait Of Young Woman

Ivan Shishkin - Mast Tree Grove

Ivan Shishkin - Rain in an oak forest

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Biblis

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Elegy

Marcus Stone - Loves Daydream End

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Head Of A Young Girl

Hugues Merle - Mary Magdalene in the Cave

Andrea Vaccaro - Sant'Agata

Jacques-Luois David - Accademia (o Patroclo)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - San Giovanni Battista

Roberto Ferri - In Nomine Deus

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Cristo alla colonna

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Incoronazione di spine

Paul Delaroche - L'Exécution de lady Jane Grey en la tour de Londres, l'an 1554

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Decollazione di San Giovanni Battista

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Sacrificio di Isacco

Guido Reni - Davide e Golia

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Giuditta e Oloferne

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Davide e Golia

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Salomè con la testa del Battista

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Davide con la testa di Golia

Jakub Schikaneder - All Soul's Day

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - San Gerolamo scrivente

Guido Reni - San Gerolamo

Pieter Claesz - Vanitas

Gabriel von Max - The Ecstatic Virgin Anna Katharina Emmerich

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Portrait of Miss Elizabeth Gardner

Jan Lievens - A young girl

Johannes Vermeer - Portrait of a Young Girl

Luis Ricardo Falero - Moonlit Beauties

Joseph Rebell - Burrasca al chiaro di luna nel golfo di Napoli

Luis Ricardo Falero - Witches going to their Sabbath

William Adolphe Bouguereau - Dante And Virgil In Hell

Théodore Géricault - Cheval arabe gris-blanc

Peter Paul Rubens - Satiro

Felice Boselli - Skinned Head of a Young Bull

Gabriel Cornelius von Max - Monkeys as Judges of Art

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Medusa

Luca Giordano - San Michele

Théodore Géricault - Study of Feet and Hands

Peter Paul Rubens - Saturn Devouring His Son

Ilya Repin - Ivan il Terribile e suo figlio Ivan

Franz von Stuck - Lucifero Moderno

Gustave Doré - Enigma

Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel (III)

Sophie Gengembre Anderson - Elaine

John Everett Millais - Ophelia

Paul Delaroche - Jeune Martyre

Herbert Draper - The Lament for Icarus

Martin Johnson Heade - Twilight on the St. Johns River

Gabriel Cornelius von Max - Der Anatom

Enrique Simonet - Anatomía del corazón

Thomas Eakins - Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic)

Rembrandt - Lezione di anatomia del dottor Tulp

Peter Paul Rubens - Die Beweinung Christi

Paul Hippolyte Delaroche - Die Frau des Künstlers Louise Vernet auf ihrem Totenbett

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau - Too Imprudent

William-Adolphe Bouguereau - The Prayer

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Amorino dormiente

Augustin Théodule Ribot - St. Vincent (of Saragossa)

Caspar David Friedrich - Abtei im eichwald



CREDITS

DIRECTOR: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: LAILA SONSINO

2ND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: CARLOTTA BALESTRIERI

EDITING - COMPOSITING - ANIMATION: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN: ENRICO ASCOLI

ART DIRECTION: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO

HISTORIOGRAPHER: GIULIANO CORTI

The Lids Are A Canvas For Tal Peleg Who Tells Stories With Eye Make-Up.

Israeli based make-up artist and blogger Tal Peleg is inspired by movies, television, children's books, fairy tales, musicals, holidays and the state of the human mind.


above: Tal wearing her own Princess and The Pea eye makeup

Using the eyelid as a blank canvas, she has created stunning images and narratives with eye shadows, liquid liner, mascara and occasionally, added elements. From Cinderella to Dr. Seuss, her work on closed eyes will make yours pop wide open. Take a peek at the following 26 examples.

The Princess and The Pea:


Cinderella:


Snow White:


The Princess and The Frog:


The Ugly Ducking:



Disney's Frozen:


The Little Prince / Le Petit Prince:




Dr. Seuss:


The Moomins:


The Diary of Anne Frank:


Les Miserables:


Breaking Bad's Heisenberg:


White Swan and Black Swan:


Kick Ass 2:


Pink Floyd, The Wall:


Sushi:


Black Cat:


Insomnia:


Manic Depression/ Bi-Polar:


Dementia:


Visit her website here to see more of her work.



Follow her on Instagram to keep up with her latest work.

Thanks to The Daily Mail for bringing this to my attention and to Tal Peleg for use of her images.