Dark Characters

Maila Nurmi as the 1950's character Vampira she created.

Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi (December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008), known professionally as Maila Nurmi, was a Finnish-American actress and television personality who created the campy 1950s character Vampira.

The daughter of a Finnish immigrant, Nurmi was raised in Oregon and relocated to Los Angeles in 1940 with hopes to be an actress. After several minor film roles, she found success in the Vampira character, television's first horror host. Nurmi hosted her own series, The Vampira Show, from 1954-55 on KABC-TV.

After the show's cancellation, she appeared in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space. She is also billed as Vampira in the 1959 movie, The Beat Generation where she plays a beatnik poet,as well as in the crime film The Big Operator (1959). She was portrayed by Lisa Marie in Tim Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood.

In the early 1950s, Nurmi was close friends with James Dean, and they spent time together at Googie's coffee shop on the corner of Crescent Heights and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. She explained their friendship by saying, "We have the same neuroses." (Wiki)

(* Of course, her unusual figure was a key factor to her success, as Vampira claimed to be gifted with the following measurements: 38-17-36! Huh?) 

Eclectic Ladies

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, waited for me every fall, or so I thought when she came around every October.

Elvira

Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1951) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV wearing a revealing, black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. Her wickedly vampish appearance is offset by her comical character, quirky and quick-witted personality, and Valley girl-type speech. (Wiki)

Sacred is Prayer, is Play.

Anderson's Fairtales by Richardson Winston in 1926. 

Art of Submission, what we eat in any language is either delicious or more: a gift, or both!

Sacred Play as Work, a Gift!

Margaret Richard's show I have watched since the latter part of the 20th century with keen interest. 'Body Electric' I only watched and with growing interest enjoying the beauty and the intelligence of her show's direction and purpose. There are layers to what I gleaned from her vision and how she executed it. Now, understand I watched the show, hundreds of shows. I studied various intangibles with a keen eye for beauty, subtleness, teaching, and play. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [7/24/18] 

Margaret Richard Was All About Health and Fitness Before The Fad

By Rosanne Dunkelberger

Cast your mind back, if you will, to exercise in the early 1980s. That time after Jack LaLanne’s black-and-white television calisthenics, but well before high-intensity workouts such as P90X and CrossFit.

You know, when Jane Fonda looked slamming hot in her “Workout” book and video — even though she was pushing 50. When Olivia Newton-John rocked a headband and importuned us with “Let’s Get Physical.” When, à la “Flashdance,” we revved up to “Maniac,” were schooled by Jennifer Beals on the art of taking off a bra without removing a one-shouldered, oversized sweatshirt and wondered: “Is there really such a thing as a club where drunk guys pay good money to watch a woman dance without taking her clothes off?”

What many of us might not know is that Tallahassee made its own contribution to the shiny-spandex-and-leg-warmers era of fitness, courtesy of an energetic and forward-thinking Miami transplant named Margaret Richard and the brand she created — Body Electric.

It was the name of her locally popular exercise studio in the Miracle Plaza shopping center (where Whole Foods now stands), which became a cable-television exercise show, which then exploded into a nationally syndicated Public Broadcasting System show once seen on 130-plus stations — nearly half the nation’s PBS network.

Although she hasn’t taped new programming in five years, reruns of the 500-odd workouts she’s done throughout the past 30 years are still being shown on television stations in 25 states and the District of Columbia. And Richard is at the helm of her own Web-based fitness mini-empire, still promoting and selling DVDs of series past, as well as continuing to teach and take fitness classes in her new hometown of Boston.

A very vibrant 68 years old, Richard isn’t ready to unlace her sneakers quite yet. In fact, she’s seeking to create a new series of shows aimed at a huge group she declares is hugely underserved by the fitness industry — the baby boom generation.

Boomers are now hitting retirement age, but that’s a life stage that can cover 30 years or more and a large range of physical ability. Traditional exercise classes can put stress on an older person’s worn-out joints, she said, but alternatives such as seated exercise and mall walking often aren’t enough of a challenge.

“There’s a group of women like myself; we’re youthful, we’re strong, we’re energetic and we’re not senior citizens, per se,” she asserted. “Your skin may sag, but your muscles will always respond to the challenge, always. If you are working out in your mid-years, it has an effect on your later years. They’ve proven that.

“It’s so critical that people maintain their strength as they get older, and … I would like to set myself up as a proponent, as a voice for baby boomers in fitness,” she said. “I have the background for it, I have the passion for it and no one else is doing it.”

But let’s start her story … at the start.

[Story continues on next page...]

Margaret Richard, host of her fitness show, Body Electric, during the 1990's!

White as Milk, Fine as Wine!

Rachel Weiz's pale white beauty's appeal is somewhere between a look and a feel! It is all in the integrity of her roles, her presentation of her bearing in the moments in the spotlight!... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/16/18 

Whoopi Goldberg by Annie Leibovitz 1984.

What dem old women dun did!

Church women, in this case ushers.

Yeah, them church women. When we were children and teenagers those older and old church women were really something. They were dynamic, contradictory, confident, holy in one way, mischievous another way, and sexy in sly ways easy to catch, if you were a kid paying attention to the adult's play!

I have fond memories I share with them now that I am one of the older cats revisiting those churches. I tell them all the effect they had upon me! .. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/9/18

TWO

Cute is not typically a response to a good looking woman,

but Katrina Cons is cute, and fine and easy on the eyes! 

Milena Velba's red fur against her pale skin has its draw. Her eyes bring it all together. Get it? That is the discipline you call. A boy's father has to teach his sons to look beyond the natural way of wanting a woman to see what he wants in a woman to sustain his life force. The life force is the substance we diminish or increase. Through sex it is important to understand how this works.

Older and wise men easily can tell how a man has used his life force (his seed). It is diminished, a shadow of its original potency, or it has evolved into intangible elementary assembly of powers creative enough to change other life forces without force, but with a touch, or a glance into his eyes! Sex is an entry point; it is a deep pleasure and it is immeasurable! What sexual intercourse does is tell the story of one's life to the life being examined, judged in the last part of a lifetime. Not only is the story a man's story; it is part of the women's lives he has entered! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [Sept. 10, 2017] ‎

Sports and Beauty.

The best part of sports, for me, became the Sports Illustrated swimwear issue until my wife introduced me to Lingerie Football! Thank God, for alternative things during the football season! And then there are books, and the quiet outdoors during the games on the weekend, and delightfully the quiet outdoors during the Super Bowl, unless the wife takes me to a Super Bowl party at someone's house! Those are fun!

The food, at least with Black folk, is exceptional, and in abundance we have full course meals in big houses with large televisions! Laughter, jive talking, the soft smacking of lips sucking meat off bones, and the soul music coming from a room just off the side. Then the commercials and the biggest relief: one can watch the halftime show! There is no talking heads running off at the mouth endlessly during this time. I love it because during the regular games the most annoying thing is the constant stream of men talking from beginning to end, and worst of all: during the halftime shows.

People, groups, schools hustle all year to perform at these games and do not get in the national spotlight anymore! It's a shame, a damn shame! I can compare it to my childhood watching the games in black and white with Daddy understanding more than I do now about the game. Those halftime shows were something! They stopped fans in the chairs, rose them off their sofas! It was really something before the endless chatter in the same kind of voices took over the spotlight, the cameras and center stage!

Anyway, that's all I got for now! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1/26/18

Emily Didonato - SI Swimsuit 2015

Chrissy Teigen's Sports Illustrated swimsuit picture. (2015)

Sports Illustrated model Genevieve Morton in the 2014 swimsuit issue.

Xena, the Warrior Princess (r.) and Gabrielle. Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor.

Lingerie football team players. (2016).

Toy

franciska photography

black dress as it fits playfully, elegantly upon her delightful appreciation of self.

photo by franciska photography

Playing around with the idea of grace, of beauty, of being free and 'in' love is (as the lyric goes) a many splendored thing! Not to toy with the idea of being lost in the initial stages of engagement with the opposite sex puts the soul into a trajectory into possibilities.

"What does that mean?" a child may ask.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
December 16, 2017

Park Si Hyun.

Teach in Life.

Who said those words? It is important to know. People's stories are important and to those needy the most, and those close to the person who reveals him or herself by word, and work; is a need to observe the trail that led to revelation!

For those curious: what led a person to discover within themselves this sense of self, and place in the worlds surrounding themselves:

"Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be!"

We may never know. What we will know is when we arrive at this state of being present within the great mysteries of this life! 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
January 14, 2018

painting a picture. Ada Cottingham. 2017.

"... It is always the simple things that bring the greatest joys, the simplest pleasures and reveal, in the simplest of ways, how to live in wondrous ways! Ain't that something?" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1/14/18 

Dem Older Women!

"the Dignity of this woman plays with her sexiness!

There is a rightness to it because this is Life!" 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Tori Baker is an older woman desirable beyond description.

The type of woman you wanna hold, cherish and listen to.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

"Helen Mirren is tough in the delicate nature of her beauty." 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Hidden on the Outside, from Within...

Sacredness is gently placed upon and within Stefania Ferrario the way impulse aligns the heartbeat with release.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6.2.17

Secretive women, private in their nature, call men to them, who think beyond themselves into the light of who they are becoming. These women need that to grow the way plants need shadow as well as light. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Seraphina Fiero by Jessica L. Drake (JLD Imagery) (2013)

Sacral Chakra - 2nd Chakra (Inner Child, Sexual energy) 

Colors of Melanin

Brittney Blair

plastic bag dress worn by Brittney Blair . photo by Roland Dawson. September 2017.

Brittney Blair by Roland Dawson taken at Abstract Reality Art Gallery & Photography Studio.

Island girls. Gorgeously Nelly  (l.) and Erika Marie (r.)

flanking the center woman unnamed by Roland Dawson.

Bright Present.

Jazmilèx Marie

Colors. Jazmilèx Marie by Roland Dawson. Body paints by HandPaintedd Bud. September 2017.

"As many times as I've studied and simply looked at this image, I am still struck by the magnificence of this image!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/28/17 

With JOY!

Delighted she is, tickled by what we don't know! Anyway, she is adored by someone special, or her Daddy made it so delightful to be his daughter she cannot help but express that experience in her living. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

Joy and Hello!!

"Playing, oh, she playing!" by AU Naturale Photography.

playing like a child, a woman !!!!

"Joy precedes the hello that leads both along an adventure discovering each other!" 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Joyous Black woman by Roland Dawson