Photograph: “Old familiar flowers”, autochrome by Emma Barton ca. 1919
She looks like a hippy from 50 years later than the photograph was taken…
PS: I just noticed that the tips of her braids are wrapped in some fabric? Maybe ribbons? I never had seen anything like this before… little bows yes, but the whole tip wrapped up…?
Gnomes fascinated by the lifelike statue of a Gypsy. What fascinates them the most is that the gypsy’s clothes look as good as theirs and that she is almost as pretty as Zaera.
Just be careful if they’re blue skinned giants with red eyes and they feel fashionable that teenage girls wear onesies that expose their bossom… you might need to find out their secret and revolt for them to respect your tiny people.
Make way, Armchair Expert of Bodybuilding & Fitness coming through.
In 1944 there were no equipment to train that heavily to achieve such mass, even if you had the proper genetics.
It wasn’t possible to add those muscle volumes to your body even after 50 years later, not even during Dorian Yates era (who got lots of help from his mentor Mike Mentzer). The closest bodybuilder to that physique was Markus Rühl, who was around the same time as Dorian.
But size isn’t everything in Mr. Olympia competition. They look into symmetry and definition aesthetics as well.
Sandow’s physique is mind-bogglingly impressive with the equipment available(also not available) to him at the time. There’s no question about that. He paved way to the era of muscular development.
Which brings us to…
The Austrian Oak.
He is also the greatest bodybuilder of all times according to many. Imagine the most successful actors winning a total of 3 Academy Awards in their lifetime. Arnold would be the actor who won 7 before transitioning into his next phase of his “blueprint in life”. There were lots of politics going on in the bodybuilding world even back then. So today it is very tough to win it even once. There are only 2 bodybuilders who could pass him in championship count, ever, and one of them only managed doing that before traditional steroids were banned. Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman both winning it 8 times.
However, even though beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the judges’ sense of aesthetics can be different than the community & women.
Arnold was nothing less than colossal for his day. But when it comes to achieving perfect body, there were two other bodybuilders who also competed at the same time as him: Frank Zane and Mike Mentzer
Zane was probably the most dedicated bodybuilder there is. He reportedly kept his spartan dieting even when he was off-season and after retirement. He is considered the most aesthetic athlete in terms of symmetry and definition.
Mentzer was most arguably the bodybuilder with the greatest potential in the history of bodybuilding. He is also the only bodybuilder to get a perfect score from bodybuilding judges. He pulled it off not only once, but TWICE!
In 1978 he won the second tier Mr. Universe achieving a perfect score.
Then, in 1979 he achieved a perfect score, again at the highest tier competition of Mr. Olympia. He was the champion of Heavyweight division champion and Frank Zane was the Lightweight champion. In overall judging he lost to Frank Zane because the latter was more…perfect? (I don’t know how’s that even possible).
But here comes the most interesting part. Arnold, who retired back in 1975, made a last minute(literally) jumping into the 1980’s competition and won his 7th champions trophy looking like a dough compared to other competitors of that year, including Zane and Mentzer. But won due to his sheer size.
Thank you for the generous compliment! I was spending hours watching dance tutorials, then music videos, then dance movies. One night, while I was watching Patrick Swayze’s “Dirty Dancing”, suddenly something happened. My spirit and mind became as ONE! My dancing skills jumped up like 8 thousand percent. I became a skilled dancer that others could only begin to imagine. I could dance any dance without the effort. I became an epic dancer. (Sorry, but you can only get a World of Roguecraft reference out of me at this 5 AM hour ).
When I said I was “refraining”, I was actually referring to the photoshop speedrun video that I initially hesitated to share in the post below.
I know! They are quite importune about the size of…erm…wossname…the diamond ring they want you to buy for them, yes, diamond ring! EDIT: Did I get it right?