Everclear is a brand of neutral grain spirit that is available at concentrations of 75.5% alcohol (151 proof) and 95% alcohol (190 proof). Due to its high alcohol content, Everclear is illegal, unavailable, or difficult to find in many areas.
Spanning from 1887 to a month before his death in 1910, The Journal of Jules Renard is a unique autobiographical masterpiece that, though celebrated abroad and cited as a principle influence by writers as varying as Somerset Maugham and Donald Barthelme, remains largely undiscovered in the United States. Throughout his journal, Renard develops not only his artistic convictions but also his humanity, as he reflects on the nineteenth-century French literary and art scene and the emergence of his position as an important novelist and playwright in that world, provides aphorisms and quips, and portrays the details of his personal life-his love interests, his position as a socialist mayor of Chitry, the suicide of his father-which often appear in his work.
Guaranteed for 500 years (a more and more common requirement today with museums), this special limited edition of only 33 copies worldwide, all numbered and signed, is a pictorial essay on the sculptures of the grand-master of the Renaissance in Italy.
Ama are Japanese divers, famous for collecting pearls. The majority of ama are women. Japanese tradition holds that the practice of ama divers may be 2,000 years old. Traditionally, and even as recently as the 1960s, ama dived wearing only a loincloth. Even in modern times, ama dive without scuba gear or air tanks, making them a traditional sort of free-diver.
Alberto Spadolini was an Italian dancer who cut a dash in the Paris of the “golden years” alongside muses such as Mistinguett and Josephine Baker, and intellectuals such as Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais, offering his perfect, athletic nakedness to the public and earning the nickname “the living Rodin”.
Felice Beato was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first photographers to take pictures in East Asia and one of the first war photographers.
Pierre Louis Delaval was a French painter.
Charles-Frédéric Soehnée was a French painter. In 1818, he executed more a group of than one hundred drawings, watercolors, and at least one lithograph, most of which depict grotesque scenes of imaginary beasts and travelers against the backdrop of desert landscapes.
Carlo Mollino was an Italian architect and designer.
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures (AIP) with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio. Precursors to the genre were Columbia Pictures 1959 release Gidget, starring Sandra Dee as a teenage surfer girl, and 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian. American International's films took the Gidget idea, added more music and far more bikinis, and removed nearly all references to parents. The films helped popularize surfing and surf music, and they often included on-screen performances by well-known pop groups.