Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Birthday 36 - And a Great Time Was Had by All

February 21st was the 36th birthday for Julie's son John Jewl Smith.

As usual, it was held at UCP a facility loaded with others who could also share in the festivities. It was, in Julie's words, "our Everybody's Handicapped Club." There was a kiddie magician, one of those guys who blows bubbles, makes zany faces, and does miming. At one point he walked around wearing a Mummenschanz bit of tubing, pretending to be a giant Muppet-worm. Watch out, the thing is gonna lean over and swallow you!

It took about two months of post-production by the clever Gene Hamm, to add appropriate music and get it uploaded to YouTube, but it's worth the wait. Just go to Julie's YouTube page or type in John's Birthday 2017.

Among the highlights...

Once again thanks to the "audacious talents" of Gene Hamm (Julie's phrase). And thanks to all the Facebookers who call attention to themselves with their sincere compliments about John and Julie.

Special mention to Robert Humphries:

"I had the great pleasure in meeting you and your son...your an inspiration for humanity in every sense of the word! Very humbling experience, Julie Newmar! X!"

and Herchel Sawyer:

"Dearest Julie...Thank you...for sharing this thing with us. You have unselfishly paid the full price for a priceless Son. Some of us have an inkling of the fine, fine work, and Mothering you've done...I do pray that John Jewl had a super-fabulous Birthday!!!!"

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Photo Fun

First off, no, that is NOT a "bondage" image on the front page of Julie's website.

Her hands are NOT tied behind her back. The idea that the photographer has any desire to see a woman in bondage is absurd.

Likewise this isn't a Venus de Milo homage, and it's quite accidental that she looks like she has no hands at all.

While most of Julie's vintage photographers liked the idea of Julie's arms being around them, or at least in sight, just enjoy the Mona Lisa aspect of it. We're used to seeing Julie looking smiling and positive, and here's something enigmatic, with a touch of mystery.

As we say at Facebook, if you don't have anything positive to say, shut up. Constructive criticism is, well, destructive.

Something like that.

There's no doubt about the upbeat message of the latest item available at the website: flower-child GREETING CARDS.

It's a set of Photoshop jobs that accentuate the fact that Julie is blooming well the most beautiful work of art on the planet.

You'll find ordering info in the CARDS link on the top of the website.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Ebay Forgery: It Happens

Be careful when buying autographed photos.

Thanks to today's technology, forgery is easier than ever. It used to require some skill and a steady hand to duplicate a signature, but thanks to autopens and Photoshop, more and more con artists are tricking people into buying FAKES.

Case in point, this recent item on eBay.

Julie fans might instantly have noticed that this is a Photoshop fake. It's Julie as Catwoman stuck on the body of some kind of half-naked dominatrix with a thick waste and rather stumpy legs. The con artist's idea: offer an autograph on a photo a fan definitely doesn't have already.

This seller also offered fake images of Emma Watson, Jennifer Aniston and Ariana Grande. So Julie was in good company. The seller also had unlikely rarities like a photo of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston autographed by both of them.

Giddy fans are pretty trusting. All they need to see is the magic phrase "Certificate of Authenticity." All this means is that somebody paid $20 for a website domain, and like a "fake news" site, put up false credentials about being an "expert." It might mean even less, and it's just a piece of paper signed by somebody claiming to be an "expert," and having no website or even a post office address.

Old-fashioned forgers would practice a signature and it would take a very trained eye to tell the difference. Forgers who use an auto-pen that traces a real signature and then duplicates it on any piece of paper, are hider to catch. You need to compare signatures and see that they match up on EVERY photo of that celebrity that the forger is selling. Thanks to Photoshop, it's easy to seize a real autograph, and superimpose it on a photo. What gives this away, if you look for it, is that the ink of the signature is no different from the ink of the print-out photo.

Some unscrupulous eBay sellers simply offer a copy of a signed photo, neglect to say it's a "pre-print" or a copy made from an original, and sell it as if it was the real thing. How many bidders, suspending disbelief, never bother to truly examine the photo that they lovingly frame and put on the wall, or simply obsessively stick into a looseleaf binder as an addition to "the collection?"

In the old days, con artists would just concentrate on a signature, but with new technology available, they can add something extra. In this case, the con artist stole an existing autograph that include Julie's added word "Fondly." The con artist could've found one with another common Julie phrase added, "You're purrrrfect," because it's perfectly easy to Photoshop as many words off an autographed photo as possible, and then superimpose them on something else.

Caveat emptor. (No, that doesn't mean Dick Caveat is hungry.)