Sam the Koala

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday led mourning for Sam the koala, whose rescue from deadly bushfires inspired the nation but who has died during surgery for a sexually transmitted disease.

Rudd said he had been saddened to learn of the death of "that wonderful koala" in an operation for cysts caused by chlamydia, describing it as a tragedy.

Sam was found thirsty and severely burned in February and shot to fame when footage of her drinking bottled water offered by a fireman circulated widely on the Internet.

"The symbol of hope for so many people around the world was the great picture of that wonderful koala being fed water by one of our firefighters," Rudd said.

"I think that gave the people of the world a great sense of hope that this country, Australia, could come through those fires, as we have.

"Sam the Koala was part of the symbolism of that, and it's tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us."

Footage of helmeted fireman Dave Tree giving Sam water scored almost 150,000 hits in two days on the Internet video site YouTube, and was shown on TV news bulletins the world over.

The cuddly marsupial died Thursday after surgery to remove cysts associated with chlamydia, said Peita Elkhorne, spokeswoman for the animal shelter where she had been living.

"(Sam) lost her fight for life today after undergoing life-saving surgery to remove cysts associated with the debilitating urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects 50 percent of the koala population," Elkhorne said.

Elkhorne said Sam's carers were "devastated with this loss" adding that she had inspired survivors of the fires and those engaged in the relief and emergency effort with her determination.

Entire towns were flattened and 173 people died when fire swept through vast tracts of bushland outside Melbourne. Millions of unique native animals, including koalas, kangaroos and wombats, were also estimated to have perished.

Rescuers had hoped to return Sam, who was of an unusual breed that is fluffier and larger than other koalas, to her home in the Strzelecki Ranges in southeast Victoria state once she had recovered from her burns.
~MSN News

Q ... Some one, PLEASE TAXIDERMISE it. He's such an Icon of Hope. Deeply saddened.

An A for a BBB

A fitting tribute to Bardot

Probably one of this century's biggest sex and fashion Icon.

She was making love in music with her caressing french and purring long before Madonna talked about sex like she invented it , Janet exposed her boob here and a tit there , Britney sexed it up for the teens and the Pussy Cat Dolls were still learning about leather and whips.

We forget how influential she was in the music scene and the movie world.

She who inspired the the look and gave a career to Supermodel Claudia Schiffer.

Yes, I'm talking about Brigitte Bardot.

An Icon bar-none.

She came during an era where stars were really the full package. Face, body and talent all round.

She was sex-kitten fierce long before she got fierce for PETA and all those who hurt kittens.

Just give 'BBB: Best of Brigitte Bardot' a pop.

She sensuously sings and that's sexy.
She doesn't need to actually talk about it.

Classy.

Topless she can go but never pornish .

Makes one wonder our Nicole of the Pussy Cat Dolls can look like a total slut even with every garment on.

Never to be dimissed as a sexed-up pop starlet so common these days, she's cheeky, romantic, sensual, worldly and sophisticated all at once.

Every word she purrs drips off the tip of her tongue like honey.

Now that's a goddess for ALL TIME.

Q


> Je t'aime ... Bardot

A Rose of her Time

Rose Chan, former Miss Singapore, dance champion and

Sex Icon of the Malayas in the 1950-70s.

The Queen of Stiptease.

During a time where modesty was everything, this lady was the

Marilyn Monroe of Malaya.

She was a strong and confident woman who was raging for status, success and independence.

She's flaunted her sultry looks and killer curves and more, yes, but unlike the poseurs we have today, this was a lady in her element and being herself, not some girl wanting to sex it up because 'all the stars are doing it.'

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

The Rose Chan Experience:
____________________________________________
Once the music starts, the troupe emerges from behind the curtains, and parade on stage, clad only in panties, and a star covering each nipple. Dancing slowly to the tune of Chinese music, typically cha-cha and mambo rock, they strip naked the moment a voice booms "Hoi!" (Cantonese: open) over the microphone.

The opening striptease is followed by various sideshows — standup comedians, clowns, and jugglers — which served to prolong the mounting anticipation for the star attraction.

When Chan comes on stage, she moves subtly, gently swaying in a slow dance, all by herself. As she removes one piece of clothing after another, the tempo gradually picks up. When she reaches the point of removing her brassiere, she holds back. That is when her stagehands bring in the pythons, and she dances with the snakes wrapped all around her. Next, she removes her brassiere, and dances bare-breasted. After a while, the snakes are removed. She then approaches the people sitting nearest to the stage, who are normally the elderly big towkays (Hokkien: business owner). She takes an old man's spectacles, rubs it against her private parts, and then gives it back to him. Some of her acts are very crude. With her legs spread wide open, she peruses her most intimate parts to:

-stuff a banana inside;
-open the cap of a Coca Cola bottle;
-pull out a string of razor blades that was inserted in one by one;
-shoot a dart at a balloon high up.

She then tells some jokes. Sometimes, she will ask a Caucasian (because she knows they are more sporting than the shy, local guys) to go up on stage, and gets him to strip her or any of her performers. She slowly rolls down her panties, bit by bit, until the audience can have a peek at her pubic hair. The crowd goes hysterical, and eventually, she removes her panties, and dances and sways to the beat. The music then slows down, and she walks around, and then off she goes backstage.
_____________________________________________________

A legend who fought all her life in a world of condescending men treated women as objects.

She didn't object. But she didn't succumb either. She played the game.

A string of social discriminations, failed marriages, career turmoils and business hiccups, later, Chan died of breast cancer at her home in Butterworth, Penang, on May 26, 1987, leaving behind her husband, a son and three daughters.

Indeed. A Rose of her Time.

Q

Lash Legend

Mr Shu Uemura.
Make-up and beauty master; an Icon.

Known for his immense talent, expertise and pioneer in the business of making women beautiful inside and out.

The health of a woman's skin, he believed, was paramount and Uemura's reputation was for enhancing natural beauty — not artificially creating it.

His philosophy:

"Beautiful Make up starts with beautiful Skin "

While nature was a selling point in Uemura cosmetics (Depsea Water , spelt correctly btw, is a common ingredient and itself a best seller ), he also knew that women loved theatricality too. Products such as the brand's eyelash curlers, makeup brushes and eyebrow styling are coveted everywhere. Twiggy would be jealous of the selection of false eyelashes in the Tokyo Eyelash Bar collection, coming in voluptuous lengths, colors and sparkling crystals — or the diamond version that Uemura created for Madonna.
(Where the Great master worked)


Even great lives come to an End.

Uemura, died of acute pneumonia on Dec. 29 in Tokyo at the age of 79.
His funeral was held on Jan. 4.

He is survived by his wife and a son. L'Oreal, the group which he sold his company to for hell lot of money, will hold a memorial service in Tokyo for Uemura at the end of January.

The loss of the Lash Legend.

Blow out the Candle in the Wind

Above, the late International Style Icon and famed editor, Isabella Blow.

Below, a model at a tribute fashion show by Treacy and McQueen for the late Icon.

Famed Magazine Editor and International Style Icon Isabella Blow died of an over dose of Paraquat on 6th May 2007.

She was only 48.

Despite being born into a well-off Knighted family with a reported wealth of over 4 million pounds, she was largely estranged from her family and had personal humble beginnings that had nothing to do with fashion or let alone remotely glamorous.

"I've done the most peculiar jobs. I was working in a scone shop for years, selling apricot-studded scones. I was a cleaner in London for two years. I wore a handkerchief with knots on the side, and my cousin saw me in the post office and said, What are you doing? I said, What do you think I look like I'm doing? I'm a cleaner!"

But her intense love of fashion, a sharp eye for talent and beauty and her ability to mingle with the creme De la creme of the fashion world, soon made her world famous and iconic.

Photographer Mario Testino told Vanity Fair in September 2007,

"She was brilliant at finding new things and could always find new ways of looking at things."

Why will she be missed?

> She discovered and backed world-famous fashion designer Alexander McQueen and his fashion house.

> She discovered Supermodels Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl.

> She discovered, backed the career of and is a muse to world famous #1 milliner Philip Treacy. In fact, his wonderous creations had become a trade-mark for Blow; famously being seen in public with his fanciful hats.

> She was responsible for the resurgence of the crystal-rhinestone firm Swarovski after convincing her designer friends to use the company's products in their fashions and accessories.

> Personal friend and former flat mate to actress Catherine Oxenberg.

> Best friend to Daphne Guinness, socialite and heiress to the Guinness empire.

> Personal friend and muse to Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

> Worked for famous French fashion designer Guy Laroche .

> A former assistant and Personal friend to Andre Leon Talley, U.S. Vogue's editor-at-large

> Was a former assistant and personal friend to fashion director of U.S. Vogue, Anna Wintour.

> Was the Editor and fashion director for Tatler and the Sunday Times Style magazine

> Was a head Consultant to DuPont Lycra, Lacoste, and Swarovski.


Leading an international , jet-set life as an icon and socialite by being an Industry heavy weight, it was all but a sheen over a troubled personal life.

> Blow was disinherited by her father in 1994, and recieved only a token sum of money out of the multi-million dollar family fortune.

> A. McQueen didn't take her along when he sold his brand to Gucci. She discovered and supported him but being a muse, it was 'just hard to put a price on her worth.'

> Blow and her husband, Detmar Blow, had unsuccessfully tried in vitro fertilization eight times.

"We were like a pair of exotic fruits that could not breed when placed together",

she said.

> Acute money problems with her mother-in-law, a disagreement with over which member of the family would inherit her husband's ancestral home

> Detmar had an affair with Stephanie Theobald, a bisexual who was the society editor of British Harper's Bazaar

> Severe depression eventually resulted in her being Bipolar.

She became seriously depressed and reportedly was anguished over her inability to

"find a home in a world she influenced"

Indeed, towards the end of her life, she was betrayed both personally and professionally; people whom she raised to great success but put her down to leave her with nothing.

Her position in high society was in jeopardy.

Indeed, being a founder, icon and muse, it's just 'hard to put a price on it'.


Blow introduced to the world master Milliner ,Philip Treacy, whom created this (among a myriad of others) just for her. A shining example of the kind of Talents that Blow was capable of discovering and grooming.

The passing of A Legend.