Pussay! Me, Yow!

Yes, just as you thought this blog was getting soft, your observation is confirmed, unlike your reservation on the Stuttgart-to-JFK that was supposed to *#*)(@! leave last night.

Imagine Will Smith as Hancock, saying the following, although it's really me saying it. Okay? "Nah, see, like, I really like cats, you know. I mean, I kinda really like 'em. Maybe some people might think it's kinda a little unnatural, but that's okay, y'all, I ain't got no problem with that."

So, right, I really like cats. I like the idea of them, actually. The smelly cat poo and peeing on door-jambs and the like, not so much. But I've had cats as familiars for most of my life. I don't have one now. Rather, I'm not amusing one at present since it's pretty much impossible to "have" a cat.

Therefore, I have to get my cat fix somehow. Often, I lurk around icanhascheezburger.com for LOL cat pictures taken by cat mommies and daddies (blech-oh, god, why did I write that, god, ech!) When I've exhausted the new entries there, I root around on YouTube, hoping to find something that isn't the 100 millionth retread of a America's Funniest Home Videos bootleg from 1996. Once in a very great while, I discover something that's actually surprising. See here:

http://www.popphoto.com/cats

This is an interview with Helmi Flick on PopPhoto.com, the website of the magazine of approximately the same name which I've read since I was yay high. It talks about how she got her start (when she was 50!) and her approach. Whatever. It's interesting, but the cat pictures . . . OMG! Lucious.

Simply brilliant. Close in, intimate and absolutely purr-fect. The lighting and color design is without flaw. Thanks, Pop Photo, for showing us this masterful photographer's work. And thank you, Helmi, for not only understanding kitties, but to somehow magically translate that essence into a still photo.

Here's the photographer's gallery of work. As you browse, notice the flow of textures, the glamour lighting, the captured moment.

I'll stop gushing now, but I'm now convinced that Helmi Flick is the most wonderful, brilliant, genius, excellentistest person in the whole wide world! Or, as Howard Dean would put it, "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh."