As some of you know, when the Sand Warlock is not piloting the broomstick or magic carpet or selling sand to the Arabs, he sells extremely posh wine. My post from yesterday reminded him of an amusing tale relating to some wine that arrived in his store recently which shows that it is not just Islamic states that worry about public morals being corrupted by the flashing of a bit of flesh.
Quite a few of us here in the UAE roared with laughter when at cinema screenings, a statue's nude bottom was blurred out of Quentin Tarantino's characteristically violence and blood-splattered film Django Unchained, because it was considered too rude, when, meanwhile, viewers were treated to graphic scenes of a slave being savaged to death by dogs and another slave being beaten to death with a hammer for the amusement of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Calvin Candie. Horrific violence is fine, a nude porcelain bottom is not, it would appear.
It's not just in the Gulf where an artistically rendered nude is a problem, it seems. Mouton Rothschild has a label each year designed by an artist, with Bacon and Picasso being among the famous names who have had their work immortalised on a bottle. In 1993, an artist called Balthus stepped up to the mark and produced a charcoal reclining nude. It is artistic, it's a fairly vague drawing of a nude, it's on a bottle of wine which is, let's face it, only meant to be drunk by adults, so few are going to see it. Who could possibly have a problem with it? Step forward USA, where it was considered an "inappopriate" way to market alcohol. Could Mouton possibly come up with another label because it's just too naughty? The answer is, yes, they could, and here it is:
Those cheese-eating surrender monkeys seem to have done a rather comprehensive (**insert rude french word here***) vous to the Americans by simply producing a blank label for the Yanks, lest they be corrupted by the charcoal drawing on an exclusive bottle of wine. FYI, both versions of the bottle are available in the store. Presumably staff have to ask for passports and only sell the one featuring the reclining nude to non-Americans.
The story is disputed here, but whoever it was that originally made the fuss about the nudey naked lady, it just shows that certain people have a lot more in common than they may think.
I've chosen not to include the nudey naked lady picture, because, and I may be going slightly native here, I could get some bother for publishing a provocative picture on a blog that is partially intended for a UAE audience. If you want to see her, you will just have to visit the shop, won't you?
Quite a few of us here in the UAE roared with laughter when at cinema screenings, a statue's nude bottom was blurred out of Quentin Tarantino's characteristically violence and blood-splattered film Django Unchained, because it was considered too rude, when, meanwhile, viewers were treated to graphic scenes of a slave being savaged to death by dogs and another slave being beaten to death with a hammer for the amusement of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Calvin Candie. Horrific violence is fine, a nude porcelain bottom is not, it would appear.
It's not just in the Gulf where an artistically rendered nude is a problem, it seems. Mouton Rothschild has a label each year designed by an artist, with Bacon and Picasso being among the famous names who have had their work immortalised on a bottle. In 1993, an artist called Balthus stepped up to the mark and produced a charcoal reclining nude. It is artistic, it's a fairly vague drawing of a nude, it's on a bottle of wine which is, let's face it, only meant to be drunk by adults, so few are going to see it. Who could possibly have a problem with it? Step forward USA, where it was considered an "inappopriate" way to market alcohol. Could Mouton possibly come up with another label because it's just too naughty? The answer is, yes, they could, and here it is:
Those cheese-eating surrender monkeys seem to have done a rather comprehensive (**insert rude french word here***) vous to the Americans by simply producing a blank label for the Yanks, lest they be corrupted by the charcoal drawing on an exclusive bottle of wine. FYI, both versions of the bottle are available in the store. Presumably staff have to ask for passports and only sell the one featuring the reclining nude to non-Americans.
The story is disputed here, but whoever it was that originally made the fuss about the nudey naked lady, it just shows that certain people have a lot more in common than they may think.
I've chosen not to include the nudey naked lady picture, because, and I may be going slightly native here, I could get some bother for publishing a provocative picture on a blog that is partially intended for a UAE audience. If you want to see her, you will just have to visit the shop, won't you?
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