Ripples #26

Compiled and Written by Lenny Giteck

Screen Legend Marilyn Monroe’s Nude
Swimming Outtakes from Her Final Film

Had she lived, movie icon and sex goddess Marilyn Monroe would now be 85 years old — an image Ripples is not sure he wants to contemplate. For better or worse, she did not live to see old age and the wrinkles it brings; instead, Marilyn is forever frozen in time as a beautiful, young, blonde bombshell (she was 36 when she passed away).

To demonstrate her eternalsuper-hottie status, Ripples presents an outtake filmed for “Something’s Got to Give” — a movie that was never completed because of Marilyn’s untimely departure from the scene (due to either an accidental or intentional drug overdose, or being murdered, possibly by the Mafia, the CIA or the Kennedy boys, depending on which conspiracy theory you believe).

Anyway, one thing is certain: Marilyn is dead. But you can still enjoy her curvaceous pulchritude in this swimming outtake. Caution: Although the clip is quite tame by today’s standards, Ripples advises anyone who is offended by female nudity — even when the female is Marilyn Monroe — not to watch it.

Video: To see a nude, gorgeous, giggling Marilyn Monroe cavorting in a swimming pool, click here. Enjoy!

Winnipeg Company Strings Together
One Plucky Swimming Pool Design

Ripples has shown photos of a number of unusually shaped pools — but few areas impressive as a pool built by Aqua-Tech Pools Limited in Winnipeg, Canada, which mimics the shape of a Les Paul Custom guitar.

The guitar-shaped pool was commissioned by localresident Garry McBurney, an avid collector of the stringed instruments. Ironically, McBurney originally walked into Aqua-Tech’s headquarters just looking to buy a hot tub.

Designing and building the unique installation was no small challenge. From an article about the pool on the Web site winnipegfreepress.com:

Aqua-Tech’s co-owner, Glen McGillivray, said McBurney’s guitar pool is likely the most labor-intensive project the company has undertaken. The pool was not a project that could be completed in a week or two. It took roughly six to eight weeks to plan and another six to eight weeks to build.

“For example, the pool liner was made with a special vinyl ink for the guitar strings,” he said. “And at the end of the pool, grey concrete was poured to mimic the guitar’s tuning pegs. It took a ton of planning, something that was made so much easier by the amazing computer program Joe [Joe Urmos, head of Aqua-Tech’s design team] uses to design pools.

“It’s called Pool Studio,” said Urmos of the sophisticated imaging program. “Essentially, we took the dimensions of the guitar and built the pool proportionally to it. To get all the details just right, we stenciled the liner so we could exactly replicate the guitar strings and tuning pegs. The three-dimensional program really helped our staff and the owners visualize the final product.

And quite a final product it is. Ripples only wonders how it fares during Winnipeg’s brutal winters. Still, it is indisputably a fine piece of watershaping art.

Photos: To view images of the Les Paul Custom swimming pool, click here.

Hong Kong Cracks Open Luscious
Pool Facility Under the Half Shell

While we’re on the subject of unusually shaped pool projects, Ripples is also impressed by a unique installation in Hong Kong whose roof was inspired by the organic form of the seashell. The Tung Chung Swimming Pool sports facility houses a 50-meter heated indoor pool and a 25-meter “teaching” pool — but it is what soars over the pools that is the really delicious star of the show.

Here is how inhabitat.com describes the sculptural roof, which was designed with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind by the Hong Kong-based architecture firm of Ronald Lu & Partners:

Its aerodynamic shell consists of a double-layer PTFE membrane stretched over a lightweight long-span steel truss structure. This facade serves as a green building envelope that allows natural daylight to illuminate the building. A layer of insulating air trapped between the double-layer membrane helps to regulate the interior climate, and the roof also encourages natural ventilation.

Four-meter-high transparent roller shutters along the poolside can be fully opened in fair weather conditions. When the shutters are closed throughout the winter, the integrated ventilation ductworks in the roof trusses above the pool supply warm air to create a comfortable interior climate and to avoid condensation.

Photos: To watch a slildeshow of images, click here.

Texans Order Cool Pools on the Rocks

Usually, the problem that pool homeowners face is how to heat the water in their backyard installations to comfortable temperatures. That’s not always the case in Texas, where scorching summer days sometimes make pool water feel like liquid in a crock pot.

That’s where longtime ice sculptor Franko Camargo — “Franko the Ice Man” — comes in. He carves beautiful sculptures out of 300-pound blocks of ice, which Austin, Tex., residents float in their pools to cool off the water.

The Web site KXAN.com reported that Franko’s latest creation — an eagle with the television station’s logo carved into it — was actually for KXAN reporter David Scott. And Scott’s reaction? “The iceman does cometh, and this is refreshing,” he was quoted as saying.

What does the Ice Man think when he sees his creations melt away under the strong Texas sun? “I like it that way,” he noted on the Web site. “Because then there’s not a critic going to tell me I did something wrong…because [the sculptures] are already gone.”

Ice sculptures for swimming pools…not-so-easy cometh but easy goeth.

Bevy of Speedos Packed with Talent

Ripples has to confess not only to never having watched a TV show called “Bachelor Pad,” but also to only vaguely knowing that it exists. Still, in the interest of reporting on important American social trends…it appears that on the most recent episode — which aired last Monday evening — the show focused on two separate synchronized swimming competitions, one starring the bachelors and one starring the bachelorettes. The bachelors all wore Speedos to accentuate their…uh…burgeoningballetic prowess — which was only fair because the bachelorettes’ bikinis (especially the tops) did the same thing.

Video: To watch both synchronized swimming competitions and wonder at the depth of our culture (needless to say, Ripples means that in the best possible way), click here.

Until next time…happy watershaping to you!