David Hockney has died at the age of 88: Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing. Hockney was born in the north of England … Continue reading →
Here’s an interesting piece on the phenomenon of late fame. Robert Graboyes concentrates on music: Johann Sebastian Bach is one of history’s three greatest composers (along with Beethoven and Mozart), but his fame didn’t really blossom until the mid-19th century—75 … Continue reading →
One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was this one in January of 2005, entitled, “The fine art of insulting half your audience.” Here’s an excerpt: It happens nearly every time. I’ll be reading a short story, let’s … Continue reading →
This happened [my emphasis]: A mountain lion forced residents of Santa Monica and their tiny pets indoors as officials scoured the area for the apex predator. The Santa Monica Police Department descended on the residential area of 14th and Montana … Continue reading →
First, a bit of background (if you’re unfamiliar with the story of the Andes crash, there may be a few spoilers here). I first read the definitive book on the subject, Alive, when it came out in 1974. I was … Continue reading →
I just learned that tomorrow is the 573rd anniversary of the fall of Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was no more, and the great city was now in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, as a result of military conquest after … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I was going to put up a bunch of smaller posts, after my post earlier today on Iran. But the news of a possible deal – and the nervousness about its terms and whether they will amount to a … Continue reading →
Obama is in Canada in order to give the keynote speech to a group called Canada 2020, which has the goal of furthering “a more just, inclusive and forward-thinking Canada.” That’s “just” as in “social justice” or what Thomas Sowell … Continue reading →
I first saw the movie Rebecca on TV when I was about ten years old, and was immediately taken with it. I went on to read the book when I was very young, too, and loved it. The movie is … Continue reading →
Here’s a very short clip that compares Natalia Osipova with Maya Plisetskaya. It’s from the ballet Laurencia. The Bolshoi-trained Osipova is a very fine dancer, still performing at 39. Plisetskaya was a star of the past who had her heyday … Continue reading →
Yesterday I wrote a post about Liz Warren’s desire to confiscate more of Jeff Bezos’ money. The title of the post was, “How much money does Jeff Bezos need, anyway?” Afterwards, a line from Shakespeare kept coming to me: “Oh … Continue reading →
You can find them by clicking here. Once you get there, you can get information on each photo by clicking on the image. My favorite: The lunar surface fills the frame in sharp detail, as seen during the Artemis II … Continue reading →