油画大家谈 Oil Painting 100222

John Constable Wivenhoe Park

2009-05-22T01:02:00.002-07:00

John Constable Wivenhoe ParkJohn Constable The White HorseJohn Constable The Hay Wain
really opens, dis is der pump, you get water out of it wit der handle here, dis is me waiting for some money' routine.
'Well, that just about does it. That just about puts the iron helmet on it, that does,' he said. 'We play Music With Rocks In all evening, and we've got a room that looks like this?'
'It's homely,''Yep.'
'He hardly says a word now when he's not on stage.'
'Yep.' 'Ever met a zombie?'
'I know a golem. Mr Dorfl down in Long Hogmeat.'
'Him? He's a genuine zombie?' said Cliff. 'Look, trolls don't have much to do with de frills of life–’Glod looked towards his feet.'It's on the floor and it's soft,' he said. 'Silly me for thinking it was a carpet. Someone fetch me a broom. No, someone fetch me a shovel. Then someone fetch me a broom.''It'll do,' said Buddy.He put down his guitar and stretched out on the wooden slab that was apparently one of the beds. 'Cliff,' said Glod, 'can I have a word?' He jerked a stubby thumb at the door. They conferred on the landing. 'It's getting bad,' said Glod.

There were small oblong

2009-05-22T01:02:00.001-07:00

right, all right, two dollars each. That's ten dollars the lot, right?'
'Right.'
'And that's cutting my own throat.'
Chalky tossed the box aside. It bounced on the floor and the lid came off.
Some time later a small, greyish‑brown mongrel dog, on the prowl for anything edible, limped into the workshop and sat peering into the box for a while.
Then it felt a bit of an idiot and wandered off.
Ridcully hammered on the door of the High Energy Magic Building as the city clocks were striking two. He was supporting Ponder Stibbons, who was asleep on his feet.
Ridcully was not a quick thinker. But he always got there eventually.
The door opened and Skazz's hair appeared.
'Are you facin' me?' said Ridcully.
'Yes, Archchancellor.'
'Let us in, then, the dew's soaking through me boots.'
Ridcully looked around as he helped Ponder in.
'Wish I knew what it was that keeps you lads working all hours,' he said. 'I never found magic that interesting when I was a lad. Go and fetch some coffee for Mr Stibbons here, will you? And then get your friends.'
Skazz bustled off and Ridcully was left alone, except for the slumbering Ponder.
'What is it they do?' he said. He never really tried to find out.
Skazz had been working at a long bench by one wall.
At least he recognized the little woodenstones ranged on it in a couple of concentric circles, and a candle lantern positioned on a swivelling arm so that it could be moved anywhere around the circumference.
It was a travelling computer for druids, a sort

Jack Vettriano A Very Dangerous Beach

2009-05-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano A Very Dangerous BeachJack Vettriano a uninvited guestJack Vettriano A Test of True Love
after that he'd just been, well, a wizard.
He had the feeling, once again, that he'd missed out on something somewhere. He'd never really realized it until the last couple of he'd say . . . he'd say something pretty damn memorable, that's what he'd do! He was
But the Archchancellor had stalked off.
'mumblemumblemumble,' said the Dean defiantly, a rebel without a pause.
There was a knock at the door, barely audible above the din. Cliff opened it a cautious fraction.
'It's me, Hibiscus. Here's your beers. Drink 'em up and get out!'days. He didn't know what it was. He just wanted to do things. He didn't know what they were. But he wanted to do them soon. He wanted . . . he felt like a lifelong tundra dweller when he wakes up one morning with a deep urge to go water‑skiing. He certainly wasn't going to stay indoors when there was music in the air . . .'mumblemumblemumblenotgonnastayindoorsmumble.'Unaccustomed feelings surged through him. He wanted to disobey! Disobey everything! Including the law of gravity. He was definitely not going to fold his clothes before going to bed! Ridcully was going to say, oh, you're a rebel, are you, what are you rebelling against, and

Jack Vettriano Dressing to Kill

2009-05-13T01:12:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano Dressing to KillJack Vettriano Dream LoverJack Vettriano Devotion
instrument, on which he himself was no mean performer.
In his experience, guitarists came in three categories. There were the ones he thought of as real musicians, who worked at the Operain the battle of the sexes. They didn't play at all, apart from one or two chords, but they were regular customers. When leaping out of a bedroom window just ahead of an angry husband the one thing a paramour is least concerned about leaving behind is his instrument.
Blert thought he'd seen them all.
Mind you, first thing this morning he'd sold some to some wizards. That was unusual. Some of them had even bought Blert's guitar primer.
The bell rang.
'Yes–’Blert looked at the customer, and made a huge mental effort '‑sir House or for one of the small private orchestras. There were the folk singers, who couldn't play but that was all right because most of them couldn't sing either. Then there were the hemhem ‑ troubadours and other swarthy types who thought a guitar was, like a red rose in the teeth, a box of chocolates and a strategically placed pair of socks, another weapon

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes

2009-05-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

Caravaggio Judith Beheading HolofernesCaravaggio Amor Vincit OmniaPierre-Auguste Cot Le PrintempsGeorge Frederick Watts Charity
The whole edifice was humming softly under the enormous pentup pressure.
The Librarian locked his hands together and cracked his knuckles, which is impressive when you have as many knuckles as an orang-utan.
He raised his hands.
He hesitated.
He lowered and flow down his arms and fill his fingers.
His hands dropped.
'What did we do? What did we do?' said Imp. Excitement ran its barefoot his hands again and pulled out the Vox Humana, the Vox Dei and the Vox Diabolica.The moan of the organ took on a more urgent tone.He raised his hands.He hesitated.He lowered his hands and pulled out all the rest of the stops, including the twelve knobs with '?' on them and the two with faded labels warning in several languages that they were on no account to be touched, .ever, in any circumstances.He raised his hands.He raised his feet also, positioning them over some of the more perilous pedals.He shut his eyes.He sat for a moment in contemplative silence, a test pilot ready to slit the edge of the envelope in the starship Melody.He let the plangent memory of the music fill his head

Georges Seurat Le Chahut

2009-05-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Georges Seurat Le ChahutWilliam Blake NebuchadnezzarWilliam Blake Jacob's LadderVincent van Gogh The Olive Trees
a strange of his fellow men. He devoted his life to it. For there are many things in the world that need doing that people don't want to do and were grateful to Mr Clete for doing for them. Keeping minutes, for example. Making sure the membership roll was quite up to date. Filing. Organizing.
He'd worked hard on behalf of the Thieves' Guild, although he hadn't been a thief, at least in the sense normally meant. Then there'd been a rather more senior vacancy in the Fools' Guild, and Mr Clete was no fool. And finally there had been the secretaryship of the Musicians.
Technically, he should have been a musician. So he bought a comb and paper. Since laugh, totally mirthless and vaguely birdlike. It was very much like its owner, who was what you would get if you extracted fossilized genetic material from something in amber and then gave it a suit.Lord Vetinari had encouraged the growth of the Guilds. They were the big wheels on which the clockwork of a well‑regulated city ran. A drop of oil here . . . a spoke inserted there, of course . . . and by and large it all worked.And gave rise, in the same way that compost gives rise to worms, to Mr Clete. He was not, by the standard definitions, a bad man; in the same way a plague‑bearing rat is not, from a dispassionate point of view, a bad animal.Mr Clete worked hard for the benefit

Edgar Degas A Carriage at the Races

2009-05-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

Edgar Degas A Carriage at the RacesFrida Kahlo What the Water Gave MeFrida Kahlo Two Nudes in the ForestFrida Kahlo Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace
doors shattered. A six-foot iron arrow passed Carrot and Vimes and removed a large section of wall on the far side of the courtyard.
A couple of blows removed the rest of the gates, and Detritus stepped through. He looked around at the assembled Assassins, a red glow in his ran for it. Some were not as bright. A couple of arrows bounced off Detritus. Their owners saw his face as he turned towards them, and dropped their bows.
Detritus hefted his club.
'Acting-Constable Detritus!'
The words rang out across the courtyard.
'Acting-Constable Detritus! Atten-shun!'
Detritus very slowly raised his hand.
Dink.
'You listen to me, Acting-Constable Detritus,' said Carrot. 'If there's a heaven for Watchmen, and gods I hope there is, then Acting-Constable Cuddy is there right now, drunk as a bloody monkey, with a rat in one hand and a pint of Bearhugger's in the other, and he's looking upright now and he's saying: my friend Acting-Constable Detritus won't forget he's a guard. Not Detritus.'

Alphonse Maria Mucha Moet and Chandon White Star

2009-05-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

Alphonse Maria Mucha Moet and Chandon White StarAlphonse Maria Mucha Lance Parfum RodoAlphonse Maria Mucha La Dame aux Camelias
act like that, Angua had said. A pack is an association of free individuals. A pack doesn't leap because it's told – a pack leaps because every individual, all at once, decides to leap.
A couple of the bigger dogs crouched . . .
Angua moved her head from side to side, waiting for the first assault . . .
A dog scraped the ground with its paw . . .
Gaspode tookonly until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw. Men made dogs, they took wolves and gave them human things – unnecessary intelligence, names, a desire to belong, and a twitching inferiority complex. All dogs dream wolf dreams, and know they're dreaming of biting their Maker. Every dog knows, deep in his heart, that he is a Bad Dog . . .
But Big Fido's furious yapping broke the spell. a deep breath and adjusted his jaw.Dogs leapt.'SIT!' said Gaspode, in passable Human.The command bounced back and forth around the alley, and fifty per cent of the animals obeyed. In most cases, it was the hind fifty per cent. Dogs in mid-spring found their treacherous legs coiling under them—'BAD DOG!'—and this was followed by an overpowering sense of racial shame that made them cringe automatically, a bad move in mid-air.Gaspode glanced up at Angua as bewildered dogs rained around them.'I said I got the Power, didn't I?' he said. 'Now run!'Dogs are not like cats, who amusingly tolerate humans

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

2009-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the YellowstoneThomas Moran Cresheim Glen, Wissahickon, AutumnThomas Moran Colburn's Butte, South Utah
foreign bugger who was rich.'
'Oh.'
'But great-grandad had a terrible thirst, and grandad chased anything in a dress, his dress, you understand, and old d'Eath, well, he was sober and clean but lost the rest of the family money on account of having a blind spot when it came to telling the There were other smells. Unwashed socks, other dogs, Dr Whiteface's greasepaint, yesterday's dinner – the scents filled the air. But the firework smell of wdifference between a one and an eleven.''I can't see how that loses you money.''It does if you think you can play Cripple Mr Onion with the big boys.'The werewolf and the dog padded back down the corridor.'Do you know anything about Master Edward?' said Angua.'Nope. The house was flogged off recently. Family debts. Haven't seen him around.''You're certainly a mine of information,' she said.'I gets around. No-one notices dogs.' Gaspode wrinkled his nose. It looked like a withered truffle. 'Blimey. Stinks of gonne, doesn't it.''Yes. Something odd about that,' said Angua.'What?''Something not right.'hat Angua was now

Leonardo da Vinci Madonna With The Carnation

2009-05-04T01:10:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci Madonna With The CarnationLeonardo da Vinci Madonna with FlowerLeonardo da Vinci Leda 1508Thomas Kinkade The Light of Peace
stared at the floor again.
'Like a clown or a jester?' said Detritus.
'Detritus, he didn't mean a cap-and-bells Fool,' said Carrot, in a kindly voice. 'He just meant you'd have to be some sort of idi—'
He stopped. Colon helped him up.
'Been in a fight, Skully?'
Skully looked up at Detritus, and whimpered.
'The buggers attacked the Watch House!'
'Who?'
'Them!'
Carrot patted him on the shoulder.He stared at the ceiling.'Oh, my,' he said. 'It's as simple as that?''Simple as what?' said Angua.Someone hammered at the door. It wasn't a polite knock. It was the thumping of someone who was either going to have the door opened for them or break it down.A guard stumbled into the room. Half his armour was off and he had a black eye, but he was just recognizable as Skully Muldoon of the Day Watch.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Ingres Venus Anadyomene

2009-04-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Ingres Venus AnadyomenePeter Paul Rubens Cimon and PeroPeter Paul Rubens The Straw HatPeter Paul Rubens Duke of Lerma
blinked. There was a tinkle of falling ice. Odd things were happening in his skull.
Thoughts that normally ambulated sluggishly around his brain were suddenly springing into vibrant, coruscat-ing life. And there seemed to be more and more of them.
'My goodness,' he said, to no-one in particular.
This was a sufficiently un-dissipation. Daytime temperature too hot, processing speed slows down, weather gets hotter, brain stops completely, trolls turn to stone until nightfall, ie, colder-temperature,however,lowertemperatureenough,brain operatesfasterand—'
'I think I'm going to freeze to death soon,' said Cuddy.
Detritus looked around.
'There are small glazed apertures up there,' he said.troll-like comment that even Cuddy, whose extremities were already going numb, stared at him.'I do believe,' said Detritus, 'that I am genuinely cogitating. How very interesting!''What do you mean?'More ice cascaded off Detritus as he rubbed his head.'Of course!' he said, holding up a giant finger. 'Superconductivity!''Wha'?''You see? Brain of impure silicon. Problem of heat

Albert Bierstadt The Shore of the Turquoise Sea

2009-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Albert Bierstadt The Shore of the Turquoise SeaDante Gabriel Rossetti Paolo and FrancescaDante Gabriel Rossetti A Sea SpellJohannes Vermeer Lady Seated at a Virginal
I told you to forget about certain recent events, captain?'
'Sir.'
'Yet it appears that the Watch have been getting in the wheels.'
'Sir.'. Not many people know that. The word 'polite comes from 'polis', too. It used to mean the ptoper behaviour from someone living in a city.
Man of the city . . . Carrot was always throwing out stuff like that. Like 'copper'. Vimes had believed all his life that the Watch were called coppers because they carried copper badges, but no, said Carrot, it comes from the old word cappere, to capture.
Carrot read books in his spare time. Not well. He'd have real difficulty if you cut his index finger off. But continuously. And he wandered around Ankh-Morpork on his day off.
'Captain Vimes?''What am I to do with you?''Couldn't say, sir.'Vimes minutely examined the wall. He wished Carrot was here. The lad might be simple, but he was so simple that sometimes he saw things that the subtle missed. And he kept coming up with simple ideas that stuck in your mind. Policeman, for example. He'd said to Vimes one day, while they were proceeding along the Street of Small Gods: Do you know where 'policeman' comes from, sir? Vimes hadn't. 'Polis' used to mean 'city', said Carrot. That's what policeman means: 'a man for the city'

Salvador Dali Morphological Echo

2009-04-28T00:20:00.001-07:00

Salvador Dali Morphological EchoSalvador Dali Dali at the Age of SixJoseph Mallord William Turner Frosty MorningJoseph Mallord William Turner Whitby
was a murmur of vague agreement. Vimes reached for his glass.
'Willikins, I don't think Captain Vimes wants any wine,' said Lady Ramkin.
'Wrong!' said . 'Very limited capacity, surely. Fact of measure-ment.'
'And you never see their women,' said Lady Sara Omnius. 'I find that very . . . suspicious. You know what they say about dwarfs,' she added darkly.
Vimes sighed. He was just about aware that you saw their women all the time, although they looked just like the male dwarfs. Surely everyone knew that, who knew anything about dwarfs?Vimes cheerfully. 'And while we're on the subject, how about the dwarfs?''I don't know if anyone's noticed,' said Lord Eorle, 'but you certainly don't see as many dogs about as you used to.'Vimes stared. It was true about the dogs. There didn't seem to be quite so many mooching around these days, that was a fact. But he'd visited a few dwarf bars with Carrot, and knew that dwarfs would indeed eat dog, but only if they couldn't get rat. And ten thousand dwarfs eating continuously with knife, fork and shovel wouldn't make a dent in Ankh-Morpork's rat population. It was a major feature in dwarfish letters back home: come on, everyone, and bring the ketchup.'Notice how small their heads are?' he managed

Thomas Kinkade Cobblestone Bridge

2009-04-27T00:40:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Cobblestone BridgeThomas Kinkade Clearing StormsThomas Kinkade Bridge of FaithThomas Kinkade Autumn Lane
and pathetic dragon made out of papier-mache and holding a collection box, chained very heavily to the wall, and bearing the sign: Don't Let My Flame Go Out.
This was where Lady Sybil Ramkin spent most of her days.
She was, Vimes had been told, the richest after the initial confusion. After all, the worst had already happened. At least . . . with any luck.
IF YOU WOULD CARE TO FOLLOW ME . . .
'Will there be custard pies? Red noses? Juggling? Are there likely to be baggy trousers?'
NO.in the air. Beano waited. Edward was frantically patting his face . . . well, what until recently had been his face.
I WONDER . . . CAN WE START AGAIN? I DON'T SEEM TO HAVE THE HANG OF THIS.
'Sorry?' said Beano.
'I'm s-orry!' moaned Edward, 'I meant it for the best!'
Beano watched his murderer

Thomas Kinkade HOMETOWN MEMORIES

2009-04-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade HOMETOWN MEMORIESThomas Kinkade CHRISTMAS MEMORIESThomas Kinkade BostonEdward Hopper Soir Bleu
things out,' said Sergeant Colon. ' 'S'not easy, learning civilianing. Right.' He glanced at his clipboard again, and back to the guardsmen. Men . . . hah.
His lips moved as he counted. There, sitting between Nobby and Constable Cuddy, was a very small, raggedy man, whose beard and hair were so overgrown and ,' he said. 'Er. . . that's the one nearest Lance-Constable Angua, Lance-Constable Detritus. And repeat after me . . .' He closed his eyes and his lips moved for a moment, as though he was reading something off the inside of his skull.
' "I comma square bracket recruit's name square bracket comma" . . .'
He nodded at them. 'You say it.'more of us,' said Sergeant Colon. 'Right! Ahem. Right. OK. We welcome to the guard today Lance-Constable Detritus – don't salute! - and Lance-Constable Cuddy, also Lance-Constable Angua. We hope you will have a long and – what's that you've got there, Cuddy?'
'What?' said Cuddy, innocently.
'I can't help noticing that you still has got there

Cao Yong SUMMER BREEZE

2009-04-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Cao Yong SUMMER BREEZECao Yong SACRED POOLSCao Yong Red Umbrella
wreck. The elves .
“We were just getting to know one another properly and fifty elves burst into the place! Damn! This kind of thing happens to me all the time!”
“That’s the best thing about black, it doesn’t show the soot,” said Nanny Ogg vaguely, dusting had stripped it of everything edible and rolled out every barrel, although a couple of rogue cheeses in the cellar had put up quite a fight.The table had collapsed. Lobster claws and candlesticks lay among the ruined meal.Nothing moved.242LOR08 ftf/0 t.ft0f£6Then someone sneezed, and some soot fell into the empty grate, followed by Nanny Ogg and, eventually, by the small, black, and irate figure of Casanunda.“Yuk,” said Nanny, looking around at the debris. “This really is the pips.”“You should have let me fight them!”“There were too many of them, my lad.”Casanunda threw his sword on the floor in disgust

Cao Yong WINDS OF LOVE

2009-04-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Cao Yong WINDS OF LOVECao Yong Walk In GardenCao Yong VILLA ENCANTADA
Pratchett
“Don’t be so daft! You saw them things! What’re you worrying about that old baggage for?”
“She’ll tan our hides for us, right enough! ‘Twas all our fault, she’ll say!”
“I just hopes she gets a chance,” muttered Tinker.
“We are,” said Thatcher, “between a rock and a hard place.”
“No we ain’t,” sobbed Carter. “I been there. That’s that gorge just above Bad Ass. We ain’t there! I wish we was there! We’re under this bush! And they’ll be looking for us! And so shall she!”
“What happened when we was doing the Ent—“ Carpenter began.
“I ain’t asking that question right now,” said Jason. “The question I’m asking right now is, how do we get home tonight?”He pulled the sack toward him and undid the top.
“There’s our bells in here,” he said, “and the sticks. And who told you to pack the accordion?”
“I thought we might want to do the Stick and—“
“No one’s ever to do the Stick and“She’ll be waiting for us!” Carter wailed.There was a tinkle in the darkness.“What’ve you got there?” said Jason.“It’s the props sack,” said Carter. “You said as how it was my job to look after the props sack!”“You dragged that all the way down here?”“I ain’t about to get into more trouble ‘cos of losing the props sack!”Carter started to shiver.“If we gets back home,” said Jason, “I’m going to talk to our mam about getting you some of these new dried frog pills.”

Vincent van Gogh Harvest Landscape

2009-04-22T23:29:00.001-07:00

Vincent van Gogh Harvest LandscapeLeroy Neiman SailingLeroy Neiman Nantucket Sailing
the king bought you all those nice clothes
because—“
“I don’t mean just clothes. I mean people’d be shouting hooray if—if anyone went past in the coach!”
“But you were the one who fell in love with the king, ma’am,” said Millie, bravely.
Magrat I happen to want any!”
“Cook’s very particular who goes into the herb garden, ma’am,” said Millie.
“I’ve seen that herb garden! It’s all leggy sage and yel-lowy parsley! If you can’t stuff it up a chicken’s bum, she doesn’t think it’s an herb! Anyway . . . who’s queen in this vicinity?”
“I thought you didn’t want to be, ma’am?” said Millie.
Magrat stared at her. For a moment she looked as if she was arguing with herself.hesitated for a moment. She’d never quite ana-lyzed that emotion. Eventually she said, “No. He wasn’t king then. No one knew he was going to be king. He was just a sad, nice little man in a cap and bells who everyone ignored.”Millie backed away a bit more.“I expect it’s nerves, ma’am,” she gabbled. “Everyonefeels nervous on the day before their wedding. Shall I ...shall I see if I can make you some herbal—“170LQRD6 ftttQ LftQf£6“I’m not nervous! And I can do my own herbal tea if

Mark Spain Timeless Beauty

2009-04-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Mark Spain Timeless BeautyMark Spain The Pink DressMark Spain SevillaMark Spain Reflection
106
I.ORQ6 ftffQ LftQf£6
until she promised to tell me everything she knew. Hah.
That took her a week and I had the afternoons free.”
“You mean in two forms, depending on the age of the wizard. Older wizards talk about candles, circles, planets, stars, bananas, chants, runes, and the importance of having at least four good meals every day. Younger wizards, particularly the pale ones who spend most of their time in the High Energy Magic building,* chatter at length about fluxes in the morphic nature of the universe, the essentially impermanent quality of even the most apparently rigid time-space framework, the implausi-bility of reality, and so on: what this means is that they have got hold of something hot and are gabbling the physics as they go along ...
It was almost midnight. Diamanda ran up the hill toward the Dancersyou weren’t Chosen?”“Me? No. I chose,” said Granny. The face she turned to Nanny Ogg was one she wouldn’t forget in a hurry, although she might try. “I chose, Gytha Ogg. And I want that you should know this right now. Whatever happens. I ain’t never regretted anything. Never regretted one single thing. Right?”“If you say so, Esme.”What is magic?There is the wizards’ explanation, which comes

Diego Rivera View of Toledo

2009-04-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Diego Rivera View of ToledoDiego Rivera Motherhood Angelina and the Child DiegoLeroy Neiman Resting Tiger
the poor woman’s got some respectable black clothes,” said Granny Weatherwax.
“Looks like he’s been stabbed,” said Nanny. She turned the body over, gently but firmly. Corpses as such didn’t worryJier. Witches generally act as layers-out of the dead as well as midwives; there were plenty of people in Lancre for whom Nanny Ogg’s face had been the first and last thing they’d ever seen, which had probably made all the bit in the middle seem quite uneventful by comparison.
“Right through,” she said. “Stabbed right through.
Blimey hat to her hair and held it about six inches from the stone. Then she let it go, and watched what happened.
She went back to Nanny.
“There’s still power there,” she said. “Not much, but the ring is holding.”
“But who’d be daft enough to come up here and dance
around the stones?” said Nanny Ogg, and then, as aWho’d do a thing like that?”Both the witches turned to look at the stones.“I don’t know what, but I knows where it come from,” said Granny.Now Nanny Ogg could see that the bracken all around the stones was indeed well trodden down, and quite brown.“I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” said Granny.“You’d better not go into—““I knows exactly where I should go, thank you.”There were eight stones in the Dancers. Three of them had names. Granny walked around the ring until she reached the one known as the Piper.She removed a hatpin from among the many that riveted her pointy

Pop art coltrane on rust

2009-04-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Pop art coltrane on rustPop art Bruce Springsteen - The BOSSPop art booker t & the mgs on green
stop blowing that damn trumpet!”
Shawn lowered the trumpet.
“I’m doin’ a fanfare, your majesty.”
“Yes, yes, obvious guests,” said Verence.
“And I thought it might be a nice idea to have some sort of fair or festival beforehand,” said Verence.
19
Terry Pratchett
“I asked Boggi’s in Ankh-Morpork to send up their best dressmaker with a selection of materials and one of the maids is about your size and I think you’ll be very pleased with the result,” said Verence.but you’re not supposed to go on. A few brief notes are a sufficiency.” Verence sniffed. “And something’s burning.”“Oh, blow .. . it’s the carrots ...” Shawn hurried away“That’s better,” said Verence. “Where were we?”“Pigs, I think,” said Magrat, “but I really came to—““It all comes down to the soil,” said Verence. “Get the soil right, and everything else follows. Incidentally, I’m arranging the marriage for Midsummer Day I thought you’d like that.”Magrat’s mouth formed an 0.“We could move it, of course, but not too much because of the harvest,” said Verence.“I’ve had some invitations sent out already, to the more

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dido Building Carthage

2009-04-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dido Building CarthageJoseph Mallord William Turner Chichester CanalJoseph Mallord William Turner Rome from the Vatican
sergeant, to judge by his expression, had heard them too.
Urn put his ear to the metal. There was no possibility of making out words, but the general religious rhythm was familiar movement, too. Nicely thought out."
He caught Fergmen's expression.
"Water goes in and out and the doors swing open," he translated. "So all we've got to do is wait for . . . what did he say the sign would be?"
"They'll blow a trumpet when they're through the main gate," said Fergmen, pleased to be of service.
"Right." Urn eyed the weights and the reservoirs overhead. The bronze pipes dripped with corrosion.
"But perhaps we'd better just check that we know what we're doing," he said. "It probably takes a minute or two enough."It's just the service going on in the Temple," he said. "It's probably resonating off the doors and the sound's being carried down the pipes."Fergmen did not look reassured."No gods are involved in any way," Urn translated. He turned his attention to the pipes again."Simple principle," said Urn, more to himself than to Fergmen. "Water pours into the reservoirs on the weights, disturbing the equilibrium. One lot of weights descends and the other rises up the shaft in the wall. The weight of the door is immaterial. As the bottom weights descend, these buckets here tip over, pouring the water out. Probably quite a smooth action. Perfect equilibrium at either end of the

Claude Monet Banks of the Seine

2009-04-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

Claude Monet Banks of the SeineClaude Monet Bank of the Seine VetheuilClaude Monet Autumn at ArgenteuilRene Magritte Woman Bathing
more guides were patrolling the labyrinth. After a mere million years, the night air blew cool on his face, and Brutha stepped out under the stars.
"Well done. Can you remember the way to the gate?"
"Yes, Lord Vorbis."
The deacon pulled his hood over his face.
"Carry on."
I know is not the truth," said Brutha.
"Quite so. Ah. The gate. I believe it had two guards yesterday?"
"I saw two."
"And now it is night and the gate is shut. But there will be a watchman. Wait here."
Vorbis disappeared into the gloom. After a while there was a muffled conversation. Brutha stared straight ahead of him.
The conversation was followed by muffled silence. After a while Brutha started to count to himself.
After ten, I'll go back.There were a few torches lighting the streets, but Ephebe was not a city that stayed awake in darkness. A couple of passers-by paid them no attention."They guard their harbor," said Vorbis, conversational. "But the way to the desert . . . everyone knows that no one can cross the desert. I am sure you know that, Brutha.""But now I suspect that what
Another ten, then.

Thomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDER

2009-04-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDERThomas Kinkade London
then," he said, "you shall entertain us to lunch. Won't he, sergeant?"Simony saluted. "Just as you say, sir.""Yes."Brutha lay on his back among sails and ropes somewhere under the decking. It was hot, and the air smelled of all air anywhere that has ever come into contact with bilges.Brutha hadn't eaten all day. Initially he'd been too ill to. Then he just hadn't."But being cruel to animals doesn't mean he's a . . . bad person," he ventured, the harmonics of his tone suggesting that even he didn't
Thomas Kinkade Light of FreedomThomas Kinkade Graceland
I will not be using it," said Vorbis.
The captain hung his head and held out his hand for the harpoon.
Vorbis patted him on the shoulder.
"And believe this. It had been quite a small porpoise.
"He turned me on to my back," said Om.
"Yes, but humans are more important than animals," said Brutha.
"This is a point of view often expressed by humans," said Om.
"Chapter IX, verse 16 of the book of-” Brutha began.
"Who cares what any book says?" screamed the tortoise.
Brutha was shaken.
"But you never told any of the prophets that people should

Andy Warhol Sunset

2009-04-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol SunsetAndy Warhol Shadows IAndy Warhol Oxidation
Hakardly risked a glance upwards and made frantic eyebrow movements at Rincewind who, even at the best of times, wasn't much good at interpreting non-verbal communication. This wasn't the best of times.
'With a sock?' , horror and the after-effects of an adrenaline overdose.
'Is it magical?' he said, curiously. 'Perhaps it is the sock of an Archchancellor? A sock of force?'
Rincewind focused on it.
'I don't think so,' he said. 'I think I bought it in a shop or something. Um. I've got another one somewhere.'
'But in the end it has something heavy?'
'Um. Yes,' said Rincewind. He added, 'It's a half-brick.'
'But it has great power.'said Coin. 'What good is a sock?'The arm holding the staff rose. Coin looked down at it in mild astonishment.'No, stop,' he said. 'I want to talk to this man.' He stared at Rincewind, who was swaying back and forth under the influence of sleeplessness

Juan Gris Guitar with Clarinet

2009-04-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

Juan Gris Guitar with ClarinetJuan Gris Guitar on a TableJuan Gris Guitar and Music Pape
your living soul in acid". There. How dyou like them ... excuse me a moment ... apples?'
There was a metallic chord as four men drew their swords in perfect harmony.
Nijel's 'They've never seen anything like it, I imagine,' said Rincewind weakly, judging the distance to the doorway.
'I should think not.'
'Especially the last bit, where it stuck in the ceiling.'
Nijel looked upwards.
'Funny,' he said, 'it always did that at home, too. I wondersword became a blur. It made a complicated figure eight in the air in front of him, spun over his arm, flicked from hand to hand behind his back, seemed to orbit his chest twice, and leapt like a salmon.One or two of the harem ladies broke into spontaneous applause. Even the guards looked impressed.'That's a Triple Orcthrust with Extra Flip,' said Nijel proudly. 'I broke a lot of mirrors learning that. Look, they're stopping.'

Juan Gris Violin and Engraving

2009-04-09T02:23:00.000-07:00

Juan Gris Violin and EngravingJuan Gris The ViolinJuan Gris The Painter's Window
Rincewind glanced at the manicured greenery, carefully arranged rocks and high surrounding walls. One of the Thous winked at, helping himself to another honey stick.
'I don't know about that,' said the poet. 'Scorpions sound unpoetic to me. Wild honey and locusts seem more appropriate, according to the standard poetic instructions, although I've never really developed the taste for insects.'
'I always understood that the kind of locust people ate in wildernesses was the fruit of a kind of tree,' said Conina. 'Father always said it was quite tasty.'
'Not insects?' said Creosote.
'I don't think so.' him.'This is a Wilderness?' he said.'My landscape gardeners incorporated all the essential features, I believe. They spent simply ages getting the rills sufficiently sinuous. I am reliably informed that they contain prospects of rugged grandeur and astonishing natural beauty.''And scorpions,' said Rincewind

Claude Monet La Grenouillere

2009-04-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Claude Monet La GrenouillereFabian Perez TangoFabian Perez Flamenco
an old man with one tooth who had been given a gobstopper. A few seagulls hung lazily in the updraughts, waiting for something to happen.
And the A NAME AS GOOD AS ANY OTHER, said Death politely. His empty sockets stared down at a small round face wrapped in sleep. Despite rumour, Death isn't cruel-merely terribly, terribly good at his job.
'You took his mother,' said Ipslore. It was father of wizards sat among the thrift and rattling sea grasses at the edge of the cliff, cradling the child in his arms, staring out to sea.There was a roil of black cloud out there, heading inland, and the light it pushed before it had that deep syrup quality it gets before a really serious thunderstorm.He turned at a sudden silence behind him, and looked up through tear-reddened eyes at a tall hooded figure in a black robe.IPSLORE THE RED? it said. The voice was as hollow as a cave, as dense as a neutron star.Ipslore grinned the terrible grin of the suddenly mad, and held up the child for Death's inspection.'My son,' he said. 'I shall call him Coin.'

Raphael Madonna and Child with Book

2009-04-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

Raphael Madonna and Child with BookGustav Klimt Women FriendsGustav Klimt The Bride
to get to her feet. The face she turned to Granny was as pale as the snow.
There was an arrow sticking out of her shoulder.
Granny darted back, grabbed the girl and hauled her upright.
“Come on! Nearly there!”
“Can’t r’n . . . c’ld ...”
Diamanda slumped forward. Granny caught her before she hit the snow and, with a grunt of effort, slung her over her shoulder.
A few more steps, and all she had to do was fall forwar ...
A clawed hand snatched at her dress .. .
And three figures fell, rolling over torturing it just because it’s lying down, Gytha.”
“Damn well ain’t waiting for it to stand up again, Esme.”
“Gytha.”
“Well, they used to carry off babies. I ain’t having that
again. The thought of someone carrying off our Pewsey—“
“Even elves ain’t that daft. Never seen such a sticky child in all my life.”
119

Franz Marc Der Traum

2009-04-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

Franz Marc Der TraumFranz Marc Blaues PferdchenMarc Chagall The Fall of Icarus
There was another minor point that nagged at him, though.
‘. . . Arthur? . . . flew? . . .’
‘‘So what are you going to do?’ said Ludmilla.
‘Well, we’ll just go and fetch him out, ‘ said Ridcully. What was it about the girl? He felt a strange urge to pat her on the head.’We’ll get some magic and get him out. Yes. Dean !’ ‘Yo!’
‘We ‘re just going to go in there to get Windle out.’
‘Yo!’
‘What?’ said the Senior Wrangler. ‘You must be out of your mind!’
Ridcully tried to look as dignified as possible, given his situation.
‘Remember that I am your Archchancellor,’ he snapped.
Hallo.’Ridcully turned his head. He blinked slowly.‘Nice teeth YOU got there,’ he said.‘Thank you,’ said Arthur Winkings.‘All your own, are they?’‘Oh, yes.’‘Amazing. Of course, I expect you brush regularly.’‘Yes?’‘Hygienic. That’s the important thing.’
244

Diane Romanello Sunset Beach

2009-04-03T00:47:00.000-07:00

Diane Romanello Sunset BeachGustav Klimt The Virgins (Le Vergini)Gustav Klimt The Three Ages of Woman
calling it the Combination Harvester,’ he said. Bill Door felt very old. In fact he was very old. But he’d never felt it as much as this. Somewhere in the shadow of his soul he felt he knew, without the blacksmith explaining, what it was that the Combination Harvester was supposed to do.
OH.?’
WHAT WILL IT THINK OF IT? WILL IT KNOW?
Simnel wrinkled his nose.’Know? Know? It won’t know anything. Corn’s corn.’
AND SIXPENCE IS SIXPENCE.
‘Exactly.’ Simnel hesitated.’What was it you were wanting?’
The tall figure ran a disconsolate finger over the oily mechanism.
‘Mr Door?’‘We’re going to give it a trial run this afternoon up in old Peedbury’s big field. It looks very promising, I must say. What you’re looking at now, Mr Door, is the future.’YES.\Bill Door ran his hand over the framework.AND THE HARVEST ITSELF?‘Hmm? What about it

John Constable Salisbury Cathedral

2009-04-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

John Constable Salisbury CathedralJohn Constable Salisbury Cathedral from the MeadowsJohn Constable Hadleigh Castle
Most of the ceiling fell in.
After several minutes and a certain amount of struggle Mrs Cake managed to get her head free.
‘Ludmilla!’
There were ‘Now then, you know you always crushes teacups when it’s your Time.’
‘I’m getting better at it, ‘ said Ludmilla.
‘There’s a good girl, but I’ll do it myself, thanks all the same.’soft footsteps in the passageway and then something come in from the back yard. It was clearly, even attractively female, in general shape, and wore a perfectly ordinary dress. It was also apparently suffering from a case of superfluous hair that not all the delicate pink razors in the world could erase. Also, teeth and fingernails were being worn long this season. You expected the whole thing to growl, but it spoke in a pleasant and definitely human voice.‘Mother?’‘Oi’m under ‘ere.’The fearsome Ludmilla lifted up a huge joist and tossed it lightly aside.’What happened? Didn’t you have your premonition switched on?’ ‘Oi turned it off to speak to the baker. Cor, that gave me a turn.’‘I’ll make you a cup of tea, shall I?’

Camille Pissarro The Chestnut Trees at Osny

2009-04-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

Camille Pissarro The Chestnut Trees at OsnyCamille Pissarro Rue de Louveciennes 1872Camille Pissarro Pissarro Hyde ParkCamille Pissarro Jardin Mirbeau aux DampsJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida UNA INVESTIGACIoN
least, it looks a clock. But it is in fact exactly the opposite of a clock, and the biggest hand goes around just once. There is a plain under a dim sky. It is covered with gentle rolling curves that might remind you of something else if you saw it from a long way away, and if you did see it from a long way away you’d be very glad that you were, in fact, a long way away. Three grey figures floated just above it. Exactly what they were can’t be .
One said, That is the point. The word is him. Becoming a personality is inefficient. We don’t want it to spread. Supposing gravity developed a personality? Supposing it decided to like people? One said, Got a crush on them, sort of thing?described in normal language. Some people might call them cherubs, although there was nothing rosycheeked about them. They might be numbered among those who see to it that gravity operates and that time stays separate from space.Call them auditors. Auditors of reality.They were in conversation without speaking. They didn’t need to speak. They just changed reality so that they had spoken.One said, It has never happened before. Can it be done? One said, It will have to be done. There is a personality. Personalities come to an end. Only forces endure. It said this with a certain satisfaction. One said, Besides... there have been irregularities. Where you get personality, you get irregularities. Well-known fact. One said, He has worked inefficiently?One said, No. We can’t get him there

Apple Tree with Red Fruit

2009-03-31T00:20:00.000-07:00

Apple Tree with Red FruitGeorge Frederick Watts Orpheus and EurydiceGeorge Frederick Watts Orpheus and Eurydice detailUnknown Artist The SunFlowersSalvador Dali Portrait of the Cellist Ricard Pichot
scuse me‑‘
‘You only got to look at the way he leaping about and barking.’
‘That right. I saw him in this click, he showing people where to find lost children in caves.’
‘‑‘scuse me‑‘
A troll brow wrinkled. ‘To eat ‘em, you mean?’
‘No, to bring ‘em outside.’
‘What, like for a barbecue sort of thing?’
‘‑‘scuse me‑image viz‑ah‑viz public relations if we find lost children.’
‘And even if we don’t, we can eat the dog, right?’
The bar emptied, leaving only the usual clouds of smoke, cauldrons of molten troll drinks, Ruby idly scraping the congealed lava off the mugs, and a small, weary, moth‑eaten dog.‘Another foot caught Gaspode on the side of his bullet head.‘Could be he found some more. Look at the way he running back and forwards to the door. He one clever dog.’‘We could go look,’ said the first troll.‘Good idea. It seem like ages since I had my tea.’‘Listen, you not allowed to eat people in Holy Wood. It get us bad name! Also Silicon Anti‑Defamation League be down on you like a ton of rectangular building things.’‘Yeah, but could be a reward or something.’‘‑‘SCUSE ME‑‘‘Right! Also, big improvement for troll

Michael Austin The Black Drape

2009-03-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

Michael Austin The Black DrapeTalantbek Chekirov Tender PassionTalantbek Chekirov Missing YouTalantbek Chekirov Embrace in ParisTalantbek Chekirov Close Encounter
it’s a woman holding a torch over her head‑‘
Victor slowly turned back to the front of the book.
‘Yes?’ he said, carefully.
‘And she keeps on trying to tell me something, something I can’t make out, about waking something, and then there He went back to the chair, which was promising to become annoyingly uncomfortable within half an hour, and turned down the lamp.
Something in the hill. That was the danger.
The more immediate danger was that he was going to fall asleep, too.
He sat in the dark and worried. How did you wake up a sleepwalker, anywayare a lot of lights and this roar, like a lion or a tiger or something, you know? And then I wake up.’Victor’s finger idly traced the outline of the mountain under the stars.‘It’s probably just a dream,’ he said. ‘It probably doesn’t mean anything.’Of course, Holy Wood Hill wasn’t pointed. But perhaps it was once, in the days when there had been a city where now there was a bay. Good grief. Something must have really hated this place.‘You don’t remember anything else about the dream, by any chance?’ he asked, with feigned casualness.There was no answer. He crept to the bed.She was asleep.

Lord Frederick Leighton Odalisque

2009-03-27T00:19:00.001-07:00

Lord Frederick Leighton OdalisqueLord Frederick Leighton NausicaaJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Napoleon I on His Imperial ThroneJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Mme MoitessierJean Auguste Dominique Ingres La Grande baigneuse
for a day off,’ said Mr Thumpy.
‘No-one asks for a day off in Holy Wood!’ said Victor. ‘I’ve been fired once, thank you.’
‘And he his body all day. Every time he’d shut his eyes he kept seeing a figure shaped like a small hillock. He had to face up to it. Detritus was in love.
Yes, he’d spent many years in Ankh-Morpork hitting people for money. Yes, it had been a friendless, brutalizing life. And a lonely one, too. He’d been resigned to an old-age of bitter bachelorhood and suddenly, now, Holy Wood was handing him a chance he’d never dreamed of.
He’d been strictly brought up and he could dimly remember the lecture he’d been given by his father when he was a young troll. If you saw a girl you liked, you didn’t just rush at her. There were proper ways to go about things. took you on again at more money,’ said Gaspode. ‘Funny, that.’ He scratched an ear. ‘Tell him your contract says you can have a day off.’ ‘I haven’t got a contract. You know that. You work, you get paid. It’s simple.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Gaspode. ‘Yeah. Yeah? A verbal contract. It’s simple. I like it.’ Towards the end of the night Detritus the troll lurked awkwardly in the shadows by the back door of the Blue Lias. Strange passions had wracked

Vincent van Gogh Houses at Auvers

2009-03-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Vincent van Gogh Houses at AuversVincent van Gogh Tree trunksVincent van Gogh Stairway at AuversVincent van Gogh Souvenir de MauveVincent van Gogh Peach Tree in Bloom
kind of dreams?’ said Victor.
‘It’s bloody embarrassing,’ said Gaspode. ‘Like, in one there’s this bridge that’s been washed away and I have to run and bark a warning, right? And there’s another where this house is on fire and I drag these kids out. And there’s one where some kids are lost in these caves and I find ‘em and go and lead the search party to
A little twig fire burned on the slope of Holy Wood Hill. Victor had lit it because - well, because it was reassuring. Because it was the sort of thing humans did.
He found it necessary to remember he was human, and them . . . and I hates kids. Seems I can’t get me ‘ead down these days without rescuin’ people or savin’ people or foilin’ robbers or sunnink. I mean, I’m seven years old, I got hardpad, I got scurf, I got fleas somethin’ dreadful, I don’t need to be a ‘ero every time I go to sleep.’ ‘Gosh. Isn’t life interesting,’ said Victor, ‘when you see it from someone else’s perspective . . . ?’ Gaspode rolled a crusted yellow eye skyward. ‘Er. Where are we going?’ said Victor. ‘We’re goin’ to see a few Holy Wood folk,’ said Gaspode. ‘ ‘Cos there’s something weird goin’ on.’ ‘Up on the hill? I didn’t know there were any people on the hill.’ ‘They ain’t people,’ said Gaspode.

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Braid

2009-03-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with BraidFrida Kahlo Naturaleza vivaFrida Kahlo MemoryFrida Kahlo Me and My ParrotsFrida Kahlo Me and My Doll
What’s hawt cuisyne?’ said Victor.
‘It’s foreign,’ said Dibbler. He scowled at Victor. Someone like Victor under the same roof wasn’t part of the plan. He’d been hoping to get Silverfish alone. ‘Means food,’ he added.
Silverfish stared at the card.
‘What about it?’ he said.
‘Why . ‘That’s not important.’
‘But,’ Silverfish said, ‘if we went around saying Harga’s House of Ribs was the best place in the city, what would all the other restaurants think?’
Dibbler leaned across the table.
‘They’d think,’ he said, ‘ "Why didn’t we think of it first?" ‘
He sat back. Silverfish flashed him a look of bright incomprehensiondon’t you’, said Dibbler, speaking very carefully, ‘hold this card up at the end of the performance?’ ‘Why should we do that?’ ‘Because someone like Sham Harp will pay you a lo– quite a lot of money,’ said Dibbler. They stared at the card. ‘I’ve eaten at Harga’s House of Ribs,’ said Victor. ‘I wouldn’t say it’s the best. Not the best. A long way from being the best.’ He thought for a bit. ‘About as far away from being the best as you can get, in fact.’ ‘That doesn’t matter,’ said Dibbler sharply

Jean Francois Millet Garden

2009-03-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

Jean Francois Millet GardenHerbert James Draper Ulysses and the SirensHerbert James Draper LamiaHerbert James Draper Lament for IcarusGeorge Inness The Coming Storm
Mind you,’ he said, selecting another puffed morsel, ‘it does have a certain something, doesn’t it? They do seem right. What did you say it’s called?’
‘Hasn’t really got a name,’ said Peavie. ‘I just call it banged grains.’
Silverfish took another one. ‘Funny how you want to go on eating them,’ he said. ‘Sort of more-ish. Banged grains? Right. Anyway . . . gentlemen, let us turn the handle one more time.’
Lully of sunlight and land, waiting for us. It’s our chance, lads. We’re not allowed to make magic, we can’t make gold, we can’t even make a living - so let’s make moving pictures. Let’s make history!’
The alchemists sat back and looked more cheerful.
‘Yeah,’ said Lully. started to wind the film back into the unmagical lantern. ‘You were saying you knew a place where we could really build up the project and where the wizards wouldn’t bother us?’ he said. Silverfish grabbed a handful of banged grains. ‘It’s along the coast a way,’ he said. ‘Nice and sunny and no-one ever goes there these days. Nothing there but some wind-blown old forest and a temple and sand dunes.’ ‘A temple? Gods can get really pissed if you–’ Peavie began. ‘Look,’ said Silverfish, ‘the whole area’s been deserted for centuries. There’s nothing there. No people, no gods, no nothing. Just lots

Thomas Kinkade London

2009-03-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade LondonThomas Kinkade Light of FreedomThomas Kinkade GracelandThomas Kinkade Deer Creek CottageThomas Kinkade Cobblestone BridgeThomas Kinkade Clearing Storms
The noise stopped, filling the air with the dark metallic clang of sudden silence. The light went out, lancing the night with blue and purple afterimages. It was not the silence and darkness of conclusion but of pause, like the moment of equilibrium when a thrown ball runs out of acceleration but has yet to have gravity drawn to its attention and, at it.
And then, with deceptive slowness and considerable dignity, it exploded.
It was almost too crass a word. What it did was this: it came apart ponderously into building-sized chunks which drifted gently away from one another, flying serenely out and over the necropolis. Several of them struck other pyramids, badly damaging them in a lazy, unselfconscious way, and then bounded on in silence until they ploughed to a halt behind a small mountain of rubble. for a brief moment, thinks that the worst is over. This time it was heralded by a shrill whistling out of the clear sky and a swirl in the air that became a glow, became a flame, became a flare that sizzled downwards into the pyramid, punching into the mass of black marble. Fingers of lightning crackled out and grounded on the lesser tombs around it, so that serpents of white fire burned their way from pyramid to pyramid across the necropolis and the air filled with the stink of burning stone. In the middle of the firestorm the Great Pyramid appeared to lift up a few inches, on a beam of incandescence, and turn through ninety degrees. This was almost certainly the special type of optical illusion which can take place even though noone is actually looking

John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott

2009-03-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

John William Waterhouse The Lady of ShalottJohn William Waterhouse waterhouse OpheliaJohn William Waterhouse Hylas and the NymphsJohn William Waterhouse Waterhouse OpheliaLeonardo da Vinci Portrait of Ginevra Benci
He knew they had galloped into Ephebe. He should be looking across the fertile, pyramid-speckled valley of the Djel that lay between the two countries.
He'd spent an hour looking for it.
It was inexplicable. It was uncanny. It was also extremely embarrassing.
He shadeddecided it was time he should come back in out of the sun.
He shook her hand off his shoulder, and gestured impatiently. 'I've found it!' He pulled a knife from his boot and started poking at the stones.
'Where?'
'Here!'
She laid a ringed hand on his forehead.
'Oh yes,' she said. 'I see. Yes. Good. Now I think you'd better come into the shade.'
'No, I mean it! Here! Look!' his eyes and stared around for the thousandth time at the silent, baking landscape. And moved his head. And saw Djelibeybi. It flashed across his vision in an instant. He jerked his eyes back and saw it again, a brief flash of misty colour that vanished as soon as he concentrated on it. Some minutes later Ptraci peered out of the shade and saw him get down on his hands and knees. When he started turning over rocks she

Gustav Klimt Judith II (gold foil)

2009-03-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

Gustav Klimt Judith II (gold foil)Gustav Klimt Hygieia (II)Gustav Klimt Goldfish (detail)Salvador Dali TigerSalvador Dali The Sacrament of the Last Supper
Various-headed gods vied for his attention, explaining details of godhood, while in the background a distant voice tried to attract his attention and screamed something about not wanting to be buried under a load of stone. But he had no time to concentrate on this, because he saw seven fat cows and seven thin cows, one of them playing a bigger, bigger than the world, so that at last the pyramid was so big that the whole world was a speck in the centre.
And in the centre of the pyramid, something very strange happened.
And the pyramid grew smaller, taking the world with it. and vanished . . .
Of course, when you're a pharaoh, you get a very high class of obscure dream.

Another day dawned, courtesy of the king, who was curled up on the bed and using his rolled-up clothes as a pillow. Around the stone maze of the palace the servants of the kingdom began to wake up.trombone. But that was an old dream, he dreamt that one nearly every night. And then there was a man firing arrows at a tortoise . . . And then he was walking over the desert and found a tiny pyramid, only a few inches high. A wind sprang up and blew away the sand, only now it wasn't a wind, it was the pyramid rising, sand tumbling down its gleaming sides . And it grew bigger and

Jack Vettriano Valentine Rose

2009-03-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano Valentine RoseJack Vettriano Union JackJack Vettriano Tuesday's childJack Vettriano Traffic Light MomentJack Vettriano the_Tourist_trap
swung his legs off the slab in the little chamber. With barely a conscious prompting from his brain his right hand grasped the snake-entwined staff of office. He paused to make another mark on the wall, pulled his robe It reached sundown without anything particularly unpleasant happening to it* (* Such as being buried in the sand and having eggs laid in it.), and its dying rays chanced to shine in through a window in the city of Ankh-Morpork and gleam off a mirror.
It was a full-length mirror. All assassins had a full-length mirror in their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them when you were badly dressed.around him and stepped smartly down the sloping passage and out into the sunlight, the words of the Invocation of the New Sun already lining up in his mind. The night was forgotten, the day was ahead. There was much careful advice and guidance to be given, and Dios existed only to serve. Dios didn't have the oddest bedroom in the world. It was just the oddest bedroom anyone has ever walked out of. And the sun toiled across the sky. Many people have wondered why. Some people think a giant dung beetle pushes it. As explanations go it lacks a certain technical edge, and has the added drawback that, as certain circumstances may reveal, it is possibly correct.

Henri Matisse The Blue Window

2009-03-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Henri Matisse The Blue WindowHenri Matisse Spanish Still LifeHenri Matisse Moroccan LandscapeHenri Matisse Moorish ScreenHenri Matisse Luxe I
The Fool pushed away the wet nose of an inquisitive cow.
'The duke will be expecting you,' he added.
'You said he said we weren't to know.'
'He said I mustn't tell you. But he also said, "They'll come anyway, I hope they do." Strange, really. He seemed in a very good mood when he said it. Um. Can I see you after the show?'
'Is that alldid do unpleasant things to people, sometimes.
Tomorrow night came, and the witches went by a roundabout route to the castle, with considerable reluctance.
'If he wants us to be here, I don't want to go,' said Granny. 'He's got some plan. He's using headology on us.'
'There's something up,' said Magrat. 'He had his men set fire to three cottages in our village last night. He always he said?''Oh, there was something about showing witches their future. I didn't understand it. I really would like to see you after the show, you know. I brought—''I think I might be washing my hair,' said Magrat vaguely. 'Excuse me, I really ought to be going.''Yes, but I brought you this pres—' said the Fool vaguely, watching her departing figure.He sagged as she disappeared between the trees, and looked down at the necklace wound tightly between his nervous fingers. It was, he had to admit, terribly tasteless, but it was the sort of thing she liked, all silver and skulls. It had cost him too much.A cow, misled by his horns, stuck its tongue in his ear.It was true, the Fool thought. Witches

Juan Gris The Open Window

2009-03-17T22:37:00.001-07:00

Juan Gris The Open WindowJuan Gris The Mountain Le CanigouJuan Gris The Guitar 1918Juan Gris TeacupsJuan Gris Portrait of Josette Gris
made these words, Hwel thought. But they don't belong to me. They belong to him.
Look at ,' said Tomjon.
'A good deal too well, I reckon.'
The boy rubbed his hands together. 'Right. Where shall we go next?'
'Next?'
'Tonight is young!'
'No, tonight is dead. It's today that's young,' said the dwarf hurriedly.
'Well, I'm not going home yet. Isn't there somewhere a bit more friendly? We haven't actually those people. Not a patriotic thought among them, but if Tomjon asked them, this bunch of drunkards would storm die Patrician's palace tonight. And they'd probably succeed.I just hope his mouth never falls into the wrong hands . . .As the last syllables died away, their white-hot echoes searing across every mind in the room, Hwel shook himself and crawled out of hiding and jabbed Tomjon on the knee.'Come away now, you fool,' he hissed. 'Before it wears off.'He grasped the boy firmly by the arm, handed a couple of complimentary tickets to the stunned barman, and hurried up the steps. He didn't stop until they were a street away.'I thought I was doing rather well there

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Cropped Hair

2009-03-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Cropped HairFrida Kahlo Self Portrait with BraidFrida Kahlo Naturaleza vivaFrida Kahlo MemoryFrida Kahlo Me and My Parrots
Vitoller leaned down.
'Do you believe that?'
'I believe I heard a voice that took my doggerel and shaped it and fired it back through my ears and straight into my Spring came, and ex-King Verence still wasn't taking being dead lying down. He prowled the castle relentlessly, seeking for a way in which its ancient stones would release their grip on him.
He was also trying to keep out of the way of the other ghosts.
Champot was all right, if a bit tiresome. But Verence had backed away at the first sight of the Twins, toddling hand heart,' said Hwel simply. 'I believe I heard a voice that got behind the crude shape of the words and said the things I had meant them to say, but had not the skill to achieve. Who knows where such things come from?'He stared impassively into Vitoller's red face. 'He may have inherited it from his father,' he said.'But-''And who knows what witches may achieve?' said the dwarf.Vitoller felt his wife's hand pushed into his. As he stood up, bewildered and angry, she kissed him on the back of the neck.'Don't torture yourself,' she said. 'Isn't it all for the best? Your son has declaimed his first word.'

Brent Heighton After the Rain

2009-03-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Brent Heighton After the RainAlbert Moore silverAlbert Moore DreamersAlbert Moore A VenusAlbert Moore A Musician
duke leaned forward on his throne.
'I trust,' he said, 'that they do pay taxes?'
'Not, exactly pay taxes, my lord,' said the chamberlain.
There was silence. Finally the duke prompted, 'Go on, man.'
'Well, it's it happen. But killing a kinsman rather stuck in the throat or – he recalled – the liver.
'Quite so,' he managed. 'Of course, there would appear to be many witches, and it might be difficult to find the three that were on the moor.'
'That doesn't matter.'more that they don't pay, you see. We never felt, that is, the old king didn't think . . . Well, they just don't.'The duke laid a hand on his wife's arm.'I see,' he said coldly. 'Very well. You may go.'The chamberlain gave him a brief nod of relief and scuttled crabwise from the hall.'Well!' said the duchess.'Indeed.''That was how your family used to run a kingdom, was it? You had a positive duty to kill your cousin. It was clearly in the interests of the species,' said the duchess. 'The weak don't deserve to survive.'The duke shivered. She would keep on reminding him. He didn't, on the whole, object to killing people, or at least ordering them to be killed and then watching

Pino LONG STEMMED LOVELIES

2009-03-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Pino LONG STEMMED LOVELIESPino DRESSING TABLEPino DAYDREAM
ALL THE DEMONS OF HELL REND YOUR LIVING SPIRIT IF YOU DON'T GET OUT OF THE SHOP THIS MINUTE, Death tried.
'I don't know about that, but what about my bedwarmer? It's no place for a respectable woman up there, they tried to —''My husband will be told about this,' said the cook darkly, as she left the shop. It seemed to Death that no threat of his could possibly be as dire.
He stalked back through the curtains. Keeble, still slumped in his chair, gave a kind of strangled gurgle.
'It was true!' he said. 'I thought you were a nightmare!'
I COULD TAKE OFFENCE AT THAT, said Death. IF YOU WOULD CARE TO GO AWAY, said Death desperately, I WILL GIVE YOU SOME MONEY.'How much?' said the cook, with a speed that would have outdistanced a striking rattlesnake and given lightning a nasty shock.Death pulled out his coin bag and tipped a heap of verdigrised and darkened coins on the counter. She regarded them with deep suspicion.NOW LEAVE UPON THE INSTANT, said Death, and added, BEFORE THE SEARING WINDS OF INFINITY SCORCH THY WORTHLESS CARCASS.

Winslow Homer Rowing Home

2009-03-12T00:36:00.001-07:00

Winslow Homer Rowing HomeWinslow Homer Kissing the MoonWinslow Homer Gloucester Harbor
was the first person to notice.
It had been a long had a nasty foreboding that it had something to do with him.
He reined in the horse and allowed him to trot gently towards the ground, touching down a few yards behind the wall of iridescent air. It was moving at something less than walking pace, hissing gently as it drifted ghost-like across the stark damp cabbage fields and frozen drainage ditches.
It was a cold night, the type of night when frost and fog fight afternoon. The mountaineer had held on to his icy handhold until the last moment and the executee had called Mort a lackey of the monarchist state. Only the old lady of 103, who had gone to her reward surrounded by her sorrowing relatives, had smiled at him and said he was looking a little pale.The Disc sun was close to the horizon by the time Binky cantered wearily through the skies over Sto Lat, and Mort looked down and saw the borderland of reality. It curved away below him, a crescent of faint silver mist. He didn't know what it was, but he

Paul Klee Red Bridge

2009-03-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Paul Klee Red BridgePaul Klee Red And White DomesPaul Klee Fire in the Evening
That might not be a good idea, if you think about it,' said Mort haughtily. He clicked his tongue, and Binky leapt into the air, cleared the parapet and cantered up into the blue morning sky.
'I wanted to say thank you!' Keli yelled after him.
The maid, who couldn't get over the feeling that something was wrong and had followed her, said, 'Are you all right, ma'am?'
Keli looked at from ice blue to sullen grey as Binky eased himself into the gap between dimensions. He didn't land on the dark soil of Death's estate, it was simply there, underfoot, as though an aircraft carrier had gently manoeuvred itself her distractedly.'What?' she demanded.'I just wondered if – everything was all right?'Keli's shoulders sagged.'No,' she said. 'Everything's all wrong. There's a dead assassin in my bedroom. Could you please have something done about it?'And —' she held up a hand – 'I don't want you to say "Dead, ma'am?" or "Assassin, ma'am?" or scream or anything, I just want you to get something done about it. Quietly. I think I've got a headache. So just nod.'The maid nodded, bobbed uncertainly, and backed away. Mort wasn't sure how he got back. The sky simply changed

Claude Monet Regatta At Argenteuil

2009-03-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Claude Monet Regatta At ArgenteuilClaude Monet Woman with a ParasolJohn William Waterhouse Echo and Narcissus
Mort watched the smoke ring wobble into the sky and drift away towards the river.
'I can see you,' he said.
THAT'S DIFFERENT.
The Klatchian waiter arrived with the bill, and placed it in front of Death. The man was squat and brown, with a hairstyle like a coconut gone nova, and his round face creased into a puzzled frown when Death nodded politely to him. He shook his head like someone trying to dislodge soap from his ears, and walked away.
Death reached into the depths of his robe and brought out a large leather bag full of assorted copper coinage, most of it blue and green with age. He inspected the bill carefully. Then he counted out a dozen coins.
COME, he saidsaid Mort, running to keep up.
IT CERTAINLY ADDS A NEW TERROR TO POVERTY.
They turned into a wider street leading into a more affluent part of the city (the torches were closer together and the middens further apart). There were no stalls and alley corner traders here, but proper buildings with signs hanging outside. They weren't mere shops, they were emporia; they had purveyors in them, and chairs, and spittoons. Most of them were open even at this time of night, because , standing up. WE MUST GO.Mort trotted along behind him as street, which was still fairly busy even though there were the first suggestions of dawn on the horizon.'What are we going to do now?'BUY YOU SOME NEW CLOTHES.'These were new today – yesterday, I mean.' REALLY?'Father said the shop was famous for its budget clothing,'

Sandro Botticelli Venus and Mars

2009-03-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sandro Botticelli Venus and MarsJean Beraud La Rue de la PaixHenri Rousseau The Snake Charmer
There seemed to be a whole world under the University. It was a maze of cellars, coldrooms, stillrooms, kitchens and sculleries, and every inhabitant was either carrying something, pumping something, pushing something or just standing around and shouting. Granny caught glimpses of rooms full of ice, and others glowing with -telling provided it was done badly by people with no talent for it. It was a different matter if people who ought to know better did it, though. She considered that the wall-sized. Bakeries smelled of new bread and taprooms smelled of old beer. Everything smelled of sweat and woodsmoke: The housekeeper led her up an old spiral staircase and unlocked the door with one of the large number of keys that hung from her belt. The room inside was pink and frilly. There were frills on things that no one in their right mind would frill. It was like being inside candyfloss. "Very nice," said Granny. And, because she felt it was expected of her, "Tasteful." She looked around for something unfrilly to sit on, and gave up. "Whatever am Aye thinking of?" the housekeeper trilled. "Aye'm Mrs Whitlow but I expect you know, of course. And Aye have the honour to be addressing - ?" "Eh? Oh, Granny Weatherwax," said Granny. The frills were getting to her. They gave pink a bad name. "Ay'm psychic myself, of course," said Mrs Whitlow. Granny had nothing against fortune

Andy Warhol Neuschwanstein

2009-03-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol NeuschwansteinAndy Warhol Knives black and whiteAndy Warhol Guns
later. They had come, drawn as always by a discharge of magic. You just had to learn to ignore them.
Granny woke with bright sunlight skewering into her eyes. She was slumped against the door, and her whole body felt as though it had toothache.
She it ought to have a grudge against somebody, but for the life of it, it couldn't remember why.
Esk opened her eyes and stared for a long time at the ceiling. Over the months she had grown familiar with every lump and crack of the plaster, which created a fantastic upside-down landscape that she had peopled with a private and complex civilization.reached out blindly with one hand, found the edge of the washstand, and pulled herself into a sitting position. She was not really surprised to see that the jug and basin looked just the same as they had always done; in fact sheer curiosity overcame her aches and she gave a quick glance under the bed to check that, yes, things were as normal. The eagle was still hunched on the bedpost. In the bed Esk was asleep, and Granny saw that it was a true sleep and not the stillness of a vacant body. All she had to do now was hope that Esk wouldn't wake up with an irresistible urge to pounce on rabbits. She carried the unresisting bird downstairs and let it free outside the back door. It flew heavily up into the nearest tree, where it settled to rest. It had a feeling

Caravaggio The Musicians

2009-03-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Caravaggio The MusiciansCaravaggio St JeromeCaravaggio Narcissus
Down in the geological depths of Great A'Tuin's huge brain new thoughts surged along neural pathways the size of arterial roads. It was impossible for a sky turtle to change its expression, but in some indefinable way its scaly, meteor-pocked face looked quite expectant.
It was staringGreat A'Tuin waited until all eight baby turtles had freed themselves from their shells and were treading space and looking bewildered. Then, carefully, so as not to dislodge anything, the old turtle turned and with considerable relief set out on the long swim to the blessedly cool, bottomless depths of space.
The young turtles followed, orbiting their parent.
fixedly at the eight spheres endlessly orbiting around the star, on the very beaches of space.The spheres were cracking.Huge segments of rock broke away and began the long spiral down to the star. The sky filled with glittering shards.From the wreakage of one hollow shell a very small sky turtle paddled its way into the red light. It was barely bigger than an asteroid, its shell still shiny with molten yolk.There were four small world-elephant calves on there, too. And on their backs was a discworld, tiny as yet, covered in smoke and volcanoes.

Leroy Neiman Carnaval Suite Panteras

2009-03-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Carnaval Suite PanterasLeroy Neiman Cafe Rive GaucheLeroy Neiman Beach at CannesLeroy Neiman April at Augusta
Yes, well.' The shopkeeper straightened his apron and made a brave little attempt to pull himself together. 'Anyway, this isn't getting you to Ankh-Morpork, is it?'
'Funny thing is,' said Twoflower, 'that I bought my Luggage in a shop like this, once. Another shop, I mean.'
'Oh yes, there's several of us,' said the shopkeeper, turning back to the table, 'that sorcerer was a very impatient man, I understand.'
'Endlessly roaming through the universe,' mused Twoflower.
'That's right. Mind you, there is a saving on the rates.'
'Rates?'
'Yes, they're—' the shopkeeper paused, and wrinkled his forehead. 'I can't quite remember, it was such a long time 'Oh, good.'
'Hold onto it.'
'Are you mad?' said Lackjaw.ago. Rates, rates —''Very large mice?''That's probably it.' 'Hold on – it's thinking about something,' said Cohen.Lackjaw looked up wearily. It had been quite nice, sitting here in the shade. He had just worked out that in trying to escape from a city of crazed madmen he had appeared to have allowed one mad man to give him his full attention. He wondered whether he would live to regret this.He earnestly hoped so.'Oh yes, it's definitely thinking,' he said bitterly. 'Anyone can see that.''I think it's found them.'

Thomas Gainsborough Mary Countess of Howe

2009-03-03T21:50:00.000-08:00

Thomas Gainsborough Mary Countess of HoweThomas Gainsborough John PlampinThomas Gainsborough Evening Landscape Peasants and Mounted FiguresThomas Gainsborough Conversation in a Park
'His name's Twoflower. He isn't from these parts.'
'Doeshn't look like it. Friend of yoursh?'
'We've got this sort of hate-hate relationship, yes.'
Rincewind couldn't see his captor, but by the feel of it he had a body made of coathangers. He also smelt strongly of peppermints.
'He hash got guts, I'll give him that. Do exshactly what I shay and it ish just poshible he won't end up with them wrapped around a shtone.'
'Urrr.'
'They're not very ecumenical around here, you shee.'
It was at that moment that the moon, in due obedience to the laws of persuasion, rose, although in deference to he laws of computing it wasn't anywhere near where the stones said it should be.
But his hand, and the squelchy voice behind him said, 'You ever done this short of thing before?'
'What sort of thing?'
'Rushed into a temple, killed the prieshts, shtolen the gold and reshcued the girl.'
'No, not in so many words.'what was there, peeking through ragged clouds, was a glaring red star. It hung exactly over the circle's holiest stone, glittering away like the sparkle in the eyesocket of Death. It was sullen and awful and, Rincewind couldn't help noticing, just a little bit bigger than it was last night.A cry of horror went up from the assembled priests. The crowd on the surrounding banks pressed forward; this looked quite promising.Rincewind felt a knife handle slip into
'You do it like thish.'
Two inches from Rincewind's left ear a voice broke into a sound

Rembrandt Susanna and the Elders

2009-03-02T19:36:00.001-08:00

Rembrandt Susanna and the EldersRembrandt Diana Bathing with the Stories of Actaeon and CallistoRembrandt Christ On The CrossRembrandt Christ Driving The Money Changers From The Temple
boots, and the arms were shoved into big supple gauntlets. Strangest of all were the big copper helmets that were obviously supposed to fit on heavy collars around the neck of the suits. The helmets were almost certainly useless for protection a light sword would have no difficulty in splitting them, even if it didn't hit the ridiculous but a horrible premonition.
He turned round and found Twoflower looking at him with a speculative expression.
"No- began Rincewind, urgently. Twoflower ignored him.
"The goddess said two men were going to be sent over the Edge," he said, his eyes gleaming, "and you remember Tethis the troll saying you'd need some kind of protection? The Krullians have got over that. These are suits of space armour."little glass windows in the front. Each helmet had a crest of white feathers on top, which went absolutely no way at all towards improving their overall appearance.Rincewind was beginning to have the glimmerings of a suspicion about those suits.In front of them .was a table covered with celestial charts and scraps of parchment covered with figures. Whoever would be wearing those suits, Rincewind decided, was expecting to boldly go where no man - other than the occasional luckless sailor, who didn't really count - had boldly gone before, and he was now beginning to get not just a suspicion

Leroy Neiman Churchill Downs

2009-03-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Churchill DownsLeroy Neiman Chicago Key Club BarLeroy Neiman Chicago Board of TradeLeroy Neiman Casino
am surprised that you are so merciful, Hrun."
Hrun shrugged. "A man in my position, he can't afford to be anything else, he's got to consider his image." He looked around. "Where's the next test, then?"
"I warn you demigods - and for what? Well, for quite a lot of treasure, he had to admit - but where had it all gone? Rescuing beleagured maidens had a certain passing reward, but most of the time he'd finished up by setting them up in some city somewhere with a handsome dowry, because after a while even the most agreeable exmaiden became possessive and had scant sympathy for his efforts to rescue her sister sufferers. In short, life had really left him with little more than a reputation and a network of scars. Being a lord might be fun. Hrun grinned. With a base like this, all these dragons and a good bunch of fighting men, a man could really be a contender.that it is perilous. If you wish, you may leave now. If you pass the test, however, you will become lord of the Wyrmberg and, of course, my lawful husband."Hrun met her gaze. He thought about his life, to date. It suddenly seemed to him to have been full of long damp nights sleeping under the stars, desperate fights with trolls, city guards, countless bandits and evil priests and, on at least three occasions, actual

Leroy Neiman Washington Square Park

2009-02-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Washington Square ParkLeroy Neiman The Brooklyn BridgeLeroy Neiman Roulette IILeroy Neiman Marlin Fishing
was called the Wyrmberg and it rose almost one half of a mile above the green valley; a mountain huge, grey and upside down.This would mean that the "doves" had a wingspan slightly in excess of forty yards.

"I knew it," said Rincewind. "We're in a strong magical field."
Twoflower and Hrun looked around the little hollow where they had made their noonday halt. Then they looked at each other.
The horses were quietly cropping the rich grass by the stream. Yellow butterflies skittered among the bushes. There was a smell of thyme and a buzzing of bees. The wild pigs on the spit sizzled gently.
At its base it was a mere score of yards across. Then it rose through clinging cloud, curving gracefully outward like an upturned trumpet until it was truncated by a plateau fully a quarter of a mile across. There was a tiny forest up there, its greenery cascading over the lip. There were buildings. There was even a small river, tumbling over the edge in a waterfall so wind-whipped that it reached the ground as rain.
There were also a number of cave mouths, a few yards below the plateau. They had a crudely-carved, regular look about them, so that on this crisp autumn morning the Wyrmberg hung over the clouds like a giant's dovecote.

Jack Vettriano Dancing Couple

2009-02-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Dancing CoupleJack Vettriano BluebirdJack Vettriano Back Where You Belong
Jack Vettriano Waltzers
Upon closer examination, most photogenic people (by that I mean anyone under twenty-five) have a sort of signature look, the pose they do in every picture—whether it’s on “The Great Wall” or at their grandmother’s house—that they know makes them look fabulous.
I have no.
2. Get a higher camera angle.
3. Be willing to pose for a lot of pictures till you find the look that works.
4. Hmmm. Her pictures still look better than mine.
Next up, Don Phillips, a fashion photographer. He says that working look. I have tried to create one, but I just end up looking pained. I figure it’s time to go the experts.First on my list is my friend Kari. She’s a twentysomething who has mastered her own signature pose and looks good in every picture she takes.“My pose was inspired by the Olsen Twins,” she said, “And it became kind of a joke: ‘Let’s do our Olsen Twins pose!’” She tried to coax me into trying it myself, with this advice:1. Tilt your chin slightly downward

Vincent van Gogh The Bedroom at Arles

2009-02-26T19:39:00.001-08:00

Vincent van Gogh The Bedroom at ArlesVincent van Gogh Couple in the Park,ArlesLeonardo da Vinci Portrait of Ginevra de BenciLeonardo da Vinci Portrait Of A Young Lady
Number of Bel-Shamharoth, which was why a sensible wizard would never mention the number if he could avoid it. Or you'll be eight alive, apprentices were jocularly warned. Bel-Shamharoth was especially attracted to capable of a fair turn of speed, anyway. A speed which, once it had lumbered up to it, it could maintain for a long time. All Rincewind had to do was shake off his guards, fight his way out of the Tree, find the temple and steal the horse out from under whatever it was that Bel-Shamharoth used for a nose.
"The Sender of Eight has two for dinner, it seems." said Druellae, looking hard at Rincewind. "Who does that steed belong to, false wizard?"
"I’ve no idea."dabblers in magic who, by being as it were beachcombers on the shores of the unnatural were already half-enmeshed in his nets. Rincewind's room numbertethered outside, and it wasn't Twoflower's horse. For one thing, it was too big. It was a white charger with hooves the size of meat dishes and leather harness aglitter with ostentatious gold ornamentation. It was currently enjoying a nosebag.There was something familiar about it. Rincewind tried to remember where he had seen it before.It looked as though it was

John William Waterhouse Flora

2009-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

John William Waterhouse FloraJohn William Waterhouse Circe offering the Cup to UlyssesJohn William Waterhouse BoreasJohn William Waterhouse Ariadne
course."
"And you're not letting me go?" It was a statement.
Druellae shook her head. "You hurt the Tree. But you are lucky. Your friend is going to meet Bel-Shamharoth. You will only die."
From behind two come from?"

There was a vast empty space like a hall, its roof lost in the golden haze. The endless stair ran right through it.
Several hundred dryads were clustered at the other end of the hall. They parted respectfully when Druellae approached, and stared through Rincewind as he was propelled hands gripped his shoulders in much the same way that an old tree root coils relentlessly around a pebble."With a certain amount of ceremony, of course," the dryad went on. "After the Sender of Eight has finished with your friend."All Rincewind could manage to say was, "You know, I never imagined there were he-dryads. Not even in an oak tree."One of the giants grinned at him.Druellae snorted. "Stupid! Where do you think acorns

William Blake Songs of Innocence

2009-02-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

William Blake Songs of InnocenceVincent van Gogh View of Arles with IrisesVincent van Gogh The Old MillVincent van Gogh Girl in White
he returns safely to his Homeland you will not find me ungrateful. I shall probably even dismiss the charges against you. Thank you, Rincewind. You may go."
Rincewind decided not to ask for the return of his five remaining rhinu. He backed away, cautiously.
"Oh, and there is one other thing," the Patrician said, as the wizard groped for the door handles.
"Yes, lord?" he replied, with a sinking heart.
"I’m sure you won't dream of trying to escape from your obligations by fleeing the city. I judge you to be a Drum was a broil of fighting men, quite a number of them - a third and longer glance confirmed - in bits. Rincewind swayed back as a wildly thrown stool sailed past and smashed on the far side of the street.
Then he dived in.born city person. But you may be sure that the lords of the other cities will be appraised of these conditions by nightfall." "I assure you the thought never even crossed my mind, lord.""Indeed? Then if I were you I'd sue my face for slander." Rincewind reached the Broken Drum at a dead run and was just in time to collide with a man who came out backwards, fast. The stranger's haste was in part accounted for by the spear in his chest. He bubbled noisily and dropped dead at the wizard's feet. Rincewind peered around the doorframe and jerked back as a heavy throwing axe whirred past like a partridge. It was probably a lucky throw, a second cautious glance told him. The dark interior of the

Paul Cezanne Still Life with Fruit

2009-02-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Paul Cezanne Still Life with FruitPaul Cezanne Still Life with Flowers and FruitPaul Cezanne Still Life with Apples and OrangesPaul Cezanne Still Life with a Skull
seemed to see a man looking out of his eyes, the sort of man she had met at Mrs. Coulter's, a subtle politician used to power. He was wearing a heavy gold chain around his neck, with a gaudy jewel hanging from it, and his claws-a good six inches long-were each covered in gold leaf. The effect was one of enormous strength and energy and to her. He was pretending he had a daemon. Then she knew she was safe.
She moved up close to the throne and bowed very low, with Pantalaimon keeping quiet and still in her pocket.
"Our greetings to you, great King," she said quietly. "Or I mean my greetings, not his."
"Not whose?" he said, and his voice was lighter than she had thought it would craft; he was quite big enough to carry the absurd overdecoration; on him it didn't look preposterous, it looked barbaric and magnificent.She quailed. Suddenly her idea seemed too feeble for words.But she moved a little closer, because she had to, and then she saw that lofur was holding something on his knee, as a human might let a cat sit there-or a daemon.It was a big stuffed doll, a manikin with a vacant stupid human face. It was dressed as Mrs. Coulter would dress, and it had a sort of rough resemblance

Caravaggio The Musicians

2009-02-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

Caravaggio The MusiciansCaravaggio St JeromeCaravaggio NarcissusCaravaggio Madonna di Loreto
need, or can’t really afford, whatever it is they’re selling. To them, common sense is the enemy; that’s why they always tell us that we ‘deserve’ their product. Of course we don’t actually need a four hundred inch flat to the researchers. For this study the participants knew the value of each of the wines and as you might expect, the vast majority scored the expensive wine highest, in terms of taste and pleasure, and the cheap wine at the other end of the scale. In order to make the study even more scientifically valid and objective, the researchers conducted MRIs on the participants to see if screen television, but as they quite rightly point out, you and I have worked incredibly hard lately and why shouldn’t we reward ourselves with a ridiculously large TV? Imagine how much better our lives will be when we get that bad boy up on the wall. Just look at the couple in the advertisement… they seem very happy.Back to the presentation…During his presentation, Wallace spoke of a study that was conducted at Stanford University in early 2008, where a group of subjects sampled two different wines; a cheaper wine ($20 bottle) and a more expensive wine (over $100). They then reported their feedback

Franz Marc yellow cow

2009-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

Franz Marc yellow cowFranz Marc TigerFranz Marc StablesFranz Marc Foxes
don't know," said the first girl.
"They do," said the third, a subdued-looking child cuddling her rabbit daemon. "I heard 'em talking."
"Then they take us. There's about thirty, I reckon."
"More'n that," said the plump girl. "More like forty."
"Except they keep taking us away," said the redhead. "They usually start off with bringing a whole bunch here, and then there's a lot of us, and one by one they all disappear."
"They're Gobblers," said the plump girl. "You know Gobblers. We was all scared of 'em till we was caught...."
Lyra was gradually coming more and more awake. The other girls' daemonsus away one by one and that's all we know. No one comes back," said the redhead."There's this boy, right," said the plump girl, "he reckons-""Don't tell her that!" said the redhead. "Not yet.""Is there boys here as well?" said Lyra."Yeah. There's lots of

Paul Klee The Golden Fish

2009-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

Paul Klee The Golden FishPaul Klee Insula DulcamaraPaul Klee Fish MagicPaul Klee Around the Fish
opened the door to lead them out.
More corridors, and Lyra was tired by now, so sleepy she kept yawning and could hardly lift her feet in the woollysee, because her eyes were slow to focus, but they seemed about her own age, and they were speaking English.
"She's awake." slippers they'd given her. Pantalaimon was drooping, and he had to change to a mouse and settle inside her dressing-gown pocket. Lyra had the impression of a row of beds, children's faces, a pillow, and then she was asleep. Someone was shaking her. The first thing she did was to feel at her waist, and both tins were still there, still safe; so she tried to open her eyes, but oh, it was hard; she had never felt so sleepy."Wake up! Wake up!"It was a whisper in more than one voice. With a huge effort, as if she were pushing a boulder up a slope, Lyra forced herself to wake up.In the dim light from a very low-powered anbaric bulb over the doorway she saw three other girls clustered around her. It wasn't easy to

Leroy Neiman Marlin Fishing

2009-02-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Marlin FishingLeroy Neiman Mardi Gras ParadeLeroy Neiman Lights of Broadway
going to be a fog; and sure enough, as soon as they stopped, a thick mist descended. Lee Scoresby knew he'd see nothing from the sky, so he had to content himself with checking his equipment, though it was all in meticulous order. Then, with no warning at all, a volley of arrows flew out of the dark.
Three gyptian men were passing over her head. Pantalaimon heard before she did, and became a leopard and knocked her over, making her less of a target. Brushing snow out of her eyes, she rolled over to try and see what was happening, for the semidarkness seemed to be overflowing with confusion and noise. She heard a mighty went down at once, and died so silently that no one heard a thing. Only when they slumped clumsily across the dog traces or lay unexpectedly still did the nearest men notice what was happening, and then it was already too late, because more arrows were flying at them. Some men looked up, puzzled by the fast irregular knocking sounds that came from up and down the line as arrows hurtled into wood or frozen canvas.The first to come to his wits was John Faa, who shouted orders from the center of the line. Cold hands and stiff limbs moved to obey as yet more arrows flew down like rain, straight rods of rain tipped with death.Lyra was in the open, and the arrows

Henri Matisse The Blue Window

2009-02-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

Henri Matisse The Blue WindowHenri Matisse Spanish Still LifeHenri Matisse Moroccan Landscape
No sooner did she see them than she longed to try them on again.
Once they were on, she had to go out on deck, and a minute later she opened the door at the top of the compan-ionway and stepped out.
At once she saw that something strange was happening in the sky. She thought it was clouds, moving and trembling under a nervous agitation, but Pantalaimon whispered:
"The Aurora!"
the most skillful dancer. Lyra thought she could even hear them: a vast distant whispering swish. In the evanescent delicacy she felt something as profound as she'd felt close to the bear. She was moved by it; it was so beautiful it was almost holy; she felt tears prick her eyes, and the tears splintered the light even further into prismatic rainbows. It wasn't long before she found herself entering the same kind of trance as when she consulted the alethiometer. Perhaps, she thought calmly, whatever moves the alethiometer's Her wonder was so strong that she had to clutch the rail to keep from falling.The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound and fiery crimson like the fires of Hell, they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than

Vincent van Gogh The Plain at Auvers

2009-02-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

Vincent van Gogh The Plain at AuversVincent van Gogh The Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in ArlesVincent van Gogh The good Samaritan Delacroix
Farder Coram and Lyra exchanged a look of alarm and wonderment, but only for a second, and then Farder Coram was hobbling out on his sticks as fast as he could manage, with his daemon padding ahead of him. Lyra came too, hopping with impatience.
The young Hawker's boat just a few minutes ago."
"Where's Peter now?"
"He's a tying up. It was him said I had to send for you."
"Quite right. Now, Jacob, can ye hear me?"
Jacob's eyes rolled to look at Farder Coram sitting on the opposite bunk, a foot or two away.
"Hello, Farder Coram," he murmured.man led them to a boat tied up at the sugar-beet jetty, where a woman in a red flannel apron held open the door for them. Seeing her suspicious glance at Lyra, Farder Coram said, "It's important the girl hears what Jacob's got to say, mistress."So the woman let them in and stood back, with her squirrel daemon perched silent on the wooden clock. On a bunk under a patchwork coverlet lay a man whose white face was damp with sweat and whose eyes were glazed."I've sent for the physician, Farder Coram," said the woman shakily. "Please don't agitate him. He's in an agony of pain. He come in off Peter

Edward Hopper El Palacio

2009-02-18T00:20:00.001-08:00

Edward Hopper El PalacioEdward Hopper Dawn In PennsylvaniaEdward Hopper Cape Cod Afternoon
made captive.
"And then one evening the Turkish Ambassador was a guest at Jordan for dinner. And he was under orders from the Sultan hisself to kill my father, right, and he had a ring on his finger with a hollow stone full of poison. And when the wine come round he made as if to reach across my father's glasscouldn't be done in a day. To see Lord Asriel as her to be uncommon cunning. But we en't going to come back without our kids. Yes, Dirk Vries?"
A man stood up and said, "Lord Faa, do you know why they captured them kids?"
"We heard it's a theological matter. They're take over.
"Now I've made my dispositions according to custom, and if any man or woman seeks to disagree, they may do so freely."
After a moment a woman

Guido Reni Archangel Michael

2009-02-16T23:39:00.001-08:00

Guido Reni Archangel MichaelGuido Reni The Archangel MichaelGuido Reni Salome with the head of St John the Baptist
manager for Google Book Search.
Unlike the version of Google Book Search for PCs, which displays scanned images of book pages, the mobile version and use a technology that does not require backlighting, which makes them easier to read in most light conditions. They also have longer battery
While mobile phones are good for quick access to reading material, their backlighted screens are “terrible for long-form reading,” said Evan Schnittmansimply displays text, allowing users to download printed material more quickly over wireless Several book reading programs are already available for the iPhone and other mobile devices, including Stanza from Lexcycle and the eReader from Fictionwise. They are quickly growing in popularity.But just as camera phones have not replaced digital cameras, smartphones are not likely to replace dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle or the Reader from Sony, analysts said. These specialized devices have screens about the size of a paperback book

Juan Gris Landscape with Houses at Ceret

2009-02-16T01:22:00.001-08:00

Juan Gris Landscape with Houses at CeretGeorge Bellows Club NightCaravaggio The Seven Acts of Mercy
mouth and screamed. Pantalaimon, who always became a bird once on the roof, flew round and round shrieking rook shrieks with her.
The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky. The spires and towers of Oxford stood around them, level but no higher; the green woods of Chateau-Vert and White Ham rose length, and then steadily smaller until it was a dot in the pearly sky.
She turned and looked down into the shadowed quadrangle, where the black-gowned figures of the Scholars were already beginning to drift in ones and twos toward the buttery, their daemons strutting or fluttering alongside or perching calmly on their shoulderson either side to the east and the west. Rooks were cawing somewhere, and bells were ringing, and from the oxpens the steady beat of a gas engine announced the ascent of the evening Royal Mail zeppelin for London. Lyra watched it climb away beyond the spire of St. Michael's Chapel, as big at first as the tip of her little finger when she held it at arm's

Frida Kahlo Naturaleza viva

2009-02-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

Frida Kahlo Naturaleza vivaFrida Kahlo MemoryFrida Kahlo Me and My Parrots
But she put her palm over the ringing crystal anyway, and Pantalaimon fluttered ahead and through the slightly open door of the Retiring Room at the other end of the dais. After a moment he appeared again.
"There's no one there," he whispered. "But we must be quick."
an oval table of polished rosewood on which stood various decanters and glasses, and a silver smoking stand with a rack of pipes. On a sideboard nearby there was a little chafing dish and a basket of poppy heads.
"They do themselves well, don't they, Pan?" she said under her breath.Crouching behind the high table, Lyra darted along and through the door into the Retiring Room, where she stood up and looked around. The only light in here came from the fireplace, where a bright blaze of logs settled slightly as she looked, sending a fountain of sparks up into the chimney. She had lived seen the Retiring Room before: only Scholars and their guests were allowed in here, and never females. Even the maidservants didn't clean in here. That was the Butler's job alone.Pantalaimon settled on her shoulder."Happy now? Can we go?" he whispered."Don't be silly! I want to look around!"It was a large room, with

Peter Paul Rubens Virgin and Child

2009-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

Peter Paul Rubens Virgin and ChildPeter Paul Rubens Rape of the Daughters of LeucippusPeter Paul Rubens Garden of Love
in the past three hundred years."
A few minutes later, as the balloon drifted on, Lee saw first a lighthouse, then the curve of a stone breakwater, then the towers and domes and red-brown roofs of a beautiful city around a harbor, with a sumptuous building like an opera the size of a city, with not a teacher in sight; it was a world of children.
But they weren't the only presences there. Lee had to rub his eyes when he saw them first, but there was no doubt about it: columns of mist—or something more tenuous than mist—a thickening of the air… Whatever they were, the city was full of them; they drifted along the boulevards, they entered houses, they clustered in the squares and house in lush wide boulevards with elegant hotels, and little streets where blossom-bearing trees hung over shaded balconies.And Grumman was right; there were people there. But as the balloon drifted closer, Lee was surprised to see that they were children. There was not an adult in sight. And he was even more surprised to see the children had no daemons—yet they were playing on the beach, or running in and out of cafés, or eating and drinking, or gathering bags full of goods from houses and shops. And there was a group of boys who were fighting, and a red-haired girl urging them on, and a little boy throwing stones to smash all the windows of a nearby building. It was like a playground

Thomas Kinkade PARIS EIFFEL TOWER

2009-02-12T00:51:00.001-08:00

Thomas Kinkade PARIS EIFFEL TOWERThomas Kinkade Hometown PrideThomas Kinkade HOMETOWN EVENING
The premise is that a key holds some kind of secret that lets you unlock something," said Savage. "But it's a very funny secret, its a secret that can easily be seen."
Creating a new a mile away with high resolution camera and stealing keys with a shutter is small compared to the next generation of video cameras being installed.
"The real issue is the new digital video cameras shooting at 30 frames a second," said Tobias. "There are millions and millions of these cameras everywhere." If someone got their hands on sensitive parts of the videokey is easy enough that some locksmiths and security experts do it by sight alone. The locks the UCSD team broke were some of the most common in the country.Marc Weber Tobias, an attorney and security expert who has been picking locks since he was a boy, says the UCSD project does a good job of underscoring the insecurity of conventional cylinder locks. But the idea of someone standing up to

Andy Warhol Ingrid with Hat

2009-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol Ingrid with HatAndy Warhol Flowers 1964Tom Thomson Woodland Waterfall
difficulty in finding the right course among the swift-running streams, even though some of the banks had vanished under the milky-brown floodwaters. The temperature had disturbed the insects, and a cloud of midges made , where Lee drew in to the bank and tied up.
"There was a landing stage here," he said to Hester. "Remember the old seal hunter in Nova Zembla who told us about it? It must be six feet under now."
"I hope they had sense enough to build the village high, then," she said, hopping ashore.
No more than half an hour later he laid his pack down beside the every outline hazy. Lee smeared his face and hands with jimsonweed ointment and smoked a succession of pungent cigars, which kept the worst at bay.As for Hester, she sat taciturn in the bow, her long ears flat against her skinny back and her eyes narrowed. He was used to her silence, and she to his. They spoke when they needed to.On the morning of the third day, Lee steered the little craft up a creek that joined the main stream, flowing down from a line of low hills that should have been deep under snow but now were patched and streaked with brown. Soon the stream was flowing between low pines and spruce, and after a few miles they came to a large round rock, the height of a house

Maxfield Parrish daybreak

2009-02-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Maxfield Parrish daybreakCassius Marcellus Coolidge Dogs Playing PokerJacques-Louis David Napoleon crossing the Alps
You're going to have to tie my bandage again," he said to Lyra. "I don't care how tight you make it as long as it stops the bleeding."
She tore up a sheet and wrapped it around and around, clamping it down over the wounds as tight as she could. He gritted his teeth, but he couldn't help the tears. He brushed them away without a word, and she said nothing.
When she'd crouched in the lane that ran along beside the tree-shaded shrubbery in Sir the Cittagazze side, they were in a grassy park surrounding a classical villa that gleamed white in the moonlight. They'd taken a long time to get to Sir Charles's house, moving mainly in Cittagazze, with frequent stops to cut through finished, he said, "Thank you." Then he said, "Listen. I want you to take something in your rucksack for me, in case we can't come back here. It's only letters. You can read them if you want."He went to the bedroom, took out the green leather , and handed her the sheets of airmail paper."I won't read them unless—""I don't mind. Else I wouldn't have said."She folded up the letters, and he lay on the bed, pushed the cat aside, and fell asleep. Much later that night, Will and Lyra

Henri Matisse Still Life with Oranges

2009-02-06T00:52:00.001-08:00

Henri Matisse Still Life with OrangesHenri Matisse Open Window CollioureHenri Matisse Blue Nude
the laughter it produces, sometimes being ticklish is just annoying. It has prevented me from truly enjoying pedicures and far too many back massage attempts have ended with me in a fit of giggles. Try as I might to fight it and take the focus off my jumpy nerve endings, the slightest brush against a certain spot is enough to make me squirm and we laugh, despite our discomfort?
A Physiological and Social Phenomenon
When it comes to the question of why certain parts of our bodies—feet, chest, lower backs, underarms, etc.—are more sensitive than others, some believe that it’s an evolutionary trait we’ve developed to protect ourselves from small
laugh uncontrollably. Why are we ticklish in the first place? Is it an inherited trait passed down from our ancestors or is it a learned social act? And why is it that

Sung Kim Palm Reflection

2009-02-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

Sung Kim Palm ReflectionSung Kim Overlook Cafe IISung Kim Overlook Cafe I
left them to rescue their boats and pedal back to the beach, and went inside to make sosee if Will was awake. But he was still asleep, with the cat curled up at his feet, and Lyra was impatient to see her Scholar again. So she wrote a note and left it on the floor by his bedside, and took her rucksack and went off to look for the window.
The way she took led her through the little square they'd come to the night before. But it was empty now, and the sunlight on Lyra's shoulder."Maybe Specters," Lyra said."No! They said this was something angeli." he insisted. "Bet that's angels.""Shall we go in?"They looked up at the great oak door on its ornate black hinges. The half-dozen steps up to it were deeply worn, and the door itself stood slightly open. There was nothing to stop Lyra from going in except her own fear.She tiptoed to the top of the steps and looked through the opening. A dark stone-flagged hall was all she could see, and not much of that; but Pantalaimon was fluttering anxiously on her shoulder, just as he had when they'd played the trick on the skulls in the crypt at dusted the front of the ancient tower and showed up the blurred carvings beside the doorway: humanlike figures with folded wings, their features eroded by centuries of weather, but somehow in their stillness expressing power and compassion and intellectual force."Angels," said Pantalaimon, now a cricket

Leroy Neiman Into the Turn

2009-02-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Into the Turn
Leroy Neiman Olympic Basketball Leroy Neiman Roger Staubach
white Canadian Christian Lander, and coauthored with his Filipino Canadian friend Myles Valentin,[2][3][4][5] after Valentin teased Lander about his watching the television series, The Wire.[6]
The Klingon of citizens actually determine how the world works by the sheer force of their numbers. The similar words Urbis and Orbis also appear in the phrase Urbi et Orbi.
The Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) is a species of penguin which is found in the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, the South Orkneys, South Shetland, South Georgia, Bouvet Island,Hamlet (full title: The Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Qo'nos) was a project to translate William Shakespeare's play Hamlet into the invented language Klingon of the television series Star Trek. Fex Urbis Lex Orbis is a quotation in Latin. It means 'Scum of the city, law of the world.' It was first said by St. Jerome though is often attributed to Victor Hugo as he quotes it with approval in Les Misérables. The desires and needs of the lowest class

Leroy Neiman Arnold Palmer at Latrobe

2009-02-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Arnold Palmer at LatrobeLeroy Neiman American GoldLeroy Neiman American Bald Eagle
yet the once-ramshackle Wikimedia Foundation, the charity charged with guarding this great public resource, is edging towards a more professional structure under its ferocious executive director, a former Canadian journalist about boardroom in-fighting and about Wales's adverts, even though the costs of its hunger for bandwidth are rising exponentially as the site continues to grow and the records of changes lengthen. The foundation's with the organisation, particularly since bloggers reported delays in having his board seat confirmed at the end of last year.
At the very least, Gardner is trying to impose order on an extraordinary bureaucracy and to put the foundation on a firmer footing so that it doesn't require seat-of-the-pants fundraising efforts from Wales, who fronted an appeal to "keep Wikipedia free" in December that brought in $6m (£4.3m). The aim is to keep Wikipedia called Sue Gardner, who has been in situ since 2007. More than a few Silicon Valley gossips have begun to speculate

Leroy Neiman Mark McGwire

2009-02-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Mark McGwireLeroy Neiman MarilynLeroy Neiman Marilyn Monroe
the client would want me to. And I'd need some proof of who you were, anyway."
"Yes, I understand, but can you just tell me whether he's alive or dead?"
"Well… that wouldn't be confidential. Unfortunately, I can't tell you anyway, because I don't know."
"What?"
"The money comes from a family trust. He left instructions to pay it until he told me to stop. I haven't heard from him from to write, and I'll let you know what I can. But you must understand, I can't do very much over the phone."
"Yes, I suppose so. All right. But can you tell me where he disappeared?"
"As I say, it's a matter of public record. There were several newspaper stories at the time. You know he was an explorer?"
"My mother's told me some things, yes."
"Well, he was leading an expedition, and it just disappeared. About that day to this. What it boils down to is that he's… well, I suppose he's vanished. That's why I can't answer your question.""Vanished? Just… lost?""It's a matter of public record, actually. Look, why don't you come into the office and—""I can't. I'm going to Nottingham.""Well, write to me, or get your mother

Leroy Neiman Ryder Cup

2009-02-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Ryder CupLeroy Neiman 37th Ryder CupLeroy Neiman 18th at Valhalla
Nor do I," she said, "and I can't imagine what it might be. What do you think he's intending, Dr. Lanselius?"
He gently rubbed the head of his serpent daemon with his thumb. "He is a scholar," he said after a moment, "but scholarship is the other world with his master."
"Thank you. That's a good idea… I'll do it. And I'll go at once."
She said farewell to the consul and flew up through the gathering dark to join Kaisa in the clouds.

Serafina's journey to the north was made harder by the confusion in the world around her. All the Arctic peoples had been thrown into panic, and so had the animals, not only by the fog and the magnetic variations but by unseasonal crackings of ice and stirrings not his ruling passion. Nor is statesmanship. I met him once, and I thought he had an ardent and powerful nature, but not a despotic one. I don't think he wants to rule… I don't know, Serafina Pekkala. I suppose his servant might be able to tell you. He is a man called Thorold, and he was imprisoned with Lord Asriel in the house on Svalbard. It might be worth a visit there to see if he can tell you anything; but, of course, he might have gone into

Albert Bierstadt Bridal Veil Falls Yosemite

2009-02-03T01:08:00.000-08:00

Albert Bierstadt Bridal Veil Falls YosemiteJohannes Vermeer Woman with a Pearl NecklaceJohannes Vermeer Mistress and Maid
of the time, the unregulated heart of the global Internet is a mysterious place, governed by rules laid out in those confidential contracts between private parties. This time, though, Sprint took the unusual step of a filing lawsuit in Virginiaits roots back to 2002, when Cogent asked Sprint to exchange Internet traffic at no charge to either party, a common arrangement between similarly sized networks. At the time, Web traffic traveling between Cogent and Sprint was being sent through a third network, which Cogent found silly. A direct connection would be far more efficient.
Sprint said it would agree to a direct link--but only if Cogent paid for the privilege. No chance, retorted Cogent. A swap would benefit them both equally, Cogent argued, why should one side pay? state court, alleging that Cogent breached the terms of a previously secret contract that spelled out how the two companies would trade traffic between their networks. Cogent quickly counter-sued, laying out a very different version of events. The Cogent-Sprint feud traces

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe

2009-02-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe Thomas Gainsborough Mrs Sheridan Thomas Gainsborough Landscape with Cattle
Will had done. For Will's part, he admired the massive power of Lord Faa's presence, power tempered by courtesy, and he thought that that would be a good way to behave when he himself was old; John Faa was a shelter and a strong refuge.
"Dr. Malone," said all join them this evening to share their meal."
"It'll be our great pleasure to accept," said John Faa.
So that evening the people of three worlds sat down together and shared bread and meat and fruit and wine. The gyptians presented their hosts with gifts from all the corners of their world: with crocks of genniver, carvings of walrus ivory, silken tapestries from Turkestan, cups of silver from the mines of Sveden, enameled dishes from Corea.
The mulefa received them with delight, and in return offered John Faa, "we need to take on fresh water, and whatever in the way of food your friends can sell us. Besides, our men have been on board ship for a fair while, and we've had some fighting to do, and it would be a blessing if they could all have a run ashore so they can breathe the air of this land and tell their the world they voyaged to.""Lord Faa," said Mary, "the mulefa have asked me to say they will supply everything you need, and that they would be honored if you could

Andy Warhol Camouflage green yellow white

2009-02-01T18:52:00.001-08:00

Andy Warhol Camouflage green yellow whiteAndy Warhol Brooklyn BridgeAndy Warhol Banana
Presently Will came up from the river, and then Mary came out of her house and offered them breakfast; and soon Atal came along, too, and the village came to them. The young mulefa children, without wheels, kept tarry netting to the riverbank and spread it out on the grass, and Mary showed them how to knot a new piece of cord where it was worn. She was wary, because Atal had told her that the families farther along the coast had seen large numbers of the tualapi, the white birds, gathering out at sea, and everyone was prepared for a warning to leave at once; but work had to go on in the meantime.
So they sat working in the sun by the placid river, and Lyra told peeping around the edges of their houses to stare, and Lyra would suddenly turn and look at them directly to make them jump and laugh with terror."Well, now," Mary said when they'd eaten some bread and fruit and drunk a scalding infusion of something like mint. "Yesterday you were too tired and all you could do was rest. But you look a lot more lively today, both of you, and I think we need to tell each other everything we've found out. And it'll take us a good long time, and we might as well keep our hands busy while we're doing it, so we'll make ourselves useful and mend some nets."They carried the pile of stiff

Jack Vettriano Working the Lounge

2009-01-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Working the LoungeJack Vettriano words of WisdomJack Vettriano Woman Pursued
faces, pain had left lines around their eyes, and they were covered in dust and mud and not a little blood. And from the absolute passivity of their limbs, they seemed in the last stages of exhaustion.
Lyra was the , she opened her eyes and came properly awake. She didn't move for some time, because her arms and legs were so sore, and every part of her body felt limp with weariness; but still she was awake, and she felt the little breeze and the sun's warmth, and she heard the little insect scrapings and the bell song of that bird high above. It was all good. She had forgotten how good the world was.
Presently she rolled over and saw Will, still fast asleep. His hand had bled a lot, his shirt was ripped and filthy, his hair was stiff with dust and sweat. She looked first to wake. As the sun moved up the sky, it came past the rock above and touched her hair, and she began to stir, and when the sunlight reached her eyelids, she found herself pulled up from the depths of sleep like a fish, slow and heavy and resistant.But there was no arguing with the sun, and presently she moved her head and threw her arm across her eyes and murmured: "Pan, Pan..."Under the shadow of her arm

Vincent van Gogh Irises

2009-01-21T00:07:00.001-08:00

Vincent van Gogh IrisesWassily Kandinsky Farbstudie QuadrateGustav Klimt Hope
carrying Pantalaimon.
They tore their glance away from each other's eyes.
"Good-bye, Mr. Scoresby!" Lyra cried, looking around for him. "I wish, oh, thank you, thank you, good-bye!"
"Good-bye, my dear child, good-bye, Will, go well!"
Lyra scrambled "You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn't argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can't choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I'm free."
His father's smile was full of pride and tenderness. "Well done, my boy. Well done indeed," he said.
Will couldn't see him anymore. He turned and climbed through after Lyra.
And now that their purpose was achieved, now the children had found their daemons through, but Will stood still and looked into the eyes of his father's ghost, brilliant in the shadows. Before he left him, there was something he had to say.Will said to his father's ghost,

Thomas Gainsborough The Blue Boy

2009-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

Thomas Gainsborough The Blue BoyHenri Matisse The DanceGustav Klimt Mother and Child detail from The Three Ages of Woman
slantwise at the great rigid envelope of the craft, making a noise that almost drowned the clatter and howl of the straining engines, and obscuring the view of the ground.
"Not here," the pilot shouted over the noise. "We'll go around the spur."
Father to make the craft secure. The President settled back, tapping his fingers on the arm of his seat, gnawing his lip, but saying nothing and letting the pilot work unflustered.
From his hiding place in the transverse bulkheads at the rear of the cabin, Lord MacPhail watched fiercely as the pilot moved the throttle forward and adjusted the trim of the engines. The zeppelin rose with a lurch and moved over the rim of the mountain. Those legs of light suddenly lengthened and seemed to feel their way down the ridge, their lower ends lost in the whirl of sleet and rain."You can't get closer to the station than this?" said the President, leaning forward to let his voice carry to the pilot."Not if you want to land," the pilot said."Yes, we want to land. Very well, put us down below the ridge."The pilot gave orders for the crew to prepare to moor. Since the equipment they were going to unload was heavy as well as delicate, it was important

Maxfield Parrish daybreak

2009-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Maxfield Parrish daybreakCassius Marcellus Coolidge Dogs Playing PokerJacques-Louis David Napoleon crossing the Alps
possible beforehand.
She took a coil long enough to reach over one of the branches of a high tree and back down to the ground, and strong enough to bear several times her weight. Then she cut a large number of short pieces of a smaller but very tough cord and made slings with them: short loops tied with a fisherman's knot, which could make hand- and footholds when she alien to creatures with wheels that the very thought of it horrified them.
Privately Mary knew how they felt. She swallowed her nervousness and tied an end of the thinnest, lightest line to one of her arrows, and sent it flying upward from the bowtied them to the main line.Then there was the problem of getting the rope over the branch in the first place. An hour or two's experimenting with some fine tough cord and a length of springy branch produced a bow; the Swiss Army knife cut some arrows, with stiff leaves in place of feathers to stabilize them in flight; and finally, after a day's work, Mary was ready to begin. But the sun was setting, and her hands were tired, and she ate and slept, preoccupied, while the mulefa discussed her endlessly in their quiet, whispers.First thing in the morning, she set off to shoot an arrow over a branch. Some of the mulefa gathered to watch, anxious for her safety. Climbing was so

Jack Vettriano The Shape Of Things To Come

2009-01-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano The Shape Of Things To ComeJack Vettriano The Set UpJack Vettriano The Same Old Game II
nothing can put you off, then all I can say is, come with me, and I will take you there, into the land of the dead. I'll be your guide. I can show you the way in, but as for getting out again, you'll have to manage by yourself."
"And my friends," said Lyra. "My friend Will and the others."
"Lyra," said others; and her death told her to go down to the jetty when the first light came to the sky, and prepare to leave.
But Pantalaimon was trembling and shivering, and nothing Lyra could do could soothe him into stillness, or quiet the soft little moan he couldn't help uttering. So her sleep was broken and shallow, on the floor of the shack with all the other sleepers, and her death sat watchfully beside her.Tialys, "against every instinct, we'll go with you. I was angry with you a minute ago. But you make it hard..."Lyra knew that this was a time to conciliate, and she was happy to do that, having gotten her way."Yes," she said, "I am sorry, Tialys, but if you hadn't got angry, we'd never have found this gentleman to guide us. So I'm glad you were here, you and the Lady, I'm really grateful to you for being with us."So Lyra persuaded her own death to guide her and the others into the land where Roger had gone, and Will's father, and Tony Makarios, and so many

Jack Vettriano Seaside Sharks

2009-01-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Seaside SharksJack Vettriano Scarlet Ribbons Lovely RibbonsJack Vettriano Sailor Boys
improvised workshop. The mighty workers in the ordnance factories under Lord Asriel's fortress, with their blast furnaces and rolling mills, their anbaric forges and hydraulic presses, would have laughed at the open fire, the stone hammer, the anvil consisting of a piece of Iorek's armor. Nevertheless, the bear had taken the measure of the task, and in the certainty of his movements the little spies began to see some quality that muffled their scorn.the floor and told Lyra to find some more stones of the same kind. He said that those stones, when heated, gave off a gas that would surround the blade and keep the air from it, for if the hot metal came in contact with the air, it would absorb some and be weakened by it.
Lyra set about searching, and with owl-eyed Pantalaimon's help soon had a dozen or more stones to hand. Iorek told her how to place them, and where, and showed When Lyra and Will came in with the bushes, Iorek directed them in placing branches carefully on the fire. He looked at each branch, turning it from side to side, and then told Will or Lyra to place it at such-and-such an angle, or to break off part and place it separately at the edge. The result was a fire of extraordinary ferocity, with all its energy concentrated at one side.By this time the heat in the cave was intense. Iorek continued to build the fire, and made the children take two more trips down the path to ensure that there was enough fuel for the whole operation.Then the bear turned over a small stone on

Thomas Kinkade Bridge of Faith

2009-01-15T00:51:00.001-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Bridge of FaithThomas Kinkade Autumn LaneJohn Collier Spring
Will stood up. His daemon, Lyra thought, would have the form of a tigress, and she shrank back from the anger she imagined the great animal to show.they were in their right places and he could see that they were all there. Lyra held a burning branch up, and in its light Iorek bent low to look closely at each piece, touching it delicately with his massive claws and lifting it up to turn it this way and that and examine the break. Will marveled at the deftness in those huge black hooks.
Then Iorek sat up again, his head rearing high into the shadow.
"Yes," he said, answering
"If we deceived you, it was necessary," he said. "Would you have agreed to come here if you knew the knife was broken? Of course you wouldn't. You'd have used your venom to make us unconscious, and then you'd have called for help and had us kidnapped and taken to Lord Asriel. So we had to trick you, Tialys, and you'll just have to put up with it."
Iorek Byrnison said, "Who is this?"
"Spies," said Will. "Sent by Lord Asriel. They

Thomas Kinkade The Good Life

2009-01-15T00:50:00.001-08:00

Thomas Kinkade The Good LifeThomas Kinkade Stairway to ParadiseThomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDER
they set off once more.
Another hour, and most of the valley was in shadow, and Will was wondering whether they would find any shelter before night fell; but then Lyra gave a cry of relief and joy.
"Iorek! Iorek!"
She had seen him before Will had. The bear-king was some way off still, his white coat indistinct against a patch of snow, but when Lyra's voice echoed out he turned his head, raised it to sniff, and bounded down Presently Will came back and then they moved on, more slowly as the day went by and the track got steeper and the snow line nearer. They rested once more at the head of a rocky valley, because even Will could tell that Lyra was nearly finished: she was limping badly and her face was gray.
"Let me see your feet," he said to her, "because if they're blistered, I'll put some ointment on."
They were, badly, and sheresponse to his own message.
"How does that work?" she said when he'd finished.
Tialys looked at her

Marc Chagall Paris Through the Window

2009-01-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

Marc Chagall Paris Through the WindowMarc Chagall Adam and EveMarc Chagall La Mariee
Let me see the knife," said Iorek Byrnison. "I understand metal. Nothing made of iron or steel is a mystery to a bear. But I have never seen a knife like yours, and I would be glad to look at it closely."
Will and the bear-king were on the foredeck of the river steamer, in the warm rays of the setting sun, and the vessel was making swifthim manipulate objects as skillfully as a human, and now he turned the knife this way and that, bringing it closely to his eyes, holding it to catch the light, testing the edge, the steel edge, on a piece of scrap iron.
"This edge is the one you cut my armor with," he said. "The other is very strange. I cannot tell what it is, what it will do, how it was made. But I want to understand it. How did you come to possess it?" progress upstream; there was plenty of fuel on board, there was food that Will could eat, and he and Iorek Byrnison were taking their second measure of each other. They had taken the first already.Will held out the knife toward Iorek, handle first, and the bear took it from him delicately. His thumb claw opposed the four finger claws, letting

Piet Mondrian Gray Tree

2009-01-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Piet Mondrian Gray TreePiet Mondrian Composition with Yellow Blue and RedPiet Mondrian Composition with Red Yellow
the road out of the village.
He walked for two hours, feeling the nausea gradually subside and a slow, pounding headache take its place. Balthamos made him stop at one point, and laid his cool hands on Will's neck and forehead, and the ache eased a little; but Will made himself a promise that he would never drink vodka again.
And in the late little town, where the buildings leaned even more perilously than the village, and where the flooding had left its mud stains on the walls high above Will's head. The edge of the town was deserted, but as he made his way toward the river, the noise of shouting, of screams, and of the crackle of rifle fire got louder.afternoon the path widened and came out of the reeds, and Will saw the town ahead of him, and beyond it an expanse of water so broad it might have been a sea.Even from some way off, Will could see that there was trouble. Puffs of smoke were erupting from beyond the roofs, followed a few seconds later by the boom of a gun."Balthamos," he said, "you'll have to be a daemon again. Just keep near me and watch out for danger."He walked into the outskirts of the scruffy

Andy Warhol Guns

2009-01-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol GunsAndy Warhol Gun 1982Andy Warhol Dollar Sign 1981
find where Lyra's gone. She surely can't be far away. There was a woman, she'll be with her, the woman took her. Go and search, and come back and tell me what you see."
The angels rose up into the stormy air and vanished. Will felt a great sullen heaviness settle over him; he'd had little strength left before the fight with his father, and now he was nearly finished. All he wanted to do was close his eyes, which were so heavy and so sore with weeping.
He tugged the cloak over his head, clutched the rucksack to his breast, and fell asleep in a moment.
"Nowhere," said a voice.
Will heard it in the depths ofchild. But there is a lake of blue water where she must have camped. There is a dead man there, and a witch eaten by a Specter."
"A dead man? What does he look like?"
"He was in late middle age. Fleshy and smooth-skinned. Silver-gray hair. sleep and struggled to wake. Eventually (and it took most of a minute, because he was so profoundly unconscious) he managed to open his eyes to the bright morning in front of him."Where are you?" he said."Beside you," said the angel. "This way."The sun was newly risen, and the rocks and the lichens and mosses on them shone crisp and brilliant in the morning light, but nowhere could he see a figure."I said we would be harder to see in daylight," the voice went on. "You will see us best at half-light, at dusk or dawn; next best in darkness; least of all in the sunshine. My companion and I searched farther down the mountain, and found neither woman nor

Thomas Kinkade Yawkey Way

2009-01-12T22:01:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Yawkey WayThomas Kinkade Town SquareThomas Kinkade PARIS EIFFEL TOWER
The Amber Spyglass brings the intrigue of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to a heartstopping close, marking the third volume as the most powerful of the trilogy. Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and lorek Byrnison the armored bear, The Amber Spyglass introduces a host of new characters: thespyglass, and the names of who will live-and who will die-for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that-in its shocking outcome- will reveal the secret of Dust.In The Amber Spyglass, deftly weaves the cliffhangers and mysteries of The Golden Compass and The Subtle. Knife into an earth-shattering conclusion- and confirms his fantasy trilogy as an undoubted and enduring classic. Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spy-master to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. And this final volume brings startling revelations, too: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber

Jack Vettriano The Remains of Love

2009-01-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano The Remains of LoveJack Vettriano The Red RoomJack Vettriano The Railway Station
who kept food journals lost almost double the weight of their nonjournaling counterparts.
And at a time when Americans spend $35 billion a year on weight-loss products -- a figure larger than the gross domestic product of most developing countries -- the finding could be good news for those searching for an inexpensive route to a average of almost 13 pounds -- a significant amount, according to physicians. However, those who used a food diary more than five days a week lost almost twice as much weight as those who didn't. And perhaps more impressively, they kept the weight off.
When keeping food diaries, dieters write down, for better or healthier weight.The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, focused on the efficacy of various behavioral weight-loss interventions in more than 1,500 overweight and obese adults. Participants were schooled on lifestyle interventions, which included weekly group sessions, regular exercise, a heart-healthy diet, reduced alcohol consumption and the use of food diaries. After five months, participants lost an