George Frederick Watts love and life paintings 100222

Jack Vettriano The Duellists

2009-05-12T23:00:00.001-07:00

Jack Vettriano The DuellistsJack Vettriano The DrifterJack Vettriano The Direct Approach
background.
They'd never told her about this. Parents never do. Your father could be Death's apprentice and your mother Death's adopted daughter, but that's just fine detail when they become Parents. Parents were never young. They were merely waiting to become At least . . . the normal kind . . .
Her mother . . . the girl who would become her mother . . . was pressed against a pillar. She had actually improved with age, Susan thought. Her dress sense certainly had. And she mentally shook herself. Fashion comments? Now?
Death stood over Mort, sword in one hand and Mort's own lifetimer in the other.
YOU DON'T KNOW HOW SORRY THIS MAKES ME, he said.
'I might,' said Mort.Parents.Susan reached the end of the shelves.Death was standing over her father . . . she corrected herself, the boy who would be her father.Three red marks burned on his cheek where Death had struck him. Susan raised a hand to the pale marks on her own face.But that's not how heredity works.

Wassily Kandinsky Dominant Curve

2009-05-11T23:32:00.001-07:00

Wassily Kandinsky Dominant CurveWassily Kandinsky Several CirclesWassily Kandinsky Composition VIII
put his foot down and that was the end of it. He was about the only one who could argue with the Master, your dad. You'd have been about four then, I think.'
Susan raised her in her head.
'I remember about that bathroom now,' she said. 'It's all coming back to me.'
'Nah, it never went away. It just got papered over.'
'He was no good at plumbing. What does Y M R‑C‑I‑G‑B‑S A, AM mean?'
'Young Men's Reformed‑Cultists‑of‑the‑Ichor‑God‑BelShamharoth Association, Ankh‑Morpork,' said Albert. 'It's where I stay if I have to go back down for anything. Soap and suchlike.'hand thoughtfully and touched the pale lines on her cheek.'The Master said they were raising you according to,' Albert sneered, 'modern methods. Logic. And thinking old stuff is silly. I dunno . . . I suppose they wanted to keep you away from . . . ideas like this . . .''I was given a ride on the horse,' said Susan, not listening to him. ' I had a bath in the big bathroom.''Soap all over the place,' said Albert. His face contorted into something approaching a smile. 'I could hear the Master laughing from here. And he made you a swing, too. Tried to, anyway. No magic or anything. With his actual hands.'Susan sat while memories woke and yawned and unfolded

Franz Marc Drei Katzen

2009-05-06T01:15:00.001-07:00

Franz Marc Drei KatzenFranz Marc Dog Lying in the SnowFranz Marc Die kleinen gelben PferdeFranz Marc Deer in the Woods II
Detritus hit him over the head with his club.
'Up you get, now!' Detritus boomed.
'Thank you, Acting-Constable Detritus,' said Colon wearily. 'Captain Vimes is getting married today. We're Koing to provide a guard of honour. That's what we always used to do in the old days when a Watchman got wed. So I want helmets and breastplates bright and shiny. And cohorts gleaming. Not a speck of muck . . . where's Corporal Nobbs?'
There was a dink as Acting-Constable Detritus' hand bounced off his new helmet.
' Hasn't been seen for hours, sir!' he reported.
Colon rolled his eyes.soldiers! Hand off rock and on with sock! It another beautiful day inna Watch! Lance-Constable Coalface, on your feet, you horrible little man!'Twenty minutes later a bleary-eyed Sergeant Colon surveyed the troops. They were slumped on the benches, except for Acting-Constable Detritus, who was sitting bolt upright with an air of official helpfulness.'Right, men,' Colon began, 'now, as you—''You men, you listen up good right

Leroy Neiman Beach at Cannes

2009-05-03T23:52:00.001-07:00

Leroy Neiman Beach at CannesLeroy Neiman April at AugustaLeroy Neiman Amphitheatre at RiveraLeroy Neiman American Stock Exchange
of meat in the middle of a piranha school.
Everyone dealt with it in their own way. Colon never thought about it, and Nobby didn't worry about it, and the new ones hadn't been in long enough to be worn down by it, and Carrot . . . was just himself.
Hundreds of people She stopped when she saw his expression. 'There's something wrong, isn't there?'
'I'm not going back,' said Vimes.
'Really? Last week you said you'd do a full watch. You said you were looking forward to it.'
Not much gets past old Sybil, Vimes thought.died in the city every day, often of suicide. So what did a few more matter?The Vimes inside hammered on the walls.There were quite a few coaches outside the Ramkin mansion, and the place seemed to be infested with assorted female relatives and Interchangeable Emmas. They were baking things and polishing things. Vimes strolled through, more or less unregarded.He found Sybil out in the dragon house, in her rubber boots and protective dragon armour. She was mucking out, apparently blissfully unaware of the controlled uproar in the mansion.She looked up as the door shut behind Vimes.'Oh, there you are. You're home early,' she said. 'I couldn't stand the fuss, so I came out here. But I'll have to go and change soon—'

Pablo Picasso Studio with Plaster Head

2009-04-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso Studio with Plaster HeadPablo Picasso Les Demoiselles dAvignonPablo Picasso Le Moulin de la Galette
hit the floor at the same time as a pock coincided with a hole punched through the wall on one side of the window. Plaster dust puffed into the air.
His crossbow was upper windows, now long rusted shut.
He balanced his helmet on the end, wedged himself into the corner, and with a certain amount of effort moved the pole so that the helmet just showed over the window si . . .
Pock.
Splinters flew up from a point on the floor where it would undoubtedly have severely inconvenienced anyone lying on the boards cautiously raising a decoy helmet on a stick.leaning against the wall. He wasn't an expert but, hells, who was? You pointed it and you fired it. He pulled it towards him, rolled on his back, stuck his foot in the stirrup and hauled on the string until it clicked into place.Then he rolled back on to one knee and slotted a quarrel into the groove.A catapult, that's what it was. It had to be. Troll-sized, perhaps. Someone up on the roof of the opera house or somewhere high . . .Draw their fire, draw their fire . . . he picked up his helmet and balanced it on the end of another quarrel. The thing to do was crouch below the window and . . .He thought for a moment. Then he shuffled across the floor to the corner, where there was a pole with a hook on the end. Once upon a time it had been used to open the

Edward Hopper City Sunlight

2009-04-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

Edward Hopper City SunlightEdward Hopper Chair CarEdward Hopper A Woman in the Sun
, sir?'
'Who said that?'
'Down here, sir. Lance-Constable Cuddy.'
'Oh, yes. Yes?'
'I know a bit 'Why, captain?' said Corporal Carrot.
'Because that bastard Cruces doesn't want me to know.'
'I know what could have blown the hole open,' said Angua.
'What?'
'An exploding dragon.'
They walked in stunned silence.
'That could do it, sir,' said Carrot loyally. 'The little devils go bang at the drop of a helmet.'
'Dragon,' muttered Vimes. 'What makes you think it was a dragon, Lance-Constable about fireworks, sir. There's a smell you get after fireworks. Didn't smell it, sir. Smelled something else.''Well . . . smelled, Cuddy.''And there were bits of burned rope and pulleys.''I smelled dragon,' said Vimes.'Sure, captain?''Trust me.' Vimes grimaced. If you spent any time in Lady Ramkin's company, you soon found out what dragons smelled like. If something put its head in your lap while you were dining, you said nothing, you just kept passing it titbits and hoped like hell it didn't hiccup.'There was a glass case in that room,' he said. 'It was smashed open. Hah! Something was stolen. There was a bit of card in the dust, but someone must have pinched it while old Cruces was talking to me. I'd give a hundred dollars to know what it said.'

Raphael The Sistine Madonna

2009-04-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

Raphael The Sistine MadonnaWilliam Bouguereau BiblisWilliam Bouguereau Nymphs and Satyr.
the cemetery the solitary gravedigger filled in the hole that was the last resting place of d'Eath senior.
He became aware of what seemed to be thoughts in his head. They went something like this:
Any chance of a bone? No, no, sorry, bad taste there, forget I mentioned it. You've got beef sandwiches in your wossname, lunchboxwhen he found it. Edward was a great believer in Destiny. Such people often are.
The Guild library was one of the largest in the city. In certain specialized areas it was the largest. These areas mainly had to do with the regrettable brevity of human life and the means of bringing it about.
Edward spent a lot of time there, often at the top of a ladder, often surrounded by dust.
He read every known work on armaments. He didn't know what he was looking for and he found it in a note in the margin of an otherwise very dull and inaccurate treatise on the ballistics of crossbows. He copied it out, carefully. thingy, though. Why not give one to the nice little doggy over there?The man leaned on his shovel and looked around.The grey mongrel was watching him intently.It said, 'Woof?' It took Edward d'Eath five months to find what he was looking for. The search was hampered by the fact that he did not know what he was looking for, only that he'd know it

Thomas Kinkade Seaside Village

2009-04-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Seaside VillageThomas Kinkade Bridge of HopeEdward Hopper SummertimeEdward Hopper Night Windows
Casanunda put his head on one side. You don’t move around among a different species for most of your life with-out learning to read a lot of their body language, especially since it’s in such large print.
“You won’t entirely be sorry, eh?” he said.
“Me? I don’t as a wink, her.”
More doubts were entering Magrat’s life. They concerned crossbows, for one thing. A crossbow is a very useful and usable weapon designed for speed and convenience and deadliness in the hands of the inexperienced, like a faster version of an out-of-code TV dinner. But it is designed to be used once, by someone who has somewhere safe to duck while they reload. Otherwise it is just so much metal and wood with a piece of string on it.want ‘em back! They’re untrustworthy and cruel and arrogant parasites and we don’t need ‘em one bit.”“Bet you half a dollar?”Nanny was suddenly flustered.“Don’t you look at me like that! Esme’s right. Of course she’s right. We don’t want elves anymore. Stands to reason.”“Esme’s the short one, is she?”“Hah, no, Esme’s the tall one with the nose. You know her.”“Right, yes.”“The short one is Magrat. She’s a kind-hearted soul and a bit soft. Wears flowers in her hair and believes in songs, I reckon she’d be off dancing with the elves quick

Leroy Neiman Hand Off Superbowl III

2009-04-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

Leroy Neiman Hand Off Superbowl IIIJean-Honore Fragonard the readerJean-Honore Fragonard the lock
the side of the waiting elfs neck. It reeled away Magrat bolted for the nearest doorway, weeping in panic, and wrenched at the handle. It swung open. She darted through, slammed the door, flailed in the dark for the bars, felt them clonk home, and collapsed on to her knees.
Something hit the door outside.
After a while Magrat opened her eyes, and then won-
dered if she really had that got used recently. Most people in Lancre still used tinderboxes. Only the king could afford matches all the way from Ankh-Morpork. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg got them too, but they didn’t buy them. They got given them. It was easy to get given things, if you were a witch.
Magrat lit the stub of candle, and turned to see what kind of room she’d scuttled into.opened her eyes, because the dark-ness was no less dark. There was a feeling of space in frontl “He’s just an old soppy really”—from the Nanny Ogg Book of Cat Sayings. 216LORQ6 ft/VQ iftOf£Sof her. There were all sorts of things in the castle, old hidden rooms, anything . . . there could be a pit there, there could be anything. She fumbled for the doorframe, guided herself upright, and then groped cautiously in the general direction of the wall.There was a shelf. This was a candle. And this was a bundle of matches.So, she insisted above her own heartbeat, this was a room

Franz Marc The Monkey

2009-04-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

Franz Marc The MonkeyFranz Marc RinderFranz Marc Rehe im Schnee
He’s got out of the river,” said Ponder. But the troll wasn’t moving very fast, because the Librarian was noncha-lantly levering one of the big stones out of the parapet.
“On this very bridge I asked—“
“That’s a big club he’s got,” said Casanunda.
“This bridge, I may say, was where I nearly—“
“Could you stop holding that rock in such a provocative way?” said Ponder.
“Oook.”
“It’d be a help.”
“The actual bridge, if anyone’s interested, is where my
whole life took a diff—“
“Why don’t we “Well, you know what they say. You can’t cross the same river twice, Archchancellor,” he said.
Ridcully stared at him.
“Why not? This is a bridge.”
On the roof of the coach the Librarian picked up the coacjust go on?” said Ponder. “He’s got a steep climb.”“Good thing for him he hasn’t got up here, eh?” said Casanunda. Ponder swiveled the Librarian around and pushed him toward the coach.“This is the bridge, in fact, where—“Ridcully turned around.“Are you coming or not?” said Casanunda, with the reins in his hand.“I was actually having a quality moment of misty nostalgicTerry Pratchettremembrance,” said Ridcully. “Not that any of you buggers noticed, of course.”Ponder held the door open.h-hom, bit the end of it reflectively—well, you never knew—and then blew it so hard that it uncurled.

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window I

2009-04-20T00:26:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window ISalvador Dali Corpus HypercubusVincent van Gogh View of Arles with Irises I
darted through the few inches of space
64
LORDS htib l.ft0f£6
between their stares it would have flashed into flame in the
air.
“I learned my craft“Look,” said Nanny Ogg hurriedly, nudging the trem-bling Perdita, “right through the lining and everything. Two dollars and curing his pig that hat cost me. That’s two dol-lars and a pig cure I shan’t see again in a hurry.”
“So you can just go away, old woman,” said Diamanda.
“But we ought to meet again,” said Granny Weatherwax.
The old witch and the young witch weighed one another up.
“Midnight?” said Diamanda. from Nanny^Gripes,” said GrannyWeatherwax, “who learned it from Goody Heggety, who got itfrom Nanna Plumb, who was taught it by Black Aliss, who—““So what you’re saying is,” said Diamanda, loading the words into the sentence like cartridges in a chamber, “that no one has actually learned anything new?”The silence that followed was broken by Nanny Ogg say-ing: “Bugger, I’ve bitten right through the brim. Right through.”“I see, said Granny Weatherwax.

Mark Spain The Pink Dress

2009-04-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

Mark Spain The Pink DressMark Spain SevillaMark Spain Reflection
out of Copperhead Mountain, and flattened the forest for ten miles around?
Probably at the first pawn.
Gods like a jokegot free by struggling out of their chain-mail trousers.
Many worlds are iron, at the core. But the Discworld is as coreless as a pancake.
On the Disc, if you enchant a needle it will point to the Hub, where the magical field is strongest. It’s simple.
Elsewhere, on worlds designed with less imagination, the needle turns because of the love of iron.
At the time, the dwarfs and the humans had a very pressing need for the love of iron.
And now, spool time forward for thousands of years to a point fifty years or more before the ever-moving now, to a hillside and a young woman, running. Not running away from something, exactly, or precisely running toward any-thing, but running just fast enough to keep ahead of a young man although, of course, not so far ahead that as much as anyone else. 1.The dwarfs dug them up, because they were made of a kind of iron, and dwarfs, contrary to general opinion, love iron more than gold. It’s just that although there’s more iron than gold it’s harder to sing songs about. Dwarfs love iron.And that’s what the stones contained. The love of iron. A love so strong that it drew all iron things to itself. The three dwarfs who found the first of the rocks only

Edgar Degas Ballerina and Lady with a Fan

2009-04-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

Edgar Degas Ballerina and Lady with a FanEdgar Degas At the MillinersFrida Kahlo Without Hope
fall. From the rocks. In the desert. You were with the Prophet," said Nhumrod. "You walked with the Prophet. One of my novices."it," said Nhumrod. "I was privileged to be in the Place of Lamentation when he arrived. It was just after the Sestine prayers. The Cenobiarch was just departing . . . well, you know the ceremony. And there was Vorbis. Covered in dust and leading a donkey. I'm afraid you were across the back of the donkey."
"I don't remember a donkey," said Brutha.
"-donkey. He'd picked it up at one of the farms. There was quite a crowd with him!"
Nhumrod was flushed with excitement."I remember . . . the desert . . ." said Brutha, touching his head gingerly. "But . . . the . . . Prophet . . . ?""-Prophet. People are saying you could be made a bishop, or even an Iam," said Nhumrod. "There's a precedent, you know. The Most Holy St. Bobby was made a bishop because he was in the desert with the Prophet Ossory, and he was a donkey.""But I don't . . . remember . . . any Prophet. There was just me and-”Brutha stopped. Nhumrod was beaming."Vorbis?""He most graciously told me all about

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Two Sisters

2009-04-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Two SistersJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida MariaAlexandre Cabanel OpheliaAlexandre Cabanel Cleopatra
You lazy bugger!"
The younger one sat up.
"Honest, Uncle-”
"I turn my back for half an hour and you go to sleep on the job!"
"What job? We haven't had anything since Mr. Piloxi the farmer last week-”
"How d'you know? How d'you know? While you were snoring dozens of people could've been goin' past, every one of 'em in need of a pers'nal philosophy!"
"-and he only paid in olives."
"I shall prob'ly get a good price for them olives!"
"They're rotten, Uncle."
"Nonsense! You said they were green!"
"Yes, but they're supposed to be black."
In the shadows, the tortoise's head turned back and forth like a spectator's at a tennis match.
The young man stood up.
"Mrs. "Shifted that one, eh?"
"She said she'd give it a try. She gave me a whole dried squid for it. She said I looked like I needed feeding up."
"Right? You're learning. That's lunch sorted out at any rate. See, Urn? Told you it would work if we stuck at it."
"I don't call one dried squid and a box of greasy olives much of a return, master. Not for two weeks' thinking."
"We got three obols for doing that proverb for old Grillos the cobblerBylaxis came in this morning," he said. "She said the proverb you did for her last week has stopped working."Didactylos scratched his head."Which one was that?" he said."You gave her `It's always darkest before dawn.' ""Nothing wrong with that. Damn good philosophy.""She said she didn't feel any better. Anyway, she said she'd stayed up all night because of her bad leg and it was actually quite light just before dawn, so it wasn't true. And her leg still dropped off. So I gave her part exchange on `Still, it does you good to laugh.' "Didactylos brightened up a bit.

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe

2009-04-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoeLorenzo Lotto Venus and CupidJean Fragonard The Bathers
weren't many superior members of the hierarchy he could recognize. Even the Cenobiarch was a distant blob in the crowd. But everyone recognized Vorbis the exquisitor. Something about him projected itself on your conscience within a few days of your arrival at the Citadel. The God was merely to be feared in the perfunctory ways of habit, but , and put the reptile down, on its back. After a moment's thought he took a couple of pebbles from one of the vegetable beds and wedged them under the shell so that the creature's movement wouldn't tip it over.
Vorbis believed that no opportunity to acquire esoteric knowledge should ever be lost, and made a mental note to come back again in a few hours to see how it was getting on, if work permitted.
Then he turned his attention to Brutha.Vorbis was dreaded.Brutha fainted."How very strange," said Vorbis.A hissing noise made him look round.There was a small tortoise near his foot. As he glared, it tried to back away, and all the time it was staring at him and hissing like a kettle.He picked it up and examined it carefully, turning it over and over in his hands. Then he looked around the walled garden until he found a spot in full sunshine

William Blake Nebuchadnezzar

2009-04-13T00:44:00.000-07:00

William Blake NebuchadnezzarWilliam Blake Jacob's LadderVincent van Gogh The Olive Trees
we do that?' said Conina.
'It would inn and were sitting on a bench in the afternoon sunshine. Even War had been persuaded to take off some of his armour.
'Dunno,' said Famine, 'Don't think so.'
Pestilence shut his crusted eyes and leaned back against the warm stones.
'I think,' he said, 'it was something about the end of the world.'
War sat and thoughtfully scratched his chin. He hiccuped.
'What, the whole world?' he said.
'I reckon.'be nice to think so, wouldn't it?' said Nijel.'Yes, but did-’ she began.'Probably not. Who knows? Let's just find a horse,' he said. 'The Apogee,' said War, 'or something. I'm pretty sure.'They had staggered out of the

Albert Moore Idyll

2009-04-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

Albert Moore IdyllAlbert Moore GardenAlbert Moore Apples
'How did-’ Conina began, but Nijel interrupted her.
'Wizards are privy to arcane knowledge, that's probably what it is,' he said. 'Probably the carpet's got a geas on it to do the opposite of anything that's said. Can you make it go up further?'
'Yes, but building its own tower. It's a sort of reaction. Wizards always used to build a tower around themselves, like those ... what do you call those things you find at the bottom of rivers?'
'Frogs.'
'Stones.'
'Unsuccessful gangsters.'
'Caddis flies is what I meant,' said Rincewind. 'When a wizard set I'm not going to,' said Rincewind. The carpet drifted slowly forward and, as happens so often at times like this, a rolling of masonry bounced right across the spot where it had lain.A moment later they were out in the open air, the storm of stone behind them.The palace was pulling itself to pieces, and the pieces were funnelling up into the air like a volcanic eruption in reverse. The sourcerous tower had completely disappeared, but the stones were dancing towards the spot where it had stood and ...'They're building another tower!' said Nijel.'Out of my palace, too,' said Creosote.'The hat's won,' said Rincewind. 'That's why it's

John William Waterhouse The Enchanted Garden

2009-04-09T01:22:00.000-07:00

John William Waterhouse The Enchanted GardenJohn William Waterhouse Psyche Entering Cupid's GardenJohn William Waterhouse Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus
muscular organ which powers the circulation of the blood. But look at it like this - you quite like her, don't you?
Well ... was missing. It took him a little while to realise what it was.
No-one had tried to sell him anything for several minutes. In Al Khali, that probably meant you were dead.
He, Corona and the Luggage were alone in a long, shady alley. He could hear the bustle of the city some way away, but immediately around them there was nothing except a rather expectant Rincewind hesitated. Yes, he thought, er ...She's pretty good company, eh? Nice voice?Well, of course ...You'd like to see more of her?Well ... Rincewind realised with some surprise that, yes, he would. It wasn't that he was entirely unused to the company of women, but it always seemed to cause trouble and, of course, it was a well known fact that it was bad for the magical abilities, although he had to admit that his particular magical abilities, being approximately those of a rubber hammer, were shaky enough to start with.Then you've got nothing to lose, have you? his libido put in, in an oily tone of thought.It was at this point Rincewind realised that something important

George Frederick Watts Watts Choosing

2009-04-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

George Frederick Watts Watts ChoosingFrancisco de Zurbaran Rest on the flight to EgyptClaude Lorrain Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba
higher levels of wizardry are a perilous place. Every wizard is trying to dislodge the wizards above him while stamping on the fingers of those below; to say that wizards are healthily competitive by nature is like saying that bad form to kill a brother wizard, and wizards felt able to let their hair down without fear of being strangled with it.
The Archchancellor's chair was empty. Wayzygoose was dining alone in his study, as befits a man chosen by the gods after their serious discussion with sensible senior wizards earlier in the day. Despite his eighty years, he was feeling a little bit nervous and hardly touched his second chicken.
In a few minutes he would have to make a speech. Wayzygoose piranhas are naturally a little peckish. However, ever since the great Mage Wars left whole areas of the Disc uninhabitable[5], wizards have been forbidden to settle their differences by magical means, because it caused a lot of trouble for the population at large and in any case it was often difficult to tell which of the resultant patches of smoking fat had been the winner. So they traditionally resort to knives, subtle poisons, scorpions in shoes and hilarious booby traps involving razor-sharp pendulums.On Small Gods' Eve, however, it was considered extremely

Mark Rothko White over Red

2009-04-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

Mark Rothko White over RedPaul Klee Red BridgePaul Klee Red And White Domes
There’s just panels of light,’ said Ludmilla.
‘Something else! Look for something it could be coming from!’
‘It’s coming from everywhere!’
‘Whatever you’re thinking of doing,’ said Doreen, picking up a potted plant and holding it like a club, ‘I hope you do it fast.’ ‘What’s that round black thing up there?’ said Arthur.
‘Where?’
‘There.
‘Artor! Nobblyesse obligay!’
‘What? Is that some sort of vampire code?’ Reg whispered. ‘It means something like: a count’s gotta do what a count’s gotta do,’ said Windle.
‘Count!’ snarled Arthur, swaying dangerously. ‘I
.’ Arthur pointed.‘OK, Reg and me will help you up, come on -‘‘Me? But I can’t stand heights!’‘I thought you could turn into a bat?’‘Yeah, but a very nervous one!’‘Stop complaining. Right - one foot here, now your hand here, now put your foot on Reg’s shoulder -‘ ‘And don’t go through,’ said Reg.‘I don’t like this!’ Arthur moaned, as they hoisted him up.Doreen stopped glaring at the creeping trolleys

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe

2009-04-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoeLorenzo Lotto Venus and CupidJean Fragonard The Bathers
crowd. ‘No-one could have got out of there alive! We saw it all blow up!’ Bill Door turned around slowly.
WE HID. he said, IN THE CELLAR.
‘the stairs and back into the night. The door slammed. He didn’t hear her come back up the stairs with a bowl of cold water and a flannel.
Miss Flitworth could walk lightly, too, when she had a mind to.
She came in and shut the door behind her.
‘Her parents’ll want to see her,’ she said.’Her mum’s in a faint and Big Henry from the mill knocked her dad out when he tried to run into the flames, but they’ll be here directly.’
She bent down and ran the flannel over the girl’s forehead.There! See?’ said Miss Flitworth. ‘In the cellar. Makes sense.’ ‘But the inn hasn’t got -‘ the doubter began, and stopped. Bill Door was glaring at him.‘In the cellar,’ he corrected himself. ‘Yeah. Right. Clever.’‘Very clever,’ said Miss Flitworth. ‘Now get along with the lot of you.’He heard her shoo them down

Pablo Picasso Seated Bather

2009-04-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso Seated BatherPablo Picasso Mandolin and GuitarPablo Picasso Girl Before a Mirror
even think of setting foot in a religious establishment I get a pain all down my leg.’
‘Yes, but there was no need for him to say what he said when you pushed the lid off,’ said Doreen. ‘And him a priest, too. They shouldn’t know those kind of words.’
‘I enjoyed that temple,’ said Arthur, wistfully. ‘It was something to do on a Wednesday.’
It dawned on Windle Poons that Doreen had miraculously acquired the ability to use her double-yous.
‘And you’re a vampire too, Mrs Win . . . I do beg your pardon . . . Countess Notfaroutoe?’ he enquired politely.share her husband’s hobbies,’ said Doreen.’It iss vot keeps a marriage intervesting.’
‘Who wants an interesting marriage? I never said I wanted an interesting marriage. That’s what’s wrong with people today, expecting things like marriage to be interesting. And it’s not a hobby, anyway,’ moaned Arthur. ‘This vampiring’s not all it’s cracked up to be, you know. Can’t go out in daylight, can’t eat garlic, can’t have a decent shave -‘ ‘Why can’t you have a -‘ Windle began.
‘Can’t use a mirror,’ said Arthur.’I thought theThe Countess smiled. ‘My vord, yes, ‘ she said.‘By marriage,’ said Arthur.‘Can you do that? I thought you had to be bitten,’ said Windle.The voice under the chair sniggered.‘I don’t see why I should have to go around biting my wife after thirty years of marriage, and that’s flat,’ said the Count. ‘Every voman should

Paul Gauguin The Loss of Virginity

2009-04-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

Paul Gauguin The Loss of VirginityPaul Gauguin Tahitian WomanPaul Gauguin JoyousnessThomas Kinkade country livingHenri Matisse View of Collioure
Thank goodness for old Teatar, he thought. Otherwise I’d already be looking at the underside of a rather cheap pine lid. Funny thing, he thought. I’m thinking. Clearly.
Wow.
Windle lay back, feeling his spirit refilling his body like gleaming molten metal ?filling? through a mould.
White-hot thoughts seared across the darkness of his brain, fired sluggish neurones into action.
It was of muscles. Now the body stood up. The knee joints resisted for a while, but they were no more able to withstand the onslaught of will-power than a sick mosquito can withstand a blowtorch.never like this when I was alive.But I’m not dead.Not alive and not dead.Sort of non-alive.Or un-dead.Oh dear . . . He swung himself upright. Muscles that hadn’t worked properly for seventy or eighty years jerked into overdrive. For the first time in his entire life, he corrected himself, better make that ‘period of existence’, Windle Poons’ body was entirely under Windle Poons’ control. And Windle Poons ‘ spirit wasn’t about to take any lip from a bunch

Andy Warhol Page from Lips Book

2009-03-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol Page from Lips BookAndy Warhol One Blue PussyAndy Warhol MarilynAndy Warhol Flowers Red 1964Andy Warhol Fiesta Pig
You know you said what could a boy find to do that was better than being a wizard?’ he said.
‘A true wizard should only be interested in one thing,’ muttered the Dean. ‘You know that.’
‘Oh, I know it.’
‘I was referring to magic.’
The Chair peered at the advancing figures.
‘You know, that is young Victor. I’ll swear it,’ he said.
‘That’s or ankles that stood in its way.
Poons’ mouth fell open.
Ginger gripped Victor’s hand.
‘There’s a group of fat old men in false beards waving at you over there,’ she said through clenched and grinning teeth.
‘Yes, I think they’re wizards,’ Victor grinned back.disgusting,’ said the Dean. ‘Fancy choosing to hang around young women when he could have been a wizard.’‘Yeah. What a fool,’ said the Lecturer in Recent Runes, who was having trouble with his breathing.There was a sort of communal sigh.‘You got to admit she’s a bit of a corker, though,’ said the Chair.‘I’m an old man and if someone doesn’t let me see very soon,’ said a cracked voice behind them, ‘someone’s going to be feeling the wrong end of, mm, my stick, all right?’Two of the wizards edged aside and eased the wheelchair through. Once moving, it coasted right up to the edge of the carpet, bruising any knees

John William Waterhouse Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus

2009-03-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

John William Waterhouse Nymphs Finding the Head of OrpheusJohn William Waterhouse JulietJohn William Waterhouse Flora and the ZephyrsJohn William Waterhouse Apollo and DaphneVincent van Gogh On the Outskirts of Paris
Gaspode considered barking loudly, and then if anyone drew attention to this afterwards he could always say it was to frighten her. Trouble was, he had about enough wind left for a threatening wheeze.
Ginger topped a rise and went down into the little dell among the trees.
Gaspode -supple frame and withdrew from his teeth. Plates appeared in front of him not laden with the multi-coloured and mysterious organs that he was normally expected to eat but with dark red steak. There was sweet water, no, there was beer in a bowl with his name on it. Tantalizing odours on the air suggested that a number of lady dogs would be happy to make his acquaintance after he had drunk and dined. Thousands of people thought staggered after her, righted himself, opened his mouth to whimper a warning, and almost swallowed his tongue. The door had opened several inches. More sand rolled down the heap even as Gaspode watched. And he could hear voices. They didn’t seem to be speaking words but the bones of words, meaning without disguise. They hummed around his bullet head like mendicant mosquitoes, begging and cajoling and -he was the most famous dog in the world. The knots unravelled from his coat, the frayed patches sprouted glossy curls, his fur grew on his suddenly

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Two Sisters

2009-03-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Two SistersJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida MariaAlexandre Cabanel OpheliaAlexandre Cabanel CleopatraThomas Gainsborough The Watering Place
, good,’ said Victor weakly.
‘You play this bandit chieftain,’ said Dibbler, ‘only a nice guy, too, kind to women and so forth, and you raid this village and you carry off this slave girl only when you look into her eyes, see, you fall for her, and then there’s this raid and hundreds of men on elephants come charging-’
‘Camels,’only one camel in Holy Wood and that’s only ‘cos a guy from Klatch rode all the way here on it,’ said the youth.
‘You should have sent away for more!’ snapped Dibbler.
‘Mr Silverfish said I wasn’t to.’
Dibbler growled. said a skinny youth behind Dibbler. ‘It’s camels.’ ‘I ordered elephants!’ ‘You got camels.’ ‘Camels, elephants,’ said Dibbler dismissively. ‘We’re talking exotic here, OK? And-’ ‘And we’ve only got one,’ said the youth. ‘One what?’ ‘Camel. We could only find one camel,’ said the youth. ‘But I’ve got dozens of guys with bedsheets on their heads waiting for camels!’ shouted Dibbler, waving his hands in the air. ‘Lots of camels, right?’ ‘We only got one camel ‘cos there’s

Vincent van Gogh Souvenir de Mauve

2009-03-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Vincent van Gogh Souvenir de MauveVincent van Gogh Peach Tree in BloomVincent van Gogh The Red VineyardVincent van Gogh The potato eatersVincent van Gogh The Bedroom at Arles
glittering, swirling idea from the hill had watched all this. The alchemist didn’t even know it was there. All he knew was that he was being unusually inventive today.
Now it had a particularly difficult fly.
He glanced out of the stained-glass window. A smoke cloud was rising over uptown Morpork.
‘Bursaar!’
The Bursar arrived within a few seconds, out of breath. Loud noises always upset him.
‘It’s the alchemists, Master,’ he panted. spotted the pie merchant’s mind. It knew that kind of mind. It loved minds like that. A mind that could sell nightmare pies could sell dreams. It leaped. On a hill far away the breeze stirred the cold, grey ash. Further down the hill, in a crack in a hollow between two rocks where a dwarf juniper bush struggled for a Ping, a little trickle of sand began to move. Boom. A fine film of plaster dust drifted down on to the desk of Mustrum Ridcully, the new Archchancellor of Unseen University; just as he was trying to tie

Leonardo da Vinci Female Head

2009-03-24T01:06:00.001-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci Female HeadLeonardo da Vinci AnnunciationThomas Kinkade Seaside VillageThomas Kinkade Bridge of HopeEdward Hopper Summertime
pyramid was somehow even bigger than before. If you had to design something to give the very distinct impression of mass, the pyramid was It. There was a crowd of figures around it, unidentifiable in the grey light.
Teppic 'We're talking about not-alive people here, are we?'
'Yes, O king.'
'Oh. Well, thank you. That was very succinct. Not informative, but succinct. Are there any boats around?'
'The priests took them all, O king.'
Teppic could see that this was true. The jetties near the palace were usually thronged with boats, and now they were all empty. As he stared at the water it grew two looked around the prostrate crowd until he saw someone in the uniform of the palace guard. 'You, man, on your feet,' he commanded. The man gave him a look of dread, but did stagger sheepishly upright. 'What's going on here?' 'O king, who is the lord of-' 'I don't think we have time,' said Teppic. 'I know who I am, I want to know what's happening.' 'O king, we saw the dead walking! The priests have gone to talk to them.' 'The dead walking?' 'Yes, O king.'

George Frederick Watts Charity

2009-03-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

George Frederick Watts CharityFrancisco de Goya Nude MajaFrancisco de Goya Clothed MajaEdgar Degas The RehearsalEdgar Degas The Bellelli Family
hands and feet felt too cold. Foolish, foolish. He should have done this before.
The boat jerked slowly into midstream as full night rolled over the valley. On the far bank, in response to the ancient laws, the the last three thousand years,' said his father stiffly, 'and we haven't lost by it, have we? No, we haven't. Because the other kingdoms look to the Djel, they say there's a family that really knows its pyramids, connysewers, they say we'll have what they're having, if you please, with knobs on. Anyway, they're real royalty,' he added, 'not like some of the ones you get these days - here today, gone next millennium. They're half gods, too. You don't expect real royalty to pay its way. That's one opyramids started to light the sky. Lights also burned late in the house of Ptaclusp Associates, Necropolitan Builders to the Dynasties. The father and his twin Sons were hunched over the huge wax designing tray, arguing. 'It's not as if they ever pay,' said Ptaclusp IIa. 'I mean it's not just a case of not being able to, they don't seem to have grasped the idea. At least dynasties like Tsort pay up within a hundred years or so. Why didn't you-' 'We've built pyramids along the Djel for f the signs of real royalty, not having any money

Alexandre Cabanel Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners

2009-03-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

Alexandre Cabanel Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned PrisonersJulien Dupre Shepherdess With Her FlockJulien Dupre Returning From the FieldsCamille Pissarro The Hermitage at PontoiseMary Cassatt Children on the Shore
And tomorrow you can say I had no recollection. What a noise he made in falling! Enough to wake the dead . . . who would have thought he had so much blood in him? . . .' By now he had climbed on to the stage, and grinned brightly at the assembled company.
'I hope that sorts it all out,' he said. 'Ha. Ha.'
In the silence that followed Tomjon opened his mouth to utter something suitable, something soothing, and found that there was nothing he could say.
But another 'You were there! You saw it all!'
I SUSPECT I WOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AN APPROPRIATE WITNESS.
'Therefore there is no proof, and where there is no proof there is no crime,' said the duchess. She motioned the soldiers forward.personality stepped into him, took over his lips, and spoke thusly:'With my own bloody dagger, you bastard! I know it was you! I saw you at the top of the stairs, sucking your thumb! I'd kill you now, except for the thought of having to spend eternity listening to your whining. I, Verence, formerly King of-''What testimony is this?' said the duchess. She stood in front of the stage, with half a dozen soldiers beside her.'These are just slanders,' she added. 'And treason to boot. The rantings of mad players.''I was bloody King of Lancre!' shouted Tomjon.'In which case you are the alleged victim,' said the duchess calmly. 'And unable to speak for the prosecution. It is against all precedent.'Tomjon's body turned towards Death.

Leroy Neiman The Brooklyn Bridge

2009-03-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Leroy Neiman The Brooklyn BridgeLeroy Neiman Roulette IILeroy Neiman Marlin FishingLeroy Neiman Mardi Gras ParadeLeroy Neiman Lights of Broadway
thus it was that Granny, her hat and iron-grey hair dripping with moisture, her boots shedding lumps of ice, heard the distant and muffled sound of a voice enthusiastically explaining to the invisible sky that the hedgehog had less to worry over than just about any other mammal. Like a hawk that has spotted something small and fluffy in the grass, like a wandering interstellar flu germ that has just seen a nice blue planet drifting by, A thousand feet and rising fast into the frosty air, the two witches were bickering again.
'It was a bloody stupid idea,' moaned Nanny. 'I never liked heights.'
'Did you bring something to drink?'
'Certainly. You said.'Granny turned the stick and plunged down through the choking billows.'Come on!' she screamed, drunk with speed and exhilaration, and the sound from five hundred feet overhead put a passing wolf severely off its supper. 'This minute, Gytha Ogg!'Nanny Ogg caught her hand with considerable reluctance and the pair of broomsticks swept up again and into the clear, starlit sky.The Disc, as always, gave the impression that the Creator has designed it specifically to be looked at from above. Streamers of cloud in white and silver stretched away to the rim, stirred into thousand-mile swirls by the turning of the world. Behind the speeding brooms the sullen roof of the fog was dragged up into a curling tunnel of white vapour, so that the watching gods – and they were certainly watching – could see the terrible flight as a furrow in the sky.

John William Waterhouse Miranda - The Tempest

2009-03-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

John William Waterhouse Miranda - The TempestJohn William Waterhouse My Sweet RoseJohn William Waterhouse Gather ye rosebuds while ye mayLeonardo da Vinci Leda and the SwanLeonardo da Vinci St John in the Wilderness
upon a time it had been black velvet; now it was just black. It was carefully and slowly fastened by a tarnished silver brooch.
No samurai, no questing knight, was ever dressed with as much ceremony.
Finally Granny drew herself up, surveyed her dark reflection in the glass, gave a thin little smile of approval, and left success. She didn't have much practice. She was beginning to wonder if she'd overdone the eyeshadow.
Her neck, fingers and arms between them carried enough silverware to make a full-sized dinner service, and over everything she had thrown a black cloak lined with red silk.via the back door.The air of menace was only slightly dispelled by the sound of her running up and down outside, trying to get her broomstick started. Magrat was also regarding herself in the mirror.She'd dug out a startlingly green dress that was designed to be both revealing and clinging, and would have been if Magrat had anything to display or cling to, so she'd shoved a couple of rolled-up stockings down the front in an effort to make good the more obvious deficiencies. She had also tried a spell on her hair, but it was naturally magic-resistant and already the natural shape was beginning to assert itself (a dandelion clock at about 2pm).Magrat had also tried makeup. This wasn't an unqualified

John William Waterhouse Ariadne

2009-03-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

John William Waterhouse AriadneJohn William Waterhouse A MermaidVincent van Gogh Houses at AuversVincent van Gogh Tree trunksVincent van Gogh Stairway at Auvers
Death didn't look back. Verence followed him through the wall; it was like walking through fog.
'Is that all?' he demanded. 'I mean, how long will I be a ghost? Why am I a ghost? You can't just leave me like this.' He halted and raised an imperious, slightly transparent finger. 'Stop! I command you!'
Death shook his head gloomily, and stepped through the next wall. The king hurried after him with as much dignity as he.
'How long will it really be?'
UNTIL YOU HAVE FULFILLED YOUR DESTINY, I ASSUME.
'And how will I know what my destiny is?' said the king, desperately.
CAN'T HELP THERE. I'M SORRY. could still muster, and found Death fiddling with the girths of a large white horse standing on the battlements. It was wearing a nosebag.'You can't leave me like this!' he repeated, in the face of the evidence.Death turned to him.I CAN, he said. YOU'RE UNDEAD, YOU SEE. GHOSTS INHABIT A WORLD BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. IT'S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY. He patted the king on the shoulder. DON'T WORRY, he said, IT WON'T BE FOREVER.'Good.'IT MAY SEEM LIKE FOREVER
'Well, how can I find out?'

Andy Warhol Diamond Dust Shoes Lilac Blue Green

2009-03-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol Diamond Dust Shoes Lilac Blue GreenAndy Warhol Daisy Double PinkAndy Warhol Buttons
frosty plains gave way to the broken lands around the mountains, and then the marching ranks of the Ramtops themselves racedetched in the faintest of lines.
Binky slowed to a canter. Mort looked down at the roof of a forest, dusted with snow that was either early or very, very late; it could have been either, because the Ramtops hoarded their weather and doled it out with no real reference to the time of year.
A gap opened up beneath them. Binky slowed again, wheeled around and descended towards a clearing that was white with drifted snow. It was circular, with a tiny cottage in the exact middle. If the across the world towards them. Binky put his head down and opened his stride, aiming for a pass between two mountains as sharp as goblins' teeth in the silver light. Somewhere a wolf howled.Mort took another look at the hourglass. Its frame was carved with oak leaves and mandrake roots, and the sand inside, even by moonlight, was pale gold. By turning the glass this way and that, he could just make out the name 'Ammeline Hamstring'

Thomas Kinkade Make a Wish Cottage 2

2009-03-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Make a Wish Cottage 2Thomas Kinkade Home For ChristmasThomas Kinkade Elegant Evening at Biltmore
sand inside, even by moonlight, was pale gold. By turning the glass this way and that, he could just make out the name 'Ammeline Hamstring' etched in the faintest of lines.
Binky slowed totrotted across the freezing crust without sinking. He left no hoofprints, of course.
Mort dismounted and walked towards the door, muttering to himself and making a canter. Mort looked down at the roof of a forest, dusted with snow that was either early or very, very late; it could have been either, because the Ramtops hoarded their weather and doled it out with no real reference to the time of year.A gap opened up beneath them. Binky slowed again, wheeled around and descended towards a clearing that was white with drifted snow. It was circular, with a tiny cottage in the exact middle. If the ground around it hadn't been covered in snow, Mort would have noticed that there were no tree stumps to be seen; the trees hadn't been cut down in the circle, they'd simply been discouraged from growing there. Or had moved away.Candlelight spilled from one downstairs window, making a pale orange pool on the snow.Binky touched down smoothly and

Pierre Auguste Renoir Girls at The Piano

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

Pierre Auguste Renoir Girls at The PianoDiane Romanello Weeping WillowsDiego Rivera Nude with Calla Lilies
Death laid a hand on Mort's shoulder.
WHAT YOUR FATHER SEES AND HEARS IS NOT WHAT YOU SEE AND HEAR, he said. DO NOT WORRY HIM. DO YOU and fascinating and not entirely horrible, and that if he let this moment go he'd spend the rest of his it. And he remembered the humiliations of the day, and the long walk 'Er,' he began, 'I don't have to die to get the job, do I?'
BEING DEAD IS NOT COMPULSORY.
'And . . . the bones . . .?'THINK HE WOULD WANT TO SEE ME – IN THE FLESH, AS IT WERE?'But you're Death,' said Mort. 'You go around killing people!'I? KILL? said Death, obviously offended. CERTAINLY NOT. PEOPLE GET KILLED, BUT THAT'S THEIR TAKE OVER FROM THEN ON. AFTER ALL, IT'D BE A BLOODY STUPID WORLD IF PEOPLE GOT KILLED WITHOUT DYING, WOULDN'T IT?'Well, yes —' said Mort, doubtfully.Mort had never heard the word 'intrigued'. It was not in regular use in the family vocabulary. But a spark in his soul told him that here was something weird

Paul Gauguin Where Do We Come From

2009-03-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

Paul Gauguin Where Do We Come FromPaul Gauguin The Yellow ChristPaul Gauguin The Vision After the Sermon
After a while a stick of chalk rose from the lectern and started to write on the blackboard behind him. Esk had picked up of the possibility matrix" she couldn't guess at all.
Sometimes he seemed to be saying that nothing existed unless people thought it did, and the world was really only there at all because people kept on imagining it. But then he seemed to be saying that there was lots of worlds, all nearly the same and all sort of occupying the same place but all separated by the thickness of a shadow, so that everything that ever could happen would have somewhere enough about wizard magic to know that this was an astounding achievement- Simon had been at the University for a couple of weeks, and most students hadn't mastered Light Levitation by the end of their second year. The little white stub skittered and squeaked across the blackness to the accompaniment of Simon's voice. Even allowing for the stutter, he was not a very good speaker. He dropped notes. He corrected himself. He ummed and ahhed. And as far as Esk was concerned he wasn't saying anything very much. Phrases filtered down to her hiding place. "Basic fabric of the universe" was one, and she didn't understand what that was, unless he meant denim, or maybe flannelette. "Mutability

Pierre Auguste Renoir Dance in the City

2009-03-09T01:58:00.000-07:00

Pierre Auguste Renoir Dance in the CityJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida Beaching the Boat (study)Joseph Mallord William Turner Mortlake Terrace
main gate at Unseen University and no woman has ever passed through it."
"Tell me," said Esk, "what good is high magic, exactly?"
Treatle smiled at her.
"High magic, my child," he said, "can give us everything we want."
"Oh."is for."
"I see."
The whole caravan was travelling only a little faster than walking pace. Esk jumped down, pulled the staff from its temporary hiding place among the bags and pails on the side of the wagon, and ran back along the line of carts and animals. Through her tears she caught a glimpse of Simon peering from the back of the wagon, an open book in his hands. He gave her a puzzled smile and started to say something, but she ran on and veered off the track. "So put all this wizard nonsense out of your head, all right?" Treatle gave her a benevolent smile. "What is your name, child?" "Eskarina." "And why do you go to Ankh, my dear?" "I thought I might seek my fortune," muttered Esk, "but I think perhaps girls don't have fortunes to seek. Are you sure wizards give people what they want?" "Of course. That is what high magic

Salvador Dali Melting Watch

2009-03-05T23:48:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dali Melting WatchSalvador Dali Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a PomegranateSalvador Dali Bacchanale
Granny Weatherwax, learning witch craft.
It seemed to consist mainly of things to remember.
The lessons were quite practical. There was cleaning the kitchen table and Basic Herbalism. There was mucking out the goats and The Uses of Fungi. There was doing the washing and The Summoning of the Small Gods. And there , and said: "The flowering tops of Greater Peahane, the root pith of Old Man's Trousers, the stems of the Bloodwater Lily, the seedcases of -"
"All right. Where may water gherkins be found?"
"Peat bogs and stagnant pools, from the months of -"was always tending the big copper still in the scullery and The Theory and Practice of Distillation. By the time the warm Rim winds were blowing, and the snow remained only as little streaks of slush on the Hub side of trees, Esk knew how to prepare a range of ointments, several medicinal brandies, a score of special infusions, and a number of mysterious potions that Granny said she might learn the use of in good time. What she hadn't done was any magic at all. "All in good time," repeated Granny vaguely. "But I'm supposed to be a witch!" "You're not a witch yet. Name me three herbs good for the bowels." Esk put her hands behind her back, closed her eyes

Vincent van Gogh The good Samaritan Delacroix

2009-03-05T01:18:00.000-08:00

Vincent van Gogh The good Samaritan DelacroixVincent van Gogh A Novel ReaderLeonardo da Vinci The Virgin and Child With St AnneLeonardo da Vinci Madonna With The Carnation
And so it was that Rincewind, Twoflower and Bethan entered Unseen University.
Elsewhere on the campus—
The eight wizards inserted their keys and, with many a worried glance at one another, turned them. There was a faint little snicking sound as the lock slid open.
The Octavo was unchained. A faint octarine light played across its bindings.
Trymon reached out and picked it up, and none of the others objected. His arm tingled.
He turned towards the door.
'Now to the enraged screams of the wizards who had just discovered how impossible it is to pass spells in a room built to be impervious to magic.
The Octavo squirmed, but Trymon held it tightly. Now he ran, putting out of his mind the horrible sensations under his arm as the book shape-changed into things hairy, skeletal and spiky. His hand Great Hall, brothers,' he said, 'if I may lead the way —'And there were no objections.He reached the door with the book tucked under his rm. It felt hot, and somehow prickly.At every step he expected a cry, a protest, and none came. He had to use every ounce of control to stop himself from laughing. It was easier than he could have imagined.The others were halfway across the claustrophobic dungeon by the time he was through the door, and perhaps they had noticed something in the set of his shoulders, but it was too late because he had crossed the threshold, gripped the handle, slammed the door, turned the key, smiled the smile.He walked easily back along the corridor, ignoring the numb. The faint chittering noises he had been hearing grew in volume, and there were other

William Blake the Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve

2009-03-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

William Blake the Body of Abel Found by Adam and EveVincent van Gogh Vase with Twelve SunflowersVincent van Gogh Vase with Daisies and AnemonesVincent van Gogh The Starry Night 2
added. 'Besides, I'd have no-one to talk to.'
'Who's this?' said Twoflower.
'She sort of lives here,' mumbled Rincewind. 'She's a sort of girl,' he added.
He grabbed Twoflower's shoulder and tried to shuffle imperceptibly towards the door into the dark, cold It didn't work, largely because Twoflower wasn't the sort of person who went in for nuances of expression and somehow never assumed that anything bad might apply to him.
'Charmed, I'm sure,' he said. Very nice place, you have here. Interesting baroque effect with the bones and skulls.'
Ysabell smiled. Rincewind thought: if Death ever does hand over the be better at it than he is – she's.
And the wizard, with great deliberation and a certain amount of satisfaction, hit him smartly on the bonkers.'Yes, but we must be going,' he said.'I really won't hear of it,' she said. You must stay and tell me all about yourselves. There's plenty of time and it's so boring here.'She darted sideways and swung the scythe at the shining threads. It screamed through the air like a neutered tomcat – and stopped sharply.There was the creak of wood. The Luggage had snapped its lid shut on the blade.Twoflower looked up at Rincewind in astonishment chin. As the little man fell backwards Rincewind caught him, threw him over a shoulder and ran.
Branches whipped at him in the starlit small, furry and probably horrible things scampered away as he pounded desperately along the faint that shone eerily on the freezing grass

Leroy Neiman International Horse Show New York

2009-03-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman International Horse Show New YorkLeroy Neiman International CuisineLeroy Neiman High Stakes Blackjack VegasLeroy Neiman Frank at Rao's
?' said Rincewind, gloomily.
'Come on in,' said the gnome, 'but mind the doormat.
'Why?'
1,237.98712567 times the difference between the distance to the sun and the weight of a small orange. He learned that sixty years had been devoted entirely to its construction.
It all seemed, he thought, to be rather a lot of trouble to go to just to sharpen a razor blade.
And in the Forest of Skund Twoflower and Rincewind settled down to a meal of gingerbread mantlepiece and thought longingly of pickled onions.'Candyfloss.' The great Disc spun slowly under its toiling sun, and daylight pooled in hollows and finally drained away as night fell.In his chilly room in Unseen University Trymon pored over the book, his lips moving as his finger traced the unfamiliar, ancient script. He read that the Great Pyramid of Tsort, now long vanished, was made of one million, three thousand and ten limestone blocks. He read that ten thousand slaves had been worked to death in its building. He learned that it was a maze of secret passages, their walls reputedly decorated with the distilled wisdom of ancient Tsort. He read that its height plus its length divided by half its width equalled exactly 1.67563, or precisely

Jean Beraud Le Bal Mabile

2009-03-02T00:27:00.000-08:00

Jean Beraud Le Bal MabileJean Beraud Jeune femme traversant le boulevardJean Beraud A Game of BilliardsHenri Rousseau The Football Players
force of a tsunami.
"I don't think you understand," explained Twoflower. "I am a citizen of the Golden Empire. I'm sure Krull would not wish to incur the displeasure of the Emperor."
"How will the . The rocking chair flicked back against the wall and one blue arm caught the wizard around the waist. A moment later the troll was striding out of the shack with Rincewind gripped carelessly in one fist.
He did not stop until he came to the Rimward edge of the island. Rincewind squealed.
"Stop that or I really will throw you over emperor know?" asked the troll."Do you think you're the first person from the Empire who has ended up on the Circumfence?""I won't be a slave," shouted Rincewind. "I'd - I'd jump over the Edge first!" He was amazed at the sound in his own voice."Would you, though?" asked the troll

Claude Monet Water-Lilies 1914

2009-02-26T23:32:00.001-08:00

Claude Monet Water-Lilies 1914Claude Monet The Seine at Rouen IClaude Monet The Road Bridge at ArgenteuilClaude Monet The Bridge at Argenteuil
This Pulitzer Prize winning book is a mind-opening journey that spans science, computation, zen, art, music and much much more. The book is most unusual in the way it tells its story. Some chapters are dialogs between Waldrop Stephen Hawking once said: “I think the next century will be the century of complexity.” Complexity science is one of the most important breakthroughs in recent history. Unlike the traditional specialized approach to science, complexity focuses on patterns and properties that exist across different branches.Achilles and Tortoise. Other chapters are focused on Bach’s fugues and the theorems of great German mathematician Kurt Gordel.Throughout the book, Hofstadter discusses the work of M.C. Escher, a painter famous for his paradoxical paintings that question how the mind perceives space. In addition, the book features chapters about modern genetics, zen buddhism and neuroscience. All of these seemingly diverse topics come together to discuss recursive structures, the mind, artificial intelligence and computation. 2. Complexity by Mitchell

Claude Monet The Picnic

2009-02-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

Claude Monet The PicnicClaude Monet La GrenouillereFabian Perez TangoFabian Perez Flamenco
looked down at the recumbent thief.
"Good.
He looked up and yelled as another ember landed on his neck. Flames were racing along the rooftops on the other side of the street. All around him people were hurling possessions from windows and dragging horses from puzzling him.
"I’m sure all the candles went out," he said. "So how did the Drum catch fire?"
"I don't know," moaned Twoflower. "it's terrible, Rincewind. We were getting along so well, too."
Rincewind stopped in astonishment, so that another refugee cannoned into him and spun away with an oath.
"Getting on?"smoking stables. Another explosion in the white-hot volcano that was the Drum sent a whole marble mantelpiece scything overhead."The Widdershin Gate's the nearest!" Rincewind shouted above the crackle of collapsing rafters. "Come on!"He grabbed Twoflower's reluctant arm and dragged him down the street."My luggage!""Blast your luggage. Stay here much longer and you'll go where you don't need luggage. Come on!" screamed Rincewind.They jogged on through the crowd of frightened people leaving the area, while the wizard took great mouthfuls of cool dawn air. Something was

Henri Rousseau The Boat in the Storm

2009-02-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Henri Rousseau The Boat in the StormHenri Rousseau SurpriseHenri Rousseau Sleeping GypsyHenri Rousseau Scout Attacked by a Tiger
daemon.
Of course, she hadn't understood what he meant; he'd spoken of panserbj0rne instead of using the English word, so she didn't know he was talking about bears, and she had no idea that lofur Raknison wasn't a man. And a man would have had a daemon anyway, so it hadn't made sense.
But now it was lorek Byrnison to his rightful throne; a way, finally, of getting to the place where they had put Lord Asriel, and taking him the alethiometer.
The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.plain. Everything she'd heard about the bear-king added up: the mighty lofur Raknison wanted nothing more than to be a human being, with a daemon of his own.And as she thought that, a plan came to her: a way of making lofur Raknison do what he would normally never have done; a way of restoring

William Bouguereau Innocence

2009-02-23T22:21:00.001-08:00

William Bouguereau InnocenceBill Brauer The Gold DressUnknown Artist Muhammad Ali pop artUnknown Artist Bruce Lee
weak...."
They were as frightened as Lyra was. She found Annie and the others, and sat down.
"Listen," she said, "can you keep a secret?"
"Yeah!".
"The fire bell, like this afternoon. It's all organized. All the kids're going to know and none of the grownups. Especially not her."
Their eyes were gleaming with hope and excitement. And all through the canteen the message was being passed around. Lyra could tell that the atmosphere had changed. Outside, the children had been energetic and eager for play; then when they The three faces turned to her, vivid with expectation."There's a plan to escape," Lyra said quietly. "There's some people coming to take us away, right, and they'll be here in about a day. Maybe sooner. What we all got to do is be ready as soon as the signal goes and get our cold-weather clothes at once and run out. No waiting about. You just got to run. Only if you don't get your anoraks and boots and stuff, you'll die of cold.""What signal?" Annie demanded

Thomas Kinkade Stairway to Paradise

2009-02-22T22:42:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Stairway to ParadiseThomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDERThomas Kinkade LondonThomas Kinkade Light of Freedom
watched their daemons. This nurse's was a pretty bird, just as neat and incurious as Sister Clara's dog, and the doctor's was a large heavy moth. Neither moved. They were awake, for the bird's eyes were bright and the moth's feelers waved languidly, but they weren't animated, as she would have expected them to be. Perhaps they weren't He was annoyed at having his experiments interrupted, and snapped his fingers in irritation.
"I suppose this is just the sort of thing the practice is meant to show up," he said. "What a nuisance."
"When I came yesterday," Lyra said helpfully, "Sister Clara put my other clothes really anxious or curious at all.Presently the doctor came back and they went on with the examination, weighing her and Pantalaimon separately, looking at her from behind a special screen, measuring her heartbeat, placing her under a little nozzle that hissed and gave off a smell like fresh air.In the middle of one of the tests, a loud bell began to ring and kept ringing."The fire alarm," said the doctor, sighing. "Very well. Lizzie, follow Sister Betty.""But all their outdoor clothes are down in the dormitory building, Doctor. She can't go outside like this. Should we go there first, do you think?"

Thomas Kinkade Footprints in the sand

2009-02-20T00:24:00.001-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Footprints in the sandThomas Kinkade Fisherman's WharfThomas Kinkade elegant evening
the quayside he shook himself, sending great sheets of water flying in all directions, till his fur was standing up thickly again. Then he bent to take the black object in his teeth once more and dragged it along to where his armor lay. It was a dead seal.
"lorek," said the , lorek."
"Where's your balloon?" said Lyra to the Texan.
"Packed away in two sledges," he said. "Here comes the boss."
John Faa and Farder Coram, together with the sysselman, came down the quay with four armed paeronaut, standing up lazily and keeping his pistol firmly fixed on the sysselman. "Howdy."The bear looked up and growled briefly, before ripping the seal open with one claw. Lyra watched fascinated as he laid the skin out flat and tore off strips of blubber, which he then rubbed all over his armor, packing it carefully into the places where the plates moved over one another."Are you with these people?" the bear said to Lee Scoresby as he worked."Sure. I guess we're both hired handsolicemen.

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Arrival of the Boats

2009-02-18T22:57:00.001-08:00

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Arrival of the BoatsJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida Valencian SceneJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Wounded Foot
use for reading the future. And the nearest book of readings I know of is in the Abbey of St. Johann at Heidelberg."
Lyra could see why he was saying this: he didn't want Dr. Lanselius to know of Lyra's power. But she could also see the city of Prague," said the consul. "The Scholar who invented the first alethiometer was apparently trying to discover a way of measuring the influences of the planets, according to the ideas of astrology. He intended to make a device that would respond to the idea of Mars or Venus as a compass responds to the idea of North. In that he failed, but the mechanism he invented was clearly responding to something, even if no one knew what it was."something Farder Coram couldn't, which was the agitation of Dr. Lanselius's daemon, and she knew at once that it was no good to pretend.So she said, "Actually, I can read it," speaking half to Dr. Lanselius and half to Farder Coram, and it was the consul who responded."That is wise of you," he said. "Where did you obtain this one?""The Master of JordanOxford gave it to me," she said. "Dr. Lanselius, do you know who made them?""They are said to originate in

Pino close to my heart

2009-02-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

Pino close to my heartUnknown Artist Albert Edelfelt VirginieUnknown Artist Albert Edelfelt male nude 1
and more good tempered, as if the savage gloom his face showed outside were only a disguise. And Lyra felt an excitement The hall was lit by naphtha lamps, which shone brightly enough on the faces and bodies of the audience, but left the lofty rafters hidden in darkness. The people coming in growing in her breast as she ate quickly and washed the dishes before combing her hair, tucking the alethiometer into the wolfskin coat pocket, and jumping ashore with all the other families making their way up the slope to the Zaal.She had thought Tony was joking. She soon found that he wasn't, or else that she looked less like a gyptian than she'd thought, for many people stared, and children pointed, and by the time they reached the great doors of the Zaal they were walking alone between a crowd on either side, who had fallen back to stare and give them room.And then Lyra began to feel truly nervous. She kept close to Ma Costa, and Pantalaimon became as big as he could and took his panther shape to reassure her. Ma Costa trudged up the steps as if nothing in the world could possibly either stop her or make her go more quickly, and Tony and Kerim walked proudly on either side like princes.

Claude Monet Water-Lilies 1914

2009-02-16T23:12:00.000-08:00

Claude Monet Water-Lilies 1914Claude Monet The Seine at Rouen IClaude Monet The Road Bridge at Argenteuil
Professor Docker say that you had some connection with Mrs. Coulter?"
"Yes."
"What is it? You're not her daughter, by any chance? I suppose I should know-"
"No!" said Lyra. '"Course not. I'm her personal assistant."
"Her personal Like for navigation."
"Ah, I see....And where do you come from? What was your name again?"
"Lyra. I come from Oxford."
"Why did Mrs. Coulter pick you to-"
She stopped very suddenly, because Mrs. Coulter herself had assistant? You're a bit young, aren't you? I thought you were related to her or something. What's she like?""She's very clever," said Lyra. Before this evening she would have said much more, but things were changing."Yes, but personally," Adele Starminster insisted. "I mean, is she friendly or impatient or what? Do you live here with her? What's she like in private?""She's very nice," said Lyra stolidly."What sort of things do you do? How do you help her?""I do calculations and all that.

John Singer Sargent Sargent Poppies

2009-02-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

John Singer Sargent Sargent PoppiesLord Frederick Leighton Leighton IdyllLord Frederick Leighton The Painter's Honeymoon
glowered at them all till even the Chaplain had to laugh.
What happened on those awkward, formal visits never varied. After the tea, the Master and the other few Scholars who'd been invited left Lyra and her uncle together, and he called her to stand in front of him and tell him what ?"
And she mumbled, "I just play. Sort of around the college. Just...play, really."
And he said, "Let me see your hands, child."
She held out her hands for inspection, and he took them and turned them over to look at her fingernails. Beside him, his daemon lay sphinxlike on the carpet, swishing her tail occasionally and gazing unblinkingly at Lyra.
"Dirty," said Lord Asriel, pushing her hands away. "Don't they make you wash in she'd learned since his last visit. And she would mutter whatever she could dredge up about geometry or Arabic or history or anbarology, and he would sit back with one ankle resting on the other knee and watch her inscrutably until her words failed.Last year, before his expedition to the North, he'd gone on to say, "And how do you spend your time when you're not diligently studying

Thomas Kinkade Christmas Evening

2009-02-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Christmas EveningThomas Kinkade Abundant HarvestThomas Kinkade A Holiday Gathering
? 'Be prepared.' Of all the ways of starting a fire, the best is dry matches. I never travel without them. We could do worse than this as a campsite, Mr. Scoresby."
"You heard those zeppelins again?"
Grumman held up his hand. Lee listened, and sure enough, there was that engine sound, easier to make out now that earth and pressed it down over the flames, and Lee struggled to lie down in the little tent and closed his eyes.

He had strange and powerful dreams. At one point he was convinced he had awoken to see the shaman sitting cross-legged, wreathed in flames, and the flames were rapidly the rain had eased a little."They've been over twice now," said Grumman. "They don't know where we are, but they know we're here somewhere."And a minute later a flickering glow came from somewhere in the direction the zeppelin had flown. It was less bright than lightning, but it was persistent, and Lee knew it for a flare."Best put out the fire, Dr. Grumman," he said, "sorry as I am to do without it. I think that canopy's thick, but you never know. I'm going to sleep now, wet through or not.""You will be dry by the morning," said the shaman.He took a handful of wet

Henri Rousseau The Waterfall

2009-02-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Henri Rousseau The WaterfallHenri Rousseau The Repast of the LionHenri Rousseau The Merry Jesters
Vengeance for—oh! Rebel angels! After the war in Heaven—Satan and the—but it isn't true, is it? Is that what you
FIND THE GIRL AND THE
BOY. WASTE NO MORE TIME.
But why?
YOU MUST PLAY THE SERPENT.
She took her hands from the keyboard and rubbed her eyes. The words were still there when she looked again.
Where
GO TO A ROAD CALLED
SUNDERLAND AVENUE AND
FIND A TENT. DECEIVE THE
GUARDIAN AND GO THROUGH.
TAKE PROVISIONS FOR A
LONG JOURNEY. YOU WILL
BE PROTECTED. THE
SPECTERS WILL NOT
TOUCH YOU.
But I
BEFORE YOU GO, DESTROY
THIS EQUIPMENT.
I don't understand. Why me? And what's this journey? And
YOU HAVE attached to her skin. She took them off absently. She might have doubted what she had done, and what she could still see on the screen, but BEEN PREPARINGFOR THIS AS LONG AS YOUHAVE LIVED. YOUR WORKHERE IS FINISHED. THELAST THING YOU MUST DOIN THIS WORLD IS PREVENTTHE ENEMIES FROM TAKINGCONTROL OF IT. DESTROYTHE EQUIPMENT. DO IT NOWAND GO AT ONCE.Mary Malone pushed back the chair and stood up, trembling. She pressed her fingers to her temples and discovered the electrodes still

Titian Bacchus and Ariadne

2009-02-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

Titian Bacchus and AriadneLorenzo Lotto St Catherine of AlexandriaTheodore Chasseriau Apollo and Daphne
fantastic resource for learning and development.'
The most common venue for teenagers to surf the web is the bedroom (33 per cent), followed by their parent's study or livingAnd 45 per cent will talk to their parents if they are worried about anything they have accidentally accessed - such as self harming, drugs, knife crime or sex.
But a third have also admitted to hiding some of the websites they have been visi room (27 per cent).But 13 to 19 year-olds readily admit they are left alone with the computer for up to two hours a day, that's 14 hours a week.An hour of this time is spent looking at emotional support sites such as The Samaritans; another hour and 15 minutes is spent on dating websites and a further hour and a half on auction websites.And for an hour and 55 minutes teenagers are creating online personas on virtual world sites such as Second life.Two thirds of teenagers say their parents have spoken with them about what they should and shouldn't look at online.ting from their parents.

Edward Hopper Morning in a City

2009-02-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

Edward Hopper Morning in a CityEdward Hopper High NoonEdward Hopper Four Lane Road
No, wait—" said Will, before Sir Charles could speak, but Lyra ran around the desk, and from nowhere Pantalaimon was in her arms, a snarling wildcat baring his teeth and hissing at the old man. Sir Charles blinked at the sudden appearance of the daemon, but hardly flinched.
"You don't yourself?" he said. "Go and sit down, you filthy brat."
Lyra felt tears shaken out of her eyes by the trembling of her body, and threw herself onto the sofa. Pantalaimon, his thick cat's tail erect, stood on her lap with his blazing eyes fixed on the old man.
Will sat silent and puzzled. Sir Charles could have thrown them out long before teven know what it is you stole," Lyra stormed. "You seen me using it and you thought you'd steal it, and you did. But you—you—you're worse than my mother. At least she knows it's important! You're just going to put it in a case and do nothing with it! You ought to die! If I can, I'll make someone kill you. You're not worth leaving alive. You're—"She couldn't speak. All she could do was spit full in his face, so she did, with all her might.Will sat still, watching, looking around, memorizing where everything was.Sir Charles calmly shook out a silk handkerchief and mopped himself."Have you any control over his. What was he playing at?

Leroy Neiman The Cove at Vintage

2009-02-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman The Cove at VintageLeroy Neiman The CatchLeroy Neiman The Big Five
roughest bunch of scoundrels I ever saw, but they ran around doing his bidding like nervous children. I thought it was his cursing that did it. If they thought he was a shaman, it'd make even more sense. But you know, that man's."
"He might have had a reason," said Lee. "If he had any sense, it will have been a good one."
"He was headstrong," said Sam Cansino.
"Maybe faithful to another woman," Lee guessed. "I heard something else about curiosity was as powerful as a wolf's jaws; he would not let go. He made me tell him every scrap I knew about the land thereabouts, and the habits of wolverines and foxes. And he was in some pain from that damn trap of Yakovlev's; leg laid open, and of that bloodmoss, taking his temperature, watching the scar form, making notes on every damn thing… A strange man. There was a witch who wanted him for a lover, but he turned her down.""Is that so?" said Lee, thinking of the beauty of Serafina Pekkala."He shouldn't have done that," said the seal hunter. "A witch offers you her love, you should take it. If you don't, it's your own fault if bad things happen to you. It's like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can't do is choose neither

John William Waterhouse The Magic Circle

2009-02-03T18:38:00.000-08:00

John William Waterhouse The Magic CircleJohn William Waterhouse LamiaJohn William Waterhouse Apollo and Daphne
My mother needs somewhere to stay for a few days," he said. "It's too difficult to look after her at now. I don't mean she's ill. She's just kind of confused and muddled, and she gets a bit worried. She won't be hard to look after. She just needs someone to be kind to her, and I think you could do that quite easily, probably."Doesn't she need a doctor?"
"No! She's not ill."
"But there must be someone who can… I mean, isn't there a neighbor or someone in the family—"
"We haven't got any family. Only us. And the neighbors are too busy."
"What about the social services? I don't mean to put you offThe woman was looking at her son without seeming to understand, and Mrs. Cooper saw a bruise on her cheek. Will hadn't taken his eyes off Mrs. Cooper, and his expression was desperate."She won't be expensive," he went on. "I've brought some packets of food, enough to last, I should think. You could have some of it too. She won't mind sharing.""But… I don't know if I should…

John Collier Spring

2009-02-02T23:14:00.000-08:00

John Collier SpringJohn Collier Priestess of DelphiJohn Collier In the Venusberg Tannhauser
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with an impassioned endorsement of PCs and a sneak peek at the company's future Windows 7 operating system.
As expected, Ballmer announced that Microsoft is releasing a beta version of Windows 7, which will be available for best version of Windows ever," Ballmer told an audience of several thousand tech professionals and journalists inside a cavernous ballroom at the Venetian hotel. "We're working hard to get it right and get it ready."
Without mentioning the security and compatibility issues that download beginning Friday. The news suggests the world's largest software maker may be giving up efforts to rehabilitate its often-maligned Vista operating system, which was released worldwide in January 2007."We are on track to deliver the

Unknown Artist Paris Eiffel Tower

2009-02-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Unknown Artist Paris Eiffel TowerPaul Klee ZitronenPaul Klee Villa R
after all, and there must be many others.
Suppose that all this time, little by little, Dust had been leaking out of the wounds the subtle knife had made in nature...
She felt dizzy, was another matter entirely. That was new, and it was catastrophic. And if it wasn't stopped, all consciouscome to an end. As the mulefa had shown her, Dust came into being when living things became conscious of themselves; but it needed some feedback system to reinforce it and make it safe, as the mulefa had their wheels and the oil from the trees. Without something like that, it would all vanish. Thought, imagination, feeling, would all wither and blow away, leaving nothing but a brutish and it wasn't only the swaying and rising and falling of the branches she was wedged among. She put the spyglass carefully in her pocket and hooked her arms over the branch in front, gazing at the sky, the moon, the scudding clouds.The subtle knife was responsible for the small-scale, low-level leakage. It was damaging, and the universe was suffering because of it, and she must talk to Will and Lyra and find a way to stop it.But the vast flood in the sky

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky The Ninth Wave

2009-01-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky The Ninth WaveFrank Dicksee Romeo and JulietPierre Auguste Renoir A Girl with a Watering Can
With the Regent at the reins. He's concealed himself well, this Metatron. They speak of him in the apocryphal scriptures: he was a man once, a man called Enoch, the son of Jared, six generations away from Adam. And now he rules the Kingdom. And he's intending to do more than that, if that angel they found by the sulphur lake was correct, the one who entered the Clouded Mountain to spy. If he wins this battle, he intends to intervene directly in "Well, he's begun by invading the Republic," said Ogunwe. "Look, is that smoke?"
A drift of gray was leaving the Clouded Mountain, a slowly spreading smudge against the blue sky. But it couldn't have been smoke: it was drifting against the wind that tore at the clouds.
The king put his field glasses to his eyes and saw what it was. "Angels," he that, Ogunwe, a permanent Inquisition, worse than anything the Consistorial Court of Discipline could dream up, staffed by spies and traitors in every world and directed personally by the intelligence that's keeping that mountain aloft...The old Authority at least had the grace to withdraw; the dirty work of burning heretics and hanging witches was left to his priests. This new one will be far, far worse."

Sandro Botticelli La Primavera

2009-01-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

Sandro Botticelli La PrimaveraSalvador Dali clock melting clocksBill Brauer The Gold Dress
again to the living, I say nothing to contradict you. What you are, you'll know soon enough."
All the time he had been steadily rowing along the shore, and now he shipped the oars, slipping the handles down inside the boat and reaching out to his right for the first wooden post that rose out of the lake.
He pulled the boat the dead, and I swear I'll come back to him, even if no one's ever done it before, I swear I will."
"Yes, I'll tell him that," said the old boatman.
He pushed off, and the sound of his slow oar strokes faded away in the alongside the narrow wharf and held it still for them. Lyra didn't want to get out: as long as she was near the boat, then Pantalaimon would be able to think of her properly, because that was how he last saw her, but when she moved away from it, he wouldn't know how to picture her anymore. So she hesitated, but the dragonflies flew up, and Will got out, pale and clutching his chest; so she had to as well."Thank you," she said to the boatman. "When you go back, if you see my daemon, tell him I love him the best of everything in the land of the living or

Jack Vettriano Defending Champions

2009-01-15T23:07:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Defending ChampionsJack Vettriano Daytona DinerJack Vettriano Dancing Couple
she tempted you, you would not resist. It was right to capture her, but wrong to invite her to this council. Treat her with every courtesy, give her the greatest comfort, but place her somewhere else, and stay away from her."think, I can guess what they'll do. You wonder why you should trust me, what's made me leave them? It's simple: they're going to kill my daughter. They daren't let her live. The moment I found out who she is, what she is, what the witches prophesy about her, I knew I had to leave the Church; I knew I was their enemy, and they were mine. I didn't know what you all were, or what I was to you, that was a mystery; but I knew that I had to set myself against the Church, against everything they believed in, and if need be, against the Authority himself. I...""Well, I invited you to speak," said Lord Asriel, "and I must accept your rebuke. I value your presence more than hers, King. I'll have her taken away."He reached for the bell, but before he could ring, Mrs. Coulter spoke."Please," she said urgently, "listen to me first. I can help. I've been closer to the heart of the Magisterium than anyone you're likely to find again. I know how they

Thomas Kinkade Bridge of Faith

2009-01-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Bridge of FaithThomas Kinkade Autumn LaneJohn Collier Spring
Their word for themselves as a people was mulefa, but an individual was a zalif. Mary thought there was a difference between the sounds for he-zalif and she-ali, but it was too subtle for her to imitate easily. She began to write it all down and compile a dictionary.
But before she let herself become truly absorbed, she took out her battered paperback and the yarrow stalks, and asked the I Ching:the stalks away and closed the book, and then realized that she'd drawn a circle of watching creatures around her.
One said, Question? Permission? Curious.
She said, Please. Look.
Very delicately their trunks moved, sorting through the stalks in the same counting movement she'd been making, or turning the pages of the book. One thing they were astonished by Should I be here doing this, or should I go on somewhere else and keep searching?The reply came: Keeping still, so that restlessness dissolves; then, beyond the tumult, one can perceive the great laws.It went on: As a mountain keeps still within itself, thus a wise man does not permit his will to stray beyond his situation.That could hardly be clearer. She folded

Georges Seurat Le Chahut

2009-01-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Georges Seurat Le ChahutWilliam Blake NebuchadnezzarWilliam Blake Jacob's Ladder
Arctic of his own world, had died. Iorek would avenge him. The good man's flesh and bone would both nourish him and keep him restless until blood was spilled enough to still his heart.
The sun was setting as Iorek finished his meal, and the air was cooling down. After gathering the remaining fragments of Lee's body into a single heap, the bear lifted the flower in his mouth and dropped it in the center of them, as humans liked to do. The witch's spell was broken now; the rest of the body was free to all who came. Soon it would be nourishing ! True! Swear! Promise!"
"Bears don't go south, lying filth!"
"True! King bear must go south! Show you walrus, fine fat good...”
"King bear go south?"
"And flying things got treasure! Flying things, angels, crystal treasure!"
"Flying things, like cliff-ghasts? Treasure?"a dozen different kinds of life.Then Iorek set off down the slope toward the sea again, toward the south.Cliff-ghasts were fond of fox, when they could get it. The little creatures were cunning and hard to catch, but their meat was tender and rank.Before he killed this one, the cliff-ghast let it talk, and laughed at its silly babble."Bear must go south! Swear! Witch is troubled

George Frederick Watts Sir Galahad

2009-01-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

George Frederick Watts Sir GalahadGeorge Frederick Watts Love And Lifechilde hassam In a French Garden
The headless, 6-foot high pyramid originally reached about 46 feet, with sides 72 feet long, Hawass said.
The pyramid, which Hawass said was the 118th found in Egypt, was uncovered near the world's oldest pyramid at Saqqara, a burial Archaeologists plan to enter the pyramid's burial chamber within two weeks, although most of its contents are likely to have been taken by thieves, Hawass said.
Artifacts including a wooden statue of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis and funerary figurines dating from a later period indicate that the cemetery had been reused through Roman times, Hawass said.ground for the rulers of ancient Egypt."This may be the most complete subsidiary pyramid ever found at Saqqara," Hawass said.The monument was originally covered in a casing of white limestone brought from quarries at nearby Tura, Hawass said.

Jean Fragonard Young Girl Reading

2009-01-11T23:27:00.000-08:00

Jean Fragonard Young Girl ReadingJean Fragonard The Stolen KissJean Fragonard The Love Letter
It's probably hard for you to believe that this actually works, but it does.Don't take our word for it, though. Try it out on your man and let him bethe judge.Here's What You Need:One empty bathroom tissue roll.Here's How You Do It:Get your man at least five minutes, making sure he ismaintaining a constant erection. Pleasure the head of his penis orally.Only after at least five minutes have passed, use your fingers to tear thepaper core off his penis. Now his shaft will be super-sensitive to anystimulation you give it.Pleasure him orally until he erupts in a spectacular orgasm.PAGEnaked. Have him sit.Tear off one third to one half of the bathroom tissue core and throw itaway.Kneel down in front of your man and pull his flaccid penis through theremaining portion of the core (the head of his penis can stick out of thecore, but his shaft should be completely covered).Now caress his testicles. Kiss and lick his inner thighs. Do whatever ittakes to make his penis erect. As it hardens, the core will tighten aroundit.Continue teasing him for

Andy Warhol Daisy Double Pink

2009-01-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol Daisy Double PinkAndy Warhol Daisy Blue on BlueAndy Warhol daisy 1982
: Aging itself is not a cause of erectile dysfunction. However, diminishing hormone levels do precipitate some changes. A man may need more physical stimulation to become aroused, and his erection may not be quite as firm as when he was younger -- but sex is no less pleasurable. While a 25-year-old man might be able to get a second erection asafter menopause, due, in part, to a shift in the ratio of testosterone to estrogen and progesterone.Fiction: A woman loses her ability to have orgasms as she ages.Fact: Many women find increased sexual pleasure after menopause, including quickly as fifteen minutes after an ejaculation, a 50-year-old man might need several hours.Fiction: Emotional and psychological factors are responsible for a woman's lack of interest in sex at midlife and beyond.Fact: Physical factors can play an even larger role. Hormonal changes at menopause can affect a woman's sexual response. Low estrogen levels can result in vaginal dryness, causing discomfort during sex. And in some women, lower testosterone levels can mean a lack of energy and a weaker sex drive. Other women find their interest in sex increases

Jack Vettriano A Very Dangerous Beach

2009-01-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano A Very Dangerous BeachJack Vettriano a uninvited guestJack Vettriano A Test of True Love
Then she had to break off, for a regular waterfall of tears came gushing from her eyes, flooding all around her. However, she resumed:
"Think of me when you see the water-bottle.... You will find me also in the ewer, the watering-can, the cistern and the tap.... "
Then Sugar came up, kicks. The others rushed in between them to separate them, but the two enemies continued to insult and glare at each other. The Cat accused the Dog of pulling her tail and putting tin tacks in her food and beating her. The Dog simply growled and denied none of his actions: with a limping walk, for he could hardly stand on his feet. He uttered a few words of sorrow, in an affected voice and then stopped, for tears, he said, were not in harmony with his temperament. "Humbug!" cried Bread. "Sugar-plum! Lollipop! Caramel!" yelped Fire. And all began to laugh, except the two children, who were very sad: "Where are Tylette and Tylô gone to?" asked our hero. At that moment, the Cat came running up, in a terrible state: her hair was on end and dishevelled, her clothes were torn and she was holding a handkerchief to her cheek, as though she had the tooth-ache. She uttered terrible groans and was closely pursued by the Dog, who overwhelmed her with bites, blows and

Kahlo Flower of Life

2009-01-02T23:33:00.001-08:00

Kahlo Flower of LifeKahlo Family Tree My Grandparents My Parents and IKahlo daKahlo-Self-Portrait with Monkey 1938Kahlo A Few Small Nips
So there you have it," said Slartibartfast, making a feeble and perfunctory attempt to clear away some of the appalling mess of his study. He picked up a paper from the top of a pile, but then couldn't think of anywhere else to put it, so he but it back on top of the original pile which promptly fell over. "Deep Thought designed the Earth, we built it and you lived on it." "And the Vogons came and destroyed it five minutes before the program was completed," added Arthur, notcivilization could grow from a single worm five times over in that time. Gone." He paused. "Well that's bureaucracy for you," he added. "You know," said Arthur thoughtfully, "all this explains a lot of things. All through my \strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was." "No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia unbitterly. "Yes," said the old man, pausing to gaze hopelessly round the room. "Ten million years of planning and work gone just like that. Ten million years, Earthman ... can you conceive of that kind of time span? A galactic

Jack Vettriano Daytona Diner

2008-12-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Daytona DinerJack Vettriano Dancing CoupleJack Vettriano Dancer for Money
Lahiri's first story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer and earned her a devoted audience. It also set the bar sky-high for any stories that might follow. Somehow, with her second collection, It's a quirk of modern fiction that a lot of the people who read it work in offices, but very few of the people in it do. As Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End did last year, Personal Days takes a step toward correcting the imbalance. Set within the confines of a nameless, failing white-, it chronicles the company's increasingly intense, intricate office culture, which gets more and more ingrown and self-referential and radioactive with each layoff. "It's possible we can't stand each other," says the novel's first-person-plural narrator, "but at this point we're helpless Unaccustomed Earth, she clears it. Lahiri finely tuned, hypnotically even sentences about Bengali families finding their way in America — but she stretches out, literally, into longer, more complex narratives. The title story and the masterful "Hell-Heaven" establish themes of quietly splintering families and thwarted passion; from there the collection builds in intensity to the triptych "Hema and Kaushik," whose final installment brings together two star-crossed lovers, then cruelly tears them apart.

Sargent Two Women Asleep in a Punt under the Willows

2008-12-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

Sargent Two Women Asleep in a Punt under the WillowsSargent Study of a Fig TreeSargent Portrait of Edouard and Marie-Loise PailleronSargent Mrs. Hugh Hammersley
individuals was almost perfect," Matsumoto said. "This suggests something genetically resident within us is the source of facial expressions of emotion."
Matsumoto found that sighted and blind individuals manage their expressions of emotion in the same way according to social context. For example, because of the social nature of the Olympic medal ceremonies, 85 percent of from birth could not have learned to control their emotions in this way through visual learning so there must be another mechanism. It could be that our emotions, and the systems to regulate them, are vestiges of our evolutionary ancestry. It's possible that in response to negative emotions, humans have developed a system that closes the mouth so that they are prevented from yelling, biting or throwing insults."silver medalists who lost their medal matches produced "social smiles" during the ceremony. Social smiles use only the mouth muscles whereas true smiles, known as Duchenne smiles, cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise."Losers pushed their lower lip up as if to control the emotion on their face and many produced social smiles," Matsumoto said. "Individuals blind

Dawson A Yachting Competition

2008-12-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

Dawson A Yachting CompetitionDawson Broad HorizonsMonsted The forest pathDawson The Glorious Lightning
neck.He had expected to suffer an attack the moment that he’d been spritzed in the face, but perhaps the drug that Moloch breath.Worse still: The feeble effort he made to sit upright instead caused him to slide farther down. In fact he seemed about to slip off the seat. [584] His legs buckled and twisted upon themselves, folding into the knee space in front of the dashboard, and his butt hung off the edge of the seat. From the waist to his neck, he was lying flat on the seat, his head tipped up against the back of it.He felt his airways narrowing.He wheezed, sucked, snorked for breath, drew in little, squeezed out less. That familiar hard-boiled egg settled in his windpipe, that stone, that blocking wad.He could not breathe on his back.He could not breathe. He could not breathe.Moloch stomped the brakes. The car fishtailed, then spun. administered had, as a side effect, delayed the asthmatic response. Now here it came, and with a vengeance.Fric began to wheeze. His chest tightened, and he couldn’t get enough breath.He didn’t have his inhaler.As bad, maybe worse: He remained semiparalyzed, unable to claw himself up from a slack-limbed slump into a full sitting position. He had to be more upright to use the muscles of his chest walls and of his neck to squeeze out every trapped

O'Keeffe Apple Family II C.1920

2008-12-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

O'Keeffe Apple Family II C.1920O'Keeffe An Orchid 1941O'Keeffe A Sunflower from Maggie 1937Rothko Untitled Red Black White on Yellow 1955
planking wet with condensation, at the briny semen scent of the fertile sea, at the frosty rectangles, fluorescent in the mist, that are the had perceived no meaning in anything; now dead, he sees meaning in every detail of the physical world, and too much of it has a dark significance.One finger of the wharf leads past the restaurant windows, and at a prime table.He walks around the building to the front door and follows the maitre d’ through the busy restaurant to Typhon’s table.Typhon graciously rises to greet Dunny, offers a hand to be shaken, and says, “Dear boy, I’m sorry to have summoned you at such a critical moment on this night of all nights.”After he and Typhon settle into their chairs and after Dunny politely turns aside the maitre d’s solicitation of a drink order, he decides that disingenuousness will not play any better sits , beautifully dressed as always, regal in demeanor without appearing pretentious. Through the pane of glass, their eyes meet.For a moment, Typhon regards him somberly, even severely, as though with displeasure certain to have consequences that Dunny does not wish to consider. Then his plump face dimples, and his winning smile appears. He makes a gun of thumb and forefinger, pointing it at Dunny as if to say, Gotcha.By way of fog and glass and the candlelight on the table, Dunny could in a wink travel from the wharf to the chair opposite Typhon. With so many people in the restaurant, however, that unconventional entrance would be the essence of indiscretion

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe painting

2008-12-19T01:20:00.000-08:00

Jean Francois Millet Man with a hoe paintingHerbert James Draper The Water Nymph paintingHerbert James Draper Pot Pourri painting
Hazard rode shotgun, making phone calls. His voice rose from a polite and almost romantic murmur to a demanding thunder, but most often settled into an easy folksiness, while relentlessly he used his status as homicide detective to coax-pinch-push-pull-wrench cooperation from a series of higher-education bureaucrats.Every and university in the greater Los Angeles area had closed for the last two or three weeks of the year. Something less of tracking down Dr. Gerald Fitzmartin, who had organized the three-day weekend conference on screen, Hazard became so infuriated with the runaround at which all academic types excelled that he paused in the chase before frustration drove him to smash his department-issued phone to pieces against his own forehead.“All these university cheese-eaters hate cops.”“Until they need you,” Ethan said.than a skeleton staff remained on duty to serve those students who had not gone Home At each institution that he phoned, he employed charm, appeals to [408] good citizenship, threats, and persistence to get from one know-nothing to another, but always eventually to a know-something who could further their investigation.Already they had learned that the drama professor—Dr. Jonathan Spetz-Mogg—had organized both of the weekend conferences on acting for which Rolf Reynerd had written checks. They had been granted an appointment with Spetz-Mogg at his Westwood, to which they were en route without benefit of emergency flashers or siren.In the process

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window painting

2008-12-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window paintingGeorgia O'Keeffe From the Lake No. 1 paintingMark Rothko Orange and Yellow painting
she worked for him, too, and that he didn’t have to answer her questions. If he resorted to that argument, he would be in deep meide, as Mr. Hachette would say with glee. Mrs. McBee knew that she served in loco parentis, and while she was sound like a bigger lunatic than any of the uncountable entertainment-industry lunatics who, on visiting Palazzo Rospo, had astonished Mrs. McBee with their lunacy during the past six years.He didn’t want Mrs. McBee to be disappointed in him or to think that he was not quite power mad with that authority, she took it seriously.Whether Fric concocted a false explanation or tried to get away with telling only part of the truth, Mrs. McBee would see through his deception as clearly as he himself could see through a window, and she would intuitively know everything that he’d been up to at least since he’d awakened in the armchair. Twenty seconds later, with one of his ears pinched firmly between the thumb and forefinger of Mrs. McBee’s right hand, he would find himself standing before the potted palm in theas he tried to explain why he had attempted to assassinate the plant with a double volley of urine.Minutes thereafter, she would have succeeded in getting him to spill the entire story from Moloch to mirror man to the phone call from Hell. Then there would be no going back.Even Mrs. McBee, with her scary ability to see through any lie or evasion, would not recognize the truth in this case. His story was too outrageous to be believed. He would

Caravaggio The Crowning with Thorns painting

2008-12-11T22:40:00.001-08:00

Caravaggio The Crowning with Thorns paintingCaravaggio Narcissus paintingCaravaggio Madonna di Loreto painting
Still descending through the darkness north of Nod, he heard the words “spinal injury.”Opening his eyes a minute or ten minutes later, he discovered the night aswarm with pulsing-revolving red and yellow lights, and blue, as if he were in an open-air discotheque, and he knew that he would never dance again, or walk.To the tuneless broken songs of police-radio ” and “easy, easy,” and when he looked again, he had blinked himself into the ambulance.He became aware that a needle already pierced his right arm, served by an IV tube and a dangling bag of plasma.For the first time, he heard his breathing—full of wheeze and rush and rattle—whereupon he knew that more than his legs had been crushed. He suspected that one or both of his lungs struggled against the confinement of a partially collapsed rib cage.crackle, flanked by paramedics, Ethan glided through the rain on a gurney toward an ambulance.[171] On the white van, in red letters trimmed in gold, under the bold word AMBULANCE, glowed the smaller words OUR LADY OF ANGELS HOSPITAL.Maybe they would give him a bed in Dunny’s old room.That prospect filled him with a choking dread.He closed his eyes for what seemed a blink, heard men warning one another “careful

Sung Kim Village Steps painting

2008-12-10T22:37:00.000-08:00

Sung Kim Village Steps paintingSung Kim Village on the Water paintingSung Kim Terrace Arch II paintingSung Kim Terrace Arch I painting
Aware of those risks and many more, Fric nevertheless stayed on the line. This was by far the most interesting phone conversation he’d ever had.[102] Just in case this guy with no name happened to be the one from whom he might need to hide, Fric said, “Anyway, I’ve got bodyguards, and they carry submachine guns.”you again later.” His whisper subsided to a murmur that Fric had to strain to hear. “Meanwhile, you start looking for that deep and special hiding place. There’s not much time.”“Wait,” Fric said, but the line went dead.“That’s not true, Aelfric. Lying won’t get you anything but misery. There’s heavy security on the estate, but it won’t be good enough when the time comes, when the Beast in Yellow shows up.”“It is true,” Fric deceitfully insisted. “My bodyguards are former Delta Force commandos, and one of them was even Mr. Universe before that. They can for sure kick major ass.”The stranger didn’t respond.After a couple seconds, Fric said, “Hello? You there?”The man spoke in a whisper now. “Seems like I have a visitor, Fric. I’ll call

Alphonse Maria Mucha Fruit painting

2008-12-10T00:47:00.000-08:00

Alphonse Maria Mucha Fruit paintingAlphonse Maria Mucha Flower paintingAlphonse Maria Mucha Flirt paintingAlphonse Maria Mucha Biscuits Lefevre Utile painting
could be taken in the large and comfortably furnished dayroom, where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning, , and strategized all arrangements for the elaborate parties often held when the Face was in residence. Chef or cook would also prepare a plate of sandwiches or any other requested treat that Ethan might want to take back to his quarters.Of course, he could prepare meals in his apartment kitchen if he preferred. Mrs. McBee kept his fridge and pantry stocked according to shopping lists he presented to her, at no expense to him.Except for Monday and Thursday, when one of the maids changed the bedclothes—Mr. Manheim’s linens were cycled daily when he was in residence—Ethan had to make his own bed each hard.Now, after shrugging into a soft leather jacket, Ethan stepped out of his apartment into the ground-floor hallway of the west wing. He left his door unlocked as he would have done if he’d owned the entire house.He took with him a file that he’d made on the black-box case, an umbrella, and a leather-bound copy of Lord Jim by He had finished reading the novel the previous evening and intended to return it to the library.[17] More than twelve feet wide, paved with limestone tiles featured through most of the main

Thomas Moran Venice, from near San Giorgio painting

2008-12-07T22:42:00.001-08:00

Thomas Moran Venice, from near San Giorgio paintingThomas Moran Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice paintingJean Francois Millet Woman Baking Bread paintingJean Francois Millet The Walk to Work painting
fully light they started. Already the fog was thinning. They kept as close as they could to the western side, and they could see the dim shapes of the low cliffs rising ever higher, shadowy walls with their feet in the hurrying river. In the mid-morning the clouds drew down lower, and it began to rain heavily. They drew the skin-covers over their boats to prevent them opening could be seen.Frodo peering forward saw in the distance two great rocks approaching: like great pinnacles or pillars of stone they seemed. Tall and sheer and ominous they stood upon either side of the stream. A narrow gap appeared between them, and the River swept the boats towards it.`Behold the Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings! ' cried Aragorn. `We shall pass them soon. Keep the boats in line, and as far apart as you can! Hold the middle of the stream! 'As Frodo was borne towards them the great pillars rose like towers to meet him. Giants they seemed from being flooded, and drifted on: little could be seen before them or about them through the grey falling curtains.The rain, however, did not last long. Slowly the sky above grew lighter, and then suddenly the clouds broke, and their draggled fringes trailed away northward up the River. The fogs and mists were gone. Before the travellers lay a wide ravine, with great rocky sides to which clung, upon shelves and in narrow crevices, a few thrawn trees. The channel grew narrower and the River swifter. Now they were speeding along with little hope of stopping or turning, whatever they might meet ahead. Over them was a lane of pale-blue sky, around them the dark overshadowed River, and before them black, shutting out the sun, the hills of Emyn Muil, in which no

Albert Bierstadt In the Mountains painting

2008-12-05T00:27:00.001-08:00

Albert Bierstadt In the Mountains paintingJohannes Vermeer The Guitar Player painting
string, though it was a long shot for his small bow. He drew, but his hand fell, and the arrow slipped to the ground. He gave a cry of dismay and fear. Two great trolls appeared; they bore great slabs of stone, and flung them down to serve as gangways over the fire. But it was not the trolls that had filled the Elf with terror. The ranks of the orcs had opened, and they crowded away, as if they themselves were afraid. Something was coming up behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it.It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane
Claude Monet Regatta At Argenteuil paintingClaude Monet Woman with a Parasol painting
seemed to be hundreds of orcs. They brandished spears and scimitars which shone red as blood in the firelight. Doom, doom rolled the drum-beats, growing louder and louder, doom, doom.Legolas turned and set an arrow to the kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs.'Ai! ai! ' wailed Legolas. 'A Balrog! A Balrog is come! 'Gimli stared with wide eyes. `Durin's Bane! ' he cried, and letting his axe fall he covered

Leonardo da Vinci paintings

2008-12-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Leonardo da Vinci paintingsMichael Austin paintings
Glóin rose and bowed, and Legolas continued. 'In the days of fair weather we led Gollum through the woods; and there was a the mountains, and were unused to the woods. When the battle was over, we found that Gollum was gone, and his guards were slain or taken. It then seemed plain to us that the attack had been made for his rescue, and that he knew of it beforehand. How that was contrived we cannot guess; but Gollum is cunning, and the spies of the Enemy are many. The dark things that were driven out in the year of the Dragon's fall have
Montague Dawson paintingsMaxfield Parrish paintings
high tree standing alone far from the others which he liked to climb. Often we let him mount up to the highest branches, until he felt the free wind; but we set a guard at the tree's foot. One day he refused to come down, and the guards had no mind to climb after him: he had learned the trick of clinging to boughs with his feet as well as with his hands; so they sat by the tree far into the night.'It was that very night of summer, yet moonless and starless, that Orcs came on us at unawares. We drove them off after some time; they were many and fierce, but they came from over returned in greater numbers, and Mirkwood is again an evil place, save where our realm is maintained.`We have failed to recapture Gollum. We came on his trail among those of many Orcs, and it plunged deep into the Forest, going south. But ere long it escaped our skill, and we dared not continue the hunt;

Stubbs Racehorses Belonging to the Duke of Richmond Exercising at Goodwood

2008-12-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Stubbs Racehorses Belonging to the Duke of Richmond Exercising at GoodwoodStubbs Mares by an Oak-TreeStubbs Mares and Foals in a Wooded LandscapeStubbs Hound and Bitch in a Landscape
Pippin subsided; but Sam was not daunted, and he still eyed Strider dubiously. 'How do we know you are the Strider that Gandalf speaks about?' he demanded. 'You never mentioned Gandalf, till this letter came out. You might be a play-acting spy, for all I can see, trying to get us to go with you. You might have done in the real silence. At last Frodo spoke with hesitation. 'I believed that you were a friend before the letter came,' he said, 'or at least I wished to. You have frightened me several times tonight, but never in the way that servants of the Enemy would, or so I imagine. I think one of his spies would - well, seem fairer and feel fouler, if you understand.'Strider and took his clothes. What have you to say to that?''That you are a stout fellow,' answered Strider; 'but I am afraid my only answer to you, Sam Gamgee, is this. If I had killed the real Strider, I could kill you. And I should have killed you already without so much talk. If I was after the Ring, I could have it - NOW!'He stood up, and seemed suddenly to grow taller. In his eyes gleamed a light, keen and commanding. Throwing back his cloak, he laid his hand on the hilt of a sword that had hung concealed by his side. They did not dare to move. Sam sat wide-mouthed staring at him dumbly.'But I am the real Strider, fortunately,' he said, looking down at them with his face softened by a sudden smile. 'I am Aragorn death I can save you, I will.'There was a long

Caillebotte Paris Street rainy weather

2008-12-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Caillebotte Paris Street rainy weatherCaillebotte Norman LandscapeCaillebotte Naked Woman Lying on a CouchCaillebotte Game of Bezique
beyond. Then they could make straight for the Ferry over country that was open, except for a few ditches and fences. Frodo reckoned they had eighteen miles to go in a straight line.He soon found that the thicket was closer and more tangled than it had appeared. There were no paths in the undergrowth, and they did not geton the edge high above them they saw against the sky a horse standing. Beside it stooped a black figure.They at once gave up any idea of going back. Frodo led the way, and plunged quickly into the thick bushes beside the stream. ‘Whew!’ he said to Pippin. ‘We were both right! The short cut has gone crooked already; but we got under cover only just in time. You’ve got sharp ears, Sam: can you hear anything coming?’ on very fast. When they had struggled to the bottom of the bank, they found a stream running down from the hills behind in a deeply dug bed with steep slippery sides overhung with brambles. Most inconveniently it cut across the line they had chosen. They could not jump over it, nor indeed get across it at all without getting wet, scratched, and muddy. They halted, wondering what to do. ‘First check!’ said Pippin, smiling grimly.Sam Gamgee looked back. Through an opening in the trees he caught a glimpse of the top of the green bank from which they had climbed down.‘Look!’ he said, clutching Frodo by the arm. They all looked, and

Caravaggio Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt

2008-11-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

Caravaggio Portrait of Alof de Wignacourtyoung girlStiltz The Best of Cakebread detailVermeer Young Girl with a Flute
among them a family of high repute, for it was large and than most, and it was ruled by a grandmother of the folk, stern and wise in old lore, such as they had. The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Sméagol. He was interested in roots and beginnings; he dived into deep pools; he burrowed under trees and growing plants; he tunnelled into green mounds; and he ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: his head and his eyes were downward.‘He had a friend called Déagol, of similar sort, sharper-eyed but not so quick and strong. On a time they took a boat and went down to the he thought he saw something shining in the river-bed; and holding his breath he grabbed at it.‘Then up he came spluttering, with weeds in his hair and a handful of mud; and he swam to the bank. And behold! when he washed the mud away, there in his hand lay a beautiful golden ring; Gladden Fields, where there were great beds of iris and flowering reeds. There Sméagol got out and went nosing about the banks but Déagol sat in the boat and fished. Suddenly a great fish took his hook, and before he knew where he was, he was dragged out and down into the water, to the bottom. Then he let go of his line, for

Neiman The Beatles

2008-11-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

Neiman The BeatlesNeiman The 21 ClubNeiman The 1st at SpyglassNeiman The 16th at Cypress
discovery of the significance of these glimpses and of their relation to the ancient histories revealed the Third Age and its culmination in the War of the Ring.Those who had asked for more information about hobbits eventually got it, but they had to wait a long time; for the composition of The Lord of the Rings went on at Book Five; and there as the beacons flared in Anórien and Théoden came to Harrowdale I stopped. Foresight had failed and there was no time for thought.It was during 1944 that, leaving the loose ends and perplexities of a war which it was my task to conduct, or at least to report, I forced myself to tackle the journey of Frodo to Mordor. These Chapters, eventually to become Book Four, were written and sent out as a serial to my son, Christopher, then intervals during the years 1936 to 1949, a period in which I had many duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a learner and teacher that often absorbed me. The delay was, of course, also increased by the outbreak of war in 1939, by the end of which year the tale had not yet reached the end of Book One. In spite of the darkness of the next five years I found that the story could not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on, mostly by night, till I stood by Balin's tomb in Moria. There I halted for a long while. It was almost a year later when I went on and so came to Lothlórien and the Great River late in 1941. In the next year I wrote the first drafts of the matter that now stands as Book Three, and the beginnings of Chapters I and III of

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Tarquinius Superbus

2008-11-27T21:46:00.000-08:00

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Tarquinius SuperbusLawrence Alma-Tadema Summer OfferingLawrence Alma-Tadema Silver FavoritesLawrence Alma-Tadema Love's Votaries
forest, with no idea where exactly Voldemort was, but sure that he would find him. Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily, and their presence was his courage, and the reason he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
　"Someone there," came a rough whisper close at hand. "He's got an Invisibility Cloak. Could it be --- ?"
　　　His body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave. The dead who walked beside him through the forest were much more real to him now than the living back at the castle: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and all the others were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled and slipped toward the Voldemort . . .

　　　A thud and a whisper: Some other living creature had stirred close by. Harry stopped under the Cloak, peering around, listening, and his mother and father, Lupin and Sirius stopped too.

　　

Cezanne Mount Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bellevue

2008-11-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

Cezanne Mount Sainte-Victoire Seen from BellevueCezanne Houses on the RoadsideCezanne Grindstone and Cistern in a GroveCezanne Flower Pots
the other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that

Ginny was not--but he could not permit that idea to form in his

mind--
"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry--look inside him!" Why was it so easy? Because his scar had been burning for hours,
"We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake!

But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing!

We're the only ones who can end it!"

She was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed

sleeve as she spoke, but she took great heaving breaths to calm

herself as, still keeping a tight hold on ron, she turned to Harry.

Romanello Bethpage Black, 18th Hole

2008-11-26T01:16:00.000-08:00

Romanello Bethpage Black, 18th HoleRomanello Bay Window Vista IIRomanello Bay Window Vista IRomanello Azalea Walk
"Must've learned from the Carrows," said Harry grimly.

　　　"Shame he wasn't concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really," said Ron, whose hair, like Hermione's, was singed, and whose face was blackened. "If he hadn't tried to kill us all, I'd be quite sorry he was dead."　　　Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help: Jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair – 　　　"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx

　　　"But don't you realize?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake –"

　　　But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Harry looked around and his heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.

Kahlo Self Portrait with Royal Gold Vest

2008-11-24T20:46:00.000-08:00

Kahlo Self Portrait with Royal Gold VestKahlo Self Portrait with ParrotKahlo Self Portrait with Curly HairKahlo Self Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky Between the Curtains
What do you reckon it's looking for?" Ron yelled as they flew farther and farther north.
out of sight beneath them, its enormous shadow sliding over the earth like a giant dark cloud. Every part of Harry ached with the effort of holding on to the dragon's back. 　"Is it my imagination," shouted Ron after a considerable stretch of silence, "or are we losing height?" 　Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery
　"No idea," Harry bellow back. His hands were numb with cold but he did not date attempt to shift his grip. He had been wondering for some time what they would do if they saw the coast sail beneath them, if the dragon headed for open seal he was cold and numb, not to mention desperately hungry and thirsty. When, he wondered, had the beast itself last eaten? Surely it would need sustenance before long? And what if, at that point, it realized it had three highly edible humans sitting on its back?

　The sun slipped lower in the sky, which was turning indigo; and still the dragon flew, cities and towns gliding

McCormack Mother and Child

2008-11-23T19:32:00.001-08:00

McCormack Mother and ChildMcCormack Contemplation IIHomer Three Boys in a Dory with Lobster PotsHomer The New Novel
me about it but I haven't seen it yet, because the Death Eaters took me from the Hogwarts

Express and I Christmas," Luna was saying, as she and Dean relit the

fire.

"Luna, we told you," Hermione called over to her. "That horn exploded. It came from an
Ollivander down the stairs. The wandmaker still looked exceptionally frail, and he clung to Bill's arm as the latter supported him, carrying a large suitcase. "I'm going to miss you, Mr. Ollivander," said Luna, approaching the old man.
Erumpent, not a Crumple-Horned Snorkack --"

"No, it was definitely a Snorkack horn," said Luna serenely, "Daddy told me. It will

probably have re-formed by now, they mend themselves, you know."

Hermione shook her head and continued laying down forks as Bill appeared, leading Mr.

"And I you, my dear," said Ollivander, patting her on the shoulder.

"You were an inexpressible comfort to me in that terrible

Munier Mother and Child

2008-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

Munier Mother and ChildMunier Les ConfituresMunier Essai de l'EauMunier Young Girl with Goat Flowers
would have wondered who was wearing his glasses. He resolved not to speak, for his voice was sure to give him away; yet he still avoided eye contact with Draco as the latter approached.

"Well, Draco?" said Lucius Malfoy. He sounded avid. "Is it? Is it Harry Potter?"
　　　"Draco, if we are the ones who hand Potter over to the Dark Lord, everything will be forgiv –" 　　　"Now, we won't be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope Mr. Malfoy?" said Greyback menacingly.
　　　"I can't – I can't be sure," said Draco. He was keeping his distance from Greyback, and seemed as scared of looking at Harry as Harry was of looking at him.

"But look at him carefully, look! Come closer!"

Harry had never heard Lucius Malfoy so excited.

Robinson The E. M. J. Betty

2008-11-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Robinson The E. M. J. BettyPissarro Orchard in Bloom at LouveciennesPissarro The Railway Bridge at PontoisePissarro Sunlight on the Road - Pontoise
'River'" that's Lee," Ron explained. "They've all got code names, but you can usually tell ---"

"Shh!" said Hermione.

　　　"But before we hear from Royal and Romulus," Lee went on, "let's take a moment to report those deaths that the Wizarding Wimurders of Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell."

　　　Harry felt a sick, swooping in his belly. He, Ron, and Hermione gazed at one another in horror.

　　　"A goblin by the name of Gornuk was also killed. It is believed that Muggle-born Dean Thomas and a second goblin, both believed to have been traveling with Tonks, Cresswell, and Gornuk, may have escaped. If Dean is listening, or if anyone has any knowledge of his whereabouts, his parents and sisters are desperate for news.

Rothko Old Gold over White

2008-11-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

Rothko Old Gold over WhiteRothko Old Gold over White 1956Rothko Number 5Rothko Number 14 1960
Albus Dumbledore, shortly after his mother's death, With his friend Gellert Grindelwald.

　　　Harry gaped at the last word for several long moments. Grindelwald. His friend Grindelwald. He looked sideways at Hermione, who was still contemplating the name as though she could not believe her eyes. Slowly she looked up at Harry.

"Grindelwald!"
Together, he and Hermione started to read: Now approaching his eighteenth birthday, Dumbledore left Hogwarts in a blaze of glory --- Head Boy, Prefect, Winner of the Barnabus Finkley Prize
　　　Ignoring the remainder of the photographs, Harry searched the pages around them for a recurrence of that fatal name. He soon discovered it and read greedily, but became lost: It was necessary to go farther back to make sense of it all, and eventually he found himself at the start of a Chapter entitled "The Greater Good."

Craig Tuscan Valley View

2008-11-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Craig Tuscan Valley ViewCraig Tuscan CastleCraig The Lily PondCraig Sunlit Terrace Crillon le Brave
Obscura!"

　　　A black blindfold appeared over Phineas Nigellus's clever, dark eyes, causing him to bump into the frame and shriek with pain.

"What—how dare—what are you—?"
"Can that possible be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?" 　　　"Maybe," said Harry, knowing that this would keep Phineas Nigellus's interest. "We've got a couple of questions to ask you—about the sword of Gryffindor."
　　　"I'm very sorry, Professor Black," said Hermione, "but it's a necessary precaution!"

　　　"remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"

　　　"Never mind where we are," said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.

Bill Brauer The Gold Dress painting

2008-11-17T19:24:00.000-08:00

Bill Brauer The Gold Dress paintingUnknown Artist Pink Floyd Back Catalogue paintingClaude Monet Water Lilies painting
The witch glanced toward the shining mahogany door facing the space full of pamphlet-makers; Harry looked too, and the rage reared in him like a snake. Where there might have been a peephole on a Muggle front door, a large, round eye with a bright blue iris had been set into the wood – an eye that was shockingly familiar to anybody who had known Alastor Moody.
Dolores Umbridge Senior Undersecretary to the Minister Below that a slightly shinier new plaque read: Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission
　　　For a split second Harry forgot where he was and what he was doing there: He even forgot that he was invisible. He strode straight over to the door to examine the eye. It was not moving. It gazed blindly upward, frozen. The plaque beneath it read:

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window painting

2008-11-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dali Figure at a Window paintingGeorgia O'Keeffe From the Lake No. 1 paintingMark Rothko Orange and Yellow painting
.A.B. I think I've found him."

There was a gasp, and then Hermione ran back up the stairs.

"In your mum's letter? But I didn't see –"
　　　"That fits!" gasped Hermione. "If he was a Death Eater he had access to Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring Voldemort down!" 　　　She released Harry, leaned over the banister, and screamed, "Ron! RON! Get up here, quick!"
　　　Harry shook his head, pointing at Regulus's sign. She read it, then clutched Harry's arm so tightly that he winced.

"Sirius's brother?" she whispered.

　　　"He was a Death Eater," said Harry. "Sirius told me about him, he joined up when he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave – so they killed him."

Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An Ermine painting

2008-11-14T00:07:00.000-08:00

Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An Ermine paintingEdward Hopper Chop Suey paintingCaravaggio Adoration of the Shepherds painting
wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides –

　　　"Ron! Ron!" Hermione called, half sobbing as she and Harry were buffered by terrified guests: Harry seized her hand to make sure they weren't separated as a streak of light whizzed over their heads, whether a protective charm or something more sinister he did not know –

　　　And then Ron was there. He caught hold of Hermione's free arm, and Harry felt her turn on the spot; sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon him; all he could feel was Hermione's hand as he was squeezed through space and time, away from the Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself. . . .

"Where are we?" said Ron's voice.
　　　Harry opened his eyes. For a ; They still seemed to be surrounded by

Edmund Blair Leighton Off painting

2008-11-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Edmund Blair Leighton Off paintingFrancois Boucher The Marquise de Pompadour paintingFrancois Boucher Nude on a Sofa painting
soft golden evening light,

it was already dark in here; Harry flicked his wand at the oil lamps as he entered and they illuminated the shabby but cozy room. Scrimgeour sat himself in the sagging armchair that Mr. Weasley normally occupied, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to squeeze side by side onto the sofa. Once they had done so, Scrimgeour spoke.　"We're not going anywhere," said Harry, while Hermione nodded vigorously. "You can speak to us together, or not at all." 　　　Scrimgeour gave Harry a cold, appraising look. Harry had the impression that the Minister was wondering whether it was worthwhile opening hostilities this early.

　　　"I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you two" -- he pointed at Harry and Hermione -- "can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald."

　　