I feel like the world’s worst reader, because I have done terribly in my self set Summer TBR challenge thing… I gave myself like ten or so books, which you can read about here, and the majority of those books are ones which I need to read for my modules when I go back to university. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the few books I actually managed to read over the summer… Trust me, it’s disappointing, especially compared to my impressive summer reading list from last year…
- Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas
I technically started this book at the beginning of the year, but because of university work etc, I didn’t have much time to really get into it until the start of the summer, when I was finally able to finish it and oh my gosh it had all the feels I was and was not expecting, and it was so good, and I loved it so much! I am so glad I finally got around to finishing it because it is just perfect, and full of action, humour, heart break… everything we should expect from the wonderful Sarah J Maas.
- The Inland Sea by K.J. Orr
This is a short story of only 43 pages, and to be honest, I just got it because it was short and cheap (only £2.99!) and the story looked quite intriguing. However, I was slightly disappointed, because the ending was very sudden, and ambiguous and although I knew it was a short book, I was expecting more from it. It’s about these two boys who live in Russia, and make their way across a frozen lake one morning. The story has flashbacks, and shows the relationship between the two brothers, as well as looking a bit into their family life. But, I would have to say that it didn’t really hit the spot for me.
- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
I really did enjoy The Jungle Book, because I had recently seen the new Disney adaption and it was interesting to see how the new film was much more like the original story than the animated classic. One of the things that I liked about reading The Jungle Book is that Kipling doesn’t stray away from the details- such as animals killing each other. It sounds brutal, but he’s writing about the animal kingdom and it’s what happens in real life. I also liked that it is written in a kind of non-linear form. The narrator often starts chapters with “a few years after…” and then the story goes on. Each chapter is like a short story about Mowgli’s life in the jungle, which makes it a fairly easy read because you can pick it up after a break from reading and not feel too distant from what you’d previously read. The other thing I really liked was the cover of my edition! But you can’t blame me for judging a book by it’s cover when I already knew the story anyway.
- The Cursed Child by J.K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
Yes, of course I read The Cursed Child, and I even wrote a review on it, so I won’t go into too much detail here when you can read my thoughts on my review! But generally, I really liked it. I don’t think it quite lived up to my expectations, but it was an enjoyable read, and all I can say is that I think the stage performance must be magical (no pun intended) because as I read it, I just kept wondering how they manage to pull it off in front of a live audience. It must be so incredible to see live!
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
I am a Sherlock Holmes fan anyway, but I’ve never gotten around to reading the books. Does that still make me a Sherlock Holmes fan? When I say I’m a fan I mean I’m a fan of the BBC series and the films with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. But it was nice to finally read some of the stories in their original context, and be able to see how the BBC adapted the stories into modern day London. I can finally see why the Sherlock Holmes stories are such classics, because they are so clever, and even if you already know how it’s going to end, you still sit there wondering how the great mind will figure out the mystery.
- The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Another short one, of only 90 pages, but it was short and sweet. I really did enjoy this piece of science fiction, because it was the first Wells book I have ever read, and I guess you could say I finally found out what the fuss was all about! There are only 12 chapters, and one of the things I really liked was how none of the men at the beginning of the book are given proper names. It’s just “the doctor” or “the journalist”, so it kind of shows that these could be ordinary people.
I believe that that is all I have read since June… I feel like I’ve missed something out, but I think that’s because I am currently reading two books: I have one more chapter left (I think) of Charles Dickens’ Selected Ghost Stories, and I am struggling to get through George Eliot’s Middlemarch. So I almost finished seven books this summer, which I guess isn’t too bad, considering last year I read nine…
What have you guys been reading? And how did you do with you summer reading goals?


photo courtesy of Rosanne Fortier, Vegreville News Advertiser
Vegreville celebrated its first Alberta Culture Days event at the Public Library on Saturday, September 27. Families were treated to dancers, leaf rubbing, face painting, children’s crafts and music performances throughout the afternoon.
The auditorium was already a scene of enthusiasm as visual artists and organizers started setting up the gym as early as 10 am. By noon, there were musicians playing, artists were displaying their talented artwork, and there was a face already being painted. What a fun way for families to spend a cool autumn day!
Young Winnie Lange was a real crowd pleaser and started off the music with her father Ralph on guitar. The Promin Ukrainian Dancers performed group and solo dances to everyone’s enthusiastic response. Peter Arnold and Don Harfield sang duets including a rendition of Dave and Chris Hadfield (Canada’s favourite astronaut) song “In Canada”. Malachi Barter accompanied by his father Mike, and Bob Ashmead, played Ukrainian music and fiddle tunes.
Jacquie Fenske, Vegreville and Fort Saskatchewan MLA brought greetings from the Province, and Dave Berry, Vegreville Councillor brought greetings from the Town. It’s great that they both took time from their busy schedules to demonstrate their support for this important cultural event, and connect with the artists and families!
Local young musicians, Faith Swedgan and Jared Fell each brought their own acoustic versions of songs including their own compositions. Paul Fike from Holden and Wayne Camantigue each graced the stage and connected with the audience as the afternoon progressed.
While this was going on, there were young budding musicians working away in the Library Meeting room making fun shaker instruments. By 4 pm they were proud to show off their shakers, guitars and have fun singing songs including “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with the accompaniment of Don Harfield and Peter Arnold.
Music continued to fill the auditorium with Lorne Fill, Bailey Stefan, and Winnie Lange finishing off the day. Vegreville is proud of its local musicians, dancers, and artists and it showed!
Credit for the day’s success goes to Donna Williams and Carmen Heisler of the Public Library who did a great job of planning this event weeks in advance, and involved Marg Varga of the Vegreville Visual Arts group, Connie Bay of the Promin Ukrainian Dancers and MC for the day, Don Harfield of Perogies and Jam.
Thank you for coming to this first annual Alberta Culture Days event in Vegreville!
Photographs by Don Harfield and Marg Varga
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You gotta love it when the little guy takes down the big guy, right? Whether it's David kicking some serious Goliath butt or Rudy strapping on Notre Dame's classic gold helmet, we all love to see the underdog come out on top. And that's just what happens in Matilda, one of the last books ever written by the beloved children's book author Roald Dahl, which came out in 1988.
This one's all about a pint-sized girl named Matilda who also happens to be a telekinetic genius. Unfortunately, most of the adults in her life don't seem too keen on letting that genius flourish, and that means this book is classic Roald Dahl. Dahl is no stranger to underdogs with special qualities. Just take a peek at our guides on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches to see what we mean. Like both of these books, Matilda features a young kid as a main character and grown-ups as bad guys in some seriously extraordinary circumstances.
It makes sense, then, that Matilda has remained popular since the day it flew off the presses. According to Dahl's official site, the book sold incredibly fast at first: "Matilda, Roald's penultimate book, broke all previous records for a work of children's fiction with U.K. sales of over half a million paperbacks in six months." Phew.
And no wonder. This baby won the Children's Book Award the very same year it was published, and then, ten whole years later, it was voted the Nation's Favorite Children's Book in a BBC Bookworm poll (source). Matilda has some major staying power. Since it hit the shelves in the 80s, Matilda has stuck around in popular culture. In addition to the 1996 movie, which starred Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman of Cheers fame, amusical version will be playing in Britain throughout 2012. Intrigued? Check out thesoundtrack, and start marching to the beat of Matilda's offbeat drum.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
We've all done it: fantasized about getting back at someone who's bullied you or called you names. We've all wanted to do something drastic to get our bully punished, while we get away scot-free. Maybe someone has put a stink bomb in your locker or slammed into you in the hallway, knocking all your books over. Maybe someone called you four eyes, or cheated off your test in class. It's only human to want to teach that kid a lesson. It's okay, Shmoopers, you can admit it.
The heroine of Matilda gets to do just that. Her father rips up her books, yells at her, and accuses her of lying and cheating. So what does she do in response? Instead of curling up and crying, or trying to run away, she stays home and gets even. She plays tricks on her father that are far more clever than his unfounded abuse, and even though he might suspect she's behind some of it, there's no way he can prove any of it. Thanks to Matilda, her father has to go to work with a hat glued to his head. Thanks to Matilda, the guy has to dye his hair platinum blond. And thanks to Matilda, he winds up thinking there's a ghost in the dining room. Then, when it comes to the Trunchbull, Matilda whips out the big guns: telekinetic powers. This girl is a master when it comes to getting even.
In Matilda, we get to watch with delight as several kids—not just Matilda—play pranks on the Meanies, Big Bullies, and Tyrannical Teachers in their lives. They get even and get away with it. Whether these pranks are things we couldn't (or shouldn't) do in real life, we can all live vicariously through the poetic justice these downtrodden kids achieve. We readers love to see bullies get their comeuppance without worrying if anyone or anything's coming for us, too.
How It All Goes Down
Meet Matilda. She lives with her mean parents. We mean, they're mean on mean. They ignore her, which is extra tragic because she's shaping up to be a super-genius. In spite of them, she teaches herself to read, and heads to the local library, where Mrs. Phelps sets her up with a very advanced reading list.
Sure, Matilda's home life stinks. But she's a clever girl, so she decides to play tricks on her parents whenever they behave badly. She plays three pranks, gluing her dad's hat to his head, disguising a neighbor's parrot as a ghost, and dying her dad's hair blonde. Yes, these are as awesome as they sound.
Then, Matilda starts going to school. On day one, her teacher Miss Honey quickly realizes how smart Matilda is. Miss Honey even visits the headmistress, the Trunchbull, to ask for help with Matilda, but the Trunchbull ain't havin' it. The same thing happens when Miss Honey visits the Wormwoods. Meanwhile, Matilda and her friend Lavender meet Hortensia, who tells them all about how horrible the Trunchbull is. They see the Trunchbull throw a little girl through the playground by her hair. Another day, the Trunchbull force-feeds a kid named Bruce Bogtrotter an entire cake. This woman is bad news.
Lavender decides to prank the Trunchbull on a class visit. She captures a newt and puts it into the Trunchbull's water glass. The Trunchbull blames Matilda for the newt, which makes our girl so mad she pushes the Trunchbull's water glass over with her mind. Whoa. After class, she tells Miss Honey what she did, and then she gives her teacher a little magic show, which results in Miss Honey inviting little Matilda to tea.
Turns out Miss Honey is really poor. She tells Matilda about her past. After her mom died, her mean aunt straight up ruined her life. In fact, Miss Honey suspects that the aunt might have killed her father, and stolen all Miss Honey's money. Oh, and by the way, her aunt is the Trunchbull. We're totally serious.
Matilda decides to use her telekinetic powers to help Miss Honey, so she practices and practices and practices until finally the day comes when she can get some serious revenge.
The Trunchbull visits Miss Honey's class again. The Trunchbull is acting as abusive as ever when she's interrupted by a piece of chalk that's writing on its own. It writes that the Trunchbull has to stop cheating Miss Honey, give the things she stole back, and get rolling. Or else. Needless to say, the Trunchbull passes out cold. Wouldn't you?
Soon we find out the Trunchbull obeyed Matilda's instructions. Miss Honey moves home and starts living a decent life again. And Matilda, who visits her every day, gets moved up to the school's highest class. After moving up, Matilda loses her powers. One day, she finds out that her parents are planning to move to Spain, ASAP. Matilda doesn't want to go with them.
We'll come right out and tell you guys that this is a win-win. That's because Matilda moves in with Miss Honey, where the two live happily (and smartly) ever after.
Source: shmoop, 2013


Above is the video of an excellent performance of Alligator Crawl, Thomas “Fats” Waller.
Here is a video from the man himself, Waller.
The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) Dana Library has a fantastic website on Thomas Fats Waller, including a digital library from which you can view some of the orginal music scores handwritten by Fats Waller himself.
“Though often providing only a minimal outline of the music, the sketches and drafts in the Institute of Jazz Studies Collection clearly served Waller’s creative purposes well; from them he could conjure complete and elegant final versions of his songs.”
(source: Institute of Jazz Studies Rutgers University Libraries, http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/fw/score.htm on 28/03/09.)
The IJS continue by explaining that these manuscripts demonstrate the process used by Fats Waller to compose his music. This process is categorised into four different stages as follows:
(1) single melodic line on one staff;
(2) a melodic line accompanied by chord indications in letters and numbers;
(3) a fully worked out, two-stave piano version of the song;
(4) this is also the final stage. This stage consists of a completed version of the song in vocal score and a separate staff for the melody and lyric linked to two staves beneath it for the piano part.
Are you interested in playing jazz yourself. Looking for tutor books for Jazz. You can find the music score from your local music store, or online. Here are just some of a number of websites where you can find sheet music.
And to find other sites, just do a search on google and other search sites. If you have any favourite websites for finding your sheet music, please share by posting a comment below.


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When summer travel and reading intersect: Montréal and the Inspector Gamache series
Summer feels like it’s marching right along, doesn’t it?
Amongst the normal goings on of life and work, we’ve had new privacy fencing and a darling picket fence installed at the cottage. (Painting is next but the heat has to let up a bit first!)
My son is off at his first overnight camp at a local university where he’s studying music for a week and getting a taste of dorm and college life.
A trip to the coast is coming up that I’m terribly excited for. It’s been two years since we’ve been to the beach, which is a travesty!
And at the beginning of summer, we visited my partner’s parents in upstate New York.
After enjoying a few days with them in the Catskills, we then continued north to Montréal. This marked our family’s first time in Canada and it was fantastique!
Visiting Montréal was borne out of the fact that this year I’ve found myself *deep* into the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. (The first book, Still Life, is pictured at the top of this post.)
Though the best-selling series technically falls into the murder mystery genre, these books are so much more! That’s why I want to share a bit about them, and their author, with you. If you enjoy satisfying stories that make you think--and even perhaps inspire you to be a better person—please read on!
Armande Gamache is the protagonist of the stories and the chief homicide inspector of of the Québec police department (properly called the Sûreté du Québec) in Montréal. Many of the mysteries he investigates take place in the fictional, utterly charming and somewhat remote village of Three Pines in southeast Québec.
Rendering of Three Pines by Rhys Davies
Gamache, though a detective, is described in appearance as favoring a professor more than a cop. He’s in later middle age, thoughtful, an explorer of human nature and regular quoter of poetry.
In the mysteries he solves, Gamache probes not just the facts of the cases, but even moreso the emotions and relationships of the people involved. Tackling themes of belonging, love, friendship, hope, redemption, creativity and more, Louise Penny writes with striking insight into the human condition through Gamache and the rich cast of lovably quirky characters.
She also layers the stories with extensive details that appeal to the reader’s senses. Through illustrative descriptions of the settings, weather and even the Québeçois foods eaten, Penny creates an immersive experience for the reader that makes you feel completely at home in her books.
Claudia of Mockingbird Hill Cottage, is also a fan of Gamache and Louise Penny, as well as a follower of Harmony Farm Candles. She’s written a few posts on her blog about the books and Louise Penny. This post in particular captures far better than I’m able why these books and characters are so resonant and affecting.
Because of how engrossing the Gamache series is, when the chance to visit Montréal arose this year, I immediately started brushing up on my French!
Montréal was a delight to visit with impeccable weather this time of year. We walked umpteen miles traversing the city and ate provincial specialties like poutine, bagels, smoked meat sandwiches, and of course croissants. So many croissants!
A pleasant hike to the top of Mont Royal afforded us an expansive view of the city.
Vieux-Montréal (Old Montréal) was a treat as we took in the cobblestone streets and 17th century stone buildings that now house restaurants and shops.
Funnily enough, while walking in the La Petite-Patrie neighborhood where we stayed, we passed a Gamache tailor shop! Louise Penny has said she named the character Gamache after a tailor of the same name. However, that tailor lives in Granbury, Québec. For a moment I thought I’d stumbled on Chief Inspector Gamache’s namesake!
Though we weren’t able to venture to the rural area southeast of Montréal that inspired the village of Three Pines, there are enough references in the books to places and landmarks in Montréal that connect the city and the series. And let’s be honest, an excuse to go back to Québec is most welcome anyway.
The experience of Montréal is one I won’t soon forget. However, even with the conclusion of the trip, that wasn’t the end of reveling in Gamache!
Shortly after returning to the U.S., I also had the pleasure of seeing Louise Penny in person. What fantastic fortune, right?
She came to North Carolina to promote her most recent Gamache book, Kingdom of the Blind, as well as the forthcoming A Better Man. Only having seen her author photo on the book jackets, I had no idea what to expect but was excited to learn more about this brilliant writer.
Well, let’s just say Louise is a one-of-a-kind person. She completed dazzled the audience with her humor, storytelling and down-to-earth authenticity. I was transfixed by her comfort with herself, her wisdom and wit. Hearing Louise speak with such fondness about the world she’s created in the novels endeared me even more to the series. Her reflections on overcoming fears and feelings of unworthiness were utterly relatable. Hearing her perspective on creating art appealed to my partner who’s an artist even though he hasn’t read the books yet.
Penny on stage in Winston-Salem! (photo from her Facebook page)
See that bald head in the foreground? That's my partner, Matt, and I'm to his right.
In retrospect, I wish the talk had been recorded in some fashion because the evening is something I would love to relive more than just in my memory. I came away feeling connected to the other fans present and my soul felt filled from the magic of the evening.
While in town, Louise recorded a podcast interview for Inside the Writer’s Studio in conjunction with this appearance. Give it a listen if you’re inclined. Louise’s intelligence and magnetic personality shine right through!
Since the trip, I’ve continued reading and enjoying the books more than ever. When I briefly shared on Instagram how much I love the books, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that several followers are fans of the series as well!
Have you read any of the Gamache books? I can’t recommend them enough—clearly!—and I’d encourage you to give them a try. Definitely do read them in order though! There are story arcs that span several books and would be confusing to follow out of order.
Since summers are made for traveling and reading, I must ask: are there any books or series that have captured your imagination? Have you gone out of town or have plans to?
As someone always on the lookout for book and travel suggestions, let’s share in the comments below!
Related posts:Previous: Cottage Gardening That Supports Pollinators Next: Tomato Basil Pie


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When I entered college, I knew one thing was for sure that I was going to do whatever it takes to be successful. At around this time, I began to study success, obsessively. I was absolutely fascinated and obsessed with figuring out why the most successful people and highest performers in the world were where they were and why the rest were not. Through all the books read, these 5 really changed my life, kick started my growth, and gave me the most understanding on how to reach the top.
If there is one book that I would recommend to start reading first, it would be this one. It should be named the Timeless Blueprint for Success. It was written by Napoleon Hill in the early 20th century and has stood the test of time for good reason.
The same principles apply today as they did back then.
The only thing that has changed are the specifics and the details. Most of the concepts you hear about in personal development can be found in this book and will have a profound impact in your life if you did not yet know the wisdom it holds.
Back in middle school, they made us read this book but my classmates and I didn’t really absorb much of the information and didn’t really take it as seriously as we should have. Having read it again, I think it is absolutely an essential for anyone trying to lead a productive life and take back control of their lives rather than being a passenger along for the ride.
The habits we we adapt into our life will determine our destiny.
You can tell (more or less) in what direction one is leading their life simply by analyzing their day. It’s the consistent effort that will make the biggest difference no matter how small the action.
All I knew before this book was that there was an obvious difference between rich people and poor people and I knew the obvious reasons like their bank accounts and work ethic but I didn’t know the real difference. Robert Kiyosaki gives us a real life glimpse into the mindsets and views of both sides. It really detailed the differences and what I had to do be wealthy.
After reading it though, it acted as a catalyst for even more differences I began to spot between the poor and the wealthy. I began to analyze subtle differences between my rich friends and my poor friends. When you know where you want to be, you are much more deliberate at getting there and you’re driven by the fear of the downside (being broke) and the inspiration of the upside (being rich).
It was this very book that fully made me understand just how important believing in your dream is. If you don’t believe it, then who will? The fact of the matter is you can make yourself believe anything with the right strategy.
Once you have engraved it into your subconscious, your thoughts, actions, and words will be aligned with the belief in your success. One of the big lessons that this book showed me implicitly was the power of the subconscious. It’s really the one running the show so why not take control of the program it’s running in the background of your mind!
It was almost as if this book came to me at the very moment that I needed. I had reached an all time low, a rock bottom, and this very book helped me to start on a journey to self improvement that would change my life. Like any other book, it is a tool for you to employ in your life but it is not the only one. Do not depend solely on the strategies given in this book, you must still employ the hard work required to achieve what it is you desire.
Achievement consists of (1) knowing what you want and how to get there and (2) implementing it relentlessly until you do get there! This is an excellent book to get you started on that.
I hope that this list will help you as much as it helped me. Another thing I’d like to add is that even if you’ve already read one or two of these, go back and read them again because the lessons you learned since reading it the first time will help you to better understand the book. The first time I read these books, I didn’t fully grasp the entirety of the lessons that were conveyed. I sort of understood them but it was very surface level understanding whereas now I have much clearer understanding of what the authors mean in some of their passages and I’m sure that when I read it again 5 years from now I’ll learn something that I might have missed this time around.
If you liked this selection of books, get the full list of 50 Books Every Millenial Man Must Read by entering your information below!


Part II: The Divine Warrior in Revelation 19:11–21 (continued)
The Great Supper of God
Another image used to elucidate the significance of the warring Christ is the scene of “the great supper of God” (Rev. 19:17–18), which is contrasted to “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:6–9). The scene of birds eating the flesh of the wicked stems from Ezek. 39:17–20, although Ezekiel describes birds and wild animals eating the flesh and drinking the blood, with the judgment limited to those of the higher socio-economic order, whereas in Revelation it is just birds, they only eat the flesh, and the judgment encompasses all people, the “flesh of all, both free and slave, both small and great” (Rev. 19:18).
Although such an image is quite offensive to modern sensibilities, it would possibly have been less bizarre in the first century considering the sight of carrion birds would have been a familiar sight over the battlefield. Aune astutely notes that dead combatants who are consumed by birds means they have been deprived of burial, “an ancient means for hurting and humiliating an enemy even after death, sometimes accompanied by the mutilation of the corpse.” The significance of this is that this scene is not so much about promoting violence and gore, but is rather using such an ignominious fate to convey the ultimate disgrace the wicked undergo.
The Lake of Fire
One final disturbing image in this pericope is that of the beast and the false prophet being “thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur” (Rev. 19:20). The infamous lake of fire is obliquely mentioned earlier in Rev. 2:11 where it is referenced as the “second death”, which John later equates with “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (Rev. 21:8), the sulfur no doubt being a reference to the fact that it is found in its natural state in areas such as the valley of the Dead Sea. The lake of fire is described elsewhere by John as a place where its occupants are “tormented with fire and sulfur … and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (Rev. 14:10–11; cf. 20:10). The probably source for this fiery lake is the tradition of Gehenna, a valley known in the Hebrew Bible as the “valley of the Ben-hinnom” and as a place of human sacrifice (2 Kgs 23:10; Jer. 7:31-33; cf. Isa. 66:24; 1 En. 54:1), and which was later used in the New Testament to denote an outcome opposite to that of the kingdom of God (e.g. Mark 9:43–48).
The idea of eternal punishment can be found in the Hebrew Bible. A good example of this is seen in Isa. 34:9-10 where we are told that the land of Edom “shall become burning pitch” and that “night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever … no one shall pass through it forever and ever.” Naturally, this language is symbolic, for the smoke of Edom isn’t rising today, demonstrating that same notion in Revelation isn’t referring to an eternal duration of punishment, but to its finality. This concept is also found in the New Testament where Sodom and Gomorrah are said to “serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). Thus, the lake of fire in Revelation can thus be understood not as describing an actual place of everlasting conscious punishment in actual flames, but as signifying that its purpose of destroying evil cannot be prevented.
The imagery in Rev. 19:11–21—the sword, the bloodied robe, the wine press, the feast of the birds, and the lake of fire—seemingly depicts a dreadful scene bereft of any consideration for mercy. Yet this study has attempted to show that the violent eschatological scene of the Divine Warrior has been subtly transformed by John in a nonviolent way. While he does utilize this motif of the Divine Warrior being victorious in battle, he uses it in an innovative manner by filling it with new content. When Christ fights against the enemies of God, his sword is the word of God proceeding from his mouth. The blood on his robe is his own (and possibly that of the martyrs), signifying the ultimate expression of Christ’s victory over evil is his self-sacrificial death on the cross. Thus, one can conclude that Revelation portrays Christ in the Divine Warrior role and substitutes militaristic violence as being the path to victory for faithful witness to the point of death, epitomized in the shedding of Christ’s own blood. Faithful witness unto death is the powerful weapon that the Lamb wields in Revelation and it is the weapon that his followers possess as well.
Such an interpretation of Revelation may superficially seem absurd, yet it is not strange for someone who mentions robes being washed and made white in blood, who describes a Lion as a Lamb, and who identifies victory as being slain. John did not discard the Hebrew Scriptures, but he does read them deliberately, with his own distinctive hermeneutic and therein lies a risk that one must be careful of. John’s method of juxtaposing paradoxical images is not a panacea for any and all troubling texts in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament, but it does help show that the depiction of Christ in Revelation is, ultimately, much more coherent with the portrayal of Christ in the canonical Gospels than is often thought.
 Boring, Revelation, 199; Sweet. Revelation, 285.
 Aune, Revelation, 1068; cf. Mounce, Revelation, 358.
 McDonald, “Lion as Slain Lamb”, 43 warns that “the vividness of John’s language may seduce the reader into taking the images more literally than John intends.”
 Boring, Revelation, 118, 213.


3. O. V. Kovalev, Representations of the Crystallographic Space Groups: Irreducible Representations, Induced Representations and Corepresentations, edited by H. T. Stokes and D. M. Hatch (Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam, 1993), 390 pages.
2. H. T. Stokes and D. M. Hatch, Isotropy Subgroups of the 230 Crystallographic Space Groups (World Scientific, Singapore, 1988), 624 pages.
1. H. T. Stokes, Solid State Physics (Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1987), 317 pages.


“Authentic Movement is a wise and generous teacher, a portal into the school of the body. It asks only that we be true to ourselves in the present moment, look within, and trust the teacher that resides there (Avstreih, 1993). In a state of open receptivity, both mover and witness are pulled inward, activating the unconscious and the Self, the image of the divine that resides within. Willingly relinquishing habitual and conditioned responses of the ego, both are pulled towards the center, creating the space to be moved by contact with the Essential being. In these moments, the movement takes on a quality of transparency, profound presence, immediacy and truth. Opening to that which is both uniquely us and simultaneously larger than us, we touch the numinous, the mystery of existence, the unbroken wholeness of our being.”
Avstreih, Z. (2007). Achieving body permanence: Authentic Movement and the paradox of healing. In P. Pallaro (ed.), Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved, (270-274). London: Kingsley Publishers.


Words: too many wasted trying write/rewrite query letters
Caffeine: morning cup + midmorning cappuccino
Evil Calories: cookies (many)
Reality TV: DVR'd the Top Chef finale, but still need to watch it
So, I'm sitting in the library trying to have peace and quiet so I can work on my query letters. I'm one of those people that needs silence in order to write. I am very easily distracted by any kind of noise. Child screaming, the latest gag-worthy alternative rock blaring in the background...whatever. This is why I come to the library. No music. Everyone sitting quietly reading. Or at least that's how I remember the library being. But apparently, not anymore. Apparently its OK to bring your slew of children to the library and let them run free and scream at the top of their lungs. And apparently, its perfectly acceptable to run into someone you know and stand in the MIDDLE of the fiction section and exchange stories about your washer/dryer at top volume. I now know that Suzie McFatass, who looks as if she should be more concerned about the motor on her treadmill than the motor on her dryer, is irritated with her husband (poor bastard) because she wanted to go to Sears to get the new Kenmore Elite or Pristine or whatever the crap it's called, and he said "no" because he thinks he can fix it himself, yet he spends all his time bowling which, if you ask me, is probably because she's so freakin' annoying! If I had to listen to you whine incessantly all day about not getting your way, I'd want to get drunk and lob twenty pound balls around too!
Now I'm trying to rewrite the closing paragraph of my query, but I have the overwhelming inclination to inform the agent that if she reps me and sells my book, I must insist that it only be available in libraries where they flog rude, disruptive people like Suzie McFatass with angry bunnies.
On a lighter note, by darling and dearest friend Jenny emailed me today and said she was laughing out loud at my book, and finds herself thinking about it during the day, anticipating when she'll be able to read the next part. Honestly, could I hear anything better?


by Veronica Matthews, Nicole Dow
Don’t underestimate the money-saving might of a humble library card.
You don’t have to be a bookworm to benefit from your local library’s offerings. Some library systems allow you to reserve free or discounted passes to local museums, zoos, aquariums and other arts and culture organizations like theaters and orchestras.
Often, museum pass programs are offered in partnership with city level governance and are designed to allow free or reduced price entry to vital arts and cultural resources. Think of the programs as an extension of the mission of public libraries to provide public access to information.
Not only are free passes a terrific option for families with children, but also for people of all ages who love visual and performing arts and animals. Some pass programs, though, are only open to families with children.
We’ve highlighted a few programs below.
Check with your local library to see whether it operates something similar. Instead of free tickets, some library systems offer discounts on merchandise or parking.
Museum passes are just one unconventional thing that libraries lend. There’s a whole lot more. You could borrow everything from video games to science equipment.
Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Libraries offer the Culture Pass museum program for access to a long list of cultural institutions. We lost count at 30.
The impressive list of museums includes the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Jewish Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Any regular card holder, ages 13 and up, can reserve passes, but Ecards and Educator card holders are not eligible. Passes are available on the first of each month for the following month and the amount of people admitted for each pass varies by institution.
Available at all locations of the Boston Public Library System are passes to six museums, plus the New England Aquarium. Passes to additional museums and attractions are available at select branches.
To reserve a pass, you must show proof of Massachusetts residency and have a physical library card, not an e-pass. Some passes are disposable and some need to be returned. Returnable passes include fines if not returned on time, so be sure to read the rules.
The Fulton County Library System offers a ticket to the city for card holders through the partnership pass program.
Participating Atlanta attractions include the Alliance Theatre, Center for Puppetry Arts, state parks, the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Georgia Aquarium. Passes to the Atlanta zoo are available for a family of three after checking out the Zoo Atlanta DVD.
With over 30 museums in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the Tampa Bay Area public library systems support pass programs that can get you into some of the area’s most popular museums and venues. All you need is a library card.
Hillsborough County’s Discovery Pass offers access to 13 museums and attractions including the Glazer Children’s Museum, Stageworks Theatre and The Florida Orchestra. The number of admissions varies with each venue and some have waiting lists. You can check availability online, but passes must be picked up from a Hillsborough library branch.
Pinellas County Library System’s museum pass program features 11 museums including family favorite Great Explorations Children’s Museum, as well as the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art and the Museum of Fine Arts. Passes can be checked out in person on a first-come, first-served basis and are good for a seven-day loan period.
The Miami-Dade Public Library System’s museum pass program lets library card holders check out free passes to 18 local attractions, including the Coral Gables Museum, the Miami Children’s Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami. Though not technically a museum, Zoo Miami is also part of the museum pass program.
Library patrons can check out one pass per seven-day period. Passes provide one day of free admission for a family of four, with age requirements for kids at Deering Estate, Fruit & Spice Park and Zoo Miami.
Patrons cannot renew the passes or reserve them for a specific date. Passes are first-come, first-served.
The Chicago Public Library has a Kids Museum Passport program that offers free museum passes for a dozen local attractions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago History Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Library card holders can even get free admission at places that aren’t museums — like Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium.
Family passes are available for up to four people. Families must include at least one child under 18 and no more than two adults.
Families can check out one museum pass per week for a one-time visit per reservation. There is a 24-hour waiting period before library card holders are allowed to check out another pass to the museum they just visited.
But wait, there’s more. Your library card might also give you free access to streaming apps to help you save money on movies, music and more.
Those who have library cards with the Denver Public Library can get free admission at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the History Colorado Center, the Molly Brown House Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.
A party of seven can visit the nature and science museum with one museum pass. The History Colorado Center and Molly Brown House permit only groups of four per each museum pass. The pass for the Museum of Contemporary Artcovers admission for four adults.
Museum passes can be reserved up to 30 days in advance.
The public library system in Dallas partners with the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture to provide the Culture Pass Dallas program, allowing patrons with a library card access to museums, theaters and other arts venues. With a catalog of 34 cultural institutions, the Culture Pass Dallas program is one of the most robust on our list.
Library card holders can have up to five reservations at a time and as soon as a reservation date passes, another can be added. There is no limit to the amount of pass reservations you can make in a year.
The County of Los Angeles Public Library and the city’s public library system share Discover & Go, a museum pass program that gives library card holders free admission at 12 museums, including the Craft Contemporary museum, the Chinese American Museum and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Library patrons can make reservations up to three months ahead of time but can have only two active reservations at a time. Some passes will admit up to four museum visitors. However, the number of free tickets per pass varies by attraction.
The public library system in San Francisco also offers the Discover & Go museum pass program, which provides library patrons access to 29 museums and other attractions in the Bay Area.
Passes may include the Conservatory of Flowers, Exploratorium, Haas-Lilienthal House and the Museum of African Diaspora.
Online reservations are available and passes are valid for one use within a seven-day period. The passes are only available for families with children.
Seattle Public Library card holders can visit 11 local attractions, including the Museum of Flight, the Seattle Art Museum and the National Nordic Museum. The museum pass program even includes attractions that aren’t museums, like the Seattle Aquarium and the Woodland Park Zoo.
Library patrons can reserve one pass per week. However, they can’t reserve a pass to the same museum twice within 30 days. Passes can be reserved up to 30 days ahead of the scheduled date.
Museum passes offer free admission for at least two adults.
Contributor Veronica Leone Matthews is a North Carolina-based freelance writer with 11 years of experience writing for non-profits and higher education. She covers lifestyle topics for The Penny Hoarder.
Nicole Dow, a former staff writer at The Penny Hoarder, also contributed.
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Check Out Free Museum Passes at Your Local LibraryWritten by admin
by Veronica Matthews, Nicole Dow


When people ask what kind of stories I write, I tell them I write “weird stuff”. Either they usually respond favorably, or they say, “Oh…okay…” But, no one has ever asked why.
I feel any writer has passion for the particular genre s/he writes. Literary authors may enjoy realism, for example. For me, my love of “weird stuff” has been life-long. My Barbies were often wizards and sometimes zombie hunters. I enjoyed TV shows with a sci-fi or fantasy element. (ex: Gargoyles, Transformers: Beast Wars, anime including Dragonball Z and the various Tenchis) I started reading fantasy when I read Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown. I used these things with speculative subjects as an escape from my everyday life.
When I decided I wanted to be a writer, standard fiction never crossed my mind. My first novel idea (which was also a scenario I played out with my dolls) was about King Arthur returning in the modern day. The rest of the ideas I came up with were traditional fantasy and some sci-fi, with a little urban fantasy thrown in. Of course, I didn’t know it was called urban fantasy at the time. I just thought, “Modern day? Why not dragons?”
I didn’t write anything in high school really, because of my own insecurities, but I always read. Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom books were among my favorites. His books introduced darker fantasy to me. I mean, what’s darker than necromancers and the undead?
I discovered Neil Gaiman through his short story “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” in a collection called Gothic. I became more interested in dark fiction as time wore on. I was an angsty teen, so the darker things were the better. I was a library aide my senior year of high school, and I noticed a small collection of Gaiman’s books. I read Stardust, but was just okay in my opinion. Then I read Neverwhere, which is probably my first proper urban fantasy. I was amazed at how Gaiman created a completely new world that was just below an existing one. Then, I read American Gods, and it changed my life. The epic nature! The characters! Everything was wonderful.
Then, zombies came for me when I read The Zombie Survival Guide my freshman year of college, and I never looked back. I soon thought of the idea for my zombie western, even though I didn’t write it until my junior year. I became obsessed with zombies and the undead, and I still am.
I started reading some of Christopher Moore’s books before my sophomore year of college. Even though he’s in the “regular fiction” section, he has written about monsters and vampires and zombies. Above all, though, he’s funny as hell. He inspired me to infuse humor into my writing, even if I don’t always succeed.
So, here I am: a writer-lady that is kind of paranoid and who likes weird things. Other people like weird things, so I write weird things I hope they like.


AAAOM announces a streamlined Master’s of Acupuncture Degree (MAc) program enrolling now for the Fall of 2019 to meet the increasing demands for qualified Acupuncturists within mainstream medical facilities. Come compare the differences and similarities between the new MAc program and our ongoing MSOM program. Acupuncture is a dynamic and vital medical discipline and has become robustly integrated into mainstream medicine. Did you know that over 70% of qualified practicing acupuncturists working in Minnesota are graduates of AAAOM?
6:00 pm Presentation
6:30 pm Tour of the Herbal Pharmacy and Library
RSVP 651.235.3211 or firstname.lastname@example.org


May 4, 1944 - October 20, 2020
Jeanette Suzanne Bouchillon of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas died unexpectedly on October 20, 2020 at University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock. Our hearts are breaking today as we realize the depth of our loss. Suzanne lived, loved, laughed, and in spite of adversity left a legacy of kindness, generosity and goodness to her family and those around her. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up and attended school in Marked Tree, Arkansas. Suzanne loved music and played the piano and organ at the 1st Baptist Church. She was passionate about reading and instilled in her daughter what an awesome place the library is. Suzanne looked forward to summer camping trips with family. Through the years Suzanne made sure to stay connected with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins as she cherished and understood the importance of family. One of her favorite yearly family times was watching “King Kong” in black and white and making homemade Divinity Candy. Neil Diamond was Suzanne’s favorite artist, and she went to see him every chance she could. Shannon had attended 5 of his concerts before completing elementary school. Suzanne wanted her daughter to experience life to the fullest and different cultures. Every weekend getaway or vacation they visited art galleries and museums along the way. When Shannon was in Junior High, Suzanne surprised her with tickets to see Jane Goodall. Suzanne was very fond of her sister's dog Susu and looked forward to babysitting her whenever she could. She had a special love for animals and we are confident her and all of her pets that have gone before her (guinea pig, dogs, cats and birds) have been reunited at the Rainbow Bridge. Suzanne was the happiest when she was near the beach. Her favorite place is the Scenic 17-Mile drive in Pebble Beach. If she were not driving that Volkswagen Beetle along the shoreline, she would be walking barefoot in the sand flying a mylar dragon kite. She was preceded in death by her parents HB and Juanita (Yancey) Bouchillon and her best friend Linda Berry. Suzanne leaves behind her daughter Shannon McDonald of Sacramento, California; her sister Virginia Bouchillon-Ingle of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. She was loved and cherished by her cousins, nephews, nieces, and long-time friends. In honoring her wishes, at a later date there will be a private celebration of Suzanne’s life at which time her ashes will be released into the ocean. Expressions of sympathy should be sent directly to the family. Tri-City LLC Crematory Funeral Home is honored and privileged to serve the Bouchillon family. Online condolences may be expressed at www.Tri-CityLLC.com .
Jeanette Suzanne Bouchillon of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas died unexpectedly on October 20, 2020 at University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock. Our hearts are breaking today as we realize the depth of our loss. Suzanne lived, loved,... View Obituary & Service Information
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The English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) wrote at least two poems titled “The Butterfly.” In one of these, which begins with the line “I’ve watched you now a full half-hour,” the speaker describes his contemplation of a butterfly that sits quietly on a yellow flower in a garden. The speaker welcomes the butterfly as a reminder of his joyous youth.
The above quilled art reminds me of that poem. Here are a few lines from the poem.
I've watched you now a full half-hour; Self-poised upon that yellow flower And, little Butterfly! indeed I know not if you sleep or feed. How motionless!--not frozen seas More motionless! and then What joy awaits you, when the breeze Hath found you out among the trees, And calls you forth again!


Pablo Picasso, a name that echoes through the annals of art history as one of the greatest artists of all time. His innovative style and visionary approach revolutionized the art world, leaving an indelible mark on generations to come. But behind his masterpieces lies a captivating story of struggle, perseverance, and unparalleled creativity. In this article, we delve into the awe-inspiring journey of Pablo Picasso, tracing his path from difficulty to greatness.
1. The Early Years: Who was Pablo Picasso?
Born on October 25, 1881, in the bustling city of Malaga, Spain, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (commonly known as Pablo Picasso) displayed early artistic talent that would shape his destiny. From a young age, he showed remarkable skill and an insatiable curiosity for the arts, setting the stage for his extraordinary career.
2. Unveiling the Talent: What made Picasso Unique?
Picasso’s artistic genius was multifaceted, encompassing a wide range of mediums, styles, and techniques. His ability to experiment with various art forms allowed him to constantly push the boundaries of expression and challenge traditional notions of art. Whether it was painting, sculpting, ceramics, printmaking, or even poetry, he fearlessly explored new avenues, leaving an enduring impact on each medium he touched.
3. The Blue Period: When Sadness Met Art
In the early 1900s, Picasso experienced a period of deep melancholy and introspection. This phase, known as the “Blue Period,” was marked by paintings predominantly rendered in shades of blue and green, reflecting themes of poverty, despair, and human suffering. Despite the emotional turmoil that inspired this period, Picasso’s work during the Blue Period resonated with audiences worldwide, showcasing his remarkable ability to channel personal experiences into captivating art.
One notable example from this period is Picasso’s painting “The Old Guitarist.” In this hauntingly beautiful piece, a hunched figure strums a guitar, veiled in shades of blue. The painting encapsulates the profound sense of isolation and vulnerability that permeated Picasso’s work during this transformative phase.
4. From Cubism to Guernica: Picasso’s Artistic Evolution
As Picasso continued to evolve as an artist, he embarked on a groundbreaking artistic movement known as Cubism. Alongside his artistic collaborator Georges Braque, he shattered conventional notions of perspective and representation by deconstructing forms into geometric shapes and fragmented perspectives. This revolutionary approach to art became a hallmark of his style and left an indelible impact on the world of modern art.
Perhaps one of Picasso’s most iconic works, “Guernica,” stands as a testament to his ability to convey intense emotion through art. Created in response to the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, the painting depicts the horrors of war with raw intensity and symbolic imagery. Through distorted figures and fragmented compositions, Picasso captures the anguish and suffering experienced by innocent civilians caught in the midst of conflict.
5. Struggles and Triumphs: Challenges and Accomplishments
Picasso’s journey to greatness was not without its share of challenges. Early on, he faced criticism and rejection from traditional art institutions, who struggled to comprehend the innovative nature of his work. However, his relentless pursuit of his artistic vision propelled him forward, surmounting these hurdles with unwavering determination.
One of his notable accomplishments was the creation of the famous artwork “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” This groundbreaking painting, depicting five female figures in a fragmented and distorted manner, marked a pivotal moment in the trajectory of modern art. Picasso’s bold departure from conventional aesthetics challenged the status quo and laid the foundation for the emergence of new artistic movements.
6. The Creative Process: Learning and Career Development
Picasso’s artistic brilliance was not simply a product of innate talent but also a result of continuous learning and growth. Throughout his career, he constantly sought inspiration from diverse sources, ranging from ancient art forms to tribal masks and African sculptures. This voracious appetite for knowledge allowed Picasso to infuse his work with a wide array of influences, creating a unique and distinctive style that defied categorization.
Moreover, Picasso’s career development can be traced through the various phases he underwent, each marked by distinct stylistic characteristics. From the somber tones of the Blue Period to the fragmented perspectives of Cubism and beyond, Picasso’s evolution as an artist served as a testament to his unwavering commitment to self-improvement and exploration.
7. Drawing from the Unseen: The Artist’s Inspiration
Inspiration often strikes artists in unexpected ways, and Picasso was no exception. He drew from a myriad of sources, both tangible and intangible, to fuel his boundless creativity. He found inspiration in everyday objects, nature, literature, music, and the human form. He had an uncanny ability to perceive beauty and meaning in the seemingly mundane, infusing his work with a sense of wonder and vitality.
For example, Picasso’s famous sculpture “Bull’s Head” demonstrates his knack for transforming ordinary objects into extraordinary works of art. Created from a bicycle seat and handlebars, the sculpture captures the essence of a bull through the artist’s innovative reimagining of familiar materials. This ability to find inspiration in unexpected places set Picasso apart and allowed him to breathe life into his creations.
8. The Source of Ideas: Origin of Picasso’s Creative Concepts
The origin of Picasso’s creative concepts can be traced to a multitude of factors that influenced his artistic vision. His Spanish heritage, upbringing in a bohemian environment, exposure to diverse cultures, and personal experiences all played a role in shaping his unique perspective. Additionally, his interactions with fellow artists, intellectuals, and muses sparked new ideas and pushed the boundaries of his artistic exploration.
Picasso’s fascination with African art is a testament to the diversity of influences that shaped his work. African masks, with their bold forms and expressive qualities, deeply resonated with him, inspiring him to experiment with abstraction and primitivism in his own art. By incorporating elements of African art into his work, Picasso expanded the artistic vocabulary of Western art and challenged prevailing notions of artistic representation.
9. The Artistic Journey Unveiled: Picasso’s Transformation Step by Step
1. Early Influences: Growing up in Spain, Picasso was exposed to the works of Spanish masters such as Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya. These early influences laid the foundation for his artistic development.
2. Blue Period: Picasso’s exploration of themes related to poverty, despair, and human suffering characterized this phase. Paintings like “The Old Guitarist” showcased his ability to convey deep emotions through color and composition.
3. Rose Period: Following the Blue Period, Picasso’s work transitioned towards brighter colors and a lighter mood. The subjects of his paintings shifted to scenes of circus performers, harlequins, and acrobats, reflecting a sense of joy and celebration.
4. Cubism: Alongside Georges Braque, Picasso pioneered the Cubist movement, deconstructing forms into geometrical shapes and fragmented perspectives. Paintings like “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” challenged traditional notions of representation.
5. Surrealism and Neoclassicism: In the later stages of his career, he explored Surrealism and Neoclassical styles, showcasing his versatility and adaptability as an artist.
10. Comparing Picasso’s Influence: A Legacy That Transcends Time
Picasso’s impact on the art world is immeasurable, and his influence continues to reverberate in contemporary artistic practices. His innovative techniques, willingness to challenge conventions, and relentless pursuit of creativity set a new standard for generations of artists to come.
When comparing Picasso to other famous artists, such as Vincent van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci, it becomes evident that his contributions were distinct in their groundbreaking nature. While artists like van Gogh exemplified emotional intensity and da Vinci epitomized Renaissance humanism, his legacy lies in his ability to push the boundaries of artistic expression and redefine the very essence of what art could be.
11. The Pros and Cons of Picasso’s Approach
- Innovation and Experimentation: Picasso’s approach to art opened up new possibilities for artistic expression and experimentation.
- Influence and Legacy: Picasso’s influence on subsequent generations of artists solidifies his position as one of the most important figures in art history.
- Broad Range of Styles: His ability to work across various mediums and styles allowed him to leave a lasting impact in multiple artistic domains.
- Accessibility and Understanding: Picasso’s unconventional and often abstract works can be challenging for some viewers to comprehend or appreciate.
- Controversy and Polarization: Picasso’s departure from traditional aesthetics sparked debates and divided opinions among critics and art enthusiasts.
- Repetition and Commercialization: Toward the later stages of his career, his prolific output led to concerns about the quality and originality of his work as he became a commercial success.
12. Alternatives to Picasso’s Style: Exploring Diverse Artistic Paths
While Picasso’s style remains iconic and unparalleled, there are alternative artistic paths that offer unique approaches to creativity. Some notable alternatives include:
- Salvador Dalí: Surrealism, characterized by dreamlike imagery and irrational juxtapositions, offers an alternative to Picasso’s analytical approach.
- Jackson Pollock: Abstract Expressionism, with its emphasis on spontaneous and gestural mark-making, provides a departure from Picasso’s deliberate compositions.
- Frida Kahlo: Known for her introspective self-portraits and exploration of personal identity, Kahlo’s work offers a distinct perspective on art that delves into the realm of the personal and the political.
- Henri Matisse: Matisse’s use of bold, vibrant colors and his exploration of pure form present an alternative to Picasso’s fragmented approach, focusing on harmonious compositions.
- Andy Warhol: Pop Art, with its incorporation of popular culture imagery and mass production techniques, offers a departure from Picasso’s more introspective and expressive style.
These alternatives showcase the diverse range of artistic possibilities available, demonstrating that there are various paths for artists to explore beyond his groundbreaking contributions.
13. Tips for Artists: Nurturing Creativity and Growth
1. Embrace Experimentation: Allow yourself the freedom to explore new techniques, mediums, and styles. Picasso’s willingness to push boundaries and take risks can inspire you to step out of your comfort zone.
2. Seek Inspiration Everywhere: Look beyond the traditional art world for sources of inspiration. Draw from nature, literature, music, and everyday life experiences to infuse your work with fresh perspectives.
3. Continual Learning: Never stop expanding your knowledge and skills. Take classes, attend workshops, and engage with other artists to foster growth and development in your artistic journey.
4. Embrace Failure: Don’t be discouraged by setbacks or criticisms. Picasso faced rejection and criticism throughout his career but remained resilient and continued to evolve as an artist. Learn from failures and use them as stepping stones towards improvement.
5. Trust Your Instincts: Develop your unique artistic voice and trust your intuition. His ability to follow his creative instincts led him to create groundbreaking works that have stood the test of time.
14. The Best of Picasso’s Art: Must-See Masterpieces
1. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907)
This iconic painting marks the beginning of Cubism and showcases Picasso’s radical departure from traditional representation.
2. “Guernica” (1937)
A powerful and haunting depiction of the horrors of war, this monumental artwork stands as a testament to his ability to capture the human experience through art.
3. “The Weeping Woman” (1937)
Part of Picasso’s series on the Spanish Civil War, this painting showcases his ability to convey raw emotion through distorted and fragmented forms.
4. “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” (1932)
This sensuous and vibrant painting exemplifies his ability to infuse his work with both beauty and complexity.
5. “The Old Guitarist” (1903-1904)
A poignant representation of sorrow and solitude during Picasso’s Blue Period, this painting captures the viewer’s attention with its emotional intensity.
Pablo Picasso’s artistic journey is a testament to the transformative power of perseverance, innovation, and unwavering dedication to one’s craft. From his humble beginnings to becoming a global icon, his ability to challenge conventions and push artistic boundaries left an indelible mark on the world of art. His legacy serves as an inspiration for artists around the globe, encouraging them to embrace their unique vision and fearlessly explore new artistic horizons.
16. FAQs After The Conclusion
1. Q: What inspired Picasso to create “Guernica”?
He was deeply affected by the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The devastating event motivated him to create a masterpiece that would convey the horrors of war and the suffering endured by innocent civilians.
2. Q: How did his style change throughout his career?
His style underwent significant transformations throughout his career. He transitioned from the somber tones of the Blue Period to the fragmented perspectives of Cubism and later explored Surrealism and Neoclassical styles, showcasing his versatility and adaptability as an artist.
3. Q: Was Picasso only a painter?
No. His artistic talents extended beyond painting. He also excelled in sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, and even poetry. His ability to work across various mediums contributed to his status as an artistic visionary.
4. Q: Did he face criticism during his lifetime?
Yes. He faced criticism and rejection from traditional art institutions early in his career. Many struggled to understand or appreciate the innovative nature of his work. However, he persisted and ultimately became one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century.
5. Q: How did Picasso’s personal life influence his art?
His personal life, relationships, and experiences were often reflected in his artwork. The emotions, challenges, and joys he encountered found expression in his creations, making his art deeply intertwined with his life story.
17. Register Our Course Now
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1940's Chicago Souvenir Book | The J.O. Stoll Co
Vintage early to mid 1940's Chicago "The City Beautiful" souvenir book, published by the J.O. Stoll Company. The book contains an amazing combo of photographs and illustrations of 1940's Chicago: Wrigley Field, The Lincoln Park Zoo, Drake Hotel, (sorry, no Sears/Willis Tower until the 1970's). This is in very good condition, considering that it's about 80 years old!


Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman book review by rareaudreyhepburn. (Picture by rareaudreyhepburn)
It seems that many fans associate Audrey Hepburn with Holly Golightly, the fun-loving, carefree kook. However, there is more to Holly Golightly and the story of Breakfast at Tiffany’s than a Givenchy gown and nameless cat. In Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. Sam Wasson leads us through an intimately detailed recollection of what it entailed to make this cinematic favorite a timeless story of a lost girl and her quest to find herself.
Guiding us through the 1950s a time when you were either a Marilyn Monroe or a Doris Day, Wasson engages us in the emergence of Audrey Hepburn, a young woman who broke the mold with a fresh, new style, in a time when women were desperate for something different. She wasn’t overtly sexual or unwaveringly reserved. With a short haircut and embracing smile, Audrey Hepburn brought a modern elegance that was all her own.
Through Wasson’s clever narrative we learn the struggles that occurred when making a movie adaption of Truman Capote’s critical hit Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Among them were the issues of trying to convince a very nervous Audrey Hepburn that she could play a New York call girl, while an uninspired screenplay writer, George Axlerod, is in dire need of a new challenge. A stressed director by the name Blake Edwards is constantly at war with his pompous leading man, George Peppard; and an eager composer, Henry Mancini, is fighting to get his song “Moon River” into the final cut. Sam Wasson terrifically transports his reader back to 1960 amidst a new dawn in cinema and pop culture.
As an Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany’s aficionado I highly recommend this fun and effortless read: Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.:Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, And the Dawn of the Modern Woman.


Guest Post by Marcus Brotherton –
World War II is a popular setting for historical fiction. But your manuscript must ring true to the era or you’ll risk alienating your audience. Even worse, you’ll risk dishonoring the veterans who were actually there.
If you are interested in writing fiction set during World War II, three mandates are foundational to your work:
Get the facts straight
Accuracy is essential. If you’re writing about a group of twelve Allied soldiers slinking through the wintery night of the Ardennes Forest and you refer to them a “platoon,” instead of a “squad,” then your work will be seen as disingenuous. It will smack of sloppiness. This includes getting the facts straight in everything from dates and locations of battles to uniforms worn and equipment used.
Before turning to fiction, I researched and wrote several nonfiction books where I interviewed aging World War II veterans, gaining as much understanding as possible. But the option of talking with the military personnel who actually lived through World War II is slipping away fast as this generation of veterans passes.
To compensate, your research can include deep dives into oral histories, diaries, letters, and memoirs, as well as secondary sources such as history books and documentaries. If possible, ask a historian or a veteran to read an early draft of your work.
Convey attitudes correctly
It’s one thing to get historical names and dates correct. It’s another thing to get the tones and attitudes of an era right. For instance, if you grew up watching M*A*S*H like I did, you might assume that all soldiers hate the Army just like Hawkeye and BJ did.
But in World War II, that wasn’t the case. After Pearl Harbor, many young American men rushed to enlist. The popular attitude was: “Our nation has just been attacked. If we don’t defend it, who will?”
To get the attitudes of an era correct in your novel, it’s essential to research the cultural trends of the time. Reading oral histories and memoirs can help. You’ll pick up on social norms and even speech patterns and the sentiments behind them. Also, study era-specific almanacs and issues of popular magazines such as TIME and LIFE. Look beyond the articles; it’s amazing what you can pick up from the advertisements too.
Portray characters three-dimensionally
Tired tropes abound in World War II fiction. We’ve all read novels featuring scheming spies, hard-charging sergeants, or frightened privates who wish they were home with their mothers.
These tropes are not wrong. They’re just overdone, so these kinds of characters risk coming across as wooden and flat. The best World War II novels portray three-dimensional characters who exhibit a full range of individualities, strengths, and faults. By showcasing the depth and breadth of humanness, you will create fresh characters. Readers will relate and empathize.
Keep in mind that World War II is often portrayed as a cut and dried conflict between good and evil. But in reality it was a complex conflict with multiple nuanced perspectives. Your characters should reflect this intricacy and show honest emotional experiences of people from various points of view.
Similarly, it’s essential to convey the impact of war on relationships and connections between people. War can tear friends, families, and communities apart. But it can also bring people together and inspire heroics. Your writing should explore these connections and show how real people interact with each other during complex events.
In sum, writing fiction set during World War II requires careful study to gain understanding of the era and its attitudes. Characters should be three-dimensional and genuine.
As with writing any historical fiction, it is essential to approach the setting of World War II with respect, recognizing the gravity of the events that took place during this significant time period, and honoring the veterans who were actually there. This will provide powerful emotional impact for your readers.
Marcus Brotherton’s newest World War II novel, THE LONG MARCH HOME, (written with Tosca Lee), is about three best friends from rural Alabama who must survive the Bataan Death March—and the girl they all love back home. Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, called it a “tour de force.”
Book title link: https://www.thelongmarchhomebook.com/


Author(s): Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is widely known and deeply admired for being the founder of modern linguistics, one of the founders of the field of cognitive science, and perhaps the most avidly read political theorist and commentator of our time. In these lectures, he presents a lifetime of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas of research, to which he has contributed for over half a century.
In clear, precise, and nontechnical language, Chomsky elaborates on fifty years of scientific development in the study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, and its eventual biological basis. He expounds and criticizes many alternative theories, such as those that emphasize the social, the communicative, and the referential aspects of language. Chomsky reviews how new discoveries about language overcome what seemed to be highly problematic assumptions in the past. He also investigates the apparent scope and limits of human cognitive capacities and what the human mind can seriously investigate, in the light of history of science and philosophical reflection and current understanding. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, he concludes with a searching exploration and philosophical defense of a position he describes as "libertarian socialism," tracing its links to anarchism and the ideas of John Dewey and even to the ideas of Marx and Mill, demonstrating its conceptual growth out of our historical past and urgent relation to matters of the present.
In clear, precise, and non-technical language, Chomsky elaborates on fifty years of scientific development in the study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, and its biological basis. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, he concludes with a philosophical defense of libertarian socialism.
Chomsky's writings invariably reflect the force of intellect and cogency of thought that befits one of the greatest thinkers of our times--this work is no exception. -- Robert May, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy & Linguistics, University of California, Davis
Noam Chomsky is professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs, and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of more than one hundred books.
Foreword1. What Is Language?2. What Can We Understand?3. What Is the Common Good?4. The Mysteries of Nature: How Deeply Hidden?NotesIndex


Communicating your research findings via publication is integral to research activities and scholarship. A wise publication strategy widens your audience and increases opportunities for your work to be cited by fellow researchers.
ACU wants to know about the books, book chapters, journal articles and conference publications that you have published as an ACU researcher and before joining ACU, in order to prepare for the ACU Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) and Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) submissions.
In addition, the full text of your publications will be added to Research Bank, ACU’s institutional repository showcasing the research outputs of Australian Catholic University staff and postgraduate students.
Download the Fact Sheet on publishers


Reliability and Validity of the Symptom Inventories
The psychometric properties of Checkmate Plus symptom inventories are well described in their respective manuals. In addition, hundreds of articles have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that address some aspect of the reliability or validity of Checkmate Plus symptom inventories. Briefly, the test-retest reliabilities of most disorder-based subscales range from moderate to high. Dozens of studies have compared symptom inventory subscales with structured psychiatric interviews or data-based psychiatric diagnoses in research-oriented teaching hospitals. The findings from these studies indicate reasonably low rates of false negatives (moderate to high sensitivity) and low rates of false positives (moderate to high specificity) for most disorders. Checkmate Plus symptom Inventory subscales show reasonably high agreement with other commonly used behavior rating scales and easily differentiate clinical and nonclinical samples. In addition, research clearly shows that many subscales evidence sensitivity to treatment effects. An extensive annotated bibliography of research studies that used at least one Checkmate Plus measure can be accessed here.


The Role of Art and Storytelling in Preserving and Sharing Aboriginal Culture
Aboriginal cultures from all over the world have a strong presence in art and storytelling. Art forms like rock paintings, carvings, bark paintings, and songs are important for keeping cultural stories alive. This is especially true in Australia, where Aboriginal culture and heritage have been passed down for generations through oral histories and tangible objects such as artworks.
The use of traditional stories, songs and artwork to maintain knowledge of cultural identity is an essential part of the Aboriginal culture. Traditionally, art was used to depict historical events or laws that were passed down through generations, while storytelling has been used to pass on important lessons and beliefs. Today, rock paintings, carvings and bark paintings are still being used as a form of expression and communication.
Art and storytelling have also been used to share stories with the wider Australian community, providing an understanding of aboriginal culture and history. Recent exhibitions, like ‘Telling Our Stories’ in 2018, showcased works from more than 40 established and emerging Aboriginal artists that promoted the diversity and richness of Aboriginal culture and art.
The sharing of stories, through both traditional and contemporary art forms, has become an important mechanism for preserving Indigenous knowledge and heritage. This is done to ensure that future generations are aware of the past and can learn from it.
For example, Yolngu artists living in remote North-East Arnhem Land produce outstanding bark paintings that tell the stories of their ancestors. The painting provides an insight into their culture and history, as well as a deeper understanding of Aboriginal art forms and practices.
In addition to traditional artwork, various other forms of storytelling are now being used to share Aboriginal stories with new generations, such as podcasting, oral histories and musical performances. These give young people the opportunity to actively engage with their culture in a way that is fun, modern and accessible.
Storytelling has always been a powerful way of connecting people, fostering community relationships and preserving culture. It is through this kind of sharing that traditions and values can be passed on to the next generations, while also allowing them to feel proud of their heritage.
Of all the different art styles, dot paintings are perhaps the best known for representing Aboriginal culture. These vibrant, colourful paintings represent stories from Aboriginal cultures and communities across Australia. Through this art form, Aboriginal people have been able to share their stories, knowledge and history with the world.
Not only do dot paintings reflect Aboriginal heritage, but they also have been used as a form of protest. Aboriginal activists have used the art to bring attention to issues such as land rights and dispossession from traditional land.
What are dot paintings? Dot paintings are an art form that originated with the Anangu people of Central Australia. They use dots and circles to create intricate patterns in a range of vibrant colours. These patterns can represent anything from ceremonies and stories to the land, plants, animals and people.
The use of art to tell stories and preserve culture is invaluable, as it allows Aboriginal people to share their culture with the world. The Anangu people have been sharing their culture for thousands of years through art, storytelling and song. The use of art to help preserve Aboriginal culture is not limited to Australia and it will likely continue in importance as time goes on!


A lot of efforts by a lot of entities all over the world are taking an interest in video game history preservation. Not to be left out I was just reading an article on Paste Magazine’s website by Kyle McKenney that talks about some of the Smithsonian’s efforts on this endeavor. This includes interviews with Richard Garriott and other game developers.
The initial two-year phase of the archive includes up to 20 in-depth oral-history interviews with inventors and designers active in the 1960s and 1970s. The first completed interview will feature award-winning video- and computer-game designer Richard Garriott (pictured below).
Great article and a short read, so go check it out. Tell them the Caverns, Dungeons, and Beyond sent you!


Why Does E=mc²? by Brian Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?)
by Brian Cox is easily the best book I've ever read about special and general relativity targeted at the general reader. Cox takes the reader deeply into the theory. He painlessly introduces the reader to the basics of the mathematics needed to understand some of the more beautiful aspects of both theories and he does so more skillfully than any other writer on the subject - including Einstein himself. This is a must read for anyone who wants to be more scientifically literate.
View all my reviews


The problem: Many libraries operate on elements that match a specific selector. Either they only fetch elements on DOMContentLoaded, missing any dynamically inserted elements, or they additionally use the MutationObserver API to listen for future changes. However, this means that every library needs to add its own mutation observer that listens to changes in the entire DOM tree, which is slow.
The solution: Syntactic sugar over the MutationObserver API that allows developers to add callbacks every time an element that matches a given selector is added. This way, there would only be one mutation observer for all libraries and all their needs in the page, created lazily when the fist one is needed.


Paul Newman and Robert Redford charmed a generation of movie-goers as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, respectively. But the real-life outlaws were completely different from the characters that they inspired. In fact, much about them remains a mystery even today — including how they really spent their final days.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Of course, everyone knows the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — or at least the movie version. Having fled the Wild West and settled in South America, the pair continued their run of lawbreaking, holding up local banks to fund their life in exile. But eventually, their luck ran out.
In the movie, law enforcement officers finally catch up to Cassidy and the Kid, otherwise known as Harry Longabaugh, in a small town in Bolivia. And in the resulting hail of bullets, both outlaws are killed. It’s a bittersweet ending to a tale that has captivated audiences for more than a hundred years. But how close is it to the truth?
Robert LeRoy Parker
Although Cassidy’s later life and death are shrouded in mystery, enough has been written about the outlaw to build up a clear picture of his early years. Born Robert LeRoy Parker in 1866 in Utah Territory, he was the son of Mormons who had emigrated from England in the 1850s. Before long, though, he would stray far from these religious roots.
At the family ranch near Circleville, Utah, the young Parker learned how to wrangle cattle. And when he was a teenager, he met a fellow cowboy and outlaw named Mike Cassidy. Inspired by his new friend — and bored with life in small-town America — he left home when he was still just a teenager.


Book review: Walking Scotland’s Lost Railways
Scotland still has hundreds of miles of dismantled railways, which offer great scope for easy-going walks. A new book, Walking Scotland’s Lost Railways: Track Beds Rediscovered by Robin Howie (author) and John McGregor offers a guide to many dozens of these walks.
The book offers an insight into the Scottish railway history and then reveals a long list of short walks, including descriptions and maps. There are plenty of photos, too, with many showcasing what the railway system once looked like.
The walks are divided into regions – South Central Highlands , Fife and the Borders – with numerous short walks in each.
It’s an attractive and descriptive book with enough walking – 375 miles to be exact! – to keep you going for years.


Perhaps this is why reading the love letters of others is so fascinating.
In the introduction to his book , a collection of romantic and touching correspondence between some of the greatest historical figures of the last several centuries, David Lowenhertz writes, “Sometimes nothing speaks louder than a silent word written on a piece of paper.” He goes on to explain that the act of writing, unlike some of our more speedy forms of communication today, offers those communicating the chance to reflect on the ways in which they wish to express the secrets of their hearts.
To receive a love letter, a deeply touching and reflective expression of someone’s true feelings for you and the description of your relationship that is contained in that letter, speaks to our hearts in indescribable ways.
I don’t believe that there is a more revealing way to understand one’s story than through love letters.
The Sacred Scriptures, on the other hand, are most fittingly likened to a honeycomb, for while in the simplicity of their language they seem dry, within they are filled with sweetness. Victor, Everybody enjoys a good love story, particularly if it is romantic and has a happy ending.
This fact helps explain why, month after month, Hollywood and television networks produce more and more romantic and situation comedies.
Now Franciscan Brother Daniel Horan is comparing our relationship to God to that of a newly dating couple in his book, “Dating God: Live and Love in the Way of St. “Their expressions of their relationship with God, while not quite love letters, evoked images of the tenuousness, ambivalence, excitement, energy and passion of dating,” he told Catholic News Service.Ah, but before I go further, I feel as though I need to qualify that last sentence.While the generational divide is usually traversed by a diverse representation of different ages and from idealistic youth and young adults to the more narrowly focused and opinion-concretized geriatric crowd, there is very little racial and ethnic diversity represented. In addition to print publications, he is the instructor in an 18-part video lecture series titled, “The Saint and the Pope: What the Spirituality of Two Men Named Francis can Teach us about Christian Living,” produced by (2016).Bonaventure University and served as the Catholic chaplain at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Francis.” Brother Daniel, 28, thought of the dating imagery during a Franciscan workshop on the writings of St. Brother Daniel, a member of the Order of Friars Minor, challenges us to think of our relationship to God in a new way.


The Archaeology of humour
There is much debate, even outside of the "classics world", on who reads classics, whether it is only of interest to the elites of this world, or whether it is useful to non-specialists. There is however a huge and uncharted territory which has been overlooked by most classicists: the world of editorial cartoons. They are very accessible, challenging and mass-produced, in numerous languages and throughout the world. Indeed, what should we make of the many thousands of editorial cartoons in popular and prominent newspapers, propaganda leaflets, from the 19th century to this day, which make classical references, which use (and abuse) Greek and Roman visual myths, events or statesmen, to mock current affairs? Printed newspapers and online papers have grown exponentially in recent years, and their readership has increased not only in numbers but also in popularity, encompassing readers from all social horizons. Newspapers thrive in democracies. This project, supported by a very large and growing database of political cartoons with classical references, includes mainly publications from most European countries, the USA and Canada, but also some random finds from more "exotic" countries (e.g. Singapore). The many cartoons mocking the ancient world are not considered in this project: only those using the ancient world to comment on current affairs. There needs to be a move, stronger than ever to study "popular"; art forms, maybe part of what we call media today (theatre, films, documentaries, comics, art, visual and verbal humour, poetics, political rhetoric; new media such as the internet) to tap in the immense reservoir of references to the classical world and understand better both our own categories of thought, and our special relationship with Greek and Roman antiquity.
Research output: a series of articles (In Press; In Preparation); 2 monographs on the topic; 2 conference papers; a database.
The Research questions focused on identifying visual humour in ancient Greece (mainly Athens and Boeotia), from the 6th to the 4th centuries B.C., through unchanged mechanisms/genres (surprise, parody, caricature, situation comedy); and comparing each comic image to a series of 'usual' or 'serious' representations. The decorated Greek vases are found in the hundreds of thousands, and depict minute details of everyday life and mythology. They also mock many aspects of social and political life, as well as the religious and the mythological spheres; they offer a humorous perspective on popular subjects such as women, foreigners, workers, peasants, poliadic and Dionysian cult (in Attica but also in Boeotia: a chapter of Mitchell In Press 2009 concerns the Kabirion Sanctuary near Thebes) and democracy. The study enabled me to establish certain patterns within painters' workshops, where certain painters seem to almost specialise in comic scenes. A principal contention was that the products were relatively cheap to produce and purchase, and that because they were made by artisans for the market rather than for a patron, they exhibited a freedom of expression which was lacking in most other patronised art forms of the 6th to the 4th centuries B.C. Just as Aristophanic comedies provide insights into general trends in Greek culture -- to win democratically at the yearly dramatic competitions a playwright had to offer something to please most citizens -- Greek vases were aimed at universal appeal, or in other words, at being purchased! Humour was a powerful marketing tool in ancient Athens just as it is today in modern advertising .On the one hand, I interpret the comic images on the ancient Greek vases as reflections of general public sentiments rather than those of the intellectual elite, and on the other, I argue that the artists who produced them enjoyed a freedom of expression which was a direct outcome of the new democratic rule.
Research output: Oxford D.Phil 2002, a series of articles (2000, 2004, 2007) a monograph (Cambridge University Press 2009), and a number of invited lectures.
Past Projects (1999-2009)
(2007-2009) Democracy and visual humour
visual humour, democracy and freedom of expression in the ancient world
and today; Greek art/ideals and their modern reception; the power of
My research 2007-2009 builds on this Greek body of visual evidence, but extends to other regions, and time spheres. It begins with the reception and the politics of visual humour in the first democracy in Athens but also covers contemporary debates and controversies on the power of images, the uses and abuses of visual humour, with a special focus on the ways in which humour can test the limits of democracy and inform us on our own limitations and "self-censorship". My principal research questions is, "is the type of freedom to mock sensitive subjects in society as depicted in the ancient Greece material an exclusive product of democratic societies?"
In the current polarised state of affairs between the conceived 'totalitarian' Middle-East and the 'democratic' West, the recent Prophet Cartoon affair, and the proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the UK, offers us a useful paradigm for studying problems of the power of images and artefacts, visual humour, auto-censorship, freedom of expression and democracy. Research output: a poster; and a number of invited lectures.
Classical reception in political cartoons 20th-21st centuries | read more
The history of caricature. A case study on Greco-Roman grotesque terracotta figurines | read more
(5 June) 'La crise grecque aux mains des dessinateurs de presse européens : usage et abus de la Grèce classique pour traiter d'un sujet contemporain'. Festival de l'Histoire de l'Art, 3-5 june 2016, Fontainebleau, France | read more