Archive for the ‘Arts & Humanities’ Category
Childrens book reviews: Return from Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
It won the highest award – a Caldecott Medal – in 1964. It’s been an opera, a ballet, and even appeared on a commemorative stamp. It’s been more than 45 years since Maurice Sendak first published “Where the Wild Things Are,” and it’s entertained millions of children. But if you re-visit the book as an adult, you’ll still experience its rare sense of wonder.
Even the drawings on the inside front cover are mysterious, showing strange star-shaped leaves in orange, yellow and purple. There’s a monster and a boat on the cover, and big monsters with jagged teeth on the title page. But the monster’s a really a tribute to the raw imagination of a little boy named Max. And if Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsHow to photograph a wedding
When looking through a wedding album the first images you expect to see are the formal shots – the bride and groom, the couple with his family, the couple with her family and the couple with numerous staged photos of the wedding party.
While those are important images for many families, chances are those aren’t what make a wedding album memorable.
Instead it is a series of candid shots taken in a way that the bride, or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t know the photographer was there. They are images of laughter, tears, getting ready, details like the flowers and decorations, guests and the environment.
Many wedding photographers nowadays make these candid images the bulk of the shots they take at weddings. Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsAssessing the Gulf War (Desert Storm)
The Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime in Iraq was an apparently good friend of U.S. and its policy in the Middle East until the beginning of 1990, despite its brutality against every opposition, real or presumed.
Saddam Hussein had fought for nearly 10 years against IRAN, ruled by the religious Ayatollah regime, deeply hostile to U.S.; a bloody terrible war with a great American support that hoped in the destruction of Iranian regime.
But the war ended in 1989 with a quit of damages for the two Countries.
The following year, Saddam, maybe, thinking of not having been helped enough against Iran, or for the ambition of controlling the oil production of Middle East to recover his finances because of that long war, Read the rest of this entry »
Professional wedding photography 101 – Part 12
If you are thinking about becoming a wedding photographer, there are a few things that you should consider. Being skilled with a camera is only a small part of the job. Dealing with a wedding party is oftentimes stressful yet must be done with a professional smile. One of the most intimidating aspects of being a wedding photographer is that there is no margin for error. If you make a mistake, there is no second chance, and you have failed to provide memories for the happy couple on their wedding day. Still want to be a wedding photographer? For those that answer yes, here are a few helpful hints to help you provide great wedding photos.
The most important advice I Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsKnights clothing during the Middle Ages – Part 2
The middle ages refers to a range of time between the 6th century and the 16th century. In case you did not do well in math classes, that’s a thousand years. And knights, under the many regional terms for the mounted, armored man of war like chevalier or caballero, were prevalent in a vast region that encompassed the geography from Ireland in the West to the Urals in the East, Norway in the North to the Levant in the South. Given such a wide variety of cultures and feudal systems, it is difficult to make generalizations.
First of all, the medieval knight did not wear his armor except in battle. Plate armor, or even chain, Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsImagining the bookstore of the future
One day, not too far off, you may find yourself looking for a book. You step down from the street into an old small storefront. Inside, you see old and new computer monitors placed randomly throughout the store, alone, or in banks of four or five, alongside shelves of books. Some computers are running text generators and scripts that you can modify and watch and print, others are showing visual poetry, animations of literature, and other strange electronic word pulses. The Matrix meets The Library.
Walking deeper into the store, you step into an open space, an art gallery with paintings, book art, and multimedia displays. There is also a stage for readings. One is scheduled for twenty minutes from now, Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsBook Reviews: World War Z
After reading ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’ I had to get Max Brook’s follow up, ‘World War Z’. I was not disappointed. If anything, it far exceeds the first book. On the front cover there is a quote from Simon Pegg, zombie enthusiast. He proclaims this book ‘An absolute must have’, a thought I echo.
‘World War Z’ is set in an undisclosed future time – I’m not talking hundreds of years here, maybe a decade at most, but the technological advances mentioned in the book show that we have a few years to wait before the zombie Apocalypse. Sometime in the near future an outbreak of the solanum virus in China gets the dead back on their feet and looking for Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsBuying dance costumes
A dancer’s costume can sometimes make or break the performance. It can give you an added flair of theatricality, or it can be a major distraction from the beauty of your dance. It can frame your moves, or it can “malfunction” and throw the whole performance off. It’s best to make sure you do your research when buying a dance costume and take good care of it once it’s yours.
A good fit is vital for your costume. You want to be able to move easily in it without feeling constricted or self-conscious. If you buy part or all of the costume online, take into account the fact that you might have to make Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsBook reviews: The Emigrants, by W.G. Sebald
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
In his novel, The Emigrants, W. G. Sebald tells the story of four German emigrants, five if you include the narrator. In four long narratives, the paths of Dr. Henry Selwyn, Paul Bereyter, Ambros Adelwarth, and Max Ferber all intersect with the narrator at various points in his life.
At times, I suspected that the narrator was in fact the author. There were a number of semi-autobiographical details that the narrator and W. G. Sebald have in common (teaching in Norwich, moving to London, growing up in the shadow of the Third Reich, etc).
The narratives contain collected bits of each man’s past as the narrator seeks to learn about them. The narrator Read the rest of this entry »
No CommentsHelium rating process: Why lists are popular
Is a list only used for jotting down needed items for your next trip to the store? No, of course not. Almost everyday you can use a list; it doesn’t need to be the lonely grocery list. Beware evil block paragraphs of the super list.
Able to be used everyday in many ways, the astonishing list is a:
*How-to’s
Yes, these often start off as, or are a list, explaining both the skills to be learned as well as the required items to complete the project.
*Recipes
Almost always start off in a list, giving you a quantity of essential ingredients.
*Politicians
Even the might politicians use the fantastic list in Read the rest of this entry »