van gogh starry night over the rhone Painting 100222

Jack Vettriano The Missing Man

2009-05-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano The Missing ManJack Vettriano The Missing Man IJack Vettriano The Man in the Mirror
'Well, then,' she said, 'I don't want something soppy and posey. No silly black lace or anything worn by idiots who write poetry in their rooms and dress like vampires and are vegetarians really.'
The images of clothes floated across her reflection. It was clear that black was the only option, but she settled on something Glod wandered quietly into the University Library. Dwarfs respected learning, provided they didn't have to experience it.
He tugged at the robe of a passing young wizard.
'There's a monkey runs this place, right?' he said. 'Big fat hairy monkey, hands a couple of octaves wide?'
The wizard, a pasty‑faced post‑graduate student, looked down at Glod practical and without frills. She put her head on one side critically.'Well, maybe a bit of lace,' she said. 'And perhaps a bit more . . . bodice.'She nodded at her reflection in the mirror. Certainly it was a dress that no Susan would ever wear, although she suspected that there was a basic Susanness about her which would permeate it after a while.'It's a good job you're here,' she said, 'or I'd go totally mad. Haha.'Then she went to see her grandf . . . Death.There was one place he had to be.

Leonardo da Vinci The Madonna of the Carnation

2009-05-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci The Madonna of the CarnationLeonardo da Vinci da Vinci Self PortraitRembrandt The Return of the Prodigal SonRembrandt rembrandt nightwatch painting
it was all some kind of dream, she didn't seem at any risk of waking up. Anyway, she didn't believe that kind of thing. Dreams weren't like this.
A path led from see how logically stupid the whole idea was, and he'd been standing there, anxiously waiting to see what she'd do...
Old certainties drained away, to be replaced by new certainties.
Now she understood whose granddaughter she was.
The Mended Drum had traditionally gone in for, well, traditional pub games, such as dominoes, darts and Stabbing People In The Back And Taking All Their Money. The new the stable‑yard past a vegetable garden and, descending slightly, into an orchard of black‑leaved trees. Glossy black apples hung from them. Off to one side were some white beehives.And she knew she'd seen it all before.There was an apple tree that was quite, quite different from the others.She stood and stared at it as memory flooded back.She remembered being just old enough to

Franz Marc Reh im Klostergarten

2009-05-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

Franz Marc Reh im KlostergartenFranz Marc Pferd in LandschaftFranz Marc KüheFranz Marc Horse in a Landscape
turn the matter over to Corporal Nobbs,' he said.
'That's what I like,' said Gaspode bitterly. 'Incentive.'
He presssed his blotchy nose to the ground. It was all show, anyway. Angua's scent hung in the air like a rainbow.
'You can really talk?'He pulled the gonne into position, clicked a rack of six bullets into position, and sighted at random on a light. And then on another one. And another one.
He really shouldn't have let it shoot that beggar girl. That wasn't the plan. Guild leaders, that was poor little Edward's plan. Guild leaders, to start with. Leave the city leaderless and in turmoil, and then confront his silly candidate and say: Go forth and rule, it is your destiny That was an old disease, that kind of said Carrot.Gaspode rolled his eyes.' 'Course not,' he said.The figure had reached the top of the tower.Lamps and candles were alight all over the city. It was spread out below him. Ten thousand little earthbound stars . . . and he could turn off any one he wanted, just like that. It was like being a god.It was amazing how sounds were so audible up here. It was like being a god. He could hear the howl of dogs, the sound of voices. Occasionally one would be louder than the rest, rising up into the night sky.This was power. The power he had below, the power to say: do this, do that . . . that was just something human, but this . . . this was like being a god.

Vincent van Gogh The Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles

2009-05-03T23:57:00.001-07:00

Vincent van Gogh The Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in ArlesVincent van Gogh The good Samaritan DelacroixVincent van Gogh A Novel ReaderLeonardo da Vinci The Virgin and Child With St Anne
thousand years. Just because he thinks that everyone's really decent underneath and would get along just fine if only they made the effort, and he believes that so strongly it burns like a flame which is bigger than he is. He's got a dream and we're all part they stole from the Assassins, but he was right to try to find out who killed Mr Hammerhock And no-one cares about Lettice Knibbs.'
'I like to find out who shoot me,' said Detritus.
'Beats me why anyone'd be daft enough to steal from the Assassins,' said Carrot. 'That's what Captain Vimes said. He said you'd have to be a fool to think of breaking into that place.'of it, so that it shapes the world around him. And the weird thing is that no-one wants to disappoint him. It'd be like kicking the biggest puppy in the universe. It's a kind of magic.'The gold's rubbing off,' said Cuddy. 'But it's a good watch,' he added quickly.'I was hoping we could give it to him tonight,' said Carrot. 'And all go out for a . . . drink . . .''Not a good idea,' said Angua.'Leave it until tomorrow,' said Colon. 'We'll form a guard of honour at the wedding. That's traditional. Everyone holds their swords up in a kind of arch.''We've only got one sword between us,' said Carrot glumly.They all stared at the floor.'It's not fair,' said Angua. 'I don't care who stole whatever

Thomas Kinkade Christmas Moonlight

2009-04-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Christmas Moonlight
he was cleaning a club, sort of thing, and it accidentally went off,' said Nobby. He'd caught it, too.
'No-one 'd want to kill young Beano,' said the down, in a quiet voice. 'He was a friendly soul. Friends everywhere.'
Almost . I am detector-ing, he thought, with a faint touch of pride. People are Helping me with My Inquiries.
Thomas Kinkade Christmas Evening
'Dunno. Odd. Not quite himself—''This was yesterday?''Oh, 'Who are these gentlemen?' he demanded.'Er—' Boffo began.funny. That was the whole purpose of a clown. People laughed at clowns, but only out of nervousness. The point of clowns
Thomas Kinkade Abundant Harvest
everywhere,' said Colon.The funeral was over. The jesters, jokers and clowns were going about their business, getting stuck in door-ways on the way. There was much pushing and shoving and honking of noses and falling of prats. It was a scene to make a happy man slit his wrists on a fine spring rang.'All I know is,' said Boffo, in a low voice, 'that when I saw him yesterday he was looking very . . . odd. I called out to him when he was going through the gates and—''How do you mean, odd?' said Colon
Thomas Kinkade A Holiday Gathering
yes. In the morning. I know because the gate rota—''Yesterday morning?''That's what I said, mister. Mind you, we were all a bit nervous after the bang—''Brother Boffo!''Oh, no—' mumbled the clown.A figure was striding towards them. A terrible figure.No downs were was that, after watching them, anything else that happened seemed enjoyable. It was nice to know there was someone worse off than you. Someone had to be the butt of the world.But even clowns are frightened of something, and that is the white-faced clown. The one who never gets in the way of the custard. The one in the shiny white clothes, and the deadpan white make-up. The one with the little pointy hat and the thin mouth and the delicate black eyebrows.Dr Whiteface.

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Maria

2009-04-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida MariaAlexandre Cabanel OpheliaAlexandre Cabanel Cleopatra
a jack-in-office and an insolent upstart!'
'Dear me. I did not appreciate your strength of feeling. But since you demand it, I will bring him to heel without delay.'
'Thank you.'
'Don't mention it. Do not let me keep you.'
Dr Cruces wandered off in the direction of the Patrician's idle gesture.
Lord Vetinari bent over his paperwork again, and did not even look up when there was a distant, muffled cry. Instead, he reached down and rang a small silver bell.
A clerk hurried up.
'Go and fetch the ladder, will you, Drumknott?' he said. 'Dr Cruces seems to have fallen in the hoho.'

The back door to the dwarf Bjorn Hammerhock's workshop lifted off the latch and creaked open. He went to see if there was anyone there, and shivered.
He shut the door.. I can easily replace that. You know,' he said, looking up, 'this is a very interesting device. With the chemicals in the tubes and all. Such a simple idea. Is it a clown thing? Some kind of automatic slap-stick?'
He sorted through a bin of metal offcuts to find a piece of steel, and then selected a file.
'I'd like to make a few sketches afterwards,' he said.'Bit of a chilly breeze,' he said, to the room's other occupant. 'Still, we could do with it.'The ceiling of the workshop was only about five feet above the floor. That was more than tall enough for a dwarf.Ow, said a voice that no-one heard.Hammerhock looked at the thing clamped in the vice, and picked up a screwdriver.Ow.'Amazing,' he said. 'I think that moving this tube down the barrel forces the, er, six chambers to slide along, presenting a new one to the, er, firing hole. That seems clear enough. The triggering mechanism is really just a tinderbox device. The spring . . . here . . . has rusted through
About thirty seconds later there was a pop and a cloud of smoke.
Bjorn Hammerhock picked himself up, shaking his

Mark Spain Timeless Beauty

2009-04-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

Mark Spain Timeless BeautyMark Spain The Pink DressMark Spain SevillaMark Spain ReflectionMark Spain Pure Elegance
of Esme Weatherwax’s head, at the tight bun of gray hair under the brim of the pointy hat.
“Sweet?” she said.
“I expect you’ve got another bag now,” said Granny, without looking around.
“Esme—“
“You got anything to say, Gytha? About bags of sweets?”
Granny Weatherwax still hadn’t turned around.
Nanny looked at her boots.
“No, Esme,” she said meekly.
“I knew “It’s legal, is it?”
“Technically they shouldn’t do it when there’s women present,” said Nanny. “Otherwise it’s sexual morrisment.”you’d go up to the Long Man, you know. How’d you get in?”“Used one of the special horseshoes.”Granny nodded. “You didn’t ought to have brung him into it, Gytha.”“Yes, Esme.”“He’s as tricky as she is.”“Yes, Esme.”“You’re trying preemptive meekness on me.”“Yes, Esme.”They walked a little further.“What was that dance your Jason and his men did when they’d got drunk?” said Granny.“It’s the Lancre Stick and Bucket Dance, Esme.”

Arthur Hughes Phyllis

2009-04-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

Arthur Hughes PhyllisFranz Marc Zwei KatzenFranz Marc yellow cowFranz Marc TigerFranz Marc Stables
What’re we going to do, Mum?”
“There’s bands of elves all over the place,” said Nanny,
“and there’s a big glow over the Dancers—“
“We must attack them!” shouted Casanunda. “Give ‘em a taste of cold steel!”
“Good man, that dwarf!” said Ridcully. “That’s right! I’ll get my crossbow!”
“There’s too many of them,” said Nanny flatly.
“Granny and . Even if it’s a million to one chance, ma’am.”
“That’s all very well,” said Nanny, “but what you’re say-
ing is, for every Mr. Ridcully that survives tonight’s work,
999,999 are going to get killed?”
“Yes, but I’m not bothered about those other buggers,” said Ridcully. “They can look after themselvesMiss Magrat are out there, Mum,” said Shawn. “Miss Magrat came over all strange and put on armor and went out to fight all of them!”“But the hills are crawling with elves,” said Nanny. “It’s a double helping of hell with extra devils. Certain death.”“It’s certain death anyway,” said Ridcully. “That’s the thing about Death, certainty.”“We’d have no chance at all,” said Nanny.“Actually, we’d have one chance,” said Ridcully. “I don’t268LORDS ftNO LftQf£6understand all this continuinuinuum stuff, but from what young Stibbons says it means that everything has to happen somewhere, d’y’see, so that means it could happen here

Daniel Ridgway Knight On the Way to Market

2009-04-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

Daniel Ridgway Knight On the Way to MarketDaniel Ridgway Knight Shepherdess and her FlockDaniel Ridgway Knight Hailing the Ferry
Something bulleted out of another doorway and bore her to the floor.
It was Shawn Ogg. Through the chromatic haze she could see his worried face peering out from its hood of rusty—
l iron.

The song changed while staying the same. The complex harmonies, the fascinating rhythm did not alter but suddenly grated, as if she was hearing the song through different ears.
She was dragged into the doorway.
“Are you all and they’d
put their mark on her, so she’s doing what they want—“
“Shawn!”
“And Mum said they don’t kill you, if they can help it.
Not right away. You’re much more fun if you’re not dead.”right. Miss Queen?”“What’s happening?”“Dunno, Miss Queen. But I think we’ve got elves.”208LORQ6 fttfO iftQ/£6“Elves?”“And they’ve got Miss Tockley. Um. You know you tookthe iron away—““What are you talking about, Shawn?”Shawn’s face was white.“That one down the dungeons started singing,

Henri Matisse Spanish Still Life

2009-04-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Henri Matisse Spanish Still LifeHenri Matisse Moroccan LandscapeHenri Matisse Moorish ScreenHenri Matisse Luxe I
His clothes were soaked with dew.
His head felt full of wisps and whispers.
He stared at the stones.
The scumble jar was lying in the leather. After a moment or two he picked it up, and took an experimental swig. It was empty.
and knees looking for his hat. “Maybe when you gets ‘ome she’ll have married someone else, eh?”
“Maybe a hundred years’ll have gone past,” said Carter, hopefully.
“Cor, I hope so,” said Weaver, brightening up. “I had sevenpence invested in The Thrift Bank down in Ohulan. I’ll be a millionaire at complicated interest. I’ll be as rich as Creosote.”
“Who’s Creosote?” said Thatcher.
“Famous rich bugger,” said Barker, fishing one of his boots out of a peat pool. “Foreign.”
“Wasn’t he the one, everything he touched turned to gold?” said Carter.He nudged Weaver in the ribs with his boot.l Insert the usual “red-hot curried marbles” description here, if you like. 165Terry Pratchett“Wake up, you old bugger. We’ve been up here all night!”One by one, the Morris Men made the short but painful journey into consciousness.“I’m going to get some stick from our Eva when I get home,” moaned Carter.“You might not,” said Thatcher, who was on his hands
“Nah, that was someone else. Some king or other. That’s what

Johannes Vermeer Lady Standing at a Virginal

2009-04-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Johannes Vermeer Lady Standing at a VirginalJohannes Vermeer A Lady Writing a Letter
LORDS ftf/0 LfiQIES
But there was a price. No one asked you to pay it, but the very absence of demand was a moral obligation. You tended not to swat. You dug lightly. You fed the dog. You paid. You cared; not because it was kind or good, but because it was right. You left nothing but memories, you took nothing but experience.
But this other roving intelligence . . . it’d go in and out of another mind like a chainsaw, taking, taking, taking. She could sense the shape of it, the predatory shape, all cruelty and cool unkindness; a mind full of intelligence, that’d use other goes the other
way—“
“What thing?”
“You know what a bat’s eyesight is like. Just a big shape is all it saw. Something killed old Scrope. It’s still around. Not an ... not one o’ the Lords and Ladies,” said Granny, “but something from El... that place.”
Nanny looked at the shadows. There are a lot of shad-ows in aliving things and hurt them because it was fun.She could put a name to a mind like that.Elf.Branches thrashed high in the trees.Granny and Nanny strode through the forest. At least, Granny Weatherwax strode. Nanny Ogg scurried.“The Lords and Ladies are trying to find a way,” saidGranny. “And there’s something else. Something’salready come through. Some kind of animal from theother side. Scrope chased a deer into the circle and thething must have been there, and they always used to saysomething can come through if something

Mark Spain Crescendo II

2009-04-17T00:36:00.001-07:00

Mark Spain Crescendo IIMark Spain Crescendo IMark Spain Cordoba
woman in the circle laughed.
“But they are like the stupid dwarfs! All they are inter-ested in is pebbles. There is nothing of interest in pebbles.”
The girl gives a kind of one-shoulder uni-shrug, as if indicating that pebbles may be full of quiet interest.
4
LORDS ft/VD ift0f£6
“Why can’t you come out from between the stones?”
There was a can’t keep your temper. They say you have no discipline.”
The girl tossed her hair. “Oh, you know that too, do you? Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? But I mean to be a witch whatever they say. You can find things out for yourself. You don’t have to listen to a lot of daft old ladies who’ve never had a life. And, circle lady, I shall be the best witch there has ever been.”distinct impression that this was the wrong question to have asked. The woman carefully ignored it.“I can help you find far more than pebbles,” she said.“You can’t come out of the circle, can you?”“Let me give you what you want.”“I can go anywhere, but you’re stuck in the circle,” said the girl.“Can you go anywhere?”“When I am a witch I shall be able to go anywhere.”“But you’ll never be a witch.”“What?”“They say you won’t listen. They say you

Bartolome Esteban Murillo Annunciation

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

Bartolome Esteban Murillo AnnunciationWilliam Bouguereau The Song of the AngelsPierre-Auguste Cot La Tempete
pulled out the tortoise Om had just met.
For a moment it was held up, legs moving slowly, before the deacon threw it overarm into the rocks.
Then he picked up the sky with long, lazy sweeps of its wings.
Om watched it until it became a dot, and then looked away as a smaller dot detached itself and tumbled over and over toward the rocks below.
The eagle descended slowly, preparing to feed.
A breeze rattled the thornbushes and stirred the sand. Om thought he could hear the taunting, mocking voices of all the small gods.Brutha with some effort, slung him across his shoulders, and set off towards Omnia.It happened in seconds.Om fought to stop his head and legs retracting automatically into his shell, a tortoise's instinctive panic reaction.Vorbis was already disappearing round some rocks.He disappeared.Om started to move forward and then ducked into his shell as a shadow skimmed over the ground. It was a familiar shadow, and one fiIled with tortoise dread.The eagle swept down and towards the spot where the stricken tortoise was struggling and, with barely a pause in the stoop, snatched the reptile and soared back up into

Sandro Botticelli The Cestello Annunciation

2009-04-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

Sandro Botticelli The Cestello AnnunciationSandro Botticelli Pallas and the CentaurSandro Botticelli Madonna in Glory with SeraphimJean Beraud La Rue de la Paix 1907
Not many. They only hurt his pride. And only after they'd run out of vegetables."
"They threw vegetables?"
"When they couldn't find any more eggs."
"And when we came to remonstrate-”
"I am sure sixty ships intended more than remonstrating," said the Tyrant. "And we have warned you, Lord Vorbis. People find in Ephebe what they seek. There will be more raids on your coast. We will harass your ships. Unless you sign."
"And passage through Ephebe?" said Vorbis.
The at your disposal. There are many fine temples and works of art should you wish to inspect them. When you require meals, mention the fact to the nearest slave."
"Slave is an Ephebian word. In Om we have no word for slave," said Vorbis.
"So I understand," said the Tyrant. "I imagine that fish have no word for water." He smiled the fleeting smile again. "And there are the baths and the Library, of course. Many fine sights. You are our guests."
Vorbis inclined his head.Tyrant smiled."Across the desert? My lord, if you can cross the desert, I am sure you can go anywhere." The Tyrant looked away from Vorbis and towards the sky, visible between the pillars."And now I see it is nearing noon," he said. "And the day heats up. Doubtless you will wish to discuss our . . . uh . . . proposals with your colleagues. May I suggest we meet again at sunset?"Vorbis appeared to give this some consideration."I think," he said eventually, "that our deliberations may take longer. Shall we say . . . tomorrow morning?"The Tyrant nodded."As you wish. In the meantime, the palace is
"I pray," he said, "that one day you will be a guest of mine

Edward Hopper Hotel Room

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

Edward Hopper Hotel RoomEdward Hopper Hotel LobbyEdward Hopper Girlie ShowEdward Hopper Early Sunday Morning
don't know! Perhaps he wrote it himself!"
Brutha put his hand over his mouth in horror.
"Thaff blafhngf!"
"What?"
Brutha removed his hand.
"I said, roaring white bull for a week and ended up a tortoise for three years. Why? I don't know, and I'm supposed to know everything. According to these prophets of yours who say they've met me, anyway. You know, no one even heard me? I tried talking to goatherds and stuff, and they never took any notice! I was beginning to think I was a tortoise dreaming about being a god. That's how bad it was getting."
"Perhaps you are," said Brutha.that's blasphemy!""Blasphemy? How can I blaspheme? I'm a god!""I don't believe you!""Hah! Want another thunderbolt?""You call that a thunderbolt?"Brutha was red in the face, and shaking. The tortoise hung its head sadly."All right. All right. Not much of one, I admit," it said. "If I was better, you'd have been just a pair of sandals with smoke coming out." It looked wretched. "I don't understand it. This sort of thing has never happened to me before. I intended to be a great big

Henri Matisse The Green Line

2009-04-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

Henri Matisse The Green LineHenri Matisse Red FishHenri Matisse Pink Nude
found a small clearing in a pine forest a mile or two ahead of the herd, although the sound of it was clearly audible and there was a line of steam above the trees and the ground was dancing like a drumtop.
Nijel strolled to the middle of the clearing and made a few practice swings with his sword. The others watched him Creosote nodded miserably, wheeled the horse and disappeared over the treetops.
Snow was shaking down from the branches around the clearing. The thunder of the approaching glaciers filled the air.
Nijel started when she tapped him on the shoulder, and dropped his sword.thoughtfully.'If you don't mind,' whispered Creosote to Conina, 'I'll be off. It's at times like this that sobriety loses its attractions and I'm sure the end of the world will look a lot better through the bottom of a glass, if it's all the same to you. Do you believe in Paradise, o peachcheeked blossom?''Not as such, no.''Oh,' said Creosote. 'Well, in that case we probably won't be seeing each other again.' He sighed. 'What a waste. All this was just because of a geas. Um. Of course, if by some unthinkable chance-’'Goodbye,' said Conina.

Arthur Hughes The Long Engagement

2009-04-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

Arthur Hughes The Long EngagementArthur Hughes The King's OrchardGeorge Inness October
attempt to get out of the sea.
'In that?' she said.
'You never on guard, was sound asleep.
Conina lay perfectly still, every sense seeking out the thing that had awoken her.
Finally she heard it again. It was a tiny, diffident clinking noise, barely audible above the muted slurp of the sea.
She got up, or rather, she slid into the vertical as bonelessly as a jellyfish, and flicked Nijel's sword out of his unresisting hand. Then she sidled through the mist without causing can tell.'Rincewind mooched along the waterline, distractedly picking up stones and throwing them in the sea. One or two were thrown back.After a while Conina got a fire going, and the bone-dry, salt-saturated wood sent blue and green flames roaring up under a fountain of sparks. The wizard went and sat in the dancing shadows, his back against a pile of whitened wood, wrapped in a cloud of such impenetrable gloom that even Creosote stopped complaining of thirst and shut up.Conina woke up after midnight. There was a crescent moon on the horizon and a thin, chilly mist covered the sand. Creosote was snoring on his back. Nijel, who was theoretically

Leroy Neiman Frank at Rao's

2009-04-08T23:35:00.001-07:00

Leroy Neiman Frank at Rao'sLeroy Neiman Ferrari on the BeachLeroy Neiman Elephant Stampede
was two o'clock in the morning. River mists coiled like snakes through the streets of Ankh-Morpork, but they coiled alone. Wizards did not hold with other people staying up after midnight, and so no-one did. They slept the troubled sleep of the enchanted, instead.
In the was the only sound that broke the cholesterol of silence that had the heart of the city in its grip.
Silence reigned too in the dark bulk of Unseen University. Except-
Spelter crept along the shadowy corridors like a two-legged spider, darting - or at least limping quickly -from pillar to archway, until he reached the forbidding doors of the Library. He peered nervously at the darkness around him and, after some hesitation, tapped very, very Plaza of Broken Moons, once the boutique of mysterious pleasures from whose flare-lit and curtain-hung stalls the late-night reveller could obtain anything from a plate of jellied eels to the venereal disease of his choice, the mists coiled and dripped into chilly emptiness.The stalls had gone, replaced by gleaming marble and a statue depicting the spirit of something or other, surrounded by illuminated fountains. Their dull splashing

Peter Paul Rubens The Straw Hat

2009-04-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

Peter Paul Rubens The Straw HatPeter Paul Rubens Duke of LermaJohn William Godward Dolce far niente
'Brothers!' he shouted, and nodded as the hubbub died away. 'Thank you. Be upstanding, please, for the ceremony of the, um, keys.'
There was a ripple of laughter and a general buzz of expectancy as the wizards pushed back their benches and got wizardry stared at the doors.
There was a soft knocking.
'Go away!' shouted the wizards, some of them collapsing at the sheer subtlety of the humour.
Spelter picked up the great iron ring that contained the keys to the University. They weren't all metal. They weren't all visible. Some of them looked very strange indeed.
'Who is that who knocketh without?' he intoned.
'I do.'
What was strange about the voice was this: it seemed to every unsteadily to their feet.The double doors to the hall were locked and triple barred. An incoming Archchancellor had to request entry three times before they would be unlocked, signifying that he was appointed with the consent of wizardry in general. Or some such thing. The origins were lost in the depths of time, which was as good a reason as any for retaining the custom.The conversation died away. The assembled

Vincent van Gogh Wheatfield under a Cloudy Sky

2009-04-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

Vincent van Gogh Wheatfield under a Cloudy SkyClaude Monet Water Lilies 1903Claude Monet Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies
re out of Time, Mr Bill Door.
The new Death raised his cowl.
There was no face there. There was not even a skull.
Smoke curled formlessly between the robe and a golden crown.
Bill Door raised himself on his elbows.
A CROWN? His voice shook with rage. I NEVER WORE A CROWN!
You never wanted to rule.
The Death swung the scythe back.

And faint outline of a lifetimer, its sand pouring away in a torrent.
The Deaths could just make out, on the glass. the spidery name: Renata Flitworth.
The new Death’s featureless expression became one of terminal puzzlement. It turned to Bill Door.
For YOU?
But Bill Door was already rising and unfolding like the wrath of kings. He reached behind him, growling, living on loaned time, and his hands closed around the harvest scythe.then it dawned on the old Death and the new Death that the hissing of passing time had not, in fact, stopped.The new Death hesitated, and took out the golden glass.It shook it.Bill Door looked into the empty face under the crown. There was an expression of puzzlement there, even with no features actually to wear it; the expression hung in the air all by itself.He saw the crown turn.Miss Flitworth stood with her hands held a foot apart and her eyes closed. Between her hands, in the air in front of her hovered the

Steve Thoms Poppies

2009-04-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

Steve Thoms PoppiesEdvard Munch Puberty 1894Unknown Artist Heighton After Hours
She thought she could hear a sound as the blade moved. A sort of faint whine of tensed air.
‘And it’s still not sharp enough?’
Bill Door sighed. IT MAY NEVER BE SHARP ENOUGH.
‘Come on, man. No sense in giving in,’ said Miss Flitworth.’Where there’s life, eh?’
WHERE THERE’S LIFE EH WHAT?
‘There’s hope?’
IS THERE?
‘Right enough.’
Bill Miss Flitworth sorted through her rag-bag.
‘What next?’ she said.
WHAT HAVE WE HAD SO FAR?
‘Let’s see . . . hessian, calico, linen . . . how about satin? Here’s a piece.’
Bill Door took the rag and wiped it gently along the Door ran a bony finger along the edge.HOPE?‘Got anything else left to try?’Bill shook his head. He’d tried a number of emotions. but this was a new one.COULD YOU FETCH ME A STEEL?It was an hour later.

Edgar Degas At the Races

2009-04-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

Edgar Degas At the RacesEdgar Degas After the BathFrida Kahlo The Frame
Except Lupine, ‘ said Arthur.
‘I’m more what you might call honorary undead,’ said Lupine.
‘Him being a werewolf, ‘ explained Arthur.
‘I thought he was a werewolf as soon as I saw him, ‘said Windle, nodding.
‘Every full moon,’ said Lupine. ‘Regular.’
‘You start howling and growing hair, ‘ said Windle.
They all ‘Oh, yeah. See, it’s all right for human werewolves. They just keep their
own clothes on. I mean, they might get a bit ripped, but at least they’ve got
them handy on, right? Whereas if I see the full moonshook their heads.‘Er, no,’ said Lupine.’I more sort of stop howling and some of my hair temporarily falls out. It’s bloody embarrassing.’ ‘But I thought at the full moon your basic werewolf always -‘ ‘Lupine’s problem,’ said Doreen, ‘is that he approaches it from ze ozzer way, you see.’‘I’m technically a wolf,’ said Lupine.’Ridiculous, really. Every full moon I turn into a wolfman. The rest of the time I ‘m just a . . . wolf.’‘Good grief,’ said Windle.’That must be a terrible problem.’‘The trousers are the worst part, ‘ said Lupine.‘Er . . . they are?’

Georges Seurat The Island of La Grande Jatte

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

Georges Seurat The Island of La Grande JatteWilliam Blake The ResurrectionWilliam Blake The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with SunWilliam Blake The Descent of ChristWilliam Blake Los
wizards revolved on their benches to stare.
Windle Poons swayed for a moment, assembling control of vocal chords, lips and tongue, and then said:
‘I think I may be able to metabolise alcohol.’

The Archchancellor was the first one to recover.
‘Windle!’ he said.’We thought you were dead!’
He hadyoung fool,’ he muttered.’Think I go around looking like this all the time? Good grief.’ He glared at the assembled wizardry.’Anyone here know what a spleen is supposed to do?’ He reached the table, and managed to sit down.
‘Probably something to do with the digestion,’ he said.’Funny thing, you can go through your whole life with the bloody thing ticking away or whatever it does, gurgling or whatever, to admit that it wasn’t a very good line. You didn’t put people on a slab with candles and lilies all round them because you think they’ve got a bit of a headache and want a nice lie down for half an hour. Windle took a few steps forward. The nearest wizards fell over themselves in an effort to get away.‘I am dead, you bloody

Nicolas De Stael Agrigente

2009-03-31T00:45:00.001-07:00

Nicolas De Stael AgrigenteNicolas De Stael Agrigente 1953Rodney White Small ChangeRodney White Share a Random MomentUnknown Artist Woodland Walk
Wait and see,’ said Victor hoarsely. ‘It’s Holy Wood! Holy Wood’s been brought to Ankh‑Morpork!’
‘Yes, but‑‘
‘Don’t you remember anything? That night in the hill? Before you woke up?’
‘No. I told you.’
‘Wait and see,’ Victor repeated. He glanced at a decorated easel against one wall.
It said: ‘said. ‘Right inside the city, too. Odd, that.’
‘That’s just Lady Ramkin’s Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons,’ said the Bursar, distractedly.
‘And here there’s "Terra Incognita",’ said the Archchancellor. ‘Why’s that?’
The Bursar craned to see. ‘Well, it’s probably more interesting than putting in lots of cabbage farms.’
‘And there’s "Here be Dragons" again.’
‘I think that’s just a lie, in fact.’
The Archchancellor’s horny thumb continued in the direction they’d Three showings a day!’And he thought of sand dunes, and ancient myths, and lobsters. Map‑making had never been a precise art on the Discworld. People tended to start off with good intentions and then get so carried away with the spouting whales, monsters, waves and other twiddly bits of cartographic furniture that they often forgot to put the boring mountains and rivers in at all.The Archchancellor put an overflowing ashtray on a corner that threatened to roll up. He dragged a finger across the grubby surface.‘Says here "Here be Dragons",’ he

Salvador Dali Manhattan Skyline

2009-03-30T00:02:00.001-07:00

Salvador Dali Manhattan SkylineMartin Johnson Heade Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian HummingbirdsCaravaggio The Raising of LazarusCaravaggio Beheading of Saint John the BaptistJohannes Vermeer Woman with a Pearl Necklace
got out of bed and also looked towards the hill, although it is doubtful if she saw it. Moving like a sightless person in a familiar room, she padded across to the door, down the steps, and out into the tail of the night.
A small dog, a cat and a mouse watched from the shadows as she moved silently down the alley and headed for the hill.
‘Did you that somethin’s not right,’ said Gaspode desperately. ‘That’s not walkin’, that’s lurchin’. Like she’s bein’ pulled along by a inner voice, style of fing.’
‘Don’t look like that to me,’ said Squeak. ‘Walking on two legs is lurching, in my book.’
‘You’ve only got to look at her face to see there’s somethin’ wrong!’
‘Of course there’s something wrong. She’s a human,’ said Squeak.
Gaspode considered the options. There weren’t many. The obvious one see her eyes?’ said Gaspode. ‘Glowing,’ said the cat. ‘Yukth!’ ‘She’s going to the hill,’ said Gaspode. ‘I don’t like that.’ ‘So what?’ said Squeak. ‘She’s always around the hill somewhere. Goes up there every night and moons around looking dramatic.’ ‘What?’ ‘Every night. We thought it was all this romance stuff.’ ‘But you can see by the way she’s movin’

Henri Rousseau Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest

2009-03-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

Henri Rousseau Woman Walking in an Exotic ForestHenri Rousseau warHenri Rousseau Two Monkeys in the JungleHenri Rousseau The WaterfallHenri Rousseau The Repast of the Lion
you listen to the man?’ said Dibbler, talking to the sky again. He glared at the artist. ‘She doesn’t look like two of them, does she? One Spink, two Spinks. Now get on with it. I want those posters all round the city first thing ‘I think it’s meant to be, dear,’ she said doubtfully.
‘I thought swords had to be straight,’ said Victor. Outside, he could hear Dibbler asking the sky why everyone was so stupid.
‘Perhaps they start out straight and go bendy with use,’ said the old lady, patting him on the hand. ‘A lot of things do.’ tomorrow.’ The artist gave Victor an agonized look he was coming to recognize. Everyone around Dibbler wore them after a while. ‘Right you are, Mr Dibbler,’ he said. ‘Right.’ Dibbler turned to Victor. ‘Why aren’t you changed?’ he said. Victor ducked quickly into a tent. A little old lady[10] shaped like a cottage loaf helped him into a costume apparently made of sheets inexpertly dyed black, although given the current state of accommodation in Holy Wood they were probably just sheets taken off a bed at random. Then she handed him a curved sword. ‘Why’s it bent?’ he asked.

Sung Kim Escape

2009-03-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sung Kim EscapeUnknown Artist Tango Rouge by Hamish BlakelyUnknown Artist Orange HorizonUnknown Artist Jillian David AgaveUnknown Artist Les Vins Rouges
looked up at the sandy hill.
‘There was jus’ me and him,’ he said. ‘And then jus’ me, remembering Holy Wood. And now. . . ‘ He raised his hand to his mouth.
‘Oo-er,’ he said.
YES, said Death.
It would be wrong to say a look of panic passed across Deccan Ribobe’s face, because at that moment it was several ‘Well, of course, I’m not telling you anything . . . ‘
NO.
‘ . . . I mean, I was hopin’ someone’d get shipwrecked or somethin’, or come treasure huntin’, and I could explain it like old Tento explained it to me, teach ‘em the chants, get it all sorted out before I died . . . ‘ yards away and wearing a sort of fixed grin, as if it had seen the joke at last. But his spirit was definitely worried. ‘See, the thing is,’ it said hastily, ‘no-one ever comes here, see, apart from the fishermen from the next bay, and they just leaves the fish and runs off on account of superstition and I couldn’t sort of go off to find an apprentice or somethin’ because of keepin’ the fires alight and doin’ the chantin’ . . . ‘ YES. ‘ . . . It’s a terrible responsibility, bein’ the only one able to do your job . . . ‘ YES, said Death.
YES?

Bill Brauer The Gold Dress

2009-03-24T01:08:00.000-07:00

Bill Brauer The Gold DressUnknown Artist Muhammad Ali pop artUnknown Artist Bruce LeeUnknown Artist Audrey HepburnPiet Mondrian Gray Tree
both sides of the line, wooden horses were taking shape.

'It's gone,' said be off, then.' He inched his way up the debris and poked his head over the top just as the vanguard of the dead came round the corner of the nearest minor pyramid.
His first thought was: this is it, they're coming to complain. He'd done his best. It wasn't always easy to build to a budget. Maybe not every lintel was exactly as per drawings, perhaps the quality of the internal plasterwork wasn't always up to snuff, but . . .
They can't all be complaining. Not this many of them.
Ptaclusp IIb climbed up alongside him. His mouth dropped open.Ptaclusp IIb, slithering back down the pile of rubble. 'About time, too,' said his father. 'Help me fold up your brother. You're sure it won't hurt him?' 'Well, if we do it carefully he can't move in Time, that is, width to us. So if no time can pass for him, nothing can hurt him.' Ptaclusp thought of the old days, when pyramid building had simply consisted of piling one block on another and all you needed to remember was that you put less on top as you went up. And now it meant trying to put a crease in one of your sons. 'Right,' he said doubtfully. 'Let's

Lord Frederick Leighton Solitude

2009-03-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

Lord Frederick Leighton SolitudeFrancois Boucher Venus Consoling LoveFrancois Boucher The Toilet of VenusGustav Klimt The VirginGustav Klimt dancer
Oh, yes. Yes. I suppose so,' said Teppic, glancing at Dios. 'Everything. You know.'
'Then there's mazes,' said Ptaclusp, trying to keep his voice steady. 'Very popular this era. Very important, your maze, it's no We'll have them all. All of them.'
The architect took a deep breath.
'And of course you'll require all the usual steles, avenues, ceremonial sphinxes-' he began.
'Lots,' said Teppic. 'We leave it entirely up to you.'
Ptaclusp mopped his brow.good deciding you ought to have put a maze in after the robbers have been. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I'd go for the Labrys every time. Like we say, they may get in all right, but they'll never get out. It costs that little bit extra, but what's money at a time like this? O master of the waters.' Something we don't have, said a warning voice in the back of Teppic's head. He ignored it. He was in the grip of destiny. 'Yes,' he said, straightening up. 'The Labrys. Two of them.' Ptaclusp's stylus went through his tablet. 'His 'n' hers, O stone of stones,' he croaked. 'Very handy, very convenient. With selection of traps from stock? We can offer deadfalls, pitfalls, sliders, rolling balls, dropping spears, arrows-' 'Yes, yes,' said Teppic. 'We'll have them.
'Fine,' he said. 'Marvellous.' He blew his nose. 'Your father, if I may make so bold, O sower of the seed, is extremely

Leonardo da Vinci Head of Christ

2009-03-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci Head of ChristJohn Singer Sargent A Dinner Table at NightLord Frederick Leighton Leighton Winding the SkeinWilliam Bouguereau Love Takes FlightWilliam Bouguereau Birth of Venus
Granny Weatherwax coughed. Then she treated the soldiers holding her to a bright, friendly smile, and pointed to the mound that was now the duchess.
'Take her away and put her in a cell somewhere,' she commanded. The men snapped to attention, grabbed the duchess by her arms, and pulled her upright with considerable difficulty.
'Them,' agreed Granny. 'Most of the per cents in being a king is acting, if you ask me. You ought to be good at it.'
Tomjon looked for help into the wings, where Hwel should have been. The dwarf was in fact there, but he wasn't paying much attention. He had the script in front of him, and was rewriting furiously.
'Gently, mind,' said Granny.She rubbed her hands together and turned to Tomjon, who was watching her with his mouth open.'Depend on it,' she hissed. 'Here and now, my lad, you don't have a choice. You're the King of Lancre.''But I don't know how to be a king!''We all seed you! You had it down just right, including the shouting.''That's just acting!''Act, then. Being a king is, is—' Granny hesitated, and snapped her fingers at Magrat. 'What do you call them things, there's always a hundred of them in anything?'Magrat looked bewildered. 'Do you mean per cents?' she said.

Nicolas De Stael Noon Landscape

2009-03-17T22:09:00.001-07:00

Nicolas De Stael Noon LandscapeNicolas De Stael Jazz MusiciansNicolas De Stael Fiesole 1953Nicolas De Stael Cap Gris-NezNicolas De Stael Agrigente stretched and yawned to hide his embarrassment. Being called a good cat in the middle of one of his favourite stalking grounds wasn't going to do anything for his prowl-credibility. He disappeared into the undergrowth.
The Fool The Fool sighed, removed his chain mail protection, and tinkled gently through the night in search of high ground. High ground seemed a good idea. The ground he was on at the moment appeared to be trembling. He was sure it shouldn't do that.peered into the gloom. It dawned on him that while he liked forests, he liked them at one remove, as it were; it was nice to know that they were there, but the forests of the mind were not quite the same as real forests that, for example, you got lost in. They had more mighty oaks and fewer brambles. They also tended to be viewed in daylight, and the trees didn't have malevolent faces and long scratchy branches. The trees of the imagination were proud giants of the forest. Most of the trees here appeared to be vegetable gnomes, mere trellises for fungi and ivy.The Fool was vaguely aware that you could tell which direction the Hub lay by seeing which side of the trees the moss grew on. A quick inspection of the nearby trunks indicated that, in defiance of all normal geography, the Hub lay everywhere.Greebo had vanished.

Rodney White Nothing to Dream

2009-03-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

Rodney White Nothing to DreamSung Kim PointSung Kim ParadiseSung Kim Palm ReflectionSung Kim Overlook Cafe II
shut up, Leonal,' she said. 'I think within these four walls we can dispense with that sort of thing.'
'Who told her? Did you tell her?'
'And calm down. No-one told her. She's a witch, for goodness sake, they find out about these things. Second glance, or something.'
'Sight,' said Nanny.
'Which you will not possess much longer, my good woman, unless you tell us who else knows and indeed, assist us on a number of other matters,' said the duchess grimly. 'And you will do so, believe me. I am skilled in these things.'

'What?' said the guard.
'I SAID,' said Magrat, 'I've come to sell my lovely apples. Don't you listen?'
'There's not a sale on, is there?' The guard was extremely nervous since his colleague had been Granny glanced around the dungeon. It was beginning to get crowded. King Verence was bursting with such angry vitality that he was very nearly apparent, and was furiously trying to get a grip on a knife. But there were others behind – wavering, broken shapes, not exactly ghosts but memories, implanted in the very substances of the walls themselves by sheer pain and terror.'My own dagger! The bastards! They killed me with my own dagger,' said the ghost of King Verence silently, raising his transparent arms and imploring the netherworld in general to witness this ultimate humiliation. 'Give me strength . . .''Yes,' said Nanny. 'It's worth a try.''And now we will commence,' said the duchess.

Unknown Artist James Wiens Birch Silhouette I

2009-03-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Unknown Artist James Wiens Birch Silhouette IPablo Picasso the dogUnknown Artist Still Life with Musical InstrumentsUnknown Artist Pieter Claesz Still LifeUnknown Artist Philadelphia Public Ledger
tall figure tapped its calcareous fingers on the scythe's handle. It was obviously upset about something.
If it came to that, Verence thought, so am I. But the various broad hints available in his present circumstances were breaking through even the mad brave stupidity that made up most of his character, and it was dawning on him that whatever kingdom he might currently be in, he wasn't king of it.
'Are you THIS IS VERY IRREGULAR, he went on, apparently to himself. HOWEVER, WHO AM I TO ARGUE?
'Who indeed.'
WHAT?
'I said, who indeed.'
SHUT UP.Death, fellow?' he ventured.I HAVE MANY NAMES.'Which one are you using at present?' said Verence, with a shade more deference. There were people milling around them; in fact, quite a few people were milling through them, like ghosts.'Oh, so it was Felmet,' the king added vaguely, looking at the figure lurking with obscene delight at the top of the stairs. 'My father said I should never let him get behind me. Why don't I feel angry?'GLANDS, said Death shortly. ADRENALIN AND SO FORTH. AND EMOTIONS. YOU DON'T HAVE THEM. ALL YOU HAVE NOW IS THOUGHT.The tall figure appeared to reach a decision.

Nicolas De Stael Agrigente

2009-03-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

Nicolas De Stael AgrigenteNicolas De Stael Agrigente 1953Rodney White Small Change
drink, that is. It's raspberry port. On the dresser. You might as well finish the bottle.'
Mort eyed the dresser suspiciously. He felt he'd rather lost the initiative. He pulled out the hourglass and glared at it. There ink in front of the candle, sealed the letter with a drip of wax, and tucked it under the candlestick. Then she picked up the cat.
'Granny Beedle will be around directly tomorrow to tidy up and you're to go with her, understand? And see she lets Gammer Nutley have the pink marble washstand, she's had her eye on it for years.'
The cat yawped knowingly.
'I haven't, that is, I HAVEN'T GOT ALL NIGHT, YOU KNOW,' said Mort reproachfully.
'You have, I haven't, and there's no need to shout,' said the witch. She slid off her stall and then Mort saw how bent she was, like a bow. With some difficulty she unhooked a tall pointed hat from its nail on the was a little heap of sand left.There's still a few minutes yet,' said the witch, without looking up.'How, I mean, HOW DO YOU KNOW?'She ignored him, and dried the

Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of Ginevra de Benci

2009-03-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of Ginevra de BenciLeonardo da Vinci Portrait Of A Young LadyLeonardo da Vinci Leda
'Sure, sure, it's gold,' said Cutwell hurriedly. 'It's gold all right. I just wondered where it had come from, that's all.'
'You wouldn't believe me,' said Mort. 'What time's sunset around here?'
'We normally PIQUANT. HELP YOURSELF, I HAVE AN EXTRA PIN.
But, of course, just because he was forty miles away didn't mean he wasn't here as well. . . .
And in his untidy room Cutwell turned the gold coin over and over in his fingers, muttering 'walls' to himself, and draining the bottle.
He appeared to notice what he was doing only when there was no more manage to fit it in between night and day,' said Cutwell, still staring at the coin and taking little sips from the blue bottle. 'About now.'Mort glanced out of the window. The street outside already had a twilight look to it.'I'll be back,' he muttered, and made for the door. He heard the wizard call out something, but Mort was heading down the street at a dead run.He started to panic. Death would be waiting for him forty miles away. There would be a row. There would be a terrible —AH, BOY.A familiar figure stepped out from the flare around a jellied eel stall, holding a plate of winkles.THE VINEGAR IS PARTICULARLY

Vincent van Gogh The Sower

2009-03-11T00:09:00.001-07:00

Vincent van Gogh The SowerVincent van Gogh The Night CafeVincent van Gogh Cafe Terrace at Night
wanted to ask what 'nuptials' meant.
What he actually said was, 'Yes. Thank you. I'd better be going. I'll try and write you a letter.'
'There's bound to Lezek waved back. Then, as the horse and its two riders disappeared from view, he lowered his hand and looked at it. The handshake . . . it had felt strange. But, somehow, he couldn't remember be someone passing who can read it to us,' said Lezek. 'Goodbye, Mort.' He blew his nose.'Goodbye, dad. I'll come back to visit,' said Mort. Death coughed tactfully, although it sounded like the pistol-crack of an ancient beam full of death-watch beetle.WE HAD BETTER BE GOING, he said. HOP UP, MORT.As Mort scrambled behind the ornate silver saddle Death leaned down and shook Lezek's hand.THANK YOU, he said.'He's a good lad at heart,' said Lezek. 'A bit dreamy, that's all. I suppose we were all young once.'Death considered this.No, he said, I DON'T THINK so.He gathered up the reins and turned the horse towards the Rim road. From his perch behind the black-robed figure Mort waved desperately.

Franz Marc Tiger

2009-03-09T22:53:00.001-07:00

Franz Marc TigerFranz Marc StablesFranz Marc Foxes
said the dust was afraid of it! Can you imagine?"
"Yes," saidwindows and stared out over the city. She was feeling angrier than usual, so the broom attacked the dust with unusual vigour. Spiders ran desperate eight-legged dashes for safety as ancestral cobwebs disappeared into the void. In the walls mice clung to each other, legs braced against the inside of their holes. Woodworm scrabbled in the ceiling beams as they were drawn, inexorably, backwards down their tunnels. Granny. Mrs Whitlow pushed her teacup towards her and gave her an embarrassed smile. Granny sighed inwardly and squinted into the none-too-clean depths of the future. She was definitely beginning to run out of imagination. The broom whisked down the corridor raising a great cloud of dust which, if you looked hard at it, seemed somehow to be sucked back into the broomstick. If you looked even harder you'd see that the broom handle had strange markings on it, which were not so much carved as clinging and somehow changed shape as you watched. But no one looked. Esk sat at one of the high deep

Salvador Dali Ascension

2009-03-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dali AscensionPhilip Craig Boboli Gardens - FlorenceWassily Kandinsky Dominant Curve
Eh?" said Simon, opening his eyes in time to stop the oxen wandering off the track.
"You said all those wubbleyous!"
"Idid?"
"I heard you! Try again."
Simon took a deep breath. "The worworwor - the wuwuw -" he said. "The wowowoo-" he continued.
"It's no good, it's gone," he said. "It happens sometimes, if I don't think about it. Master Treatle says I'm allergic to pass of orange rock. Simon looked at it disconsolately.
"My granny taught me some hayfever cures," Esk said. "We could try those."
Simon shook his head. It looked touch and go whether it would fall off.
"Tried everything," he said. "Fine wwiwwi-magician I'd make, eh, can't even sss-utter the wowo-name."
"I could see where that would be a problem," said Esk. She watched the scenery for a while, marshalling a train of thought.something." "Allergic to double-yous?" "No, sisssisi-" //-silly-" said Esk, generously. "- there's sososo-" "- something -" "- in the air, p-pollen maybe, or g-grass dust. Master Treatle has tried to find the cause of it but no magic seems to h-help it." They were passing through a narrow

Ford Madox Brown Romeo and Juliet

2009-03-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

Ford Madox Brown Romeo and JulietPierre Auguste Renoir La PromenadePierre Auguste Renoir Dance in the Country
She tried to recall the bits of lessons that Granny grudgingly doled out. It isn't what you know, it's what other people don't know. Magic can be something right in the wrong place, or something wrong in the right place. It can be
Granny always wore it to the village. And the big black cloak, which certainly wasn't magical, because for most of the winter it had been a goat blanket and Granny washed it in the spring.
Esk ." She tapped her silver hair, which was drawn into a tight bun that could crack rocks.
"But it's not real!" Esk protested. "That's not magic, it's it's -"
"Listen," said Granny, "If you give someone a bottle of red jollop for their began to feel the shape of the answer and she didn't like it much. It was like a lot of Granny's answers. Just a word trick. She just said things you knew all the time, but in a different way so they sounded important. "I think I know," she said at last. "Out with it, then." "It's in sort of two parts." "Well?" "It's a witch's hat because you wear it. But you're a witch because you wear the hat. Um." "So -"prompted Granny. "So people see you coming in the hat and the cloak and they know you're a witch and that's why your magic works?" said Esk. "That's right," said Granny. "It's called headology

Vincent van Gogh View of Arles with Irises I

2009-03-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

Vincent van Gogh View of Arles with Irises IVincent van Gogh Wheatfield with a LarkVincent van Gogh Vegetable Gardens in MontmartreVincent van Gogh Vegetable gardens at the Montmartre
The crowd surged over one of the bridges that linked Morpork with Ankh. Below it the river, turgid at the best of times, was a mere trickle which steamed.
The bridge shook under their feet rather more than it should. Strange ripples ran across the muddy remains of the river. A few tiles slid off the roof of a nearby house.
'What was that?' said Twoflower.
Bethan looked behind them, and screamed.
The star was rising. As the Disc's own sun scurried for safety below the horizon the great bloated ball of the star climbed slowly into the sky until the whole of it was several degrees above the edge of the world.
They pulled Rincewind into the safety of a doorway. The crowd hardly noticed them, but ran on, terrified as lemmings.
'The star's got spots on,' said Twoflower.
'No,' saidits gates were, generally, making one of two demands. They were demanding that either a) the wizards should stop messing about and get rid of the star or, and this was the demand favoured by the star people, that b) they should cease all magic and commit suicide in good order, thus ridding the Disc of the curse of magic and warding off the terrible threat in the sky.
The wizards on the other side of the w

Salvador Dali Asummpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina

2009-03-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

Salvador Dali Asummpta Corpuscularia LapislazulinaJohn Singer Sargent A Morning Walk ladyJohn Singer Sargent The Chess GameJohn Singer Sargent The Breakfast Table
Twoflower appear like a colour plate?
Probably not, he decided. The Octavo they were in was something a bit different from the mere book chained to its lectern deep in Unseen University, which was merely a three-dimensional representation of a multidimensional reality, and—
Hold on, he thought. I don't think like this. Who's thinking for me?
'Rincewind,' said a voice like the rustle of old pages.
'Who? Me?'
'Of course you, you daft sod.'
A flicker of defiance flared very briefly in Rincewind's battered heart.
'Have you managed to recall how the Universe started yet?' he said nastily. 'The Clearing of the Throat, wasn't it, or the Drawing of the Breath, or the Scratching of the Head and Trying to Remember It, It was On the Tip of the Tongue?'
Another voice, dry as tinder, hissed, 'You would do well to remember where you are.' It should be

Leroy Neiman Roulette II

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

Leroy Neiman Roulette IILeroy Neiman Marlin FishingLeroy Neiman Mardi Gras ParadeLeroy Neiman Lights of Broadway
other bigger, is he all right?' he said solicitously.
'He's just suffering from reality shock,' said Rincewind. You haven't got a red hat, by any chance?'
'Wheet?'
'Just a thought.'
'I know where there's some food for biggers,' said the gnome, 'and shelter, too. It's not far.'
Rincewind , anxiously. 'Did it hurt?'
The Luggage seemed to think about this. Every brass handle, every knothole, radiated extreme concentration.
Then it shrugged its lid and waddled away.
The tree sighed, and shook a few dead leaves out of its twigs.
looked at the lowering sky. The daylight was draining out of the landscape and the clouds looked as if they had heard about snow and were considering the idea. Of course, people who lived in mushrooms couldn't necessarily be trusted, but right now a trap baited with a hot meal and clean sheets would have had the wizard hammering to get in.They set off. After a few seconds the Luggage got carefully to its feet and started to follow.'Psst!'It turned carefully, little legs moving in a complicated pattern, and appeared to look up.'Is it good, being joinery?' said the tree

Paul Cezanne Table Corner

2009-03-02T00:29:00.001-08:00

Paul Cezanne Table CornerPaul Cezanne Still Life with Soup TureenPaul Cezanne Still Life with Fruit Pitcher and Fruit-VasePaul Cezanne Poplar Trees
wizard made out the shape of something, the edge of something-
Like those curious little pictures where the silhouette of an ornate glass suddenly becomes the outline of two faces, the , sweeping slowly past it, was something that for all its city-sized scales, its crater-pocks, its lunar cragginess, was indubitably a flipper.
"Shall I let go?" suggested the troll
"Gnah," said Rincewind, straining backwards.
"I have lived here on the Edge for five years and I have not had the courage," boomed Tethis. "Nor have you, if I'm any judge." He stepped back, allowing Rincewind to fling himself onto the ground.scene beneath him flipped into a whole, new, terrifying perspective. Because down there was the head of an elephant as big as a reasonably-sized continent. One mighty tusk cut like a mountain against the golden light, trailing a widening shadow towards the stars. The head was slightly tilted, and a huge ruby eye might almost have been a red super-giant that had managed to shine at noonday.Below the elephant-Rincewind swallowed and tried not to think-Below the elephant there was nothing but the distant, painful disc of the sun. And

Unknown Artist Pink Floyd Back Catalogue

2009-02-26T23:27:00.000-08:00

Unknown Artist Pink Floyd Back CatalogueVincent van Gogh Wheat Field with Rising SunVincent van Gogh Wheat Field 1889Vincent van Gogh Road with Cypress and Star
Remote Fireworks LauncherWhy risk starting the new year with first-degree burns? If you have a place to set off some pyrotechnics, get the remote fireworks launcher. With a wireless remote you can set off up to five different fireworks at one time. Burn, baby, burn!
DIY LED stuck together with a battery and a rare-earth magnet that can be thrown and stuck to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. They're cheap and easy to make. Throw a few to see where they stick, and light up the city.Mirror BallA disco mirror ball is a must-have for a New Year's Eve party. What else will you point your upraised hand toward when "Stayin' Alive" comes on? But ordinary mirror balls are so ... ordinary. Buy a mirror ball and soup it up with some LED to make your party even more disco-licious.Cocktail FountainThe name suggests a centerpiece shooting a fountain of Martinis or Manhattans high into the sky. The Cocktail Fountain is not quite that, but it promises to deliver cascades of alcoholy delight directly into cups, which is almost as good. It's the adult version of the chocolate fountain.LED ThrowiesSome people just talk about painting the town red. Others actually do something about it. LED throwies are little blobs of LEDs,

Gustav Klimt Apple Tree I

2009-02-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

Gustav Klimt Apple Tree ISalvador Dali Persistence of MemorySalvador Dali Metamorphosis of NarcissusSalvador Dali Maelstrom
Several hundred yards downriver from the last smouldering suburb of the city a strangely rectangular and apparently heavily-waterlogged object touched the mud on the widdershin bank. Immediately it sprouted numerous How can a man with plenty of gold consider himself poor? You're either poor or rich. It stands to reason-"legs and scrabbled for a purchase.Hauling itself to the top of the bank the Luggage-streaked with soot, stained with water and very very angry - shook itself and took its bearings. Then it moved away at a brisk trot, the small and incredibly ugly imp that was perching on its lid watching the scenery with interest. Bravd looked at the Weasel and raised his eyebrows."And that's it," said Rincewind, "The Luggage caught up with us, don't ask me how. Is there any more wine?"The Weasel picked up the empty wineskin."I think you have had just about enough wine this night," he said.Bravd's forehead wrinkled."Gold is gold," he said finally. "

Alexandre Cabanel The Birth of Venus

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

Alexandre Cabanel The Birth of VenusSandro Botticelli The Story of Nastagio degli OnestiSandro Botticelli The Cestello AnnunciationSandro Botticelli Pallas and the Centaur
What happened?"
"I was betrayed by lesser men. Trelawney among them, of course. He was here, you know. On Svalbard. Spread lies and calumny about my qualifications. Calumny! Slander! Who was it discovered the final proof of the Barnard-Stokes hypothesis, eh? Eh? Yes, Santelia, . Trelawney couldn't take it. Lied through his teeth. lofur Raknison had me thrown in here. I'll be out one day, you'll see. I'll be Vice-Chancellor, oh yes. Let Trelawney come to "Supposing lorek Byrnison did come back, though," Lyra said. "Supposing he challenged lofur Raknison to a fight..."
"Oh, they wouldn't allow it," said the Professor decisively, "lofur would never lower himself to acknowledge lorek Byrnison's right to fight him. Hasn't got a right. lorek might as well be a seal now, or a walrus, not a bear. Or worse: Tartar or Skraeling. They wouldn't me then begging for mercy! Let the Publications Committee of the Royal Arctic Institute spurn my contributions then! Ha! I'll expose them all! ""I expect lorek Byrnison will believe you, when he comes back," Lyra said."lorek Byrnison? No good waiting for that. He'll never come back.""He's on his way now.""Then they'll kill him. He's not a bear, you see. He's an outcast. Like me. Degraded, you see. Not entitled to any of the privileges of a bear."that's who

Paul Klee Villa R

2009-02-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

Paul Klee Villa RPaul Klee The Golden FishPaul Klee Insula DulcamaraPaul Klee Fish Magic
still there, and swore to say they knew nothing about it. Then Lyra listened at the door to make sure no one was coming, jumped up on the locker, pushed up the panel, and hauled herself through.
"Just don't say anything," she whispered down to the three faces watching.
Then she height) extending in all directions around her. It was crowded with metal ducts and pipes, and it would be easy to get lost in, but provided she kept to the metal and avoided putting any weight on the panels, and as long as she made no noise, she should be able to go from one end of the station to the other.
"It's just like back in Jordan, Pan," she whispered, "looking in the Retiring Roomdropped the panel gently back into place and looked around.She was crouching in a narrow metal channel supported in a framework of girders and struts. The panels of the ceilings were slightly translucent, so some light came up from below, and in the faint gleam Lyra could see this narrow space (only two feet or so in

Edgar Degas The Bellelli Family

2009-02-22T22:45:00.001-08:00

Edgar Degas The Bellelli FamilyEdgar Degas At the RacesEdgar Degas After the BathFrida Kahlo The Frame
Lyra pulled open the door against the snow and slipped inside. The goose daemon came with her. Pantalaimon was agitated and fearful, but he didn't want the witch's daemon to see his fear, so he had flown to Lyra's breast and taken forward pressing their pale faces to the glass. Lyra could hear faint cries of pain and misery. In the dim light from a low-powered anbaric bulb she could see a name on a card at the front of each case, and yes, there was an empty one with Tony Makarios on it. There were four or five other empty ones with names on them, too.sanctuary inside her furs.As soon as her eyes had adjusted to the light, Lyra saw why.In a series of glass cases on shelves around the walls were all the daemons of the severed children: ghostlike forms of cats, or birds, or rats, or other creatures, each bewildered and frightened and as pale as smoke.The witch's daemon gave a cry of anger, and Lyra clutched Pantalaimon to her and said, "Don't look! Don't look!""Where are the children of these daemons?" said the goose daemon, shaking with rage.Lyra explained fearfully about her encounter with little Tony Makarios, and looked over her shoulder at the poor caged daemons, who were clustering

Thomas Kinkade Sunday Outing

2009-02-20T00:14:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Sunday OutingThomas Kinkade Studio in The GardenThomas Kinkade San Francisco Lombard Street
man's skull like an egg, and there would follow a bloody fight, more deaths, and more delay; and they would never get free, undertone. "Listen! You owe me a debt, right. Well, now you can repay it. Do as I ask. Don't fight these men. Just turn around and walk away with me. We want you, lorek, you can't stay here. Just come down to the harbor with me and don't even look back. Farder Coram and Lord Faa, let them do the talking, they'll make it all right. Leave go this man and come away with me...."
The bear slowly opened his jaws. The sentry's head, bleeding and wet and ash-pale, fell to the ground as he fainted, and his dsmon set about calming and gentling with or without the bear.Without even thinking, she darted forward and put her hand on the one vulnerable spot in the bear's armor, the gap that appeared between the helmet and the great plate over his shoulders when he bent his head, where she could see the yellow-white fur dimly between the rusty edges of metal. She dug her fingers in, and Pantalaimon instantly flew to the same spot and became a wildcat, crouched to defend her; but lorek Byrnison was still, and the riflemen held their fire."lorek!" she said in a fierce

Benjamin Williams Leader Derwentwater

2009-02-18T22:55:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Williams Leader DerwentwaterBenjamin Williams Leader A Fine Day on the ThamesAlexei Alexeivich Harlamoff The Flower Girls
controlled by something called the General Oblation Board of London. This organization, I happen to know, imports children. This is not generally known in the town; the Norroway government is not officially aware of it. The children what they do by its proper name. I have also heard the word intercision, but what it refers to I could not say."
"And are there any children in the town at the moment?" said Farder Coram.
He was stroking his daemon's fur as she sat alert in his lap. Lyra noticed that she had stopped purring.
"No, I think not," said Dr. Lanselius. "A group of about twelve arrived don't remain here long. They are taken some distance inland.""Do you know where, Dr. Lanselius?""No. I would tell you if I did.""And do you know what happens to them there?"For the first time, Dr. Lanselius glanced at Lyra. She looked stolidly back. The little green serpent daemon raised her head from the consul's collar and whispered tongue-flickeringly in his ear.The consul said, "I have heard the phrase the M.aystadt process in connection with this matter. I think they use that in order to avoid calling

Leroy Neiman Mardi Gras Parade

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

Leroy Neiman Mardi Gras ParadeLeroy Neiman Lights of BroadwayLeroy Neiman Lady Liberty
another fact for you: the Gobblers, these child thieves, are a taking their prisoners to a town in the far North, way up in the land of dark. I don't know what they do with 'em there. Some folk say they kill 'em, other folk say different. We don't kids as well as gyptians been taken captive. Are you saying we should rescue them as well?"
John Faa stood up to answer.
"Raymond, are you saying we should fight our way through every kind of danger toknow."What we do know is that they do it with the help of the landloper police and the clergy. Every power on land is helping 'em. Remember that. They know what's going on and they'll help it whenever they can."So what I'm proposing en't easy. And I need your agreement. I'm proposing that we send a band of fighters up north to rescue them kids and bring 'em back alive. I'm proposing that we put our gold into this, and all the craft and courage we can muster. Yes, Raymond van Gerrit?"A man in the audience had raised his hand, and John Faa sat down to let him speak."Beg pardon, Lord Faa. There's landloper

Paul Klee Red Bridge

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

Paul Klee Red BridgePaul Klee Red And White DomesPaul Klee Fire in the Evening
Really?" said the young woman, wide-eyed.
"And even "This little lady knows all about it, I'll be bound. You're safe from the Oblation Board, aren't you, my dear?"
"Oh, yes," said Lyra. "I'm safe from everyone here. Where I used to live, in Oxford, there was all kinds of dangerous things. There was gyptians-they take kids and sell 'em to the Turks for slaves. And on Port Meadow at the full moon there's a werewolf that comes more extraordinary," he went on, "some human beings more than others. Adults attract it, but not children. At least, not much, and not until adolescence. In fact, that's the very reason-" His voice dropped, and he moved closer to the young woman, putting his hand confidentially on her shoulder. "-that's the very reason the Oblation Board was set up. As our good hostess here could tell you.""Really? Is she involved with the Oblation Board?""My dear, she is the Oblation Board. It's entirely her own project-"The man was about to tell her more when he caught sight of Lyra. She stared back at him unblinkingly, and perhaps he had had a little too much to drink, or perhaps he was keen to impress the young woman, for he said:

William Bouguereau Rest

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

William Bouguereau RestWilliam Bouguereau The Rapture of PsycheWilliam Bouguereau Cupid and Psyche as Children
So Lyra'shad been, before the day when she decided to hide in the Retiring Room, and first heard about Dust.
And ofIt would happen like this.
East along the great highway of the River Isis, thronged with slow-moving brick barges and asphalt boats and corn tankers, way down past Henley and Maidenhead to Teddington course the Librarian was wrong in saying to the Master that she wouldn't have been interested. She would have listened eagerly now to anyone who could tell her about Dust. She was to hear a great deal more about it in the months to come, and eventually she would know more about Dust than anyone in the world; but in the meantime, there was all the rich lifehad been filtering through the streets for some weeks: a rumor that made some people laugh and others grow silent, as some people scoff at ghosts and others fear them. For no reason that anyone could imagine, children were beginning to disappear. * * *

Thomas Kinkade Serenity Cove

2009-02-12T23:00:00.001-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Serenity CoveThomas Kinkade Petals of HopeThomas Kinkade Make a Wish Cottage
There was still a strong sideways pull from the gasbag, which was now nearly empty, but which as a result was catching the wind like a sail. It crossed Lee's mind to cut it loose, but if it didn't fly away altogether, it would hang in theplan."
"I'll follow you, Mr. Scoresby," said Grumman. "My daemon tells me the ground is forty feet down."
And Lee was aware of a powerful flutter of wingbeats as the eagle daemon settled again on the basket rim.
"She can go that far?" he said, surprised, but put that out of his mind and made the rope secure, first to the suspension ring and then to the branch, so that treetops like a banner and give their position away; much better to take it in, if they could.There came another lightning flash, and a second later the thunder crashed. The storm was nearly overhead. The glare showed Lee an oak trunk, with a great white scar where a branch had been torn away, but torn only partially, for the basket was resting on it near the point where it was still attached to the trunk."I'm going to throw out a rope and climb down," he shouted. "As soon as our feet touch the ground, we can make the next

Henri Rousseau Merry Jesters

2009-02-12T00:03:00.000-08:00

Henri Rousseau Merry JestersHenri Rousseau Exotic LandscapeHenri Rousseau Exotic Landscape 1908
back door of the van swung open and a policeman stepped out. Without his helmet he looked very young, and the streetlight under the dense green of the leaves above shone full on his face.
"Could I the rucksack off her back to get at her purse. Among the items she had taken from the drawer in the laboratory was an expired library card of Oliver Payne's. Fifteen minutes' work at her kitchen table and the photograph from her own passport had produced something she hoped would pass for genuine. The policeman took the laminated card and looked at it closely.
"'Dr. Olive Payne,'" he read. "Do you happen to know a Dr. Mary Maloneask where you're going, madam?" he said."Into that tent.""I'm afraid you can't, madam. I've got orders not to let anyone near it.""Good," she said. "I'm glad they've got the place protected. But I'm from the Department of Latrom asked us to make a preliminary survey and then report back before they look at it properly. It's important that it's done now while there aren't many people around. I'm sure you understand the reasons for that.""Well, yes," he said. "But have you got anything to show who you are?""Oh, sure," she said, and swung

Pino Angelica

2009-02-11T00:30:00.000-08:00

Pino AngelicaPablo Picasso The Old GuitaristPablo Picasso Gertrude Stein
search strategyJob seekers should consider the following strategies:
* Look beyond the headlines. The job-market news is bad, but "you only need one job," Anderson said. "Keep your perspective, be positive and don't hunker down. Get out there, make connections." * Find where your skills fit. If picks up, companies often turn to temporary workers, said Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "A lot of work may be sourced through staffing agencies and temp firms." * See where the jobs will be. There are only so many firms that can do big construction and IT projects -- "it's not an unlimited pool of [companies] and they tend to be pretty big," Cappelli said. Also, look for small you've sold consumer products, figure out the similarities with selling, say, environmental products, Anderson said. "Generalize your skills and what problems you've solved." * Consider temp agencies. As Business

Juan Gris Man in the Cafe

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

Juan Gris Man in the CafeJuan Gris Landscape with Houses at CeretGeorge Bellows Club Night
from yet another world. How interesting. Is that where the alethiometer comes from, or did you steal it on your travels?"
"I was given it," said Lyra furiously. "The Master of Jordan my Oxford gave it to me. It's mine by right. And you wouldn't know what to do with it, you stupid, stinky old man; you'd never read it in a hundred years. It's just a toy to you. But I need it, and so does Will. We'll get it back, don't worry."
"We'll see," said Sir window and said to Will, "By the way, if you can't get the knife, don't bother to return. Come to my house without it and I'll call the police. I imagine they'll be there at once when I tell them your real name. It is William Parry, isn't it? Yes, I thougCharles. "This is where I dropped you before. Shall we let you out here?""No," said Will, because he could see a police car farther down the road. "You can't come into Ci'gazze because of the Specters, so it doesn't matter if you know where the window is. Take us farther up toward the ring road.""As you wish," said Sir Charles, and the car moved on. "When, or if, you get the knife, call my number and Allan will come to pick you up."They said no more till the chauffeur drew the car to a halt.As they got out, Sir Charles lowered his ht so. There's a very good photo of you in today's paper."

Leroy Neiman The Green Table

2009-02-04T23:51:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman The Green TableLeroy Neiman The Great SecretariatLeroy Neiman The Golden Bear

Wish me luck, my darling. I'll bring you back a trophy fromman earlier this year high up in the range and watched him for a couple of days without being seen, because he guessed what he was doing, and he was right, and the man turned out to be Russian, a spy. He didn't tell me more than that; I got the impression he bumped him off. But he described the thing to me. It's like a gap in the air, a sort of window. You look through it and you see another world. But it's

plan: take the archaeologists to their spot and go off by myself for a few days to look for the anomaly. If I bump into Nelson wandering about on Lookout Ridge, I'll play it by ear.
Later. A real bit of luck. I met Jake Petersen's pal the Eskimo, Matt Kigalik. Jake had told me where to find him, but I hadn't dared to hope he'd be there. He told me the Soviets had been looking for the anomaly too; he'd come across a of a tall rock shaped like a standing bear, and the position Jake gave me is not quite right—it's nearer 12" N than 11.not easy to find because that part of the other world looks just like this—rocks and moss and so forth. It's on the north side of a small creek fifty paces or so to the west the spirit world. I love you forever—kiss the boy for me—Johnny.

Will found his head ringing.

Leonardo da Vinci Madonna Litta

2009-02-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

Leonardo da Vinci Madonna LittaLeonardo da Vinci LedaLeonardo da Vinci Female Head
Moving more silently than the men were, he left his bedroom and tiptoed to the spare room at the top of the stairs. It wasn't quite pitch-dark, and in the ghostly gray predawn light he could see the old treadle sewing machine. He'd been through the room thoroughly only hours before, but he'd forgotten the compartment at the side . He heard one of them say quietly, "Come on. I can hear the milkman down the road."
"It's not here, though," said the other voice. "We'll have to look upstairs."
"Go on, then. Don't hang about."of the sewing machine, where all the patterns and bobbins were kept.He felt for it delicately, listening all the while. The men were moving about downstairs, and Will could see a dim flicker of light that might have been a flashlight at the edge of the door.Then he found the catch of the compartment and clicked it open, and there, just as he'd known it would be, was the leather writing case.And now what could he do? He crouched in the dimness, heart pounding, listening hard.The two men were in the hall downstairs

Thomas Kinkade London

2009-02-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade LondonThomas Kinkade Living WatersThomas Kinkade Light of Freedom
The ionosphere is primarily caused by extreme ultraviolet energy from the sun.
"It's powerful at the annual American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco last month.
CINDI is an acronym for Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamics Investigation. The device works by separately measuring ionized and neutral particles at altitudes where the Air Force satellite flies. A similar device is on another polar-orbiting Air Force spacecraft.enough that those photons can ionize atoms is Earth's upper atmosphere," said David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "When you have a geomagnetic disturbance or a solar flare going off, you can get ... an ionosphere that is patchy, which can cause problems with radio signals and GPS satellite signals, which have to pass through."The findings were presented

Franz Marc Foxes

2009-02-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Franz Marc FoxesFranz Marc fighting formsFranz Marc Fate of the Animals
Then he stepped off the threshold and stood still, almost at a loss. Mary was suddenly conscious of how exposed she was on the bare hillside, an easy rifle shot away, but he was only interested in the village; and when another minute or so had gone by, he turned and walked quietly away."Dr. Malone," said Lyra in the morning, "Will and me have got to look for our daemons. When we've found them, we'll know what to do. But we can't be without them for much longer. So we just want to go and look."
"Where will you go?" said Mary, heavy-eyed and headachy after her disturbed night. She and Lyra were on the riverbank, Lyra to wash, and Mary to look, surreptitiously, for the man's footprints. So far she hadn't found any.
"Don't know," said Lyra. "But
She watched every step he took down the river path, and saw quite clearly how he stepped onto the bird's back and sat cross-legged as it turned to glide away. Five minutes later they were lost to sight.

Georgia O'Keeffe From the Lake No. 1

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

Georgia O'Keeffe From the Lake No. 1Mark Rothko Orange and YellowAlfred Gockel Endless Love
Lord Asriel said, "Marisa, wake up. We're about to land."
A blustery dawn was breaking over the basalt fortress as the intention craft flew in from the south. Mrs. Coulter, sore and heartsick, opened her eyes; she had not been asleep. She could see the angel Xaphania gliding above the landing the room in the adamant tower, where the orderly offered to bring her some food and
"Whatever you have," she said. "And thank you. Oh, by the way," she went on as the man turned to go: "Lord Asriel's alethiometrist, Mr. ..."ground, and then rising and wheeling up to the tower as the craft made for the ramparts.As soon as the craft had landed, Lord Asriel leapt out and ran to join King Ogunwe on the western watchtower, ignoring Mrs. Coulter entirely. The technicians who came at once to attend to the flying machine took no notice of her, either; no one questioned her about the loss of the aircraft she'd stolen; it was as if she'd become invisible. She made her way sadly up to

Gustave Courbet Plage de Normandie

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

Gustave Courbet Plage de NormandieThomas Kinkade HOMETOWN MORNINGEdward Hopper Sunday
Will of the merciless cruelty of children in a playground, but there were no teachers here to regulate things, no one to appeal to, nowhere to hide.
He set his hand on the knife at his belt and looked her in the eyes, though his head was ringing and the sheer power of her scream had made him dizzy.
"If you're trying to dragonfly, wings quivering, was being held by Tialys on the ground, and then two things happened: the Lady leapt at the harpy and spun around to dig her spur deep into the creature's scaly leg, and Tialys launched the dragonfly upward. In less than a second Salmakia had spun away and leapt off the branch, directly onto the back of her electric blue steed and up into the air.
The effect on the harpy was immediate. Another scream shattered the silence,stop us," he said, "then you'd better be ready to fight as well as scream. Because we're going through that door."The harpy's sickening red mouth moved again, but this time it was to purse her lips into a mock kiss.Then she said, "Your mother is alone. We shall send her nightmares. We shall scream at her in her sleep!"Will didn't move, because out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Lady Salmakia moving delicately along the branch where the harpy was perching. Her

Jack Vettriano Cafe Days

2009-01-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Cafe DaysJack Vettriano Busted FlushJack Vettriano Bluebird
and kept her safe and warm, I made sure her body was nourished as she slept... I lay beside her at night, I cradled her in my armsIn fact, though, it was on the Gallivespian that she made the greatest impression. Lord Roke sensed in her a nature as close to that of a scorpion as he had ever encountered, and he was well aware of the power in the sting he could detect under her gentle tone. Better to keep scorpions where you could see them, he thought.
So he supported King Ogunwe when the latter changed his mind and argued that she should stay, and Lord Asriel found himself outflanked: for he now wanted her elsewhere, I wept into her hair, I kissed her sleeping eyes, my little one..."She was shameless. She spoke quietly; she didn't declaim or raise her voice; and when a sob shook her, it was muffled almost into a hiccup, as if she were stifling her emotions for the sake of courtesy. Which made her barefaced lies all the more effective, Lord Asriel thought with disgust; she lied in the very marrow of her bones.She directed her words mainly at King Ogunwe, without seeming to, and Lord Asriel saw that, too. Not only was the king her chief accuser, he was also human, unlike the angel or Lord Roke, and she knew how to play on him.

Pierre Auguste Renoir By the Seashore

2009-01-14T23:45:00.000-08:00

Pierre Auguste Renoir By the SeashoreThomas Kinkade Victorian AutumnThomas Kinkade The Night Before Christmas
After three days in the company of the wheeled creatures, Mary Malone knew rather more about them, and they knew a great deal about her.
That first morning they carried her for an hour or so along the basalt highway to a settlement by a river, and the journey had developed the central spine.
The basalt highway led gradually downward, and after a while the slope increased, so the creatures could freewheel. They tucked their side legs up and steered by leaning to one side or the other, and hurtled along at a speed Mary found terrifying, though she had to admit that the creature she was riding never gave her the slightest feeling of danger. If only she'd had was uncomfortable; she had nothing to hold on to, and the creature's back was hard. They sped along at a pace that frightened her, but the thunder of their wheels on the hard road and the beat of their scudding feet made her exhilarated enough to ignore the discomfort.And in the course of the ride she became more aware of the creatures' physiology. Like the grazers' skeletons, theirs had a diamond-shaped frame, with a limb at each of the comers. Sometime in the distant past, a line of ancestral creatures must have developed this structure and found it worked, just as generations of long-ago crawling things in Mary's world

Frederic Remington The Cowboy

2009-01-13T23:16:00.000-08:00

Frederic Remington The CowboyThomas Kinkade veniceThomas Kinkade HOMETOWN MEMORIES
as she turned the corner of the path and looked upward, she saw no golden monkey, no patient woman seated at the cave mouth. The place was empty. She ran the last few yards, afraid they had gone forever, but there was the chair the woman sat in, and the cooking equipment, and everything else.
Ama lookedAnd now that golden monkey was squatting in the entrance, sniffing and turning his head this way and that. Ama saw him bare his sharp teeth, and felt her own daemon burrow into her clothes, mouse-formed and trembling. into the darkness farther back in the cave, her heart beating fast. Surely the sleeper hadn't woken already: in the dimness Ama could make out the shape of the sleeping bag, the lighter patch that was the girl's hair, and the curve of her sleeping daemon.She crept a little closer. There was no doubt about it, they had gone out and left the enchanted girl alone.A thought struck Ama like a musical note: suppose she woke her before the woman returned...But she had hardly time to feel the thrill of that idea before she heard sounds on the path outside, and in a shiver of guilt she and her daemon darted behind a ridge of rock at the side of the cave. She shouldn't be here. She was spying. It was wrong.

Thomas Kinkade Evening on the Avenue

2009-01-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Evening on the AvenueThomas Kinkade Cobblestone ChristmasThomas Kinkade Cobblestone Brooke
From the dynamics of social networks to market bubbles, science has a lot to say about the world of technology.One of the great discoveries of modern science was the realization of how interconnected the world is. The these unexpected setbacks, modern science is wonderful, powerful and thought provoking - and relevant to technologists.
The recently discovered science of complex systems is about common patterns that span diverse disciplines from physics to biology, from ecology to economics. This recent science of patterns is directly relevant to what we are doing around the Web. In this post we will discuss 5 different books that will get you fired up deterministic, Newtonian view of a clockwork Universe was replaced by the much more dynamic, uncertain and entangled world of Quantum Mechanics. The new world is the one where Godel forever cut hopes for completeness in mathematics and Turing showed that computation, like the future, is fundamentally unpredictable. Despite

Thomas Gainsborough The Morning Walk

2009-01-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

Thomas Gainsborough The Morning WalkThomas Gainsborough The Harvest WagonThomas Gainsborough Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher
Here's a classic technique that not many people know about anymore.You can bet your man has never been stimulated like this.Here's What You Need:One bottle of water-based lubricant.Here's How You Do It:Get your man naked. You, too. Have him lie on the floor, on his back.Sit down at your man's side, facing him. Swing your legs over your middle.With both of your heels planted on the floor, point your right toe upwards.This will cause your right knee to bend, rubbing either the top orunderside of your man's penis (depending on which side you're sitting).As you put that toe back down, point the other one up at the same time.Now the other side of his penis is getting stimulated. Keep alternatingback and forth.Continue until your man erupts in a satisfying orgasm.manand place both feet on the floor on the opposite side (with your legstogether and slightly bent, your knees should be directly over his penis).Apply a small amount of lubricant to the insides of your knees. Nowstraighten out your legs until you capture his penis in between yourknees. Gently press them together, your man's penis in the

Andy Warhol Shoes c 1980

2009-01-07T23:48:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol Shoes c 1980Andy Warhol Shoes 1980Andy Warhol Shadows II
naturally concluded that the untrammeled expression of sexual energy was vital to their wellbeing. This general "hard and fast rule" has not changed since, despite its unfulfilled promise. (Religious extremists also continues their own brand of unhealthy repression.)
There’s no WarningsIn 1949, von Urban warned how vital it was to get our sex lives flowing in a healthy, unselfish direction, and away from ignorance and self-indulgence. He made these remarks, which have proven prophetic:
In 1936, the divorce rate in Europe averaged 5 percent, exceeding that of Australiaquestion that sexual repression can be harmful. Yet, as von Urban himself noted, humanity needn’t choose between feast and famine where sex is concerned. A well-regulated sex life can offer benefits that neither too much nor too little sex can deliver. As he points out by way of an analogy, the decision to drive on one side of the road curtails our freedom, but offers so much benefit that we all happily adopt this convention.

Jack Vettriano An Imperfect Past II

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

Jack Vettriano An Imperfect Past IIJack Vettriano Amateur PhilosophersJack Vettriano along game a Spider
Poor things!" thought Light, with a sigh. "They have not gained much by receiving the have travelled and seen nothing of all the wonders that surrounded them in my peaceful temple; they were either quarrelling with one another or over-eating themselves until they fell ill. They were too foolish to enjoy their few seconds later, the whole company were gathered together outside a high wall with a small door in it. The first rays of the dawn were gilding the tree-tops. Tyltyl and Mytyl, whom Light was fondly supporting with her arms, woke up, rubbed their eyes and looked around them in astonishment.
"What?" said Light to Tyltyl. "Don't you know that wall and that little door?"
The sleepy boy shook his head: he remembered nothing. Then Light assisted his memory:
"The wall," she said, "surrounds a house which we left one evening just a year ago to-day..."
"Just a year ago?... Why, then..." And, clapping his hands with glee, Tyltyl ran to the door. "We must be near Mummy!... I want to kiss her at once, at once, at once?”
But Light stopped him. It was too early, she said: Mummy and Daddy were still asleep and he must not wake them with a start.
At that moment, a pretty dove, with silver wings, alighted on her knees. It wore an emerald collar round its neck, with a note fastened to the clasp. The dove was the Fairy Bérylune's messenger. Light opened the letter and read these few words:
"Remember that the year is over."
Then Light stood up, waved her wand and everything disappeared from sight.

Hofmann study for the pause

2009-01-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

Hofmann study for the pauseHofmann beverley disrobingAbrishami Twilight DanceAbrishami TOUCHING THE NIGHT
dreadful silence fell across the conference table as the commander of the Vl'hurgs, resplendent in his black jewelled battle shorts, gazed levelly at the G'Gugvuntt leader squatting opposite him in a cloud of green sweet-smelling steam, and, with a million sleek and horribly beweaponed star cruisers poised to unleash electric death at his single word of they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog. Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time, but that we are powerless to prevent it.command, challenged the vile creature to take back what it had said about his mother. The creature stirred in his sickly broiling vapour, and at that very moment the words I seem to be having tremendous difficulty drifted across the conference table. Unfortunately, in the Vl'hurg tongue this was the most dreadful insult imaginable, and there was nothing for it but to wage terrible war for centuries. Eventually of course, after their Galaxy had been decimated over a few thousand years, it was realized that the whole thing had been a ghastly mistake, and so the two opposing battle fleets settled their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint identified as the source of the offending remark. For thousands more years the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet

Jack Vettriano Cleo and the Boys II

2008-12-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Cleo and the Boys IIJack Vettriano Candy and Mr SmithJack Vettriano Cafe Days
When last we saw our suburban sorceresses — Jane, Sukie and Alexandra — they had married their men, dissolved their coven and dispersed. But now they are old and widowed, and it's time they returned to girl Joanna Hunter watched her mother and sister (and dog) be stabbed to death by a stranger. Thirty years later, just as the killer is being released from prison, Joanna disappears. It would be incorrect to say that Atkinson's two sleuths, Jackson Eastwick to reckon with their past sins and see what's left of the powers they once wielded. Granted, the witches were always less feminist heroines than they were male fantasies of what feminist heroines would be like if they were sexy and sassy and boy-crazy. Still, Updike chronicles the slow decline of their aging bodies with his usual eldritch precision, and even an unexpected tenderness. With death staring them down, and their precious sex appeal waning, the witches must decide whether to toward correcting the imbalance. Set within the confines of a nameless, failing white

Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott

2008-12-29T22:57:00.000-08:00

Waterhouse The Lady of ShalottWaterhouse The Beautiful Woman Without MercyWaterhouse waterhouse Saint CeciliaWaterhouse Listening to His Sweet Pipings
Since he’s not about to rescind the invitation, what happens next? For perspective, I asked Timothy McCarthy, a historian who teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an unabashed Obama enthusiast who served on his campaign’s National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Leadership Council. He responded via e-that he doesn’t go down in history as another Bill Clinton, a sweet-talking swindler who would throw us under the bus for the sake of political expediency.” And “for LGBT folks to choose their battles wisely, to judge Obama on the content of his policy-making, not on the character of his ministers.”mail on Christmas Eve.After noting that Warren’s role at the inauguration is, in the end, symbolic, McCarthy concluded that “it’s now time to move from symbol to substance.” This means Warren should “recant his previous statements about gays and lesbians, and start acting like a Christian.”McCarthy added that it’s also time “for President-elect Obama to start acting on the promises he made to the LGBT community during his campaign so

Ernst The Terrace

2008-12-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

Ernst The TerraceErnst The Palace GuardSeignac Jeune femme denudee sur canapeErnst The Staircase Under The Trees
Large trees were replaced with the same specimen in the largest available box size. The new beauty was either delivered by truck and then swung into place by a rented crane or flown to the site by a big logging-industry helicopter with dual sets of rotors and positioned from the air.Smaller specimens were planted with strategies and tactics less to the ground.Toppling, the kidnapper reflexively fired the pistol. The bullet ricocheted off the granite bench and shrieked into the rain and darkness.The thug collapsed, rolled onto his back. He should have been [589] dead or unconscious, but he looked only dazed, confused. He still held the gun.military in nature, and in the case of the smallest of the new trees, a lot of hand labor proved sufficient to get the job done. In some instances, a tree would be small enough to require staking to guide its growth for a year or two and to give it resistance to the wind.While some in positions equivalent to his still used tall wooden stakes to prop these slender new trees, Mr. Yorn preferred one-inch and two-inch steel poles, in eight- and ten-foot lengths, for they would not rot, provided sturdier support, and could be reused.After wrenching an eight-foot pole from the ground and tearing the stretchy plastic ties securing it to the tree, Ethan staggered after the crazy son of a bitch in the storm suit, swung the steel at his head as hard as he knew how, and clubbed him

O'Keeffe Summer Days 1936

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

O'Keeffe Summer Days 1936O'Keeffe Series No.1O'Keeffe Red PoppyO'Keeffe Red Cannas
memorable.”He put the pistol aside, told Dalton some delicious lies about disposing of the bodies of Rachel and Emily, and eventually selected a fresh infusion bag from the nearby refrigerator.“I’ll be bringing someone back with me this You’ll be surprised at his identity when I introduce you.”After replacing the infusion bag, he went to the drug cabinet, from which he withdrew a packaged hypodermic syringe and two small bottles of drugs.“I’ll strap him in a chair next to your bed. And if he can’t watch what I’ve got planned for you, I’ll tape his eyes open.” Laura Moonves could find no rap sheet for Vladimir Laputa, not even a history of unpaid parking tickets. But when, after less than fifteen minutes, she called Hazard back, she had interesting evening,” Corky said as he worked. “An audience for your final suffering.”In the wasted face, surrounded by a raccoon mask of livid skin, glistening in sunken sockets, the eyes rolled to follow Corky during [475] his caregiving, no longer radiant jellies spiced with hatred, but once more flavored with fear, the haunted eyes of a man who at last believed in the power of chaos and understood its majesty.“He’s a ten-year-old boy, my new project.

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo painting

2008-12-19T01:18:00.000-08:00

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo paintingCaravaggio The Sacrifice of Isaac paintingCaravaggio The Musicians painting
ordinary flashlights.Like the cover plate on the electrical outlet in which it was seated, the plastic casing of each flashlight matched the color of the baseboard on which it rested: beige against limestone baseboard, dark brown against mahogany, black lie and say “Sandwiches.” He would tell them that he was going to camp out under a blanket tent in the billiards room, where he would pretend that he was a Blackfoot Indian living back in maybe 1880.The whole concept of playing Blackfoot in the billiards room was monumentally stupid, of course. But most grownups believed that geeky ten-year-old boys did stupid, geeky things like against black marble. ... During ordinary times, they were meant to be inconspicuous. When you lived with them day after day, you soon ceased to notice them.No one but Mrs. McBee would be likely to realize that a dozen of those 214 were missing. Mrs. McBee wouldn’t return from Santa Barbara until Thursday morning.[403] Nevertheless, Fric filched quake lights only from remote and little-used rooms where their disappearance was less likely to cause inquiry. He needed them for his deep and special secret hiding place.He stowed the lights in the picnic hamper because it had a hinged lid. As long as he kept the lid closed, the contents could not be seen if he unexpectedly encountered a member of the staff.If anyone asked what was in the hamper, he would

Mary Cassatt Young Mother Sewing painting

2008-12-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Mary Cassatt Young Mother Sewing paintingEdward Hopper Gas paintingEdward Hopper Room in Brooklyn painting
busy shopping and no doubt also shedding his skin for a new set of scales—wasn’t due to slither back to Palazzo Rospo for hours yet, but Fric remained eager to get out of the chef’s domain.Using the service elevator would be too dangerous because it was in the west wing, not far from Mr. Truman’s apartment. He hoped to avoid the security chief. The public elevator, toward the east end of the north hall, would be safer.In sudden guilty haste, he pushed the ?”Frowning at the items on the cart, Mr. Truman said, “I’d like to talk to you a little more about cart through the swinging door into the hallway, turned right, and nearly collided with Mr. Truman.“You’re up early this morning, Fric.”“Ummm, things to do, things, you know, ummm,” Fric muttered, silently cursing himself for sounding devious, guilty, and more than a little like an absentminded Hobbit.“What’s all this?” Mr. Truman asked, indicating the stuff piled on the cart.[343] “Yeah. For my room, things I need, you know, stuff for my room.” Fric shamed himself; he was pathetic, transparent, stupid. “Just some soda and snacks and stuff,” he added, and he wanted to smack himself upside the head.“You’re going to put one of the maids out of work.”“Gee, no, that’s not what I want.” Shut up, shut up, shut up! he warned himself, yet he couldn’t resist adding, “I like the maids.”“Are you all right, Fric?”“Sure. I’m all right. Are you all right

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo painting

2008-12-11T22:39:00.000-08:00

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo paintingCaravaggio The Sacrifice of Isaac paintingCaravaggio The Musicians painting
170] He felt no discomfort, except that his feather pillow pressed like hard pavement against the back of his head.The rain on his face fell seeing a bigger and more terrible truth than that the snowflakes were actually raindrops.Voices approached. Dad and Mom must be coming to put the roof back where it belonged, to fluff his stone pillow into comfortable plumpness once more, and to set all wrongness right.He surrendered himself to their loving care, and like a feather, he drifted down into darkness, toward the Land of Nod, not the Nod to which Cain had fled after killing Abel, but the Nod to which dreaming children journeyed to find adventure and from which they woke safely in the as cold as snow, imparting an equal chill to his upturned left hand.His right hand lay exposed, as well, but with it he could not feel the cold or the tap-and-trickle of the rain.He couldn’t feel his legs, either. Couldn’t move them. Could not move anything other than his head and left hand.If his roofless room filled with rain, and if he were unable to move, he might drown.In the pool of dreamy speculation on which Ethan had been drifting, sudden terror darted sharklike through the depths beneath him, rising.He closed his eyes to avoid

Sung Kim Terrace Arch I painting

2008-12-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Sung Kim Terrace Arch I paintingSung Kim Swan Cottage II paintingSung Kim Swan Cottage I paintingSung Kim Spring Patio II painting
chamber, through Dunny Whistler’s nautilus apartment, Ethan came to the bedroom.One nightstand lamp had been left on. Against the headboard of the Chinese sleigh bed, decorative silk pillowsfrom cheongsam perspiration, a whiff of rancid ointment with a sulfate base, thin fumes of sour urine. The smell of illness, of being long abed and bathed only with basin and sponge.[104] Ethan became aware of a background sizzle, which he initially mistook for a new manifestation of the rain. Then he realized that he was listening to the fall of water in the master-bathroom shower.The bathroom door stood ajar. Past the jamb and through the gap, with the sizzle came a wedge of light and wisps of steam.fabrics had been artfully arranged by the housekeeper.Also on the bed, cast off with evident haste, lay articles of men’s clothing. Wrinkled, stained, still damp from the rain. Slacks, shirt, socks, underwear.Tumbled in a corner were a pair of shoes.Ethan didn’t know what Dunny had been wearing when he had left the morgue at Our Lady of Angels Hospital. However, he wouldn’t have wagered a penny against the proposition that these were the very clothes.Moving closer to the bed, he detected the faint malodor that he’d first smelled in the elevator. Some of the components of the scent were more easily identified than they had been earlier: stale

Claude Lorrain The Rest on the Flight into Egypt painting

2008-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

Claude Lorrain The Rest on the Flight into Egypt paintingClaude Lorrain Landscape with Shepherds paintingPeter Paul Rubens Virgin and Child paintingPeter Paul Rubens Garden of Love painting
the time Ethan said good-bye to Laura, a thin rain had begun to fall again. Without the ardor of a wind, the droplets barely kissed the study windows.[12] Using the remote control, he switched on the TV and then the VCR. The tape was already loaded. He’d watched it six times before.Exterior security cameras throughout the estate numbered eighty-six. Every house door and window and all the approaches across the grounds were monitored.Only the north wall of the could be conducted solely from within the property.Meanwhile, they would be watched by the cameras on the farther side of the narrow Bel Air byway, barely two lanes wide, which lacked sidewalks and streetlamps. A zoom shot would provide a clear ID to help ensure a conviction if the subject proceeded from reconnoitering to any act of criminal estate abutted public property. This long rampart, including the gate, was under surveillance by cameras mounted in the trees on the land directly across the street, a parcel also owned by Channing Manheim.Anyone reconnoitering the front-wall security, the operation of the gate, and the protocols of visitor identification would detect no cameras on the public side or in the estate trees that overhung the wall. They would assume that surveillance

George Inness Catskill Valley painting

2008-12-07T22:44:00.001-08:00

George Inness Catskill Valley paintingLorenzo Lotto Susanna and the Elders paintingLorenzo Lotto Nativity paintingLorenzo Lotto Madonna and Child with Saints painting
'Well, Frodo,' said Aragorn at last. `I fear that the burden is laid upon you. You are the Bearer appointed by the Council. Your own way you alone can choose. In this matter I cannot advise you. I am not Gandalf, and though I have tried to bear his part, I do not know what design or hope he had for this hour, if indeed he had any. Most likely it seems just now.' ,Presently Frodo got up and walked away; and Sam saw that while the others restrained themselves and did not stare at him, the eyes of Boromir followed Frodo intently, until he passed out of sight in the trees at the foot of Amon Hen.Wandering aimlessly at first in the wood, Frodo found that his feet were leading him up towards the slopes of the hill. He came to a path, the dwindling ruins of a road of long ago. In steep places stairs that if he were here now the choice would still wait on you. Such is your fate.'Frodo did not answer at once. Then he spoke slowly. `I know that haste is needed, yet I cannot choose. The burden is heavy. Give me an hour longer, and I will speak. Let me be alone! 'Aragorn looked at him with kindly pity. `Very well, Frodo son of Drogo,' he said. `You shall have an hour, and you shall be alone. We will stay here for a while. But do not stray far or out of call.'Frodo sat for a moment with his head bowed. Sam, who had been watching his master with great concern, shook his head and muttered: 'Plain as a pikestaff it is, but it's no good Sam Gamgee putting in his spoke

Edward Hopper Western Motel painting

2008-12-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

Edward Hopper Western Motel paintingEdgar Degas Dancers in Pink painting
and clash of steel. An arrow whistled over Frodo's head.Boromir laughed. `They did not expect this,' he said. `The fire has cut them off. We are on the wrong side! '`Look ahead! ' called Gandalf. `The Bridge is near. It is dangerous and narrow.'Suddenly Frodo saw before him a black chasm. At the end of the hall the floor vanished and fell to an unknown depth. The outer door could only be reached by a slender bridge of stone, without kerb or rail, that spanned the chasm with one curving spring of fifty feet. It was an ancient defence of the Dwarves against any enemy that might capture the First Hall and the outer passages. They could only pass across it in single
Frederic Edwin Church Cotopaxi paintingGeorge Frederick Watts Watts Hope painting
seemed to tremble and the flames to quiver.`Now for the last race! ' said Gandalf. 'If the sun is shining outside we may still escape. After me! 'He turned left and sped across the smooth floor of the hall. The distance was greater than it had looked. As they ran they heard the beat and echo of many hurrying feet behind. A shrill yell went up: they had been seen. There was a ring file. At the brink Gandalf halted and the others came up in a pack behind.'Lead the way, Gimli! ' he said. 'Pippin and Merry next. Straight on and up the stair beyond the door! 'Arrows fell among them. One struck Frodo and sprang back. Another pierced Gandalf's hat and stuck there like a black feather. Frodo looked behind. Beyond the fire he saw swarming

Martin Johnson Heade paintings

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

Martin Johnson Heade paintingsPiet Mondrian paintings
There messages reached me telling me of war and defeat in Gondor, and when I heard of the Black Shadow a chill smote my heart. But I found nothing save a few fugitives from the South; yet it seemed to me that on them sat a fear of which they would not speak. I turned then east and north and journeyed along the Greenway; and not far from Bree I came upon a traveller sitting on a bank beside the road with his grazing horse beside him. It was Radagast the Brown, who at one time dwelt at Rhosgobel, near the borders of Mirkwood. He is one of my order, but I had not seen him for many a year.` "Gandalf! " he cried. "I was seeking you. But I am a stranger in these parts. All I knew
Paul Klee paintingsPino paintings
were drawing nigh to Dol Guldur, and that is still a very evil place; we do not go that way.'`Well, well, he is gone,' said Gandalf. 'We have no time to seek for him again. He must do what he will. But he may play a part yet that neither he nor Sauron have foreseen.'And now I will answer Galdor's other questions. What of Saruman? What are his counsels to us in this need? This tale I must tell in full, for only Elrond has heard it yet, and that in brief, but it will bear on all that we must resolve. It is the last Chapter in the Tale of the Ring, so far as it has yet gone.'At the end of June I was in the Shire, but a cloud of anxiety was on my mind, and I rode to the southern borders of the little land; for I had a foreboding of some danger, still hidden from me but

Picasso Don Quixote

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

Picasso Don QuixoteStubbs William Anderson with Two Saddle-horsesStubbs Two Bay Mares And A Grey Pony In A LandscapeStubbs The Grosvenor Hunt
Frodo turned and looked at him thoughtfully, wondering about Gandalf's second postscript. 'Why didn't you laugh, 'that I hoped you would take to me for my own sake. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship. But there, I believe my looks are against me.''They are - at first sight at any rate,' laughed Pippin with sudden relief after reading Gandalf's letter. 'But handsome is as handsome does, as we say in the Shire; and I daresay we shall all look much the same after lying for days in hedges and ditches.''It would take more than a few days, or weeks, or years, of wandering in the Wild to make you look like Strider,' he answered. 'And you would die first, unless you are made of sterner tell me that you were Gandalf's friend at once?' he asked. 'It would have saved time.''Would it? Would any of you have believed me till now?' said Strider. 'I knew nothing of this letter. For all I knew I had to persuade you to trust me without proofs, if I was to help you. In any case, I did not intend to tell you all about myself at once. I had to study you first, and make sure of you. The Enemy has set traps for me before now. As soon as I had made up my mind, I was ready to tell you whatever you asked. But I must admit,' he added with a queer

Caillebotte Chrysanthemums Garden at Petit Gennevilliers

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

Caillebotte Chrysanthemums Garden at Petit GennevilliersCaillebotte A Road Near NaplesPissarro Young Peasant Girl with a StickPissarro Vue de Louveciennes
stood still, almost holding their breath as they listened; but there was no sound of pursuit. ‘I don’t fancy he would try bringing his horse down that bank,’ said Sam. ‘But I guess he knows we came down it. We had better be going on.’Going on was not altogether easy. They had packs to carry, and the bushes and brambles were reluctant to let them through. They were cut off from the wind by the ridge behind, and the air was still and stuffy. When they forced their way at last into more open ground, they were hot and tired and very we must cross at once and bear right.’They waded the stream, and hurried over a wide open space, rush-grown and treeless, on the further side. Beyond that they came again to a belt of trees: tall oaks, for the most part, with here and there an elm tree or an ash. The ground was fairly level, and there was little undergrowth; but the trees were loo close for them to see far ahead. The leaves blew upwards in sudden gusts of wind, and spots of rain began to fall from the overcast sky. Then the wind died away and the rain came streaming down. They trudged along as fast as they could, over patches of grass, and through thick drifts scratched, and they were also no longer certain of the direction in which they were going. The banks of the stream sank, as it reached the levels and became broader and shallower, wandering off towards the Marish and the River.‘Why, this is the Stock-brook!’ said Pippin. ‘If we are going to try and get back on to our course,

Vermeer The Allegory of the Faith

2008-11-30T23:22:00.001-08:00

Vermeer The Allegory of the FaithVermeer The Allegory of the Faith detailVermeer Lady with Her Maidservant Holding a LetterVermeer Lady Standing at a Virginal
and glittered in the sun, so that his heart was glad. But Sméagol had been watching him from behind a tree, and as Déagol gloated over the ring, Sméagol came softly up behind.‘“Give us that, Déagol, my love,” said find out secrets, and he put his knowledge to crooked and malicious uses. He became sharp-eyed and keen-eared for all that was hurtful. The ring had given him power according to his stature. It is not to be wondered at that he became very unpopular and was shunned (when visible) by all his relations. They kicked him, and he bit their feet. He took to thieving, and going about muttering to Sméagol, over his friend’s shoulder.‘“Why?” said Déagol.‘ “Because it’s my birthday, my love, and I wants it,” said Sméagol.‘“I don’t care,” said Déagol. “I have given you a present already, more than I could afford. I found this, and I’m going to keep it.”‘ “Oh, are you indeed, my love,” said Sméagol; and he caught Déagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger.‘No one ever found out what had become of Déagol; he was murdered far from, and his body was cunningly hidden. But Sméagol returned alone; and he found that none of his family could see him, when he was wearing the ring. He was very pleased with his discovery and he concealed it; and he used it to

Neiman The DiMaggio Cut

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

Neiman The DiMaggio CutNeiman The Cove at VintageNeiman The CatchNeiman The Big Five
This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War of the Ring and included many glimpses of the yet more ancient history that preceded it. It was begun soon after The Hobbit was written and before its publication in 1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for I wished first to complete and set in order the mythology and legends of the Elder Days, which had then been taking shape for some years. I desired to do in the of The Hobbit, in which there were already some references to the older matter: Elrond, Gondolin, the High-elves, and the orcs, as well as glimpses that had arisen unbidden of things higher or deeper or darker than its surface: Durin, Moria, Gandalf, the Necromancer, the Ring. The this for my own satisfaction, and I had little hope that other people would be interested in this work, especially since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues.When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected little hope to no hope, I went back to the sequel, encouraged by requests from readers for more information concerning hobbits and their adventures. But the story was drawn irresistibly towards the older world, and became an account, as it were, of its end and passing away before its beginning and middle had been told. The process had

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Thou Rose of all the Roses

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

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Thou Rose of all the RosesLawrence Alma-Tadema The FrigidariumLawrence Alma-Tadema The Favourite PoetLawrence Alma-Tadema The Conversion Of Paula By Saint Jerome
A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Harry's brow. He knew that they would not tell him to go, that it would have to be his decision.

"You'll stay with me?"　　　And he set of. The dementors' chill did not overcome him; he passed through it with his companions, and they acted like Patronuses to him, and together they marched through the old trees that grew closely together, their branches tangled, their roots gnarled and twisted underfoot. Harry clutched the Cloak tightly around him in the darkness, traveling deeper and deeper

"Until the very end," said James.

"They won't be able to see you?" asked Harry.

"We are part of you," said Sirius. "Invisible to anyone else."

Harry looked at his mother.

"Stay close to me," he said quietly.

Cezanne Dr. Gachet's House at Auvers

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

`hoCezanne Dr. Gachet's House at AuversCezanne Dahlias 1875Cezanne Canyon of BibemusCezanne Bathers in the Open Air
yearning to show him Voldemort's thoughts? He closed his eyes on

her command, and at once, the screams and bangs and all the

discordant sounds of the battle were drowned until they became
dark except for a solitary oil lamp. He was rolling his wand between his figners, watching it, his thoughts on the room in the castle, the secret room only he had ever found, the room, like the chamber, that you had to be clever and cunning and inquisitive to discover...He was confident
distant, as though he stood far, far away from them...

He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar

room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded

up except for one. The sounds of the assault on the castle were

muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant

bursts of light where the castle stood, but inside the room was

Romanello Autumn Threshold

2008-11-26T01:17:00.001-08:00

Romanello Autumn ThresholdRomanello Autumn Road PanelRomanello Autumn LeavesRomanello Autumn Colors
Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

　　　"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart, Harry felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing
　　　"You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"

　　　The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two

Kahlo The Deceased Dimas

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

Kahlo The Deceased DimasKahlo The BusKahlo The Bride Frightened at Seeing Life OpenedKahlo Self Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill
getting as far away from its underground prison as possible; but the question of how and when they were to dismount remained rather frightening. He had no idea how long dragons could fly without landing, nor how this particular dragon, which could barely see, would locate a good place to put down. He glanced around constantly, imagining that he could feel his seat prickling.
　The dragon seemed to crave cooler and fresher air. It climbed steadily until they were flying through wisps of chilly cloud, and Harry could no longer make out the little colored dots which were cars pouring in and out of the capital. On and on they flew, over countryside parceled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscape like strips of matte and glossy ribbon.
　How long would it be before Voldemort knew that they had broken into the Lestranges' vault? How soon would the goblins of Gringotts notify Bellatrix? How quickly would they realize what had been taken? And then, when they discovered that the golden cup was missing? Voldemort would know, at last, that they were hunting Horcruxes.

Kroyer Dia de verano en Skagen

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

Kroyer Dia de verano en SkagenKroyer Casa de los artistasKroyer Bano de muchachosMcCormack The Carl Family
But, what do you mean?" she said, frowning at him, her wand pointing at the casserole

dish now suspended in midair. "Of course you must not leave, you are safe 'ere!"

She looked rather like Mrs. Weasley as she said it, and he was glad that the back door
combined dining and sitting room where Ron and Hermione were laying the dinner table. Seizing the chance to escape Fleur's questions, Harry grabbed two jugs of pumpkin juice and followed them. "... and if you ever come to our house I'll be able to show you the horn, Daddy wrote to
opened at that moment. Luna and Dean entered, their hair damp from the rain outside and

their arms full of driftwood.

"... and tiny little ears," Luna was saying, "a bit like hippo's, Daddy says, only purple and

hairy. And if you want to call them, you have to hum; they prefer a waltz, nothing too

fast...."

Looking uncomfortable, Dean shrugged at Harry as he passed, following Luna into the

Munier May I Have One Too

2008-11-21T21:03:00.001-08:00

Munier May I Have One TooMunier Two Girls PrayingMunier Le SauvatageMunier Playing with the Kitten
The dreadfully familiar, drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy fell on Harry's ears. He was panicking now. He could see no way out, and it was easier, as his fear mounted, to block out Voldemort's thoughts, though his scar was still burning.

"They say they've got Potter," said Narcissa's cold voice. "Draco, come here."
　　　Harry was facing a mirror over the fireplace, a great gilded thing in an intricately scrolled frame. Through the slits of his eyes he saw his own reflection for the first time since leaving Grimmauld Place. 　　　His face was huge, shiny, and pink, every feature distorted by Hermione's jinx. His black hair reached his shoulders and there was a dark shadow around his jaw. Had he not known that it was he who stood there
　　　Harry did not dare look directly at Draco, but saw him obliquely; a figure slightly taller than he was, rising from an armchair, his face a pale and pointed blur beneath white-blond hair.

　　　Greyback forced the prisoners to turn again so as to place Harry directly beneath the chandelier.

"Well, boy?" rasped the werewolf.

Robinson Low Tide

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

Robinson Low TideRobinson Low Tide The Riverside Yacht ClubRobinson The Anchorage Cos CobPissarro Gelee Blanche
Hallows, Harry hurried back inside the tent to find Ron and Hermione kneeling on the floor beside the little radio. Hermione, who had been polishing the sword of Gryffindor just for something to do, was sitting open-mouthed, staring at the tiny speaker, from which a most familiar voice was issuing.
"Hi." "Evening, River."
　　　"…apologize for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house calls in our area by those charming Death Eaters."

"But that's Lee Jordan!" said Hermione.

"I know!" beamed Ron. "Cool, eh?"

　　　"…now found ourselves another secure location," Lee was saying, and I'm pleased to tell you that two of our regular contributors have joined me here this evening. Evening, boys!"

Rothko Number 12 1951

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

Rothko Number 12 1951Rothko Number 10Rothko Number 10 IRothko Slate Blue and Brown on Plum
Exceptional Spell-Casting, British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot, Gold Medal-Winner for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo. Dumbledore intended, next, to take a Grand Tour with Elphias "Dogbreath" Doge, the dim-witted but devoted sidekick he had picked up at school.

　The two young men were staying at the Leaky Cauldron in London, preparing to depart for Greece the following morning, when an owl arrived bearing news of Dumbledore's mother's death. "Dogbreath" Doge, who refused to be interviewed for this book, has given the public his own sentimental

version of what happened next. He represents Kendra's death as a tragic blow, and Dumbledore's decision to give up his expedition as an act of noble self-sacrifice.

　Certainly Dumbledore returned to Godric's Hollow at once, supposedly to "care" for his younger brother and sister. But how much

Craig View to the Valley

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

Craig View to the ValleyCraig View from San GimignanoCraig Verona GardenCraig Twilight Courtyard
they lifted the empty portrait of Phineas Nigellus free of Hermione's bag, she kept her wand pointing at it, ready to cast a spell at any moment.

　　　"If somebody swapped the real sword for the face while it was in Dumbledore's office," she panted, as they propped the painting against the side of the tent, "Phineas Nigellus would have seen it happen, he hangs right beside the case!"
　　　"Phineas Nigellus?" said Hermione again. "Professor Black? Please could we talk to you? Please?" 　　　"'Please' always helps," said a cold, snide voice, and Phineas Nigellus slid into his portrait. At one, Hermione cried:
　　　"Unless he was asleep," said Harry, but he still held his breath as Hermione knelt down in front of the empty canvas, her wand directed at its center, cleared her throat, then said:

"Er—Phineas? Phineas Nigellus?"

Nothing happened.

Henri Rousseau The Snake Charmer painting

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

Henri Rousseau The Snake Charmer paintingPaul Cezanne Trees in Park paintingPaul Cezanne Table Corner painting
pamphlet from the pile beside a young witch. He examined it beneath the Invisibility Cloak. Its pink cover was emblazoned with a golden title:

Mudbloods
　　　"Careful," said the wizard beside her, glancing around nervously; one of his pages slipped and fell to the floor. "What, has she got magic ears as well as an eye, now?"
and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society

　　　Beneath the title was a picture of a red rose with a simpering face in the middle of its petals, being strangled by a green weed with fangs and a scowl. There was no author's name upon the pamphlet, but again, the scars on the back of his right hand seemed to tingle as he examined it. Then the young witch beside him confirmed his suspicion as she said, still waving and twirling her wand, "Will the old hag be interrogating Mudbloods all day, does anyone know?"

Gustav Klimt The Tree of Life painting

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

Gustav Klimt The Tree of Life paintingGustav Klimt Expectation (gold foil) paintingSalvador Dali The Persistence of Memory painting
He agreed, but grudgingly, and followed her out onto the landing and past the second door that led off it. There were deep scratch marks in the paintwork below a small sign that he had not noticed in the dark. He passed at the top of the stairs to read it. It was a pompous little sign, neatly lettered by hand the sort of thing that Percy Weasley might have stuck on his bedroom door.

Do Not Enter

Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black

Excitement trickled through Harry, but he was not immediately sure why. He read the sign again. Hermione was already a flight of stairs below him.

　　　"Hermione," he said, and he was surprised that his voice was so calm. "Come back up here."

"What's the matter?"

Thomas Moran Forest Scene painting

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

Thomas Moran Forest Scene paintingThomas Moran Autumn Landscape paintingJean Francois Millet The Gleaners painting
Tottenham Court Road," panted Hermione. "Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change."

　　　Harry did as she asked. They half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revelers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes.

　　　"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.

　　　"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and –"

　　　"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," said Hermione, "Just try and act naturally until – this will do."

She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway.

Andrea del Sarto The Sacrifice of Abraham painting

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

Andrea del Sarto The Sacrifice of Abraham paintingAndrea del Sarto Madonna of the Harpies paintingSalvador Dali Apparition of the Town of Delft painting
Very well then, together," he said, shrugging. He cleared his throat. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another.

　　　"A surprise, apparently! You were not aware then that Dumbledore had left you anything?"

"A-all of us?" said Ron, "Me and Hermione too?"

"Yes, all of --"

But Harry interrupted.

　　　"Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?"

　　　"Isn't it obvious?" said Hermione, before Scrimgeour could answer. "They wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!" she said, and her voice trembled slightly.