For artists and illustrators, the cover of The New Yorker is the most treasured piece of real estate in American magazine publishing. New Yorker covers have inspired laughter, sorrow (as […]
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Vanity Fair’sPresidential Profiles, edited by Graydon Carter, is a jewel. Or, a jewel-box: a tiny, elegantly conceived, and ruthlessly crafted jewel-box of a book. It will make you wish you’d […]
An artist has created beautiful sculptures by slicing different colored bits of paper and layering them intricately to produce mesmerising kaleidoscopic patterns.
Experiments using levitating magnets at MIT mimic the earth’s magnetic fields and make clearer the possibility of energy through fusion.
This afternoon in London, hundreds of people, friends, family and other soul mates will gather for the funeral of the former Labour leader, writer and campaigner, Michael Foot. I have […]
He may not be a household name, but Conan O’Brien says that Michael Kupperman is “one of the best comedy brains on the planet.” His work has been featured in […]
In 1882, American novelist Henry James concluded that there was “nothing more to be said” about Venice, Italy. Artists of all stripes had trod and sloshed through the streets and […]
Sadly, the memorials to the art of Andrew Wyeth since his death early last year have been few. I personally find it difficult to understand the lack of response to […]
Quoth the voters, Nevermore! A recent Art Fund poll asking “Which of these people has captured your idea of romance in art?” came up with the answer of Paul Gauguin’s […]
As a genre, science fiction could potentially wield more influence over its followers than any other cultural force. Through film, television, and comics, it has inspired countless socially-awkward young people […]
The Republican candidate aiming to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat from Massachusetts is leading the polls with his vow to kill national healthcare reform.
Much has been made of the soul-affirming, uniting force of sports. The recent Clint Eastwood film, Invictus, paints that portrait around the 1995 World Cup of Rugby, which was hosted […]
This afternoon, Michael Kupperman, the man Conan O’Brien calls “one of the best comedy brains on the planet,” came in for his close-up with Big Think. Despite freezing weather in […]
“For me, a picture, since it is easel paintings that we have to paint, should be something lovable, joyful, and pretty: yes, pretty!,” Pierre-August Renoir once said in self-defense. “I […]
N+1 editor Charles Petersen’s piece in the new New York Review of Books compares Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to legendary city planner Robert Moses. Do we agree? Can we concede […]
Like the first life forms on Earth, the career of John Singer Sargent rose up from the sea. Between 1874 and 1879, when Sargent first emerged from his teens and […]
The first Blue Moon in 19 years will usher in the New Year imbuing an already crazy night with more superstitions.
As an adolescent, the comedian found comfort, inspiration and fellowship in the nineteenth-century playwright’s work.
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Quick Quiz: Who is the only artist to be named “man of the century”? Picasso? Did Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica preach love and peace to define the twentieth century? I […]
Recarving Our Cultural Totem Pole is a book-in-progress. While researching a series a couple of years ago, I came across the customs and rituals surrounding the design, care and feeding […]
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the origin of big, bad, brawny Jackson Pollock’s drip and splatter paintings were a wifely homemaker, mother, and grandmother from Brooklyn? And wouldn’t it be […]
“I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at,” Georgia O’Keeffe once said of her abstract works, “not copy it.” Famous for her […]
Inspired by Twain’s own example, the “Mark Twain” documentarian seeks to explore quintessentially American issues of “race and space.”
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One of the biggest criticisms of contemporary art is that it has no connection to the community. These works seemingly exist in a vacuum with no ties to the people […]
A big part of the recent Super Bowl becoming the most-viewed telecast in American history was the story of the New Orleans Saints providing the ultimate celebratory rallying cry for […]
What is it like to create music, on both a technical and emotional level? This week Big Think presents a fascinating tour inside the mind and heart of one of […]
This spring in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]
Planet Green ran an interesting countdown today: “6 Lessons the Green Movement Can Learn from MLK (in his own words).” Each bullet point is an MLK quote – most of […]
Considering himself a lucky man, Dr. Zuckerman says people who struggle against the odds inspire him.
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When it comes to improving overall quality of life, few people pay much attention to the simplest of social graces. Sure, there are plenty of annoying, rude gestures plaguing practically […]