Culture and Arts

526 posts

Dubya Hopes for Dynastic Do-Over with Art Hobby

jeb_george_chuck_norrisCould the art of George W. Bush wherein he depicts world leaders in sophomoric renderings that read more “quaint cute” as in the eagerly water colored masterpieces a child shoves at a parent for admiration on their office wall, rather than a trove of Picasso’s best, be more about politics than hobby-making?

Now that we are several years away from the Bush era of rule in this country, much has been made in the last few to “paint” Dubya not as a war-mongering cowboy, and epic failure of a world leader, but as a soft-spoken man who may have been misunderstood in his political assertions. Not about his convictions per se, but about the amount of caring for his fellow man that went sorely unnoticed. Continue reading →

QOTD: What’s Your Favorite Sentence?

Japanese Teahouse at Rosecliff, a Newport, RI, mansion used in the filming of 1974's The Great Gatsby.
Chinese Tea House at Marble House, a Newport, RI, mansion used in the filming of 1974’s The Great Gatsby.

The American Scholar recently published a list of its editors’ picks for the “Ten Best Sentences.”  Fitzgerald took the first slot, with this sentence from The Great Gatsby: “Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” Continue reading →

The Wholly Unsatisfying Ending to How I Met Your Mother

799px-How_I_Met_Your_Mother_cast_(cropped)Confession: I was one of the brave souls (suckers?) who watched How I Met Your Mother nearly all the way through its 9 season run. Admittedly, there were times during the near train-wreck Season 8 and again during the Season 9’s longest-wedding-weekend-ever storyline that I sincerely considered cutting bait.

Yet, like a committed partner in a yo-yo relationship, I stayed right through Monday’s much-beloved/much-hated finale, and have spent the last day-and-a-half trying to figure out what I actually think about the way Craig Thomas and Carter Bays ultimately decided to end the series.

A few thoughts: Continue reading →