Culture and Arts
What's New
Helen Frankenthaler: "For me, being a 'lady painter' was never an issue. I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint."
"A really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image. For my own work, when a picture looks labored and overworked, and you can read in it — well, she did this and then she did that, and then she did that — there is something in it that has not got to do with beautiful art to me." more »
New Year's Peeve
Am I glad I didn’t live in Babylonia four thousand years ago. There the New Year celebration lasted eleven days. By the eleventh day, the Babylonians must have had prodigious hangovers. That’s not for me. It would mean missing all those great post-holiday sales. more »
Canine Connections, Atop a Yosemite waterfall or Peering From a Wicker Carriage
A new book from the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library gives fresh meaning to the term 'dog days' by celebrating the powerful connections between people and their canine companions. A cat version of "Everyday Dogs" already is in the works more »
We'll Always Have Frances, Emma, The Little Prince and Middlemarch
The most treasured present for any occasion in our family is a book. Immediately, the recipient opens it and usually has difficulty going to another gift, so captured by the world that is appearing in their hands. Here are some of our choices for this holiday in books and DVDs more »
