油画网- 无框画 oil paintings 100222

Andy Warhol daisy 1982

2009-05-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol daisy 1982Andy Warhol Camouflage green yellow whiteAndy Warhol Brooklyn Bridge
the bench was an oblong of card which looked just the right shape to go in the slot. It had round holes punched in it.
There were two round holes, then a whole pattern of round holes, and then a further two holes. On it, in pencil, someone had scribbled '2'Oh, no. Not individual ants . . . it's a bit hard to explain . . . the holes in the cards, you see, block up some tubes and let them through others and . . .' Ponder sighed, 'we think it might be able to do other things.'
'Like what?' Ridcully demanded. x 2'.Ridcully was the kind of man who'd push any lever, just to see what it did.He put the card in the obvious slot . . .There was an immediate change in the rustling. Ants trailed in their busy way through the tubing. Some of them appeared to be carrying seeds . . .There was a small dull sound and a card dropped out of the other end of the glass maze.It had four holes in it.Ridcully was still staring at it when Ponder came up behind him, rubbing his eyes.''S our ant counter,' he said.'Two plus two equals four,' said Ridcully. 'Well, well, I never knew that.''It can do other sums as well.''You tellin' me ants can count?'

Jack Vettriano A Voyage Of Discovery

2009-05-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano A Voyage Of DiscoveryJack Vettriano a very married WomanJack Vettriano A Very Dangerous Beach
you're somersaulting over their heads, Runes, don't think I didn't notice that little display, I was frankly disgusted. The poor Bursar has had to have a lie down. Dancing is . . . round in circles, don'tcherknow, Maypoles and suchlike, healthy reels, perhaps a little light ballroom . . . not swinging people round like a dwarf with a battleaxe (mind you salt of the earth a kind of groove between their rooms and the dining table. But they were feeling strange.
'mumblemumbledon'tseewhymumble,' mumbled the Dean.
He said, much later on, on the day when the music died, that it must have been because he'd never been really young, or at least young while just being old enough to know he was young. Like most wizards, he'd begun his training while still so small that the official pointy dwarfs I've always said so). Do I make myself clear?''mumblemumblemumbleeveryonewasdoingitmumble,' said the Dean, still looking at the floor.'I never thought I'd say this to any wizard over the age of eighteen, but you're all gated until further notice!' shouted Ridcully.Being confined to the campus was not much of a punishment. The wizards usually distrusted any air that hadn't hung around indoors for a while, and mostly lived in

Jack Vettriano Devotion

2009-05-13T01:12:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano DevotionJack Vettriano Devotion IIJack Vettriano Defending Champions
wasn't just the leather jerkin. It wasn't just the wristbands with studs. It wasn't just the broadsword. It wasn't just the helmet with the spikes. It was the leather and the studs and the sword and the helmet. This customer couldn't possibly be in categories one or two‘I wants one.'
As for category three, he didn't look like someone used to bothering with chocolates or roses. Or even 'hello'.
'Er . . .' Blert grabbed one at random and held it out in front of him. 'One like this?'
'I wants one that goes blam‑Blam‑blamma‑BLAM‑blammmmooohieeee. Y'know?'
Blert looked down at the guitar. 'I'm not sure it does that,' he said.
Two enormous black‑nailed hands took it out of his grasp.
'Er, you're holding it wro–', Blert decided.The figure stood, looking uncertain, hands gripping convulsively, clearly not at home in a dialogue situation.'This a guitar shop?' it said.Blert looked around at the merchandise hanging from walls and ceiling.'Er. Yes?' he said.

Francisco de Goya Nude Maja

2009-05-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

Francisco de Goya Nude MajaFrancisco de Goya Clothed MajaEdgar Degas The RehearsalEdgar Degas The Bellelli Family
badly aimed missiles, or hadn't had a fight all day, or were just trying to reach the door.
Susan had no difficulty in spotting Imp y Celyn. He was at the front of the stage, his face a mask of terror. Behind him was a troll, with a dwarf trying to hide behind it.
She glanced at the hourglass. Just a few more seconds . . .
He was really rather attractive, in a dark, curlyheaded something like: except for the taste, weren't you?' said Susan.
'Negger grossed by bind,' said the raven indistinctly.
'Sure?'
'Leg go ogg by beak glease?'
Susan released her grip.was a busy shuttle service operating.
After a minute or two one of the women trotted
her horse over to Susan and pulled a scroll of parchment out of her breastplate.
'What ho! Says here Volf,' she said

Henri Matisse Odalisque

2009-05-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Henri Matisse OdalisqueHenri Matisse MusicHenri Matisse Le bonheur de vivreGeorges Seurat The Circus
was indeed a river, according to legend, one drop of which would rob a man of his memory.
Many people assumed that this was the river Ankh, whose waters can be drunk or even cut up and chewed. A drink from the Ankh would quite probably rob a man of his memory, or at least cause things to happen to him that he would on no account wish to recall.
In fact there was another river that would do the trick. There was, of course, a snag. No‑one knows where it is, because 'But maybe we shallll be ablle to pay when we've earned some,' said Imp weakly. 'If you could just, you know, llet us have a week or two–’
'Can't let you play anywhere without you being members of the Guild,' said Mr Clete.
'But we can't be members of the Guild until we've played,' said Glod.they're always pretty thirsty when they find it.Death turned his attention elsewhere.'Seventy‑five dollllars?' said Imp. 'Just to pllay music?''That's twenty‑five dollars registration fee, twenty per cent of fees, and fifteen dollars voluntary compulsory annual subscription to the Pension Fund,' said Mr Clete, secretary of the Guild.'But we haven't got that much money!'The man gave a shrug which indicated that, although the world did indeed have many problems, this was one of them that was not his.

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Small Monkey

2009-05-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Small MonkeyFrida Kahlo Portrait of Christina My SisterFrida Kahlo Fulang Chang and I
eyes. And growled.It dawned on the smarter Assassins that there was nothing in their armoury that could kill a troll. They had fine stiletto knives, but they needed sledgehammers.They had darts armed with exquisite poisons, none oThere was a long dangerous moment, and then another dink.
'Thank you, Acting-Constable. You'll escort Mr Vimes to the University.' Carrot looked around at the Assassins. 'Good afternoon, gentlemen. We may be back.'
The three Watchmen stepped over the wreckage.
Vimes said nothing until they were well out in the street, and then he turned to Carrot.
'Why did he call you—'
'If you'll excuse me, I'll take her back to the Watch House.'
Vimes looked down at Angua's corpse and felt a train of thought derail itself. Some things f which worked on a troll. No-one had ever thought trolls were important enough to be assassinated. Suddenly, Detritus was very important indeed. He had Cuddy's axe in one hand and his mighty crossbow in the other.Some of the brighter Assassins turned and

Andrew Atroshenko Just for Love

2009-05-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

Andrew Atroshenko Just for LoveEdward Hopper Two on the AisleEdward Hopper Corn Hill Truro Cape CodEdward Hopper Bridle Path
all in a line. Each one with its lead slug and charge of No.1 powder, delivered into the gonne like crossbow bolts. He wondered how longof legs.
Angua was at bay in a ring of teeth.
The barking stopped. A couple of large dogs moved aside, and Big Fido stepped delicately forward.
'So,' he said, 'what we have here is not a dog at all. A spy, perhaps? There's always an enemy. Everywhere. They look like dogs but, inside, they're not dogs. What were you doing?'
Angua growled. it'd take to put in another six . . .But we've got him where we want him! There's only one way down out of the Tower!Yep, we might be sitting out here in the open with him shooting lead pellets at us, but we've got him just where we want him! Wheezing and farting nervously, Gaspode moved at a shambling run through the Shades and saw, with a heart that sank even further, a knot of dogs ahead of him.He pushed and squirmed through the tangle

Andrea Mantegna The Madonna of the Cherubim

2009-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

Andrea Mantegna The Madonna of the CherubimAndrea Mantegna The Adoration of the ShepherdsAndrea Mantegna St GeorgeThomas Moran Zion Valley, South Utah
corner she saw Dr Cruces emerge, his face suffused with rage.
'Mr Downey?'
A white-haired Assassin drew himself to attention.
'Sir?'
'I want him found!'
'Yes, doctor—'
'In fact I want him There was a cough behind the chief Assassin. Dr Whiteface had emerged from the room.
Ah, doctor,' said Dr Cruces. 'I think perhaps we'd better go and discuss this further in my study, yes?'
'I really am most terribly sorry, my lord—'
'Don't mention it. The little . . . devil has made us both 2.80 look linhumed! With Extreme Impoliteness! And I'm setting the fee at ten thousand dollars – I shall pay it personally, you understand? Without Guild tax, either.'Several Assassins nonchalantly strolled away from the crowd. Ten thousand untaxed dollars was good money.Downey looked uncomfortable. 'Doctor, I think—''Think? You're not paid to think! Heaven knows where the idiot has got to. I ordered the Guild searched! Why didn't anyone force the door?''Sorry, doctor, Edward left us weeks ago and I didn't think—''You didn't think? What are you paid for?''Never seen him in such a temper,' said Gaspode.

Thomas Kinkade Julianne's cottage

2009-05-04T01:12:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Julianne's cottageThomas Kinkade Heather's HutchThomas Kinkade Forest Chapel
'Don't be daft! It's worth at least five dollars a month!'
'Ah,' said Carrot, ticking the book again. 'That'd be inflation, of course. And I expect you've got a cooking pot . . . do you own at least two-and-one-third acres and more than half a cow?'
'All right, all 'We were told—' Colon began.
'According to the Laws and Ordinances of Ankh-Morpork,' said Carrot, 'any residents of the city, in times of the irreparable breakdown of law and order, shall, at the requeft of an officer of the city who is a citizen in good standing – there's a lot of stuff here about property and stuff, and then it goes on – form themfelves into a militia for city defence.'
'What does that mean?' said Angua.right,' said Muldoon. 'It's some kind of joke, right?''I think probably the property qualification can be waived,' said Carrot. 'It says here that it can be waived for a citizen in good standing. Finally, has there been, in your opinion, an irreparable breakdown of law and order in the city?''They turned over Throat Dibbler's barrow and made him eat two of his sausages-inna-bun!''Oh, I say!' said Colon.'Without mustard!''I think we can call that a Yes,' said Carrot. He ticked the page again, and closed the book with a definite snap.'We'd better be going,' he said.

John William Godward Dolce far niente

2009-04-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

John William Godward Dolce far nienteJohn William Waterhouse Miranda - The TempestJohn William Waterhouse My Sweet Rose
hi' to rea', e'en if I st' on y'shoulders,' mumbled Cuddy, slumping down further.
'Ah, but my plan involves throwing something through them to attract help,' said Detritus.
'Wha' pla'?'
'I have in fact eventuated twenty-three but this one has a ninety-seven per cent chance of success,' said Detritus, beaming.
'Ha'nt got the possession of other people had always seemed to Throat to be against the proper natural order of things.
Dwarfs were easy enough to cater for. Rat-on-a-stick was simple enough, although it meant a general improvement in Dibbler's normal catering standards.
On the other hand, trolls were basically, when an'ting t'throw,' said Cuddy.'I have,' said Detritus, scooping him up. 'Do not worry. I can compute your trajectory with astonishing precision. And then all you will need to do is fetch Captain Vimes or Carrot or someone.'Cuddy's feeble protests described an arc through the freezing air and vanished along with the window glass.Detritus sat down again. Life was so simple, when you really thought about it. And he was really thinking.He was seventy-six per cent sure he was going to get at least seven degrees colder. Mr Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Purveyor, Merchant Venturer and all-round salesman, had thought long and hard about going into ethnic foodstuffs. But it was a natural career procession. The old sausage-in-a-bun trade had been falling off lately, while there were all these trolls and dwarfs around with money in their pockets or wherever it was trolls kept their money, and money in

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too Early

2009-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

James Jacques Joseph Tissot Too EarlyJames Jacques Joseph Tissot Hide and SeekMartin Johnson Heade Orchids and Hummingbird
have no concept of the delicate balance of the dry. I'll tell you one more time. This business with the Assassins and the dwarf and this clown . . . you are to cease involving yourself.'
'No, sir. I can't.'
'Give me your badge.'
Vimes looked Why not?'
'Um. Because it's my badge.'
'But you're resigning anyway when you get married.'
'Right.'
Their eyes met.down at his badge.He never really thought about it. It was just something he'd always had. It didn't mean anything very much . . . really . . . one way or the other. It was just something he'd always had.'My badge?''And your sword.'Slowly, with fingers that suddenly felt like bananas, and bananas that didn't belong to him at that, Vimes undid his sword belt.'And your badge.''Um. Not my badge.'

Unknown Artist Grand Canal scene

2009-04-28T00:20:00.001-07:00

Unknown Artist Grand Canal sceneCarl Fredrik Aagard Lodge on Lake ComoCarl Fredrik Aagard Amalfi dia CappucciniSalvador Dali The Enigma of Desire
Vimes examined the grape minutely. What he wanted to say was: Of course they fight. They're trolls. Of course they bash one another with'Definitely,' he said. 'In my view, the godless bastards should be rounded up and marched out of the city at spearpoint.'
There was a moment's silence.
'It's no more than they deserve,' Vimes added.
'Exactly! They're barely more than animals,' said Lady Omnius. Vimes suspected her first name was Sara.
'Have you noticed how massive their heads are?' said Vimes. 'That's really just rock. Very small brains.'
'And morally, of course . . .' said Lord Eorle. clubs – trollish is basically body language and, well, they like to shout. In fact, the only one who ever gives anyone any real trouble is that bastard Chrysoprase, and that's only because he apes humans and is a quick learner. As tor religion, troll'gods were hitting one another with clubs ten thousand years before we'd even stopped trying to eat rocks.But the memory of the dead dwarf stirred something perverse in his soul.He put the grape back on his plate.

Thomas Kinkade London

2009-04-27T00:40:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade LondonThomas Kinkade Light of FreedomThomas Kinkade GracelandThomas Kinkade Deer Creek Cottage
Gripe,' said Lady Ramkin. 'Hope we've got it in time—'
The dragon ripped its way out of the sack and looked around for something to incinerate. Everyone tried to get out of the way.
Then its eyes crossed, and it hiccuped.
The limestone tablet pinged off the opposite wall.
'Everybody down!'chemical factory one step from disaster. One quite small step.
It has been speculated that its habit edged with lace and pearls, but Lady Ramkin was so rich she could afford to stomp around the place in rubber boots and a tweed skirt that had belonged to her mother. She was so rich she could afford to live on biscuits and cheese sandwiches. She was so rich she lived in three rooms in a thirty-four-roomed mansion; the rest of them were full of very expensive and very old furniture, covered in dust sheets.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned

Thomas Kinkade Victorian Autumn

2009-04-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Victorian AutumnThomas Kinkade The Night Before ChristmasThomas Kinkade The Good LifeThomas Kinkade Stairway to ParadiseThomas Kinkade NASCAR THUNDER
'So if you could get young Carrot and that nice Corporal Nobbs to keep an eye out for—'
'No problem.'
For some reason Lady Sybil, keen of eye in every other respect, persisted in thinking of Corporal Nobbs as a cheeky, lovable rascal. It had always puzzled Sam Vimes. It must be the attraction of opposites. The Ram-kins were more highly bred than a hilltop bakery, whereas Corporal Nobbs had been disqualified from the human race for shoving.
As he walked down the street in his cheap cigar out of his pocket. Swamp dragons were becoming a minor nuisance in the city. Lady Ramkin got very angry about it.
People would buy them when they were six inches long and a cute way of lighting fires and then, when they were burning the furniture and leaving corrosive holes in the carpet, the floor and the cellar ceiling underneath it, they'd be shoved out to fend for themselves.
'We rescued him from a blacksmith in,' said Lady Ramkin. 'You'll enjoy it. It's time you met the Right People. You know that.'
He nodded mournfully.
'We shall expect you up at the house at eight o'clock, then,' she said. 'And don't look like that. It'll help you tremendously. You're far too good a man to spend his nights traipsing around dark wet streets. It's time you got on in the world.'
Vimes wanted to say that

Cao Yong Red Umbrella

2009-04-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Cao Yong Red UmbrellaCao Yong ParadiseCao Yong MY BALCONY
Esme was right. Wonder where she is? Oh, well. Come on.”
“Where’re we going?” said the dwarf.
“Down to my cottage.”
“Ah!”do,” said Casanunda.
“Oh, you will,” said Nanny Ogg, “if you knows where to look.”
The elves had been into Nanny Ogg’s cottage, too. There weren’t two pieces of furniture left whole.
243
Terry Pratchett“To get my broomstick,” said Nanny Ogg firmly. “I ain’t having the Queen of the Fairies ruling my children. So we’d better get some help. This has gone too far.”“We could go up into the mountains,” said Casanunda, as they crept down the stairs. “There’s thousands of dwarfs up there.”“No,” said Nanny Ogg. “Esme won’t thank me for this, but I’m the one who has to wave the bag o’ sweets when she overreaches herself . . . and I’m thinking about someone who really hates the Queen.”“You won’t find anyone who hates her worse than dwarfs

Cao Yong VILLA ENCANTADA

2009-04-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Cao Yong VILLA ENCANTADACao Yong TWILIGHT BY THE FOUNTAINCao Yong TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID
They’re out there!” said Carter.
“And we ain’t got any weapons,” said Tinker.
A set of heavy brass bells hit him in the chest.
240
I.OR08 ft/YO LftQIEQ
“Shut up,” said Jason, “and put your bells on. Carter?”
“They’re waiting for us!”
“I’ll say this just once,” said Jason. “After tonight no one’s ever to talk about the Stick and Bucket dance ever again. All rightSix heavy ash sticks clashed in mid-air.
“... one, two, forward, one, back, spin ...”
Slowly, as the leaky strains of Mrs. Widgery’s Lodger wound around the mist, the dancers leapt and squelched their way slowly through the night. ..
“... two, back, jump ...”
The sticks clashed again.
“They’re watching us!” panted Tailor, as he bounced past Jason, “I can see ‘em!”
“... one . . . two . . . they won’t do nothing ‘til the music stops! . . . back, two, spin . . . they l?”The Lancre Morris Men faced one another, rain plastering their clothes to their bodies.Carter, tears of terror mingling with make-up and therain, squeezed the accordion. There was the long-drawn-outchord that by law must precede all folk music to givebystanders time to get awayJason held up his hand and counted his fingers.“One, two ...” His forehead wrinkled. “One, two, three ...”“... four ...” hissed Tinker.“... four,” said Jason. “Dance, lads!”oves music! . . . forward, hop, turn ... one and six, beetle crushers! . .. hop, back, spin ...”

Vincent van Gogh Vase with Twelve Sunflowers

2009-04-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Vincent van Gogh Vase with Twelve SunflowersVincent van Gogh Vase with Daisies and AnemonesVincent van Gogh The Starry Night 2Vincent van Gogh The Church in Auvers all those decades ago. And she seemed to have her usual skill at Borrowing. But herself—if she didn’t leave little notes for herself, she’d be totally at sea. Being a witch meant knowing exactly who you were and where you were, and she was los-ing the giving it a fresh coat of gold paint right now.”
“But we’re going to be married here,” said Magrat. “We don’t have to go anywhere.”
“The king said perhaps you could both ride around a bit. Maybe as far as Bad Ass, he said. With Shawn Ogg as a mili-tary escort. So people can wave and shout hooray. And then come back here.”
Magrat put on her dressing gown and crossed to the tower window. She could see down over the ability to know both. Last night she’d found herself setting the table for two people. She’d tried to walk into a room she didn’t have. And soon she’d have to fight an elf.If you fought an elf and lost. . . then, if you were lucky, you would die.Magrat was brought breakfast in bed by a giggling MillieChillum.“Guests are arriving already, ma’am. And there’s flags and everything down in the square! And Shawn has found the coronation coach!”“How can you lose a coach?” said Magrat.“It was locked up in one of the old stables, ma’am. He’s

Mark Spain Flamenco II

2009-04-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Mark Spain Flamenco IIMark Spain Flamenco IMark Spain Eternal FlameMark Spain Encore
was a jar of boiled sweets by her bed, and a thick glass bottle of the clear fluid from her complicated still out behind the woodshed. It wasn’t exactly whiskey, and it wasn’t exactly gin, but it was exactly 90° proof, and a great comfort duringyears, so a sweet at bedtime wasn’t going to worry it much.
After a few seconds a sense of pressure on her feet indi-
cated that the cat Greebo had taken up his accustomed
place on the end of the bed. Greebo always slept on Nanny’s
bed; the way he’d affectionately try to claw your eyeballs out
in the morning was as good as an alarm clock. But she
108 those worrying moments that sometimes occurred around 3 A.M. when you woke up and forgot who you were. After a glass of the clear liquid you still didn’t remember who you were, but that was all right now because you were someone else anyway.She plumped up the four pillows, kicked her fluffy slip-pers into the comer, and pulled the blankets over her head, creating a small, warm, and slightly rank cave. She sucked a boiled sweet; Nanny had only one tooth left, and that had taken all she could throw at it for many

Thomas Kinkade Perseverance

2009-04-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade PerseveranceJohn Collier A Devonshire OrchardCao Yong Red Umbrella
Terry Pratchett
course these things do happen and my grandfather always
swore by a mixture of honey and horse manure, he rubbed it
on every day—“
“I’m not going bald!”
A tic started to dance across the Bursar’s face. The words started to come out by themselves, without the appar-ent intervention of his brain.
“—and then he.
“The old dried frog pills, right?”
“R-r-r-r.”
“Left-hand pocket?”
“R-r-r-r.”
“OK . .. right. . . swallow ...” got this device with a glass rod and, and,and you rubbed it with a silk cloth and—““I mean it’s ridiculous! My family have never gone bald, except for one of my aunts!”“—and, and, and then he’d collect morning dew andwash his head, and, and, and—“Ridcully subsided. He was not an unkind man.“What’re you taking for it at the moment?” he murmured.“Dried, dried, dried, dried,” stuttered the Bursar

Pop art art on fire

2009-04-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

Pop art art on firePop art another lazy afternoonPop art trane in blue
third pair he was out of breath, but he did his best.
“Meeeyisss . . . Magraaaaa . . . Garrrrrli-ick ... His Majesteeeyyaa the Ki—Oh, bugger, now where’s he gone?”
The throne room a grave and solemn approach to life and a grim determination never to laugh at anything ever again, especially in the presence of custard.
In the role of ruler, then, he had started with the advan-tage of ignorance. No one had ever told him how to be a king, so he had to find out for himself. He’d sent off for books on the subject. Verence was a great believer in the usefulness of knowledge derived from books.
He had formed the unusual opinion that the job of a king is to make the kingdom was empty.They eventually found Verence II, King of Lancre, in the stable yard.Some people are born to kingship. Some achieve king-ship, or at least Arch-Generalissimo-Father-of-His-Countryship. But Verence had kingship thrust upon him. He hadn’t been raised to it, and had only arrived at the throne by way of one of those complicated mix-ups of fraternity and parentage that are all too common in royal families.He had in fact been raised to be a Fool, a man whose job it was to caper and tell jokes and have custard poured down his trousers. This had naturally given him

Joseph Mallord William Turner Heidelberg

2009-04-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Joseph Mallord William Turner HeidelbergTheodore Robinson Willows and WildflowersMary Cassatt Woman With A Pearl Necklace In A Loge
doors start moving." He fumbled under his robe and produced something that looked, to Fergmen's eye, very much like a torture instrument. This must have communicated itself to Urn, who said very slowly and kindly: "This is an ad-just-ab-ble span-ner."
"Yes?"
"It's for . He was even in favor of the end of the world, if he could get the concession to sell religious statues, cut-price icons, rancid sweetmeats, fermenting dates, and putrescent olives on a stick to any watching crowds.
Subsequently, this was his testament. There never was a Book of the Prophet Brutha, but an enterprising scribe, during what came to be called the Renovation, did assemble some notes, and Dhblah had this to say:
"I. I was standing right by the statue of Ossory, right, when I noticed Brutha just beside me. Everyone was twisting nuts off."Fergmen nodded miserably."Yes?" he said."And this is a bottle of penetrating oil.""Oh, good.""Just give me a leg up, will you? It'll take time to unhook the linkage to the valve, so we might as well make a start." Urn heaved himself into the ancient machinery while, above, the ceremony droned on. Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah was all for new prophets

Rene Magritte The Voice of the Winds

2009-04-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

Rene Magritte The Voice of the WindsRene Magritte The Sea of FlamesRene Magritte The Ignorant Fairy
right. Make it thirty. And then I'll . . .
"Ah, Brutha. Let us go."
Brutha swallowed his heart again, and turned slowly.
"I did not hear you, lord," he managed.
"I walk softly."
"Is there a watchman?"
"Not now. Come help me with the bolts."
A small wicket gate was set into the main gate. Brutha, his mind numb with hatred, shoved the bolts aside with the heel of small army . . .
It had taken months. A third of the men had died, of heat and dehydration and wild animals and worse things, the worse things that the desert held . . .
You had to have a mind like Vorbis's to plan it.
And plan it early. Men were already dying in the desert before Brother Murduck went to preach; there was already a beaten track when the Omnian fleet burned in the bay before Ephebe.
You had to have a mind like Vorbis's to plan your retaliation before your attack.

his hand. The door opened with barely a creak.Outside there was the occasional light of a distant farm, and crowding darkness.Then the darkness poured in. Hierarchy, Vorbis said later. The Ephebians didn't think in terms of hierarchies.No army could cross the desert. But maybe a small army could get a quarter of the way, and leave a cache of water. And do that several times. And another small army could use part of that cache to go further, maybe reach halfway, and leave a cache. And another
It was over in less than an hour. The fundame

Thomas Kinkade Deer Creek Cottage

2009-04-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kinkade Deer Creek CottageThomas Kinkade Cobblestone Bridge
anything about that. Not when you were . . . bigger. You don't want people to be kind to animals because they're animals, you just want people to be kind to animals because one of them might be you."
"That's not a bad idea!"
"Besides, he's been kind to me. He didn't have to be.
"You know that you can't truly be Om. The God would not talk like that about His chosen ones."
Thomas Kinkade Clearing StormsThomas Kinkade Bridge of FaithThomas Kinkade Autumn Lane
think that? Is that what you think? Have you looked at the man's mind?""Of course I haven't! I don't know how to!""You don't?""No! Humans can't do-”Brutha paused. Vorbis seemed to do it. He only had to look at someone to know what wicked thoughts they harbored. And grandmother had been the same."Humans can't do it, I'm sure," he said. "We can't read minds.""I don't mean reading them, I mean looking at them," said Om. "Just seeing the shape of them. You can't read a mind. You might as well try and read a river. But seeing the shape's easy. Witches can do it, no trouble."" `The way of the witch shall be as a path strewn with thorns,' " said Brutha."Ossory?" said Om."Yes. But of course you'd know," said Brutha."Never heard it before in my life," said the tortoise bitterly. "It was what you might call an educated guess.""Whatever you say," said Brutha, "I still

Andy Warhol Neuschwanstein

2009-04-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol NeuschwansteinAndy Warhol Knives black and whiteAndy Warhol Guns
'But it has great power.'
'Er. You can hold things up with it. If you had another one, you’d have a brick.' Rincewind spoke slowly. He was ?’ said Coin.
Rincewind stared into Coin's golden eyes, and then at his sock. He had pulled it on and off several times a year for years. It had darns he'd grown to know and lo-well, know. Some of them had whole families of darns of their own. There were a number of descriptions that could be applied to the sock, but slayer-of-cities wasn't among them.
'Not really,' he said at last. 'It sort of kills people but leaves buildings standing.'
Rincewind's mind was operating at the speed of continental drift. Parts of it were telling him assimilating the situation by a kind of awful osmosis, and watching the staff turn ominously in the boy's hand.'So. It is a brick of ordinariness, within a sock. The whole becoming a weapon.''Um. Yes.''How does it work?''Um. You swing it, and then you. Hit something with it. Or sometimes the back of your hand, sometimes.''And then perhaps it destroys a whole city

Juan Gris Fantomas Pipe and Newspaper

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

Juan Gris Fantomas Pipe and NewspaperGeorge Bellows The PicnicGeorge Bellows The Circus
name with an 'X', which he usually spelled wrong. On the other hand, he gravitated rapidly to anything with money in it. then.'
Nijel squared his, for want of a better word, shoulders, and waved his sword again.
'You four had better just jolly well watch out,' he said, 'or ... hold on a moment.' He took the book from Rincewind and riffled through the pages until he found what he was looking for, and continued, 'Yes, or "the chill winds of fate will blow through your bleached skeletonsRincewind looked again at the illustration, and then at Nijel.'Seven days?''Well, I'm a slow reader.''Ah,' said Rincewind.'And I didn't bother with chapter six, because I promised my mother I'd stick with just the looting and pillaging, until I find the right girl.''And this book teaches you how to be a hero?''Oh, yes. It's very good.' Nijel gave him a worried glance. 'That's all right, isn't it? It cost a lot of money.''Well, er. I suppose you’d better get on with it,

Leroy Neiman Ryder Cup

2009-04-09T02:23:00.000-07:00

Leroy Neiman Ryder CupUnknown Artist Mary Magdalene in the DesertLeroy Neiman World Class Skier
I had the city centre converted into a Wilderness. So much better for the mental flow. One does one's best. May I read trolley and
choice of Thou,
Singing beside me in the Wilderness,
And Wilderness is-’

He paused, and picked up his pen thoughtfully.
'Maybe cow isn't such a good idea,' he said. 'Now that I come to look you my latest oeuvre?''Egg?' said Rincewind, who wasn't following this.Creosote thrust out one pudgy hand and declaimed as follows: 'A summer palace underneath the bough,A flask of wine, a loaf of bread, some lamb couscouswith courgettes, roast peacock tongues, kebabs, icedsherbet, selection of sweets from the

Fabian Perez Flamenco Dancer

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

Fabian Perez Flamenco DancerJohannes Vermeer Girl with a Red HatDiane Romanello Windsong
took his mother,' said Ipslore. It was a flat statement, without apparent rancour. In the valley behind the cliffs Ipslore's homestead was a smoking ruin, the rising wind already spreading the fragile ashes across the hissing dunes. WHERE EVEN MAGIC MAY NOT GO.
'And now you have come for the child?'
NO. THE CHILD HAS HIS OWN DESTINY I HAVE COME FOR YOU.
'Ah.' The wizard stood up, carefully laid the sleeping baby down on the thin grass, and picked up a long staff that had been lying there. It was made of a black metal, with a meshwork of silver and gold carvings that gave it a rich and sinister tastelessness

Gustav Klimt Schubert at the Piano

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

Gustav Klimt Schubert at the PianoGustav Klimt Malcesine on Lake GardaDaniel Ridgway Knight Waiting
that’s a bit heartless, Esme.”
“Heartless it may be, but headless it ain’t. I’ve never claimed to be nice, just to be sensible. No need to look like that. Now, are you coming or are you going to stand there with your mouth open all day?”
Nanny closed her mouth, and then opened it again to say:
“What’re you going to do?”
“Well, do you know how to cure her?”
“Me? No!”
“Right! Me neither. But I know someone mum.”
“Oh, hello. Mum. Hello, Mistress Weatherwax.”
“Let us in, there’s a good boy.”
“Friend or Foe?”
“What?”
“It’s what I’ve got to say, Mumetiquette.
The king had to sit at the head of the table. That was obvious. But if she sat on one side of him it made them both uneasy, because they had to keep turning to talk to each other. Opposite ends and shouting was the only way.
Then there was the logistics

Marc Chagall The Birthday

2009-04-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

Marc Chagall The BirthdayMarc Chagall RainMarc Chagall Blue Lovers
you must be out of your mind, Archchancellor!’ said the Senior Wrangler. He lowered his voice. ‘Anyway, he’s an undead. I don’t see how you can save undeads. It’s a sort of contradiction in terms.’ ‘A dichotomy, ‘ said the Bursar helpfully.
‘Oh, I don’t think surgery is involved.’
‘Anyway, Bursar.’They make these big, big jars of special pickles and then they bury them in the ground for months to ferment and they get this lovely piquant -‘ ‘Tell me,’ Ludmilla whispered to Ridcully, ‘is this how wizards usually behave?’
‘The Senior Wrangler is an amazingly fine example,’ said Ridcully. ‘Got the same urgent grasp of reality as a cardboard cut-out. Proud to have him on the team.’ He rubbed his hands together.’OK, lads. Volunteers?’ ‘Yo! Hut!’ said the Dean, who was in an entirely different world now.
‘I would be remiss in my duty if I failed to help a brother,’ said Reg Shoe.
‘Oook.’didn’t we bury him?’ said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. ‘And now we dig him up again,’ said the Archchancellor. ‘It’s probably a miracle of existence.’‘Like pickles,’ said the Bursar, happily.Even the Fresh Starters went blank.‘They do that in parts of Howondaland,’ said the

Gustav Klimt The Fulfillment (detail I)

2009-04-03T00:47:00.000-07:00

Gustav Klimt The Fulfillment (detail I)Gustav Klimt The Embrace (detail_ square)Gustav Klimt Schloss Kammer Am Attersee II
AND SIXPENCE IS SIXPENCE.
‘Exactly.’ Simnel hesitated.’What was it you were wanting?’
The tall figure ran a disconsolate finger over the oily mechanism.
‘Mr Door?’
PARDON? OH. YES. I HAD SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO -
He strode out of the forge and returned almost immediately with something wrapped in silk. He unwrapped it carefully. He’d made a new handle for the blade - not a straight one, such as ?these? used in the mountains, but the heavy doublecurved handle of the plains.
‘You Simnel sucked his finger.
‘Funny,’ he said, ‘I could have sworn I didn’t touch it. My hand was inches away. Well, it’s sharp, anyway.’
He swished it through the air.
‘Yes. Pretty sharp
He paused, stuck his little finger in his ear and swivelled it around a bit.want it beaten out? A new grass nail? Metalwork replacing?’Bill Door shook his head.I WANT IT KILLED.‘Killed?’YES. TOTALLY. EVERY BIT DESTROYED. SO THAT IT IS ABSOLUTELY DEAD.‘Nice scythe,’ said Simnel. ‘Seems a shame. You’ve kept a good edge on it -‘DON’T TOUCH IT!

John Constable Flatford Mill

2009-04-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

John Constable Flatford MillJohn William Waterhouse The Magic CircleJohn William Waterhouse Pandora
Mrs Cake stood up, brushed the plaster dust off her apron, and said:
‘They shouted! They shouted! All at once!’
Modo the University gardener was weeding a rose bed when the ancient, velvet lawn beside him heaved and sprouted a ?’
‘About five hundred years, I think.’
‘Gosh, I am sorry. I was aiming for the cellars, but I seem to have lost my bearings.’
‘Don’t you worry about that, Mr Poons,’ said the dwarf cheerfully.’Everything’s growing like crazy anyway. I’ll hardy perennial Windle Poons, who blinked in the light.‘Is that you, Modo?’‘That’s right, Mr Poons,’ said the dwarf. ‘Shall I give you a hand up?’‘I think I can manage, thank you.’‘I’ve got a shovel in the shed, if you like.’‘No, it’s perfectly all right.’ Windle pulled himself out of the grass and brushed the soil off the remains of his robe.’Sorry about your lawn,’ he added, looking down at the hole.‘Don’t mention it, Mr Poons.’‘Did it take long to get it looking like that

Gustave Caillebotte Oarsmen

2009-04-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

Gustave Caillebotte OarsmenLorenzo Lotto Mystic Marriage of St CatherineLorenzo Lotto Angel AnnunciatingCamille Pissarro The Harvest 1882Camille Pissarro The garden at Pontoise 1877
The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse. It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil and under bare stars because it’s springtime and with any luck the carbon dioxide will unfreeze again. The imperative is felt by deep-sea beings who have never seen the sun and urban humans whose roast afterwards, and it’s generally considered a nice day out for all the family.
But that isn’t the secret.
The secret is the other dance.
And that won’t happen for a while yet.
There is a ticking, such as might be made by a only connection with the cycles of nature is that their Volvo once ran over a sheep. It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded young mathematicians to an inexpert accordion rendering of “Mrs Widgery’s Lodger” and ruthlessly by such as the Ninja Morris Men of New Ankh, who can do strange and terrible things with a simple handkerchief and a bell. And it is never danced properly. Except on the Discworld, which is flat and supported on the backs of four elephants which travel through space on the shell of Great A’Tuin, the world turtle. And even there, only in one place have they got it right. It’s a small village high in the Ramtop Mountains, where the big and simple secret is handed down across the generations.There, the men dance on the first day of spring, backwards and forwards, bells tied under their knees, white shirts flapping. People come and watch. There’s an ox

John Singer Sargent The Breakfast Table

2009-03-31T00:20:00.000-07:00

John Singer Sargent The Breakfast TableRembrandt Susanna and the EldersRembrandt Diana Bathing with the Stories of Actaeon and CallistoRembrandt Christ On The CrossRembrandt Christ Driving The Money Changers From The Temple
at knots.’
‘These were pretty good,’ said Victor.
‘I just remember the dream. There was this voice telling me that I must wake the ‑ the sleeping man?’
Victor thought of the armoured figure on the slab.
‘Did you get a good look at it?’ he said. ‘What was it like?’
‘I don’t know about tonight,’ said Ginger cautiously. ‘But in my dreams it’s always looked a bit like my Uncle Oswald.’
Victor thought distant, blurred voices. A few stones moved. A voice, a little closer now, trilled, ‘Hallo, little children. This way, little children.’
‘That’s Rock!’ said Ginger.
‘I’d know that voice anywhere,’ said Victor. ‘Hey! Rock! It’s me! Victor!’
There was a worried pause. Then Rock’s voice bellowed: ‘It’s my friend Victor!’
‘That mean we can’t eat him?’of a sword taller than he was. You couldn’t parry a slash from something like that, it’d cut through anything. Somehow it was hard to think of anything looking like an Oswald with a sword like that.‘Why’s he remind you of your Uncle Oswald?’ he said.‘Because my Uncle Oswald lay quite still like that. Mind you, I only ever saw him once. And that was at his funeral.’Victor opened his mouth ‑ and there were

William Bouguereau Le Jour

2009-03-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

William Bouguereau Le JourWilliam Bouguereau DawnWilliam Bouguereau Dante and Virgil in HellBill Brauer Scarlet DancerBill Brauer Harvest Moon
And in another alleyway Gaspode sat muttering to himself.
‘Huh. Stay, he says. Givin’ me orders. Jus’ so’s his girlfriend doesn’t have to have a horrid smelly dog in her room. So here’s me, man’s best friend, sittin’ out in the rain. If it was rainin’, anyway. Maybe it ain’t rainin’, but if it was rainin’, I’d be soaked by now. Serve him right if I just upped and walked away. I could do itVictor.
‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,’ said Ginger, sniffing. ‘All right, you can turn around now. I’m in bed.’
Victor relaxed, and turned round. Ginger had drawn the covers up to her neck and was holding them there like a besieged garrison manning the barricades., too. Any time I wanted. I don’t have to sit here. I hope no‑one’s thinkin’ I’m sittin’ here because I’ve been told to sit here. I’d like to see the human who could give me orders. I’m sittin’ here ‘cos I want to. Yeah.’Then he whined for a bit and shuffled into the shadows, where there was less chance of being seen.In the room above, Victor was standing facing the wall. This was humiliating. It had been bad enough bumping into a grinning Mrs Cosmopilite on the stairs. She had given him a big smile and a complicated, elbowintensive gesture that, he felt certain, sweet little old ladies shouldn’t know.There were clinks and the occasional rustle behind him as Ginger got ready for bed.‘She’s really very nice. She told me yesterday that she had had four husbands,’ said Ginger.‘What did she do with the bones?’ said

Francois Boucher The Setting of the Sun

2009-03-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

Francois Boucher The Setting of the SunFrancois Boucher The Rest on the Flight into EgyptFrancois Boucher The Rape of EuropaFrancois Boucher The Interrupted SleepFrancois Boucher Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour
drew herself up haughtily.
‘All that old-fashioned stuff very uncultured now,’ she sniffed. ‘It’s not the modern way. I not interested in any troll’, she added, ‘that not up-to-date. A rock on the head may be quite sentimental,’ she went on, the began.
‘That’s court, not caught,’ said Ruby wearily. ‘You got to, to, to-’ She paused.
She wasn’t all that sure what you had to do. But Ruby had spent some weeks in Holy Wood, and if Holy Wood did anything, it changed things; in Holy Wood she’d plugged into a vast cross-species female freemasonry she hadn’t suspected existed, and she was learning fast. She’d talked at length to sympathetic human girls. And dwarfs. Even dwarfs had better courtship rituals, for gods’ sake.[16]certainty draining out of her voice as she surveyed the sentence ahead of her, ‘but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.’ She hesitated. That didn’t sound right, even to her. It certainly puzzled Detritus. ‘What? You want I should knock my teeth out?’ he said. ‘Well, all right, not diamonds,’ Ruby conceded. ‘But there proper modern ways now. You got to court a girl.’ Detritus brightened. ‘Ah, but I-’ he

Leonardo da Vinci Portrait Of A Young Lady

2009-03-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci Portrait Of A Young LadyLeonardo da Vinci LedaLeonardo da Vinci Leda 1530Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An ErmineThomas Kinkade End of a Perfect Day
we both realize. We’re talking.’
‘Concheptualishing,’ said the cat. It was a black cat, with white paws, ears like shotgun targets, and the scarred said the cat, ‘it’s hard to hitch-hike when you’s a cat.’
‘See?’ said Gaspode. ‘It’s happening all the time. All sorts are turnin’ up in Holy Wood. They don’t know why they’ve come, only that it’s important to be here. An’ they don’t act like they do anywhere else in the world. I bin watchin’. Somethin’ weird’s goin’ on.’
The duck quacked. There were words in there somewhere, but so mangled by the incompatibility of beak and larynx that Victor couldn’t understand a word. face of a cat that has already lived eight lives to the full. ‘You tell him, kid,’ said the mouse. ‘Tell him what you did next,’ said Gaspode. ‘We came here,’ said the cat. ‘From Ankh-Morpork?’ said Victor. ‘Yeah.’ ‘That’s nearly thirty miles!’ ‘Yeah, and take it from me,’

Pablo Picasso Three Women at the Spring

2009-03-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso Three Women at the SpringPablo Picasso Three DancersPablo Picasso The ShadowPablo Picasso The Pipes of PanPablo Picasso Studio with Plaster Head
luvverly". Good business sense.’
He leaned across the desk again.
‘Seems to me’, he said, ‘that you could do with some of that around here.’
‘So it appears,’ said Silverfish weakly.
‘And with the money,’ said Dibbler, his voice a crowbar inserted in the cracks in reality, ‘you could really get on with perfecting your art.’
Silverfish brightened a bit. ‘That’s true,’ he said. ‘For example, some way of getting sound on–’
Dibbler A Romantick Tragedie in Two Reels.
Thank you.

‘Oh,’ he said, flatly. wasn’t listening. He pointed to a stack of boards leaning against the wall. ‘What are those?’ he said. ‘Ah,’ said Silverfish. ‘That was my idea. We thought it would be, er, good business sense’, he savoured the words as if they were some rare new sweet, ‘to tell people about the other moving pictures we were making.’ Dibbler picked up one of the boards and held it critically at arm’s length. It said: Nexte weke wee will be ShewingPelias and Melisande,
‘Isn’t that all right?’ said Silverfish, now thoroughly beaten. ‘

Caravaggio Lute Player

2009-03-25T20:52:00.001-07:00

Caravaggio Lute PlayerCaravaggio Adoration of the ShepherdsAndrea Mantegna Samson and DelilahAndrea Mantegna Adoration of the ShepherdsAndrea Mantegna Adoration of the Magi
of course there’s entertainment,’ said Peavie, the Guild treasurer. He was a small, nervous man. Most alchemists were nervous, in any case; it came from not knowing what the crucible of bubbling stuff they were experimenting with was going to do next.
‘Well, yes. Obviously some entertainment,’ said Silverfish.
‘Some of said Peavie. ‘A month ago it was just a mad idea. And now it’s all worked! It’s just like magic! Only not magical, if you see what I mean,’ he added quickly.
‘Not just illusion, but real illusion,’ said Lully.
‘I don’t know if anyone’s thought about this,’ said Peavie, ‘but this could make us a bit of the great historical dramas,’ said Peavie. ‘Just picture the scene! You get some actors together, they act it just once, and people all over the Disc will be able to see it as many times as they like! A great saving in wages, by the way,’ he added. ‘But tastefully done,’ said Silverfish. ‘We have a great responsibility to see that nothing is done which is in any way . . . ‘ his voice trailed off, ‘ . . . you know . . . coarse.’ ‘They’ll stop us,’ said Lully darkly. ‘I know those wizards.’ ‘I’ve been giving that some thought,’ said Silverfish. ‘The light’s too bad here anyway. We agreed. We need clear skies. And we need to be a long way away. I think I know just the place.’ ‘You know, I can’t believe we’re doing this,’

Alphonse Maria Mucha JOB

2009-03-24T01:25:00.001-07:00

Alphonse Maria Mucha JOBAlphonse Maria Mucha GismondaPierre Auguste Renoir The UmbrellasPierre Auguste Renoir Les baigneusesPierre Auguste Renoir By the Seashore
crocodile-headed thing, jerked on to the plaza before the pyramid, squinted up at Teppic, and reached out towards him. Teppic fumbled for a knife, wondering what sort was appropriate for gods .
And, along the Djel, the pyramids began to flare their meagre store of hoarded time.

Priests and ancestors fled as the ground began to shake. Even the gods looked bewildered.
IIb across the flagstones, still staring at the hulking outline of the Great Pyramid.
'There's someone still there, look,' he said, and pointed to a figure alone on the plaza.
IIb peered into the gloom.
'It's only Dios, the high priest,' he said. 'I expect he's got some plan in mind, best not to meddle in the affairs of priests, now will you come on.'snatched his father's arm and dragged him away. 'Come on!' he yelled into his ear. 'We can't be around here when it goes off! Otherwise you'll be put to bed on a coathanger!' Around them several other pyramids struck their flares, thin and reedy affairs that were barely visible in the afterglow. 'Dad! I said we've got to go!' Ptaclusp was dragged backwards

William Bouguereau Biblis

2009-03-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

William Bouguereau BiblisWilliam Bouguereau Nymphs and Satyr.
Diego Rivera Detroit IndustryLeroy Neiman Rocky vs ApolloAndy Warhol Superman
they have some occult significance?' he said.
'What's occult mean?' she said vaguely.
'Oh. What do you need them for, then?'
'I told you. I don't feel properly dressed without them on.' Teppic shrugged, and went back to rocking his knife in the crack.
'Why away the shadows. He staggered over to the rocks and stared at her.
'The whole valley has just closed up,' he managed at last. 'All those people . .
'I saw cooking fires,' said Ptraci, slumping down beside him.
'It's something to do with the pyramid,' he said. 'It looked very strange just before we left. It's magic, or are you doing that?' she said. He stopped and thought about it. 'I don't know,' he said. 'But you did see the valley, didn't you?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then?' 'Well what?' Teppic rolled his eyes. 'Didn't you think it was a bit, well, odd? A whole country just more or less vanishing? It's something you don't bloody well see every day, for gods' sake!' 'How should I know? I've never been out of the valley before. I don't know what it's supposed to look like from outside. And don't swear.' Teppic shook his head. 'I think I will go and lie down in the shade,' he said. 'What's left of it,' he added, for the brass light of the sun was burning

Claude Monet Poplars

2009-03-20T23:37:00.001-07:00

Claude Monet PoplarsJohannes Vermeer View Of DelftJohannes Vermeer The Kitchen MaidDiane Romanello Sunset BeachGustav Klimt The Virgins (Le Vergini)
two brothers, left to themselves, glowered at each other.
At last It was on the floor and it had a pillow at one end. It had to be a bed.
Teppic found he was doubting it as he tossed and turned, trying to find some part of the mattress that was prepared to meet him halfway. This is stupid, he thought, I grew up on beds like this. And pillows carved out of rock. I was born in this palace, this is my heritage, I must be prepared to accept it . . .
I must order a proper bed and a feather pillow from Ankh, first thing in the morningIIa said, 'What does "quantum" mean, anyway?' IIb shrugged. 'It means add another nought,' he said. 'Oh,' said IIa, 'is that all?' All along the river valley of the Djel the pyramids were flaring silently into the night, discharging the accumulated power of the day. Great soundless flames erupted from their capstones and danced upwards, jagged as lightning, cold as ice. For hundreds of miles the desert glittered with the constellations of the dead, the aurora of antiquity. But along the valley of the Djel the lights ran together in one solid ribbon of fire.

Jack Vettriano Zara Philips by Rankin

2009-03-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

Jack Vettriano Zara Philips by RankinJack Vettriano You Can't Come To This Party!Jack Vettriano Yesterday's DreamsJack Vettriano Working the LoungeJack Vettriano words of Wisdom
Nothing but stars, scattered across the blackness as though the Creator had smashed the windscreen of his car and hadn't bothered to stop to sweep up the pieces. This is the gulf between universes, the chill deeps of space that contain nothing but the occasional random molecule, a few lost comets and ...
... but a the reason for all this, but it is probably quantum. Much that is weird could happen on a world on the back of a turtle like that.
It's happening already.
The stars below are campfires, out in the desert, and the lights of remote villages high in the forested mountains. Towns are smeared nebulae, cities are vast constellations; the great sprawling city of Ankh-Morpork, for example, glows like a couple of colliding galaxies.circle of blackness shifts slightly, the eye reconsiders perspective, and what was apparently the awesome distance of interstellar wossname becomes a world under darkness, its stars the lights of what will charitably be called civilisation. For, as the world tumbles lazily, it is revealed as the Discworld - flat, circular, and carried through space on the back of four elephants who stand on the back of Great A'tuin, the only turtle ever to feature on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, a turtle ten thousand miles long, dusted with the frost of dead comets, meteor-pocked, albedo-eyed. No-one knows

William Blake The Resurrection

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

William Blake The ResurrectionWilliam Blake The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with SunWilliam Blake The Descent of ChristWilliam Blake LosWilliam Blake the Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve
'Nanny!' said Magrat, shocked. The Fool gave the terrified, ingratiating rictus of young men everywhere when confronted by importunate elderly women commenting on their intimately personal lives.
The older witches brushed past. The Fool grabbed Magrat's hand.
'I know where we can get a good view,' he said.
She hesitated.
'It's all right,' said the Fool urgently. 'You'll be perfectly safe with me.'
'Yes, I Nanny Ogg waved her bag of walnuts at Granny.
'Want one?' she said.
An alderman of Lancre shuffled past her and pointed politely to the seat on her left.
'Is anyone sitting here?' he said.will, won't I,' said Magrat, trying to look around him to see where the others had gone.'They're staging the play outside, in the big courtyard. We'll get a lovely view from one of the gate towers, and no-one else will be there. I put some wine up there for us, and everything.'When she still looked half-reluctant he added, 'And there's a cistern of water and a fireplace that the guards use sometimes. In case you want to wash your hair.'The castle was full of people standing around in that polite, sheepish way affected by people who see each other all day and are now seeing each other again in unusual social circumstances, like an office party. The witches passed quite unremarked among them and found seats in the rows of benches in the main courtyard, set up before a hastily assembled stage.

Mary Magdalene in the Desert

2009-03-17T22:37:00.001-07:00

Mary Magdalene in the DesertLeroy Neiman World Class SkierJuan Gris Violin and EngravingJuan Gris The ViolinJuan Gris The Painter's Window
He'd been a bit ashamed of that play at the time. The famous Battle of Morpork, he strongly suspected, had consisted of about two thousand men lost in a swamp on a cold, wet day, hacking one another into oblivion with rustythat a castle made of painted sacking stretched over a frame could be shoved behind a curtain, and this voice was taking the coal dust of his words and filling the room with diamonds.
I made these words, Hwel thought. But they don't belong to me. They belong to him. swords. What would the last King of Ankh have said to a pack of ragged men who knew they were outnumbered, outflanked and outgeneralled? Something with bite, something with edge, something like a drink of brandy to a dying man; no logic, no explanation, just words that would reach right down through a tired man's brain and pull him to his feet by his testicles.Now he was seeing its effect.He began to think the walls had fallen away, and there was a cold mist blowing over the marshes, its choking silence broken only by the impatient cries of the carrion birds . . .And this voice.And he'd written the words, they were his, no half-crazed king had ever really spoken like this. And he'd written all this to fill in a gap so

Frida Kahlo Thinking about Death

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

Frida Kahlo Thinking about DeathFrida Kahlo The Suicide of Dorothy HaleFrida Kahlo Sun and LifeFrida Kahlo Still Life with ParrotFrida Kahlo Self Portrait with Loose Hair
listened in awed silence as the endless mists rolled across the dripping fields and the red ball of the sun floated down the sky. When the boy had finished hot tears were streaming down Hwel's face.
'By all the Sto Lat by sunset.'
As the grumbling actors awoke from the spell and wandered back to the shafts of the lattys Vitoller beckoned to the dwarf and put his arm around his shoulders, or rather around the top of his head.
'Well?' he said. 'You people know all about magic, or so it is said. What do you make of it?'
'He spends all his time around the stage, master. It's only natural that he gods,' he said, when Tomjon had finished, 'I must have been on damn good form when I wrote that.' He blew his nose noisily.'Do I sound like that?' said Willikins, his face pale.Vitoller patted him gently on the shoulder.'If you sounded like that, my bonny,' he said, 'you wouldn't be standing arse-deep in slush in the middle of these forsaken fields, with nothing but liberated cabbage for thy tea.'He clapped his hands.'No more, no more,' he said, his breath making puffs of steam in the freezing air. 'Backs to it, everybody. We must be outside the walls of

Mark Rothko White over Red

2009-03-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Mark Rothko White over RedPaul Klee Red BridgePaul Klee Red And White DomesPaul Klee Fire in the EveningPaul Klee Farbtafel
Matters in hand. He'd put matters in hand all right. If he closed his eyes he could see the body tumbling down the steps. Had there been a hiss of shocked breath, down in the darkness of the hall? He'd been certain they were probably end up with her usual dancing on the table, showing her petticoats and singing 'The Hedgehog Can Never be Buggered at All'.
The table was covered with copper coins. Vitoller and his wife sat at either end, counting. It was something of a race.
Granny considered Mrs Vitoller as she snatched farthings from under her husband's fingers. She was an intelligent-looking woman, who appeared to treat her husband much as a sheepdog treats a favourite lamb. The alone. Matters in hand! He'd tried to wash the blood off his hand. If he could wash the blood off, he told himself, it wouldn't have happened. He'd scrubbed and scrubbed. Scrubbed till he screamed. Granny wasn't at home in public houses. She sat stiffly to attention behind her port-and-lemon, as if it were a shield against the lures of the world.Nanny Ogg, on the other hand, was enthusiastically downing her third drink and, Granny thought sourly, was well along that path which would

Pino SENSUALITY

2009-03-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Pino SENSUALITYPino MOTHER'S LOVEPino Morning Dreams
shop bell jangled. Keeble's eyes rolled. Death decided that he owed the man something. He shouldn't be allowed to lose custom, which was clearly something humans valued dearly.
He pushed wasn't in it, 'you're not Keeble, are you?'
Death stared at her. He'd never before experienced an unsatisfied customer. He was at a loss. Finally he gave up.
BEGONE, YOU BLACK AND MIDNIGHT HAG, he said.
The cook's small eyes narrowed.
' 'Oo are you calling a midnight bag?' she said accusingly, and hit the counter with aside the bead curtain and stalked into the outer shop, where a small fat woman, looking rather like an angry cottage loaf, was hammering on the counter with a haddock.'It's about that cook's job up at the University,' she said. 'You told me it was a good position and it's a disgrace up there, the tricks them students play, and I demand – I want you to – I'm not.Her voice trailed off.' 'Ere,' she said, but you could tell her heart

Peter Paul Rubens Garden of Love

2009-03-12T00:36:00.001-07:00

Peter Paul Rubens Garden of LoveWinslow Homer The Herring NetWinslow Homer The Fog Warning
of propaganda, yet it always – eventually – manages to spring back into its old familiar shape. History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It's been around a long time.
This is what was happening:
The .
The sort of historical event horizon was currently about twenty miles away from the city, and wasn't yet very noticeable. That's because the – well, call it the difference in historical pressures – wasn't yet very great. But it was growing. Out in the damp cabbage fields there was a shimmer in the air and a faint sizzle, like frying grasshoppers.
People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it. Inch by inch, implacable as a glacier and far colder, the real reality was grinding back towards Sto Lat.
misplaced stroke of Mort's scythe had cut history into two separate realities. In the city of Sto Lat Princess Keli still ruled, with a certain amount of difficulty and with the full time aid of the Royal Recogniser, who was put on the court payroll and charged with the duty of remembering that she existed. In the lands outside, though – beyond the plain, in the Ramtops, around the Circle Sea and all the way to the Rim – the traditional reality still held sway and she was quite definitely dead, the duke was king and the world was proceeding sedately according to plan, whatever that was.The point is that both realities were true

Paul Klee Farbtafel

2009-03-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Paul Klee FarbtafelClaude Monet Haystack at Giverny Claude Monet Cliffs near Dieppe 2
all the trouble of touching down.
The great horse trotted into the stableyard and halted outside the double door, swishing his tail. Mort slid off and ran for the house.
And stopped, and ran back, and filled the hayrack, and ran for the house, and stopped and muttered to himself and ran back and rubbed the horse down and checked the water bucket, and ran for the house, and ran back and fetched the horseblanket down from its hook on the wall and buckled it on. Binky gave him a dignified nuzzle.
No-one seemedexistence to the world.
There were few ocean-going ships on the Disc. No captain liked to venture out of sight of a coastline. It was a sorry fact that ships which looked from a distance as though they were going over the edge of the world weren't in fact disappearing over the horizon, they were in fact to be about as Mort slipped in by the back door and made his way to the library, where even at this time of night the air seemed to be made of hot dry dust. It seemed to take years to locate Princess Keli's biography, but he found it eventually. It was a depressingly slim volume on a shelf only reachable by the library ladder, a wheeled rickety structure that strongly resembled an early siege engine.With trembling fingers he opened it at the last page, and groaned.'The princess's assassination at the age of fifteen,' he read, 'was followed by the union of Sto Lat with Sto Helit and, indirectly, the collapse of the city states of the central plain and the rise of—'He read on, unable to stop. Occasionally he groaned again.Finally he put the book back, hesitated, and then shoved it behind a few other volumes. He could still feel it there as he climbed down the ladder, shrieking its incriminating

George Frederick Watts Watts Hope

2009-03-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

George Frederick Watts Watts HopeAlbert Bierstadt In the MountainsJohannes Vermeer The Guitar Player
anything. The food was there to start with and wasn't there later, so presumably something must have happened in between. Mort got the feeling that Death wasn't really used to all this but was doing it to put him at his ease, THEY DO IT ALL THEMSELVES, he said. THERE'S NO MAGIC. PEOPLE CANT SEE ME, THEY SIMPLY WONT ALLOW THEMSELVES TO DO IT. UNTIL IT'S TIME, OF COURSE. WIZARDS CAN SEE ME, AND CATS. BUT YOUR AVERAGE HUMAN . . . NO, NEVER. He blew a smoke ring at the sky, and added, STRANGE BUT TRUE.like an elderly bachelor uncle who has been landed with his is terrified of getting it wrong.The other diners didn't take much notice, even when Death leaned back and lit a rather fine pipe. Someone with smoke curling out of their eye sockets takes some ignoring, but everyone managed it.'Is it magic?' said Mort.WHAT DO YOU THINK? said Death. AM I REALLY HERE, BOY?'Yes,' said Mort slowly. 'I . . . I've watched people. They look at you but they don't see you, I think. You do something to their minds.'Death shook his head.

Lorenzo Lotto Venus and Cupid

2009-03-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Lorenzo Lotto Venus and CupidJean Fragonard The BathersThomas Gainsborough Mrs Sheridan
Granny looked blank, but only a fraction of a second. The witchmarks on the doorpost had said that the housekeeper welcomed witches and was particularly anxious for news of her four husbands; she was also in random pursuit The housekeeper swept forward with a sound like an elderly tea clipper in a gale, and beckoned Granny to follow her.
"Aye'll have the tea brought to my flat. Tea with a lot of tealeaves."
Granny stumped along after her. Old clothes? Did this fat woman really mean it? The nerve! Of course, if they were good quality .... of a fifth, hence the ginger wig and, if Granny's ears weren't deceiving her, the creak of enough whalebone to infuriate an entire ecology movement. Gullible and foolish, the signs had said. Granny withheld judgment, because city witches didn't seem that bright themselves. The housekeeper must have mistaken her expression. "Don't be afraid," she said. "May staff have distinct instructions to welcome witches, although of course they upstairs don't approve. No doubt you would like a cup of tea and something to eat?" Granny bowed solemnly. "And Aye will see if we can't find a nice bundle of old clothes for you, too," the housekeeper beamed. "Old clothes? Oh. Yes. Thank you, m'm."

Andy Warhol Sunset

2009-03-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol SunsetAndy Warhol Shadows IAndy Warhol Oxidation
feet still firmly on the floorboards. She tried to take a step forward and magical discharges crackled in the air around her. She reached out to steady herself against the wall and the ancient wooden beam under her hand stirred and and again she could see the strands of mind, the silver threads bound so closely around the purple that they took on the same shape. But now she could see where the strands ended, and where a judicious tug or push would begin to unravel them. It was so obvious she heard herself laugh, and the sound curved away in shades of orange and red and vanished into the ceiling.
Time passed. Even with the power throbbing through hey head it was a painfully hard task, like threading a needle by moonlight, but eventually she had a handful of silver. In the slow, heavy world in which she started to sprout leaves. A cyclone of magic swirled around the room, picking up dust and briefly giving it some very disturbing shapes; the jug and basin on the washstand, with the particularly fetching rosebud pattern, broke into fragments. Under the bed the third member of the traditional china trio turned into something horrible and slunk away. Granny opened her mouth to swear and thought better of it when her words blossomed out into rainbow-edged clouds. She looked down at Esk and the eagle, which seemed oblivious to all this, and tried to concentrate. She let herself slide inside its head

Jean Francois Millet Spring

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

Jean Francois Millet SpringJean Francois Millet Man with a hoeLorenzo Lotto Venus and Cupid
own way. I mean, if a poet sees a daffodil he stares at it and writes a long poem about it, but Twoflower wanders off to find a book on botany. And treads on it. It's right what Cohen said. He just looks at things, but nothing he and trying to climb up one another, hands outstretched.
The Octavo dropped into the centre of the shouting mass. There was a snap. A decisive snap, the sort of snap made by a lid that doesn't intend to be opening in looks at is ever the same again. Including me, I suspect.The Disc's own sun rose. The star was already dwindling, and it wasn't quite so much competition. Good reliable Disc light poured across the enraptured landscape, like a sea of gold.Or, as the more reliable observers generally held, like golden syrup. That is a nice work like that and there were other things that had to happen.There was the Octavo, for example.As the sunlight hit it the book snapped shut and started to fall back to the tower. And many of the observers realised that dropping towards them was the single most magical thing on the Discworld.The feeling of bliss and brotherhood evaporated along with the morning dew. Rincewind and Twoflower were elbowed aside as the crowd surged forward, struggling

Leroy Neiman Chicago Key Club Bar

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

Leroy Neiman Chicago Key Club BarLeroy Neiman Chicago Board of TradeLeroy Neiman CasinoLeroy Neiman Carnaval Suite Passistas
'I – I may have done.'
'Um.'
'There's more.'
'Surely not?'
'Yes, I said I could order it and he could come back next day.'
'That doesn't sound too bad,' said Twoflower, who alone of all the people in the multiverse allowed shops to order things for him and didn't object at all to paying quite large sums of money to reimburse the shopkeeper for the inconvenience of having a bit of stock in his store often for several hours.
'It was early closing day,' said the shopkeeper.
'Oh.'
'Yes, and I heard him rattling the doorhandle, I had this sign on the door, you know, it said something like "Closed even for the sale of Necromancer cigarettes," anyway, I heard him banging and I laughed.'
'You laughed?'
'Yes. Like this. Hnufhnufhnufblort.'
'Probably not a wise thing to do,' said Twoflower, shaking his head.
'I know, I know. My father always said, he said, Do not peddle in the affairs of wizards . . . Anyway, I heard him shouting something about never closing again, and a lot of words I couldn't understand, and then the shop – the shop – the shop came alive.'
'And you've wandered like this ever since?'
'Yes. I suppose one day I might find the sorcerer and perhaps the thing he wanted will be in stock. Until then I must go from place to place —'
'That was a terrible thing to do,' said Twoflower.
The shopkeeper wiped his nose on his apron. 'Thank you,' he said.
'Even so, he shouldn't have cursed you quite so badly,' Twoflower

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Beach at Valencia

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

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida Beach at ValenciaAlexandre Cabanel HarmonyThomas Gainsborough Shepherd Boys with Dogs FightingThomas Gainsborough River Landscape
Rincewind looked around desperately for a way of escape. There wasn't one. Twoflower was standing by the altar stone with one finger in the air and an attitude of polite determination.
Rincewind remembered one day when Twoflower had thought a passing drover was beating his cattle too hard, and sockets as if trying to find a way out.
'If you don't want me to say anything, how will you know I understand what you just said?' he hissed.
'Shut up and tell me what that other idiot ish doing!'
'No, but look, if I've got to shut up, how can I—' The knife at his throat became a hot streak of pain and Rincewind decided to give logic a miss.the case he had made for decency towards animals had left Rincewind severely trampled and lightly gored. The druids were looking at Twoflower with the kind of expression normally reserved for mad sheep or the sudden appearance of a rain of frogs. Rincewind couldn't quite hear what Twoflower was saying, but a few phrases like 'ethnic folkways' and 'nuts and flowers' floated across the hushed circle.Then fingers like a bunch of cheese straws clamped over the wizard's mouth and an extremely sharp cutting edge pinked his adams apple and a damp voice right by his ear said, 'Not a shound, or you ish a dead man.'Rincewind's eyes swivelled in their

Rembrandt Bathsheba at Her Bath

2009-03-02T19:36:00.001-08:00

Rembrandt Bathsheba at Her BathLord Frederick Leighton WeddedLord Frederick Leighton The Fisherman and the SyrenJean Auguste Dominique Ingres Perseus and Andromeda
They don't look very roomy to me," said Rincewind hurriedly, and grabbed the tourist by the arm, "so if you'd just come on, no sense in staying here-"
"Why must you always panic?" asked Twoflower petulantly.
"Because thesat down on one of the benches in front of the seats. He beckoned to Rincewind, and said:
"?Tyo yur atl ho sooten gatrunen?"
And this was awkward, because although Rincewind considered himself an expert in most of the tongues of the western segments of the Disc it was the first time that he had ever been addressed in Krullian, and he did not understand one word of it. Neither did Twoflower, but that did not stop him stepping forward and taking a breath. whole of my future life just flashed in front of my eyes, and it didn't take very long, and if you don't move now I'm going to leave without you because any second now you're going to suggest that we put on-"The door opened.Two husky young men stepped into the room. All they were wearing was a pair of woollen pants apiece. One of them was still towelling himself briskly. They both nodded at the two escapees with no apparent surprise.The taller of the two men

Leroy Neiman International Horse Show New York

2009-03-01T22:27:00.001-08:00

Leroy Neiman International Horse Show New YorkLeroy Neiman International CuisineLeroy Neiman High Stakes Blackjack VegasLeroy Neiman Frank at Rao's
looking sideways at the bushes.
The dragon continued through the spinney, incinerating every likely-looking bush and clump of ferns. Liartes drew his sword and waited.
Hrun dropped from a tree and landed running. Behind him the dragon roared and crashed through the bushes as it tried to turn around, but Hrun was running, running, with his gaze fixed on Liartes and a dead branch in his knee upwards with anatomical precision, but managed a wild blow that rebroke the barbarian's nose for him.
Hrun kicked away and scrambled to his feet, to find himself looking up into the wild horse-face of the dragon, its nostrils distended.
He lashed out with a foot and caught Liartes,hands.It is a little known but true fact that a two legged creature can usually beat a four legged creature over a short distance, simply because of the time it takes the quadruped to get its legs sorted out. Hrun heard the scrabble of claws behind him and then an ominous thump. The dragon had half-opened its wings and was trying to fly.As Hrun bore down on the dragonlord Liartes' sword came up wickedly, to be caught on the branch. Then Hrun cannoned into him and the two men sprawled on the ground.The dragon roared.Liartes screamed as Hrun brought a

Leroy Neiman Island Hole at Sawgrass

2009-02-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Island Hole at SawgrassLeroy Neiman International Horse Show New YorkLeroy Neiman International CuisineLeroy Neiman High Stakes Blackjack Vegas
the Discworld than in those areas that had been the scene of the great battles of the Mage Wars, which had happened very shortly after Creation. In those days magic in its raw state had been widely available, and had been eagerly utilized by the First Men in their war against the Gods.
The their creation, understandably lost their temper. And great and pyrotechnic were the battles that followed - the sun wheeled across the sky, the seas boiled, weird storms ravaged the land, small white pigeons mysteriously appeared in people's clothing, and the very stability of the disc (carried as it was through space on the backs of four giant turtle-riding elephants) was threatened. This resulted in stern action by the Old High Ones, to whom precise origins of the Mage Wars have been lost in the fogs of Time, but disc philosophers agree that the First Men, shortly after even the Gods themselves are answerable. The Gods were banished to high places, men were re-created a good deal smaller, and much of the old wild magic was sucked out of the earth.

Jack Vettriano The Letter

2009-02-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano The LetterJack Vettriano The Billy BoysJack Vettriano Private DancerJack Vettriano Mad Dogs
nd finally, if you have a single friend you'd like to embarrass / remind of their solo-ness on Valentine's Day, the Mr. / Mrs. Perfect USB Companion ought to do the trick. This mildly offensive-looking item will sit on your desk and "speak" to you all day long, with settings for either positiveWhenever I get on Facebook I feel depressed. I seem to spend most of my time untagging myself in pictures so my third grade boyfriend doesn’t see me looking like I have four chins and a lazy eye. To make matters worse, it seems everybody else is beautiful, photogenic, and having the best time ever. Given that I’m generally having a decent time and am at least moderately attractive, I believe the problem is the pictures. messages, or mildly titilating, "cheeky" ones. Right: because being single means you'll really think it's awesome to hear sexual innuendos from a 3.5-inch tall chunk of plastic. Seriously, who do they have in mind with this one? Anyway: they're $4.99 -- if you're still interested in being unutterably cruel. And you are, right?

Leonardo da Vinci Leda

2009-02-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

Leonardo da Vinci LedaLeonardo da Vinci Leda 1530Leonardo da Vinci Lady With An ErmineThomas Kinkade End of a Perfect Day
idea."
"No? Well, it does not matter. We shall see soon enough."
She waved a hand. The focus of the image moved inwards, darted through a great octagonal archway and sped along the corridor within. There was a figure there, sidling along stealthily with its back against one wall. Rincewind saw the durable heroes: a fighter of dragons, a despoiler of temples, a hired sword, the kingpost of every street brawl, He could even - and unlike many heroes of Rincewind's acquaintance - speak words of more than two syllables, if given time and maybe a hint or two.
There was a sound on the edge of Rincewind's hearing. It sounded like several skulls bouncing down the steps of some distant dungeon. He looked sideways at his guards to see if they had heard it. They had all their limited attention focused on Hrun, who was admittedly built on gleam of gold and bronze.There was no mistaking that shape. He'd seen it many times. The wide chest, the neck like a treetrunk, the surprisingly small head under its wild thatch of black hair looking like a tomato on a coffin... he could put a name to the creeping figure, and that name was Hrun the Barbarian.Hrun was one of the Circle Sea's more

John William Waterhouse A Mermaid

2009-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

John William Waterhouse A MermaidVincent van Gogh Houses at AuversVincent van Gogh Tree trunksVincent van Gogh Stairway at Auvers
god-shaped statues among the small, intelligent females. Insects, thought Rincewind. The Tree is like a hive.
But why were there dryads at all? As far as he could recall, the tree people had died out centuries before. They had been , "see some magic. Not your weasel-faced tame magic, but root-and-branch magic, the old magic. Wild magic. Watch."
Fifty or so of the females formed a tight cluster, joined hands and walked backwards until they formed the circumference of a large circle. The rest of the dryads began a low out-evolved by humans, like most of the other Twilight Peoples. Only elves and trolls had survived the coming of Man to the Discworld; the elves because they were altogether too clever by half, and the troller-folk because they were at least as good as humans at being nasty, spiteful and greedy. Dryads were supposed to have died out, along with gnomes and pixies.The background roar was louder here. Sometimes a pulsing golden glow would race up the translucent walls until it was lost in the haze overhead. Some power in the air made it vibrate."Now incompetent wizard," said Druellae

Henri Matisse Still Life with Oranges

2009-02-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Henri Matisse Still Life with OrangesHenri Matisse Open Window CollioureHenri Matisse Blue NudeGeorges Seurat The Models
He has employed you as a guide. You will be a guide, Rincewind, to this looker, this Twoflower. You will see that he returns home with a good report of our little Homeland. What do you say to that?"
"Er. Thank you, lord," said Rincewind miserably.
"There is another point, of course. It would be a tragedy should anything untoward happen to our little visitor. It would be "Yes, lord. I'll, er, see to it, I mean, I'll endeavour to see, I mean, well, I'll try to look after him and see he comes to no harm." And after that I'll get a job juggling snowballs through Hell, he added bitterly in the privacy of his own skull.
"Capital! I gather already that you and Twoflower are on the best dreadful if he were to die, for example. Dreadful for the whole of our land, because the Agatean Emperor looks after his own and could certainly extinguish us at a nod. A mere nod. And that would be dreadful for you, Rincewind, because in the weeks that remained before the Empire's huge mercenary fleet arrived certain of my servants would occupy themselves about your person in the hope that the avenging captains, on their arrival, might find their anger tempered by the sight of your still-living body. There are certain spells that can prevent the life departing from a body, be it never so abused, and- I see by your face that understanding dawns?""Yarrg.""I beg your pardon?"

Paul Cezanne Jas de Bouffan the Pool

2009-02-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

Paul Cezanne Jas de Bouffan the PoolPaul Cezanne House of Pere LacroixPaul Cezanne Flowers in a Blue VasePaul Cezanne Five Bathers expressive tones and subtleties. When he spoke, he waved a paw in front of his mouth to dislodge the flies that clustered there.
"lorek Byrnison's, Your Majesty," she said. "I've got something very important and secret to tell you, and I think I ought to . She couldn't read what it was saying, but there was no doubt that he was powerfully interested. Suddenly he lumbered forward off the throne, making her skip aside, and roared an order to the other bears. They all bowed their heads and backed out toward the door. The birds, which had risen in a flurry at his roar, squawked and swooped around overhead before settling again on their nests.
When the throne room was empty but for lofur Raknison and Lyra, he turned tell you in private, really.""Something about lorek Byrnison?"She came close to him, stepping carefully over the bird-spattered floor, and brushed away the flies buzzing at her face."Something about daemons," she said, so that only he could hear.His expression changed

Edward Hopper Hotel Lobby

2009-02-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

Edward Hopper Hotel LobbyEdward Hopper Girlie ShowEdward Hopper Early Sunday MorningJuan Gris The Guitar
Imagine if you and I took the latest, never-seen-before, $100,000 BMW coupe and we re-branded it as a Hyundai for its launch into the market place. Not only do we re-brand it as a Hyundai but we also reduce the price by forty brand. Of course we can’t say for sure what would happen, but I’ll take an educated guess and let me know if you concur…
1. Most ‘BMW shoppers’ won’t even consider the new ‘Hyundai’ product - even if it comes highly recommended. They will let their feelings get in the way of the facts; the fact that it’s actually a BMW in every way except for the badge on the front. Their bias against ‘less prestigious’ brands won’t allow them to percent, so now we have a $100,000 BMW selling for $60,000 in Hyundai clothing - so to speak. So the exact same (motor, technology, interior, exterior, performance, quality) which would have sold strongly as an expensive BMW is now being offered to the same potential buyers at just over half the price - as a less prestigious and less desirable

Marc Chagall The Three Candles

2009-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

Marc Chagall The Three CandlesMarc Chagall Paris Through the WindowMarc Chagall Adam and EveMarc Chagall La Mariee
They're always going on about daemons too," said Bella. "Weighing them and measuring them and all..."
"They touch your daemons?"
"No! God! They put scales there and your daemon has to get on them and change, and they make notes and take pictures. And they put you in this cabinet and measure Dust, all the time, they never stop measuring Dust."
"What dust?" said Lyra.
"We ," said Annie.
A cold drench of terror went down Lyra's spine, and Pantalaimon crept very close. She had one day in which to find Roger and discover whatever she could about this place, and either escape or be rescued; and if all the gyptians had been killed, who would help the children stay alive in the icy wilderness?
The other girls went on talking, but Lyra and Pantalaimon nestled down dunno," said Annie. "Just something from space. Not real dust. If you en't got any Dust, that's good. But everyone gets Dust in the end.""You know what I heard Simon say?" said Bella. "He said that the Tartars make holes in their skulls to let the Dust in.""Yeah, he'd know," said Annie scornfully. "I think I'll ask Mrs. Coulter when she comes.""You wouldn't dare!" said Martha admiringly."I would.""When's she coming?" said Lyra."The day after tomorrow

Paul Klee Ancient Sound

2009-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

Paul Klee Ancient SoundRene Magritte HomesicknessArthur Hughes PhyllisFranz Marc Zwei Katzen
They gave her sleeping pills. Must've..."
"What's your name?"
"Lizzie," to ask, gathering her doped wits as Pantalaimon stirred into wakefulness with her.
"We dunno," said the girl who was doing most of the talking. She was a tall, red-haired girl with quick twitchy movements and a strong London accent. "They sort of measure us and do these tests and that-"
"They measure Dust," said another girl, friendly and plump and darkLyra mumbled."Is there a load more new kids coming?" demanded one of the girls."Dunno. Just me.""Where'd they get you then?"Lyra struggled to sit up. She didn't remember taking a sleeping pill, but there might well have been something in the drink she'd had. Her head felt full of eiderdown, and there was a faint pain throbbing behind her eyes."Where is this place?""Middle of nowhere. They don't tell us.""They usually bring more'n one kid at a time....""What do they do?" Lyra managed

Leroy Neiman Washington Square Park

2009-02-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Washington Square ParkLeroy Neiman The Brooklyn BridgeLeroy Neiman Roulette II
The fact that the gyptians had heard or seen nothing of Mrs. Coulter worried Farder Coram and John Faa more than they let Lyra it wasn't Mrs. Coulter. The gyptians had planned to stop and rest their dogs, repair a couple of sledges, and get all their weapons into shape for the assault on Bolvangar. John Faa hoped that Lee Scoresby might find some ground gas to fill his smaller balloon (for he had two, apparently) and go up to spy out the land. However, the aeronaut attended to the condition of the weather as closely as a sailor, and know; but they weren't to know that she was worried too. Lyra feared Mrs. Coulter and thought about her often. And whereas Lord Asriel was now "father," Mrs. Coulter was never "mother." The reason for that was Mrs. Coulter's daemon, the golden monkey, who had filled Pantalaimon with a powerful loathing, and who, Lyra felt, had pried into her secrets, and particularly that of the alethiometer.And they were bound to be chasing her; it was silly to think otherwise. The spy-fly proved that, if nothing else.But when an enemy did strike,

Henri Matisse Moorish Screen

2009-02-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

Henri Matisse Moorish ScreenHenri Matisse Luxe IHenri Matisse La moulade
the Aurora glow too. It might even be Dust itself. She thought that without noticing that she'd thought it, and she soon forgot it, and only remembered it much later.
And as she gazed, thein the sky over the roofs of the town. When she could see it clearly, she had come fully awake and the sky city was gone.
The flying thing came closer and circled the ship on outspread wings. Then it glided down and landed with brisk sweeps of its powerful pinions, and came to a halt on the wooden image of a city seemed to form itself behind the veils and streams of translucent color: towers and domes, honey-colored temples and colonnades, broad boulevards and sunlit parkland. Looking at it gave her a sense of vertigo, as if she were looking not up but down, and across a gulf so wide that nothing could ever pass over it. It was a whole universe away.But something was moving across it, and as she tried to focus her eyes on the movement, she felt faint and dizzy, because the little thing moving wasn't part of the Aurora orof the other universe behind it. It was

Vincent van Gogh Olive grove I

2009-02-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

Vincent van Gogh Olive grove IVincent van Gogh Madhouse garden of St-RemyVincent van Gogh Landscape at Auvers in the Rain
getting on with his spying, and-"
"Why them three symbols?"
"Because I thought the serpent was cunning, like a spy ought to be, and the crucible could mean like sentence, there was an urgent knock at the door, and a young gyptian man came in.
"Beg pardon, Farder Coram, there's Jacob Huismans just come back, and he's sore wounded."
"He was with Benjamin de Ruyter," said Farder Coram. "What's happened?"
"He won't speak," said the young man. "You better come, Farder Coram, 'cause he won't last long, he's a bleeding inside."knowledge, what you kind of distill, and the beehive was hard work, like bees are always working hard; so out of the hard work and the cunning comes the knowledge, see, and that's the spy's job; and I pointed to them and I thought the question in my mind, and the needle stopped at death....D'you think that could be really working, Farder Coram?""It's working all right, Lyra. What we don't know is whether we're reading it right. That's a subtle art. I wonder if-"Before he could finish his

Leroy Neiman Ryder Cup

2009-02-18T00:20:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Ryder CupUnknown Artist Mary Magdalene in the DesertLeroy Neiman World Class Skier
man stood up.
"Lord Faa, I heard you say that Lord Asriel is in captivity. Is it part of your plan to rescue him? Because if it is, and if he's in the power of them bears as I think you said, that's going to need more than a hundred of your own feelings above the work you have to do. Our work here is first rescue, then punishment. It en't gratification for upset feelings. Our feelings don't matter. If we rescue the kids but we can't punish the Gobblers, we've done the main task. But if we aim to punish the to the door and knocked on it firmly five times. The voices stopped, a chair scraped across the floor, and the door opened, spilling warm naphtha light out on the damp step.
"Yes?" said the man who'd Now off you go."
Pantalaimon hissed quietly, but John Faa's daemon took off from the back of his chair and flew at them with black

Guido Reni Cleopatra

2009-02-16T23:39:00.000-08:00

Guido Reni CleopatraGuido Reni Reni CharityFrancois Boucher The Setting of the Sun
Amazon.com wants to own the future of publishing, and got off to a running start with its Kindle ebook reader, which . Here's how:
1. Screw over customers waiting for new Kindles. Everyone who has ordered and is still waiting for delivery on an old Kindle should be given the opportunity to instead receive a new one at the same price. But they should also be allowed to get an old one if they choose. PREDICTION: I think Amazon.com will get this right.
2. Shaft publishers. Nobody knows what kinds of deals you're offering launched in November, 2007.The new, improved Kindle will almost certainly be announced February 9 and ship a few weeks after. If leaked photos and insider reports are any indication, it appears that the new Kindle will be far more usable and appealing than the first iteration.The company is in a great position to control digital books the way Apple controls digital they could still screw it all up

Juan Gris Violin and Glass

2009-02-16T01:22:00.001-08:00

Juan Gris Violin and GlassJuan Gris Violin and CheckerboardJuan Gris Man in the Cafe
dinner to prepare and serve in less than an hour; the Master's got guests in the lodging, and he'll be eating over there, and that means Chef'11 have to attend to getting the food there quick so it don't go cold; and what with one thing and another, Lyra, life's got to go on. I'm sure Roger'11 turn up...."
Lyra turned before her, flowing up the stairs to the very top, where Lyra's bedroom was. Lyra barged open the door, dragged her rickety chair to the window, flung wide the casement, and scrambled out. There was a lead-lined stone gutter a foot wide just below the window, and once she was standing in that, she turned and clambered up over the rough tiles until shand ran out of the kitchen, knocking over a stack of silver dish covers and ignoring the roar of anger that arose. She sped down the steps and across the quadrangle, between the chapel and Palmer's Tower and into the Yaxley Quad, where the oldest buildings of the college stood.Pantalaimon scampered e stood on the topmost ridge of the roof. There she opened her

Frida Kahlo Me and My Doll

2009-02-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

Frida Kahlo Me and My DollFrida Kahlo Luther BurbankDouglas Hofmann midnight blue
She sat in one of the green leather armchairs. It was so deep she found herself nearly lying down, but she sat up again and tucked her legs under her to look at the portraits on the walls. More old Scholars, probably; robed, bearded Asriel arrived yet?"
It was the Master. As Lyra held her breath, she saw the servant's daemon (a dog, like all servants' daemons) trot in and sit quietly at his feet, and then the Master's feet , and gloomy, they stared out of their frames in solemn disapproval."What d'you think they talk about?" Lyra said, or began to say, because before she'd finished the question she heard voices outside the door."Behind the chair-quick!" whispered Pantalaimon, and in a flash Lyra was out of the armchair and crouching behind it. It wasn't the best one for hiding behind: she'd chosen one in the very center of the room, and unless she kept very quiet...The door opened, and the light changed in the room; one of the incomers was carrying a lamp, which he put down on the sideboard. Lyra could see his legs, in their dark green trousers and shiny black shoes. It was a servant.Then a deep voice said, "Has Lord

Camille Pissarro Morning Sunlight on the Snow

2009-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

Camille Pissarro Morning Sunlight on the SnowCamille Pissarro Boulevard MontmarteClaude Lorrain The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Lee Scoresby looked down at the placid ocean to his left and the green shore to his right, and shaded his eyes to search for human life. It was a day and a night since they had left the Yenisei.
"And this is a new world?" he said.
"New to a strange world down there," said Lee.
"Yes," said Stanislaus Grumman. "It is a strange world, though no doubt some feel at Home there."
"It looks empty," said Lee.
"Not so. Beyond that headland you'll find a city that was once powerful and wealthy. And it's still inhabited by the descendants of the merchants those not born in it," said Stanislaus Grumman. "As old as yours or mine, otherwise. What Asriel's done has shaken everything up, Mr. Scoresby, shaken it more profoundly than it's ever been shaken before. These doorways and windows that I spoke of—they open in unexpected places now. It's hard to navigate, but this wind is a fair one.""New or old, that's

Thomas Kinkade HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

2009-02-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYSThomas Kinkade Evening GlowCamille Pissarro Still Life
SOME people will accuse me of playing with fire. Next summer, I am due to marry Nic, my boyfriend of two and a half years. We have plenty in common, get on famously, and I have a strong desire to kiss him whenever I see him. But recent events have left a niggling doubt in my mind.
It started withyou just get along well with, the company promises a better sex life, more orgasms, a lower risk of cheating on each other, higher fertility and healthier children. Intrigued, I did some research and came across a similar company, GenePartner, based in Zurich, Switzerland, which also tests couples to determine their genetic compatibility and runs a dating service based on it.
These companies' claims may seem bold, and a recent paper I read. It suggested that taking hormonal contraceptives (as I have for many years) affects your sense of smell, which is a key factor in finding Mr Right (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol 275, p 2715).Then I received a press release from a company called ScientificMatch, based in Florida, which offers to match couples according to scent-related aspects of their DNA profiles. By hooking you up with your biological match, rather than someone

Tom Thomson The Pool

2009-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

Tom Thomson The PoolTom Thomson the jack pineTom Thomson Jack Pine
headman and turned to salute the little crowd that had gathered. He used the gesture universal in the north to signify friendship," Lee said. "I heard tell he was a kinsman of yours by adoption. He may have acquired another name, but the man is European."
"Ah," said the headman, "we have been waiting for you."
The rest of the villagers, gathered in the thin steaming sunlight on the muddy ground in the middle of the houses, couldn't understand the words, but they saw the headman's pleasure. Pleasure, and relief, Lee felt Hester think., and laid his rifle down at his feet.An old Siberian Tartar, his eyes almost lost in the wrinkles around them, laid his bow down beside it. His wolverine daemon twitched her nose at Hester, who flicked an ear in response, and then the headman spoke.Lee replied, and they moved through half a dozen languages before finding one in which they could talk."My respects to you and your tribe," Lee said. "I have some smokeweed, which is not worthy, but I would be honored to present it to you." The headman nodded in appreciation, and one of his wives received the bundle Lee removed from his pack."I am seeking a man called Grumman

Thomas Gainsborough Mr and Mrs Andrews

2009-02-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Thomas Gainsborough Mr and Mrs AndrewsSandro Botticelli La PrimaveraSalvador Dali clock melting clocks
world, closing the windows as soon as they knew where they were.
Not with them but not far behind came the tabby cat. She had slept since they'd rescued her from the stone-throwing children, and now that she was awake again she was reluctant to leave them, as if she thought that wherever they not far from the white-gleaming villa, and they came through to the quiet lane in Headington to work out exactly how to get to the study where Sir Charles had put the alethiometer. There were two floodlights illuminating his garden, and lights were on in the front windows of the house, though not in the study. Only moonlight lit this side, and the study window was dark.were, she was safe. Will was far from sure about that, but he had enough on his mind without the cat, and he ignored her. All the time he was growing more familiar with the knife, more certain in his command of it; but his wound was hurting worse than before, with a deep, unceasing throb, and the bandage Lyra had freshly tied after he woke up was already soaked.He cut a window in the air

Paul Gauguin By the Sea

2009-02-06T00:52:00.001-08:00

Paul Gauguin By the SeaPaul Gauguin Breton Girls DancingHenri Matisse The Moroccans
Berlin sang about in “God Bless America.” His displeasure is subtle, but made obvious upon careful examination of lines like “As I was walkin’, I saw a sign there and that sign said—No trespassin’. But on the other side, it the meaning songs are meant to convey, but what meanings we actually derive from them. After all, more important than what messages artists intend to get across is their desire for people to connect with the music. However, considering how striking the differences are between what the aforementioned songs mean and how they’re interpreted, it might be wise to stick to the author’s version. I know I’ll think twice before putting “Crash into Me” on my next mix CD.
didn’t say nothin’! Now that sign was made for you and me!” This song is often grouped with “God Bless America” as patriotic tunes, but Guthrie had the opposite intention.What music essentially boils down to is not necessarily

Sung Kim Escape

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

Sung Kim Escape
George Stubbs Horse Attacked by a Lion
wiser now. This was a bad place. She ran down the steps and out of the square, making for the bright sunlight of the palm tree boulevard. And as soon as she was sure there was no one looking, she went straight across to the window "All right," said the porter, turning back. "She says go on up. Mind you don't go anywhere else."
"No, I won't," she said demurely, a good little girl doing what she was told.
At the top of the stairs, though, she had a surprise, because just as and through into Will's Oxford. Forty minutes later she was inside the physics building once more, arguing with the porter; but this time she had a trump card."You just ask Dr. Malone," she said sweetly. "That's all you got to do, ask her. She'll tell you."The porter turned to his telephone, and Lyra watched pityingly as he pressed the buttons and spoke into it. They didn't even give him a proper lodge to sit in, like a real Oxford just a big wooden counter, as if it was a shop.

Leroy Neiman Arnold Palmer at Latrobe

2009-02-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Arnold Palmer at LatrobeLeroy Neiman American Gold
Leroy Neiman Golden Girl
Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist.
Arbroath Victoria (commonly known as Arbroath Vics) are a Scottish junior football club based in Arbroath. They are fusion process of unknown mechanism offered to explain a group of experimental results first reported by electrochemists Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton.
Stuff White People Like is a blog satirizing the interests of North American "left-leaning, city-dwelling white folk".[1] The WordPressone of the oldest junior clubs in Scotland, having been formed in 1882. In the broadest sense, cold fusion is any type of nuclear fusion accomplished without the high temperatures (millions of degrees Celsius) required for thermonuclear fusion. In common usage, "cold fusion" refers more narrowly to a postulated

Leroy Neiman America's Cup

2009-02-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman America's CupLeroy Neiman America's Cup AustraliaLeroy Neiman Alpine Skiing
successful community artefact like Wikipedia requires strong buy-in from the community, which I'd wager is much harder to achieve under a for-profit model," he said.
Instead of the nine-person staff crammed into an office in St Petersburg, Florida, which Gardner inherited in 2007, she now capital outfit Elevation Partners along with U2 front-man Bono, to bring more savvy to the foundation's advisory board.
And, while the Wikimedia Foundation has no formal role in deciding policies within the Wikipedia community, it is watching closely employs 23 people in the heart of Silicon Valley. They include lawyers, professional fundraisers and advisers keen to exploit Wikipedia's brand with lucrative new ventures such as real-life book publishing. The latest development has been to appoint Roger McNamee, a veteran from the tech industry who currently runs the venture

Leroy Neiman Men's Doubles

2009-02-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman Men's DoublesLeroy Neiman Match PointLeroy Neiman Marlin
Will thought carefully.
"No," he said. "But she's not in very good health. She can't tell me very much, and I want to know."
"Yes, I see. Where are you now? Are you at Home?"
"No, I'm… I'm in Oxford."
"On your own?"
"Yes."on. "I've got to catch a bus to Nottingham, and I don't want to miss it. But what I want to know, you can tell me over the phone, can't you? All I want to know is, is my father alive, and if he is, where I can find him. You can tell me that, can't you?"
"It's not quite as simple as that. I can't really give out private information "And your mother's not well, you say?""No.""Is she in hospital or something?""Something like that. Look, can you tell me or not?""Well, I can tell you something, but not much and not right now, and I'd rather not do it over the phone. I'm seeing a client in five minutes. Can you find your way to my office at about half past two?""No," Will said. It would be too risky; the lawyer might have heard by then that he was wanted by the police. He thought quickly and went

Leroy Neiman 18th at Valhalla

2009-02-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Leroy Neiman 18th at Valhalla
the permafrost, were slowly awakening from a long dream of being frozen.
In all this turmoil, where sudden shafts of uncanny brilliance lanced down through rents in towers of fog and then vanished as quickly, where herds of muskox were seized by the urge to gallop south and then wheeled immediately tothe midst of them with a gaunt dog daemon snarling and snapping beside him whenever one of the filthy things flew low enough.
Leroy Neiman Ryder CupLeroy Neiman 37th Ryder Cup
She didn't know the man, but a cliff-ghast was an enemy always. She swung around above and loosed a dozen arrows into the melee. With shrieks and gibberings, the gang—too loosely organized to be called a troop—circled, saw their new opponent, and fled the west or the north again, where tight-knit skeins of geese disintegrated into a honking chaos as the magnetic fields they flew by wavered and snapped this way and that, Serafina Pekkala sat on her cloud-pine and flew north, to the house on the headland in the wastes of Svalbard.There she found Lord Asriel's servant, Thorold, fighting off a group of cliff-ghasts.She saw the movement before she came close enough to see what was happening. There was a swirl of lunging leathery wings, and a malevolent yowk-yowk-yowk resounding in the snowy courtyard. A single figure swathed in furs fired a rifle into

Johannes Vermeer The Kitchen Maid

2009-02-03T01:08:00.000-08:00

Johannes Vermeer The Kitchen MaidJules Joseph Lefebvre Fleurs des ChampsWilliam Blake The Resurrection
a standard precondition for no-cost traffic swapping. This time, however, Sprint's objection was that the direct links between the two giant networks hadn't carried enough traffic under the terms of the contract.
Schaeffer, who is no stranger to fights with other backbone companies, says he felt scammed. To get the deal done, Cogent had paid Sprint $478,000 for the connection during the 90-day trial. Now Sprint said that since test was a a cold war. Rather than disconnect its direct link to Cogent, Sprint instead began sending it bills: typically around $100,000 per month. Every month, Cogent refused to pay, saying it had earned a free connection under the contract. By the end of July 2008, a total of $1.2 million in failure, Cogent would have to keep paying. Schaeffer refused, arguing that Sprint's objection about too-low volumes was bogus. (Was it? That gets technical.) Schaeffer quickly concluded Sprint never intended to establish a no-cost link to Cogent. (Sprint denies that charge.)The two companies entered

Jean Beraud Le Cafe de Paris

2009-02-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Jean Beraud Le Cafe de Paris Jean Beraud La Rue de la Paix Henri Rousseau The Football Players
The gyptians arrived on the afternoon of the following day. There was no harbor, of course, so they had to anchor the ship some way out, and John Faa, Farder Coram, and the captain came ashore in a launch with Serafina Pekkala as their guide.
Mary had told So he stood in the hot sun for some time while Sattamax, the old zalif, made a speech of welcome, which Mary translated as best she could; and John Faa replied, bringing them greetings from the Fens and the waterways of his .
When they began to move up through the marshes to the village, the mulefa saw how hard it was for Farder Coram to walk, and at once they offered to carry the mulefa everything she knew, and by the time the gyptians were stepping ashore onto the wide beach, there was a curious crowd waiting to greet them. Each side, of course, was on fire with curiosity about the other, but John Faa had learned plenty of courtesy and patience in his long life, and he was determined that these strangest of all people should receive nothing but grace and friendship from the lord of the western gyptians.

Vanitas Still Life

2009-02-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

Vanitas Still LifeJohn Constable Wivenhoe ParkJohn Constable The White Horse
with backbones had it a bit easier, so all kinds of other shapes developed, all based on the central spine. In this world, chance went another way, and the diamond frame was successful. There are vertebrates, to be sure, but not many. There ; none of this would have happened.
He started from the very beginning, and they listened as they walked. By the time they reached the mudflats, he had reached the point where he and his father were fighting on the mountaintop.
"And then the witch killed him..."
He had never really understood that. He explained what she'd told him before she killed herself: she had loved John Parry, and he had scorned her.
"Witches are fierce, though," Lyra said.are snakes, for example. Snakes are important here. The people look after them and try not to hurt them."Anyway, their shape, and the roads, and the wheel trees coming together all made it possible. A lot of little chances, all coming together. When did your part of the story begin, Will?""Lots of little chances for me, too," he began, thinking of the cat under the hornbeam trees. If he'd arrived there thirty seconds earlier or later, he would never have seen the cat, never have found the window, never have discovered Cittagazze and Lyra

Jack Vettriano Winter Light and Lavender

2009-01-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Winter Light and LavenderJack Vettriano Welcome To My WorldJack Vettriano We Can't Tell Right from Wrong
pulse in his throat, at his chest rising and falling slowly, at the delicate shadows his eyelashes made when the sun finally reached them.
He murmured something and stirred. Not wanting to be caught looking at him, she looked the other way at the little grave wherever she looked, and here and there she saw a stand of trees so tall they seemed to be constructed rather than grown. Their straight trunks and dark green canopy seemed to defy distance, being so clearly visible at what must have been many miles away.
Closer, though, in fact, at the foot of the bluff, not more than a hundred yards away, there was a little pond fed by a spring coming out of the rock, and Lyra realized how thirsty she was.
She got up on shaky legs and walked slowly down toward it. The spring gurgled they'd dug the night before, just a couple of hand spans wide, where the bodies of the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia now lay at rest. There was a flat stone nearby; she got up and prized it loose from the soil, and set it upright at the head of the grave, and then sat up and shaded her eyes to gaze across the plain.It seemed to stretch forever and ever. It was nowhere entirely flat; gentle undulations and little ridges and gullies varied the surface

Frida Kahlo Girl with Death Mask

2009-01-21T00:07:00.001-08:00

Frida Kahlo Girl with Death MaskPino Early MorningJean-Leon Gerome Pygmalion and Galatea
came pressing through the trees, and only the valiant ghosts were holding them back.
"Can you cut through?" said John Parry's ghost.
Will held up the knife, and had to stop as a racking bout of nausea shook him from head to toe. There was said Lyra, gasping.
In went the knife, along, down, back. Lee Scoresby's ghost looked through and saw a wide, quiet prairie under a brilliant moon, so very like his own he thought he'd been blessed.
Will leapt across the clearing and seized the nearest daemon while Lyra scooped up the other.
And even in that horrible urgency, even at that moment of utmost peril, each of them felt the same little shock of excitement: for Lyra was holding Will's daemon, the nameless nothing left in his stomach, and the spasm hurt dreadfully. Lyra beside him was in the same state. Lee's ghost, seeing why, leapt for the daemons and wrestled with the pale thing that was coming through the rock from behind them."Will, please...”

Michelangelo Buonarroti The Creation of Adam

2009-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

Michelangelo Buonarroti The Creation of AdamMichelangelo Buonarroti Creation of AdamJohannes Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring
Several times during the flight his little shadowy form had passed along behind the metal mesh, clearly visible to anyone who might the craft was nearly anchored, he made his way back through the skin of the cabin to the seats on the starboard side.
There were men passing through in both directions: crew members, technicians, priests. Many of their daemons were dogs, brimming with curiosity. On the other side of the aisle, Mrs. Coulter sat awake and silent, her golden daemon watching everything from have looked, if only they had turned their heads; but in order to hear what was happening, he had to come to a place where they could see him. The risk was unavoidable.He edged forward, listening hard through the roar of the engines, the thunder of the hail and sleet, the high-pitched singing of the wind in the wires, and the clatter of booted feet on metal walkways. The flight engineer called some figures to the pilot, who confirmed them, and Lord Roke sank back into the shadows, holding tight to the struts and beams as the airship plunged and tilted.Finally, sensing from the movement that

Andy Warhol Mao 1972

2009-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol Mao 1972Andy Warhol Jackie 1964Andy Warhol Flowers 1970
The mulefa made many kinds of rope and cord, and Mary Malone spent a morning inspecting and testing the ones Atal's family had in their stores before choosing what she wanted. The principle of twisting and winding hadn't caught on in their world, so all the cords and ropes were braided; but they were strong and flexible, and Mary soon a mathematician who spent every weekend climbing among the trees. Mary had done a little rock climbing, and she'd listened avidly as he had talked about the techniques and equipment. She had decided to try it herself as soon as she had the chance. Of course she'd never expected to be climbing trees in another universe, and climbing solo didn't greatly appeal, either, but there was no choice about that. What she found exactly the sort she wanted.What are you doing? said Atal.The mulefa had no term for climb, so Mary had to do a lot of gesturing and roundabout explaining. Atal was horrified.To go into the high part of the trees?I must see what is happening, Mary explained. Now you can help me prepare the rope.Once in California, Mary had met

Jack Vettriano The Sailor's Toy

2009-01-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano The Sailor's ToyJack Vettriano The RunawaysJack Vettriano The Rooms of a Stranger
said. "Your daemon vanishes into the air, and you vanish under the ground."
"Then I want to take my daemon with me when I go to the land of the dead," she said firmly. "And I want to come back again. Has it ever been known, for people to do that?"
"Not for many us when it suited you... Oh, I can't trust you at all now! You said you'd help and we'd do it together, and now you want to stop us, you're the dishonest one, Tialys!"
"I wouldn't let a child of my own speak to me in the insolent, high-handed way you're speaking, Lyra, why I haven't thinking: he was going to say that this had gone too far, they must turn back, they were taking this foolishness to irresponsible lengths.
So she stepped in. "Excuse me," our land," she said, "like you do here, it would be easier, probably; but I think we're really lucky to find our way here, so's we could get your advice. And thank you very much for being so kind cheated out of their estate by a political enemy and thrown into prison. But they managed to escape by climbing down a rope with the baby Lyra in her father's arms, and they regained the family fortune, only

Jack Vettriano Round Midnight

2009-01-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano Round MidnightJack Vettriano Riviera retroJack Vettriano Ritual of Courtship
she should get moving, with a leafy branch, to make sure the gas flowed evenly over the work piece.
Will was placed in charge of the fire, and Iorek spent several minutes directing him and making sure he understood the principles he was to use. So much depended on exact placement, and Iorek could not stop and correct each one; Will had to understand, and then he'd do it properly.
Furthermore, he , watching from high up. Even Pantalaimon was active, changing to a crow so he could flap his mustn't expect the knife to look exactly the same when it was mended. It would be shorter, because each section of the blade would have to overlap the next by a little way so they could be forged together; and the surface would have oxidized a little, despite the stone-gas, so some of the play of color would be lost; and no doubt the handle would be charred. But the blade would be just as sharp, and it would work.So Will watched as the flames roared along the resinous twigs, and with streaming eyes and scorched hands he adjusted each fresh branch till the heat was focused as Iorek wanted it.Meanwhile, Iorek himself was grinding and hammering a fist-sized stone, having rejected several until he found one of the right weight. With massive blows he shaped it and smoothed it, the cordite smell of smashed rocks joining the smoke in the nostrils of the two spies

Thomas Kinkade Deer Creek Cottage

2009-01-15T00:50:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade Deer Creek CottageThomas Kinkade Cobblestone BridgeThomas Kinkade Clearing Storms
know?" said Will, sitting up stiffly. "Have you been back through the window?"
"No. We talk through the lodestone resonator. I reported our conversation," Tialys said to Lyra, "to my commander, Lord Roke, and he has agreed that we should go with you to the bear, and that once you have , and after a few minutes he put his lodestone away and said, "I have told Lord Roke of our position, and they are sending a gyropter to bring us away as soon as you have spoken to your friend."
Will nodded. Lyra took no notice. Presently she sat up wearily and pulled on her socks and shoes, and they set off once more.
Another hour, and most of the valley it, because the air was very cold now, and then came something even better: a haunch of something that might have been goat. Iorek ate his meat raw, of course, but he spitted its joint on a sharp stick and laid it to roast across the fire for the two of them.
"Is it easy, hunting up in these mountains, Iorek?" she said.
"No. My people can't live here. I was wrong, but luckily so, since I found you. What are your plans now?"

Paul Gauguin The Vision After the Sermon

2009-01-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Paul Gauguin The Vision After the SermonPaul Gauguin Spirit of the Dead WatchingPaul Gauguin Hail Mary
creatures who lived in the cold sea, they could see that they would soon starve if they stayed where they were; and being rational, they decided how they should respond. They would have to migrate to where there was snow and ice in plenty: they would go to the highest mountains, to the range that touched the sky, half a world away but unshakable, eternal, and deep in snow. From bears of the sea they would become bears of the mountains, for as long asHe told Will of how he and a few of his subjects had swum to the river mouth and it took the world to settle itself again."So you're not making war?" Will said."Our old enemies vanished with the seals and the walruses. If we meet new ones, we know how to fight.""I thought there was a great war coming that would involve everyone. Which side would you fight for in that case?""The side that gave advantage to the bears. What else? But I have some regard for a few among humans. One was a man who flew a balloon. He is dead. The other is the witch Serafina Pekkala. The third is the child Lyra Silvertongue. First, I would do whatever serves the bears. Second, whatever serves the child, or the witch, or avenges my dead comrade Lee Scoresby. That is why I will help you rescue Lyra Silvertongue from the abominable woman Coulter."

Paul Cezanne Card Players

2009-01-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Paul Cezanne Card PlayersLaurie Maitland fireWilliam Bouguereau Innocence
understand I am unhappy about my family, and very anxious to find them again, so I think I must move on, much as I would like to stay."
The priest pushed out his lips, in the thicket of his beard, and frowned; but then he shrugged and said, "Well, you shall go if you must. But before you leave, you must drink your vodka. Stand with me now! Take it, and down all in one, like this!"
He threw back the glass, swallowing it all at once, and then hauled his massive body up and stood very close to Will. In his fat, dirty fingers the glass he held out seemed tiny; but it was brimming with the clear spirit, and Will could smell the heady tang of the drink and the stale sweat and the food stains on the man's cassock, and he felt sick before he began.
"Drink, Will Ivanovitch!" began to intone a prayer or a psalm. Vapors of tobacco and alcohol and sweat came powerfully from him, and he was close enough for his thick beard, wagging up and down, to brush Will's face. Will held his breath.
The priest's hands moved behind Will's shoulders, and then Semyon Borisovitch was hugging him tightly and kissing his cheeks, right, left, right again. Will felt Balthamos dig tiny claws into his shoulder, and kept still. His head was swimming, his stomach lurching, but he didn't the priest cried, with a threatening heartiness.Will lifted the glass and unhesitatingly swallowed the fiery, oily liquid in one gulp. Now he would have to fight hard to avoid being sick.There was one more ordeal to come. Semyon Borisovitch leaned forward from his great height, and took Will by both shoulders."My boy," he said, and then closed his eyes and

Andy Warhol Oxidation

2009-01-13T20:55:00.001-08:00

Andy Warhol OxidationAndy Warhol NeuschwansteinAndy Warhol Knives black and white
folded the velvet over the alethiometer and put it into his rucksack. Securing it, he swung his father's heavy cloak around him against the rain and crouched where he was, looking steadily at the two shadows.
"Do you tell the truth?" he said.
"Yes."
"Then are you stronger than human beings, or weaker?"
"Weaker. You have true flesh, we have not. Still, you must come with us."
"No. If I'm and see them more clearly, but the rain filled his eyes.
"Come closer so I can see you," he said.
They approached, but seemed to become even more obscure.
"Shall I see you better in daylight?"
"No, worse. We are not of a high order among angels."stronger, you have to obey me. Besides, I have the knife. So I can command you: help me find Lyra. I don't care how long it takes, I'll find her first and then I'll go to Lord Asriel."The two figures were silent for several seconds. Then they drifted away and spoke together, though Will could hear nothing of what they said.Finally they came close again, and he heard:"Very well. You are making a mistake, though you give us no choice. We shall help you find this child."Will tried to pierce the darkness
"Well, if I can't see you, no one else will, either, so you can stay hidden

Andy Warhol Oxidation

2009-01-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Thomas Kinkade London At Sunset

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

Thomas Kinkade London At SunsetThomas Kinkade Hometown PrideThomas Kinkade HOMETOWN EVENING
The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;
The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd
Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing, awakening,
Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst.
Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field,
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;
Let the inchained soul, shut up in darkness and in sighing,
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years,
Rise and look out; his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open;
And let his wife and children return from the oppressor's scourge.
They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream,
Singing: "The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning,
And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;
For Pounding down the living. The factories are all lit up,
The chime goes unheard.
We are together at last, though far apart.Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease." -from "America: A Prophecy" by William Blake O stars,isn't it from you that the lover's desire for the face of his beloved arises? Doesn't his secret insight into her pure features come from the pure constellations? -from "The Third Elegy" by Rainer Maria Rilke Fine vapors escape from whatever is doing the living. The night is cold and delicate and full of angels
-from "The Ecclesiast" by John Ashbery

Jack Vettriano The Runaways

2009-01-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Jack Vettriano The RunawaysJack Vettriano The Rooms of a StrangerJack Vettriano The Road to Nowhere
pulled the lever for Barack Obama, saying it was the first time he ever voted for a Democrat.
"I decided since I had read through the gospels at that point over 30 times, I wanted to know who best represented the fundamental teachings of Jesus, and I felt that he more than any other candidate represented the teachings of Jesus, so I voted for him," Dobson said.new study finds that dieters who keep a weight loss journal tend to lose twice as much weight as other dieters.(Getty/ABC News)
Dieters may be able to take solace in the fact that one of the most powerful weight-loss tools available may be as close as a pen and paper.
In a recent study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for health Research
Dobson's message to others heading into the new year is to start reading the Bible, which he acknowledged can be demanding.
"I would encourage people, whether you've ever read the Bible or not, begin reading the Bible, and just listen to what God has to say."

Andy Warhol Ingrid with Hat

2009-01-11T23:02:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol Ingrid with HatAndy Warhol Flowers 1964Tom Thomson Woodland Waterfall
This is a great technique that creates both a new and unusual bit ofstimulation for her, and a delicious taste treat for you.Here's What You Need:One round sucker on a stick, any flavor.Here's How You Do It:Unwrap the sucker and put it in your mouth. Make sure that it iscompletely smooth, especially on the top. Sometimes you get an airbubble or other thumb and indexfinger. Press it against your woman's clitoris and use your two fingers tospin the sucker clockwise, then counterclockwise. Repeat this a fewtimes. Remember -- if it gets too dry, put it back in your mouth.Now combine the spinning of the sucker with some good, old-fashionedoral pleasuring. Your woman imperfection in the sucker that, as it dissolves, forms asharp edge. If you discover such an edge, discard that sucker and get afresh one.Get your woman naked. Have her lie on her back with her knees bentand legs slightly apart.Gently rub the sucker along the lips of her vagina. Use your mouth toremoisten the sucker as needed.Using your tongue, follow the path you've just traced with the sucker.Enjoy the flavor while you begin to arouse your woman.Put the sucker back in your mouth to remoisten.Hold the sucker in the middle of the stick with your