The other day I ran across the 1998 movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels while flipping channels and watched it for the first time in years. It’s a lighthearted romp, as they say, about two canny con men played with wit and panache by…
Two years after ending his stint as a Ukrainian natural gas expert, Hunter Biden has a new calling: high-rolling artist. Hunter’s first round of art sales, scheduled for this fall, will feature eye-popping prices ranging from $75,000 to $500,000 per…
President Joe Biden clearly has no problem with his son Hunter Biden cashing in on the family name. It’s something Biden has in common with former President Donald Trump. According to Forbes, Trump’s estimated wealth dropped from an estimated $3.6…
Amidst those 4,500 pages of the $900 million COVID-19 relief bill that Congress passed in December and President Trump signed just before the new year was a very unrelated measure designed to help artists and photographers who find that their…
In 1903, the Atlantic printed the thoughts of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott on why women widely did not, and should not, want the right to vote: In this work of direct ministry to the individual, this work of character-building, which…
Concert tickets are expensive. It’s risky to rely on music reviews to choose which performances to attend. Critics are fallible. They don’t always recognize true art. In contrast, the United States Supreme Court has long regarded itself as infallible, because…
Here’s a cute little item from the New York Times this past weekend: “Is Your Script Gender-Balanced? Try This Test.” Is your script…what? “Gender-balanced” — meaning representative of male and female presence and importance in whatever screenplay you are concocting; because…
In fairness to potential buyers of Language of the Spirit, Jan Swafford does not reveal why classical music is, or at least can be for those open to it, the language of our spirit. In fairness to Swafford, it’s doubtful that anyone could, so mysterious yet accessible is our greatest music. Instrumental music is, after all, a non-verbal art. The sounds can suggest things. But they can’t say them. Even so, those who’ve heard and loved the music from this tradition have no trouble understanding why it is indeed the language of our spirit.
Kathy Griffin tittered to her photographer Tyler Shields (paraphrased), we’re going to have to run away from this. She knew that holding a bloody, severed head of President Donald Trump was out of bounds. She did it anyway. Griffin has…
