Entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.

Dan Van Malsen : photos : Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC- powered by SmugMug

TORONTO (AP) — Oscar Peterson, whose flying fingers, hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations made him one of the world's most famous and influential jazz pianists in a career that spanned seven decades, has died. He was 82.

Oscar Peterson's Christmas Album was recommended by Barry Ritholtz in a post I memed earlier in the month. I bought it and I've been enjoying it this season. I was saddened to hear this news.

The Associated Press: Jazz Piano Legend Oscar Peterson Dies

J K ROWLING has made an emotional return to the cramped Edinburgh flat where she wrote the first book in the Harry Potter series.

The author, who has notched up almost 400m book sales, broke down in tears as she recalled the hardship she endured while living there as a single mother with her baby daughter Jessica.

Rowling in tears on return to Harry’s lowly birthplace - Times Online

I spent the month of November in New York, and for part of that time I hung out at the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media), doing research for a book I’m writing on the ’60s TV show “The Fugitive.” When I wasn’t reading reviews and cover stories in old issues of TV guide, I was going to galleries, listening to concerts and seeking out movies that would probably not make it up to Delaware County. The movie I found was “Starting Out in the Evening,” described in the reviews as a “small film,” which means not only that there are no special effects, but that almost nothing happens (a point of criticism on the part of some reviewers).

Stanley Fish on Art and meaning and in sense looking at a mess he helped create as a critic by writing "Is There a Text in This Class?" and thus debunking authoritive meaning - oh the irony

Stanley Fish - Think Again - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Loud commentary and cell phone fumbling may be distracting, but new research suggests that the presence of other people may enhance our movie-watching experiences. Over the course of the film, movie-watchers influence one another and gradually synchronize their emotional responses. This mutual mimicry also affects each participant's evaluation of the overall experience -- the more in sync we are with the people around us, the more we like the movie.

Pass The Popcorn! Study Finds That Film Enjoyment Is Contagious

Kara Walker, the celebrated African American conceptual artist, addresses issues related to race and racism in the ugliest of terms. In a world where the presence of a hangman's noose swaying from the limb of a Louisiana tree can incite violence, lopsided prosecutorial zeal and tear-choked demands for justice, Walker creates images so disturbing that they can shock a viewer dumb.

Symbols of Hatred in the Shadows - washingtonpost.com

You have to hit the bottom of the well, where you feel as if you have nothing

Drowning in the depths of agony

You must reach point where you have cried so much that there is no physical way to weep anymore

When it seems you can no longer feel anything

You have hurt so much that your whole body is numb

There comes a point where your body is an empty shell hollowed out by grief.....

Let the cycle take its course

Pretend that it isn’t happening

Blame someone or something

Promise you can do it differently if given the chance

Go through the what ifs feeling desperately alone

Make the choice to move forward

Find something still beautiful in the world that is worth the effort

Place the first brick and keep building

Let go of everything and everyone that is holding you under water

Assure yourself that you can make it on your own

Nothing can take away your choice to go on

Build it bigger, stronger and taller this time

Make it harder for someone to knock it down again and throw you into the well

Rebuilding The Wall

Anthony Wilson, the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands, has died of cancer.

If you've ever listened to Joy Division, New Order, or the Happy Mondays, (or listened to white pop music for the last 15 years) or you've ever been to a rave or club in the last 20 years, you have this man to thank. He literally helped found a whole genre of music, but impacted culture in incalculable ways. For a great primer, see 24 Hour Party People.

Anthony Wilson dies from cancer, or my friends, we are getting older...

Taste in music has become far more diverse because of the internet, which is revolutionizing the way consumers buy songs, according to research published on Monday.

thus "nuts" to the prophets of doom
more diversity
more interplay of memes
a melting pot will produce new synergies -- new art

Financial Times - Onet.pl Waluty

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, an iconoclastic filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died Monday, local media reported. He was 89 years old.

He was "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera," Woody Allen said in a 70th birthday tribute in 1988.

In a press interview for her film "Away From Her", director Sarah Polley laments:

"It's sad to think there was a time when people lined up around the block to see Bergman movies ... and how unimaginable that is now."

How about a theatrical re-release of "Wild Strawberries" and "The Seventh Seal"?
a great loss

Film Director Ingmar Bergman Dies