5/24/2023 0 Comments Russian Lacquer Boxes by UnknownPlease note – It’s extremely hard to photograph Russian Lacquer Miniatures well, since they are tiny, shiny and convex! Any gleams on the photograph are from where the light is catching the lacquer polish. Money for commissioning icons, however, can be found more readily. One issue is the sheer time-consuming nature of creating them as the Russian cost of living rises, and the differential between this and the West diminishes, it’s almost impossible for buyers to compensate the artists adequately for their skill and work. I hope that in time, the lacquer art painters will profit better from their creations, and find a market for the traditional boxes once again. (NB – this otherwise excellent article is not always accurate on history or painting techniques!)Įverything about the history and style of the art form still stands, however. The Western market for buying lacquer miniatures has almost dried up, and many artists have switched to painting icons and commemorative panels, as this article in the New York Times illustrates. (A busy time!) Now, nineteen years later, of course much has changed. It was based, at that point, on my nine years of travelling to and from Russia, investigating the art form, staying in the village of Kholui, and running Firebird Russian Arts in the UK. This article was first published in the American magazine ‘Russian Life’in Nov/Dec 2001. The Story of the Golden Fish – Lacquer miniature from Kholui
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5/24/2023 0 Comments Breaking night by liz murrayAnd so she set her mind to overcoming what seemed like impossible odds - and in the process, achieved something extraordinary. With no education, with no chance at a job or a home, she realised that only the most astonishing of turnarounds could stop her heading all the way down the same path her parents took. But when her mother died of AIDS a year later, Liz's life changed for ever. By the age of 15, Liz found herself homeless with nowhere to turn but the tough streets, riding subways all night for a warm place to sleep and foraging through dumpsters for food. Born to a drug-addicted father who was in and out of prison, and an equally dependent mother who was in and out of mental institutions, she seemed destined to become just another tragic statistic another life wasted on the brutal streets of New York. _ Liz Murray never really had a chance in life. 5/24/2023 0 Comments Dreamsnake vonda mcintyreThe family moved regularly, with Vonda growing up in Nahant, Massachusetts Syracuse, New York Rockville, Maryland and The Hague in the Netherlands, before they finally settled in Bellevue, Washington, in 1961. Vonda was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Vonda (nee Keith) and Harrell Neel McIntyre. The book was filmed in 2014 as The King’s Daughter, with Pierce Brosnan and William Hurt in the cast, but its release was delayed in order to complete the film’s special effects. She enthrals De la Croix’s sister, Marie-Josèphe, who defies all to free the captive. Caught by the explorer Yves de la Croix, Sherzad is no monster, but an intelligent sea-woman. McIntyre won a second Nebula for best novel (beating George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones) for The Moon and the Sun (1997), an alternate history set in the court of Louis XIV, where the Sun King believes his immortality is assured if he devours the flesh of a certain sea creature. Over the course of Snake’s journey to find a new dreamsnake, the novel explores the interpersonal relationships (not always traditional) of various communities, child abuse, fertility control and the emotional impact on Snake, who is feared by the people she heals almost as much as death. 5/24/2023 0 Comments The Lost Colony by Eoin ColferSo when a confused and frightened demon pops up in a Sicilian theatre, Artemis Fowl is there to meet him. Artemis Fowl, the teenage criminal mastermind, has solved temporal equations that no normal human should be intelligent enough to understand. Even the fairy scientists cannot figure out where the next demon will pop up. When the spell’s deterioration accelerates, the materializations become unpredictable. The fairy Council are naturally concerned about this and are monitoring any materializations. Now, the tainted time spell is deteriorating and demons are being sucked back into the present space and time. However, the time spell went wrong, and the island of Hybras was catapulted into Limbo, where it has remained for ten thousand years. The demons planned to lift their small island out of time until they had regrouped and were ready to wage war on the humans once more. All the fairy families agreed on this, except the eighth family, the demons. When it became clear to the fairy families that they could never win, they decided to move their civilization underground and keep themselves hidden from the humans. Ten thousand years ago, humans and fairies fought a great battle for the magical island of Ireland. 5/24/2023 0 Comments Cursed wheeler
5/24/2023 0 Comments Dragons of spring dawningWhile they lose Kitiara eventually, they also get caught in the current, unable to extricate themselves. The Everman, helmsman of this ship, attempts to escape her by steering the ship straight toward the maelstrom which rules the center of the Sea of Istar. They discovered the truth so easily as it was Kitiara herself who came to chase them as her true target, the Everman (the topic for a later post) was on the ship. Though he betrayed their trust greatly, he never gave them away, never intended to steer any harm their way for his own benefit. Obviously, they felt hurt and betrayed, though a line was drawn between betrayal and being a traitor, and that line is drawn by intent. Ultimately, he reunited with his friends, but didn’t tell them about his dalliance with Kitiara until they discovered it on their own. Tanis is still struggling mightily with his guilt and has not told the companions the whole truth. The group were sailing as fast as they could across the blood red waters of the Sea of Istar, where the gods’ righteous fury had struck Krynn and caused the cataclysm over three centuries ago. We pick up the Tanis and Raistlin thread right where we had left it. 5/24/2023 0 Comments His Seed by Steve BermanHe thought if he put his comedy material in an album that people could listen to all the time, no one would come see him. And even when it came time to record an album, Shelley was reluctant to do that. I mean, Mort Sahl was the person who made him want to get into standup.Īnd it's funny because they're like just 100% different from each other. And a Shelley Berman's a good one to close on because he is such an interesting guy. I going to say, I'll take a seat and let you go on this. I'm Dave Schwensen, your host, and today I'm joined by Logan Rishaw.Īnd we're going to stay busy today, because we're going to be talking about another legendary comedian, Shelley Berman.Īnd this is a perfect way to wrap up our season here because Shelley mirrors Mort Sahl, our first episode, quite well. Welcome to What's So Funny, a comedy podcast where we talk about some of the most influential and controversial comedy albums from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. 5/23/2023 0 Comments Reminders of Him by Colleen HooverThe two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Reminders of Him: A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.Īfter serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. 5/23/2023 0 Comments Murderbot system collapse“I think that’s one of the things that a lot of people identify with,” says Wells about the emotional elements. Wells delivers creative science-fiction thrills, such as when Murderbot controls swarms of drones that give readers a dazzling range of first-person points of view on the action, along with emotional depth by exploring issues such as alienation and anxiety. Wells’s publisher just announced this week in a press release that they’d reached an agreement for 6 more books, “the largest deal for the imprint to date,” which will include three Murderbot books and three unrelated titles, starting with “Witch King” next year.) After 2017’s “All Systems Red,” Wells published three more novellas and the 2020 novel “Network Effect.” Now there’s “Fugitive Telemetry,” a new novella to be published April 27 by Tordotcom, in which Murderbot must solve, not commit, a murder. Despite its intimidating name, Murderbot spends its time watching what sounds suspiciously like soap operas when not protecting - or avoiding - its human clients, colleagues and friends. 5/23/2023 0 Comments Wax and wayne the lost metalConflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate-whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose-and Bilming is even more entangled.Īfter Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial’s god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Return to #1 New York Times bestseller Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era, which began with The Alloy of Law, comes to its earth-shattering conclusion in The Lost Metal.įor years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set-with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders-since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. |