Henri Rousseau Boy on the Rocks

Henri Rousseau Boy on the RocksHenri Rousseau A Carnival EveningPaul Cezanne Three BathersPaul Cezanne The Black Clock
delivers a patronizing and ultimately sham statement on social justice.
Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire", perhaps one of the most celebrated films in recent times, tells the rags-to-rajah the film's fast-growing reputation as an authentic representation of the lives of India's urban poor. So far, most of the awards collected by the film have been accepted in the name of "the children," suggesting that its own cast and crew regard it (and have relentlessly promoted it) not as a cinematically spectacular, musically rich and entertaining work of fiction, whstory of a love-struck Indian boy, Jamal, who, with a little help from "destiny," triumphs over his wretched beginnings in Mumbai's squalid slums. Riding on a wave of rave reviews, "Slumdog" has now won Hollywood's highest tribute, the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with seven more Oscars, including one for Best Director.These honors will probably add some $100 million to "Slumdog's" box-office takings, as Oscar wins usually do. They will also further enhance ich it is, but as a powerful tool of advocacy. Nothing could

William Merritt Chase The Nursery

William Merritt Chase The NurseryTitian The Three Ages of ManLorenzo Lotto Lotto ArchitectTitian Venus with Organist and Cupid
handholds. It offered hands, though. Two were even now thrusting through the mossy bark beside him; slim hands, green as young leaves. Then a shapely arm followed, and then the hamadryad leaned right out and grasped the astonished wizard firmly and, with that vegetable strength that can send roots questing into rock, drew him .
The Lady's last opponent shifted his seat until he faced her across the board.
"Lord," she said, politely.
"Lady," he acknowledged. Their eyes met.
He was a taciturn god. It was said that he had arrived in the Discworld afteinto the tree. The solid bark parted like a mist, closed like a clam.Death watched impassively.He glanced at the cloud of mayflies that were dancing their joyful zigzags near His skull. He snapped His fingers. The insects fell out of the air. But, somehow, it wasn't quite the same. Blind Io pushed his stack of chips across the table, glowered through such of his eyes that were currently in the room, and strode out. A few demigods tittered. At least Offler had taken the loss of a perfectly good troll with precise, if somewhat reptilian, gracer some terrible

Salvador Dali The Great Masturbator

Salvador Dali The Great MasturbatorSalvador Dali Leda AtomicaJoseph Mallord William Turner The Grand Canal VeniceJoseph Mallord William Turner Portsmouth
They fell still. They were captured.
She felt those hands....It wasn't allowed....Not supposed to touch... Wrong....
"Was she on her own?"
A man was peering into the ceiling space.
"Seems to be on her own...."
"Who is she?"
"The new child."
"The one the Samoyed hunters..."
"Yes."
"You don't suppose she...the daemons..."
"Could well be. But not on her own, surely?"
"flicked and slid and darted this way and that. Finally he nodded.
"Now. Do it now," he said. "Otherwise she'll talk. The shock will prevent that, at leastShould we tell-""I think that would put the seal on things, don't you?""I agree. Better she doesn't hear at all.""But what can we do about this?""She can't go back with the other children.""Impossible!""There's only one thing we can do, it seems to me.""Now?""Have to. Can't leave it till the morning. She wants to watch.""We could do it ourselves. No need to involve anyone else."The man who seemed to be in charge, the man who wasn't holding either Lyra or Pantalaimon, tapped his teeth with a thumbnail. His eyes were never still; they

Henri Matisse Odalisque

Henri Matisse OdalisqueHenri Matisse MusicHenri Matisse Le bonheur de vivreGeorges Seurat The Circus
biscuit. Lyra sent Pantalaimon, as a fly, to talk to Salcilia on the wall next to their table while she and Roger kept quietly in their separate groups. It was difficult to talk while your daemon's attention was somewhere else, so Lyra..."
"Why are they so interested in daemons?" said Lyra.
"No one knows," said the blond girl.
"I know," said one boy who'd been listening. "What they do is kill your daemon pretended to look glum and rebellious as she sipped her milk with the other girls. Half her thoughts were with the tiny buzz of talk between the daemons, and she wasn't really listening, but at one point she heard another girl with bright blond hair say a name that made her sit up.It was the name of Tony Makarios. As Lyra's attention snapped toward that, Pantalaimon had to slow down his whispered conversation with Roger's daemon, and both children listened to what the girl was saying."No, I know why they took him," she said, as heads clustered close nearby. "It was because his daemon didn't change. They thought he was older than he looked, or summing, and he weren't really a young kid. But really his daemon never changed very often because Tony hisself never thought much about anything. I seen her change. She was called Ratter

Pablo Picasso Large Nude in Red Armchair

Pablo Picasso Large Nude in Red ArmchairTamara de Lempicka Woman in RedTamara de Lempicka Two Girls
were brambles and snagging bushes in the path. The bear ripped through them as if they were cobwebs.
They climbed the low ridge, among outcrops of black rock, and were soon out of sight of the party behind them. Lyra was pacing swiftly, moving both legs on one side of his body at the same time, and rocking from side to side in a steady powerful rhythm. She found she couldn't just sit: she had to ride actively.
They had been traveling for an hour or more, and Lyra was stiff and sore but deeply happy, when lorek Byrnison slowed down and stopped.wanted to talk to the bear, and if he had been human, she would already be on familiar terms with him; but he was so strange and wild and cold that she was shy, almost for the first time in her loped along, his great legs swinging tirelessly, she sat with the movement and said nothing. Perhaps he preferred that anyway, she thought; she must seem a little prattling cub, only just past babyhood, in the eyes of an armored bear.She had seldom considered herself before, and found the experience interesting but uncomfortable, very like riding the bear, in fact. lorek Byrnison

Thomas Moran Autumn Landscape

Thomas Moran Autumn LandscapeThomas Moran Chicago World's FairThomas Moran A View of Venice
daemons is invisible, I expect," said Adam Stefanski. "He was there all the time, and Farder Coram never saw him."
"No, you're wrong, Adam," said Farder Coram. "He weren't there at all. The witches have the power to separate their-selves fromit was. Anyway, there was no doubt I'd she gave me a token of it, and said I was to call on her help if ever it was needed. And once she sent me help when the Skraelings shot me with a poison arrow. We had other connections, too....I haven't seen her from that day to this, but she'll remember."
"And does she live at Trollesund, this witch?" their daemons a mighty sight further'n what we can. If need be, they can send their daemons far abroad on the wind or the clouds, or down below the ocean. And this witch I found, she hadn't been resting above an hour when her daemon came a flying back, because he'd felt her fear and her injury, of course. And it's my belief, though she never admitted to this, that the great red bird I shot was another witch's daemon, in pursuit. Lord! That made me shiver, when I thought of that. I'd have stayed my hand; I'd have taken any measures on sea or land; but there

Unknown Artist Landscape with Windmills

Unknown Artist Landscape with WindmillsUnknown Artist landscape in autumnUnknown Artist LandUnknown Artist irvine The Old HomesteadUnknown Artist Hugh Bolton Jones Road to the FarmUnknown Artist Houses Along the Coast
decided to tell them the whole truth about the Retiring Room. "See, there was something else.
That evening I hid in the Retiring Room, I saw the Master try to poison Lord Asriel. I saw him put some powder in the wine and I told my uncle and he knocked the decanter off the table and spilled it. So I saved his could and Farder Coram's bright flickering intelligence both trained on it like searchlights.
When she laid the alethiometer bare, it was Farder Coram who spoke first.
"I never thought I'd ever set eyes on one of them again. That's a symbol reader. Did he tell you anything about it, child?"
"No. Only that I'd have to work out how to read it by myself. And he called never understand why the Master would want to poison him, because he was always so kind. Then on the morning I left he called me in early to his study, and I had to go secretly so no one would know, and he said..." Lyra racked her brains to try and remember exactly what it was the Master had said. No good; she shook her head. "The only thing I could understand was that he gave me something and I had to keep it secret from her, from Mrs. Coulter. I suppose it's all right if I tell you...."She felt in the pocket of the wolfskin coat and took out the velvet package. She laid it on the table, and she sensed John Faa's massive simple curiosity

Claude Monet Water Lilies 1903

Claude Monet Water Lilies 1903Claude Monet Bridge over a Pool of Water LiliesPiet Mondrian Composition with Red Blue Yellow 2
why would she be teaching us navigation and all that if she wasn't going to take us north?"
"To stop you , Mrs. Coulter took Lyra to hairdresser's, where her stiff dark blond hair was softened and waved, and her nails were filed and polished, and where they even applied a little makeup to her eyes and lips to show her how to do it. Then they went to collect the new dress Mrs. Coulter had ordered for her, and getting impatient, that's why. You don't really want to stand around at the cocktail party being all sweet and pretty. She's just making a pet out of you."Lyra turned her back and closed her eyes. But what Pantalaimon said was true. She had been feeling confined and cramped by luxurious it was. She would have given anything for a day with Roger and her Oxford ragamuffin friends, with a battle in the claybeds and a race along the canal. The one thing that kept her polite and attentive to Mrs. Coulter was that tantalizing hope of going north. Perhaps they would meet Lord Asriel. Perhaps he and Mrs. Coulter would fall in love, and they would get married and adopt Lyra, and go and rescue Roger from the Gobblers.On the afternoon of the cocktail party

Sung Kim Point

Sung Kim PointSung Kim ParadiseSung Kim Palm Reflection
another boy who asked the obvious question.
"Hey, lady! What you got us all here for?"
He was a tough-that they felt they hardly deserved their good luck, and whatever she asked, they'd give it gladly so as to stay in her presence a little longer.
She told them that they were going on a voyage. They would be well fed and warmly clothed, and those who wanted to could send messages back to their families to let them know they were safe. Captain Magnusson would take them on board his ship very soon, and then when the tide was right, they'd sail out to sea and set a course for the North.looking wretch with dark chocolatl on his top lip and a gaunt black rat for a daemon. The lady was standing near the door, talking to a stout man with the air of a sea captain, and as she turned to answer, she looked so angelic in the hissing naphtha light that all the children fell silent."We want your help," she said. "You don't mind helping us, do you?"No one could say a word. They all gazed, suddenly shy. They had never seen a lady like this; she was so gracious and sweet and kind

Thomas Kinkade Sunrise Chapel

Thomas Kinkade Sunrise ChapelThomas Kinkade Streams of Living WaterThomas Kinkade Spirit of Christmas
branch. It was only a temporary check, so the branch had broken, but it showed how close they were.
He shouted, "Fifty feet above the trees—"
The second later was crashing into the treetops, and amid the lashing of wet leaves and the snapping of twigs and the creak of tormented branches it jolted to a precarious halt.
"Still there, Dr. Grumman?" Lee called, for it was impossible to see anything.
"Still here, Mr. Scoresby."
"Better keep still for a minute till we see the situation clearly," said Lee, for they were wildly swaying in the wind, and he could feel the basket settling with little jerks against whatever was holdingshaman nodded.Then came another snag, more violent, and the two men were thrown hard against the rim of the basket. Lee was used to it and found his balance at once, but the force took Grumman by surprise. However, he didn't lose his grip on the suspension ring, and Lee could see him safely poised, ready to swing himself clear.A moment later came the most jolting shock of all as the grapnel found a branch that held it fast. The basket tilted at once and a them up.

Paul Cezanne Still Life with a Skull

Paul Cezanne Still Life with a SkullPaul Cezanne Jas de Bouffan the PoolPaul Cezanne House of Pere Lacroix
Will slept deeply through the rest of the night. It was cold, but the witches piled leaves over him, and Lyra slept huddled close behind his back. In the morning Serafina dressed his wound again, and he tried to see from her expression whether it was healing, but her face was calm and impassive.
Once they'd eaten, Serafina told the children that the witches had agreed that since they'd come into this world to find to the empty blue sea and to the high blue mountains beyond, which were their destination. It seemed a long way to go.
They spoke little. Lyra was busy looking at forest, from woodpeckers to squirrels to little green moss snakes with diamonds down their backs, and Will needed all his energy simply to keep going. Lyra and Pantalaimon discussed him endlessly.Lyra and be her guardians, they'd help Lyra do what she now knew her task to be: namely, to guide Will to his father.So they all set off; and it was quiet going for the most part. Lyra consulted the alethiometer to begin with, but warily, and learned that they should travel in the direction of the distant mountains they could see across the great bay. Never having been this high above the city, they weren't aware of how the coastline curved, and the mountains had been below the horizon; but now when the trees thinned, or when a slope fell away below them, they could look out

Thomas Kinkade Christmas Cottage

Thomas Kinkade Christmas CottageThomas Kinkade A Peaceful RetreatJohn Collier Lady Godiva

Help from My Friends," of course, and just about every blues song slides into notes as opposed to hitting them dead on. Even Norah Jones, the poster girl of pure vocals, isn't perfect. "There's some wonderful imperfections of pitch on 'Don't for was released in November 2007, and T-Pain and Auto-Tune's parent company are finishing work on an iPhone app. "It's gonna be real cool," says T-Pain. "Basically, you can add Auto-Tune to your voice and send it to your friends and put it on the Web. You'll be able to sound just like me." Asked if that might render him no longer unique, T-Pain laughs: "I'm not too worried. I got lots of tricks you ain't seen yet. It's everybody else that needs to step up their

Know Why' from Come Away with Me," says Anderson, "and most of the other tunes on the album as well. But I wouldn't want to change a single note."Let's hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade, even if the spread of Auto-Tune shows no signs of slowing. A $99 version

Jean Francois Millet Angelus

Jean Francois Millet AngelusJean Francois Millet Harvesters RestingJean Francois Millet Garden
They jumped. They'd been sure there was only one man in the tower. Pantalaimon was so startled that he changed at once from a cat to a bird and flew to Lyra's breast. Will and Lyra realized as he did so that they'd seized each other's hand, and let go slowly.
"Better go and see," Will whispered. "I'll go first."
"I ought to go his eyes.
He found himself on a roof of lead, enclosed by the battlemented parapet. The glass structure was set in the center, and the lead sloped slightly downward all around toward a gutter inside the parapet, with square drainage holes in the stone for rainwater.
Lying on the lead, in the full sun, was an old man with white hair. His face was bruised and battered, and one eye was closed, and as they saw when they got closer, his hands were tied behind him.
He heard them coming and groaned again, and tried to turn over to shield himselffirst," she whispered back, "seeing it's my fault.""Seeing it's your fault, you got to do as I say."She twisted her lip but fell in behind him.He climbed up into the sun. The light in the glass structure was blinding. It was as hot as a greenhouse, too, and Will could neither see nor breathe easily. He found a door handle and turned it and stepped out quickly, holding his hand up to keep the sun out of

Thomas Moran Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice

Thomas Moran Entrance to the Grand Canal, VeniceJean Francois Millet The Walk to WorkJean Francois Millet The Angelus
that. He had his back to the door, and he'd shuffle to one side, then to the other, and all the time his right hand moved in front of him as if he were clearing a way through some invisible obstacles. In that hand was a knife, not a special-looking knife, just a dull blade about eight inches long, and he'd thrust it forward, slice it sideways, feelhim lead them up another staircase to the top story. It was much lighter up there, because a white-painted flight of steps led up to the roof—or, rather, to a wood-and-glass structure like a little greenhouse. Even at the foot of the steps they could feel the heat it was absorbing.
And as they stood there they heard a groan from above. forward with it, jab up and down, all in the empty air.He moved as if to turn, and Will withdrew. He put a finger to his lips and beckoned to Lyra, and led her to the stairs and up to the next floor."What's he doing?" she whispered.He described it as well as he could."He sounds mad," said Lyra. "Is he thin, with curly hair?""Yes. Red hair, like Angelica's. He certainly looks mad. I don't know—I think this is odder than Sir Charles said. Let's look farther up before we speak to him."She didn't question, but let

Leroy Neiman Winter Olympic Skiing

Leroy Neiman Winter Olympic SkiingLeroy Neiman Winter Olympic SkatingLeroy Neiman Winged Foot
father did it? Lord Asriel? He played a trick on them…"
As they walked up the Banbury Road, she told him about the night she hid in the wardrobe and watched Lord Asriel show the , and the hornbeam trees. There was very little traffic now: a car every minute or so, no more than that. And there was the window. Will felt himself smiling. It was going to be all right.
"Wait till there's no cars coming," he said. "I'm going through now."
And a moment later he was on the grass under the palm trees, and a second Jordan Scholars the severed head of Stanislaus Grumman in the vacuum flask. And since Will was such a good audience, she went on and told him the rest of her story, from the time she escaped from Mrs. Coulter's flat to the horrible moment when she realized she'd led Roger to his death on the icy cliffs of Svalbard. Will listened without comment, but attentively, with sympathy. Her account of a voyage in a balloon, of armored bears and witches, of a vengeful arm of the Church, seemed all of a piece with his own fantastic dream of a beautiful city on the sea, empty and silent and safe: it couldn't be true, it was as simple as that.But eventually they reached the ring road

Rembrandt The Return of the Prodigal Son

Rembrandt The Return of the Prodigal SonRembrandt rembrandt nightwatch paintingRembrandt The Polish Rider
account, and opened another somewhere else, just to be sure. Thus the danger passed.
But sometime during the next few months, Will realized slowly and unwillingly that those enemies of his mother's were not in the world out there, but in her mind. That made them no less real, no less frightening and dangerous; it just meant he had to protect her even more carefully. And from the moment in the supermarket when he had The last question was the only one she could help him with. John Parry had been a handsome man, a brave and clever officer in the Royal Marines, who had left the army to become an explorer and lead expeditions to remote parts of the world. Will thrilled to realized he must pretend in order not to worry his mother, part of Will's mind was always alert to her anxieties. He loved her so much he would have died to protect her.As for Will's father, he had vanished long before Will was able to remember him. Will was passionately curious about his father, and he used to plague his mother with questions, most of which she couldn't answer."Was he a rich man?""Where did he go?""Why did he go?""Is he dead?""Will he come back?""What was he like?"

Thomas Kinkade Evening Glow

Thomas Kinkade Evening GlowThomas Kinkade CHRISTMAS MEMORIESThomas Kinkade Boston
avoid a hospital stay for medical patients who would otherwise be there only for observation. The speech Internet will undergo substantial alteration as optical technologies allow the transmission of many trillions of bits per second on each strand of the Internet's fiber-optic backbone network. The core of the will remain optical, and the edges will use a mix of access technologies, ranging from radio and infrared to optical fiber and the old twisted-pair copper telephone lines. By then, the Internet will have been extended, by means of an interplanetary Internet backbone, to operate in outer space.
How will this pervasive Internet access affect our daily lives? More and more of the world's information will be accessible instantly and from virtually anywhere. In an emergency, our will be available for remote medical consultation with specialists and perhaps even remote surgery. More and more devices will have access to the global positioning system, increasing the value of geographically processor used today in cochlear implants for the hearing impaired could easily be connected to the Internet; listening to Internet radio could soon be a direct computer-to-brain experience!

Henri Matisse Woman with a Hat

Henri Matisse Woman with a HatHenri Matisse The WindowHenri Matisse The Green Line
like another, a butterfly that looks like a wasp, for disguise. They must have creatures like that in your world, because we have, and we're so much alike."
They walked on "No. You know what I mean."
"Yes, I do. I can see shadows in the grass... maybe birds," Will said.
He was following the little darting movements here and there. He found it easier to see the shadows if he didn't look at them. They were more willing to show themselves to the corners of his eye, and when he said so to Lyra, she said, "It's negative capability."
"What's that?"together in a friendly silence. All around them the wide, clear morning lay limpid in the hollows and pearly blue in the warm air above. As far as the eye could see, the great savanna rolled, brown, gold, buff-green, shimmering toward the horizon, and empty. They might have been the only people in the world."But it's not empty really," Lyra said."You mean that man?"