Stuart Woods Books

A few quotes on how a beach can teach us so much about life and living. About how on some days, life may be bright and sunny, while on the others dark, stormy and scary. All you have to do is to be there and face it, no matter what happens.

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.”- Isak Dinesen

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don’t let yourself indulge in vain wishes.”- Rabindranath Tagore

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.”- Anna Quindlen

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”- Isaac newton

“My life is like a stroll on the beach…as near to the edge as I can go.”- Thoreau

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”- Victor Hugo

“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”- Robert Henri

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”- Mother Teresa

“Even the upper end of the river believes in the ocean.”- William Stafford

“Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.”- Albert Schweitzer

“Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides.”- Unknown Read the rest of this entry »

The Birth of Modern Art
Let’s take a look at how we created modern art. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, you have artists like Van Gogh and Manet, who didn’t really adhere to the current art scene. The people and their surroundings changed, and so did their thoughts. What all modern artists have (or had; most of them are now dead) in common is an aversion to realism and the formalities that tie an artist to it. They preferred seeing the world in a different light, and so they chose to describe that image in their own manner. The result was then known as ‘Modern Art’. In an effort to express their individuality, artists came up with their own style; unique and often bold. What we describe today as Fauvism and Dadaism are nothing but methods used by artists at that time to portray their art in the most unusual way possible.

The Creation of Contemporary Art
Moving on to the last 20 years from now, we have artists that faced the harsh reality, like the war (WW II, The Cold War), feminism and globalization. They grew up with ideals and thoughts different from what artists in the modern era did. So now you have a number of artists who consider the old methods of modernism as too conformist or vague. They now decide to make their own works or art according to their style. This gave rise to what we now call ‘Contemporary Art’.

The Differences Today
•Of course it isn’t that simple; there are always more than one ways to describe art. Contemporary art pays more attention to the society, while modern art tends to be self-expressive at times. The former is also a lot more receptive to changes in society.
•Another difference is the advancement in technology. Artists, today, have the camera, the computer and custom software. They will use these to their advantage as they see fit. This makes a huge difference in the works between the two types of art. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a list of hip hop dance songs from the best hip hop albums of all time.
•Jesus Walks, by Kanye West
•Walk this Way, by Run DMC feat Aerosmith
•Fight the Power, by Public Enemy
•Hypnotize, by Notorious B.I.G.
•Real Slim Shady, by Eminem
•Can’t Touch This, by MC Hammer
•Getting Jiggy With It, by Will Smith
•Big Pimpin, by Jay-Z
•Mama Said Knock You Out, by LL Cool J
•Who’s That Girl, by Eve
•Make ‘Em Say Ugh, by Master P
•Planet Rock, by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force
•Gin and Juice, by Snoop Dogg
•C.R.E.A.M., by Wu-Tang Clan
•The Humpty Dance, by Digital Underground
Some more Hip Hop Songs to Dance to
Here are some more great hip hop dance songs that will set the dance floor on fire.
•Party Starter, by Will Smith
•99 Problems, by Jay-Z
•Temperature, by Sean Paul
•Shake That, by Eminem
•Rapper’s Delight, by Sugarhill Gang
•Yeah, by Usher
•Pump it, by Black Eyed Peas
•Drop, by Timbaland & Magoo feat Fatman Scoop
•The Way I Are, by Timbaland feat Keri Hilson and D.O.E.
•4 Minutes, by Madonna feat Justin Timberlake and Timbaland
•Wait A Minute, by Pussycat Dolls
•Game Over (Remix), by Lil Flip
•Errtime, by Nelly
•1,2 Step, by Ciara Read the rest of this entry »

Michelangelo painted ‘The Last Judgment’. The massive painting covers the entire wall behind the alter of the Sistine chapel. It is a painting of Jesus judging the people on earth and sending them to either Heaven or Hell by the saints.

This was a painting that caused much dispute. Michelangelo was accused of intolerable obscenity as well as immorality because most of the figures are naked. Due to the excessiveness of genitalia and the amount human anatomy detail, twenty four years later priest paid another painter to clothed figures such as the Virgin Mary.

The Last Judgment also steered away from traditional depictions of the painting. Michelangelo depicts Christ very muscular and beardless. He is surrounded by light and the picture seems to focus around him instead of a classical heaven and hell. Linear perspective is also noticeable in this painting replacing the traditional horizontal layers. It is said that Michelangelo uses the science of cosmology with the depiction of Christ because he resembles the Greek Sun God, Apollo and is in the center symbolizing the center of the universe.

At the same time music began to become an essential part of daily life during the High Renaissance. The new ideas that were spreading across Europe reformed the way political, economic, and religious views were valued. This led to major changes in the style of composing methods used in music.New musical genres and instruments developed splitting the patronage into groups. The Catholic Church and Protestant churches were sources for music printing not to mention a source of income for composers of this era.

Composers during the middle Ages and Early Renaissance worked with cantus-firmus but it was not really until the Protestant Reformation that important changes began to occur starting with the church. Hymns began to be sung by a group rather than an individual. This brought a monographic vocal into a harmony. This was also a time when psalms of the Bible started to be translated into French and set to music. Read the rest of this entry »