Jack Vettriano The Man in the Mirror

Jack Vettriano The Man in the MirrorJack Vettriano The Main AttractionJack Vettriano The Mad Hairdresser study
Arthur followed the old man's finger, till he was able to pick out the floating structure he was pointing out. It was indeed the only one of the many structures that betrayed any sign of activity about it, though this was more a sublimal impression than anything one could put one's finger on. At the moment however a flash of light arced through the Earth ..." whispered Arthur. "Well, the Earth Mark Two in fact," said Slartibartfast cheery. "We're making a copy from our original blueprints." There was a pause. "Are you trying to tell me," said Arthur, slowly and with control, "that you originally ... made the Earth?" "Oh yes," said Slartibartfast. "Did you ever go to a place ... I think it was calledstructure and revealed in stark relief the patterns that were formed on the dark sphere within. Patterns that Arthur knew, rough blobby shapes that were as familiar to him as the shapes of words, part of the furniture of his mind. For a few seconds he sat in stunned silence as the images rushed around his mind and tried to find somewhere to settle down and make sense. Part of his brain told him that he knew perfectly well what he was looking at and what the shapes represented whilst another quite sensibly refused to countenance the idea and abdicated responsibility for any further thinking in that direction. The flash came again, and this time there could be no doubt. "The

Renoir Banks of the Seine at Asnieres I

Renoir Banks of the Seine at Asnieres IRenoir Arum and Conservatory PlantsRenoir Apples and Flowers (Les pommes et fleurs)Renoir A Woman Playing the Guitar
apart where I'm standing?" "Yeah, just show them in would you Marvin?" came another voice. Arthur looked at Ford and was astonished to see him laughing. "What's ...?" "Shhh," said Ford, "come in." He stepped through into the bridge. Arthur you know this guy?" he said, waving a wild finger at Zaphod. "Know him!" exclaimed Ford, "he's ..." he paused, and decided to do the introductions the other way round. "Oh, Zaphod, this is a friend of mine, Arthur Dent," he said, "I saved him when his followed him in nervously and was astonished to see a man lolling back in a chair with his feet on a control console picking the teeth in his right-hand head with his left hand. The right-hand head seemed to be thoroughly preoccupied with this task, but the left-hand one was grinning a broad, relaxed, nonchalant grin. The number of things that Arthur couldn't believe he was seeing was fairly large. His jaw flapped about at a loose end for a while. The peculiar man waved a lazy wave at Ford and with an appalling affectation of nonchalance said, "Ford, hi, how are you? Glad you could drop in." Ford was not going to be outcooled. "Zaphod," he drawled, "great to see you, you're looking well, the extra arm suits you. Nice ship you've stolen." Arthur goggled at him. "You mean

David Count Potocki

David Count PotockiDavid Napoleon in his StudyDavid Christ on the CrossDavid The Intervention of the Sabine Women
Now, I don’t want to idealize this. To claim that scientists are free of bias, ambition or desires would be ridiculous. Everyone has pet ideas that they hope are right; and scientists are not famous for humility. (Think of the opening sentence of “For example, scientists in the pay of drug companies are more likely than independent scientists to find that a given drug has a beneficial effect, and less likely to discover that it is harmful. Sometimes, such discrepancies are actually fraudulent; but often, they are due to differences in interpreting a data set, or the ways in which experiments are designed. And there is certainly room for interpretation in the results of experiments: many experiments don’t give clear-cut results.The Double Helix,” James Watson’s account of his and Francis Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA: “I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood.” Those words could be said of many who have not gone on to win a Nobel prize.)Moreover, to downplay evidence that doesn’t fit your ideas, and to place more weight on evidence that does — this is something that human brains just seem to do. Worse, such biases become stronger under certain circumstances.

Manet The Salmon

Manet The SalmonAndreotti The SerenadeManet Claude Monet working on his boat in ArgenteuilManet A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
behind the eyelids. Bureaucratic cock-ups, angry men lying in the mud, indecipherable strangers handing out inexplicable humiliations and an unidentified army of horsemen laughing at him in his head - what a day. What a day. Ford Prefect Ford. He turned to Arthur. "Come on," he said to him, "get up and let the man lie down." Arthur stood up, feeling as if he was in a dream. Ford beckoned to Prosser who sadly, awkwardly, sat down in the mud. He felt that his whole was some kind of dream his fur hat and rolled it fitfully round the top of his head. He could only assume that he had just won. "So," continued Ford Prefect, "if you would just like to come over here and lie down ..." "What?" said Mr Prosser. "Ah, I'm sorry," said Ford, "perhaps I hadn't made myself fully clear. Somebody's got to lie in front of the bulldozers haven't they? Or there won't be anything to stop them driving into Mr Dent's house will there?" "What?" said "You don't," said Ford patiently, "actually need him here." Mr Prosser thought about this. "Well no, not as such...", he said, "not exactly need ..." Prosser was worried. He thought that one of them wasn't making

Gockel Strolling II

Gockel Strolling IIGockel Strolling IGockel Striped FishGockel Streets of Morocco II
Hannah’s battle with cancer, Ethan had felt helpless as never before. He had always been able to take care of the people who mattered to him, to do everything for them that needed to be done. But he couldn’t save Hannah, she who had been the dearest to him.Once more, he felt control slipping out of his hands. With a state-of-the-art security system, also the special boy who’d be left fatherless. Fric would be remanded to the mercy of his self-absorbed mother, set further adrift than ever, consigned to a deeper loneliness than the one he already endured.Ethan . He stood in a state of agitation, overwhelmed by the need to move, to do something, but unable to understand what must be done.At the phone, he pressed INTERCOM and the number for the library. “Fric, are you there?” He waited. “Fric, you hear me?”The boy’s voice came wrapped in a curious caution: “Who’s that?”on-site guards, and well-conceived security protocols, with full diligence, he could not keep Dunny off the estate, out of the house. Man or ghost, or a force to which no easy label applied, Dunny somehow had a connection with Reynerd and probably with the professor about whom Reynerd had written in his screenplay. Dunny must be part of the threat, and he mocked Ethan by his every intrusion, proving that no one here was safe.If Ethan failed Channing Manheim, if someone got at the star in spite of all precautions, he would be failing not only his boss but

Francois Boucher The Interrupted Sleep painting

Francois Boucher The Interrupted Sleep paintingJohannes Vermeer The Love letter paintingJohannes Vermeer The Concert painting
mallard. He hungered to be famous, not infamous. Donald had on occasion attempted to kill Chip and Dale, that pair of pesky chipmunks, but Dr. Bobsecurity office at the back of the estate. One of them could go to the house and stay with the boy.That would leave one man to monitor cameras and other detection systems, with no one to conduct the scheduled foot patrols. Ethan was reluctant to spread his resources thin in the current circumstances.He continued to believe that Reynerd’s unknown partner, if still determined to act, would not do so until Thursday afternoon at the earliest, when the Face returned from the location shoot in Florida. Manheim’s whereabouts were public knowledge and much written about would instead motivate them to give up their rodent ways and become successful entrepreneurs.He signed for Ethan and Hazard two paperback copies of his latest collection and declared that he would be the first ever to pyramid a series of self-help books into a Nobel prize for literature.By the time they escaped Dr. Bob’s office, located a trash can in which to ditch the paperbacks, and returned to the Expedition, the instrument-panel clock and Ethan’s watch showed a synchronized 3:41.At five o’clock, the last of the household staff would leave for the day. Fric would be alone in Palazzo Rospo.Ethan considered calling the guards in the

Wassily Kandinsky Farbstudie Quadrate painting

Wassily Kandinsky Farbstudie Quadrate paintingGustav Klimt Hope paintingPierre-Auguste Cot The Storm painting
her son had proved to be a greater terror to at least one colleague than she had ever dreamed of being to one of hers. She would not have been capable of devising and executing such a complex and clever scheme as the one with which he had brought down Maxwell Dalton.Mother had been motivated by envy, hatred. Free of envy, free of hatred, Corky wasa fatal heart attack.[300] Should the professor survive this hideous news, he would be informed in the morning that his daughter had been killed as well. Maybe the second shock would finish him.One way or another, Corky was ready to be done with Maxwell Dalton. He’d squeezed all the entertainment value out of this situation. The time had come to move on. instead motivated by the dream of a better world through anarchy. She wanted to destroy a handful of enemies, while he wished to destroy everything.Success often comes in greater measure to those with a greater vision.Here at the end of an unusually successful day, Corky sat on his stool, overlooking the shrunken professor, and took small sips of his martini for perhaps ten minutes, saying nothing, letting the suspense build. Even during his busy hours in and out of the rain, he’d found the time to concoct a fabulously brutal story that might at last crack Dalton’s sanity as if it were a breadstick.Corky intended to report that he had murdered Rachel, the wife. Considering Dalton’s extremely fragile condition, perhaps that lie, if well told, would precipitate

Frederic Remington The Cowboy painting

Frederic Remington The Cowboy paintingFrederic Remington Against the Sunset paintingThomas Kinkade venice painting
hit man,” Typhon repeats with audible astonishment.“He was a gangbanger I knew in the old days, a ranking cuzz with the Crips. We manufactured and distributed sherm together back then.”“Sherm?”“PCP, an animal tranquilizer. Had a Jim Jones . I’m concerned that you seem not to understand the limits of your authority.”“I know ringing in one killer to take out another is somewhat unconventional—”“Unconventional!” Typhon shakes his head. “No, lad, it’s utterly unacceptable.”Dunny’s oysters and wine arrive. The waiter uncorks the Pinot Grigio, pours a taste, and Dunny approves.Relying on the pleasant boozy rumble of the glamorous crowd to screen their sensitive conversationproduction line going. Marijuana joints laced with cocaine and dipped in PCP.”“Do all your associates have such charming resumes?”Dunny shrugs. “He was who he was.”[215] “Yes, was. Both men are dead now.”“Here’s the way I see it. Hector had killed before, and Reynerd conspired to have his own mother murdered. I wasn’t corrupting an innocent or targeting one, either.”“I’m not concerned about corruption, Dunny

William Etty Female Nude in a Landscape painting

William Etty Female Nude in a Landscape paintingBenjamin Williams Leader The Incoming Tide Porth Newquay paintingCarl Fredrik Aagard Pergola in Amalfi paintingCarl Fredrik Aagard Mediterranean Shipping painting
You can’t imagine. In black-and-white film, I would fill the screen without overwhelming the audience. Where are the Bogarts and Bacalls of our age, the Tracys and Hepburns, the Cary Grants and the Gary Coopers and the John Waynes?”“We don’t , he would bring the subject around to the star.Wary nonetheless, Hazard said, “I don’t go to the movies.”“Everybody goes.”“Not really. Fewer than thirty million tickets have to be sold to generate two hundred million bucks. Maybe just ten percent of the country.”“All right, but other people see it on TV, on DVD.”“Maybe another thirty million. Pick any particular movie—at least eighty percent of the country never sees it. They have lives to live.”Reynerd seemed to boggle at the notion that movies were not the hub of the world. Although he have them,” Hazard acknowledged.[143] “They couldn’t succeed today,” Reynerd assured him. “They would be too powerful for modern film, too deep, entirely too glamorous. What did you think of Moonshaker?” Hazard frowned. “Of what?”“Moonshaker. Channing Manheim’s latest hit. Two hundred million dollars at the box office.”Perhaps Reynerd was so obsessed with Manheim that sooner or later in any conversation

Gustave Courbet Forest in Autumn painting

Gustave Courbet Forest in Autumn paintingTheodore Robinson View of the Seine paintingTheodore Robinson Willows and Wildflowers paintingMary Cassatt Woman With A Pearl Necklace In A Loge painting
job going down the drain as surely as blood was drawn by gravity down the gutters of an inclined autopsy table.Jose Ramirez said, “Maybe he wasn’t dead, you know, so he walked out himself.”“He’s deader than dead,” Toledano said. “Total damn dead.”With a slump-shouldered shrug and a koala smile, Jose said, “Mistakes happen.”“Not in this hospital, plastic bag from under the gurney that had held Dunny’s body. The bag featured drawstrings, to one of which had been tied a tag that bore the name DUNCAN EUGENE WHISTLER, his date of birth, and his social-security number.With a wheeze of panic in his voice, Toledano said, “That held the clothes he was wearing when he was admitted to the hospital.”Now the bag proved empty. Ethan put it on top of the gurney. “Ever since the old lady woke up fifteen years ago, you double-check the doctors?”they don’t,” the attendant insisted. “Not since once fifteen years ago, when this old lady was in cold holding almost an hour, certified dead, and then she sits up and screams.”“Hey, I remember hearing about that,” said Pomp. “Some nun had herself a heart attack over it.”“Who had the heart attack was the guy in this job before me, and it was the nun chewin’ him out that gave it to him.”Stooping, Ethan extracted a white

Claude Monet Lemon-Trees Bordighera painting

Claude Monet Lemon-Trees Bordighera paintingClaude Monet Ice Thawing on the Seine paintingClaude Monet Houses of Parliament London paintingClaude Monet Houses at Argenteuil painting
Look around you, there are notices everywhere: “Be careful: keep your eye on your possessions”, “Swim at your own risk — on duty”. We are told by government to be alert to the risk of terrorists. And we are watched by CCTV wherever we go. But all this advice to be watchful makes us fearful. It makes us shrink into ourselves. We become unkind, unconcerned for others, and our children become terrified of the outside world.If a young man has a criminal record, but now wants to help others who are younger still — just getting into trouble with the police and at risk of worse — he has to be incredibly determined not to be put off by the marathon of bureaucracy.Hospital staff are often told not to put an arm round patients to comfort them lest it be viewed as assault. So it
These days, you have to have a Criminal Records Bureau check before you volunteer to work with anyone described as vulnerable — children, anyone over 65, and a whole lot of others besides. That makes many young men, especially, nervous about volunteering at all, and others deeply irritated that they are being asked for a CRB check to work, say, in hospital radio.

Rene Magritte The Son of Man painting

Rene Magritte The Son of Man paintingMarc Chagall I and the Village painting
manner of Elves, even those who were accounted mighty kings. Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless it
Marc Chagall Birthday paintingMarc Chagall The Fiddler painting
towards its crown, and yet making still a pillar of wide girth.The chamber was filled with a soft light; its walls were green and silver and its roof of gold. Many Elves were seated there. On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and Galadriel. They stood up to greet their guests, after the were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.Haldir led Frodo before them, and the Lord welcomed him in his own tongue. The Lady Galadriel said no word but looked long upon his face.`Sit now beside my chair, Frodo of the Shire! ' said Celeborn. `When all have come we will speak together.'Each of the companions he greeted courteously by name as they entered. `Welcome Aragorn son of Arathorn! ' he said. `It is eight and thirty years of the world outside since you came to

Henri Matisse Blue Nude I 1952 painting

Henri Matisse Blue Nude I 1952 paintingCassius Marcellus Coolidge A Friend in Need painting
took their chief meal: cold and cheerless as a rule, for they could seldom risk the lighting of a fire. In the evening they went on again, always as nearly southward as they could find a way.At first it seemed to the hobbits that although they walked and stumbled until they were weary, they were creeping forward like snails, and getting nowhere. Each day the land looked much the same as it had the day before. Yet steadily the mountains were drawing nearer. whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out of the very stone of the hills. Their dark leaves shone and their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.Away in the south Frodo could see the dim shapes of lofty mountains that seemed now to stand across
Edvard Munch Puberty 1894 paintingAlbert Moore silver painting
South of Rivendell they rose ever higher, and bent westwards; and about the feet of the main range there was tumbled an ever wider land of bleak hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent waters. Paths were few and winding, and led them often only to the edge of some sheer fall, or down into treacherous swamps.They had been a fortnight on the way when the weather changed. The wind suddenly fell and then veered round to the south. The swift-flowing clouds lifted and melted away, and the sun came out, pale and bright. There came a cold clear dawn at the end of a long stumbling night-march. The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-trees

Van Gogh Haystack in Rainy Day

Van Gogh Haystack in Rainy DayVan Gogh Beach with Figures and Sea with a ShipVan Gogh Terrace of the Cafe La GuinguetteVan Gogh Field of Poppies I
Bridge,' he said. 'It is a beryl, an elf-stone. Whether it was set there, or let fall by chance, I cannot say; but it brings hope to me. I will take it as a sign that we may pass the Bridge; but beyond that I dare not keep to the they caught glimpses of ancient walls of stone, and the ruins of towers: they had an ominous look. Frodo, who was not walking, had time to gaze ahead and to think. He recalled Bilbo's account of his journey and the threatening towers on the hills north of the Road, in the country near the Troll's wood where his first serious adventure had happened. Frodo guessed that they were now in the same region, and wondered if by chance they would pass near the spot.Road, without some clearer token.'At once they went on again. They crossed the Bridge in safety, hearing no sound but the water swirling against its three great arches. A mile further on they came to a narrow ravine that led away northwards through the steep lands on the left of the Road. Here Strider turned aside, and soon they were lost in a sombre country of dark trees winding among the feet of sullen hills.The hobbits were glad to leave the cheerless lands and the perilous Road behind them; but this new country seemed threatening and unfriendly. As they went forward the hills about them steadily rose. Here and there upon heights and ridges

Van Gogh Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Van Gogh Portrait of Dr. GachetVan Gogh Plum tree in Bloom after HiroshigeVan Gogh Peasant Burning WeedsVan Gogh Noon Rest After Millet
and pools. Here and there it passed over other rills, running down gullies into the Withywindle out of the higher forest-lands, and at these points there were tree-trunks or bundles of brushwood laid carefully across.The hobbits began to feel very hot. There were armies of flies of all kinds buzzing round their ears, and the afternoon sun was burning on their backs. At last they came suddenly into a thin shade; great grey can’t have a nap yet. We must get clear of the Forest first.’ But the others were too far gone to care. Beside them Sam stood yawning and blinking stupidly.Suddenly Frodo himself felt sleep overwhelming him. His head swam. There now seemed hardly a sound in the air. The flies had stopped buzzing. Only a gentle noise on the edge of branches reached across the path. Each step forward became more reluctant than the last. Sleepiness seemed to be creeping out of the ground and up their legs, and falling softly out of the air upon their heads and eyes.Frodo felt his chin go down and his head nod. Just in front of him Pippin fell forward on to his knees. Frodo halted. ‘It’s no good,’ he heard Merry saying. ‘Can’t go another step without rest. Must have nap. It’s cool under the willows. Less flies!’Frodo did not like the sound of this. ‘Come on!’ he cried. ‘We

Madonna con Bambino e San Giovannino by Bartolo

Madonna con Bambino e San Giovannino by BartoloDomenico di Bartolo Madonna of HumilityLeighton A Little Prince Likely in Time to Bless a Royal ThroneSpringtime,Boston Public Garden
who seemed to crouch in the saddle, wrapped in a great black cloak and hood, so that only his boots in the high stirrups showed below; his face was shadowed and invisible.When it reached the tree and was level with Frodo the horse stopped. The riding figure sat quite still with its head bowed, as if listening. From inside the hood came a noise as of someone sniffing to catch an elusive scent; the head turned from side to side of the dwindled into the distance. He could not be quite sure, but it seemed to him that suddenly, before it passed out of sight, the horse turned aside and went into the trees on the right.‘Well, I call that very queer, and indeed disturbing,’ said Frodo to himself, as he walked road.A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo, and he thought of his Ring. He hardly dared to breathe, and yet the desire to get it out of his pocket became so strong that he began slowly to move his hand. He felt that he had only to slip it on, and then he would be safe. The advice of Gandalf seemed absurd. Bilbo had used the Ring. ‘And I am still in the Shire,’ he thought, as his hand touched the chain on which it hung. At that moment the rider sat up, and shook the reins. The horse stepped forward, walking slowly at first, and then breaking into a quick trot.Frodo crawled to the edge of the road and watched the rider, until he