Free Republic

Famed British artist David Hockney is giving up Los Angeles after 55 years for Normandy, France, to live out the rest of his days. 'I can do twice as much work there, three times as much,' Hockney tells the Wall Street Journal of leaving the city that made him famous in the 1960s. 'I've probably not much time left and because I don't, I value it even more.' It's there in his new home, which he bought on a whim last year after seeing it for just 25 minutes, that the 82-year-old created his latest work inspired by the view...

Sales of vinyl records have enjoyed constant growth in recent years. At the same time, CD sales are in a nosedive. Last year, the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) mid-year report suggested that CD sales were declining three times as fast as vinyl sales were growing. In February, the RIAA reported that vinyl sales accounted for more than a third of the revenue coming from physical releases. This trend continues in RIAA’s 2019 mid-year report, which came out on Thursday. Vinyl records earned $224.1 million (on 8.6 million units) in the first half of 2019, closing in on the...

Count Vlad has collaborated with different people at different times. In this piece he collaborated with Tom Davis to create a song in the vein of the Moody Blues from the 1970s. The Moody Blues were your quintessential cosmic hippie band that sang of Timothy Leary, going to India and taking LSD. If you enjoy the music, please subscribe to the count's channel.

Dakota Fanning has responded to allegations of whitewashing over her latest role. In Sweetness in the Belly, adapted from Camilla Gibb's 2005 novel and screening in Toronto, the actress — recently seen as a Manson girl in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood — plays a child refugee who is abandoned in Africa by her parents and raised in Ethiopia as Muslim. The first clip from the film, directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, was released earlier this week, and fell foul of several online commentators, who complained on social media that Fanning's role — which originally Saoirse Ronan was...

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” It’s advice we’ve all likely heard at some point throughout our careers. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve written it in the pages of a magazine at least once in the near decade I’ve worked in fashion. The thinking goes as follows: If you want your bosses to see you as someone who can take on more authority, you need to act that way. Part of that demonstration is in how you present yourself. For thin women, it’s good advice. I can still recall the outfits I wore to...

A Russian DEA raid portrayed against a suburban ghetto meth dealer. Is it more realistic comparing to Hollywood or not?

Miranda Devine lashed out after claiming a new book praises Michelle and directs “thinly veiled criticism” at Melania. The book, ’Melania & Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era’, was deemed “troublesome” by the journalist after author Tammy R. Vigil explained Melania’s “difficulties” with the fact she “followed a popular and competent first lady”. Writing in a New York Post column, Ms Devine described the book as “a mere bipartisan assessment of the public images of both women”. Ms Devine claimed Melania had not committed “the same errors of arrogant overreach” like other First Ladies before her. She added: “Melania...

A monster is coming.

A Roman mosaic depicting a mythical chariot race has been fully uncovered in a Berkshire village - and it could be one of Britain's most exciting archaeological discoveries. The 1,600-year-old mosaic, which was found in Boxford in 2017 but only fully uncovered recently, is one of only three of its kind in the world and is 'totally unknown' in Britain, experts said. It depicts a chariot race involving Greek mythological figure Pelops, who is racing to win the hand of love interest Princess Hippodamia. ... The mosaic will now be covered over once more to protect it and to allow...

A new book comparing Melania Trump and Michelle Obama has brought out predictable slaps against the current first lady from bullies who seek to attack the president through his family. Pitting two women against each other just never gets old, does it? “Melania & Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era,” by Tammy R. Vigil, is presented as a mere bipartisan assessment of the public images of both women. But it thinly veils its criticism of one and its admiration of the other. No prizes for guessing who’s who. Vigil, a Boston academic, notes that Melania “ranks among the least...

Lisa Stansfield, one of the best female pop singers ever. Today is the first time I've heard her voice. Amazing voice, God-given talent. I love great vocals, glad I discovered her tonight.

Count Vlad usually does his own music but now and again he collaborates with other writers. In this case he wrote a song with Tom Davis. The Promise is a laid back, soft jazz piece almost in the vein of Simply Red or Sade. If you like the music please subscribe to Count Vlad's channel.

All three networks couldn’t stop gushing over pop star Taylor Swift’s liberal awakening on full display at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards. While accepting an award, the singer called on the White House to respond to a Change.org petition to pass the “equality act” a federal level law banning “discrimination” against transgender and gay people. ABC, NBC and CBS gave Swift the royalty treatment, praising her “powerful” and “intelligent” “transformation” embracing the left. On Good Morning America, correspondent T.J. Holmes was enthusiastic at how quickly the awards show turned political: “The VMAs started at 8:00 eastern live last night....

Has the reach of #MeToo finally come for Renoir? ... The piece, titled "Renoir's Problem Nudes" has doozies like these: Who doesn’t have a problem with Pierre-Auguste Renoir? A tremendously engaging show that centers on the painter’s prodigious output of female nudes, “Renoir: The Body, the Senses,” at the Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, sparks a sense of crisis. The reputation of the once exalted, still unshakably canonical, Impressionist has fallen on difficult days. Never mind the affront to latter-day educated tastes of a painting style so sugary that it imperils your mind’s incisors; there’s a more burning issue....

Former NBA star objected to additions (Newser) – Larry Bird was surprised to see his tattoos in a mural painted on the side of a building in Indianapolis. The spider web tattoo on his left shoulder, the dagger on his right cheek, "Hoosier" on his neck—and more—don't exist on the real Larry Bird. So the retired NBA great's lawyer struck a deal with the street artist, Jules Muck, the Indianapolis Star reports. The tattoos are gone now, except for the "Indiana" on an arm and the street artist's "Muck Rock" signature, which was moved from inside a heart on Bird's...

Bonjour, FLOTUS! Melania Trump arrived Saturday in France wearing one of her brightest ensembles yet. The first lady — disembarking from Air Force One in the city of Biarritz with President Donald Trump for the G7 summit, where he'll convene with world leaders — looked radiant in a tie-dye midi dress from Calvin Klein. The canary yellow smock, priced at $530.16 according to Net-a-Porter, is made from denim and features white and pink scalloped patterns that resemble flowers, blossoming at the right shoulder and the opposite hip. Melania completed her look with oversized sunglasses and bright pink stiletto heels, which...

A visit to The Butterfly Place yesterday resulted in this memory of the trip. I love Joseph Blanchard's compositions. And I'm impressed at how well phone cameras work, as opposed to the big, clunky ones of the past.

“It was huge – at least 5-by-5, 6-by-6 – in the main house, at the bottom of the stairs in the basement near the laundry,” the contractor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the network. “We would talk about how creepy it was, this strange painting with nothing else around it. From the minute you got there, you felt the uneasy vibe.”

Count Vlad has done an original song in the vein of George Harrison. Though his accent is heavy at times the song does sound like a Harrison song. And if it was sung by Jeff Lynne you could swear that it was penned for the Travelling Wilburys. If you like the music please subscribe to the Count's channel.

Radio, IR and optical observations show evolution of plumes and their impact on belts and zones Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter's atmosphere are affecting the planet's white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing their color. Thanks to coordinated observations of the planet in January 2017 by six ground-based optical and radio telescopes and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a University of California, Berkeley, astronomer and her colleagues have been able to track the effects of these storms -- visible as bright plumes above the planet's ammonia ice clouds -- on the belts in which...