Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Darwyn Cooke, the comic book artist best known for his vibrantly imaginative work on DC superheroes and noir crime stories, has died. He was 53. Cooke’s wife, Marsha Cooke, said he died Saturday morning at his home in Florida following a battle with lung cancer. Cooke famously reimagined the Justice League members in 2004 with a signature retro style in “DC: The New Frontier.” His other work included gritty adaptations of Richard Stark’s “Parker” novels, a modern interpretation of Catwoman and the “Solo” graphic novel series, which earned Cooke an Eisner Award, considered to be...

I think we all agree that the quality of the opuses here on Free Republic has dropped considerably. Yes, I know that the plural of opus is opera. To me, opera is just some people putting themselves on a stage and waving their arms around and screaming something that nobody understands. By golly, that is exactly what the opus writers do. Still, the dictionary assures me that "opuses" is also a correct plural form of "opus". If you don't like it, well, write that into your opus....in Italian. My Dad always told me, "If you're going to write an opus,...

PBS favorite “Antiques Roadshow” has admitted that it mistakenly claimed a grotesque jug dated back to the 19th century, when it was really from a 1970s Oregon high school art class. Appraiser Stephen Fletcher originally said that the piece, featured in a January episode of the show, was worth up to $50,000. -snip The weird pot had migrated about 60 miles from its birthplace at Churchill High School in the years between 1973 or 74 and last summer, when new owner Alvin Barr was thrilled that his estate sale find could be worth a small fortune. Soule and friends contacted...

<p>A Big Apple mom tried to surprise her daughter at college by sneaking into her dorm, but wound up breaking into the wrong room and snapping a selfie on a stranger’s bed — completely mortifying her millennial offspring.</p> <p>Deanna Pilling traveled from her Morningside Heights apartment to Utah State University last week to pick up 18-year-old McKenna, who had just completed her first year at the school.</p>

I had a pretty good morning. Hiked the Lake June Scrub State Park and good shots of the scrub jay and towhee. Came home to find the flycatcher posing in a ficus tree in our front yard; got his pic through the car window. Took a bike ride and found a great egret, a snowy egret and tricolor heron in the same small stream. The snowy and the tricolor worked the great egret. They were positioned about 50 apart. The great egret spent his time trying to shoo off each of them. As one avoided the great egret, the other...

Days before a critical Indiana primary that could sew up the presidential nomination for the “presumptive” Republican party nominee, the candidate’s eldest son, who is also his current campaign surrogate and Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, isn’t interested in talking politics at all..... If all of these Trump business traits—passion, hard work, getting your hands dirty—sound distinctly similar to many of the themes Donald Sr. is hammering home on the Republican campaign trail it’s because they’ve run in the family for decades—and Don Jr. isn’t shy about telling voters as much. Presidential campaigns have a habit of throwing...

Unlike professional athletes, actors (Gene Hackman) and some novelists (Philip Roth), visual artists don’t usually retire. Or if they do, they don’t announce it. But in 2011, Maurizio Cattelan — one of the most expensive living artists, then at the peak of his career and the subject of an uproarious retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum — told the world that he was finished, fatigued both creatively and by the velocity of the money-fueled art world. During the last couple of years, though, Mr. Cattelan found himself itching to make things in three dimensions again. “Actually, it’s even more of a...

"Awesome video! Some dude from Soviet break dancing crew of late 1980s have found many of his buddies (now living all over the world) and asked them to dance again. Many of this dudes are in their 40s and 50s but still can do things! Check it out!" Link to source Direct link to video via You Tube

Auto mechanics pay homage to the legendary artworks of Renaissance painters. by TedBuckley · 1 hour ago The Creation of an Auto Mechanic The Last Supper of Auto Mechanics The Anatomy of a Car Lesson Credit to photographer: Freddy Fabris Sauce: http://brightside.me/creativity-photography/auto-mechanics-pay-homage-to-the-legendary-artworks-of-renaissance-painters-114455 48 points 370 views

Norman Rockwell has replaced the bald eagle as our national icon In a unanimous vote, Congress passed the "LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN bill" that names Norman Rockwell as the educator and illustrator for the growth Amaerica HAS seen, and WILL SEE, henceforth

Okay folks on the left coast, help me out. Whilst rummaging through a antique shop I found a really neat photo. It is a photo of a combination drive through florist shop and restaurant in Los Angeles. Based on the cars in the shot, It could be from anywhere from 1948 to 1952 (sorry, I don't have the ability to post pictures). The sign on the business says "McEldowneys". From my research it was owned By JK McEldowney, a LA businessman who went on to make the classic 1951 film "The River". He died in 2004 at the age of...

New Yorkers take a kind of perverse pride in never looking up. Not in a figurative sense, of course: we are, after all, as optimistic as anyone else. (Who else but die-hard optimists would willingly live in so unforgiving a city?) But when it comes to actually, physically looking up, most of our gazes rarely rise above the ankles of our fellow commuters. The Boston-born, New York-based artist Duke Riley is going to change that.

With apologies to Islander7, but I haven't seen an “Occasional Birdy Thread” in awhile, so I thought that I would post one. My pictures aren't as great as those posted by Islander7 or fidelis, but it's kind of like singing. All that you really need to do is to sing (or take bird pictures) well enough to entertain yourself. Blue-winged Teal Greater Yellowlegs Greater Yellowlegs with Blue-winged Teal Greater Yellowlegs Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Osprey Eastern Phoebe Solitary Sandpiper

I've seen a few opuses (opi?) here on Free Republic the last couple of days. They are mostly of the "I'm gonna take my ball and go home!" genre. Well, those balls aren't going to do much good just sitting in the closet at home. These people should give their balls to Hillary Clinton. Hillary isn't much of a basketball player, but she will take these balls and stab them and grind them up and use them as borders for the rose garden at The White House. So, don't just take your balls and go home, give them to Hillary....

William Shakespeare died three days before his 52nd birthday. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". Wondering if this notable date has been reported in the MSM, seeing as how they are all students of literature/s

Hendrix guitar over James Brown funk, with Michael Jackson choreography.

It's time we Freepers give credit where it's due.

When Donald Trump’s political credentials as a Republican and/or conservative are challenged, he likes to remind people that Ronald Reagan was a Democrat once and managed to evolve over time. Except that Reagan’s conversion was real and he had two terms as governor of California to prove his bona fides before he ran for president as a conservative Republican. As Reagan campaign manager Stu Spencer and speechwriter Ken Khachiagin note in a Real Clear Politics piece: Yes, Ronald Reagan migrated from being a liberal Democrat to the gold standard for conservative Republicans. But Reagan’s views evolved over four decades’ worth...

Who will Hillary Clinton call while she is in prison? No private Internet for our girl while she's in the slammer. Will she call Bill? Will she call George Soros? Will she call the IRS Helpline? I'm thinking that she will call Bernie Sanders and prank him. "Hello, Bernie. I'm calling from the Association of Sanders Supporters to talk to you about joining our organization. For a mere $20 donation, you can join ASS. We like to think that you have to be an ASS to support Bernie."

WITH a groan of tortured metal and the screams of the remaining passengers still clinging to her hull, Titanic sank beneath the waves and the last unlaunched canvas lifeboat was washed from her deck into the foaming, whirlpool of freezing water. Third class passenger Edvard Lindell, floundering in the maelstrom, struck out desperately in the direction of the half-submerged craft and managed to drag himself aboard but wife Gerda, already exhausted by the numbingly-cold water, did not have the strength to clamber into the swamped Collapsible Lifeboat A. Like a scene from James Cameron’s Titanic movie, she held on for...