Free Republic 4th Qtr 2025 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $51,229
63%  
Woo hoo!! And now only $611 to reach 64%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Arts/Photography (General/Chat)

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • “A Charlie Brown Christmas” Premieres on CBS – This Day in History (Sixty years a go today)

    12/09/2025 2:12:37 PM PST · by Ciaphas Cain · 60 replies
    December 9, 1965, marked a quiet revolution in American holiday television — the day A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS. Based on the beloved Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, the half-hour animated special introduced to millions a different kind of Christmas story: small in scale, emotionally honest, tender, and subversively thoughtful. At the time, few expected much. The special was produced on a modest budget, completed in just six months, and featured child actors rather than seasoned voice talents — a bold choice for 1965 television. Executives worried: no laugh track, understated pacing, a jazz soundtrack by Vince...
  • Magical Mystery Beatles Demo

    12/08/2025 5:14:38 PM PST · by BEJ · 12 replies
    I have written some "Beatles songs" without the use of AI. I'm a big Beatles fan, and couldn't help trying to write in their style. If you like the Beatles, check it out.
  • The Genius That's STILL Standing With Ukraine

    12/08/2025 3:29:22 PM PST · by BEJ · 9 replies
    A real funny take on Ukraine. Had me in stitches.
  • Lost Bach Pieces Performed for First Time in 320 Years: ‘Great moment for the world of music’

    12/08/2025 10:58:15 AM PST · by nickcarraway · 55 replies
    GOOD NEWS NETWORK ^ | Andy Corbley
    Two musical pieces written by Johann Sebastian Bach were recently performed for the first time ever, more than 300 years after they were composed. Both written for the organ, they are believed to date from the great composer’s very early career, when he worked as a organ tutor in Thuringia. Germany’s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer called the discovery of the two pieces a “great moment for the world of music.” Both pieces were unsigned and undated when they were found in the 1990s by Mr. Peter Wollny, a Belgian Bach researcher working at the Royal Library in Brussels. Entitled Chaconne...
  • Frank Gehry, Creator of the Iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Has Died

    12/07/2025 3:46:55 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 18 replies
    Frank Gehry, creator of the iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, has died By Adam Woodward • Published: 06 Dec 2025 • 10:03 • 2 minutes read Frank Gehry & Guggenheim Bilbao. Frank Gehry & Guggenheim Bilbao. Credit: Rudy Mareel - Shutterstock Frank O. Gehry, the Canadian-American architect whose audacious, sculptural designs liberated modern architecture and whose Guggenheim Museum Bilbao revolutionised urban planning and firmly put the post-industrial city on the global map, died on Friday, December 5, at his home in Santa Monica. He was 96. The cause was a brief respiratory illness, confirmed by his firm. Widely considered one of...
  • Kent State a cappella group bans white students from solo auditions

    12/05/2025 1:30:32 PM PST · by WhiteHatBobby0701 · 77 replies
    Campus Reform ^ | December 5, 2025 | Emma Arns
    An a cappella group at Kent State University in Ohio allegedly banned white students from auditioning for certain solos and disciplined a longtime member for questioning the race-based policy. Emails obtained by Campus Reform display how Vocal Intensity A Cappella limited certain solos to “people of color,” claiming white students would be engaging in “cultural appropriation” if they were to perform them. Mark Phillips, a three-year member and the a cappella group’s beatboxer, contacted a board member to inquire about how the exclusion of white students aligned with Kent State’s anti-discrimination policies. Phillips suggested the limitation seemed “at odds with...
  • Detroit finally has a RoboCop statue

    12/04/2025 11:38:07 AM PST · by Ciaphas Cain · 47 replies
    Detroit Metro Times ^ | December 3, 2025 | Lee DeVito
    Nearly 15 years later, Detroit finally has its statue of RoboCop. The bronze statue depicting the eponymous cybernetic star of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 set-in-Detroit sci-fi satire was installed in Eastern Market on Wednesday, nearly 15 years after someone proposed it in a viral social media post. Back in 2011, someone with the Twitter account @MT (no, not us) tweeted at then-Mayor Dave Bing that Detroit should have a statue of the part-man, part-machine cop because “Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky’s butt.” “He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit,” the tweet continued. The idea got...
  • DJI Ban: I’ve Reached Acceptance, and Here’s What You Need to Know

    12/04/2025 9:43:46 AM PST · by fireman15 · 24 replies
    51 Drones ^ | Dec 1, 2025 | Russ @ 51 Drones
    What’s Actually Happening Most of you already know what’s going on, but just in case you don’t: under the current rules, a government agency has to perform a security audit on DJI. If they don’t complete one by December 23rd, DJI automatically gets placed on the FCC’s Covered List. The truth is, no agency wants to be the one to step forward and take on that responsibility. There’s no incentive. There’s actually political risk. There’s liability. So the most likely scenario is that no audit is going to happen and DJI gets listed by default. It’s an underhanded way to...
  • Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting 2025 ✨ NYC Christmas 2025 ✨

    12/03/2025 9:37:18 PM PST · by CondoleezzaProtege · 7 replies
    Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting 2025 ✨ NYC Christmas 2025 ✨
  • Men Aren’t Vanishing From Fiction. The Truth Is More Complicated

    12/03/2025 10:46:54 AM PST · by nickcarraway · 55 replies
    Men aren’t vanishing from fiction. The truth is more complicated (Cannot be posted due to FR rules.)
  • Dana Winner

    12/02/2025 10:34:24 AM PST · by kawhill · 4 replies
    BGUNIVERSITY ^ | 9 December 2012, 12:58am | BGUNIVERSITY
    Biography Born 10 February 1965 (age 60) Born In Hasselt, Limburg, Flanders, Belgium Dana Winner (Hasselt, 10 February 1965) is a Flemish singer. Her real name is Chantal Vanlee. Under the guidance of Jean Klüger she debuted in 1990
  • How Did The World Get So Ugly? [ Why are ordinary things so ugly, the Victorian Age vs Modernity. ]

    12/01/2025 4:13:25 PM PST · by Fitzy_888 · 94 replies
    Sheehan Quirke Via YouTube ^ | 10/30/25 | Sheehan Quirke
    Video at link.
  • Female Boxer Refusing To Change Controversial Weigh-In Outfit

    12/01/2025 3:35:38 AM PST · by where's_the_Outrage? · 61 replies
    The Spun ^ | Nov 30, 2025 | Andrew Holleran
    A female boxer is trending on social media for her controversial weigh-in outfit. Ebanie Bridges, a 39-year-old boxer, has trended on social media for the clothes she decides to wear to her weigh-ins - or, rather, the lack of clothes she chooses to wear. Bridges often shows up in her underwear. Male boxers do this all the time, too. However, for Bridges, she often sees herself trending on social media as a result. Some have called for her to wear more clothing when in front of the cameras. But despite the calls to change her outfits, Bridges is promising that...
  • To our brains, your red is my red

    11/30/2025 6:44:14 PM PST · by Red Badger · 39 replies
    Science News Explores ^ | November 05, 2025 | Laura Sanders
    Scans reveal a common brain pattern when people see red, green or yellow Is my red the same as your red? It’s a classic puzzler, one that’s fun to debate with your friends and family. Do colors look the same to you as they do to me? Now two neuroscientists weigh in — with a resounding maybe. There were two possibilities when it comes to how brains react to color, says Andreas Bartels. He works at the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. Perhaps everyone’s brain is unique. Each might have its own...
  • A Dentist Discovered a Hidden Code in Leonardo da Vinci’s Most Famous Drawing

    11/30/2025 5:17:49 PM PST · by Red Badger · 8 replies
    Popular Mechanics ^ | November 29, 2025 | Michael Natale
    A third shape hidden in the infamous Vitruvian Man drawing suggests an even deeper understanding of human anatomy than previously known. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * A London-based dentist spotted a “hidden in plain sight” third shape within Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man drawing. * The 1490 illustration was originally created to demonstrate a principle theorized by the Roman architect Vitruvius—that the human body could proportionally fit within both a circle and a square. * The dentist noticed that a third shape in the drawing—a triangle between the figure’s legs—was reminiscent of a dental...
  • Fuhgeddaboudit! Guido on a Ledge has Italian-Americans fist pumping over SI mom’s Elf on a Shelf makeover

    11/29/2025 7:13:49 AM PST · by Libloather · 20 replies
    NY Post ^ | 11/29/25 | Angela Barbuti
    You won’t Fuhgeddaboud being good this Christmas. You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf, now there’s Guido on a Ledge — a plush doll decked out in a wife-beater tank, shades, slides, sporting facial — and chest — hair, and wearing a good-luck horn. Creator Christine Fiscardi Lentinello, a Red Hook, Brooklyn native who now lives in Staten Island, said goombahs get a kick out of Guido. “They’re so excited. They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh this is fantastic. This looks like my uncle. This is my neighbor. This is my father,'” Lentinello, 54, told The Post. “Some people even rename...
  • The Nutcracker: The World's Most Popular Ballet

    11/27/2025 2:46:24 PM PST · by CondoleezzaProtege · 27 replies
    Ballet Arizona ^ | Nov 2021
    Here are 10 historical fun facts about the beloved holiday ballet that will have sugarplums dancing in your head! 1. Although The Nutcracker first premiered in the United States in 1944 by San Francisco Ballet, it didn’t gain popularity until ten years later with George Balanchine’s version. By the 1960s, the ballet became a holiday essential across the country. 2. Tchaikovsky died shortly after the original 1892 production in Russia, never knowing the long-lasting impression of his work. He also considered it one of his worst works, thinking The Sleeping Beauty was far superior. 3. In German folklore, it is...
  • Gustav Klimt’s ‘Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer’ Sells for $236.4 M., Highest Price for Any Work of Modern Art Sold at Auction

    11/21/2025 1:58:19 PM PST · by simpson96 · 53 replies
    ARTnews ^ | 11/18/2025 | Daniel Cassady
    The final tally of $236.4 million is the highest price for any work of modern art ever sold at auction and also set an auction record for the artist. Until Tuesday evening, that record had been held by Pablo Picasso’s 1955 Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”), which sold at Christie’s New York in 2015 for $179.4 million. The Klimt record also marks the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby’s. “Tonight, we made history at the Breuer,” Helena Newman, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of Impressionist and modern Art and chairman of its European operations, said in a statement shortly after the...
  • ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’ director on exposing the hidden truths behind Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

    11/20/2025 12:49:31 PM PST · by Red Badger · 3 replies
    Gold Derby ^ | November 20, 2025 | Denton Davidson
    Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki opens up about uncovering secrets, working with Pamela Anderson, and the global power struggle that turned the WikiLeaks founder into a political target. For filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, the story of The Six Billion Dollar Man began with a leak — one that shook even a seasoned documentarian known for tackling political corruption and moral collapse. “It started about five years ago,” Jarecki says. “My producing partner Kathleen Fournier and I came into possession of absolutely groundbreaking and shattering information on the Assange case that had never been seen by the public before.” That information, he adds, revealed...
  • Lubbock must remove Buddy Holly art on crosswalks following governor’s order

    11/17/2025 11:31:12 AM PST · by Red Badger · 32 replies
    KCBD-TV 11 ^ | November 12, 2025 | Staff
    LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - City leaders learned at Tuesday’s Lubbock City Council meeting that the city’s iconic Buddy Holly crosswalks must be removed to comply with state and federal law, following a directive from Governor Abbott regarding all decorative markings statewide. The Texas Department of Transportation provided clarification on Lubbock’s “creative crosswalks” and notified the city that the Buddy Holly-themed crosswalks will have to be removed. City officials previously thought the crosswalks were safe since they were art installations and not considered a political, religious or commercial message. TxDOT notified the city Nov. 5 that this was not the case....