A Rebiours. It is the title to J.K. Huysmans’s 1884 novel that loosely translates from French into English as “against the grain” or “against nature.” (more…)

In 1956, with the support of a friend, Touko Laaksonen decided to show the world his hidden art of sexually-charged portraits of men. He sent some of the portraits to an American magazine called Physique Pictorial, under the pseudonym “Tom”. Published in the spring of 1957 edition of magazine and signed by a certain “Tom of Finland”, these “dirty drawings” (more…)

Amon Adonai Santos de Araujo Tobin may not be a man of gigantic physical proportions, but behind the computer and the turntables, he’s certainly a musical heavyweight. He is also one of the most interesting electronic musicians that came to light during the past decade, with a recent release last year, titled Foley Room.

His work may not be climbing the charts, and maybe his music isn’t the easiest (more…)

When Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, the Mayor of Lisbon placed billboards throughout the city congratulating him. It was the consecration of a Portuguese, an internationally acclaimed figure of the words, and a controversial thinker. The man who came from the country, a mere mechanic, and who published (more…)

Lewis Fry Richardson, the meteorologist who invented a numerical method for weather prediction, also spent much of his life studying environmental conditions conducive to quarrels, rebellions and wars. That he would be equally interested in both weather and human behavior is not surprising. Most of us can relate. If we didn’t have the constant sense that (more…)

Autism has been getting a lot of media attention lately which has slowly dispelled myths about the condition. It was once thought that people afflicted with autism were low functioning and were dismissed as mentally retarded. While most people who are autistic lack language and social skills, they generally have extremely high intelligence levels. (more…)

Marilyn Monroe is the symbol of the eternal feminine. She represents an era when sex was not openly discussed or depicted but was suggested in looks and body language.

And Marilyn had a language all her own. She was sex incarnate and that’s what everyone saw up on the screen.

“Marilyn is as near a genius as any actress I ever knew,” said Josh Logan, director of Bus Stop. “She is an artist beyond artistry. (more…)

Green is everywhere, literally. These days, you can’t turn on the television, radio, open a magazine or surf the web without seeing ads of eco-friendly products and services. One green area which is taking off in a big way due to consumer demand is eco-home furnishings (more…)

Ben Owen’s ‘Chinese Red’ ceramics glaze is the fire-engine polish every girl has once painted on her toes, the flagrant crimson of horror flick blood and of thick habanero hot sauce. It’s ruddier than North Carolina’s clay earth, more azalea than rose.

When I visited Owen’s gallery in Seagrove, N.C. while studying pottery in college, the red so stunned me that I later tried to recreate it in class. (more…)

The great Pablo Picasso once said, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Warren Knapp probably knows this quote well because his paintings show a love for everything and nothing is off limits for the artist. For over two decades, he has been producing some of the most exciting work on the west coast and has made a name for himself (more…)