Singing Hero!
"I know I can be diva-ish sometimes, but I have to be in control. The nature of my life, the nature of what I do, is divadom, it really is.”
- Mariah Carey, Singer
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March 26, 2008
Happy 64th Birthday to Diana Ross!
"My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunities.”
- Diana Ross, Singer cum Actress
March 17, 2008
Amen!
"But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat."
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2
March 12, 2008
The Fashion Maestro
"Jeans represent democracy in fashion."
-Giorgio Armani- Fashion Designer
March 11, 2008
No Matter of Fate
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
-Stephen Hawking
March 10, 2008
Something Good
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life.Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
February 27, 2008
Quoteworthy
"If the lesser mind could measure the greater as a footrule can measure a pyramid, there would be finality in universal suffrage. As it is, the political problem remains unsolved".
-George Bernard Shaw
February 25, 2008
Eco-logical Ideas
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."Umberto Eco
February 05, 2008
Love What You Do
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran
January 30, 2008
'Handey' Thoughts
"How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak."
Jack Handey
January 14, 2008
Celebrate Philosophy
"If I am a thinking being, I must regard life other than my own with equal reverence, for I shall know that it longs for fullness and development as deeply as I do myself. Therefore, I see that evil is what annihilates, hampers, or hinders life.…Goodness, by the same token, is the saving or helping of life, the enabling of whatever life I can to attain its highest development."
Albert Schweitzer, “Philosophy of Civilization,” 1923
January 02, 2008
Rewards of Persistence
"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."
December 19, 2007
All Year Long
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens
November 13, 2007
Dream On...
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
Terry Pratchett, Author for Discworld Series, Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, Bromeliad Trilogy and many others.
Born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Pratchett left school in 1965 to begin work as a journalist. His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, followed by The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981). His comic fantasies set on Discworld, cleverly subverting the clichés of genre fantasy and other kinds of imaginative fiction, began with The Colour of Magic (1983), achieved bestseller status with Mort (1987), and rapidly extended at the rate of two a year to Night Watch (2002) and Monstrous Regiment (2003). They are enormously popular with teenagers, and much of Pratchett's other work is aimed specifically at a younger audience.
Image from Library Press Display
Reference: Credo Reference Literature
October 09, 2007
The Spirit of Giving
"Anything that is of value in life only multiplies when it is given."
- Deepak Chopra, author
September 24, 2007
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald born on Sept. 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.
September 07, 2007
Farewell Maestro!
"“Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid? What sane man is not?”"
"Penso che una vita per la musica sia una vita spesa bene ed e questo che mi sono dedicato"
("I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I have devoted my life to")
Luciano Pavarotti, (born Modena 1935 died Modena 2007) Opera Tenor
Luciano Pavarotti renowned worldwide as the best tenor of this or perhaps any other generation- famed for the power and effortlessness of his upper register notes. His "high C" was his chief source of renown. He came into popular view through a performance of Nessun Dorma sung at the opening ceremony of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.
There's lots of news coverage and tributes so why not check up our One Browse service and search for "Pavarotti"
DIRECT LINKS
IMAGE Copyright:©UPI
Caption:
PAVAROTTI'S FAREWELL CONCERT IN PARIS-Luciano Pavarotti performs in concert at Bercy in Paris, France on May 17, 2005. The concert was part of Pavarotti's farewell tour and marked his final performance in Paris. (UPI Photo/David Silpa) courtesy of EBSCOHOST
August 16, 2007
Differences Don't Matter
Image taken from Factiva.com
Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
~ J.K. Rowling, "The Beginning," Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore
August 02, 2007
Father of Psychoanalysis said...
"From error to error one discovers the entire truth."
- Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist, 1856 - 1939
Reuters Pictures - Taken from Factiva.com
Sigmund Freud...
"Austrian physician, founder of psychoanalysis. He was appointed to an extraordinary professorship at Vienna University in 1902. His extension of the ideas of unconscious desires, beliefs, etc., required and involved the introduction of a new criterion of the mental, challenging the established Cartesian identification of the mind with consciousness. His work is often seen as in a special way emancipatory, since his psychoanalytic therapy was supposed to put more of the total psychic energy at the disposal of the deciding agent: Where Id was Ego shall be."
Read more in xreferplus Philosophy & Psychology.
July 27, 2007
"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality."
Beatrice Potter 28/7/1866 – 22/12/1943)
Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 in South Kensington, London. She had a sheltered childhood and amused herself by painting, using specimens from the Natural History Museum or sketching from nature in the Lake District, where the family spent summer holidays. Potter always had pets, including rabbits. She never went to school, but was taught at home by a governess. She learned to read from Sir Walter Scott's novels and Maria Edgeworth's works. From the age of fifteen until she was past thirty, she recorded her everyday life in her own secret code-writing.
Beatrix Potter’s children’s books are rooted in her passion for place and the animals she encountered in her life.
July 23, 2007
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward"
Amelia Earhart
(1898-1937) born on July 24
"Earhart first crossed the Atlantic alone on May 20–21, 1932. Her flight in her Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland to Ireland was completed in the record time of 14 hours 56 minutes. This soon led to a series of flights across the United States and drew her into the movement that encouraged the development of commercial aviation. She also took an active part in efforts to open aviation to women and end male domination in the new field.
In 1937 she set out on a round the world trip with Fred Noonan as her navigator, in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra. After completing more than two-thirds of the distance, her plane vanished in the central Pacific near the International Date Line. Although her mysterious disappearance has since raised many questions and much speculation about the events surrounding it, the facts remain largely unknown."
DIRECT LINKS
1. Image by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) -- Image Date: 18/06/1928 courtesy of EBSCOHost
2. Roseberry, C. R. "Earhart, Amelia." Encyclopedia Americana. 2007. Grolier Online. 23 July 2007
2. Extract from "Amelia Earhart" entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica
July 05, 2007
"Well, that's all right Mama, that's all right for you.
That's all right, Mama, just any way you do,
That's all right, that's all right.
That's all right, now, Mama, any way you do."
On 5 July 1954, Elvis Presley's first commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn.; the song he recorded was "That's All Right (Mama)."
"Legend has it that Presley was the white boy singing black music that Sam Phillips [of Sun Records] was seeking in order to make a fortune. What is clear is that Presley's musical background contained an unprecedented confluence of black and white popular musics and that his first recordings displayed a unique amalgamation of those influences. In addition, tracks like 'That's All Right Mama' and 'My Baby Left Me' personified a joy in singing and music-making that was unequalled in rock until the emergence of The Beatles."
With eighteen American No. 1s and hundreds of gold records from around the world, Elvis Presley was the first rock'n'roll star. In his prime, during the fifties, he combined in his performances the image of rebellious youth also associated with James Dean with an intense fusion of black and white Southern musics - gospel, R&B and country
[from xreferplus music .
DIRECT LINKS
Picture Source: MPTV
Copyright: ©Motion Picture & Television Photo Archive
Caption: Elvis Presley circa 1956
courtesy of EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier
June 28, 2007
"You won't be back!"
"At the heart of my politics has always been the value of community, the belief that we are not merely individuals struggling in isolation from each other, but members of a community who depend on each other, who benefit from each other's help, who owe obligations to each other. From that everything stems: solidarity, social justice, equality, freedom."
"So much of politics is about the daily grind of political business: the people to see, the myriad different facets of government, the remorseless agenda of this part of the media or that."
Tony Blair British Prime Minister 1997 - 2007
Check out all the coverage of his last days and the coming of Gordon Brown at Library Press Display in our News Section
Image from "the Herald" UK courtesy of Library Press Display
June 22, 2007
"Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth."
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic who was born today
Existentialism
An important 20th-century philosophical movement which carved out a domain for itself between rationalistic idealism and totally objective materialism. The emphasis is upon personal decision to be made in a world without reason and without purpose. Existentialism emphasizes subjectivity, free will and individuality and has acted as a philosophical counterbalance to theories that stress the role of society and social groups. It has also spawned a form of psychotherapy (existential therapy) that focuses on free will and the necessity for individual choice, action and judgement." from xreferplus Psychology and Philosophy
DIRECT LINKS
Image shows "French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) during an interview in which he denies 'founding' the new philosophy of Existentialism, describing it as the present day current of thought. Original Publication: Picture Post - 4411 - A New Philosophy Or Is It Only A New World? - pub. 1947 (Photo by Charles Hewitt/Getty Images)" -- Image Date: 8/2/1947 courtesy of EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier
June 15, 2007
“Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home”
John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)
Before our women readers get too upset and leave this page, the quote is just to introduce this archetypal man's man who died 28 years ago this week. Born Marion Robert Morrison and later changed to Marion Michael Morrison, was known as the "Duke," was an iAcademy Award-winning, American film actor. He epitomized ruggedly individualistic masculinity, and has become an enduring American icon. He leant a distinctive voice to the Hollywood Western and if you feel like kicking back and wallowing in one of them you can find a Top Ten here
Image courtesy of
MPTV
Copyright: ©Motion Picture & Television Photo Archive
Caption: John Wayne, c. 1952.
via EBSCOHost
June 12, 2007
In the News
"It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper." - Seinfeld, Jerry, Comedian
June 04, 2007
"I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy."
Frank Zappa
US musician, singer, & songwriter (1940 - 1993)
"Zappa was, in no apparent order, a first-rate cultural gadfly dedicated to upsetting American suburban complacency and puncturing the hypocrisy and pretensions of both the U.S. political establishment and the counterculture that opposed it; a contemporary orchestral composer uncompromisingly rooted in 20th-century avant-garde tradition; a rock bandleader who put together a series of stellar ensembles both under the rubric of the Mothers of Invention and under his own name; an erudite lover of the most esoteric traditions of rock and roll and of rhythm and blues; an innovative record producer whose use of high-speed editing techniques predated the later innovations of hip-hop; and one of the premier electric guitar improvisers of a generation that included Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. One of the great polymaths of the rock era who, arguably, possessed a broader range of skills and interests than any of his peers, he was an instinctive postmodernist who demolished the barriers and hierarchies separating “high” and “low” culture."
[from Encyclopedia Britannica ]
Image of Frank Zappa circa 1967 © 1978 Bruce McBroom / MPTV
© Motion Picture & Television Photo Archive
courtesy of EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier
May 25, 2007
"But me thought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain."
Samuel Pepys
(23/3/1633 – 26/5/1703)
English writer
"Circa 1685, English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703). Original Artwork: Engraving of portrait by Kneller. (Photo by Edward Gooch/Getty Images)" -- from EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier
"English government official Samuel Pepys, famous for his diary. which is written with enthusiasm, wit and a keen eye for detail. He brought to life the atmosphere, people, events and places of London in his time covering the Great Fire of London and the Plague. Pepys by birth, career and personal inclination, was the quintessential Londoner. He delighted in the city and everything it offered. With interests that ranged from music, theater and fashion to politics and science, he knew London intimately. With his genius for happiness and pleasure in life, Pepys is an exciting and interesting companion, an irresistible guide to his world"
and you can check out his diary in our World eBook Library
and this outline of him in
SEARCHING FOR SAMUEL PEPYS. By: Woolfolk, Margaret. British Heritage, May2006, Vol. 27 Issue 2, p42-48, 7p, 1 map, 2c; (AN 19833363) EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier
May 22, 2007
Lao-tzu says...
"People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge."
~ Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
May 17, 2007
Possibilities
If youth knew, if age could.
~ Sigmund Freud, Psychologist
May 14, 2007
Laurie Lee
Laurie Lee the author died 10 years ago today
Well, he was trying to get home - aren't we all, really, in the end?
Laurie Lee
His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). While the first volume famously deals with his childhood in the idyllic Cotswolds in UK, the second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1934, and the third with his return in December 1937 to join the Republican International Brigades in Spain.
DIRECT LINKS
1. "Lee, Laurie." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. 14 May 2007
2. "Cider with Rosie." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 2006. Ed. Jim Craddock. 2006 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 179. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale.
3. Image of Laurie Lee courtesy of EBSCOHost
May 09, 2007
One cannot think well,...
love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
- Virginia Woolf, British Author
April 12, 2007
No promises
If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.
~ Coelho, Paulo (Novelist)
March 30, 2007
One for the runway
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
~ Oscar Wilde, Irish Dramatist, Novelist & Poet (1854 - 1900)
March 22, 2007
Mindless & Lifeless?
Image taken from: Pop Culture eCollection (Thomson Gale)
Neo: I thought it wasn't real.
Morpheus: Your mind makes it real.
Neo: If you're killed in the matrix, you die here?
Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind.
Image taken from: Pop Culture eCollection (Thomson Gale)
March 19, 2007
The worst tempered people...
I have ever met were those who knew that they were wrong. ~ Letterman, David (American Comedian)
March 06, 2007
Reality?
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
~ Albert Einstein (German born American Physicist, 1879-1955)
February 14, 2007
Do you think so?
Image from Factiva.com
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
- Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night's Dream, I:1, 1596
Quote taken from xreferplus Quotations.
Image from Factiva.com