Stealing Art is the latest Fashion

Stealing Art is the latest Fashion
By: Mark Brassington

Never has Art theft seemed more fashionable. While Nima Mazhari has been convicted of stealing work by Ghitta Caiserman-Roth worth $100,000. A gang of youths called "hoodies" has made off with Banksy prints in a theft in Brighton. And in Milwaukee a work by Delacroix stolen some two years ago from a gallery in Milwauke has been returned, by a man who says he found it in the trash!

As works become more popular and expensive thieves who previously would have thought a Mondrian was a new alco-pop are unfortunately starting to take an interest in some of the more popular works of art available today. The hype of the anonymous Banksy have clearly increased visibility of his works to such an extent that an exhibition of his work has been closed. Stuart Hobday, Director said "It's a real shame that this exhibition is not going ahead, but the risk of the art being stolen was fairly high and we understand the concern raised by the owner of the works."

Because Banksy's works are graffiti they are often easier to steal than traditional works, because of their public nature. Last year a work was cut from a section of wall in Paddington and later auctioned on eBay for £20,000. Murals were also ruined in Whitechapel last month when thieves tried to chisel the works from the wall.

Mary Jane Ansell a figurative painter based a few doors away on the North Laines has said; "Yes, the Artrepublic is very close to my studio, but I don't know anyone involved: - honest!" She then continues to say that. Banksy is a hugely popular artist locally and obviously his work is becoming ever more attractive to investors and the public alike so no doubt there will be a way to move them on easily, certainly I wouldn't be surprised if they were stolen to order.

As there can never be doubt as to the authenticity of these works the issues raised that there is a ready market for such works are huge. Whilst the works may not actually be being sold on eBay there is clearly a market for sale and even more importantly re-sale of such "known to be stolen" works. This is important because if such a market did not exist works would not be stolen in the first place.

Now that the Banksy show has been canceled at Norwich the question is now being asked as to whether the publics' access to such works will now be compromised. Of course these works will be seen again in public but the necessary security barriers will surely damage the viewers' experience. Further problems will also arise as city underwriters re-assess the already punitive insurance premiums for such shows.

The conclusion though Mary Jane states is that in a perverse way it actually illustrates how much more mainstream art is becoming these days and could actually be encouraging for young artists wishing to make their name. The fashionable cache of Banksy's work has been increased by the purchase of his works by such celebrities as Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jude Law.

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Creating the perfect Feng Shui home decor using the Internet

Creating the perfect Feng Shui home decor using the Internet
By: Ken Wilson

Driven by the constant wish to lead a healthier and happier existence, more and more people have decided to apply the principles of Feng Shui philosophy. The ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui has also entered the online market, providing interested Internet users with a wide range of Feng Shui products, all suitable for a unique Feng Shui home decor. The basic elements of Feng Shui have entered the style of modern living, providing people with attractive options while helping them to achieve a better way of life.

Online, there are probably hundreds of websites presenting Feng Shui products, divided in various categories. The most important thing is to go for the website that inspires confidence and that presents all the available products in an accurate manner. If you are going for a Feng Shui home decor, you must first understand the significance of the 'chi' or universal life force, the purpose of each element of the chi and why is this philosophy so vital. With the help of the World Wide Web, interested customers can learn how to associate positive energies and eliminate all negative ones, achieving in the end the perfect balance.

The truth about Feng Shui products is that they have managed to enhance the style of modern living. People have started to browse the Internet for Feng Shui home decor ideas and products, hoping they will at least learn how to provide a healthy yet comfortable environment for their family. Using the two opposing forces (ying-yang) and many other techniques along with the great variety of products, people were able to induce positive energies and guide their chi towards specific purposes. Feng Shui philosophy uses not only statues, coins and other pieces but also plenty of colors, light and sounds, having the purpose to achieve the perfect living space.
If you are interested in Feng Shui products and in the art of Feng Shui in general, then you should definitely consider the Internet. This useful database of information cannot only provide you with hundreds of choices but also enables you to learn a thing or two about this ancient art, especially all about harmony and balance. We as humans have a special energy. The things and places that surround us have their energies. The fundamental concept of Feng Shui is to achieve the perfect harmony between these energies, this helping one in turn to restore peace and happiness. With such techniques and products, creating the ideal Feng Shui home decor is quite easy, bearing in mind that it requires a great deal of knowledge and commitment.

For the western world, Feng Shui has proven out to be ones of the brightest ideas in terms of interior designs. Decorators have learned how to integrate the principles of Feng Shui so as to provide the perfect Feng Shui home decor. Using Feng Shui products such as bagua octagon, Lo Pan compass and Chinese Feng Shui coins, they have brought harmony and prosperity to various residences. Nowadays, a lot of people have decided to practice on their own the principles of Feng Shui. With the aid of the Internet technology, they discovered a wide variety of products such as golden ingots, handmade statues and miniature Japanese gardens. Living in a modern, almost hectic society it was almost demanding to find something to bring back the much-needed calmness and freshness. Feng Shui represents all that is positive, energies and prosperity, promoting the very essence of the human being.

Of all the Feng Shui products presented online, by far the most popular ones are: Feng Shui garden decorations, good-luck coins and unique crystal collectibles. These are followed by bronze animal sculptures, Burma jade accessories and gemstone globes. Rare artifacts are also widely purchased, especially snake swords. By using these beautiful decors, the people who bought them were able to achieve the perfect harmony between the inner energy and the surrounding environment, being happy and leading a peaceful existence. To a lot of people, these products represent more than Feng Shui products. Deeply interested in the principles of this ancient philosophy, they value every piece and try to discover its secrets, including the story behind it.
There are many people who employ ideas and concepts from Feng Shui philosophy. They decorate their homes after the fundamental principles and also browse the Internet in search of special products. Still, Feng Shui means much more than decorating. It mainly represents modifying the living space according to ancient principles, bearing in mind the significance of harmony and balance. The natural flow of nature must be respected and this can only be achieved by using the right products, in the proper places. This art, because it cannot be called any other way, is indeed a better mode of living.

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Ted Nugent’s “Live and let live” … except for the voiceless

Ted Nugent’s “Live and let live” … except for the voiceless
By: Jeff Popick

Ted Nugent – yeah, that Ted Nugent – recently wrote an article blasting Paul McCartney for allegedly firing some of his staff for eating meat. Now, I'm not so sure that this is true, but let's go with it. Let us say that Paul McCartney did, in fact, fire some people for eating meat. OMG!
I suppose Ted Nugent can't sing anymore, so he's looking to create drama anywhere he can. Kinda like looking for love in all the wrong places.

Beginning with the first paragraph of his article, Ted refers to vegans as "weirdos" and then reiterates that theme throughout, even calling Paul McCartney an "animal rights maniac."
Yet, in the seventh paragraph of his dim-witted rant, he goes on to clearly state that no meat eater "has any desire whatsoever to influence any vegetarian's choice of diet or to force them to eat meat. We are the friendly, tolerant Americans."

When you stop laughing at Ted's lack of functioning brain cells (probably from animal fat-clogged cerebral arteries), you'll realize the dysfunctional thought process that he, and many like him, manage to embrace throughout their lives. They are friendly and tolerant people who preface their discussions about vegetarians and vegans by calling them "weirdos" and "maniacs." In reality, it's not the vegetarians who will be influenced by Ted's dysfunction; rather it's the people who also have animal-fat clogging their brains.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said, "My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension." Let's be thankful it wasn't Ted Nugent who helped frame the United States Constitution. Unfortunately, however, it is people like Ted Nugent who interpret it.

Millions of meat eaters say they love animals, and really believe it, while eating flesh. Millions of Americans believe in God, yet conveniently overlook the fact that God's earliest mandate to us – on page one of the Bible – was to eat plants. Meatism, the lifestyle of brutality and oppression, is branded by Ted and his sociopathic friends as "The American Way." They talk about freedom, yet deny it to billions of living, thinking and feeling animals. They spend their lives hiding from truth, surrounded by confusion, while telling everyone they come in contact with that only one end of the boat is sinking. Then, on top of it all, they label their fantasy "truth."

The truth is, I am a vegan who is forced to live in a brutal world of systematic murder. Meatism is the single largest cause of environmental problems (not to mention health, societal and spiritual problems). I have to see it, hear it, smell it and touch it. And if I try to have some semblance of tranquility by sometimes surrounding myself with like-minded people, Ted finds that highly objectionable. What if the meat-eater that Paul McCartney supposedly fired wanted to eat a piece of an animal in the company lunch room? Is Paul not free to create a cruelty-free environment (even though it is just a microcosm) for himself and others like him?
The fact is, Meatism is causing all of our problems, whereas a vegan diet can solve them. Denial, however, is the meat-eater's manifesto, and Ted Nugent has a large copy taped to his mirror square in his line of sight so that he can't look at himself too closely.

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Music History – The Gleeman Part 1

Music History – The Gleeman Part 1
By: Mike Shaw

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the centuries of violence and savagery that followed it. Europe was beginning to settle, and two distinct types of music were available to the people. These two types of music were represented by the Monk and the Gleeman or Minstrel.
The Monk lived and worked quietly behind the strong walls of his monastery. The Minstrel, travelled from town to town all over the land mixing with all classes of society, the friend and favourite of every one, utterly destitute of all status, and a man whom it was scarcely a crime to defraud or kill. The letter of music dwelt in the monasteries, but the spirit of music, staggered drunk, wandering aimlessly, yet providing popular music for the masses. (I know some keyboard players that fit that description)

The Minstrels were poor and walked to there destinations. As well as Minstrels, there were Acrobats, Jugglers and Mountebanks who use to sell magic potions that could cure any ailment and entertained with stories and jokes. These entertainers held an important place in the social economy of the Middle Ages, and are supposed to have been a direct survival of the gladiatorial caste of Imperial Rome.

With more peaceful times, emerged an art, more entitled to the name of Minstrelsy, than the poor performance of the strollers who entertained at castle gates and market places. For a long period, Provence was the most peaceful place in Europe, and in that sunny place, Minstrelsy was greatly accepted by the rich and poor. From the eleventh century, the Troubadours were treated with honour and respect.

The history of the Troubadour as existing in Provenge, in the days prior to the Albigensian Crusade, forms one of the most interesting and unique episodes in musical and literary history. The social position of the Troubadours was a curious one. Recruited, as was the order, from all ranks of society, the Troubadour might be the son of a knight, as was Guiilem de Cabestanh; or he might belong to the trading classes, as did Peire Vidal, the son of a furrier at Toulouse. In any sphere of life, however, the fact of being a Troubadour at once placed a man on a sort of equality with the greatest, for a Troubadour was essentially a privileged person.

You would think that the Troubadour would have a lot in common with the Minstrel, but the Troubadour had no love for the Minstrel and at every opportunity would talk down to the Minstrel with sarcastic cruelty.

The Troubadour combined within himself elements of two modern institutions, Public Opinion and the Press. Like the minstrel at large, he was a kind of walking newspaper, and his compositions found their way through the land more quickly than the last news from the Crusades.

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Playing Mandolin - A Unique Instrument

Playing Mandolin - A Unique Instrument
By: tangopang

The mandolin is the soprano member of the mandolin family, just as the violin is the soprano member of the violin family. Similar to the violin, the instrument scale length is typically about 13 inches (330 mm).

So what are the different types of mandolin that can be found? Well, below is a list of some of the main type of mandolin:

The mandola (US and Canada), termed the tenor mandola in Europe, Ireland and the UK, which is tuned to a fifth below the typical mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the viola to the violin. Some people also call this instrument the "alto mandola." The instrument scale length is typically about 16.5 inches (420 mm). It is normally tuned like a viola, which is: C-G-D-A.

The octave mandolin (US and Canada), termed the octave mandola or mandole in Europe, Ireland, and the UK, which is tuned an octave lower than the mandolin. The instrument scale length is typically about 20 inches (500 mm), although such instruments with scales as short as 17 inches (430 mm) or as long as 21 inches (530 mm) are not unknown.

The mandocello, which is classically tuned to an octave and a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin: C-G-D-A. Today, it is quite frequent that it is restrung for octave mandolin tuning or the Irish bouzouki's GDAD. The instrument scale length is typically about 25 inches (635 mm). Note that a violoncello scale is 27" (686mm).

The Greek laouto is actually a mandocello, ordinarily tuned D-G-D-A, with half of each pair of the lower two courses that are being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddle-less bridge is glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings and tied gut frets. Modern laoutos, as played on Crete, have the whole lower course tuned in octaves as well as being tuned a reentrant octave above the expected D. The instrument scale length is typically about 28 inches (712mm).

The mando-bass, has 4 single strings, rather than double courses, and it is tuned like a double bass. These were made by the Gibson company in the early twentieth century, but appear to have never been common. Most of the mandolin orchestras will prefer to use the ordinary double bass, rather than a specialized mandolin family instrument.

The piccolo or sopranino mandolin is a rare member of the mandolin family, tuned one octave above the tenor mandola and one fourth above the mandolin; the same relation as that of the piccolo or sopranino violin to the violin and viola. The instrument scale length is typically about 9.5 inches (240 mm).

The Irish bouzouki is also considered a member of the mandolin family; although it is derived from the Greek bouzouki, it is constructed like a flat backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings (most often GDAD, an octave below the mandolin, sometimes GDAE, ADAD or ADAE) in place of the guitar-like fourths-and-third tunings of the three- and four-course Greek bouzouki. Although the bouzouki's bass course pairs are very often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, in the fashion of the 12-string guitar. Although occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is different from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from 22 inches (560 mm) to 24 inches (610 inches), although scales as long as 26 inches (660 mm), which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown.

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