Tag: Arts & Culture

These Ultra-Microscopic Sculptures Fit Inside the Eye of a Needle—Here’s How the Artist Paints Them

A man with autism and dyslexia has turned his fascination for the microscopic world into miniature works of art, inspiring others to look more closely at both the world around them and the unique potential of each and every one of us. Dr. Willard Wigan MBE, 65, grew up in Birmingham, England, where he lives…


When a Culture Loses Touch With Its Mythos

In her wonderful book, “The Battle for God,” Karen Armstrong, drawing on the work of other eminent scholars, introduces us to a central reason why there has been a resurgence of religious fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the modern world. Indeed, her book points out some intriguing and insightful parallels between all three…


Book Review: ‘Feminism Against Progress’

Anyone familiar with Mary Harrington’s columns in UnHerd will know her as a thinker of exceptional originality, acuity and freshness. Her first book does not disappoint her fans. It is an eye-popping analysis of what she calls “reality denying” woke feminism as it has evolved since the 1960s. Harrington describes herself as a “revisionist feminist” because she…


Beethoven and the Birth of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

For classical music lovers, being able to stream live concerts on social media platforms is a welcome convenience in a busy world. But nothing beats the in-person experience. For city dwellers, a night out to see the orchestra is a relaxing and relatively inexpensive outing. Those living in New York, London, or Paris are lucky…


Book Review: ‘The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt’

In the mid-1990s, Mrs. Irene Harrison (1890–1999) several times stayed in the bed-and-breakfast my wife and I operated in Waynesville, North Carolina. Daughter of famed tire entrepreneur Frank Seiberling, this centenarian was a gracious lady with a distinctly conservative take on politics. Once when she and her son were discussing politics in the living room,…


Enjoy Awarding-Winning Movie and Meet the Cast While Touring a Hudson River Castle

With summer arriving, give yourself a relaxing weekend on an island in the Hudson River, visit an old Scottish castle, and watch an award-winning crime movie. An island on the Hudson River, a castle, and a crime movie? The three things together sound a little outlandish. But on Saturday June 17, it’s happening. The director…


Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘Ruggles of Red Gap’

NR | 1 h 30 min | Comedy | 1935 If you’ve read P.G. Wodehouse’s side-splitting novels on the English valet Jeeves, you’ll appreciate the whiplash humor in “Ruggles of Red Gap.” If you haven’t, director Leo McCarey shows you what you’re missing. England’s early 20th-century Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) loses his beloved valet,…


Book Review: ‘Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War’

Dawson died in 1970 after half a century of significant publication. His reputation fell into the usual trough of posthumous neglect, but by the 1990s it had recovered, leading to various studies of his thought, new editions of his books (including a Collected Works series published by the Catholic University of America Press), and several…


Anna Mary Robertson Moses: America’s Grandma

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961) witnessed the evolution of America. She was born two months before Abraham Lincoln was elected and died nearly a full year into the Kennedy administration. She grew up on a farm and remained on a farm. It was the farm life that she was most known for, but predominantly for…


Film Review: ‘Playing with Fire’

NR | 1h 9min | Documentary, Biography, Music | 09 June 2023 (USA) I can’t speak for other critics, but the single most difficult part of my job is reviewing movies that leave me feeling indifferent. This happens when I consider something to be not quite bad enough to slam or good enough to recommend. “Playing with Fire” (“Fire”), subtitled: “Jeannette…