Tag: Arts & Culture

Book Recommendation: ‘Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable’

Wordsmiths and bibliophiles unite as Mark Dunn’s “Ella Minnow Pea” celebrates its 20th anniversary by releasing an illustrated edition to mark this milestone. ‘A Novel in Letters’ Ella Minnow Pea resides in the fictional island of Nollop, where Nevin Nollop, the fictitious inventor of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,”…


Film Review: ‘Master Gardener’: Gardening as Metaphor for Purification and Redemption

R | 1h 51m | Drama | May 19, 2023 Writer-director Paul Schrader serves up yet another anti-hero plagued by a troubled, violent past in “Master Gardener.” Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is a former neo-Nazi, now in witness protection, who works as the head gardener on the enormous Southern estate of a to-the-plantation-born domineering heiress Norma Haverhill…


Michelangelo’s Baroque Rival: The Moving Sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

If artists as brilliant as Michelangelo and artworks as definitive as his “David” are rare, the year marking the 120th anniversary of that sculpture’s unveiling saw an event almost unparalleled in artistic history. For the first and maybe the last time, there was an artist who could rival Michelangelo both as a sculptor and a…


James Clerk Maxwell: The Curious Mind of the Father of Modern Physics

It was said that there was nothing the young James Clerk Mazwell couldn’t decode. Curiosity drove him to figure out how locks and keys and other puzzles worked. Maxwell grew up in Scotland, and his eccentric ways and introverted personality in school made him the butt of jokes among his classmates; they laughed at him…


Friendships That Endure: Aesop’s Fable, ‘Two Travelers and a Bear’

True friendship is characterized most by loyalty, for loyalty is the virtue that sustains friendships through any hardship. Loyalty gives us the courage to remain with friends, even when there is no advantage to be gained. In his short story, “Two Travelers and a Bear,” Aesop shows how easily our friendship can be tested and…


Profiles in History: Charles Francis Hall: From Publisher to Arctic Explorer

Charles Francis Hall (1821–1871) was born in Vermont, moved with his family as a child to New Hampshire, and then moved westward to Cincinnati when he married. It was in Cincinnati that he developed his entrepreneurial spirit by founding a seal-engraving business and then starting two newspapers, the Cincinnati Occasional and the Daily Press. During…


‘Emotional Genius’ Judge Lynn Toler Turns Life Into New Show That Tackles Mental Health Awareness

Judge Lynn Toler has spent her career imparting life wisdom and grounded advice. She served as the longest-reigning arbitrator in the longest-running courtroom show, “Divorce Court,” for 14 consecutive seasons, and co-hosted three seasons of “Marriage Boot Camp,” where she mentored couples after watching them for 10-hour days and always made a point to explain—in…


Explore Shen Yun’s 2023 Season

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Epoch Watchlist: What to Watch for May 26–June 1

This week, we feature a celebrated World War II miniseries and a family-friendly adventure about two siblings on a quest to save a magical land. New Release ‘The Secret Kingdom’ When siblings Peter (Sam Everingham) and Verity (Alyla Browne) move into a house from their father’s childhood, they discover a mystical land beneath Peter’s bedroom…


Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for May 26–June 1

This week, we feature a witty guide to domestic and cultural sanity and an incisive look at the gifts Greek classics have bestowed on our culture. Nonfiction ‘Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War’ By Peachy Keenan The new radical extremism calls for sanity! Imagine that! This enjoyable guide asks its readers…