Star Wars exploded onto our cinema screens in 1977, and the world has not been the same since. After watching depressing and cynical movies throughout the early 1970s, audiences enthusiastically embraced the positive energy of the Star Wars galaxy as they followed moisture farmer Luke Skywalker on his journey through a galaxy far, far away, meeting extraordinary characters like mysterious hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi, space pirates Han Solo and Chewbacca, loyal droids C-3PO and R2-D2, bold Princess Leia Organa and the horrific Darth Vader, servant of the dark, malevolent Emperor. Writer, director, and producer George Lucas ... |
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To explore the Tarot is to explore ourselves, to be reminded of the universality of our longing for meaning, for purpose and for a connection to the divine. This 600-year-old tradition reflects not only a history of seekers, but our journey of artistic expression and the ways we communicate our collective human story. For many in the West, Tarot exists in the shadow place of our cultural consciousness, a metaphysical tradition assigned to the dusty glass cabinets of the arcane. Its history, long and obscure, has been passed down through secret writing, oral tradition, and the scholarly tomes of philosophers and sages. ... |
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Днес Рицос се приема за един от петимата най-големи поети на Гърция, редом до Константинос Кавафис, Костас Кариотакис, Георгиос Сеферис, и Одисеас Елитис. На едно място френският поет Луи Арагон казва, че Рицос е "най-големият съвременен поет". Неуспешно е предлаган девет пъти за Нобелова награда за литература. Когато печели Ленинската награда за мир (преди 1956 г. - Сталинска награда за мир) той заявява: "Тази награда е по-важна за мен от Нобеловата". Рицос е носител на Златния венец на Стружките вечери на поезията през 1985 г. ... |
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From the beginning of human history, individuals across cultures and belief systems have looked to the sky for meaning. The movement of celestial bodies and their relation to our human lives has been the central tenant of astrology for thousands of years. The practice has both inspired reverence and worship, and deepened our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. While modern-day horoscopes may be the most familiar form of astrological knowledge, their lineage reaches back to ancient Mesopotamia. As author Andrea Richards recounts in Astrology, the second volume in Taschen's Library of Esoterica ... |
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"Въздържанието е пагубно. Умереността е като обикновен обяд, крайността - като богато пиршество." Оскар Уайлд "Да правиш секс, е като да играеш бридж. Ако нямаш добър партньор, трябва да имаш добра ръка." Уди Алън "Желанието е не към това, което виждаш, а към това, което си представяш." Паулу Коелю ... |
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From the moment Star Wars burst onto the screen in 1977, audiences have been in equal parts fascinated and appalled by the half-man / half-machine hybrid Darth Vader. In 1999, creator George Lucas began the story of how Anakin Skywalker grew up to train as a Jedi under Obi-Wan Kenobi, found love with the Queen of Naboo, Padme Amidala, before turning to the dark side of his nature and becoming more machine than man. After driving the development of nascent digital technology, George Lucas perceived how he could create new creatures and new worlds on a grander scale than ever before. He created the first digital ... |
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Fall under the spell of Gustav Klimt . Over a century after his death, Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) still startles with his unabashed eroticism, dazzling surfaces, and artistic experimentation. In this neat, dependable monograph, we gather all of Klimt's paintings alongside authoritative art historical commentary and privileged archival material from Klimt's own archive to trace the evolution of his astonishing oeuvre. With top-quality illustration, including new photography of the celebrated Stoclet Frieze, the book follows Klimt through his prominent role in the Secessionist movement of 1897, his ... |
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Zaha Hadid was a revolutionary architect, who for many years built almost nothing, despite winning critical acclaim. Some even said her audacious, futuristic designs were unbuildable. During the latter years of her life, Hadid's daring visions became a reality, bringing a unique new architectural language to cities and structures as varied as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, hailed by The New York Times as the most important new building in America since the Cold War; the MAXXI Museum in Rome; the Guangzhou Opera House in China; and the London 2012 Olympics Aquatics Centre. At the time of her ... |
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Anguished art: The tortured talents of a post-Impressionist master. Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) are among the most well-known and celebrated in the world. In Sunflowers, The Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, and many, many paintings and drawings beyond, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the portrayal of mood and place through paint, pencil, charcoal, or chalk. Yet as he was deploying the lurid colors, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms that would subsequently make his name and inspire generations of expressionist artists, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of ... |
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Magic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility-whether invoking spirits, reading minds, or inverting the laws of nature by sleight of hand. Long before science fiction, virtual realities, video games, and the Internet, the craft of magic was the most powerful fantasy world man had ever known. As the pioneers of special effects throughout history, magicians have never ceased to mystify us by making the impossible possible. This book celebrates more ... |
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Hailed the "Prince of the Impressionists", Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) transformed expectations for the purpose of paint on canvas. Defying the precedent of centuries, Monet did not seek to render only reality, but the act of perception itself. Working "en plein air" with rapid, impetuous brush strokes, he interrogated the play of light on the hues, patterns, and contours and the way in which these visual impressions fall upon the eye. Monet's interest in this space "between the motif and the artist" encompassed too the ephemeral nature of each image we see. In his beloved water lily ... |
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The book is a multilingual edition. ... A lifelong devotee of ancient Egyptian and Oriental culture, the French author, artist, and scholar Achille-Constant-Théodore-Émile Prisse d'Avennes (1807 - 1879) is famed as one of the most influential Egyptologists, long before the discipline was even properly established. Prisse first embarked on his explorations in 1836, documenting sites throughout the Nile Valley, often under his Egyptian pseudonym, Edris Effendi. Prisse's first publication of notes, drawings, and squeezes (a kind of frottage) came in the form of Les Monuments égyptiens, a modest ... |