Art of
…Abe Vigoda, who earned Emmy Award nominations in three straight years for his portrayal of the world-weary Det. Phil Fish on the 1970s ABC sitcom Barney Miller, has died. He was 94. …died on Tuesday morning at home in New Jersey. …also is remembered for his role as hulking mob boss Sal Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola’s first two Godfather films. …
…A lost story by famed British children’s author Beatrix Potter — “The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots” — has been discovered among her memorabilia and will be published this year more than a century after she wrote it.…
I just heard a Bowie story that no one knows because it happened to someone I know who just recounted it to me personally. …
The last picture taken of David Bowie by his wife Iman, on his birthday, January 8th 2016.
This week marks the ninth anniversary of J.K. Rowling’s completion of the Harry Potter series. Well, her completion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, at the very least. To honor the occasion, the author shared a photo of the graffiti she left in the hotel where she completed the book… worth noting that those Harry Potter fanatics wishing to stay in the room would have to shell out a whopping £1,415 for the night. That’s more than $2,000 U.S. dollars.…
"'Lazarus" off David Bowie's album Blackstar
At CES 2016, Kodak is kicking off its Super 8 Revival Initiative, which looks to place more Super 8 cameras into the hands of the new generation of filmmakers with the celebration of 50 years of the manufacturing of Super 8 film.…
Sheet music written by Ludwig van Beethoven and found in a Connecticut home has fetched $100,000 at auction. appraiser Brendan Ryan… recognized Beethoven's handwriting in the German words, directions and symbols on the page… Research authenticated the music and determined it was from a sketchbook dating to 1810 and used by the composer for brainstorming. …
…"I was able to wing it, right up until the point that I had to start shooting this very intricate battle, and I couldn't wing it on that, really," he continued, discussing the decision to postpone the sequence. "We had allowed two months of shooting for that in 2012, and at some point, when we were approaching that, I went to Zane and Carol, our producers, and ultimately talked to the studio and said: ‘Because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing now, because I haven’t got storyboards and prep in this three months that we have now got this battle, why don’t we just finish earlier?' "…
I quit watching the first one when Doctor Who with bird dung dribbling down his face was racing along on a sled pulled by giant bunnies. Just like in the book!
Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta was the first-ever do-it-yourself or interactive novel. It was published in French in 1962, and an English translation followed a year later. The novel came in a box, as a set of looseleaf pages. Readers were instructed to "shuffle them like a deck of cards" before reading, so that chance would decide the order of events in the narrative.…
Music is mourning the death of esteemed singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan (Phil), who passed away on Sunday night (Nov. 15) at his Los Angeles home after fighting pancreatic cancer for several weeks, according to a release. He was 70 years old.…
Reports now confirm that political cartoonist Akram Raslan died at the hands of Syrian police after vanishing in October 2012… had not been heard of since he was abducted from his office. "[Raslan's] works were known for being very direct in opposing the Syrian regime," Palestinian cartoonist Fadi Abou Hassan wrote on Cartoon Movement. "Raslan drew more than 300 cartoons that accompanied the early developments of the Syrian revolution."…
After you chop off your finger in a lawnmower, and your pregnant wife has to drive you to the hospital, and then your car catches fire, I think getting saved by someone in a Spider-Man costume probably seemed like the obvious next step...
Chicago TV Station Marks Yom Kippur Using Same Yellow Star Of David Nazis Forced Jews To Wear During Holocaust…
Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen on The Adventures of Superman, has passed away… He was 87. …his onscreen career was defined almost entirely by his time as Jimmy Olsen. He played the role from 1952 until 1958, and would periodically return for cameos in other Superman-related media, from Superboy to Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman to Superman Returns.
…Ringo Starr… putting up for auction… more than 800 items… a Rickenbacker guitar that fellow Beatle John Lennon played… “Number One” edition of the Beatles “White Album,” and another guitar previously used by lead guitarist George Harrison. Ringo’s 1963 three-piece drum kit… expected to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.…
Brad Anderson, veteran cartoonist and Marmaduke creator, passed away… August 30th at age 91. …unexpectedly. …worked briefly in advertising but left to focus on freelance cartooning in 1953. From 1954 to 1966, he drew a strip called Grandpa's Boy, which overlapped with his creation of Marmaduke in 1954. Anderson continued to work on the strip until his passing. …won the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the NCS in 2013.
Jack Kirby, co-creator of much of the Marvel Universe and creator of, among other things, the Fourth World characters, Kamandi and dozens more for DC Comics, would have turned 98 years old today.
In honor of The King's birthday, comic book retailers, fans, nonprofits and more are holding birthday parties for Kirby, which you can find out about using the #Kirby4Heroes hashtag on social media.…
The long-running comic panel Reverend Fun has ended its run. First panel was November, 1997. Almost as long as Mindful Webworks has been around. Not an easy gig, religious humor. There were some good ones. So long, Reverend Fun, and God bless you.
They stood together in the dugout at Shea Stadium and stared. It was Aug. 15, 1965, and the Beatles had just been flown into Queens by helicopter and hustled through a stadium shaking with screams.
There had never been an outdoor concert of this scale—a sold-out sports stadium. As archival footage shows, teenagers clawed at the metal fences behind home plate, and more than 55,000 fans pressed forward for their first glimpse. Raw shrieks ripped the air.…
Headline: Oklahoma Gun Range Causes Outrage With Racist Sign That Business Is 'Muslim Free'
Six decades after "Gunsmoke" debuted on television, several actors who appeared in the show, including Burt Reynolds, are scheduled to reunite in Dodge City. … "Gunsmoke" ran on CBS from 1955 through 1975 and was nominated for more than a dozen Emmys. … Other key actors from the show have died, including James Arness, who starred as Matt Dillon; Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty; and Milburn Stone, who was Doc Adams.
…The researchers examined fragments of 24 clay pipes that were recovered from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, as well as from surrounding houses. After examining the fragments using a gas chromatography technique, the scientists found that eight of the pipes contained traces of cannabis, one contained nicotine, and two contained traces of cocaine derived from Peruvian coca leaves. Four of the pipes containing cannabis came from Shakespeare's property. …
A priceless violin made in 1734 was returned Thursday to its rightful owner — 35 years after it was stolen.
The Stradivarius violin was swiped from renowned violinist Roman Totenberg in 1980 after a concert in Cambridge, Mass. Roman's daughter, NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg, said the thief was who her father always suspected: an aspiring violinist named Phillip Johnson.
"It had been in the same guilty hands all those years," Nina said.…
Richard Glossip, a man who is scheduled to be executed by the state next month.… Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon…
…The publishing arm of Warner Music Group has claimed since the 1980s to have exclusive rights to the song's reproduction, distribution and public performances. But this week, the attorneys representing a film company that's suing Warner said they had uncovered proof that any copyright of the song would have expired about a century ago…
Spider-Man was created in 1962, but could his costume have been inspired by a child's Halloween costume from the 50's? … Steve Ditko [when asked] about the costume… “The burden of proof is on the person who makes the assertion, claim, charge. Some clippings, etc., are not rational proof of anything but some clippings, etc.”
[Alex Winter (Bill S. Preston, Esquire):] "The fun thing about them is that they’re ageless. You play them in terms of who they are spiritually. Their mannerism and physicality are not tied to age. We played them like 9-year-old kids. They still have that quality. The comic potential of that becomes even better as it becomes more discordant. It will be funnier because they’re older."
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Mindful Webworks for art's own sake (and some for fun). The art and wonder of it all await your scrutiny.
Just random links galore, along with snarky comments 
probably to be regretted later.
A series of balanced and centered abstract images
TWELVE NEW, 2013 APR
Collections of drawings and cartoons, from simple & trivial to beautiful & bizarre
UPDATED 2013-MARCH