For courage, says Bulgarian folk wisdom instructs, keep a horse chestnut in your pocket. Even as a child, I was mistrustful of superstition. But every autumn, I would pick up dozens of them from the sidewalks of Sofia and fill my pockets — not as a spell against fear but as an
Sir Patrick Stewart , best known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died at the age of 86 . He passed at home in Los Angeles from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He was largely considered an unknown when the “Star Trek”
It's 2027 residency application season! Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article November 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for
An Italian farmer planted some decades-old seeds he found in his attic. Wheat with seven ears per stalk came up and the farmer found a reference to this type of nutritious, drought-resistant wheat in the Bible’s book of Genesis.
The embattled German exhibition's latest appointments, artist Catherine Opie wins a Yale University award, and Dallas Art Fair partners with … a university?
Long associated with witchcraft and bad luck, the black feline became an emblem of artistic rebellion and urban life in 19th-century Paris.
From the Kelly Clarkson's mechanical bird fiasco to Carrie Bradshaw's Dior newsprint dress, Gay Halloween speaks to the staying power of women's iconic media moments.
Somehow I’d never heard of this before: NPR produced and aired 1 radio dramatizations of the films in the original Star Wars trilogy. The first program was particularly popular, garnering NPR hundreds of thousands of new listeners. The original versions are available in full on
Dumpster Archeology . “Lew Blink’s passion for dumpster diving, his tenacity in connecting the dots, and his magnetic charisma as he unearths the secrets of others were a captivating lens through which to explore themes of privacy, waste…”
An exhibition at the Academy Museum explores the transgressive power of scary movies, channeling our deepest fears about life, death, and the unknown.
What’s the largest tweetable number? You’ve got 280 characters. So: “9999…” or “one centillion” or “googol!!!!!!…” or an image of a number? Turns out it’s complicated!
Scherer's paintings of affluent homes, studios, and libraries appear to expand before our eyes. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Escape into
Ken Russell’s film designed by Derek Jarman, newly released in a 4K restoration, mirrors the horrors unfolding outside our windows.
Rolling Stone: The 200 Greatest Rock Songs of the 21st Century So Far . I cannot argue with the top pick: Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There’s a Spotify playlist with all 200 songs …a great way to spend 15 hours and 25 minutes.
Helsinki-based artist Tuomas Laitinen gives us an intelligence with no central brain, no fixed shape, and no interest in being legible to us.
"Today more than 1,900 agencies in at least 30 states have signed up for ICE’s task force model, with more than 29,000 deputized officers. With their help, ICE recently hit a record of immigration arrests."
I’ve been reading a bit about the recent election in Serbia and some of the details are fascinating. A student-led coalition toppled the 12-year corrupt reign of “the increasingly authoritarian leader” Aleksandar Vučić in recent elections. But in order to ensure voters and
Designed to answer one of creative work's toughest questions: "What should I charge?"
The NY Times recently asked readers “what they can no longer afford, or have given up on having” . Among the answers: medication, car repairs, new clothes, having more kids, eating out, and contact lenses.
700+ cats. 1900+ film stills. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘The Encyclopedia of Movie Cats’ Is an Exhaustive Index of Every Feline to Prowl on
This is great: Annie Rauwerda (of Depths of Wikipedia fame) sifted through the archive at newspapers.com to find the goings on of long-ago celebrity name doppelgängers ( follow-up post ). A few of my favorites: Tags: Annie Rauwerda · celebrity · language
Augustus was seen as a descendant of the gods who would go on to redefine authority. New research posits that his rule paved the way for Jesus
I made a small tweak to Prometheus (gift link discovery site) that kinda kicks ass: NYT Cooking is now a separate source (which you can filter by). The Rigatoni With White Bolognese recipe is a favorite of mine. 🤌
"Driving through America’s back roads, the emptiness of the information superhighways comes into sharp relief."
A girl’s story of forced marriage reveals how the Soviet invasion of 1979 transformed life in Afghanistan - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
Physics offered me a sense of order and purpose. But when life got messy I realised it had a much deeper insight to give - by Zahaan Bharmal Read on Aeon
A trip along the North Korean border, with a Chinese father and his estranged daughter, plastic bags of food, and an 81-year-old grandmother who refuses to wear a seat belt.
Dani Bensky explains why the museum must drop Leon Black from its board. Also: The Vatican is serious about protecting artists from AI.
This is one of the most famous comedy bits of all time: But why is it funny? The disconnect between experiencing it and explaining it represents one of the challenges of teaching. It’s also at the heart of leadership, marketing and culture. Design, good taste, genre,
There’s a decent chance you’ve heard at least a couple of tracks from Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach. But when was the last time you put on Switched-On Rock, Switched-On Country, Switched-On Santa, or Switched-On Bacharach? More likely than not, you’ve never even heard of those
What do Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, and Modest Mussorgsky have in common? They stand alone among their peers for their darkly humorous sensibilities, fascination with the grotesque, imaginative takes on cultural traditions, and a predisposition for the proto-surreal. Like the
Errol Morris shot ads for Theranos and recently revealed he has a two-hour interview with Elizabeth Holmes that he’s considering releasing . “Did I have any reason to believe that she was a fraud? I did not. Did that change as time went on? It did.”
Remember the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game? Turns out : “Kevin Bacon is not the center of Hollywood. In fact, he never has been, and almost certainly never will be.”
"It is not easy to give closeness and freedom, safety plus danger."