Monthly Archives: June 2009
Ball point pen on the morning newsprint Yesterdays win over the Magic gave the Los Angeles Lakers their fifteenth NBA championship in franchise history. Once again, hard work and determination proved to be the most important variables to success. Kobe Bryant worked harder than any other player in the league in route to winning his fourth NBA championship and the MVP award. ...
Read MoreBall point pen on the morning newsprint Ordinarily I don't blog on the weekend, but this is an important date in history. Not because 82 years ago, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City, or that 74 years ago James Braddock became boxing's heavy weight champion by beating Bax Baer. It's not even that the US space probe Pioneer 10 was launched 37 years ago today and became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system when it crossed the orbit of Neptune. Yes, those are all important events, but they pale in comparison when you consider that my father-in-law, Charles Edward Hilyard married Joan Marie Opdyke 50 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. ...
Read MoreBall point pen on the morning newsprint If you've never heard of Ilya Repin, blame it on the Iron Curtain. Repin enjoyed more fame in his lifetime than any other Russian artist in the nineteenth century. A book on his life and work, Ilya Repin, Painting * Graphic Arts, translated from Russian by Sheila Marnie and Helen Clier is one of my prized possessions. When the cold war ended I had the great privileged to see his Barge Haulers masterpiece at the Guggenheim. Recently The Russian Museum, in order to increase art appreciation, is placing replica masterpieces like Repin's "Reply of the Zaporozhian to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire" around Moscow and St. Petersburg. What a great idea! I'd like to see that in the New York subways. ...
Read MoreMost days I work at home, so my mornings consist of finding the paper on my front lawn, doodling a portrait or two over my morning coffee and heading up to my studio to start my day. But occasionally, on days like yesterday, I have to commute to New York for a model reference photo shoot. On those days I wake up early, do my morning doodle, blog, then head to New York. I always buy another paper because the New York tabloids always have more fodder for me to doodle. The excursion is a bumpy ride on overcrowded trains with poor suspensions. I guess it is an obsession because I still draw. It's about a 35 minutes ride... This is how I passed the time. A bakers dozen doodles on yesterdays paper. Ball point pen on the morning newsprint ...
Read MoreBall point pen on the morning newsprint President Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan supports merit pay for teachers by linking raises and bonuses to student performance. The former professional basketball player said "To somehow suggest we should not link student achievement to teacher effectiveness, is like suggesting we judge sports teams without looking at the box score." That seems logical. So, why hasn't it been done before?...Well, in Washington, lobbies and interest groups have always trumped logic, and there is no lobby more powerful than the teachers union, who opposes merit pay...That's Change. ...
Read MoreBall point pen on the morning newsprint Laura Ling is a journalist who crisscrosses the globe reporting on major stories shaping our world for Emmy award-winning, independent media company, Current TV. Laura has covered subjects including the avian flu crisis in Asia, slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon, China's booming sex industry, and marijuana cultivation in California's national forests. Prior to joining Current in February of 2005, she worked as a series producer for Channel One News where she produced reports from over two-dozen countries. Laura co-created "Breaking it Down," a documentary series on MTV that aired between 1999 and 2001. Her work has also appeared on ABC's "Nightline," NBC, PBS and the WB. She and fellow journalist Euna Lee are currently being detained by North Korean for having allegedly crossed the border between China and the rouge nation. Yesterday they were ...
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