Juliet grew up on a horse ranch and I can recommend her as an expert handywoman. She even rewired this lamp my father made in the 1940s.
Cathy Carey I am best described as a contemporary expressive colorist. I use color to create emotional meaning and visual depth. I want my paintings to be more than just the reality of a description, and I strive to fill viewers with a sense of joy. Inspired by Henri Matisse, my goal is to paint what my subjects feel like, not what they look like. The natural world of animals and landscapes are my favorite… read more →
My starting college at fifteen and earning six degrees does not mean I am smarter than you. Degrees and education are not necessarily correlated. If you are curious, have access to a library (and today, the Internet), and make the time––e.g., rise early––you can be better educated than I. There are big gaps in my knowledge. By my standards, I am not well-educated; in fact, the only persons that I suspect were, are now long… read more →
See recent interview of me by Marilyn Moore of the Atlas Society: https://atlassociety.org/commentary/commentary-blog/6318-member-spotlight-diana-amsden. It reveals facets of me that may be new even to my relatives. In May, 2014, in the Santee YMCA parking lot (spaces for ~314 cars), I tripped over a tire stop in the walking lane between two parking spaces, indistinguishable in color from the adjacent pavement. I did a face plant, sustaining nasal and left suborbital fractures. My vision corrected after… read more →
Government is handling youth unemployment with: 1. student loans––which financially hobble recipients 2. the Peace Corps––which exposes volunteers to criminal attack 3. the military––which risks life and limb. Destroying and rebuilding are big businesses with political clout. 4. prison for victimless crimes––which cripples economically and socially. Incarcerating fellow citizens is another lucrative business with political clout. All require extorting from taxpayers money they might otherwise have used to hire youth.
Charles Ferguson’s award-winning documentary on the economic Depression that has stunned and devastated many in our generation, and blighted our descendants’ hopes, dreams, and opportunities. The major players are old enough for their character (or lack thereof) to be written on their faces. Watching the guilty being interviewed, I was reminded of vermin caught in a spotlight, evading, side-stepping, hemming and hawing, scurrying for cover. I’m grateful not to have the nauseating job of being… read more →
BRIDGE OF SPIES, 2015, screenplay by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers. A suspenseful true story with excellent characterization and dialogue. During the Cold War, American lawyer James Donovan, played by Tom Hanks, is recruited to defend arrested Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, played by Mark Rylance, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers, played by Austin Stowell.
WINGS OF THE DOVE, a 1997 film from Henry James’ 1902 novel, was nominated for four Academy Awards. Sandy Power won a Satellite award and BAFTA nomination for best costume desire, John Beard a Satellite Award for best art direction and production design, and Eduardo Serra a British Society of Cinematographers award. The beautiful locations include Venice’s St. Mark’s and Palazzo Barbaro. Kate Croy, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is an impoverished woman who has… read more →
E. O. Wilson published “Sociobiology” in 1975, revolutionizing the social sciences, bringing a breath of fresh air into staid anthropology. Reading his latest book, I’m amazed that it was written by a man whose eyesight was so poor that he spent much of his life studying ants––because that was what he could see. He surveys all of life on earth from an Olympian perspective––zooming in on fascinating details––and a time horizon ranging from years to… read more →