Marcel Duchamp

(28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968)

John A. Stormer

(born February 9, 1928)

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an American Protestant anti-communist writer who is both a pastor and a Christian school superintendent. The books he wrote include None Dare Call It Treason, None Dare Call It Treason...25 Years Later, and None Dare Call It Education.

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a book by John A. Stormer which argued that the United States was losing the Cold War because it had been heavily infiltrated by Communist subversives.

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a book by John A. Stormer. In this book, Stormer wrote of what he considered the cultural manipulation in American society and warned of the alleged designs of the Fabian Society and their agenda of democratic socialism.

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a book by John A. Stormer that contains an array of statistics demonstrating the failure of American public schools to perform their stated mission.

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a 1931 novel by American author Nathanael West. West's first novel, it presents a young man's immature and cynical search for meaning in a series of dreamlike encounters inside the entrails of the Trojan Horse.

Nathanael West

( October 17, 1903 – December 22, 1940) 

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a US author, screenwriter and satirist. Some of his works include Miss Lonelyhearts, The Dream Life of Balso Snell, and The Day of the Locust.

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Nathanael West's second novel. It is an Expressionist black comedy set in New York City during the Great Depression.

Sidney Joseph Perelman

(February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979)

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a Jewish-American humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker. He also wrote for several other magazines, as well as books, scripts, and screenplays.

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originally described a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC. The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term, by extension, came to refer specifically to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rites by the Pope.

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a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome.

Baruch Spinoza

(November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) 

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a Portuguese-descendant Dutch-Jewish philosopher. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of the 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes' mind–body dualism, Spinoza is considered to be one of Western philosophy's most important philosophers.

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a philosophical book written in Latin by Baruch Spinoza. Although it was published posthumously in 1677, it is his most famous work, and is considered his magnum opus.

In Ethics, Spinoza demonstrates a philosophical system that provides a coherent picture of reality and comprehends the meaning of an ethical life. Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, human bondage to the emotions, and the power of understanding.

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a dramatic presentation depicting the passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition.

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an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The action of Stoppard's play takes place mainly 'in the wings' of Shakespeare's, with brief appearances of major characters from Hamlet who enact fragments of the original's scenes. Between these episodes the two protagonists voice their confusion at the progress of events of which—occurring onstage without them in Hamlet—they have no direct knowledge.

Sir Tom Stoppard

(3 July 1937-)

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the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key, at the same time.

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

(November 10, 1879 – December 5, 1931)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert

(18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911)

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an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads, an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings. His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces.

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan

(13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900)

H.M.S. Pinafore

or The Lass that Loved a Sailor

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a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert.

The story takes place aboard the British ship H.M.S. Pinafore. The captain's daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father's wishes at first, but Sir Joseph's advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The captain discovers this plan, but a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story.

Gilbert imbued this plot with mirth and silliness. The opera's humour focuses on love between members of different social classes and lampoons the British class system in general. Pinafore also pokes good-natured fun at patriotism, party politics, the Royal Navy, and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority.

The Pirates of Penzance

or The Slave of Duty

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a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert.

The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic finds out, however, that he was born on February 29, and so, technically, he only has a birthday each leap year. His apprenticeship indentures state that he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday, and so he must serve for another 63 years. Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.

The Mikado

or The Town of Titipu

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an argument for the existence of God that attempts the method of a priori proof, which uses intuition and reason alone. The argument examines the concept of God, and states that if we can conceive of the greatest possible being, then it must exist.

slippery slope

or thin edge of the wedge

or the camel's nose

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in debate or rhetoric, a classic form of argument, arguably an informal fallacy. A slippery slope argument states that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom. The strength of such an argument depends on the warrant, i.e. whether or not one can demonstrate a process which leads to the significant effect.

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a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night.

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a musical ensemble of four string players or a piece written to be performed by such a group. The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music. The string quartet is widely seen as one of the most important forms in chamber music.

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a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part. The word "chamber" signifies that the music can be performed in a small room, often in a private salon with an intimate atmosphere.

Flamenco

or danse mora

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a style of music and dance which is native to several regions of southern Spain. This dance style, originating from the Andalusian Gypsies, is characterized by forceful, often improvised rhythms.

Giorgio de Chirico

(July 10, 1888 – November 20, 1978)

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a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greecer. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement.

Metaphysical art

or Pittura metafisica

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the name of an Italian art movement, created by Giorgio de Chirico. His dream-like paintings of squares typical of idealized Italian cities, as well as apparently casual juxtapositions of objects, represented a visionary world which engaged most immediately with the unconscious mind, beyond physical reality. The metaphysical movement provided significant impetus for the development of Dada and Surrealism.

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the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church, in Romanesque and Gothic churches. The nave of a church, whether Romanesque, Gothic or Classical, extends from the entry to the chancel and is flanked by lower aisles separated from the nave by an arcade.

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a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides.

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the space around the altar at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.

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the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns of classical buildings. As such, it is the lowest part of the entablature. They are mainly used in churches and cathedrals, and other religious buildings.

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 the wide central section part of an entablature that may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order—decorated with bas-reliefs.

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the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice.

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any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element.

Coleman Randolph Hawkins

(November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969)

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an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was the first important jazz musician to use the instrument. While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

Il Sodoma

or Giovanni Antonio Bazzi

(1477 – February 14, 1549)

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an Italian Mannerist painter who painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of the provincial Sienese school.

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the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture. The transept separates the nave from the sanctuary.

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Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to the family's estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. While presented with options to save the estate, the family essentially does nothing and the play ends with the estate being sold to the son of a former serf, and the family leaving to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down. The story presents themes of cultural futility — both the futility of the aristocracy to maintain its status and the futility of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

(29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904)

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a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

Chekhov made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure.