I have loved stop-motion animation since the days of Gumby and Pokey. However, many of you have not experienced the art form. Stop-motion animation is a lot of work. It involves shooting a single frame. moving the props just a tad, then shooting another one. It can take all day to shoot a sequence of…
Ahh, there’s nothing like a hot, fresh espresso. The potent little cup of supercharged coffee is a delight to all of the senses, but making it just right is an art form unto itself. Today’s FamilyFirst site (and it’s just a bit late, escusi) is called Crema! A Sign of Good Espresso, or a Symptom…
The art of training trees into shapes is an ancient one. The banzai miniaturized trees have been a Japanese art form for thousands of years. The English gardens of the 16th century featured trees trained into fantastic shapes. And today’s FamilyFirst pick features modern-day tree-training. It’s called Pooktre Tree Shapers. Here’s their mission in a…
Journalism is an art form that is distinctly identifiable by era. Today’s no-nonsense reporting style stands in contrast to the flowery, poetic accounts that were published in the 19th century. Today’s FamilyFirst site brings back that unique style, as it quotes actual newspaper accounts. It’s called Ghost Cowboy. This was a time when living in…
Music is a unifying force that brings cultures together across both distance and time. And if you think country/rock music is strictly an American art form, you have another thing coming. Today’s FamilyFirst site is a poignant, excellent documentation of a group that you may have never heard of, but which had Top Ten singles…
When I was fourteen years old, I had a big American History textbook in school. One day, I drew some tiny figures playing football at the edge of a page. In my spare time (read: during history class ;-), I would add to the football action. It was pretty warped stuff. For instance, one player…
Folk music is considered to be an original American art form, one that has its roots in the roots of our culture. Today’s FamSite looks at the one person who is credited with making it so memorable. The site is a Library of Congress one, and is called Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American…