Cultural Fabric from the 1990s

What to wear? Wrap Yourself Up in this ultra funk jazzy fabric from the 1990s. Stitched together with fierceness, funk and soul and heart. The touch, the feel of... culture. The fabric of our lives.

Did Your Teachers Put You In Detention? Bueller? Bueller? Teen-Age Angst...Who Me? Okay, Yeah.

TwinSpeak: Phoebe admits, she served time in detention for not doing her homework in the first grade. (Do not twitter about this...I haven't done that homework assignment YET!) But I did kiss my first boyfriend while we were together on the chain gang, I mean, on punishment. Such fond memories.

The man who had such a great ear and eye for teen-aged angst, John Hughes, passed away today after suffering a heart attack. He was 59. Sadness.

His films include Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Sixteen Candles, Curly Sue, Made in Manhattan and some of the National Lampoon "Vacation" movies. He started his career in Chicago and many of his movies were shot in the Chicago area. Hughes set some of his movies in the fictional Illinois town of Shirmer.

The pop cultural references to his films run in the hundreds, however we like the lines, "Eat My Shorts" which is now a Bart Simpson staple and love it when Jay and Silent Bob in the movie, Dogma," imagine how their future would be improved by moving to Shirmer, IL. But then they can't find it on the map--'cause it doesn't exist!

American Idol: 100 Million People Weren't Idle, They Were On the Phone!

Got Opera? Dogs Love It, What About You?

Twin Speak: Love! Hate! Pyramid Schemes! Nosy Neighbors! Friends and Family Driving You Crazy! Fear and Loathing! Sex! And those are just a few of the high points of our average day. AND that's also what operas are made of. During these economically challenging times, many opera companies offer affordable tickets. We're talking a little more than the cost of a movie. Operas in foreign languages are subtitled these days, so there's no excuse not to give it a try. It ain't over till the fat lady or the dogs sing.

The Guggenheim Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Twin Speak:Controversial. Game Changing. Paradigm Shifting. In Its Own Galaxy. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim both share these attributes. Daring to design where no man or woman had gone before. A Tangible demonstration of the American spirit at its best. We create in order to see.
Click on "The Guggenheim Celebrates 50th Anniversary" title to view a New York Times video. The video below is a fine representation of the exterior view in the context of its NYC environs.

The Power of Art and Culture Bring Us Together

"America's artistic contributions, especially its music, are universally embraced by other cultures, pushing aside their own indigenous music and adopting ours as their Esperanto. But today, we sit as one of two Western nations in the world without a Minister of Culture. When Jaime Austria and Peter Weitzner, two New York musicians, took the initiative after hearing a radio interview that I did several months ago to create an on-line petition calling for the appointment of a Secretary of the Arts -- an idea which I had originally suggested more than 10 years ago -- my belief in the power of the arts to bring people together for a common cause was reaffirmed yet again as the petition gained steam across America with an enormous outpouring of support." Quincy Jones