Speed of Life

State of the Union 2012 President Barack Obama - January 2012 (Full Text) Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought – and several thousand gave their lives. We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home. These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces.  ...

On the brink... ... she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night for a poem she could drink she found out soon enough she is not a poet nor was meant to be, a witch ;  she was not a martyr nor a virgin, again on a forgotten way again on the brink... she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night for a poem she could drink... - by Somyaa Gregg Chadwick Acadia 48"x36" oil on linen 2004   Somyaa  has paired my painting  Acadia  with her remarkable poem.

by Gregg Chadwick Bruce Springsteen's first single "We Take Care of Our Own", off his forthcoming album "Wrecking Ball", opens with pounding drums and a guitar screaming like a siren. The song is a call to action and a populist anthem that follows up where "Born in the USA" left off. With a nod to the Clash, the cover of the single is a blurry, black and white photo of a black leather and guitar clad Springsteen overlaid with crudely scrawled white type that evokes the windows of closed up storefronts and used car lots. "Where are the eyes with the will to see?" Springsteen wails. From his vantage point, good hearts have been turned to stone. We are our brother's keeper. But what happened? "From Chicago to New Orleans, from the muscle to the bone, From the shotgun shack to the Superdome", Springsteen growls. "Where's the promise from sea to shining sea?" photo by Gregg Chadwick The album was recorded before...

Watch live streaming video from partnershub at livestream.com RSVP and tune in to ask questions LIVE! Live Q&A w/ Angelina Jolie - Writer and Director of the new film: In the Land of Blood and Honey Written and directed by Angelina Jolie. Starring Zana Marjanović and Goran Kostić. Set against the backdrop of the Bosnian War that tore the Balkan region apart in the 1990s, In the Land of Blood and Honey tells the story of Danijel (Goran Kostić) and Ajla (pronounced Ayla) (Zana Marjanović), two Bosnians from different sides of a brutal ethnic conflict. Danijel, a Bosnian Serb police officer, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim artist, are together before the war, but their relationship is changed as violence engulfs the country. Months later, Danijel is serving under his father, General Nebojsa Vukojevich (Rade Šerbedžija), as an officer in the Bosnian Serb Army. He and Ajla come face to face again when she is taken from the apartment she shares with her sister, Lejla (Vanesa Glodjo)...

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Under the El 30"x20" oil on linen 2012 Chicago is a city of pulse and rhythm.  The city itself is a song. It clangs and roars by day and whispers laments at night.  Standing under the El on a hot August day, listening to the hum of traffic echoing off of steel, concrete and flesh inspired my first painting of 2012. Chicago seemed to soak up the light last summer, lending the streets a shimmering presence much like the wet Parisian boulevards in Gustave Caillebotte's  Paris Street, Rainy Day.  Caillebotte's masterpiece hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago , just blocks from the El.  Standing in front of the painting last summer, after coming in from the heat, I felt my heart beating -providing an audible rhythm to Caillebotte's figures stilled in the silent air. Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street, Rainy Day (Detail) 83.5"x108.75" oil on canvas 1876-77 The Art Institute of Chicago photo b...

The hilarious television sketch comedy Portlandia debuts its second season tomorrow night on IFC. But you can watch the episode now on Speed of Life. Enjoy!

What Are You Doing New Years Eve? by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

by Gregg Chadwick Helen Frankenthaler Mountains and Sea 7' 2 5/8" x 9' 9 1/4" oil on canvas 1952 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC "Fashion and money, fame and power politics have played a part in all art worlds. You've just got to plug away....  I see a revival of the meaning of the word "quality"---a search for truth and beauty in lieu of stock certificates. People are most interested in what's real, what endures." - Helen Frankenthaler (From a Conversation With Lee Rosenbaum ) Helen Frankenthaler's painting  Mountains and Sea opened a painterly universe. She poured, dripped, and floated thinned oil paint directly onto an unprimed canvas, creating a stained surface in which the pigment spread into and throughout the canvas fibers. The painting is mesmerizing, like the open sea is mesmerizing. Color beckons almost like song. As viewers we take the role of Odysseus, some will remain tied to a mast - fighting the beauty and...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer #1 One Year Left to Read the Book First For Those Who Haven't Had the Chance. Wonderful Adventure. Happy Holidays!