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In the last five years prices for western art have soared. Popular artists can’t paint fast enough to keep up with the demand for paintings that regularly sell for $30,000 to $50,000. The boom is all the more striking considering that 20 years ago western art had virtually no market at all. To some extent, its success reflects Americans’ increased interest in their heritage. Certainly there are those who would argue that western art is the truly indigenous American art. Its roots date back at least as far as the early 19th century, when George Catlin, perhaps the greatest western artist of that period, took his paints and brushes and ventured into the wilderness in the company of William Clark. His close observations of the beautifully savage country molded a new and powerful aesthetic, one that incorporated the sweep of plains and the primitive dynamism of the people who lived there. Catlin’s portraits of Indian chiefs are noble, his paintings of scenes such as "Buffalo Hunt with Bows and Arrows" are full of action and bravery, and for all the smallness of the canvas, they have tremendous scope. Frederic Remington and Charles Russell continued the tradition of painter as historian into the early 1900s. Their dramatic — some critics say melodramatic narrative art found an overwhelming public sympathy. Today when people speak of western art they mean realistic art with western subject matter, past and present. In the forefront are those who call themselves cowboy artists, and many of the elite of this group are members of the Cowboy Artists of America, whose first objective is "to perpetuate the memory and culture of the Old West." Not surprisingly, they paint cowboys and, by extension, indians and mountain men, but not landscapes and animal pictures. Cowboy Artists blend a romantic vision of the Old West with a historically accurate depiction of that way of life; every saddle girth is tied correctly; every feather in an Indian’s war bonnet is in place and of the proper species. In Howard Terpning’s "The Victors", for instance, an anthropologist could tell by the warriors’ clothing which tribe they belonged to. Many critics today refuse to recognize western art as art. In a real sense, it is, as in the days of Remington and Russell, a popular movement-a middle- class phenomenon. And why not Cowboy art is unequivocally stating middle- class values. In the west, "middle class" isn’t a derogatory term. It’s almost synonymous with America. Just as these people are unabashedly patriotic, they want their art to reflect their values of striving and prospering, of optimism and individualism. The paintings of Cowboy Artists are distinguished
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The GOOD HEALTH SYMPOSIUM A Recipe for Balanced Living 09:30 — 17:15, SATURDAY 19th APRIL COMMONWEALTH INSTITUTE THEATRE. Kensington High Street TICKETS — ￡2.50 (￡1.50 students/non-wage earners) 09:30 Arrivals and refreshments 10:00 REDUCE CORONARY RISK BY BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION Dr Chundra Patel 10:50 WHAT WERE PEOPLE PROGRAMMED TO EAT Dr David Ryde 11:40 LEARNING TO COPE WITH STRESS Donald Norfolk 12:30 Lunch (Buffet vegetarian lunches will be available at ￡2.00. per head.) 14:00 OUR HEALTH IN OUR HANDS Dr Denis Burkitt 14:50 EAT, DRINK AND BE WORRIED Dr Erik Millstone 15:40 Tea 16:20 HOMEOPATHY AND NUTRITION DrAndrew Lockie 17:10 Dr Alan Long will conclude the symposium. There will be time after each lecture for discussion and questions. For details of speakers please see opposite. Organised by The Vegetarian Society DETAILS OF SPEAKERS DR CHANDRA PATEL is a senior clinical lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine, University of also a founder member of the British Holistic Medical Association (BHMA). DR DAVID RYDE has had over 30 years in general practice. He is an expert on obesity and weight loss. DONALD NORFOLK is an osteopath and the author of "Fit for Life" and "The Stress Factor". He has appeared on TV and radio. DR DENIS BURKITT is a foremost medical epidemiologist and a world expert on the importance of fibre in the diet. DR ERIK MIL LSTONE is a lecturer in Science Studies at the University of Sussex. He is a nationally-known expert on food additives and labelling. DR ANDREW LOCKIE is medical homeopath and labelling. DR ALAN LONG who will conclude the symposium, is an Hon. Research Advisor to the Vegetarian Society. There will be a large display of books on health and vegetarian cookery at the event. ADVANCE TICKETS — available from: "Good Health" Symposium, Vegetarian Centre & Bookshop. 53 Marloes Road, Kensington, London W86 LA Please enclose SAE and cheque / P.O. for correct amount Including ￡2 for advance lunch ticket (if required). Processed food containing additives is thought to be unhealthy; which of the speakers would know most about this
Some of the world’s most accommodating businessmen specialize in getting you what you want at a fair market price. But they’re businessmen with a difference — they’re smugglers who deal only in what’s illegal. A smuggling operation is complex, so it has to be businesslike. It has managers who plan trips, make deals, and arrange for purchases and pick-ups. It has travelers who deliver the goods, and specialists who recruit and train them. In fact, smugglers frequently have legitimate businesses on the side. A travel agency is helpful because the modern smuggler is a world traveler. When a gold smuggler was arrested recently, he had airline tickets from Geneva to Bangkok by way of Frankfurt, Istanbul, Beirut, Vancouver, Tokyo, Heng Kong, Manila, and Jakarta. The best places for smuggling operations are border cities and seaports. In one such city, annual sales at local stores amounted to $6,900 for every person in town. But the average person only made $3,575 per year. A tiny seaport is the world’s third largest importer of Swiss watches — every year, it buys 50 watches for every person in the city. Obviously, the people in these cities are not buying all this merchandise — it is being bought by smugglers. As one expert wrote, "the ingenuity of the smuggler’s mind is virtually limitless." In addition to special vests for carrying gold, there are other types of smuggling equipment. A diplomat was arrested in London with 298 watches sewn into his coat lining. British officials discovered a car with a special gas tank containing 2,581 illegal watches. But some smugglers don’t need special equipment. A good diamond smuggler can hide two to three small diamonds in his mouth and still carry on a normal conversation. What makes people smuggle Profit is definitely a motive. Over $1.5 billion in illegal gold alone is smuggled every year, not to mention a multi-million dollar art smuggling trade and a thriving business in illegal diamonds. But many smugglers love excitement as much as profit. As one said, "You don’t feel happy unless you have a line open and somebody making a run for you.\ A smuggling operation is likely to succeed if
Millions of Americans run to the bank or visit automated teller machines when they need cash. They use credit cards when they want to buy clothes, VCRs, or television sets. But there is an underclass — people with low incomes and no credit history — who visit their neighborhood pawnshops when they need cash or a loan. An estimated 20 percent of the US population has no bank account, more than half of this group don’t have credit cards and cannot get bank loans. "These people are borrowing an average of $50," said John P. Caskey of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. "If you add up in terms of how much dollar value pawnshops provide, they don’t look very important. If you add up how much of the population they serve or the number of loans they make, they are important." Because they make loans, pawnshops are a type of bank, often calling themselves "the bank of the little people". Caskey and Swarthmore student Brian Zidmund in 1989 looked at the importance of pawnshops in the US economy — the first serious study of the subject since the 1930s. Their conclusion: Pawnshops are the consumer’s lender of last resort. Pawnshop customers typically cannot get credit at mainstream financial institutions. They have poor credit records, excessive debt in relation to their incomes, low and unstable incomes, or cannot maintain positive bank account balance. Typically, pawnshop customers borrow relatively small amounts that traditional lenders are unwilling or unable to provide on a secured basis. "If you look at total consumer credit, the amounts provided by pawnshops remain small," Caskey said. "They are lending primarily to low-income people. In terms of the population they serve, they’re really important." In 1988, about 6,900 pawnshops operated in the United States — one for every two commercial banks. Data suggest these pawnshops made about 35 million loans, providing what Caskey and Zidmund estimate as 1 percent of the nation’s consumer credit. The best title for the passage would be
For four days in hilly fields near this country town, thousands of men will wear brocaded wool uniforms in the summer heat, smoke smelly cheroots by camp fires, pitch canvas tents, eat dried beef — and wage war. Some 5,000 weekend warriors plan to reenact the first major battle of the American Civil War not far from where it took place, 48 kilometers west of Washington 125 years ago. The American Civil War Commemorative Committee of Culpeper, Virginia, the event’s sponsor, bills this as the biggest battle reenactment ever held in the United States. While the real north-south clash was fought out in one day, on July 21,1861, the replay will stretch out over four, including preliminary encampment, from July 17—20. Those arranging the rerun of the first Battle of Manassas, as Southerners call it the Battle of Bull Run to Northerners, expect over 50,000 Civil War buffs to watch the fighting roll across a 200-hectare tract. Some 1,500 artillery shells and a half million rounds of small-arms ammunition will be fired in the mock battle. A special effects company is arranging to set off explosions across the landscape, Hollywood war-film fashion, in counterpoint to thunderous fire cannons, some of which were used in the original battle. Jack Thompson, a director of the sponsoring committee, says dozens of mock Civil War military units have been created since interest was fanned in the 1960s when reenactments took place on a smaller scale to commemorate the war’s centenary. He said these groups, mostly in the south but with delegations from areas as far off as Scotland, Ireland and West Germany, strive to duplicate the uniforms, weapons and lifestyles of 1860s. Organiser Nancy Niero says everything has to be original, or reproduced as precisely as possible. Most authentic Civil War uniforms are too worn, too delicate or too small to fit the modern man, but some of the distinctive originals have been lovingly preserved and now serve as models for exact replicas. Cheating will be barred. That means a ban on using any sort of clothing, equipment, food or drink which did not exist during the real Civil War. Smokers, for instance, must shun cigarettes. Canned beer, soda and pre packed food are all out, but a spokeswoman said, "I guess if anyone gets hurt, we’ll use antibiotics. We won’t use leeches.\ The purpose of this passage is to describe
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