Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitsky, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who had settled in Philadelphia. In his early twenties he changed his name -- after years of being taunted because of its foreign sound. Ray's talents were obvious even in childhood. He was skilled at building, repairing, in
Nino Rota was one of the most prolific and acclaimed film composers of his era, and his 30-year collaboration with Fellini became one of the classic director-composer pairings. His soundtrack credits range from Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" to Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" to Francis Ford Coppo
Mariko Mori is the most glamorous sort of alien. In her identity-probing, time-traveling photographs, sculptures, and 3-D videos, this young artist takes on roles that fuse the ancient and the futuristic, natural elements and high-tech artifice. In her sleek, seamless pieces, Mori explores the "insta
Jorge Luis Borges had a twisted sense of time. He placed us on the precipice of an infinite event, concentrating past, present, and future in a single coruscating constellation of time. Inspired by the philosophy of Leibnitz, Borges always presented us with a multiplicity of possible worlds. But