We say that the French have a certain "joie de vivre," but Italians have something else more difficult to label. Italian culture couples a love of beauty with an ability to laugh at itself. The designs of Milan-born architect Alessandro Mendini embrace this attitude with their color and humor -- thou

Decorative, Funny, Ironic, Pop/surrealism/anti-design, Repetition

The term hermeneutics comes from the name of the Greek messenger of the gods, Hermes. Over the past millenia, hermeneutics has referred to the practice of theological interpretation. But for Gadamer, who re-introduced the term hermeneutics into contemporary discussion, the hermeneutic process is not

Contemplative, Dense, Event, Hermeneutics, Repetition, Sincere

Herman Melville was born in 1819 to a quintessentially American family -- one bestarred with Revolutionary heroes and Tea Party guests. His father, Allan Melvill (who would later add the elegant "e" to the family name), had a mediocre opinion of him, writing around his son's 12th birthday that he was

Baroque, Expansive, Grand, Lyrical, Overflowing, Repetition, Romantic literature, Sublime

"In the beginning there is nothing. It starts very small and becomes bigger." Pina Bausch creates epics, but they always retain that quality of having come from absence, of having been built piece by piece. Bausch's dances start with a single concept -- a kernel of movement, a memory -- which she bui

Bombast, Ecstatic, Epic, Euro-surreal expressionism, Repetition