Who? Jewel, the singer-songwriter.
Why? More than any of them, Jewel breaths an intimacy that suggests that in all the world, she’s singing to you. Just you. Like some private concert in a basement bar, the only other audience a bored waitress leaning on the bar reading a newspaper. I try to buy one album a week, and listen to it to death during my train journey back and forth from work. I listened to Jewel’s new album ‘This Way’ for two solid weeks – after a rough day of people shouting down the telephone at me, it felt like somewhere I could cradle away, hide from the ugly noise of the world. I only stopped the ritual when the tracks began to become to familiar – so that when I hear it again, tonight, then, it would seem as new.
first appeared October 2001; finally

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What? This is one of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema's (1836-1912) more chaste works.
Why? I was casting about for something subtle for my title bar, and decided this evoked what I was trying to do with the weblog -- which was a bit high minded because I stray closer to pop culture than anything else. I was going to make this the permanent bar, but I think it stayed for all of three days. So here it is permamently. Notice the blogtitle in the top left hand corner. Just looks wrong.
first appeared October 2001; finally