MIAMI (AP) ― A few dozen pieces of personal correspondence by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, along with photographs of the former first lady in Palm Beach, sold at a Florida auction Saturday for a total of $28,400.The items up for bidding at Palm Beach Modern Auctions included Onassis’ handwritten notes to interior designer Richard Keith Langham and Bill Hamilton, then the design director at Carolina Herrera.Onassis corresponded with both men about clothes and furnishings she was buying from the mi

Culture Jan. 18, 2015

PASADENA, California (AP) ― Whitney Houston’s family says the singer’s fans should “brace themselves for the worst” if they watch Lifetime’s television movie about the late singer that premiered Saturday.Pat Houston, president of the singer’s estate and her sister-in-law, issued a critical statement about the movie on Houston’s website on the eve of the movie’s airing. She said the movie was done without the family’s blessing and against the wishes of her mother.“If you watch this movie, watch i

Film Jan. 18, 2015

Korean hotels will be reviewed under a new, stricter rating system on par with international standards, the Korea Tourism Organization said. According to the state-run tourism organization, the new hotel rating system is based on a scale of 1-5 stars, not the national flowers currently in use. Since 1971, Korean hotels had been reviewed under the mugunghwa flower-based system that ranks hotels into five categories based on points received, but was not strictly comparable to the international fiv

Travel Jan. 16, 2015

Four masterpieces of Jean-Francois Millet depicting farmers and shepherds will be on view in Seoul for the first time. The touring exhibition, entitled “Millet, Barbizon and Fontainebleau,” started in Boston and stopped through Japan before arriving in Seoul on Jan. 23 with 64 paintings, including major works of Millet and his contemporaries of the Barbizon School, the critical art movement that acted as a bridge realism and impressionism. The exhibition will showcase major works of Millet, most

Performance Jan. 15, 2015

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) ― As “Back to the Future” celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, there’s a legal tussle over the futuristic car that provided the guts for the flying time machine used by Michael J. Fox in the classic 1985 film.Maverick automaker John DeLorean’s eponymous creation costarred in the 1985 movie as it transported Marty McFly back to the 1950s to engineer his parents’ meeting ― and, in a 1989 sequel, to a 2015 world that featured flying skateboards, automated dog-walkers a

Film Jan. 14, 2015

PARIS (AFP) ― Women want to settle down while men prefer to play the field, right? Not quite, said a study Wednesday that challenged long-held views of sexual selection.It turns out the dynamics of sex are partly driven by the law of supply and demand: a man’s fidelity depends to a large degree on the number of available women.“When women are rare, men respond by desiring long-term committed relationships with a single partner,” University of Utah anthropologist and study lead author Ryan Schach

Culture Jan. 14, 2015

With images of the North and South Poles becoming cliche through overuse in environmental documentaries, artist Han Sung-pil’s photographs of the Arctic and Antarctica offer a different view of these vulnerable regions. He focuses on the history of human exploitation in the world’s least explored places since the time when early European explorers discovered the lands and their rich natural resources. He made several trips to the Arctic and Antarctica from 2013 to 2014 searching for traces of ex

Performance Jan. 12, 2015

Riding the popularity of K-pop, the new Korean fashion brand Nonagon has landed in major multi-fashion stores in Asia and the fashion hub of Milan within six months of its launch in September last year.The huge early success is the result of a collaboration between YG Entertainment, which represents major K-pop stars including Big Bang and 2NE1, and the textile company Cheil Industries, an affiliate of Samsung Group. The two joined hands to create a line of bomber jackets, sweatshirts, minidress

Arts & Design Jan. 9, 2015

VERBANIA, Italy ― Serendipity and a chance encounter on my recent trip to this Mediterranean country led me to the very best lunch I’ve ever eaten ― anywhere.It began back in September as I sat exhausted on a stone garden bench at Villa Della Porta Bozzolo in Casalzuigno in Northern Italy.Eight days into a 10-day tour of Italian gardens and villas and all the travel had finally caught up to me. I took a break from my tour and sat outside with Anna Maria Massimi, who was guiding another group tra

Travel Jan. 9, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Two men are roughly halfway through what has been called the hardest rock climb in the world: a free climb of an 900-meter section of exposed granite in California’s Yosemite National Park.Tom Evans, a climber and photographer, has been chronicling Kevin Jorgeson, 30, of Santa Rosa, California, and Tommy Caldwell, 36, of Estes Park, Colorado, as they scale the wall using only their hands and feet.El Capitan, the largest monolith of granite in the world, rises more than 900 m

Travel Jan. 9, 2015

A strong smell strikes viewers as they open the heavy curtain in the exhibition hall of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Inside hangs a huge damp cloth with a brown urine stain, emitting the ammonia-like odor. This year’s Young Korean Artists exhibition of the MMCA is full of artistic experiments embedded with the anxiety of and satire toward modern Korean society. It features eight Korean artists in their 20s and 30s living through the crisis of Korea’s young generation, depriv

Performance Jan. 7, 2015

Another holiday season has passed, and with it the marathon cooking and baking sessions. The hours spent using every kitchen appliance and inch of counter space had a potential benefit more lasting than a good meal: When we really use our kitchens, we discover what does and doesn’t work in this very important room.Remodeling a kitchen can be expensive and challenging, but you can make substantial cosmetic changes with just the help of a painter and electrician, says interior designer Betsy Burnh

Arts & Design Jan. 7, 2015

More than 700 pieces of Korean art in possession of the Smithsonian Museum are now available to view online as the Washington-based museum released some 40,000 digitized images of ancient Asian art on its website (open.asia.si.edu). The Korean collection includes celadon of the Goryeo period (918-1392), Buddhist paintings, folding screen paintings, porcelain and a lacquered wood box inlaid with mother-of-pearls that date back to the Joseon period (1392-1910).  A Buddhist painting dating to the G

Culture Jan. 6, 2015