August 1947: Charlie Parker, Tommy Potter, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan and Max Roach play at Three Deuces in New York City. (Photo by William Gottlieb | Library of Congress)
How do we spend our free time?
Where do we seek our cultural identity?
Where do we go to find meaning in our lives?
How do the circumstances of our economy, culture and moment in time affect how we approach leisure?
What is the role of art and beauty in our lives?
Our focus on Mars and space exploration this spring has us excited about this weekend's meteor shower. And we need your help capturing photos of the event. Read some advice on shooting the night sky and then get your equipment ready.
Steve Portenga, lead psychologist for the U.S. track and field team, suggests it's more than fame and fortune that can motivate athletes to break the rules of sport to enhance their performance. It's about the fear of losing an identity -- and sometimes a paycheck.
The sociologist Richard Sennett says we make things because it gives us a sense of place in the world. Here are two projects that take that notion to the extreme.
We'd like to see something you made -- and we want to know why you made it. Big or small; a physical object or something you built from code: It's show-and-tell time.
"What our relationship would have become if things had worked out, or if the divorce had come later, I can never know." Christopher Fleming writes. "But what I do know is that each breath shared with Jacob is a chance to get better together."
We're asking people around the country to share just one photo with us that represents something they're thankful for this holiday season. (Here at PIN, we're really thankful for the jar of candy corn on top of an editor's desk.)
Peter Joyes traded a career in business for the life of a State Fair artist. For more than three decades, he delighted people with his airbrush portraits until working conditions and the economics of summer festivals conspired against him.
The Olympics may be over, but state fair season is still in full swing. This week you can help us with stories inspired by both of those topics.
Amid the monumental changes that continue to shape the economy and the ways that we work, we ask: How are we having fun these days?
Instead of social media being the cause of our problems, couldn't it be that it just highlights the problems we already have?
Whether it's because of changing finances, changing family dynamics, new friends, new hobbies or summers that are hotter than ever, what are some new ways you've found to spend your free time?
With more than 900 million active users on Facebook, it's becoming an unavoidable truth that our parents, aunts and uncles, and even grandparents are creeping into the realm of social networking. Have yours?
Facebook has more than 900 million active users. It nearly impossible to avoid your family there. But have you been able to avoid the awkwardness?
When the average wedding costs $27,000, how do brides and grooms -- especially those saddled with college and grad-school debt -- approach planning a wedding?
