A couple pieces of wood, a roll of canvas and some oil paint: $104 million. On Wednesday, May 5, at Sotheby's auction house in New York, an anonymous bidder purchased Pablo Picasso's "Garcon a la Pipe" ("Boy with a Pipe") for this whopping sum, making it the new record holder as the world's most expensive painting.

Descartes argued that the human body and the human mind are separate, but his theory never quite held up under close philosophical scrutiny. Given the structure of our nervous systems, it seems obvious to many scientists that the mind and body can't possibly be distinct—one can't exist without the other.

The vague and oft confusing realm commonly known as the unknown can teach us more than we realize—if we let it. Understanding life's accidents can fill in the blanks that everyday, structured reality delivers. At least that's the belief held by the artists featured in the new aldizorontophoskyphorniostikos: beauty in all things exhibit.

Los Angeles native Gary Eugene Jefferson's original, mural-sized still life, figurative and abstract paintings have been exhibited everywhere from New York City to Denmark, and with good reason. Having studied in both America and France, Jefferson combines traditional themes such as slavery, women's rights and African American culture with his European art influnces, which include Michelangelo, Vermeer and Van Gogh. His depictions of history's most troubling and chaotic times, combined with a vast knowledge of art history and an aptitude for abstract expressionism, have touched the hearts of hardcore critics as well as the part-time art lover. Jefferson's exhibit will be shown at the Outpost's Inpost Artspace starting today, and a reception will be held Friday, June 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. Runs through July 9. 268-0044.

Kinky Friedman, that loveable, footloose, animal-loving, Hebrew cowboy from Texas, plans to run for governor of his home state as an independent in 2006. His campaign slogan is "Why the Hell Not?" and he's distributed official campaign bumper stickers that read, "He ain't Kinky, He's Your Governor."

A powerful piece of visual art can grab hold of you and pull you in, allowing you to experience the torment and beauty of a world without words. This is certainly the case with the work of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. His best known paintings present gut-wrenching images of hardship and war that are sometimes difficult to stomach.

Covering a 30-year span leading up to the end of apartheid in South Africa, Mda's latest novel digs into the grotesque social poison of that country's race relations, telling of an independent black African woman's struggle to navigate in a world ruled entirely by white men. Mda is one of the great shining lights of South African literature, and The Madonna of Excelsior shows him at the peak of his abilities.