A mouthful

Five Branch Tree turns one:

A person could read the entire canon of great novels and see the best of film, know the critical viewpoints of all the significant scholars, memorize the chronological history of every major art movement, but appreciation would remain hopelessly deficient without access to the simple, personal interests and reactions of other people. And in a time when there is increasing momentum towards consumer culture, when the arts and humanities become further marginalized within both lower and higher educational institutions, how valuable the internet is becoming in battling these trends by providing an opportunity for people to share their thoughts and eagerness for artistic efforts.