Speaking God’s Language, With a Gangster Dialect // Rev. Frederick Loos

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Marc Lacey

Frederick Loos was cussing like a sailor the other night, which was surprising given that he is a Roman Catholic priest and his foul-mouthed discourse was delivered from the pulpit to hundreds of faithful gathered before him.

He spoke of God, the need to serve him and how he can transform lives. But interspersed in his sermon was the most colorful of street Spanish, which brought smiles to the faces of many of the gang members, addicts and other young people pressed in tight to listen.

“When you go to China you have to speak Chinese,” the priest explained afterward, slipping out of his vestments. “If you’re speaking to kids you use their idioms. I don’t think God is offended if it brings them closer to him.”

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For Patty Griffin, 'Downtown Church' Opens a Door to Gospel // PBS NewsHour Art Beat

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Lauren Knapp

Alt-country singer Patty Griffin was not an easy convert to the idea of making a gospel music album.

"I'm really a lapsed Catholic at best, [I have] very non-descript religious practices, if any at all," says Griffin.

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Fund-Raising Videos That Work // A Jewish Charity Tells Its Story

Full article here // Excerpt below

Many charities are creating short videos to help garner attention and money for their organizations online. But for many groups, long-form video — anything over two or three minutes — remains an important tool.

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Painting as Politics // A Studio Visit with Kainebi Osahenye

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Antawan I. Bird

Kainebi Osahenye has developed a reputation as one of the most significant artists living and working in Nigeria today. [...] Osahenye’s studio is filled with used paint tubes, water bottles, beverage cans, and other forms of detritus that the artist has been incorporating into much of his recent work. He is fascinated by the global implications of such commodity objects, and the ways in which they can be appropriated to add a sculptural dimension to his painting practice. “I am interested in the layers that these objects create — both formally and symbolically,” he said. “Life is about layers, about what is added-on and what can be taken away. This is something that I try to remain conscious about as I develop my practice.”

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Friday in Chapel Hill/Carrboro // 2nd Friday ArtWalk

Click here to learn more

Pastel Society of North Carolina and Carrie Alter

Join us on Friday, July 9th, from 6-9 pm during Carrboro-Chapel Hill's Friday night ArtWalk for receptions in both of our galleries. Enjoy light refreshments and meet the artists.

The East End Gallery features "They Bite Because They're Alive": oil paintings by Carrie Alter. The Center Gallery includes the work of The Pastel Society of North Carolina. Exhibits are on view until July 31st.

Please stop at our Box Office for a map listing all the participating venues and the work being featured. Or, visit http://www.artscenterlive.org/pdfs/Map6_10 for a map of venues for the June event.

Ryan and Hoffman Will Not Appear at Jerusalem Film Festival, Organizers Say // Israeli Flotilla Raid Plays Role?

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Dave Itzkoff

Organizers of the Jerusalem Film Festival said Meg Ryan had canceled a scheduled appearance at the event and Dustin Hoffman had withdrawn from discussions to participate in it, joining a growing number of artists and performers who have dropped their trips to Israel in recent weeks.

[...] Mr. Molad Hayo said he believed the recent raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound flotilla played a role in the decision.

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Sacred Music Roundup // Christianity Today's Best New Releases in Sacred Music

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jane Holstein

"Joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life!"

Penned by Henry Van Dyke, a hundred years ago, and paired with the tune from the final movement of Beethoven's "Ninth," this one phrase sums up the power of music. Whether it is instrumental or choral, classical or modern, music from within the walls of a Gothic cathedral or the walls of a recording studio, enjoyment of sacred music continues to thrive.

In this debut of a new quarterly review of the best in new sacred music, we've chosen from a variety of writers, performers, and styles from albums released in the first half of 2010.

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The Rublev Trinity // Iconographic Tradition and the Individual Talent

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Daniel A. Siedell

“There exists the icon of the Trinity by St. Andrei Rublev; therefore God exists.” This remarkable statement by Fr. Pavel Florensky, Russian Orthodox priest, mathematician, art historian and martyr, is not the kind of apologetic strategy that Christians in the West are used to. To say that our tastes run toward the intellectual is an understatement. Whether we prefer the elegant Aristotelian cathedrals of the Scholastics or the sturdy Foundationalist bunkers of the Biola School, Christian apologetics in the West is a rational sport. To our western ears, Florensky's argument sounds woolly, mystical, or patently irrational. This is so not simply because we have inherited a very different tradition of apologetics, we also, perhaps more importantly, have inherited a very different tradition of art.

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Learning to Surrender // Dancing by the Power Ministries

Artist Ronya-Lee LaVaune Anderson Thompson feels closest to God when she’s dancing. Her calling is to dance and to help others experience God through movement.



Ronya-Lee LaVaune Anderson Thompson is artistic director of Dancing by the Power MinistriesDuke Youth Academy for Christian Formation. in Mount Rainier, Md. She has taught and studied sacred dance for more than 10 years through workshops, lectures and classes, including the

DDS Student Releases: Music and Books // Divinity Magazine

The Spring 2010 issue of Divinity Magazine includes a section on student releases:

The headliner is an article on Brad Acton's novel Memories of Kaos, which "tells a version of the Miltonic story of Satan's rebellion and fall from grace, but from the point of view of an angel named Kaos."

Also featured is Sarah Howell's (M.Div. '12) debut EP, No Part of You, which is available on Bandcamp, iTunes and more. The album includes 4 original songs she wrote herself and performed with Gary Mitchell.

Shaun Saunders' (M.Div. '10) first book, Seeing God in Everything, was published in 2009 through Godzchild Publications.

Pastors of Emmaus Way, Tim Conder and Daniel Rhodes (Th.D. '12) recently published a theology of Scripture for emergent Christianity, entitled Free for All: Rediscovering the Bible in Community, from Baker Books (2009).

Also noted was David Taylor's new book For the Beauty of the Church, which has received attention on this blog at least two times.

Summer at the Nasher // Free Thursday Nights

The Nasher Museum of Art has a great lineup of free events on Thursday evenings this summer. Check out a few upcoming ones below or learn more here.

Thursday, July 8
5-7 PM
Music on the Patio
Chris Bryant: "Nice guy, good music." Enjoy drinks and appetizers after work or stay for dinner. Duke Employees with ID receive a 10% discount in the café during Music on the Patio.

Thursday, July 15
Café Conversations
A unique chance to meet and get to know community leaders and personalities. Prix fixe menu, $30 for three courses. Reservations required: call 919-684-6032.
6:30 PM John Clark, Anchor, WTVD-11
6:30 PM Dean Sue Wasiolek, Assistant VP for Student Affairs & Dean of Students, Duke University
7 PM Deirdre Haj, Executive Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
7 PM Joseph Haj, Producing Artistic Director, Playmakers Repertory Company

Thursday, July 22
Culinary Artist
Chef Fredi Morf, Wake Technical Community College, creates an art inspired dinner menu. Reservations encouraged.

A native of Switzerland, Fredi Morf trained and worked in Zurich and Zermatt before coming to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville in 1981. Since 1986, Chef Morf has been an instructor at Wake Technical Community College, teaching in the Culinary Technology program. He is an active member of The American Culinary Federation Triangle Chefs' Association and The National Ice Carving Association.

14th South African Women's Arts Festival // African Mamas and More

Full article here // Excerpt below

The 14th South African Women's Arts Festival (SAWAF) is set to run at the Playhouse from 30 July to 8 August 2010.

High profile attractions in this year's SAWAF line-up include the vibrant Afro-beat musical, African Mamas, directed by Leoni Jansen and designed by Andrew Botha and Stan Knight; Comedy Fever, a Stand-up Comedy Festival featuring some of South Africa's finest comedians, DJ's and television personalities; the highly-praised, adults-only two-hander, From My Point of View starring Clare Mortimer and Darren King; the Bollywood-style spectacular, Sunghursh presented in association with Nateshwar Dance Company; an Open Mic Poetry and Dialogue session; and a wide-ranging art exhibition.

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You Should Have Heard Just What I Seen // The Music Photography of James Hamilton Edited by Thurston Moore

Full article here // Excerpt below

You Should Have Heard Just What I Seen (Ecstatic Peace Library; November 2010)

James Hamilton’s portraits of music world luminaries, reveal a previously unearthed master photographer, with compelling and rarely seen images of visionaries and artists from Madonna and Nico to Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. This very first book devoted to James Hamilton’s music photography unveils a treasure trove of arresting images, previously unpublished, or available until now only fleetingly in print periodicals.

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Lou Ruvo Center in Las Vegas // A Crazy Building for a Health Clinic

Full article here // Excerpt below

The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (LRCBH), officially the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, opened on July 13, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada that is operated by the Cleveland Clinic and was designed by world-renowned architect, Frank Gehry of Gehry Partners in Santa Monica, California.

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The Future of Ethnic Studies // The field is under assault from without and within

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Gary Y. Okihiro

On May 11, 2010, less than a month after signing SB 1070, which many people hold legalizes racial profiling, Arizona's Gov. Jan Brewer signed HB 2281 into law. That law bans schools from teaching classes that are designed for students of a particular ethnic group or that promote resentment, ethnic solidarity, or overthrow of the U.S. government. "Public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people," it reads.

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Teaching History // North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

Read more here // Download audio here

Deciding how to teach history involves making tough decisions about what the past means and how we should remember it. That can be a messy process, as the N.C. Department of Public Instruction learned last winter. Their proposed changes to the history curriculum drew an impassioned response. But the classroom isn't the only place where history is taught. Public art also aims to portray a narrative of the past, with monuments saying as much about the societies that erect them as those being memorialized.

Now in Durham // ADF: Martha Clarke's latest dance celebrates the complex legacy of the Shakers

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Byron Woods

...in the midst of her schedule, crowded as it is with film, theater and dance commitments, [Martha] Clarke will be in Durham to unveil a new, full-length dance-theater piece inspired by, of all things, a religious sect that flourished in the 19th century called The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing—better known as the Shakers. In Angel Reapers, which will receive three performances beginning Monday, July 5, Clarke continues a collaboration with playwright/ screenwriter Alfred Uhry that has spanned most of the decade.

[...]

ADF audiences look in on a faith that leaves its followers shaken—literally—when Angel Reapers premieres this Monday through Wednesday.

Martha Clarke
Angel Reapers
Reynolds Theater, Duke University
American Dance Festival
July 5–7

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Monet The Gardener: Life, And Art, Grow At Giverny // From NPR Morning Edition

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Susan Stamberg

By the time painter Claude Monet moved to Giverny, 45 miles outside of Paris, he and his first wife, Camille, had already lived in Le Havre, Paris, Etretat, Argenteuil and Veutheil. In fact, the Monets moved around a lot — sometimes at night to avoid angry landlords — but it wasn't until the painter spotted the village of Giverny from a train in Normandy that he began to build himself a home.

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Materials Take Spotlight at London Art Show // At Whitechapel Gallery

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Valerie Gladstone

A new exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London is putting the focus on the actual materials that become art. It’s also giving 60 of the 400 pieces in the impressive Daskalopoulos Collection their first London showing.

The show, titled “Keeping It Real,” runs through May 22, 2011, at the all-star gallery (77-82 Whitechapel High Street; whitechapelgallery.org). Only a few of the works have been on view before, and never so many in one space.

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Now in Durham // Ways of being Latino or Latina at Golden Belt in Necessary Fictions

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Chris Vitiello

With what markers do you choose to identify yourself? The countries of your family's origin or the town you currently live in? Your stories and memories? The money you make or the stuff you buy with it? Or do you pretty much let who and what's around you define who you are? Who the hell are you, anyway? And, as important, why?

Necessary Fictions, a six-artist show in Golden Belt's Room 100 gallery in Durham through July 11, makes coherent some of the lines of force slashing through and emerging from the identity term "Latina/o." The show's curators—John Ribó, who is completing a comparative literature doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Mario Marzán, an artist and faculty member in UNC's art department—have brought together provocative work both with and without North Carolina connections, displaying an exciting diversity of thought and media.

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America, Illustrated // Rockwell Paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Deborah Solomon

IN an age when Democrats and Republicans are barely on speaking terms, you might not think that decades-old paintings of freckled schoolboys and their loyal mutts could help revive the conversation about what we value as a nation. Yet Norman Rockwell’s cheerful America has lately acquired a startling relevance both inside and outside the art world, in part because it symbolizes an era when connectivity did not require a USB cable.

Rockwell’s paintings are easy to recognize. In the years surrounding World War II his covers for The Saturday Evening Post depicted America as a small-town utopia where people are consistently decent and possess great reserves of fellow-feeling. Doctors spend time with patients whether or not they have health insurance. Students cherish their teachers and remember their birthdays. Citizens at town hall meetings stand up and speak their mind without getting booed or shouted down by gun-toting rageaholics.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Gospel and Cultures // Christ and the Indigenising Principle

Full article here (PDF) // Excerpt below

By Krish Kandiah

I had my eye on Arnold Schwarzenegger as I travelled by bus from Singapore to Thailand in the summer of 1994. At that time, instead of using standardised, mass-produced film posters, each cinema would hire an artist to paint picture billboards to advertise the movies. One of the film star’s blockbusters was on general release and in Chinese-majority Singapore Schwarzenegger had distinctly Chinese facial features. On our way through Malaysia our bus passed many cinemas, all of which depicted him with a more Malay-looking disposition. When I finally made it to Thailand Schwarzenegger had a noticeably Thai appearance! It seems we want our heroes to look like us!

Upon coming home to the UK I looked through a book of images of Jesus Christ and it soon became apparent that Western Christianity had been doing the same thing for centuries with the greatest hero of all. The majority of the images of Christ, whether on canvas or on film, depict the Son of God as a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, Western male. It has sometimes been said, “God created us in his image and we have returned the compliment.” Indeed, this is what has happened.

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Giving Voice to the Young and the Reluctant // 'The Choir' Reality Series Comes to BBC America

Full article here // Excerpt below

THE ingredients add up to a certified hit: An earnest, young teacher intent on building the choir of his dreams. Ragtag high schoolers wrestling with adolescent angst. Feuding faculty members. Bullies who think singing is for losers. Success. Failure. And, oh, those showstopping tunes.

No, not that series.

Before “Glee” made Americans want to tap into their inner Broadway baby, there was “The Choir,” a feel-good BBC reality series about the singer and conductor Gareth Malone and his quest to bring choral music to the unlikeliest of schools. A success in Britain since 2006, the show will make its debut in this country on BBC America on Wednesday night at 10.

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Mythic Past, Resonating in the Present // India's Epic Poems, Resonating in Modern Lives

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Somini Sengupta

CAN an epic poem, composed more than 2,000 years ago and transcribed in an ancient language that only a handful of people can read, thrive in the age of Twitter?

In India, yes. And not just one epic but two.

The most talked-about movies in India this summer are based on the two great epics of Hinduism: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

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Bicycle Ballets and More // Urban Artisans: A Collective Thrives in Brooklyn

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Melena Ryzik

A proclamation from Marty Markowitz, the excitable Brooklyn borough president, is no rarity. But receiving it under the head of a quasianimatronic wolf-creature, while, around the corner, a guy upholsters a seat cushion in brown argyle, and another blends cocktails by bike — that is something special.

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A Musical Message Discovered in Plato's Works // Original Scrolls Reveal Pattern

Full article here // Excerpt below

By NPR Staff

It sounds like something out of a Dan Brown novel, but a scholar in Manchester, England, claims to have found hidden code in the ancient writings of Plato. If true, the secret messages would have made the ancient philosopher and mathematician a heretic in his day.

Jay Kennedy tells NPR's Guy Raz that his discovery was partially luck. Looking at Plato's works in their original scroll form, he noticed that every 12 lines there was a passage that discussed music.

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Seen: Hipsters with Heart // The New Geek Chic

Full article here // Excerpt below

By George Gene Gustines

On Sunday, Independence Day bashes across the country will be celebrating the birth of the nation. At the Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, one party will be celebrating the birth of Seen, a new lifestyle Web site, which goes live at midnight that day.

“We want to report on anything we deem is cool, happening online or otherwise,” says Jeremy Atkins, one of the site’s founders, who is also the director of public relations for Dark Horse Comics. “This would essentially be the true definition of geek chic.”

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A Voice in Egypt for an Arab Age of Reason // Ismail Serageldin and Islamic Liberalism

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Michael Slackman

FROM his pulpit at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Ismail Serageldin preaches what might be called Islamic liberalism, a philosophical view grounded in reason and tolerance with roots in the early days of his faith, when Muslims led the world in intellectual pursuits.

His goal is to help spark the Arab world’s own age of reason, though he acknowledges that there is a long way to go.

“We can defeat the forces of hate and confrontation and build through education, science and culture better understanding for our future,” he said at the opening ceremony of a recent conference at the library.

Mr. Serageldin has fashioned himself as the anti-Islamist, a self-declared “secularist when it comes to the civil state,” a calling that does not endear him to the conservative majority of this society. But he is comfortable in his role as the founding director of the library, the modern successor to the ancient library of Alexandria.

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Book Review: Hitch-22 // From The Open House

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Kara Martin

"Christopher Hitchens joins Phillip Pullman and Richard Dawkins at the forefront of the New Atheism. Which presents me a problem in reviewing this book...

There will be many Christian sites that will talk about Hitchens' description of behaviour the Bible would see as immoral, including sexual promiscuity with men as well as women, his lack of attention to family, his excesses with alcohol and his rampant blasphemy.

However, why do we expect biblical standards from someone who is not defined as a Christian nor has the resources of the Holy Spirit?"

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__________


From The Open House's website: "Open House is a live, three-hour talkback radio show exploring life, faith and culture from a Christian perspective. Aiming to catalyse spiritual growth and motivate Christian action, each week's show includes compelling interviews, engaging talkback, film and media reviews, and expert opinion on the issues of the day. You'll hear inspiring stories of faith, grapple with the big questions of life, have a laugh, and catch the odd live music performance along the way."

Tea Party Jesus: Blog Puts Words Of Conservatives In The Mouth Of Christ // From The Huffington Post

Full article here // Excerpt below

The concept behind the site Tea Party Jesus is simple: Put the words of conservative Christian social and political figures in the mouth of Christ. The juxtaposition of hateful, ignorant, or otherwise nonsensical rants with serene photos of JC himself isn't only funny, but says a lot about the people who claim to be Christians.

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__________


Proof that satirical art, even when all it's doing is changing the perspective on something else, is a powerful thing. -- Sarah

Avatar and Portrayals of Pacific Peoples // At the University of St. Andrews

Full article here // Excerpt below

Professor Nancy Lutkehaus, consultant anthropologist for James Cameron’s science fiction film Avatar, will be in St Andrews next week for a public event exploring the resource wars on planet Earth.

The event will be held on Tuesday 6 July in St Salvator’s Quadrangle from 19.00 – 21.00.

James Cameron’s science fiction film Avatar brought the planet Pandora to life in 3-D, in which an indigenous people-like tribe of Na’vi are threatened by a mining corporation seeking to exploit a large deposit of ‘unobtanium’ located on Na’vi land.

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This Weekend in Durham // Festival for the Eno

The 2010 Festival for the Eno

July 3, 4 and 5
Durham City Park
http://www.enoriver.org/Festival

The 2010 Festival will feature over 90 performers on 4 stages including:

African American Dance Ensemble, Charlie Louvin, Missy Raines & the New Hip, Sonos, Orquesta GarDel, Solas, Nerissa & Katryna Nields, Jon Shain Trio, Brian Peters, the Gospel Jubilators, Midtown Dickens, John Dee Holeman, Drew Questell, George Higgs, Lightnin' Wells, Apple Chill Cloggers, Little Windows, the Cane Creek Cloggers, Bruce Piephoff & Scott Sawyer, Stillhouse Bottom Band, Kickin Grass, Mandolin Orange, Craicdown, Lizzy Ross, the Sandbox Band, Birds and Arrows, Baron Von Rumblebuss, Chris Turner & Rachel Maloney, Thistledown Tinkers, Children of the Horn, Milagro Saints, Miss Connie B., Straight 8s

plus many more...

Lawyer Turned Architect Builds Recycled Homes for People in Need, Will Travel to Haiti // Ingrid Vaca Diez

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Paula Alvarado

"We've seen houses from recycled PET bottles and even massive homes with glass bottles, though they are usually just a rare experiment by their owners. Not in this case: Bolivian lawyer turned architect Ingrid Vaca Diez helps people in need to build their own homes with recycled materials that, apart from plastic bottles, involve whatever material is available, including expired powder milk and even horse manure. Her project has been so successful that she's being sent to Haiti."

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New Creation on Twitter // Follow @newcreationarts

NCAG's Twitter account is back up and running! Follow @newcreationarts for updates from the blog and other New Creation events.

Member of a Local Church Recognized in Paste Magazine // Brett Harris and the Gathering Church

The Gathering Church in Chapel Hill is a hot spot of artistic and musical talent. Their music director, Jeff Crawford, is a musician in his own right and is also a producer at his home studio, Arbor Ridge Studios. Among the list of clients at his studio is another Gathering Church member, Brett Harris. Brett was recently featured in Paste Magazine's "Best of What's Next." Check it out below.


Full article here // Excerpt below

By Corey Humphress

"Brett Harris’ early musical education was a basic one: He grew up in a small town in Virginia in a house with bunch of Beatles records and a piano that his mother played on Sundays. And after listening to his debut LP, Man of Few Words (out now), his background is hardly surprising."

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Brett's debut album is now available on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon mp3 and CDBaby.

Why Christians Are Jerks Online // From CNN's Belief Blog

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jonathan Acuff

"Bono is a born again Christian.

Or he's not.

It's one of those two. I'm just not sure which, but I am certain that the faith of U2 is something we Christians like to argue about. That and beer. You never know if your small group is populated with prohibitionists. You have to say things like, 'Is there anything you need me to bring to the dinner party, anything at all?' Then if they say, 'Sure, how about a bottle of wine?' you're good.

U2, beer, our favorite pastor's kid-gone-wild Katy Perry: these are usually the topics I write about on www.stuffchristianslike.net. (Which is indeed a direct rip off of the site www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.) But today I thought I might deal with something with a little sharper teeth. Something you don't see addressed often, but you might have experienced.

Put simply, I want to talk about why sometimes we Christians are jerks online."

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Local Musician Speaks Out for Compassion // Visiting a Sponsored Child in El Salvador

Local musician Gary Mitchell uses the tagline "Music with a Message." Whether he is playing in a coffeeshop or bar, performing at the Ronald McDonald House or leading worship at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, Gary is dedicated to using good music to bring smiles to people's faces and to spread a simple message: "You are not alone. God made you, God loves you, and Jesus Christ can change your life if you trust him."

Drawing on a background of drums, percussion, guitar, piano and classical voice, Gary is always looking for new ways to use his talents to help others and to further God's kingdom. So it is no surprise that after sponsoring two children for several years through Compassion International, Gary recently joined Compassion's Artist and Speaker Network. Compassion provides associated performers with materials for promoting the organization and encouraging awareness of poverty in the world; the first person Gary was able to bring into the fold as a sponsor came forward at a show at Hope Cafe--check out this blog post about the spot.

Gary's recent experience of traveling to El Salvador to meet Karen (on a group tour sponsored by Compassion) gave him even more motivation to support the organization. Here's a snippet from his blog reflecting on the trip:

"Compassion International is a real life miracle that is changing lives and communities all over the world, attacking poverty with the redemptive love of God. If you’ve ever been slapped in the face with the true depth of affluence and privilege you have, been compelled to do something to help others and then come up short to find a way to make a real difference, I encourage you---I beg you with all that I can; find a way to free up 38 dollars a month and join me in helping this outstanding organization battle child poverty."

To get a taste of Gary's experience meeting Karen, check out the video below, or click here to read his complete blog about Compassion and the trip to El Salvador.

David Mitchell, the Experimentalist // Reinventing the Novel

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Wyatt Mason

As the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano was spewing plumes of ash into European airspace in April, shuttering airports and stranding millions, the British novelist David Mitchell, a tall, gracious, high-spirited man of 41, was marching me across a long, flat tidal beach near his home in Ireland’s West Cork. Along the way, he told me a story about the perils of humility. “I had a short and rather valuable lesson,” Mitchell said after a morning on the beach, “one of these warnings that the universe gives you on a platter sometimes. I’d done an event in New Zealand at a very large auditorium, hundreds of people, and I was kind of pleased with it; it had gone well. A woman came up to me afterwards, a medievalist at the university there, and she said, ‘Have you heard of the humility topos?’ I said no. She explained that, in the medieval era, humility was seen as a great virtue. The humility topos was used for these abbots — you can think of a good one in Eco’s ‘Name of the Rose’ — who were actually monsters of arrogance, but were always banging on about how humble they were — ‘Just like our lord Jesus Christ. We serve him in humility’ — when they were the least humble people you can find in history. Some even became pope. And the woman looked at me and said, ‘Watch out for the humility topos.’ And then sort of disappeared in a puff of smoke.”

Keep reading...

Ongoing at Duke // "Literacy Through Photography--Arusha, Tanzania" Exhibit

When: Monday, June 28, 2010 9:00 AM - Sat, January 8, 2011 5:00 PM
Where: Center for Documentary Studies 1317 W. Pettigrew Street
More Info

Description: An exhibition of LTP children's work from Arusha, Tanzania, where LTP staff worked in the summers of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Literacy Through Photography (LTP), an innovative arts and education program developed twenty years ago by artist Wendy Ewald at CDS in conjunction with the Durham Public Schools, challenges children to explore the world by photographing scenes from their lives and using their own images as catalysts for verbal and written expression.

On the Shelf: Notes From No Man's Land by Eula Biss // From Theolog, the Blog of Christian Century

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Steve Thorngate

Two years ago, blogger Christian Lander struck satiric gold by chronicling the interests and motivations of white people. Lander’s valuable insight was that as members of a privileged majority group, we tend to think of ourselves as simply part of the overall culture—when in fact we comprise a racial subgroup like any other.

I thought of this earlier this month when I heard Eula Biss speak at the Printer’s Row Lit Fest in Chicago. Among other things, the essayist talked about how difficult it is to find good writing on the subject of whiteness. “White people don’t make it easy for each other to talk about race,” she said. Instead, “we punish each other and police each other.”

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This Weekend at Duke // Seussical! The Musical

Barriskill Dance Theatre
presents
Seussical! The Musical

Friday, June 25
@ 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 26
@ 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, June 27
@ 2:00 p.m.

Page Auditorium
$12 All Ages

Appropriate for all ages, Seussical integrates the storylines from more than 20 of Seuss’ works, using each tiny town and bizarre species of creature as inspiration. The result is a production that takes the audience on an unpredictable ride through the depths of fantasy, from the miniature houses of Whoville to the wild greenery of the Jungle of Nool. You won’t want to miss our Durham premiere of this incredibly imaginative and inventive musical. Put green eggs and ham on your menu for June!

In a Michelangelo Fresco, Visions of the Brain // Professors Believe Anatomical Drawing Hidden in Sistine Chapel

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Nicholas Bakalar

"It has been hiding in plain sight for the past 500 years, and now two Johns Hopkins professors believe they have found it: one of Michelangelo’s rare anatomical drawings in a panel high on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo was a conscientious student of human anatomy and enthusiastically dissected corpses throughout his life, but few of his anatomical drawings survive. This one, a depiction of the human brain and brain stem, appears to be drawn on the neck of God, but not all art historians can see it there."

Keep reading...

New Arts Center Opens in Michigan // Copper Colored Mountain Arts

Click here to learn more, or watch the video below.

Lasers uncover first icons of Sts. Peter and Paul // Vatican Officials Unveil Paintings

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Nichole Winfield

"Twenty-first century laser technology has opened a window into the early days of the Catholic Church, guiding researchers through the dank, musty catacombs beneath Rome to a startling find: the first known icons of the apostles Peter and Paul.

Vatican officials unveiled the paintings Tuesday, discovered along with the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew in an underground burial chamber beneath an office building on a busy street in a working-class Rome neighborhood."

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Now at Duke // The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond's, 1920s-1950s

When: Monday, April 5, 2010 - Sun, August 22, 2010 (All day)
Where: Perkins Library Rare Book Room
Cost: Free

Description: For over 30 years, fashionable British and American society women, including Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt, Lady Milford-Haven, Mrs. George Whitney, and Anne Morgan, graced advertisements the J. Walter Thompson Company created for Pond's beauty products. This exhibit, located in Perkins Library's Special Collections Gallery and curated by the Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, & Marketing History at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, presents a selection of these images by prominent photographers such as Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Louise Dahl-Wolfe. A complementary exhibit, "You've Got...Personality: Testimonial and Celebrity Endorsement Advertisements," will be on display in the Biddle Rare Book Room display cases through June 30th. For more information, contact Jackie Reid at j.reid@duke.edu.

Scientists Release Songs Made By the Sun // If the Solar Corona Were a Listening Room

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jeffrey Kluger

"You won't find it on iTunes and even if you did, you certainly wouldn't wind up humming it all day. Still, the most talked-about song in the world — at least in astronomical circles — comes from a very unlikely performer: the sun. Scientists at Sheffield University in the U.K. have just released what amounts to a recording of what you would hear if you could stand inside the solar corona — the upper layer of the sun's atmosphere — and it turns out what you'd hear is music. The simple symphony that fills the corona is not only beautiful, but could also could yield new insights into how the sun itself operates."

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Combing Cambodia for Missing Friends // Vietnam War Photographer Continues Years-Long Hunt

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Seth Mydans

"'LET’S rock 'n' roll,' said Tim Page, once one of the wild and daring young photographers of the Vietnam War, strapping himself into the front seat of a four-wheel-drive van.

'Like Flynn and Stone, three intrepid journalists left Phnom Penh on a hot morning headed for Kampong Cham,' he said, narrating his departure recently with two colleagues.

He settled back for the long ride, past the town of Skun, known for its fried spiders, past hypnotic rows of rubber trees, out to this dusty village near the Mekong River where he believed the bones of two missing war photographers, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, were buried.

It was not an unusual journey for Mr. Page. Now 66, he has been on this hunt for years, determined to find answers and to come to terms with the war that has dominated his life."

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Anne Lamott's "Imperfect Birds" // An Interview on Speaking of Faith Observed

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By Kate Moos

"Anne Lamott appeared on SOF years ago, in 2003, in a show we titled “The Meaning of Faith.” I had been fan of hers for some time prior, but I was especially captivated at that time with her personal story of redemption and recovery, and her life as a thoroughly 21st-century writer.

So, when her new fiction, Imperfect Birds, showed up in the mail, the volume floated to the top of the stack of books on my desk — and I took it home and read it. And then I read the two novels that preceded this one and decided to put some questions to her about this very moving story of recovery and human frailty.

What follows are her replies that took place via email:"

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José Saramago, Nobel Prize-Winning Portuguese Writer, Dies at 87 // Novelist Known for His Communism as Well as His Writing

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Fernanda Eberstadt

"José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998 with novels that combine surrealist experimentation with a kind of sardonic peasant pragmatism, died on Friday at his home in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. He was 87.

The cause was multiple organ failure after a long illness, the José Saramago Foundation said in an announcement on its Web site, josesaramago.org.

A tall, commandingly austere man with a dry, schoolmasterly manner, Mr. Saramago gained international acclaim for novels like “Baltasar and Blimunda” and “Blindness.” (A film adaptation of “Blindness” by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles was released in 2008.)

He was the first Portuguese-language writer to win the Nobel Prize, and more than two million copies of his books have been sold, his longtime friend and editor, Zeferino Coelho, said."

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