Surreal Glories of a Salt Flat // From NYT's Green Blog

Full article here // Excerpt below

By John Collins Rudolf

Watch the full episode. See more POV.

For the past six years the Australian photographer Murray Fredericks has journeyed across the lake bed (it fills completely only about once every 100 years), camping alone on the salt flats for as much as five weeks at a time. He collected the photographs from these expeditions for display in “Salt,” a stunning 2006 gallery show in London, Sydney, Paris and Shanghai.

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Krista on Being // Speaking of Faith's Name Change

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Kate Moos

Krista Tippett on name change from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

Our pal, Future Tense host John Moe, agreed to interview Krista and get at the basic questions: Why the change? Why Being? What does it all mean? In this video, our inimitable host takes on these questions with passion, intelligence, and grace.

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WWJD? Not Burn the Quran // From Richard B. Hays

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Richard B. Hays

A small church in Gainesville, Fla., (ironically called Dove World Outreach Center) has announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, in vengeful commemoration of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington nine years ago. This news item happened to reach me while I was attending a conference in Berlin, Germany - and for that reason it struck me with special force.

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Story Ballets, Still Romantically Inclined // For Ballet, Plots Thicken, or Just Stick?

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Alastair Macauley

“DEAR friends,” the retired ballerina Gelsey Kirkland wrote in an open letter on the Web site for the new Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (gelseykirklandballet.org), “I have come to believe over the years that the future of ballet lies in the art of dramatic storytelling, drawing on the wellsprings of classical tradition.” The school’s mission statement underscores this belief: “To encourage a renaissance of dramatic storytelling in ballet by providing specialized training for gifted students and by establishing a classically oriented studio company capable of creating new dramatic works.”

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Islam’s Answer to MTV // 4Shbab

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Negar Azimi

As the brains behind 4Shbab, the world’s first Islamic version of MTV, Abu Haiba is the consummate man in the middle — situated between the dictates of Islam and those of the pop-music business. Introduced in the spring of last year, 4Shbab, which means “for youth” in Arabic, broadcasts music videos, variety shows (including Abu Haiba’s own), news and even a reality program called “Your Voice Is Heard” — which might as well be called “Who Wants to be an Islamic Pop Star?” Imagine MTV without the gratuitous gyration and skin, and with videos about family, public service, Palestine and, above all, salvation.

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The Face of Captive Greece in Rome // NYT Arts Review

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Roderick Conway Morris

The influx of Greek culture into Rome between the late third and first centuries B.C. as a result of the expansion of the empire, which brought southern Italy, Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor within its borders, is the subject of “Roman Days: The Age of Conquest.” This is the first in a series of five projected annual exhibitions at the Capitoline Museums on the development of ancient Roman visual arts and architecture from the early days to the fall of the western empire.

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When Genres Collide // Mike Posner, B.o.B. and the Hybridization of Pop

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Rachel Devitt

...the hip-hoppers are into alt-rock and singing, and the mall punks are rapping, and we are all gobbling it up at lightning speed. The most recent addition to this genre collision is Mike Posner — fraternity brother, Duke University grad, burgeoning pop star, emcee — and his debut album, which sounds like the love child of Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Asher Roth created after a sweaty closeted tryst at a Greek mixer.

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The Bavarian Town of Oberammergau Remounts Its Singular Passion Play // LATimes Culture Monster

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Lewis Segal

With its picturesque houses painted with Gospel scenes and its imposing Alpine vistas, Oberammergau has atmosphere galore -- but the rain was coming down so hard when I arrived a few weeks ago that my feet were soaked by the time I ran to the theater and took my seat for the first part of the town's Passion Play. It is famously performed every decade as a promise to God, in an outdoor theater large enough to hold 4,700 -- almost the size of the entire population of the small German village.

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Abbey Lincoln, Jazz Singer and Writer, Dies at 80 // From NYT Music

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Nate Chinen

Abbey Lincoln, a singer whose dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 80 and lived on the Upper West Side.

Her death was announced by her brother David Wooldridge.

Ms. Lincoln’s career encompassed outspoken civil rights advocacy in the 1960s and fearless introspection in more recent years, and for a time in the 1960s she acted in films with Sidney Poitier.

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Help Us Create a Picture Show About Celebration // GOOD Projects

Full article here // Excerpt below

Calling all photographers—amateur or professional.

There are a million reasons for celebration in our lives, and we often do so with parties, toasts, vacations, and everything in between. To catch those happy moments—big or little —in all their glory, we need you to send us a photo of a celebration in your life.

We'll select 10 to 20 of them to create a collaborative Picture Show, made by the GOOD community. Once the Picture Show is published, the GOOD community will be invited to choose their favorite images. The winning submission will be printed in our next issue, and the photographer will get a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription).

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Writing as a Spiritual Practice // Spiritual Formation Group at Duke Divinity School

“Writing as a Spiritual Practice” – Rev. Liz Dowling-Sendor

Christians throughout the centuries have turned to writing as a form of prayer and discernment -- to confess sins, to discover God’s path for them, to become clearer about their own motivations and yearnings. In this small group we will engage in simple writing exercises (no expertise is needed!) to explore the spiritual practice of writing as a way both to examine ourselves and witness to God’s actions in our lives. We will experience the potential of writing for spiritual healing and transformation as we sense more deeply God’s call to us, as we receive support to make choices and face challenges, and as we connect our lives at Duke Divinity with other parts of our lives, past and present. We’ll coordinate schedules to determine our meeting time,

Rev. Liz Dowling-Sendor is an Episcopal priest, certified Spiritual Director, and veteran spiritual formation and retreat leader who has led Care and Discernment Groups in PC 64 and in the Divinity School’s Caring Communities program. She is a writer and editor and former newspaper and magazine journalist. She received the M.Div. from Duke Divinity in 1998.

For more information, contact Rev. Sally Bates, the Divinity School Chaplain, at sbates@div.duke.edu or 919-660-3459.

The Old New Sanctuary // In House Churches, an Old Model Meets Contemporary Sensibilities

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Susan Wunderink

It's 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon-time for church. Two by two, 10 congregants come in through the back door of a Durham, N.C., home, several carrying a young child in one arm and a booster seat in the other. Once the children are settled to play in the kitchen with two adults keeping watch, the others pull out their Bibles and find chairs in the living room.

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The Perils of Hipster Christianity // When Church and Cool Collide

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Brett McCracken

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.

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McCracken's book Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide was published this month.

Christian Aid Workers Tread Lightly In Muslim World // Western Agenda?

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Scott Neuman

An attack on a Christian aid group in Afghanistan that left 10 medical workers dead a week ago underscores the perils of faith-based organizations that operate in Muslim nations and the perception that they are promoting a Western agenda.

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The Murder Room // The Vidocq Society: Solving Murders Over Lunch

Full article here // Excerpt below

From NPR

The Vidocq Society sounds like something straight out of a Sherlock Holmes novel.

Once a month, the members of the 20-year-old club — mostly detectives and forensic experts — meet at an old Victorian dining room in the middle of Philadelphia to eat lunch and solve crimes that have perplexed investigators for decades.

[...] Capuzzo's new book, The Murder Room, details how the three founding members gathered crime experts from around the world to solve cold cases. He also profiles some of their more famous investigations.

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Michael Jackson and Princess Di Headline Asia's First Pop-Culture Auction // In Macao

Full article here // Excerpt below

By ArtInfo

When a black Swarovski crystal glove goes on sale in Macao this fall, it won't be just any black Swarkovski crystal glove: it will be a black Swarkovski crystal glove that once belonged to pop superstar Michael Jackson, estimated at $30–50,000. And when the sale takes place at the tony Ponte 16 resort on October 8, it won't be just any sale: it will be the first pop-culture auction ever to occur in Asia, according to California–based Julien’s Auctions, which is handling the sale.

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First in a Decade: Living Novelist on Time Cover // Jonathan Franzen

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Robin Pogrebin

The new cover of Time Magazine, on sale Friday, will feature Jonathan Franzen on the cover, the first time in 10 years that a living American novelist has been on the cover since Stephen King, in 2000.

The article, by Lev Grossman, is a profile of Mr. Franzen on the occasion of his fourth novel, “Freedom,” the story of an American family that is due to be published in August.

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Mumbai Restoration Includes Art // Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Vikas Majaj

When terrorists stormed this city nearly two years ago, killing at least 163 people, they also dealt a blow to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, an architectural landmark that has played a critical role in nurturing and housing Indian art.

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Should Mosque, Islamic Center Be Built Near Ground Zero? // Peace Offering or Something Else?

Source (From PBS NewsHour)

Interview With Toni Tortorilla, Female Catholic Priest // Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement

Full article here // Excerpt below

From The Huffington Post

It's been three years since Toni Tortorilla was ordained in the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, and the Vatican's recent decision to label both pedophilia and women's ordination as grave offenses, she says, is an insult to clerical abuse victims and women seeking ordination.

"The sexual abuse of children is morally reprehensible by any possible standard," says Tortorilla, 63. "The ordination of women has been happening for decades in many denominations."

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'Faith as Scrabble' // Thoughts on Christian Art

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Richard Beck

An overreliance upon text impoverishes the Christian aesthetic. It does this in two related ways. First, the added text is explicit. The words tell you what the picture is supposed to mean. So you look at the horse and the text proclaims: "Be strong in the Lord." There is no subtlety here. It's clear that the power of the horse is supposed to be a metaphor for being strong in your spiritual life. No guesswork is involved. The added text tells me what I should take away from the picture.

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Revealing Ramadan: 30 Days, 30 Stories // From Speaking of Faith Observed

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Trent Gilliss

Ramadan is as much an inner journey as a set of rituals. [...So,] we created and produced a special series we call “Revealing Ramadan” in which we present 30 stories — one story per day — featuring the voices of Muslims from Madrid to Dallas and Seattle.

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Is Violent Rihanna-Eminem Song a Teaching Tool? // "Love the Way You Lie"

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jocelyn Noveck

It's hard to forget the haunting photo that leaked out early last year: Pop star Rihanna, her elegant face bruised and battered after a violent assault by her then-boyfriend, R&B singer Chris Brown.

Now, she's appearing in something else shocking, though thankfully fictional: Rapper Eminem's chart-topping "Love the Way You Lie," a song (and now video [view below]) that graphically depicts a physically abusive relationship.

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Wyclef Jean, Haitian Presidential Candidate // From Musical Unity to the Political Kind

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jon Pareles

Music, not politics, made Wyclef Jean a household name in Haiti and a multimillion-record-selling international star who has always proclaimed his Haitian origins. That was before he announced that he would run for president of Haiti.

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Ward by Ward, New Orleans Marches Back // Documenting Katrina Recovery

Full article here // Excerpt below

By James Estrin

Mario Tama, 39, has covered war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has witnessed death and destruction on a grand scale. Yet he had never seen what he saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And it was not just the the people screaming for help from rooftops or the bodies that floated by him.

“As an American citizen,” he said, “witnessing other American citizens being abandoned by our own government was incredibly shocking.”

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Seeking the ‘Eye’ for Art // Backers of Yale Italian Paintings Show Lament Loss of 'Eye'

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Ted Loos

A dozen years ago the art dealer Richard L. Feigen attended an auction of European paintings at Sotheby’s in London and found a picture he liked: a richly colored scene of a religious vision, with a hovering saint and four angels, all topped by shimmering gold halos, that was attributed to a minor Italian painter.

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Microscopic Art // Incredible Minuscule Pencil Tip Carvings by Dalton Ghetti

Full article here // Excerpt below

Many artists have used pencils to create beautiful pieces of work – but only one creates stunning masterpieces on the tip of one. Microscopic artist Dalton Ghetti spends up to two-and-a half years painstakingly crafting each handmade piece on the graphite of a pencil.

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The Animated Avadhuta // From Speaking of Faith Observed

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Trent Gilliss

Avadhuta is a Sanskrit term that refers to a type of mystic who has surpassed his ego and is pure consciousness in human form. As such, he has little regard for social norms and etiquette, and “roams free like a child upon the face of the Earth.” And this film tries to capture that quality of not being of this world while living in it.

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Albert Einstein’s Faith: Was the Great Physicist Spiritual? // From Speaking of Faith Observed

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Krista Tippett

Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc², remains difficult for me to grasp fully. But I feel I have come to understand something of the man — his expansive spirit, his relentless curiosity, and his reverence for the beauty and order of nature and thought. I was daunted as I began, but delving into Einstein was a delight.

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Bono Back After Surgery // U2 Predicts Record Tour

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Ian Simpson

U2 frontman Bono burst back onto rock's center stage on Friday after a two-month absence for a back injury, as the Irish band resumed what its manager predicts will be the most lucrative concert tour in history.

U2 shook a packed Olympic stadium in the northern Italian city of Turin as Bono strutted, pranced, jogged and danced with little sign of being a 50-year-old rock star just 10 weeks off spinal surgery.

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As Darkness Falls // 'The Death of the Adversary' and 'Comedy in a Minor Key' by Hans Keilson

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Francine Prose

For busy, harried or distractible readers who have the time and energy only to skim the opening paragraph of a review, I’ll say this as quickly and clearly as possible: “The Death of the Adversary” and “Comedy in a Minor Key” are masterpieces, and Hans Keilson is a genius.

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Varieties of Abstraction // At Manhattan Galleries

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Roberta Smith

Happy birthday, abstract painting! One of the prides and joys of Western modernism is in the vicinity of its first centennial. It’s hard to be much more exact, since its invention was a scattered effort extending over years if not decades. Fans of Frantisek Kupka should have celebrated last year; Kandinsky’s crowd can uncork the Champagne in 2012. Devotees of Mondrian or Malevich will have to wait a year or two longer.

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Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

'Horizon Field' Project // 100 Life-Size Cast Iron Figures by Antony Gormley Installed by Helicopter in the Austrian Alps

Full article here // Excerpt below

By All Art News

On Saturday 31 July, the hundredth figure by leading British sculptor, Antony Gormley was lowered into place by helicopter to launch the artist’s unique installation, Horizon Field, in the mountains of Vorarlberg in Austria, presented in association with the Kunsthaus Bregenz.

Horizon Field features 100 life-size cast iron figures installed over an area of 150 square kilometres. It is the first art project of its kind in the mountains and the largest landscape intervention in Austria to date. The works will remain in the Alps for two years during which time they will be exposed to the elements, to different lighting conditions, and to the changing seasons, thus enabling constantly new perceptions and impressions.

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Farming as a Spiritual Discipline // Book Review

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jason Fowler

I first stumbled onto Ragan Sutterfield's writing in a 2007 Paste magazine. It was an interesting article about the contrasting journey between his peaceful Arkansas farm to the crowds and music of Farm Aid. At the time my interest in agriculture was only a small seed. How fitting that I would personally connect with Ragan several years later at a time when I was feeding on Wendell Berry and living on a farm myself.

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Also click here for Sustainable Traditions' interview with Satterfield when the book first came out.

'Essence' Names White Fashion Director // Mark Anthony Neal on NPR

Full program here // Description below

From NPR's Talk of the Nation

For the first time in its 40-year history, Essence magazine will have a white fashion director. The change, at a magazine focused on the lives of black women, outraged many African Americans. Among them is professor Mark Anthony Neal. In his blog, New Black Man, he described feeling a sense of loss for the magazine he came of age reading. "Beyond this sense of loss," he wrote, "what really is at stake when a 'black' magazine, no longer black owned, but still critically representative to our communities' sense of themselves, simply becomes another periodical?" Mark Anthony Neal talks about the changes at Essence magazine and the future of black publications.

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Taking a Break From the Lord’s Work // Evidence Grows of Problem of Clergy Burnout

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Paul Vitello

The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.

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The War Prayer // A Film of Mark Twain's Poem Set in Today's American Churches

Rare 3D Film Shows Warsaw Devastated After WWII // Warsaw Uprising Museum

Full article here // Excerpt below

By All Art News

Polish historians have created an unusual 3D film that documents the shocking sea of rubble that Warsaw was reduced to during World War II.

Jan Oldakowski, the director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, said the film “City of Ruins” is mainly meant for young people who do not realize the degree to which Poland’s capital was destroyed from 1939-45.

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Marveling at Wonders Out of This World // Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Edward Rothstein

The images on view at a remarkable exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum here could well serve as inspirational space cards for this century. But they possess far greater power than those old naïve fantasies. They are vividly, compellingly real; they astonish and bewilder, luring the viewer into a state of wonder.

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What Does WikiLeaks Reveal About Our Inner Selves? // From Speaking of Faith Observed

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Nancy Rosenbaum

Micah Sifry’s commentary on the unfolding WikiLeaks story on the war in Afghanistan has gotten me thinking about questions of trust and relationship-building in and beyond the realm of journalism and politics. At its worst, needing to keep our “seat on the bus,” as Sifry puts it, can result in collusion and self-censoring. Information or, put differently, necessary truths, get squelched in favor of preserving expedient relationships.

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Beyond Indie // Canadian Band Arcade Fire

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Jon Pareles

ONE July morning, the seven members of the Arcade Fire and a handful of their employees were assembled on the patio of the elegant Hôtel le Germain-Dominion here, awaiting their tour bus amid haphazardly piled luggage and instrument cases. When Chantal Vaillancourt, a band assistant who has worked for the Arcade Fire since 2006, arrived to join them, they burst into “Happy Birthday” while she grinned and blushed. The song started out as cheerfully ragged as any gathering of a dozen friends might sound. But not for long: by the last line it had become a ringing, full-fledged chorale, in hymnlike four-part harmony. These friends are, above all, musicians.

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Mysteries and Obscurities, Many by Ghosts // "The Evryali Score" at David Zwirner

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Holland Cotter

Lately it’s been too hot to think, never mind schlep around Chelsea, though a large summer group show at David Zwirner called “The Evryali Score” has made such exertions worthwhile.

Organized by the curator Olivia Shao, the show originated at MoMA P.S.1 in May as part of “Greater New York.” Mr. Zwirner saw it there, liked the mix and invited Ms. Shao to recreate it in his gallery in an expanded form.

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A 6-Acre Preserve Where Artists Roam // Watermill Center

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Guy Trebay

ARTISTS and their antics are central to the Hamptons mythos: car crashes, bonfires, wife swapping, boyfriend swapping, dune trysts and drunken carousing, all interrupted by spells of intense creativity under the area’s fabled luminous skies.

The artists are pretty well gone now, all but the wealthiest ones. Everybody knows that Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner couldn’t find a quarter-share in a renovated chicken coop in a market where even a teardown in Sag Harbor — long since elevated from its lowly status as the poor relation of hamlets like East Hampton — is priced at $1.8 million. (Admittedly it’s just a few doors down from Cindy Sherman’s Greek Revival place on Madison Street, but still.)

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Risking the Heart: Telling True Stories in an Age of Irony // The Image Seminars: Charleston

Bret Lott
November 4–8, 2010
Charleston, South Carolina

One thing all human beings share is the need for Story—it is as essential as the need for air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat. Whether we believe in a creator God or a random universe, we do not know ourselves without knowing our own story: where we are from, to whom we are related, what our trials and our triumphs have been...

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A Web Exclusive Interview with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie // Nigerian Novelist

Full article here // Excerpt below

From Image Journal

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist and short-story writer and recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the Orange Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book is a story collection, The Thing around Your Neck (Granta). A longer version of this interview, conducted by Susan VanZanten, appears in Image's International Issue (#65).

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Khaled: The King Of Rai // NPR's All Things Considered

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Banning Eyre

Algerian singer Khaled is known as the King of Rai — a kind of North African music with roots in traditional folklore. Taken literally, rai translates to "opinion," and Khaled has taken this idea to heart in his music, speaking out to his countrymen with a voice that transcends borders.

He was born Khaled Hadj Brahim in 1960 in the Mediterranean port city of Oran — or "Crazyville," as he once called it. Oran marks an intersection of cultures, a place where Spanish, Moroccan, French, Arabic, American, Berber, Jewish and gypsy ideas and idioms collided. Khaled came of age during the lull between two bloody conflicts: the 1950s war that freed Algeria from French colonialism; and the religiously fueled civil war of the 1990s. In a land torn apart by intolerance and violence, Khaled stood out as an artist who embraced openness and peace.

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August 6 at Duke // Student Action with Farmworkers End of Summer Celebration

SAF Invites you to our End of Summer Celebration!

¡SAF te Invita a la Celebración de Fin del Verano!

August 6, 2010 | 6-11 pm
Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew St, Durham NC

To be a Sponsor or to RSVP, contact
Nadeen Bir 919-660-3652

Enjoy an outdoor party with great food, live music, dance performances, kids games, and a dance party. Bilingual program- All are welcome!

¡Disfruten de una fiesta al aire libre con buena comida, música en vivo, presentaciones de baile, juegos para los niños, y baile para todos. Programa bilingüe- todos están invitados!

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Israel Museum to Unveil New Look After Major Expansion and Renovation // LA Times' Culture Monster

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Suzanna Muchnic

The Israel Museum -- home of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the world’s largest trove of Biblical and Holy Land archeology and a broad collection of fine art and Judaica -- will dedicate a $100-million expansion and renovation project Sunday and unveil its new look to the public on Monday.


[...]

Beyond providing more room for the 500,000-piece collection and better accommodations for the public, the project enhances the museum’s original design by Israeli Modernist architect Alfred Mansfeld and associate Dora Gad, which had been compromised over time.

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Transforming Trash Into Treasure // Drawing Out Potential

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Kate Singleton

Revelations are about removing layers and perceiving the value of what is underneath. Though this sounds somewhat elevated, the circumstances surrounding the experience itself are often simple enough. Costanza Algranti’s seminal revelation came about in 1993, when she was chipping old plasterwork off the wall of a farmhouse she was restoring outside her hometown of Livorno, on the Tuscan coast.

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U2 Announce Return to the Stage // Homemade Video

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Rolling Stone

In late May, the biggest rock tour in history hit a speed bump: Bono underwent emergency back surgery in Munich for a compressed sciatic nerve that forced U2 to postpone the summer leg of their mammoth 360° Tour and cancel their headlining spot at Glastonbury. After nearly two months, the band has broken its silence in a homemade video shot by drummer Larry Mullen Jr., in which all four bandmembers give fans the good news: Bono is healthy, the band is in the studio, and U2 will be back in American stadiums in the summer of 2011.

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Also, here's a video of a live performance of "Where the Streets Have No Name," prefaced by a snippet of "Amazing Grace":

Ongoing at Duke // Shared Origins: An Adoptive Family's Journey Back to Ethiopia

July 19–September 3, 2010
Porch and University Galleries

Reception: Tuesday, August 3, 5-8 p.m.

See photographs from this exhibition

Lory Mills is the parent of two children adopted from Ethiopia. She and her partner, Sonya, adopted their first child, Zoe, as an infant, and later they adopted two-year-old Tsehaye. For Lory, the trip to Ethiopia was first about helping Zoe and Tsehaye find a connection with their birth country and culture. Her dream is to find an ongoing connection with Ethiopia for herself and her children.

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‘Mad Men’: A Conversation About the New Season // WSJ's Speakeasy

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Walter Dellinger

The Wall Street Journal asked law professor and Supreme Court advocate Walter Dellinger to assemble a group of scholars to comment each week on the fourth season of “Mad Men.” Dellinger, on leave from Duke Law School, is a partner at O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C.

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Sound & Spirit Sees Its Last Broadcast // Ellen Kushner's Farewell

Full article here // Excerpt below

The week of 6/27/2010 sees the final public radio broadcast of Sound & Spirit. The show will continue to live here online, though, with past programs archived for on-demand listening! (We regret that we cannot offer podcasts, due to music rights issues.) Thanks for tuning in for the last 14 years, and please stay in touch. Ellen's farewell thoughts are posted on her personal blog.

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R.E.M. Finish New Album in Berlin // Set for 2011 Release

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Daniel Kreps

R.E.M. have completed recording their 15th studio album with producer Jacknife Lee at Berlin, Germany's Hansa Studios and will mix the disc in the fall. The band have penciled in a spring 2011 release date for the follow-up to 2008's Accelerate, and while Michael Stipe and Co. haven't offered up much in terms of details about their new LP, "postcards" from the studio posted on their official website have given fans the impression that recording in Berlin has influenced the band's latest work.

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When Discourse Has the Upper Hand Over Art // The 21st Century

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Souren Melkian

Future historians peering at the outcome of art sales this year may conclude that the early 21st century was the time when abstract notions took precedence over visual perception.

That trend came out strongly in Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and Modern art on Tuesday. In earlier days, the offerings, which were mostly modest, would have been greeted with commensurately modest prices. The 35 lots that found takers could never have added up to £112 million, about $167 million, not even in a market as bullish as it was this week.

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A Contract With God // Adapting Eisner for the Big Screen

Full article here // Excerpt below

By George Gene Gustines

One of the seminal works of Will Eisner, the comic book writer and artist, is headed for the big screen. “A Contract with God,” a graphic novel composed of four interlocking stories set in the tenements of the Bronx during the Depression, will be written and produced by Darren Dean.

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Turn Off the Dark // ‘Spider-Man’ Rehearsals to Start (Finally)

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Patrick Healy

Julie Taymor’s musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” looks increasingly like a go for Broadway. After a year of uncertainty about the fate of the $50-million extravaganza, a spokesman for the show said on Wednesday that Ms. Taymor and the full cast were scheduled to begin rehearsals on Aug. 16.

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The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts // From Spirituality to Hospitality

Our Mission
We are Christians called to minister through our creative gifts to foster worship which makes disciples of Jesus Christ.

We Value
Worship Arts that lead to spirituality and faith formation.
Relationships that lead to hospitality, fellowship and nurture.

We Are...
Musicians, clergy, dancers, artists, lay ministers, and others, all involved in creating, supporting and implementing worship in local congregations.

An affiliate of The United Methodist General Board of Discipleship and serves as a resourcing organization to its members.

An open fellowship that provides training on all aspects of worship through its events and publications.

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In June, FUMMWA hosted the Music and Worship Arts Week at Lake Junaluska, NC. Their website has all kinds of resources, from their Worship Arts publication to an annual Lectionary Guide and more. How did I not know about this? This is awesome! -- Sarah

August 11 at Duke // Feminists of Faith: A Celebration

Please join us for an afternoon honoring women of faith who have contributed their papers to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture. The Bingham Center has a variety of materials which document women's religious experiences and activities, particularly personal spiritual struggles and women's involvement in Protestant religious organizations. During this program we will celebrate the contributions of Diane Weddington, Bett Hargrave, Bertha "B" Holt, Tibbie Roberts, Nancy Peeler Keppel, and the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South. Light refreshments will be served. This program is sponsored by the Sallie Bingham Center and the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South.

When: August 11, 2010, 3:00 pm
Where: Biddle Rare Book Room, Perkins Library

A Revival of Rural Craft, With a Modern Twist // The Raw Material of Clay

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Alice Rawsthorn

Seeing villagers digging up clay and turning it into pots in Peru persuaded the Dutch designers Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Ryswyck to do the same in Europe. They planned to collect clay from several countries to show how it changes from place to place, but once they started digging in the Dutch countryside, they were astonished by what they found.

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Jazz and Classical Meet to Learn and Improvise // Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute

Full article here // Excerpt below

Improvisation, a fundamental quality of jazz, is by nature a risky business. The act usually involves a confrontation between two perspectives — that of a composer and that of a performer or performers — with the goal of achieving a combination informed and enriched by both perspectives. At its idealistic peak, as in recent large-ensemble works by the composer and bandleader Anthony Braxton, improvisation can represent a vision of collaborative democracy.

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