Category: Culture

Don't Tell MOMA

OK, so what do you do if your an artist and nobody is interested in your work? Well, you could cut off your ear, but that is so last century. It’s been done, and modern art is all about breaking boundaries, and stuff. So that’s what this guy actually did! Slipping past the rigid barriers of the bourgeois establishment (and some security guys), he managed to sneak several pieces of art into a number of famous modern art galleries and museums ( Like MOMA), where they hung for days without being noticed. Hey, why wait ’til your dead, right?

Of course, the trade-off is that he will now be remembered for being clever, rather than talented. But, hey, that’s what modern art is all about!

GET THE STORY.

Star Wars Roll-Ups

No, they’re not a new kind of fruit snack. (To my knowledge, that is.) They’re the opening words that you see crawling or "rolling-up" the screen at the front of Star Wars movies.

As the date for the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith draws nigh (it’s just over a month away), Lucas has let slip (minor) spoilers for what is to come. (Major spoilers are also available all over the Internet for those who are inquisitive.)

One of the things he has let slip is the roll-up for Episode III, which is posted on the official site. It has minor spoilers (the crawls tend to set up the movie but don’t give away much of what happens in it), but for the spoiler-timid, I’ll post it here in white-on-white so you’ll need to Select All or swipe to see the text:

Episode III

REVENGE OF THE SITH

War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the beseiged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor. . . .

ORIGINAL SOURCE. 

The Publishing Mart

Have you sought to be publication and found that others had their writing dreams come true, but you did not?  Has your work sat on a shelf like an unmarriageable spinster pining the notice of Mr. Publisher?  The Paperback Writer‘s musings on publication in a Jane Austen-world may be for you:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a publisher in possession of a large house must be in want of a writer.

"I’m channeling Jane Austen this morning because the marriage mart story from her novel Pride and Prejudice is an excellent analogy for the people and processes in the publishing industry. Maybe it was all the P’s that brought it to mind."

READ THE POST.

Waiting For Potter

To those of you, like me, who are eagerly anticipating the latest in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (to be titled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and released on July 16), you can find all the latest Potter updates at The Leaky Cauldron.

As an aside: Am I the only Potter fan who thinks it would have been better in keeping with the series to date to have titled the book The Mudblood Prince? I wonder why mudblood, the epithet used for wizards of mixed ancestry, was changed to half-blood. I really hope it wasn’t political correctness.

To those of you, unlike me, who are unsure of the Potter phenomenon, I recommend reading John Granger’s Looking for God in Harry Potter. You can also visit Granger’s website HogwartsProfessor.com. Also, fellow JA.org blogger Steven D. Greydanus has an article on Potter, which you can read here (the editorial sidebar to Greydanus’s article can be read here).

Art Intro

Many thanks to those who have been responding so well to my first few posts. I really appreciate being made to feel welcome. I thought I would use this post to tell you a little more about myself and what I have been up to lately. Jimmy also thought that posting a picture or two of me might be good, and it would help to dispel any lingering suspicion that I might resemble either a Star-Nosed Mole or the Visage of Elder Madness. The first picture is of me at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum.Shepherdess2_2

I am gesturing toward The Shepherdess, a masterpiece by William Bougereau, the first one of his I have ever seen in person. I could look at it all day.

The next pic is of one of my recent still life pieces that I currently have entered in a small regional competition. Is it O.K. to pray to win?? I have been really blessed this past year with good response to my art, even though I have only been painting full-time since last August. I have sold almost all of my first series of paintings, was accepted to my first regional show (a ten state area), and was also accepted into the Art Renewal Center’s (ARC) International Salon, which frankly surprised me. There were over 1500 entries from 30 countries, so I am really grateful to have been chosen. I operate a small art gallery in Rogers, Arkansas that I named Green Leaf Fine Art Gallery, influenced partly by Tolkien’s short story Leaf By Niggle, a great story for artists of all kinds to read. I also teach art lessons at my gallery and hope to be a small influence in reviving an aesthetic of beauty in cultural life. As Father Corapi has pointed out, Truth, Beauty, Unity and Life are all bound up together.

Strawbs_cream2

I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing

A character in one of my wife, Martha’s, favorite books makes the observation that one proof of the divine life of the Catholic church is that it has survived so much bad art and music. Bad hymns have always been with us, but I find many of the new "praise chorus" type of songs to be especially mind-numbing.

The other day I was trying to figure out why this was so and, among other things, I realized that there is no harmony to the current songs we use in our local church. None. Melody lines only.

Now, I am an adult convert, so I don’t know if maybe some of you cradle Catholics might remember harmonizing at Mass. When I was a li’l Baptist, singing in harmony just happened naturally. Men took up the bass or baritone, usually, with women and kids grabbing the tenor or soprano parts. Not that we sounded great or anything, but it was kind of neat.

Along with the fact that many of these new songs’ lyrics and melodies sound like they came from a Barney episode, the lack of harmony helps to make them really, well, boring.

There is also another aspect I’ve just recently noted that I will tell you about in the form of the following Song Parody, sung to the tune of "One Bread, One Body"…

One note, for each word,

One syllable,

One melody that’s sung by all.

And we, though many, here in this church,

We all are singing just this one note.

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing

A character in one of my wife, Martha’s, favorite books makes the observation that one proof of the divine life of the Catholic church is that it has survived so much bad art and music. Bad hymns have always been with us, but I find many of the new "praise chorus" type of songs to be especially mind-numbing.

The other day I was trying to figure out why this was so and, among other things, I realized that there is no harmony to the current songs we use in our local church. None. Melody lines only.

Now, I am an adult convert, so I don’t know if maybe some of you cradle Catholics might remember harmonizing at Mass. When I was a li’l Baptist, singing in harmony just happened naturally. Men took up the bass or baritone, usually, with women and kids grabbing the tenor or soprano parts. Not that we sounded great or anything, but it was kind of neat.

Along with the fact that many of these new songs’ lyrics and melodies sound like they came from a Barney episode, the lack of harmony helps to make them really, well, boring.

There is also another aspect I’ve just recently noted that I will tell you about in the form of the following Song Parody, sung to the tune of "One Bread, One Body"…

One note, for each word,

One syllable,

One melody that’s sung by all.

And we, though many, here in this church,

We all are singing just this one note.