Andy Goldsworthy Copy #1

During our Thanksgiving holiday in Annapolis I reveled in the fall colors and decided to make my first Andy Goldsworthy copy. This was done in my sister’s front yard in Annapolis. I wished I had made it larger and cleared the brown leaves away. I was taking a lot of abuse from the family so I rushed it. I now know that these projects need to go slow and allow the artist to soak in the surroundings. It was a great experiences-besides the constant abuse from family members–and I look forward to doing more copies. I have ideas for making these more my own in future projects.

Here’s a few other angles:

btw: Andy Goldsworthy is an amazing artist living in the UK. He’s been doing these types of pieces for a long time (and I just found him recently!). You can see his stuff at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy and here are some of his best pieces imo:

“I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and `found’ tools – a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.” Andy Goldsworthy
http://www.applebyheritagecentre.org.uk/html/andygold/andygold.html

New movie: What Would Jesus Buy?

This movie opens November 16th 2007 and looks like genius. The trailer and various videos on YouTube are hysterical. These folks have found a way to deliver an important and unpopular message to many audiences. I love the “Retail Interventions” where Rev Billy and choir go to stores and exorcise the shopping demons from the cash registers! And, it’s hilarious to see Rev Billy get arrested in NYC for reciting the First Amendment.

They make a very good point about the foolishness and contradictions implied by Americans addiction to shopping and consumerism. We have a incubated a cultural cancer in America and are now spreading it to the rest of the world. As Borat would say: “Very nice.”

The parody of using evangelical christianity to spread the word is pure genius. They found a way to reach out to an audience that the progressives rarely target–granted it is a bit sarcastic, but maybe some will miss this or get a kick out of it–and at the same time put religion and religious people on trial for the obvious hypocrisy of not speaking out against bad family values (i.e. out of control consumerism).

[While I'm on the rant, why on earth have the religious communities and orgs (read Christian) not come out loud and strong against consumerism, the Iraq war, and global warming? These issues should be direct hits with the core issues and values of Christianity (killing innocent people, lying about the facts, spending money on things rather than time with people, destroying our planet and causing misery to the less fortunate, etc.). It makes no sense. (and yes I know, some Christians are going to say "I care about these issues", but the problem is that the institutions of religion are not doing enough and end up on the wrong side of the argument.)]

On a larger scale, this film represents to me a new and smarter approach to packaging counter-culture ideas and change into effective, broad viral memes. I think that Carl Rove has taught us all how to be more effective in persuading the American masses. And, Walt Disney invented the ability to talk to multiple audiences at the same time (e.g. children and adults). It will be interesting to see if this is a growing trend.

Movie trailer (funny!): http://movies.aol.com/movie/what-would-jesus-buy/31783/video/trailer-no-1/2012984

Movie website: http://www.wwjbmovie.com/

The Problem with Atheism by Sam Harris

I’ve been a quiet non-believer for most of my adult life but have always felt uncomfortable with the term “atheist.” I never liked the idea of representing my beliefs–yes, I know a bad word–with a term that describes what I don’t believe in. The term “atheist” feels nihilistic and negative, and does not describe what I believe in (secular humanism, rationalism, skepticism, reasonalism?, non-supernatural spiritualism). Sam Harris’ speech captures this issue perfectly. It’s long, but worth every minute. I just bought his “Letter to a Christian Nation” and will buy “End of Faith” very soon.

I hope you enjoy the read as much as I did:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sam_harris/2007/10/the_problem_with_atheism.html

See the video at: http://www.samharris.org/site/media_video/