I stumbled upon this today. This is from the fantastic film "Once" - which I think I will watch again soon!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Nice Song For Today
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Education of Shelby Knox
In this documentary from Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt -- which uses footage shot over a three-year period -- the action unfolds almost effortlessly, revealing a stunning transformation. Small-town Texas teenager Shelby Knox becomes an advocate for sex education (and the local media's so-called "Sex Ed Girl") when she tries to improve the county's sky-high teen pregnancy rate by challenging her high school's policy of teaching abstinence.
A terrific film, which I would have watched much sooner had I known it had taken place in Lubbock, Texas. I have a friend from there - and the depiction of the conservative Christian town in the film is accurate. No matter what side of the debate you are on - an inspiring film about a girl learning to make her own decisions, and see many sides to every story.
In A Dream
IN A DREAM: Theatrical Trailer from Herzliya Films on Vimeo.
Over the past four decades, Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream is a documentary feature film that chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds.
I ended up at the MFA today unexpectedly, and saw this film which a friend had mentioned. Fabulous - made me think a lot of the artistic drive, how we nurture it, how we see it, why do creative people do what they do? This film is only being shown for limited times in select cities - but I hope to see it again when it comes to video.
Click here for Zagar's website.
Art 21
Another terrific art series - bios of the creative process in many mediums. Art 21 is a PBS series highlighting artists of the 21st century.
I'm most fascinated here by the variety of inspiration and medium. I am touched over and over again by how we all seem to have a story to tell. These stories, these "arts" are so varied and personal, yet they still have a certain universality of the theme of love, place, history...
I'm hoping to get out today to see some art in a new way. Watching another episode of this series has put me in a good creative mindset!
Find the PBS website for Art 21 here.
I'm most fascinated here by the variety of inspiration and medium. I am touched over and over again by how we all seem to have a story to tell. These stories, these "arts" are so varied and personal, yet they still have a certain universality of the theme of love, place, history...
I'm hoping to get out today to see some art in a new way. Watching another episode of this series has put me in a good creative mindset!
Find the PBS website for Art 21 here.
Craft in America
One of the best videos I have seen. Three episodes, highlighting the process of craft and its artists - episodes are called "Memory", "Landscape", and "Community".
Sam Maloof with his gentle way of working with wood is contrasted by the raw humor of furniture maker Garry Knox Bennett. How nice that the series is organized not in themes of technique or genre, but rather in underlying threads that connect the artists and movement to each other.
A new addition to the series will air in October of this year. In the meantime, this DVD is available in many local libraries and on netflix. Check out the extensive website that accompanies the series!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Media in Iran - Election Coverage?
What's happening online is that the people formerly known as news consumers are now given access to all the raw material being captured by eyewitnesses. What is truth and what is fiction? Who is there and who is pretending to be there? Where and when was that video captured? How do I know that Twitter feed isn't from a government agent posing as a protester?
MediaShift's Mark Glaser has assembled an impressive list of where to find information from Iran online.
Is it possible to not have news on the web anymore? I have not checked out all these sites yet - but I am overwhelemed at the transparency of our world events. I know there are many things we do not see - but with effort, there are many things we DO. Glaser's article is also interesitng food for thought.
MediaShift's Mark Glaser has assembled an impressive list of where to find information from Iran online.
Is it possible to not have news on the web anymore? I have not checked out all these sites yet - but I am overwhelemed at the transparency of our world events. I know there are many things we do not see - but with effort, there are many things we DO. Glaser's article is also interesitng food for thought.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Irandecision 2009 - CNN's Unverified Material | ||||
| ||||
What To Remember When Waking
In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.
You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.
Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting desk?
-David Whyte
Finally some sun so I could sit on the beach! I read this poem, from Whyte's Crossing The Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
Terrific read so far - Whyte's work (prose or poetry) speaks to me. I'm still struggling mightily with what seems to be presenting itself as a calling, emerging from the murky depths of my emotions and preconceptions of who I have "been" thus far. I'm not so sure if it's the new paths emerging that are so confusing, or ridding myself of the old paradigms that don't work for me anymore (they never really did!). I have noticed lately that books such as Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak, among others, have helped me to focus on work as a mission, a calling, a fulfillment of we are born to do. Work in this case does not always mean a paid "job" - rather, a role of caretaker, creator, nurturer, supporter, Friend... You "work" at the "work" - and if you are lucky, you find yourself in a place where you can emerge and grow into the life you are meant to lead.
Or so I see it for the moment. Those views change everyday, focus a bit more for me. I was often terrified by what Whyte calls the "open and lovely white page" on the desk of my life. No rules, no method, no lines, even! How to find my direction? The inner "work" I'm doing now, on this path of discernment that at times is quite painful, will hopefully lead me to writing on that blank page. And in fact, that page erases every day, open once again to new thoughts.
I was reminded today of Sisyphus, how he kept pushing that big rock up that hill every day, only to see it roll back down again. Frustrating. Today I don't see this as a heavy rock - more like an intriguing puzzle. A spiritual scavenger hunt, if you will - with lots of pieces hidden in the oddest of places. What piece will I find for myself today?
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.
You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.
Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting desk?
-David Whyte
Finally some sun so I could sit on the beach! I read this poem, from Whyte's Crossing The Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
Terrific read so far - Whyte's work (prose or poetry) speaks to me. I'm still struggling mightily with what seems to be presenting itself as a calling, emerging from the murky depths of my emotions and preconceptions of who I have "been" thus far. I'm not so sure if it's the new paths emerging that are so confusing, or ridding myself of the old paradigms that don't work for me anymore (they never really did!). I have noticed lately that books such as Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak, among others, have helped me to focus on work as a mission, a calling, a fulfillment of we are born to do. Work in this case does not always mean a paid "job" - rather, a role of caretaker, creator, nurturer, supporter, Friend... You "work" at the "work" - and if you are lucky, you find yourself in a place where you can emerge and grow into the life you are meant to lead.
Or so I see it for the moment. Those views change everyday, focus a bit more for me. I was often terrified by what Whyte calls the "open and lovely white page" on the desk of my life. No rules, no method, no lines, even! How to find my direction? The inner "work" I'm doing now, on this path of discernment that at times is quite painful, will hopefully lead me to writing on that blank page. And in fact, that page erases every day, open once again to new thoughts.
I was reminded today of Sisyphus, how he kept pushing that big rock up that hill every day, only to see it roll back down again. Frustrating. Today I don't see this as a heavy rock - more like an intriguing puzzle. A spiritual scavenger hunt, if you will - with lots of pieces hidden in the oddest of places. What piece will I find for myself today?
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