From the Kerns and The Hemispheres CD release show a couple of weeks ago. (Taken with my new digital camera, which I like very much.) See more of the shots from the show here.

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Breakthrough.tv has created a video game ICED to teach people about immigration and deportation issues in the US. The premise is that you play young immigrant character and your goal is to become a US citizen. I haven't explored it enough to know if I agree with the politics of the game, but I do think the use of the video game genre is an incredibly interesting way to get the message out. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

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NPR has a brief story about a study in which one group of people were shown an Apple logo and the other group was shown and IBM logo. Both groups were given a creativity test after very briefly viewing the logos and the people in the Apple group scored significantly higher on a creativity test. Apparently just the association of Apple and creativity is enough to affect people's test scores.

Link

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The Wall Street Journal has a story today by Andrew Losowsky about a new Swedish Language Bible done in a high design magazine layout.

A heavily armed freedom fighter in the Niger Delta stares angrily at the camera, his face hidden behind a black mask. Is this a news story from the latest war zone? No, it's the opening page to the book of Joshua -- the Israeli warrior -- in the new Bible Illuminated.

The Swedish-language Bible marries the standard text to glossy magazine-style design. Full-color pages are illustrated with a striking combination of news and dramatized photographs: a homeless child wrapped in a sweater on the streets of Bogotá, Colombia, illustrates the book of Job; a man who drowned trying to enter Europe, for Deuteronomy; and models posing in stylized scenes convey joy or despair. Bible passages are pulled out as captions.

The publishers wanted to draw new readers by getting rid of what they called "the old heavy book."

Apparently an English language version will be out sometime in 2009. I'm really excited to see what a bible illuminated with photographs and really good modern typography would look like. I may not be able to wait for the English version, to bad I don't read Swedish.

This is an interesting contrast to the illuminated bible project that has been developing here in Minnesota, where St. John's University has commissioned a hand lettered hand illuminated bible. The pages are magnificent, and I seem to recall from the exhibit I went to, the St. John's bible is the first one of it's kind made in over 400 years.

Thanks Fernando & Mary for the tip.

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37 Signals has a great little bit about the need to be ruthless killer of the unnecessary in creative project development.

All web apps are trying to suck. They are trying to be bloated. They are trying to be unstructured. They are trying to be confusing.

You are the stopgap. You are the one who stands between order and chaos. You are the sniper who must pick off every distraction, unneeded feature, and extra word that doesn’t absolutely have to be there.

You must be a killer. You must say no. You must anger those who disagree with you. That is the only way to make something great.

It also includes a nice video piece from Ira Glass of This American Life.

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In preparation for the fourth and likely final season of Battlestar Galactica, several new videos have been posted to a splash page on the show's web site. The videos have a lot of great information about the show, including a funny 'the story so far update.' (However, be aware, they will address all three seasons so you will get spoilers if you are not up to date.) BSG has been a goldmine of media and religion issues and it continues this week as the background image for the page holding the videos is this last supper image. A nice touch for holy week don't you think...

Notice the intense similarities to DaVinci's last supper.

It's interesting that we have Baltar's immaginary / angelic #6 sitting in the Jesus place at the table; I wonder where this is leading us. Also you've got chief holding the knife, similar to the knife in the DaVinc held by someone in the group on the viewers left of Jesus. (It's really hard to see in this image, but search for it and you can find clearer images.) I don't know much art history, does anyone know if this is symbolism for Peter who draws his sword in the garden later, or for something else?

All together it has been fascinating to see how religion has been such a major force in the series and how intelligently the shows writers have dealt with it. As a fan, I am excited to see what happens this season.

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Magnum in Motion has a harrowing and poignant series on wars in Vietnam, The Balkans, & Iraq. Four photographers share their thoughts and experiences over slides of their work. The images are powerful anti-war documents, but be aware the images are graphic.

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