August 2006 Archives

A few days ago, I sat down to enjoy a delicious coffee treat at a local Starbucks. While happily sipping away I noticed some words peeking out from behind the heat protection sleeve. This was written on the cup:

The way I see it #158

"It's tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don't have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it's us - the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing - that need God. a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do." - Mike Doughty

By the way, you can hear more of Mike Doughty's music on the Starbucks channel on XM radio.

Ahh, the cross marketing of spirituality.

Still, I do like the quote...and the coffee is tasty...

I just saw on BoingBoing, web cagtalogue of wonderful things, that you can purchase Armor of God Pajamas (Based on Ephesians 6:10-20) for your children to help keep them safe at night. Interesting that they should feature this on their site today as the Ephesians text is one of the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this week, and thus will be a preaching text in thousands of churches on Sunday. Did the folks at BoingBoing know?

I wonder if the PJ's have feet, I always liked those as a kid.

Magnum is now using some very cool methods for presenting documentary photography work in their Magnum In Motion. This includes podcasts and web galleries of photo essays that have audio of the photographer talking about the shot or the circumstances. This is a nice use of digital technology for photo presentation, I am a fan.

It has been a great week for viewing photography. Two of the major museums in Minneapolis are showing work of some of the greats of photography.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has just re-opened its photo gallery after a large remodeling project. Their photo collection has been wonderful for as long as I have been going there, but the photos they have on display now are fantastic. They are currently showing some of my all time favorite photographers: Sebastiao Salgado, Arnold Newman, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Werner Bischoff. (Bischoff is one of my photo heroes--this image is a favorite and on display now!)

The Walker Art Center also has a large showing of Dianne Arbus. The collection is extensive and has some really interesting exhibit pieces about her life and work, including some of her books, contact sheets and cameras. I have to admit I am not a huge fan of Arbus but it was good to see so much of her work in one place; it helped me have a better understanding of how she saw the world. She is a photo-hero for many and I'd like to understand why. It is interesting to see how much of her work seems to be echoed in the work of Lauren Greenfield and Minneapolis photographer Alec Soth (whether these artist would claim her as an influence, I am not sure, but they do seem to have very similar ways of seeing the world).

Having viewed such great work, it is giving me the itch to get out with my camera and make some photos too. Well, a project for next week...