nevermind the bricolage

ossuary skull

From Paul Koudounaris' book, The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses. A charnel house is a place used to store human skeletal remains, there are lots of them in monasteries around the world, and they are often built next to churches in case bones are dug up somewhere. An ossuary is quite similar, but the word is usually associated these days with the bone relics that get transported around in some kind of box. A fascinating look at our on-going obsesssion with death, sainthood, religion and the afterlife.

we all go back

I have never been a particularly avid REM fan--I have appreciated some of their songs, but don't own a single song. That said, I think there is something lovely about this song, their last single. Love those Burt Bacharach sounding horns and strings--plaintive, nice lyric too.

 

ministry of stories

The latest issue of Think Quarterly, the Google online magazine, is dedicated to people. One of the features is on Nick Hornby's East London project, Ministry of Stories. Taking a cue from Dave Egger's pirate shop, 836 Valencia, the Ministry of Stories is tucked away inside The Hoxton Street Monster Supplies. It is a space dedicated to encouraging young people to write, to dream, to tell stories--worth a visit on the next trip to London I think. The image below is from a series of bespoke covers creasted by The Church of London-a design group doing some interesting work.

On the COL blog is another cool thing. In conjunction with the paperback release of Zizek's Living in the End Times, Verso books and COL launched a film project inviting people to create responses to Zizek's theory of the end times.

Living in the End Times from Gabriel Tupinambá on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

 

happy birthday ipod

On October 23, 2001, Apple released a new product, the iPod, a game-changing digital music player. In 2003 Apple launched iTunes and the rest is history. But the reason I mention this has little to do with the iPod itself. I was in an Apple store last week with a couple of friends and one of them was playing with the latest iPhone 4S. He was messing around with the new personal assistant application, Siri. You can ask Siri anything--"what's the meaning of life?" "does God exist?" were a couple of the questions put to the device--the answers? "why are you asking an inanimate device a question like this?" or something to that effect.

Now, jump forward to lunch today and another conversation about all things apple (my lunch partner is the proud recipient of a new ipad), and he brought up the new phone and Siri in particular. I said that it seemd to me that Siri miight be a game-changer just as an application on the original iPod was--shuffle. Shuffle was added at the last minute and was not given much attention--but I think it became the transformation element of iPod. There were other digital players, but that little option--shuffling songs--well, it changed everything. Siri might be similar. There was quite a bit of critique of the new iPhone--it's release coming as closely as it did to the death of Steve jobs made it very hard for Tim Cook and/or any apple product to really garner excitement and there seemed to be a bit of a letdown when the 4S was a new version, rather than a brand new model--but Siri...Shuufle, which I view as a metaphor for how to handle chaos and information overload in the early 21st century, has altered the way in which music is heard, it could be that Siri will do the same for phone technology. I am no futurist, it just has the feel of something significant, the full potential of which we perhaps aren't even capable of .

I still have my original iPod, it still plays--it's not that old--but time in the digital world is like dog-years. It was only 2001, it might as well have been the 19th century things have changed that much.

cherish skull

My friend Cherish's band can be found here.

the happy film

 

Stefan Sagmeister pitches his Happiness project--I hope he is successful, maybe I can learn a thing or two--happiness seems to be elusive.

black dog days

Apologies for the lack of substantive posts. I have been pretty busy of late, but more than that, I have have hit a bit of an emotional wall--life has just been tough lately, and I have, to coin Austin Powers, "lost my mojo." I'm sure it will return--once I have vanquished Dr. Evil and banished the black dog days I seem to be living in:)

On a positive note, once the mojo returns I will launch my new a/theology site, AfterTheology-which will offer up more expansive reflection son philosophy, theology and everything else. In the meantime, a duet from Messrs. Waits and Richards seems to fit the order of the day.

 

vd/skull/hat

Today in the History of Ad class we explored advertising during the Second World War, with particualr focus on propaganda, rationing, saving and venereal disease. "Over-paid, over-sexed, and over here," was one response to the presence of American troops in the U.K.--rampant sexual activity almost derailing the Allies close political ties and the subsequent appearance of ads, essentially making women out to be the problem, was a big topic in class. And fortunately for me, one of the ads, feautred a skull, under a very flamboyant hat--one of the few areas where women would be frivolous with fashion during the war years--very Lady Gaga! Commitment to the truth was not a part of the advertising plan as the ad below demonstrates--98%...doubtful!

skullsw/boobs

From an exhibit at the fairly new Rankin Gallery on Melrose--a project between Damien Hirst and Rankin--Myths, Monsters and Legends, showing until mid-November.

connected

 

This should get some conversation going in my theology and media culture class. Tiffany Schlain's documentary looks to be very interesting.