Paranoid delusions are nothing if not timely. In World War II, psychotics often thought their neighbors were Nazis. They became spies during the cold war and terrorists after 9-11.
You no longer have to be in NYC to get a dose of the Met: The famed opera house is
going to start streaming its opera performances online! You'll be able to get audio and video via its "Met Player" from
metopera.org.
While I think this is completely cool — I want all important forms of culture to be widely available on the web — I'm kind of curious about the audience rift.
Though the story might always start, "in the beginning," the Bible has taken a whole host of formats from iPod ready to graphic novel, but this
latest incarnation called Bible Illuminated: The Book takes the Bible and smashes in a bit of People and a little bit of Vogue and reimagines it as an avant-garde coffee-table book of photo essays to tell the story of Jesus for an Angelina Age (yep, she's in there.)
What's behind the new slick format? One professor of religious studies explains it like this: "In general, Bible publishers have always been creative, but now they are scrambling to meet a culture where people are moving away from print reading. In a visually literate, advertising-skeptical age — how do you grab people's attention?
Ah, Saturday morning. That blissful time formerly devoted exclusively to cartoons, though what happened? Cartoon Network, did you have to ruin everything?
While it may be a bit until Halloween, all those "Spirit Stores" are popping up
selling costumes already, and they made this story jump out at me. This week a senior British police officer found himself in hot water
over his choice of costume for the local carnival parade. He's been advising the Afghan government on counter-terrorism, so I suppose he thought his costume was true to the theme: he showed up dressed as Osama bin Laden.
It's one small squeeze for woman, one giant leap for hug-kind. I didn't believe the prevalence of the McCain/Palin embrace until I went searching for pictures — and found the mother lode of warm greetings. The second mixed-gender ticket in history is
breaking the boundaries of the cold handshake with a now signature — yet brief and businesslike — clinch.
A New York establishment, Astroland Amusement Park on Coney Island's boardwalk, closed its doors Sunday, after 46-years of amusing visitors. Since landowner Thor Equities decided not to renew the lease with the park owner, 300 park
workers will be out of work after they dismantle the rides.
Not all is lost — the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel rides
have been spared, thanks to their independent ownership and landmark status.
While it's never won awards for being kinder and gentler entertainment (though it does have two Emmys) now South Park is on the run in Russia. Prosecutors are
looking to ban the "extremist" cartoon after viewer complaints. Filing suit against the network showing the cartoon, the spokesman says, "South Park is just one of many cartoons that need to be banned from open broadcast .
Holy commitment to the cause, Batman! A tattoo shop in Moore, Oklahoma is
giving away free tattoos— of Barack Obama's face. The tattoo artist is an Obama supporter and says while he doesn't have money to give to the cause, he can donate his talent to help Obama-maniacs wear the Senators face — forever.
I remember drawing them on my notebook during the first Gulf War and not really knowing what they meant — and now the peace sign is turning the big 5-0. The famous symbol made its first official public appearance in 1958 to advocate nuclear disarmament, and has since been used to graphically support a range of efforts from economic justice to environmentalism. Nearly every altruistic group has
used this iconic logo as a way to communicate the idea of universal brotherhood.
