Filmmaker Sidney Pollack was asked recently about the steady deterioration of the aesthetic and intelligence of American film. What he said is illuminating: "Are American films bad? A lot of them surely are, and so are a lot of everybody else's, the way most anything produced is bad"breakfast cereals, music, most chairs, architecture, mail-order shirts. There probably hasn't been a really beautiful rake since the Shakers stopped making farm implements!" In the visual arts, the abandonment of an artistic sensibility rooted in the good, the true and the beautiful led art critic Brian Sewell to say of the avant-garde gallery scene of the twentieth century's last decade, "If this is art, I know no word that fits the work of Michelangelo and Titian." In the breadth of application of Christian thought to all of life. CS Lewis made observations about faith and art. What would CS Lewis do?
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Posted in Books, Movies, Music, Performing Arts (Dance and Theatre), Spirituality, TV, Visual Arts (Architecture, Design, Fashion, Painting in April 25, 2007 by Dick Staub | No Comments »
(Kindling Lou Carlozo is an entertainament writer for the Chicago Tribune. He offers his thoughts "The Sopranos.") The beginning of the end has come for Tony Soprano: April 8 marks the first episode in the last season of HBO's ultra-popular series "The Sopranos." And when that final bullet casing falls to the floor, that final drop of murderous blood is shed, that final sip of Chianti passes over some sated hit man's lips, 55
Posted in Celebrity, Consumerism, Justice Issues, Kindlings Hearth Alum Blog, News, Seekers On Journey, TV in April 9, 2007 by Dick Staub | 1 Comment »
Forty years in the making, Dick's provocative new book reveals the lessons he's learned as a leading interpreter of faith and culture and is generating a lot of constructive dialogue among thoughtful creatives. It has also caught the attention of booksellers, with Barnes and Noble, Borders and online retailer Amazon all pre-ordering more copies than expected! Check out a description of the book, some amazing endorsements, the latest reviews and learn a bit more about the author, Dick Staub. If you'd like to book Dick as a speaker for an upcoming event contact CRS Communications. (Act quickly, 2007 is almost full and 2008 is filling up fast!) Most importantly order your own copy of the "The Culturally Savvy Christian", read it and see if you agree with the critics, then tell your friends! 55
Posted in Books, Celebrity, Consumerism, Justice Issues, Kindlings Hearth Alum Blog, Movies, Music, News, Performing Arts (Dance and Theatre), Seekers On Journey, Spirituality, Technology, TV, Visual Arts (Architecture, Design, Fashion, Painting in April 6, 2007 by Dick Staub | 2 Comments »
Today excerpts from my new book, " The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite" due for release on April 16. Pre-order at amazon today! In 1967, as a new follower of Jesus, I sat in San Francisco's Fillmore West between two guys who were smoking marijuana, listening to Jefferson Airplane, way before the trendy bracelet told me to, I asked myself, "What would Jesus do?" 55
Posted in Books, Celebrity, Consumerism, Kindlings Hearth Alum Blog, Movies, Music, Seekers On Journey, Spirituality, TV in March 6, 2007 by Dick Staub | 3 Comments »
We go to the audience's questions and comments as we take up the subject "Word, Image and the Neil Postman Problem" beginning with Gregory Wolfe, author, publisher of IMAGE a journal of Art, Faith and Mystery, artist Scott Ericksen and Jennie Spohr, producer of The Kindlings Muse. Orson Welles observed: I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. E.B. White warned that the visual might replace words. "TV has taken a big bite out of the written word. But words still count with me." Into the debate marched Neil Postman, educator and communications theorist with his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," a radical assessment of how TV changes how we learn and think, and ultimately how we discourse in what he saw as an increasingly entertainment oriented society. He seemed to favor words and reading as a higher form of human communication.
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Posted in A. Podcasts -- "The Kindlings Muse", Books, Celebrity, Live @ Hales, News, Spirituality, Technology, TV in February 2, 2007 by Dick Staub | No Comments »
In this podcast we take up the subject "Word, Image and the Neil Postman Problem" beginning with Gregory Wolfe, author, publisher of IMAGE a journal of Art, Faith and Mystery, artist Scott Ericksen and Jennie Spohr, producer of The Kindlings Muse. Orson Welles observed: I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. E.B. White warned that the visual might replace words. "TV has taken a big bite out of the written word. But words still count with me." Into the debate marched Neil Postman, educator and communications theorist with his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," a radical assessment of how TV changes how we learn and think, and ultimately how we discourse in what he saw as an increasingly entertainment oriented society. He seemed to favor words and reading as a higher form of human communication.
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Posted in A. Podcasts -- "The Kindlings Muse", Books, Celebrity, Live @ Hales, News, Spirituality, Technology, TV in February 1, 2007 by Carlo Nakar | No Comments »
Orson Welles observed: "I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts." E.B. White warned that the visual might replace words saying, "TV has taken a big bite out of the written word. But words still count with me." Into the debate marched Neil Postman, educator and communications theorist with his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," a radical assessment of how TV changes how we learn and think, and ultimately how we discourse in what he saw as an increasingly entertainment oriented society… He seemed to favor words and reading as a higher form of human communication… In this podcast we take up the subject "Word, Image and the Neil Postman Problem" beginning with Gregory Wolfe, author, publisher of IMAGE a journal of Art, Faith and Mystery.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.0MB)
Posted in A. Podcasts -- "The Kindlings Muse", Books, Celebrity, Live @ Hales, News, Spirituality, Technology, TV, Visual Arts (Architecture, Design, Fashion, Painting in January 31, 2007 by Dick Staub | No Comments »
