Archive for the ‘curiosities’ Category
What Your Village Looks Like Right After Assad Bombs It
Frontline: Syria Behind the Lines
It is a practice of the regime to target [bomb] groups of men.
I won’t muck the works with my comments, but this first-person account of a village being bombed shows, well, you can judge for yourself. Be forewarned: this is graphic. Listen for the rhetorical twists and turns from the videographer’s commentary and the crowd.
Given this was from PBS, I assume it is real footage. If someone knows better, please tell me. Kudos to Olly Lambert for filming this and making it available.
God have mercy.
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Axis Mundi: Levittown
Surely not everything.
An exhibit by Holly Laws (artist) and Charlotte Meehan (playwright)–Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College.
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Speaking of Bold Declaratives: Allan Peters’ Blog
Believe: Babies! Bikes!
A few days back I wrote about the transformative power of saying what we believe (versus saying only what we are against). For some time I’ve been following Allan Peters Blog because it is a smart look into the design world and also sheds light on design in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I look forward to seeing his work at ArtCrank Saturday.
And there is something else about Mr. Peter’s blog that pulls me in.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Jesus the Christ and I like hearing people chat about their relationship with this One. So speaking of declarations, check out Mr. Peter’s barking bold birth announcement (which won a Silver at the 2012 Adfed “The Show”). Even if religion gives you the willies (it has the same effect on me), check out the artfulness of this announcement: letterpressed into some ritzy paper: click here and scroll down to get a sense of his process.
If you don’t follow Allan Peters’ blog—maybe it’s time you start.
As an asker/seeker/knocker, I am constantly sorting through out how faith fits with the desire to do good work, even persuasive work in a multi-cultural, multi-voiced world. Part of the answer surely has to be finding artful ways to demonstrate (and say) what we believe. Mr. Peters has accomplished this.
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Image credit: Allan Peters’ Blog
The History We Carry
What do you see in your old haunts?
Thoughtful images for the History Channel. Photographer Seth Taras.
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Image credit: Seth Taras via MyModernMet/thisisn’thappiness
Don’t Provoke Me. Wait: Do.
The Power of a Question to Shape Discovery
Mrs. Kirkistan and I have been chatting about those people in our lives who show up with questions rather than answers. These are folks who wonder “Why?” and “How?” about the most ordinary, obvious things. We typically have great conversations with them even as they challenge, occasionally infuriate and often delight us. And quite often their questions and the acts they take to resolve those questions have a way of working into my brain through the week. And I find myself asking questions as well.
I treasure these friends.
I’ve been trying to understand a complicated philosopher whose writing was famously obscure. I recently came across two of his interpreters whose comments helped me flesh out the larger setting for this philosopher’s comments. Mr. Peter Dews and Ms. Diane Perpich helped me understand that there is more to Emmanuel Levinas than the Other and ethics as “first philosophy.” Ms. Perpich, in particular, has helped me begin to see that the stringent obligation Levinas puts on our encounter with the other may function less as an ethics manual and more as provocation. This makes terrific sense when I start to work out the details of my obligation to others (as Levinas might suggest). His comments become directional rather than prescriptive.
But even with the insights from Mr. Dews and Ms. Perpich, there is something about Mr. Levinas that moves beyond directional-only. His provokements have a way of landing at the most inopportune times: making me question the bosses’ speech in the conference room or the story of the revered leader. Making me wonder at my own treatment of others, from driving to the simplest conversation.
Such provocation seems a good thing—perhaps I’ll be shaken from my comfortable rut.
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Image credit: marikapaprika via 2headedsnake
In Minnesota We’re All From Somewhere Else
Somalis are the latest. Not the last.
One look at the housing stock in the Phillips neighborhood and you can see the early builders had working class intentions. They built for families, close together, filling up the slim South Minneapolis lots. These were not lavish homes, except for a few on the main thoroughfares like Park or Portland. This neighborhood, like many in Minneapolis, housed people from afar. Waves of people from all over the world, over a couple hundred years, people with a purpose and that purpose was to make a life.
Having spent a decade in Phillips, I’ve seen first-hand how newcomers find their place. I’m pleased that Minnesota tends toward being a good place to settle. Not perfect. Not flawless. Not without unrest, but good. I just finished Ahmed Ismail Yusuf’s Somalis in Minnesota, which tells the story of a current set of transplants finding their place. It is a good tale, particularly because a casual walk through South Minneapolis reveals this immigrant experience swirling all around you. In fact there are malls around Minneapolis that could have been lifted directly from Somalia. Where entrepreneurs are making a life for themselves.
Yusef’s book shows how it is that communities develop. The Somali-American experiences seemed to start in San Diego in the early 1990s, but then branched to Marshall, Minnesota and Minneapolis because of job opportunities (at first) and then because others had already come. Today Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. (~60,000 in 2010, according to the Minnesota Historical Society).
The Somali experience in Minnesota is a fresh taste of our own history. It’s heartening and I’m glad for this city’s large heart.
And this: I realize we’re not all from somewhere else–and telling that story will be another good conversation.
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Image credit: Fred Anderson via the Groveland Gallery via StarTribune
You need a vacation. Yes?
Here’s your mini-vacation, courtesy Jakub Polomski
So tranquil. So restful.
Now—back to work!
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Image Credit: Jakub Polomski via Let’s Travel Somewhere
conversation is an engine 