Informing thoughtful engagement with our culture and media.
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State Representative Stephanie Borowicz's opening prayer before the Pennsylvania House of Representative was deemed "offensive," "mean spirited" and" Islamophobic." Not bad for a prayer that only lasted about 2 minutes and invoked the "J-word" several times. Read the article and click on the link to listen to the prayer for yourself.
The full title of The New York Times article by Kimberly Bradley is, “The End Is Nigh. Can Design Save Us?” The Milan Triennial showcases projects by designers, architects and artists that highlight humanity’s troubled relationship to nature. The curator of the exhibition, Paola Antonelli, believes, "Our only chance at survival is to design our own beautiful extinction." Not very optimistic, she believes that humankind will go the way of the dinosaurs. As Christians, we place our hope in Jesus Christ for our redemption and not in mankind’s scientific and technological achievements. Revelations 21:5 says,”Behold, I am making all things new.” Christ’s Redemption isn’t just for individual souls; it means the restoration of the whole cosmos back to its pre-fall glory.
There were several words in the article I had to look up, because I had never heard of them before. "The Anthropocene Age” (today’s geological era marked by man’s domination of the environment); you won't find this term in a geology text because it was just made up. Bonobos (purportedly, human’s closest primate relative) actually exist, likened to a pygmy chimpanzee; their claim to fame, they have sex to settle conflicts. Considered an endangered species, one must assume that they haven’t been fighting much as of late. One exhibit I found to be quite humorous was by a neurobiologist who studies plant intelligence, hoping to find out how they can communicate with humans. Good luck with that! I wonder if he ever heard the old adage "dumb as a stump?" Overall, there are some very thought provoking exhibits that would be interesting to experience. One of which is "The Great Animal Orchestra." Bernie Kraus has been traveling around the world since 1968, recording the sounds of nature which he uses to create complex musical scores. This alone would be worth the price of admission. So if you happen to be in Milan, Italy, before September 1, you might want to take it in.
"The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age," by Leo Damrosch
Among the members of the club, who met on Friday evenings at Turk's Head Tavern, 9 Gerard Street, off the Strand, besides Samuel Johnson, were Edmund Burke, Adam Smith and several other intellects of 18th-century London. Even if you will never read the book, the review by Joseph Epstein is fascinating in and of itself.
Click on the PDF link for the review.