Monday Mixtape

i made you a mix tape of all my favorites from this week!

First of all, let me just say that I am feeling so much better than the last couple of reports I've posted!  I've been gaining ground steadily and haven't had to shed a tear about my aches and pains and exhaustion for several days.  Thanks for all the encouraging words and well-wishes.  I'm pondering a post about what I learned while being forced to accept the kindness of others.  Hopefully I'll get to it this week because that was a huge learning and I don't want to ever forget it.  But, I'm getting ready to head out on a cozy date with my husband (Mondays are his day off) so a longer reflection will have to wait.

Books:

Still working on a review of The Supper of the Lamb for the IAM blog, so watch for that later this week.In the meantime, I'm pretty much counting down the days for this new release to land on my porch.  It's being released this week and you can order it at amazon now.

For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts

by W. David Taylor:

My friend and mentor David Taylor dreamed and worked this book into being, starting with the Transforming Culture Symposium in April 2008.  The plenary sessions from the symposium plus some additional chapters make up the content of the book.  For a preview, check David's blog for excerpts.

I have lost track of the number of ways David,  joined with his beautiful wife, Phaedra, have impacted me and my family.  Keeping count probably doesn't matter, but I do promise you that this book will give you a major education from some of the most passionate and gifted advocates for art and faith alive today. Superlative statement, I realize.  I mean it. (How would you describe the likes of Eugene Peterson, Jeremy BegbieBarbara Nicolosi, Andy CrouchJohn Witvliet, Lauren Winner, and Joshua Banner

Here's David, in his own words.

Links:

Speaking of art and faith:

  • Sojourn Visual Arts:  A sneak preview of the latest exhibit in this Louisville church.  I enjoyed the video clip that showed the mess of art in the making.  Hope you enjoy it, too!
  • My friend and fellow church member, Kevin Lucia, talks about his latest published work.  I liked the way he explained the tension of his two genres:  inspirational titles and pseudo-horror/dark fiction.
  • I've been reading Arian Armstrong's blog for awhile, and give her loud applause for this description of life as a "right-brained-artist mom".  Go Arian!

Film & Television:

The silver lining in my two weeks of recuperation was that it fell in the same exact time of the Olympics!  We're all going through a little withdrawal right now.  These pollsat NPR gave us some chuckles.