Creative Challenge 250: Twist

Twist s

 

Instead of walking with your feet and clapping with your hands,

clap with your feet and walk with your hands.

Hang your pictures upside down.

Try eating different combinations like ice-cream in your chicken noodle soup,

or peanut butter on your potatoes.

Wear your hat or cap inside out,

put a runner on your left foot and a sandal on your right foot.

Try to carry a conversation with a spouse, a child or a friend by

speaking your sentences chronologically from the last word to the first word,

or simply learn how to speak and read Hebrew from right to left. 

 Check out the other entries here.  

 

Rosewood

Last night I watched, on one of the movie channels, the 1997 film, Rosewood, which tells the disturbing story of the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida. The movie—even though it portrayed the evil-minded, racist thinking and behaviour of white Americans in the south—was most upsetting. The movie shows how fear of the other—in this case Afro-Americans—combined with racist stereotyping and lies can lead to out of control vigilante violence.

   The white mob, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, engage in a mad and evil hunt of a black man whom they falsely believe raped a white woman. The woman in fact cheated on her husband and was beaten by the white man whom she had sexual intimacy with. However she falsely accused a black man of sexually violating her, and the mob mentality escalates in an all out war against Afro-Americans who are falsely accused of collusion in the incident, many of them innocently killed, and their homes and property destroyed.

   There are two heroes in particular in the movie, Mann (Ving Rhames) an Afro-American WW I veteran and John Wright (Jon Voight) a white merchant, both of whom protect and orchestrate an escape of the Afro-Americans out of Rosewood onto a train. There are other whites who also are not racist and protect the Afro-Americans—those who run the train and a group of armed white men from a the next community who stop the mad vigilante men of Rosewood from pursuing further the blacks. The sheriff of that community speaks well of the Afro-Americans, stating that they are law-abiding citizens.

   Another motif of the movie was how strong matriarchs like Aunt Sarah (Esther Rolle) were the respected pillars of the Afro-American family system, and even earned the respect, grudgingly, of the mob sheriff.

   The movie all-in-all is what I would refer to as in the genre or category of: “reveal the truth even if it enrages, offends, upsets, and disturbs the audience with explicit acts of violence fuelled by evil, false, dehumanizing, hate-filled language.” Not an easy movie to watch, yet highlighting such biblical truths as: love your neighbour; do not bear false witness against your neighbour; and in Christ there is neither Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, [white or black]; for all are one in Christ Jesus.          

Gabriel's Oboe

Today I came across this beautiful and melancholic composition, "Gabriel's Oboe," from the movie The Mission. Whenever I listen to it I get a lump in my throat, goose-bumps, and it's all I can do to hold back tears. Those who remember the 1986 movie, Jeremy Irons is the Spanish Jesuit priest who wins the trust of the Guarani community by playing his oboe, and establishes a Christian mission among them. 

Creative Challenge 247: Playtime

Creative Challenge 247: Playtime

Sorry folks for going a bit serious here. What comes to mind is a play and a playwright, Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.

   In this play, Dr. Stockmann makes the discovery that the town Baths were poisonous and polluted by the tanneries from a neighbouring town. The public Baths were the major economic base of the town, as well as “the” tourist attraction.

   When Dr. Stockmann shares his discovery with the editor, assistant-editor and printer of the town newspaper, all three respond in what seems to be a very liberal-minded way. Mr. Havstad, Mr. Billing, and Mr. Aslaksen all appear to be in favour of publishing the truth about the Baths. It would appear that all three men accept the doctor’s discovery and stand behind him all the way.

   However, when the town’s Mayor, Peter Stockmann, the doctor’s brother, talks to Hovstad, Billing, and Aslaksen, they quickly change their opinions. The Mayor browbeats all three men into submission, threatening that their newspaper would die out and the town would be destroyed if they printed the truth about the Baths. All three men quickly conclude that they cannot print the doctor’s discovery. Their own selfish interests were more important than the truth.

   Dr. Stockmann’s insightful response to these three liberal media men was to reach the conclusion that expediency ultimately turns morality and justice upside down, ultimately making life unbearable.

   Read more contributors to this Creative Challenge here. 

Creative Challenge 246: Have you ever noticed?

Creative Challenge 246 –Have you ever noticed?

Have you ever noticed that when you travel the same route to work every day for many years, one day you see something interesting that you’ve never noticed before, yet was there all along?

Have you ever noticed that a faithful friend always shows up or phones or sends you an e-mail at the right time?

Have you ever noticed that when you stop to count all of your blessings, no matter how poor you may be materially, you are rich spiritually?

Have you ever noticed how a baby’s smile or laugh can bring the gift of joy to a room full of people?

Have you ever noticed that even the longest nights are too short when you and those you love are together engaged in meaningful conversation? 

You can contribute and/or read other posts here. 

Creative Challenge 245 - Pause

Creative Challenge 245

This is my first time at the challenge, so here goes. One of my favourite compositions of late is “The Beatitudes” by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. I find that it causes me to pause, realise, and give thanks for my blessings in life. I had a difficult time choosing which choral performance to include in this post, and ended up with, in my humble opinion, one of the best choirs of Christendom, King’s College Choir of Cambridge University. The art work is a out of context, as it’s Dali’s Last Supper—whereas it should have been Jesus with his disciples and the crowd as he delivered the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. Hope Pärt’s music causes you to pause as you give it a listen. 

On photography

               

             Today everything exists to end in a photograph. -Susan Sontag

Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have someone click the shutter. -Ansel Adams

Time eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at the level of art. -Susan Sontag

It's often about the simple things, isn't it? Painting and photography are first about seeing, they say. Writing is about observing. Technique is secondary. Sometimes the simple is the most difficult. -Linda Olsson