A view from across the not-so-wide pond from authoress Diana Butler Bass. A conclusion could be that the word 'Religion' has a less virtuous interpretation over there? However, the narrative (~3.17) about the priest in the Chicago area going outside the church to offer the Ash Wednesday marking with a cross is surely truly sacred? Perhaps this is a compelling illustration of the important distinction between the yearning for religious practices rather than seeking sacred moments...
Another wee idea for Lent giving... born out of my weakness for tea and coffee which I've found works well for the last couple of years and now some folk have asked me to explain in more detail.
The principle is to total up an amount equivalent to the value of every drink drunk regardless of whether you paid for them or had them bought for you. So rather than cutting out those (vital!) morning caffeine oral injections and risking the potential of a skullcrushing headache this little spreadsheet sums up all your drinking at home and/or out and about during Lent. The final sum can then be given to a suitable good cause, my preferences are Microfinance sites such as Kiva or, my personal preference, UK based Deki. The template for this year (2012) is available to download here which even allows those with a Catholic disposition the option to leave out Sundays ;-)
An interesting side effect of this process is that this does enable some self discipline both in moderating drinking habits and reducing mean-spirited attitudes!
Have lived below a colony of wild bees for the last five years who have kindly created all this honeycomb (4.5 cubic feet) ready for some seriously local honey to be extracted. East Mersea's bee man Peter Inson both supervised opening up the roof and safe removal of the bees which will now be under his care. He estimates this haul should produce around 80lbs of honey with a shelf life of ~4,000 years!
The new music video from OK Go, made in partnership with Chevrolet. OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording. There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they'd play the right note no matter where they were struck. For more information and behind-the-scenes footage, see http://www.LetsDoThis.com and http://www.okgo.net. Many thanks to Chevy for believing in and supporting such an insane and ambitious project, and to Gretsch for providing the guitars.
Director: Brian L. Perkins & Damian Kulash, Jr.
Director of Photography: Yon Thomas
Editor: Doug Walker
Producer: Luke Ricci
