Category Archives: weekly mash

monday morning mash | stunning work and redefining art in life

Over the last week, there were a few different works of art, all different in style, which reminded me again how much I appreciate the diversity of our histories and stories, and therefore our perspectives and needs to narrate. Nothing crazy, just a few works of art I found stunning.

To think of endless concrete barriers as an opportunity to use childhood memories, illusion, and skill to create a shared asphalt gallery…

To photograph happy and loving families who can quickly put everything they own in front of their homes, and to view them with some sense of envy rather than any sense of pity while taking in the photograph…

To catch a glimpse of a world that from one corner is everyday and from another seems like it’s only from a cartoon, reminding that there is so much more that is so very real than we can even begin to imagine.

Good art. Good perspectives. Good stories.

Mashed together for Monday morning. A Monday Morning Mash.

Click the title or image to see the collection. Post your own in the comments.

FLIP BOOK-STYLE HIGHWAY ART

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RURAL CHINA | WITH EVERYTHING THEY OWN

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REAL WORLD LAND FAR, FAR AWAY | GIRL AND BAOBABS

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djordan
Pine Tree Dr.

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this is good | the mash | february 2

When finding themselves in those moments, at those events, in those questions, at those meals, inside the conversations where you feel art and justice and work and play and faith all coming together in both profound or incredibly simple ways, a few other friends and I will often look at each other, pause, and say, “This is good.” I’ve been thinking about that this week, so the mash is back, and here are a few links from the week of the “good things.”

1 | Craft Brewed Opens its Taps

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2 | Resilient Community Through Design & Advocacy

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3 | Ring the Bell | Indian PSAs Addressing Domestic Violence

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4 | Want to help? Shut up and listen! TED TALK

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5 | Kid President Gives a Pep Talk

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the mash is back | art and words on the web | 4 cool sites

The weekly mash is back from hibernation. Below lies a collections of links to some of the most fun and innovative sites or ideas I’ve come across this week. Enjoy. And post your own.

1. SIMPLE DRAWINGS

A collection of simple illustrations about everyday things. Brilliant. Whimsical.
http://www.simpledrawings.wordpress.com

2. ONE WORD

When you click go, you have sixty seconds to write stream-of-thought whatever comes to your mind.
http://www.oneword.com

3. ALTERED BOOKS

A combination of old book pages and other mediums creating new poetry from the page.
http://www.logolalia.com/alteredbooks/

4. BOOK SPINE POETRY

A combination of books spines bearing their titles. Poetry created.
http://www.brainpickings.org

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favorite food blogs | weekly mash | 5.26.2012

In honor of my mom, my granddad, friends who feed me, people who dare to let me cook for them, and yet another holiday tomorrow that is celebrated by eating while sitting around something––the beach, the river, the dinner table, the backyard––I’ve collected my favorite food blogs for this edition of the weekly mash. There’s no question why a meal and a dinner table are seen as a kind of sacred space, a thin space, the space where we remember clearly after long walks down roads to important places we can finally see the truth about who it is that we are actually with.

So, in celebration, here are the food and drink blogs that have become regular stops for me. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Food Republic

Food Republic is founded on the idea that guys everywhere are putting food at the center of their lives like never before. This is the site for men who want to eat and drink well, and to live smart.

http://www.foodrepublic.com

Food52

Food52 Before we knew it, we had a community on our hands. A community of talented, well-informed food people who loved to contribute. That’s when our identity crystallized: we weren’t just a social hub, but a constructive community. A place where, together, we create cookbooks, take on food projects, debate food news, help others with our real-time food Q&A — the Food52 Hotline — and band together to support local food producers.

http://www.food52.com

Smitten Kitchen

Smitten Kitchen Fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City. A lot of comfort foods stepped up a bit, things like bread and birthday cakes made entirely from scratch and tutorials on everything from how to poach an egg to how to make tart doughs that don’t shrink up on you, but also a favorite side dish (zucchini and almonds) that takes less than five minutes to make.

http://www.smittenkitchen.com

 Tasting Table

Tasting Table Think of Tasting Table as the friend you call to ask, “Where should I eat tonight?” We’re the friend who knows the best spot for $2 tacos, and which $200 tasting menu is worth the splurge. We’re serious eaters who don’t take ourselves too seriously–like you.

http://www.tastingtable.com

The Kitchn

theKitchn This is a site for people who like to get their hands dirty while they cook. It is for those who care about the quality of their food, and how it affects the health of themselves and the planet. It is also for those who want to cook more, but are shy in the kitchen. It’s a place to dive in deep, and embrace the joy of one of our basic needs: Food, cooked at home, nourishing ourselves and our households.

http://www.thekitchn.com

Other MOST HOPEFUL posts on the magic of the table:

djordan
Pine Tree

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real-life fiction | the weekly mash | 5.5.2012

This week’s mash ended up being a kind of theme around the parts, pictures and issues of the real world that seem like they are straight out of a storybook. Whether novel-informed architecture, children’s hopes come to life, or mushroom photography that looks like the setting of any number of fantasy books, here’s the weekly mash. Enjoy, and add your own links to other mashable real-world story articles below!

The Drawing Hope Project | inspirefirst.com

children's photos brought to life by photographers“The idea is very simple – take drawings done by young children who live with a health condition and turn them into photographs, using themselves, their families, their dog – whatever happens to be in their drawing – it could be Superman, an 84 legged octopus flying in the sky or a field of rainbow coloured sunflowers. The magic is in taking their imagination and turning it into reality, supporting the belief that anything is possible.”

(Legal) Mushrooms up Close | naldzgraphics.net
S
traight from the real-world, these up close photographs immediately make me think I’m flipping the pages of an imagination-driven children’s book. Real life looks computer-generated in these shots.

10 Buildings Inspired by Books | flavorwire.com
10 book-inspired architectural designs
These ten buildings were inspired by everything from The Hobbit to The Castle to Moby Dick. Alice in Wonderland is of course included as well. I would live in the castle based on Lichtenstein if I had to.

One Night of Supermoonlight | rt.comThe supermoon of may 5, 2012Even though these photos are from the “supermoon” on May 5, they look like they are straight out of the sequel to E.T. no doubt.

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Hope you enjoyed the mash. Know of any other links where the blur between real-life and fiction is perfectly indistinguishable? Post them below!

djordan
Pine Tree

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Letters to a future church and creepy Russian playgrounds | weekly mash | 04.28.2012

From creepy russian playground photos to explicative illustrations of the human body circa 1959, from the 10 companies that own everything to the letters written by the future of the church, here’s the weekly mash for the week leading up to April 28. It’s filled with the stories, essays, and ideas that I’ve been mulling over this week. Enjoy!

10 companies that control everything | INFOGRAPHIC | huffingtonpost.com

Ten Major Corporations that own every company we get everything from

“It may be obvious that Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes are both made by Kellogg’s, but did you know that Hot Pockets and L’Oreal share a parent company in Nestlé?” And six companies own 90% of media outlets. Fair and balanced indeed. 🙂

Russia’s Creepiest Playgrounds | PHOTOS | flavorwire.com

I do agree that something has been lost since the days playgrounds were made of rested metal ladders and sideways trash cans with the bottom cut out. But this is a different level of creepy old playground all together.

Letters to a Future Church | patheos.com

Letters to a future church

An excerpt from InterVaristy’s new book, “Letters to a Future Church,” reads like this: “But are we people of the kingdom? That is the question at the heart of this crisis, and as we struggle together to answer it, I am convinced that we don’t need bigger buildings or fancier sound equipment, better pastors or more parishioners, newer ministries or deeper pockets. What we need are bigger banquet tables.” I find comfort in these words for the  future of the church. For a church for my children…and the children in the poorest parts of our community.

The Human Body Circa 1959 | VINTAGE ILLUSTRATION | brainpickings.org

The Human Body circa 1959 brain pickings brainpickings.org

Glad that medicine values moving forward in understanding and practice. But these are most definitely AWESOME illustrations from 1959….

55 Free Philosophy Courses | openculture.com

The ones I have slated to listen to first are audio files given by Foucault the year that I was born.

THE MASH ALSO MENTIONS

+ How the USDA maps Food Deserts | scientificamerican.com

+ Why TED-ED is living up to the hype | good.is

+ The Story of Money is Not a Straight Line | sethgodin.typepad.com

+ 5 Literal Postures that Foster Creativity | spring.org.uk

CLICK HERE FOR PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE WEEKLY MASH

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lick the elevator, pregnant at VBS | weekly mash | 04.21.2012

Here they are! From Vacation Bible School pregnancies to edible elevators, from neurology in Pre-K to CEOs in gang recovery programs, here are the articles, thoughts, essays and ideas that I’ve been thinking and stewing over this week. Enjoy, and let me know what you think about the articles!

Education and Apartheid in the USA | www.good.is

We are way past the civil rights era, right? And we say “What a shame” about Apartheid because we would never behave in such a way, right? Take a look at the details behind education for the poor in the USA.

CEO Rehabbed in Anti-Gang Program | www.fastcoexist.com

Homeboy Indsutries and Homegirl Industries in California is one of the few anti-gang groups making progress. To get out of the gang-life, there has to be something worth going into, like Homeboy Industries. See why ARM watches Homeboy as we plan for The HUB Club, and see how it helps meet gangbangers and CEOs.

Food or Medicine: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | The Global Journal

It’s one thing to argue about healthcare with terms we learned from magazine news shows; it’s another to think about having to choose between food or medicine. And then to know the choice is made by people every day, people very close to home, adds an element of at least valuing the conversation.

Bringing Kids’ Art to Life | www.denydesigns.com

Every kids’ dream come true… real-life versions of their very own drawings. Yes, please!

Teen Pregnancy Down Except for the Bible Belt | www.theatlanticcities.com

Across the nation, teen pregnancy is down, except for those states in the Bible Belt where to get pregnant as a teenager is a huge scarlet “P” for the rest of your life. What makes the difference, and why should the church be paying attention to its ways of being in the world?

Ever Licked an Elevator Advertisement? | www.foodrepublic.com

I don’t even know what to say. I’m equally intrigued by the grossness and the coolness of this London-based advertisement experiment. One thing to make time in an elevator with others just a little more awkward.

Making Education Brain Science | www.nytimes.com

Think little kids are only learning about blues and reds? Think again! The Blue School is teaching kids to think about HOW they think, teaching them how to observe their own thought, emotion, and learning processes…something most of us wait until far too late to do. Way coolness.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

National Archives (England’s) Release Colonial Papers including Obama’s Father, son of Revolutionary

Magnificent Maps: Cartography as Power, Propaganda, and Art

So what do you think?

djordan
Pine Tree

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weekly mash | 04.14.2012

The Internet is Ruining Your Brain | INFOGRAPHIC | mashable.com

My dad has long said in jest that the internet is the tower of Babel. He says it less now since he’s become quite internet saavy. Nevertheless, this clever infographic explores the connection between how we remember when we always have google at our fingertips.

40 Wine Descriptions and What They Really Mean | winefolly.com

Ever swirled a glass around, thrown out a word like “big” or “chewy” to describe the taste, even though you know you have no idea what it means? Good. Me Either. Then here’s a list of forty descriptions everyone already understands.

Catholic Leaders say Rep. Ryan Distorting Church Teaching to Push Immoral Budget | faithinpubliclife.org

“…If Rep. Ryan thinks a budget that takes food and healthcare away from millions of vulnerable people upholds Catholic values, then he also probably believes Jesus was a Tea Partier who lectured the poor to stop being so lazy and work harder,”….

How Jim Yong Kim Might Change the World Bank | huffingtonpost.com

What his counter-cultural work with Partners in Health in Haiti, Peru, Russia etc. could do to change the World Bank.

A Slave in the Whitehouse | bnreview.barnesandnoble.com

A book review of Taylor’s A Slave in the Whitehouse that highlights President Madison’s “failure to imagine a world more capacious and tolerant than his own helps explain a good deal of subsequent history, and America’s resistance to the very practice of equality that Madison otherwise did so much to foster.” What strikes me most is “the failure to imagine” as a reason for fostering the status quo rather than seeking a kind of kingdom justice.

Nazi Party Gets a Washington Lobbyist | thehill.com

Nothing to say.

For other editions of The Weekly Mash, Click HERE.

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weekly mash | 04.07.2012

Here’s a list of the articles, posts and ideas that have had my interest this week. Enjoy.

news sources being read by state : See the interactive map from FORBES to discover what news sources are the most read per state. You’d be surprised at Tennessee’s top news source, but not at Texas’s!

google art project : I used to take the fact that I’ve been able to travel the world and see famous pieces of art when others haven’t as a kind of badge of honor. The more I notice the presence of inequalities and injustices that make that possible for me and not for others, it makes me happy to see that google has done it again by potentially bringing the masterpieces of the global world to kids trapped in their own neighborhoods. Awesomeness.

BBC news in pictures : I’m always a fan of BBC’s weekly news in pictures, but this week stood out in particular. With a trend of incredibly irrelevant news stories I see, it’s always good to remember what is actually going on around the globe, however biased BBC is likely to be as well. My favorite pic is from the Church of the Sepulcher from Maundy Thursday. I remember walking those floors.

the best new eats around baseball : Needless to say, I would definitely pay over $20 bucks for a two foot long “champion dog” at the Texas Rangers. Shut your face, I’m starving after looking at these! Not to mention, if you’re a foodie, Food Republic should be on your list of web faves anyway.

LSJ|relinquishing power in doing justice : A great post written the folks at Common Ground in Cape Town. We talked in my class just a few weeks ago about the way paternalism sneaks into every effort to do good, and what kind of holy interactions we are missing out on when we ignore it. Here’s a good reminder from my other home in Cape Town.

A few other mentions:

What Kids Should Know about Their Own Brains

Joel Robinson’s Whimsical Joy of Reading Photography

Rachel Held Evans: The Mainline and Me

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weekly mash | 03.31.12

A few of the news articles, essays, and issues I’ve been thinking over this week. Enjoy.

The 2012 Top 100 Non-Profits

I noticed that an organization, Partners in Health, who follows great practice standards and is working hard to prevent and minimize ongoing harm in Haiti done by charity workers, is listed as number 2. It makes me proud of them, and makes the kinds of concepts from “When Helping Hurts” all the more important for all of our non-profits, whether faith-based or not.

The Real Boundaries of the Bible Belt

While it shouldn’t be surprising, it is very interesting that the borders of the Bible Belt that stretch across the southeastern US (and notch over enough to get Utah) have a lot to do with the distribution of education and wealth.

Creativity and the Need for Multiple Outlets

As a child, my parents stopped trying to prevent me from making a mess in my room with paint, clay, markers and …the deadliest, scotch tape. The ended up ripping the carpet up and putting down tile so that ultimately the room could just be hosed down after I was done experimenting. Here’s to letting all surfaces be fair-game for craft time.

Where do your tax dollars go?

Type in your yearly income, and watch the pie chart fill up with what happens to your tax dollars…fascinating!

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