September 2009 Archives

090926-03-02, originally uploaded by sam 3.14.

Via Slashdot:

For my recently departed brother (long illness, don't smoke!), I thought this nice SPARCstation would be a cool place to spend eternity. Yes, he's really in there (after cremation). I kept the floppy drive cover but for space reasons removed the floppy drive, hard drive, and most of the power supply. I left behind the motherboard and power switch and plugs to keep all openings covered. The case worked quite well at his memorial party. His friends and family were able to leave their final good-byes on post-notes. Anyone who wanted to keep their words private could just slip their note into the case through the floppy slot. All notes will be sealed in plastic and placed within the case. There has been one complication. His daughters like the look of it so much they aren't now sure if they want to bury him. One more thing: the words on the plaque really do capture one of the last things he ever said. Of course as kids we watched the show in its first run."

From what I can gather, Ehara Hiroyuki is Japan's John Edward, purporting to have a psychic ability to speak to the dead.

What that has to do with children's toys I don't know, though apparently if you buy tickets to this Christmas season event you can get an official Hiroyuki charm.

Here's a fascinating set of photos documenting Asgarda, a group of women who have formed their own alternate society "based on the the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology."

Jezebel has an excellent roundup of information regarding Asgarda, including this excellent first-person account from the photographer.

We've featured Christian and secular mini-golf on this site, but it truly is an ecumenical phenomenon. Above: the picturesque mini-golf course on the terrace at the Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn. As New York Magazine notes, "golfers start with the first hole (birth), and go through life until you end at the not-exactly-somber tombstone. The hardest hole, the marriage green, is a moving obstacle course of hora dancers."

Spirituality and mini-golf--back when I lived in the South, the two were almost as inextricably linked as church and pig-pickins. One reason so many religious gatherings ended up on the putt-putt course was the simple fact that mini-golf was one of the few indisputably not immoral public forms of entertainment you could find--no worries that parents would object to the youth group going there, and it was also an innocent pastime for the idle hands in the singles group.

Now the ecumenical appeal of mini-golf has become part of an intriguing avant garde art project in Manhattan: Jeffrey Packard's Cafe Thou Art at St. Mark's Church. This micro-mini-golf experience aims for nothing less than the establishment of world peace:

The idea of the café is to create a place where people can meet. In its’ simplest form, the café consists of 2 chairs, a table, the lit neon sign: “Café Thou Art” and refreshments and of course, mini-golf.

The installations are sculptures that assemble time, space, and people. They are constructed in the Public domain to express the openness and expansiveness of hope in humanity. . . .

The main reason that mini-golf is such an important part of the installations is that it is a fun and safe way for people to interact with one another. The other reason is that it is very satisfying to use mixed media to create functional works of art that bring people pleasure.

Our hope is that “Café Thou Art” will actually become the world as a café and establish lasting peace.

Thanks to the invaluable Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for the highlighting Packard's work!

Lubna_Hussein-1ff96, originally uploaded by albertoeisman.

The latest from the Sudan:

A Sudanese court on Monday decided not to lash a woman for wearing trousers in public but convicted her of violating the country’s decency laws and fined her the equivalent of $200.

. . .

Sudan is partly governed by Islamic law, which calls for women to dress modestly. But on Monday, dozens of women — many wearing pants — gathered in front of the courthouse in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, where Mrs. Hussein’s case was being heard, to express their solidarity. Many Sudanese women have said the law is vague and discriminates against women.

. . .

A widow with no children, Mrs. Hussein is a career journalist who recently worked as a public information assistant for the United Nations in Sudan. She quit, she said, because she did not want to get the United Nations embroiled in her case.

“I am Muslim; I understand Muslim law,” Mrs. Hussein said in an interview before the sentencing. “But I ask, what passage in the Koran says women can’t wear pants? This is not nice.”

A glimpse of the new monastery, originally uploaded by Holy Wisdom Monastery.

The Sundance Chanel notes that this new Wisconsin monastery may be "the greenest building in the US."

The <a href="http://benedictinewomen.org">Benedictine Women of Madison</a>'s new home features "Geothermal heating and cooling; solar panels; windows that open and natural lighting in all occupied spaces; rain gardens; roof gardens; tankless water heaters; and a slew of reused furniture including a renovated organ..." The sisters believe their new building has a "high probability" of receiving 63 of 69 LEED points, which would beat out the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center (also in Wisconsin), the current top dog of the US green building scene.

. . . The sisters have a long history of environmentalism, and note that "Reverence for creation is a deeply-held Benedictine value." Since 1996, the order has been involved in prairie restoration efforts around the Madison area, and other conservation and restoration efforts.

As I've noted in other contexts, monastics and religious congregations were social entrepreneurs before the term became trendy.