Yes, it’s in Spanish. No, you don’t need to know much Spanish to enjoy this brief (7 minute) tour of the history of music. The work of Pablo Morales de los Rios, the video is a catch-your-breath whirlwind tour from the ancient Greeks to modern day punk and heavy metal rock, with significant stops along the way in the baroque, classical and romantic periods. What’s incredible is how much information the artist can convey via these drawings and the background music in such a short time. And, of course, it got me thinking: when are we doing to try to teach the Bible and the faith this way. Not just via animation – Spark House’s Reform...

Beauty, the say, is in the eye of the beholder. But while this is often used to capture our perplexity when someone else falls in love with someone or something we don’t similarly appreciate, it might also work in reverse. That is, we might have occasion to wonder why so many people have a hard time imagining they are beautiful. Last year I posted Dove’s expose on what it takes to make the women in ads appear so strikingly – and as it turns out, unrealistically – beautiful. This spring they have followed up with another ad about the challenges women have in seeing themselves as beautiful. The concept and outcome are both creative and...

Okay, so this has next to nothing to do with “where faith meets life.” But I still thought it was really cool and, well, it’s Friday, so why not? I grew up playing soccer so am a huge fan of Ronaldinho’s nearly inconceivable skills as a player. He is one of the finest to have ever graced the pitch. And, I have to admit that ever since I first saw a flip work as a kid – a kid totally used to TV – I’ve been kind of amazed by them. Not to mention that I’m in utter awe of the amount of time and care it must taken the artist who goes by the name Etoilec to put these flip books together. So…incredibly human artistry on the...

Best known, perhaps, as the cohost of PBS’s long-running Sneak Previews (later changed to Siskel and Ebert and the Movies), Roger Ebert was many things. The first Pulitzer Prize winning film critic, he was also a profound commentator on culture and politics, an incredibly astute observer of human nature and, ultimately, a candid memoirist and cataloguer of the human spirit. His very well written autobiography, Life Itself, began with this wonderful metaphor drawn from his lifelong love affair with film: I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not...

Though released in 1984, Leonard Cohen’s beautiful “Hallelujah” didn’t catch on until it was covered by John Cale a few years later. Since then, more than 200 different artists have covered it, including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, k.d. lang, and Bono. Having “laid our alleluias to rest” during Lent, now seems the perfect time to hear one more cover of Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” this time from street musician Petr Spatina, playing the piece on crystal glasses. Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video. 2) Thanks to Diane for sending this my...