Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Some Of My Wall Art
It's been a while since I posted anything about my art or my photos, so how about photos of my art? They aren't really all that great. But I had fun making them.
This one I made with my dad:
This one was a tribute to my old rust bucket, ye olde Chevy Nova. It consists of a hubcap and random things I found at work over the course of several years. I also rigged it with lights so you can plug it in like a lamp:
This one is made up of three broken skateboards with graffiti on them:
This one I had trouble photographing, but with the two pictures you can get an idea of what it looks like in low and bright lighting. I also used sections of this oil painting for two of my (music) album covers:
This one I made with my dad:
This one was a tribute to my old rust bucket, ye olde Chevy Nova. It consists of a hubcap and random things I found at work over the course of several years. I also rigged it with lights so you can plug it in like a lamp:
This one is made up of three broken skateboards with graffiti on them:
This one I had trouble photographing, but with the two pictures you can get an idea of what it looks like in low and bright lighting. I also used sections of this oil painting for two of my (music) album covers:
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Matthew Dean Shaffer #12
There is a heart shaped grease stain on the floor of my kitchen. I don't have the "heart" to clean it up. Ha haaaa.... (Jeff Goldblum laugh style).
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Matthew Dean Shaffer #11
"We'd be making a lot more progress if Timmy Torture over here wasn't trying to kill me every two seconds!"
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Matthew Dean Shaffer #10
"I'm sure I do... but only because Dr. Fumbles McStupid over here was in way over his head!"
Saturday, February 4, 2012
‘God Drenched’: Paul Simon May Be ‘Not…Religious’ — But Believers Sure Love His Latest Album
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 6:37am by 
Dave Urbanski
Listen again to the storied lyrics of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Sounds of Silence”—assuming those tunes aren’t already hardwired in your brain—and you might find yourself agreeing that legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon doesn’t mind infusing his music with spiritual themes from time to time.
But for the Jewish-raised troubadour to spend his most recent album, the critically acclaimed So Beautiful or So What, singing about Jesus, angels, the afterlife, and other elements close to the heart of Christianity?
Well, that‘s a narrative turn even Simon didn’t expect.
“It’s funny,” Simon, 70, reflected in a recent PBS interview, “for somebody who’s not a religious person, God comes up a lot in my songs.”
You can watch the entire interview below:
Simon’s most recent project took 6th place in Christianity Today‘s top albums of 2011. CT’s review of So Beautiful or So What, which garnered five out of five stars, noted that Simon is “clearly content with life’s perplexities, humble in the face of what is bigger than himself.”
Spiritual things are “part of my thoughts on a fairly regular basis. I think of it more as spiritual feeling,” Simon told Kim Lawton, who interviewed him for the PBS segment and penned a follow-up piece for CT. “It’s something I recognize in myself and that I enjoy, and I don’t quite understand it.”
You don’t get that impression digging into the spiritually aware lyrics of So Beautiful or So What. One of its best examples is “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” the catchy, vibrant opener for which Simon samples audio of a 1941 sermon (with the same title) by the Rev. J.M. Gates.
The result is a kind of bittersweet advent prayer—a mix of life’s ups and downs, with Simon’s protagonist looking toward “the power and the glory and the story of the Christmas Day”:
In the behind-the-scenes video (below), Simon appears a bit in awe of how Gates’ sermon just seemed “meant” for his music and lyrics:
“The Afterlife”—a whimsical tune with insightful perspectives on eternity—features a striking lyric offering that a face-to-face meeting with God should obliterate any earthly burdens we bear:
Others haven’t waited for the fabled bard to figure it all out.
Cathleen Falsani, an acclaimed Christian cultural and arts critic, calls So Beautiful or So What “one of the most beautiful, gracefully powerful and memorable collections of spiritual musical musings in recent memory.” She adds a declaration from fellow believer and critic, Northern Ireland’s Steve Stockman, that Simon’s latest effort is “so God drenched that it could win best Christian album of the year.”
It came close, but that would seem a trivial concern to Simon, who clearly gets more out of enjoying this strange turn in his spiritual journey…wherever it takes him.
“Quite often, people read or hear things in my songs that I think are more true than what I wrote,” he told Lawton. “I feel I’m like a vessel, and it passed through me, and I’m glad.”
Dave UrbanskiListen again to the storied lyrics of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Sounds of Silence”—assuming those tunes aren’t already hardwired in your brain—and you might find yourself agreeing that legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon doesn’t mind infusing his music with spiritual themes from time to time.
But for the Jewish-raised troubadour to spend his most recent album, the critically acclaimed So Beautiful or So What, singing about Jesus, angels, the afterlife, and other elements close to the heart of Christianity?
Well, that‘s a narrative turn even Simon didn’t expect.
“It’s funny,” Simon, 70, reflected in a recent PBS interview, “for somebody who’s not a religious person, God comes up a lot in my songs.”
You can watch the entire interview below:
Watch Paul Simon on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Simon’s most recent project took 6th place in Christianity Today‘s top albums of 2011. CT’s review of So Beautiful or So What, which garnered five out of five stars, noted that Simon is “clearly content with life’s perplexities, humble in the face of what is bigger than himself.”
Spiritual things are “part of my thoughts on a fairly regular basis. I think of it more as spiritual feeling,” Simon told Kim Lawton, who interviewed him for the PBS segment and penned a follow-up piece for CT. “It’s something I recognize in myself and that I enjoy, and I don’t quite understand it.”
You don’t get that impression digging into the spiritually aware lyrics of So Beautiful or So What. One of its best examples is “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” the catchy, vibrant opener for which Simon samples audio of a 1941 sermon (with the same title) by the Rev. J.M. Gates.The result is a kind of bittersweet advent prayer—a mix of life’s ups and downs, with Simon’s protagonist looking toward “the power and the glory and the story of the Christmas Day”:
From early in November to the last week of DecemberYou can check out the song’s music video below:
I got money matters weighing me down
Oh the music may be merry, but it’s only temporary
I know Santa Claus is coming to town
In the days I work my day job, in the nights I work my night
But it all comes down to working man’s pay
Getting ready, I’m getting ready, ready for Christmas Day
(Reverend Gates) Getting ready for Christmas Day. And let me tell you, namely, the undertaker, he’s getting ready for your body. Not only that, the jailer he’s getting ready for you. Christmas Day. Hmm? And not only the jailer, but the lawyer, the police force. Now getting ready for Christmas Day, and I want you to bear it in mind.
In the behind-the-scenes video (below), Simon appears a bit in awe of how Gates’ sermon just seemed “meant” for his music and lyrics:
“The Afterlife”—a whimsical tune with insightful perspectives on eternity—features a striking lyric offering that a face-to-face meeting with God should obliterate any earthly burdens we bear:
After you climb up the ladder of timeAnd check out the opening salvo of “Love and Hard Times”:
The Lord God is near
Face-to-face in the vastness of space
Your words disappear
And you feel like you’re swimming in an ocean of love
And the current is strong
God and His only SonBased on such a collection of (dare we say) biblically rich lyrics, one can‘t help wondering what’s been going on in Simon’s soul of late, whether he understands those goings on or not.
Paid a courtesy call on Earth
One Sunday morning
Orange blossoms opened their fragrant lips
Songbirds sang from the tips of Cottonwoods
Old folks wept for His love in these hard times
Others haven’t waited for the fabled bard to figure it all out.
Cathleen Falsani, an acclaimed Christian cultural and arts critic, calls So Beautiful or So What “one of the most beautiful, gracefully powerful and memorable collections of spiritual musical musings in recent memory.” She adds a declaration from fellow believer and critic, Northern Ireland’s Steve Stockman, that Simon’s latest effort is “so God drenched that it could win best Christian album of the year.”
It came close, but that would seem a trivial concern to Simon, who clearly gets more out of enjoying this strange turn in his spiritual journey…wherever it takes him.
“Quite often, people read or hear things in my songs that I think are more true than what I wrote,” he told Lawton. “I feel I’m like a vessel, and it passed through me, and I’m glad.”
Spooky: New Photos Peer Inside an Abandoned Island Leper Colony Near NYC
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 10:37pm by 
Buck Sexton
Debris, decay, and the unmerciful growth of nature define this abandoned island for banished people. North Brother Island was once the last refuge of society’s castaways, and though it has been left to rot for 50 years, new photographs have breathed life into this eerie facility.
Photographer and historian Ian Ference received special access to the site, and his photos have appeared in The Daily Mail. What you will see below is a haunting photographic collage that reminds us all of a long-forgotten place.
A former quarantine zone, leper colony and centre for drug addicts, these spooky buildings were once home to hundreds of patients.
But the Daily Mail has highlighted its insidious reputation, stating that it was once “a place of indescribable misery, which one inmate compared to the notorious black hole of Calcutta.”
While very few New Yorkers even know about this abandoned facility, it is only 350 yards from highly populated areas of the Bronx. North Brother Island was used as a quarantine centre for the first time back in 1885.
Soon after is opening, it was home to a few lepers, but its most infamous resident was an Irish immigrant who came to be known as ‘Typhoid Mary.”
After years moving from family to family as a cook, spreading the typhoid infection wherever she went despite showing no symptoms herself, police forcibly relocated Mary to North Brother Island.
She spent years confined to wandering her wooded prison island.
North Brother Island also had a front row-seat to the 1904 fire onboard the passenger ship, General Slocum. The steam ship, which was carrying a Lutheran Church outing on Manhattan’s East River, caught fire. Of the 1342 people on board, 1,021 were killed in the disaster, and most of the dead were women and children.
Offiicially Closed in 1963, North Brother Island has become something of an urban legend to those who knows about it. Protected species of birds are its only year-round inhabitants and armed authorities patrol the waters to ensure the former quarantine zone is never violated.
Photographer Ian Ference told the Daily Mail: “This has got to be one of America’s most important places to visit,’ he said. ‘Historically it has had a notorious and sometimes sinister reputation.”
Ference added that ‘It was established as a forced quarantine camp for people suffering from infectious and often fatal diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever and typhus. There were six people suffering from leprosy confined here in wooden huts.”
During this time in New York’s history, there was widespread fear that unclean immigrants from European countries like Ireland and Italy were forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions that allowed dangerous disease to spread like wildfire.
‘Health authorities had a mandate from the people to track down and detain those infected with certain diseases. Unless they happened to be wealthy enough to afford a private clinic, these poor souls would be sent to quarantine areas. And among the most notorious quarantines was North Broth Island.
Conditions on the island, even for the time, were considered deplorable. The mortality rate for patients there was high, and it appeared in many cases to be more of a place one was sent to rot and die than recover and re-enter society.
According to Ference:
Ference also described harsh living conditions on the island:
Today, only a handful of ornithologists are allowed to visit the island to document its colony of black-crowned night herons. City patrol officers keep watch on the island, though some intrepid bloggers have described their illegal trips to this abandoned place for those society had forgotten.
There are even more of these stunning, yet haunting, Ian Ference photos here, and additional historical descriptions of the island, courtesy of The Daily Mail.
Buck SextonDebris, decay, and the unmerciful growth of nature define this abandoned island for banished people. North Brother Island was once the last refuge of society’s castaways, and though it has been left to rot for 50 years, new photographs have breathed life into this eerie facility.
Photographer and historian Ian Ference received special access to the site, and his photos have appeared in The Daily Mail. What you will see below is a haunting photographic collage that reminds us all of a long-forgotten place.
A former quarantine zone, leper colony and centre for drug addicts, these spooky buildings were once home to hundreds of patients.
But the Daily Mail has highlighted its insidious reputation, stating that it was once “a place of indescribable misery, which one inmate compared to the notorious black hole of Calcutta.”
While very few New Yorkers even know about this abandoned facility, it is only 350 yards from highly populated areas of the Bronx. North Brother Island was used as a quarantine centre for the first time back in 1885.
Soon after is opening, it was home to a few lepers, but its most infamous resident was an Irish immigrant who came to be known as ‘Typhoid Mary.”
After years moving from family to family as a cook, spreading the typhoid infection wherever she went despite showing no symptoms herself, police forcibly relocated Mary to North Brother Island.
She spent years confined to wandering her wooded prison island.
North Brother Island also had a front row-seat to the 1904 fire onboard the passenger ship, General Slocum. The steam ship, which was carrying a Lutheran Church outing on Manhattan’s East River, caught fire. Of the 1342 people on board, 1,021 were killed in the disaster, and most of the dead were women and children.
Offiicially Closed in 1963, North Brother Island has become something of an urban legend to those who knows about it. Protected species of birds are its only year-round inhabitants and armed authorities patrol the waters to ensure the former quarantine zone is never violated.
Photographer Ian Ference told the Daily Mail: “This has got to be one of America’s most important places to visit,’ he said. ‘Historically it has had a notorious and sometimes sinister reputation.”
Ference added that ‘It was established as a forced quarantine camp for people suffering from infectious and often fatal diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever and typhus. There were six people suffering from leprosy confined here in wooden huts.”
During this time in New York’s history, there was widespread fear that unclean immigrants from European countries like Ireland and Italy were forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions that allowed dangerous disease to spread like wildfire.
‘Health authorities had a mandate from the people to track down and detain those infected with certain diseases. Unless they happened to be wealthy enough to afford a private clinic, these poor souls would be sent to quarantine areas. And among the most notorious quarantines was North Broth Island.
Conditions on the island, even for the time, were considered deplorable. The mortality rate for patients there was high, and it appeared in many cases to be more of a place one was sent to rot and die than recover and re-enter society.
According to Ference:
”Its first inhabitants were those unfortunate patients with communicable diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and diphtheria, who were forcibly removed from the city’s teeming streets. Living conditions were primitive, a hotch-potch of pavilions, tents and cottages flung up around the central Riverside Hospital.”
Ference also described harsh living conditions on the island:
“When bad weather stopped ferries from running there were food shortages and in winter, frequently little heat. Incarceration on North Brother was often a death sentence. Those who did return from its shores spoke of a hellish environment like ‘the black hole of Calcutta.”Unlike modern New York, with ubiquitous cellular phones, internet, and even live video chat, back in the heyday of North Brother, those sent to the island were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Many patients were never seen or heard from by their families ever again.
Today, only a handful of ornithologists are allowed to visit the island to document its colony of black-crowned night herons. City patrol officers keep watch on the island, though some intrepid bloggers have described their illegal trips to this abandoned place for those society had forgotten.
There are even more of these stunning, yet haunting, Ian Ference photos here, and additional historical descriptions of the island, courtesy of The Daily Mail.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)