cheval glass

Microsoft fires back

Tomlin vs. the Laurie Berkner Band

I purchased the New Laurie Berkner CD last week...Sydney and I are huge fans and we used to be Upper West Side neighbors with her in NYC.  The week before we moved, we attended her concert and it was awesome. I was very excited to get the new CD and we went to Walmart (I was going to download it, but Syd likes the packaging.) We get it in the CD player and the van is rocking! It is a terrific album.  Later that day, we are driving around and Sydney says, "I want to hear the 'Sing' song."  I said, " Are you sure?  This is so great!" She said, "The 'Sing' song is my favorite!"  So Chris, you win over the Laurie Berkner Band! "Sing Sing Sing" beats "Rocketship Run"

Do your kids have favorite songs that surprise you?

(This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday. Join us!)

Artists Rasing artists

This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday.

I recently read an interview with Angelina Jolie in the July 08 issue of Vanity Fair where she was asked several questions specifically about how she is raising her kids. I really resonated with this specific response to the statement that actors raise actors.  Here's what she said...“Artists raise their kids differently,” she said. “We communicate to the point where we probably annoy our children. We have art around the house, we have books, we go to plays, we talk. Our focus is art and painting and dress-up and singing. It’s what we love. So I think you can see how artists in some way raise other artists.” I totally agree!  From the time Sydney was born, I have intentionally given her an environment where she can express herself.  We paint, color, read, watch movies and discuss them, go to shows, play dress-up, sing, dance, make music. and have music playing ALL the time.  I started giving Sydney piano lessons this summer and she loves for me to play for her while she sings.  I'm not making her be an artist, it is just a way of life for us.

How do the arts invade your parenting?

CLICK HERE to read the entire interview.

The Smell Report

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I went on a bike ride today with the kids and my friend Rion and her kids to the park and then to the pool.  While riding, the smells of summer just overwhelmed me - fresh cut grass, heated asphault, flowers - all of it just took me back to being 10 and growing up in South Louisiana during the summer.  The emotions I felt, the way I looked at life, the peace of being a kid and having your whole life in front of you... Well, there is research on this.   The Smell Report from the Social issues Research Center tell us this...  "The perception of smell consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves but of the experiences and emotions associated with these sensations. Smells can evoke strong emotional reactions. In surveys on reactions to odours, responses show that many of our olfactory likes and dislikes are based purely on emotional associations."

CLICK HERE to read more....

Picture-holic

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I am admitting it...I have a picture obsession...I take on the average of about 500 pictures a month of various things, mostly my kids...I make my kids stand there and smile in just the right light, with just the right background until I get "THE PERFECT" snapshot of them...no problem, right? Just wait...I can't delete the bad ones.  I feel that I'm erasing a moment of my kids' lives. Is there a pill for this?  I have 2 external drives, 2  image/video hosting online services, and 2 computers housing all this...help? anybody?

What do you see?

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Every morning, I am so blessed to look at this beautiful view for inspiration, creativity, and spiritual renewal WHEN I take a moment and stop and actually look at it!  What do you see?  What is around you that inspires you WHEN you take a moment and actually look at it?

"Saved!" Stage Show

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You may recall the 2004 Movie Saved! starring Many Moore and Jena Malone which was a mockery of the Spiritual movement in our teens today. Having attended a Christian High school, I had to laugh at some of the things that they got so right and then a moment later, I would be sick at my stomach because they mocked something they just didn't understand. It was a little creepy to watch good and bad parts of my actual teenage life being portrayed in a movie. However, the adult me who actually is sold out to being a follower of Jesus wanted to throw something at the TV!  It is now making it's stage premiere at the Playwright Horizons in NYC.   Click here to read the review from the NY Times...let's just say, well, they don't get it either.

My Favorite Dining Experience

Watercooler Wednesday!

This is THE toughest thing for me to answer!  Eating out is actually a hobby...when Todd and I lived in NYC, it became an obession for us to try a new and different place whenever we could.  When we lived in Atlanta, we had our favs and that is where we would go...Capitol Grille and Anthony's were the top of the list and our favorite Chinese was Hong Kong Star in Acworth where we lived.  However, the question is my Favorite Dining Experience...it has to be The Kitchen Club in NYC.  I blogged about it last year so
CLICK HERE to read about it...UNBVELIEVABLE experience!

IAM 2009 Conference

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If you have never attend the IAM Conference, you need to put it on your calendar for 2009.  For me, it was like drinking from a fire hydrant!  The speakers are very thought provoking, the dialogue is very intense, the people you will meet will astound you, and your view of how the church should embrace the arts will be challenged at every level.  You don't want to miss this!

International Arts Movement's 2009 Encounter
"Art in Action"
February 26-28, 2009
Lower Manhattan, New York, NY

The 2009 IAM Encounter will feature philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff, PhD (author of the book Art in Action), Makoto Fujimura (National Council for the Arts member, IAM founder), and other artists and creative catalysts, as well as workshops, festival performances, and more. 

It's never too early to make your travel plans!  Registration will open November 1, 2008.

International Arts Movement's Fall Fundraising Weekend
"IAM: Docent to the Arts"
October 23-25, 2008
New York, NY

Join a small gathering of friends to experience the best of vibrant cultural life in New York City through the IAM lens of inspiring, engaging, and creating the world that ought to be.

For more information, contact christy@iamny.org


www.internationalartsmovement.org

J.K. Rowling's Creative Dilemma

Do you think J.K. Rowling has gone too far or has she just been too nice?   

 

J.K. Rowling said Monday that her efforts to halt a publisher's "Harry Potter" lexicon have been crushing her creativity.  Rowling said she has stopped work on a new novel because the lawsuit in federal court has "decimated my creative work over the last month." Rowling is suing RDR Books to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon." She says her copyrights are being violated.  "This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work," she testified Monday.  In court papers, Vander Ark, 50, said he was a teacher and school librarian in Byron Center, Mich., before recently moving to London to begin a career as a writer.  He said he joined an adult online discussion group devoted to the "Harry Potter" books in 1999 before launching his own Web site as a hobby a year later. Since then, neither Rowling nor her publisher had ever complained about anything on it, he said. In May 2004, he said, Rowling mentioned his Web site on her own, writing, "This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an Internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A Web site for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home."

CLICK HERE to read more

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