Bourbon Barrels in a Plantation Home
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Barrels of the Vann House basement.
While researching the Chief Vann House in Chatsworth, Georgia, we happened upon these vivid images of bourbon barrels in the basement of the historic Cherokee plantation home. A hearty thanks to photographer John A. Lees, who was kind enough to permit us to use his photos in a slideshow for our recent show “Toward Living Memory” with Tiya Miles.
The barrels read “Sour Mash Bourbon Whisky 1787” vintage even at the turn of the 18th century.
Amusements at the Vann House.
OK. It’s Friday and I’m not even a dog lover, but this suave pooch exposes this dog liker’s weaknesses. Perhaps he could offer a few fashion pointers to this urban cowboy?
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
(via imgfave)
Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Istanbul
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Turkey is most definitely on our brains. As it turns out, we’ll be making a production trip in June (yay!) and so the extensive planning begins. What to do, what to do! No sooner did we find out than our old friend and former guest Omid Safi posted this magnificent photograph on his Facebook page along with this waxing caption:
“Inside sacred sites like this, I know it’s true that ‘God is beautiful, and loves beauty.’ The imaginative Muslim architects who designed it emulated Christian Byzantine masters, and strived to create a space that would stand free from columns. The “opening” that was created inside, the Christians and the Muslims agreed together, was to be filled by the very presence of God. By God, they succeeded.”
If you have suggestions on stories we might cover that fit our mission or voices that you think we ought to expose to a North American audience, please offer your suggestions in the comments section. Enjoy the view!
![Thank goodness for Reuters:
A white rose is placed on barbed wire at the museum of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau marking the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops and to remember the victims of the Holocaust, in Auschwitz Birkenau January 27, 2012. [REUTERS/Kacper Pempel]
~reblogged by Trent Gilliss, senior editor](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lygrl17NKA1qmaoalo1_1280.jpg)
Thank goodness for Reuters:
A white rose is placed on barbed wire at the museum of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau marking the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops and to remember the victims of the Holocaust, in Auschwitz Birkenau January 27, 2012. [REUTERS/Kacper Pempel]
~reblogged by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Q:I've got my black socks. I've got my sandles. I've got my stretchy pants pulled half way up my chest, and I don't care what anyone thinks. Aww, man. This is heaven, it really is. What do you think?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous—
This, is heavenly.
This, is not.
This, is heavenly.
This, is not.
This, is heavenly.
This, is not.
This, is heavenly.
This, is not.
And these, well, it depends on your seasonal desires…
…and if you’re a cat lover.
Thanks for indulging me,
Trent Gilliss, senior editor
The Echoing Silence of Your Mind
by Hudson Gardner, guest contributor
Separating oneself from the natural, real world is like uprooting a plant,
putting it in sandy soil,
watering it only to keep it alive:
you may find yourself growing,
and living,
and acting,
but there will always be something beyond,
another sort of subtleness,
Jeff Harris: 4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
The trajectory of this man’s story and the scenes shared will leave you simultaneously inspired and devastated. What a life!
(h/t Kate Moos + The Rumpus)
The Three Christmases of the Holy Land
by Taline Voskeritchian, guest contributor
Iraqi Christian girls attend Christmas Mass at Chaldean Catholic Church in Amman, Jordan on December 25, 2011. (photo: Ali Jarekji/Reuters)
In the lands between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, the first of three Christmas celebrations was on December 24, the Christmas of the English, or so we thought of it then in the years of my adolescence. My family — ethnic Armenians, Christians by subscription more than piety — had settled in Jordan, a largely Muslim country, where I grew into adulthood, pulled this way and that by the three Christmases of the Holy Land. Of course it was a misnomer to call it the Christmas of the English because December 24 was celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Arabs as well.
In those days, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Middle East was a very different place from what it has become of late. Unlike the Christians of Iraq today, we had little fear, did not hide our religious affiliation but did not brag about it either. In the Holy Land of those times, celebrations of Christmas were for us and Muslims, at least at our post-colonial school which had been run for many years by English missionaries; it had a mixed student body of Christians and Muslims.
For me, the home of the English Christmas was the Ahliyyah School for Girls, which I attended after third grade and all the way to the end. The Ahliyyah, which is still a thriving school, was the successor to the Christian Missionary School, whose British headmistress was whisked away in the wake of the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis. The school’s name was changed, as well as the board. The Christmas celebrations persisted.
Convent in Cuzco
by Molly Fessler, guest contributor
Rumi wrote, “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
Several years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Latin America, and I took this picture in Cuzco, Peru, where in the courtyard of an old convent, a flower blooms. Walking through the gardens, watching the sun fall through the abbey — joy.
Molly Fessler is a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College, studying sociology and peace studies.
Illuminating Maine’s Deep Winter with Light Sculptures
by Nancy Rosenbaum, producer
“Castle in the Park” at Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
The holidays are over and there’s no getting around the fact that it’s January and bitter cold in the Upper Midwest. The days, while inching longer into light, are still short. Now is the time of deep winter, when a touch of light goes a long way.
Last week, as I caught a glimpse of holiday lights being dismantled from an indoor public tree display, I thought, “Already? It’s not even New Year’s. Now’s the time when we need the light the most.”
The good people of Portland, Maine understand this need in their watery bones. From Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, the city is bedecked in glorious light sculptures designed by local artist Pandora LaCasse. For over a decade, Ms. LaCasse has been transforming public parks and buildings into canvases for her light art.
“Along the Pond” at Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
Ms. LaCasse, a native of Maine, says that place matters in her work and that the state’s landscape inspires her creativity. As she told one interviewer, “I’m always trying to get the essence of a place. I think people like the lights because it’s the middle of winter and they respond to the color and light. And it’s accessible.”
Tommy’s Park in Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
“The Candelabra” at Deering Oaks Park, Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
“Cascading Spheres” adorn the face of the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
Ms. LaCasse’s color-drenched creations feature abstract shapes found in nature, like teardrops and orbs. They’re not the stuff of Santa, candy canes, and the nativity. I once lived in Maine and now make my home in Saint Paul, Minnesota where my neighbors festoon their homes with holiday lights. As much as I admire these wintry displays, I do so as a non-Christian outsider, who’s observing them from afar. Pandora’s lights were different. I could love them without feeling excluded. They were a balm for my soul in deep winter and I miss them.
Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine. (photo: David LaCasse)
Little Diamond Island. (photo: David LaCasse)
