Call to the Brain Trust: New ‘Mormon Moment’ as Jimmer enshrined in Lil Wayne lyric

July 15, 2011 By

Forget running for president or having a show on Broadway–Mormonism’s next big moment is here: BYU athlete Jimmer Fredette has been featured in Lil Wayne’s newest song in the following lyric:

“I got a chopper in the trimmer, shootin’ like Jimmer.”

This website helpfully translates:

Lil Wayne is describing his “chopper” — which is a gun for those that aren’t fluent in hip-hop — by saying it shoots like Jimmer

I think we should do our part to foster more positive press and public awareness of Mormons by encouraging more Mormon-theme lyrics to be included in popular songs. Jimmer has the advantage of being easy to rhyme, but I think we could come up with many other helpful 1- or 2-line suggestions for vocal artists to adopt.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Media, Mormon, Music, Pop Culture, Society & Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Our Week in the Media: Small Stuff and Big Stuff

June 11, 2011 By

Talk about overexposure: Newsweek and BusinessWeek in the same week! Prevailing wisdom in media circles is that once the newsweeklies have picked up a trend, it has reached it apex—so I guess the church’s slide back into obscurity starts now. (Don’t worry, Russell!)

What’s striking to me has been the reaction to the different stories. From what I’ve seen in my own social circles on Facebook and elsewhere, we’re supposed to be mad at Newsweek and thrilled about the BusinessWeek article.

But that’s exactly backwards.

The reasons for the ire against Newsweek seem to revolve around the cover and a few snippets of text within the article. Let me briefly debunk two of the phrases I’ve noticed Mormons getting hung up on:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Events, Media, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation, Pop Culture, Society & Culture Tagged With: , , , , ,

Scriptural Band Names

June 8, 2011 By

A member of my Elders Quorum started a band, and a few weeks ago he used our EQ email list to request the help in voting on a name for the band. We were given a handful of options, and voted according to our preferences. However, during the email conversation, the idea of Scriptural Band names was tossed around, with several excellent examples being suggested by one participant (e.g., “The Reformed Egyptians,” or “King Men Revisited”). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Media, Music, Polls

BCC Zeitcast 71: Two Brothers, One MPAA Rating System

May 31, 2011 By

Scott B. hosts the second of a two-part debate between BCC perma John C. and his older brother Robert. In Part 1, John and Rob debated the role of the U.S. Constitution in Mormon thought. In part 2, the brothers turn their attention to the steps of repentance for viewing a movie that has been rated R by the MPAA. John takes the position that statements regarding R-ratings are obsolete, and that the Church has intentionally moved away from such statements, emphasizing the need to use wisdom and discernment in media consumption, but that movie ratings are not good indicators of appropriateness. Rob takes the position that past statements from Church leaders regarding R-ratings are still valid, and that choices in movie selection should be based on a commitment to follow the prophet, rather than a quota for cuss words or visible body parts.


Links for your convenience: [Read more...]

Filed Under: BCC Papers, Features, Film & Television, Media Tagged With: ,

Rosalynde Defines Mormon Art

May 19, 2011 By

Rosalynde Welch, with her characteristic intelligence, has laid down a concise, cogent, and challenging explanation of why American Mormon authors tend to congregate in “genre” categories, like science-fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, or some combination thereof, rather than pursue “serious literary fiction”: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books & Journals, Mormon, Society & Culture

Your Sunday Brunch (Before-After Church) Special (#4). Utah Artist James T. Harwood, 3: Painting, Marriage and Marriage.

May 15, 2011 By

So far (see parts 1, and 2) I’ve told some of the story of James T. Harwood’s parents and in particular his father, who played a rather large role in the way James T. saw the world, and particularly Mormonism both as institution and proximate realization.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Mormon Tagged With: , ,

BCC Zeitcast 69: Steve Evans

May 13, 2011 By

In this episode, Scott B. is joined in the virtual studio by Steve Evans and fMhLisa, two of one of the Bloggernacle’s most seasoned blog administrators, for a discussion of what it’s like to be a big bad blog boss. Other topics include recent legal developments in Florida, the origins and evolution of BCC and Feminist Mormon Housewives, and some favorite bannination stories.

Useful Links:
[Read more...]

Filed Under: BCC Zeitcast, Features, Media, Mormon Tagged With:

Couple Things

May 11, 2011 By

Last night, my wife and I crossed a devastating threshold–a veritable point of no return. Around 10:25pm, she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed, and I objected and suggested we watch the next episode of the TV show we’ve been watching lately. An argument ensued, and I did something that I’m ashamed of–because I promised myself I would never do this–but which nevertheless cannot be undone.

If you’re thinking, “He went to bed without resolving the argument,” then you’re correct–but what we’re talking about here is much, much worse. In fact, it’s so terrible that I hesitate to post this publicly, and understand if you don’t want to read further. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marriage, Media, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation

Faith and Inspiration

May 8, 2011 By

I have taught some unimaginably good writers—though I’ll probably have to revise that modifier (“unimaginably”) at the end of this essay. I have taught poets who had far greater gifts than I, essayists who invited me into new paradigms or experiences, and fiction writers who took me on unanticipated journeys.

This past semester, I taught a young man who I also knew as a missionary. He was in the MTC branch my husband and I served in two years ago. He went to Africa, and I wrote to him (and to several others) while he served.

Though my letters to the other missionaries were primarily faith-building, my letters to him were often pure fiction. He knew that every fictional claim I made required him to match or beat it—and it made p-day extra fun for him. (That was my intent, of course). We had an ongoing story about his chimpanzee companion, Mr. Stompsalot, and I reported on the missionary project which was abandoned in 1973. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Media, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation

Religious Art: The Hand of God

May 8, 2011 By

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), ‘The Hand of God’, marble, 1898. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Media

The One and Only Myth

May 5, 2011 By

In the early 1840s Joseph Smith proposed to Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner. Elizabeth recorded “Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in hell should never get me from him.”  Joseph further told her, “I was created for him
before the foundation of the Earth was laid.” (Todd Compton. In Sacred Loneliness pg 212 italics added) This may have been the
early beginnings of a pre-existence forming in Joseph Smith cosmology. His words were similar to some of his other wives. For instance in 1841 Joseph made it known to Zina Diantha Jacobs (Huntington Young) that the Lord, “had made it known to him that Zina was to be his wife.” (Ibid. pg 80 italics added)

Perhaps these and other 19th century marriages helped plant the idea in the Mormon psyche that people met and fell
in love in heaven, promising to marry once on earth, foreordained if you will.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Marriage, Media, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation Tagged With: ,

O that I were an angel!

May 4, 2011 By

OR IS IT ANGELUS??

OR IS IT ANGELUS??

Indeed.

I was thinking today about Alma’s little wish:

O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
Alma 29:1

We all know that Alma self-smacked himself down soon after writing this, but let’s say, for argument’s sake, that he (or, you) got this wish. Then what? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Media, Missionary, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation Tagged With:

Duck Beach: A Contradiction?

May 4, 2011 By

This guest post comes from Stephen Frandsen, who is a co-founder and executive producer of Big Iron Productions. In addition to working on film sets in New York City, he produces photo shots, commercials, documentaries, and the like. While he is currently a “29 Year-Old Single Mormon,” he is engaged to be married this fall.

I saw a headline on Gawker the other day that made me look twice: “Mormons Conquer New York.” I’ve been in New York for six years, and this was maybe the first time I saw Mormons and New York linked together positively in the media. Of course, the headline was referring to yesterday’s news that The Book of Mormon Musical received 14 Tony nominations.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Film & Television, Guest Post, Media, Society & Culture Tagged With: ,

The Seeker: KJ Bible finds new life in Mormon Church

May 2, 2011 By

Beginning in 1604, 54 scholars labored for seven years under the sponsorship of King James I to produce a new translation of the Bible. While the influence of that text over the past 400 years is unquestioned, what is the place of that venerable old version in the actual life of the church today? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Anciently Revealed, Books & Journals, Scriptures Tagged With: , , ,

Faux Books (what books do you imagine you are reading?)

April 30, 2011 By

Ok, it’s been rainy and snowy when I can’t go outside and play I turn to the world of my imaginary friends. Since some of my best friends are books, I turn to imaginary books. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books & Journals, Mormon

Leave Them Sister-Wives Alone!

April 28, 2011 By

Now that Big Love is over with, I’ve started watching Sister-Wives on The Learning Channel. This is a show about a polygamous family: One husband, four wives, 16 kids. It’s actually very interesting and I’ve been enjoying the show. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Film & Television, Marriage, Media, Politics, Pop Culture, Society & Culture Tagged With:

Come Ye Poets of the Bloggernacle!

April 26, 2011 By

[Note: Due to the unforeseen martyrdom of Jon McNaughton's art sales in the BYU Bookstore at the hands of Teh Godless Libruls, we feel the need to eugooglize this fine art, and thus we have resurrected this thread. Haiku only, please.]

Originally posted on September 29, 2009

Art inspires art.  This art, found on the sidebar, inspired me.

I choose to respond in haiku.  You may respond as well, but we will only accept comments in haiku.  (5-7-5 for those of you who don’t remember high school English….)  Here are some thoughts to get you started: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Media, Mormon, Politics Tagged With: , ,

Music for Easter Morning

April 23, 2011 By

First, Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs Since I was a little girl, Easter has arrived for me with the opening Rise, Heart (skip to 25 seconds in to avoid annoying announcer). The rest of the five are here. If I ever understand atonement, it will be because of “Love Bade Me Welcome.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, Media, Music Tagged With:

The Illuminated Matsby, Vol. 13

April 13, 2011 By

New picture of the Rome Temple just released…

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Film & Television, Media, Mormon, Pop Culture Tagged With: , ,

Theft at Church

April 10, 2011 By

I stole today…during church…in the church building…in front of the young men I was about to teach a lesson to.

Our stake is collecting donations for a rummage sale/street fair that we do every year, and the donated stuff is sitting in the room where the young men meet for priesthood meeting.

Sitting right on top of the pile this morning was D. Michael Quinn’s Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. I figured it was an odd choice for a donation, and an even odder thing for our stake to sell for 50 cents to some guy munching on a funnel cake.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books & Journals, Features, You Make the Call, Young Men Tagged With: , , ,

David Holland’s Sacred Borders

April 6, 2011 By

Review of David F. Holland, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 275pp. + index

Sacred Borders represents a rigorous and compelling consideration of traditions about the state of the biblical canon in American religion. For bookish Latter-day Saints, this volume will provide much-needed context for early Mormon beliefs about their open canon as well as a subtle and sympathetic view of both sides of the debate over the closed canon. While the style is highly accessible, given the complexity of the subject matter a reader may benefit from having digested a book like Brooks Holifield’s Theology in America (Yale 2005) or perhaps the survey by Jon Butler, Grant Wacker, and Randall Balmer, Religion in American Life (Oxford 2003). Many of Holland’s arguments will make more sense when the reader recognizes some of the actors, concepts, and traditions involved. Even so, I believe that Sacred Borders will be useful even to non-specialist audiences. I apologize that this review is as long as it is: the length of the review reflects the extensive insights of the book as well as the scope of the topic it treats. For expository clarity, I have divided the review into three sections. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books & Journals, Comparative/Ecumenical, Media, Mormon, Religion

Review: The Mormon Menace

March 24, 2011 By

Patrick Q. Mason, The Mormon Menace (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). 264 pages; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4. Hardcover: $29.95. ISBN13: 978-0-19-974002-4

Patrick Mason, of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote a dissertation in which he examined violence against religious minorities and outsiders in the post-bellum American South. This book builds upon that research, and while limiting itself to Mormonism, it also expands the narrative to include the legal, theological, and cultural objections to Mormonism in the Old Confederacy in the generation following the Civil War and Reconstruction.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books & Journals, Mormon

Religious Art: Sunflower Seeds

March 20, 2011 By

Ai WeiWei (1957-present). ‘Sunflower Seeds’, porcelain, 2010.

The Unilever Series is an ongoing commission that is displayed in the Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern.  The most recent addition to this series is Ai WeiWei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’.  Each of the 100million porcelain seeds has been produced through traditional methods in a Chinese town famous for their porcelain.  This is a staggering effort, and one which has saved a town from financial ruin.  Ai WeiWei’s Sunflower Seeds are situated clearly within the conceptual art tradition and invoke a number of themes: mass-production, individualism, what does it mean to be ‘made in China?’,and, perhaps, most significantly, the lives of those who lived through the Cultural Revolution in China. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Media

BCC Zeitcast 67: Jonna

March 14, 2011 By

In this episode, Scott B. is joined in the virtual studio by Jonna, a pop music singer in Finland and a convert to the LDS Church. Topics include Jonna’s musical career and current projects, her conversion to the Restored Gospel, and its impact on her personal and professional life.


[Read more...]

Filed Under: BCC Zeitcast, Features, Media, Mormon, Music, Pop Culture Tagged With: , ,

BCC Zeitcast 66: Movies & Mormons

March 10, 2011 By

In this episode, Scott B. is joined in the virtual studio by Robert Moncrief, a young LDS film maker in Southern California. Among other topics, they discuss Robert’s current film projects, his experiences as an LDS film student in California during Prop 8, the current state of LDS cinema, and the Mormon cultural aversion to R-rated movies. Also, they talk about the scourge to humanity that is George Lucas.

Links For Your Convenience:
[Read more...]

Filed Under: BCC Zeitcast, Features, Film & Television, Media, Pop Culture Tagged With: , ,

The Illuminated Matsby, Vol. 12

March 9, 2011 By

Another Image of Faith and Devotion

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Media, Mormon Tagged With: , ,

Your Sunday Brunch Special (#2). Utah Artist James T. Harwood, 1: The Reluctant Pioneer.

March 6, 2011 By

If you have spent much time with Latter-day Saint illustrated literature you have probably seen images of this painting:

Come Follow Me

The artist was James Taylor Harwood (1860-1940). Harwood’s story is interesting and Mormon-related if for no other reason than his LDS commissions to produce religious works like the one above (Come Follow Me – commissioned by the Deseret Sunday School Union) but it’s more interesting than that. To understand Harwood’s story, it is necessary to understand his parent’s and so we begin with James Harwood, James Taylor’s father.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Mormon Tagged With: , ,

Brandon Davies, Twitter, & Whaaaa?

March 3, 2011 By

Seriously: for the past two days, brandon davies has been a trending topic on Twitter. That means, in the entire worldwide Twittersphere, with violent upheavals in the Middle East, a new iPad announced, and Charlie Sheen redefining “radical,” Brandon Davies is one of the top 10 topics on Twitter.[1]

This follows the ESPN story divulging Davies’ Honor Code violation: he had sex with his girlfriend. The chatter on Twitter is deafening and polarized, with SocialMention.com reporting that he’s getting tweeted about every 7 seconds. From what I can tell, half of the tweets are “Good for BYU,” and the other half are “Whaaaaa????”
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Film & Television, Internet & Social Media, Media, Mormon, Navel-Gazing & Poetic Observation, Society & Culture Tagged With: , ,

God Likes Brass Instruments

February 26, 2011 By

 

That is all.

Filed Under: Media, Mormon, Music

BCC Zeitcast 65: What the Tribune Didn’t Tell You

February 24, 2011 By

In this episode, Scott B. and Matt Page continue the ominous & ghostly themes at BCC this week with a discussion of Bigfoot and UFOs in Mormon Folklore, evil music, a suspicious Culligan man, and all of the details of Matt’s life which–for various reasons–were missing from an article about Matt and his artwork in the Salt Lake Tribune a couple of weeks ago. Actually, they really just make fun of Brad Kramer for half an hour or so.


Links For Your Convenience:
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, BCC Zeitcast, Features, Internet & Social Media, Pop Culture
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