Weekly Blog Round-Up - Big Week for Religious Art

Sock Monkey Goddess, Vati - religious art in pop culture, via Boing Boing

Luxury brand Chanel to slash jobs this week, from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth by Chris in Paris:

This was another group that somehow thought the credit crisis would avoid them courtesy of emerging market support. It's true that many of the luxury brands have profited enormously in recent years due to the emerging markets (Russia, especially) but that too is now collapsing. Overpriced luxury was so 2006.

Chanel is to cut 200 jobs as fears grow that the supposedly recession proof luxury market is falling victim to the global credit crisis. Citing a steep decline in this year's sales, the largest French union, the CGT, said the losses at the French fashion label
would concern all staff on fixed term and temporary contracts and come into effect on Wednesday. Sixteen posts would be cut from the brand's boutique on rue Cambon in the heart of Paris's fashion district, it added in a statement at the weekend.

The job losses, described by some commentators as the label's worst crisis since founder Coco Chanel fired all her staff at the outbreak of war in 1939, represent almost 10% of the company's production workforce. The redundancies come after a difficult year for the fashion, perfume, cosmetics and accessories businesses where
growth has almost ground to a halt.

More religious art in the news via Art Blog by Bob - the 3 Religions of the Book on display at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.


Fitwilliam Darcy's portrait is on the auction block to benefit Oxfam! Sigh, the face that launched a zillion forum posts!


TreeHugger on the need for improving Amtrak
- I love the comment that says

"Every time Amtrak falls apart -- which typically occurs on days ending in "y" -- it hurts us all. If Obama wants to make concrete change fast, he could do no better than to make rail revitalization a high priority."

Couldn't agree more!


Wow - Nollywood images from the Heading East blog - click thru for Michael Stevenson's photos. Some images probably NSFW. But WOW, impressive.


H.T. to Jay: "Vicar takes down "scary" crucifix" via the Guardian, UK. I have to say, this one isn't even that scary. I personally prefer the truly horrifying crucifixes (crucifixi?) with the blood and bruises all over - they feel much more powerful and disturbing - which I appreciate in religious art.


Lakshmi turned me on to this great PA-grown blog and here are my two favorite posts so far: When Children Worry - and When Adults Get Angry - great "in-the-trenches" advice.


On Matti Kaarts a yummy discussion of the British love affair with chutneys and pickles. PLUS a recipe for one homemade. His description of the ploughman's lunch made me so hungry!


There will be a Berlin monument to Roma (aka "gypsies") killed in WWII. This is good news.


Mona Lisa in US (w/ guards!). Art Blog by Bob reviews a new book about First Lady, Jackie O's intense negotiations to get the Mona Lisa on loan to the US for a brief time. Check out the soldiers guarding her!


Christian radio found to be on continuous loop for past 20 years Wow! via Emerging Pensees.

PONTIAC — Listeners of Christian talk radio were surprised and dismayed to learn that the same slate of programs has been playing on Christian radio stations since 1988, and that the entire façade of Christian radio has been run out of a basement complex in Michigan. "I always found the programs very comforting and familiar," says Kathy Reynolds, a regular listener in Columbia, Mo. "Now I know why."
The 365-day-long loop, which has been running continuously since January 1, 1988, includes programs by ministers such as James Dobson and Chuck Colson who dispense parenting and marital advice, Bible answers and non-specific calls to political action. The loop followed the calendar's rhythms, with programs about creating lasting family traditions at Thanksgiving, back-to-school prayer programs in August
and cloyingly sweet programs about home, hearth and "the reason for the season" at Christmas. A layer of conservative concern over the direction of the country was included throughout the year. Read more...

And I leave you with the probably inappropes "Holy Hotties" calendar, Jezebel. One of these seems to come out each year, and I really believe that these are models. not actual priests. But still.... They are some of God's beautiful creatures, it's true. BIG WEEK for religious art news! WOW Holy Hotties!