Less than a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States detonated
the fourth and fifth nuclear weapons under the name
Operation Crossroads in July 1946. Beyond testing the capabilities of nuclear bombs,
the Navy said it wanted the Bikini tests treated like "the story of the year, maybe of the decade, and possibly of a lifetime." Only two of the three bombs were detonated, and the project was shut down over the next months. To celebrate the efforts of Operation Crossroads,
a cake in the shape of a mushroom cloud was featured at a publicized event on November 5, 1946. In response to this display, Reverend Arthur Powell Davies, the minister of the Unitarian All Souls Church in Washington, D.C.,
gave a sermon on the "utterly loathsome picture" and the message it sent to other nations. That sermon
set off a flurry of replies and reactions, that extended around the world, including a connection formed between
Reverend Davies' All Souls Unitarian Church and school children in Hiroshima.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 8, 2010 -
62 comments
Mass: We Pray is an exciting new project from Boston based game developer Prayer Works Interactive.
Watch the trailer for examples of the 24 different services you and your family can participate in. Don't listen to the sites that
claim this is a
hoax. Preordering begins today!
posted by scrutiny
on Nov 20, 2009 -
45 comments
"All of which is a long way of saying that, to construct a new church of anatomical horror and to do so out of stone, as Al-Mehdari seems to be suggesting, is a fascinating idea. " -
Body Baroque
posted by Artw
on Sep 23, 2009 -
24 comments
Sacred Steel is a
pedal-steel guitar style that evolved in the African-American Pentecostal denomination
The House of God, Which Is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth. Brothers and lap steel players
Willie and Truman Eason, inspired by the electric blues and Hawaiian steel guitar of the 1920s and 30s, brought the sound to two branches of the church, the
Keith and
Jewell dominions. Its hallmark: "talking guitar," in which the sliding steel
emphasizes and mimics the words of preachers and
singers. In the 1970s, a new "
Motor City" tradition began, featuring the more complicated pedal steel guitar. This body of music was known mainly in church circles until two things happened: first, folklorist
Robert Stone became interested in the music and relased several
CD collections. And then, church player
Robert Randolph (and his
Family Band) began taking Sunday morning's music out on
Saturday night.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Apr 8, 2008 -
19 comments
