A Scooby-Doo Who Can’t Upset the ADL, Robbing Buddha and the Wonderful Taj Mahal
February 6th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
Evil Jews are monopolizing Broadway (or there-off), and Charles Isherwood wants to know: “Who will prove the more noxious offender of 21st-century sensibilities?” Barabas (from The Jew of Malta) or Shylock? Isherwood says Shylock, because (prepare yourselves) Barabas, pictured, comes off as “a harmless cartoon, a baddie from an episode of ‘Scooby-Doo’ hardly weighty enough to inspire much hand-wringing from the Anti-Defamation League.” I was denied press passes to both events, so I can’t hope to add to that. [NY Times]
In a move that recalls Amy Tan’s Fish Cheeks, Vietnamese writer Bich Minh has sought to steal Buddha’s dinner, and Ben Fong-Torres wouldn’t mind a bite too. [International Herald Tribune]
Malaysian political cartoonist Anwar Haque, known as Zunar, says, “the most challenging factor is to gauge whether the public can accept this type of (political) cartoons.” He has already been shut down by the government, which doesn’t seem to appreciate either the entertainment value or the political message. [Rentakini]
Heaven or Hell: Images of Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Deities and Immortals is at the Royal Ontario Museum and Bjarke Madsen suggests everyone go, because “In these East-Asian-inspired, lulu lemon-clad times, we tend to shop around for religious concepts, meditation classes and spiritual journeys, but few really know the roots of Buddhist and Daoist religious art.” [Now Magazine]
“Even though they created their artwork a century apart, connections between Dürer and Rembrandt’s religious pieces are significant and intriguing,” says the Tecumseh Countywide News & Shawnee Sun. The show does look quite interesting. [TCN & SS]
Just when you thought you had your wonders straight, one organization is holding new elections, and the Taj Mahal might be in. Others leaders include: the Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra, the Pyramids of Giza and the statues of Eastern Island. Iconia write-in anyone? [CNN IBN]
A Diane Arbus groupie likes creepy shots, like Kevin Federline with his throat cut — “to me, a portrait is a representation of a person and a slash across a throat is the equivalent of a brushstroke.” He is hard at work on “strips for Jesus.” Please hold your breath with me, won’t you? [Times (UK)]
Kristen L. McNulty “all too often in the Christian life we look for God in the big stuff: the revival meetings, the mega-city churches, the large-scale outreaches, and the flashy ministries … [but] most things of lasting value are found in the mundane.” Also note the non-conventional painting by Liz Lemon Swindle. [saWorship.com]