terra nova road trip (youth)

Calling any Terra Nova youth (ages 1 to 100):

Join a road trip as Terra Nova Church's own Phoebe Henry sings at Holy Grounds Coffee Lounge on Friday, June 2 in Allendale, NJ. Caravan leaves Friday at 4 p.m. from Grace Fellowship Church and will return at midnight that evening. $10/seat.

Reserve your spot by e-mailing: henryr@nycap.rr.com

Go to phoebehenry.com for more info.

what to do this weekend

ARTS/Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.:
Arts reception for BLINK at Fulton Street Gallery in Troy. (See you there!)

FILM/Friday at 7:30 p.m.:
See "Hotel Rwanda" at the beautiful Palace Theatre on Clinton Avenue in Albany.
$5. A portion of the proceeds go to RwandAlbany, the University at Albany´s School of Social Welfare Rwandan Relief Effort.

MUSIC/Friday at 8 p.m.:
Hear/See Nestor Torres, Puerto Rican flutist, play at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

MUSIC/Saturday at 9:30 p.m.:
Hair of the Dog plays at Parting Glass in Saratoga. $12.

Got listings? E-mail them to: artsblog@terranovachurch.org

terra speaks to its generation

Nevermind the other media outlets. What do you read in the Capital Region? Metroland, of course... and so, today, you would read about Terra Nova Church in this week's edition:

http://metroland.net/features.html

Chet Hardin, copy editor at The Saratogian and Troy resident/homeowner, wrote a poignant piece about Terra, its pastors, and the stories that are still being written in our lives as we figure out how to do church for Generation X. Please pick it up and read it today.

the crucifixion, a visual reminder in the community

I wrote a story for today's Times Union about tomorrow's Good Friday walk of the cross in downtown Troy:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=471228&category=RENSSELAER&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=4/13/2006

reading list

Recommended reading, past and present:

-"The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One" by Margaret Lobenstein
Think you have ADD? Maybe, instead, you're a Renaissance soul who can't figure out what to do because you have too many ideas and passions... This book, written by a life coach, can help you think through and validate who you are.

-"Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" by Anne Rice
The author, made famous for making vampires famous, recently returned to her Catholic roots and wrote this historical novel about Jesus Christ.

-"The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People" by Cathleen Falsani
Cathleen Falsani writes about faith and pop culture for the Chicago Sun-Times. In this book, she talks with some famous folks -- from Hugh Hefner to Anne Rice to Bono to Jonathan Safran Foer (one of my favorite authors of the moment) -- about their views on morality, faith, religion, and being good. Ps-Anne Rice thinks Johnny Depp would make a good Jesus Christ in the movies.

-"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
If you think this is just another book about 9/11, you're wrong. It's a story about a boy and his search for a missing counterpart to a key he finds after losing his father on 9/11. But it's more than that. Foer breaks the rules of writing in his style and the format of this book... but he also writes things only a fiction writer can pull off; he writes with amazing creativity and ingenuity that's not only original but compelling, too.

-"Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" by John Grogan
This story is about a dog. A labrador retriever and his owners, two newspaper journalists who live in touristy Florida, move to a hillside in Pennsylvania and try to have kids in between. But it's Marley, of course, who steals the show and who will, ultimately, break your heart while making you laugh out loud. Only dog lovers -- and who isn't? -- will love this book.

-"Bad Cat: 244 Not-So-Pretty Kitties and Cats Gone Bad" by Jim Edgar
To be fair to the cat lovers, here's something for you. My family discovered this book when my father was in the hospital, fighting for his life after a surgery gone bad. When my sister brought the book into the hospital room, our room of sadness and grey days turned into those of laughter and hilarity. We couldn't stop laughing, and Dad had to stop reading the book so that his stitches wouldn't burst. Literally. Flip through this book when you need a good laugh.

interesting links

First of all, I have to tell everyone that Troy is an up and coming city for the arts. Here's proof. The New York Times featured Troy last Friday as a day trip destination, hailing Troy's historic architecture as the finest antiques that can't be bought. Click here to read the story:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/travel/escapes/07trip.html

Secondly, and I know this is random, please read the following op-ed on the sexual revolution and how Hugh Hefner snuck pornography into American culture as a norm. Tell me what you think:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3780509

prelude

We creative types (that would be all of us, eh?) at Terra Nova Church in Troy, NY wanted to have a forum -- well, I guess it will start out as non-interactive as I just blab on about interesting books, music, dance and other arts I have read, heard, or seen recently; be they reviews or links from other zines or sites, or perhaps you might want to post something yourself (that's fine with me, too; send submissions to me at: artsblog@terranovachurch.org so I can take a look and edit). The music, the art, the books need not be devised as "Christian," because that is not what this is about. Instead, this is about we as Christians trying to look at the arts in a critical way, in a way that would God would be pleased with -- I mean, God is THE creator. Arts can be a means to worship God... and it should be.

There will be more to come. Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen...