It's All About Perspective. Literally.

Sometimes dinner and a movie (opera, symphony, ballet - insert entertainment here) is so passé - especially in this economy.

So, as the vitamin deficient pirate says: When life gives you scurvy, make lemonade.

Or maybe last night we had a bit too much of our own Kool-Aid. Either way, there are photos as evidence - not to mention a few really confused people at Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble isn't really the best place to go SleeveFacing as there are no record sleeves in a book store. So we used the next best thing: magazines.

For the unaware and/or uninitiated, SleeveFacing is when you use a record sleeve's picture to create an illusion with your own body parts. It's all about perspective, really. Literally.

Without further ado, here is last night's future blackmail material:

Pouty . . . with a floating wrist.

I couldn't think of any gang signs to flash, so I went for the Napoleon look. Nice shades, eh?

She's a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.

Wishful thinking, I know. But I love how James Joyce's floating head makes it all the more surreal. It's like an anti steroids ad: this could happen to you - extra head and all.

Don't ever let your 3 year old help apply make up.

That's my pin-up doll.

The Missing Link

One of my favorite sections of other blogs is the "link post." The link post says "here is a great story / item deserving to be seen on its own." The commentary is generally brief because somebody else already said it well enough.

As such, here is the first of (hopefully) many link posts: fascinating stories, amazing photos or trivia.

It is "The Missing Link" as they are links you likely missed the last time you perused the internets. Or not.

*******

Exposure photography fascinates me. Whether seeing the stars circle above or a bifurcated highway of headlights and taillights blurring by, the exposure shot adds an element of surrealism to the ordinary.

Among the most surreal exposure artists is the Russian native and photographer Alexey Titarenko. Below are a few haunting sample photos as well as links to Titarenko's website and the site that I stumbled upon, first learning about him.

Alexey Titarenko: Photography

The BLDGBLOG: Pandemonium

[Image: From City of Shadows by Alexey Titarenko]

 [Image: From City of Shadows by Alexey Titarenko]

[Image: From City of Shadows by Alexey Titarenko]

[Image: From Time Standing Still by Alexey Titarenko]

Was Michelangelo Mormon?

Like many religions, Mormonism has had its fair share of misunderstandings. Some based on half-truths, and some that have absolutely no basis in fact whatsoever.

One such myth is that Mormons have horns.

Though I personally have never been accused, Boyd K. Packer, an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was part of a symposium at a college in Oregon where a panel of religious leaders from various denominations were invited to attend. This is President Packer's account:

The president of the school, Dr. Bennett, hosted a breakfast. One of them asked which wife I had brought. I told them I had a choice of one. For a second, I thought that I was being singled out for embarrassment. Then someone asked the Catholic bishop if he had brought his wife.

The next question came from Dr. Bennett to me: “Is it true that Mormons have horns?”

I smiled and said, “I comb my hair so that they can’t be seen.”

While certainly asked in jest, it still somewhat validates that fact that at some point someone likely actually believed that Mormons have horns. Up until now I thought this was a myth utterly unfounded in any kind of fact. However, (fanfare sound) I have found the source of this myth!!!

As it turns out, a passage in Exodus 34:29-35 gives an account of Moses after returning from Mount Sinai. The King James version of the Bible translates verse 34:30 as follows:

"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him."

However, in 382 AD St. Jerome was commissioned by the Pope to make the first translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew, instead of the Greek. In so doing he translated the same verse like so:

"And he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation with the Lord. And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near."

To be fair to St. Jerome, the mistake in translation is possible because the word "karan" in the Hebrew language can mean either "radiated (light)" or "grew horns." And keep in mind that Aaron and the children of Isreal were afraid- that part he translated correctly. So, which seems more frightening, a glowing face that had once been lack-luster, or a previously un-horned man suddenly sprouting spikes? He really made a logical choice, I think. It is just unfornutate for him that his translation error led Michalangelo to immortalize his mistake in a massive stone statue of Moses with said horns.

Considering that many people, Catholic and non-Catholic have seen or heard of this statue of Moses, perhaps the idea of horns being associated with religious people is not all that far-fetched. Personally, I would gladly be found in the same category as Moses.
So in light of current lore regarding Mormons and horns (to my knowlege, no other religious persons have been accused of having them), all that is left to consider are two questions:
Was Moses really Mormon?
Or, was Michelangelo really Mormon?