Liviu Ciulei and Marlon Brando: Recoiling the Mortal Coil!

The great international stage and screen director and designer, Liviu Ciulei, and the divine stage and screen actor Marlon Brando both share something disturbing as it is true: They both believed in bringing coiled drama into an explosion on the live stage. If the purpose of the Dramatic Arts is irrevocable change, they reasoned, then coiled detritus is the user agent that propels forward the story to the tragic, if not always cathartic, end.

I was fortunate to purchase authentic photographs of both Liviu and Marlon and I appreciate this moment of sharing them with you. Here’s the caption for Liviu’s photo:

International director Liviu Ciulei has been named Artistic Director of The Guthrie Theatre beginning Sept 1. 1980.  The 57-year-old former head of Rumania’s leading repertory theatre, the Lucia Sturdza Bulandra Theatre, has earned an international reputation as a stage and screen director, actor, designer, and architect. His directing and design credits include productions throughout Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States.

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Memory Runoff Review

To live is to remember; and how we choose to consecrate our memories is what gives texture and context to our lives as the Panopticon becomes public.  Google is good at creating the instant now for future recall, but The Wayback Machine is the granddaddy of soliciting who used to be.  Today we have — Memento — a new contender for scrapbooking our online lives.  So who is the king of our remembering?  Wayback or Memento? 

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Homegrown Stem Cells

Imagine if you could heal your own ills by growing your own stem cells.

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Up From the Grave

If you could be resurrected from the grave — re-born by science to become your own twin in a never-ending cycle of life — would you hope for that chance to live your life over again?  

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An Ordinary Jesus

We already know Jesus was found dead in his grave — but the recent news that the entire Jesus “resurrection miracle” may have not been anything terribly special in light of a new discovery of a stone scroll extolling the common practice of dead people arising from their eternal slumber in order to live again decades before our favorite Jewish Messiah made his move — leaves some of us wondering what’s left in the Jesus trunk of miracles.

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Was Jesus Born of a Roman Raping?

I was startled to read today that Jesus — yes, THAT Jesus — may have been the child born from a Roman raping of his mother, Mary.

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Jesus Found Dead in His Grave

Big news was broken yesterday:  Jesus and his family have been founded dead in their graves in Israel.

What does this discovery mean for the religious myths that bind us and for the sustenance of the Resurrection ideal to Christians across the world?

How does one now translate God?

Without the Resurrection, doesn’t Christianity become an empty vessel?

How can we begin to live if Jesus Christ has been found dead?

Does His death strengthen our faith?

Or does it weaken it with unanswerable questions that sting us like burrs in our socks?

Jesus is Dead!

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