Media & Internet

Clash of the Titans & Jesus Christ

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Tevya

My Mom enjoys a certain amount of notoriety in her and my Dad’s house for a conversation she had with a few of her children. Several years ago when Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was the new popular movie on DVD, a few of my siblings wanted to watch it at home. My Mother rejected the idea stating, “it’s just two hours of violence!” To which my brother quickly replied, “no Mom, this is the extended edition… its four hours of violence!” I don’t think my Mother liked it, but either the humor won her over, or my siblings were old enough at the time, that she wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.
You can imagine my surprise when I heard that my Mother “liked” Clash of the Titans. Based on the trailers, I’d assumed it was a film long on action and special effects, and short on plot or

Leading LDS Blog, Conversation with E. Bednar, & Updates

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Tevya

Leading LDS
There’s a new blog called Leading LDS that you can find at LeadingLDS.com. It’s similar to this blog in that the purpose is to help inspire, motivate, and correct wrong attitudes. Where this blog takes the approach of teaching correct doctrine and looking beyond the sunday-school answers, Leading LDS focuses on teaching correct leadership and moving beyond the easy “coasting through this calling” level of leadership in the church.
Conversation with Elder Bednar
One of the most recent posts is a video from the church’s HR department entitled “A Conversation on Leadership With Elder David A. Bednar.” Kurt, the author of the blog states that this video “is exactly what [his] site is about.” I’ve got to say, everyone should watch this video. So click one of the links, check out this awesome blog, and make sure you watch/listen to this fireside with Elder Bednar. I just can’t tell you how powerful and helpful it is for

Decoded: TV Show Needs Middle-Age Co-host

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Tevya

I was recently contacted by Elya Beer, who’s associated with a new TV show called “Decoded.” Its essentially a show exploring symbolism. I assume they’re going off the popularity of Dan Brown’s novels & the movies made from them. From what the email says, it sounds like they want a real-life Robert Langdon:

Elder Oaks says religious freedom is under fire & other news

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Tevya

Many of you may have heard about Elder Oak’s recent BYU-Idaho devotional address. I just wanted to collect some of the information here for you to read/listen to/watch. Its an important message at an important time.
First, read the full text of the talk at LDS.org, or download the MP3 at BYU-I’s devotionals archive.
Second, here’s an article the Church posted about it, along with the following Q&A video with Elder Oaks, about the talk:

Old Testament Video Resources

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Tevya

Some of you probably know because you know me, or have noticed by my video and other media posts: I am kinda an amateur dabbler in video production and film making.
So I was excited when I noticed that the church announced a new DVD set as a resource for teaching Old Testament in the upcoming year. There are 56 videos in the set, many of which are new, or have never been available for purchase previously. There are also many, many other visual resources. From the preview video, they look like great quality reenactments of Old Testament stories. The reenactments either include, or other resources have, life-like renderings of the Tabernacle, Temple at Jerusalem and other stuff that can seem very distant until you see video that looks very real, as if peaking into the past. I’m excited to see all this new stuff, and see if it aides teachers in real Sunday School teaching situations.
You can watch the preview video they made

Iconography – Powerful Political Symbolism

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Tevya

Nancy, who comments here, pointed out to me a very interesting and well-made video about iconography in politics today. It explores powerful iconography in use in American politics today. It a great video about symbolism used in the propaganda of our time. “Iconography” in particular, is essentially the same type of symbolism I employ in the design of this blog: using pictorial symbols or icons to convey meaning.
In fact its the same kind that we use a lot in computers and the internet, but its just so common, we don’t think about it much. For example, the little orange icon under the “Sacred Symbolic” title–at the top of this blog–with the white circle and a couple curved lines that appear to radiate out from it, mean “you can click here to subscribe or follow our RSS or Atom Feed” to anyone who uses Feeds. These “Feeds” are ways that websites update other sites and anyone

New World DNA

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Tevya

This last weekend I was at my parents home. I ended up not feeling well for a day or so. I looked around for stuff to watch (they don’t have regular TV and I forgot my laptop’s power cord) and happened across the documentary Journey of Faith: The New World. Having spent five weeks traveling through Mesoamerica studying the peoples and history there, it was my first pick. I’d already watched the original Journey of Faith and was very impressed by it.

“Things as They Really Are” – Elder David A. Bednar

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Tevya

Elder David A Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

I think it’s a shame that sometimes the CES firesides, which are addressed to young single adults, often go unnoticed by the rest of the Church. When given by an Apostle, they are frequently among the most direct and instructional talks that our modern Prophets give to a large audience. Luckily, they’re available on the Church website, for the rest of us.
Last Sunday Elder David A. Bednar was at BYU-Idaho and gave the CES YSA fireside. I’ve sat there in the Hart building and listened to him speak many times when he was the President of BYU-I. As awesome and powerful as those devotionals were, ever since he became an Apostle, there is definitely something different, more powerful in his teachings of the gospel and witness of Christ.
Elder Bednar spoke on the importance of our physical bodies in God’s great plan of salvation. In my opinion, he taught these doctrines with great clarity. After doing