And The Lord Said, "Let There Be Lego": Part One

The Brick Testament: "Jesus Is Born"

Fig. 1. This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth. Matthew 1:18 & Luke 1:26

Fig. 2. [To] a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David. The virgin’s name was Mary. Luke 1:27

Fig. 3. The angel came to her and said, 'Greetings, highly favored one! The Lord is with you.' Luke 1:28

Fig. 4. Mary was greatly troubled by his words, and wondered what this sort of greeting might mean. Luke 1:29

Fig. 5. The angel said to her, 'Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a child. You will name him Jesus.' Luke 1:30-31

Fig. 6. Mary said to the angel, 'How can this happen if I had not had sex with a man?' Luke 1:34

Fig. 7. The angel answered, 'The Holy Ghost will come upon you.' Luke 1:35

Fig. 8. And the angel left her. Luke 1:38

Fig. 9. Shortly afterward, Mary got up and hurried off to the hill country. Luke 1:39

Fig. 10. She entered the house of Zechariah the priest and greeted his wife Elizabeth. Mary said, 'My soul exalts the Lord in praise!' Luke 1:40 & 46

Fig. 11. 'He has wrought mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered the proud and arrogant.' Luke 1:51

Fig. 12. 'He has cast down rulers from their thrones.' Luke 1:52

Fig. 13. 'And has raised up the lowly.' Luke 1:52

Fig. 14. Mary remained with Elizabeth for about three months, and then returned home. Luke 1:56

Fig. 15. Mary was found to be pregnant by the Holy Ghost. Matthew 1:18

Addendum: Happy Tree Friends - Christmas Smoochie

The Games We Shouldn't Forget To Play: Part Two

Japanese Toy Illustrations (7 to 12 of 30)

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'Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.'

Mark Twain

Addendum: The Argument For The Indefensible

Michael Palin and John Cleese in The Argument Clinic - Monty Python's Flying Circus

The Sunday Six: Part Five (When Art Intimates Life)

Fig. 1. Rosalie Gascoigne - Metropolis, 1999

Fig. 2. Rosalie Gascoigne - Traffic Snarl, 1999

Fig. 3. Rosalie Gascoigne - Southerly Buster, 1995

Fig. 4. Rosalie Gascoigne - Medusa, 1998

Fig. 5. Rosalie Gascoigne - Fishbowl, 1999

Fig. 6. Rosalie Gascoigne - Rain and Shine, 1998

'Yes it's got a formal rigour, because I think you've got to ... you've got to attach yourself to the classical. Art doesn't come from nowhere; it comes from a long line of human experience, and I like to think that I can pare things down to conform with a sort of classicism.'

Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie Gascoigne - National Gallery of Victoria, Ian Potter Centre (19th December 2008 - 15th March 2009)

I Get By With A Lot Of Help From My Littlest Friends

Fig. 1. "Flick" and "Umberto Domenico Ferrari" (Carlo Battisti) - Umberto D. (1952), d. Vittorio de Sica

'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.'

Winnie the Pooh

Your Ears Will Orgasm #17: Seven Years Of Snow (MixPod Player)

1. Black Hair - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2. Let it Be Me - Ray LaMontagne
3. I Had A Dream - Findlay Brown
4. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Allo, Darlin'
5. Tiny Pieces Of You - Roger O'Donnell
6. Unattainable - Little Joy

Before It Can Be Tasted, The Body Must Be Spoken

Fig. 1. Egon Schiele - Nude, 1910


'The word 'fleisch', in German, provokes me to an involuntary shudder. In the English language, we make a fine distinction between flesh, which is usually alive and, typically, human; and meat, which is dead, inert, animal and intended for consumption. Substitute the word 'flesh' in the Anglican service of Holy Communion; 'Take, eat, this is my meat which was given for you...' and the sacred comestible becomes the offering of something less than, rather than more than, human. 'Flesh' in English carries with it a whole system of human connotations and the flesh of the Son of Man cannot be animalised into meat without an inharmonious confusion of meaning. But, because it is human, flesh is also ambiguous: we are adjured to shun the world, the flesh and the Devil. Fleshly delights are lewd distractions from the contemplation of higher, that is, of spiritual things; the pleasures of the flesh are vulgar, unrefined, even with an element of beastliness about them, although flesh tints have the succulence of peaches because flesh plus skin equals sensuality.'

Angela Carter

Further Notes On The Natural History Of Monsters*

Fig. 1. Honoré Daumier - Two Lawyers Conversing, 1862


'LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.'

Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary)

* 'I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.' John Keats

Addendum: Now And Then, An Angel Appears In Hell

Fig. 2. "Jefferson Smith" (Jimmy Stewart) - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) - d. Frank Capra (click image to watch a clip of this scene)

If, At The Time Of My Death, Flies Are Keeping Vigil...

Fig. 1. Making a plaster death mask (New York, circa 1908)


'[Jules] Renard recorded in his Journal the death of [Henri de] Toulouse-Lautrec. The painter's father, a known eccentric, came to visit his son and instead of concerning himself with the patient immediately started trying to catch the flies circulating in the sick room. The painter, from his bed, remarked, 'You stupid old bugger!, then fell back and died.'

Julian Barnes (Nothing To Be Frightened Of)

Addendum: Dying - You're Already Doing It

Fig. 2. Damien Hirst - A Thousand Years (Steel, glass, flies, maggots, MDF, insect-o-cutor, cow's head, sugar, water), 1990

Damien Hirst talks about A Thousand Years with Rachel Campbell-Johnson


'But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm already doing it.'

Damien Hirst