signsoflifebooks.com

Swing by downtown Lawrence today for the first annual Fall Bazaar!  Signs of Life will be featuring “buy 3, get one free” cards, and some half-priced best sellers.

The local paper today features an AP feed about the Africa Bible Commentary, a unique one-volume commentary on the entire Bible written by African theologians and produced in Africa by Zondervan. Though created to help pastors, students, and lay leaders in Africa apply God’s Word to distinctively African concerns, we think it will have broad appeal here given American Christians’ interest in the African church and the problems of disease and famine plaguing that continent.

So who are these geeks? Well the one at the far right is none other than former Signs of Life intern Ethan Andyshak. It seems he and his college buddies got together, applied for a grant, and the next thing you know they’ve got the hottest thing going in fantasy politics. OK, so maybe its the only thing going in fantasy politics. You see, they came up with this incredibly cool site called Fantasy Congress - its like fantasy sports teams only with politicians. Bet your team can’t push its legislation into law faster than mine!

This photo shows how we like our crema at Signs of Life espresso bar - a dense, ruddy brown foam with tiger flecking that holds the promise of a perfectly pulled shot of espresso. Is it a polyphasic colloidal foam? Find out that, and so much more than you ever wanted to know about crema from one of the world’s best baristi at Coffee Geek.

Singer/songwriter Warren Barfield will be in concert twice at Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church here in Lawrence on Thursday evening, October 19. Concerts times are 6:30 and 9:30 with the latter time more oriented toward college students. Warren is a phenomenal performer whose style is acoustic/folk/soul. Cost is $5 at the door. Coffee and cookies will be available for purchase.

You will not hear another performance of this caliber for many times this price. Please, do yourself a favor - don’t miss it!

Are your wages paid with real coin or with counterfeit? Bill Kaufman puts it this way in his new book Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists:

[T]he most ennobling work we do is seldom remunerated in greenbacks. Bearing and raising a child, cultivating a garden, just being there for a sibling or friend to lean on: this “work” is compensated in a currency far more valuable than Uncle Sam’s paper. . . [This is] the work we do for “nothing.” (For everything, really.) . . . This is the work whose coin, whose only coin, is love.

In his review of Kaufman’s book for the Intercollegiate Review, our friend Caleb Stegall discusses the real divide in American society today. It is not between liberal and conservative, but between materialists who argue about the best way to amass “more” and those who recognize a transcendent power.

Signs of Life Gallery artist James Winn will conduct a painting workshop on Saturday, Nov. 4th from 9am to 4pm. Mr. Winn is one of America’s premier realist painters active today and has work appearing in major collections around the world and in our current show. Students or professional artists who would like to participate in the workshop should contact gallery director James Schaefer at 785-830-8030.

Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton was father of the dubious Manifest Destiny doctrine and uncle of the renowned 20th century painter of the same name. The elder Benton and future U.S. President Andrew Jackson once fought savagely in a bar room brawl. Whether this type of historical minutia is your thing, or if you just want to get a better feel for the broad sweep of American history, you’ll want to read William J. Bennett’s compelling book America: The Last Best Hope. The first installment of the two volume set is subtitled From the Age of Discovery to a World at War (the second volume is due out in the Spring of 2007). Bennett was concerned that many modern history books had a tendency to portray our past, not “warts and all”, but rather “warts, that’s all”. While admitting the failings and shortcomings of our predecessors, he also shows the heroic qualities that shaped America. While it was not perfect, if we can remember and emulate the best things about our history, we hold out great hope for a world in chaos.

On Monday, October 2, the weekly Public House “Culinary Culture Lecture Series” featured Tom Wheat, director, farmer, importer, and roaster for Nueva Mission, Inc. in a talk entitled Thinking Locally in a Supranational Industry: Venezuela Biointesive Coffee Farm Communities and the American Consumer. Nueva Mission is a non-for-profit organization which links the people of the Caripe region in Venezuela with the community of Lawrence, KS, by growing, producing, importing, and roasting Venezuela coffee for the Lawrence market while using organic, sustainable, and community-focused methods. Wheat’s talk focused on the sharp distinctions between “conventional” farming techniques and “sustainable” farming techniques, and the impact each technique has on rural coffee-growing communities.

Read the rest of this entry »

The leadership team of Douglas County Young Life will be reading a book together this fall. Area director Rick Mumford announced that his team will be studying Henry Blackaby’s book Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God . Those participating in the study get a special super deal on the book at Signs of Life when they mention the secret code at the checkout counter. If you’re a Young Life Leader and don’t know the secret code, dude, you aren’t reading your e-mail from Rick!