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Get Up Off Your Knees Preaching the U2 Catalog

A thoughtful and provocative collection of sermons by a group of preachers from across the international church spectrum who have been moved to theological reflection on the art and work of U2.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I have found what I’m looking for…
`Is U2 a prophetic voice?’ This is a question asked by Eugene Patterson in the forward to this book, `Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue.’ There are many pop stars who can claim the role of `idol’ with justification – Elvis and Marilyn Monroe are perhaps the greatest of these images, but in the end they lack the appropriate `ultimate concern’ (if one may borrow a Tillichian phrase) because they become the objects of worship themselves – of course, there are some who worship or have worshiped U2, but in fact the strength of U2 lies in their symbolic nature, that they point to things greater and more important than themselves, and through the power of their music, lyrics and personae involve the people in something more ultimate.

One of the strengths of a book such as this is that it pushes the boundaries of ordinary preaching. Both editors Raewynne Whiteley and Beth Maynard have been involved in the Episcopal Church’s Gathering the neXt Generation network, a group dedicated to looking for ways to involve more of Generation X into the church – what better way than to go to where Generation X lives, the popular culture, dominated by music.

The book grew out of an initial conversation of the editors and a third person, Mike Kinman, at a conference where Whiteley presented a paper on U2 and preaching to the GenX group. It became apparent that this was not a solitary glimpse, but had the aspects of communal revelation. Through various contacts, Whiteley and Maynard collected homilies preached by fellow ministers that involved key songs or elements of U2. There are 26 sermons in all, organised according to broad themes each introduced by a meditation by Sarah Dylan Breuer. The appendices include a paper by Whiteley on pop-culture and preaching, a brief history (for those who are new) of U2 by Maynard, and a very useful 6-session outline for an adult study series incorporating U2 and this text. This is bound to be of great interest to churches who might want to reach out to the GenX population, and can be a great evangelism tool. The adult series requires extra material (including important pieces of the U2 corpus, music and video), for this kind of study requires more of an MTV approach incorporating different media, but it does not assume that the participants are necessarily fans of U2 beforehand.

Just as U2 speaks with a strong voice and tells various stories of importance, so too do these sermons. These certainly do not read like the sermons from dusty seminary shelves, so-called `classic’ sermons that highlight particular preaching methods or hermeneutic devices; these are fresh and vibrant with an energy quite new. With regard to this text, I would never say `I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’ Perhaps this will be an answer for whom that lyric still holds true.

So, is U2 a prophetic voice? The authors in this text would say yes. They expose the bad, proclaim the good, call for the acting for good – this makes up the core of good prophecy and good preaching.

4 Stars what’s great about these sermons is…
…they made me – a 20+-year-long U2 fan – go back and listen to song lyrics I hadn’t really noticed the first time around, eg Gone, God Part 2. In an age (hopefully receding) of religious people seeing the world in black and white / good and evil, it’s refreshing to see these ministers grappling with the ambiguities of faith, of admitting to sometimes feeling abandoned. The result is a woman or man coming out of the doubt even stronger spiritually. I knew U2 were special…cheers to these ministers for tapping into that for their congregations.

5 Stars Good read for fans with a thirst for more
Long time fans (& new ones too) will appreciation learning the history behind the lyrics and gaining an understanding of how the group is influencing religion today.

5 Stars Awsome
This book is wonderfully put together and incredibly fun. My friends and I are passing two copies of it around our college campus, and none of us can get enough of it! The sermons are thought provoking and fun!
Even if you haven’t heard of U2 (odd as that may be) its still a great book!
Wahoo!

1 Star Disappointed
I bought this book because I really do believe that U2 represent something very significant in terms of spirituality. I hoped the book would be as inspiring as U2 themselves or at least partly so. How wrong I was. This random collection of sermons feels like I’m stuck in high school english class listening to person after person rattle off speech after speech, wishing they were anywhere else but here. There is not a shred of revelation or conviction in any one of them. I kept reading hoping it would get better but it didn’t. I’m very relieved that the people offering up these sermons are not preaching in my church. This is textbook preaching 101. Powerless and impoverished.

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Steve McQueen A Life in Pictures

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Nice Photos, but it could be better
‘A Life in Pictures’ is a bit misleading as the title. Yes, there are several photos spanning McQueen’s acting career, but it is hardly comprehensive. For every rare photo (or color version), there is a familiar one (some published a few years ago in the excellent book of McQueen photos by William Claxton). For some reason, the photos are not in chronological order which can be a bit jarring when jumping from the family pictures of McQueen from the 1960s to the longer haired McQueen of the 1970s. This book is filled with quality photos of Steve McQueen. Most are large, and several are in color. This is a book for someone who is a devoted fan or just wants nice pictures of McQueen in one book.

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Dead Children Playing A Picture Book Radiohead

A haunting collection of Radiohead artwork from the Grammy award-winning artist.

“I end up spending my entire autumn and winter in a barn in the Oxfordshire countryside, painting with these seven colours, painting words onto canvases that are a metre and a half square. Part of what I’m trying to do is treat the canvas as “real estate”; I map out a district of a city and then infill with coloured blocks and words. I start with the Pacific coast, and then map the inland area of Los Angeles… in a sort of homage to the War on Terror I start finding maps of other cities on the internet; Grozny, Kabul, London, Baghdad… I’m finding it all quite intense. I have to force myself to remember to breathe, and the repetitive aspect of using only seven colours is affecting everything I see. Tree=green. House=red. Sky=blue. Or black. Or green…”—Stanley Donwood from Dead Children Playing

Stanley Donwood and the persistently enigmatic Dr Tchock are the elusive duo responsible for Radiohead’s artwork. Containing almost all the paintings they have produced in the last decade, this book also contains a cornucopia of never-before-seen artwork. From the startling irruption of memory into the present in the Kid A paintings, to the overwhelming information overload of Hail to the Thief‘s landscapes of conflict, Dead Children Playing presents some of the most iconic artwork of our time.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars everying a radiohead fan would want
This book has all the wonderful strangeness that a Radiohead fan can appreciate. The artwork is great and the text is interesting. Plus if you leave the book sitting out on your coffee table it makes for a great conversation starter.

5 Stars Nice title for a coffee table book
It’s worth the comments alone from the less artistic guests that happen by. Nice little compilation of Radiohead inspired or inspired by art.

4 Stars Radiohead Fans Will Love This
I bought this as a present for my husband, he loved it. The book is great, artwork is truly creative and amazing. Highly recommend for fans.

5 Stars A must for Radiohead fans
If you are into Radiohead, this book is a must have in your collection.

You will find in the text an insight into the inspiration sources and creative methods of Stanley Donwood and Dr. Tchock. The quality of the print is good, and the hard cover gives it a nice durable feel.

5 Stars SO GOOD!
There really isn’t a bad recipe in this book. I was a little turned off by some of the “progressive” stuff at first, but my wife insisted and I loved it. Really gives you some great new ideas about food.

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Henri Cartier Bresson The Man The Image and The World A Retrospective

“A definitive catalogue….Once Cartier-Bresson photographed something or someone, you might as well have retired them as subjects.”—Newsweek

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the finest image makers of our time. His extraordinary photographs were shaped by an eye and a mind legendary for their intelligent empathy and for their unerring ability to get to the heart of the matter.

This sumptuous collection of work by Cartier-Bresson is the ultimate look at his achievements. The book brims with classic photographs that have become icons of the medium, as well as rarely seen work from all periods of Cartier-Bresson’s life, including a number of previously unpublished photographs and a generous selection of drawings, paintings, and film stills. The book also features telling personal souvenirs of his youth, his family, and the founding of Magnum.

This definitive collection of a master photographer’s work will be an essential book for anyone interested in photography—indeed, for anyone interested in the people, places, and events of the past century. 600+ illustrations in color and duotone.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars A good book, not bad, but not great!!!
No words are needed for Cartier-Bresson. He is one of the foundations of modern photography.

As for the book, it has two very annoying problems.

1) Some of the best Cartier-Bresson pictures are printed across both pages nearly destroying the amazing composition of the pictures.

2) Some of other great pictures are printed in a 3×3 size, great for passport pictures but useless to the study of this great photographer.

The book has a very good compilation of the photographer’s work, unfortunately it has these two issues which render the book above average but far-away from being GREAT!!!

4 Stars Poor quality reproduction of photographs
The book is a testimony to the capabilities of Henri Cartier-Bresson as a photographer. With limited equipment, a camera and only one lens, he managed to capture an amazing range of emotions and phenomenon. Cartier-Bresson’s work, which is amply documented in this book, also provides an example of “available light” photography.

My one complaint is the quality of reproduction of the photos is somewhat poor, though I am not sure whether this could have been remedied by the publishers

5 Stars The overview or cyclopaedia of this master. Buy it!
I admire and love Henri Cartier-Bresson so much, the master not only in Photography, but also in the history of humanity. I believe in Buddhism so much. And So does Cartier-Bresson.

Cartier-Bresson spread his humanity and the love of the life to the whole world during not only the past 100 years, but also the years we will have.

Photography is just a kind of art to normal an artist. To Cartier-Bresson, it is the artless art.

Regarding this book, it is my first one about Cartier-Bresson, and I decide to buy more after I enjoyed this book.

If you are new to Cartier-Bresson, buy this one without hesitation. You will fall in love with the master just as I did.

If you know well about Cartier-Bresson, buy this one also. It is an overview of the master. You can get the information you need just in one book.

If you are an adorer of Cartier-Bresson, buy this one as a must. Do not need to say why, because it is about Henri Cartier-Bresson.

All in all, buy this book. Read, feel, and enjoy. Not only the photography, but also the life.

5 Stars A must if HCB is your cup of tea!
I put off buying this book as long as I could and eventually I did, having in the meantime manhandled book store copies. It is difficult to get too much HCB and this offers a lot in one package.

I take minor exception to HCB as elevating photography to art — he is more often described as someone who turned his hobby into an art form, albeit it was a hobby informed by artisitic sensibility. The incomparable Eastman House in Rochester has examples that go back to the earliest days of photography as art. But the 20th century was crowded with photographic art. HCB’s eminence in the PostWar recognition of Photography as Art by such places as MOMA is a given. (he preferred the small a).

The number of photographs included is for me in this book is an asset, providing a broad look at the stupendous body of work done by HCB during his long career.

In the 1950s and early 60s, the greatest influence on young photojournalists came from “This Is War” by David Douglas Duncan, published in 1951 and “The Decisive Moment” in 1952, which took its title from HCB’s text. The Verve edition used a different title, i.e. “Images à la sauvette” which translates to “pictures on the run.”

Robert Capa suggested to HCB that he call himself a photojournalist and later the two would join in forming Magnum, the first and greatest photo agency. From that came the inaccurate sometime sobriquet of ” Father of Photojounalism.”

HCB’s work received the earliest important recognition from Americans and his exhibitions and books always received a warm reception. Had he been an American, his political views might have ensnared him in the hysteria of the 50s.His individual perspective was as strong as one might expect from someone who spent three years in a Nazi prison. After the war’s bitter experiene, HCB’s work became much more humanist.

In France his acceptance as an artist does not fully reflect the merits of his work. The US has accepted the work of HCB and Eugene Atget at a level that the French art establishment did not — although he did have support that matters. One reason cited is that HCB objected to the “fetishistic attitude” toward original prints.

HCB’s darkroom work was done by skilled technicians. Berenice Abbot promoted the merit of Atget’s work with her own prints from the thousands of negatives she brought back to the US.

That is a point on which HCB was entirely right. Some earlier vintage prints of his work is not all that good. HCB recognized that for his genre, a skilled darkroom craftsman could both satisfy his esthetic judgments and replicate his work over and over. What he could control was how many “authorized” images there were.

A gigantic HCB exhiition at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France several years ago was pectacular — the BNF chosen because it would gladly work with HCB and his wife. That was a rare opportunity that had to be taken. You don’t think much about the print, but rather what an eye HCB has for the moment.

There are certainly photographers who marry their eye to theirr work in the darkroom. HCB did not see it that way.

This book is perfect for me, but others less familiar with HCB’s work might be better off with one of his books on a theme, e.g. Paris, etc.

5 Stars Creo que el mejor libro de Cartier Bresson
Fantástico libro de fotografías que recoge muchas de sus épocas como fotógrafo.

Fotos de Barcelona,Madrid,Valencia,Paris.Berlin….

Una auténtica maravilla.

Si te gusta la fotografía,no debes dejar escapar este libro

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