The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat

The popular all-mom trio, Mercy River, is back with a mix of well-known inspirational music and originals that reflect their own life experiences.

In this audio interview Soni, Brooke, and Whitney talk about the usefulness of onstage humiliation, the good things about surrendering and letting go, plus introduce the LDS market to some of the best contemporary Christian songwriting from recent years.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull, be sure and take a listen!

Playlist:
Beautiful Life
Better Than A Hallelujah
It Might Be Hope
With Him We Can
Change In the Making
Love Never Fails
Let Go
Blessings
Beautiful For Me
Surrender
Just Like A Father Would

A video presentation of the audio interview including visuals of all the various works discussed. Click Here to view.

Rita R. Wright, Curator of Art and Artifacts at the Church History Museum walks us through the new exhibit featuring nearly 200 different works in a variety of genres.  Her enthusiasm for art and the gospel is infectious and you'll be glad for a guide who helps you see more deeply into these amazing paintings, sculptures, and yes, even a flannel board story.

In this audio interview you'll hear what kind of support the Church gives to the arts, how learning to understand art an be helpful in understanding the scriptures, and I think you'll especially enjoy hearing Rita Wright get on her soapbox for a moment on the power of art and how it blesses our spirits.

Click here to see a video version of this edition with photos of the exhibits.  And be sure to click here to visit the exhibit page itself and cast your vote for the Visitors Choice award.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

Utah State Democratic Party Chairman Jim Debakis was delighted with the soaring numbers of LDS Utahns who turned out for the Democratic Party's caucus meetings last Tuesday, and Craig Janis, head of outreach for the newly launched LDS Dems Caucus, talked about the increased interest in the organization just this week.

With The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressing concern over a lack of political participation in the state and amid worries over the ways an increasingly one-party system of government in the state can be harmful to all citizens, Mormon or not, LDS Democrats were impressed to hear the following read over the pulpit in church meetings in a letter from the First Presidency of the Church in recent weeks:

"Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of the various political parties.  We encourage members to attend their precinct caucus meetings."

In addition, the LDS Church directed local congregations to cancel activities on March 13 and 15, allowing church members to attend their Democratic and Republican caucus meetings held those evenings, respectively. The result? Record participation.

That's this week on the Cricket and Seagull.

This new album features masterworks, sacred anthems, a folk hymn, a song from the Broadway stage, and selections from some of the most eminent film composers of our day. Included are jubilant renditions of “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Ennio Morricone’s “Nella Fantasia” from The Mission, and one of the choir's most frequently requested anthems, “The Holy City.”

In this audio interview director Mack Wilberg tells about the music choices, Tenor soloist Stanford Olsen, relates the most humbling aspect of working with the choir, and describes the joy of performing and recording some of the world's most enduring (and difficult!) works for choir and orchestra.

That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

For some deaf recipients of Cochlear Implants, it can take up to ten years to learn to distinguish sounds and to speak.  But for Emily Thomas, from Oklahoma, it was a miraculously short period of less than two years; years which coincided with her finding the Gospel and deciding that God’s gift of words to her was a sacred trust.

In this audio interview with Emily Thomas, a professional counselor deaf since birth, you’ll learn three things deaf church members wish hearing members understood about them, hear a remarkable story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ bringing a family together after a decade, and generally bask in the glow of someone full of the light of the Lord.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull.