The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat

When your task is as daunting as interpreting the life of Jesus Christ through music, it's nice to have support from fellow artists throughout the centuries.  Taking inspiration from the religious paintings of Carl Bloch and drawing from the melodies of timeless hymns, LDS composer Marshall McDonald uses his gifts with piano and orchestra to create a moving and meditative narration of the life of the Master in "This is the Christ."

In this interview you'll hear Marshall describe how he tells a story through music, whether or not he thinks the young people of today "get" the hymns, and why he didn't feel ready to tackle some moments in the life of Christ without benefit of the timeless melodies found in the hymns.

A Musical Christmas Card for 2010

The story this week isn't breaking news even though it's good news. In fact, old or new don't really apply--it's timeless. I hope you'll have a quiet moment to relax and listen to The Christmas Story read from the New Testament, interwoven with timeless Christmas music.

It's read by my neighbor, Myron Hassard, affectionately known as "Haz" by all the people in our ward, who think of him as our ward Grandpa.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

In this engaging new book, author and historian Paul Thomas Smith has created my Christmas pick of the year--a text that is comfortingly familiar, yet filled with the bits of history and insight a life-long scholar can add to the narrative to make it vivid and alive in our minds and hearts; a book families and students of the scriptures can enjoy for years to come.  And the illustrations drawn from the religious paintings of Carl Bloch are the perfect accompaniment to the text throughout.

Why were shepherds despised in New Testament times?  Was there really no rooster that crowed three times for Peter?  Was Luke wrong about the census?  Listen as the author discusses all of this and more.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

It's been years in the making, but Dawn Pheysey, Curator of Religious Art for the BYU Museum of Art, can still hardly believe they are all displayed here together for the first time in history; five of the eight huge Carl Bloch masterpieces which have graced churches across Denmark and Sweden for over a hundred years.

In this walk-through of the exhibit we'll hear the history of the pieces, learn about the other Bloch paintings and etchings in the show which have been beloved by Latter-day Saints for half a century, and try to answer the question Danish priests have asked for years, "What is it the Utah Mormons see in these paintings?"  

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

If you've ever had a New Year's Eve where all you wanted to do was warm up some enchiladas for dinner and then go to bed, then you can relate to Beth, the protagonist of "Promise Me."  After a year when tragedy seems to have moved in as a permanent companion, an unusual meeting at a 7-Eleven starts a whole new relationship that will change everything in her life and present her with a choice she never could have imagined.

With 16 books in a row on the New York Times Best Seller lists, you could either play it safe and stick to a formula, or you could do what author Richard Paul Evans has done and take the risk of giving your readers something new and unexpected.  The fact that "Promise Me" is currently number four on the Best-seller list seems to show it was a risk worth taking.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

Singer and entertainer Alex Boyé takes you back to your childhood (if you're old enough to remember music on vinyl) with crooner-style Christmas standards, plus puts his own stamp on "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and the original title track.

You'll love his smooth take on holiday favorites like "Christmas Time is Here" from the Charlie Brown Christmas special and the interview features the added bonus of Christmas remembrances and testimonies, including a remarkable "Christmas of Two-Hundred Haircuts."

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

LDS Twelve-Step Conference to be Held at UVU in Orem, UT, Next Week

What is addiction?  What are the Twelve Steps?  How do they fit together with the gospel?

As authors of books on using the Twelve-Step process to receive healing and recovery through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and as recovering addicts themselves, Phil and Colleen Harrison are the perfect guides to share the hope available to sufferers of addiction everywhere.  In a candid and informative interview, you'll learn about the free Twelve-Step Conference to be held at UVU on August 13th and 14th of this year, plus find out about ongoing resources at Heart-t-Heart.org.  That's where you can for a .pdf flier of the conference schedule and topics.

Whether you're interested for yourself or a loved one, whether you struggle with an addiction or compulsion or not, there is much here to learn about humility, about how closely the Lord walks with us in our weaknesses, and what it really means to have "weak things become strong," as the Lord promises in the book of Ether.
 
That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

BYU Church History professor John Livingstone had long had a vision of sharing the history and sites of the Restoration with people everywhere on the globe, and when videographer John Starrs moved into his ward it seemed that both the right people and the right technologies were coming together to make it happen.

Along with their well-known co-writers Jeffrey Marsh, Lloyd Newell, Craig James Ostler, and David Whitchurch, they've now released "Salt Lake City, Ensign to the Nations" in book form, on DVD, have a walking-tour guidebook for Salt Lake City, and perhaps most far-reaching, the new BYU Virtual Tours website with new information added each week.  You can even go online and visit http://virtualtours.byu.edu while you hear our guests explain the origins and challenges of the project, tell of the prestigious award their creation recently won, and, most importantly, talk about the church history we are each called to be part of today.

That's the week on The Cricket and Seagull...

The idea for this show began over 40 years ago when Don Oscarson (writer of the original Nauvoo Pageant) was driving through Cajun country in Louisiana listening to the blues, and it finally made it onstage when he matched it up with writers Marvin Payne and Steven Kapp Perry.  

This engaging, new retelling of the timeless parable of the Prodigal Son is set in Kentucky coal country and features an imaginative staging of the classic tale featuring 6 show-stopping performers who seamlessly trade off roles and instruments like they were born to do it.  "Take The Mountain Down" premiered live at BYU Education Week two years ago which led to a recent taping by BYU Broadcasting.  Don't miss it on BYU-TV Tues, May 25th, at 8 PM Mountain Time, and the following Saturday, the 29th, at 9 PM.  Also available now on CD and DVD at MarvinPayne.com

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull... 

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in 5/4 time?  Yes, and it works.  Originals, hymns, and even a primary song all mixed together?  yes, and it works.  What really works is the 3-part of blend of the voices and personalities of Soni, Brooke, and Whitney, the three young mothers who make up Mercy River.

Coming into their own on their second album release, you'll hear about choosing songs, the impact of meeting LDS sisters at Time Out for Women events around the country, and why this particular kind of music feels just right for Mercy River.