As an old man, Polycarp was martyred for refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. It is said that the fire did not burn him, so the soldiers stabbed him and he bled to death.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Polycarp
Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna and is ranked among the Apostolic Fathers - the generation of early leaders of the Christian church immediately after the original Apostles. He is considered a saint in both the Eastern and Western traditions. As depicted in LEGO by AKMA, Polycarp is held to have been taught directly by John, and he later taught others, including St. Irenaeus.
As an old man, Polycarp was martyred for refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. It is said that the fire did not burn him, so the soldiers stabbed him and he bled to death.
As an old man, Polycarp was martyred for refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. It is said that the fire did not burn him, so the soldiers stabbed him and he bled to death.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Interview with Brendan
Hey guys. I've been too busy with other projects lately to do any real blogging, so I'll glom on to the Brothers-Brick. Today they posted a great interview with Brendan Powell Smith, creator of the Brick Testament, with thoughts both on the theology side and the LEGO side of things. Yes, I know, Brendan has posted six new epistles. I'll get to them.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Brick of Mormon
Steven Van Wagenen was looking for a creative way to teach his sons his faith and came up with re-enacting stories in LEGO form. The idea took off, and he and his sons produced the Brick of Mormon, a 200 page LEGO illustrated book of stories from the Book of Mormon. Follow that link to the site where you can see examples and purchase a copy for yourself.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Under Construction
I don't normally post work-in-progress shots, but Tony Sava has been working steadily on his Cathedral of Saint Francis, and it's really interesting to watch the development of different techniques he's been using.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Brick Epistles
Brendan Powell Smith has added three new (well, two of them are remakes) sections to the Brick Testament, focusing on the Epistles:
On Enemies illustrates some verses from Romans and Ephesians. Great job on reproducing the US House of Representatives - the use of that Bionicle(?) element for those decorations on the wall, the wheels, the teleprompters, etc. Double bonus points for attention to detail from the 2010 President Obama State of the Union speech - notice that Brendan was careful to match the figures sitting around the President, even to the point of getting their clothes right. I'm glad to see the inclusion of President Obama - previous chapters have used President Bush, and Brendan is always timely.
On Slavery is essentially a rebuild of his previous iteration: Instructions for Slaves. Personally I'd rather see Brendan take on new passages than rework old ones, but it's interesting to see how much his building has improved over the years of this project (BTW, Brendan, it would be great if you'd actually include links to prior versions, rather than making me search to come up with the old links - maybe, for instance, create a little 'behind the scenes of the BT' section to your website with links to these older iterations of stories, and some things like this or this). I really like the inclusion of the microscale manor house in the photo below, and then the full scale version to match. One negative is that the photoshopped wounds on the whipped slave don't work well (as opposed to the photoshopped glint of light off the mirror, which is brilliantly done), and also in 1 Peter 2:18, I've never thought the use of a torso to show a shirt lying there worked well. I've done it as well, but it just comes across looking like a body's been chopped in half.
On Women is similarly a remake of Instructions for Women. Indeed it's almost a shot for shot remake, like that version of Psycho with Vince Vaughn. I do note that in the last eight years, the standard has gone from tube TVs to flatscreens. I'm glad that Brendan's figs are keeping up with technology. Also, looking at old and new we can see how the selection of minifig parts has improved and the use of more advanced building techniques, like the stained glass windows, the fig legs and the trick of connecting the flames that Brendan was an early promoter of. BTW, the posing of the figs praying is great; I wonder how that was done. Of course the joke with switching around heads for 1 Cor 11:3 is still funny.
On Enemies illustrates some verses from Romans and Ephesians. Great job on reproducing the US House of Representatives - the use of that Bionicle(?) element for those decorations on the wall, the wheels, the teleprompters, etc. Double bonus points for attention to detail from the 2010 President Obama State of the Union speech - notice that Brendan was careful to match the figures sitting around the President, even to the point of getting their clothes right. I'm glad to see the inclusion of President Obama - previous chapters have used President Bush, and Brendan is always timely.
On Slavery is essentially a rebuild of his previous iteration: Instructions for Slaves. Personally I'd rather see Brendan take on new passages than rework old ones, but it's interesting to see how much his building has improved over the years of this project (BTW, Brendan, it would be great if you'd actually include links to prior versions, rather than making me search to come up with the old links - maybe, for instance, create a little 'behind the scenes of the BT' section to your website with links to these older iterations of stories, and some things like this or this). I really like the inclusion of the microscale manor house in the photo below, and then the full scale version to match. One negative is that the photoshopped wounds on the whipped slave don't work well (as opposed to the photoshopped glint of light off the mirror, which is brilliantly done), and also in 1 Peter 2:18, I've never thought the use of a torso to show a shirt lying there worked well. I've done it as well, but it just comes across looking like a body's been chopped in half.
On Women is similarly a remake of Instructions for Women. Indeed it's almost a shot for shot remake, like that version of Psycho with Vince Vaughn. I do note that in the last eight years, the standard has gone from tube TVs to flatscreens. I'm glad that Brendan's figs are keeping up with technology. Also, looking at old and new we can see how the selection of minifig parts has improved and the use of more advanced building techniques, like the stained glass windows, the fig legs and the trick of connecting the flames that Brendan was an early promoter of. BTW, the posing of the figs praying is great; I wonder how that was done. Of course the joke with switching around heads for 1 Cor 11:3 is still funny.