For centuries they lay hidden in clay jars in remote cliff-side caves near the Dead Sea, but now you and your family can see the Dead Sea Scrolls in 10 US cities, including at The Leonardo in Salt Lake City right now through April 2014.  And even if you can't go in person, you'll find amazing ways to be involved from wherever you are at the website (TheLeonardo.org) with podcasts of lectures, book clubs, and picture books.

In this audio interview, Bryton Sampson, communications specialist at The Leonardo, takes us on a quick tour of the possibilities and what you'll experience at the exhibit. From a 3-ton stone from Jerusalem's Western Wall of the Temple Mount to everyday objects and sections of the actual Dead Sea Scrolls, you'll find plenty to pique your interest.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

What was temple worship like in Old and New Testament times?  What ancient symbolism might be enlightening to us as we  worship in our Latter-day temples?  The 2013 Sidney B. Sperry Symposium taking place this Saturday on the BYU Provo campus addresses these and many other aspects of "The Mountain of the Lord" in ancient times.  And if you can't attend in person, the book containing nearly all of the presentations has just been published.

In this audio interview, Dr. Jeffrey Chadwick of the BYU Jerusalem Center and the department of Religious Education at BYU shares the history and purpose of the symposium, gives some passionate advice to Gospel Doctrine teachers everywhere,  and lays out a preview of his own presentation at the upcoming gathering -- "The Great Jerusalem Temple Prophecy."  The symposium begins at 9:00 am in the Joseph Smith building on the Provo campus and it's completely free.  Click Here for symposium details online.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

So here’s a question; if you could visit Israel and go to all the places you’ve read about and dreamed of experiencing, using every sense but sight--meaning you wouldn't see a thing--would you still want to go? Would it be worth it?

Kyle Woodruff has been blind since birth, but on a recent tour of the Holy Land with a choir, he “saw” the land of Israel and the places Jesus walked and taught, in very different ways than everyone else in the group--and came up with some amazing and surprising insights.

That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull

Motivating and inspiring young people to do their best is always a good thing, but how to do it?  In the case of the members of the Lyceum Philharmonic Orchestra, director Kayson Brown seems to have found just the right formula for inspiring excellence.

In this interview he talks about high expections, love, and an over-riding sense of purpose; traits which apply to much more than music, although we’ll be sure to hear lots of great music along the way.

That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

What if you wanted to paint the being you worship? You might worry that you don’t have the skill, but what about an even more basic consideration; is it right to even try?

If you do try, then what kind of representation should you use?  Classical, realistic, or abstract?  You’ll find all these questions and a lot more to think about and see in this excerpt from J. Kirk Richards’ recent keynote address at the 2013 conference of The Association for Mormon Letters, titled, “Seek Ye the Face of Christ: Considerations in Depicting the Savior.”

And, because it’s such a visual presentation, we’ve made this a video podcast.  Click here to view the presention.

That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

The word “banquet” conjures up the image of a feast; delicious food and lots of it, but for the past 22 years, students at BYU have hosted a Hunger Banquet – a banquet where the goodies are not doled out equally.  In fact, most of the attendees go away hungry, at least physically, but filled with a very tangible vision of the scope of global poverty.

This event is truly “thinking globally while acting locally,” not only by raising awareness, but also by benefitting a local organization which helps international refugees in Northern Utah.

Click Here to listen!  That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

It’s the middle of winter here in North America – the time for snow and freezing temperatures, and the time when nothing grows in the garden.  At least that’s what most of us have come to think. 

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull.

There’s nothing like a hometown Christmas — a Christmas when you were together with family, when the high school choir set the mood for the season with their concerts, and when you saw and waved to your neighbors as they scurried among the downtown shops seeking treasures for their loved ones.
A hometown Christmas is a bit harder to find these days — strip malls and canned holiday music which starts around Halloween have seen to that, but they still do happen.  In this case we’ll listen in on a few numbers from a hometown Christmas concert by Utah singer-songwriter Cori Connors, herself one of just two recipients of this year’s Governor’s Mansion Artist Awards for artistic contributions to the state and her community.  We’ll hear a Christmas story or two, a tribute to a real-life hometown hero, a song about the reason for the season, and finally, a sing-along “Silent Night” with all the people crammed into the Farmington Arts Center to celebrate the season.  I hope you’ll sing along.
Here’s to a hometown Christmas — that's this week on The Cricket and Seagull!

The "Arab Spring” has swept across the Middle East this year, bringing new freedoms to people in a number of nations, but in Syria, the winter approaches and hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the fighting by crossing into Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan – nearly half a million and growing in number – are finding life more difficult than ever.

In one of the many refugee camps, you’ll find Jim and Karyn Anderson, two Utahns who have been serving as humanitarian workers for LDS Charities in Lebanon and now in Jordan, trying to bring relief and encouragement to the fathers and mothers who have made their way from Syria over the Jordanian border by night, often through gunfire with their children, seeking any kind of safe haven.