the cherry orchard

Went to the crucible last night to watch the cherry orchard. It's first time i've been to the crucible in ages, i'd forgotten what an excelent intimate venue it is. The stage is encircled by the audience, with the performance taking place within the centre. Interesting to see the types of ppl who go to the theatre, there were many from the older generations and i thought this is just like going to church. There were a couple of students in the mix, plus a few, that i can only describe as guardian readers who eat only organic food. Those people hovering on the border of eccentricity. and me. I was really impressed with the stage, and the lighting was also superb, they had employed a 'hazy fog' effect through which the lighting diffused. A couple of women in the row in front of me wre quite amusing as they were busy cleaning their glasses 'ooh, it's all hazy, I think i've got something on my glasses'.

I'm no theatre critic, but i thought the performance were very good, and there was an almost audible gasp of excitement in the room as joanna lumley appeared. However it was the story line of the cherry orchard that i found most fascinating. Set against the backdrop of social reform in russia at the turn of the 20th centuary. After the emancipation of the serfs, the lowest social class were able to amass their own fortunes, if lucky and astute business characters. Whilst the aristocrats frivoled their wealth away. In this play a rich landowner has amounted huge debts and her estate and cherry orchard need to be auctioned off. The newly rich 'serf' of the play tries to advise new ways to use the land of the cherry orchard for profit, the building of holiday homes. But the aristocrat will have none of it, the cherry orchard symbolises her youth and status and it will not change. Inevitably the orchard is sold and she loses everything. Reminded me a bit of the way church buildings are often revered to the detrament of doing the work of the gospel. All effort and money ploughed into maintaining a crumbling relic. The play is full of other interesting and amusing characters, including the left wing 'perpetual student' who offers great idealistic advice to one and all on the purposes and goals of life. This student reminded me a lot of Raskolnikov in crime and punishment. Probably reflective of the growing bolshevik movement of the day. I think I may have to read some more of anton chekov's work, as this was very enjoyable.

Arcade fire live review

My review of the arcade fire gig made it onto teletext. Thanks to my dad for the photo, as i don't seem to be able to tune my tv into the analogue channels.

How I bought the Neon Bible and other stories..

Went into town on saturday, and I really enjoyed my morning wandering around. Sheffield is an excellent place. Went to the urban deli for a bit to write and drink, and I got a text from phil asking if i was going to the chesterfield match. I didn't realise we were playing at home, and i had my mind set on a relaxing day, so decided not to go. After the abysmal performance i'd witnessed on wednesday it was not a difficult decision to make. Next it was time for a trip to fopp, always a dangerous shop for me as i always buy more than i bargained for. They didn't have the limited edition arcade fire album, but i did come away with 2 cds (anthony and the johnsons and low) and 'children of men' novel. Had to go to a bigger store for the arcade fire album, more on that later. Wandered down to the crucible to pick up a ticket for 'the cherry orchid' and noticed that the lyceum is showing 'the alchemist' which i read recently, so i got a ticket for that too. Feeling rather cultured with my theatre tickets, i decided to wander up to the millenium gallery where they had a free abstract exhibition on. There were some striking pieces, but one particularly caught my attention. Maya Roos had created a giant 'portrait' of coloured lines and boxes influenced by an image captured from norton disc clen up application. I was amazed that this huge piece seemed to be painted directly on to the wall and asking a curator I discovered that it had taken three weeks to paint by a team of three and at the end of the exhibition it would be sanded off and the wall repainted. The transient nature of this work made me admire it more. Got home and saw the football results come in, lamenting a further chesterfield defeat. A managerial change can be the only answer to this dreadful slide towards relegation, the last few games have been void of any ideas and passion. Phil was in agreement, and yesterday Roy graciously stepped down from his managerial role. I'd've preffered to see whole sale changes to the backroom staff instead of promotion of assistant manager, but we'll see if the performances turn.

Ok, so the Neon Bible, the second album from arcade fire. Sorry if you had to read so far if you were only interested in my review, and if you're not interested then you can stop reading now! Their first album, funeral, was my favourite album of 2005, barely a flaw on it, quite superb, so it's always a slight worry whether a new release would match the standard already set. After a few listens i think it is close to reaching those high standards. The neon bible is distinctly arcade fire, yet different from funeral. Produced like some overwhelming symphony the songs form a score of melancholy of the futility of life, or more accurately those bodies that seek to bring meaning, politics, religion. Yet there is some sense of upbeat within the tunes that make you want to dance too. The layers of instrumentation are really quite superb, without becoming some pompous over produced nonsense, they manage to balance grandiose church organs, harmonic choirs, flowing strings, bombastic brass, with guitars and drums. Some of the church organ sounds are immense, apparently recorded at some church, you can imagine some giant gothic cathedral with a bank of a thousand pipes springing forth from some huge organ. Certainly a top candidate for album of the year. And it's making my dreadful commutes all the more bearable as I blast it out from my iPod.

arcade fire

It was an early morning start as I had a work related course to attend in manchester at 0830, so I left the house at dawn, the sky just turning blue, but the moon still prominant. In fact on my way up the hill, the moon appeared above the horizon looking huige and bulbous, but as I got higher, the angles changed lifting the moon from it's horizon hugging position and the satellite rapidly shrunk. It's a bizarre optical illusion. The course wasn't too tortuous, and at lunch I picked up the last minute ticket for the gig I had purchased, that had been mailed to the course venue. It's presence helped get me through the afternoon session, a slight excitement building. Once the course ended around 4 ther was a swift and mass exodus of the participants as they headed out to beat the rush hour traffic. I meandered down to a pub for a drink and to finish reading a book. After some food the traffic had died down and I managed to navigate myself to the apollo, spend some time in a pub awaiting the door opening. There was quite a queue, but it quickly dwindled as the doors opened, a very efficient scanning system was used for swift entry. I've not been to the apollo before, and it is a very nice medium sized venue. A theatre with the seat removed in the stalls, leaving a slightly sloping floor aiding good vantage points, even from the back. Being early I hovered neaer the front and watched the roadies set up the equipment. They seemed to be having problems with a theramin, and it was amusing watching them frantically waving their arms around in the air in an effort to get it to work. Patrick Wolf was the support act, a camp and flambouyant character whose music is worthy of further investigationn I think. Quite heavily string laden, but with hauntingly god melodies. Finally just after 9 arcade fire took to the stage. A vast array of instruments, organs, keyboards, hurdy-gurdys, strings, guitars and horns were used to create their eclectic art rock symphonies. It really was a fantastic spectacle. The only down side being the sound is obviously mixed for the centre of the auditorium, whereas near the front, the bass speakers take precedence so the mix of higher frequencies was too low at this position, due to the fact that the speakers producing the higher mix were hanging about 10m above my head! The other annoying thing were some idiot students near me, who seemed excited to see the band but then continued to chat through most of the songs. During 'power out' win butler invited some of the audience on to the stage, which included said students who cavorted around in an awful display of egotism, especially the boys. Arms aloft and chests out, they really detracted from a fantastic song. They seemed to think that the crowd were cheering them and were feeding from this in some kind of frenzy, it was a sad spectacal. No doubt they know think they are great, thing is, I didin't know who they were, don't know and don't care. Which is true for 99% of the audience. The arcade fire on the other hand.... There were some other audience members onstage watching the perfomance for it's entirity and they acted with much more dignity. The gig mainly consited of tunes from their new record, the neon bible, interspersed with tunes from funeral. From first impressions neon bible is going to be another great record. The musician ship of arcade fire is remarkable as they inter-change instruments and vocals. It's great to see, though sometimes breaks the flow of the concert as you are left waiting between songs as the band members swap instruments. Well worth paying slightly over the odds for the ticket.

most of my photos didn't come out, but a few are available on flickr arcade fire set

Yay!

Hopefully I have secured a ticket to go and see arcade fire tomorrow. I'm on a course all day in manchester and the ebay ticket is on it's way to me there. If everything goes to plan I'll be able to see this fantastic band live. I hope it all comes good.

Crystal Maze

A great little parody of the crystal maze taken from the mary whitehouse experience. It captures the programme perfectly.

I said what about breakfast at tiffany's

She said, I think I remember the film. And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it. And I said, well that's the one thing we've got

Bought the collection of short stories by truman capote at fopp recently and enjoyed reading the original story and then re-watching the movie on dvd. Audrey hepburn's portrayal of Holly golightly is iconic, and being brought up on the a-team as a kid it's so strange to see george peppard as something other than Hannibal muttering, i love it when a plan comes together. Capote's book of short stories is interesting, BAT is by far the superior story, the others are much shorter, and though pleasant, aren't really striking. It's intersting to compare the differences with the film, the cliched happy ending of the film is not true to the novel, and although the character of Holly remains faithful to the book, I'm not so sure about Paul Varjak. The movie has him portrayed as some kind of gigalo, very heterosexual, and his relationship with holly has some kind of sexual chemistry. In the novel I'm not sure that that comes over quite so well, whether that is on purpose, or just a result of capote's writings being influenced by his own homosexuality, the relationship between holly and paul seems much more platonic. They are definately worth watching/reading.

La Lune

Saw the weather forcast on sat morning and they mentioned that there would be clear skies and a good view of the evenings lunar eclipse. The internet came back online in the evening and I was able to look up the times of the spectacle. It was interesting to see, a shadow slowly encrouching upon the moon, to the point when just a faint white gleam shone from the top most edge of the moon. the rest of the satellite was a striking copper red colour, with the outline shimmering a deep red. I think it's the best lunar eclipse I've ever seen. I tried to take some photos using long exposures, but without a tripod it was difficult to keep the camera steady. Ended up with this fairly rubbish hint of a globe that I cropped from a large image. However, there are some really good photos on flickr, like this example by truus.

my rubbish lunar eclipse photo set

Meeting Richard Branson

It's been a bad week for virgin media, not only have they had a fall out with BskyB, resulting in me loosing sky one and sky sports news, but their broadband internet has been playing up. I've not been able to get online, and I had a number of things to blog about on friday, and I can't recall what they are, I'm sure they couldn't have been that enlightening. It's annoying loosing these channels as they are the ones you can flick onto whilst eating your tea/breakfast. Plenty of football scores, futurama and simpsons and of course 24 on a sunday eve. However, Richard Branson cut his holiday short to come to my house and tell me how sorry he was with the inconvenience the loss of these channels and internet was. I said, "it's nice of you to pop by Richard, I can call you Richard can't I?" "Why yes, I think Sir Branson is far too formal for my flowing blonde locks image." "Ok Richard, but the thing is I wanted to check what was on at the cinema this weekend and without the internet I couldn't."

feeding from the bile

Decided to engross myself in my book this afternoon, use my current feelings as inspiration for one of the scenes in my book, and it proved quite useful. Took me a while to find somewhere to have a coffee and write as the deli I found the other weekend was shut. No opening times posted, though I do recall reading ona flyer - come and sit and read the sunday papers, or words to that effect, obviously not on a sunday though. It's quiet in the city centre on a sunday afternoon, found a quiet corner in a coffee house and got down to some writing. Wonder if I'll ever finish iit, but at least it is giving my mind something useful to d, rather than wallow in pity and 'what ifs'. Met up with ad later to go and see Hot Fuzz. Entertaining, bit of light hearted humour always helps. Talking of which, last sunday we were singing a john bell song, kind of contempory liturgy put to a familiar tune, which has the verse:

Jesus Christ is raging, raging in the streets,
Where injustice spirals, and real hope retreats,
Listen, Lord Jesus, I am angry too.
In the kingdom's causes let me rage with you

ad had typed it out on the song sheet, but had made a typo: Jesus Chris is raging, raging in the streets. I had a job not to refrain from laughing - that's me on my commute to work, raging in the streets.

It's a winner

I've sent in a couple of reviews to teletext recently, I missed my Jarvis review, but my Regina Spektor review was a winner! Though I don't think this edited version flowed as well as my text, butthey have to adapt it to fit the screen restraints.

Regina bookends

It seems that as a regina spektor gig saw the beginning of a relationship with v, another one marks it's end. We both had our reservations about full commital, not least the difficulties of living on separate continents. How do you ever know, there's no all encompassing formula, and all the what if's and unknown variables. For someone with a mathematical mind it's too hard to calculate, and yet we shared so many beautiful times together and i always enjoyed engaging in conversation, as we had so many things in common, especially our eclectic taste in movies and music. Last night when the end became apparent, there's that numbness that engulfs, as if all you blood is failing to be pumped to it's correct location. The mouth goes dry, saliva stops and you try swallowing cos it feels like there is some great obstacle in your throat. There's nothing to do but wallow in self pity, trying to see what could've been done in the past to have a different result. How someone of such beauty would have an interst in the first place, a wilderness set before devoid of any replacements that could meet such a standard. A few seasons ago leeds were playing at the san siro and now they are in danger of playing chesterfield at saltergate next season, and you just wonder what you could've done to win one more corner.

Regina Spektor live

The last time I saw Regina Spektor live she was playing in the small room at the leadmill and it was an amazing performance. On the way home I bumped into a set of international students who wanted to find west street. I obliged by showing them as it was easier than giving directions. They were all pleasant to chat with and I met up with one of them later to talk 'english culture'. It was v.

Nothing quite so exciting this night, though as it was sold out I tried to blag my way in as a teletext reviewer, which I thought was fair cop, seeing as I had a hand full of my teletext planet sound reviews with me. They were convinced but cos my name wasn't down they couldn't let me in - boo. I didn't want to force the issue, but the door dude said that there was a few tickets that could be purchased on the door. Better than nothing I thought and took up the offer. Pleased I did, met ad inside who had already got his ticket. Surprisingly full venue, playing the main stage and there was quite a bit of chatter. This was disappointing me, cos there is nothing worse than chattering people at a gig. However, as Regina entered the stage a deathly silence fell as her powerful vocals captivated the audience. Her live vocals are really something else, so vivid and full, a sound that her recorded material does little justice to. She performed a number of solo pieces on piano and guitar, her vibrant anti-folk tunes with witty lyrics transfixing the audience. Then a session band joined her for some tunes from the new album and I thought it detratced from the rawness and simplicity of her vocals, something of the vitality of the songs was lost. Certainly a good gig, and worth giving up yet another evening for!


Took a few clips for you tube:

NME new rave tour

Tonight I felt old.

I've never been to an NME tour before where they peddle the new 'cool' bands, but I'd purchased tickets ages ago cos I wanted to see the glorious css again. It was full of giddy students. I arrived early to catch all the bands and see if any of the hype was worth it, and I sequestered myself near the back by the mixing desk. New Young Pony Club, just seemed to be trying too hard. An opening act willing the audience to go crazy for them, and getting a half arsed response. Sunshine underground band seemed to have a fair following and were better than average. Css followed, and it seemed a rather rushed set, though they still are a fantastic live spectacle. Lovefoxxx wowed the crowd with her eccentricities, stripping down to a purple catsuit which had the male hormones flying. Then, with the crowd whipped up into a delirous frenzy the headline act, The Klaxons, took the stage. New rave eh? Well it was loud and vibrant, but shallow. Scratch at the surface and you are left with nothing, no musical inventiveness. The new heroes of music or flash in the pan, I think time will show the latter to be true.

Here's a rubbish clip of CSS performing css suxx for you courtesy of me



and a small flickr photo set

Jarvis is back

In sheffield at least. Thursday evening jt came down to visit and we went to watch jarvis cocker perform at the plug with A. It's the first time I have ever seen him perform live, lamentably I missed him during his days with Pulp. However, he did not disappoint, what a performer. He interspersed his songs with jovial chats about sheffield and his life spent in the city. Challenging the audience to name four rivers, before rattling off four and claiming "still got it!" Though his arsenal still contains some really good tunes, some really don't live up to his pulp days standard. Despite this, his spider like writhings and stage energy more than make up. His songs still contain observational wit and he manages to hide cutting lyrics beneath cheerful and upbeat melodies.
Had the next day off work so took the opportunity to go for a walk around stanedge with jt. Not the best walking weather as it was quite drizzly, but not awful. A steady wet and muddy walk made a really nice day, certainly better than going to work.
Today I've managed to get a number of jobs done around the house, that have been piling up in recent weeks, good to have made some headway, though there's still plenty to be done. Found a nice new coffee bar/deli in town as well, where I gave a bit more thought to my book. I'm going to have to set some regular slots aside to make some more progress on it.

Jarvis photoset on flickr

Die Grosse Stille

I've had a really busy week with commitments most evenings, which meant I have been rushed off my feet. One of the things I wanted to do was to go and see into great silence so I met up with a couple of friends at the showroom, including curig, a and M&E, though E admitted that she fell asleep during the film.
It's a film that I heard about around a year ago and sounded like an interesting experiment in docu-film making. German film maker Philip Groning had requested to film a group of Carthusian Monks, and sixteen years later was granted permission, provided he added no additional sound or commentry and used just natural lighting. What is produced is an almost three hour insight into the regulated and silent life of these monks. Dedicated to regular prayer, study and silent meditation, you are drawn into their routine. These scenes of their ritualistic life are interspersed with stunning images of the surrounding Alpine scenery which slowly transforms as the seasons change. The day to day chores of the monks are conducted with integrity and also a warmth. It is during these scenes that the personalities of the monks comes across, despite the lack of talking. There are shots of the monks, alone facing the camera, where they seem to radiate an air of confidence and contentment with compassion. The slow pace of life with plenty of time for silence and reflection is in stark contrast to my rushing around at the moment, and there is something about their use of time, space and silence that I think we can all learn from. Why these men choose to live such a life remains a mystery, and what purpose it might serve is not made clear, and is left to the viewer to form. Certainly an interesting piece of art work, with definate underlying spirituality. Sunday afternoons the only time reserved for a recreational walk and conversation, opitimised by the wonderful scenes of the monks sliding down a snow laden hill side in their shoes. Marred only by a conversation with a blind monk who proports that because God is infinately good then there can be good to come out of all situations, and hence he gains strength from his disability. An argument which does not stand up in the face of many atrocities that the world has seen, and perhaps an easier statement to make when living an aesthetic lifestyle as this.

Snow at last

I was disappointed on Thursday that there was no snow, after the media frenzy. I thought I may be snowed in and unable to make the early morning meeting in Leeds, but no. Instead I awoke to no snow and the news media going crazy over two flakes of snow that they had. There was even a guy on the news in some wood broadcasting live "Look there is almost two inches of snow on these branches" he exclaimed. However, last night it began to snow in Sheffield, and it even settled quite thickly where I live. Today I woke up and it was drizzling, the snow had all but turned to slush and I was a little sad. Not to worry, I had planned on going for a walk up to stanedge and the snow would've fallen much deeper there. The bus journey up to Lodge Moor was interesting, the further from the city centre the deeper the snow became. One of the great things about living in Sheffield is travelling a couple of miles and being out into some awesome countryside. I walked from the bus terminus following the road, which went from brown slush to compact white snow as the traffic became lighter. Unfortunately it was also quite foggy, so much in fact that I didn't realise that I had arrived at the reservoir because I could hardly see it! Carried on up to Stanedge Pole and snow became less disturbed, as only a few people had been this way. Including some joggers (or fell runners) who were still making good pace despite the conditions. The snow was becoming really deep, and it was quite tough going, so much of the energy in the footsteps seems to be absorbed by the snow and the forward momentum is low. There were drifts of snow where I disappeared up to my knees, and it was a bit of a shame that I couldn't see the view blanketed in snow. The walk was great, and my legs feel like they have had a good work out. Hopefully there will be more opportunities to do some winter walking later in the year.
There are some more photos added to my stanedge flickr set

Ghosts review

Decided on another trip to the showroom last night to go and see ghosts. I enjoyed the brisk walk to the cinema, as there was a real crisp coldness in the air. Probably the first time I've really enjoyed proper cold air this winter. There's nothing like wrapping up and walking in the cold, icy fingers pricking your cheeks, and the glow on entering a warm building.
It's exactly 2 years since at least 23 illegal chinese immigrants died whilst out cockling in morecambe. This film based on a true story is told by documentry maker Nick Broomfield. It holds on to some form of documentary in it's telling, not quite having the feel of a movie. For the most part I felt an observer, rather than feeling drawn and involved with the characters. Ai Qin believes she can earn a better life in the uk and provide for her family, she quickly learns that this is not the case as she is forced to live in squalid conditions in a rented house with many others. The film documents the work that services the food industry, meat factories, fruit/vegatable picking. The monotonous and hard work that goes to serve our supermarkets, carried out daily by people on the poverty line. Here the immigrants use false documents to garner work through an agency, where they earn about £100 disposable income from 40 hour weeks. It casts a bleak picture, and whilst you cannot condone entering a country illegaly, once caught up in the web it must be impossible to leave. Forever indebted to the loan sharks and gangs who paved your illegal entry, you are subjected to a life of hard work in some of the countries most demeaning jobs. Eventually forced to cockle, the immigrants are discouraged violently by the locals from carrying out their work whilst they are working. So it is whilst working at night that they are caught off guard by the quick changing tide. It poses difficult social questions, how to deal with illegal immigrants who could not possibly repay their debts if deported, and yet carry out important work in the food, health and care sectors. Would this work continue to be delivered if the illegal (or for that matter even the legal) immigrants did not do it. On the anniversary year of the abolition of the slave trade, issues like this show that it is very much still thriving. Challenging.

The families of the cocklers who died are still trying to pay back owed debts, the morecambe victim fund are trying to raise funds in support.

video

i've attempted my first video upload to youtube, it's a small excert of monkey swallows the universe from the gig the other day.

that's novel

i was sitting in a park in the shade in sydney, basking in the december heat when i had an idea for a book. i scribbled a couple of the ideas down in my notebook and decided i would start writing a book on my return to england. and that is what i did, whilst job hunting i began writing, but then time seemed to ebb away and i never had chance to add to the words, instead dropping a few words here instead. Recently i've been getting fed up with work, and with the hassle i had sans car i was considering galavanting off somewhere to write my book. i'd been chatting about it with v when we were enjoying chilling out in tea rooms in prague, thinking they would be ideal places to chill and write. So with the prospect of spending lots on a car, i was thinking i'd rather spend it on some time out. however, i'm not that bohemian, and worried about the bills and subsequent lack of cashflow. anyway, i decided that i would restart the writing and purchased a notebook in which to collect my thoughts on plotlines and characters. wasted most of saturday watching the abismal cfc, so spent a couple of hours today re-reading my manuscript and adding my thoughts to the notebook. quite excited about it actually, wish i could spend some more time on it, but i get caught up in all kinds of things, i never have the quality time to dedicate to it. but at least the ball is moving again, hopefully someone will read it....

journeys

last saturday i took part in an event at broomhill methodist. three people from around the circuit were sharing stories of various journeys they had been on, part of which was a retelling of my time in israel/palestine with highway projects. the evening started with the sharing of food and conversation, followed by two talks. a break for drinks and more conversation followed by the final talk and questions. the format worked really well, but with just over 20 minutes to share some of my experiences it was quite a challenge. It really is impossible to summise how experiencing another culture affects you, how sharing my love of christ in work and deed works itself out practically. I often feel i get so much out of giving to others. and of course my trip was punctuated with the commencement of a war. reflecting on my time there reminded me of feeling of some use, a purposeful vocation. not that the mundane is without purpose, on mission everything is more heightened, added to the context of another culture, really impacts my faith journey. which was the purpose of the event, we are all on a journey, which sounds trite, but at the same time ideas, events and circumstances can have a great impact on our journey of faith and our understanding of the divine. i found great encouragement from m experience on an experience exchange project in zambia. a chance to utilise all his skills to their full in assisting projects throughout the country. challenging and humbling, really made me consider doing something similar in the future.

First gig of the year

On friday c came over to stay, she was in the uk for the weekend, taking a short break from her work in nice. When I went to stay I had given her a monkey swallows the universe cd, which she enjoyed, as did some of her lab peers. The opportunity to see them live whilst in the uk was one of the reasons she decided on returning for this weekend. Thankfully her flight and train journeys went without delay. Met up with a, and we headed to the gig after a quick drink in the showroom.

First up was a band called Gyppos, which actually is probably not an intelligent name as it has racist connotations. They played a brand of rock in the vein of half man half biscuit, perhaps with an air towards the arctic monkeys. Despite the excellent guitar work, the vocals were very poor, dischordant, though in patches it almost worked. I think they will have to make music that accounts for their vocal limitations, or adopt a different vocal style. Next up were slow down tallehasse, who I thought were really quite dreadful. Stuggling with three chord progressions, i admit sometimes simplicity works. And sometimes it just doesn't. One track sounded distinctly like norwegian wood bu the beatles. However, when I see bands like this I think, wow, i can play those chords, maybe i can be a rock star....

monkey swallows the universe were again superb. Celebrating signing a record deal with loose records, the set included tracks that may appear on the upcoming second album. With tunes of this quality you can't help but think another great album is on it's way. The highlight for me was a new track called elizabeth and mary, which had a much more edgier sound than previous tracks. Driving drum rhythms lead the track, and nat pushes her vocals to the extreme with this passionate display.

More pics on flickr

Pan's Labyrinth

I've a million and one things to do, but yesterday I decided that I was going to go to the cinema. It was the only night the showroom was showing pan's labyrinth at a time when I'm not at work. Actually it was quite liberating to just think everything else can wait, tonight I'm going to go to the cinema. In fact I didn't even need to bother cooking as I had a handful of macdonalds vouchers that had come through the post. I'll have two big macs please! Thing is I probably won't fancy another big mac for quite some time now. So I did some blogging, listened to operator please, which got me in the mood for punching the air. Well, ok, not quite literally, but if I'd been a heavy weight in training I'd've been ready to hit some punch bags. I'd've what a funny word, it has two apostrophes. I digress... so it was walk, then maccy D, then walk, then cinema. Excellent, all ready for some dark fantasy tale.

Well, it certainly isn't Willow, nor for that matter is it anything like Labyrinth!

Pan's Labyrinth has a huge rating on rotten tomatoes which helped convince me to watch the movie. It is, however, a very dark and stark movie. A realist/fantasy movie where you are left unsure as to whether the fantasies are purely in the mind of the central child character. Set in Spain during the civil war, Ofilia travels with her mother to stay with mother's new husband. Captain Vidal is the sadistic leader fighting the resistance, who holds no qualms when it comes to inflicting pain and torture on those he considers his enemy, leading to some gruesome scenes. At the backdrop of these realist stories, Ofilia has her fantastical quests from the dark and sinister Faun, leading to various encounters including the revolting 'Pale Man' whose antics and image was so abominable that a girl sat near me had to run out of the cinema in fear - and not return! This tale of death and destruction with it's dark fantasy scenes is rather brooding, but it was the final scene that really struck me. Ofilia is told she is the lost princess of the king of the underworld, and on passing three tests she will once again enter his presence. We are not sure whether these quests are a figmant of her imagination, but the scene where she meets the king is quite potent. I can't remember the exact words of welcome, but there was a great sense of love and affection of receiving his daughter back into his presence. It made me think of the love of god for his children as he welcomes them into his presence, and that the path to this love is not easy, though it is ever-present.
I initially thought that I wouldn't relish watching it again, but after a day, I think I would. It's a good film, but not an easy one to watch.

Things of note

During January I have enjoyed some things and hated others, so I thought I would give a brief rundown for you so that you can either try out the things I've liked or avoid the things I've hated. Apologies for such a poor post, if you have better things to do then there is no need to read further. However, if you are a little bit bored at work (in your lunch time of course) then it may well introduce you to something that you like too. Perhaps you could comment and make this into some kind of interactive forum. (If, as my site stats suggest, you have popped over to this blog due to searching for cures to a swollen uvula then you ought to check the june 2006 posts)

5 Good things

1. 6 music - what a great radio station, an ecclectic mix of past greats and novel new bands.
   
2. Operator Please - came across these australian kids thanks to 6music. Top passionate shoty punky pop tunes. They even have a song all about Ping Pong. They rock.
   
3. malcolm middleton - has a new album out very soon and the upcoming single Brighter Beat sounds superb. The guitarist from arab strap looks due to release his third excellent album. Buy them all!
   
4. Jarvis Cocker - check out this brililantly funny video for his single. Oh, and I've got tickets to see him live in sheffield - yay!
   
5. iPod - what a wonderful thing for storing many records, you can never have too much music.

5 bad things

1. Car insurance companies
   
2. Car insurance companies
   
3. Car insurance companies
   
4. Car insurance companies
   
5. Car insurance companies
   

Bird scorecard system

My uni housemate has just published some scientific research worthy of Science, one of the most highly regarded scientific journals. The work is even of such interest to the general population that even the bbc have reported on it:

bbc news artical
newscientist artical

He's developed a method of scoring the biodiversity of the bird population and the effects of various farming methods on bird populations. Enabling the prediction of species that will become endangered dependent on the farming and eco-stewardship methods employed. A very useful tool, with some interesting results on the impact of farming GM crops.

Monika Webster

Is the title of the first single released by the delgados, and it is backed by a 'brand new car'. Which is what I now have, well when I saw brand new, I mean, brand new to me. So really I have a car, that was once brand new. Another fiesta, cos i like them a lot, and this is the newest car I have ever owned, it is only 6 years old. Hopefully it will enable me to get to work in a much more convenient manner once i've sorted out the insurance. It is black, in case you were after further details.
So much of my saturday was taken up with viewing cars and purchasing. The evening I met up with a at the showroom. Whilst reading the programme about upcoming films I discovered that die grosse stille(into great silence) is coming soon. I've been wanting to watch this movie ever since reading a review from the toronto film festival. It sounds very intersting.
We had gone to watch babel, one of a number of films that I would like to see at the moment. There are parts of this film that work superbly, the sense of the varying cultures of morocco, mexico and japan is quite striking. The interaction of the characters, the modes of communication add to this, along with the wonderful camera work and a clever soundtrack that weaves the cultures together. On the down side, the film is overlong, which seems to be a trend these days. It's not that I'm against long films, but if you begin to feel the movie is overlong whilst watching it, then it's time to get out the scissors and cut some scenes, leave them for the movie geeks to watch on their 2DVD packs. The character played by brad pitt becomes rather dull as there is not much of a story for him, basically he's trying to get his wife to hospital in morocco. We don't need ten scenes to tell us this! It's actually the moroccon characters that are really interesting. The japanese storyline really made me feel sad (slight spoiler) following the trails of a deaf mute teenager struggling with her own identity and feeling unlovable. She struggles for attention and goes to extreme measures to garner male sexual attention. Thankfully it doesn't lead her to take her hown life, which towards the end of the film I feared would be the conclusion. Perhaps it could've ended like that, and such and ending would've made me feel sickeningly sad. Not really what you want when you go to the cinema, but if a movie can move you to such emotions then on one level it has suceeded. Though will have failed if you've gone out to the cinema for a nice evening out!
After dp had dropped me off near my house I bumped intyo dp and j who were on their way to the C&C, I didn't need much persuading to join them for a couple of beers. I was able to have a good moan about how much i disliked insurance companies.

Zephyr in the sky at night

I wonder...

It was a bit windy today. Gradually throughout the day it got noticably windier and reports of road closures came through to the point that we were told to leave early. I'm still on the train, and I thought that for once the train was going to save me time on my journey home. One of the guys set off from the site cabin, still wondering the best route back, however within 2 minutes he had returned.
"Don't think I 'm going to get very far"
"why's that?"
"Tree's blown over"
And he pointed to the dirt track that leads from the road to the site cabins and a conifer had blown over, broken a wall and lay strewn across the access track. We found some rope on site and I tied it around the branches, couldn't remember any of the sophisticated knots I learnt at scouts, so made up my own version of a round turn and two half hitches. The other end was fastened to a tow eye on a car, and then the exciting bit as the car revved up and sped forwards dragging the branches away and freeing the road.
I was last to leave as I was still confined to the train time table. Got to the station. Now Thorne South station is little better than a bus stop, a brick shelter and that's your lot. You could even imagine it necessary to wave the train down as it goes past. At lunch I'd managed to contact the rail company and discovered that the line was still running. Though I was still a little concerned as to whether the train would still be running. There is absolutely no way of telling from this station. The fast train to manchester airport, which doesn't stop, came past, which was promising. It proved that the line was still free. The time for my train came and went, and I began to wonder how I was ever going to get back home. Certainly didn't relish the thought of spending the night at thorne. The train from sheffield arrived on the other platform and I dashed across the line to ask the conductor if he had any information. Turns out the train had been cancelled and his train would be the next to pass, so he invited me onto the train to Scunthorpe, where we turned around and came back, eventually arriving in Sheffield. I was now late for a meal with friends that I had been looking forward to all week. Thankfully e picked me up from the station and we weren't too late.

Getting a new job

Seems like I'm not the only one dissatisfied with their current job. Dave Beckham has signed himself a new contract to play for LA Galaxy, teaming up with the great Alexi Lalas of crazy goatee sporting, guitar playing, slightly rubbish american footballer to score against England fame. It's not about the money, but about the football. I too would like to help with the promotion of the 'beautiful game TM" in the states and was pondering the chances of securing a multi-million dollar contract. I was chatting with my cousin suggesting I could try something akin to the infamous Ali Dia the worst player to have ever featured in the Premiership. His agent wrote to the then Southampton manager, Graeme Souness, pretending to be African football legend George Weah. The letter spoke of his cousin, a senegalese international star. Graeme was impressed and gave Ali a contract, and he soon made his debut appearing as a subsitute. He really was terrible, so bad in fact that he himslef was substituted sometime later! If I could pull off a similar trick with a Beckham-esque contract, I'd be sacked after a week, but £1/2M in pocket.

Was invited to a meal with m&e yesterday, a farewell meal for s before her return to university. It was delicious and I always enjoy a nice meal. M had even made some ice cream which was very good indeed.

Inconvenience

On Wednesday I was involved in a car crash on my way to work, and I am now sick of re-running the events that led to the incident, the numerous times I've had to repeat myself to the inquisitive and to the insuarance companies. The result was I was in car number 3 of a four car sandwich. Everyone else was able to drive off, my car was smashed from behind by a van which completely wrote it off. I liked that car too, it was nice, though on the good side at least I don't have to clean up the grated cheese that had escaped from my sandwhich the previous day. It was a job I wasn't relishing. If I was a calvinist I would be celebrating the fact that the crash was all part of God's plan, and something good always comes out of these situations (like not having to clean the car) - thankfully I don't care too much for predestination, nor does it seem does dave walker.
Despite being a bit shaken and stiff from being flung around my car from the impact I was ok, but it has left me in a very inconvenient situation with regard to commuting to work. I'm having to leave super early to catch the hourly train from Sheffield, and then a 1 mile plus walk to the site. It means I get in late and the whole process takes nearly two hours. Three hours on friday as they kindly decided to cancel the train. It's just not fun and makes the work even less enjoyable than normal, who wants to spend around 4 hours a day commuting for a job that isn't particulalry interesting.

travels with v

It was strange to see v at the airport when I went to pick her up. Waiting expectantly in the arrivals hall, the door periodically opening with showers of people as planes landed. The arrivals board indicated that her flight had landed and that the passengers were awaiting the baggage, five minutes after the board revealed that baggage was available then the doors opened with v at the healm. It'd been about 6 months since I'd last seen her, and now in 3D, which is far better than the small 2D screen of the webcam that had been our means of communication. I was really pleased to see her again.
We exchanged presents and spent a few days around sheffield, meeting friends and family and also going to see a few movies. The bizarre, Perfume: the story of a murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame. A stroy line so strange and twisted that it left you leaving perplexed. However it was infinately better than the dire the holiday, reminding me why I detest romantic comedies that are neither romantic or funny. When was the last time that Surrey experienced significant snowfall between christmas and new year? Still it amused v that I would be willing to accompany her to such a film.
We spent a few days of the new year in Prague, which is a very pretty and quaint city. It wasn't too cold, but an icy wind made it feel very chilly as we wandered around the city. Public transport from the hostel to the city was cheap and efficient. We saw many of the historical sites, churches that looked like something from Gormenghast, interior decor that, though beautiful, often lifted high some man or other, often some saint or bishop and sometimes in a pose that was quite oppressive, eg standing on top of someone. I find this style frustrating, male and power centric, detracting from my understanding of my christian faith. The changing of the guards was long and dull with few choreographed moves, I'd have preferred some mock sword fights at least! All backed by a brass band leaning out of windows playing a tune similar to the Thunderbirds theme, but in a different key.
We did enjoy a stringed performance of Vivaldi and Mozart, there was some violin maestro dude who was very good and we applauded heartily at the end. He bowed and left the stage, we continued the applause and the backing string players took a bow and left. We continued clapping and the maestro dude re-entered, excellent an encore I thought, but alas, he had returned merely to hold aloft his violin and take a further bow. It's not like going to gigs!
Food and drink was very cheap provided you kept away from the touristy areas, though both me and v felt that czech food left little to be desired. Little wonder there aren't chains of czech restaurants outside bohemia! We did find this lovely tea house where we spent some time drinking strange asian teas and doing sudoku.
After Prague we went to London for a night for my friends 30th bday, travelled by coach which cost us less than a return to town on the tram! Great to see my friend and also to have a day to spend in london. We visited the tate modern and enjoyed the slide installation, riding the larger slides, which I actually found quite scary with the fast twist and turns. Also amused by Merde d'Artiste and other works on display. One of my favourite museums. Had lunch in London's longest bar near paddington station, then to Harrods, then straight out of Harrods as we could barely move through the hoardes of shoppers. A quick view around the science museum before some yo sushi and the coach home.
Prague photo set
London photo set

New year and all that

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and new year. It's 2007. I've been quite busy, Victoria came to visit after Christmas and we have been away to Prague and London. I'll blog about them in due course, and now that I've changed to blogger beta I may incorporate some changes to the blog design too.

Review of the year

Albums

A lot of the albums I bought this year weren't released in 2006, however of those I did buy that were released this year here are my top 5:

1. Bright Carvings - Monkey Swallows the Universe
This album is quite superb and deservedly takes the honour of album of the year. I can remember the first listen like yesterday as it broke into Sheffield Shanty I thought this sounds like Twee nonsense trying to appeal to Sheffield sensibilities. But then on the second listen I realised that I had been fooled and that this really was a work of musical and lyrical genius. Clever stories told over beguiling music played with such delicacy and simplicity that it's myriad layers come together in a delightful way. You need to own this record.

2.CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy
Tremendous bubblegum punk record, at 35 minutes, there is no room for dull tracks. Unlike MSTU it's merit is not on musicallity but on fun. This record oozes cool, vibrant tunes matching Lovefoxxx's astute and cheeky lyrics. Art Bitch is the highlight, though it is the live performances where these songs come to life.

3.Mr Beast - Mogwai
Probably their poorest album to date, but with few records to choose from I'll put this in the list. Probably only half of the tracks are great on this offering, however it does have the magnificent 'glasgow mega snake' which packs Mogwai at their most ferocious into a delightful 3min track.

4.Love and Other planets - Adem
Another up and down album, however his ability to create music using a variety of borrowed sounds makes this album worthy of note. Some beautiful tunes and allogories of love. Perhaps my love of his first album, homesongs, sets a standard that just can't be matched.

5.Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada
Back to their best after their mediocre last album. Beautiful melodic electronica that is perfect for ambient surroundings. Lacks the odd sampled vocals of previous albums.

Must also mention the superb double album of Peel Sessions by the delgados, not included in the list due to being a compilation album. Superb music as always and the added bonus of mentioning me in the sleeve notes (i'm the moog). arab strap sadly split up this year and also released a compilation of rareities and hits.

Albums I bought this year worthy of note:
Clap your hands say yeah
Belle and Sebastian - Life Pursuit

singles
My top singles of the year with links to youtube videos

1 when the sun goes down - Arctic Monkeys
At the start of the year I hailed this as single of the year and I wasn't wrong, though the next few tracks made it a close run thing. Perfect single material that just makes you want to bounce along. Shame the album fell a bit flat after a few listens.

2 boy at school - Hot Chip
Not only is the tune great but the video is superb. I love the harmonies over the simple electronica. Just need to get the album now

3 alala - CSS
There's another video too. When I heard this on the radio I liked it straight away. It's got perfect pop elements, driving beat, makes you want to dance.

4 Monster - The Automatic
I love the shouty vocals on this, though it sounds very much like Seafood.

5 science - Monkey Swallows the Universe
You'll have to go to theur website to see the video. Following on from their superb album comes this beautiful tune about losing faith in the 'truth' of science.

6 Us - Regina Spektor
Wonderful piano playing from the anti-folk queen. Using vocals to create unique sounds, the video is wonderful too.

7 Maneater - Nelly Furtado
The best pop record of the year from the crazy nelly furtado. Shame the video is a bit lame.

8 Yeah Yeah - Bodyrox
A nod to a dance tune that couples simple beats with great shouty vocals sung with attitude.

Live gigs of the year
CSS - Leadmill
Adem - Boardwalk
Monkey Swallows the Universe - Boardwalk
Mogwai - Plug
Regina Spektor - Leadmill
65 Days of Static - Leadmill
Belle and Sebastian - Octagon
Emma Pollock - Leadmill
Radiohead - Blackpool
Broken Social Scene - Manchester Academy

Best book I've read this year:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, I reviewed in some depth a while ago, you can search for it if you're interested!

I'm sure there's more stuff, but that'll do.

Turn off those lights..

Been up to the nursing home to do a bit of carol singing which I think the residents quite enjoy, though it is always the ridiculously high songs, usually written for children, that seem the most popular. Anyway, on my way up I went the back way out the bottom of my garden where I passed this house. Every year the light show is more and more over the top. It's the first time I've passed it in all it's resplendant glory this year. I'd noticed the sixty foot santa had disappeared from it's yearly resting place in the back garden. It's awful, really awful. This year alongside the myriad santas is a giant igloo from which a snowman moves up and down in an eerie mechanical manner. A giant translucent sphere which contains something, though I didn't venture close enough to find out exactly what. Possibly an elf or a bear - who knows. Goodness knows how much energy it utilises, and what drives people to such efforts to luminate their houses. I'm sure it's some kind of pitiful cry for attention. But back to the energy wastage not to mention the kilos of carbon dioxide pumping into the atmosphere as a result. I'm with dave walker on this one, turn off the lights before they kill us all!

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Posada

My friend and fellow blogger has taken part in the blog posada, it's well worth visiting here.

Holy Space

Had a bit of a lie in before finishing off the last few bits and pieces for the stations I was preparing for Holy Space. Spent a couple of hours getting the last things in place and the image loops on the data projects running. The event opened at 2, and people started coming in almost straight away, which was encouraging, cos we've had almost no time to advertise the event, we didn't even know exactly what we'd be doing until a couple of weeks ago. There was a steady flow of people throughout the afternoon and it seemed to be well received. I had a wander around all the stations, but didn't really spend the time I would've liked to due to keeping a 'watchful eye' on the stations. But I think it made a nice alternative to the general christmas services, each station had some personal challenges and then ideas for prayer with creative options. Some delicious fair trade refreshements were served in a separate room where people gathered to chat and enjoy some company. Sadly, like a mayfly it's time was over and the church had to be returned to it's former layout, ensuring headence was taken to the floor plan for the setting out of chairs. Woebetide anyone who returns a chair at the incorrect position or angle! And in two hours no-one would know that we'd been in at all.
Photo set available of holy space on flickr

Not again!!

Traffic chaos again

Two nights running

Unbelievable. This time coming in and leaving sheffield. Traffic accidents probably caused by the terrible driving conditions, rain and spray. This time I managed to turn off and roam around some back streets whereup I eventually emerged somewhere I knew. Only 2 hours to get home. Yet again thwarted from preparing the last few things for holy space as we were meeting at the church at 6:30, I was 30min late. The rooms soon began to take shape as we prepared the various stations that we had been given to prepare. Fish and chips was shared and the rooms were left 85% complete before we retired for the evening aroun 11pm. Got home and printed off some images and managed to finally get chance to chat with v, we'd not managed to chat since sunday with one thing or another.

Monkey Swallows the Universe - live

After finishing my pizza I headed up to the Boardwalk to watch monkey swallows the universe their final gig of the year, and it was the best performance I have seen by them. During the support acts members of MSTU came round and handed out festive treats to eat, and with just a few hundred in attendance it made for pleasant intimate surroundings. The set was superb, this time none of the sound problems that have blighted other performances this year, what a difference being the headline act obviously makes in this regard. Each tune was played with the usual beauty, showcasing a new tune about a ghost in a graveyard which sounded very promising. Before the set I'd been chatting with Nat about the earlier traffic chaos and she was retelling her 2 hour journey across the city to the venue making them exceeding late to meet one of the support acts who had come on the train from Norwich. During the inter song banter Nat once again vetted her frustration at the traffic causing idiot. At the end of the set they were warmly encouraged back on stage for an encore. Kev played Groucho, a song with lyrics like: you love me like an existentialist loves an empty room that no-one can see inside, or you love me like a nihilist loves absolutely nothing at all. Today he created a new line: you love me like a four by four drive loves to cause traffic chaos (or words to that effect) Brilliant! It was so good to go from feeling incredibly annoyed to enjoy listening to one of my favourite bands and then hear them sing about that very same frustration!

I wish I had a bulldozer

Cos today I would've used it to create a path home. It was absolute traffic chaos tonight on the way home. Bear in mind that on Tuesday I stayed at work till 6pm and got home in 40min. Today I was making good progress and just past the Atterclif turning on the parkway when I hit the queue at 5:10, I'd already been driving 30min and at this point am about 2.5 miles from home. I listened to Chris Evans on the radio, I was enjoying it, but then iot was 5:30 and I'd moved a matter of metres. Right I want to be home now as I've got stuff to prepare for the Holy Space event before heading into town for the MSTU gig. It's then 6pm and I even resort to tuning into Hallam Fm to find out what the cause of the delay is, and whether there alternative routes I could attempt on reaching the parkway roundabout. Turns out there's gridlock all round sheffield, all routes are backed up, traffic chaos. And the cause, yes the cause is some idiot who had broken down on west bar and left his car with steering lock in place. This vehicle was of course immovable by the services trying to free up the roads. Was I getting irate, I had to ring people up on my phone just to moan about how bad it was being stuck in traffic. I got home at 7:15 and decided to call for a pizza. Guess what - that was late too, I had to wait for ages, but they did give me a free can of pepsi. Still it shows how finely balanced sheffield road network is, one car on one part of the ring road system causing huge delays from all directions into the city.

Monday is gig-day

Went to Manchester to see CSS again last night. Arranged to meet up with Jonah and his friend at MacDonalds, just opposite the venue. However, they were running late, and I had to make my drink last about an hour. I'd brought something to read whilst I waited, but I could sense that Ronald wasn't his usual jovial self and was directing stern frowns in my general direction. Eventually I left, so Ronald could turn his attention to other worries, like the Hamburgler. We arrived at the venue in time to see the 1990s, who I've seen 3 times in the last few weeks in support slots. I'm not that keen on them to be honest. Started to get quite excited waiting for CSS to take the stage, but I was disappointed during the first couple of songs. The mix was terrible, and it sounded dreadful, I think it was the output from the sequencer that was having the effect. Thankfully this technical problem was sorted and the gig improved greatly. Lovefoxxxx continued her flamboyant performance and stage diving antics, which really adds to the live experience. They will definately be featuring highly in my end of year review. Go see them if you can, they are touring extensively and should be playing at a stage near you!

Arthur and George

Picked up this book the other day because I liked the look of the cover and the synopsis on the back seemed intriguing. Started reading it last month and I have gone through periods of reading it a lot and then just the odd page here and there. Is it any good? Well, I'm not sure, it's interesting as it is based on historical figures and is a fictional account of something that actually happened. The imprisonment of George for a crime he did not commit and the subsequent campaign to clear his name led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It starts well as we are introduced to the characters, but I found the court case of George rather tedious. I'm not a fan of courtroom literature, and as the result is obvious from the outset, it seems overlong. It then progresses from courtroom drama to who-done-it mystery and the interest levels are raised. Unfortunately there are then reams of pages given to the story of Arthur's love of another woman and all the complications that that brings. So in all I think this book is fairly average, and fails to engage and grapple with the institutional racism of the time and the pre-conceived opinion of 'half-caste' people. Still, it's well researched.

Holy Space

Awe and Ultraviolet are putting on a special reflections on Christmas event at Broomhill Methodist church on sat 16th Dec. The space will be open from 2-8pm for people to drop in and utilise the various interactive stations that will hopefully aid a time of quiet and contemplation during this busy period. If you're in the Sheffield area I'd recommend you drop by. Click on the image for full details.

It's a Carol free zone!

London calling

Went to London yesterday as i had to attend a training course for this document management system we use. It was a fairly brief, but very useful course held at their head office. I'd got the directions to the venue, but when I reached the correct road I scouted up and down it about twice but could not locate number 18. Perhaps, I thought, you have to know the correct brick to tap with your wand to make it appear, a bit like Diagon Alley. However, after I rang up it turned out that the street I was on actually carried on on the other side of the crossroad. Taking advantage of being in London I decided to do a bit of wandering around after the course, calling in at the National Gallery where they had a nice Cezanne exhibition. There was also a Hockney exhibition on in the portrait gallery, and upon entering the gallery I executed a perfect 180 degree turn upon reading the entry fee, £9! Wandered around Oxford Road, first time I've seen it lit up for Christmas I think, not that impressed. Met up with C for a meal and a chat, it's always good to meet friends, we went to yo sushi, which I enjoyed. Trying to intercept food items as they flowed around on the conveyor belt. Late train back and I've almost finished reading my book, if only work was like this every day.

Time for blogging

So it's been a while since I've had opportunity to update this blog and I think I'll undertake a bit of back blogging. The other day I chanced upon an email from john as I was glancing through my old fish email account as I knew someone had sent me an email to that account by mistake. It turned out that he would be passing through sheffield today and wondered if we might meet up at the train station before he caught a bus for his onward journey. After work I headed up to the station and had just got into the foyer when I bumped into another friend, steve, who I'd not seen in about 8 months. Then john appeared, quite strange to have just stood in one spot for barely a minute and have met up with two friends. Turns out that as I had got john's email late he had not received my reply so my presence was a bit of a surprise for him. He had in the meantime organised a lift for his onward journey, so we had very little time to catch up. In fact no sooner had we sat down with a cup of tea then his lift arrived. Despite the meeeting being brief it was good to see him outside of the blogging hemisphere.

The name's Bond

DP cooked a delicious meal for a group of us and I got to sample some of his superb home brew, a blend of a couple of kits that gave a wonderful flavour. Enjoyed the company and the meal, afterwhich we headed to the cinema to take advantage of orange wednesday and watch the new bond film. This, believe it or not, is the first time I've ever seen a Bond film at the cinema. I think I must've have seen all the bond movies by now thanks to bank holiday tv watching and in my opinion this episode doesn't rate amongst the best of the genre. It starts really well with some fantastic stunts in a 'jump london' style. In fact the stunts at height were making me feel quite giddy, but it slowly went downhill from there. The turning point of the movie is a poker game and I don't suppose I need to give any spoiler warnings about who wins the contest. There's no suspense during the game it's so cliched. Oh no james, you've lost all your money, what are you going to do now?! Then there are the necessary plot twists just when you think the movie has finished, and then when you think it's finished, and then when you think surely this movie is finishing soon, and then when you're looking at your watch thinking surely that must be it! Not that the action is bad, it's all the laboured dialogue inbetween. Daniel Craig makes an interesting Bond, very heartless and someone you can believe is a fighter. He doesn't have the charm and charisma that previous incarnations have had, though still manages to have his way with the ladies. Nice bond girl, so it's not all bad ;) You can also play 'spot richard branson'

I went to the post office and bought a...

You never know what you'll come back with if you go to the post office. During work I took some post down to the local post office and happened to walk past a house which had a hand written note pasted on the gate. Not a very obvious note and hand written in biro, but as I passed something must've caught the corner of my eye and I back tracked to get a better look. The house had recently been sold and some furniture was for sale, including a large TV for £30. My TV is pretty old and for about the last year needs a bit of coaxing to display any picture. In fact if you want to watch a programme it's wise to turn it on at least 10min before the programme starts in order for the picture to appear, and even then it has a tendancy to just go blank requiring a turning off and back on again ritual, which seems to please it, allowing it to spring back into life. It had been my plan to scour ebay etc after christmas for a second hand set as I figured there would be plenty of people receiving new wide screen, high definition, flat screen tvs. So £30 an offer not to be refused. Knocked on the door and someone was in, I said I was popping to the post office and would be back soon and would like to see it working. Got to the post office and a queue was wending itself back and forth up and down the length of the waiting room, a quick calculation and I judged I'd probably have to wait about 30min to get to the front of the queue with the two serves on duty. No time for that so headed back to the TV seller who demonstrated it working, it had scart and s-video inputs so it was looking better all the time. Picked it up on my way home from work and headed down to DPs house for tea.

Hopeful?

Awe was interesting on sunday, again short in numbers but I guess that's not a measure really, quality not quantity. The advent prayer worship trick worked quite well. Numbered envelopes were adhered to the wall, so that cards could be dropped in place and attenders were asked to write a prayer of intercession in a card and place into an available envelope on the wall (we were then supposed to use this as a prayer station later in the service, but ran out of time). JT then led a discussion around advent, looking at the 'hope' aspect of the advent season. The hope of the coming saviour in christ a couple of thousand years ago and the hope of the church for his return however we might imagine that. We were then asked 'what do you hope for' and I really struggled, what do i hope for? I couldn't think of anything that sprang straight to mind, JT spoke of issues like apartheid that as a student he had hoped would be abolished, and we talked about social justice 'hopes', but they didn't really seem realistic. Even though the abolition of something as huge as apartheid would've been unthinkable a few years before it actually happened, when I look at things like sustainable energy I find it hard that people could take on such a vision without any financial gain. For instance in these health centres we are building at work we have had these sustainabilty surveys carried out on the design showing how solar panels and wind turbines can be incorporated into the design, but when these things are put through the financial models the energy saving is not cost effective against the installation and maintenance of the energy producing devices and therefore they won't be included in the final building. However, I'm digressing, but you can see the kind of 'hopeless' air I have around things, and trying to think of a personal hope was still not forthcoming. Then a little glimour of a thought appeared and that was the kind of idea from 'it's a wonderful life where george bailey gets to see a vision of what life would be like for his family and friends if he hadn't been born. That idea that you can have some kind of positive effect on people and their lives is something that I guess I hope for. In someway I hope that not only have I made an impact as a friend, but that through me a glimour of the love of christ and the nature of god has also been revealed. Later in the service as we meditated on the question what would you do/pray if you knew there was 5 days to christmas/christ's second coming/your death, these ideas began to crystallise, if I had a short time I would want to spend time with those people who I wanted to leave an 'impression' on, my friends and family that in someway I would live on in their memories and leave a 'footprint' of christ.

in case you were wondering

i forgot to include anything about football in the previous post. Well that is in part because there really wasn't much to say. In fact scrappy goal, scrappy match pretty much sums up the chesterfield game. Watched brewster's millions on sunday, one of those classic 80s films you watch as a kid and think are amazing, but probably don't really stand the test of time. I'm happy to report that I think it did stand the test of time, whether or not War Games, Flight of the Navigator and DARYL do too, remains to be seen. Brewster's millions was also a film i remember chatting about with john on a journey to school as we both enjoyed it, I guess it also made me feel a bit like i was getting old too in a strangely nostalgic way. Church was better as there was quite a number in attendance and after the coffee morning it felt like the vision was beginning to become apparant. We've been joking along a 'pirate' theme in church meetings for quite sometime since steve had suggested we all came to a service dressed as pirates as some school kids were coming to film a methodist communion service for an RE lesson or something. The joke was to claim that this was the methodist way. For a while our minister wasn't sure if we were joking, and then with the recent 'international talk like a pirate day' I highlighted the youthblog post lamenting the lack of pirate liturgy. Well JT announced that he had been working on a pirate themed service and that he would be delivering it next sunday, so I'll look forward to that!
Awe planning meeting last night, and although I thought that it was a bit of an effort and that ideas weren't really flowing, when I wrote up the ideas today they did seem to be crystallising together. The theme is advent and we started by looking at some 'input' to the idea of advent:

• eschatology
  
• realisation of christ in us
  
• when/do we expect christ to return?
  
• what do we expect on christ's return?
  
• does it make a difference to what we do/how we act knowing that He will return? eg jesus is coming - look busy
  
• is advent and adventure?
  

and the train of thought took us into something along the temporal aspect, the waiting, the finite time we have on earth and how we use it. Hopefully itshould spark some intersting discussion.

grrrr my keyboard has had it, the space keeps sticking and it's making it difficult to post. I need a new o ne.

CSS review

Hooray, another review on teletext. This time for the excellent Cansei De Ser Sexy gig from the other day, though I'm pretty sure I rated it at 9/10 - oh well. It's taken a while to be published and after contacting the editor I'm informed it is due to the fact that he has to limit pages to a maximum of 7 articals due to directives from his bosses. Booo I say, as it means much less space for the excellent reviews that appear on planet sound, and therefore less opportunity for live reviews from people like me. As always, click on the image to see it enlarged if you want to read it!

Beer, tea and football

Yesterday i went to the cask and cutler beer festival. It was, as expected, very good. I sampled quite a number of the beers on offer, and my favourite of the night was gaucho from the salamander brewery. Unfortunatley it had soon gone and replaced by another brew. When they have the festival they have a stack of casks in addition to the hand pull, and it amuses me when they go round with the watering can watering the towels draped over the top.
In contrast this morning was a church coffee morning round at Peter's house. He is one of our more elderly members, but is always very quick with his dry humour. Most people at our church are tea drinkers (maybe that's what makes us methodists!) and on asking what people would like to drink Peter said "would anyone like coffee, I guess I ought to make some with it being a coffee morning". There were a few takers, but the tea drinkers far exceeded them. It was also a good chance to talk about where we are going as a church, and how our thoughts might help in the current circuit review. The conversation was really useful and we plan to undertake some conversations within the circuit and also with neighbouring circuits. My feeling is that although we have a vision we want to offer the 'circuit - or whoever' and that there are probably people who would want to buy into that vision and help us attain that critical mass of people tomake it work, most people feel too committed to their own 'local efforts'. People are busy keeping their own walls from falling down without trying to build somenew ones, to use a metaphor. Perhaps this is true in general for methodism, instead of pooling circuit resources, individual churches are too busy maintaining their own local efforts, though i acknowledge in certain places these are working really effectively. But if we want to stop the decline in numbers then brave and difficult decisions need to be made on plant. There maybe less people, but these people are probably very passionate and unfortunately they probably become drained by the efforts of maintaining plant or church. These people should be freed to dream dreams and work in effective groups, without feeling obliged to maintain the status quo.

Booking tickets

I enjoyed the css gig so much on saturday I have bought tickets to see them in manchester next month and I'm looking forward to it already. Jonah and his friend are coming too, as they've heard good things. CSS are a brazilian band made up of a number of 'arty' friends who started the band as a joke, record producer, fashion designer, film director and fashion assistant. There's more info over at wikipedia if it takes your fancy.

Pretty polly is a pigeon

The last couple of weeks I've been finding church quite trying, it's not that the service is bad, it's just the effort in 'making it work' is spiritually unrewarding. I think we have dipped under the critical mass of people in order to make it work. It's really frustrating, cos I think we have something unique as a church of wide agerange, but all of a similar mind in terms of wanting to get something more from worship than compared to the traditional service. I just feel that we don't quite have the numbers to really grow these ideas, and then begin to focus on how we can share our faith with others. Particularly those dissatisified with traditional church, and those wishing to explore their faith. It is these latter ideas that would really excite me, but all efforts seem to go into hosting worship,and sometimes it just feels like putting on a performance. In fact the highlight of this sunday's service was when andrew discovered a pigeon had somehow managed to get into the community centre and was hiding in the office. i had to coax it outside using a cardboard tube and box lid, it eventually was coerced towards the door, which andrew opened and I edged it outside. I saw it later, pacing up and down the pavement!

Tired of being sexy

I've been admiring a song called 'alala' that has been on the radio a fw times. Earlier this week I heard it again, and this time caught the name of the artiste, so I checked them out on the web. They are signed to sub pop and you can download a couple of tracks on their sub pop site. I noticed they were playing the leadmill, so I bought an impulse ticket, and I'm pleased i did. What a superb gig. This band make music that has to be seen live, a blend of bubblegum pop and punk, played with such enthusiasm and passion, it really is infective. Lovefoxx, the lead singer, is not only attractive, but one of the greatest stage presence I've seen. Dancing around the stage, diving into the audience, and generally being fairly unhinged, makes for a fantastic spectacle. in fact before they came on, Lovefoxx could be seen taking photos with fans and dancing at the front along to the support act. I recomend seeing this band.

Debrief

today was the debrief meeting for highway projects and it was an unusual experience. The last time I was with a large group of this team was whilst out in Israel, and for some reason it felt weird to be around them agian. Seeing photos of the people we were working with made me realise how I miss them, and although at times it was a difficult mission, I really felt I was part of something larger, something that I couldn't grasp, but knew it was of worth. So the reminders today made me feel quite down, difficult to describe really. The worship was good, but it lacked something that we had whilst worshiping out in israel. In fact some of the worship and singing times we had out in Israel were superb, you could really sense the closeness of god's presence. Today there wasn't quite that connection, and maybe part of me was hoping that that would be there. That meeting up with some of my fellow missioners it would recreate that experience, that intimicy with god, that relationship with people, but no, it just felt vacant. So i left the day, not feeling refilled and excited and with fresh understanding of the mission, but really rather weary and despondant.

Living in a material world

The collapse of fare pack shows yet again the importance of wise investment. On one hand it looks like a great scheme that encourages people, particularly those on low incomes, to save money towards the cost of Christmas. The media response has been quite surprising and I wonder why this investment collapse is more newsworthy than the many other collapses of pension schemes etc that have happened. The collapse must be most hurtful to those people who have encouraged their friends and family to use the scheme, under the impression that it was a safe means of saving. They must feel like they have conned their friends. The aspect of this story that really concerns me is the way in which it is portrayed that without money and gifts it will be impossible for these families to have a good Christmas. MPs requesting money to help families have a good Christmas, supermarkets (who will benefit from the shopping in their stores) offering to help out, just fuels this idea of a capitalist Christmas, a celebration of wealth and the giving and receiving of gifts. It really seems that this is now what the public’s perception of this traditional holy day has become. A pagan sun festival adopted for the celebration of the birth of a saviour now demeaned as a day which requires wealth to enjoy. I remember my friend telling of how as a kid during the minor’s strike his family really had nothing at Christmas, no means at all to purchase gifts. The only gifts he received were some donated by the salvation army, yet despite this situation and the hardship, it really was a Christmas to remember, about a steadfast community united in a cause and not about how many gifts he received.

Not making the grade

My reviews from the gig the other night didn't make the teletext grade :(

So I thought I'd post them here, seeing as I went to the trouble of writing them, I guess they aren't much good.

Monkey Swallows the Universe

Sheffield Foundry (student union) supporting Long Blondes 29/10

On the back of a highly rated debut album and acclaim in the Sheffield scene, mstu were given the opportunity to support the long blondes on their current tour. Distilling the folky pop sensibities of the Delgados through the ardour of Sheffield life, mstu produce a distinctive sound. Tonight the crowd are quickly wooed to the mix of guitars, recorders and strings accompanied by the beautifully beguiling voice of Nat Johnson. With performances like this it can only be a matter of time before their work is known more universally.

8/10

The Long Blondes

Looking back at times gone by it is easy to filter out all the awful foibles, fashion statements and Fame, and so watching the Long Blondes is like what you wish the eighties were really like when you reminisce. Power pop fused with punk served in retro-fashion splendour. In fact Dorian's haircut almost verges on 'Flock of Seagull' like majesty. The music could be dismissed as revivalist if not for the vocals and stage antics of Kate Jackson. Singing with the same passion as Poly Styrene from X-ray spex gives them an edge over their peers

7/10

Nice is nice

Just spent a few days visiting my friend in Nice. It's still pretty warm out there, especially in the sun. Managed to fit in quite a lot of activities whilst there including a good deal of walking. Was chatting to my parents on my return yesterday, but they thought I'd been to Greece, not Nice, obviously some confusion!
So Nice really is nice, depite the upheval caused by the construction of some tram lines, the old town and market are pleasant to walk around. We also went to a nearby village, eze sur la mer, where we then climbed up the mountainside to the village of Eze, secluded atop the mountain with vast views across the sea. Being a sunny day we could see some bulges on the horizon which were quite probably the mountains of Corsica. In the afternoon we had a look around a museum dedicated to the biblical works of Marc Chagall, which I'd highly recommend, he has a very distinct style and there's some examples on flickr. Unfortunately the pics of the stained glass work did not come out. In the evening we went to the cinema and as Scoop was the only english film available that was not dubbed we settled for that. It was actually not too bad, though it was clear that a lot of the audience were woody alan fans as there were cheers when he appeared on the screen. You won't be surprised to find that he plays a bumbling neurotic character. Nevertheless there are the odd humourous moments, harmless fun. On the friday we took a train out to Saorge, a beautiful journey on a recently reconstructed track following an old important line bringing rocks, cement and salt. There are a number of villages dotted along this line, they are all built into the mountain side, high above the valley bottom. They really look incredible, and a feat of engineering, but I wonder how precarious some of the older buildings now are as they hover over these long drops. C has done many walks in the area, so we walked onto the other side of the valley to which she has previously walked. The paths are well marked with regular yellow rectangles to ensure that we are going in the correct direction. It was quite a challenging walk as we climbed up to 1300m above sea level, the views were incredible, seeing the border with Italy, the sea in the distance, and many more magnificent Alpine mountains. I do enjoy a good walk, though on the decent I realised that my wallet was no longer in my pocket. After first thinking that it had fallen out at the summit when we sat down to eat lunch, I decided it was more probable that it had fallen out in the train. At the end of the walk, we still had a couple of hours so we walked up to the village of Saorge, one of these mountain hugging villages. It was surprisingly large, with maze like narrow streets, quite picturesque. There was a wonderful shop selling cakes and nougart and a variety of incredibly tasty honey, sourced from various areas in the region. What an incredible array of flavours dependant upon the pollen used from the delicate acacia honey to the dark and nutty horsechesnut.I purchased a pot of high alpine honey with it's incredibly sweet taste and myriad of flavours. Fortunately someone had handed my wallet in to the lost property and we were able to retrieve it the following day, alas (that is probably the first time I've ever used that word, though I don't believe I've ever used it in conversation, or indeed ever heard it thus!) there was no longer any cash in it. On the flight back I got some good views of the alps with the moon above them. Photos can be found in my flickr set.