"It's time to play the music..."

Fantastic post today on the Guardian Film blog. It's about Rowan William's favorite films... Andrei Rublev and The Muppet Christmas Carol apparently?!

Read the whole post here... It explains why I could hear him singing the Muppet Theme Tune on the way to Lambeth this year...




" It's time to play the music
It's time to light the lights
It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.

It's time to put on makeup
It's time to dress up right
It's time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.

Why do we always come here
I guess we'll never know
It's like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show "

Stephen Fry posts his 'Wittenberg Protest'

The 'ever perspicacious' Stephen Fry has listed his 15 changes which MUST be taken on board for v3 of the iphone software... the longer post on iphone competitors can be found here.

Fry writes...

But, despite my emotional as well as intellectual belief in Apple there is much wrong, or at the very least deeply unsatisfactory about the iPhone and perhaps about its ‘business model’. When the first generation came out I offered the view, based on my experience of releases and refinements in this field, that iPhone the Third would be The One. I still believe this to be true. Any wishlist for hardware and software improvements in v3.0 would be bound to hope for – nay demand – the following:-

1. Cut and paste. I mean come on!!
2. iPhone version of Safari to be Flash capable.
3. Video recording: iPhone should be like a Flip
4. Upgrade of camera (xenon flash, higher res)
5. Front facing video camera for 3G video calls
6. MMS
7. User file management capabilities
8. Bluetooth that is worthy of the name. File transfers between different phones and platforms is a minimum requirement.
9. A memory card slot.
10. AM/FM radio. (Mobile TV too, why not?)
11. Better (and removable) battery.
12. Built in projector (this prolly won’t come till V4, but you never know)
13. Customisable glossary for Apple’s predictive text input system. BlackBerry has a superb autotext that allows BB units still to outperform iPhone when it comes to input.
14. Email to be widescreen capable.
15. Attachable proprietary or third party peripherals: keyboard, projector (if not built in see wish 12), printer etc. Maybe not necessary if iPhone implementation of Bluetooth gets the kick up the arse it needs.

I started to loose him at point 12... but all in all a pretty good protest!!

Easily among one of the best...

On Thursday night I went to see the Neil Cowley Trio at the Cornmarket in Newbury. It was a truly fantastic gig...

The're a Jazz Trio (Piano, Bass and Drums) which I first came across them on Late Night with Jooles Holland, and immediately bought both of their albums. 

Neil Cowley (frontman) is an artist with an impressive career history, at the age of 10 he performed a Shostakovich piano concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, then went onto play with The Brand New Heavies and Zero 7, among others. 

I find it hard to describe how good they were... the craftsmanship, timing, energy, enthusiasm, were just awe inspiring.... I have a favorite track, His Nibs, which they didn't play... and it didn't matter. They played in a venue which was only a quarter full... it didn't matter (but it was a travesty). Just Brilliant...  I'm starting to gush now... and I don't care.

I know this next suggestion may be a little controversial,  but if you have to sell body parts of your own grandmother to buy tickets , then do it... and do it NOW without regret or reticence.

Tragedy is that Newbury was their last listed Gig, but they are playing around at the London Jazz Festival, and event that finishes tomorrow.

(Someone.... no names mentioned... has pointed out that I may have been a little influenced by alcohol or tiredness when I wrote this post..!!?? You decide?!)

Where is Jim...?

Just added a very cool gadget to my iphone called instamapper. It sends my GPS location to a site and updates a map at the bottom of my blog. So if you ever need to know 'Where's Jim'... you'll be able to find out. 

Here is where I am right now...

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Visual representation of quantitative information

One of my favorite ever books is book by a chap called Edward Tufte, and called 'The Visual Display of Quantitate Information'. Two things about the book.

1. It's basically about how numbers can be displayed to help people understand what numbers are saying. There are some beautiful examples of both helpful and unhelpful diagrammes and pictoral representations. 

2. It's a really well made book, basically Tufte struggled to find a publisher who would a. publish the book, b. deliver the production values he was aiming for. So he published the book himself and it's just really, really nice. The printing quality is fantastic. 

But... if a book is not going to be sold on it cover... this is the book. 

This post was sparked by a post I saw which had looked at visual representation of voting in the US election, the post can be found here. Hat tip Andrew Sullivan... again.

The picture, above right, is a really great piece of work. It looks at the voting on a county by county basis, and distorts the map of the US because gives greater space to areas of higher population. What then presents itself if a purple country with swathes of red and blue running through the more rural or urban areas.

Classic...

From The Onion...



Carrying a majority of the popular vote, Obama did especially well among women and young voters, who polls showed were particularly sensitive to the current climate of everything being fucked. Another factor contributing to Obama's victory, political experts said, may have been the growing number of Americans who, faced with the complete collapse of their country, were at last able to abandon their preconceptions and cast their vote for a progressive African-American.



Citizens with eyes, ears, and the ability to wake up and realize what truly matters in the end are also believed to have played a crucial role in Tuesday's election.




Major hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

04:43- Off to bed

It's now 04:43, and I'm off to bed. As Gore Vidal just said "I didn't really expect it to be this easy".

I stayed up for John McCain's concession speech, now that was the man we wanted to see through the campaign. But, I suspect the Rovian clones who ran his campaign just wouldn't allow that to come out. 

I'll save Obama's speech for tomorrow, along with the final numbers for Montana, Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina. 

My Kid Could Paint That...

Just finished watching the film 'My Kid Could Paint That..'

For anyone who hasn't seen it, or heard of it, it's the film of a little girl, called Marla Olmstead. Read the Wikipedia page here...  In short, Marla was a four year old girl who, between the ages of 4 and 7, produced amazing pieces of abstract art. 

As you watch the film it moves from a story about a little girl and onto:

-  a family 

-  a community 

-  a nation 

After this the story takes a really interesting twist, and into a different journey about story. 

The documentary ends by saying "it's a story about what happens to stories", about the nature of narrative. 

To me the heartbreaking part of the documentary was what it had to say about what we do with the 'my story - your story - our story - the story' stuff, how distrust breaks apart the narrative we all depend upon to build common cause and community, and how hard it is to build again when trust and faith have been broken.  Do watch the film... 

American Fervour...

Just watched the third of four parts of 'The American Future'. The BBC/Simon Schama series on recent, post independence, history. This third part looks at the connection between Religion and Politics in the American context.


I've always really liked Schama's style of presentation and it's really interesting to see and hear a 'secular Jew' commentate so incisively and sensitively on this subject. Those in the UK can view it here.

The programme has always made really solid links between the past and present, and this third programme is no exception.


He never reverts to cheap gags or even the easiest of obvious shots, he just make a self-evident case that the Church has lost it's way in politics, away from the intent of the Founding Father's and the earliest Christian leaders who fought against injustice, and too into the hands of the American Right.... and back again?!


Do take a half an hour just to watch the last 30 minutes, it's brilliant. And watch he face at the end of a Mega-Church service... priceless.

McCain

This made me laugh...

"He's George W. Bush without the prudence and caution."

... and cry!

Back to my roots?

I've just clocked that the title of this post has just a slight overtone, with connotations of race for some. Well, as that is so far off the mark of what the post is about, I'll leave it up. 

I know for most people the success of Barak Obama's fundraising strategy will be of little interest, but for those of us who cut the teeth of our early careers in fundraising it's really fascinating, for three reasons:

1. At the start of his campaign turned down a guaranteed $150m (£86m) in state funding, because state funding would limit his spending. This was a significant gamble, but I'm sure the team had good numbers to back it up. 

2. His fundraising drive is based on a beautiful synergy between proposition, message and values. Saying to people 'I'm not taking your money unless you volunteer it', is simultaneously; pro-choice (in the non-abortion use of the term), anti big-government and participative.

3. The rest of his campaign is based on large-scale participation on the ground. Yet... his fundraising campaign is also large-scale participation (the average donation in the last month has been $84 (£49), with a supporter base of 3.1m) This, again, blows away the concept that we have two types of people - those who give and those who do. Giving and doing are, increasingly, seen as two sides of the same coin.  

Truth, Good, God, and Fullness

I found this really interesting piece through Andrew Sullivan, (who incidentally has been writing and collating the best stuff on the US election).

In a blog called Postmodern Conservative (multiple contributers) James Poulos writes the following under a post "Truth, Good, God, and Fullness..."

"We start longing for the experience of conversion, the gratifying sensation that we are surrendering ourselves completely to an insuperable power, rather than longing, say, to have been converted. This presumptive longing for the sudden, totalizing experience of comprehensiveness is, I think, a bit too driven by envy. And our longing, post-conversion, for the enduring, permanent experience of fullness is ditto too driven by pride."
I think his point about 'rather than longing to be converted' speaks about a preference for nice experiences over and above transformation.

Landslide...?!?

Are we really talking about a landslide..?!

We continue to hope...

Well, as the 'Palin Bounce' has well and truly lost it's edge, and Obama moves ahead in a key states,  and these comments from Andrew Sullivan a moderate Catholic Conservative... we continue to hope.

Philanthrocapitalism....

Two good friends of mine (Matthew Bishop and Mike Green) have finally published their new book - 'Philanthrocapitalism'. 

The book is about the changing face of Philanthrophy, with increasing numbers of the super rich giving away the vast majority of their wealth... but.. using the principles they have used to build the fortunes they have built. The biggest examples of which are Bill Gates the Clinton Global Initiative, the Google and Ebay guys. 

They have launched a website at www.philanthrocapitalism.net.

On the site there are a number of very interesting bits and bobs; 1. a very interesting, very recent, interview with Bill Clinton (whoever he is?!?). 2. Five Bonus chapters edited out of the book on the previous 5' Golden Ages' of Philanthropism, panning from the Ancient World to Carnegie.

I got a circular email from Matthew last night, in which he says... "Some people have commiserated with us for our timing, launching our book just as capitalism is falling apart. But we believe the financial crisis makes our message more timely than ever, for three reasons. First the super rich are likely to fare better than everyone else during this crisis. Look at Warren Buffet, who is already invested in Goldman Sachs and GE at a bargain price. Second, government budgets will now be tighter than ever, so there will be even more demand for philanthropy. Third , every philanthropic dollar will need to be used even more effectively than ever so the new business like approach we call philanthrocapitalism is even more necessary."

If you watch the video on the home page, it might appear that Matthew is more concerned with catching the wine waitress as she passes by that talking about the future of giving.

 

If this stuff flips your widget then follow their blog here..

Disappearing art of the mix tape...

Quickly... catch this rather brilliant radio 4 programme. For those of us over 35, they are, perhaps one of the greatest icons of youth and young love. 

In Iona..

Phew... it's been a busy few months. Lot's of work, community house coming together, getting engaged.. I'm so chuffed to be back on Iona. It's been a couple of years (2005 to be precise) and it feels so freeing once again to stand on the soil of this little island once again. 

I'm staying with an old friend Malcolm King. Malcolm was a real life saver when I was a youth worker in Egham back in the very early 1990's. Last year he took the post of Warden of the Island centres... visit here if you have the dying urge to know more. In the meantime, I'll post more as the week goes on!! 

Monaco Grand Prix...

Well... Sunday's Grand Prix was one to remember. It was even better to be there!!

See here for more photo's... 

All are priests now...

Firstly, another apology. It's quite a basic one, but please accept my apologies that there is nothing new in this post which has not been said better, but better people at a better time. But... in my defence, I just wanted to point you towards a great article in yesterday's Guardian (I now get to read the Guardian on a diary basis thanks to the OCD of my new/old flatmate Mark).

The piece in question was about Wikipedia, but spoke more widely to other web 2.0 and wiki projects.

The piece is written by Nicholson Baker, and because it is written by an author of fiction, has flair which most journalists struggle to achieve.

There was one small section of the piece which really struck me...

"...when people did help they were given a flattering name. They were "editors". It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone was called a groundsman. Some brought very fancy professional metal rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they brought to the pile were appreciated.

And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and down in it, having a wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it became the biggest leaf pile anyone had ever seen, a world wonder."

I just thought this was a rather beautiful little parable of the Kingdom of God.

But... like Jesus, Nicholson goes on...

"And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or too common, throwing them to the side. And that was too bad. The people who guarded the leaf pile this way were called "deletionists".

But that came later. First it was just fun."

I know many would argue that my proposition is wrong and theologically flawed... but... in the first bit... isn't he talking about a priesthood of believers?

Slave to the cult

I know... I know...

Over the past couple of years I have felt the need to defend my position as a PC owner. As people have asked questions such as "Why don't you get a Mac?", usually in an annoying and whiney voice (at least that's how it has sounded to me). I have typically responded back with comments like "because I need a computer for grown up's"... I have even posted on such bulling tactics in the past.

But... I now find myself in the humble position of eating my past words of rebuke.

There are three reasons for my 'conversion' to the cult... they are:

1. More compatibility than in the past... This was a big concern, as I have to swap file with and between different clients for work, and any platform which couldn't do this well was a no-go, as was the Mac of the past.

2. Back up facility with leopard... When Matt so keenly informed me of the latest upgrade on Mac OSX, I watched with amazement at the 'Time Machine' tool. This was a major plus. Firstly because I am forever over writing files that I wanted to keep, and secondly I had just forked out £800 to recover data from a crashed hard drive. Ouch...

3. It just looks so much better than a PC... In the end of the day, the overall look of a Mac is so much nicer than any of the PC's on the market.

So... Matt Rees, Jonny Baker, Andrew Jones...

Can I now be a member of the emerging church, can I, can I, please... oh go on... please... please??

Chrysalis

Apologies for the delay, if apologies are necessary. I finished reading Alan Jamieson's latest book 'Chrysalis: The hidden transformation in the journey of faith' a couple of weeks ago, but due to other pressures it's taken me a bit of time to get round to blogging about it.

It was really Jonny's review and recommendation which got me to buy the book in the first place, and it is well worth a read.

There are a long series of things I really liked about the book, REALLY liked. This is a very necessary book, and as Len Sweet say's on the back "Alan emerges as the dominant journey-theologian of our time".

For those familiar with James Fowler's 'Stages of Faith' then the ideas of faith development are nothing new. But, I believe, the shadow side of Fowlers work is that it supports deconstruction, but can be presented in a way which has little to say to the reconstruction of faith. In Chrysalis Jamieson has drawn a lot from the work of Parker Palmer. I hadn't come across Palmer before reading this book, so have Alan to thank for that. Palmers work, in the way it's presented by Jamieson is MUCH more reconstructive, and this, for me, is perhaps the biggest strength of the book.

It was these 're-constructive' sections of the book that I was most interested to read, and I was not disappointed. Alan's insights into the importance of vocation, were just great.

Perhaps the only element of the book I struggled with was it's linear presentation of the journey. While I liked the grand analogy... Caterpillar - Chrysalis - Butterfly (I was able to recognise much of the journey as detailed by Alan in my own journey) I was left feeling it was a little too neat.

My own experience is that the journey is a little more like the 'Spiral Staircase' analogy used by Karen Armstrong, among others. The spiral staircase suggests that we come back to points time, and time again, believing we have answered a point in faith when in fact it's a point we need to visit time and time again.

Despite this, I feel the Chrysalis analogy is fundamentally more useful and accurate.

The power of silence?

Last night I drove out to get provisions and fill the car with fuel before our epic journey to Glasgow which starts tonight. We're in Glasgow for Mary's sisters wedding on Sunday, so wine, salty snacks and diesel were essentials for the journey. Fear not, I'll stop driving before consuming the wine.

While in the car I caught the Radio 4 comedy programme 'The Museum of Curiosity' I've listened to it before and am a real fan of Bill Bailey.

This week had three guests, Alan Davies, John Gribbin and Martha Reeves. When Martha Reeves was introduced as a Theology Professor and Hermit, I was really fascinated to think of the career change she had taken. But was somewhat disappointed when I realised that the Martha Reeves I was listening to was not Martha Reeves as in 'Martha Reeves and the Vandellas', but Martha Reeves the Theologian and Hermit.... Never the less, her input into the programme was both fascinating and insightful

There were two quotes she gave in the programme, the second from Desmond Tutu "If governments knew how subversive silence was, it would be banned"

In the 13th and 14th centuries silence was taught at schools, it was believed that if you could practice silence you would be un-coercive. Another story from the programme came from Einstein's early life, when he was disciplined at school. When his father enquired as to why, the teacher responded saying "He sits at the back of the class and smiles"

But... initially there was a quote from Robert Runcie, in which he was said to have said "The Church is like a swimming pool, all the noise is at the shallow end."

I had two reactions to this quote, firstly I laughed and saw some of it's truth, secondly I felt some disappointment, for two reasons:

1. It was somewhat damning of those 'in the shallow end' however that might be interpreted.

2. Those who were making noise were at least trying to communicate something.

I guess this goes back to understanding the difference between talking and being heard. I guess this is a difference which can only be learned through both humility and practice.

But... in a society full of inane chatter (wether the Jeremy Kyle show or Newsnight) this discipline seams harder and harder to practice but more urgent than ever.

Flow...

Earlier this week it was a real joy to meet Richard Passmore, and hear, a little, first hand about the work he's done with 'flow'.

I heard from Jonny about his work and was really enthralled by it; probably for three reasons;

1. My short career as a youth worker
2. What a brilliant piece of contextualisation 'Flow' was
3. How it connected, a little, with the 'inner game' work of Timothy Gallwey

Rather than talk about the 'inner game' stuff here (I'll do another post on that), I'll just give BIG credit to Richard, and let you enjoy the rather beautiful video produced by Spike Jones and others.

Kluster

This week (Monday to Wednesday) I'm away on the Small Missional Communities conversation in a rather challenging venue just outside Northampton. Challenging because it's DRY!!! (Thankfully a small group of us headed off to a pub before supper).

It's been nice to connect with a few people again, in particular Shannon, and I'm planning a date with her to get our heads together, mostly to continue discussing entreprenurship and supporting the small with a view to the impactful.

In the meantime she has pointed me to a GREAT new(ish) web tool call Kluster, which looks fantastic. The best way of describing it is a cross between a project management application and facebook.

I now really want a project to use it on... a dry run before I reccomend it to clients, whose predominant form of team work is remote, would be great.

In fear of Facebook

Having spent most of my career* in marketing I was fascinated when I first joined facebook, about 12 months ago now. I was simply blown away by the amount of marketing information the owners of facebook held. It's pretty difficult to know how many people are now registered, but with howies now producing t-shirts which say "NO I AM NOT ON F*!#ing FACEBOOK" we can guess the numbers are pretty high.

Get me straight, I am not worried about facebook in the way a number of other luddites have been, I don't particularly worry about

a. the demise of blogging

b. the time I might/might not waste on facebook

c. oppression of non-members

What concerns me more (and is an ongoing concern in many areas of public life) is when too much power is held in one place.

Let me explain... when I worked in Marketing, the idea that I could so easily find the date of birth, gender, relationship status, personal tastes, educational achievements, workplace, political and religious views of my customers, was just a dream come true, then to know the same details of their friends, was just too incredible to be real.

Of course I'm not suggesting this information is given away at the individual level, but at a macro level this kind of information would enable me to create products, offers and propositions and develop new markets. Again, I am not particularly averse to this... ... but what I am struggling with is some of the bedfellows of facebook, may not have such pedestrian intentions.

Perhaps the bigger irony is that Facebook is opensource. Opensource was once hailed as one answer to dispersing power and the reducing the ability to extort.

*This makes it sound intentionally planned and meticulously managed... which is really quite comic.

ADDITION: See this interesting article by Tom Hodgkinson Editor of The Idler - this is much better stuff than my rather vacant ramblings... makes you want to pull out of Facebook altogther.. in fact I might start a group!

Rhubarb

Thanks to Mrs Body's generosity, and her skill in driving a spade through through a healthy crown, I have now planted two Rhubarb patches. This is supposed to be done in the early autumn, but being pretty hardy plants they're doing quite well.

Along with asparagus and properly ripe pears, in my view, rhubarb is one of the three British delicacies (I used to have quails eggs on this list until I went to Cambodia, where they are sold as road side snacks, Fortnum and Mason take note).

Alongside getting the Garden cleared, we were also able to regenerate the compost heap... interestingly Bette Midler had a few interesting things to say about Composting...

"My whole life had been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap."

Fallow year...

After a 'fallow' 2007, I was determined that 2008 was going to be a more productive year for the garden.

So with the help of two exceptionally generous friends we managed to clear my garden, it only took 5 hours.

Now the hardwork of planting out and maintenance. If you live in the Oxford area, expect a summer and early autumn of unwanted corgettes and marrows.

Winter in Salcombe...

Two weekends ago we spent the most amazing winter weekend in Salcome. I am still staggered that we were able to have a picnic on the beach on February 12th...

Thank the good Lord for SUV's and patio heaters...

Typepad exile...

After many, many months of blogging silence, I have resigned my typepad account, and transferred my blog onto blogger. In the end of the day I really don't have enough to say to justify the extravagance and complexity of a typepad account.