Shoeboxes and Stripes

The videos from a week ago are starting to make their way up to t'interwebs, and can be found over on their own Vimeo channel, loosely entitled "Shoeboxes and Stripes". If you've no idea what I'm referring to (and you may not, and that's fine!) then head that way to check out some great wee tunes; don't let the one-camera capture put you off some fantastic (and award winning) musicians. If you are familiar with it all, or even were there, then I hope the stuff put up over the next few weeks will go some way to faithfully record the stories and songs shared - all feedback appreciated.

Anyway, in the meantime, here's my favourite so far.

Shoeboxes and Stripes - Part 11 - Pete MacDonald - Yellow Raincoat from Peter Huey on Vimeo.

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low rising

Good week for music videos I guess; on the downside, it contains 100% less people from Bangor than the previous post. However, on the upside, I can't remember seeing a non-performance Frames/Swell Season video (if we disregard everything lifted straight from Once since 'People Get Ready' - which seems a lifetime ago. Good to see them back in action; is there something wistful in their ultimate embrace? Or do we just want there to be? (Or do we still even care...)



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movements

For a couple of years, it seems like half the country has been waiting with baited breath to see what would become of Rend Collective Experiment. There's never been any doubting the talents involved; as a teen I was in in awe of Gareth Gilk's drumming, for example (and made a right arse of myself the first time this came out when we were supporting Numinous back in the bad old (read: MNC) days!) There was just too much quality shining out of the first two ORGANic Family Hymnal EPs. (In fact, for two years consecutively we somehow managed to get them to keep donating their wares to the church 21 promo videos. Add to the fact that they're some of the nicest folks in the industry, and it meant there was basically automatic euphoria whenever the news came out last year that they had finally been snapped up by a label. And not just any label, but Survivor Records, best known as one leg of the behemoth that is Kingsway Music. (Kingsway has many legs; if it were a minibeast, it would probably be a short centipede. But anyway.

The album seems epic already; take, for example, the revamp of original Rend track "Faithful". How to make it a full-throated reworking? A genius bit of inter-label management and the pulling in of a guy who's sure to shift a few thousand copies: Mr David Crowder (check it out on their myspace.) You'll remember that we love the Crowder around here so much that we think nothing of insulting his whole band to their megastar faces. So that call works for us.

Anyway, all this is merely a HUGE build-up to the highlighting of their first biggish budget video for (the single?) "Movements" off the new record (released in the New Year, which is, I believe, quite soon.) The pretty colours. HD loves well turned out girls and boys, eh?



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upcoming dates: dec-jan '10

I always swore I'd never do it here, but then I thought... I never get to see many people anymore that are (I hope still) casual readers of this particular corner of the t'interwebs. (And if you're not, then me analytics have a lot of explaining to do...) There's no Pet Polar gigs planned in the next couple of months (mind you if you're looking, we're willing if it can be fitted in) but I've a couple of worship-leading appointments coming up which I would recommend. If that happens to be your inclination, anyway.

Having worked with the CIYD folks in the past I can heavily plug their upcoming Reflect conference for Young Leaders - ideally if you volunteer with a church or community group and would love a retreat aimed squarely at you, then this is the one, details after the jump above. It's 8-10th of January and is something like £30 for the entire weekend's bed and board - bargain.

Also, Sunday week (that's Sunday December 6th) I'll be (as is growing less frequent as we age, folks) dropping in to the evening happenings at the Church of the Res at Queen's. It's always a little weird returning and not knowing anyone there (such is the turnover of residents at the COISC) but having loved the atmosphere for praise for three great years, it takes all of thirty seconds usually to slip right back in to the vibe. I believe it's a couple of sessions with a load of coffee and buns etc. in between, so should be fun.

Hopefully see you there!

stick it in the five hole!

Sometimes, Lego is still just as awesome as it seemed fifteen-odd years ago.


Fleury or Shanahan? I can't decide.

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now i can talk

Let's be honest here: an awful lot of Northern Irish indie bands sound the same. Scratch that: they nearly all sound the same (the "Belfast sound" as it was referred to as a few years ago, still going strong.) And fair enough in some ways - we're all the sum of our creative influences, and if we all spend all our time playing with everyone around us etc. etc...

Two Door Cinema Club have repeatedly skirted this definition carefully. And you know what? The new single is great. But it's the video that is particularly epic. First 30 seconds are outstandingly mind-destroying in particular.



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oh my god

Filmmaker Peter Rodgers is asking just one question: What is God?



This is my first encounter with this upcoming film, but there's a really interesting interview with the documentary maker over at Rainn Wilson's home of left-field existentialism, Soul Pancake. I'm already looking forward to finding out more about this project.

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ah, nostalgia

Not being in the city anymore is really kicking in again; feeling out of the creative loop a bit, more than anything else. But anyway. Was reflecting on listening to half of the fabulous Maguire & I talking about their next wee bit of recording (unsolicited shameless plug for them, see right, be there or miss out.) Was wandering about on myspace and ended up on the MNC page, and took the time to watch the below video for the first time in a very long time. It made me chuckle, I must admit - last ten seconds in particular.

The current song set (of the longrunning acoustic-y project that has finally been tentatively named Pet Polar) couldn't really be any further stylistically from the MNC stuff if I had deliberately tried, but I do get a little regretful when I think about how damn good we were, how many great opportunities we got, and how we more or less blew the whole thing. Yeah, we shifted a few hundred records, played a lot of great gigs, a (thankfully lower number of) few crap gigs, got to team up with some great bands and artists, and had a couple of years of on-off mayhem. But we could've done so much more. We pushed ourselves quite hard when we wanted, but it just wasn't ever as much as we could have. I wonder if it was that we didn't take it seriously enough; who knows.

I'm regretful further because no matter how much it is talked about, it's been a few years since I seriously sat down in a studio setting as an artist and actually laid anything down, beyond recording crap multi-instrument demos in our back room at home. I'm fearful of forgetting how to play songs; I know there's MNC songs I've forgotten, and any time I do manage to churn a good one out now I have the same fear; that it'll never make it to being recorded, and so be forgotten.

Anyway, the video made me laugh. Coincidentally, the song in the background - Walk Away - came from a test recording we did in the first hour in the studio, hence how appalling it is - but I think I included it just because it never made it to the setlist for the fateful EP.



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play that funky... eigenharp?

This post is more or less entirely for the pleasure of Jonny Kirk - but I'm sure others may also appreciate it. This BBC Online report has David Sillito interviewing a group of musicians about the Eigenharp - a "revolutionary" new musical instrument that does sound pretty cool. A little too cool. Wait a minute. About thirty seconds into their demo and I closed my eyes... and all of a sudden, it's the last level and Mr X is asking me to choose!

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it's just part of the job

I guess this clip is a few days old but I just caught it over at Joseph Gordon-Levitt's tumblr. It's Barack Obama's straightforward answer to this kid's question: "Why do they hate you so much?"


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Well fielded, sir. Jed Bartlet wouldn't have done it much differently, I hope.

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Frank's story

A brilliant two-minute anecdote from @Glinner - posted originally here - as told to him by Frank Kelly, better known to non-islanders as Father Jack Hackett. I find Linehan's storytelling is enhanced even further by closing your eyes and pretending he's actually a deadpan Gerry Ryan!

losing our religion

Just finished watching last Monday's BBCNI doc Losing Our Religion, presented by the excellent William Crawley and knocked out by Belfast's own champions of one-offs, DoubleBand Films (ever see their Maradona one? Google it, it's a cracker.) The one-hour documentary dealt with the issue of religion in Northern Ireland, why and how it had come to dominate life, and why now it seems to be increasingly fading from significance. With more emotive language and OTT photography than you could shake a stick at, this was clearly a piece that was prepared to not only deal with it's topic, but both channel it and tear it apart as well. And whilst Crawley's own nostalgia and wonder at the faith he questions seemed to ensure he remained respectful, he managed to tease out an awful lot of food for thought.

Crawley, previously a philosopher, theological lecturer, university chaplain and now in his own words a "lapsed Protestant" and his journey were very much a focal point, but all around was a wider discussion, between the gods of tradition, the god of the adapted 'church', the unknown god and... well, humanism. So whilst I'm not even going to begin to give a weighted version of my two cents, here are two or three lines that sat with me.

A little way in, Crawley visited the Belfast Islamic Centre (down behind the Welly Park, lads, where I recall spending a while sitting one night while Dave's row of flats were evacuated during a fire alert.) Against, whilst there's a whole discussion on why increasing numbers of Northern Irelanders are turning to the Islamic tradition, an interesting line from future Imam Malachy Moustafa was his assertation that (to paraphrase) "we won't change our fundamental beliefs to suit the times." In contrast, I got the impression that up at Causeway Coast Vineyard (which came across very well) Crawley felt there whilst the delivery method had been adapted to suit the times, there was perhaps a question of whether the language and theology might have been also - which I would probably disagree with (as a very irregular Belfast City Vineyard frequenter), but could accept as an impression.

It's a point worth noting though: as Barry Moore, the Canadian Evangelist (whose altar call had led Crawley to faith as a teenager) stressed at the conclusion: you can "poke holes" in the hypocrisy, the human failings, the cult-like natures, the demands of Christianity as acted out by its followers - but "you can't poke holes in Him (Jesus)" I don't claim to work for the most emergent of churches (being Anglican in Mid-Ulster) but by the same rod, like many forward thinkers we seek to outwardly demonstrate inward faith in as many relevant and contemporary ways as possible. But is there a danger in this that we change the Message as well?

Astronomer Terry Mosley came out with another great thought:

You cannot believe the Genesis account when you look at our universe; it is so big, so vast, so many stars in it... it just doesn't make sense to have all that out there, just for our benefit. (What is the point?)"

But then he himself started off the answer:

The sheer majesty of it all, the size, the beauty of it all...

I'm about to do something quite dangerous. This is a blog about many things (once described as "Dali-esque!") It was originally about film production. It is sometimes about current affairs. Occasionally, it is personal. Most of the time it is links to videos. But something I've always been careful about is talking about faith. It's no surprise to most that I work in Christian Ministry (capital letters!) and so faith often comes into my common conversation (as it does for most people - whether they realise or not!) but I don't preach verbally. I'm very careful about it, and I'm very conscious of it. This is because I don't consider myself a preacher, but a ranter. And ranters turn people off - for reference, see the legalistic Judaism that one particularly famous rabbi came up against in Israel a couple of millennium ago.

However, I shall break this self-enforced axiom for once. For as Terry Mosley questions, what would be the point in a universe that is so large and so majestic, that proves the laws of physics only to break them, that baffles and astounds... what is the point of all of that if it is created entirely for man's benefit?

Mr Mosley, that is ENTIRELY the point.

'God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.'

Whether you take the Genesis account of creation as literal or figurative, the message there is clear; that creation was made, and given over for stewardship, to man. And throughout the OT this imagery continues, of a creation which God constructed for man to reflect on and steward over. But why? Why purpose does this amazing tapestry of life serve?

I could (and am willing to) give a straight answer to this, but we're on food for thought talk here, remember? So instead, I refer you to Rob Bell's Nooma 'Whirlwind' - find Parts One here and Part 2 here. (Aside: Job FTW.) Creation both honours and displays YHWH to us - as in the book of Job where, for example, God himself uses it to answer and comfort his tortured but loyal follower.

"I began to understand faith as a set of questions, rather than a set of answers," says Crawley wistfully. With some joy I would argue that that is entirely the point. The hole in the human condition is Jesus-shaped, and God is indeed that fabled refuge and strength; but many Christians are shaken and perturbed that, on exploring faith, they are instead left with a whole set of new and seemingly unanswerable questions. Perhaps the biggest faith killer, the greatest sin of our churches, the entire key to this debate is this: whenever a question is asked, the easiest thing to do is say, "We don't ask questions, we're supposed to believe." NO! A hundred thousand times, no!

For if you are not asking questions, you are not thinking. If you are not thinking, then you are not engaging. If you are not engaging, then what is this faith you profess other than something you store up in your ivory tower and defend against all assailants - and there will be many, because your faith is not alive and active, but rather a steady and rather small rock you cling to. You might make it in the end, I really genuinely hope and pray that you do, but what a waste. What a waste.

Faith is ENTIRELY about questions. And whilst I would not demean you, dear reader (if you're still with me - and it's brilliant if you are) or insult your intelligence by simply trying to enforce mine on you, I would encourage you to reflect on these things. Most of us have been to that place where it just doesn't seem to make sense, and that's fine. Most of us have also been at the point where we are adamant that life is nothing more than what we have, and it makes absolute sense that there can be no god but Man, if that is what we should call it. But the dangerous thing is to stay in one place. I admire Crawley in that sense: he had no faith, he found religion, he resigned from it, but continues, as he says, on a journey - open and inquisitive, and maybe even a little amused, as to where he will end up.

Whatever you do, remember this: it is never wrong to ask questions. And if I catch you not doing it, I'll have your guts for garters.

Here endeth the lesson.

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no such thing as too scary

Blog-tastic day today: @djlowry tweeted this at me earlier, from Daring Fireball:

Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?”

Maurice Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.”

Reporter: “Because kids can handle it?”

Sendak: “If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered.”

Damn right.

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no fee for 3D

A healthy mixture of congratulations and sarcastic only-too-rights for Northern Ireland's own Movie House Cinemas, who have just announced their decision to drop any excess charge for viewing films in 3D at their multiplexes, becoming the first major chain in the UK to do so. And whilst this film graduate is still heartily in the "3D's-not-new-the-industry-has-tried-it-several-times-before-and-no, it's-not-the-future-of-cinema-no-matter-what-Disney-try-to-tell-you" camp, I might finally go and see a 3D film now. Maybe. Let's face it, with Up, Where The Wild Things Are and Fantastic Mr. Fox all out this month, there'll be plenty of opportunity.

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rockabye baby, don't say a word...

This is just too mental for words...

I can just imagine a team of guys sitting around, silently doubled over with laughter as one of their number painstakingly whacks out "Sweet Child O' Mine" on a xylophone.

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up

Who was it would originally hypothesised that there are only seven storylines in all of literature? Whenever I see a new Pixar trailer, I always think the same thing: there's seven boxes of plot for us, and one secret one that John Lasseter keeps all for himself.

New Pixar "Up" Trailer
Uploaded by crimfarstein. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

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"get him tied down, dear..."

Spare a thought for Belfast's own Jonny Evans this week. Evans' star is still on the rise at Old Trafford, not to mention that he's becoming a reliable presence in the Green and White Army's defence to boot. However, there was literally nowhere he could hide his face when the Gaffer started doling out relationship advice at this week's UEFA pre-match conference. Bless.

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forfey

Haven't got a chance to get down to Forfey yet, was a little disappointed this year but all my holidays were spent on Camp. Having seen this wee mini-doc from Babysweet, I now wish I'd been there even more.

FORFEY (fawr-fee) from Gregg Houston on Vimeo.

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"sorry we were going to eat you..."

..."we didn't know you were a King!"



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help! iDVD won't open! i'm ruined!

Every now and again - and they really are few and far between - I do bother to blog about something technically useful. So here's this term's attempt.

A while ago, to my horror, I received feedback from a client that noted how pleased they were with their product (in this case, a double wedding DVD - wedding and reception, full day of shooting plus ridiculously time-consuming cutting.) However, there was one minor complaint - I had made a common spelling error with the bride's name, not only on the printed skin of the DVDs themselves, but also on the menu of both DVDs. I was pretty horrified, as you can imagine, so set about to rectify the problem. That is to say, it went on the page stuck to the side of one of the machines with "Unavoidable problems" on the top. A couple of weeks ago, I went about trying to rectify the problem, only to discover - to much deeper, further horror, that iDVD - which I had cheated a bit and used to compile the DVD designs together - was refusing to speak to me. Icon would jump, 'iDVD' would appear in the menu bar for a few seconds, and then it closed.

What a situation - many arghs later, I began trawling the 'net for solutions. I was originally running IDVD 6; iLife has never been a priority upgrade for me, particularly in this case as I've been forcing myself to use DVD Studio as much as possible. Two weeks later, and the situation has been solved.

Apparently, this is bit of a common glitch that appears from iDVD 6.0 right through to 7.0.2. No-one seems to know where it came from or what it's doing. All they have are several different ideas about how to fix it. Honestly, you'd think we were talking about Vista here.

One of the most common starting points is to Repair Permissions for the drive, which takes 2-3 minutes via Disk Utility. It's probably a good idea to delete the Application preferences from your Home>Library whilst your at it. However, in this case, nada.

Next up, into Home>Library again and to locate the very fiddly 'com.apple.iDVD.plist' file. Out the window with that, and we were at the point where iDVD would stay open until the menu appeared.

In frustration, I nabbed a Family pack of iLife '08 and install the upgrade. However, as the error was already know to be common to iDVD 7, it persisted! However, having located an Apple Support post that was actually written by someone who understood the problem, I upgraded all the way to 7.0.4, and by a miracle, the issue has disappeared for now.

It's the first time I've encountered such a problem with Mac software. I've come across some random crashed before - Safari is the most obvious culprit, but grown-up programs like Compressor and LiveType have also been know to topple down pretty quickly in my presence after a long day. However, for a complete shut down to be caused by something as simple as a preferences tweak or a misplaced font (so says the gospel according to DJ anyway) is really a bit irritating. But I guess it's the small price we pay for using an OS structured the way it is. It could be worse. It could be Vista.

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professional envy

Right McConnell, that's it. Whenever my regime take power, you and your success will absolutely be the first against the wall. Z1's at the ready...



Read the entire post and download the videos over at the Bandwidth site.

I swear this is the last time you're getting a mention for a while... seething, I am...

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we should shoot it in space

Will Ferrell/Adam McKay's Funny or Die is usually a great source of self-deprecating A-List humour (see 'Bat Fight', May 14th 2009), and this one's no different!

The Kevin Bacon Movie Club from Kevin Bacon

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trying to pull myself away

As an addendum to the last post: as I was falling over myself to compliment Lisa et al I forgot to mention a brilliant quote from Glen Hansard which really struck me. Glen is famed for his legendary audience interaction - to the point where at the last couple of gigs I've been too I've found the heckling OTT. Along with feeding off those listening, he has a wonderful habit of explaining the meaning behind each song before he plays it, in a way similar to a musician who's assuming his or her audience are hearing this piece for the first time. For many this would come across as quite pretentious; with Glen it always seems quite genuine, even when you've heard it a few times!

Before playing the uber-successful Falling Slowly however, he said something a little different. It's a song that I, like many long-time Frames fans, can feel a little robbed of. Mr. Reddan often remarks how, on the occasion of the pulling together of a uni supergroup to play at the QUB St. Patrick's festival several years ago, we covered the song to a room of unrecognising faces, pleased with ourselves to have found something so stonkingly good that so few people had heard. Now, even those who couldn't pick a Frames song out of a lineup can recall hearing it on Cool FM. Frames fans in Ireland seem to be a tight-knit community of thousands, where instant bonding is made through our loyalties; thus, to have the Swellies escape the pen with Once and become recognisable to millions almost hurts a little. "They're mine!" we scream, "I was there first and I'll be there when you're gone..."

And like I described when talking about Lisa Hannigan, the boys and Marketa still seem to possess that same sense of humble bewilderment when dealing with their fame. It's reflecting on that, then, that Glen came out with this great quote (I'm paraphrasing from memory.)

This next song... I guess, here's the metaphor for this next song. It's like when you get your football, and you're kicking it at the wall in the garden behind your house. And you get a really good toe into it - you know, really get a good hit. And the ball... the ball goes over the wall, you really got a good toe in. But it goes right over the wall, and then over your house, and then out of the town. And that's kinda how I feel about this song. Four fifths of me is going, "That's amazing! That's absolutely amazing! I can't believe I just did that! That's my ball... that's incredible."

But then there's still that fifth of me going, "I want my f***ing ball back."

splishy splashy

Was up in the Maiden City a couple of nights ago to catch The Swell Season/The Frames at the Millennium Forum, as they head off to tour promoting their sophomore effort (as the Swellies entity, not counting the Once soundtrack.)

Been fortunate now to see the guys in their many guises four or five times now, which puts them into a box with a few other lovely bands; like a my favourite pair of trousers, they're exceptionally comfortable and familiar, but every time I put them on I stick my hand in my back pocket and pull out a mixture of magical old bits and bobs, and something strange and exciting that I didn't know was even there! (I know what you're thinking - where does he get these magical trousers? These days, it's M&S - but that's another rant for another time.)

The real treat of the evening though was one I'd been looking forward to immensely; finally getting to see Lisa Hannigan, who was providing the support for the evening off the back of an incredibly successful push across the US with her debut record, Sea Sew. Hannigan has had a bit of a funny few years; after being fired backstage in Germany by Damien Rice, she went off, found herself, regrouped and turned out what is my record of the year so far. (The Mercury Music Prize nom goes some way to vindicate me in this one!) Coming across as somewhere between pretty awkward and ridiculously 'arty' (you know what I mean), she seemed immediately likable as an artist - and that's exactly as she came across on stage. (I've referred before to her apparent brilliance on this very blog, in fact.)

After the Swellies had taken the roof off the place (including finally playing Heyday in my presence - been quite literally waiting years for that one, we hung around for a while as Lisa & co. came out to do a signing. Having acquired a digital copy (cough) of the record a while back for sampling's sake, I felt I owed it to them to buy it, so decided to stick around and get it inked.

Maybe I'm ridiculously polite, or just lazy, but I found myself drifting around the periphery of the scrum and realised I was standing among Hannigan's band, who were off to one side, looking amused and having a sneaky drink from the bar. Ended up being literally the last person there after getting stuck into talking about glockenspiels and touring with the great Donagh Molloy, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire. Came to the conclusion that the band are just annoying: I was under the impression that the unwritten rule of celebrity was that they're supposed to come off as friendly in public, but be twisted and insecure in private. Lisa & Co. bucked this trend; they were all fantastic. Lisa was really warm, and the guys were all a bit of a laugh to boot. After only mocking me mildly for being last, and apologising to the better half (who had spent this whole time tapping her foot and fixating on the huge drive we had yet to do), we did the photos thing, talked a bit more, and then cleared off just as an irritated looking member of staff was walking across the foyer with a big bunch of keys. A very pleasant experience was had (and more importantly, no repeat of the infamous Crowder incident! (see 'The (in)glory of it all', June 6th)

They'll go far, those lads (and lass.) Highly recommend scooting over to YouTube for some videos and to Lisa's own site for lots of random niceness - including some interesting sounding cake recipes!

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as the arrows fall

Just snapped an eyeful of Will's latest output over at Bandwidth Films. (That man does churn them out at a shocking rate: you'd think the government were funding him or something. Oh, wait...) Perennial favourites Maguire & I are, it would seem, getting around to making a bit of a push to get 'out there', and lo and behold, they pop up in the latest installment of the "In Stores Now" series.

IN STORES NOW#10: MAGUIRE & I from Bandwidth on Vimeo.

I'm a big fan of Will's work on his music videos; on one hand he seems to have been profoundly scarred by Russian Ark, but on the other any slips in the long shots are compensated for by some great work with colour on the post-production side of things. The sound is almost always top notch too, just to add to the insane jealously. I think we've all forgiven him for the pretention-fest that was Either/Or (which I've seen at least three times in varying forms... for my sins.) He seems to have gotten over it well.

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show me the money

Having not blogged in several weeks, I'm at that horrible point now where there's too much to talk about to say anything, and therefore it's easier just to pretend none of it ever happened. This includes, but is not limited to: New Wine Ireland, Camp Alliance '09, more gigging, the better half now being a doctor, leaving Belfast, and fixing a car with plastic glue (again!). Perhaps I shall recap these at some point (there's two or three points of note that are worth highlighting - two words: "sky lanterns".)

However, one other thing casts a lengthly shadow over all of these things: I started a new (non-videography related!) job. It's very nice so far: today I've mostly been considering funding for a trip to an open farm and catching up on some reading about Baptism theology. Something though that has been a pain in the rear - enough of a pain in the rear to motivate me to write, in fact - has been money.

It's fantastic to be in salaried, contract, relatively secure post. Brilliant. Proper job, in fact. However, despite having departed my previous employer in June (having ceased actually working for them in April) I still have not received a P45. Several phone calls, much buck passing, and a couple of very annoying people at the tax office later, and STILL no P45. Which leaves our poor treasurer, who obviously didn't know me from Adam previously, trying to figure out from some scant financial details, how to stop me having to pay through the nose.

This isn't my only irritating experience of HMRC recently though - oh no. July 31st saw the due date for claiming Tax Credits pass. On behalf of another family member, I had undertaken to inform the HMRC of a change in circumstance that would remove eligibility. Fair enough. At the start of July I tried to use the online system. The form didn't work. Tried again. Failed. Fair enough, I thought - I'll just phone this nifty helpline. Surely even the civil service can't get that bit wrong.

But here's the REALLY ANNOYING bit. It's one thing being put on hold for a while. It's another sitting on it for 25 minutes. So I gave up. Tried a few more times in the following three weeks. Same again.

Is this office being manned by a lone chimpanzee? Is the entire province calling at the same time? Is it my fault? Was it something I said?

With only five days to go, I was getting a little worked up. But hurrah - when I phoned this time, the messages and automated system had changed. Fast tracking had begun. 3-4 minutes later, and I was following all the little instructions to perfection, merrily tapping away. And now surely, to finally speak to a personal advisor.

"Sorry, but all our staff are busy at the moment. Please try again later." CLICK.

The machine cut me off! I tried again - surely, it's possible to speak a person at some point... CLICK! What?

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This morning, we received a letter to say we were no longer eligible for Tax Credits, having failed to report it.

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I hold out little hope for my P45.

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summer (madness) in the city

Reflecting on a long weekend, in and out of a hectic Summer Madness festival in Belfast. Between hanging out with some of the youth from my new place of employment (eek!), stalking and annoying all the tech folk I could find, getting some video and playing, I was wiped out for about 72 hours straight!

There were a few highlights though - many revolving around the same venue, actually. Christian Aid in Ireland has had a tough few months due to the death of the Celtic Tiger, but a bit of collaboration and enthusiasm can go a long way, and there was quite a bit of time spent haunting their stage - firstly when we played on the Sunday. It was all a bit hectic and we started late with little - scratch that, no - foldback, but I'm told it sounded pretty great!

Always good to get to play with folks, (other than just "himself" - see right - not that it's not always pleasurable too!) Have been frustrated at late by being able to churn out quite a few 'finished' numbers but unable to come up with any more that have that extra push; however, this can be ignored when helped when there's a few folk floating around who know some of the ones we've been playing for longer!

A random footnote - met at least three people at SM that I didn't recognise straight off, only to discover they'd been present at T in the Barn last year. Get in! Motivation is in place to do it all over again... watch this space, perhaps.

There was one other real high though, and strangely it came in the same venue. I turned up to have some fun and fellowship with the great Psalm Drummers (see 'Coleraine House of Prayer', Jan. 15th 2009) only to find them down a sound guy. Having played the day before I'd had a chance to get reasonably familiar with what was what, so I jumped on the desk.

Looked up a couple of minutes later to be confronted by the sight of Carl Albrecht taking the stage. Unless you're a worship drummer you might never have heard tell of the man, but I'm betting that's mostly down to his own modesty. Carl has played on some huge worship records, and was brought to Madness this year playing for Paul Baloche. He also tours extensively and has turned up on everything from African Jazz to Leann Rimes. He's ridiculously talented, hugely experienced and an absolute gentleman - and I was still terrified about screwing up what was really a basic drum mic setup! Though I'll admit, in this task I was greatly hindered by the disappearance of most of the mic holders - duct tape to the rescue. It was a powerful session.

A final noteworthy item was the prevalence across the festival of your friends and mine, Maguire & I. They played more than Paul Baloche did! Was really pleased to see the guys getting a great reception the couple of times I saw them, and hopefully it'll get the a bit more publicity for one of Belfast's best-kept wee secrets.

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the way you make me feel

A million bloggers are frantically typing up hasty tributes right now, so I'll add my two cents before hitting the sack tonight. The world's greatest pop icon has died.

Everyone of my generation and upwards has a story about a Michael Jackson song. Mine is a carbon copy of a guy the BBC just interviewed at Glastonbury: at age five or six, my first pop music cassette tape was Bad, swiped from my mum and stuck on repeat beside my bed.

One of my surviving memories of my grandfather, who passed when I was ten, goes thusly: "Why, who's your favourite musician?" "Michael Jackson." "Och, why are you listening to that rubbish?"

Unlike most, Thriller never did it for me. My Jacko was, to my loss perhaps, the later one, the eccentric white guy, the guy who sang huge modern anthems like Smooth Criminal and Black or White, whose every performance was bigger and better than the last one, to the point where he seemed unstoppable. But I don't think I lose out for this; he still defined that type of pop music for the 90s, as he had done for much of the 80s with the funkier, bigger stuff. And regardless of the horrific personal side of his existence, the lasting effect of Jackson the icon, Jackson the musician, Jackson the cultural phenomenon, is given no more fitting tribute than the way that the world is at this moment standing still to acknowledge him.

But when it comes down to it, it's really all about a little boy listening to a cassette tape, chanting every word along to Man In The Mirror, pulling silly faces, and then doing it all over again. The man - and his problems - are gone; but the music will really live on.

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ball games

Wimbledon is back, and with it an excuse to slope off to the TV every hour for a quick top-up of volleying and grunting. A great story from yesterday caught my eye though - the second round match between Michael Llodra and Tommy Haas had to be abandoned shortly after Llodra was unable to stop himself hurtling into a ball girl, clipping her and smacking himself into the umpire's chair. She was fine and Llodra tried to return to playing, but had to retire.

With proceedings brought to an unexpected halt, Tommy Haas saved the day by continuing to play with each of the ball boys and girls in turn around the court. I don't think it was an attempt to look good, though he did - just a nice guy giving some young adults an amazing opportunity. This clip from the BBC coverage is fantastic -I particularly love how the commentary team and the producers, clearly recognising that this was both great TV, and a bit of unique kindness, are so complimentary to the kids and the circumstances. The first boy is my favourite - he looks like he's just won the lottery -and been told he can blow the lot on toys and gadgets.

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long may you reign

One man production machine Will from Bandwidth Films seems to churn out material at a rate of knots these days - far from those lazy spring days of uni when we all seemed to only be in it for the raw inspiration. [This clause neither makes sense, nor has the redeeming feature of being anywhere close to true.]

Following a theme that I came across in the great Lisa Hannigan video for I Don't Know [posted here, June 11th], they're currently doing a series of videos called 'In Stores Now', where fine Northern Irish talent set up shop in... well, shops... and indulge in a bit of guerilla music video production. My favourite one so far is this week's - John Shelly & The Creatures in a chip shop. The eagle-eared out there might recognise the song from the recent Discover Northern Ireland advert (you know, the painful one with the muppet taking his girlfriend to the North Coast to propose...)

IN STORES NOW#3: JOHN SHELLY & THE CREATURES from bandwidth films on Vimeo.

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postbox artwork

Writer and cartoonist Andy Riley has done an awful lot of work, but for me he gets the elevation to some level of genius for two or three projects: the third season of Black Books, and his two sets of books as a cartoonist, the Bunny Suicides, and Great Lies To Tell Small Kids.

So I was pretty thrilled when something popped through my letterbox this morning...






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moyles on church

Someone had mentioned this to me previously, but I just came across the video via Super Simbo's shiny new blog. Check it out: The Chris Moyles Show team discuss a Pentecost Sunday service Chris had seen the day before on BBC1. I watched a good bit of said service, and it was indeed pretty representative of many bigger modern pentecostal or Christian Life churches. It's really interesting to hear Chris's honest perspective, particularly as his (dire) autobiography made reference to a very traditional Catholic upbringing, against which he reacted.

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reasons to go to church

Great video...



...but I'm not impressed by the message, graphics or intentions alone. I'm impressed because they're from Vegas!

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EDIT: Ooh-err... this other one sadly hints a bit of Prosperity Gospel... but maybe that's just my mistake.

If you're not sure what I mean by that phrase, the Prosperity Gospel is the idea that, "now I believe in God, Jesus is going to make all things well."

This is such a falsehood I won't even begin to try to expand it - but it's particularly popular in many American churches (see the phenomenally tool-like (I mean that as an elaborate insult) ministry of Joel Osteen, or much of the GOD channel's output. These guys are my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I say that through gritted teeth.) In fact, I'd go as far to say - though this is me saying it - that once you get God, things can be harder than you could ever imagine. I know they have been for me and many I encounter... but if you want to discuss that, we need a couple of sofas and a whole lot of hot chocolate up in here.

I realise the edit is now longer than the original post, so I'll stop. For an interesting, if not completely understandable if you have no faith background, great wee explanation of this notion, check out this video which uses a John Piper soundbite.

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i don't know

Saw this and had one thought: Andy Good would like it! Perhaps the guys can utilise the ethos on their upcoming trip to Nashville, Tennessee.



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it might get loud

It Might Get Loud is an upcoming doc starring Jimmy Page, Dave "The Edge" Evans and Jack White; the three come together to talk about guitars.

That's it.

Sounds frickin' awesome, and looks frickin' awesome too.

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get stuck in a (picture) book

A couple of thoughts, charged by the annoucement today of Anthony Browne as the new Children's Laureate. A good choice; Browne's Gorilla book in particular is one I remember myself from my early years, and judging by the number of awards his works appear to have won, familiar to many of you good people as well.

Browne comments, in the BBC clip I've linked to above, about the idea that illustrated childrens literature is disappearing from the lives of many little 'uns, as parents move them on to reading denser texts at a younger age. It's a horrific thought; can you imagine growing up with The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Maybe you can - maybe you did! I certainly didn't. We had a good stack of picture books when I was wee, bolstered by myself and my younger sister being close enough in age to be tossing them around at the same time. It is a love that stayed with me - see my excitement regarding the upcoming Jonze-fest that is the filmic Where The Wild Things Are (published April 13th, 2009). I continue to often give grown-up people quality picture books as gifts - as my better half can attest to, as she has quite the stack (including a couple of hand-drawn efforts) at this point.

Picture books are magical. The immense talent it takes to fuse understandable but exciting narrative with great artwork is more or less beyond me. But more fundamentally, they introduce young and old to a world they will not access, creative thinking they will not be used to, if they stick with purely written word. Observing, processing, and visually testing material are conscious and unconscious processes that educators and workers strive to instill in the young - but picture books can do this. If you ever spend any time with little people, or have enough good fortune to have grown some of your own, just think of how many times kids return to their favourite picture books. It's not just familiarity and comfort that kept me agog at everything from Peter Rabbit to TEN YEARS worth of subscribed-to Beanos. (Still have them all! How sad of me.) It is the fact that every time, and at every stage in my early development, I was challenged to find something new in the pages of these awesome works.

Of course there are some that are terrible - usually ones tied in with TV (unless it's Pocoyo! Best. Show. EVER. Or certainly the best narrated by Stephen Fry, anyway.) But some are amazing. Significantly, there have been some great new ones over the past few years.

Fan favourite for me and her (as a qualified filmmaker/teacher and doctor respectively!) is the glorious canon one of Northern Ireland's finest, Oliver Jeffers. If you haven't read one of his titles, do so. Soon. Or maybe you caught the animated version of his most famous work, Lost and Found on the TV at Christmas - don't worry, it's the new Snowman and will no doubt be repeated every year for the next decade anyway. Jeffers, a professional artist and photographer (and graduate of University of Ulster! You didn't see that coming, I'll wager...) has already won a truckload of awards and captured the hearts and minds of kids and parents alike. Absorbing pictures and the simplest, most random of storylines combine for a highly provocative experience. Go on - have a gander next time you're in Waterstones.

But, as Anthony Browne has shared with us, none of this may matter much as less and less children are coming into context with these little glories. And as a result, they're drawing less, they're struggling more with creativity, and they're becoming generations of mind-washing, boring (and ironically) Media students - I know, i studied with many of them and have taught a few more. It's part of a larger endemic problem, that as a society we're all too aware of, but still do little to react to.

And with that in mind, I fancy a round or two of this 'shape game'...

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gta: lego city

Genius... I'd never come across this before, though it is a few years old. I'd buy it!


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the (in)glory of it all: update

Semi-redemption?




Ha.

[Original story published earlier today - read it here.]

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going dutch

Only got to see this today: the Netherlands sticking it to a shellshocked England in the first match of the T20 tournament. "Cricket is no longer boring!" reads one Dutch article.

It's been hailed as the greatest day in the history of Dutch cricket. I'm currently reading Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, which is all about a Dutchman playing cricket (sort of. It's not really, but it's the Maguffin and that's enough for me to say that.) I feel this gives me enough of an affinity for the Dutch side to be able to rejoice. That, and they whacked the English.

The Irish have a tricky one against Bangladesh on Monday and a colossal game against the team I predict to win the championship, India, on Wednesday. If they could get past the former and make it to the Super 8 stage it would be a great achievement in itself. But if they fail, I'll be backing the Dutch for their stay in the tournament.

Go on, you Oranje!


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the (in)glory of it all

So, last night I did something so henious, so unforgivable, so sadly-in-character that I fear I must let it out, for fear of containing it and the implosion that would occur shortly after.

Went up to Fuel 09 in Ballymena: good idea, though I was only interested in one thing on the bill: the David Crowder* Band. DCB hold the much-coveted second place (second only to DMB, equally awesome) in my last.fm stats, and for several very good reasons. There's a lot of Christian music out there. The vast majority has great meaning and is genuine, but musically can lack a little (in my humble yet mighty opinion.) DCB transcend just about every genre to bring music that is compelling, brimming with enthusiasm, painfully perfected and... and this is the important bit... kicks ass. It really is that good. But, having never managed to make the trek over to Frenzy in Scotland, I had never got the chance to see them live.

They were fantastic, as expected and more. Completely engaged in equal measures of praise and joy, encouragement and entertainment (and that's a debate for another blog, Seranus!) Fuel is relatively intimate, so no detail was missed and Crowder's energy and interaction is a lesson to any worship leader on How To Do It. I don't say that to idolise them, but rather in that if I had to point to a guy and say This Is The Attitude I Would Like To Have, then that would be it.

But, then the kicker: after Third Day had wrapped up the night, a surprise - DCB were doing a signing. Would I queue? Yes I would, and screw my dignity. Having engaged with a lot of Crowder and the DCB's work, most recently Crowder and Mike Hogan's excellent Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven... ("And So I Watch You From Afar", April 16th 2009), I had so much to draw on that I could ask the guys. And then there's B-Wack and Hogan and the obsession with musical experimentation. Or the band's return to recording a conceptual album with the upcoming Church Music. This was too good an opportunity to miss.

But then something horrible happened.

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I was talking to my Dad on Tuesday night about job interviews. There's an occasional moment we all encounter, when it all goes horribly wrong. We see ourselves saying or doing something, almost as if Out-Of-Body, and we are powerless to stop. And it keeps happening. And we don't stop.

Please, please, my consciousness screams. Stop. Please. Now.

But we don't.

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As you can tell from above, I know quite a bit about the David Crowder* Band. A lot of this has built up from regular/occasional web encounters mostly, be that their Twitter, YouTube or own outputs. They're a band that engage and play a lot with new media, and if you're bored you can find out a lot... so I did, when I was bored.

And now, all of a sudden, instead of saying something useful, or offering something of interest, I turned into public enemy number one: Barely Restrained Fanboy.

And so this is what happened...

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Pete and Sensible Friend are queuing. B-Wack (drummer) sticks head around the corner of the tent.

B-Wack: Hey, guys, how's it going?

Pleasantries are exchanged and Stuff To Sign offered.

B-Wack: ....yeah, we were at the Giant's Causeway today... it's weird... did you do that?
Pete: Personally? No. I did kick it once, but, you know...

There is some banter around this and then a pause. That joke went down ok. This was probably a Bad Thing.

Pete: So where else did you guys get to see?
B-Wack: Oh man, I can't remember what any of the places were called.
Mark (guitar): Yeah...
Pete: Oh ok. I saw a TwitPic earlier of Jack sitting behind some big random table...

No! Stop talking! Please! Don't reveal anymore. You sound like a stalker already!

B-Wack: Hmmm... oh yeah, that must have been at the hotel.
Pete: Anywhere good?
B-Wack: Can't remember.
Mark: The Gul.. Galgorm? Is that right?

Sensible Friend says something sensible, and hands her stuff on to Mike D (bass) to sign. Hogan's (DJ, Violin and more) not paying attention, so Mike hands it to him first.

Hogan: Oh ok, sorry...
Mike D: You're not paying attention.
Pete: It's ok, got it sorted now, you're back on the wagon...
Hogan: Yeah, I guess..

On to Crowder... this is it brain, don't let me down. Say it! Tell him you liked the book! Tell him it really helped!

Crowder: *Takes stuff" Hey, here we go: going to get some top quality ink down here.
Pete: *speechless*

Crowder hands it on to Jack. Jack signs and returns. Thanks and turn to go, but then...

Pete: Hey Jack...
Jack: Yeah?
Pete: Saw the rockumentary, and I just have to say: no matter what the others say, you shred if you want to.
Jack: Oh yeah?
Pete: Yeah, you do it man.
Jack: Oh good; that's like I've got permission now.
Pete: Yeah.
Jack: Great, thanks.

Exeunt.

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I'm really, really sorry guys. I just glad I was probably instantly forgettable, because five minutes later I felt that creeping sense...

...but that's how it goes with hero worship. I need to lie down, put my earphones in and let Pastor Mark chastise me for a bit I think.

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nixon night: 8th june

I'm afraid this one speaks for itself: as part of the continuing wave of frenetic passion that is the Smyth 2010 campaign is having a little bit of a night of celebration, before our man with the plan heads off for a month touring the USA's eastern seaboard.

Mr Smyth has many unfortunate heroes, and none are more controversial than Tricky Dick himself, the 37th President of those same United States. If you've ever been in at 'Campaign HQ' for more than five minutes and heard myself and the candidate going at it, you'll know that the bizarre humour often revolves around former incumbents of the White House, and R. Milhous Nixon is certainly one of the most popular. To that end, we have resolved to put on the not-exactly-impartial epic that is Oliver Stone's 'Nixon' starring everyone's favourite repatriated Welshman, Anthony Hopkins as the man himself.

I'm not going to say it's open invitation because our living room isn't that big, and our audio system in particular could do with an overhaul; but nonetheless, if you also would enjoy three hours of non-stop Nixon action, drop us a line and we'll see about getting you in past the Secret Service...

smyth/huey 1; purnell 0

You may recall - or then again, may not - my 'calling out' of the ignominous goon, rickety oaf and plainly, twaddling wally that was Work & Pensions Secretary James Purnell ('An open (informal) letter to James Purnell', 10 December 2008). Well, clearly someone was listening: namely James himself, who has just announced his resignation to demonstrate his opposition to the failing leadership of our unelected PM, Gordon Brown.

(I realise I already sound like a toryboy here. I'm really not; I just really dislike James Purnell!)

Of course, that's the official reason the man is giving. But, here at Smyth 2010 campaign headquarters, we all know the truth: his obvious terror at the momentum-gathering wave of change, sweeping this nation like a bleached mop of justice, was just too much for this Blairite featherweight. No doubt confronted by the jackboot of reform, he clearly decided it just wasn't worth it.

Victory is ours!



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funny the way it is

Interesting piece from CBS News covering the upcoming (and long-awaited) release of Big Whiskey... by Dave Matthews Band. The DMB are funny proposition, certainly on this side of the pond: you love them, you hate them, or (the majority) you've never heard of them. Yet, as the piece points out, they've grossed nearly half a billion dollars on the road.

[Edit: took down the embedded video because the auto-start couldn't be disabled: cheers, CBS. You can watch the great report by clicking here.]

I've been a devotee for about ten years are so, but still have never seen the whole group live, although I was lucky enough to catch dave and Tim Reynolds doing the acoustic stuff a couple of years ago. One of my personal connections with the music is that each record brings a canon of songs self-contained, as if theme and techniques change each time Dave sits down to write; like the Beatles for my generation, each album sounds completely new.

The whole of Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King is streaming already, as it has been for the last week or so, on Pandora: click here to listen. The poignancy of the death of founding member LeRoi Moore last year (see Into The Great Light", August 20th 2008) only adds to how brilliant his opening solo is - worth the effort. Lead single, Funny The Way It Is is also a bit of a barnstormer. The rest of the album is a grower for sure, but after three or four times through already, I'm hooked and can't wait until I can get the physical release (by import, most likely.)

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Smyth 2010

It's been a while since I last messed around with cults - haven't been to a Presbyterian service in simply ages* - but one in particular has captured my imagination. Some mysterious source** has started up a brand new Graeme Smyth Page on Facebook. For anyone who has ever encountered the man himself, they will already know the man was born to lead. And so the push is on to get the big man to stand. For something. Anything from traffic warden up, really. The nation needs to hear him speak.

Pledge your allegiance on the Facebook page, and the campaign have set targets for rewards. Already, a few different sets of 'propaganda' have appeared, and apparently a video message from the man himself may appear later in the week. GSmythFTW!

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* This is a joke.
** Me.

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bat fight

The main joke in Will Ferrell's latest Funny or Die outing takes a while to really kick in, but the pay off is absolutely worth it. Of course, watch from the start to get all the subtleties and maximum laugh-age.

BAT FIGHT with Will Ferrell from Will Ferrell

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post-pig parlimentary overselling

I do like the BBC, but I like it even better whenever someone goes on it and has a good old rant about something. This week's headache is over MP's expenses. Someone claimed for biscuits for their constituency office or something.

I suppose, since it turned out that the swine flu/pig flu/Mexican Flu/North-American Flu/H1N1-Alpha-Positive isn't going to wipe us all out (a small victory I shall claim for my twitter #hugahog campaign a couple of weeks ago) we'd better get back to the normal routine of sleaze-and-retribution or something.

Thankfully, national hero, teller of quite interesting things and twitter overlord (let's face it, he'd be king - well, President probably - if the middle classes could get away with it) Stephen Fry has pointed out the obvious here.

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days with my father

Again discovered via @icedcoffee, Days With My Father is a photostory, of sorts, by American photographer Phillip Toledano - google him, he has published quite a few and they're all stunning. I'd briefly encountered it a while ago, but during some mind-numbing frustration over a presentation this evening I took the time to read and digest it properly. And it really is worth the look.

I really appreciate photographers who don't just snap and print, but take time to build narrative and explain what their images mean to them. I remember a few years ago viewing a Jeff Wall retrospective at the Tate Modern. I'd studied him a bit at uni as part of our photography modules, but seeing the images in full projection was amazing; and, more significantly here, being able to read the artist's own narration of each work was the dealbreaker.

The digital age may have heralded the exponential and regrettable proliferation of (pardon me) mass crap photography; but Toledano clearly demonstrates that the web can also be used for some awesome presentation, which rather than dominating, serves the images whilst allowing him complete control over how his narration is put across.

And he appears to have used Century Gothic to do it! Which brings me back to my presentation... eek.

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peek-a-boo!

Just the thing to make me cackle on a stressful morning...


I know I shouldn't be blogging this kind of stuff but it was a decision by management to allow for some lighter content... or something.

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that's how you let the beat build

Discovered via @icedcoffee. Absolutely brilliant - and demands to be viewed in HD, of course.

Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Nyle on Vimeo.

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ah, americans...

Here's an interesting soundbite provided by @Glinner, in which the legendary Alan Moore pinpoints a huge problem with comic/graphic novel writing. He simultaneously therefore alludes to why his own continuous toying with anti-hero characters has cast him as the greatest of writers, certainly within my lifetime. (Bob Kane, I never knew thee; Frank Miller, apologies; Stan Lee - too many cameos.)



I do still only dabble in graphic novels; aside from a lifelong Batman fascination, it is short series of original characters, in which Moore specialises, that I find the most interest. Long may he continue to create unfilmable wonders.

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crime and punishment?

Some music moguls have deemed some of my lesser YouTube content to be annoying. Two have had audio stripped; one, the visuals (even though the complaint is about another music track.) Fear not, however - fans of John & Paul's Sponsored Fun Run who are lucky enough to live in Western Samoa, among others, will still be able to view it without restriction...

I'll probably be pulling these few videos in the next while anyway (DailyMotion, here we come? Vimeo's too pretty for this kind of drivel) but it saddens me that they couldn't just stick a banner ad at the side, as they do with many infringement issues. The videos are rubbish, don't get me wrong - but it's the principle of the thing. I wasn't making any kind of profit, I wasn't offending anyone, and in the only one that was any good, the music was actually incidental. But i guess the law is the law, after all.

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