bigtallgeezerwithagoaty

2009-07-05T19:05:00.002+01:00

Grade 1

I recently attended a seminar hosted at an FE college entitled 'Aspirations for a Grade 1 Lesson'. By way of background, when a college is inspected, one of the things which happens is that lectures (lessons) get inspected and graded. Grade 1 is 'outstanding', 2 is very good, 3 is satisfactory, 4 is pants and 5 is absolute crap. Some colleagues and I were given the chance to
observe a lesson which was rated at Grade 1, in an effort to spur us all on to do likewise in our lessons.
The lesson topic was called 'Sustainability', and formed part of an 'enrichment programme' which learners undertook alongside their main programme of study, the idea being that they became informed about Green Issues. The lesson was at Level 2 (kind of GCSE equivalent). The preparation which had gone into this lesson (and making it of grade 1 standard) was staggering. There were several different forms of media on which to focus - laminated picture cards stuck on the wall, projected images, handouts (more on this later), and various arty / crafty things to do. The students made a bag from an old tea-towel, in which to store spare carrier bags. There was also a quiz whereby the winner would receive sweets or chocolate cake. Apparently it had taken 2 days to prepare this hour-and-a-half lesson. Students discussed the benefits of buying (so called) 'free range' chickens at Tescos, re-using carrier bags, not printing documents needlessly, turning off the tap whilst brushing teeth, not filling the kettle up too much - you know the kind of thing - basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There was no mention of Kyoto / USA / China, solar / wind energy, oil reserves, etc. Fair-Trade got a mention, but not what it was, nor the opportunities for corruption which it offers to unscrupulous manufacturers. There was nothing to encourage learners to 'think big', not opportunities for free thought, it was just another poxy exercise in guilt management. How to become part of the disease whilst feeling you're part of the cure.

So, the content was bunk. Absolute shite. Students came away from the session knowing nothing about the real issues affecting climate change, and global sustainability, without knowing anything about how to think on and engage with these issues.

However, because the lesson had Aims and Objectives; because various media was employed, because students basically were entertained for an hour-and-a-half, it was given a Grade 1.

What the hell is education about?! The focus is clearly on how students learn, at the complete expense of what they learn! Its farcical.

What made it worse was the sheer amount of single-side printed paper issued as handouts! nearly 20 sheets per student! So not only was the content wrong, but it also contradicted itself!!!

Stairway to Heaven

2009-05-18T10:41:00.002+01:00

I grew up in a Christian home; my father was a baptist minister, but also a lover of rock'n'roll, country and folk music. One of the things I always found confusing, yet interesting, was the difference (and parallels) between my fathers sermons and the lyrics of some of the music we had on in the home. He was a great fan of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, John Lennon and the Rolling Stones. So on Sunday mornings we'd sing Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken; yet mid week we'd hear “I Can't Get No Satisfaction”, and “Imagine” (there's no heaven). The message on Sundays was so strong – be in the world but not of the world; be transformed by the renewing of your minds, do not be yoked with unbelievers, yet the sounds I was hearing all apparently belonged to unbelievers (Bob Dylan's “Saved” years notwithstanding). I struggled with the question for years – should I really be listening to music about lust, pain, beauty, searching, drugs, wonder, – music of the flesh, as it was referred to in church circles; should I be listening to the blues, hard rock, gangster rap, motown, soul.

Soul – there's a word! The human soul was such a dangerous place to explore, as the devil could easily be found lurking there, prowling, waiting to pounce on anyone who became entranced by such worldly music. Worldly, secular, soulish, experiential, non-Christian music was so good, so tempting, surely the forbidden fruit. As the late Larry Norman put it – 'why should the devil have all the good music, when Jesus is a'rockin' and rollin' my blues away!'. Perhaps that was the answer – find good wholesome Christian alternatives – Stryper, KingsX, Keith Green and latterly Delerious?. But none of these could slake my thirst for music with soul. It was like trying to drink wine from a bottle of Evian, trying to eat a nut roast while craving a chateaubriand. But the guilt I would feel after lengthy indulgence into the Led Zeppelin, Santana and Jimi Hendrix discographies would be almost unbearable. Almost. Perhaps the devil was getting a grip on my soul. Was I becoming un-saved? Was I backsliding? It felt so good. The wide road to destruction? As Bonn Scott from AC/DC put it “I'm on my way to the promised land – I'm on a highway to hell'

For me there was no getting away from the fact that music, and therefore the devil, had a hold on my life. It would move me in ways nothing else could, in ways even I completely failed to understand. I remember being 9 years old and being completely moved to tears when I heard Joan Baez sing the Prison Trilogy. It still has a similar effect on me now!

I hadn't yet seen the inside of a cell, let alone be able to understand the desolation of someone incarcerated. Yet something about this song enabled me to guess as to the pain of the three men in the story. Something enabled me to share in this pain, and as an act of worship, I invite you to do the same. - look it up on Spotify

The depth of emotions explored through the music of the folk and country balladeer informed me a great deal about the human condition. Irish folk music was another particular favourite of my father; songs about potato famine, invasion, sectarian violence, people being hurt by the hands of those who were supposed to protect them, all etched a place deep in my soul. I had the privilege of touring Ireland with a pop band, and met folks in the various places we stayed. The most memorable being in Belfast during a ceasefire in 1995 when I had the opportunity at the after-show wind-down to ask one of the fans, a young girl about 20, whether the troubles had affected anyone she knew.
“everyone” was the answer
“even you?”
“my father and brothers were all shot in front of us, on a Sunday afternoon while we were forced to watch”
A Sunday, Bloody Sunday which the remainder of that family will carry for ever.

I think it was at that point that I started to realise that church and religion was not God.

It was also around that time when I first heard Jeff Buckley's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah; and from that point on, the notion of a cold and broken hallelujah became a caption for my faith. In church we used to sing about fighting the good fight, moving onward as Christian soldiers, conquering nations, and such. When I heard that 'Love is not a victory march, its a cold and its a broken hallelujah', a light went on. Perhaps God wasn't so much in the victory marches, the crusades, the moral high ground, the blessed, the prosperous, the songs of euphoric adulation, songs which set us up as a 'chosen people, a royal priesthood', and as ultimately elite. Go have a listen. Ignore the Alexandra Burke version at all costs. She missed the most important verse out, leaving the rendition lacking complete coherence.

No, it is my experience that God manifests most significantly in areas of pain, despair, wilderness. My early understanding of Christianity was that if someone was in pain, and if they were a Christian, then God would be near them, and somehow make the pain more bearable. However, those poor souls who were not Christians had to experience the pain without God; that somehow God was looking on and unable to do anything about their pain unless they uttered the magic words of the “sinner's prayer”. I clearly had a lot of working out to do, and music was critical in enabling me to think all this through.

One particularly significant song which enabled me to see the trade mark of a God of creativity was in “Everybody Hurts” by REM

Surely if God was the creator, and if God's very being, the raison d'etre was creativity then why should things which are created be attributed to the devil?

I was in a band. A rock band. With my mates. We wrote and played music in every spare minute we had. We wrote songs about things we loved, attitudes we hated, girls, boys, corruption, the monotony of the daily grind as we all drove our delivery vans around London. Our music became our church, and there we discovered an oasis, a place from which we could drink the water of life, and share it with others. It was our piece of heaven in a wilderness of a life we were all struggling to understand.

Have a listen

However, we were to sign a big publishing deal – something which would extend the invitation to the party at the oasis to a wider audience; but money started to become the topic of the day. It was a matter of weeks before the band folded, and its members cast back out into the wilderness of depression.

This was a great relief to the Christian folks I knew, who would repeatedly tell me that the band was obviously “not part of God's plan”; that the depression I was suffering was a result of the sins of “nihilism” and “hedonism” I'd committed whilst being a member of a rock band. I needed to repent and be delivered, so I could be welcomed back to the fold. I had to renounce my association with other nihilists and hedonists, and was advised to rid my beloved record collection of anything with the satanic back beat, anything which belonged to Lucifer (which, it appeared, was most of it), and to concentrate all my efforts into evangelism and discipleship.

I tried. I really did. But depression got the better of me and eventually God and I parted company (at least this was my take on things). I told God that, even if he or she did exist, that I was no longer willing to be in a relationship. I effectively dumped God. I did not understand the idea of a God who, through the combination of the physics of sound, and the depth of human emotion, through poetry and the audio spectrum, would give us music, yet refuse us Christians, the privilege of experiencing it to the full.

So, there I was, free again! My record collection was no longer off-limits. Out came the Rock, the Rap, the Reggae, the drum'n'bass, the house, hard-house, trance, grime-core, grunge, punk, new romantic, electro, downbeat, lounge, jazz, blues, soul, funk, folk, be-bop, ballad, welsh male-voice, baroque, classical, romantic, modern, medieval, thrash metal, alternative, gothic, avant garde, Bhangra, dub, bossa nova, breakbeat, britpop, Cajun, calypso, Celtic, ambient, electronica, IDM, hiphop, techno, new age, northern soul, old skool, minimalism, prog rock, raggamuffin, samba, ska, skiffle, speed garage, two tone, etc, etc, etc, etc. I chose not to choose church. I chose something else. I chose music.

But then something happened.

I started to recognise God's trade mark again. There was something about the creation and performance of music which seemed supernatural. There was something about the way that I connected with people through their music which transcended cultural identity, geographical location, religion, sexuality, ideology. It had to be God.

I was invited to attend a church service put on by a group of folks who were exploring life beyond charismatic evangelicalism. The service was called 'The Abbey', hosted by a group called “Resonance” (latterly “foundation”). The structure of Cotham Parish Church was divided into the various areas of a monastery, the dormitory, the infirmary, the sanctuary, the refectory, the library, and best of all, the scriptorium. We were invited to explore all these places and the special meanings they had, all set to a fabulous backdrop of music DJ'd by John Hoyland. This service was, for me, the turning point. It was in the scriptorium I meditated on creativity, and the nature of the connection between it and God. I started to realise that no matter who you are, where you're from, whatever your beliefs and persuasions, that your creativity comes from God, as a gift to your soul, to provide a vehicle for expression, and sharing.

This enabled me to see God, in music everywhere. I discovered a new beauty in music.

Head back over to Spotify, and have a listen to Home by Zero7. This song, with its haunting melody and harmonies, is to me quite God-like in its attention to detail and aspirations to perfection. Particularly in the way the recording and production is crafted and realised.

Nowadays, whenever I hear songs of pain, of joy, of love, of hate, of sorrow, of fear, of suffering, of overcoming, of longing, of searching, of regret, of loss, of redemption, of jealousy, of beauty and of hope, I hear God. I hear God identifying with and sharing in these emotions, and I believe that because God is in music, then when we indulge in music, we indulge into an aspect of God.

Sure, there is music which seeks to exalt success, money, celebrity, possessions, promiscuity, racial division, racial supremacy, anarchy, bling, and a disrespect for law enforcement. Do I see God in music of this nature?

Of course!

I see God in the recording and production, in the musicianship, in the mixing and mastering, in the years of hard training and low-paid apprenticeships people have gone through in order to be able to make the records and to make the equipment needed to make the records,. The lyrical content may not necessarily be to my tastes, but then I have no experience of growing up with gun lore on the streets of Compton, California, or of being sold into child sex abuse by my parents, or of being beaten for the colour of my skin, or of absolute rejection, or indeed many of the myriad ways in which bad things can shape attitudes to the world. So, the likes of Eminem, Rage Against the Machine, Snoop Dogg, and various other Bad Bwoy styles all frequent my playlist, and often at SPLs approaching anti-social!

This freedom of expression is, to me, the greatest gift and any religious attempts at thwarting it is, in my opinion, sacrilege.

Now, go and listen to Stairway to Heaven, and light a candle for hope. BTW, the Dolly Parton version is, I reckon, by far the best cover of this track; check it out on Spotify.

How do they do this?

2009-04-26T09:59:00.003+01:00

Newfangled 3d video technology. Is this the future: interactive film?
YellowBird

Eyes to the good

2009-02-22T17:02:00.003Z

It must be almost exactly the furthest away from greenbelt that its possible to be - time-wise, that is.
I've just completed editing and compiling the footage from Foundation @ NewForms Greenbelt 08 and its made me realise how much I'm looking forward to going to Greenbelt 09!
I've been to a variety of festivals over the years, but Greenbelt just seems to have it all! I've blogged about experiences at New Wine - a place where I felt very out of place - wondering if I was the little boy who suggested that the Emperor was in fact naked. I wonder if its possible for anyone to feel out of place at Greenbelt (save for hard-line fundamentalists! I met one actually, and he was becoming 'confused', which I did nothing to discourage!); it really is a place where anything goes. We met old friends, made new friends, heard happy stories, difficult stories, laughed, cried, drank organic beer and sang old raves in the Jesus Arms, danced, meditated, learned, shared, and loved! A particular high-point was when we were walking past said Jesus Arms where a particularly raucous sing-along was getting into full swing - the DJ playing old 80s pop. I've never heard a gathering erupt so much as when they burst into the chorus of The Proclaimers' '500 Miles'! You could actually feel the ground shaking as folks jumped around spilling beer and singing / shouting along! What an atmosphere!
There were shirts and ties, tie-dies, short-back-and-sides, pink and green mohicans , sensible outdoor wear, cross dressers, all manner of body-art, gay people, straight people, old people, young people, hooligans, bohemians, musicians, artists, people camping in an old Routemaster double decker, lots of goatees and pony-tails, flip-flops, wellies, anything!
The music was varied and often spectacular. Michael Franti (ex of Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, and Spearhead) was particularly brilliant with his infectious blend of hiphop, soul, funk, rock and rap.
The more I remember about last year, the more I'm looking forward to this year!!!

I think what was so special about it was the fact that so much diversity was so happy to coexist, and there was a real spirit of everyone looking in the direction of something transcendent; tolerance of, no celebration of differences with eyes to the good.

Ice, Salt and Motorbikes

2009-01-06T20:13:00.005Z

It was cold on the bike this morning. Very cold. -6 degrees, in fact.
I ride a BMW, which has heated handlebar grips - a real help. I had
to stop for fuel at a motorway services, and felt the bike slipping and sliding about as I rounded the turn-off into the service station. Upon paying for my fuel (a slightly more pleasurable experience than this time last year), I informed the staff that the road was extremely slippery, and could they get some more grit down, or there would be an accident.

I got back up to the roundabout, and was shocked to see a motorcyclist lying in the road about 20 meters away from his bike. Fortunately a fire officer on his way into work had stopped to help. In fact it was him who made the 999 call! We waited for what seemed like ages for the emergency services to arrive, so we talked to Matt (the motorcyclist), mainly to keep him conscious. We learned that his bike had slipped from under him on the ice, despite copious salt and grit. He'd hurt his neck quite badly and was unable to move his head. It was a humbling feeling helping the paramedics load him onto the stretcher. My dislike of icy roads has now developed into a hatred. The exposed metal work on my bike is also rapidly developing a hatred of the salt on the road. Looking forward to spring, and therefore a resolve to the current conflict of interest which exists between my bike and me. My thoughts and prayers are with Matt, a fellow biker, this evening. My thoughts also include the fact that I have yet to do the free first aid training course I've been offered - now top of my list!

Highway to (fundamentalist) Hell

2008-08-10T11:54:00.015+01:00

I attended a child baptism service recently, where 6 children from 5 different families, along with parents and God-parents, packed the church to capacity. Balconies full, etc.

One of the things which always strikes me at these services is the fact that the visitors do not know the words to the 'worship' songs, and it is a bizarre sight to see from the front - all the 'regulars'singing their hearts out, whilst the visitors stand in awkward silence. I will post again about music in church - I doubt if Blogger has the server space to host that particular forthcoming rant...

Anyway, a chap came up to me after the service - an acquaintance of one of the baptism parties, and started complaining that there was not enough 'passion' and 'fire' in the service. He'd managed to convince himself that the only way people were going to 'get saved', whatever that means, is if people are told in no uncertain terms that unless they repent they will go to hell. I asked him if he had ever read the word 'hell' in the bible, and studied its origins. His response was that he'd 'read the bible loads of times'. (A friend later tried to tell me he'd read Lord of the Rings loads of times - I didn't believe him either)

Anyway, matey of the hellfire and brimstone said to me 'well you obviously don't believe the Bible do you?' I was going to launch into some heavy universalist theology, but instead suggested that perhaps its not all black and white. His response to me was:

'In that case you're not preaching the word of God, and you're going straight to hell too.' With that, he actually turned his back on me and walked off.

Cue AC/DC "Highway to hell"...

"Look at me
I'm on my way to the Promised Land,
I'm on the highway to hell
Highway to hell..." etc, etc

Ok, perhaps that is also not a good choice for visiting baptismal parties!

The fact, however, that some people need to take it upon themselves to inform people of their 'eternity of torture' should they 'choose' not to 'repent' absolutely terrifies and sickens me. This is psychological abuse, playing on peoples' inner-most sanctuaries. I can see no bigger barrier to spiritual freedom and encounter with the hope and love of a higher being than to preach this kind of crap. Worse still, imagine what damage this can cause to children! (BTW, matey's two teenaged children were with him at the time he damned me to hell, and witnessed the whole thing. Nice.)

I used to be a christian fundamentalist, and found it to be the most lonely, grey (too much black and white, perhaps?), restrictive existence I've ever known. I could not relate to people without a repentance/conversion agenda. I could not have 'real' friends (unless, of course they were also fundamentalists). When I became a fundamentalist, I had to turn my back on some of my closest friends, as I was told I could not associate with them. I became someone who persecuted homosexuals, someone who believed that sickness was probably a result of generational sin, someone who endorsed the repression (and modern day slavery) of women. I had to stop listening to rock music. I became very depressed, and am still coming to terms with the damage I caused to other people because of the way I spoke to them with my 'biblical authority'. All this I did for fear that if I did not, I would spend eternity in unimaginable pain and torture - because 'gentle Jesus' would not love me anymore. If that's the kingdom of Heaven, I'd rather go to the other place - its warmer and the music is better; I'd probably know more people, too!

The only thing which would give me some sense of purpose at that time in my life was to try and 'convert' other people to my faith - probably so as I did not feel so damned lonely. I wanted my friends to come with me. Fortunately their eyes were open, and they stood their ground. Many of them have also since forgiven me, now that I've finally seen the universal light - or sense!

I thank God, though, I had the sense not to burn my record collection!
There is something about that particular AC/DC song which ironically speaks to me of hope! The song seems like a cry of rebellion to the fundamentalist movements around at that time which still finds a loud resonance with me today. Actually the song is about a road junction on Bonn Scott's route to his local, which saw several bad accidents, and about spending weeks on a tour bus with the bass players smelly feet in your face!

Basically, if you are someone that feels the need to tell me I'm going to Hell, then you, mate, are probably already living there. I will light a candle for you - I know your pain.

For those of you who don't know the song, turn your system up to 11 and enjoy!

Britain has got talent!

2008-05-20T09:13:00.002+01:00

Having been dissapointed with a lot of what I've seen on shows like X Factor, 2 nights ago I was just blown away by one of the acts on Britain's Got Talent.
Flava are a dance troupe from Cornwall. Check this out, and pay particular attention to Simon's comments at the end.

This guy was a bit special, too. Simon got this badly wrong, as you'll see!

The Decade the Music Died

2008-03-27T20:51:00.004Z

Whilst freelancing, the state of the music business, and the rapid decline in record sales, was never far from my mind. The advancement of technology, in particular the popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing, has put record sales into freefall. The ‘grand old’ recording studios are finding it increasingly difficult to stay open, and anyone looking to build a recording studio and run it as a business venture is, for the most part, about to commit financial suicide.

It was thought, not so many years ago, that ‘reference quality CDs’, i.e., recorded at 96khz as opposed to the current 44.1khz, would be the next big thing – consumers would be listening to music recorded with unprecedented sound quality. The idea has not, as yet, caught on. In fact, interestingly, the opposite has happened. People are now listening to less-than-CD-quality MP3s on computer speakers or tiny headphones or, worse still, on mobile phone hands-free mono speakers! It just doesn’t add up! Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of pounds are spent hiring session musicians, producer, sound engineer, recording facilities (often themselves containing tens / hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of recording equipment) to record a single. This then has to be marketed, again with thousands spent on advertising and PR, artwork and distribution. It gets to iTunes and costs 75p. Lets say, for arguments sake, a song has cost £100k to get to iTunes; by my reckoning (not accounting for royalty cuts, publishing splits, etc) it needs to sell over 130,000 copies to break even! Its got to be bloody good! (As of March 17^th, Duffy’s single ‘Mercy’ has sold 40778 copies, and is so far the most popular single of 2008!) Now, until recently – namely until the boon in popularity of iTunes-type facilities, a single was, in marketing terms, merely a calling card for an album. Album sales were that which generated the big bucks. Nowadays, of course, consumers don’t need to buy the whole album – just the tracks they like. So how is it possible for a record company to financially justify the cost of producing and marketing a single?

Even the sales figures are fairly academic when the phenomenon of piracy is brought into the equation. I’m not sure of actual numbers, but I’d be willing to bet that for any given ‘legitimate’ sale on iTunes for any given chart track, there’d be multiple instances of illegal cloning and ‘sharing’ of that same track.

Even without considering piracy, the amount of music which record companies themselves are releasing as free downloads, is unprecedented. Look at Prince, Radiohead, the Charletans, to name a few – releasing their albums practically for free! Aren’t they devaluing the marketplace further?

In pop music, the only sure-fire way of making a living is by gigging. If your music is available in digital form, and if it is any good, it will get stolen many, many times. The amount of people listening to it will be far more than how many paid for it. Fact. It will not be long before entire albums are merely calling-cards for live shows.

The future of pop music has to lie in live performance. After all you can't clone a good night out and share it on Limewire!

A Great day at the Grove

2007-11-21T20:50:00.000Z

What could be more fun? We arrived this morning at British Grove Studios in Chiswick at 9:00 (following a 5am start), to record strings for 3 tracks on the forthcoming Freya album. The live room was already set up for our strings players, with some of the worlds finest microphones - a selection of Neuman M49s and M50s along with an array of Schoepps - all courtesy of the Decca microphone collection. Alastair Gavin (currently MD for Mama Mia in the West End) was our string arranger and conductor. He'd lovingly scored out parts for 1st and 2nd violins, violas, celli and double bass, for 3 of the songs on the album. The 11 musicians arrived (including prinipal violinist Alexander Balanescu), the session files were loaded into the studio's computer, and at 10am sharp, the baton took flight. WOW! What a sound!!! Brilliant musicians!
I sat and listened as a piece of music written after a couple of cans of beer and a lengthy jam session by myself and bass player Karl Morgan suddenly took on a new life. It was an incredible experience!
The studio itself is stunning - built for, and owned by, Mark Knopfler. A fabulous Neve console in Studio 1, flanked by 2 beautifully refurbished vintage desks, fully plumbed in and working. In Studio 2 is a wonderful API desk. Both studios have a splendid collection of outboard equipment and each have 3 Studer 880s, fitted with 24, 16 and 8 track head blocks. The machine room is a work of art. It houses the power supplys and automation computers for the consoles, the servers, the A-D and D-A converters and the 2 Mac Pros. Everything is clearly labelled - a real labour of love. I love this level of attention to detail.

A truly magnificent day - one to remember. Thanks to all the staff at British Grove; to the musicians; to Alastair; to JD for the ride; to Major Butler for his significant expertise behind the desk, and as captain of the ship!

project:Freya myspace site up and running

2007-10-16T14:55:00.000+01:00

With the album recording in its final stages, we've decided to put a few previews on myspace. Check it out. (Also the more 'plays' we get, the more chance we have of getting reviews in industry publications.)

We're looking to have the album completed by the end of November. The project got put on hold, as Freya lost her voice, and then fell off one of her polo horses and broke her ankle!

She's beginning showcasing imminently, and we're looking at marketing options for early next year with a hope of a spring release.

Linux vs XP

2007-09-10T12:00:00.001+01:00

Linux is a free open-source operating system based on Unix. Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers from around the globe.

Many people who are frustrated with the Microsoft family of operating systems, e.g., WindowsXP, Vista, etc, are switching to linux. There are a number of available packages (distros) which are mostly completely free. Free, too, are the many applications which you can install. Many of these rival main-stream products, like Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, MediaPlayer, and so-on.

I've been experimenting with the Fedora Core distro. It comes with KDE - a windows-like desktop environment, a number of Office-like applications, media players, email, contact and calendar apps, and a host of other goodies. There are thousands of completely free (open source) software packages to be found amongst the linux community.

However, there is a bit of a learning curve, and I found that it was becoming a hobby which I did not have time for!

There are a number of configuration issues, particularly if you have fairly new hardware. Drivers for certain things are not always readily available, and the file system takes some real getting used to.

It is an unbelievably stable system, though - mine did not crash once all the time I was using it. Large companies have reported years of constant crash-free operation! It also runs really well on older and slower machines - machines which would not be powerful enough to run XP.

My problem is that I run a (home) network of 5 PCs, two of which are dual-boot, and doing any 'under-the-hood' operations - such as disk management, back-up schedules, calendar and contact syncing, etc, required almost constant research onto the internet to find solutions. I felt that I was over-complicating things by having another operating system on the home network.

If you are not particularly technically minded, Linux is great as a useful (and extremely reliable) Windows / Office replacement - with the added satisfaction that you are not lining the heavy pockets of Bill Gates. Don't let me put you off! However, if you need to manage more system-level stuff, then be prepared to fettle! Having said that, there is a vast amount of knowledge available on the net to help you along.

For me it was causing more problems that it was solving - namely it was taking up far too much of my time!

I will, however, be installing a linux distro on an older PC I have in the garage for fiddling about with when I do have time, but I've discovered I'm not yet in a position whereby I can go completely microsoft-free just yet!

Recording "Freya" album

2007-06-28T16:42:00.000+01:00

Its been a very long time since my last post, but there is good reason for this! I've been involved in a writing / recording project since January 29th, and have not found a great deal of spare time!!

It all started on a family holiday two years ago. We (myself, Penny and the kids) went camping near St Tropez. Freya (Penny's cousin) was staying with her folks, at their house also near St. T. We were invited over for a meal, when I heard Freya playing the piano and singing. I thought it sounded good, and suggested that, when we all got back to blightey, I bring some kit to her place and make a recording. The following April, we hooked up and recorded a demo. She loved the process so much, her heart was set on writing and recording more material. I was duly enlisted to facilitate this!

Freya and I have now written a whole bunch of songs, enough for at least a couple of albums, and are now in the recording phase of the project, due to complete this on July 19th whereby the mix sessions will follow.

For the writing phase, we set up a writing space at her parents fabulous home in the Cotswolds, taking over their shooting lodge whilst the shooting season was in recess. We hired some wonderful musical instruments - Gibson and Fender guitars, Rhodes Suitcase88 electric piano, Hammond C3 and 147 valve Leslie, a set of beefy studio monitors and a nice big mixing console and set to work. Thanks to Tickle Music Hire for this. We also bought a whopper of a computer to handle the recording and midi sequencing tasks required for the writing and demo stage - thanks to Carillon and Turnkey for this. They also provided the software: Cubase 4, Reason and NI Komplete (a brilliant collection of software synths and sample players).

The songs are based mainly around Freya's life experiences - she's kept diaries since she was first able to hold a pen to a piece of paper, so there was plenty of material for inspiration - some jubilant, some quite dark and difficult.

We also did the Dylan thing, hanging out in coffee shops and making up stories about the people we observed! Great fun...

Once the writing phase was complete and some demo recordings drafted, we set about finding a place to record. We'd initially booked Real World - Peter Gabriel's staggeringly sumptuous studio, just outside Bath. However, this would have proved logistically difficult, as Freya had other commitments elsewhere, and would have found the endless hours in the car tiring. By chance I came across Yellow Shark studios, right in the centre of Cheltenham, and happened to call them on a day when a Mr Matt Butler was in residence. Butler was Paul McCartney's engineer for many years, and has recorded and produced many of the worlds finest bands and artists. On meeting him and the studio owner (also in the process of setting up a record label and publishing company!) we played them our material, and their eyes lit up. Suddenly the project had shifted gear! Matt "Major" Butler was brought in as engineer and producer. With his contacts amongst session musicians, we set about hiring some seriously good players to overdub the instrumentation. This has taken the sound of the project to a new level.

The studio itself is excellent, euipped with a virtually new Studer 2" 24 track recorder, along with Radar, and Pro-Tools. It also has a fabulous Yamaha C5 grand piano, a beautiful Hammond A100 (basically a B3 with extra bits and bobs) , a 147 Leslie, a Rhodes 76, a great collection of mics, and some great sounding rooms. Also, being in the heart of Cheltenham, there is no shortage of fine eateries and drinkeries!

So we're now negotiating recording contracts, publishing, licensing, PR and marketing, with a view to releasing the first single in early Autumn.

We've yet to record the lead vocals, brass and backing vocals, and we're going to Czechoslovakia to record the orchestral strings, as this is more cost effective than our original plan (Abbey Road - exciting, but expensive) so plenty yet to do!

I'll endeavour to keep you posted as to release dates, forthcoming gigs and any radio / tv stuff which may (hopefully) be happening.

Sorry, nothing for you to listen to yet - there'll be a myspace site set up soon as part of the marketing and PR campaign where you'll be able to hear what we've been up to...

System Tools

2007-01-24T16:00:00.000Z

I heard a wonderfully simple analogy yesterday during a group meditation on Psalm 23. We were looking at how the concept of rest is a divine source of re-charge for the soul; how the busy-ness of day to day life can de-energize and drain power from the long-term plan; how the onslaught of a thousand emails, text messages and voicemails all awaiting response can clutter the brain so that ones efficiency at dealing with said requests diminishes at a rate which can cause major stress, and eventual melt-down.

The analogy was of the process of defragmenting the hard-drive. Those of you who are used to using microsoft operating systems will know what I mean. For those who use proper operating systems, I'll explain...

If you use your computer a lot, its hard drive gets cluttered. Installing and removing programs can be the worst culpret. Residual 'stuff' which the un-install programs fail to remove remain in-situ. The consequence is that when the hard drive's read-head needs to find a piece of data, it has to trawls through a load of disorganised sludge to get to it. If it has to do this a few times in quick succession, it can cause the machine to slow down horrendously.

Windows includes a program call DiskDefragmenter. What this does is scans your hard drive and re-organise it so that all the folders in use are in one place, all the system (essential for running) files are in another, and the free space on the disk is all in one nice neat and tidy area. This dramatically increases efficiency of the drive to store and retrieve data.

What is great about the program is the Graphicl User Interface, i.e., that which you see on the screen during the process of defragmentation - you can actually see it happening; you can actually see how inefficient the drive has been, and watch all of your files being organised.

If you haven't defragmented your hard drive in a while, you may find that you are not able to complete tasks as quickly and efficiently as you once were, and the arrival of new tasks seems to place a disproportionate load on your system.

Defrag. Defrag often; build it into your schedule. By taking this 'green pastures' rest you are not eating valuable time, you are actually re-energizing your soul, so that the time you have got can be used wisely and efficiently.

Free Downloads Resumed

2006-11-15T21:16:00.000Z

Help yourself to tunes from my website! You can listen to previews, and download full versions. More to come in the not too distant.

Fusions

2006-11-06T19:44:00.000Z

I had a dream a couple of nights ago, and have been thinking a lot about it since. I dreamt that some friends of ours, who we hadn't seen for some time, phoned us up all excited about this new church they were going to. It was a church for believers and unbelievers.

A bizarre mixture of members included aetheists, agnostics, christians, artists, and a sprinkling of the beautiful people and the undesireables.

They all sang with one voice. Like the two trees in the picture fused as one.

They fused songs together - like Del Amitri's "Nothing ever happens", with REM's "Everybody Hurts" (a song which I'm sure was written by God himself to us all, Stype merely acting as amanuensis)

Sinead O'Connor's "Thank you for hearing me":

Thank you for breaking my heart
Thank you for tearing me apart
Now I've a strong strong heart
Thank you for breaking my heart

with Mindy Smith's "Come to Jesus":

Worry not my daughter, worry not my son,
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus, let him hold you in his arms

In order to belong to this church, however, there was a pre-requisite - an open mind - or a willingness to develop one.

I wonder what liturgical framework could serve such a church? Like, how would they do the creed?

Some of us believe in God the father, the Lord the giver of life...
Others of us are still trying to work it all out...

On a wing...

2006-10-31T22:16:00.000Z

Been thinking a lot about the concept of prayer recently. What is it, how do you do it, to whom / what do you 'do' it?

I looked up prayer on Wikipedia and found some interesting stuff. In my quest for a definition of prayer, the following collection of statements proved extremely useful:

* The belief that the finite can actually communicate with the infinite;
* The belief that the infinite is interested in communicating with the finite;
* The belief that the prayer is listened to and may or may not get a response;
* The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence the recipient;
* The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on the recipient through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;
* The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of the recipient;
* The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself;
* The belief that the recipient expects or appreciates prayer

Thses statements follow a short paragraph outlining different devotional acts of the different religions. What I found absolutely wonderful was that it was unclear as to which statements 'belonged' to which religion. I could give an educated guess, but I found, in fact, that all had some place in my own prayer life.

I’m currently exploring prayer using three different approaches. I’m calling them: ‘escapism; reflection; and petition’.

My intention is to practice the belief that God, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, is interested in my sense of wonderment, my reflections and my petitions; the belief that God is interested in my response to creation.

1. I like to think that escapism can be practiced through art, music, nature, literature, theater, film, architecture; silence, serenity, a break from the busy-ness of life in 21st century; wonder at creation; its also a trigger for worship
2. reflective - self evaluative (identity); looking at society; re-thinking (repentance)
3. petition: Wider world – response to local and national news; family and friends; our leaders – church, work, political; ourselves

Each can be used in isolation. Different situations may call for, or facilitate different approaches. Standing on a mountain top; taking in a show, a film, a new addition to the record collection; walking from the office to the board-room; looking back across a number of years; entering a hospital at visiting time; reflecting following the counsel of trusted friends; losing control of a car; watching the news.

However, regarding the latter - watching the news, yesterday my family and I flew back from a holiday in Cyprus. We'd stayed at a 'Louis' hotel, booked through Thomas Cook. Our other choice had been Corfu - to the same hotel where two little children died due to what looks like carbon monoxide poisioning, either from the boiler or the A/C.

I have just kissed my two goodnight. I don't know how to pray. The fragility of life just became terrifyingly close.

euphoria and reality

2006-08-05T20:30:00.000+01:00

I'm currently reflecting on a week at New Wine - a christian festival held at at the Bath and West showground in Shepton Mallet.

It was a bizarre mixture of emotions for me. I've been several times before, and found much of what goes on very helpful. (Some of it wasn't - I don't understand the whole alter-call thing; the session on homosexuality was very odd, and misleading; maybe I'll blog about these in due course.) There is a lot of emphasis on wholeness, and becoming the 'person God designed you to be' and all that stuff, which can't be bad. There is also a lot of euphoria - some refer to it as a 'mountain-top experience', I guess an allusion to the transfiguration scene in the bible. More caravans though. I have never been able to fully engage in the euphoria - not sober anyway! My reflection (aided by my wife, and some good friends in the Highbury Vaults) has led me to conclude that a lot of what I was feeling was anger, borne from my frustration at the fact that there was something missing - an element of reality perhaps?

One event in particular, which highlighted for me the gap between euphoria and reality happened while I was in one of the car parks, oddly enough. I'd had to carry a flat airbed to the car so that I could blow it up from the fag lighter compressor thingy. While I was sat there, I could hear a racket coming from one of the tents by the perimiter fence - a couple were in the throws of a bitter argument. The result was that she'd shouted to her husband/partner/whatever that he was a lazy ******d, that he could keep the ****ing kids, and that she was leaving him for good. I then saw her emerge from the tent, with 2 packed bags, and run off in floods of bitter, but resolute tears. In the background I could hear extravagent and euphoric worship music blaring from one of the stages. That was my 'God moment', there and then. All I could do was pray - and the only way I could pray was to replay what I'd seen and heard in my mind, hoping God could hear me above the noise from 'venue 1'. It was a strange experience, followed by a deeply thoughtful walk back to our encampment, trying to unpack what I'd just witnessed. I was reminded of the time when my mother made a similar departure from a christian retreat in Norfolk.

Also, Someone actually looked at me carrying the newly inflated airbed back to the tent, chuckled, and said "take up thy bed and walk", which was just plain wierd.

However, the camping was great, superb weather, cold beer, bbq, etc. We went with another family who we get on with very well. It has to be said that the kids work at New Wine is just superb too. Ours had the best time. Song of the week was "Shackles" by Mary Mary!

blah

2006-07-16T09:01:00.000+01:00

A series of presentations on the "emerging church" was held on Friday (14th) at the amazing Elim@Bristol church building. Karen Ward, Paul Roberts, Ben Edson, Ryan Bolger and Johnny Baker all talked about what goes on in the communities in which they express church. There will, no doubt, be copious blogging elsewhere on the subject. My particular highlight of the day had to be the wonderful irony of sitting in the amazing high-tech mini mega church building, with just about every conceivable bit of kit you're ever likely to need in a venue of this type, looking at Karen's video presentation of the raggle taggle, untidy COTA church building. Amazing. Beanbags, candles, mismatching chairs, but a real presence of love and community! Brilliant.

Floating...

2006-06-24T09:40:00.000+01:00

In my time, I have seen some incredible recording studios; I'm constantly staggered at the lengths people will go to to creat that perfect creative environment. Real World studios (Peter Gabriels place) in Box just outside bath is no exception - possible the largest control room anywhere. Check the site. Look for the realworld studios link. The accomodation and food is just excellent, too.

Sarm Hook End (Formerly Hook End Manor), is nothing short of pure extravagence. Formerly home to Dave Gilmour, now amongst the world's finest studios. Check it out.

My current favourite, however, has to be Astoria - Gilmour's floating studio. The boat itself was built between 1910 and 1912 as a houseboat for impresario Fred Karno (inventor of the custard-pie gag, according to Wiki). He wanted to be able to seat a full orchestra on the top deck! Flash git! Check the pics and vid

Other great and good studios can be virtually toured here if you're interested.

Downloads Suspended

2006-06-23T16:46:00.000+01:00

Sorry folks, I've temporarily had to suspend downloading of the hi bitrate audio from the jeznashmusic website. This is due to current server restrictions, i.e., I need to cough up for more space! With the administrative costs accumilating, I will be looking at a way of charging for downloads - the Paypal Donate thing is a good idea, but is not really allowing me to meet costs.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, should you wish to obtain any of the material, contact me via the website.

Education and the Church

2006-06-22T10:28:00.000+01:00

I'm all for raising standards in education. Part of a high profile debate is the issue of whether passing exams is equal to getting a good education. As an educator myself, I believe it is important to commend "distance travelled" as much as actual qualifications. I worked for some time in a college for the blind and visually impaired. There was no nationally recognised way of quantifying distance travelled; learners followed the same courses as those at mainstream colleges - the main difference being the level of support and resources.

A sunday school teacher recently remarked that education in schools is extremely 'prescribed', i.e., pupils work towards passing and exam, and this is the main objective. In one of her classes, she asked the group of children to do a task which involved mainly self expression. She could not believe how uncomfortable nearly all the children felt with this.

Could not a function of the church be to supplement personal and creative development in schools? Could Sunday School be about facilitating children to become the people God has created them to be, rather than focussing primarily on bible stories? What about Sunday art, song-writing and drama workshops? Getting kids to write and perform their own material? Anybody seen School of Rock? I believe this is what Sunday School aught to look like! A whole class of children working as a team, writing, promoting, rehearsing, and performing a "rock show to change the world"!!

Seriously, though, i'd like to see further development of the partnership between school and church, that the lives of our children might be enriched socially, academically and spiritually.

Fruits and Gifts

2006-06-13T14:44:00.000+01:00

The ‘little service’ is a treasured oasis of calm, reflection, meditation and thought. The service I went to on Sunday 4th June was no exception. We looked at the Pauline writings regarding fruit and gifts of the spirit. It was a wonderful reminder of attributes afforded to us as individuals, and resources afforded to us collectively. I’d personally like to thank Nick Martin who prepared and led the service (I believe this was his debut at doing so). It was simple, yet clear and well thought out; a gentle mix of challenge and encouragement. Splendid.

moving

2006-05-23T21:26:00.000+01:00

I may not have a chance to blog for a little while - we are preparing to move house, so I'll be helping to pack, helping to paint the new place, putting up curtain poles, making several trips to several tips, etc. May see some of you in the pub, though.

New Chewns

2006-04-26T13:35:00.000+01:00

Go to the Audio Gallery on the Website. Enjoy. Donate.

Great tips on evangalism. (?!)

2006-04-25T19:41:00.000+01:00

This really has to be seen to be believed.
I watched up to the bit with the banana and then I died.
You'll need broadband...oh, and a narrow mind!