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06/25/2006

Weekend Wanderings

The weekend has been great. Firstly The Lakehouse with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock was actually a great film. I was thinking it might have been a chick flick extraordinaire, but then I thought, Keanu makes decent movies, so I gave it a go, and wasn't disappointed. On Saturday then I went with another singer/musician friend, Ian Somerville to hear Richard Higginson launch his new album, 'Tents & Altars' at The Errigle Inn in Belfast. It was a great night, and Richard was excellent.

Football then was Sunday, and I watched the England match with Sarah (who has taken a recent liking to football - was that a flying pig?). It was a decent match, though again, if they want to go further they will have to step things up again. And the little I caught of the Portugal/Netherlands match was mad - 4 off in the end and 16 yellow cards - that's what I call a trigger-happy ref.

So the week that's coming is a lot of work (12-8pm shifts every day), as well as press on with my Jim Wallis book (it is one if the best books I've read in a long time!). So until next time... I'm off to bed to get some sleep pattern back!

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06/19/2006

Flying Time, Colchester and The New Album

Everyone always mentions it at some point, that time flies and it's amazing how we are in June of 2006 already. So I will join everyone and become the crowd and say I am flippin well slightly shocked that it's nearly half way through the year - where has it gone? You know they say ('they' being those mysterious people who always have something to say on everything - I would buy the magazine, if 'they' had one - they could call it 'We') say that time goes faster as you get older. I think time goes faster (seems to) the more you do. But this past few months doesn't seems like Ive been really busy, but rather diving into work and reading and study and travel and friends has made life full, varied, fun and challenging - so time has went slow and fast and I think this is how things should really be, perhaps, the fast with the slow, the loud with the quiet, the city with the grass...

Colchester was a great weekend. There is a great bunch of people there standing for the city and region and really open and living in what God is saying and working out there. It was a pleasure to spend time with good friends as well as make new ones! It was also great to stay with Matt, and catch up. So I've been back a week ago today and continuing to process some revelation and signs from the weekend as well as work and spend time with Sarah, friends and family (Father's day after all!). It was also great to meet up with a great bunch of French, Swiss, German (I think!) and English people who have been doing a pilgrimage across Europe praying and drawing on what God has done in history and is calling for across the continent. I love it when the nations of Europe connect together and follow what they see God showing and it's great to see them journeying here. May they complete what they're here to do, call for, give and recieve!

One thing to mention about this week is that I am heading on Saturday night to the Errigle Inn on the Ormeau Rd where Richard Higginson is playing live. It's the Irish launch of his new album, "Tents & Altars". But alas, before then I start nightshifts tomorrow and enter the nether zone... but perhaps I might return from there to blog a bit... maybe...

10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

06/09/2006

Cafe-ing in Colchester

So I'm writing from an internet cafe in Colchester, England. There seems to be a distinct lack of wireless in this city, so I'm on a good old desktop. I'm here with some friends, Sue Mitchell, Gareth Richards and of course Matt James whose territory this is! We're planning to do some prayer for the city with some others from here and more than likely have some prophetic imput as to the identity and redemptive plan for the city/region... perhaps, but then who knows?! It's good to see Matt, will be good to see/meet the rest of the guys and I'm looking forward to what the weekend holds. So, until I'm back on the Emerald...

04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/01/2006

The Fair City

Well Sarah and I went to Dublin on Monday past. The general idea was to go to some galleries and do a bit of shopping. It was a great day (see the pics in the photo album). Unfortunately though so many galleries and museums close on Monday. A man from Dublin I mentioned this to today laughed and said (jokingly) "Well that's just for all you Northerners with your bank holidays!" So we went to the National Gallery which was open. The Jack B. Yeats (William's brother) exhibition is well worth the visit. Also the Book of Kells is pretty nifty and hey, a libraray with 200,000 volumes in a long bust-filled room with tall roof-high stacks and a smell of very old books was just what I needed. They wouldn't let me set up a tent there, so we moved on...

I find myself in or connected to Dublin more often these days. The organisation I work for has their head offices there and I am working with more and more people from Dublin and the South in general. I find myself in an organisation that spans the island and find it actually quite refreshing. There really doesn't seem like there's a divide any more. So here's to more connecting that cross the border, or perhaps I should really say more connections that exist as if there isn't a border. The gates seem open.

07:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently Read

Robert Crais: The Two Minute Rule
An airport buy... I hear a gasp - trash, trash... indeed. I must admit that I sometimes look up and see my very own blue moon and go pop-fiction trigger-happy at the airport bookstand. This time was on the way back from Brussels and I had just finished Christine Falls and had no book for the plane, and I took a chance... and wasn't diappointed. The thrills, the suspense, all the good ingredients and this really is some of the better writing in the popular fiction genre - quick, easy reading and very enjoyable. A deserving three stars. (***)
Benjamin Black: Christine Falls
A really good read. I considered giving this one four stars, but want to maintain the integrity of my scoring system and just couldn't give it such high praise, though praise it gets (3.5 would work if it existed!). Black (Banville) does a great job in this genre and what was a brilliant aspect to the work was it's constantly changing narrative perspective. It takes a good writer to seamlessly shift perspectives and not have the book disjointed or piecemeal. I had worked out the plot early on, a little bit of a disappointment, but not so much so that the book did not hold suspense. It's not just a detective mystery. The charater depth and complexity give it body and this is why I turned the pages in quick succession - not to see the solution to the mystery, but to see what happens next to the characters - the accomplishment of a good novelist. A recommended read, without doubt. (***)
Markus Zusak: The Book Thief
I'm not sure just what to say about this book. I like reading historical fiction, especially from interesting angles. Leisel Meminger's Nazi Germany comes alive here and I surprised myself how much I was enthralled with Zusak's writing. I shan't say much more other than this book emotionally affected me more than any other in a long long time... words don't quantify the ending... oh yes, and Death is a great narrator. (*****)
Martin Scott: Embracing Tomorrow
If you know Martin, you know he talks from experience and has something serious to say about this subject. The book carried a lot of weight for me and stirred me inside around the prophetic. The Prophets and Justice chapter flags up a much side-lined but foundational role of the prophets. And his closing chapter on Prophets and Transition hits to the heart of where we find ourselves - the inbetweeness mixed with the huge expectancy mixed with the lament over the past... Very practical, deeply rooted in Martin's life and experience of prophecy and being a prophet and above all a stirring and provoking book. Definitely recommend it. (****)
Alexander Litvinenko: Blowing Up Russia
Well... not sure what exactly to say here. I wouldn't usually have bought this book. And the News of the World calling it "Explosive" wasn't, believe it or not, what attracted me. I was interested because how many other authors have been poisoned by Plutonium 210? Add to that tyhe recent bullishness of Russia on the world stage and I thought, actually this might be interesting. And it is a provoking and interesting read, though it is tough going. There are just so many names and initials and abbreviations that I felt like I was digesting alphabet soup, with bread de tabloide on the side. Whilst a tough and somehwat annoying read, the interesting parts of the content about Chechnya, Putin's background and the failed Ryanzan bombinig have drawn me to look at other works in the area, namely Jon Snow's 'A Russian Diary', and Martin Sixsmith's 'The Litnevonko File'. A two star though for its dryness. Only read if the subject matter can keep you spooning the soup! My subject interests surprise me sometimes... (**)
Colin Bateman: Belfast Confidential
Great read. I always think it's a sign that a region or a city is normalising when decent popular fiction can be written about it and sell well. The Northern Ireland 'situation' has hit the shallow paperback - happy days! I liked Bateman's style and voice, his satire on up-and-coming Belfast, but yet the palatable sigh of relief that permeates the book that it's a satire of a new materialism and pseudo-celeb world and not bombs and bodies, ideaologies and cyclical history. Entertaining read. Not totally sure though if I could hack any more of his books in the immediate - I probably will over the summer though. (***)
Andrew Pepper: The Last Days of Newgate
This is the debut novel of an English lecturer I had at Queen's and a brilliant debut it is. It combines two things I love - a good mystery written in a historical setting, pre-Victorian London and Belfast to be exact. A hard-hitting, fast-paced novel that charts the underworlds of London, confronts the grusome lawlessness of the time, but plays on the unwritten laws that are all around at the period - powerful rich and oppressed poor, hypocritical morality and blurred lines of justice and crime. (****)
George Orwell: 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
A Classic. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting it to be so graphic. I did recoil at times, (I'm a big wus). It was chilling and disturbing and made me glad it wasn't real. Probably would have been better before 1984, and I reckon when it was written, in the middle of the war that it would have hit the social psyche pretty deeply. I have to agree with CS Lewis on it though that some of the passages seemed like filler. There wasn't really that much point to many of them, and they added nothing to characterisation. But this is one of the classic and cult texts of the century and the social comment is hard to ignore. Very glad I read it and would recommend it. Big Brother is watching you. (****)
Jim Wallis: God's Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It
An amzing book. Wallis has simply so much experience in the area of faith and society that it is hard not to listen to what he has to say. Also, this is a refreshing voice from America that isn't the Christian Right. Whilst the work isn't an academic or theological exposition (which is good for me), it is packed with experience of what has and hasn't worked and some very insightful perspectives. If you're interested in social change or faith and politics, or even just contemporary America do take a read. (*****)