City Alight - Free Download - Holy
City Alight are offering their excellent song, Holy, as a free download on their website. Also available are lyrics, sheet music and chord charts. I really like this song - check it out...
Friday, April 30, 2010
Another rare gem...
Just discovered it on Books & Collectibles. Will be in the area tomorrow - hopefully will be able to pick it up. Will reveal all if I do... This sort of thing could become addictive - and expensive...
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Cigarettes to be in plain packaging
This is interesting. In what may be a world first, from 2012, cigarettes will have to be sold in plain packaging, with a standard font showing the brand.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Finished Chapter 12
Finally finished chapter 12 of my biography of Richard Johnson. It ended up being about 30% longer than I wished, though I should be able to trim it down a bit in editing. 8 chapters to go. The next chapter concerns the appointment of the second chaplain to the colony. It's a great story, and the man at the heart of the tale was destined to become the most famous clergyman in Australian history - but for all the wrong reasons...
Pedestrians ignore New York hero as he lies dying
People ignored the dying man for nearly two hours as he lay in a street in Queens after saving a woman from being mugged. (more here)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Writing
Got a bit of writing done on my Richard Johnson bio today, which was gratifying. Unfortunately, chapter 12 is spiraling out of control, size wise. I either need to radically cut it down, or turn it into two chapters. Neither option really appeals at the moment...
Music Directors Support Network
Bren McLean, MD of St Paul's Castle Hill, has created a support network for music directors. There is a facebook group set up. It is by invite only, but if you are the MD at your church, you can send a request to join...
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A small treasure
Yesterday I purchased an antique book. It is a first edition copy of "Australia's First Preacher" by James Bonwick, and it is over 110 years old (and in quite good condition). As you might guess, the book is a biography of Richard Johnson, the first chaplain to NSW. Long time readers are aware that I am presently writing a new biography of Johnson. In all truth, this book will help my work only a little - I am mostly dealing with primary sources now, and I already have photocopies of what I needed from Bonwick's book. But I'm thrilled to finally have a copy of such a rare tome in my hands. For those who are curious, the book cost me $125, which is cheaper than I was expecting.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Antiques
The girl loves antique shops, so as a special treat we are visiting a whole heap on Saturday in the Southern Highlands. I'm not that thrilled by antique furniture, but I do like to look at old books. In fact, there is an antique book I've got my eye on in Berklouw at Berry, a little gem. Will post up a pic on the weekend if I manage to pick it up.
Kung Fu
Got back to Kung Fu tonight after a couple of weeks lay off. Still trying to master the first form...
SRE - A Minority Report
I will win no friends with this comment. I've generally found our (Anglican) arguments against the Ethics trial, and in favour of SRE, to be pretty unpersuasive and blatantly self-interested. I think we will win no support from the community by trying to scuttle the Ethics course. And I don't feel people are being honest in their defense of SRE. The real reason we like SRE is because it gives us a chance to preach the gospel to the kids, and we are hoping that some will convert. But that is such an unpopular idea that no-one says that, and instead we invent palatable rationalisations for why SRE should be continued by a secular government and school system. I feel like we are talking out of both sides of our mouths.
The end of the Melbourne Storm
You've probably all heard about the Storm now. I don't see how they can survive this. They are dependent upon News Ltd for their funding, and I can't see News wanting to throw buckets of money at them now. Sponsors and fans will desert the team in droves. I think they will fold.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Dancing...
Finally took the girl dancing again last night. We are going to a new class now, which is a bit closer and a bit better than our old one. Did the tango and rumba last night. Fellows, a willingness to dance covers over a multitude of other short-comings... ;-)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The School Scripture Debate
Some interesting comments on SA. From reading the meta, it seems that school scripture is going to take a huge hit from the ethics classes. Our political lobbying does not look attractive, and some parents who were apathetic about the issue are now suddenly giving it serious thought - and opting out of scripture. As Jeremy points out, part of the problem is that the ethics/philosophy class is taught as an alternative to scripture. The new course *does* sound interesting, and personally I'd like my children to be exposed to both, rather than have to choose. Oh, and I have no problem at all with kids being taught ethics based upon a secular foundation - natural law is really the only ethical connection believers have with non-, and it is the only sound foundation upon which to build a society. Read Calvin's Institutes IV.XX for a more detailed discussion of this point.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Currently Reading
Empire: How Britain made the Modern World (Niall Ferguson)
Band of Brothers (Stephen Ambrose)
The Greatest Show on Earth (Richard Dawkins)
Australians (Thomas Keneally)
Friday, April 16, 2010
Clash of the Titans
Saw this with the lads and enjoyed it very much. I'm surprised it has been getting such lukewarm reviews.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Pacific
I watched The Pacific last night, and it didn't disappoint. I'm a huge fan of Band of Brothers, which followed the story of a WWII paratrooper company in the European theater. The Pacific can be loosely considered a sequel to that series, taking place in the Pacific theater of war. My expectations were pretty high, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. They did a few things a bit differently to BoB. A factual voice-over by Executive Producer Tom Hanks at the start of each episode, placing the events in their strategic context, was a bit disconcerting, but I'll get used to it. They also had less veteran interviews at the beginning than BoB - probably because they are running out of veterans. They also threw you right into the action, whereas BoB spent the first couple of episodes focused upon training (and character establishment).
But these differences aren't problems at all. I'm so looking forward to the rest of the series. Wednesday night I have community group, so I've set the TiVo up to record the thing, and I'll probably stay up late watching it when I get home. Why can't all history be told like this..? It's great...
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Four boys + me
My younger two boys are staying with me this week, for Easter holidays. Their older brother is here too, as per normal, and one of his mates is staying as well for a few days. So I have four teenage boys in my house at the moment. You can cut the testosterone with a knife. Haha - it's all good. I'm still at work all this week - haven't taken any time off. But the lads are old enough to amuse themselves during the day. It's good to have them around...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Royal Easter Show - 2010
Went to the Royal Easter Show with my two younger sons this evening. First time I've been for years. Had a really good time. We went after 5pm, which meant entry was cheaper, and we had already eaten dinner. The boys picked up a couple of snack show bags (they have outgrown the toys), then we went and found seats in the showground at about 6pm. They put on a very entertaining show, including a country parade, some live music, stunt riders and cars, free style motocross, "Robosaurus" and a fireworks and hologram display. The showground was completely full - 20,000 people. I enjoyed the whole thing more than I thought I would - it was a good evening of family entertainment.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Wikileaks Iraq Video
Yeah, I watched it. Very disturbing. I will say this - it is good to see that there are rules of engagement, even if they failed catastrophically in this instance. The gunship could not engage until it was confirmed that the group was armed. They claim to have seen AK47s and an RPG. Scant comfort to the families of those killed, I know...
New Songs for 2010
After getting input from my team, and listening to a lot of music, I've come up with the following songs to introduce at church in 2010 -
How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
How Marvelous (Tomlin)
It is Not Death to Die (Sovereign Grace)
We Sing (Sovereign Grace)
All The Nations (Kirkplace)
This Life I Live (Morrow)
Beneath the Cross (Garage Hymnal)
You Are God (Emu)
This is still a tentative list - things may change, especially if I come across a great new song that everyone wants to do. But this is how things look at the moment. What new songs are you doing in 2010?
Monday, April 05, 2010
Van Gogh
Just watched the Simon Schama doco on Van Gogh. Really fascinating. I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to art, but it's something I'm trying to appreciate a bit more. The wiki article on VG is pretty cool...
Take soft porn off the shelves?
A group of child development experts are calling for soft porn to be banned from newsagents and petrol stations etc. This seems fair enough to me - people who want to access this material can do so easily enough via subscriptions or over the internet. There is no need for a jumbo sized porn stand at your local Caltex...
Chord substitute for half-diminished
Ok, one of the recent Emu albums shows a strange fondness for the chord F# half-diminished, which mere mortal guitarists will have trouble playing. After talking to the source, I've found that you can substitute that for Am/F# (ie. guitar plays Am, bass plays F#) which is much more palatable. Now all I have to do is deface their PDFs with the new chord...
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Easter Services
Our Good Friday and Easter Sunday services both went really well. I was surprised at the number of visitors we had - more than in previous years, I feel. It felt like a pretty comfortable number of people in the building.
I organised music for both services, and it went really well. We received a heap of good comments, which has been so encouraging. The songs we did were -
Good Friday
Jesus Your Blood and Righteousness
Grace Unmeasured
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
Never Alone
Easter Sunday
Blessed Be Your Name
God Of Wonders
Grace Unmeasured
Never Alone
The Friday ensemble had bass, drums, guitar, piano, horn and three singers. Sunday was bass, drums, guitar, horn and four singers. I've now realised that putting on extra singers is the best way to "thicken up" the sound. And if you can get some solid harmonies going - it sounds huge.
I've eliminated the hymn sandwich from our church, to my intense satisfaction. Currently we are doing 3 songs at the start of the service, and a single song at the end. Lots of good comments about that, too - as I've long said, it usually takes people 1-2 songs to "warm up" and start singing. The only change I might make there is to put 4 songs at the top and just reprise a verse and chorus at the end.
Another interesting thing we did this morning... We start playing at about 9:30, just vamping instrumentally on the first song. After about 3 minutes, the vocalists got up, welcomed people to church, encouraged them to come in from the breakout area, then led them into the song. We then ran the three songs together well. Only after we sat down did the service leader get up and do his welcome and intro. We are going to trial this over a few weeks, but it worked really well this morning, and I think it will be a keeper.
Anyway, in case you hadn't noticed, music takes up 100% of my processing space at church at the moment. To be honest, I've felt the pressure of it all - more than I thought. But it has been very rewarding as well, and I've received fabulous support from my excellent team. Looking forward to the coming months.
Canberra Visit
Made a flying visit to Canberra with the girl on Friday and Saturday, to catch up with Sarah and Andre. Was really lovely to see them again - they are doing really well...
Friday, April 02, 2010
How Marvelous
Currently looking at adding this Chris Tomlin song to our play list. He's taken a classic hymn, kept the same lyrics, kept the same harmony, kept the same melodic notes - he's simply changed the rhythmic inflection of the melody. And it has totally transformed the song into something...marvelous. Tomlin is brilliant...
Thursday, April 01, 2010
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