I've once again boarded the Ship of Fools

I recently found another avenue for my crave for satire, or perhaps I should say refound.

I've known about Ship of Fools for some time but haven't visited it in years. If you want straight up Christian satire (yes there is such a thing) then Wittenburg Door is probably more your bag but Ship of Fools is so much more British in it's approach. It's warm, irreverent, theologically diverse, accommodating and very ... well ... Anglican is probably the best word to describe it. Of course I should say that it's non-denominational.

It was was first launched in 1977 as a student rag mag, but stopped in 1983 after just ten issues - full time work beckoned. It was raised again on April Fool's Day 1998 as a website, and quickly grew into an online community as well as a webzine. The editor Simon Jenkins says, "We're here for people who prefer their religion disorganised. Our aim is to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith."

Amen fella!

A recent post of their community forum made very interesting read. The question being, "Where does your theology challenge your morality?"

In other news I still seem pretty set on updating my blog fairly sporadically, it would seem.

This week I have been mainly

This week I was mostly listening to
Benjamin Blower – The Pillar of Smoke
This fella has a very Old Testament view of the world which lends to some wondrous imagery akin to that you'll read in Revelation. 'Babylon is Dead' appears to be his mantra. It's a very tribal sounding noise that relies a lot on percussion, weird time signatures, spoken word vocals akin to Mike Skinner and a kind of indie rock edge. To get into the head of this troubled Brummie soul check his manifesto. Quite frankly though I just like the noise he makes.
Oposium – Life Under The Sun
An interesting self-produced listen that was almost entirely the work of one man, Richard McLester. A very promising debut by the south coast art/indie rock outfit who clearly take influence from bands such as Muse, Pink Floyd and Sigur Ros.
Damien Rice – O
You gotta love him. After the opening track you've got three immense yet beautiful songs in a row – Volcano, The Blower's Daughter and Cannonball. Maybe I should get round to buying his follow-up '9'?

This week I was mainly watching
Apart from The Apprentice, Have I Got News For You and Reginald Perrin I can't actually remember watching anything of note.

This week I was mainly reading
The last few chapters of the four gospels. It's always interesting to read how the four different authors each add their own flavour and perspective to the resurrection story (and what follows on) to weave the greater picture. Of course they all stress the same fundamental truth though.

Other things of note from this week
Last weekend I celebrated my Grandma and Grandpa's diamond wedding anniversary. That's 60 years married to same person!
Also I hardly touched my blog...

I woke up in a cold sweat this morning

I realised this morning that it's been days, actual days, since my last blog post. I'm so sorry, I hope you found another day to kill your time - perhaps you refound those pins you used to stick in your eyes?

Maybe later today I'll start a nice little post about ID cards or some other New Labour disarray story, for now I'll copy and paste (I assure you I've not changed any of this) a Facebook message I received yesterday:

"Hi all

Thank you for joining the group 'Chip K Should Host Songs of Praise!', if you haven't checked out the group recently there are now well over 400 members.

This is just a quick update and prayer request - Chip is supportive and having chatted with him, I have now sent and email to Tommy Nagra, the producer of Songs of Praise, to try and get the ball rolling. Please can you pray that the email is well recieved, that the producer finds Jesus and that if its God's will that things will progress to broadcast.

God Bless

Rob Pember
Admin
of 'Chip K Should Host Songs of Praise'"

For the record Chip K is the main man behind thebandwithnoname, a Christian hip hop group who do a lot of schools work.

I completely forgot I'd signed up to this rather daft Facebook group and as such it made me smile.

Fives - The five metal musts

Later on in the series I'll cover punk, hardcore, emo and purely British bands but for now below are five metal outfits that are definitely worth a punt. With all these bands I may suggest only one album but that's purely a starting place, most releases from all five bands are well worth a punt. So in alphabetical order here are five metal musts:

As I Lay Dying
Some may want to argue that the band are more hardcore than metal, as that's clearly where their roots are, but no metal-head will be disappointed by their soaring riffs and their destructive breakdowns. Their pure musicality will impress any serious music fan and even the scene kids who prefer their metalcore a little more emo. Tim Lambesis is one of the greatest lyricists of our generation and more so than almost any other band out there these guys really know how gorge in big, BIG breakdowns.
Where to start: An Ocean Between Us (2007)

Becoming The Archetype
Few bands come close to the technically ability and crushing brutality of Solid State Records most on form current band. A wondrous mix of death growls, progressive experimental riffage and gorgeous synth-laden textures. Their name comes from Genesis 1:26: "God said, 'Let us make man in our image.'" Jesus was the only person to ever be sinless, ergo He was the archetype of humanity. If you wished that Opeth would deck going soft and had deeper lyrics then look no further.
Where to start: Dichotomy (2008)

Demon Hunter
Out of the ashes of technical hardcore band Traning For Utopia came the much more metallic Demon Hunter. Due to their nu metal beginnings and their hidden identities (thankfully they've binned that now) they were touted by some as Christianities answer to Slipknot. In their more straight up metal moments there are clear nods to Machine Head and Living Sacrifice. They're renowned for a large number of guest vocals and more recently have moved away from their nu-metal roots to a more adventurous sound.
Where to start: Summer of Darkness (2004)

Living Sacrifice
Without doubt the most influential Christian metal band of the 90s and still leaving their stamp in 2009 – when their first album in seven years is due. The band started out with a fairly thrashy sound and quickly developed a more complex sound that became almost metalcore by the end of their 15 year life. They took over the mantle that earlier metal pioneers had inspired them to usurp, bands such as Stryper, Believer and Seventh Angel.
The band formed in 1989 and split in 2005, after releasing a greatest hits, but recently reformed to tour and record a new album.
Where to start: In Memoriam (2005)

Virgin Black
An Australian band that combines gothic doom and symphonic metal influences. There are a lot of classical influences too that merge with the grandiose dark gothic drone. They've clearly overtaken the ambitious Saviour Machine and clearly take a huge inspiration from My Dying Bride – who also inspire Rock and Hard Place favourites My Silent Wake. The dark sound and haunting lyrics match their name, which they explain as "the juxtaposition of purity and humanity's darkness". Perhaps the least overtly Christian of the five choices but they're clearly dealing with spiritual matters and the Requiem series speaks for itself.
Where to start: Requiem Trilogy – Mezzo Forte (2007), Fortissimo (2008), Pianissimo (2009)

Previous fives: The five records labels that'll keep your ears happy

This week I have been mainly

This week I was mostly listening to
Celldweller - Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 1
Celldweller have a new album out very soon and this is their most recent output, only one track has lyrics (Switchback) but the music is quality. It's the kind of stuff that superhero/action filmmakers have wet dreams over.
Mark Radcliffe and Liza Tarbuck on Radio 2
On lates I always listen to Radcliffe and Maconie on the drive home but as I've been on earlies this week I had the honour of hearing Mark Radcliffe's Mancunian wit alongside the ever bubbly Liza Tarbuck. He was sitting in for Steve Wright, what a blessing!

This week I was mainly watching
The Rise and Fall of Reginal Perrin
I'm actually quite surprised by how much I enjoyed the first episode of the 21st Century remake of the 70s classic. Martin Clunes and the team behind this, I can forgive you for now.
Lady Randy: Churchill's Mother
The wife of Randolph Churchill and the mother of Winston was one dirty selfish mare! A very interesting portrait on a very driven woman who served herself first and her first husband and then her son second, with a burning desire to see them succeed at the highest level of politics.
In the Loop
You can read some of my views on this excellent film in a recent post.

This week I was mainly reading
Mike Rimmer's ever relevant challenge to Christians who want to make good music and get out a contemporary and thought-provoking message at the same time. Christian musicians currently either seem to be talented and playing in the mainstream but as a result losing any lyrical edge they may have previously had or stay within the cotton wool lined Christian circuit and lack the necessary competition to keep them artistically challenged and as a result tend to sound rather bland and average.

Other things of note from this week
I played subbuteo for first time in a month with my newly acquired figures. I'm going to use the excuse of a lack of sleep as to why I lost two matches I could have won. I'm still on an upwards curve ... and I'm still a massive nerd. You'll also notice from yesterday's post that I've spent far too much time thinking about the old Woolworths in Hanley.

What's with all the effin' and jeffin'?

Earlier this week I watched In The Loop with Lisa. Much to both our surprise she really enjoyed it and it goes without saying that I did too. The story was solid and the slightly rejigged and extended cast of The Thick of It were all on top form. But with both the TV series and the film what really brings home the oats are the semi-improvised oneliners. Many of these highlights were provided by the mighty spin doctor supremo Malcolm Tucker, whose gritty wit was strong enough to put down the highest of ministers and the largest of Americans.

Cross Rhythms (for whom I present a show) have a resident film critic and their review was bound to touch on the matter of the colourful language. At the time I did wonder whether I should have been laughing so hard at such coarse language but then my rational has always been about how the other person perceives it. Someone can call me whatever they like and it's unlikely offend me unless there is real venom behind their words but I of course am sensitive to other people's feelings and generally don't tend to swear. So I am fairly comfortable to see someone swear in a fictional backdrop as no-one is genuinely going to be hurt by those words. Also the character of Malcom Tucker (and his fellow Scottish press officer) would be significantly diminished if his blunt language was refined, in other words he wouldn't be Malcolm Tucker.

On another note the almost boundless cynicism that ripples through the film will almost certainly be met with bemusement in Obama-infatuated America. We here in the UK shouldn't encounter any such problems when the extremely realistic truths echo through the picture, watch out for the line about MP expenses (filmed before the Jacqui Smith saga) if you want an example.

Cross Rhythms are always rolling out great articles, here's a couple of recent highlights: Check out Ben Jack's unpacking of the sickening compensation culture that we all too happily seem to be embracing and Mike Rimmer's ever relevant challenge to Christians who want to make good music and get out a contemporary and thought-provoking message at the same time.

If you're easily offended don't go and see In The Loop, if you have a backbone I heartily recommend it. Lisa will testify that you don't need to be a politics/satire nerd to enjoy one of the best British films in recent memory.

“Science is the answer to how. God is the answer to why.” Discuss

One of my most recent facebook status' was a paraphrase of something someone said in a recent BBC documentary. The programme was called Did Darwin Kill God? and the paraphrase was taken from Francis Collins, “Science is the answer to how. God is the answer to why.”

He's a very interesting man who for more than a decade headed up the Human Genome Project. He's a firm believer in God whilst being an active and influential scientist, another quote attributed to him is, "Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades."

My facebook status garnered a few comments and quickly descended into a full blown debate on the merits of science and faith, which ultimately lead me to the conclusion that a more accurate description of my own position would be, “Science attempts to answer how but God will always answer why.”

For me science is very important - without it many of the things we take for granted wouldn't exist, I wouldn't be able to travel to work nor would my job exist; without the scientific discoveries over the centuries we'd still be stuck in the same position we were in thousands of years ago. I guess there may be a small band of Christians that wouldn't have a problem with that but most can surely acknowledge that as knowledge and technology increases so does the human experience.

Most Christians happily take advantage of the comforts that modern technology can provide, nor would anyone want to see the medicines and treatments that have been worked on for decades be simply taken away. And yet the majority of conservative Christians seem to have this rather worrying phobia of science, as if there really is only one option Science or Religion.

There are very very few places where there is even the potential for the bible and science to clash yet a lot of Christians do get rather hung up on them and as a result seem to have a rather wary view of science. In defense of fundamentalist Christians I would say that it isn't the role of science to answer the big philosophical questions of life, strangely enough that's more ... well ... philosophy than science. Lets make sure it's only the bathwater we throw out though, the vast majority of science is there to further our existence. It's to improve our health, our technology, our transport, to better understand our surroundings et cetera.

You'll have noticed I've not yet expressed my position on the whole creation versus evolution debate, I'll leave that for another day. The other debate that might be worth delving into off the back of this is does modern technology make life too comfortable and stop us from being fully aware of our own humanity?

The cheats way out

Today I've been inspired to write two seperate blog entries, neither of which I'll publish right now.

One was on a truly historic UK Budget, as delivered by Alistair Darling, however I've not fully digested all the detail so I'll save that for another day. The other was on how some Christians view science, I've not quite finished writing that but I promise to publish it very soon.

So instead I'm going to cop out and draw your attention to an article my friend recently wrote,

http://www.localmotoring.com/pages/local-motoring-news.php?b=2&a=1161

My old school friend Paul Forrester wrote a lovely message to me last week saying how he'd enjoyed reading parts of my blog so to return the favour a few of our mutual friends (if no-one else) may find the above link worth a view. I certainly enjoyed reading it.

Tomorrow I promise to actually write something of merit myself though...

Fives - The five records labels that'll keep your ears happy

Fives is a feature I’ve been meaning to start on my show for a while now. It’s basically a way for relative newcomers to the Rock and Hard Place to get properly stuck into their scene. In future weeks I’ll list 5 must metal bands, 5 hardcore bands that truly get you pumped, 5 British acts that really should be bigger, 5 emo outfits that actually bring something new to the table, 5 zines and forums that’ll keep you up to speed etc…

This week it’s five music labels that’ll give you a bountiful supply of great faith-inspired bands:

Tooth and Nail / Solid State Records
Easily the largest label in terms of bands played on my show and in the Christian alternative scene. However they wouldn’t call themselves a Christian label but to a label who "allow artists who are Christians to create their art.” One day I’ll explain the ‘Christian band v Christians in a band’ debate but now’s not the time. They started in 1993 and quickly developed a number of sub-labels as their commercial success grew; the one of most note to me is Solid State as that’s where the heavier bands reside.
Notable Solid State alumni: Becoming the Archetype, Demon Hunter, Living Sacrifice, Norma Jean, Soul Embraced, Trenches, Underoath.
Former notables: Blindside, Extol, Life in Your Way, Figure Four
Notable Tooth and Nail alumni: Children 18:3, The Classic Crime, Emery, Hawk Nelson, MewithoutYou, Project 86, Showbread, Spoken, Thousand Foot Krutch.
Former notables: Anberlin, Beloved, Brave Saint Saturn, Dead Poetic, The Juliana Theory, The O.C. Supertones, P.O.D.

Facedown Records (plus imprint labels Dreamt and Strikefirst)
Possibly my favourite label due to their family feel and their social conscience. Jason Dunn started it out as a hardcore label but it now has a much wider range of bands. Still to this day though (with the exception of Thives and Liars) their best bands would fall into the metal and hardcore categories.
Notable Facedown/Strikefirst/Dreamt alumni:
Hands, Impending Doom, Jesus Wept, No Innocent Victim, Take it Back!, Thieves and Liars, Through Solace.
Former notables: Bloodlined Calligraphy, Comeback Kid, XDEATHSTARX, Immortal Souls, Nodes of Ranvier, Sinai Beach, xDisciplex A.D.

Flicker / Essential Records
Until it was bought by Provident Label Group (one of the big CCM powerhouses) Flicker Records was one of the most exciting independent labels out there. They’d stumbled upon some great fortune by making Pillar one of their first signings. Their commercial success allowed the label to grow to the point that it became an attractive purchase and as a result lost most of it’s alternative credibility. If you want safe but fairly rocking music this is your best bet (you may also wanna try SRE Recordings - home of Disciple, Flyleaf, POD, Skillet etc).
Notable Facedown/Strikefirst/Dreamt alumni: Fireflight, Flatfoot 56, Kids in the Way, Pillar, Red.
Former notables: Mortal Treason, Staple, Subseven.

Metal Blade
If you’re a little more daring and don’t mind bursting your Christian bubble a little you’ll no doubt be aware that there is a whole world of great faith-inspired bands that are signed to mainstream labels. In metal circles there are few labels with the same credibility as Metal Blade. Here’s a list of some of the current and former greats: As I Lay Dying, Aletheian, Austrian Death Machine, Believer, Woe of Tyrants, Winter Solstice.

Ferret
One of the great hardcore labels (a difficult concept as to be truly hardcore how can you be signed to a successful label?) and full of Christian musicians. Currently on their books are: The Devil Wears Prada, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Underneath the Gun and the mighty Zao!

NB: Each label’s notable roster is in alphabetical order rather than in order or preference or notoriety. All bands and labels should be fairly easy to find via myspace or google but feel free to contact me for links or questions.

A day to be thankful and to be in awe

For some reason Christmas has ended up trumping Easter as the big Christian festival, I assume it's due to the present giving nature of it and the way the world of advertising works.

But if you know the basics of how the Christian faith works you'd hopefully realise that it's the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday which more than anything else defines what we believe. Jesus took on all our sins, so that we can go to him for full forgiveness when we recognise our shortcomings, and then took them to the cross as the ultimate sacrifice. Ergo, He died for our sins.

It's because of that event we can be fully restored and be right with God. Jesus' death gives us full freedom from sin – a deeply liberating experience for any Christian who fully realises the consequence of this.

Of course that's only half of the story. Jesus overcoming death gives us the most obvious demonstration that He has power over life and death, and as such has the ability to give people eternal life. Paul goes into more detail on this in Corinthians.

I used to quite regularly visit a social networking site called UK Christians. It was a good way to promote my show on Cross Rhythms as well as to talk about various bits and bobs with other people. I hardly touch it now but I quite liked the below link which went up on Friday and is equally apt for today:

http://www.ukchristians.net/forum/topics/its-friday-but-sundays-a

Humour me

Goodness only knows what prompted me to start this but I guess it makes sense. Almost every day I'm inspired to write something but never know quite where to start. Well most days this is where I'm gonna start. Some days I might just write about something that inspired or tickled me, other days it could be the embryo of something I'd like to expand on some other time. In which case humour me.

As a rule I don't like blogs as they often bring out some worrying character traits: egotism, inflated-self worth, a filtering system that allows us to self-edit our lives to present it in the way you wished others would see you, introverted naval gazing and missives on topics that 101 other people would be better placed to comment ... and no doubt in a more eloquent way.

I'm sure I'll fall into each and every one of those pitfalls at some point. For starters 101 to the power of 101 people could have written the above paragraph far better than myself. Getting back on topic (not that there is a clear topic in this instance) I've felt the need to write for a decade or so now. I kept diaries during various parts of my life, I started writing sketches when I was 15 or 16 and still try to write them from time to time, I went though a poetry writing phase in 2001 and occasionally revisit it, I wrote a sitcom during a productive week in 2006 and keep meaning to rewrite it or start on a new idea, I wrote a short radio play a little while ago even but just ended up being a rather ham-fisted introverted way of getting a message across. My point is I keep writing bits and bobs and I doubt that desire will every go away.

I have a very strong faith and the temptation would be for me to try and convince you to believe the same as me. I have some Christian friends who see their blogs as a form of evangelism. I'll be frank: I wholeheartedly would love to see each and every one of you embrace the passion I have for my maker and have that same relationship with Him that I'm eternally thankful for but that is not the aim of my blog. There will be times when my faith is mentioned obviously, God is my biggest inspiration, but there will also be times when politics might inspire me or my love of comedy, my armchair rugby fan side might rear it's head or maybe one day I'll you about my subbuteo past...

Things interest and inspire me every day, it'd just be nice to write some of them down before I forget them. If they interest, inspire, encourage or tickle you then even better.