the scarred trees of parramatta, what stories have you heard?

Craig Barnes

Craig is the pastor at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, USA. I had the good fortune to meet him when I was travelling with my Dad back in 2001. Craig is perhaps a little more conservative and mainstream than myself - but he preaches some really solid sermons. One of his latest - "When it's hard to see Jesus" is worth looking at. Thanks to Dad for the reminder.

wilderness (somewhere outside darwin)

wilderness
Originally uploaded by urbanstone.

Peter in the courtyard

Peter in the courtyard (Mark 14) is probably one of the most formational stories for my faith. Sooner or later we all come to our own courtyard. Caravaggio's painting, while not how I've pictured it in my head, carries so much force that I find myself constantly returning to it.

What will we give up? Where will we fail? What is too much to ask? What will it cost you to find life?

hope is real, but god i'm tired

new kids on the block

Skip the planet for a week or so and everyone decides to get a blog! So welcome to the new players on the block:

Diamond Ray Hickson - for all the latest in movies, horse racing and faith... (yes, that is an odd mix, but once you've met Ray it all makes sense. Sort of)

Liliana - for all your literary reminders, feminist musings and pop culture deconstructions. Just don't mention the PhD.

Sarah Williamson - inspiration, photography, prayers and music. Balm for a sore soul.

and of course, Shoothead - the new blog by Lee Cullivan - journaling his leap from corporate life into the world of professional photography.

So that should keep you all reading for a while. Just remember to drop back into urbanstone now and then - normal transmission to resume soon.

to look with new eyes and to have seen
to have heard the echo and the void
to wonder at the night and imagine

and to dream

what might dawn look like?

but still, this darkness so warm and enveloping
so misleading, so full of potential, possibilities and peril
who will you find inside?

it's a treacherous road.
but there is no other to walk
between the tomb and the return

so we live in hope
and we flee in terror and amazement
on this road to Galilee

Happy 7th Birthday Juliet

true hope lies on the far side of despair

to know thyself
Originally uploaded by urbanstone.

"You should know by now
That monsters sleep
Inside us all
Way down deep
Way down...

you've got to work to make it happen
Being fucked up's out of fashion."
- monsters sleep, Matt Tonks

Ok, last of the self portraits for a while. Just been away somewhere strange finding out stuff about myself - and it's time to re-emerge. Couldn't be at Mike's funeral today, but said goodbye in my own way.

RIP Mike

Goodbye to Mike, my old friend from Macquarie Uni. He died last night up near Port Macquarie - a heart attack of all things? Mr Marathon himself. I told you running was not good for you, you stupid bugger. Now who's gonna tell me I was wrong about Yugoslavia hey? Rest in revolutionary peace Mike.

The Hollow Men

"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
and the act
Falls the shadow

For thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
and the creation
Between the emotion
and the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long"

T.S.Eliot - The Hollow Men
(Thanks to Liliana for the reminder)

got my tickets to see Pearl Jam in Sydney this November...

"it's nothing as it seems, the little that he needs, ... it's home
The little that he sees, is nothing. He concedes, ...it's home
And all that he frees, a little bittersweet, ... it's home
It's nothing as it seems,
The little that you see,

... it's home"

(Nothing As it Seems - PJ, Binaural, 2000.)

i am still alive

From Walter Brueggemann.

"We confess you to be the God who calls,
who wills,
who summons,
who has concrete intentions for your creation,
and addresses human agents who do your will.

We imagine ourselves called by you...
Yet a strange lot:
called but cowardly,
obedient but self-indulgent,
devoted to you, but otherwise preoccupied.

In our strange mix an answering and refusing,
We give thanks for your call.
We pray this day,
for ourselves, fresh vision;
for our friends, great courage,
for those is places more dangerous than ours,
deep freedom.

As we seek to answer your call, may we be haunted by your larger purposes,
We pray in the name of the utterly called Jesus. Amen."

Whiskey Nana

BW Whisky Nana
Originally uploaded by urbanstone.

Mothers Day 06 - the first with my own mum in many years. We spent the afternoon down at Chesalon with Nana Pender (Aunty Al, and the uncles Ken and John also shared in the festivities). This is the epitome of Nana 2006 style - in the light of her bedroom window, whiskey and warm milk in hand, conversing with her latest visitor, near blind eyes searching out your soul; a life-lined face caught between telling you what you need to hear, loving you to bits, and fearing having become a burden.

flame

flame
Originally uploaded by leecullivan.

Lee Cullivan is a photographer contact of mine over at flickr. Absolutely love this shot of his "flame". Check out his other work here - I love how the net can put you in contact with such incredibly creative people from around the world at the push of a button (or two).

Congrats Lee - 10/10

Remembering Spike

When the absurdities of life seem to pile up around me, I am always drawn back to Spike Milligan. His War Diaries should be compulsory reading for anyone studying WWII, his Goon Shows hold a legendary status unto themselves, and his poetry is completely absurd. His depression and melancholy were almost too much for him to contain at times - he had a number of extended visits to various Mental Illness Hospitals.

Spike....
"Education isn't everything, for a start it isn't an elephant"

"I spent many years laughing at Harry Secombe's singing until somebody told me that it wasn't a joke."

"I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine."

Truth
Seek truth they said
All I find
The seed is lost
The ploughman -
Blind

Films

For those of you who saw Mission Impossible III (I didn't), you may want to check out a friend of mine's blog. Darren over at Planet Telex is a bit of a pop culture vulture and regularly trawls through films, music and whatever else takes his fancy. So if you've got an opinion (which I think it's fair to say we've established that most of you do) drop over to Planet Telex and let rip on MI3.

For those of you with a slightly more alternative taste, I can't recommend Water highly enough. Directed by Deepa Mehta, water is a controversial film about the role and identity of widows in India. Now my caveat here is that it is set in the 1930's as Gandhi starts his independence movement, and things most likely have moved along way since then; so as always I'd urge caution in judging India or Hindu faith from this story without more research. Aside from the subject matter though, this is the most visually beautiful film since Three Colours Blue; it is up there with Brokeback Mountain for intensity; and two of the major actors, Lisa Ray and Sarala, are phenomenal. It is a slower paced film, not Bolly- or Holly-wood, but an incredible painting on identity, boundary and power.
4.5 stars

behold the ice queen cometh

Mel Crawford has revealed her new blog to the world. Enter a realm of creativity and dreaming, poetry and painting, love for her family and angelina (you could never accuse life with Crawfords of being dull!!).

Get onboard quickly, because her new posts are arriving thick and fast (work might be a tad slow a the mo?). Whatever the reason, check out the site and welcome Mel into the cyber frontier of blogging. (NB: Batman Rocks, Rossy and Captain Smollett perhaps go easy on her to start with, and recognise that her site may be a bit classier than this joint with all you lot!)

"mine, mine it's all mine..."

busy bee 3
Originally uploaded by urbanstone.

This turned up anonymously in my inbox on Easter Day!?


Something about new life I'm sure....

The Micah Challenge

"How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world." William Shakespeare

"Micah Challenge Australia is part of a global campaign which aims to deepen our understanding of justice issues and our engagement with the poor as an integral part of our faith. We want to make poverty history by encouraging our leaders to halve global poverty by 2015 through achieving the Millennium Development Goals." from the Micah Challenge website.

Check it out here

Globalisation and Free Trade

While it's easy for either side of this debate to claim the absolute moral high ground (ie: trade liberalisation always creates jobs and wealth vs Free Trade demolishes labour rights and creates ghettoes of poverty), as is often the case the truth is somewhere in between. Which usually means your average punter doesn't have the time or the will to look into it further (guilty as charged your honour).

Today in the New York Times though is this great article that traces the growth of US clothing companies using factories in Jordan. Actual stories rather than theories are far more powerful.

Have a read, it won't take long. And then start to wonder, where are the clothes I'm wearing coming from?

Gary Busey

Since my dangerous foray into the musical world of Steven Seagal produced such a response, I've been reminded of the acting prowess and fame of our very own B-grade actor - Gary Busey!

For those unfamiliar with his fine body of work outside of the Under Siege fiasco, you'll recognise him from such high points as Blood Sport, Predator 2 and Point Break. All of course listed at the most informative Busey World!

But for those still doubting the wisdom and panache of such modern celebrities... well, I'll let Gary speak for himself...

" your shadow, the dark side. C.G.Hume writes about it in terms of the fact that every one of us has a dark side. And my dark side, my shadow, my lower companion is now in the back room blowing up ballons for kids' parties"

A philosopher and an actor. Gary Busey, urbanstone awards you the Damir Dokic logie for "best-frighteningly-strange-support-role"

yellow brick road in the bangalow garden

Matt Tonks

After yesterday's trip down trauma lane I feel the need to purge myself musically (or maybe that's just a hangover from fashion week?) - regardless do, as Molly says, yourself a favour and check out the new Matt Tonks site. His latest album with Syd Green - "Synaesthesthesia" is due out soon and a whole raft of gigs have been announced. Personally I'm up for Friday 12th May at the Basement.

The man has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard. My only qualm is that after seeing him live I never want to pick up a guitar again as it just doesn't sound like the same instrument...

A bit like Lior, a hint of Jeff Buckley and a whole lotta love.