Trafalgar Studio

The first of the shots from last night's recording session for the Youth Unit CD. Low moody light, grainy 1600 ISO shots, and collingwood winning (just) on the radio in the background. mmm

A comfy little studio in Annandale with a long history. Apparently it was one of the centres of the music industry in the 70's - hosting such luminaries as Cold Chisel (Khe Sahn was done there) and Air Supply. And now to add to that diversity it has seen the genius of rock god Newton and his compadres from "a thousand lights" - not to mention Rossy, Adam, Mitchell, Kent and myself. More photos on flickr.

Australian Summer

"Australian Summer" by Luke Eve, winner of the 2005 Tropfest. An incredible short film - all about hope and grief within an Australian context. I've used this is in a number of settings (worship, training and discussion groups) and it's an fantastic tool for opening up what hope might look like. Is hope an illusory promise that we never really get to, but keeps us getting up every day? Is hope the stories that we tell to make sense of life? Who gives us hope? What does it cost to offer hope to another?


Australian Summer

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new ninja music

from "the heavy"

A Sleep of Prisoners

A few requests for the poem by Christopher Fry that I read at SoD...

"Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
the thunder is the thunder of the floes,
the thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
comes to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
the longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
so many thousand years to wake,
but will you wake for pity's sake!"

study fatigue

supposed to be studying...




























though I can't help but wander out in the winter sun

Taking the mid-year break from college to research my long essay (which is on Douglas John Hall's theology of salvation). And it feels like I've been sitting with my head in these books for a long time now. But amidst the grind there is some absolute pearls that stand out, such as this one where Hall begins by quoting Moltmann;

""Faith in the resurrection... sees the raising of the tortured and crucified Son of Man as God's great protest against death and everyone who plays into death's hands and threatens life." It involves no public spectacle, no undoing of the past, no overcoming of the humiliation that has preceded it. It too prevents nothing that worldly powers determine to undertake. It gives the believing community no power of its own beyond the power of memory, love, and courage."

- D.J. Hall, "Professing the Faith", p.450.


Memory...

Love...

and Courage.

what would Australia look like if these were truly and deeply embraced? What have we forgotten? Who have we not loved? And what have we feared?

Just trying out some new editing software and reworking some old shots. The dishevelled midnight tale teller that is comrade smithy...

Annabelle's baptism prayer

You are loved Annabelle
though you may not know it yet,
you have heard its whisper in your Mothers’ touch, your Fathers’ voice
and that tippy-toed roaring energy that is your big sister.

You are loved Annabelle,
by all this family and all these friends,
though you may not know it yet
And all their stories
and all this life
will be a strand of who you are.
Just as you have already become this chubby-cheeked, opera-squealing part of ours

You are loved Annabelle,
though you may not know it yet
by the very God who created you and everything around us
From the blazing majesty of Antarctica,
to the ever-changing greenery of your Birtles Avenue home.

So when the water runs across your head
know that you are loved
not because of anything that you’ve done, or anything that you’ll do
Just because of the gift you are to all of us

And when the sign of the cross
is placed upon your frowning little forehead,
know that you stand in that great tradition
of those who claim God’s faithfulness in Jesus,
“Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us.”

Annabelle, you are loved.

(PS Thanks to Cheryl for the inspiration)

return of the faithful

June 23rd will not just go down as a great Collingwood win over the Swans in Sydney, but also as the day of the Return. Jimmy and Uncle Rob, welcome back!

Bootsy has the story here.

faith and politics

Go here for the transcript from a great discussion panel organised by Jim Wallis and the Sojourners community, with several of the Democratic Presidential candidates (Obama, Edwards and Clinton).

Of course there's the usual political rhetoric - but alongside of that it's fascinating to here some of these highly public figures talk of their personal struggles with prayer, forgiveness, sin and discerning God in the midst of life. Worth a read.

For a different angle on the event, the NewYorkTimes covers the event here.

urbanstone hits the bottle...

or rather I'm hitting the wine label :)

A cafe in Bronte is putting out a small run of its own wine, and is using one of the urbanstone photos for the Botrytis Semillon label (pictured left). I think I'll have to check with my culinary consultant Prof Crawford as to what goes with such a sweet wine as this one?

Regardless, this is definitely a lucrative side-trade I'll be very happy to develop. If I could just figure out what photos would be in demand for a good shiraz label from N-E Victoria? Hmmm...

what's in my coffee?

Great article - interesting movie. Hope it makes it to Australia. Read the article all the way through - nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

"Bean counting

50 Number of countries where coffee is grown.

2bn Number of cups of coffee consumed each day.

42 Number of beans needed to make one espresso.

80-140 Milligrams of caffeine per cup.

£40bn Amount generated by annual sales.

3 cents Amount received by an average coffee farmer for a $3 cup of coffee."

Hoodoo broken

The 'woods finally break their 12 year run of losses at the Gabbatoir - despite the best efforts of the white maggots. Beating Brisvane in Brisbane must be one of the greatest feelings in footy (other than a GF or beating "pigs-arse" Carlscum). Like an oasis after 12 longs years of denial, last night would have been magical - unless your name was Bootsy, and at 3 quarter time the call comes through that your daughter is ill and needs you now! Dave your reward must be great in heaven for resuming fatherly duties - or atleast, write this one down for the history books. So that when we're in our 60's at the MCG, Beth knows that she needs to come and ferry us home again - singing victoriously all the way of course.

Junmo

Junmo, originally uploaded by urbanstone.

Reconciliation service at college - Junmo reading, with Pearl (Our aboriginal elder) and Anita (Lecturer in theology and liturgy) behind.

Sydney Film Festival

Yes, the Sydney Film Festival is back again and it looks like an impressive line up of styles and genres. Everything from a "behind the scenes with Pixar animators", a cluster from contemporary Turkey, a doco on Australian hip hop that I'm very keen to see, and a cracker from Samuel L. Jackson. Plenty to see - even for fans of the Bruckheimer style (ronaldo? rossy?) - so hop to it and see something different.

BTW I'm definitely going to see "Words from the city" on June 22nd, so anyone wanting to join our little group is most welcome.

winged critter

winged critter, originally uploaded by urbanstone.

"Can we hold the cup of life in our hands? Can we lift it for others to see, and can we drink it down to the full?" - Henri Nouwen

the godfather of soul

For those of you with a love of all things funky (yes, bootsy I'm looking at you), then this is a must. Solid Steel is a record label/radio station/podcasting outfit from the UK that puts out a podcast every fortnight of some emerging DJ's mixing up some great music. The latest one from solid Steel regular DK is a James Brown tribute and is an absolute gem.

So, either download Solid Steel podcast #56 from iTunes (it's free!), or visit the Solid Steel website and hunt around for the DK "James Brown" mix.