and some rather nice juice

..is at Sainsbury's - according to the Register!
Local store has opened its new Wines and Spirits area on the same day that they close most of the carpark for resurfacing....

photo

Apparently Nothing has some rather nice chairs!

Sad News

.. of the conductor Vernon Handley's death this morning. Telegraph obit is here

Clare in the community

I'd forgotten to look at this week's Clare so have only just seen it - well worth the click!

Hell's teeth

What is this guy on? That's 'Virtue' rather than Dave - I'd ask for some of it but I don't want those attitudes.

I remember when the Daily Mail was offering a Free Love CD with every newspaper - is that a useful counterbalance?

Teaser Tuesday

Here's another Should be reading Teaser Tuesday:

He started to walk around the field with a vague idea of making a big circle home. He guessed he should apologise to Ed, but the thought of his face and what he'd said made him feel sick and he wanted to go and find him and make sure he had broken his nose and then break his legs for him, too.

This was this month BATS book - Sadie Jones' The Outcast very dark and sometimes - to me felt contrived - finished it this afternoon.

Off to the trough

I think I'm pretty omnivorous, well via Geoff Coupe, here's a list to test me. Bold are the things I've eaten, I've crossed those I'm unlikely to try!
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp - maybe not really sure
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses - find me some!
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes and brewed
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda - sounds nice!
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal well a smaller one and in an equivalent restaurant
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - where's the next pheasant!
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Not sure that there are any - in the abstract - I wouldn't try - I remember deciding that limpets were too much but other shelled entities are fine!

More Alaskan chopping

Go here for the full lyrics

I cut down tax. I fund pipelines.
I go on safari.
I shoot at wolves from choppers
And have buttered scones for tea.

Pack the wellies

We're going walking here

later this autumn! Sinnington - yesterday

The inevitable

I've been haunted by British Colombia for days....

Alistair Campbell

on Jacques Brel.

youtube/flash/linux isn't cooperating, let's hope this works!

no subtitles?!

I'm in the process of using OgmRip to rip a chapter of a dvd for playing a small portion of it tomorrow morning.
After a few iterations where the subtitles (it is in French) seemed arbitrarily removed, just some of them(!?) - light eventually dawned - make sure autocrop isn't turned on - the subtitles which were missing were those that weren't in the letterbox of the film! (We'll be watching some of Les Choristes)

I thought Palin knew her Bible?

A cheap shot? - but so was the original delivered to the Kinder, Küche, Kirche rally.
Via The Immoral Minority and Pseudopiskie

Last rites?

(follows on well from the title of the previous post!)
Finished reading Michael Hampson's Last Rites - the End of the Church of England - strongly recommended. Borrowed from the library and due back today, about to attempt a renewal and reread.

It is time for a serious progressive challenge - for the sake of the gospel - to the increasingly vacuous liberal establishment... it is about having a faith and a theology with some substance, taking the scriptures seriously, having some concern for the truth, putting right a hideous betrayal of the gospel, and maintaining gospel values without compromise. For a decent progressive theology there is an ideal single-question test of orthodoxy: What is your attitude towards homosexuality?' If you delay or fudge your answer you are betraying the heart of the gospel, at the cost of real human lives.

His testimony and manifesto are worth (re-)reading. I think he sees hope - a new birth rather than a complete end as you might guess from the title.

Buried alive

Over the holiday - over a month ago now - I read three books which appear to be fascinated by holes in the ground. The BATS book for the month was I'm not afraid by Niccolò Ammaniti. Then I got around to re-reading Rose Tremain's Music and Silence - well I finished it this time having got bogged down near the end last time - I think it was an early BATS book when I didn't have as much reading time as now! Then I'd always meant to read Brian Keenan's book about his Beirut captivity An Evil Cradling and I found a copy in an Oxfam bookshop in the Lake District. Its capacity for observation in the most dreadful circumstances was startling:

There’s a bowl in front of me that wasn’t there before. A brown button bowl and in it some apricots, some small oranges, some nuts, cherries, a banana. The fruits, the colours, mesmerise me in a quiet rapture that spins through my head. I am entranced by colour. I lift an orange into the flat filthy palm of my hand and feel and smell and lick it. The colour orange, the colour, the colour, my God the colour orange. Before me is a feast of colour. I feel myself begin to dance, slowly. I am intoxicated by colour. I feel the colour in a quiet somnambulist rage. Such wonder, such absolute wonder in such an insignificant fruit.

Somewhat of a claustrophobic selection - but I didn't notice the connection until I was nearly through them.
And from the title of this post, I must get around to re-listening to Othmar Schoek's Lebendig Begraben

It was of a 40-minute song cycle for bass voice and orchestra, a setting of a cycle of poems by the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller entitled Lebendig begraben ('Buried alive'). He had embarked upon it just a few weeks after getting married, though Hilde's reaction to the fact is not known.

A wonderful piece - but finding Schoek cd's is not easy! However I see that the DFD recording has been reissued!

I'm shocked!

For some reason the Church Times didn't publish my caption in their latest competition:

FoCAs unveil their range of flying bishops -

maybe it was thought too rude?
I submitted another attempt which also mentioned that German aeroplane maker.

don't tell classic fm listeners!

Paul Padillo writes:

In my “research” someone asked me if I’d ever heard this “phenomenon” live. Of course I couldn’t have only having just learned of her, so I was directed me to a number of live performances. Let me say this: for anyone who has not heard this gal live, you simply MUST. As saccharine sweet as her albums come off there is nothing of that sound when Ms. Jenkins sings live. The difference is more than night and day, it’s more like Spaghetti and Venus.

.. on a certain 'mezzo'

Where were you?

Via Niles and Iain Dale comes this meme for remembering where you were at the time of certain events (or bragging about your age)

• Princess Diana’s death - 31 August 1997 - I had no idea about this until the clock radio came on just before 7 - with I think radio 4 rather than radio 3, I was trying to change it back and not succeeding and it was a little time before the penny dropped. That Sunday morning we had a church coach trip to Llandudno what with those events we forgot that the service had been moved to before the coach departed and just turned up with our packed lunches. I'd have liked to have been present for the service. Spent the day wandering around Llandudno in a bit of a limbo. UK Gold were due to show the Dr Who Armageddon factor which I was intending to tape (as we were out) and they cancelled it to our chagrin.
• Margaret Thatcher’s resignation - 22 November 1990 I heard about this by email! I was working at the Computer Science dept in Manchester and an email was sent around to everyone. The person I shared an office with was foreign and shocked at the news in contract to this local's gladness that it was over. I remember posting to uk.politics later that morning making the link between the events and the US's Thanksgiving day.
• Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001 - at work in Knutsford. I was told by a colleague in the adjacent office, work tended to stop while we picked up what bits of the news were on the internet and a radio was put in the corridor between the offices. Our company's base was in New York state and a colleague was meant to be giving a talk close to the WTC that day.
• England’s World Cup Semi Final v Germany in - 4 July 1990 Sorry, pardon?
• President Kennedy’s Assassination - 22 November 1963 I remember coming downstairs to watch television and being told -or did I see the newsflash? - and being in disbelief

BSOD

Not had a lolcats for some time - and this appealed

more animals

especially as I'm currently bandaged up as a result of an unprovoked (by me!) cat attack

Yodelling goats

Found this

whilst searching for more on the Swiss Squirrel story(!) Not sure whether I need one or not - it could add to my desk collection of weird electronic creatures!

Squirrel takes out swissGrid

According to this (German) site and the Register a red squirrel took down Swiss TV - in the middle of the Olympic closing ceremony - forcing them to miss Boris and David Beckham - at least it was a red squirrel (European terrorism rather than a US import).

Nice picture of the substation on the German site..

Lots of emotion

I think there'll be lots of emoting at the first concert in the Stockport Symphony Orchestra season - the 2008-9 programm is now up on the web. First programme consists of

Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture - Glinka
Piano Concerto No 1 - Tchaikovsky
Symphony No 2 - Rachmaninov

I think I'll need a lie down and an emergency removal of sugar from the blood stream after that lot!

Literary Teaser

A slightly late - only just found the sequence - Tuesday teaser:

'You see then' he went on, 'it is really no good their merely saying that God gave them the right; they must also prove it.'
'But how are they to do that Mr. Nigg, especially in an age of enfeebled faith, such as ours'

The Missionaries - Robin Jenkins

Software engineers

Hat tip to Geoff Coupe comes the cranky project manager's evisceration of the breed. I think they must have been watching me:

The Veteran
He's been here for five years, and he'll be here for five more.
Distinguishing Characteristics

• Cranky.
• For some reason, he's permitted to use profanity in meetings and otherwise behave in ways that would make his mother cringe and your company's attorneys start job hunting.
• Casual Friday dress is too formal. Facial hair is common.
• You're never in on his private jokes.
• He's eaten 5 Product Managers before you, and he will chew through 5 more after you're gone.His manager is afraid of him. He's eaten through 5 managers before this one, and he'll chew through ... etc.
• Yes, he is always a "he".

Shame

From The US

A man from Somerville, Mass., and his friend who went around the country this year removing typographical errors from public signs have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic marker at the Grand Canyon.

via Apostrophe Abuse, maybe we should have a campaign to free the typographical two?
(later)Big article in today's Independent on them which lead me to their blog which is currently empty - no doublt being crawled over by lawyers

Gratutious kitty

In the midst of an unrelated discussion - a cat eating - or at least sitting in front of a plate of - spaghetti.

Learning from prisoners

Jane Clay on Offenders and their beliefs(pdf document) off the Justice Reflections website. I knew Jane - a few years ago now!

Keep your photos clean

Well it made me laugh - from a spam that sneaked though the filter:

My name is Lubov. To me of 27 years. I to live in Russia in small small town but to name Medvedevo! I send you a photo in this letter. I to think washing a photo will like you. I the free girl, I to not have children! I already more than 3 years the lonely girl!

Another Guardian Roma Article

Following the Guardian Italian Roma article I mentioned yesterday, today's website has a photo album - unfortunately they make it difficult to link to individual photos but the whole thing is here

Maiouw!

Hat tip to Niles - who has another with an English translation - though that doesn't have some of the better moments!
(130 since you ask)

the family photo

the family photo
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

I've been falling behind - I should have blogged that the family photos of last week's Ruby Wedding canal trip are now up

She knew we were being treated like animals

Today's Observer has an article on the Italian administrations attitude to the Roma as revealed the current fingerprinting and the spotlight exposing attitudes in two young deaths by the sea.'Why do the Italians hate us?'

Miriana hands me another photograph of Violetta. She is posing in a ruffled pink dress. 'She wanted to be a dancer. She didn't want to go to school. She only wanted to be beautiful. Cristina was a bad influence on Violetta. She didn't like school. She hated living in the camp. Her grandmother said she was just trying to find her place somewhere, but she would've grown into a strong woman. She had the will and the determination. Above all she wanted to be able to walk into the shops in the city, look at the dresses without being chased by the police. She would cut dresses out of magazines and place a cut-out of her head on to them. It was her way of escaping. Violetta just watched. She worshipped her big sister.

'In the days after the girls died a Catholic priest visited us and apologised for the local people on the beach, who he said had misunderstood the situation. I asked him why the Italians hated us, why they looked at the bodies of two dead children and smeared on sun cream and he had no answers. He wept and told me the Roma were still God's children. I told him it doesn't feel like it. We are the ones the Italians blame for the poverty outside the camp. That is their own making, not ours, not my children's fault.'

Miriana is barely 30 but looks a decade older. Married at 14 and a mother of five by her early twenties, she escaped the Bosnian-Serbian border area as a teenager, hoping for a new life in Italy. All three of her surviving children are unschooled. The youngest don't have birth certificates. They simply don't exist and she wants to keep it that away. One of the last things Cristina and Violetta did was to be fingerprinted by the authorities. 'Cristina and Violetta gave their fingerprints shortly before they died. Violetta was upset. She ran away and started crying. She thought the police were coming to take her away. Cristina was angry and scrubbed the ink from her thumb. She understood everything. She knew we were being treated like animals. She died knowing she had no real hope of a better life.'

Music at Night

Sabine Meyer playing the slow movement of the Poulenc Clarinet Sonata - the piece that started me on my appreciation of Poulenc (thanks Edward!) - ravishing!

From the canal

dscf7215
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Been away - and today enjoyed a trip on the Kennet and Avon Canal using the Kennet Horse Boat Co for Andrew and Wendy's Ruby Wedding. More photographs to follow!
The wall instription says 'specialists in pork and bacon products but I wasn't quick enough on either occasion to get a full on photo.

Down, Shep!

Definitely NSFW, not safe for under 18's - and probably not safe for the over-50's either (Blue Peter p*rn). But very funny! Thanks to b3ta

‘Shep loved me!’ He wailed.

(it's all lies!)

In short

Or for those who want to read the executive summary of the Lambeth conference - that's it.

Balance and Lambeth

For some reason, I'm reminded of this film having read the review at the weekend.
Couple of links:

• MetaCatholic on Romans, sex and idolatry - I will put a towel around my head and get around to a serious read of it (and his previous articles!)
• Then there's Graham Turner's sermon from Sunday morning (ms word format ;-(), though his talks page also has it as a wav file.
• Finally there's a pretty balanced assessment from Peter Ould - a call for self-examination on all sides!

Ne me quitte pas

Jacques Brel though I prefer this version, but it has embedding disabled.

Hirondelles andalouses

The photography of Bernard Plossu

Local news

It's BATS tomorrow (my reading group) and as I've been falling a little behind with reviews I've put two short comments on the most recent books on one of my other weblogs. Tomorrow's meeting which, for a change, I am going to make(!), will be discussing 'Io non ho paura' (I'm not afraid) - we will be discussing it in English.
On the last two occasions I've been in the local Sainsbury's there's been a confrontation going on between the security staff and an over-excited customer - never had this fun when I worked there...need to keep an eye on the local press for court proceedings.

High tech in 1998

Back at the 1998 Lambeth Conference there was a webcam set up for spotting bishops set up at http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/events/lambeth98/ (unsurprisingly the link no longer works!).
I seem to have this one shot from that webcam:

I can't find an archive of other 1998 webcam shots - so far - anywhere on the web - though I think I did have a animated gif from it copied to a cd somewhere. I'll keep looking!
I can't find a webcam this time around, maybe they're keener on controlling the media - though the flickr photos are good!
(the intellectual level on this blog seems to have gone down since the Stockhausen post)

The poor dears

Consecration of gay bishop Gene Robinson led to ridicule for Anglicans, say traditionalists at Lambeth conference | World news | The Guardian

The consecration of a gay Anglican bishop has led to sexual license, a new form of colonisation and ridicule for the church, it was claimed yesterday by (some! ed.) bishops attending the Lambeth conference in Canterbury.

"In some places the church is ridiculed as the gay church so membership is lost. It is experienced as a new form of colonisation," the draft said. "It is seen as leading to sexual license. Bishops cannot be a symbol for unity when their consecration divides the church. In some regions the issue has become a basis for hostile actions."

What was it Jesus was ridiculed as? Ah yes:

friend of sinners and publicans

I don't live here, but...

I don't live here, but...
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

His owner works as a chef and as a result, with no cat flap, often Gary can't get in, so he's moved into our area when he finds access problems.

None shall Sweep

or Sweep in their eyes - Niles links to this

I think it rather goes off after Nessun Dorma (about 2 minutes in) - but maybe that's a reflection on my taste - or maybe the joke is dead by then?
Go and be nice to Niles - it's his birthday! - as long as you don't distract him from cake making.

It's Stockhausen day

Pliable marks it - at tonight's Proms - a late evening beckons (for me at any rate)!

The SPCK story

Matt Wardman has collected the entire sequence of Dave Walker posts on SPCK and packaged them up as a pdf - they are available here. There seems to be a lot going on in that area at the moment. Go to Matt, Phil Groom, Sam Norton, David Keen, Doug Chaplin and the Ministry of Truth weblogs - to learn and express support!

Scargill video

Off save scargill comes this video taken on the penultimate day
Goodbye Scargill House from Stuart Boreham on Vimeo.
It's a bit stop/start on my machine - maybe it runs better under windows...(later..nope just my machine, have tested with another linux machine where it runs fine. Maybe my machine is underpowered/overloaded or it's Ubuntu/Gnome vs Mandriva/blackbox - though my machine has the lighter window manager!)

A quote to remember

This remark needs disseminating:

Thank goodness that we have this one, last bastion of free speech – the Internet. The internet, in particular, is the only truly free “press” we still have.

from Mark Brewer who also appears to be on a gagging letter roll with SPCK bloggers at the moment. ASBO Jesus is still producing relevant cartoons on the case.

Mustard seeds

Mustard Seed Shavings

The only theological secrets worth knowing were revealed to uneducated shepherds, fishermen and women. I have read volumes and volumes of stuff with subtle spiritual nuances recently on women's headship, homosexuality and the anglican communion.Three things Jesus says nothing about in the Gospels.

Well of course he's right - but I'm as guilty as anyone of making it complicated!
And we were reminded this morning of the subversive nature of the mustard plant!

..and two funerals

Thursday was David McKillop's funeral - so I worked at home and walked into town for the service at St Michael's. It started with a poem he wrote some years ago - it was read - as written in a strong Scottish accent - and the weaker amongst us struggled to cope! Then memories of student life and beyond, Pharmacology at Edinburgh from another North of the border national. The service leader said that 'some will be relieved that the rest of the service is in English'! We heard of his skills in reciting Burns (from memory) at Asta Zeneca Burns night, the football field, family and friends, his work skills where he ended up knowing maybe more than his consultant of his medical prognosis. I found it a very helpful way to say farewell to a (sometimes) argumentative but always considerate listener!

Friday came with a trip up to Kettlewell and a visit to Scargill to collect the item I'd bid for in the memorabilia sale - better held by someone who'd value it, rather than the house being sold with contents and some things being carted off for the tip (IMHO)!

Some observations from that day:

• Whilst driving up I took the opportunity to re-listen to Ann Morisy's talks from earlier in the year, valued her Bootle accent, her tales of the conversation between now and what was possible. What stories have I and others been given by Scargill? What will replace that?
• Standing on the stairs on the way up the the Chapel and hearing Mozart's Requiem (I think) blasting forth!
• Lunch at the Racehorses in Kettlewell - gentle reflections on the past over a soup and beer (I wanted to stop at a lot of Wharfedale pubs - especially the Tenants Arms but called it a day at one).
• Turned on the radio on the way back to immediately be confronted by Schubert's 'Die Liebe Farbe' with its ironic paen to green and its endless F#'s. Having come from that lush green of Scargill the irony became new and sharp

Other pictures from the day at the end of my Scargill Visits set on flickr

Spot the bishop

ACNS/Sweeny July 26th
Originally uploaded by Lambeth Conference 2008

they are - honest, thanks to pseudopiskie for this. When I take a service with one of these folk in September (no other clergy present!) I'll need to inspect his vestments carefully so that I recognise him

Mosaic meme

From Niles comes this meme to encourage a little flickr browsing!

If you want to play too, type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Using only the first page, choose your favorite image, then copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows). Leave a comment if you play, so I can have a peek.

The questions:

1. What is your first name? (Robert)
2. What is your favorite food? (Fish)
3. What high school did you attend? (Kings School Macclesfield)
4. What is your favorite color? (Green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Valerie Singleton - and the picture could cover some others ;-))
6. Favorite drink? (Red Wine)
7. Dream vacation? (Nepal - got this picture twice so including it once)
8. Favorite dessert? (Cheese - is that cheating?)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (young)
10. What do you love most in life? (Mountains)
11. One word to describe you. (Unfocussed)
12. Your Flickr name. (rajmarshall - had to cheat here to get anything)

(in the end I saw quite a few duplicates on the first pages...)
Here are the individual photo urls (why does no-one but me(!?) believe in letting html and <ol> do things for you)
1. Mt. Roberts, 2. Gone Fishin', 3. King's School, Macclesfield, 4. Meeting the pregnant princess of the forest, 5. Cuisine de Pierre Bleu, 6. What do you need to be happy?, 7. Beautiful old lady from Darap(Sikkim) village, 8. my cheese shop, 9. Taller in many other ways, 10. Lago Pehoe Panorama, 11. La Pyramide du Louvre, 12. IMG_9849

You desist, Mark!

ASBO Jesus has a cartoon to the point

Especially for geeks

..with blackberries - today's UserFriendly

A Wedding..

The Bride and Groom
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

To Holy Trinity Platt for Russell Bryans and Kate Vickers wedding. The official pictures will appear on that website - but we'd better give them a few weeks! My pictures are in this flickr tag set.

Yep, I'm Dave Walker too

The above was Dave's notice about a Texan lawyer's bullyboy tactics (and now the notice is mine!) but even that has now been removed. Matt Wardman has more on this. He has this list:

Who's Posted about Mark Brewer's Cease and Desist Notice to Dave Walker

1. St Aidan to Abbey Manor - David Keen - Vicar (Yeovil)


2. The Wardman Wire - Matt Wardman (audio of BBC interview from 12/2007)


3. Gentle Wisdom - Peter Kirk


4. Bishop Alan's Blog - Alan Wilson, Area Bishop of Buckingham


5. Blogula-Rasa - Ginny (detailed - worth a read)


6. Metacatholic - Doug Chaplin - Vicar (West Midlands)


7. Of course, I could be wrong - Madpriest - Priest (somewhere in England)


8. Seven whole days - Scott Gunn - Parish Priest (Rhode Island) and Lambeth Conference.


9. Thinking Anglicans - Simon Kershaw - Cambridge, England (likely to follow further press coverage)


10. The Jewish Blog Network - How to recover deleted pages. Firefox Resurrect Pages add-on.


11. Lingamish - Blogger Bludgeoned by Bozos - David Ker - Mozambique. Kudos for the cartoon above.


12. [Update: 23/07/2008] SPCK Watch - Gagging attempts by Mark Brewer - SPCK Watch. (Somewhere in Europe). Whole blog devoted to SPCK saga.


13. [Update: 23/07/2008] Elizaphanian - We are all Dave Walkers now - Sam Norton, Rector of West Mersea, Essex.
    Suggests that we reposts Dave's ex-posts from Google cache.


14. [Update: 23/07/2008]Mad Hare - Solidarity post - SPCK/SSG and Dave Walker (New Mexico : United States).

Any more for any more?

No doubt the list will grow!

Nothing like having an informed debate

Dave Walker has removed all the SPCK closure related stuff from his blog - obviously some people (not Dave!) believe that silence is the best cover for their actions and have taken legal steps to try to ensure this.
Fortunately the RSS feed lasted longer than the announcement post!

1 John 1 is a good antidote to such cloaking. The SPCK blog still appears to be up.

More Scargill pictures from last week

.. on Julie's pages

scargill community 80

community 80
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

I've uploaded a few more Scargill community pictures from 1978-82 to my flickr pages. In time I hope to label this photo with names!

Wednesday's service

Shan writes movingly of the final public service at Scargill (at least for a time - as it is consecrated and a listed building - who knows what God may have in mind for this building) on her a year at Scargill weblog - also pictures of some who were there.
Julie has also left her description of the same event - and the trip North as a whole - as a comment on my original blog post.

Leaving home

Péter Laki writes on the Cantata Profana

I had always interpreted this story [the story of the Cantata profana] as an allegory of Bartók's life, but as I conducted the Cantata that day I realized that I, too, was the stag. I was born and trained to communicate music, just as the sons were born and trained to hunt, and I was lucky to have grown up in Hungary, a country that lives and breathes music - that has a passionate belief in the power of music as a celebration of life. But one day, when I was still young, I was parted from my family and left my native country. I hunted and searched for music, and destiny turned me into the object of my hunt. The circumstances of life became my "antlers" and prevented me from returning home.

applies also to other losses but Bartók conveys the anguish of leaving and losing - particularly with respect to his own country most movingly.
Program notes on Cantata Profana are here

And notes on the history of Hungary are available on Wikipedia which gives some insight into where Bartók was coming from (especially for those who heard me this morning!)

Evening out

Hanaan
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

To the Hanaan in Rusholme last night for dinner - don't order too much rice!
Picture of Paul, Steve, Jennifer, Stephen and Gordon's elbow.
Interesting trip back on the train with some effusively drunk Brummies (by adoption) - no I don't want any of your KFC (repeat ad libitum)

TV Dinner

Another Simon's cat cartoon!

Thanks to Juanuhcis' Way for spotting this!

Employment and clergy

From Jane Williams article in today's Guardian

The church can be a thankless employer, with poor boundaries between private and public space, vague practices about holidays and days off, laughable job descriptions and few opportunities to congratulate oneself on a job well done and completed.

Jane Williams is the daughter of Geoffrey Paul - who was Bishop of Bradford and before that Warden of Lee Abbey (as well as being in charge of Scargill council back in the 1980's) so she has good reason to know! She also writes:

The pressures on Rowan are huge. It is easy to underestimate how much support we get. All around the country people are praying [for him] and that matters enormously, we couldn't do without it.

may that continue!

Save Scargill

The website for discussion of Scargill's future is here. Maybe that ought to be 'a' website but until the official custodians of the official site give an indication of what they have in mind this would appear to be the channel!

Scargill closing service

The orer of service is now posted at the Scargill Keepsake auction blog - the auction pages have been removed (as it's over) - but I do wish they'd keep this page otherwise people (like me) who link to specific pages in their blogs look silly when the linked content is rather different!
Link to the actual service pdf.

BBC takes education seriously

The wonderful moment from Journey's End

Thanks to the Web of Fear for the link to this clip!
Well Journey's End is a play about the trenches - isn't it?

Who?

Maybe Russell T Davies is putting in a Lambeth appearance?. Look carefully at that first picture.
Must read cartoon church at work - I spotted it but I see there's lots of similar comments already!

For Today

The Chapel
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

I came across this last night:

And here and there a cross on a barren hill;
In the red forest a herd is disappearing.
The cloud meanders over the pond's mirror;
The calm gesture of the peasant is at rest.
Very softly evening's blue wing touches.
A roof of parched straw, the black earth.

Soon stars will nest in the brows of the tired;

Georg Trakl Autumn of the Lonely One

and in that Germanic mood I was led back to 1978 and the Christmas drama:

Night and silence.
Only the steps and cries of the guards.
Do you hear how in the silent house
It quakes, cracks, roars
When hundreds kindle the stirred-up flame of their hearts?

Their choir is silent,
But my ear is open wide:
‘We the old, the young,
The sons of all tongues,
We the strong, the weak,
The sleepers, the wakeful,
We the poor, the rich,
Alike in misfortune,
The good, the bad,
Whatever we have been,
We men of many scars,
We the witnesses of those who died,
We the defiant, we the despondent,
The innocent, and the much accused,
Deeply tormented by long isolation,
Brother, we are searching, we are calling you!
Brother, do you hear me?’

...
Whether one day turns into another,
One that could have nothing new, nothing better
Than to end quickly like this one?
I want to see the turning of the times,

When luminous signs stand in the night sky,
And over the peoples new bells
Ring and ring.
I am waiting for that midnight
In whose fearfully streaming brilliance
The evil perish for anguish
And the good overcome with joy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Night Voices in Tegel” (1944)
Thank you Tim

With regrets..

I don't think I'll be heading to Kettlewell for tomorrow's farewell.
It would be nice to be there and also see folk that I've not seen for many years but my current thinking is to stay here for the following reasons:

• I said farewell last week, I'm not sure that doing it twice is a good idea.
• Some hotheads have - on the Church Times blog - talked of protesting at the service, I'd need it to be quiet reflection and thanks to God for what has been.
• Taking an empty car (apart from myself) feels too much of a luxury with thoughts about 'green' responsibilities.
• I've only just taken a weeks holiday from work.

So unless I change my mind I'll be at work!

Scargill History

The Holdsworth family site - who owned Scargill before it became a community/conference centre has a page on the house with the original 1957 estate agent's write up:

Ownership of the Estate carries the right to Pew Sittings in the Parish Church of Kettlewell and share in the Lordship.

hmmm!
Another page has a picture of the house in its Holdsworth days - about 3/4s of the way down that page!

And here's a blog link from a current community member - Shan - thanks to Dave Walker for this!

Berlusconi and the Roma (again)

There was an article by Seumas Milne in last week's Guardian on the new fascism of Berlusconi:

At the heart of Europe, police have begun fingerprinting children on the basis of their race - with barely a murmur of protest from European governments. Last week, Silvio Berlusconi's new rightwing Italian administration announced plans to carry out a national registration of all the country's estimated 150,000 Gypsies - Roma and Sinti people - whether Italian-born or migrants. Interior minister and leading light of the xenophobic Northern League, Roberto Maroni, insisted that taking fingerprints of all Roma, including children, was needed to "prevent begging" and, if necessary, remove the children from their parents.
It has been left to others to speak out against this eruption of naked, officially sanctioned racism. Catholic human rights organisations have damned the fingerprinting of Gypsies as "evoking painful memories". The chief rabbi of Rome insisted it "must be stopped now". Roma groups have demonstrated, wearing the black triangles Gypsies were forced to wear in the Nazi concentration camps, and anti-racist campaigners in Rome this week began to bombard the interior ministry with their own fingerprints in protest against the treatment of the Gypsies. But, given that the European establishment has long turned a blind eye to anti-Roma discrimination and violence in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, along with the celebration of SS units that took part in the Holocaust in the Baltic states, perhaps it's no surprise that they ignore the outrages now taking place in Italy.

The rest of us cannot. ...

But the same phenomena can be seen to varying degrees all over Europe, where racist and Islamophobic parties are on the march: take the far right Swiss People's party, which on Tuesday succeeded in collecting enough signatures to force a referendum on banning minarets throughout the country. In Britain, as Peter Oborne's Channel 4 film on Islamophobia this week underlined, a mendacious media and political campaign has fed anti-Muslim hostility and violence since the 2005 London bombings - just as hostility to asylum seekers was whipped up in the 1990s. The social and democratic degeneration now reached by Italy can happen anywhere in the current climate.

food for thought and - hopefully mettle that it will not be allowed to progress further - in Italy or the UK.

More from the Craven Herald

Letter from Dave Nelson is here:

Scargill, since its beginnings in the late fifties, emerged into the sixties and seventies when society radically changed, went through the miners' strike and the four-day working week, went through times when interest rates and income tax were high and also through times of high unemployment. I seem to remember also that there was a big slump in the construction industry, affecting thousands of workers. It was a survivor.

That is not to say that Scargill has not [recently] done good works and I am sure the trustees were well intentioned. The Mythbusters is just one that you referred to in your editorial.

So the place where people came for rest, refreshment and, in some cases, went away with a life-changing experience, will be no more. All for the sake of a changed philosophy.

my clarification (I hope!) in square brackets.

Chaos..

Get back from holiday to discover that the power tripped 24 hours after we left and the freezer and fridge were both in an interesting state! Further investigation reveals that the freezer caused the problem and is now dead. Unfortunately due to the nature of the house we need a slim (< 50cm) upright freezer (sounds like a dating request!) and are currently failing to find one. Any pointers welcomed! Alternatively a quick kitchen redesign might be called for!?

Wordsworth St

Wordsworth St
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

.. I guess the local inhabitants liked the rename too!
Spotted in Hawkshead
Surrealy next day we had lunch the next day at The Royal Hotel in Dockray near Ullswater - with hens looking through the window and Italian pop music piped into the bar (there may have been a veer into Spanish at some point)

It was 30 years ago this week

view across the buildings
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

.. that I joined the Scargill community. Having been on holiday in the Lakes this week we nipped over to Kettlewell. Traumatic, as Scargill is closing this month. Mixed emotions of joy at the imagination of the direction over the last few years and regrets over the loss of the old. Pictures from this visit are on flickr in a new collection, trying to separate out the photos taken on community with those taken since.

[Sue - if you're reading this - note that not all the Sue's are you! I've resisted adding surnames in view of the lack of privacy on the internet! My guess is that you wondered about the picture in the snow - but the Sue there is on skis.]
I hope to scan more of the 1980 era Scargill slides soon when we recover from the break.

Alicia's Gift

Just finished another Jessica Duchen: Alicia's gift, with it being the tale of a young pianist based in the Macclesfield area (not to mention Headingley) - this had for me a lot going for it - and I don't think it disappointed! Some acute observation of motives and description of wrapping oneself up in pianism (to protect oneself?). Mam Tor is a feature of the book and part of my experience that I've not visited for too long - harder to make the effort now that the road to Sheffield no longer runs underneath it.
Some of the twists were a little predictable - especially with local knowledge - but I'd recommend it - made me pick up some piano works I'd not looked at in a long time!

Especially for tomorrow

Happy Watching!

Magna Carta

..in flames at ASBO Jesus. I wanted to tag this humour but it isn't!

For sentimental rememberance

There's an online list of Scargill memorabilia available in an online auction. Marsh lounge chairs, the lectern, bedside tables. I'll try not to say - here - what I'm interested in. Unfortunately Henry is long gone! There's also a closing service on Wednesday 16th, nicer for it to be a weekend, but if it's a midweek there's a chance of it fitting in the Chapel!

They only wanted a fence

From this week's Macclesfield Express:

Two Macclesfield men were caught stealing 14 stair gates, 24 cardigans and 24 inflatable England chairs from TJ Hughes. ..They were each sentenced to 150 hours community punishment

The joys of gay regexp

or webfiltering for beginners, from rightwingwatch.. and the Guardian Diary

More press coverage on Scargill

The Craven Herald's report on the Scargill closure. The Craven Herald is the local Skipton and the Dales newspaper -

District councillor for Upper Wharfedale, John Roberts, said he had canvassed villagers in Kettlewell for their reaction:

"They feel the closure will have quite an impact on local businesses - people resident there would come down to the pubs and the post office would have spin-off trade.
Local people are saddened by the closure, at the loss of jobs - which are few and far between in this area - and they are apprehensive about the future. ...
It will call for an inspirational architectural design because the site is so beautiful."

Rowan Williams on GAFCon

His statement is here. I'm sure that even the Daily Telegraph can understand this!

Let's have a redesign

Fewer links seem to be what's happened, but the attention span hasn't increased!

Meet the FoCAs

here, as the man says, it makes a lot of sense now - GAFCON indeed!

Mugabe and Rome

Looks like the influence of Mugabe's recent visit to Rome has rubbed off. We protest - rightly about the demonisation of particular segments of the Zimbabwe population, we cannot remain silent in the face of this fascism rather closer to home. Here's Pliable on the same theme. Found via Jessica Duchen's web log who has more on the matter here as well as a wonderful youtube film of Roby Lakatos playing the violin - go and watch!
I've just finished reading Duchen's Hungarian Dances and it was an interesting experience reading that novel against snapshots of history that, alas, seem to be in danger of being replayed and having blogged links to articles on the aftermath of the Italian election at the same time it seemed very depressing.
I loved Bartók's Cantata Profana (which figures large in the Duchen book) when I was in my 20's and seem not to have listened to it recently - something I must rectify - I can still hear the terror of that hunt and the high,high tenor solo.

Litter pickers

Litterpickers
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

We've been litter picking in Macclesfield for Hope08. Festival, service and funday tomorrow...
More pictures from the morning here. I had an unfortunate accident with a can of lager I thought was empty and wasn't (fortunately it was lager - I need to go and fumigate myself!

Background of one GAFCON bishop

Read this article from metacatholic.

Emmanuel Chukwuma... would have made two short planks look like Einstein

Chukwuma has recently called for Rowan Williams resignation - ok you don't need a towering intellect to judge whether a bishop should resign but some of the other points in the article make him look a few points short of a message.

(2014) Metacatholic appears to have gone, here's a copy of that article in the internet archive.

More on Scargill

Dave Walker has posted more on the Church Times blog with a letter from David Baker.
Here's his original post which caused many to find their way here.
I think my further two comments would be

• Lee Abbey has more points of support than Scargill which has (from my guess) cushioned it to some extent from the harsh measures that have been necessary up North, they have a number of bases with supporters, Scargill has only the one and certainly way back when I was on community we felt ourselves even then (maybe unjustly) to be Lee Abbey's poor relation - ironically in some ways as it felt that we had a better set of buildings (and chapel!! - the inspiration that George Pace building was to us both in the quiet(?) community morning prayer and as a resource to lead guests on in their spiritual walks).


• Again guessing that the strong support I've seen from people from people who have supported the community for many years, leads me to guess that the Scargill support is aging - in order to give it a long term future they needed to reach out to a younger base and the remodelled programme was (IMHO) an exciting attempt to do that.


• I believe that there may be some form of closure service, for those outside the community, being prepared.
  

I should also mention Messiaen's flickr photostream which have many photos of Scargill and the surrounding area, Yockenthwaite, Hubberholme...

That's my line!

Obama accused of twisting the bible to confuse US voters | World news | The Guardian

Barack Obama today came under fire from James Dobson, founder of the conservative Focus on the Family organisation, who accused the likely Democratic nominee of twisting the Bible to confuse people.

A technique that Dobson's pretty familiar with...

Chaudes Aigues

Rural gite
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

PIcture from a holiday we had quite a few years ago in the Massif Central. Chaudes Aigues has hot running water in the streets - and none in the houses - or at least not in the gite we stayed in!

A slide scan - this one is a lot better than some I've done maybe the device is better with pictures that don't have lots of sky!

Lambeth and Rowan Williams

Mark Russell's reflections: Countdown to Lambeth

Whatever your views on Christianity and sexuality, violence against gay people is wrong, and homophobia is wrong. Jesus died for all people whether straight or gay, and he loves everyone equally.
Finally, please pray for Rowan Williams at this time. I get to spend time with him from time to time and he is a godly holy man, with an impossible job. Rowan is lovely, and has such a warm open gentle spirit. He is a gift to our Church. Pray for him in the middle of all this that God would use him to lead the Lambeth Conference in such a way that our church can emerge with more unity, and more committed to mission and evangelism, which is our real job!
I still believe in a God of miracles....pray for one for Lambeth!

Amen to that! Another harkback to Scargill too - as I knew Michael Turnbull when he was in the same position when he was on Scargill Council before he went to Durham

What else do you need?

From the new Linux Format a Keith Packard interview:

I switched to KDE .. and recently switched to Gnome. They don't seem dramatically different to me; they're both 2D desktops. They let me start Emacs - what else do you need.

Well quite - though I'm sure you don't need anything quite as memory heavy if Emacs is all that's needed (blackbox, fluxbox,...).

exec emacs

should be quite enough.
(How come this is the first blog post I've made with an emacs label???!!!)

An orphan

Democracy is an orphan in Zimbabwe, Since the infamous universal declaration of independence in 1965 made by the white government of Ian Smith in what was then Rhodesia - in an effort to block the extension of suffrage to the country's black majority - the cry of democracy has been ignored. Mugabe's 28-year rule has similarly undermined the development of institutional democracy.

Tsvangirai writing in April 2008

I'm sure it's no reference to Big Pete

From Alex Foster comes this Album cover meme

1. Use Wikipedia’s Random page selector; the article title is the name of your band.
2. Use the Quotations Page.com’s random quote generator; the last four words of the very last quotation is the title of your album.
3. Use Flickr’s most “interestingness” explorer”; the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice (Gimp!!!!) to throw them together, and post.

Yorkshire Post notice

of the Scargill closure:

When full, Scargill House could accommodate 80 people and was run by a team of 30. One of its mainstays was weekend courses for visiting church choirs. Other groups or individuals came to engage in activities like walking, painting and embroidery, although some of the annual programme was dictated by the Christian calendar, offering Easter and Advent retreats. The house was also extensively used by school groups on field trips.
One of the most attractive features in the 100-acre grounds is the large broadleaved woodland which is Forestry Stewardship Council accredited and used by local schools and students for nature study.
Back inside the house, New Year had become a special time to welcome asylum seekers. In fact, Scargill House had deliberately changed its emphasis in recent years from appealing mainly to white, English middle-class Anglicans to drawing in people of many different backgrounds, especially those of diverse nationalities and faiths.
Central to this has been its "MythBusters" programme for breaking down barriers between faiths and social classes. It takes groups of children from widely different backgrounds and involves them in activities like circus skills while encouraging them to discuss how they're really not very different from each other.
This work is set to continue, and David Baker's sorrow at selling up is at least tempered by some optimism for the future. The money that will be raised from the sale – possibly as much as £5m, although the final valuation has not been made – will be used to set up a Christian foundation.
"I see it as turning ourselves inside-out," he says. "Instead of people coming to Scargill House for help, the new Foundation will go out into communities and fund projects, perhaps even pay for groups to stay at residential centres. So our work will definitely continue, it just won't be here at Scargill.

More scans of old slides

A leaving
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Scanned a few more of my Scargill slides, the set is here - bit variable in quality but as a record of the turn of the 70's at Scargill they're probably worth sharing.

Bowling

A trip bowling followed - in my case - by the first course at an Indian restaurant.




Have you seen the train schedule between East Didsbury and Wilmslow in the evening!?

Leg 1 of 3 Rail replacement bus		East Didsbury (EDY) to Manchester Airport (MIA)
Departs	Arrives	Duration
00:02	00:20	0:18
Leg 2 of 3 Rail replacement bus		Manchester Airport (MIA) to Manchester Piccadilly (MAN)
Departs	Arrives	Duration
01:00	01:25	0:25
Leg 3 of 3		Manchester Piccadilly (MAN) to Wilmslow (WML)
Departs	Arrives	Duration
05:20	05:37	0:17

I suppose that's late evening....but two replacement bus services taking you round in circles. Fortunately the train was running last week and I caught one before this!

On its way...

Just hope it's a better finale than last season.