Remember Us

Another old track

No explicit Christian content. Although influenced by observing breakdown in a Christian marriage.

Hence: “remember us complete” and “teach us how to love”

Written in first year, Recorded in final year, Remastered last year.

BERLIN

Communist symbol of success // The Church

Can a nation be changed?

Make Me Thy Fuel

Amy Carmichael wrote this. What a legend.

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when i should climb higher.
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the crucified.
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

Intermission

A reflection after a busy shift at work.

I had forgotten I was on stage. The lights had obscured all but this brightly lit enclosure,  forces pushing and pulling me into action, the present drama all there was.

Intermission.

I remember. Improv over now, I walk to a chair in the wings, memories of the outside life floating to the surface;  lumpen things chained to corks, breaking the surface of the calming water.

Another.

Who is out there? My eyes have yet to adjust. I remember a conversation, a pain, a feeling. On the stage when that’s all there seemed to be, these ‘wings’ abandoned. It means more to me now than it did then. There was purpose.

Theme. Story.

I feel the presence from beyond the lights, I know the Author is watching. He has called this intermission, I remember that now; I am under his care. About this story, he cares deeply, I remember that too.

I kneel before him, the character he has created for the story, but more, now a friend of the great Author. He has allowed me to know that there is more than the story, shadow is given substance. What kind of writer could do such a thing? Here now: in the puzzlement of the character who has assumed being held up by his own conscious activity. A stab of defiant pride.

But no.

I bow, enjoying the enjoyment I feel as I let him be Author now. That is the answer. A strange connection, between author and character.  Another thought breaks surface. What if he has written himself into the story? I remember.
He is still writing.

What if I forget?

I know I will, soon the heat and the brightness, and the waters once again disturbed, for the story still requires me. He will uphold me. He will not forget, and he will remind me. He will call intermission, once again he will lead me, and I will remember.

dontjustsurvive

Don't just survive in Leeds, love it and experience all it has to offer.

Many thousands of people, Christian and non, move to Leeds every single year to paticipate in what I like to call, the “university challenge”. There has always been an epic battle between studying, socialising, exploring your indepence, maturing and developing in readiness for the rest of life which, if you’re flying solo is going to be tough.

A few have noticed the need to support new and old students in the city and as a result dontjustsurvive.co.uk has been birthed.

The site development has been an exciting, challenging and an emotional one. That is to say there have been a few tense hours in the office while some disobedient code has been causing trouble, but I’m happy to report the final product has certainly been worth the sweat and (almost) tears. Though the site has only been live 1 week, we’re already starting to discuss the next steps which leaves me excited.

I encourage you if you’re a student or not to take a look, leave some feedback in the comments and aswer this one question…
Question — In what way(s) would you like to see the site develop to further accomodate and reach it’s goals (see below).

Here’s some information about dontjustsurvive.co.uk:
What exactly is dontjustsurvive.co.uk?

dontjustsurvive.co.uk is a website designed to help students in our city to:
— Not just survive university with a remnant of their faith - but thrive!
— Find a local church and get stuck in - learn and love Jesus! 
— Connect with Christian Unions or missional organisations operating on their higher education campus - make Him known!
— Have a relevant and up to date city resource - The Survival Guide

Why have this resource?
With so many new experiences and opportunities it is vitally important that students are connected to Missional organisations on campus and plugged into the local church as soon as possible so they can make the most of the incredible opportunity university can be.

dontjustsurvive.co.uk aims to help make that connection quicker and more effective.

How does it work?
dontjustsurvive.co.uk allows churches and missional organisations operating on higher education campuses to communicate who they are and what is going happening all on one site. It provides a facility to update information whenever required.

For 2009/10 the site will work with a flier available for students and churches to give out and use to help people make the links they need.

The site has been developed as a collaboration between the Christian Unions, the Christian Union Advisory Board and Chris Mason from Mosaic Church working with David Sorley & Matt Jones from WE_ARE_BOXHEAD ⁄ ™a design studio based in Leeds.

How can you get inolved?
Our aim is that every Christian Union, on-campus missional organisation, and church in Leeds will be represented on the site.

We want to build a huge resource of articles relevant to leeds (bus service information, interesting places see, what to do when the parents visit, the best gig venues and so on) that will be represented in the survival guide.

——————————————————————

If you would like to help make a difference to the student population in Leeds by writing a survival guide article, suggest an article topic or recommend a church or missional on-campus organisation, then please contact us at hello@dontjustsurvive.co.uk

Hurt

One of my all time favourite music videos... ...powerful stuff

The video that was released for “Hurt”, a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fit Cash’s view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognised as “his epitaph”.

More information about Johnny on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Cash.

Red

An abstract Video produced as a mini collaboration

I collaborated with Benjamin McAvoy on this film as a way to promote his Music Composition business to ad/production agencies. The film was also an opportunity to produce a concept film to which there where no set criteria.

The film is of four parts. Each section is layered on top of the first (but with a slight time delay) to create a sense of depth and slightly unnatural movement. The film is also designed to play as a loop for live projection. 

To Build a Home

The combination of composition, direction and difficult subject matter brings me close to tears everytime I watch this film...

The film is a combination of two tracks by Cinematic Orchestra, the video directed by Up The Resolution; a london based production company. An interview with the directors can be found here.

As David Knight from Promo News writes “It’s a beautiful, sedate 12-minute short film for two tracks, To Build A Home and Breathe, which chronicles the final hours of a dying woman with her devoted, loving husband”.

The reason I’ve posted this video up (other than the fact it’s an amazing short film) is that its a great example of narrative storytelling, collaboration and acheivement… 

Realising an idea/concept/dream into an end product rarely comes cheap; whether it’s time, money (or both) there is generally financial expense and risk involved in producing a personal or commercial, low budget piece of work.  If you feel like you have a creative talent/gifting or are a creative professional this can be a constant source of frustration and stress – we all have bills to pay and are also probably over committed in our personal/church lives too.

So… What to do? Easy…Collaborate! 

I see a huge number of talented individuals who are part of Mosaic (and beyond) but there doesn’t seem to be enough collaboration. Lets get some bands formed. Photographers working with Designers, Film makers collaborating with sound designers and musicians, writers working with web developers etc etc. The God given talent is there and he’s put us together in community but we are not going to see any major breakthrough unless we get together, start bashing ideas around and start making stuff.

So for the next couple of months the criteria for posting stuff up on this creative arts showcase is that it has to have a collaborative element and I for one am looking forward to seeing the results.

Screengrab

Often we mask our identities to keep parts of our lives separate from others.