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.

New York skyline from memory

Artist Stephen Wiltshire draws a spellbinding 18ft picture of New York from memory

This astonishing 18ft drawing of the world’s most famous skyline was created by autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire after he spent just 20 minutes in a helicopter gazing at the panorama.

I’ll let the images speak for themselves. (images © Barcroft Media)

Read the full article on the Daily Mail website.

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

Bible Doodle

Front cover of my bible fell off so I drew on a new one

Was doodled during various sermons at Mobilise Conference last week.

Daisy pulls it off by Denise Deegan

Another set I designed and built.

The play is set in a public school. I just went for a traditional look. The panelling is real wooden panelling, with an oak stain and varnish.
Again, posted for the use of collaborating with someone in the future.

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.

5 months later

We're 5 months old! Not your normal anniversary of celebration but nevermind that.

As a little review exercise I thought it would be beneficial to hear your thoughts on how you think this part of the site has been received over the last 5 months and how you think we can improve it in the future.
If you would be so kind as to answer the following questions in the comments or by email that would really help me to put in motion the changes required to make this space more usable and valuable to you.

1. How did you find signing up for a new account using the online form?
2. Did you receive your “welcome” e-mail and introductory tutorial quickly (from the time you signed up).
3. Was the tutorial easy to follow and understand?
4. Is there anything you thought was missing from the tutorial?
5. Have you submitted an entry to the Showcase? If not is there any reason why?
6. How often do you check the Creative Arts pages for new content?
7. What changes would you make to the showcase and how do you think they would benefit the community?

Thanks for your time answering these. We want to keep the Network/Showcase fresh faced and as functional as possible for everyone.

Is this allowed?

I'm sure this is breaking a few laws but it looks like fun!

I have recently been following the blog of David Capener who, if you have seen the Lovenations webpage, or have read one of the flyers will know is speaking at the conference. You should check out his articles, some are challenging, most are humerous and all are honest.

He posted this video and I thought I’d repost it as it is so very cool!
I’m not sure how they we’re able to get permission for it, maybe they didn’t… All I know is it made me smile.
The music track from UNKLE is pretty sweet too.
Now that was 7 minutes well spent wasn’t it!

Be sure to register yourself for Love:Nations on the webpage if you haven’t yet done so (it’ll cost you less and guarantee you a space!).

Creative Process

Zach Lind from 'Jimmy Eat World' Interviews Tim Foreman of 'Switchfoot'.

Tim and Zach discuss Switchfoot’s creative process and life as an independent band.