I notice that the Church Games are about to start in the Bahamas (scroll down the page to No 471).

The games officially got underway on Saturday with a Cross Run that is similar to the Commonwealth or the Olympic games torch run where a representative from each of denomination had the opportunity to run with the cross as it made its way around the city before ending at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gym.

Apart from running with the cross I was wondering what other events should make up the Church Games. Pew hurdling? 100 metre dash up the aisle? Discus with the collection plate? Pole vaulting over the rood screen?

Most of these ideas were Maddie_C’s by the way, but I’m sure you can come up with more in the comments.

Posted by Dave at 11:36 pm on September 30, 2005 and filed under Church, In-depth analysis.

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You might remember Rob Pepper from such famous Cartoon Blog posts as ‘Pen review: Supermarket blue ink pen‘, or ‘Top 5 Art Blogs: No5, Rob Pepper‘.

Well, Rob’s Doxology Exhibition opens in Houston next week with an opening reception and a ‘Day of Dialog’, which is I assume a technical name for sitting around chatting about things. Various bloggers, such as Mr TallSkinnyKiwi, Maggi Dawn and Si Johnston are either going to be there, enthusiastic, or both.

I’d also like to be there. I’d love to see the pictures as I do like some of Rob’s work, though secretly I do have to say I don’t understand a lot of what is written about the project in question. This is not an unusual state of affairs for me even with art I really really like. Take this for example:

Doxology reinterprets the figure of Jesus for post-christian culture, not with the reductionism of the late modernist “historical Jesus” concept, but seen through the richness of artistic tradition within the church, in order to express the reality of peoples encounter with this Jesus through the centuries. Rob’s work is much more than observation; his method, which emphasises not subject or outcome but rather the experience of the artist in a given context leads us beyond the purely aesthetic to the conjunction of material and spiritual, it intends to draw us beyond the object into the encounter which it describes. (Mark Fletcher 2005)

I think this means ‘It’s not just what it looks like, it’s the taking part that counts’. Or it might mean something else entirely, I’m not sure. Perhaps I should go and study art somewhere so that I can decipher art commentary wherever and whenever I encounter it.

Posted by Dave at 6:51 pm on September 29, 2005 and filed under Art.

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I had 42 spam comments overnight. Not that unusual, but I thought you’d like to be kept informed. The standard format these days for spam comments seems to be three random phrases followed by one or two links and then perhaps some more random words strung together. I quite like this set of random phrases from ‘bob@internet.com’:

Nice post. I’ll return. In a small saucepan

I’ll be looking out for you Bob. With a kettleful of boiling water.

Today’s link of the day: Bus times in Essex. (Of no interest to anyone, but it means in future I can type ‘bus times’ into my blog search box and find them without all the fuss. And oh, what a fuss there usually is.)

Posted by Dave at 10:45 am on September 29, 2005 and filed under Mundane.

4 Comments

I’ve now posted the Guide to Greenbelt cartoons on the main CartoonChurch.com site. The series was originally produced by the Church Times as a small comic book and distributed at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham this year.

I’m pleased I’ve been able to republish it for anyone who wasn’t able to see it the first time around. Do pass on the link to anyone you know who might enjoy it. Thank you!

Posted by Dave at 1:00 pm on September 28, 2005 and filed under Cartoons, Greenbelt.

2 Comments

It is hard to remember life as it used to be before the invention of the computer in 1998. But I’m going to try it for the best part of two whole days because I need to do certain tasks without being distracted by the internet which, whilst useful and the means by which I make my living, does sometimes stop me from doing other jobs.

So, I’m writing this yesterday and posting it tomorrow so that I can:

- Put some of those boxes somewhere where they will look neater.
- Pick up some files that are on the floor and put them on another bit of floor.
- Put some pieces of paper into some files.
- Put some other pieces of paper into some boxes.
- Fill in some forms with writing and put them on the desk.
- Put some pieces of paper into some envelopes and put the envolopes on the floor.
- Put some things that are on the floor onto the desk.
- Put some things that are on the desk onto the floor.

As you can see, a list of tasks so exceptionally dull that the only way to do them is to ensure my computer is geographically where I am not. Wish me luck.

Posted by Dave at 7:59 am on September 26, 2005 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, In-depth analysis.

3 Comments

I’m not sure where I found these cartoons - I think Sarah may have linked to them at some point, but I’m slightly uncertain. Two good religious sort of themed ones:

Haute Couture
Swing low sweet chariot

More at Bifsniff cartoons.

Posted by Dave at 7:56 pm on September 25, 2005 and filed under Cartooning.

1 Comment

Readers may or may not remember the comic on the theme of ‘the tree of life’ which I drew and gave away not too long ago. Well, it was one of a series of 8 done by various artists for the Greenbelt festival and one of the best of the others is now available online. It is entitled Jesus is the Vine and is reproduced in full on the Cabanon Press website. Just click the cover image for the next picture.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 am on September 24, 2005 and filed under Cartooning.

1 Comment

CartoonChurch.com: the site where everyone can help with everyday administrative tasks.

I have a form to fill in to allow this website to be listed in the UK Christian Handbook.

OK, first of all, the terms and conditions. Trinitarian. Tick. Definative Christian product or service. Um, don’t really know what that mean, but yes, tick. Don’t trade under own name. Tick. Work in a wide geographical area. Well, sometimes I sit here at the computer upstairs in the bedroom whilst other times I sit in the conservatory and do some drawing. So yes, tick.

Now. What is my category? Art and Craft Product Suppliers? Computer and IT services? Design Layout & Editorial Services? Media Services? Actually, to be honest I rather want to be listed under Benevolent Organisations. It sounds nice. I think all organisations should be Benevolent Organisations. I see on the website there’s also a category for ‘Strategic Thinkers’, which I quite like. I think combining that with Bible Schools (Part-time) to give Strategic Thinkers (Part-time) would be the ideal. There again I’m a ‘Creation Movement’ in that I do all my own drawings. It’s all so tricky.

Having decided whether I’m a Rev, a Ms or an Other the next task is to determine my job title. Maddie_C did some laughing when I said I was going to put ‘Director’, so I can’t put that. I think if I put ‘Artist in Residence’ they will think I’m not taking things seriously and tear up the form. If I went with ‘Denomination’ for my category I could just list my job title as ‘Archbishop’ and be done with it. ‘Creative Operative’ perhaps.

Any help or advice on this or anything else would be gladly received.

Posted by Dave at 11:55 am on September 23, 2005 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, In-depth analysis.

4 Comments

Tim Worstall is compiling a book entitled “2005: Blogged: Dispatches from the Blogosphere”. It will be a roundup of the best of British blogging over the last year, so from November 2004 until now.

He’s asked me whether there are any religious blogs who should be considered for inclusion. Good writing is what is required here, and writing which will be of interest to the wider population rather than just other like-minded people. I’ve had a think and although one or two names come to mind, its not proving particularly straightforward to know who to suggest. I’m sure there must be blogs out there I haven’t thought of, but I could do with some help.

Thinking about Christian blogs (ie bloggers who are Christians) in particular it seems to me we do well at writing material of interest to other Christians, but I’m not sure that a huge amount of what we write is of wider interest. I don’t know - I’d like to be proved wrong on this.

Tim needs to hear back on this very soon, ie today or tomorrow. Remember that it needs to be good writing that has been blogged over the last year, though he is especially interested in material in the November 04-February 05 timescale. I’ll pass on the best of the suggestions left here in the comments or e-mailed to me. Thanks in advance for any contributions. (Oh, about comments, if you leave any links in the comments they’ll be moderated so won’t appear instantly, but they will appear within a few hours.)

The Amazon page for the book is here in case you’d like to pre-order your copy. Actually, wait until I’ve signed up for an affiliate account so that I can eat in November.

Update: Just to emphasise this is a compilation of contributions from UK bloggers.

Posted by Dave at 11:14 am on September 22, 2005 and filed under Blogging.

4 Comments

Today’s top art stories:

Rabbit knitted by dozens of grannies* out of pink wool
“The 200-foot-long toy rabbit lies on the side of the 5,000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Viennese art group Gelatin designed the giant soft toy and say it was “knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool”.”

Art left leaning against tree abducted
“In a seminal episode of dangling potential, Ade lun sec and Peter I. Robinson paint a painting, imbed it with a global positioning device, leave it leaning against a tree in Dolores Park, allow it to be abducted, and then monitor its subsequent geographical adventures on Google Earth, mapped out and projected onto the gallery wall for all to see.”

(These stories originally found via We Make Money Not Art and Drawn!)

*Other news reports don’t take the ‘dozens of grannies’ quite so literally. But why let the facts get in the way of a good headline I say…

Posted by Dave at 6:09 pm on September 21, 2005 and filed under In-depth analysis, Art.

5 Comments

From the surface it looks like a simple bungalow, but down a long tunnel and buried beneath lots of concrete lies the Secret Nuclear Bunker. Originally a refuge for the Prime Minister and key officials in the event of a nuclear attack on the UK, it is now decommissioned and open to the public. The bunker was designed to hold up to 600 people for up to three months.

As tourist atractions go the bunker has a fairly unsophisticated feel which is really quite refreshing. There are hand written notices everywhere and you don’t see a member of staff until the very end of the visit, and even then you might not as payment is done via an ‘honesty basket’. The tour is all done via a special ‘wand’ and contains odd moments of humour as well as some fairly sobering thoughts.

Maddie_C and I enjoyed our visit and would recommend it to anyone looking for a day trip in this sort of area, in fact it probably isn’t too far from many parts of London either. The website has a reasonable number of pictures if south Essex isn’t on your ‘must visit’ list.

Posted by Dave at 11:35 am on September 20, 2005 and filed under Sundry posts, Essex Life.

1 Comment

This from the Church of England communications office, via Ian:

“Campaign Group Fathers 4 Justice (F4J) said today that all 12,000 of its members will engage in a national campaign of civil disobedience designed to disrupt Church of England services across the country in December, including a march on St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday 9th December with thousands of Father Christmases.

F4J stress the campaign is directed at the Church of England as an organisation and not at Christianity”

This makes me sad. Don’t they know the huge amount that clergy, youthworkers and ordinary members of churches the length and breadth of the country do in terms of “trying to prevent relationship breakdown within families”. Obviously not. Probably because it happens behind closed doors without a song and a dance (or climbing on roofs).

Unfortunately this sort of action is just lashing out for the sake of lashing out, and makes me at least less likely to listen to what is probably a very good cause. But then there are lots of very good causes. The ones who seek to make their point in this kind of aggressive manner do nothing to help themselves.

Posted by Dave at 12:14 am on September 20, 2005 and filed under Church, Current events.

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