The Cartoon Blog will be inactive for a few days as I will not be posting on it. Regular writing will return towards the middle or end of the week. If you want something to read I have some old posts which may or may not be interesting, or you could look at some of my church cartoons or freely bloggable cartoons if either of those are your sort of thing.

Apologies to the 38 people who are awaiting e-mail replies from me. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. At least you know you’re not alone.

Posted by Dave at 10:53 pm on March 31, 2007 and filed under CartoonChurch progress.

8 Comments

Today is a non-stop continual no-slacking must-keep-going work day, so only three four.

Shame
Update: Chocolate Jesus cancelled

Clerical hats
Millions of the things.

Songs in diagrammatical form
I’ve been enjoying this blog recently.

Bellringing update
I continue to love this blog because it makes not a word of sense to me. But to between about 4% or perhaps 9% of you it will make perfect sense, so I’ll post an extract:

In the last couple of weeks at practice I have started to call touches of Grandsire Triples. The particular touch is really quite simple — ‘in and out at one, three times’ rung from the 7. This means that you have to call bobs so that you make thirds and go into the hunt, and then call another bob at the next lead so that you come out of the hunt after just one lead; and repeat this three times, which brings the bells back into a plain course. Unlike in Plain Bob, bobs in Grandsire are called at handstroke, and in this touch that means at the handstroke of second place after leading — at which you make thirds and go into the hunt — and then at the handstroke of fifth place on the way down from the back (but really just before your own pull, because it should be timed with the pull of the bell that is in the lead) – at which you double-dodge 4-5 down to come out of the hunt. After coming out of the hunt you next dodge 6-7 down, then 6-7 up, and then next time call a bob to make thirds.

Brilliant.

Posted by Dave at 2:36 pm on March 31, 2007 and filed under Sundry posts.

4 Comments

Skip over this post if you don’t want any profound analysis. Thank you.

1 Chocolate Jesus
Some of the catholics are grumpy because someone has made a chocolate Jesus. I was thinking about this this morning and then Kester wrote it better than I was planning to:

I’ve obviously not seen the piece properly, but my sense is that it looks like a wonderfully cheeky critique of the saccharine nature of modern Easter-tide. I wonder if those in the Catholic League would normally purchase chocolate eggs for their children around this time? Are we not all guilty of sweetening the impact of Christ’s death?

2 The three quarter labyrinth
The labyrinth is a sort of a maze thing you walk around in a prayerful manner. It is all very well, but it can be a bit dull and prescriptive for those of us who like to wander off and do things our own way. Perhaps Real Live Preacher’s three quarter labyrinth is the answer:

…you might find a shortcut and get to the center quickly, or you might never arrive at all and spend an entire afternoon endlessly circling. Who knows what would happen.

In my experience, that’s a pretty good description of praying. You pray. You don’t know why, exactly. You’re hoping some things, I guess. You don’t know if praying will be a journey with any end at all. I know people who have prayed for things their entire lives. Or who knows, you might get a miracle right away. I don’t know about this stuff. It makes me nervous making claims about prayer one way or another.

3 Liturgy isn’t everything
Some interesting words from Joel, the director of the Evangelical Alliance. This is taken from an Ekklesia news item entitled “Africans and Caribbeans ‘alienated’ by Westminster Abbey slavery service, say evangelicals“.

“The Church of England needs to learn how to be the Church for England,” he said. “There should have been some space to depart from the script and speak the unscripted language of the heart.

“The protest was a master-stroke of opportunism, but, as we experienced a beautifully choreographed act of worship, it was an important reminder that pain cannot be choreographed,” he said.

Right, these uplifting thoughts were part of a plan to get me into the right mood for work.

Note to self: Get on with it.

Posted by Dave at 1:49 pm on March 30, 2007 and filed under Art, Church, Ecumenical matters, Religion, Spirituality.

7 Comments

Congratulations to thomas bushnell, bsg, who yesterday evening made the 5000th comment on the Cartoon Blog. His website is here. As you’ll see from the URL of his comment his was actually the 108911th comment made, but over a hundred thousand of these have been spams, so haven’t counted.

Anyway, lets celebrate 5000 comments! Wherever you are grab yourselves a celebratory glass of something. Even a cup of coffee will do. Here’s to everyone who comments here – thanks to you all. Cheers!

As you can see we are approaching the 1000 post mark, when we will celebrate again if I remember. I probably won’t though.

Speaking of comments, my apologies if you discover any disappearing. I have started to use ‘Akismet’, a Wordpress anti-spam device. It is supposed to keep an eye out for junk comments, but unfortunately it keeps on getting it wrong and marking some of your comments as spam. In particular Jack the Lass, Neil, Chris Clark and Nefertiki regularly find themselves in the spam bin despite being some of the best and upstanding commenters who post here. Akismet is supposed to learn from its mistakes, but so far shows no signs of doing so. I may well uninstall it, but in the meantime please do let me know if your comments don’t appear. (Please note though that I am away for some of the next two weeks so there may be some delays in moderating comments anyway.)

Posted by Dave at 8:31 am on March 30, 2007 and filed under Blogging, CartoonChurch progress, Technical.

4 Comments

The Archbishop of Canterbury is to take 2 months study leave as well as his usual annual month’s holiday, reports Ruth Gledhill.

One thing is for sure: the poor man can’t win at the moment. Most people in the world of Anglican goings-on have a problem with him at the moment, especially the liberals.

Perhaps he needs to step back before taking what might prove to be some of the biggest decisions in the history of Anglican things. Archbishop Rowan, if you’re reading: Take the time if you need it. And sorry the picture above is a bit rubbish. I didn’t put a lot of time or effort into it.

Speaking of time and effort, I am sorry that there has not been much meaty in-depth debate and analysis on the site for a few days. I am still groaning under the pressure of deadlines and the usual problems.

Those who require humour could do worse than to look at this funny little video of things going a bit wrong in church. (Found via thechurchgeek)

Posted by Dave at 9:50 pm on March 29, 2007 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Religion.

7 Comments

Some Lenten reflections done in a Moleskin watercolour notebook using ink and watercolour

They are by Paul Soupiset. His blog, which also contains the watercolour sketches with some added commentary is here.

I found this via Real Live Preacher, who introduces the work here.

Posted by Dave at 12:24 am on March 29, 2007 and filed under Art, Religion.

2 Comments

Today I have been in a cartoon hell of my own making. Pressure of deadlines and not coming up with anything I’m happy with. It isn’t an unusual situation, but I don’t normally admit to it as it makes me look unprofessional. But today I am just going to admit my unprofessionalism and be done with it.

It is really quite difficult to draw Easter-related cartoons that are (a) unoffensive and (b) funny. Well, I find it so at least. If you take a wander around this site you will find that there is a distinct lack of Easter-related material.

Various folks have been giving the subject their best shot over at the Chewing Pencils site, but I don’t think the standard matches up to previous competitions there. I mean no disrespect to the cartoonists who did submit work – I just think it is a very difficult subject to cartoon well. I certainly didn’t have anything that was good enough to contribute.

Looking around the internet it seems that 95% of Easter cartoons stick to themes involving ‘easter bunnies’, which seems to me to miss the mark rather.

You may see some cartoons here with an Easter theme over the next week, but it is quite possible that you won’t.

Posted by Dave at 10:58 pm on March 28, 2007 and filed under Cartooning, Religion.

3 Comments

The battle for the Episcopal church in the USA is to be fought in the pulpit. Literally.

The showdown looms on Palm Sunday as Episcopal Bishop Rob O’Neill or a representative and Armstrong, his longtime nemesis, both plan to take control of the parish pulpit at the 8 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. services.

The full story is here.

Menwhile, in unrelated pulpit news I received this e-mail today. I don’t normally publish e-mails, but there might be someone out there who is able to help:

Dear C/s,

My name is Rev Jim Cleancy.I was
wandering if you could help me purchase some Lecterns
for my new built churches.which i will be shipping to
Africa and i will like to have the price ranging from
any amount.

Actually i came across your email address
through a search engine. I am located in DE in a city
called Lewes and i will like to know your terms of
payment, Please let me know if you can help me ship
the unit to Africa, that’s if it won’t be a
problem.Thank you.

Best Regards,
Mr.Anno Scool

Posted by Dave at 5:31 pm on March 28, 2007 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Church, Religion.

5 Comments

On Saturday we were fortunate enough to go and see Faithless at the Bournemouth International Centre. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. It really was very good.

Steve went to another of their concerts and posted this review and this one. I also discovered this blog entry by someone who was at the same concert as us.

Sorry to not post a more in-depth review, but I’m up to my knees in work this week.

Posted by Dave at 8:42 am on March 27, 2007 and filed under Sundry posts.

13 Comments

Photograph taken in Bournemouth on Saturday:

The little additional sign and the quotation marks both made me happy.

If you enjoy unusual uses for quotation marks you will also appreciate this post by Little Red Boat.

Later on I will explain why were were in Bournemouth.

Posted by Dave at 10:48 am on March 26, 2007 and filed under Art, Photographs, Signs.

7 Comments

The BBC filmed the Christmas Songs of Praise and the Easter Songs of Praise on the same day, reports the Telegraph.

After filming the Christmas edition, flowers were swapped, lighting boosted and congregation members reportedly asked to shed their winter coats to record the show for the Spring time festival.

I was thinking there might be some scope for a combined festival:

One Bishop has admitted to being in on the act:

the BBC explained to us in advance the cost and difficulty of rigging such large and beautiful cathedrals such as Lichfield.

Something was certainly rigged, and it wasn’t the cathedral.

[Feel free to blog this cartoon with a link back here. I can supply a high-res version if any subscribers require one.]

Update - Further news reports:
The Sun Online – News: Songs of Praise in trick row
BBC criticised over ‘Songs of Pretence’ | News | This is London
Scotsman.com News – UK – 24 hours after Christmas – it’s Easter
Scotsman.com News – Opinion – Hymns, lies and videotape

Monday morning:
Christmas or Easter, it’s all the same to BBC Songs of Praise | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
‘Cons of Praise’ – or how BBC threw in Easter at Christmas-Comment-Faith-TimesOnline
Daily Express: The World’s Greatest Newspaper :: News / Showbiz :: Cons of Praise
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | BBC defends early Easter filming
Sky News: BBC Faked Easter Show

Posted by Dave at 6:57 pm on March 25, 2007 and filed under Anglican goings-on, Cartoons, Church, Religion, TV.

13 Comments

200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade
There is so much happening I can’t keep up. The film launched yesterday, today the marches are happening, and Sunday has been dubbed Amazing Grace Sunday. See my previous post for more things.

Hugh talks about blogs and business
gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": edelman talk

Velomobiles
These are cool tricycles that have a cover sort of a thing, a bit like this. Dave Warnock has posted lots of links to more on his Cycle Life blog.

Linking to the wrong blogs
How one Christian worker had to give up his voluntary post because of the links he posted.

Eurovision
How our entrants are cheating a bit.

Posted by Dave at 7:00 am on March 24, 2007 and filed under Religion, Sundry posts.

3 Comments