The Beautiful Game

A word about the Champions League final. Football as it was meant to be played. Barcelona were worthy winners. It was great to see that sylsih, attacking football can win trophies. I love how they pay to have UNICEF on their jumpers. The feast of football concludes with the FA Cup Final early on Sunday morning. This year Chelsea take on Everton  and although it pains me to say, it will most likely be a close, tight, and probably boring game. We'll see though.

Music Matters...

I couldn't help but notice this post on Falling Down and I so totally agree with the speech - and it is well worth reading, sharing and rereading. Here's two quotes

"Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can't with our minds."

"Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft."

The speech was given by Karl Paulnack to the to parents of incoming students at The Boston Conservatory.

Religion and Doubt

The religions I know are about nothing but doubt and dissent, and the struggles of faith, the dark night of the soul, feelings of unworthiness, serial backsliding, the abyss of despair. Whether it is the book of Job, the Confessions of St. Augustine, Calvin’s Institutes, Bunyan’s “Grace Abounding to The Chief of Sinners,” Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” and a thousand other texts, the religious life is depicted as one of aspiration within the conviction of frailty.

[via Stanley Fish, NYT]

In Praise of Silence

I read and loved this article - In Praise of Silence - from the Atlantic Monthly.

But among the many things that life has taught me over the years is that my first thought isn't always my best thought. And that truly understanding anything ... an issue, an event, or even the emotions swirling around within myself ... requires not just time, but enough space, solitude, and silence to allow some clear tones to emerge from the noise.

On one level, people have understood the power and importance of silence for a long time. It's why we go to the woods, or the ocean, or up on mountainsides to renew ourselves. And why we take up meditation, or spend time in quiet cathedrals. But even the most majestic mountainside loses a large piece of its power to inspire if it has to compete with a cell phone, text reply, or other efforts to stay connected elsewhere at the same time. Or even to record the moment, instead of simply being in it.

On Barneys...

It is hard to believe, but a little over three years ago St Barnabas Broadway burned down. Since then the church has been working towards our plans for the site, and last week we were told that the development application for the new building was approved by Sydney Council (read the SMH Report here).

I have to say that whenever I think about the rebuilding of the building, my mind goes to how well are we building our people (the church) (and I think of the warnings in the of Haggai). Though I also believe that the new building will be a great servant to the Church of St Barnabas.

Left.. Right..

I've been reacquainting myself with Viva La Vida, and I'm really enjoying it. Through my google reader I discovered that you can download a live album recorded during their current tour. I haven't heard it just yet but hope to soon, (see here).

I also found this interesting reflection on the lyircs of the track Viva La Vida.

Song for the weekend: We Rest on Thee

I meant to post this earlier in the week. We sang this at church Sunday night, and I was really struck by the song. (I think it is sung to the tune of Finlandia?). Maybe I'm a little odd but I love the thee's :-)

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

Yes, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.

As Day Follows Night

I have to admit that I'm also excited by the news that Sarah Blasko has a new CD (As Day Follow Night) due out in July. Sarah also has a blog (which will talk about the making of her new album). Her new song (All I Want) has been airred on triple J, and you can listen to it on her myspace page. I'm thinking of going to hear her talk with Bernard Zuel (from the SMH) as part of the Sydney Writers Festival [more info here].

The Long Fall..

I think I first heard Jars of Clay on Wide World of Sports (I think it was Liquid) while channel surfing and have loved them since then. Their last two albums Good Monsters and their most recent release The Long Fall Back to Earth have shown them to continually grow as song-writers and explore new sounds. I had been eagerly anticipating this album since I bought their EP Closer last year. Closer featured new versions of Flood, and Love Song For a Saviour along with new songs Safe to Land, Closer and Prisoner of Hope (I do find it a shame that it didn't make the album).

The Long Fall Back to Earth broadly speaking deals with human relationships. The themes are dealt with in beautiful metaphors (the image of landing attached to reconcilation, Safe to Land), the desire to remain disconnected with others (in Headphones - featuring Katie Herzig). The strength of the album is how it touches on the everyday. Another song which reasonated was Boys (Lesson One), which seems like a letter from a father to his son.

I can't recommend this album highly enough, it is a grower, and in time may be Jars of Clay's best album. At the very least I'll be judging albums from 2009 against The Long Fall Back to Earth.

Classical music

I saw this on the news tonight, at the Classical Brits ceremony, album of the year was won by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, who were based in Basra when they recorded the album - Spirit of the Glen: Journey, the story is here. It honestly brought to my mind images of Brassed Off (seeing the crowds reaction at the awards). Don't be surprised if there's a movie.

Also on music, Neil McCormick wonders whether we might be overwhelmed by music. Funnily enough I sometimes inspite of all the songs I have to chose between, can't find music I want to list too. 
 

On losing

I watched the NRLgame last night between the Bulldogs and Dragons. It was quite a good game to watch, it ebbed and flowed nicely, but in the end the Dragons (who probably should have had the game sown up at halftime) just held on - with a try disallowed on full-time to the Bulldogs which would have reversed the result. It was interesting comparing the players reaction on the field with that of the Chelsea players at the end of their Champions League semi final (I can't imagine keeping my composure to the same degree as the Bulldog player).

The bizzare decision last night (since declared incorrect), reinforces the thought to me that we don't need video referees. We can just leave those on the ground to make the call, and live with the human element of sport, that people can make mistakes.

Perhaps its not suprising that the most common reason given for losing on the weekend is "it was the ref / umpire's fault". I know, I've used it, or screamed at the television. For this reason it was refreshing to see that the Bulldogs player just said he was baffled by the call and didn't go into a tirade like Drogba after Chelsea's loss. It recalled to my mind the oft made comment of players being heroes-come-role models. Kids often model themsevles on, or seek to imitate their heroes. They may not call them role models but there certainly is a degree of influence. It seems to me that a role-model is something you are made by someone else, not something you can chose to, or chose not to be. For this reason outbursts like Drogba and Ballack's during Chesleas loss (regardless of whether they are justifiably agreived) are to be dealt with harshly. Because who would want to umpire junior football and be subjected to that sort of disrespect from the kids (and perhaps the parents). And without umpires at this level, we don't really have a game.

I want it all ... and I want it now

"Fast food. Express post. Movies on demand. Overnight success. Twitter. Instant replay. Instant messaging. Instant gratification! Want to frustrate an Australian? Make them wait for something. Want to drive them insane? Make them wait without mobile coverage so they can't text or email or tweet."

[Read the rest over here].

Newsprint...

So, one of the things I was thinking about over the Christmas break (hard to believe that is now five months ago) was trying to spend time reading more. Recently I've spendind time reading a collection of articles by Matt Price (Top Price). Matt Price's column was one of the highlights of the Australian. Unfortunately not all of them are available online (See here). Sadly he passed away in November 2007, the column covered a range of ground from the fortunes of his beloved AFL team (the Fremantle Dockers), to music and the political life in Canberra. Its a great book, because theres articles about everything...  one which reasonated with me was about Matt Price's love of the physical CDs (as opposed to a small mental device with 10,000 or so songs, and were random means going to the shelf, and picking up 5 CDs). It really would have been interesting hearing Matt's take on Rudd as PM.


A few other Australian columinsts I like. I really enjoy reading is Richard Glover in the SMH. Again, Glover writes about a range of topics, and the one this weekend was about the 'guilt industry'.  Another classic was this one about his listeners who would call back to correct his grammar.


On the sports pages Richard Hinds and Peter Fitzsimons are often great reading, and I enjoyed both on Saturday. Hinds writing about the war of the football codes for love in Western Sydney. Fitzsimons wrote about the ANZAC Day AFL clash between Essendon and Collingwood (thankfully won by the Bombers - there's some of a sports fans apparently irrational hatred).