johnnylaird

There was a time when I was I kid when I could quite correctly be described as a “Bando”. That is to say, I was obsessive about Brass Bands.

I played in one (and still do), I went to concerts and contests with my Bando buddies, I listened to the LPs, I pawed over old concert programmes and the British Bandsman mag, enjoying the pictures and analysing the balance and entertainment value of the repertoire contained within. Portions of my summer holidays were given over to attending residential music schools where I could share this passion/obsession with other Bandos. Memories of hours of intensive rehearsals in searing heat are special even now.

Then, I guess at some point something changed, and I’m not sure if I can pin down what it was. It can’t be that my taste in music changed; I’ve always loved all kinds of music, and been wholly catholic in my taste. I never stopped enjoying playing…I can only think I stepped away from the culture*?

Yet, there’s still something of the Bando deep in my soul, and nothing stirs that more strongly than the prospect of a visit from the near-mythic Black Dyke Band to my Church, The Salvation Army in Croydon in August. It’s going to be amazing!

Black Dyke are world famous for their incredible musicality and their history; an outfit that in their sphere are comparable with the Barcelonas and Brazils of this world – consistently at the top of their game technically and massively entertaining.
If you are in the area and are interested in hearing some magnificent brass band music on Aug 26th I highly recommend you get yourself along to The Salvation Army in Croydon.
Go on! Explore your inner Bando!

Tickets are going fast, so make sure you get hooked up via the Facebook event or send an email to ccb.croydonsa@btinternet.com for more details

• *Another post on culture
• Black Dyke site
• Black Dyke on Facebook
• Black Dyke on Twitter

Sometimes someone’s story grabs you so powerfully you just feel compelled to keep revisiting it.

That’s the way it is for me with Ed Dobson.

I first became aware of Ed when I took a trip to Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, MI…ostensibly to hear Rob Bell speak.

Rob wasn’t there, but Ed was and preached up a storm, and engaged me in such a way that I’ve tried to keep tabs on what he’s been doing since then.

Ed’s latest initiative is “It Ain’t Over” – the first of what promises to be a series of short films from Flannel, the guys who brought you Nooma and the BASIC series. In it he explores big questions of life and death, all of which is made more profound that Ed suffers from ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease – a debilitating form of motor neuron disease.

He’s probably be embarrassed to read this, but Ed has become something of a hero of mine; for the grace he shows, for his rich Northern Irish wit, for his willingness to change and most of all because he tries to Live Jesusly.

More on Ed at johnnylaird.net

HT to Ed for the image.

Over the weekend I caught a documentary on BBC4 about the fabulous Screamadelica album from Primal Scream, who have suddenly leapt up my notional list of greatest Scottish bands of all-time list. Don’t ask me who else is on the list, but I’d be happy to hear your suggestions!

Apart from probably realising for the very first time what a stunning record (call me old fashioned) Screamadelica is, and quite HOW much of a Glasgow band Primal Scream were, I was struck by how much of a doppelganger bassist Henry Olsen is for CODEC’s Pete Phillips.

Funny thing is, once in a while, folks have tried to say I looked like various people…and I’ve never quite been able to see the comparison. There was a time years ago when a working buddy of mine would fairly regularly remark that I looked like Elvis Costello! As much as I admire the work of Elvis’s C and P (or should that be Elvi) I couldn’t really see any resemblance.

Then, more recently, Ship of Fools’ Simon Jenkins remarked – on setting eyes on me in the flesh for the first time – that I looked like a “science fiction writer”, which I found oddly complimentary. Somehow that description stroked my ego in a spot that I quite enjoyed, being a little bit of a cyberpunk buff and all. Ever since I’ve been trying to think if there was a particular Sci-Fi writer Simon had in mind, or was it just some kind of generic geeky sensibility I invoked in his mind?

So, the question is; is there anyone out there who could be your double, and would you recognise them if you saw them?

More on cyberpunk at johnnylaird.net

Ship of Fools

Pete Phillips at Post Modern Bible

Simon Jenkins

Hat tip to new friend, Littlewarrior by way of old friend and fellow Kore Trustee Will Taylor AKA BigDaddyWhale for sending me in the direction of this great little vid

If the F-bomb offends you, I guess you’d better avoid this stunning and profoundly moving vid from Baratunde Thurston who brilliantly articulates his anger, deep frustration and humiliation over the whole President Obama having to produce his long form Birth Certificate thang, and Donald Trump attempting to take credit for forcing the issue.

Frankly, though it’s not the F-bomb that is the most offensive part of this story.

It’s the notion that a reality show host – no matter how rich or privileged a reality TV show host –  somehow has the right to demand to see the Birth Certificate of the President of the United States. Now, that’s offensive.

To me, it feels like The Donald is saying to this black man – Barack Obama -”show me your papers”. Now, that’s offensive.

Baratunde Thurston – you do not stand alone in your righteous anger.

HT to Julian Bright for reminding me that there was once a couple called William & Kate.

Thank God for them.

Their story captures my imagination a little more than today’s couple

My boy was sick last night, so this morning – Sunday morning – rather than heading to meet with my Church family as usual (documented here in this I blog on a Sunday post I stayed at home at Jonny Rose’s blog) I stayed home with him, and caught up with a TV show from earlier in the week.
Goldie – long time inspirational figure, fabulously gifted artist, and recent poster boy for Bikram Yoga – is a guy who I admire greatly. Like all of us, he’s not flawless, but he’s real. The man born Clifford Joseph Price has a life to date is the stuff of movies and a living breathing example of what can be achieved despite the toughest of backgrounds and massive adversity along the way.

For that, and for his art, Goldie has my respect.

On top of his other extravagant talents, Goldie has the amazing knack of making reality TV watchable and credible.

His latest show – Goldie’s Band By Royal Appointment – explores the journey of a disparate group of young musicians from all kinds of genres who Goldie and his fellow mentors bring together in preparation for a gig at the unlikely venue of Buckingham Palace. It’s the anti-X Factor and I love it for that. For these musicians don’t fall into the samey generic template that we see on most reality shows about TV. Rather, these kids are genuinely original talents; a diverse group coming together as a band and each with their own story of struggle.

Episode 1 was occasionally moving, and with one or two jaw dropping musical moments.

I, for one, will be watching to see how it all pans out, and suggest you do too.

HT to Goldie’s site for the pic

I love it when my tribe looks outside of itself for wise voices, inspiration and a different perspective.

So, it’s been good in the last couple of weeks to have been able to pick up on one of those intersections along the way.

Jay Bakker of Revolution Church in NYC has been speaking to JustSalvos– the Social Justice Department of The Salvation Army in Australia. Jay crops up around 5.30 talking about grace, inclusiveness & sexuality, but the whole vid is worth a look & listen.

Some might imagine this to be a strange alliance; Jay is a straight yet gay affirming, tattooed and pierced “outlaw preacher”, and The Salvation Army is….well…what are we?

If you are in the US, and all you ever knew about The Salvation Army was picked up from bits and pieces you’d found on the web, you might well (erroneously) think The Salvation Army was a right wing fundie organisation who puts a lot of time, energy and cash into pushing a homophobic agenda. (I explored this a little on a couple of earlier posts, “Salvation Army on NPR…some thoughts” and “Sally Bash”) If – on the other hand – you had a small degree of personal experience of The Sally Army you’d struggle to even recognise the way it is occasionally perceived in some quarters.

The reality is quite different.

Does The SA hire hire gay people? Of course it does. Do we have gay people as part of our worshipping communities? Sure. Do we have friends and family members who are gay? Yes – many of us do.

The Salvation Army is a movement that started life – influenced by Jesus – radically reaching out to the marginalised and in large part that remains the case. Sometimes, though, we do need to remind ourselves of that, and in kind of a way Jay is a reminder of that heritage. The alliance I mentioned doesn’t seem at all strange to me. After all, early Salvation Army meetings were full of people who weren’t welcome in the Churches of the day, and may well not have been seen dead in their buildings given the choice!

Like many/most Christian tribes we’re on a journey when it comes to our interpretation of and response to human sexuality, and there is no longer absolute consensus at grass roots within our global ranks about quite where we stand on this issue. The place where we are today may well not be where we are in the future.

Our current engagement with people like Jay…and Andrew Marin… and Tony Campolo and countless others has to say something about at least our willingness to find ourselves in a place that reaches out to our LGBT brothers and sisters with love and grace.

• Jay Bakker
• iSalvos
• More on The Salvation Army on johnnylaird.net

I’ve been fascinated to discover this beautifully put together short of a discussion clip from the originsproject.org where fellow Awaken Group alumni Dave Gibbons invites his friend and colleague Erwin McManus to expound on his relatively recent transitional shift towards multiple areas of art, entrepreneurship and ministry with initiatives like Temple Bags.

The vids is not new, the event it briefly refers to has been and gone, but it’s still definitely worth a look because of Erwin’s shared story, and the way the whole thing has been produced. It’s been put together by Trey Ordoñez, who clearly is a man who knows how to craft a great film, as you can see for yourself if you explore his work a little more at his Treysreel site.

Mission with Erwin McManus from Trey Ordoñez on Vimeo.

Erwin is surrounded by a sterling bunch of friends, including my buddy Eric Bryant and another recent Something Beautiful guest Amenda Brown. It’s quite a crew!

Hope you enjoy the films, and find what Erwin had to say as inspirational as I did.

• More on Erwin at johnnylaird.net
• More on Dave Gibbons at johnnylaird.net
• More on Eric Bryant at johnnylaird.net
• Amena Brown
• Treysreel

Chick Yuill has thrown out a couple of Facebook statuses in the last day or two that have grabbed my attention, not least because I can so readily identify with his statements.
Here’s what he says…

I’ve stopped calling myself a ‘Christian’. Sounds too religious and it’s too static – it’s about what I am now. And people think it’s about dogma – how many doctrines you can believe. I tell people that I’m a ‘follower of Jesus’. It points to who is the Master, it’s about what I’m becoming (I’m still learning to be a disciple) and it’s about my life’s direction. Who’s up for joining me on this one?

…followed by…

OK let’s push this a little bit further. What I REALLY dislike is the term CHRISTIANITY. The problem is that its meaning has been corrupted and distorted. CHRISTIANITY has become a RELIGION. I agree with Brian McLaren when he says that Jesus didn’t come to found another religion. He came to abolish religion. He came to bring GOOD NEWS.

Just as I noticed the second of Chick’s missives, I picked up an old copy of a women’s mag that had come my wife Janet’s way that day. ( I can multitask a little…) Annie Lennox was on the cover, and that was enough for me to pick it up and read it, and I had to catch my breath as I read the following quote from Annie:

“I’m not a Christian but I think the Christian message is a good one” Remember - this is the Annie Lennox quote, not the Chick Yuill  one!

Now, though although non-believing Annie is not saying what fellow Scot Chick is saying, I did find the synchronicity fascinating, and his posts seemed to reflect a couple of my old ones where I answer the question “Who am I?”, and explore how I would describe myself in one word.
So, do you call yourself a Christian?

• Chick’s brand new book – Moving in the Right Circles – is available now.
• More on Chick Yuill at johnnylaird.net