what's on the CD player?
. the big chill - ichill . !k7 . fila brazillia - brazilification2
what books are by the bed?
. the music of silence - john tavener . hey nostradamus - douglas coupland . this is uncool (the 500 greatest singles since punk and disco) - gary mulholland . the bible . fences and windows - naomi klein . the art of looking sideways - alan fletcher
jonnybaker blog
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
following the post about the teletubbies being gay role models(!? see 25 july entry) a friend steve sent me the following
I read your blog today commenting on Jerry Falwell's essay on Tinky Winky and the subtle way homosexuals are infiltrating our culture. I have believed for quite a while that Hollywood was slowly trying to make our children into gays. Take for instance:
Peppermint Patty in the Charlie Brown comics. She's the only girl who wears pants. She's good a sports. AND she has that other little girl following her around calling her "Sir."
Fred Flintstone. He has wife at home yet he spends all his time hanging out with that little blonde guy. All the guys on the bowling team call him "Twinkle Toes" flintstone. The end theme of the show says "We'll have a gay old time."
Bugs Bunny: Has a lisp. Likes showtunes. Frequently dresses in drag. Played a hairdresser in one cartoon. Frequently kisses Elmer Fudd on the lips.
Popeye: Eats lots of salad. Wears a sailor suit but hasn't been to sea in years. Dates a flat chested transvestite.
Monday, July 29, 2002
don't know if you've come across the book 'churchless faith' by alan jamieson. it's a piece of research of in depth interviews with people who have left (mainly evangelical/pentecostal churches) as to why they left and how they are pursuing faith now. it's both fascinating and compelling.
anyway the author/researcher is in london in sept giving a lecture/seminar at kings university. i attach details below that pete ward sent me. if you are interested in going e-mail pete
Got Alan Jamieson author of Churchless Faith coming to The Theology Mission and Culture Seminar at Kings College London on 25th Sept 12:30-2:00
The session will be in The Department of Education and Professional Studies, Waterloo Bridge Wing The Franklin Wilkins Building.There will be posters in the Lobby giving a room number.
Alan is from New Zealand and his recently published book is about the spiritual journeys of evangelicals who have left the Church. This is obviously a key area for most of us to consider. His paper is titled Churchless faith - coming and going from evangelical churches Monday, July 29, 2002
Thursday, July 25, 2002 we have started a proost blog to keep people informed of what we're up to on the record label. we'll post news, ideas for using resources, what's happening in the studio etc. it won't be a busy blog - so visit once in a while.
Thursday, July 25, 2002
one of the areas i found to be very fertile ground for thinking about mission and culture is the whole arena of cultural studies. a web site with lots of info and articles is theory.org.uk. i'll probably take some time to have a longer browse through it soon. but one fantastic piece (it's a few years old but i hadn't come across it before) is an essay on whether the teletubbies are providing kids with gay role models. jerry falwell clearly thought so at the time!!!!!???? you have to read it to believe it.
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Wednesday, July 24, 2002 it was a pleasant surprise today to find that one of our CDs eucharist has been released in the USA. it comes with the book of uncommon prayer by steve case. i haven't actually got my hands on a copy yet but is a youth ministry prayer book full of ideas, rituals, liturgy etc aimed at teenagers. steve is a wacky creative kind of guy so i'm sure it should be fun. those of you that know the eucharist CD that we released in the UK might be interested to know that on this version the vocals have been reworked on some of the tracks. i call it the USA mix, but it's an improved version. it's published by youth specialties and you can read more about it here.
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Monday, July 22, 2002
worship trick 14 you're going to love this! i was helping run the labyrinth at a youth leader's training weekend for yfc. it was at an elim bible college. the guys i was with went to get some chocolate from a machine in the dining room and came back very amused because once you have bought your consumer purchase the words 'have a nice day jesus loves you' appear! whether this is a moment of intentional irony (i doubt it) or misguided sincerity who knows?! but we videoed it and i have uploaded it for you to have a look at... it is in quicktime and is1.7mb so may take a while to fully appear but it is worth the wait. watch niceday movie
i have also dropped it into the gforce sprites folder (good idea - thanks matt) and scripted it to appear along with an image of buddy christ from dogma (if you got lost at this point, gforce was an earlier wonderful worship trick that you can find in the links at the side).
Monday, July 22, 2002
Friday, July 19, 2002
really good new grove booklet out called 'globalisation: unravelling the new capitalism' by peter heslem. as those of you who follow my blog/thinking will know my own hunch is that how we relate to/live in a consumer culture is the single biggest question we face. this looks like a great contribution.
Friday, July 19, 2002
Thursday, July 18, 2002
weblog competition to find the best british blog is being run by the guardian. you can download an entry form from their very own blog. isn't making blogs into a competition contrary to the spirit of blogging?.... oh well.
Thursday, July 18, 2002
a new album worth checking out is brooklyn and beyond by DJ kenny mitchell. he was involved with revs church on the south coast in the uk but is now based in new york and travels the world DJing - seems to have a good reputation. it's a mini album (7 tracks) and only costs £7.00. it's quite an eclectic mix of break beats, drum and bass, and even a bit of garage thrown in but it retains an overall consistent style throughout. whilst the tempo does get up in places it still feels fairly reflective and laid back overall. thrown into the mix are plenty of spoken samples. i recognised none other than andrew jones' tones along with roger ellis (from revelation church)! my personal favourite track is 'connect'. it's worthy of being worship trick 13 i think. this takes a sample from some preacher and spins it over a laid back groove - the gist of the track is that in much the same way as in the old testament musicians would play and when they did it enabled the prophets to connect with god, the DJ now can fulfill the same function by playing tunes to enable people to make that connection. in my experience music functions like this for me (though often not the music on offer in most churches). the thing it reminded me of in particular was an argument i had with a good friend (who i'm sure won't mind me recounting it). we were talking about alternative worship and what place singing had in it. i'm not averse to singing, but i said that in grace we often had whole services where we didn't sing. my friend said that one of the problems with alternative worship is that it doesn't get you to the place that singing does - i.e. afford you an intimacy with god. i said at the time that i totally disagreed because for me listening to music with images flickering on screens, maybe during communion while people were going up to receive bread and wine afforded me exactly the intimacy that he was talking about. i don't need to sing to get it! there's no singing on this album as such - just instrumental music and beats with spoken samples but it takes you somewhere....
the album is on survivor records. this in itself is a bit of a shock/surprise. survivor is a subsidiary of one of the main uk christian label (kingsway) that produces worship music. even what they put out as contemporary is still usually locked in a rock/folk band performance idiom and sounds like every other worship band or album you've ever heard. it's certainly not a place where many risks are taken. but this is definitely a very different sound. they have set up a subsidiary of the subsidiary now called 'emerge' that i guess this is one of the first releases on.
there is also an interview with kenny mitchell in this month's youthwork magazine. talking about the use of dance music and the usual way of doing worship in church he says
'it requires a change of thinking from the way church worship usually operates. it's about taking people on a journey which is why most club nights run for hours on end.... most people expect to have an experience and for the DJ to take them there.... so it's very different from a DJ trying to fit into a 20 minute church slot.'
now this seems glaringly obvious, but there are so many times when the church makes the mistake of trying to co-opt something e.g. dance music into its already existing structure or way of doing things (and it doesn't work) rather than re-imaginging the whole deal. in my view re-imagination about the whole way we do church and worship is precisely what we need rather than a kind of categorical imperialism that squeezes the new thing into an old mould (didn't someone say something about new wine and new wineskins once?.....)
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
music on the net is always something of a mixed bag i find. you can spend 15 mins downloading a track only to find it's crap! but one site that i think has quality mp3 downloads is pork. pork records are a small grassroots independent record label that have consistently produced fantastic stuff [the wonderful fila brazillia and heights of abraham were on pork at one stage]. their angle is laid back beats/ chilled out (but not chill out which now seems to mean a commercial genre that has cashed in on some great creative music)/ leftfield/ mainly instrumental. in other words it's all the kind of music i love! basically every album they have has a track that you can download as a sample. if you like it you can go on and order the album which are all only 10 pounds each. i have a lot of their albums so am not just exploiting their good will b.t.w.. if you don't know where to start i recommend tipple tales by bullitnuts, 1 by baby mammoth, unplugged by leggo beast, and wet planet by momma gravy. i'm adding pork to my links - along with the big chill, and ninjatune, they represent some of the best of uk independent labels. if you have any suggestions for good free tracks... feel free to add in a comment.
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
i recently got sent a book called 'provocative church' by graham tomlin to review for fish which b.t.w. is a pretty good site (always happy to get books free!). i'll let you know when the review is up but i haven't spotted it yet. anyway i thought it worth mentioning on the blog. quote of the book is probably tomlin rewriting lyotard's famous definition of postmodernism by describing it as 'incredulity towards evangelists' which made me smile. it is an honest book that manages to be positive about evangelism and church whilst addressing peoples misgivings with both.
while looking for my review i saw a couple of others of books i've read and are worth a look. take it personally by anita roddick is an easy to read book on globilisation with lots of stories, pictures, web site addresses for info and so on. i commented it on it a while back in insight. the other one is 'churchless faith' which has a great review by maggi dawn. i thought this was a fascinating book. it looks at people who have left church, why, and how their faith is now. the surprise is that lots of people who have left were not fringe people but leaders over a long period and that having left they haven't lost faith but are carving out new ways of churching it with friends.
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Sunday, July 14, 2002
info on what grace and i will be up to at greenbelt festival this summer is here. throughout july there is a series of daily updates which are worth checking out if you're interested to see what's happening.looks like we're heading for another great GB.
Sunday, July 14, 2002
joel (my 12 yr old son) has just designed his own web site to display his pictures and animations to the world. clearly inspired by andrew 'tallskinnykiwi' jones, check tall lanky baker.
Sunday, July 14, 2002
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
i noticed on a friend prodigal's blog that he had an option for people to make coments after each entry. this seems a pretty neat way of getting a bit of interaction going and opening up the blog for a few more voices. i always assume these things are difficult (maybe we all have a bit of the technophobe in us or am i alone?) but e-mailed paul to check. anyway turns out it can be done in about 10 minutes. just visit enetation where you simply have to sign in and then you are given two lines of code to add in to your blog template. that's it! there's also a range of templates for the comments so you can pick something you like.... which i'm about to do.
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
new kingdom space blog has gone public. this is a window into the global conversation on mission in the emerging culture with contributors from around the globe. should be fun. i'm excited to have been invited to join in the fun!
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
am interviewed on osbd site here. latest job, projects, proost albums being worked on, thoughts on mission.... etc
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
a bit about me...
i am a londoner; christian; dad; postmodern (whatever that means - i know at least that i'm not modern); director of an independent record label proost which we set up to release music without being subject to christian record labels who had a frankly unimaginitive approach to music at the time as far as we were concerned; a member of grace , an alternative worship community in west london that has been an inspiration, lifeline, home, great bunch of friends, provided an arena in which to be creative about faith and worship and culture; i'm also part of the wider alternative worship movement/scene in the uk where i have lots of friends sharing the same dreams and struggles; an ideas person; a husband; national youth co-ordinator for cms; involved in various creative projects, the most successful of which has been the labyrinth which has been on a roll since we first installed it in st pauls cathedral in 2000; a mac user; co-ordinator of the worship at greenbelt arts festival where we have tried to create a space for new/creative/alternative worship especially in the new forms venues - a good place to visit if you want to encounter lots of creative uk worship in one go; writer (albeit a novice) with a few articles in books, mags and the web; a chelsea football supporter; involved in youth ministry - i have been for 15 years now - in the uk at least many people involved in alt worship want to avoid being labelled youth ministry as it's a convenient way for the church to write off what you do and the people involved aren't by any means youth (though some are), but i live in both arenas and think there's lots of overlap and creative conversation and ideas to be shared between the two; songwriter; lover of music especially the ambient, chilled, dub, instrumental end of things; lover of good food, belgian beer and conversation;
we have started a 
it was a pleasant surprise today to find that one of our CDs eucharist has been released in the USA. it comes with the book of uncommon prayer by steve case. i haven't actually got my hands on a copy yet but is a youth ministry prayer book full of ideas, rituals, liturgy etc aimed at teenagers. steve is a wacky creative kind of guy so i'm sure it should be fun. those of you that know the eucharist CD that we released in the UK might be interested to know that on this version the vocals have been reworked on some of the tracks. i call it the USA mix, but it's an improved version. it's published by 
i am a londoner; christian; dad; postmodern (whatever that means - i know at least that i'm not modern); director of an independent record label 
