It's sweltering. And the whole world is off to Llandudno in their caravans. Or so it seemed to me this morning while staring out from the holy table into a half-empty church, me overheating due to excess cover of manufactured fibres whilst imagining my erstwhile congregation overheating in traffic queues along the North Wales 'expressway'.
Ah, well, maybe August will be quieter, I speculate, naively really because already next week there's three funerals to do.
But they told us at theological college that we ought to balance 'action' with 'reflection' so I am hoping that this month I can rediscover the art of reading whole books cover-to-cover (ie, from the INSIDE).
I am especially looking forward to engaging properly with Joe Sacco's PALESTINE, a serious political comic-book masterpiece (so the blurb says and my initial flicks-through seem to confirm) and with an unusual thing called THE ART OF LOOKING SIDEWAYS by Alan Fletcher, which is a vast trawl through all sorts of material, 'a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination'. It's full of all sorts of stimulating material, words and images, funny and profound and it's the first ever book I've bought specifically for the coffee table, (A) because its too big and heavy to hold in your lap; and (B) because I've evidently reached that 'coffee table' phase in my life, whatever that means.
Well it’s been a great weekend. After shopping ‘til I dropped yesterday, I enjoyed a top girls' night out with George* (aka Greenbelt’s Site Stewarding Manager).
Best of all we didn’t only talk shop ;-)
Today I’ve been at a community party in our local park, helping staff a Planning for Real exercise for a local project to conserve and improve the vast track of wilderness land behind my house on the site of an old landfill tip (no jokes about the state of my living room thank you!).
On returning home I decided to take half an hour out to chill in the garden before switching the computer on and tackling the pile of Greenbelt emails that have been stacking up.
I lay on my back and watched helium balloons (released in the park as part of a great balloon race) drift overhead and then up and up until they were the tiniest specks of white against a brilliant blue sky.
As I felt the grass beneath me and the sounds of a distant stage swept over me, I closed my eyes and dreamt for a minute I was home again…
All I needed was a mug of tiny tea and for someone to start reading about the adventures in 100 acres wood and the illusion would have been complete.
Never mind, not long to go now :-)
* that’s George as in Georgina for those of you who may be confused. However only the bravest of souls probably want to attempt using the latter in her hearing ;-)
And the answer is...(various shades of) vanilla.
The mice on the piano were right.
I wake on Saturdays with mixed feelings; it's a lighter day in the parish, a time to catch up with reading and writing. But it's also the day I'm on call to the Royal Liverpool Hospital. And I know that when the pager goes my next hour will be a journey into the eye of a storm for a family about to lose a loved one. Administering the last rites is a deep privilege but a great trauma too. I deeply admire the hospital staff who in their own ways, minister to the dying and their families when (as often, sadly) chaplains aren't around.
It's hard to say goodbye, even in less extreme circumstances. A letter arrived yesterday from David Cross who is leaving his post as community linkworker for Church Action on Poverty (CAP) after nine years. David has been the catalyst for a great deal of positive work around the country, encouraging small and nervous groups of concerned people to find their voice and speak up about the realities of poverty in their home situation. He helped us set up a Merseyside group a few years back. Through David's great grassroots work CAP has spoken truth to power to great effect, epitomised for me in the deeply satisfying meeting I once witnessed between a friend from Everton, rendered "unemployable" through disability, and the Welfare Minister, in the latter's Westminster office. It's typical of David that he should want to write to all he has worked with, thanking us for our contributions, and sharing with us some words from Ralph Waldo Emerson "which have helped me keep things in perspective over the years":
Success:
To laugh often and much.
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children.
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends.
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others.
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Today has been the one day a month I spend on being the editor of a newspaper called "Y's Talk",the journal of the YMCA professional staff around Ireland Scotland England and Wales. You can scroll with it on www.ymcaaps.com. We have about 7000 staff in these nations, all working for an autonomous YMCA. We connect with the World YMCA as well of course and feel the pain of the incredibly poor in so many countries.
At the same time I have been finalizing our three year strategic plan 2003-2005, built on our 20/20 Vision work.....looking much further ahead. All the objectives in it start with "We will....." and we will strive to do that/these.
On a lighter note,I had a 'Jade moment' tonight when I saw the Manchester games KO. I did't know half the countries walking the track or even that they were part of the commonwealth !
Greenbelt thought.I wonder when the media will catch on that they can buy an incredible interview on tape by Martin Wroe with Rowan Williams from two years ago. Fantastic stuff. Fantastic men.
Feel tired now.Off to bed.Pray my soul to keep and more importantly...........grow.
Hope you are keen enough to come to Greenbelt 2002 as you are generously keen enough to click on this blog.
Breathe a deep intake ......and thank God for that breath of life, think of a person at the same time as you hold that life giving oxygen ...... and then exhale the sad and the disatisfaction as waste..... and look to the next breath and the next positive step .... and kiss the next person you see with a kiss of life.
Two conversations stick out for me today....down the pub at lunchtime, and a mate of mine, Rich, told me about how he was thinking of going to the Canterbury Music Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend ( a bit of competition for Greenbelt, there! ) and I wrestled with trying to explain to him about the uniqueness of Greenbelt. My Set Speech : ".....it's like a Christian Glastonbury, without the drugs or the drunkenness.....", says he who has never been to Glastonbury.
The other was with another collegue, just after lunch. He can perhaps be described as being older middle-aged, in character as well as in age. He made a very simple, rather embarrassing mistake, but I simply smiled and said, " Don't worry, it's probably been one of those days! " He looked at me, sighed, and replied, " More like one of those lives... " He was being serious. He seemed tired, resigned to accepting his lot in life and resigned to feeling useless, and to feeling that life had had little to offer to a seeming-nobody like him. I resolved to pray for him and to witness to him and to get to know him even more, than I have done, up until now.
With that in mind, this hot, sticky afternoon, I finally got round to listening to a CD that I've had for some time. Steve Stockman and Sam Hill, he of the immortal lyric, " Well I don't see no good times/ No blue skies on the way ", are Stevenson and Samuel and are behind the album, ' Gracenotes ', and the fifth track, which is the title above, stopped me in my tracks, with more great words.... " Come, come away my love/ We'll buy a cottage by the sea/ We'll hide from loving everyone/ To seek to love you and me ". I wonder if Jesus' heavenly father whispered similar words to him, two thousand years ago, when Jesus went way by Himself, to find a quiet place to pray.....
I took a night off from the Greenbelt emails last night in order to watch the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. It was a great night that turned into an impromptu street party, with myself and neighbours gathering on our close to watch the fireworks etc and then running back into someone’s house to see the other bits on TV. Between us we represented at least seven commonwealth countries, which seemed appropriate.
It was an excellent early start to what is a particularly important weekend in my annual Greenbelt preparation regime. With just three weeks to go until I head for site, the time has come for my pre-festival haircut (for those of you old enough to remember Bod and Alberto Frog’s Amazing Animal Band, you may now have a guess as to what colour combination I go for this time ;-)
The need for short and manageable hair whilst on site for a week and a bit, is heightened by the fact that for about 95% of my waking day I have a radio headset attached to my head. Headset hair is not a nice thing…
Being on radio all the time is a very strange experience; certain friends of mine do an impression of what it is like to try and have a conversation with me on site. It goes something like this:
Friend 1: Hi Liz, how’s it going?
Liz: Fine thanks, I was just…
(Liz trails off mid-sentence, her eyes glaze over and she appears to listen to voices in her head...long pause...Liz chortles/frowns/swears)
Friends in Unison: WHAT NOW?!?
Liz: Oh nothing. Now where was I?
Hmmm I should be nicer to my friends – they put up with a lot…
Just received a message from Greenbelt’s Fire Officer (the wonderful Norman) suggesting I resend some files to his partner’s email address as his hotmail account overfloweth… He has my sympathy, Greenbelt emails are currently hitting my inbox at a rate of over twenty a day. How did we manage before we had the internet?
My favourite email of the last few days has to be one from Geoff our Health and Safety guru. Included in it were exerts from the HSE publication 'Entertainment Sheet 7 - Safe Use and operation of play inflatables, including bouncy castles'.
I love it that we have people at GB who know about these things :-)
Oh the glamour!
Liz Chapman started off her diaries by telling you about herself in ' threes ', and I think it's a good idea, so I'm gonna pinch it for myself!
Three books that I'm reading, apart from the Bible, which I look at just about everyday, are...' Something Beginning With O ', by Kevin Pierce, an overview of pop(ular) culture since the war, ' England's Dreaming ', by John Savage is another non-fiction title, and one that I'm returning to after some years, and I'm also wading through William Burrough's novel, ' Naked Lunch '. The last two I'm not sure if I'd recommend, at least not to children!!
Three records : ' B.R.M.C. ', by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the third track of which is the above title ; ' On The Outside Looking In ', by Belljar, and catching up on a few singles that were either presents or were bought with vouchers recently, from Starsailor, White Stripes, Moby, etc.
Talking of singles, the three recently in the charts that have caught my attention include the Elvis remix which brought a smile to my face and continues to, as does Tim de Luxe's, and ' Lazy ', ft. David Bryne, for the interesting lyrics..." I'm wicked and I'm lazy/ Don't you want to save me? ", and, " Good times, good God ". But there's been many others from the Red Hot Chilli's, Calling, Puddle of Mud, Pink, Idlewild, Miss Dynamite that are decent and recent.
Three gigs I've been to lately...well, I'm trying to save money and so I'm trying to avoid gigs therefore, BUT...a Bowie tribute, Little Wonder ; a Jam tribute that I was taken to as a suprise - great to see lots of 30- and 40- somethings remembering how good they were ; great to see ' Weller ' again, having last seen ' him ' acoustically in London last year ; lots of people chanting, " We are the Mods! " - and the group that my old driving instructor sings for, Soul Detectives. Think, ' The Commitments ', and you're there!
Sorry, don't have time any more threes!
I spent some time yesterday listening to two very different people both of whom had stopped me in my tracks recently and said, 'I think I'm being called' ..... Now we just have to work out what that means: what should they do next? Where do you go when God makes a pass at you? Being 'called' can be exciting but scary too, and I was struck by just how vulnerable both these people were just now. Vulnerable like someone stepping out onto a dancefloor with a new partner for the first time, in full view of chattering friends and jealous enemies.
'You askin?'', 'I'm askin'', 'I'm dancin''. As they say round here. Wanting to dance with God is an ache that once it starts, will not go away. Yesterday I felt a bit like the DJ helping this to happen. Church is ok on these sort of days.
Daily Blog person here.......Beautiful human person blogger I might add!
Nearly didn't make it to YMCA work and mission today - mouth ache! No more mention from me on this - I'm sick of it.........too!
Chapel session today at the Y, a series about Jesus and how he touched people. Wonderful stuff led by Lythan, our Chaplain to the Board, also leader of a local church in Romford.
Wednesdays also contain our Senior Team Staff meeting which includes our Bible Study led by our youngest to older member in turn. Today that 'Acts' bit on Social Justice (Chapter 6). These early Xians couldn't feed the widows so they set up some organisation team to get it done amongst other priorities. We also handle big people decisions and pray for a list, also on the web www.romfordymca.org/PrayerWall/
Greenbelt on the agenda too. Who will do what? - leadership first, organise a bit like Acts 6 really!
Just got news that Claire and Jim Jenkinson have just been blessed with baby son. They have had tough time but now - creation!
Why can't we get Nitin Sawhney to Greenbelt.
How's this for a sleeve note?
I met an Aborigine in Arnhemland, Australia – his nephews showed me symbols where I saw trees and rainbows through smoked glass. They could see fish through clouded water. I couldn’t even see my own reflection. I must have forgotten how.
When I look in front of me, I see two paths – spiritual or material. Two worlds – developed or developing. You decide which is which. We’re still in the wake of millennium paranoia – earthquakes, floods, end of world scenarios, cult suicides, viral diseases that eat into our computer realities. This is our developed world.
Then, as Nelson Mandela says “We are free to be free”.
I guess we make our own prophecies.
by Nitin Sawhney, Album Cover, “Prophesy”.
Another week, another Blog - it's been a busy time for me in the last ten days, involving driving across Essex from Southend, to view a flat that had, in fact, just been let to someone else - we received a phone call on the mobile just as we were arriving there - but yesterday, all the phone calls, viewings and everything else now seemed to be worth it...pending references!
Saturday was a bit of a frustrating day with all that in mind, but during lunchtime, I received a phone call from one of the nicest people in the Greenbelt world...Nicky McGinty was ringing up to ask if I would consider being a Seminar Venue Manager at the Festival again, after doing so for the first time last year in Foxhunter, the film and media venue. It's always a pleasure to speak to Nicky and she didn't have to ask me twice...I've received so much from Greenbelt that I'm keen to keep putting something back. Working there last year contrasted noticeably to attending as a Punter, and this year I will manage my time differently to enable me to catch more of the Festival outside of, ' my ', venue. It felt a bit exciting, just talking to her about being involved and it was a call that broke up the day, from my point of view, very nicely!
Sunday saw a tremendous Morning Service at our church, which is in the Southchurch area of Southend, and, like more than sixty other local churches, we didn't have an evening effort as we shut up shop and joined with Christians of all different denominations, and none, at the ecumenical event know as, ' Praise in the Park ', which meets, you guessed it, in a local park each year and is like a mini-Greenbelt in that it has a fringe area, hot-dog vans etc., Gb type bands such as WWMT, Kindle and the like, as well as a massive open-air worship service for the masses. This year it was broadcast live by BBC Essex and Premier Radio, and during the service, the compere Peter Holmes, DJ with the former and a Christian as well, went through the crowds with a roving mic and chose me to be the first person to speak to, on air. After chatting to me for a bit, he asked me, what I intended to do to serve God more effectively in the Customs and Excise workplace that he had got me to tell him about. I replied that as well as telling people about Jesus, and trying to take an interest in them as people first-and-foremost, I said that I would endeavour to look out for any sort of need that one of my collegues may have, and to prayerfully attempt, wherever possible, to actually meet that need myself, whether it be practical, emotional, spiritual, whatever.
All-in-all, it was an event that was another Rumour of Glory, to quote Bruce Cockburn and another taster over the weekend, of the real thing to come at the end of August!!! And then, God seemed to answer Monday night's prayers very suddenly the following afternoon and now things seem finally, to be falling in to place, where new flats are concerned!
( By the way, I'll be in the Smacker Venue, leading it with Gavin Hall. If you're reading this Gavin, hello, I'm looking forward to working with you very much! )
Manchester is in festival mode! Multicoloured banners adorn the lamposts of every major route. Planters packed full of plants in bloom have sprung up all over the place. The venues are having their last licks of paint and the stadium is looking simply stunning. The city centre is full of people taking photos of statues we’d forgotten we even had and absolutely everyone seems to be grinning from ear to ear as they welcome our new friends from around the world, to the city we’re proud to call home.
As I watch the hoardings being drapped in citrus-coloured material and I see the shuttle buses tootle past full of athletes, coaches and supporters it feels like we’ve come a long way since the devastation of the bomb in 1996.
Even if you don’t like sport there’s plenty of other events and mini-festivals running: from literature to street carnival, from food to jazz. Tonight there is rumoured to be some event in the city centre involving a light show and projections onto the sides of buildings. It sounds intriguing – we may have to wander past on our way to the curry house…
I recognise this feeling of everything coming together, the buzz of the last minute preparations, the use of bright coloured fabric to change to look of a place and for once I can sit back and watch it all happen, totally relaxed.
Now I wonder if they’ll need a home for all that citrus-coloured fabric come August…
....with this numb gum and the thickest blood filled mouth ever I am working at home including doing a bit of catch up like at last getting on broadband.My webmaster who is the proffessor of all things internet...........tells me it will suit my laptop lifestyle and if I can get this stinking iMac to stop crashing I will be a zappy human person.
Excuse me.......just been to spit a bit !!
I am trying to think with tomek webman how to put something juicy on our website for broadband people.......once I went on holiday and asked for 10 ideas for the website www.romfordymca.org and when I returned Tomek had 30!!
Do not feel like kissing life at the moment,not even kissing you BUT the feelings I have for Greebelt people is deep because we have 'done journey' like no other together.Greenbelt has let me grow outside the box.When I hurt there is comfort.When I am comfortable there is a grain of sand sneaking into the crack of my shell and then.....................a Pearl of Wilson grows and I become more hurtingly......whole.
I am disturbed however when I read about Ghandi travelling third class on trains in India amidst the must foul smells,on hard seats and with crowds of 'untouchables'.When askedwhy he travelled third class he said "because there is no fourth class"
Here I am moaning about my dental state and resting in my armchair. Time to spit......time to turn again.....time to count my blessing to see if I have too many.
1979
Spotty teen in a Liverpool Baptist church youth club. I went to GB with my mate Dave, on a then-epic motorcycle journey. Headline: Cliff Richard; best act for me: Randy Stonehill/Larry Norman. Sunday Morning communion, preacher stood and said, "If you think Jesus died for you, you can share in this bread". I kinda felt I should; something massive started for me there.
Early 80s
Politicised and thrilled into a living faith by the social gospel coming out of people like Frontier Youth Trust¹s Jim Punton and America's Ron Sider. Saw U2 for first time at Liverpool Royal Court and, electrified, thought, "I'm going to heaven with these guys". The connection between all these, of course, was Greenbelt. Attended each year with increasingly large groups from Crosby. One year 130 of us travelled to Knebworth together.
Mid 80s
Thatcher decimated the manufacturing industry and, with many others in my part of the world, made me unemployed; I took A-levels and went on to do a degree in English, meanwhile supplementing my income by writing regularly for Strait, the Greenbelt magazine. Disillusioned, left the church at this time, but still found faith & hope in the festival's vision. Studied under John Peck College House's "Christian Worldview" course.
Late 80s
Back to church via youth work in CofE parish. Halcyon days taking inspiration from Greenbelt friends and performers and applying them locally - notably our own monthly dressed-up disco version of Pip's Rolling Magazine and various experiments in "alternative" worship, encouraged and inspired by Glaswegian friends.
1990s
Went on the first Greenbelt pilgrimage to Iona (1992): another epiphany for me - I'm now a member of the Iona Community. And less than a year later answered a call from then-festival manager Martin Evans to take a place on the Greenbelt board. Awed and inexperienced but full of enthusiasm, spent the next five years helping coordinate a diversity of GB activities, notably the 24-hour cafe, publicity, the action fair, and worship. Immense honour to be so involved. Immensely grateful to those who carried on after I left, keeping the festival afloat through its most testing time.
1999
The only GB I've missed since my first. Halfway through my time at Ridley Hall training for the Anglican ministry. I was working a month on Iona, which was good, but my heart still ached at having to forgo the Bank Holiday experience.
2001/2
Part of the SOUL SPACE team, turning the Panoramic Restaurant into a beautiful place of prayer and contemplation, offering people half-hour conversations with one of our team of "spiritual directors", where Greenbelters talk through anything on their minds with someone with a caring, listening ear. Favourite artists last year: that mad magician bloke Andy Turner had on his late night shows; oh, and Baka Beyond. Wonderful. All of it. Bring it on again.
Stewarding fashion could hardly be said to be the pinnacle of glamour and high fashion; let’s face it even Sophie Dahl would struggle to look drop dead gorgeous in high visibility waterproofs.
Similarly I guess that the benefits of sturdy headwear and a readily available mug, tend to outweigh aesthetic concerns after several hours in the cold and rain attempting to remain bright and cheery as yet another person adopts the “don’t you know who I am” routine.
However, anyone planning to steward at Greenbelt this year should console themselves as I have just seen how much more wrong it can get! Yes, courtesy of the Commonwealth Games, my home city appears to have been invaded by stewards in the uniform from hell!
To be fair the trousers are OK and the black flat caps passably endearing, but what on earth were they thinking with the jackets? I can only presume that the fashion designers for the friendship games, made friends with some nylon loving chimps in a paint factory.
Inspired, it would seem, by the humble shell-suit, these monstrosities of half mauve, half black with bright yellow splodges in the middle are truly a crime against all sighted people.
Very, very wrong!
So Stewards of Greenbelt I salute you and say a hearty thank you for all your hard work, dedication and fine humour. And rest assured that no matter how bad fluorescent yellow looks with your skin tones, you will never look quite so bad as some of your Mancunian brethren this week!
Well - was a late night, last night. I have cable channel so I can catch "24" - The U.S. Political Thriller, one week before ordinary T.V. Superior eh?
Also 'Big Brother' keeps me watching later than my brain does. E4 runs the soap all night. I suppose it's a shower for the brain after a late YMCA Board Meeting.
Just got my Amazon email telling me my new beautiful CD is arriving on day one of the release. Gilles Peterson my favourite DJ - his new album G.P.2. I'll tell you about it when I hear it and see which track is worth pumping out at Greenbelt. Last year I was pumping out Zero 7 the band 'Simple Things' the title. Still lingers around and used it massively in training sessions around the world. It connects cross cultures, especially track 3 DESTINY "When I'm weak I draw strength from you...." See my article on this under 'Pearls of Wilson' www.romfordymca.org.
Well teeth out today - good job I don't write with my teeth. I'll try to keep this 'Rolling Magazine' style - keep it rolling! toothless or not!
Kiss someone for God today. You too. Can kiss life!!
Well, the nearest we got to crowd trouble at the Elvis concert last night was when five burly Security blokes tried hauling an equally burly guy off his friend's shoulders in the middle of an audience swaying to "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?" Ironic, that, I thought. To his eternal credit the guy landed on the floor still holding his beer glass aloft, not having spilt a drop. THAT is self-control.
Costello was on blistering form; relentlessly good, rocking out with a vengeance. There's not too much GRACE in his songs, the emotions are too raw for that. But therein lies their value: no chance of "psychic numbing" in his world. This isn't music with which to drown sorrows: but rather, to flail about for reasons for the sorrow, to shout, cry and scream for answers. Beautifully brutal.
The summer begins here for clergy too: well, ones like me whose term-time weeks are full of schools activity: assemblies, communions, hosting class visits to church, running clubs etc. That's all over for a while now; so it's time to look ahead - to Bank Hol Weekend, meeting valued old friends and recharging the batteries at Greenbelt (my 23rd) - but also to the autumn and beyond. Today I'm taking a carload from our Penny Lane parish home to the Welsh borders to look at a couple of prospective centres for a Parish Weekend in 2003. After the recent trauma of leading the funeral of a friend lost in tragic circumstances, this sort of day is a real kiss of life to me.
Since yesterday I have been catching up on the recorded music from this week, headphones/walkman to get the best vibe Pete Tong – every Friday R1/Late Junction – Verity Sharpe R3/Kiss FM. Patrick Forge late Sunday Night. Favourite CD which I will play at Greenbelt this year is the most wonder-ful-full-full ‘Cinematic Orchestra’ new CD and to-date my 2002 favourite.
The Polish (yesh tesh sponyowee) Theatre Company I referred to yesterday are called “Teatr Bluro Podrozy” can anyone train me to say that?
My Greenbelt job of the day – today - is to encourage the team here at Romford YMCA (www.romfordymca.org) in their preps for Gee Bee.
We are big and busy (150 staff, 200 volunteers, 6,000 members) but Greenbelt is strategic in our mission.
We are autonomous, like all YMCAs but our National Body is fanatical led by Ken Montgomery (ken.montgomery@england.ymca.org.uk) and there are loads of programme/venue items at the Festival and you can go direct via Greenbelt’s Partner website links at the foot of our home page. One thing we can all do is:- encourage people to come to GB – then Greenbelt will do the rest, Thank you God.
Have a good Kiss of Life today.
Well Monday morning has been and gone, lost beneath the growing volume of ticket bookings before the 31st July reduced price deadline.... and although part of me thinks "why do people leave booking until so late?!?", I know that I am just as guilty of remembering to do things at the last moment!! It's great to see so many people who are getting excited about the festival and to speak to some of them on the phone..... as yet have had no surreal questions this week, but there is still plenty of time (I will let you all know any really good ones!!)
And as the festival draws near, so the juggling act begins..... I think I have everything down on a "to do" list.... at least I hope I do.....! Just have to see how far I get through it all in the coming week and what other things get added to it. All in all though it is feeling relatively calm here...... so I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts! Now it's time to go and bank cheques..... a great opportunity to escape into the outside world and (I think!) possibly see the sun...... hard to tell from the crypt we work in!!!
Only four more Mondays till Greenbelt. Monday mornings are ok for me: the only chance of a lie-in on my only day off all week (cue chorus of tired old joke: "I thought you clergy only worked one day a week." Ha ha haaar). Some Mondays I'll take off from my Liverpool home to explore the great North West, or Welsh hills (last Mon. visited the newly-opened Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester, an amazing building, the prev. week I chucked Julian Cope's "The Modern Antiquarian" on my passenger seat and went looking for SUNKENKIRK, a wonder-full stone circle in southern Lake District); today a lazier day mooching around, in anticipation of tonight's "Liverpool Summer
Pops" concert: Elvis Costello.
The last time I saw Elvis was at St David's Hall, Cardiff, a sleepy venue which riled him somewhat, he being a passionate performer, fired / inspired by anger. He livened things up by jumping down off the stage and mixing it among the punters, eyeballing the ones closest to the aisle and telling them to get up and dance. Needless to say, it worked. There are rumours that the audiences at our Summer Pops are livelier - incredibly, they had to call the police in to calm things down at last week's SUPERTRAMP concert! - so tonight should be a thriller. I'll let you know.
In my Greenbelt year this is an exciting time. After 10 months in the dry desert of black and white plans, a little rain falls and suddenly little patches of colour and vitality start springing up all over the place. All around I see the creative force that is Greenbelt, start breathing life into a year of planning.
Suddenly what we’ve been referring to as Seminar 1 all year, becomes ‘Snog’ and the Sun-deck becomes ‘Multitude’ and we brace ourselves for the thousands of clay people who will be joining us there (I do hope they don’t count towards our licence capacity!).
As I struggle to get my head around all the new venue names, I start emerging from the plans, schedules and To Do lists and remember what it’s all about and I start feeling that Kiss of Life brushing my cheek once more…
XXX