Liverpool is bidding to be the European Capital of Culture in 2008 and whilst sometimes, walking its Big Mac box-strewn streets, that ambition seems laughable, at other times it seems quite fitting. Like now, days away from the launch of the Liverpool Biennial, a gigantic international festival of contemporary art which runs here until the end of November. I've just been on the website getting excited about it.
The bid is fitting - it's not the first Biennial the city has hosted and there's little doubt about Liverpool's contribution to the art world over the years. One of the Biennial's features is the John Moores 22 exhibition of contemporary painting, promoted as "the UK's most prestigious painting competition, showcasing some of the finest British-based artists, [and] displayed in the newly refurbished galleries at the Walker - national gallery of the North." It's now in its 45th year.
And one of the most-anticipated upcoming Liverpool arts events will be the opening of the new FACT venue, a centre for the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, part of the transformation of a previously derelict area of the city centre into the 'creative quarter', a building which holds cinemas and exhibition spaces for film, video and new media projects "alongside a set of resources, spaces, programmes and partnerships dedicated to the development of new and emerging forms of creativity".
All of this is exciting for us here. Whether we win the 2008 bid or not, it's good to be in a creative place.
(A slightly extended version of this post appears on my website)
A day off that was taken for the purposes of waiting for Argos to turn up and change a damaged sofa-bed, at a friend's house, became a free day when all the dates were moved....I ended up visiting a biker, Richard, who I mentioned on the Blog a few weeks ago, and who came to our church once - he's someone who is semi-disabled after three bike accidents and a stroke, and is also somewhat house-bound, through choice. He was pleased to see me and I left him with a couple of cans of cider....into town, and I took an elderly lady, whose birthday it was, for a cup of coffee to celebrate....on to the Southend Christian Bookshop, where I bought the latest Christianity and Renewal, such a good magazine even despite losing Gareth Sturdy as editor ; the C of E Newspaper ( I go to a Baptist church ) for the Greenbelt coverage ; Christian Herald for the same - front page and in colour, here - and for the small piece on Gb's Steve Lawson, near the back ; I also picked up a copy of John Stott's, ' Christ the Controversist ', for a mere squid....on to HMV and Virgin records to spend last birthday's record vouchers - I ended up getting a Patti Smith ( the author of the lyrics in the title of this Blog ) compliation, ' Land (1975-2002) ', and noticed that ' Dancing Barefoot ', was the first track - what an influence this woman was on Bono - U2 covered this song in 1989. I also used up my vouchers getting the new Paul Weller single, plus 45s from Blazin' Squad, Daniel Bedingfield and keeping up the Christian theme - Beyonce's, ' Work It Out '. added to that little lot were the latest copies of NME and Hot Press, for the coverage of the new U2 single and greatest hits package....on to visit another person who is elderly, and wasn't very well the previous day. She's better now. She asked me, " What is this...Greenbelt...that you go to? "........back home for phone-calls and housework - on the radio, they're playing the new U2 single. It felt like my birthday...it is today!!! 5th September - I'm telling people, when they ask, that I'm a lapsed-virgo. I've since been born, again. Under the sign of the Cross......
I thought I'd better report back as to the outcome of those chairs. In all, they were a resounding success - and I didn't even feel like a big softy (although I am, of course, a big softy).
Those chairs (those bloody marvellous chairs) saw us through a number of two-hour-long sessions of the Twist without so much as a numb tingle in the buttocks. Those chairs (those super-dooper seats of loveliness) saw us through numerous seminars, through listening to bizarre acts at the Bandstand, and through several cold and damp evening meals back at the camp site. What is more - and this really is the best bit - they only cost us eight quid.
If you're not hot-footing it down to your local army surplus store right now, you've not got a sane bone left in your body.
My last-ditch efforts to retrieve something have failed. I've lost all my GB02 photos to a glitch on my digital camera. Volatile technology; not at all reliable. At least my Margaret Silf pic made it through for the souvenir programme. So I'll have to hold the memories instead, of Soul Space in the Panoramic Restaurant gleaming at night, sending light out across the site, of friends a-posin' during the communion service, of Andy'n'Jude mucking about during Last Orders, of the journey from Cheltenham which took in Odell, Soham, Cambridge. Mental agility. No harm in that.
There's a word to describe Greenbelt which sounds mundane but means that it's alive for me each day of the year. The word is 'resource'. Greenbelt feeds me so much it takes a year to unpack it all. I tend not to go to many seminars on-site but bring home many tapes instead. John Bell, Rowan Williams, Romy Tiongco and Paul Cookson have all tittilated and challenged me this last week; I haven't even begun to listen to the Tom Sine tapes yet, till I'm ready for more mind-blowing encounters. Lies Damned Lies' new music is melting gradually into my spirit (burns so slow, their stuff, bears much repeating); Sue Wallace's 'Multi-Sensory Church' (SU, not on-line yet) has gone straight to the top of my 'worship resources' pile and will be thumbed most weeks; Cookson/Harmer's Spill The Beans material has gone in the post to my niece today (I hope she doesn't read this till after her birthday) and my own copies will rouse a few junior assemblies in the coming weeks. And Christian Aid's AIDS material will hopefully provoke some campaign action from our parishioners once it gets an airing.
Now's the time to dream of GB03 and wrap it up in our own hopes, dreams, plans for the coming year. Me, I'm hoping that the 'peace' programme at GB03 may help round off my diocesan 'third-year project' in which I want to research grassroots work on conflict resolution / reconciliation. The starting point for that will be an autumn week at Corrymeela exploring 'A non-violent God?' with the lively young 'outsider' theologian James Alison who I reckon would be a natural for GB - he is a breath of fresh air, as even his book titles suggest: Faith Beyond Resentment, The Joy of Being Wrong.
Freddie Mercury once famously sang, " Is this real life/ Or is this just fantasy? " It's always difficult, coming down after Greenbelt. The festival tends to leave me with a warm glow for a few days afterwards, and when people ask, I get the chance to tell them what the Festival was like and so kinda re-live it all over again. But when you get to the following weekend, and you find yourself wondering what you were doing, this time last week, you know that it's really all over for another year - all that looking forward to it and it's over, in the blink of an eye...or at least, it seemed to happen that quickly...
Coming home, after helping clear up On-Site on Tuesday morning ( it seemed hard to imagine the thousands that had been there, just a few hours previously ) we stopped for lunch at a small town in west Oxfordshire, Burford. It's a smashing little, olde - worlde type place and on a sunny day we ordered toasted-cheese sandwiches and sat outside the cafe, on the high street, talking about the Greenbelt that had gone.
After the toasties, we decided to explore the nearby Parish Church, just off the town centre, that appeared to be open. Alongside either a Church School or a Chorister's School, the church ( St. Mary's? ) was situated in the centre of it's considerable churchyard...all in all, it looked like a sleepy rural church - but the reality is probably different. Sure, it had history - the tombs of three of the Levellers who had been executed in the 1640's were inside, and although there was a steady stream of tourists signing the guestbook, there were signs of it being a living church. A youth multi-media happening on a regular basis in the church, alpha courses and Christian Aid activities were all being advertised. I picked up a copy of Christian Aid news, and there on the back was an advert for the Festival that I'd just attended...a Festival that mixed the modern with the traditional, just like Burford church.
Now I'm back at work, I don't really feel that I'm back in real life. Greenbelt is no more or no less, real life. Reality is where God is - and that can be in either trad or mod settings... and often where you least expect it, and Him, to be. Everything else is unreality. Can't wait to get those Gb photos developed now......