AV for beer-ginners...

All things must pass...

Oh, America...

Fruits of Greed...

Colchester Mercury Theatre's stunning production of Steinbeck's classic 'Grapes of Wrath' could not be better timed as a counterfoil to today's spending review. I was completely blown away by this production, even having read the book. Of course, readers will know the story is dark and yet redemptive through the sacrifices of some of the key characters.

I confess I am not a regular theatre goer, however this sensitive and highly creative interpretation really hooked me in. In fact I remember failing to watch the movie version all the way through as it seemed to contradict the images my imagination had drawn in my mind's eye. The combination of the physical boundaries of the theatre and the gentle pace meant this play still allowed me to both keep intact those images and to add to them. In fact that conclusion made me realise why film versions of previously read books don't come up to the mark with their literal, photo realistic interpretations which tend to restrict our own imagination so much as we are, actually, watching someone else's imagination instead.

I cannot stress enough if you are in the area do make the effort to go, it is so fantastic in every respect. Brilliant acting, production and staging plus special mention of the musicians who doubled up as actors too. The music was totally live featuring a brilliant fiddle player, multi instrumentalist guitar / banjo / mandolin / slide guitar player, double bass and some occasional percussion. The style was quoted as Bluegrass yet also included a vibrant Hoe Down sequence and incredibly haunting and moving instrumentals.

The closing sequence was breathtaking - simple, redemptive, challenging - not a dry eye in the house! It's on until the 30th October, make the time!

P

The Story of Stuff...

From the excellent Story of Stuff website:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

P

Lord save us from Your followers...

Author of the excellent 'Blue Like Jazz', Don Miller, has posted a challenging story today. Don is one of the speakers at the Echo Conference (A media and mech conference for creative church leaders) and, along with other speakers, has been given a seriously luxury hotel suite to stay in. Don's immediate thought was to gather up the 'brains' to blue sky together to change the world. The next day the conversation with the organiser went like this:

Scott McLellan, the big man who runs the conference and I started talking and I told him thanks for all the square footage because I like to run wind sprints. He said when Dan Merchant walked into the room, the first thing he thought was that he should go gather up a group of homeless guys to stay there for the night. That made me feel like crap.

Dan Merchant is the guy responsible for the film above...

PB

Kofi Annan and Didier Drogba’s World Cup guide

A challenging perspective on the World Cup from the Africa Progress Panel (APP). Above is a section of the Stats Table, download the full guide here (11Mb) from the APP website.

h/t @theElders

The Apple of Discord

For many years our small (yet beautiful) company has encouraged our clients to steer away from using FLASH (Cue Queen: 'Ah Ah') on their websites on the basis it yields a 'form above function' solution. Websites built using Flash are usually extremely 'pretty', in fact, some of them do look sensational, however, customers that heeded our advice will now be rewarded bigtime.

By Friday 28th May all pre-orders for the Apple iPad will have been fulfilled and this long awaited and highly desirable gizmo becomes available in the UK. That's when every website developed with Flash will look like the iPhone screen capture above on the iPad (also affects the iPod Touch). As the iPad will probably become the bit of technology that every management and decision maker will acquire then a lot of work will need to be done to provide alternative versions soonest so the typical market sector viewer of these 'glamorous' websites is not lost! Our longer term hunches were realised completely last month when Apple's charismatic 'front man' Steve Jobs posted this open letter to Adobe about Flash.

(The example shown above is a genuine screen grab on the iPhone with the title and web address changed to protect our uninformed competitor!)

The Independent truly challenges us all...

 

I have found it challenging to find an original approach to comment on the General election... there certainly have been some 'moments to remember' and these have already been written up with great eloquence and variety.

However, today I read the Rogue's Gallery section in The Independent that certainly got through to me which makes the vital point that we, the public, are culpable for the current deadlock which writer Matthew Norman describes as a 'constitutional pile-up'. His view that none of the three current main party leaders will survive politically for much longer feels like a refreshing notion. I will not reveal what Norman says in the closing paragraph of this piece as I hope others read it and also feel the same sense of optimism and wet-eyed joy that instantly permeated my whole being!

Read the full article here: Matthew Norman: we had our chance, and we blew it

Eddie Izzard - Brilliant Britain

Well, whoever you vote for you have to agree this is excellent AND positive art?!!

Love it! h/t Martin Wroe

P (Green Party!)

O for a shout of sacred joy

The last verse of Isaac Watts hymn: -

The British islands are the Lord’s,
There Abraham’s God is known;
While powers and princes, shields and swords,
Submit before His throne.