Archive for May, 2008
Global Day of Prayer, London
On Sunday 11th May millions of Christians spanning 176 nations prayed for the needs of the world on Pentecost Sunday as part of one of the largest global prayer events to ever take place. On that day I was part of the Psalm Drummers team that took part in the London Global Day of Prayer. Around 20,000 people gathered to pray for London, the UK and the World on a very hot day in Millwall Football Club’s ground.
What really made the day special was that I looked at the people gathered together as part of the Psalm Drummers team and thought to myself “what an ordinary bunch of people”. Also that there were both young and old. No superstars here. I was so amazed at the grace of God in choosing a bunch of people to make a sound that was dynamic, raw and aggressive as an expression of worship.
The day was a little disappointing from a ‘performance’ point of view as we were supposed to be doing 2 pieces – 15 minutes at the start and 10 minutes towards the end, plus a piece with a gospel choir. But in the end we only did 6 minutes and 6 minutes later. But that’s the way it is with live events. Not everything goes smoothly and you get chopped! But there was a real sense that we were contributing to the surge of prayer and worship that was rising, so job done!!!
I’m always really keen to see how we look and sound as when you are playing you are locked in to a groove. If anyone has any video or audio footage from the day please let me know. I find it useful for seeing how things can be improved.
Christopher Martin Jenkins gets the giggles
I was listening to the first test match between England and New Zealand during my lunch break at work and couldn’t believe my ears when Christopher Martin Jenkins came out with an absolute clanger. Reproduced from the Independent newspaper web site:
‘Test match special’ isn’t what it used to be, claim its critics, so all hail Christopher Martin-Jenkins for reviving the Radio 4 programme’s grand old tradition of corpsing. In the 52nd over of the First Test at Lord’s, CMJ intoned: “Vettori lets it go outside the off stump… good length, inviting him to fish.” So far, so prosaic. But he then continued: “Vettori stays on the bank, and keeps his rod down, so to speak.” Cue audible sounds of mirth from the rest of the ‘TMS’ team, before CMJ dug himself deeper by squeaking: “I don’t know if he is a fisherman, is he?” My, how we laughed. Well done that man; more of the same, please, in the many dull passages of play.
By now it’s probably famous, but if you didn’t hear it, it’s well worth a listen. You can here it here:
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Random Greeting Card
I saw this card in a shop in London. It’s one of those that has the plastic rolly eyes – you know; the ones that roll when you shake them.
Download Bryce 5.5 completely free!
It seems as if the world of 3D creation softwares has been re-named ‘FreeD’. I was searching around the other day for resources for Bryce and came across several sites that were offering Bryce 5.5 completely free. I thought at first it was a trial version or a cracked version but it’s totally free. You can download a copy for either MAC or PC from the CNET web site. The download is approximately 24 mb.
Bryce is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program specializing in fractal landscapes. See the full Wikipedia definition for more background info.
Uploaded a couple of videos from Pentecost Festival
I have just uploaded a couple of rather rough videos from the Psalm Drummers on the streets of Camden Town on the 10th May 2008. I took these with my Samsung mobile, so I apologise for the quality, but at least it gives you some idea of what happened. You can probably find more over the next few days on You Tube.
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