mountain masala

doing ok

just a short note to let regular readers know that my dad came through the surgery fine.

with his age and health history we were a bit worried. hopefully his recovery will be steady.

thanks for your words of support and prayers.

a prayer

my dad who is 80 is having major surgery tomorrow (wednesday here).

please offer a prayer for david mitchell.

funny how you want to give people a name in case god gets the prayer co-ordinates wrong...

thanks

craig

what would jesus type?

well, of course, jesus didnt have a keyboard.....

but if he did, this might have been his favourite font...

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/the_best_font_ever_9432.asp

two weeks to lift-off

two weeks tomorrow I fly overseas for 6 weeks on study leave. i'll post some details shortly.

the exciting discovery of the day is that while in brazil for the 6th International Conference on Media Religion and Culture, FILE - the electronic language international festival is on in the same city - http://www.file.org.br/. The former is largely about mass media (although not entirely....), the latter has a big focus on multimedia installation art.

ahhhhh........

at the doctors

my main mac has gone off to get the superdrive replaced. under warranty which is good, but i spent a day backing up stuff and then today going 'crap, where is that program/file/etc' and having to install it on our video edit machine.

so apologies to all whose emails and appointments I may not have synced yet....

and I'm about to go away for a week's leave. hopefully the mac will be back after that before i head o/s.

much more to tell you about that shortly!

shouting and jiggling

I flew to brisbane recently for my dad's 80th surprise birthday party. it was a great evening, although I spent the evening try to talk to old folks who couldn't see or hear me properly!

my dad was head of dairying and then fisheries for the queensland government (has an O.A.M.) and has been involved in running the same church family camp every summer for about 25 years. you can imagine that there were lots of good things said about him and a few funny stories told.

it's good to be able to see your parents through their friends eyes and be impressed...

good to see some of the relly's too. I sat with my younger brother, nieces and nephew at the kids end of the table and had a great time.

free micah dalton album

 

I've really enjoyed his first album "these are the roots", and here's his second album for free!

the healing

david bridie has a new album "succumb" coming in august. an out-take from the album called "the healing" is available here. lovely.

apparently the new album is rather rocky and this didnt fit the mould. lucky for us...

the uninitiated may have come across david in "my friend the chocolate cake" or "not drowning, waving". his solo albums to date are "act of free choice" and "hotel radio". david has done lots of soundtrack work and collaborated in a range of cross-cultural works, particularly with pacific cultures.

one of my favourite tracks is "the deserters" from "act of free choice".

he has some great free downloads here.

I've only seen him play once with MFTCC at a benefit gig at St Kilda. just fantastic.

MFTCC free music downloads here....

new music

this month I'm listening to.....

British Sea Power - The Decline Of British Sea Power
Colin Meloy - Sings Live (Decemberists lead guy)
Colour Revolt - Plunder, Beg, and Curse (edgy rock/punk)
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark (hey sound like their name...)
Fat Freddy's Drop - Based On A True Story (chilled kiwi soul/rhythm/jazz/whatever - very Neville Brothers)
Micah Dalton - These Are The Roots (very Ben Harper and fantastic)
Ry Cooder - My Name Is Buddy (folky americana)
The Long Blondes - Couples (very 80's synth pop)
The String Cheese Incident - Born on the Wrong Planet (bluegrass sort of)
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons (abstract ambient sounds from the side project of Godspeed You Black Emperor)

thats a ridiculous amount of new music isnt it.....

ah the quiet.....

the twins left for the Philippines with the Big Year Out group on Saturday morning. they were up until 4.30 am the day befiore trying to finishing school work and then up until 1.30 am Sat morning packing. I got them up at 3 am to go to the airport... The flight had been changed because of the baggage handlers strike, and not all of their names were listed on the new flight. It took half an hour to sort out at the check-in counter, and in the end they were running onto the plane just before it took off! apparently Grace's bag got delayed in transit, but they have arrived tired but happy.

The group have a couple of days in Manila and the off to do an anti-clockwise circuit of north Luzon, visiting mainly rural communities and then the UCCP office and theological college in Baguio City.

We know they'll have a great time.

Three weeks of peace and quiet here...