mountain masala

new emusic

yes its that time of the month again.... once again i have trawled through my recent music mags, found album reviews that sounded interesting, and then checked them out on emusic.com

- "learning to bend" by ben sollee - vocal and cello, really! folk and retro jazzy R&B
- "beat pyramid" by these new puritans - angular rock, think "The Fall"
- "the monitor" by titus andronicus - combination of punk, americana and roots rock
- "quarantine the past: the best of pavement" - yes, THAT pavement, where alt-rock really started...
- "OMG!" by rusko - inventive, genre-crossing electronic house
- "so runs the world away" by josh ritter - more fab folk from the lapsed lutheran
- los angeles" by flying lotus - experimental hip hop
- feast of the hunter's moon" by black prairie - 'like a bluegrass version of the decemberists'. video clip and 2 free songs here
- "streets of new york" by willie nile - supposedly one of the great americana albums of 2006 (emusic) - a folk-rock tribute to the 'big apple'. guests include jakob dylan

plus on itunes
- "the archandroid" by janelle monae - this has everything - funk, jazz, pop, rap, r&b etc (watch the clip of 'tightrope' on youtube here). this will impress my daughters!

plus on CD
- "laws of illusion" by sarah mclachlan
- "down the way" by angus and julia stone

progress of a sort

the silence is because since coming back from brisbane I've been crook again - doctor has finally given me antibiotics and an inhaler to clear my chest of this flu. plus my dad went to hospital last friday with a major heart problem and fluid on the lungs. he is out of intensive care but it looks like his only option (other than doing nothing) is heart surgery, which is pretty risky given his age and other health issues. so, prayers for my parents, david and jean, are appreciated.

our ministerial education commission was a mixed affair. my second meeting, and in my view, a not very helpful or effective forum for developing excellence in teaching and learning. rather its been a place where colleges report on what they are doing and make minor updates in areas needing major change.

the major item of interest for us was the "please explain" that we received from the MEC about our new approach to educating ministers here in south australia. our five-yearly review by the MEC at the start of last year indicated that we were possibly breaking some of the national training 'rules' for ministerial education, and yet that the review was inconclusive due to the significant amount of change we were going through. so what happened?

down and up

blog has been quiet again! i was crook for most of last week, felt better on the weekend. cooked up a storm for darren and holly. crashed again with the flu thing. now in brisbane for the annual meeting of our national ministerial education commission and my mother's 80th birthday party.

the MEC will be talking about whether our new approach to training ministers in SA is 'breaking the rules', supervision of ministers, a national review of the ministry of lay preacher, the 'intern' phase for ministers, 'formation' for ministry, and other stuff. sounds like a barrel of fun, doesn't it.

but tonight I'm going to watch some more battlestar galactica, tomorrow see the ron mueck exhibition and visit my sister and her family.

the weather here is weird.

the bad news? new oven installed at home today and i'm not there to use it! (happy to talk ovens for those who are looking!)

the good news? a bunch of cheap van morrison remastered CDs arrived from the UK the day before i left. iPhone is full of music.

just had a stack of new books on art arrive from amazon. i have a lot of book blogging to do shortly.

saturday night

i was getting better...

last night we went to maddy's dance concert. she's been a bit of a late starter at the 'mighty good talent school' here in adelaide (most of the 14 year olds have been there for a decade). think a 'young talent time' clone and you'd be completely right, down to malcolm the boss who is assuredly of jonny's vintage. a great night. they changed the star theatre around and made it a cabaret with BYO food and drinks. the best kids in the company are sensational, winning 'gold' both locally and nationally for their hip hop dancing. some excellent singing too, including some young women that grace and ellen know. maddy has gone up a grade in dancing and is finding it hard going. we're proud of this girl who can move to music and is giving it a go.

got home late and did not sleep AT ALL last night. body clock out of whack from sleeping most of the day all week and watching battlestar galactica when I'm awake. throat cold thing attacked me back with a vengeance today, so instead of helping yvonne clear the wood in our almost treeless back yard, i've been making a DVD of our NZ trip photos and video. quite blissful as it brought back memories and i had forgotten how much i enjoy editing video... really... (esp with no deadline!)