mountain masala

celtic worship

The UCA national Worship Working Group (of which I'm a member, but that's another story) has a good practice of rading and discussing a book together. We've just come to the end of "The Worship Mall" by Bryan Spinks who teaches at Yale University. I'm sure that he's excellent in his field (for example, I'd be very interested to read his book on the development of early baptismal liturgies), but this book has annoyed me in many ways, not the least of which is the chapter on alternative worship, which is just plain wrong on both detail and analysis in so many ways. (I haven't heard what jonny baker thinks of his coverage...)

One of the later chapters on Celtic worship is annoying to the extent that it mainly examines whether what people claim as Celtic worship todays is actually rooted in historic Celtic practice. While I understand that this is of interest to a liturgical scholar (and find his comment that much of the recent stuff is more "postmodern Celtish" rather funny and true), he's missed a great opportunity to look more deeply at why and how this is currently appealing. To be fair, he does make comments about that, but mainly in terms of romanticism (a great quote from Tolkien though, about the Celts being like a grab-bag of magic to draw from).

On the plus side, he referred to "Celtic Daily Prayer" from the Northumbria Community. This arrived in the mail today (no coincidence, I ordered it...). It's a substantial 800 page resource with Daily Office, Complines, a month of daily meditations, Communion liturgies, a Family shabbat, saints and festival calendars, notes of some particular saints, resources for rites of passage, times ans seasons, blessings, daily readings for two years. To be honest, I don't even know the history of the community. It just sounded like a worthwhile resource. From my initial scan it looks brilliant.

I now have to go back to my other few Celtic prayer books and work out whether Spinks thinks they'd be the real deal or just more contemporary rubbish that people seem to find helpful...

the garden

after a fallow year last year, we have somewhat late in the year got our two garden beds cleared, composted and planted - three kinds of tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, beetroot, kale, silverbeet, capsicum, lettuce, red corn, yellow squash, nasturtiums. Also new basil (2 kinds) and dill.  I have other stuff in seed pots (carrots, epazote, pumpkin) but don't know where to plant them at the moment.

we really have no good sense of when to plant things, so I think that will be next year's learning... of course, a big issue here is how wet it was this winter. we'll see what the summer brings.

despite the fact that my back hates gardening, for the first time ever, literally, this year, i have found being out in the garden for an hour or more immensely peaceful. I think it was because I wasn't doing back-breaking work, but turning soil, weeding, planting seeds, etc. Myers Briggs personality theory would say that my tertiary function (sensing) is finally getting a workout, but then that, I think, is what my growing love of cooking over the last decade has been about. well, that and the desire for solitude...

while I was away Yvonne discovered what she thought was a wasp's nest in our compost bin. when I came home I doused them in talcum powder one evening (based on previous advice). we didn't think that it had done anything, but two days later they'd all disappeared. an inspection of the compost bin revealed a beehive in progress. later that same day we discovered them 'hiving' on our plum tree.

today, for some reason, perhaps the rain, or the fact that the branch was likely to break, they have moved on (we hope).

it so happens that they're talking about bees at Yvonne's playgroup, so she got to take along the abandoned honeycomb and a photo of the "treehive". all quite fascinating and amazing.

new music

I haven't posted new music in a few months, so its a long list...

"Because It Feels Good" - Kelly Hogan - laid back, countryish, lovely voice

"Hudson River Wind Meditations" - Lou Reed -ambient tai chi music from the late master

"Tramp" - Sharon Van Etten - a bit tortured and twisted, but also harmonious

"Tiden" - Roedelius Schneider - 2 ambient dudes combine.

"Time Past & Time Passing" - Michael Chapman - UK virtuoso guitarist/singer. think John Martyn etc.

"Nihil Obstat" - Jozef van Wissem - ok, this guy plays the lute. really!

"Feel Free" - Duane Pitre - Enoish ambience from a skateboarder...

"Speaking in Tongues" - David Murray with Fontella Bass - fabulous gospel jazz

"All Hell" - Daughn Gibson - the spirit of Johnny Cash with an electronic edge. really.

"The New Morning" - Luka Bloom - enough said

"The Benevolence of Sister Mary Ignatius" - The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra - former Madness bassist put a new band together. nice.

"All Fools Day" - The Saints - just completing the catalogue...

"Broken Over You" - Vertical Horizon - easy listening guitar and harmonies, nice picking

"Seasons of Your Day" - Mazzy Star - yeah, about time. typically Hope...

"Elvis Club" - The Del-Lords - comeback album from one of the guilty pleasures of the 80s. Elvis says it all.

"I'll Find A Way" - The Blind Boys of Alabama - stunning new album produced by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)

"The Hollow Sessions" - Ben Sollee - the singing cellist. love it.

 "Good Dog, Bad Dog" - Over The Rhine - everything they do is sublime

"Still Within The Sound Of My Voice" - Jimmy Webb - consummate songwriter pairs up with a whole bunch of famous singers - Marc Cohn, Crosby & Nash, Joe cocker, Keith Urban, Rumer, Carly Simon, Amy Grant, Kris Kristofferson, Art Garfunkel, Brian Wilson, Lyle Lovett, America...

"Pain is Beauty" - Chelsea Wolfe - hmmm.... Kater Bush meets PJ Harvey. I dunno...

"Push Any Button" - Sam Phillips - another fine album from the former Mrs T-Bone Burnette

"Moving On" - Loren Kate - debut album from Aussie folky

Plus Otis Redding and Simple Minds album packs....

Theology and the Arts

Here's an impressive range of articles on the topic...

Duke Universitty: Faith & Leadership - Theology and the Arts

My First Movie - John Chapter 1

Yes indeed. 1998. We had moved from Adelaide to Horsham. I had my very own Apple Mac and Adobe Premiere. This is full of symbolism (eg. the fleeting footage of a native American dancing to correspond with "his world would not receive him"). Copyright issues. yeah, I guess, but it was 1998 and it was the Wild West. This is raw, uncompromising, footage, a forceful collage of jutxaposition, cutting edge poesis and harmonic symmetry. And back in the day when 360 x 240 pixels was the thing... Yeah, I'm talking hardcore small pixels here. And did I mention (1) layers, (2) animation, (3) alpha channel text, and (d) al of the above combined at times...

It sill brings tears to my eyes. (ah, Premiere, where are you now. Gone, gone, gone)..

In 1998, to say "god@earth.com" was cutting edge and cool. The old folks went "what the??"

I used this to "wow" people at events a few times back then... Think of it as Proost 1998...

Download 1 John Movie (66mb Quicktime Movie). Go on, I dare you...

But wait, there may be more...

Spirited Generosity - Week 2

Spirited Generosity - Week 2 from Craig Mitchell on Vimeo.

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2014

I'm helping two of our city churches - Pilgrim and CitySoul - plan Adelaide Fringe events for February-March next year. Here's the unofficial blurb from the Fringe Guide (pre-publication). Stay tuned for more details. (Click the image for enlargement.)

birthday dinner

pan-seared duck breast with celeriac mash, baby carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, toasted hazelnuts and a mandarin-Cointreau sauce added later. (Duck looks like it's deep-fried in the photo - it wasn't).

Dessert was a cheese and fruit tasting plate - Woodside goats cheese in edible flowers (bought), strawberries with chocolate ganache (made),  pear and grain discs (bought) with hazelnut praline (made), drizzled with honey. A local (Strathalbyn) gourmet muscat fruit cake as the birthday cake.

 

Spirited Generosity - Week 1

Here is next Sunday's video for our mission giving program, "Spirited Generosity". Each week we're focus on some of our mission goals - five over three weeks so there's a bit of double up. Keeping the videos pretty simple. Video is followed by  someone talking for 2 mins about the goal/s.

Spirited Generosity Week 1 from Craig Mitchell on Vimeo.

There Will Never Be any Peace

Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) has produced the new album from The Blind Boys of Alabama. This track - "There will never be any peace (until God is seated at the conference table") is stunning.