Vote Baby Vote!
All the talk of General and local elections coming up has reminded me of the brilliant short track "Vote Baby Vote" by Deee Lite. A funky 30 seconds with a serious message...

I'm quite unsure where to put my cross this time, although will probably end up with my usual choice. I did a "who should you vote for" online test, but found it little help! One thing that does concern me is that with all the expenses scandal stuff still in people's mind that people will decide not to vote. I'm not sure that's a helpful way forward. For all its flaws this is how we do it, so I think I'm with Deee Lite in saying "Vote Baby Vote". And in case you're not sure if you're registered, try here...

And for Christians, this article is interesting "Jesus calls us to vote..."

That song (again)
This site/facebook page is so interesting: You're my healer
Seems Kari Jobe has recorded the song
Given the controversy of the worship song's origins, fake cancer etc. (story here), this is a brave and potentially controversial move.
Interesting!

The challenge of ethnodoxology
Been thinking about worship in a multicultural city such as London, a bit this week. Partly prompted by stuff from my dissertation a couple of months back, partly by some colleagues and partly by some input from Muyiwa at our worship training day last week.

I think the answer may partly lie in encouraging home-grown worship, both in music and beyond.
To encourage communities to express worship in songs that are birthed from within the community rather than simply buy the latest "Now that's what I call worship" type CD. Or at least take existing songs and use them as tools rather than recreating the "album version" like a dodgy covers band.

Confession: I'm actually a big consumer of worship music, I own lots of albums (it helps to have a producer friend), and hunt for free stuff online. But I know at the same time I have gotten lazy and have not written any music for a long while. Pete Ward charts the rise and place of the worship music industry well in Selling Worship, which I shall add to my re-read list!

Rambling thoughts I fear, but helping people authentically express worship is a huge thing. I think music and singing do still (and always will) be a key part of that, if only we can be willing to move beyond our own narrow expectations.

One for musicians
It's over an hour long, but Bob Kauflin's "band on the run" seminar about arrangements for worship musicians is well worth a look. Great refreshment of the basics for bands playing together in worship.

DJ Pete's return
Yesterday I dusted off my turntable, CD decks and mixer.
It was the 70th anniversary celebration for a local church I have connections with, and they had a party with music from the last 7 decades. So I got to spin some tunes for them, from "We'll meet again" through to Beatles, disco classics, even the dreaded Birdie Song. Was much fun, and plenty of dancing (even without alcohol).

Today I was doing a Pentecost service for another church also celebrating their Sunday School's 99th Anniversary!

Gigs and Graduations
Sunday night Hammersmith Apollo was our destination to see Deacon Blue. Fair to say it was a mature audience, but a good night. Last year we saw them in Birmingham. Hammersmith was a good venue, especially as our seats got upgraded from the very back to the stalls!
Loads of great photos from the gig here. And if you're interested a set list here.

On Monday the Mrs was graduating at the Barbican with her CPP course from TVU. She did well on the course (and even won a "best student award" from the professional body)! Nice one Mrs!
I'n a TVU alumnus, but I never went to my graduation.

Christmas is coming
It's getting to that time of year when I get to go and play piano for carol services!
But for those who play guitar or do band - led worship, carols can be a struggle (I know I've heard a few killed and probably mutilated a few myself!).
I'm pleased to see that Dan Wilt is one again plugging his "Simple Carols", from the " Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship" over in Canada. 10 carols arranged in singable keys (seems to be me that most trad. arrangements of carols plump for "F" even if goes way too high!).
Check it out here!

CD's
It's 25 years since CD's started being marketed! Yahoo story here.
Makes me feel old...
I didn't get a CD player until 1995, so I was a late adopter (and a vinyl record fan).
CD technology has had quite an impact. I remeber thinking how exciting it was when I installed my first CD burner into a PC - all that data on one disc, plus for music it seemed like a step up from the compilation tape (which I still have boxes of).

Will they survive in a world of MP3's and downloads, plus portable hard-drives for data transfer?

Retro Worship Music
While preparing for a service for Sunday morning on Jesus feeding 5000 I remembered an old song:
"Who took fish and bread, hungry people fed?"
Eventually I tracked it down in an old book (Youth Praise, Orange cover!), and realised it's by Betty Lou Mills.
Quality.
We had some of her records when I was a kid, and they went with stuff like "Come Together". Great 70's Christian music.

The fish and bread song has some great lyrics:
"Who walked dusty road? Cared for young and old?
Who sat children on his knee?"

Fair to say they don't write them like that these days!
(and check out Bizarre Records for other random record sleeves)

Tunes
I was given a bag of old cassette tapes yesterday.
Listening to some of them to see what was on them has been interesting - a kind of musical nostalgia. Several are old things I did (such as a 1988 recording with a Casio keyboard in a kind of bad electro-house style), some are compilation tapes (who needed Ipods?). One or 2 are mix tapes from when I had my decks out, good house music.

One of the things I got at Christmas that pleased me was Hed Kandi Classics, which includes some of the tunes I used to spin (and still have on vinyl stashed somewhere).It got me dancing round the kitchen while washing up!