I’m gonna pull you in close, gonna wrap you up tight

I cycled home from work on Wednesday in a torrent of rain. The roads were chock-a-block with cars thanks to a crash on the M62. I was missing my usual tennis night and, to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was go to Blackpool to watch Interpol. This feeling was compounded by having to trek all round the houses to get there, having to change a £10 note into 10 pences at a local arcade to get a parking ticket and, thanks to, not knowing where the Empress Ballroom was, wandering round the windy, cold streets of my least favourite seaside resort. I was near suicidal by the time the support band, Blonde Redheads, a fine band I am sure, was mixed so badly it just sounded like white noise.

And then I saw this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/2073422753_62852fb835_m.jpg

And I heard this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7duAtM_Yg

And I was like a teenager. Pretty soon both Tom and I were in the pit, moshing along to our favourite songs. They played everything I liked and quite a few that I didn’t think I liked until that night. The sound was fantastic, they play so tight together and yet there was room to throw in some long pauses and even to let the crowd sing along, which I wasn’t expecting.

They were on for well over an hour by which time poor Tom, not used to hard core dad moshing (tapping ones foot whilst giving the old mustache a stroke) felt a bit faint and had to be taken to one side for some fresh air.

The encore was brilliant, all old stuff.

We got home in about 45 minutes as well, rather tired, very sweaty but still buzzing from what had been a top night.

When you’re young

whoa-o

It is Children in Need (CIN) day today. I must say I am not a great fan. It’s not that I don’t like Terry Wogan, I believe that is one of the remaining treasonable offences punishable by hanging, it’s not even that I don’t like news readers behaving like total prats doing song and dance routines (which I don’t). I think the thing I find most objectionable is that I don’t think it really works. I would go further and say that in some ways the event exacerbates the problems it pupports to be trying to fix.

How can that be? I hear you ask, each year we give millions and millions of pounds, every year more than the previous one. Famous people give up their time and for a few thousand pounds you could have some ‘famous’ singer give you and your family a private concert.

And yet we hear every day that the problems young people face are getting worse and there is little trust between the young and the not so young in our society.

The problem would appear to be one of distancing ourselves from the issues. We think that we can solve the problems by proxy. We can give some money and have a good laff at the telly and life will get better for everyone. This is obviously not the case.

I appreciate that a lot of people work hard to raise money and a lot of people work hard to spend that money to help the lot of young people everywhere. I do, also, believe that people think this lets the majority of the rest of us off the hook. Sadly it doesn’t.

So I won;t be tuning in tonight, I will be where I am every Friday, helping the kids at Weekenders enjoy their Friday night together.

In my own small way I will be satisfying some childrens needs.

With God on our side…

It was remembrance day yesterday. We commemorated it in BCLC in this way:

It happened to be the worlds eye day and I wanted to convey something of the reality of war. This is a little challenging in the confines of a lounge in a church in Stockport but I do like a challenge. The focus was to try to evoke the mood of optimism and excitement that tends to precede a conflict. This was never more so than in the first world war where young men signed up in to give the bosch a jolly good thumping. Then change the mood and attempt see how that hope gets crushed by the vile horror of painful, violent death.

We played battleships, a sort of war game where you don’t get hurt and generally have a good time. We then went into the 2 minutes silence and followed that by playing Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ and having people reading poetry that had been inspired by conflicts. The mood change worked perfectly, we went on to discuss just what happens in wars and the effect that has on the people fighting them.

Right up until the 2 mins started we were laughing and joking and then I don’t think anyone even cracked a smile afterwards.

We followed this with an excursion to the Imperial War Museum (North) which is always an inspiring and thought provoking place to go and never more so than on a day like yesterday.

Next week we will be looking more at the causes of war, why we fight, do we ever have God on our side?

D’ya wanna be in my gang?

BCLC are now on Facebook. You can join us if you are an FB member by finding the group (bclc) and then sending in a request to join.

Hear the one with the moustache say “Jeez, I can’t find my knees!”

I am very pleased to announce that very soon indeed I will be the one with the moustache.

For those of you that don’t know yet I am observing the month of Movember and growing myself a ‘Mo’  (this is an Australian abreviation of the word, we prefer ‘tache in the UK but it would be difficult to turn that into the name of a month)

I am hoping to raise some money along the way for Prostrate Cancer research and treatment so if you would like to contribute then you need to do this:

To sponsor my Mo (moustache) and fight against prostate cancer please go to http://www.movember.com/uk/donate, enter my registration number which is 166693 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to “The Prostate Cancer Charity” clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 166693. Please mail cheques to: The Prostate Cancer Charity, ATT: Movember, First Floor, Cambridge House, 100 Cambridge Grove, Hammersmith, London W6 0LE.

All donations are made directly to The Prostate Cancer Charity which will use the money to fund high quality research into the causes, treatment and impact of prostate cancer and to provide support and information to men and their families.

Pictures of my proud and hairy upper lip will be forthcoming ……

Come you masters of war

We had a meeting og the BCLC planning committee last night round at our house. We usually meet in the pub but for one reason or another we had it in our drawing room instead.

During the meeting we had reason to look back at what we had done previously to try to ensure we don’t end up doing the same thing year in year out – oh it’s harvest, let’s think about how little we actually do compared to what we could do to even up the distribution of the world’s resources – you know the sort of thing.

This Sunday is, of course remembrance Sunday. These days are especially poignant when there is actually a real war on at the time (that we are directly involved with, i.e. actually fighting rather than just arming both sides) I always think. At other times we tend to get a bit sentimental about what is a truly abhorant and disagreable way to go about sorting out problems.

So this Sunday we will be playing a popular war game (battleships) and then going to the Imperial War Museum North to see what really happens when you select c4 and sink a submarine.

I will duly record procedings a relate them to you, if only for the benefit of the planners.

Next week we will start looking less at what happens in war and more at why we have them and whether there can ever truly be a just war. If you would like to pre-empt that discussion I will gladly take your points along to the session (or bring them yourself..) and share them with the group.