benbell

Mustafa Hulusi

I was introduced to Mustafa Hulusi at a recent exhibition and was fascinated to hear about his posters. I now walk past one every day which has caused me to look closer ………

Question: What would happen if our film icons, pop-stars and media celebrities, tired of endlessly turning their lives into the images we consume and decided one day to give up? What if they decided to stop what they were doing, leave the sets of feature films empty, let music videos grow quiet, fail to turn up to collect their latest award? Who would replace them? And would we care?

Mustafa Hulusi takes on these tough questions, and offers hard answers.

Mustafa Hulusi places himself in the public eye, his name emblazoned on bill boards. He offers nothing more than his name, provoking the question – what is behind the name, who does this name belong to, why is it on a bill board.

Mustafa Hulusi is provoking me to question the role of celebrity. He points me once again to Marshall McLuhan's ‘the medium is the message’ and stimulates my thinking about advertising and the role of bill boards (a few people have posted on this – recently some good stuff from Kester)

Please let me know if you see other posters.

Gospel House

It's great to see / hear so many different forms of music being used in worship. The world of meditative / 'slow down and have a think and pray' music has exploded in the past decade with pioneering albums like the Cafe Del Mar series - now who hasn't used a Cafe Del Mar track at church? We are Increasingly finding new ways to use music recognising that we don't all have to stand up and sing along to the music in church, but we can play it behind liturgy, or just play a tune for people to listen to.

What I've noticed though is that most 'alt worship' is of the chilled variety and if you want a few upbeat tunes then you better get yourself along to a 'Youth Celebration'. The Alt worship movement has done a wonderful thing by jogging many of us into remembering the part lament has to play in corporate worship but has celebration been lost along the way?

I want to wax lyrical about Gospel House. It's grown up, chances are the young people at your church will think it's crap. It finds it's fans within the 'Dad House' genre but is lyrically and musically beautiful.
It's celebratory, enthusiastic, anti-stuffy, poetically rich, and musical genius.
If you want to here some then check out the Basement Boys  particularly the Jasper Street Company  and their big tune praisin' his name

50 boxes

We have spent the past week constantly packing up our home as the council (our landlords) are going to do some major works on the house – re-wire, new heating, bathroom & kitchen etc …

It’s a right old hassle. Anyway we have discovered that our positions (excluding furniture etc) fits into 50 boxes. The boxes went into storage yesterday and the work has started this morning - very stressful. I have relocated my office to the already overcrowded church office. Am having lots of interesting thoughts and feelings about this major upheaval and wonder where it might lead us….. displaced, naked, disorientated, overwhelmed.

while i'm on the subject of boxes, i have just come accross this great 'art on a box'  site called the box doodle project  there are some lovely images. might try this with some young people.

Observer Article

I arrived back from a great week away in the south of France expecting to read what my blog roll buddies made of a  very good article on the freedom of current internet use (includes blogging) in the Observer Review last Sunday. I haven't found any mention of it so am drawing your attention to it here. I can't help thinking that there are some parallels to be drawn between the current and future pictures of internet use (as described in the article) and different forms of church.
describing the present situation .....

In an era whose triumphant idea is capitalism, where success is generally measured in the accumulation of wealth, it is hard to conceive of a parallel society established and self-governed on principles of trust and common ownership. But it exists.

ring any bells? see Kester and his book the Complex Christ.

there is also some great writing about the fear of the internets dark alleys enticing people into walled gardens (of presumed safety). As i said plenty of parallels to be drawn with establish and emerging church and also I think, plenty of insight to be gained.

start of term - it's nuts!

it's all a bit mad at the moment, new term, lots to do and low on blogging inspiration.
we have received a grant to run a boating project for 15 local young people. canoeing, sailing and a couple of weekends on a narrow boat. Exciting stuff and it's all in place apart from the young people signing up - it's always a bit of a nightmare trying to get them to commit, even though we know and they know that they will love it!