Archive for January, 2011

// sunday music: the decemberists

Stirring stuff from the Decemberists this week, whose new album The King is Dead came out a few weeks back. If it sounds to you a little bit like mid-90s R.E.M, don’t be surprised – it’s got R.E.M’s guitarist Peter Buck playing on it. First pick is opening track Don’t Carry it All, with harmonica [ READ MORE ]

// saturday round-up (29/01)

Sorry about the lack of the Saturday round-up last week – things got really crazy and there just wasn’t space in my timetable to fit it in. Anyway, hopefully this week’s selection should make up for it, with a whole lot of controversy from a whole lot of sources: * * * ARTICLE OF THE [ READ MORE ]

// morality, naivety and cultural sensitivity

There’s a fair amount of malicious glee knocking around certain corners of the internet over the failure of MTV’s American import of the show Skins, an adaptation of the UK concept that is currently shedding sponsors owing to a fear that its depiction of teenage life may stray into a technical definition of “child pornography” [ READ MORE ]

// sunday music: the national

Three picks today from misery-rock champions The National, who have been making quiet, melancholic waves in the indie scene for the past few years and whose latest album, “High Violet” featured on the “best of 2010″ list of almost everyone who writes about these things. Suffused with melancholy and yet also oddly uplifting, there’s echoes [ READ MORE ]

// stasis and perpetual motion

An interesting question from Krish Kandiah this week: does reading the Bible cause us to be more active in our faith, or does being active in our faith inspire us to read the Bible? Is it a question that you can ever get to the bottom of? The puzzle, he says, derives from an Evangelical [ READ MORE ]

// sunday music: top worship albums of the past decade (part 2)

Okay, here’s the second part of the top worship albums of the past decade (you can find the first part here). Same principles apply as last time – i’m going in mostly alphabetical order, i’ve tried not to repeat too many artists, and if i’ve missed anyone, let me know! * * * Fling Wide [ READ MORE ]

// saturday round-up (14/01)

Loads of great stuff out there this week from a whole range of sources, but don’t let that put you off – take what you find helpful and discard the rest… * * * ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: Reaching a Missing Generation – Krish Kandiah: A great article over at Krish Kandiah’s blog today about [ READ MORE ]

// how to resist cliche

I do some work with a local school as part of my job, and this week I’ve been helping the year 6 class that I’m involved with by sitting in as a reader for their mock SATs. It’s endearing, albeit sometimes rather tragic, to see the looks of concentration on the faces of these children [ READ MORE ]

// sunday music: top worship albums of the past decade (part 1)

Another “best of” list for the next fortnight, before normal sunday music service resumes. This week and the next, i’m going to list some of the top worship albums of the past ten years – some well-known, and some less well-known. I’ve tried to shy away from listing some of the most popular albums (things [ READ MORE ]

// saturday round-up (08/01)

Okay, time for this week’s saturday round-up. I’ve included a few music videos this week too, partly because they’ve stuck out in my times with God over the past few days, and they’re well worth checking out. Let me know your thoughts as ever: * * * // dry bones – I posted about Gungor‘s [ READ MORE ]

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.