Yadda Yadda Yadda

Yesterday Jenny, Alison & I headed down the Victorian coast to the Point Nepean Music Festival. It was awesome! 12 hours, 2 stages and lots of lots of artists! We started off seeing Dallas Frasca. She's pretty full on! I do love her music though. She has a real raw passion which you don't see often in women on stage. She plays really gusty roots music that certainly isn't background noise. It demands to be listened to!

After seeing Dallas, we wandered over to the other stage to see Iain Archer. I'd never heard of him, but wow! For me, he was the highlight. Now, I'm not saying he was the best, although he was incredible. But some of the other acts I expected to be awesome, but I hadn't heard of Iain before. Given my low expectation of someone I'd never heard of, I was blown away! I will be getting this man's new album for sure! As soon as I get paid... His music was melodic and complicated and originally creative whilst still being catchy to hear and easy to listen to. He was a real musician. I was so impressed! And he had the coolest Irish accent!


After Iain, Ozomatli got on stage. What fun! They were a latin hip hop band from LA. There are 9 people in their band! They've got great energy and everyone was up and dancing. There were about 7,500 people there by the way!

The Bela Fleck and the Flecktones came on. Just as Bela was soundchecking I realised who he was! Oh my gosh! I can't believe I got to see Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten!!! It was the most amazing set! Some people got bored and wandered off, beacuse they didn't appreciate how unbelievable they were! There was no singer, just 4 guys going nuts on their instruments! They are some of the best musicians in the whole world! Bela plays the banjo, Victor the bass, Jeff the wind instruments (sax, flute, everything!), and futureman (?!) the Synthaxe Drumitar. If you don't know what that is, google it. It's incredible! I was blown away by how good these guys are! And they don't even look like they are trying!


Then I caught a few songs of Amos Lee's set over on the other stage. He's brilliant! Used to play with Norah Jones. Beautiful voice and smooth blues tunes. Check him out for sure! He's in Melbourne at the moment, so catch a show if you can. He's an American.










Then back to the main stage to see the Waifs. Stunning as always. First time I've seen them live. They are really tight musically. Great set by them. Wonderful harmonies, and you gotta love that harmonica. Josh Cunningham is the most amazing guitarist!





After the Waifs the long awaited return of Missy Higgins! She's been in the States recording her new album after travelling around Australia for a while, so it's been a while since she's done a live show. She was great as she always is. Great performer! However, I wasn't that impressed with all of her new stuff. Some of it was great, but 2 of the tracks I thought were boring and predicatble. I was a bit disappointed actually. She still sounded amazing, but I'm not sure about her new tracks.



Then John Mayer hit the stage. Wow! I hadn't seen him live yet and I wasn't disappointed! He is a killer musician! I'm loving his new album, which I got at the end of last year. I'm listening to it right now actually! I think he's really found himself with the new stuff. Much more bluesy. I am just so impressed with how well he knows all the music, he just ad libs all the time and is free to play around with his own music, and as dumb as it sounds, 'make it his own'. I know it's his music, but every time he plays, it's different. I've seen heaps of his live shows on tv, and he always sings his tunes slightly differently. That's a sign of a good muso. He really gets invovled in his music and it shows. Can't wait to catch another one of his shows!


Then back to the other stage to catch the end of Ben Kweller's set. I don't know much of his music, but I love 'sundress', which I got to hear, so I'm happy. Kind of. It's a long story.



Anyway, the day was amazing and I am so glad I went! A great day of awesome music! I was sooooooo tired by the end of it all, but it was so worth it! I love Australia and it's wide variety of easily accessible music.

I was reading something on a Christiany blog the other day, but it all sounded a little airy fairy spiritual to me. I like things that give people a handle on what to do, not just a bunch of nice ideas that don't leave people with direction, and tangible things to do in life. We need to be empowered to live as God wants us to in the real world where we interact with the messiness of life. Not to live a nice Christian life where we are untouched by the world and it's 'dirt'. What good is our faith if we can't live in the real world?

Also, on another 'faith' note. I was at the John Butler free gig last night (which was freaking awesome by the way!!!!!) and afterwards Myf, Jay & the Doctor were saying their wrap up things, and the Doctor wished us all a happy "non denominational, non religious specific, April long weekend". What the?! It's about Jesus! It's one thing for you not to agree with Christianty and the whole thing about Easter and Jesus. That's everyone's choice. But why cover up the fact that that's what Easter is about? Why do we need to hide the fact that it's about Jesus, whether you are a Christian or not? That's why we celebrate Easter. If we did that with Ramadan there would be an uproar! It would be so offensive and so politically incorrect. So why can we do it with Easter?

Check out a show on Triple J on Sunday night's from 9pm called "Restoring The Balance". It's a satirical radio program that attempts to display the contrasting political views between the conservative Australian Howard government, and the majority of the Left wing government-funded Triple J radio station. The premise of the show suggests that the station was forced by the ABC board to broadcast a segment of right wing political views in order to restore the balance. A lot of people don't realise that's it's actually a satirical show, a joke, and they ring up all angry. Hilarious! But it's so obviously extreme! Hilarious, offensive and shocking to listen to, but also scary because so much of that thought is prevalent in our political arena.

I was on the Hamish & Andy show again today. Whoo!!!

And I was just on super request on Triple J!

Time for another weekly Triple J update. This week my ratings went up AGAIN and I now hold places 41 & 48 overall! I'm also holding places 2 & 3 for my genre (electronic). Thank you again for voting for me! And if you haven't voted for me yet, please do! Keep passing the word around!

In case you needed further proof of the fact that my brother & I are insane, here you go:



This is Luke (aka Guru) & I on the way to his 21st last year singing in the car. It's recorded on my phone, so that's why it looks a bit dodgy.



This is us in the kitched just after I got my new phone. Don't ask. And I'm not sure what noise I made at the end of that video...

And just because I thought this was fun! I stole it off Howie's blog.



I'm going to go with MORE scared!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Rob!
Happy birthday to you!

Hope you have a fantastic day!

Time for the weekly Triple J update. This week my ratings went up AGAIN and I now hold places 52 & 69 overall!!! I am stoked, but baffled as to how this is happening! I also now hold places 1 & 2 for my genre (electronic). NUMBER 1!!!! Thank you so much for voting for me! And if you haven't voted for me yet, please do! Keep passing the word around!

I just realised I haven't posted wedding photos yet! Aaron (aka Soldier) & Jen tied the knot on Feb 10th. It was such a great day! We all had stacks of fun and it was great to celebrate their new life together. I was honoured to be a part of it, I sang & played the piano during the ceremony. This is a shot during the ceremony.


Signing the register. Aren't they a good looking bunch? Jen wore a green dress which was stunning and the boys got top hats! How fun! The groomsmen are Glenn & Ben (Left to Right), and the bridesmaids are Emily & Anne (Left to Right). Everyone just looked so pretty!



This is Anna & I as the reception was starting. You can see the photos get sillier as the night goes on...




This is the amazing cake that Ben made. What a clever boy he is. And he sacrificed an awful lot of sleep to make it. Yay for Ben!













Simone & I














The happy couple cutting the happy cake.










Matt (aka KK) & I looking incredibly attractive. Control yourself people. You know you want us!











Revvy & I. The beard has been significantly chopped since then. Revvy is now no longer a terror suspect.









This is Jo & Brent (aka Wire). Aren't they a good looking couple? Everyone sigh. Awwww!








Cazz & I.









Neale & Jess, yet another good looking couple!








Sam & Mike (from left to right). Not a couple, but still good looking!










First dance as husband & wife. Awwww!















The lovely Cazz just after she caught the bouquet. Yes, for once, I did NOT catch the bouquet!














Brent & I with Mike popping his head up in the background, he did that in quite a few photos!











Brent, Jo & I with Mike, once again, in the background!










Chrystal (aka Mrs Dboy) & I.









Once again (as per other wedding photos) Ben has decided to try to eat people, specifically me. Something different for him...









Glenn & I. Doesn't he scrub up nicely!









The groom & I. Yay for Aaron!








Anna & Rob. Awwww! It was their 1 year wedding anniversary the next day. Which was a month and a half ago now. I am so slack.... Sorry!










Brent, Mike & I (from left to right)







Hugh, Amy & I with lollypops. How fun! They were on every table. The lollypops that is, not Hugh & Amy. Another good looking couple! Hugh & Amy, not the lollypops.








Isn't Emily pretty? She was one of Jen's bridesmaids.








Lots of people in this one. From left to right we have Danny, Kate, Jo, Cazz & I.






Anna, Rob & I looking gorgeous. And oh so normal.










Like I said, Ben likes to eat people, and I think Rob just wanted to be in the photo. And there is someone's head sticking up at the back. Not Mike this time, but Anna.











From left to right, Chrystal, Carolyn & I.













Simone with someone's top hat, probably Ben's, and a glass of champagne, that I don't think was hers either. THEIF!











Paul (aka Billy) and Andrew having lots of fun. I have so many photos of those two. What posers!






Group shot! From left to right we have Andrew, Debbie, Rachael & I. And we have Paul popping his head up in the front. Fun times! Man do I look creepy in that photo!! What's up with my freaky eyes?!






Tim, Rob & I in a very serious shot.









And last, but not least, this is Kate & I. I think she stole Ben's hat too. That hat certainly did the rounds that night!






So as you can see we certainly had an amazing time. It was a wonderful day and I'm really happy for Aaron & Jen. They are really happy together and I know they will have a great life as husband and wife. Congrats guys. Love you heaps!

I just drove a friend back to Sunbury (for those Melbournites) where he is staying. He's from Sydney. I got sooooo unbelievably lost! I'm a moron. It's official. It took us almost 2 hours to get there, and took me 45 minutes to get home. I suck at reading maps. Now I'm tired and have uni @ 9am. Damn.

More exciting news! Thanks again to everyone who has been voting for me in Triple J's unearthed comp! This week my ratings went up again and I now hold places 81 & 91 overall!!! That's unbelievable! I am so excited!!!! I also hold places 6 & 7 for my genre (electronic). Thank you so much to everyone who has voted for me! You may be confused as to why I only have 2 songs in the charts this week coz I had 3 last week, well I took 1 of my songs down to upload a different one, and that hasn't been approved yet. I'll let you know when it is. Keep passing the word around! Love,

Meags

This is an article written by the new national director of FORGE, Andrew Hamilton. I thought it was really interesting. I'd be interested in getting your thoughts.




ARE WE THERE YET?


A few Forge intensives ago I listened to Mark Sayers provide an excellent overview of how the 'emerging church' has emerged so far... Its been an interesting journey with some signficant shifts in thinking having happened very rapidly already.

Here's my plagiarised, summarised and modified adaption of Mark's presentation.

Stage 1 - What Shall We Sing? - As trivial as it may seem now, I have a sense that the whole hymns / choruses, 'worship wars' saga was actually the start of something. It was a recognition that there just may be a different way to do things. It wasn't necessarily missional in its philosophy - rather it was often just Christians who were sick of singing the same songs over and over - who decided to sing different songs over and over…

But ouch - the pain of such a vicious debate over what we now see as such simple things! At least it began the process of thought. Can we do things even a little differently? Is there a 'right' way?... Or could there be other ways?...

Stage 2 - Everybody Gets a Drum Kit - Otherwise known as 'contemporary worship'. Some churches bit the bullet, took the hit and went and bought a drum kit, a keyboard and a decent sound system.

We began to sing songs that sounded a bit more like what you would hear on the radio, even if the musicians were average and the singers below par. We had drama as part of the service, practical sermons with 'fill in the blank' handouts and music practices took on a whole new look - because 'excellence' was the goal.

Some variety came into the worship service - but funnily enough it soon developed into a different but fairly predictable routine - 4 fast songs, (which we called praise) 4 slow (which we called worship) the usual offering and annoucments followed by the sermon.

There was no fundamental change in the DNA of the beast, and sadly for many modern churches this has been the end of the road.

Stage 3 - Gen X Worship - As above but with dim lights and candles.

I don't think I'm overstating it? Perhaps the only other real change was funkier and/or louder music, but in a more ambient environment. There was at least talk of the fact that an emerging generation were seeking some different things. We read books like "Inside the Mind of a New Generation" and realised that community was a priority, process was more important than product and so on... you know the drill.

It actually felt like we were on the cutting edge - but my guess is that it was only edgy for the church - not for those in our local communities who didn't know Jesus. They remained relatively underwhelmed with our great leaps forward.

Stage 4 - Hmmmm Crunchy! - The alt worship crowd recognised that we do not all learn, worship and experience God in the same ways.

They reminded us that there were five senses and it was ok to smell, touch, taste things in church. They looked way back and recovered some valuable ancient practices. As a result some very creative expressions of worship emerged. But my experience was that it was mostly about creating a better more engaging experience for the already Christian and often it was a highly labour intensive process with huge amounts of effort going into the co-ordination of each 'worship event'..

Something was mutating but by and large it was the same animal.

-

Perhaps the most signifcant commonality to all of the stages mentioned above is that they primarily use an attractional or 'come to us' approach. Mission occurs as more people join the gathering and the more attractive the gathering the more likely people will come.

There has been some 'success' in each of these stages, but I have a sense that they are each fundamentally flawed in that they seem to suggest that if we get the worship gathering happening right then the people will come.

It suggests that missiology follows ecclesiology. The fifth stage takes a radically different approach.

-

Stage 5 - Incarnational Faith Communities - Also known as the Emerging Missional Church. I sense this is where many of us are at today. The key difference between this arrangement and its predecessors is that IFCs seek to understand the culture first, then do mission and from there create worshiping communities. It is a go to them approach rather than a come to us - a fundamental reconfiguration of the DNA.

It recognises that getting the meeting right is not the answer to the missional woes of the church, but that what we need to do is incarnate the gospel in our communities and then grow churches - in whatever form they may take - from there. Having been part of all of the above - and at each stage feeling like I had 'arrived' or 'found the secret' I think I am now savvy enough to know that we are not there yet. As much as I resonate strongly with the IFC conceptualisation of the church I'd like to see where we are in 10 years time…

Are we there yet?...

I went to a public lecture this evening in the city on non-violence activism. It was really interesting. It was run by an organisation called Pace Bene. Very thought provoking stuff. The speakers were John Dear & Tim Costello. I'll talk more about it later. I'm tired now.

Exciting news! Thanks to everyone who voted for me! In my first week I've taken out places 14, 15 & 16 on the electronic charts in Triple J's unearthed comp! And places 185, 187 & 188 all up! Whoo!!! I have no idea how many songs are up there, but I do know that there are thousands of bands overall. Thank you so much to everyone who has voted for me! Keep passing the word around!

Hey. I need some help. As I've said, I've entered myself in Triple J's unearthed comp



I am trying to decide which tracks would be best up there, so I'd love it if you could go to my myspace and let me know out of those 4, which 3 are the best ones. Thanks!

I got a hair cut yesterday. I bet nobody notices. No one ever notices when I get my hair cut.

I'm hitting the big 25 today. Happy Birthday to me!

It's time for a Triple J unearthed updated! I've got new versions of tracks up now and I need all the help I can get, so please rate my tunes! Thanks! And do lots of shameless promotion on my behalf!!!

We had so much fun last night! My family & I headed off to the ABC studios and were in the studio audience for 'Spicks & Specks'. They filmed 2 shows last night and one of them was the Mother's Day special. It was such a fun night. So much laughing! We had such a great time. Afterwards we got to meet Adam, Alan & Myf. They were so nice! They signed stuff for us and I got photos. Here they come!


This is Adam, Alan & me from left to right. They were very cool guys.











And here is Myf & I. She's so short! And she's a crazy woman. She shoots S&S twice a week late at night, then does Breakfast Radio! Crazy!!! I'm impressed.









This is a set shot from where I was sitting. Sweet right?


It was such a fun night, everyone was so nice and in such a good mood. Can't wait to go again in April! The tickets are free if you check out the website and call the number. It's so worth it!

Tonight my family & I are going to be in the studio audience for 'Spicks & Specks'. It's one of our favourite shows! We usually watch it together. For those of you who don't know, check it out here. It's a musical game show with famous musos and comedians. It's so funny! I'm really looking forward to it! They are taping 2 shows. Should be a great night!

What's the funniest quote you've ever heard? Let's get some laughter happening around here!

“I can't swim. I can't drive, either. I was going to learn to drive but then I thought, well, what if I crash into a lake?”

“I don't do drugs. If I want a rush I just stand up when I'm not expecting it.”

“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.”

I started uni again for the year today. Apart from the intensive I did a couple of weeks ago. That was awesome! It was a subject called 'urban sociology'. Great stuff!

I'm doing some hard core intensive counselling subjects this year. At least that's what everyone who's done it says. You basically practice on eachother in tute groups, so you 'unearth' your stuff, and talk about it with each other. Full on! Hopefully it'll be good. It sounds like it'll be really beneficial for personal growth as well as developing counselling skills. It sounds crazy and requires some serious vulnerability, which I'm not big on for those that know me. Today was a long and hot day, but I'm looking forward to my uni stuff this year.

What did you guys do today?

It's participation time! What tv shows do you want to see crossover? I would love to see Chloe & Morris from '24' move onto Wisteria Lane in 'Desperate Housewives'! Hilarious!

I saw this movie yesterday. Well, I guess it's not really a movie, more a doco. It was very eye opening. I knew a bit of what was spoken about, but now I feel much more informed. Part of me wishes Gore had got the presidency over Bush, but who knows right? Anyway, you can't see a film like that and not have to do something about it. I'm really glad it's being shown in schools in American. I wish they'd show it in schools here. The next generation are the ones who are going to be taking over industry. They are the ones who will end up with the responsibility for the planet. It is our job to inform them so that they are aware of the need to care for it. I think our task is to remove the excuse of ignorance and inform people so that they are drive to action. Because this is something that affects us all, not just some of us.

I think "An Inconvenient Truth" is a great film, very inspiring. I want everyone to see it. I want our societies to be driven by morals & elthics, not the dollar. I want our world to function in a way that is sustainable, that cares, not expolits. This is a principle that I want to see transfered to humanity, not just the environment, but we won't have much of a world to care for each other in if we don't look after it.

If Al Gore came here to do his presentation I'd love to go.

It annoys me that the 2 countries who signed the Kyoto Protocol and haven't met the standards are the US & Australia. Why aren't we doing more about something so important. I get that Australia's carbon emissions are fairly small given our small population, however, per capita we are terrible!

I know I want to do something about this, and I hope everyone does. Let's not buy into 'easy', let's do what's right.

How does anybody fill their day? I think the truth is you fill your day, most of the time, by being in the washing machine of your own mind, thinking: What's this? When does it stop? Am I enjoying it? I don't know. Oh, it's time to go to sleep. I can't, I'm worried. And then you wake up and smear jam on your family's face and your own.

- Dylan Moran

I had to get up at 5am this morning to start work @ 6am. That should be illegal in my opinion. It's just after 6am now and my brain is not functioning at all. What baffles me is those people who get up at this time voluntarily. Why are there so many people in the gym?!! Crazies!!!

Wedding photos coming soon!

Ok, so no real fame. But over the last week or so I've been on the Hamish & Andy show twice and I was on jjj's super request yesterday. Yay!



Aaron & Jen get married tomorrow! Yes, another wedding. How exciting!



It's Alison's birthday party tonight. Happy late birthday to Alison for Wednesday! Yay for parties!

Check out the podcasts or the actual show of John Safran & Father Bob McGuire. It's a facinating show that openly discusses religion in all it's forms. It can get very heated and controversial. It's well worth a listen. Facinating stuff from all walks of life. From ultra liberal to ultra conservative and everything in between. Moral issues, religious facisism, social issues and all sorts of things that are hard to categorise. You can get it off itunes for free in the triple j podcast section. It's on Sunday nights in Australia from 9pm - 11pm. Have a listen if you can!

Oh, and I wrote yet another electronica song. It's on my myspace.

I've decided to try out some new stuff, so I've just written my first electronica/chillout song. Hope you like it! It's called 'I wait in the dark'.

Check it out here.