We arrived at around 12 and joined the queue of people waiting to get in…after driving between holding bays, waiting an hour then moving again we finally pitched up around 3…sorted ourselves out and headed to the festival village.

I have to say I went to Greenbelt not knowing what to expect…my more liberal friends love it and my more conservative friends would offer advise to steer clear and so I headed to Greenbelt with curiosity, an open-mind and with the idea that I’d be able to make a more informed judgment on the festival.

Ethos

For starters Greenbelt has this massive social justice ethos going on…pretty much every trailer had Fairtrade hot drinks and you couldn’t turn a corner or enter a marquee without someone trying to sell you some Divine chocolate or a ethically traded/fairtrade t-shirt…there was even a t-shirt with the Tesco logo but with ‘Tesco’ replaced by ‘Fiasco’…awesome (I didn’t buy one!).

Add into the mix numerous stalls and seminars on human rights and justice plus a sign around every corner reminding you that if Greenbelt was Gaza there would be x amount of you…insert starving or something to that effect here.

I have to say that I really related to this ethos and loved the Fairtrade, ethical aspect…especially when the Fairtrade chocolate was cheaper than in the shops!

Music

The main thing that attracted me to Greenbelt was ‘The King Blues’ and ‘Luke Leighfield’ who would play gigs during the weekend…however throughout the weekend I caught some other bands too including an acoustic and mainstage set from Jars of Clay.

For me it was this mix of contemporary Christian music and more secular music that really made Greenbelt great…as a musician and huge fan of music I don’t want to watch 70 bands play ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ slightly differently, I want decent music and the balance of Jars of Clay’s ‘worship’ music and ‘The King Blues’ acoustic meets ska meets punk filled with the cry for social justice which lies at the heard of Christianity gave Greenbelt the right mix of music.

Other Seminars

Truth be told I didn’t make it to many seminars and spent a fair amount of time catching up with old friends who happened to be there (another aspect of Greenbelt that I loved!). I did, however manage to catch Mark Yaconelli’s 1st talk which was engaging, interesting and challenging, I attended a seminar for musicians called ‘DIY or DIE’ which gave some interesting pointers on how to promote your own music and some insights into the professional industry and I also found myself in a talk about how homosexuals were being persecuted in Africa and how (from what I was told) it was mostly Rowan Williams fault!

This mix of seminars perhaps sums up the range of Greenbelt…there was also lots of seminars on other subjects such as loving your enemies, confidence for women, Fairtrade and seminars aimed at lesbian, gay or bisexual Christians.

Whilst the broad range of topics being discussed would make some Christians say ‘noooo can’t have that at a Christian festival‘ I found that (regardless of the rights and wrongs…which I’m not going in to) Greenbelt was taking you beyond being spoon-fed. If you go to Spring Harvest you know what you’re going to get….you need not question what’s being talked about because it’s all very ‘nice middle-class church’ whereas Greenbelt challenges you….I wouldn’t say I’ve come back with different views but it’s certainly made me think.

So…is Greenbelt Christian?

The best way to finish this blog post seemed to be by asking an ambiguous questions (with a hint of the rhetorical) and not actually answering it! However…

The actions of Jesus show Him meeting those society didn’t like…the dishonest…the prostitutes…the mentally unstable…or as Scum of the Earth church put it ‘the left out and right brained’ and for me Greenbelt did just that. The Sunday service by the main stage was a pretty conservative church service…nothing controversial at all however it was attended by thousands of people who the general church would exclude…those who (for whatever reason) just don’t fit into mainstream church.

Regardless of your opinion of Greenbelt the organisers have managed to create a Christian festival that people are actually comfortable inviting their non-Christian friends too….I could see anyone I know who isn’t Christian having an awesome time at Greenbelt and discovering a bit of what God is about…maybe it’s just the addition of a beer tent or maybe it’s the diversity of Greenbelt but anyone is genuinely welcome at the festival.

Contrast this to Spring Harvest and I think I know what comes out on top…yes perhaps there are some things at Greenbelt which aren’t “Christian” but the festival is honest with people, open and accessible.

So would I go back next year? Yes….I think Greenbelt is what you make it…if you want to rant about the liberalness of Greenbelt then you can choose to attend the seminars that will make you explode…if you want a nice, safe Greenbelt then you can attend the seminars that match that…if you want to watch some good music and drink some beer then you can even do that…it’s what you make it!

Who wants to come with us next year?

The show continued introducing us to the band as they recorded their first single and filmed their first music video before their song hit the shelves…pure and simple!

I have to admit that whilst no longer own the single I did buy it…I never owned the album (but back then I only really brought singles).

Popstars as a television show, wasn’t bad…it was fun and gave you an insight into how the life of a pop star begins…and I guess after two albums from Hear Say we saw how it ended!

Then X Factor came on the scene and sadly 6 years later it still takes up our Saturday nights for a third of the year. The problem with the X Factor is that it’s just not very good….and nor are the contestants!

Sure Alexander Burke can sing…I wouldn’t buy her music but she has a cracking voice…in turn JLS seem to have done well for themselves and generally each of the winners have bagged themselves a number one (one of which wasn’t a Christmas number 1 thanks to the RATM campaign).

Last night as the new series began I didn’t tune in but I did catch the hype on BBC’s breakfast and in turn saw 1 act which pretty much sums up the X Factor.

This act consisted of a lady giving a rendition of Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ which can only be described as a cross between that famous scene from ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and the noises someone would make as they went through the transformation between man and werewolf (or Jekyll and Hyde). Despite having buttons all 3 judges let her carry on before putting her through!

Now I’m all for novel acts but she wasn’t an act…she’s wasn’t a singer she was just a nutter who (truth be told) probably needs to be introduced to Jedward and locked away with them in some padded cell where the world will never hear them again!

For me it sums up the X Factor…it’s not about music it’s about 2 things:

1 – Entertainment - Ridiculous acts get through so people tune in again…fair enough and we know they won’t win but kinda defies the whole point of a talent show…it’s like the holiday camp talent shows where the 2 year old who managed half of ‘mary had a little lamb’ goes through just because she looked ‘cute’.

2 – Simon Cowel’s Pocket - The biggest winner from the X Factor is Simon…he pockets a nice tidy sum from Christmas sales hyped up by the X Factor and all he has to do for that is to record a middle-of-the-road single and promise them an album at some point. Awful as he is Joe McElderry (or whatever his name as) proves that once the Christmas money’s made no-one cares…afterall what’s he doing now?

So anyway there’s my rant…I won’t be tuning in but I will take part in whatever the campaign is that stops Simon bagging a number one!

To finish here’s a song called ‘The Next Big Thing’ by MxPx…I think it sums it up nicely

Perhaps one of the most unique things about Greenbelt is that it doesn’t have an exclusively Christian line-up…for example one of the headlining bands are The King Blues…this wider variety of music is something I’m really looking forward to…there’s only so many Matt Redman clones you can bare to watch!

Also in the musical line-up who I’m anticipating seeing is Luke Leighfield…a Ben Folds style musician from Southampton (Luke’s album ‘Have you got heart’ is free here and well worth downloading) and some worship being led by Andy Flannagan which should be a refreshing change.

The speakers include Mark Yaconelli and there’s also some interesting panels on the line-up including ‘Musician: how to do it yourself’ and ‘Is Meat murdering the planet’.

Alongside all this there seems to be plenty of other stuff going on…including a beer tent (the place I believe Jesus himself would be hanging out!). I’m really looking forward to the experience and being challenged but also having some time out to enjoy good music.

I’ll do a full blog round-up on Greenbelt after I’ve showered and reflected on the festival!

In the article (which I suspect puts the chap slightly out of context…however I couldn’t find his e-mail address online to ask him myself) Rev Michael Land who’s 67 suggests that ministers need to swear in their sermons in order to connect more with people..here’s an extract;

The vicar, who preached for 28 years in London’s East End said: “I’d have no problem using the F-word in a sermon if it meant I was connecting with people. The number attending services is falling and the church needs to modernise so it doesn’t fall behind completely.

“If that means swearing I say, ‘Why bloody not?’ People place Jesus on a pedestal. They’d probably be shocked by his language. He was poor and lacked any real education.”

Married dad-of-three Mr Land also told how he used the F-word on a motorist who cut him up. He said: “I wound my window down and said, ‘Why don’t you learn to f***ing drive’. He just walked away.”

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3075925/Vicar-preaches-Lords-swear.html#ixzz0vNzQkany

However the one product I was never sold to by Apple was the iPhone….not that it was a bad product but it just didn’t have the features. When I upgraded my phone 18 months ago I went for the Sony Ericsson C905 without even considering the iPhone a competitor…my needs in a phone were simply that I wanted a decent camera (because I never remember my digital camera) and I wanted something that would work with my Mac and manage my calendar and whilst the iPhone did the latter it just didn’t have the camera or other useful features.

The fact remains that since releasing a phone Apple have been very clever…on paper the iPhone, iPhone 3 and iPhone 3G have never been high competitors in the phone market but because of Apples reputation and a touch screen interface that uses Android as toilet paper and considers others mere sewage somehow the other iPhones sold millions despite lacking in features.

This marketing and desire Apple creates reflected in my recent phone upgrade dilemma…this was before the iPhone 4 was left in a restaurant by accident and the dilemma went something like;

These Android phone features are so much better (camera quality etc)…but they’re not an iPhone’

So when the rumors about the iPhone 4 began and were eventually confirmed by Apple I knew that there was no other option…and so a week and a half ago on the release day of the iPhone a delivery man turned up at my house with a shiny new iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4

I’ve been using the iPhone 4 for just over a week now and other than ‘that signal issue‘ it’s been hassle free….I’ve felt right at home using it from the start…even the touchscreen keyboard is easy to adapt to.

Whilst it would take me forever to write a post on everything I love about the iPhone 4 here are some of my favourite things…

The Apps – The App store is jam packed with useful things…so far apps have helped me compare prices of high street products to online using the camera and barcode, they’ve helped me tune my guitar, find a song to play, look at my documents without having my laptop, check my blog and even check up some html mark-up on a website to find someone’s e-mail address…oh and I’ve read the paper too!

Voice Control/Driving – Every phone I’ve had has claimed to have ‘voice dialing’ however my last phone involved touching the phone to activate (even with a bluetooth headset) and both that and the one prior to that involved recording a voice tag for each contact (like I ever bothered!) and then managing to remember exactly how you pronounced their now….not with the iPhone!

As you drive along listening to music on the radio (which I input my iPhone to) a call comes in…my headset buzzes and the music fades out…beautiful…a nice fade.

As I drive and remember I need to phone someone I press the headset button, the music fades (beautiful fade!), I say ‘Phone Joanna’ and without programming a tag it asks me if I want her mobile, home or other…all voice controlled!

Google Maps – Okay…most phones have it but it was very useful for finding a more hidden shop in Norwich yesterday and perfect for finding a house tonight!

Notes – The note function isn’t hidden on the iPhone which means I actually use them…especially when they sync with my mac…which means I’m saving paper on to-do lists and shopping lists!

All in all the iPhone 4 is beautiful…the Apple bumper sorts the signal issue and adds to the beauty…the touch screen is perfect and the iPhone is becoming quite good at managing me…just call me iMark!

(I didn’t even mention that the camera is awesome and the HD video is stunning!)

Often we find that church is about a ‘Sunday (Spiritual?) Fix’…thousands of people turn up to church on Sundays because it’s what they’ve always done, because they believe it sorts things out for the week and secures their place in heaven or maybe even because it’s what their family have done for generations however this easily creates a separation between real life and church.

The difference between ‘church’ and ‘real life’ can be just as big for even the most committed Christians because often (sadly) church is very separated. The world provides a fix for our physical or emotional needs and the church deals with the spiritual.

The problem with this is it’s completely different from what Jesus did…the Message paraphrase of John 1:14 puts it like this;

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.

The word incarnation was thrown around a lot during my time at Oasis and the approach Jesus took was very incarnational. He didn’t set up camp and sort out people’s spiritual needs but dealt with their emotional and physical needs too. Jesus wasn’t a one-trick pony nor a one hit wonder but a bloke who journeyed with people.

Journeying as a ministry is something I’ve always been aware of in my youth work…I’ve always been aware that it’s not just the spiritual aspect of the young people that matter but the physical and emotional aspects too and to do this effectively in youth ministry we need to journey with young people.

The same applies to anyone who’s a Christian and their relationship with others (both Christian and non-Christian), we need to journey with people…we need to cry with them, laugh with them, celebrate with them, mourn with them and truly focus on the whole person not just the spiritual. We were created to be relational beings, Jesus was relational…we need to be relational.

In the last week I’ve found myself on a journey within the community and school that I never expected to be on and it’s really got me thinking about the purpose of our journey’s with others and I encourage you to do the same. Let’s not have a quick fix church but a journeying church.

Whilst I have managed a fair few gigs in the last 5/6 years a festival is one experience I’ve never done (other than Soul Survivor which doesn’t really count). The one thing I’ve loved about the gigs I have been to though was the intimacy with the largest gig I’ve ever been to being Angels and Airwaves in the Birmingham Academy which holds probably no more than 500.

The Isle of Wight festival was jam packed with bands to see, strangers to talk to and over-priced drinks & food to be consumed…perhaps the best thing about a festival is the ability to move between several venues and see live music everywhere!

During the weekend we managed to catch Ocean Colour Scene, Pink! (who was awesome!), Reef, N Dubz (who I don’t really like but they had the most amazing drummer and put on a cracking show), The Saturdays and the legend that is Paul McCartney. The one thing I’ve always wondered about larger gigs is how much of the atmosphere you lose but during his set (mostly because he is Paul McCartney) the atmosphere even with Macca less than the size of my little finger it was immense, he blasted out some Beatles tracks and a few others putting together a fantastic set!

All in all I loved my festival experience!

For Lucy’s 21st a group of us headed up to the Hull branch of ‘Napoleons’ to celebrate! The only experiences I’ve ever had of gambling come from 2 very different perspectives.

The first perspective is that of the tacky gamble…I grew up being taken to holiday camps (which I might add I enjoyed) and spent my teenage years near Great Yarmouth and all these places are filled with amusement arcades tempting you in to throw 2p’s down a chute or to pay 20p to attempt to win a child-manufactured teddy bear from a rigged machine (yes the cranes are fixed!).

The second perspective is right at the other end of the scale and come from watching television shows like Hustle when they attempt to con a huge casino where people have more money than sense…dressed in their suits and using their casino jargon the Hustle team would attempt to con casino owners without being caught by the security.

Thankfully Napoleons is far more like the Hustle casino than the Great Yarmouth arcades but it’s a very different world to that I’m used to. My parents have never really had money to throw around and being a Christian I’ve grown up with fairly sensible teaching of money yet a fair amount of those in the casino had evidently not had this upbringing.

There’s something very surreal about watching someone throw £50 (of tokens) on a 1 in 50 chance number on a roulette table and not be remotely phased that they’ve just lost £50….there’s equally something surreal about watching someone win £150 and throw it straight back on.

The nice thing about the whole experience was that we didn’t spend the whole evening losing money but we had a very nice 3 course meal first and a few drinks (good old diet Pepsi!) before exploring the Casino area with the £5 of chips we got with our meal.

I guess the important thing before doing any form of gambling is to limit yourself and think sensibly about things beforehand…whilst many Christians would argue that gambling is wrong I believe the bible merely teaches that the love of money is wrong…so gambling is fine as long as you’re sensible and it doesn’t come before God (or your family…bets vs meals is silly!).

Armed with my £5 of chips I headed to roulette and fairly quickly got the hang of it and equally as quickly lost my ‘free’ chips so I took some time out before spending another £5 and that was it. The roulette was fun but it was far more luck than judgment (as are many of the games in a casino).

So all in all I really enjoyed my Casino trip…I won’t be becoming a regular but it was a great night…certainly more sociable than a night club.

and how did I do with my 2nd £5?

Somehow I managed to win several times and cashed in £25 and walked away with a profit! Good times!

In my originally blog my initial thoughts of the iPad were mixed…you may remember me blogging:

Whilst I think the iPad is something of beauty and can fully see the potential for users I think it’s somewhat of a niche market. I can see it being used by commuters on their way to work and maybe it could just about be used as a bag-sized PDA but it’s too big for a pocket and will probably be too expensive to buy for fun (much to my disappointment).

However for those with money to spend I could quite easily see it as being an alternative to sitting watching TV with a laptop…providing a nice, slim alternative. I wish I had money to spare!

To an extent I still stand by what I said in my previous post…whilst beautiful the iPad is nothing more than an expensive gadget however having been into the Apple Store in Sheffield today and had a play on one I have a few more thoughts.

Usability

As with all Apple products the interface is absolutely spot on and completely seamless and user-friendly. The best way to describe the operating system is as a larger version of the iPhone software…infact the whole iPad is very much a large iPhone but with extras!

The main screen (like the iPhone) has a series of buttons representing applications, a swipe on the main page and your onto the next page of applications and so on.

The onscreen keyboard is probably the most impressive feature of the iPad which really does make it user-friendly. The size of it is just right and the sensitivity means you can type just as effectively as you could on your laptop….I managed to type a few lines in a document, a twitter status and visit a few websites with about the same amount of typos I usually make!

Games

One of the most impressive things was a racing game on the iPad which allowed you to steer and control speed by tilting and turning the ipad with ease…beautiful!

Working On The Go!

The iPad has scaled down versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote (the Apple equivalent but much more superior versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint) which allow you to open and edit your documents on the move.

So would I buy one?

Apple have done what they did with the iPhone and have managed to create a gadget that whilst there may not really be a gap in the market for there will be one because Apple have made the iPad!

The iPad starts at £429 for a 16gb wifi model and goes up to £699 for the 3gs 64gb model which means the main reason I won’t be getting one is simply the price…I loved playing with it, I could see myself using it both at home and on the move (especially for meetings and escaping to coffee shops to work) but I just can’t justify the cost…especially if you get a 3g model and take into account the monthly cost of a data plan.

The Verdict

My verdict on the iPad is simple…it’s beautiful in design, stunning to use and is an absolutely fantastic piece of kit but unless you’ve got money to spend on something you don’t really need it’s probably not for you.

Before I waffle on for a bit you can download ‘Escape This Town’ free here at bandcamp (name a price of zero) or be lovely and pay for it on amazon mp3 or iTunes

Back when I was 16 and I could only play the drums (and a tiny bit of keyboard) I started song writing…songs were nothing more than lyrics with a drum beat however at the age of 17 I eBayed myself a cheap guitar and set to work learning to play the guitar.

Ever since being able to play enough chords to make a tune I spent a fair chunk of my spare time recording drums and guitars and song writing.

A few years back when I started my gap year in Peterborough I was encouraged to lead worship…with very little confidence in my vocal abilities I started off miles from the microphone but as confidence grew my closeness to the microphone followed.

Throughout the years prior to moving to Peterborough, during my degree and since beginning my new job in Yorkshire I’ve continued to write and record music to the point of having an entire album released into the world.

I’ve been thinking about this blog post for weeks and I didn’t really know how to phrase it because in reflection for me as Mark, having an album with me on every instrument plus vocals is a huge thing. 5 years ago would be allowed anywhere near my voice…now it’s out there!

I’m not going to write much more other than a shameless plug for my album! I’ve been describing the music as ‘realistic Christian’…it doesn’t sound like a Christian album although some lyrics fit the bill…nor is it completely about things outside of my faith…it’s a mix of styles and sounds and even genres…flicking between pop, pop-punk, acoustic and sometimes a little heavier.

You can download it for free here on bandcamp (by just naming a price of 0.00 and giving an e-mail address) or if you’re feeling generous you can download ‘Escape This Town’ on iTunes here or Amazon mp3 here.

I hope you enjoy it (and the blog theme to match)

I’m going to write some more stuff on the song meanings on my Tumblr over the next few weeks

Cameron is now our Prime Minister…however with compromise…the news as I type is telling me that we don’t know what deal there is between the Conservative’s and the Lib Dems but it puts them in a powerful position.

I’m not keen on the idea of having a Conservative government and can’t help but feel it will be a bad thing for losing public services and education going down hill…not to mention youth work budgets going however I wonder if the addition of the Lib Dems will be positive for the country.

It’s going to be an interesting few weeks, months and maybe years…we shall see.

So go out and vote…if you don’t think it’ll make a change spoil your voting slip but if you just sit at home and don’t do anything then be prepared not to complain!

I am about to head out the house to vote now and obviously the cons won’t be getting my vote…mine is with Clegg!

The original and the re-make couldn’t be much more different if they tried…whilst they both keep to the same concept (that of a wax work museum made of real people covered in wax) the story-lines are very different.

The original follows the plot of a wax work artist who’s museum is burnt down by his business man partner as an insurance job almost killing the artist who then (thought dead) survives but no longer has the hands to make the perfect waxworks he once did (because of burns) and so he finds individuals who looked like his originals, kills them and covers them in wax (including his former partner).

The 2005 re-make follows a group of teens who break down on a camping trip, heading into a village for help they discover that the village is all fake and that everyone they see through windows etc are wax works…the brothers in the village attempt to kill the group of teens and cover them in wax.

The two versions of house of wax are both so different they are equally as exciting to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed both however it got me thinking about film re-makes…I don’t watch many but when I do there are some noticeable differences.

The older horror films (which have been re-made) I’ve seen such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Wicker Man both follow similar plots in both the original and the remakes (although the remake of The Wicker Man is absolutely awful and makes no sense!) both have a similar feel to their originals but the huge difference between re-makes and their originals seems to be language and gore.

For example you could easily work through The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Birds and The Wicker Man in their original formats and not hear a single swear word yet there’s no less tension, horror or plot for the lack of swearing. There’s also a distinct lack of gore which is interesting.

New cinema is fantastic and our graphics and cinematography is so much better than the originals but I can’t help but wonder if the originals do teach us that we don’t really need swearing and gore.

There’s been so much stuff to take in with this election stuff it’s difficult to know what to think…a variety of re-tweets from friends of mine inform me of little nuggets including how rich David Cameron actually is…the BBC informed me that Gordon Brown referred to a voter as a bigot (is it bad that this made me like him more?) and of course as Nick Clegg’s popularity has soared as have the criticisms of the bloke from the newspapers attempting to find anything they can.

However my favourite reponse to the parties so far has to be the following which is taken from a Facebook comments section by a young person who used to attend a youth event I was involved in: (in the context of being asked if she knows who to vote for)

Well yeah, but my reasoning behind it isn’t the best. I don’t like the conservatives because I just don’t like David Cameron, his forehead is so shiny and he’s so creepy, he reminds me of the pedo that lives round the corner from me. I like labour but old Gordy, bless him, it’s not his fault the country hate him, he’s just ugly, I’m sure he’s a lovely man really. I think he’s misunderstood. My favourite is Nick Clegg, but I understand his chances of getting in aren’t good?

There’s a lesson to be learned, one that I will take home,
When I return to my normal reality zone,
Punk rock has the power to change the world,
It lies in every single punk rock boy and girl,
So don’t let anyone tell you you’re not worth the earth,
These streets are your streets, this turf is your turf,
Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve got to give in,
Cos you can make a difference, you can change everything,
Just let your dreams be your pilot, your imagination your fuel,
Tear up the book and write your own damn rules,
Use all that heart, hope and soul that you’ve got,
And the love and the rage that you feel in your gut,
And realise that the other world that you’re always looking for,
Lies right here in front of us, just outside this door,
And it’s up to you to go out there and paint the canvas,
After all, you were put on the earth to do this,
So shine your light so bright that all can see,
Take pride in being whoever the hell you want to be,
Throw your fist in the air in solidarity,
And shout “Viva la punk, just one life, anarchy”

Even as a Christian I find that these lyrics absolutely burst with passion and in many senses they could be lyrics that remind us that we have the power to change the world!