I’ve set up a new blog, to host talks and sermons. There will always be a link to them from this blog, but the new one will be where I’ll put the talks themselves. It’s called, rather imaginatively, ‘Elizaphanian: Talks and Sermons’ and can be found here.
Monthly Archives: February 2010
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Why I like reading IO9:
The Phantom menace editor takes on Avatar
It’s time to get serious about colonising space
A Lost timeline
Imagining the fate of data after the apocalypse
Also, via Banksy:
How to make a living playing music (most of which easily translates from ‘music’ to ‘writing’)
and
Dear Rock Stars… which made me think of U2 as the last of the dinosaurs. Not a comfortable thought for a fan.
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On being an Anglo-Catholic: “All in all, the Anglo-Catholic tradition is that which nourishes me, and has since I first converted… It is not the only valid tradition within the Episcopal Church, or within the Christian world, or even within the entire spiritual conglomeration of paths, but it is one valid tradition. And I am grateful for it.”
Time to go down the pub
Very fitting. (h/t Doug)
Women in the Episcopate (Learning Supper talk)
This is a recording of my talk to the Learning Supper last week on Women Bishops (I accept that’s probably not grammatically correct, but it is conventional). The audio quality is a bit crackly – that’s because I had to drastically compress the file (one hour long) in order to make it uploadable to gabcast.
I wouldn’t have thought that there is anything new here for people who are familiar with the debate.
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Captain America had a point
John Hobbins links to two interesting articles here and here.
One of the things I enjoy reading in my spare time is comics – occasionally called ‘graphic novels’ at the higher reaches of the form, but, basically, comics, involving people who have large muscles and poor taste in clothing. One of the most interesting ones I’ve read recently has been the ‘Civil War’ sequence put out by Marvel. I won’t bore you with explaining why it is that Captain America and Iron Man are slugging it out (though it IS extremely interesting social commentary) I just want to point out that there comes a point when Captain America surrenders – not because he has changed his mind about the justice of his cause, but because too many innocent bystanders are suffering because of the struggle.
The man has a point.
The dream of independence
(checking ‘drafts’ on my blog – and discovering some things that I never published… this was originally written two years ago! Slightly updated)
At least, financial independence. Dave W sent me to this fascinating article. I’ve been mulling for quite some time about how to go about a) getting some of my thoughts put out in book form (mainly this), and b) whether I might be able to generate some income out of my photo-hobby. On the latter score I did use lulu.com to create a calendar some time ago, but only one person bought it, and if her reaction was the same as mine it was of significant disappointment at the quality of the end-product (even if mine is still on the wall right next to me as I type this post).
It seems to me that one of the great benefits of the cultural shift that digital technology has opened up is that the middle-man isn’t needed any more. (Not in every sphere – I’m sure we’ll see the return of middle-men in food distribution as a result of Peak Oil). However, for some work, and especially creative work, the middle-man adds very little of value. See Radiohead’s recent experiment in that regard.
Now, with regard to a book, there are clearly some things which publishers are rather good at doing (Kim Paffenroth makes some good points here). But it’s also possible to pay people directly to do such things, and not go via a publisher. I am now committed to going the self-publishing route, partly because of practicalities and timing, but partly also because of the independence that it allows. I’m going to be using this company. So far as I can tell the single thing that an established publishing house can provide is help with publicity and marketing. Given that I don’t expect vast numbers of people to buy my book, and I think that I am plugged in to sufficient networks to be able to sell enough copies to make it financially viable (around 400 I guess) I see no need to amend what I write in order to sell more copies (I remain open to an editor saying that I need to rewrite something because it’s incoherent of course!)
I’ll let you know how it all goes – I hope to go to press after Easter.
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This is great: “There’s a big difference between the task of trying to sustain “civilisation” in its current form – supermarkets and all – which is what “sustainability” has largely come to mean, and the task of holding open a space for the things which make life worth living. I’d suggest that it’s this second task, in its many forms, which remains, after we’ve given up on false hopes. (Note that this doesn’t mean organising a campaign against supermarkets, which is the default mode of a lot of what’s called activism.)”
That resonated a very great deal with me!