Sunday, June 30, 2013

BlobTree dot com born today

Give it a view
And please consider a favour. 
Please can you share the availability as a resource to people workers in every context.

Faith and spirituality in the lives of homeless people.


Lost and Found: Faith and spirituality in the lives of homeless people – by Carwyn Gravell [review]

Lost and Found by Carwyn Gravell
This article was originally published under the title ‘Spirituality is part of caring’ in The Church Times, 21st June 2013

In the day centre for homeless people that the West London Mission runs in Marylebone, the chaplain helps to facilitate a spirituality group, where rough-sleepers reflect and discuss the “deep things” of life. What I most enjoy about it is the way it grapples with questions in an honest and raw way.
Last week, we were looking at the story in Acts when Peter and John are arrested and threatened by the Sanhedrin, but reject its demands to keep silent about the resurrected Jesus. As we discussed the courage of the early Church, one of the men declared bluntly:
“This is what we need — not this wishy-washy Christianity. The thing about Jesus was — he had balls.”

ARTICLE::  Recommended reading for all my YMCA friends and all who work in homelessness type work. 
LINK TO FULL ARTICLE HERE

Living with Autism - a wondrous article for me.




Incredible article in the GUARDIAN Magazine at the week-end, written by a man with an autistic son.
This is a big help into me understanding Autism.

Interesting that when me and Mrs Beautiful sold up our home after 1 year of marriage,1965, to go and work with young offenders residentially - the first training course we did was about Autism. I don't remember a thing about it!

This gives me more understanding than anything I have ever read/experienced.

Here is two clips from his article - the full article link - see below. 

Things get challenging. Your sleep is broken and stays that way. Kids with autism don't really do bedtime – they keep going, Duracell bunny-style, until unconsciousness sets in, often after midnight: 3am "parties" are common, where your child wakes up refreshed and jumps on the bed for an hour, laughing and crying. 
After one rough night you take your kid out for a spin in the car to give your partner a rest – 45 minutes of nonstop screaming later you give up and come home.
 Worst is the headbanging – against the hard floor, up to a dozen times a day. 
Your kid's bruises are earning you dodgy looks at the supermarket checkout. It is suggested that you keep a self-harm diary to identify the triggers, but these seem numerous and obvious: hunger; tiredness; frustration at dead batteries in a toy; a scratched Pingu DVD; not being allowed to play with kitchen knives.

Then he had a breakthrough by translating and reading a book by Naoki Higashida



"For the first time I had answers, not just theories. 

What I read helped me become a more enlightened, useful, prouder and happier dad. 
Part two of the book is a story, 'I'm Right Here', about a boy called Shun who discovers he's dead and can no longer communicate. 
My wife and I translated 'The Reason I Jump' clandestinely, just for our son's therapists, but when my publishers read the manuscript, they believed the book might find a much wider audience. 
For me, Naoki Higashida dissolves the lazy stereotype that people with autism are androids who don't feel. 
On the contrary, they feel everything, intensely. 
What's missing is the ability to communicate what they feel. 
Part of this is our fault - we're so busy being shocked, upset, irritated or looking the other way that we don't hear them. 
Shouldn't we learn how?"

LINK to the FULL ARTICLE

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Which Blob is you at Wimbledon?

Which would you like to be?

Which Blob is angry?
Why?
What feeling is the umpire feeling?
If you went there HOW would you feel?
Please feel free to capture this and use with humans you mix with. Feelings are a good thing to explore. 

Great U2 gift from a BHP friend today.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Never thought I would like ANYTHING about McDonalds


I love this Greenbelt and here we are on FILM.

This is a little clip from the forthcoming GREENBELT 40 Anniversary movie. 
I know these guys. 
They were all around when I joined the Greenbelt board about 28 years ago - I was one of the young guns. 
They were the inspiring elders.
It is great to see them as I don't move with them nowadays - but love them much. We have spent such great times together.
I will be melted into the movie somewhere. I was interviewed and no doubt there will be lots of historic movie clips cancelling out a closer look at my face.
I would love the movie to do well. I want Greenbelt to be known and attract many new people - to join us in the journey of becoming. And maybe you can be part if the Festivals future?

Simply Beautiful in Manchester.



Thursday, June 27, 2013

Youth Workers - video warning about death down the line.



LATEST YMCA ENGLAND VACANCIES


LATEST 
YMCA ENGLAND
VACANCIES

JOBS JOBS JOBS
JOBS JOBS JOBS
JOBS JOBS JOBS
PASS THEM ALONG
GREAT NEEDS OUT THERE
JOBS JOBS JOBS



Joy Wilson Fashion video - I have heard of her .................

Joy Wilson Fashion video - I have heard of her .................


Really like this track/video 'Fever to the form'



Nick Mulvey has already picked up international acclaim as part of the Mercury Prize-nominated Portico Quartet, but it’s his dense, intricate and elegant work as a solo artist that tastemaker Gilles Peterson thinks should be getting everyone’s attention.
Check out Mulvey's appearance on the Brownswood Basement Sessions below, Brownswood Recordings being an independent label belonging to the DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson. Founded in 2006 the aim of the label was to provide a platform for the many unsigned artists and new artists.
Nick Mulvey will support Laura Marling at her intimate fully seated Olympia Theatre show on September 29th.





So whether music or madness 
We live by one of the two 
By one of the two 
So go on, fill your heart up with gladness 
Not a moment too soon 
Not a moment too soon 

Should we ration the reasons 
To the child to ignore 
Of this I've never been sure 
So I will follow the feeling 
And sing fever to the form 
Oh my fever to the form 

Fever to the form 
Fever to the form 

Cause the very thing you're afraid, afraid of 
It keeps you clean but unclear 
Clean but unclear 
Is the dirt that you're made, you're made of 
And that's nothing to fear 
No, it's nothing my dear 

But how do I know what you're thinking 
Maybe I thought it before 
Maybe that's why I'm at your window 
Hear me at your door 
Singing give me some more 

Oh fever to the form 
Won't you hear me at your door 
Singing give me some more 

Cause you were never empty 
And we've been here before 
Yes, we've been here before 
But now there's always plenty 
Yet still we ask for more 
Singing fever to the form

U2 stage designer Mark Fisher dies, aged 66


U2 stage designer Mark Fisher dies, aged 66

Rhian Jones
Mark Fisher

Stage designer and architect Mark Fisher, OBE, MVO, RDI, died yesterday in London aged 66.
He passed away in his sleep at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead with his wife Cristina at his side, after a long illness.
Fisher has worked as a set designer and artistic director for rock concerts and large-scale events over the last 25 years.
Together with his company Stufish, he created the designs for all the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and U2 tours for two decades as well as scores of other artists all over the world – including Robbie Williams.
As well as his work in live music performance he also created designs for theatre productions and musical theatre including We Will Rock You, and Ka and Viva Elvis for Cirque du Soleil.
He was the senior designer the Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies and was one of the three executive producers at the London 2012 Games ceremonies.
Paying his respects on Twitter earlier today, Williams paid homage to ‘music’s greatest architect,’ posting a photo dedicated to Fisher from his concert at Hampden Park yesterday while on his Stufish designed Take The Crown tour.
The Rolling Stones said: "We are all extremely saddened to hear of the death of our dear friend Mark Fisher. The remarkable sets he designed for us over the last two decades played a major part in the success of all those tours. His passion, dedication and professionalism was infectious.
"We all loved his dry sense of humour and unflappable demeanour - a quietly soft spoken genius. Mark will be sorely missed - not only by us, but by every single member of ours and any crew he worked with. Our sincere condolences go to his wife and family."

François Dischinger for The Wall Street Journal
Mark Fisher
Mark Fisher, a stage designer who helped shape the modern concert experience with the spectacles he created for Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, U2 and others, died Tuesday at age 66. His death in a London hospice was announced by the firm he co-founded, Stufish.
After attending architecture school in London in the mid-1960s, Fisher stumbled into the concert business with his creation of helium-filled figures that hovered over Pink Floyd’s performances. Later, he helped bring that band’s “The Wall” to life on tour, and he updated the concept for a 2010 “Wall” revival tour by Roger Waters. One of Fisher’s most technical innovations was the spidery stage at the center of U2’s most recent “360” tour.

In recent years Fisher expanded the scope of his “entertainment architecture” with contributions to opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing and London.
Fisher was pragmatic about his behind-the-scenes role in the rock world, yet he also maintained an ambitious view of what design could achieve in the concert experience. In a 2010 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said, “The audience isn’t rating my work as they would a vacuum cleaner; it’s being rated in terms of pleasure.”
“It has to do with the way that a rock show is sort of tribal event in our culture, and somebody like Bono is a sort of shaman.” In that respect, Fisher added, his stage designs had to fulfill a critical function: “It’s preparing everyone for the arrival of the high priest.”
Read a WSJ story about Fisher’s creative process.

THE SAINTS - Rugby League starting to play like we know they can.

LINKS to Pip Wilson and Blob Tree products


Here are some BLOB TREE / PIPWILSON products.
If you want to spread the news about their existence?
I will always appreciate you sharing because
when you create something you want humans to, at least
see it and know how to find resources.

The links  are here::
and on iTunes  
and Mugs and Tees and an iPhone case too! 

Social, Spiritual, Emotional Literacy.


"We are so accustomed
to disguise ourselves
to others
that
in the end
we become
disguised to ourselves."




Mrs Beautiful read an item in a Sunday newspaper magazine and I caught up with it on the London Underground.

The feature was about a twin brother and sister from the Guinness family - not people without dosh.

He said something like this;
"I was sent away to boarding school at the age of eight and I didn't want to go and neither did my mother.
It did not matter - I went.
Nobody ever asked me how I felt.
There was no language to use to talk about feelings.
No-one asked me how I was feeling and no-one cared"

To me that is powerful and I thank him for this honesty.
(He later became a victim of drugs and other issues)
So so sad.

When something ugly happens in our lives
we can so easily push the feelings into the attic of our lives.
Not the conscious part of us but the unconscious part of us.

Eventually there is overload up there in the attic, a creaking and a big weight of responsibility hangs around us and it won't disappear.

Out of site is NOT out of mind
when there is a big and looming emotional storage problem.

We become more aware of the physical impact of our emotions.
We are wasting so many emotions simply trying to keep them hidden in the attic.
Sooner - and I hope not later ,
those emotions which are buried alive inside us,
(emotions are not buried DEAD)
need to be dealt with - disposed of properly.

The big trigger to get this disposal process started is by talking to someone who can help with these things - someone who accepts us and someone we feel safe with.
Maybe a professional but maybe someone who can manage their own emotions and is able to gently enter into a helping relationship with us.
I actively promote the Level Five* tool to equip all of us in the management/storage issue.
(Search this Blog for references to LEVEL FIVE)

I believe that there is no human person who will not respond to love.
Human love is the next best thing to love divine.
We all need at least one human person who is able and wants to love us.
We need to find a person like this if we don't know someone.

I find this 'attic' issue all the time in all sectors of society.
I work with those at the bottom of the heap - homeless and disregarded.
I meet the professionals and the business successes.
I see people full of feelings and stuck in a hole.
A hole - full of a swamp, ..................
stuck in a swamp of feelings they cannot
express - touch - own - handle.

LEVEL FIVE is all about having a repertoire of communication skills.
The level where so many humans stumble is L4 = FEELINGS.
NOT dealing with our feeling can be the most destructive inability in our lives.
The draining process is always in motion until we learn that that feelings are signals AND it is possible to learn to read signals and know how to deal with them.
NOT 'control' them but MANAGE them and certainly NOT ram them in our attic.

Feelings are the first point of call when it comes to survival, security and development it seems to me.
From there awareness and skills grow within us and become not only a human BEING with a large attic
BUT  processing on to be - becoming ...a human becoming
....developing towards all that we can become.






Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Alesund Norway Unique finger tips.

Pulled my back yesterday when Conniepops hurled herself at me when I picked her up at nursery school. 
She jumped at me. 
I bent, picked her up and swung her around, as normal, but I felt my back spasm. 
Walkable. 
But a bit like 90 year old. 

Feel tired today. 
Sort of inner tired. 
Not sleepy but maybe I do need more sleep. 

Busy yesterday making sure Conniepops secure as she left her Big Playschool to her new one starting today. It's true. It takes a village/ whole family to bring up a child. 

In London today. Writing this in the gaps and trains. 

Had such a great time in Norway with MrsBeautiful   We were hosted and loved like never before. 
I feel like the King of Norway. 
Royalty we were. Treated. Blessed. Nurtured. Given. Music filled. Treated. AND driven around in a much better Prius than mine. 
Heaven will be like this. 
I hope it is Norway !

PICTURE
Touching FINGER TIPS 
In Alesund Norway. 

MANDELA


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

THIS ............ a new U2 video - track.



Education is ..........


Music, Capturing, Conniepops BIG DAY.

I get back from Norway, about 12.30 am last night, and NOW busy today because Conniepops has her last day at Nursery in North London (big day for a little girl - all the friends think it is her birthday because there is a leaving party - will be emotional) and then we pick her up in North London (precious cargo) and drive her to South London to het new home and new nursery school tomorrow - what a big deal.

But the list above - these are the 2 or 3 hour programmes I have captured - only the ones I have not captured whilst in Norway AND
These will be my listening for the next few days.
Some great great music
FRESH stuff from my favourite broadcasters - love it.

Lots of Pipturesques from Norgeville - will post in next few weeks.

BHP

The MUSE I lurve - play Gilles Peterson here.

The MUSE I lurve - play Gilles Peterson here.





This week Gilles is joined by UK soul legend, Omar, live in session, performing tracks from his current album, The Man.
Omar, who first achieved widespread success in 1990 with his ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ album, has been a mainstay of the UK soul scene ever since, collaborating with soul and hiphop legends such as Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Common and Angie Stone, as well as the now deceased ODB, and Guru, of Gangstarr fame.
Tracklist
Omar – Music [Talkin’ Loud]
Flying Lotus – Mind Game [Rostrum]
Moodprint – Storyboard [Tangram]
Billie Holiday – My Man (Toro Y Moi Remix) [Verve]
Ady Suleiman – Longing For Your Love [White Label]
Moonchild – Ocean Deep [Bandcamp]
Reginald Ommas Mammode IV – Do You [White Label]
Candido – Thousand Finger Man [Salsoul]
Tom Browne – Throw Down [Arista]
Sander Mölder – In Your Eyes [Emerald City]
Common – The Hustle (feat Omar) [MCA]
Zia – Helelyos [Finders Keepers]
Samuel Jon Samuelsson – Felafal [SJS]
Mount Kimbie – Slow [Warp]
Rodrigo Campo – Sete Vela [Nucleo Contemporaneo]
Bad Bad Not Good – Hedron [BBNG]
Secret Waltz Club
DJ Shadow – Dark Days [MCA]
Primus – Coattails Of A Deadman (Feat. Tom Waits) [Interscope]
James Holden – Some Respite [Border Community]
Humdono – Habari [White Label]
Omar – Making Sense Of It [BMG]
Young Disciples – Move On [Talkin’ Loud]
Walton – Need To Feel [Hyperdub]
Jamie Grind – Whenever We Say Goodbye [Self-Released]
Stéphane Belmondo – Turn Around Go Deep [Feat. Jacky Terrasson]
Omar Live In The Studio
Omar – Ordinary Day [Live In Session]
Omar – Who Chooses The Seasons (Feat. Carleen Anderson) [Talkin’ Loud]
Omar – The Man [Live In Session]
Kairos 4tet – Song For The Open Road (Feat. Omar) [Naim Jazz]
Denise King & Olivier Huntman – Night Vision [Cristal Records]
BJ Smith – Umi Says [NuNorthern Soul Records]
Moodprint – Storyboard (Fullcrate Remix) [Tangram]
Mr. Fingers – Can You Feel It [Trax]
Bryan Ferry – Don’t Stop The Dance (Todd Terje Remix) [White Label]
Benga Benga – Benga Benga 1 [White Label]
Filo – Perfume De Cebola [Pointer]

Playing the 'Unique' game in Alesund, Norway.


Friday, June 21, 2013

My modern sins. Maybe yours?

My Modern Sins- & yours ?
Getting shopping in plastic carrier bags
Drinking sugar full coke
Addiction to sugar
Eating red meat
Driving when could walk
Seeing behaviour and not considering why
Cleaning teeth under running tap
Not discovering you are beautiful
Only spending time with people like us
Failing to kneel

More Pipturesques from Norway






Tuesday, June 18, 2013

BOOKS I LIKE


Or I did like them because this pipturesque is from my original 1st website 
which kicked in in 2003 when I left Romford YMCA to go freelancing and publishing.
Some are major influences. 
Others of their time. 
AND I still do the same sort of reading - always only non-fiction, 
dipping into several all the time but hardly ever finishing them because 
more comes along and then the ever present internet - all to stimulate my life soul passions ......

I may be less active here in the next week because I am travelling to Norway with Mrs Beautiful tomorrow.
I have been going since 1903 - 20 years ..........BUT............ this is the first visit for MrsBeautiful.
STAY BEAUTIFUL - 
AND please consider USEING THE SEARCH IN HERE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT 
AND/ALSO
if you don't - please consider signing in on the tab on the right here - it means you will get a daily auto email from me you you can see my postings ..............


my 'work' have left me with scars



Over the years my 'work' have left me with scars, 
which is why I am so committed to working with others. 
It's the scars that make it a necessity for me to look outwards. 
Life has been feelings of failure more than success. 
Life is a mission not a career, 
a journey not a destination and 
an irritation to be refreshed regularly.

The kind of work I facilitate range from 
"The Road Less Travelled" sessions 
to games and exercises which allow learning, 
self-revelation and development.

For me its not about being a "Human Being", 
but rather a "Human Becoming". 
If you would like to know more about my availability 
for running a session follow the 'Contact' link on my Home page.

Photo is of me back in the day
Just one of the times
I have been vandalised
because I have apposed racism
and any form of oppression.