BeachcomberFX

Category: Sunday@thePub

  • Seasons change

    Seasons change

    HI folks, it’s good to be writing this at the start of September for our first gathering after the summer break. I hope you have had a good summer?

    This week we will meet in the Tavern and Galley at 7.30, it would be great to see you if you are able to join us.

    We will be continuing our in house theme writing a reflection on any of the following: an album, song, movie, poem or story and then pondering on them on a Sunday night, so this is a call out to say if you want to write something for us, then please do let me, David or Sue know.

    I’m grateful to Sue for keeping us thinking and reflecting with her August photo challenge… if you want to go back to that and post some photos then please do. The prompts can be found on our various platforms.

    As I write this I’m thankful for a busy but fun August. I went to two festivals this summer, Kendal Calling and Greenbelt, both of which were fantastic! Sandwiched between that, David and I went up to the Edinburgh Fringe with the Methodist Church as we have done for the past few summers, again it was a great week. And through all this Karen has been improving and is now back to work full time after her surgery.

    I also know that as I write some of you have and are going through some tough stuff. That is the reality of life. Please shout if you need support or an ear to bend!

    We have various other ways to connect between now and Christmas, so watch this space. We will be doing something outside on or around halloween. And we will be doing something for Christmas/advent. We will also be knitting again… but fish this time! Again more on that soon.

    Over the last few days I have been pondering on the move between summer and autumn and of course leading into the word we don’t say yet (shhhh… Christmas… shhhh).

    I have been wondering about how I might have a different approach to this time of year. I don’t tend to like this time of year much, and so it would be a challenge to think about it differently.

    With that in mind I wonder if I need a bit of balance. I think that maybe I over emphasise one or two seasons to the detriment of the others. Many folks will be thinking about halloween and all the complexities around it, maybe some of us will start thinking about Christmas.

    This time of year should move me and maybe us to think about harvest, it’s not really celebrated apart from by farmers and in church, but even then it seems to hark back to a time long gone, we put our fruit and veg on the altar and we sing our harvest songs, and that’s it done.

    But what if I started to re-frame it, I already love it when the leaves fall and you see the trees in their nakedness… but maybe I need to look at the leaves… to think about the apples that make cider! To think about the changes in eating habits to warmer comfort foods, maybe make a ritual of wrapping up warm to venture outside into the cold as I put my coat and hat on.

    But as a person of faith, what does all this mean? There is something about this time of year that opens up thankfulness, what are the things I can be thankful for, not just the food that I eat, but the people in my life and the multiple other things that make up my life, how do I go about doing that and recognising that?

    I wonder if this is the time where I should rest… reflect… a bit like nature. It’s the time they close down and hibernate, they build their nutrients up, I do like that idea! But maybe this is an inward journey? Who am I question. What am I question. What do I want to be and do, how do I get there?

     

    So, a few questions for us to consider:

    What were one or two of your highlights of the last month?

     

    What (pick one or more of the following) book, movie, song, album, TV program, or art work have you enjoyed over the last month?

     

    What one thing are you looking forward to over the next few months?

     

    How do you view this time of year?

     

    What does this changing season ‘do’ to you and or you’re spirituality?

     

     

    Peace Rob

  • No meeting this Sunday

    No meeting this Sunday

    Hi folks, just letting you know we won’t be meeting this Sunday night (1st Sept), as some of us are supporting Jona Sewell as he becomes our new Chair of the District and it would be to much to meet in the evening as well.
    We will be back on the 8th for our regular gathering.
    Peace, Rob 
  • Sunday scran!

    Sunday scran!

    Hi folks, hope you have had a good week! This Sunday night we are meeting for dinner at the Shiremoor House Farm at 6:30. Please let Karen know by Friday at the latest if you want to come.

    Peace Rob

  • Summer wander

    Summer wander

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok! In August Sunday@thepub usually slows down. We will be meeting informally on the 4th and 18th. The later date we will be going for a curry, if you need more info please just ask. We won’t be meeting on the 11th or 25th. 

    This week we are going for a wander, meeting at the east side of the Asda car park nearest to the the Rising Sun Country Park, Whitley Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 9SJ

    And then we will be finish off at the Shiremoor House Farm. The walk is on gravel paths and is between 1.5 and 2 miles. We will be meeting at 7.15. If you want to come but don’t want to do the walk and meet us at the pub, then that would also be great! 

    We hope to see you there. Peace Rob 

  • Music and Politics

    Music and Politics

    Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at the Crescent Club in Cullercoats, meeting at 7.30, I hope you can join us! I put a call out a few weeks ago for people to write a blog on either music, art, film, stories for our conversation, i’m thankful that the first persons to raise their head of the parapet that wasn’t a leader has risen to the challenge… I’ve put it out earlier than normal so you have time to listen to the playlist! or to skip through it! 

    Thanks John for the work you have put into this… 

    ‘So Rob says can we have some music blogs. I’ve said I’ve got about 20 tracks

    (might be 30 now) based on politics can I blog about that? it’ll have some spiritual aspect.

    Rob -fine.

    So here it is. Its a bit all over the place and maybe not just strictly politics but has a bit of theology dropped in. It’s distilled 60yrs worth of an old man’s music and ramblings 1960s- 2024 anyway.

    It’s a blog based on a playlist listening to the music with a bit of context and explanation thrown in. Here’s the full playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fgiMqOUSgmsh3YKeea45x?si=K2UM5LZaRQSaobiYWClPIA&pi=qOPnKJzjQrSPp

    I’ll run through the issues in the music for both those who’d like to listen and those who want to think and discuss the issues on Sunday but the music and listening time involved might be a barrier.

    Tracking this political music over my life has shown me how my own awareness has grown over time. I apologise in advance for a longer blog than normal.

    So which track and artist did I start with? Probably Big yellow taxi and Joni Mitchell way back in the 1970s with the classic “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” on mindless environmental destruction on the playlist this has resonance with later tracks such as Young’s anti oil vampire blues and Diana Jones Appalachia.

    Back in the late 70s I was listening to a lot of Neil Young picking up first on the injustice and brutality of slavery in the US south with his Southern man track but I’ve explored these issues over the years in more depth with soul and gospel singers and song writers which is a thread in the playlist which has carried through all the years with artists who come from the communities who’ve lived this more personally than the Canadian hippy folk rocker ever did (Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Tammy Tyrell, Mavis Staples, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and upto the present Tre Bert and Mickey Geyton)

    Moving into the 1980s another major influence was singer song writer Tracy Chapman‘s early music’s take on the injustice of poverty, being ignored by the powerful and our obsession with materialism. It has always blown my thinking as to how someone so young at that time got these things so powerfully. I’ve chosen ‘subcity’ from her Crossroads album which like her first also is full of these aubjects but she also sings about the spiritual and the lives of real people in tracks like Fast car and All that you have is your soul too.

    For me in the 1980s political awareness grew also with the struggle in South Africa against Apartheid hence the The Specials and Eddie Grant tracks. Paul Weller Billy Bragg and the Pet shop boys creep in too though in this period.

    In the 1990s Bob Dylan’s ‘we live in a political world‘ from his oh Mercy album sees him at his best with his everything is broken view of our western system

    But looking at the political music I’ve been listening to there’s a theme of action for change too running alongside the ingrained injustice we live with and the lament that results. There’s change gonna come, revolution, times they are a changin, friendship train, ain’t no mountain high enough, walls come tumbling down, give me hope Joanna and free Nelson Mandela

    People’s inhumanity to each other cannot be quiet music or ignored though and the Zombie and War songs shout and scream for themselves

    I include Richard Thompson’s beautiful Beeswing song too just as a treat because people who live on the road are just as much made in God’s image as any of us and have a story to tell

    More recently for me discovering Karine Polworts brand of Scottish folk asks questions about the deep contradictions’ life presents us with a bit like the Hebrew psalms in the Crow on the Cradle and Better things songs

    and even more recently  Better times will come and Cracked and broken and beautiful from US bluegrass singer Diana Jones describe a beautiful and simple optimism for the future almost in keeping with Julian of Norwich famous phrase ‘All will be well and all manner of things will be well‘

    For me politics and faith are the same being about the real issues that affect humanity. Both are full of contradictions and questions and tears .Being involved in political action isn’t so much taking sides as owning up to complicity in crimes of the past and giving back what has been stolen. Standing with the poor against the powerful. With David against Goliath.

    So is this all sad and miserable music?

    Not for me. I would go as far as to say it shouts at the devil with a smile.There a vibrancy in political protest music that finds the joy despite the hardship somehow and it’s even often music to dance to. Try these tracks LOUD What have you done for me lately, Respect and The draft daughters blues if you only listen to part of this playlist it might just be the best bit.

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/43HroRztguUYlVjaOrDk1J?si=XdyKVkSITGO2jnBDN6ISjg&pi=rEAEpCRzRgSo9

     

    Questions

    What’s your favourite kind of music?

    When people say Christians shouldn’t get into politics what do you think?

    If you listened to the music what stood out for you?

    If politics is about justice, who is it who needs justice?

    Martin Luther King was angry about injustice towards black Americans. 

    How do you reflect upon that? 

    How has the earth and the land been wronged by humanity and is there anything that can be done to help its restoration? 

    Do historic actions such as slavery, colonialism need to be apologised for and action taken to right wrongs?

    What biblical stories come to mind after reading the blog?

    How do we understand God and keep the faith in a world with so many faults?

    John Morley

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fgiMqOUSgmsh3YKeea45x?si=g86aVbeySxC-swq3MCUTsw&pi=Pw-QnXFPQtW98

     

     

    Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

  • It’s coming home….??

    It’s coming home….??

    Hi folks how we all doing?
     
    Because of the Euros final being on Sunday evening we have decided that we will leave it up to you to decide what you want to do… You can either stay home and do your own thing, or you can join Karen and I in the Enigma Tap for the match, we will gather earlier to ensure we get a seat! So if you want to join us see you about 7.15.
     
    If not we will see you as normal next sunday night!
     
    Peace, Rob
     
    Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
  • Nothing

    Nothing

    My musings this week have been inspired by our conversation at Sunday at the pub last week. We talked about monsters and childhood. As we drove home I was thinking about one of my favourite children’s picture books – Nothing by Mick Inkpen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJhrFNGbwNI

    I trained as an early years teacher and so finding new and interesting story books was part of the job. This book was released in 1995 (just before I trained) and I always loved it. It’s a bit of an oddity. Although it follows a standard pattern of a character on a journey comparing themselves to others in order to find themselves or discover something (think the Gruffalo or, another favourite of mine, ‘The little mole who knew it was none of his business’), at its core the story has a deeply existential edge as Nothing seeks to understand his identity. While Nothing is often comparing physical attributes with the other creatures they meet, there is also the undercurrent of worth, family and identity.

     

    So, a brief precis of the story for those who don’t know it.

     

    The family at number 47 are moving to a bigger house because there’s a new baby on the way. Above the hubbub of packing, something small and forgotten is squashed in the attic wondering about who they are. As the family clear the attic a light falls on the thing and someone says: “What have we got here?”, “Oh it’s nothing”, another replies. “Let the new people get rid of it”. 

     

    “So, that’s my name,” thought the little thing, “Nothing!”

     

    I told you it was a deep one. Just take a moment to let those words sink in. How do the words that we speak, and have been spoken to us, define who we are. As a child my family would say: “If he fell in muck, he’d come out smelling of roses”. It sound innocuous enough but behind it was a sense that I am prone to trouble and wouldn’t amount to much.

     

    Nothing then goes on a journey comparing themselves to the creature they meet, But along the way Nothing finds themselves on the roof on a clear moonlit night. As they sit there they are awed by the huge world they have emerged into.

     

    “…there are no words for that kind of feeling, so I won’t try to tell you how Nothing felt, except to say that [they] sat on the roof staring up at the sky for a very long time”.

     

    Later, Nothing sees their reflection in a puddle. They see themselves as ugly and struggle to recall memories of who they were.

     

    In the end, the family cat, Toby, finds Nothing and takes them to the new family home. Nothing is dumped in Grandpa’s lap who Nothing recognises. Nothing was Grandpa’s toy cat when he was a baby. He was based on Toby the cat’s Great Great Great Great Grandfather. Nothing is cleaned, remade with scraps and becomes ‘Little Toby’ once more and is given to the new baby.

     

    I suppose at its heart this book challenges me to think about whether my life has made me less John or more John? Am I threadbare and tattered, forgetful of who I once was; or remade with scraps to my true purpose? A bit of both I suppose. And it make me think of John 3:16 and being “Born Again”. I think I’ve said before in a blog that Jesus is using word-play and that his words can mean “Born from above” as “Born anew”. So does that mean reset to the past, made into something different, or made into the best version of myself? I think those three differences could lead us to three very different views of ourselves.

     

    Questions:

    1, Do you have a favourite children’s book or film?

    2, What does it mean to you, is it nostalgic or does it still have a deeper meaning for you?

    3, Have you had any moments when being somewhere has caused you to see yourself differently?

    4, Is our identity shaped by how people see us?

    1. In your faith journey, have you had moments where your perspective of yourself has changed? Has this felt like being reborn, renewed, rebuilt or something else?
    2. Draw as gingerbread person on a sheet of paper. on one side write the words (or draw images) that have been spoken to you that have shaped you, on the other side write the words (or images) you would like to say to yourself moving forward.

    All quotes are from Nothing by Mick Inkpen (1995, Hodder `Children’s Books, London)

    Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

  • Eric

    We are meeting at the Sea View Lounge at the Crescent Club again at 7:30pm. This is because it doesn’t have a TV so it should be quieter up there as any venue with a television that is showing the game will be very busy. Depending on how well/poorly England play there may be some late comers but hopefully we should be all together, about 8pm at the latest.

    I recently watched the Netflix mini series, Eric, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch.  The series is set in 1980’s New York and follows Vincent whose son goes missing.  There is also a lot of puppets… but not the creepy kind, honest.  The show deals with a whole load of issues from addiction, racism, homophobia, wealth and corruption.  It asks questions that are just as relevant today as they were in 1980’s. About who we focus on and who we disregard in society. About how power corrupts those who are meant to help others.  It focuses in on how we battle with the secrets we carry with us and those that we think will bring shame upon us. At the heart of it all though, it is a story about the monsters we journey with and our search to find a place we can call home.

    Benedict Cumberbatch said of the show “This is a story about people finding their home… whether it’s a child, a homeless person, a gay Black cop, a wife in an unhappy marriage, or even Eric on the show, it’s all about finding a place.”

    For me these two themes are something we can all relate to in some way.

    We have all probably been scared at some point of the monster that hides under are bed or in the closet. The one that stalks us, prying on are anxieties.  We have probably also feared the monster our society has warned us of. Maybe though our monsters can also help us.   They can show us that the things we are told are scary and should be feared aren’t and that sometimes the real monsters are found elsewhere.

    The second theme is that of finding a home. Home should be the place where we feel safe and where we belong.  for many of us that is all we want. A safe and secure place where we don’t have to worry about the monsters that lurk outside and we can be who we were made to be.

    Questions

    When you were growing up did you have an imaginary monster? If you did, what did they look like and what made them scary?

    What are you scared of?

    Where would you call home?

    What might the monsters in the Bible be trying to tell us?

    How would you describe “home”?

    Is God present in the place you call “home”?

     

  • Downpressor Man!

    Downpressor Man!

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting in the Sea View Lounge at the Crescent Club, meeting at 7.30. I hope you can join us.
    This week I want to think about a song that is dear to my heart for many reasons. Check out the link… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZfNqEYGePo
     
    The song is ‘Downpressor Man’ by Ben Okafor…. Although originally this is an African American Spiritual song ‘Sinner Man’, and has taken various forms over the years, it was made popular by Nina Simone, the ten minute recording is something else! Peter Tosh of Bob Marley and the Wailers fame put this version together that Ben covers again.
     
    When Peter Tosh first recorded the song for his 1977 album Equal Rights, the title changed to “Downpressor Man,” directing the moral of the song – taken from the Book of Exodus – toward the social inequality that persisted in Jamaica after its independence from Great Britain in 1962. Now obviously this version has Rasta overtones, although when I first heard this song it was sung by Ben I didn’t know about its earlier roots. Ben Okafor has a strong faith, coming from Nigeria, was a victim of the civil war and at the age of 13, fought as a boy soldier. Those experiences would later influence his music, he has a strong sense of justice, truth and love.
     
    So why this song and why Ben? I first came across him at a festival similar to Greenbelt in 1988, he played and performed this song and it resonated with me… not just the lyrics of injustice, but of course the reggae vibe that I have come to love. His performance captivated me in a way very few artists do. I hadn’t heard for a number of years, until he performed last year at Greenbelt, once again his performance was emotional and I found myself crying like a baby!
     
    One of the key shifts in the original recording, compared to Peter Tosh and Ben Okafor’s version, is that the perspective shifts from first – to third person. In earlier recordings the song was an introspective look at sin, speaking about personal sins and relating them to their consequences using phrases like “I ran to the rock” and “I ran to the sea.” The connection to oppression as sin is implied; the urgency of Nina’s performance communicates it.
     
    In Peter and Bens versions the statement is more direct (the term “downpressor” itself comes from a Rastafarian reworking of “oppressor”); “YOU can run to the rock,” and “YOU can run to the sea.” By changing the perspective of the narrator in the song, the message shifts from the personal to the communal; instead of personal sin, these sins are societal, and outside the self.
     
    The song describes Judgment, complete with wrath raining from heaven — “the sea will be boiling … the rocks will be melting.” This divine wrath will leave the “downpresser man” with nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide.
     
    The oppressor will be overthrown, the powers that be will be cast down and the end of the age will bring, at last, liberation… This song resonates for me my favourite biblical text Micah 6:8
    He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
     
    Some questions
    What cover song do you prefer rather than the original?
    What other songs, movies, art, bible passages does this song remind you of?
    What aspects of your life experience have affected how you see things today?
    How could changing the perspective of words and phrases help us see things differently?
    What struck you about the song?
    What kind of God do you see-through this song?
    What do you think this song is inviting us to do/be?
     
    Peace Rob
     
    Some of the info about this song comes from Margaret Jones, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter. Ben’s own website and other sources.
     
    Included here are links to the various versions and to the lyrics
    Nina Simone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LoYdvyoi9U
    Peter Tosh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L3F2QOXYlk
    Ben Okafor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZfNqEYGePo
    Lyrics: https://genius.com/Peter-tosh-downpressor-man-lyrics
     
    If you want to support these artists check them out on spotify or other platforms.
  • A week off…

    A week off…

    Hi folks, i hope you are doing, this Sunday a few of us are going to see Lydia Bennett at her album launch at the Engine Room in North Shields.
    It’s also England’s first game of the Euros, so we have decided not to meet this week.
    We will be back as normal next Sunday night.
    Also don’t forget to put your name forward to write a blog in our next series … we are looking for blogs reflecting on a song, art, a short story, or something else that you think folks would like to reflect on.
    If you would like to check out Lydia’s music you can find her first album here, it was released early this morning! https://lydiabennettmusic.bandcamp.com/album/fossil
    Peace Rob