Viva La Vida : Coldplay

Well, i had my first proper listen whilst i relaxed in the bath this evening! I am impressed!
What do we think?

My day off and 'new job'........

Ok, i am off work today BUT i have been finding that when i am off from my day job that i am seldom actually off from work of some kind. Last weekend we had a great couple of days off, switched off the phones, didnt look at emails etc etc. The thing was when i checked back into normality on Tuesday last week, the emails and messages had just piled up and left me with even more to do! Today, i am working on another Open Uni assignment and believe it or not i value the course and the qualification that i will hopefully gain at the end of it so i want to devote proper time to it, not just cram it in hurriedly. 10am is my start time so i thought id blog first! I also have some news which i am being cautious about announcing or dramatizing but it is quite exciting, i think it is anyway. The last year has brought about massive changes in my workplace, changes that are for the best and are constantly improving the business and our customer service. The one thing that has been slow to happen and has been an uphill struggle for those involved has been the website and online shop. To cut a long story short, it is non existent right now and over the past few weeks after some discussions and prayer i have decided to take on the role of managing this project. Once we are up and running i will technically still be managing a Christian Bookshop, but an online one, with less shelves to stock!! The hope is that i can utilize all that the web has to offer as a means to raise our profile and get you guys to buy books from us, Faith Mission are about to go all web2.0!!! As yet there are lots of details to sort out BUT i am very excited and enthusiastic about this challenge. I will still work from ballymena, so i have no major upheaval in that regard. So, as i get more news i will let you know.......................

I CANNOT wait for this............

The Hold Steady

Prosperity Gospel.........

H/T Vince

Polar Explorers

Here is the "intentionally" silly video to advertise our Holiday Bible Club in Church

Joel Augé............

Joel Augé (pronounced “Oj-hay”) hails from Ontario, Canada, where he serves as a worship leader for The Meeting House family of churches. Check out his Pastor's book here, its a good read. For a limited time you can download a free track via the widget on the right of this page or here and also listen to some more tracks on his myspace here. Anyone who knows me will be aware of my love/hate relationship with Christian music, especially the "worship" industry, but in recent months i have pulled back the veil of skepticism to discover that there are artists out there who are truly artists in their own right, writing amazing music that is worshipful without being a big bundle of cliches and mediocrity. This is one of those albums that could stand in the spotlight of "secular" music and be noticed for the melodies, lyrics and the voice that Joel has been gifted with. I have talked about this recently with a few folks and would love to see albums like this flying off our shelves, being re-ordered in larger quantities and generally getting into the ears of more people. So, with that in mind i aim to try and do something about it! This post is just the start, many changes are on my horizon but for now, just take my word for it, this album is great stuff and you should check it instead of that "huge monster big worship 6 cd box set" that is on sale at a discount price and features no original artists! I am going to hound thousands of people about the music they should be buying, watch this space!

European Champions

What a stressful evening i have just endured BUT we won.........

Champions League Final

I have been quiet about this on the blog because i do not want to scud my team but this is what im doing tonight. The brother in law and stevo will come round and we shall surely shout at the t.v.

Champions......

Full story here

New Banner & Todd Bentley.............

I will keep changing my banner every other day if i do not stop myself! It happens when "we" take photo's, i look at them and think "oh there is a banner in that one." So, i have decided that the one that just appeared will be my summer banner. I placed the words "SUMMER 08" on it to remind me! I mean, you would think i had nothing to do really!! I was listening to MUTEMATH and had been reading their album sleeve notes when i started this banner, can you tell?
Anyway, i had my blog break for various reasons. It is good to switch off sometimes, from email, blog and such "addictions." I came back into the "interweb world" yesterday and as i floated around twitter & facebook i came across a group invite on the latter. It was for "The florida healing revival" group, so obviously not being in Florida i skipped that one! On second glance though i was intrigued by the goings on in Florida and apparently many other U.S. cities. Todd Bentley is quite the character.
Andrew Strom has this to say: “Now, I have come across Todd Bentley’s teachings on “How to visit the Third Heaven” before, and I tell you, it is nothing less than Guided Visualization’ taken straight out of the New Age movement. Nothing less and nothing more. It is exactly the same. And I want you to know that if you attend these kinds of things, or allow these men to ‘guide’ you or lay hands upon you, then you are opening yourself up to all kinds of spirits and demonic counterfeits"
So, im not sure if we have ever had a good "signs & wonders" debate on supersimbo before! Its somewhat ironic that i just finished reading this book, though i will say that i need to read it again and perhaps think more about the truth contained within its pages. After reading it i felt like the "disgruntled" child of a "fundamentalist evangelical" and had an extreme urge to plant a Church in a local pub. I have since calmed down slightly and am only mildly angry with "us Christians" for being such bozo's.

I feel like i will be coming back to this dude in a later post.....................

Thinner.................

In the last year i have had people saying i have lost some weight, and yes, i have. Not loads but a little! More importantly though, is that my hair is getting thinner on top. I have noticed it the last couple of times that iv grown it a bit longer, the top kind of just doesn't grow so well....................



What do you do? Personally, i will take it gracefully and when the time is right i will consider the Los style!

Take me Anywhere : Chris Taylor

A couple of years ago the album 'Open' by Jason Morant defined my spring in work, it played many days and we loved it. Well, spring 2008 may have an album of equal importance! Take me Anywhere by Chris Taylor came in on friday and i said to Andru "lets give it a spin and see what this is like." Yes, sometimes i love those random unknowing moments that surprise us! BEC have some pretty good artists and this guy has given us another great sounding album with a bit of an edge. I like a "bit of an edge." You can read the CM Central review here, they even use the word edgy! They say "If you’ve been waiting for the next fresh take on the Christian music scene, you won’t want to miss Chris Taylor’s Take Me Anywhere" which is a similar sentiment to the one i held about Morant's album Open and, well, it didn't really make any great waves in Ireland as far as i know. We don't like change but on the basis of this album we should really try to embrace it more often, we might be impressed.

Some Sunday Honesty........

I have seen a lot of Easter blogging, read a lot of "He is Risen" and "Jesus is Alive" comments on facebook, twitter and all the usual spots. We went to Church this morning and yep, the service was nice. The pre-schooler who told me to close my eyes when the Minister was praying was a funny moment and then we went to Cherith's parents for dinner. I think what i am saying is that today was nice but right now i feel like i should be saying more on my blog about Easter, about Jesus having risen and about what that means to me. I have to be honest though and say that whilst i completely understand the importance of Easter and i believe with all iv got that Jesus is risen, i feel like i have never engaged with it in the way that perhaps i could or should, at least not this year anyway. Growing up it was an event at school and some days off on holiday. The Church i grew up in did nothing to corporately celebrate Easter besides some mild references to it in a "sermon." I do not blame this for any lack of connection i might have but it probably has not helped. So, I could have posted a whole big Easter sermon on here and that would have looked great but i decided to be honest instead. There is no conclusion to this post, except to say i am a work in progress and sometimes that sucks.................

Righteous Kill.......

I cannot say anything or i will sound like i have a crush on these two legends so just go and watch the trailer here

So folks, who is the best? Pacino or De Niro?

Weekly classic no:9

Many years ago i was completely and unhealthily obsessed with this band! They were causing a huge stir in the early 90's with a string of now classic singles and by the time Be Here Now was due for release in 1997 they were the self proclaimed "best band in the world." This single came out on 7/7/97 and both the track and the video for it had me gobsmacked! The album is alleged to have sold 500,000 copies on the first day of sales, i had it 2 days before it was released, my cd and my vinyl copy! When the dust settled it was then slated as being self indulgent and over produced, however in retrospect despite these criticisms being valid it is deserving of the status as a classic recording with some amazing songs and oh yea, Johnny Depp plays slide guitar on a track!! ha!



Oasis' seventh studio album has been confirmed for a 2008 release. I will be there for my copy with bells on, because they are the "best band in the world"

Goldfrapp : Seventh Tree

Amazon says: "Seventh Tree' is the fourth studio album by Goldfrapp and sees the electronic duo return to the more ethereal feel of their debut 'Felt Mountain' as opposed the glitter glamour of 'Supernature'. Here they use elements of folk and ambient music, and display influence from Gallic stars such Air and Serge Gainsbourg, all resulting in a warm, delicate, irresistible album." I say; "Yep," in fact i have to admit that this could be my favorite record of 2008 and the year has only begun, i find it hard to imagine how anything else could be as good as this but we shall see. Oh, and their website is kinda cool also, take a look here

Jeff Healey......

Jeff Healey died last night (sunday) after a long struggle with cancer. He was 41 and leaves his wife and two children. Jeff was supremely talented, both as a guitarist, trumpet player and band leader. His love for music was evident in his live performances and he will be sadly missed. I was going to post more this evening but i thought i would rather let Jeff's music speak for itself.



Jeff Healey : March 25, 1966 – March 2, 2008

Christians & Cuss words part 2

When i blogged about the use of the word "shit" in a recent issue of RELEVANT magazine i expected a bit of feedback and i guess i was interested to hear what people thought. 17 comments later and i thought the discussion was finished, i had no feedback on the ground in ballymena but in truth RELEVANT doesn't sell loads with us. You can read my post here
I have discovered though, that the original writer of the review has blogged about my post. Read his thoughts here. I have left a comment to hopefully explain that i was definitely NOT up in arms about the word's appearance. I didn't actually give my own opinion in the post, i simply wanted some feedback which i got. In retrospect i should have made my own opinion clearer but my primary focus was to state how "my customers" and the "local Church" may perceive the use of such a word in a "christian" publication. My apologies to Kyle Rother for not mentioning him originally as the reviewer, and for any judgments made about his review in the comments to the post. You can read his original full review here. It is a very good review and i have listened to the artist in question and i like his tunes.

*the Blogstar............

Chad is most definitely one of my fave bloggers. I do not remember how i stumbled across his blog, possible through Jeremy Thiessen but fate brought my blog to his i reckon, the use of an "AKA" blog name impresses me also! So, he has a new blog layout and it looks awesome, i am also in his top 5 which makes me a little dizzy! Cheers man! Check him out here

Bearduary Belfast 08 "the removal"

This had gotten ridiculous..........

Woweeee i have a neck

dang look at them cheekbones......


and i feel a lot fresher now!