After a couple of month's Only Connect is going good. We've now got over a hundred members all of whom are very different but equally lovely. We've also just done some upgrades on the site so it's a lot easier to find people that you might hit it off with. If you're single click to sign up, if not then if you've got a single mate that shares Greenbelt's values and point them in the direction of onlyconnect.me
Following on from the post about Platform 2 early this week, we now have more video goodness created by produced by the guys over at True Tube, featuring GB youth…
The Wall – What Divides Us? from TrueTube on Vimeo.
What Unites? / What Divides? from TrueTube on Vimeo.
Why Walls? from TrueTube on Vimeo.
Trading Fair from TrueTube on Vimeo.
At GB09 Festival partners DFID drew particular attention to Platform 2, which allows young people that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it to visit developing countries. It's an amazing scheme. Check out the video below then visit the Platform 2 website to find out more.
This made everyone in the office smile muchly, thanks for the hard work Matt Downer
Greenbelt 2009 Video Blog from Matt Downer on Vimeo.
The first podcast after the 2009 Festival.
We talk to Jenny Brown about Greenbelt 365, Karen Ciupac about becoming a Greenbelt Angel, Julia Evans about Greenbelt's new 'Just Peace' campaign, some of the staff about their Festival 'moments, and at length to Beki Bateson, Greenbelt's Festival Director, as she looks back on her nine years' heading up The Team and prepares to leave for pastures new. We also hear from Rob Bell on what he made of Greenbelt on his first visit, we well as from Kester Brewin and Jeremy Woodham with their Long Now poetic mediations.
Click here to download the standard .mp3 podcast file (30.9MB)
Click here to download the enhanced .m4a podcast file (32.4MB).
Or stream the audio using the player below.
Timings – so you can dip in and out if you want to:
00.00 – 02.20 – Intro
02.20 – 03.15 – Kester Brewin's 'Long Now' meditation
03.15 – 06.30 – Jenny Brown on Greenbelt 365
06.30 – 07.42 – Karen Ciupac on being a Greenbelt Angel
07.42 – 08.08 – Volunteer with Greenbelt
08.08 – 10.54 – Julia Evans on Greenbelt's 'Just Peace' campaign
10.54 – 12.40 – The staff's 'festival moments'
12.40 – 19.22 – Beki Bateson's parting reflections
19.22 – 20.18 – Rob Bell's take on Greenbelt
20.18 – 21.14 – Outro
21.14 – 22.24 – Jeremy Woodham poem
Resources and links
Online survey
Click here to tell us what you thought of Greenbelt 2009 and earn yourself the chance to win a pair of tickets to next year's Festival.
Greenbelt 365
The Greenbelt 365 webpage
2009 Festival photos
2009 Festival videos
How to contribute your content to the community pools
Greenbelt on Twitter
Recorded Talks
Click here to browse, order or download this year's recorded talks.
Click here for Rob Bell's two talks from Greenbelt 09.
Greenbelt Angels
Click here to find out all about what being a Greenbelt Angel means and how you can become one.
Volunteer
Click here for the volunteer pages on the website.
Campaign
Click here for the 'Just Peace' page on the website.
The Sunday Service
Click here for all sorts of resources connected with this year's Festival Service.
Tickets
Click here to buy tickets for Greenbelt 2010, 'The Art of Looking Sideways'
Soundtrack
The Roll Off Characteristics (of History in the Making) – Cornershop
An Ending (Ascent) – Brian Eno
Hope, Peace and Love – Foy Vance
What Else is There? (Thin White Duke Mix) – Royksopp
Free Love – Cornershop
Palestine Looking Back – Homeless Balloon
Free Madness – The Office
Waltz for Koop – Koop
American Legion – Welcome Wagon
Credits
Pictured at the head of this blog post, happy campers at Greenbelt 2009
by Helen O'Sullivan, Greenbelt Music Group Administrator
Friday night was the first full run-through of the Bertolt Brecht play ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ (Tony Kushner translation) in the 1100 seater Olivier Theatre at the National in London. There was a preview the previous night but due to lack of technical rehearsals, only two-thirds of the play was performed. To be honest, it’s probably not the sort of play I would normally have chosen to go to, but Duke Special and his band are part of the production and that made it impossible to resist!
I was a bit apprehensive about the story set in the 1600s during the thirty year war – the synopsis on Wikipedia sounds quite dark and depressing but the performance was lively, engaging and humorous in parts. There’s some discussion on whether it is actually an anti-war play, Mother Courage and her children are depicted profiting from the war but are ultimately victims of it like so many others; it’s certainly thought-provoking. Fiona Shaw was outstanding in the lead role of Mother Courage, and, of course, the music was excellent with Duke Special alternating between piano, drum and accordion and assisted by his bandmates on percussion, guitar, clarinet and saxophone, and double bass. The musicians are an integral part of the performance, rather than just playing background music at the side of the stage, as are the stagehands and the whole thing has a deliberately chaotic feel to it because of that. There is a song in most of the scenes with Duke singing alongside the main characters and literally centre stage for a few of the numbers. Duke’s percussionist, Chip Bailey, is led by Mother Courage to the front at one point and she also shimmies against self-confessed babe-magnet Ben Castle! Duke looks right at home on the theatre stage and sings beautifully – I could hear people commenting on what a good voice he had during the interval.
The play is long at 3 and a half hours, including an interval, although that was the first run through so it may get a bit leaner. The official opening night is 17th September and it runs until 8th December. Tickets are selling well but there are still a few £10 Travelex seats available.
Greenbelters in the London area will also be interested to know that Duke and his band are going to be playing after every Friday evening show from 2nd October until 4th December (and one on the evening of Saturday 3rd October – possibly to be extended to every Saturday although this looks unlikely as they also have a matinee performance on that day), and you don’t need to have a ticket for the play to get in to the gig. The gigs will be held in the main foyer of the National and entry is free.
This month we're giving away a great talk from this year's Festival. Eugenie Harvey, tells the story of We Are What We Do and encourages us all to do our bit to make a difference.
Click to download 'Change the world in an hour', by Eugenie Harvey (52MB)
If you like the talk, then check out Eugenie's books: Teach Your Granny to Text (We Are What We Do) and Change the World for a Fiver: We are What We Do or if the talk has inspired you to make a difference, then why not become an Angel? Click here to find out more.
For more recorded talks from this year's Festival, click here.
Subscribe to the Greenbelt podcast via iTunes and future free talks will automatically appear amongst the Greenbelt podcasts.
As you'll quickly tell if you do a search on twitter, browse flickr, take a look at our vimeo account or even check out AudioBoo or qik.com, Greenbelt's media teams produced a lot of content online over the festival weekend. And a lot of people who couldn't be with us in person seem to have been appreciating it.
For those at the festival, much of that content was invisible. Even if you have a laptop with you or a high-end mobile, keeping up with the festival online and in the physical world is—as I know all too well from several years' experience—a tall order. So this year we decided to print some of it out.
While We Were Here, a Greenbelt newspaper, hit site on Sunday evening and made the rounds on Monday. For more of the story check out this writeup from Matt (the man who pulled it all together). And in case you didn't get a copy (or if you just can't get enough), we've put it up as a PDF that you can download here.
(Many thanks to Hewlett Packard for their sponsorship of the paper. Their last minute support made it all possible.)
