Douglas Coupland is most famous for his writing (Generation X, Miss Wyoming, Eleanor Rigby etc), but he is also a visual artist.

In his work entitled Hornets’ Nests, he combines these two strands of creativity, by literally chewing on his own work and using the pulp to mimick the creative process of the hornet’s nest.

Moving on from his own books, Coupland made two more nests, one formed from used dollar bills (which he states took considerable chewing) and the other from the far finer and possibly more edifying pages from a Gideon bible.

Each nest apparently took a week of chewing, which Coupland undertook in front of the TV. Side effects included being devoid of saliva for days afterwards; though the forethought of pre-dousing the dollar bills in antiseptic, addresses certain concerns…so just the chemicals and ink to worry about then

Once again I’m minded that Coupland would make an excellent Greenbelt guest.

(thanks to Kirsty at Fragile Tender for the intitial heads up on this)

One of the most inspiring half hours of my Greenbelt was spent listening to the celebrated human rights lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith talking about his work on behalf of people on death row.

The change in Greenbelt blog format just before festival caught me out a little, so I’m doing a bit of catching up here; a couple of retrospective posts that I never quite got around to publishing.

Some of the strongest images to stay with me are the things you stumble upon around the site.

From the MPH Yellow Brick Road:

to the various bits of street theatre like Bedlam Oz and the Polar Explorers:

However, one of the strangest sights I saw over the course of the weekend was this:

At first it seemed that these folk must be watching feeding time in the Workers’ room (chuck a Pie in amongst a gathering of stewards and I presume you get a sight akin to neon yellow hi-viz piranhas in a feeding frenzy)…but no, it seems they’re straining to catch a glimpse of a TV showing the cricket.

Honestly and we go to all the lengths of laying on fab entertainment, stuff the festival full of fabulous art and what do they want to see? Cricket.

I ask you…this: or this:

I suppose the only redeeming factor, is that today in the office, my colleagues’ obsession with the game is taking me back to happy memories.

PS If some helpful sort would like to leave a comment containing an idiot’s guide to making images float/wrap/not wrap as desired in WordPress I’d be most grateful!

great to have jenny macintosh at greenbelt. well done the guys at soul space for pushing for her to be invited. following alan jamieson’s research into church leavers (published in the book churchless faith) jenny has facilitated a network, newsletter and groups under the banner of spirited exchanges for people in NZ who have left churches to have a safe space to process their stuff and move on in their journeys. following a lot of interest at greenbelt from jenny’s workshops and various conversations we had a meeting with a few people today to learn a bit more about how spirited exchanges runs and to see if we could dream up something similar in the uk - after all there’s plenty of church leavers… it was a positive meeting - we’ve a way to go to develop it into a proposal, raise money for it and so on but it felt like a good start… watch this space.

I live in the 13th most deprived area of Scotland, (according to government figures). This is not a salubrious area, but the houses are good and transport links to the city centre are v-good. There is a large 24hr supermarket, a football stadium, a park and a climbing wall within 5-10 mins. walking distance.

Earlier this week the Glasgow City Council approved plans to allow Rangers to bid for the one Super Casino licence from the British Government. The proposed casino would be situated two streets from mine.

Justice is a word with many interpretations. But from here, the use of my area as being deprived so we need a super casino next door is unjust in the extreme. The area I live in does not have the social or political impact to oppose these plans. I wonder how many believe the argument of the planners and the council that it will benefit local residents.

Me. I’m not convinced. It justices it treating everyone fairly then why does the planners need to sell this to us. Why do I feel like I am being to be thankful for something that is unjust?

Strongly worded letter on its way, Tony.

Picking up the car from the garage this morning I overheard the garage-owner and a customer talking about their walks around and their living next door to Cheltenham Racecourse. They had nothing but praise and intrigue for what they saw and experienced: “so many people … so well-mannered … such a considerate event…” I said nothing. It’s nice being a fly on the wall sometimes.

Today I went to a large bookstore. Being tight, I looked at the bargain clearance section I saw a white jacketed, oversized, picture book. The book was called “Cross“.

My spiritual ears pricked up

The book was put together by Kelly Klien, a fashion photographer and editor. It has about 160 pictures and the inside flap claims, “This is the first book ever to distil the icon of the cross to its pure aesthetic essence, to explore it’s universal beauty.”

Can you do that?

The pictures are striking. (With a list of top-notch photographers it should be.) But does it distil the icon of the cross to its pure aesthetic essence?

Yes.

It does. The heart is ripped out of it. The pictures seem cold at points. Shock is main weapon of several of the photographers.

No.

About 120 pictures in a picture of Frank Sinatra captured me. Black and white. He looks in his 30’s casually dressed, conscious of being photographed. Effortless, looking apologetic, as he stands arms outstretched in a cross, one thick boot on another.

Does the cross ever have a universal beauty?

Yeah.
But I think that comes with the baggage of its icon status.

Fantastic having Bill Drummond with us at GB05. And great swopping emails with his manager this week in which it seems they’d love the chance to come again, to talk about his fascinating web project mydeath.net.

A few beers and we’re all talking about it tonight. Mainly because we couldn’t decide on what music to put on, and I noticed a familiar CD on my friends’ shelf, containing one of the songs I desire to be played in full at my funeral, the awesome Unchained by Johnny Cash (”Oh, oh I am weak / Oh I know I am vain / Take this weight from me / Let my spirit be / Unchained”).

At Greenbelt Bill Drummond’s little daughters, dressed in t-shirts decorated with the message ‘Prepare to die’, were giving out mydeath.net cards for people to slip into their wallets / purses / back pockets (’we recommend you carry this with you at all times’). Apparently some people thought it in bad taste. Can’t understand why. All I need is some time to get my head round what other songs to choose for the crem, and what to write up under my entry in the mydeath.net rollcall, under these other headings too:

OBITUARY
RELIGION
HUMANISTS
OTHER
DISPOSAL
UNDERTAKER
COFFIN
VENUE
FLOWERS
MUSIC
READINGS
MOURNERS
DRESS CODE
WAKE
EPITAPH
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
SUICIDE NOTE
ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Hi! Paul asked a few blog-regulars to pop in and post something. I’m Maggi Dawn, and I blog (link here) most days. I was on the blogging panel at gb this year, and did a few other sessions and panels too.

I love Greenbelt, and have experienced it from lots of different points of view over the past 20 or so years. This week I wrote a post here about the tensions - and this year discovering something of a solution - when you take young kids to Greenbelt. Entertaining kids away from home is always absolutely full-on - no opportunity to send them out on their bikes, and no piles of lego or action man to occupy a happy hour here and there. But although I didn’t make much use of the kids’ programme this time, there was plenty to keep us occupied. Colourscape got our top vote, Bubble Inc. was a close second. Bouncy castles were good, and I should think we spent a total of about 12 hours in the Tree of Life maze - a simple maze cut into longish grass. Perfect - son playing with other kids in the maze, me collapsed at the edge soaking up the sun and conversation.

I’ll be putting a few more Greenbelt reflections on my blog in the next few days.

paul has invited some of us who were on the blogging panel at gb to join in the greenbelt blog…
so hi! i blog over at jonnybaker
i have written a few things on GB05 and have posted a review of the new CD DUBH from Ikon (who were part of the worship at GB in new forms). it’s completely biased as it’s on a record label i run in my spare time proost…

my involvement with GB has been co-ordinating the worship programme for the last few years along with gayle.