One heart, one mind, one Body

It’s amazing what God can do with people. Those who you thought were beyond salvation’s reach, or who wasted their lives, can be found, can be changed, can be victories for the Lord.

James grew up in a family whose agnostic parents believe in evidence of things seen, in contrast to faith in the unseen. He and his brother and sister never had the stability of faith or a godly lifestyle. They used every illicit drug, lived the hippie life in 1960s San Francisco, tried Eastern religions and cults, dabbled in spiritualism, and many other things James is reluctant to talk about.

Then one day, two people came uninvited to James’ home and shared their faith with him. He asked them about the Ouija board he was experimenting with, and they explained from the Bible how he was placing his life in the Devil’s care when playing that “game.” He continued to study with them, and joined their denomination. Shortly thereafter, he was drafted to serve in the US military. But as part of his newfound beliefs, he would not take an oath of obedience to man or government, as oaths should only be made to God. So James was tried and convicted of draft-dodging. He served six months in prison, which he says he doesn’t regret, because it led to community service opportunities and then his career as a painter.

While James’ brother and sister continued for a few more years in their paths of self-destruction and humanistic religion, James was a new man. He settled down in marriage and fatherhood. He became an active member of his congregation and learned his Bible well. His skill at painting took on an artistry that led to some restoration work at Hearst Castle and a steady career. He and his wife made a house into a beautiful and comfortable home. He spent his leisure time in water sports and fishing, and he became a first-class surfer.

Having only heard of his wild oats-sowing, I never knew about James’ respectable life until a few weeks ago. I was a bit nervous to meet this stranger who’d had a worldly life that included prison (surely for drugs or drug-related crime, I thought). But James was not brain-damaged by drugs, nor did he have the hardness of an ex-convict. He was a gentle, soft-spoken, thoughtful man who had the comfort of others in mind. He took several of us, mostly strangers, on a day-long excursion on the drizzly California coast. Along those miles, we learned his story in bits and pieces, and we bonded not only as relatives or nature enthusiasts, but as children of God. All four of us were of different faith experiences, but we love and serve the same Father, Who loves each of us as much as He loves His Son Jesus. We all learned to love each other that day.

Jesus prayed that we disciples would be of one mind and heart – His heart! Holding prejudice toward other backgrounds or religions is contrary to that oneness that Jesus desires. Discrimination often means that we have judged ourselves as the elect of God, and others as less worthy (or not worthy) of eternal life.

The books of Jeremiah (31:33-34) and Hebrews (10:16-17) both give God’s promise of a New Covenant.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:33-34 NIV

We often stop at the first promise about the covenant becoming part of our minds and hearts. But what a blessing we miss if we stop there! The next part of the promise is that “they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” because the Lord Himself will reach them and teach them!

It’s easy to be proud of our witnessing and evangelistic efforts and successes. But we only support God’s work. Only God can do God’s work. The Lord will forgive and forget wickedness, and He will lead His children to Him. We are added to the scene as God allows us to share the Shepherd’s joy in bringing in the lost sheep.

One of my pastors connects the following verses: the Great Shepherd has sheep in other shelters that He will bring in Himself (John 10:16); even in heaven, some of the redeemed will ask why Jesus carries scars (Zechariah 13:6), because they’ve not heard the full story of salvation; and what God requires of each of us is “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NIV).  Your God, the Word says. There will, indeed, be countless people who are saved in their relationship with and faith in the God who speaks to them and teaches them in His way and His time, but surprisingly, may not use the same methods with others as He did to win us.

Where does that leave us as fellow travelers in the Gospel Commission? It invites us to be useful, willing, humble servants. Servants who will develop relationships with other children of God, and let the love of God live in us without reservation. The possibilities of what God can and will do with lives that we might have given up on, are endless. We share in the celebration that the Lord has brought in all the lost sheep – not 99 percent, but 100 percent – including you and me. Including those “shady” friends, relatives, or neighbors we should know, but haven’t known before!

Get out there and start some conversations. Listen for their heartbeat, their motivation, their questions. Discover how alike you are, not how distant or different. Celebrate your new bonds and relationships. As you share what God has done in your life and theirs, you’ll find that God has been there before you, and He’s in it right now. That is some good news to tell. That is evangelism.

Billy Stratton by Jeff Slater

Jeff Slater Studio

Patrick Kafka by Elfie Semotan

Pending Hen Weekend,Nars and Philosophy

Hello ladies! This will be my last post until Monday as I am heading off to Edinburgh tomorrow to embark on my hen weekend.  I have a loose itinerary of where I need to be and what time but I have no idea what the girls have planned for me! I'm really looking forward to having a proper girly weekend with all my fantastic friends.  I am very lucky to have a lovely group of pals to spend my time with. 

No doubt there will be cocktails galore...bring it on! I really want to have a Mai Tai (or three) because I first tried them when I was on holiday in Barcelona and they are soooo yummy.  They are really refreshing!  Basically, a Mai Tai contains the following:

White Rum

Dark Rum

Amaretto De Saronno

Apricot Brandy

Orange Curacao

Lime Juice

Pineapple Juice

Ok, so it doesn't sound yummy when you write a list of the ingredients but believe me, they're lush! That reminds me, I better take some Ibuprofen with me! I was in Boots today stocking up on Scholl Party Feet and blister plasters for my skyscraper heels! (I'm still on the look out for that product in stick form that you can rub on your feet to prevent friction...).  I will give you guys all the goss from the hen weekend when I return...I'm sure I will have many a story to tell!

On another note, I finally got my hands on Nars blush in Silvana and Nars Sweet Revenge Lipgloss, which is a new shade.  Silvana is a terracotta with soft gold shimmer and it would make a perfect contour shade for when I'm paler and a great blusher for when I'm a bit more tanned for a really sunkissed look.  The shimmer is so subtle as you can see from the pan and swatch.  Sometimes Nars blushes can be a hit or a miss, but this one is smooth, extremely blendable and really pretty once applied.

Sweet Revenge lipgloss is described as a sheer pink grapefruit, however I would say it's slightly darker than you would imagine.  It's more of a peach with slight shimmer in my opinion.  It will look really good with a golden eye look and lashings of bronzer.  I've heard about Nars lipglosses developing a strange smell after a few months but I must say that I haven't noticed that with my Turkish Delight one as yet.  It's a shame because there are so many pretty shades.  I use so much lipgloss that I will probably use it up before it gets to that stage anyway.  I love the look of the Striptease shade which is described as a candlelit nude...sounds like my kinda gloss!  I do think these glosses are a bit overpriced given that alot of the shades are dupe-able. 

I also wanted to share with you an AMAZING hot salt scrub from Philosophy called Pure Grace.  I like my scrubs to come in copious amounts because I use so much of it on my body.  This is one heavy duty scrub and it made mincemeat of the fake tan remnants I had on my elbows (I was having a lazy moment and didn't apply moisturiser before tanning...cardinal rule broken!tut tut!).  Usually nothing would remove it and I would have to wait a few days for it to subside.  But this scrub removed all trace of it in one go although I would only use it once a week as it's too much to use daily.  I just scooped up a little scrub whilst wearing my exfoliating gloves and quickly went over my body in circular motions in the shower.  This scrub is oil-free, glycerin based, with a very light clean fragrance and leaves my skin super duper smooth and soft, without any oily residue left behind.  I like this so much because it's amazingly effective and it's great to use before fake tan.  Oil based scrubs leave a film of oil on your skin afterwards which means that it's harder for the fake tan to adhere to the skin evenly, so you end up with patchiness and streaks.  This stuff is definitely the best scrub I have used in preparation for self tanning.  Thumbs up!

On a completely different note, I caught on to Tanya Burr's vids on Youtube (the girlfriend of Pixiwoo Sam and Nic's younger brother).  I'm sure everyone else is already a subscriber and I'm just the last to know!  But in case you don't know...she is a freelance makeup artist in her own right and up until a couple of days ago, I had only ever seen her being used as a model for Sam or Nic to demonstrate makeup looks.  I have really been getting into her videos...I don't know about you but when I find YT channels I like, I tend to watch about 10 vids in one go, I'm excited to go through them all.  This is one of my favourites of hers:

I also just subscribed to her other channel which is a mixture of Vlogs and Hauls.  I always like to get to know the people behind the YT channel and I was watching a vid of Tanya and her boyfriend, Jim, where he does her makeup for her at the request of lots of subscribers.  Can you imagine your bloke doing your makeup???ha ha.  It's really funny, incredibly cute and they just come across as a really sweet couple who like to take the mick out of eachother:

The bit that made me laugh the most is how he rubs the primer into her face quite roughly and also the poking of the eyes.ha ha.  Let's be honest, more often than not, our other halves are usually so clueless about what it takes to apply makeup and the fact that there is actually skill involved! I know guys always say they prefer girls without makeup but I seriously think that they often aren't sure what is and isn't makeup! Chris looks at pics of Scarlett Johansson or Cheryl Cole and he's like "they look so much nicer au naturel"...I have to interrupt him and politely point out that their 'au naturel' look is all skillfully applied makeup!ha ha.  Boys...

Right, that's me off for now...time to plan my outfits for the weekend! Yahooooooo!

Issue 1 | Music | Music As Reading Introduction

The Music As Reading Silkworms Ink Spotify Mixtape Collection, an introduction

The act of reading is, by and large, taken for granted. At least, the pragmatics of it are. Yes, critical discourse enjoys referring to good and bad reading(s), to close and, increasingly in a world of so-called world literature, distant reading. And popular debate about the positives and problematics of reading novels and newspapers from the screen of a Kindle or an iPad, about the essential literary qualities of the throw-aroundable paperback, continues to fill far more cultural comment column-inches than, really, it ever should have done. Still, certain practical basics of reading are taken for granted, assumed, agreed upon in a way that, when you think about it, is rather curious: we stand or, most likely, sit; we look at a book and only that book; we concentrate on the words, fully; we read them in the direction slash sequence that their author intended us to read them in; we re-read until we understand – perhaps due to distraction, maybe because of the especial complicatedness of a passage. And so on.

Now, of course, and particularly within poetry, this is not universally the case: B.S. Johnson’s avant-garde experiments with literary ordering, experimental sound- and picture-poetry by the likes of Keston Sutherland and David Morley (a chapbook of whose is a highlight of the current Silkworms crop), approaches to reading themselves taken for granted by non-Western and-or archaic cultural traditions (calligraphy, say; right-left reading versus left-right; Blake, and others, etching the originals of their poems in mirror-writing; codes; aural traditions) all attest to this fact. That many of these exceptions represent little more than tweaks to the conventional reading formula – often over-serious, invariably self-consciously niche, frequently debated with a fervour that far outstrips their actual, real-terms significance – suggests, though, that they might well be rule-proving ones.

Question is, is this reading-conservatism a problem? In many ways, no. In fact, it strikes me that reading is one of only a scattering of things that unambiguously benefit from a reasonable dose of conservatism – another example would be making tea. It is of fundamental importance that individuals continue to approach texts with the time, patience, reverence (to a point), a work-ethic, philosophy, lack of hurriedness, lack of expectation of immediate meaning, vocabulary – not to mention imagination, creativity, belief in magic – to do said texts justice. If this concept falters, at the highest levels of reading (for that is what we’re discussing: rigorous, scholarly, energetic reading, not snapshot-thought – so no, Twitter isn’t going to destroy proper reading, it’s simply a new tool for different reading) then literature falters with it.

However.

To focus too much on these conservative fundamentals is to lose sight of less conservative methods of preserving them in a changing world (ugh, changing world – my apologies). Indeed, it seems to me that for all somebody like Sutherland’s attempts to scissor poetic form and the block-structures of reading into something that constitutes, in itself, a form of political polemic, regardless of what convention states the actual words mean, his process represents in many ways an affirmation of the most traditional and conservative tenets of the actual act of reading (slash listening – are they really so different?) Getting anything out of a Sutherland text or reading requires a good deal of old-fashioned hard work. (We’re edging, I think, towards an Adorno-esque understanding of the crucial role difficultness has to play in resistance – a difficultness that is born, probably, out of a conservative approach to the pragmatics of reading – but I suspect that’s a story for another day…)

Long and short of it, difficultness is a good thing! Difficultness equals good reading! Difficultness is poetry, certainly! A by-no-means-new idea, but one that something like, y’know, the internet can facilitate in any number of new ways. The act of reading is taken for granted. This is a problem, because it has the potential to mean that reading, per se, gets left behind, churned in the wake of the digital revolution (ugh, digital revolution – my apologies) – at the expense of the part of reading that must be taken for granted, i.e. difficultness, rigour. We need New Readings. No, that’s not quite right:

We need New Old Readings. In this digital age (Jesus Christ, stop) of ours, we need more Sutherland-style new approaches to preserving traditional principles.

It’ll be with this somewhat lofty concept in mind, coupled with a more humdrum desire to find a way of featuring music on a literary (slash t-shirt) site – because music is a good thing – that Silkworms Ink will launch a brand new feature this coming weekend: the Music As Reading Silkworms Ink Spotify Mixtape Collection. I’ll let that sink in for a moment or two…

The Music As Reading Spotify Mixtape Collection will, like the Silkworms Ink Chapbook Collection, be added to each and every week of the year, the result being a glossy, erudite archive coming together in notimeatall, available for free to anybody – be they regular, contributor or stumble-acrosser. Like the Chapbook Collection, it will be open to submissions from anybody with remarkable ideas – all we ask for is a title, an explanation-blurb, a brief bio and a tracklisting and we’ll do the rest, artwork, the works. What I’m hoping most of all is that some of you start submitting Music As Reading Mixtapes featuring your own compositions, symphonies, soundtracks. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

The premise behind the Collection is a very simple one. We need New Readings. So here’s an idea: musical readings. Or, more specifically, Music As Reading: what happens when we make music central to, a fundamental part of the act of reading; if we sandwich music between a text and our comprehension of it; if we regard music as a means to unlocking literature as opposed to an alternative or accompaniment to it? What is music that claims to be about literature, or vice versa? Can lyrics, say, or a libretto, ever constitute music and literature simultaneously? Forget ekphrasis, art about art – what about a synthesis? What about art on top of art?

What happens when we read with music? Do good things happen?

Each week, a new mixtape will explore a different fragment of this utterly massive question. It may be a particularly tiny shard; in fact at the beginning, it probably will be, as the collection finds its feet – not to mention poetry-focussed, as this is where, I’m sure you’ll agree, the most obvious intersections occur. It may be a factual shard (exploring, I don’t know, Songs About Poets), a more practical-experimental shard (Listen To This Song Whilst Reading This Poem And See What Happens) or a philosophical-metaphysical shard (Is A Poem Not Exactly The Same As A Song?) There may be no coherent sequence over the course of a few weeks, followed a few weeksworth of mixtapes exploring exactly the same thing, in slightly different ways. Mixtapes might come complete with new writing, or aim themselves at ancient writing. All that is certain is that, every six weeks or so, my weekly blogpost will focus not on that week’s theme, but on what new lessons and understandings might have been gleaned from the Music As Reading experience of six new mixtapes. The introduction of new mixtapes will generally centre upon a clutch of questions: these mini-essays will hopefully offer up an answer or two.

I think I’ll leave this probably-too-long-already introduction there. Just a few practical details. You’ll need Spotify to listen to each week’s mixtape – register for, at the very least, the free, basic (‘Open’) service here. Mixtape submissions can take, really, any form you like as long as they include the basics listed in bold above – whack them over to music@silkwormsink.com, but I’d recommend leaving it a few weeks to see what the collection’s about before doing so. Music As Reading is a concept best understood through practical demonstration. Mixtape-Chapbook joint submissions are also welcome – up to you how you go about doing that.

A final thought: as this week’s theme is Issue 1's here’s a video of what might be considered the first major new-tech example of Music As Reading – on any number of levels. Music As Reading Issue One, then: Nick Cave, musician turned author, reading a chapter of his second novel published last summer, the Death of Bunny Munro, accompanied by a soundtrack composed especially by Cave and his right-hand Bad Seed, Warren Ellis. Oh, and below that, an App advertisement making the case for Cave and Ellis’ project representing a new mode of reading. Revolutionary technique or corporate gimmick – you decidez, kidz…

Nick Cave, novelist
App advertisement

Sam Kinchin-Smith
Music Editor

Justin Deeley by Rodney Ray

Nous Model Management

Robin Hood

Titel: Robin Hood
Genre: Action/Äventyr/Drama
Land: USA/Storbritannien
År: 2010
Regi: Ridley Scott
I rollerna: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt, Max von Sydow

Handling: Historien om en bågskytt i Kung Rikard Lejonhjärtas armé som slogs mot de invaderande fransmännen i 1200-talets England. Filmen tar sin början efter Rikards död och belägringen av Chalus-Chabrol och visar hur denne man snabbt blir impopulär hos den nyligen krönte prins John och den engelska adeln.

Omdöme: De flesta känner till berättelsen om Robin Hood som ett äventyr, om bågskytten som tog från de rika och gav till de fattiga. Ja, de ingredienserna finns även här, men de är väldigt nedtonade och istället fokuserar man på hans kamp innan han blev Robin Hood, som Robin Longstride. Det här är egentligen ingen typisk Robin Hood-film och ett enda stort äventyr. Här handlar det om det politiska maktspelet mellan England och Frankrike och hur alla försöker gå bakom ryggen på varandra för att få som de vill.



Vad jag uppskattar är att filmen är mörk, rå och grå. Det känns mer autentiskt på så vis och det är något jag gillar med denna era på film. Kungarna var mer involverade på den tiden, de gick själva ut i strid och de levde gott bland sitt guld och i sina stora, mäktiga slott. Så när omtyckte Kung Rikard Lejonhjärta dör, tar hans son Prins John över och ändrar på spelreglerna. Samtidigt förhandlar Prins Johns högra hand, Godfrey (Mark Strong), med fransmännen och planerar en ful kupp. Robin Hood (Russell Crowe) hamnar mittemellan och blir en jagad man. Lägg därtill Marion (Cate Blanchett) vars svärfar är Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow) som tar in Robin som sin egen son.



Vad jag gillar med filmen är att det är ett gott hantverk, något jag tänker på genom hela filmen. Allt känns genuint och välgjort vilket får mig att komma in i atmosfären och tidsepoken. Kanske är det för att jag är upplagd för denna sorts matiné eller så tycker jag bara om det helt enkelt. Filmen har sina svaga sidor också och det är väl främst att filmen är lite för lång i vissa partier utan att det egentligen behövs. Man känner aldrig riktigt för karaktärerna som man önskar (förutom för Godfrey då eftersom Mark Strong är en så härlig skådespelare som väcker karaktären till liv) och bybarnen är det största problemet då de är helt onödiga för filmen.



Kanske kunde man ha utvecklat karaktärerna och vissa element hos Robin, så som bågskyttet som man oftast får se i form av någon tävling eller utmaning. Å andra sidan får man prov på hans skicklighet vid ett par tillfällen som istället blir som en slags uppvisning som nästan är mer passande. Man har helt enkelt gjort en vuxen version av Robin Hood och inte en för familjen eller barnen. Detta är något som uppskattas av mig iaf och även om filmen har sina små brister så väger helt klart det positiva starkare på mig. Bara en sak som musiken får mig att gilla vad jag ser och hör, och fotot kan man inte klaga på. Visst är det lite likt Gladiator i stilen, men handlingen är trots allt egen. Den har egentligen allt man kan begära av den här typen av film, om man gillar det vill säga.

3 - Skådespelare
3 - Handling
4 - Känsla
4 - Musik
4 - Foto
--------------
18 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 7.1