Vintage Christian rocker Larry Norman died on Sunday morning, February 24, aged 60. What a loss! Larry was a statesman for Christian rock and folk music.
I remember picking up his records in a store back in 1977 (Upon This Rock, Only Visiting This Planet, and So Long Ago The Garden, In Another Land) and being encouraged that there was a bridge between the sacred music culture of my parents’ generation and the emerging popular culture of my own generation. Larry, with his colleagues, sang and talked about real things in their concerts and albums. I went to Larry’s concert in Dunedin as a teenager in the late 1970s. I was deeply impressed by Larry’s commitment to helping Christians improve their attitudes towards each other and the world. Larry was copping a lot of flack from the conservative wing of the church for his use of rock music. His perseverance gave courage to many of us who were struggling to perform in new musical genres as Christians.
Larry Norman Songs in my blood
I Wish We’d All Been Ready - a song for a rapture-obsessed generation
Why Should the Devil Have All The Good Music? - a response to criticism of Christian rock music
Why Don’t you Look Into Jesus? - evangelism meets rock music
The Rock That Doesn’t Roll - ditto
I am a servant - ego on the line for God
U.F.O. - thinking beyond this planet
Hubspot has recently upgraded its free website grader, www.websitegrader.com, offering analysis of websites in terms of search engine optimization, connection to the blogosphere, social mediasphere, recruitment of regular visitors, and competitive intelligence. I’ve tried the tool out with www.duncans.tv (DT) and www.pacifichighlander.postkiwi.com (PH) with some really useful results.
1. On-Page SEO
A. Metadata should include title, description, and ten or less keywords. I had 11
B. Heading summary - using heading formats helps search engines
C. Image Summary - using alt=”xxxx” HTML - I was caught out by the feedburner image. Fixed now.
D. Interior Page Analysis - using keywords and description - needs work.
E. Readability Level - both sites are at Graduate School level (postgraduate)
Off-Page SEO
A. Domain Info - the grader looks for domain registration age and days to expiration, saying that search engines factor domain stability. I’m encouraged by the report to set up a permanent redirect (301 redirect) between www.duncans.tv and duncans.tv
B. Google PageRank (5 for DT and 0 (should be 4) for PH)
C. Google Indexed Pages (1540 for DT and 715 for PH)
D. Last Google Crawl Date (Feb 18 for PH, Feb 21 for DT)
E. Alexa Traffic Rank (Top 0.52% for DT, Top 5.4% for PH)
F. Inbound Links (46,217 for PH, 54,867 for DT)
G. DMOZ Directory Entry found for both
H. Yahoo Directory found for DT but not PH
I. ZoomInfo entry found for DT but not PH
Blogosphere
A. Blog Analysis - looks for evidence of a blog (I think it’s looking for a page with the word ‘blog’ in it.
B. Technorati Ranking (Top 0.02% for DT and Top 0.24% for PH)
C. Last 3 blog articles are shown with Digg links and other inbound links
Social Mediasphere
A. del.icio.us bookmarks (106 for DT and 0 for PH)
B. Digg.com Submission (12 submissions & 57 diggs for DT)
Converting Qualified Visitors to Leads
A. RSS Fead - found on both sites
B. Conversion Form - found on both sites
Competitive Intelligence
A. Keyword Grader. DT ranks at 52 for tv adverts, 100 for television advertisements and tv ads.
B. Score Summary. Duncans.TV came out in the top 2% (98/100). Pacific Highlander in the top 5% 95/100).
Ben Elton provides a cutting critique of cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century in this novel set after the flood. Global warming has led to much of Britain being submerged. FaceSpace culture has led to the disappearance of privacy. The Temple (combine massive manipulative Evangelical rallies with Mormon and Anglican structures) are in control of law and order. Trafford, the protagonist, discovers privacy, vaccination, books, humanism and evolution. Somewhat reminiscent of 1984 and Brazil the novel presents darkness and hope together.
This post-apocalyptic world combines elements of technology from today with a loss of standards of living. It’s hot in the UK - so hot that people have virtually given up wearing clothes. Modesty is a thing of the past. Turning up at a physical work space is a novelty. Trafford works for the government, in NatDat, finding new kinds of ‘degrees of separation’ between members of the population.
Vaccination, regarded as a dangerous meddling with nature, has been abandoned. And so the infant mortality rate has skyrocketed in the face of measles, mumps, tetanus, cholera, smallpox, bubonic plague and so on.
Every moment of life, including every sexual encounter, is captured on the WorldTube in a combination of exhibitionism and voyeurism. All foods are sweetened. Women are pressured into breast enlargements. Marriage is not as important as ‘getting married’.
Elton provides a tongue-in-cheek critique of the “Save the World” rock concerts and Evangelical faith gatherings. Faith Festivals in Blind faith are held in Wembley Stadium, with global satellite coverage.
“It was most inspiring to live in a world where ‘people power’ could mean so much, where a single concert could change the world irrevocably for the better, where things could be improved just because the people wanted them to improve. Simply by massing, cheering, listening to music and eating enormous amounts of takeaway food, everyone knew they could make a real difference”.
Time and time again Trafford and his newly found friends reflect on the contrast between reasoned humanism and irrational blind faith. The God of the Temple, Everlasting Love, is portrayed as one who is responsible for both wonderful miracles and the terrible suffering experienced by grieving parents. This is the God who created everything in six days. “Any God who kills a child to punish its parents is not worth worshiping!” Trafford argues.
Elton provides important warnings for us today. It is too easy to sacrifice a capacity for privacy in the quest to develop an online identity. Is it possible to retain the ability to write material that only we will ever read? With the move towards utilitarianism on the internet will we know when we’ve lost the capacity to reflect deeply, to think, to celebrate life, to form our own fantasies? Or will our superheroes of the future be the people who tell us to make money, become famous and look young and sexy?
The dark controlling nature of the religious institution in Blind Faith is only too possible when power and faith are combined in an environment of fear and ignorance. We have the Spanish Inquisition, John Calvin’s merciless rule in Geneva, and the complicity of Martin Luther in the quelling of the Peasants Revolt to keep us humble and alert.
In reading Blind Faith it’s important to remember that satire, by nature, exaggerates and amplifies the follies of a society’s existing weaknesses. There are individuals and groups who even now exhibit the disturbing behaviours and beliefs described in the book. It’s our responsibility to live, think and act in a way that ensures that these distortions of faith and reason do not become the norm.
This 10 minute video was put together one autumn afternoon in 2007 at the University of Manchester. The concept of ‘Generation Y’ was put forward to a class of over 100 MSc Students. The opinions expressed extend across Business, IS and Computer Science disciplines. Thanks to Martin Cahill for hosting the video.
In response to surveys showing a lack of conversational skills stemming from an over-reliance on video games, text messaging and TiVo, a number of American mainline churches have begun to offer classes in fellowship and social conversation with Generation Y’ers.
“We feel this is meeting a real need in our congregations,” said Jerod P.Ainsworth, youth director at Loma Linda Presbyterian Church (LLPC), a leader in what some observers have called the “small-talk education movement.”
“This is causing a real rift in congregations that is breaking fellowship between the generations,” Ainsworth said.
The classes offered at LLPC include “Me and My Friends Alone: Clique Talk in the Foyer,” “Endless Conversations about One’s Children,” “Endless Conversations About One’s Grandchildren,” and “Biblical-Seeming Gossip.”
“These young people seem so immersed in their own world, they just cannot seem to share in this centuries-old tradition,” said Forbes McGintley, head of a commission designated by mainline churches to study the problem.
Suggestions offered by the authors break the problem into four distinct areas of instruction for the parents of Gen Y’ers:
1. How to talk about one’s children and family (and others’ families exactly like it) to the exclusion of all other topics.
2. How to network and bring up one’s job and/or profession in subtle yet profitable ways.
3. Exclusive vacation spots, including activities like skiing, para-sailing,kayaking, bicycling, and (of course) golf.
4. Talk about God-given possessions like cars, jet skis, pools and spas and “most importantly, improvements on the house.”
Howard Bowman, Wittenburg Door, January 30, 2008
Read the full article, How to De-Program a Gen Yer, at Wittenburg Door.
It’s been a significant day today - February 13, the day Australia’s Prime Minister issued an apology to the stolen generations on behalf of the Australian Federal Parliament and Government.
I heard Kevin Rudd’s apology and speech on the radio on the way to work, along with the response of the Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson. I spent the morning in Goodna and Inala, working with members of multicultural communities, reflecting on what it means to develop an authentic and sustainable community. The apology formed a poignant reminder that we can be blind to the impact of our actions. We need to listen to one another, treat each other with respect.
I believe today’s apology was a significant step in reconciliation. The commitment to closing the gap in housing, infant mortality and education is going to require the commitment of an emerging generation of Australians and the support of national and State governments. We’re going to need to hear more of the stories like those told by Brendan Nelson today. Too many Australians appear to have little idea of what Sorry Day is all about.
Today’s Q Weekend magazine, an insert in Brisbane’s Courier Mail, features a story on house churches by Will Storr.
Will introduces readers to the house church movement through the eyes of Sarah Williams at Jahworks in Doveton, Melbourne (ex Salvation Army), Bessie Pereira, Oikos House Church Network, Dave Andrews at Waiters Union, members of Pacific Parks Uniting on the Gold Coast, Pathway in Brisbane, and a group meeting in Cloncurry. There’s a photograph from one of the Coomera Baptist house churches on the Gold Coast.
Will sums up the house church movement with the common hallmarks of being decentralised, self-funded and unadvertised, meeting on a Sunday or Thursday, sitting in a circle, being leaderless, having a prickly dislike of preaching, a loose conversational program of worship usually involving a meal, considering their entire lives to be an act of “church”, and acts of charity and social justice to be an essential element of their Christianity. He says they’re often the subject of persecution from the inhabitants of what they like to call “pointy buildings”.
It’s a risky thing talking to a reporter knowing that only small parts of your conversation will end up in the article, sandwiched by fashion advertisements linked with the new David Jones store in Brisbane. The section of the article that focuses on our house group shows us as a group who focus on conversation, risking hints of heresy and intimate enough to reveal deep hurts and differences. Suggesting that I started the group as part of my Vision for Mission investigation into new forms of worship doesn’t quite do justice to the team with whom Ennis and I are working. For some of us, we are able to express our membership of the Uniting Church in the house church setting. It’s not an either/or situation.
The Waiters Union is described as Dave Andrews’ house church - which again over simplifies a network of people who wouldn’t fit into the house church framework.
‘Houses of the holy’ is a colourful article, with vivid stories, a critique of institutional Christianity since Constantine, showing awareness of the diversity found in the house church movement. Will, a freelance writer from the UK, is known for his book, Will Storr versus The Supernatural, a John Safran-style exploration of the ghost busting industry. Photography is by Russell Shakespeare, on the Gold Coast.
I’m taking a workshop on online social networking and youth ministry for the New Beginnings Youth Ministry Intensive at Trinity College in Brisbane, next week. We’ll have 90 minutes to explore ways in which youth ministry can happen online.
We’ll identify some of the relational modes we’ve seen already:
And then we’ll take a look at the social networking side - Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Bebo, Friendster…
Rhett Smith, college director of The Quest, at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, has his outline for a workshop online, exploring our own online journey, the issue of online identities, the challenge of leading within an online structure where there is no official leadership, the ambiguity found in positive and negatives, and the call to be involved in transforming communities.
Here’s a few of my issues…
1. Development of identity.
Young people need to develop their own sense of who they are in relationship to their community. Online communities provide opportunities for experimentation.
2. Development of intimacy
I’ve seen socially awkward teenagers develop the capacity for in depth conversations once the tongue-tied blushing body had become irrelevant. There’s potential here but also the danger of imbalance. There’s a tension between knowing and being known by many and knowing and being known well. The more ‘friends’ we add to our profiles the more difficult it is to foster relationships of integrity.
Freedom and Addiction
The house church I belong to is currently working through a series of studies relating to Lent, focusing on ‘Letting Go For Life”. Youth leaders have the opportunity to reflect with young people about the cravings (some very healthy) that can end up as addictions. Winning at that game. Being affirmed by others and added to their lists of friends.
Proximity
I don’t expect youth leaders to spend all their time with young people. There’s a need for healthy boundaries. However it is important to be accessible. For that reason I’ve accepted teenagers from church youth groups etc as ‘friends’ in MySpace and Facebook but have not gone pursuing them.
Chicago/Christchurch creative agency TimeZoneOne has launched a viral campaign promoting Spruce Beer, focused on Waitangi Day, New Zealand identity and beer.
A creative experiment focuses on developing a new brand capturing the essence of New Zealand identity. Rejects include All Black Jock Strap Ale (too yeasty), Crowded House Bitter (too bloody Australian), and Ernest Rutherford Lager (unpleasant fall out). Second on the list of accepted beers is Kiwi Bush-Bee Beer (part bumble part killer). First place goes to Captain Cook’s Spruce Beer, first brewed by Captain Cook in 1773, designed to prevent scurvy.
The spot suggests that 8 out of 10 doctors now agree beer solves most health issues.
Spruce Beer, is a New Zealand beer based on Captain Cook’s original recipe and was first made in Dusky Sound, New Zealand, 1773. It is flavored with ’spruce’ (rimu) and tea tree. Spruce Beer is brewed for Heritage Foods (NZ) Ltd. by Wigram Brewing Co. in Christchurch.
Rugby Racing and Beer
A New Zealand folk song recorded by Rod Derrett in 1965
When I was just a little kid,
Knee high to a keg,
My Daddy took me on his knee.
He drained his glass and closed his eyes
And gave me very sound advice
On how to be a good Kiwi.
“Get to know your football sides
And learn to spell from Moore’s race guides
And don’t forget down under over here
Because of your great parentage
You have a national heritage
Of Rugby, Racing and Beer.”
Rugby, Racing and Beer,
Rugby, Racing and Beer,
Down under we’re mad over our
Rugby, Racing and Beer.
Old Uncle Charlie went to see
The Doctor yesterday
He cried, “You’ve got to help me Doc and quick,
I’m seeing spots before my eyes,
My head feels twice its normal size,
And every Sunday morning I feel sick.”
The Doctor took one look at him
And said, “Well Charlie things look grim,
I hate to have to tell ya but I fear,
You’d better write your will tonight,
‘Coz you’ve got kiwi-itis,
That’s Rugby, Racing and Beer.”
Rugby, Racing and Beer,
Rugby, Racing and Beer,
Down under we’re mad over our
Rugby, Racing and
Rugby, Racing and
Rugby, Racing and Beer.
I’ve been enjoying the revival of an interest in the game of Scrabble on Facebook, through the Scrabulous application. We have Scrabble at home here and enjoy the occasional boardless alternatives of ‘Take Two’, and 15 Speed Scrabble. (See Wikipedia for these and more). But it’s fun having a few games on the go at once, with family members and friends around the world.
[eminimall products="Scrabble"]
Scrabulous was launched in July 2006 by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two entrepreneurs from Kolkata, India. The application took off when it was integrated into Facebook. Only problem is that Hasbro and Mattel, who own the rights to Scrabble in the US and elsewhere respectively, are now suing Facebook and the Agarwallas, claiming, quite rightly, that they have no legal right to use the board game settings and name in an online setting. Apparently there’s an online version of the game in the wings. In the meantime 600,000 Scrabulous Facebook users are enjoying what could be a temporary pleasure. Many, myself included, have joined Facebook groups campaigning to find a win win deal in which Hasbro, Mattel and the Scrabulous brothers can work together.
Here’s my best game so far, played with Julie Furner, a youth worker in New South Wales. Six of the first eight moves between us were words using all our tiles - scoring an extra 50 points per word. Solving anagrams in cryptic crosswords, something I do most nights before I go to sleep, has come in handy in this game.
Here’s a list of tips for scoring well in Scrabulous (and Scrabble)
1. Always check to see if you are able to use all your letters. If need be, use an online anagram solver to train up in the skill.
2. Make the best use of triple and double word scores, if possible putting high scoring letters on the pink and red squares. Triple and double letter scores aren’t too bad either.
3. Look for common ways to form words. Using S, ED, ING and ER can give you useful leads.
4. Get to know your two letter words. There’s a useful list provided in Scrabulous. There is some controversy in this field however. The official Scrabble dictionary, for example, lists ZO (Himalayan cross between a yak and a cow) while the Scrabulous dictionary has ZA (slang for pizza).
5. Place words in ways that form several other words, ideally using double and triple word and letter squares twice. (This is where the two letter words are so important).
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
This post-apocalyptic world combines elements of technology from today with a loss of standards of living. It’s hot in the UK - so hot that people have virtually given up wearing clothes. Modesty is a thing of the past. Turning up at a physical work space is a novelty. Trafford works for the government, in NatDat, finding new kinds of ‘degrees of separation’ between members of the population.
1. Always check to see if you are able to use all your letters. If need be, use an online anagram solver to train up in the skill.
