#amblecote

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪︎Cameo Scent Bottle.

Manufacturer: Thomas Webb and Sons (f. 1837)

Place of origin: England, Amblecote

Date: 1880-1900

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Not scenes of labor in Communist Russia, but bricklayers in England in the village of Amblecote, Stourbridge. Women villagers constitute main body of employees in local fire-brick works and have reputation for producing finest hand-made fire bricks in the world.”

- from the Toronto Star. October 7, 1931. Page 23.

[an-elementary-world]

Die Son Die - the documentary

Directed by Miles Perhower and edited by Alan Neilson. 'Die Son Die' is more than a documentary. It captures the raw and explosive live gigs of the post-mode...

I guess this film is my “one near perfect thing” that Belle and Sebastian sang about - “they’ll write it on grave or when they scatter my ashes” - it took me many hours, days, weeks, months to film, produce and edit this film, so I’m damned if it will stay hidden away any longer.

From the brain of Matt Hale spewed the idea, story and music for ‘Die Son Die’... from the fingers and eyes of Alan Neilson, the film was realised.  This project has collected dust for 7 years, because I guess we were so sure of its success that its failure quickly became an embarrassment.  But the truth is, it is a work of great intelligence and deserves to find an audience... somehow... somewhere.

2016 - I found the interview I filmed with Matt in 2008, before I even agreed to produce ‘Die Son Die’, and it is a revelation.  I loved it so much I re-edited the original film (removing the middle section short film that distracted so much from the main feature) and altered the timeline slightly to help with the overall flow of the fictionalised element.

I think it is a great 94 minutes of music and exploring the inner workings of Matt Hale’s genius.

Thanks to fast broadband the entire redux’d DSD Docu is now available on Youtube.  Tell your friends and remind me and Matt that we did a fucking good job.

[amblecoteccprophetic-blog]

Some thoughts for 2012

A year of... Prayer

There is a sense of God re-ordering our prayer. We have prayed before, but there is a sense of a new season of prayer among us. In a prophecy given at the world prayer centre a prophet saw oil begin to flow from God to us and from us to God. This gives the sense of seeking God, His Kingdom and His Righteousness. Many times we pray that God would work through us, bless what we are doing for Him and move in our lives. And these aren't bad things. But there is a feeling of prayer being about His Kingdom and longing for His Righteousness, Matt 6 v 33. I am exited. I don't fully understand this, but I see God in it. Aslan is on the move. A year of...Removing to reveal A very wise Christian once said that sometimes church in this land and at this time can be like a pass the parcel that has no present in at the end. Lots of wrapping, lots of noise and excitement but no substance. This is not a criticism, but an observation of how things can be. And we are all victims and offenders of this. We can't reveal the living Christ and therefore we hype it up, or cover it up or put bells on it. So they don't notice? Or so we don't notice? This year we feel is a year of removing the wrapping paper. Of focusing on that which is important and crucial, and allowing God to remove the rest. In a recent prayer meeting someone gave the image of the new 'double-strength' squashes that you can get, and how God is concentrating things down, removing the dilution to reveal a concentrated and focused result of what really matters. Sometimes this can be unnerving, when the water is drained, the wrapping removed, the foundations revealed we can suddenly be struck with how little is actually there. And often, if it is in our lives, to our shock, feel exposed, like a fraud, empty and unstable. But do not be discouraged! Do not be tempted to cover up. We sense, like Israel, that God exposes our Sin because He has great plans to turn us more to Him and reveal Himself to us. This year is a year of focusing on what really matters, removing the bells and whistles, and finding again the prize of knowing Christ in reality. A year of...shipwreck I had an image a while back. We would often talk about the church being a boat, and in leading and serving the people on this boat our job was to turn this boat, to gently change its direction so it faced where the Lord is leading and took as many people with it as possible. I still hold dear to this image. As I prayed with a friend the other day about youth she had an image of me being shipwrecked. Treading water, but this being part of the Lords plan. As I have thought about this shipwreck recently the previous image of changing the direction of the ship has come to mind. It dawned on me tonight that it is possible that the Lord has asked us to turn the ship to face the rocks and land. To shipwreck the boat. This troubles me and I’m not sure how reliable this is. The comfort I received today was when reading Acts 27 v 22, when the Lord reveals to Paul that none will perish but only the ship will be destroyed. I sensed that as the ship is shipwrecked only the ship, and those who only want the ship (not the destination) will be destroyed. Sensed that the ship was always there to complete a journey, to reach a destination. But to many it has become the destination. This is not just true of 'church' but things in our lives too. Things that God gives us in His mercy to aid in our journey we make into the destination, rather than Him being the destination. Sense that we are to draw courage at this time. And like Paul, with the waters raging around us and many lifeboats with people gone, say, do not be afraid, only the ship will be destroyed.

[amblecoteccprophetic-blog]

Prophetic

We're looking at opening up a prophetic blog. This will allow us to post articles, words, videos and pictures that contribute to our story through the prophetic. This will allow more and more people to access words that come to and through Ambleocte CC.