The Dig Tree Multimedia Project

The Dig Tree project is sponsored by the Uniting Church in Australia and is being organised by Kippax Uniting Church. The aim of the project is to help the church use and create multi-media resources.

The idea is to essentially create an "open" publishing system that uses a copyright framework to enable subscribers and contributors to share resources without fear of breaking the law, but also protects the interests of the author/creator/artist.

Eventually the intention the resources will be available by subscription (amount to be determined). The income will help for covering the distribution costs, to sustain the project, and to commission contributors for specific content.

Distribution of resources will be via the Internet and possibly by DVD (depending on various issues be resolved).

We am very interested in finding both potential contributors/subscribers. Feel free to visit the website and register your interest. More details can be found on the website about the project or just send me an email.

However, just to get you moving, right now there are a couple of free Advent resources that are available in "the Library" on the new website http://digtree.unitingchurch.org.au. The only thing is that you need to self register on the website to get to the files. You will find them in the beginnings of "the Library". Feel free to contribute your own creations as well... of course don't forget to check out the copyright rules first.

Shalom

Dean Tregenza
The Dig Tree Project
http://digtree.unitingchurch.org.au

City Lights Street Art Project

More than 18 artists collaborate on Australia's largest street art project at World Square in Sydney. Corner of George and Goulburn St.

AUGUST 18 to 22, 2004 Wednesday August 18, Citylights, Multiplex and World Square present an unprecedented collaborative public art project on the hoardings of the World Square site in the heart of Sydney's CBD. OUTSIDE THE SQUARE-EXTRA CLASSIC will feature stencils, painting and graffiti on over 170 metres of panels, by 18 artists working with the Citylights Project out of Melbourne.

http://www.citylightsproject.com

The work will be viewable 24 hours a day until April 2005, when the panels will be auctioned with proceeds going to charities supporting homeless youth.

Spirituality Signposts

Signposts is a fantastic set of 48 full-colour cards exploring spirituality, for use in discussion or learning activity.Produced by St. Lukes in Bendigo, Victoria, the cards feature stunning photos and 1-3 word phrases that evoke something of the experience of spirituality.

eg.
walking through shadow
remembering blessings
noticing beauty
looking for signposts
practicing compassion
welcoming others
wondering at the mystery

You will gather from the examples that the phrases are very open ended and not naming a particular religious tradition, in fact they are very un-churchy. The pack comes with a booklet that gives a number of suggestions of
ways to use the cards. I think they're sensational. I wish they had an electronic version.

You can see some sample cards here.

BTW,St. Lukes have lots of other great stuff too.

300 audio loops in 30 days

300 loops (wav files) in 30 days. each set of loops is only up for 7 days. haven't got round to listening to any yet so can't vouch for the quality - (thanks ben for the tip off).

textures

myangs free textures via mark waddington is a site with lots of high resolution textures/images.

Strange Attractors

On the ABC web site is a little treasure waiting to be found: Strange Attractors, an animation showcase highlighting 12 Victorian animators. You've got a choice of browsing in Shockwave - ideal for broadband, or html - better for dial up. The 12 animations are designed to be watched on Real player.

Take a look at 'Fog Eyes' - animation by Hamish Koci. It features a little girl sent to a hospital to have her eyes treated. She's placed in her bed by Sister Enid, a Catholic nun, who's determined to teach her how to pray and keep the devil away. The girl gets the idea that the lamp beside her bed, and that the suicidal patient in the bed next door is the devil. What follows is both tragic and comical - as would be expected for a down under production.

Strange Attractors - An Animation Showcase

new hexstatic cd/dvd

hexstatic have a new album/dvd out. masterview is fantastic value - you get a CD and DVD and a set of 3D glasses all for the price of a normal CD! several of the videos are made in 3D. last night i was cooking and i put the laptop on the kitchen table with the DVD running. so i found myself stirring spaghetti bolognaise with 3D glasses on hoping no one would walk in and think i was completely weird!!!! the first CD rewind had some stunning videos that you could use in worship. this one doesn't really - but it is fantastic fun... the updated web site does have videos of the legendary deadly media, timber, natural rhythm, and frog jam as well as some from masterview....

God in the dj booth or on the club floor?

I'm reviewing Gordon Lynch's book, "After Religion: 'Generation X' andthe search for meaning, on the Postkiwi blog. Up to now, I've covered a book in a post. I'm moving to a chapter a post a day - more fun, more in depth critique, and also a chance to dialogue with the author. Gordon Lynch, the decent chap that he is, even responded to my invitation to provide comments - by email at this point. I'd be interested in dialoguing with anybody's comments on my reviews of the chapters, covering:

1. The decline of institutional religion
2. Critique of popular writing on generation X and spirituality
3. Post-Evangelicalism and Alternative worship
4. Tom Beaudoin, MTV and The Matrix
5. Clubbing Spirituality (published today)

Coming up:

6. Douglas Coupland and 'Generation X' spirituality
7. Does Generation X need God?

slow moment

in case you don't follow my blog (!?) this slow moment video (approx 26mb) is stunning. it works wonderfully well with the reading we used at a grace slow service whch is under worship trick 100

war animation

brilliant flash animation - war

visions free downloads

visions have added a download page for video loops. they are all in quicktime format.

stunning animation DVDs

Animation Trip distribute DVDs from a range of producers, mainly in the arena of 3D animation. Some of their titles showcase the short films of 3D animators around the world, such as the stunning Animusic where musical instruments play themselves - yes, it's a symphonic Sorcerer's Apprentice.

They also distribute some stunning videos made by Addictive TV in the UK. The Transambient and Mixmasters series consist of electorinc dance music with video accompaniment. There's great variety in the music and imagery, with many, many stunning visual sequences, both 'real life' and animated.

Their website says:

Our visuals label was set up in 1999 to produce DVDs of integrated electronic music & visual mixes by VJs, DJs, visual artists and music producers. Transambient was released in 2000 as the first audiovisual DVD album; ZDNet called it 'digital perfection' and The Big Issue called it "proper 21st century entertainment". The second release, Spaced Out, was described by DJ Magazine as '2001's best reason to buy a DVD player'. 2001 also saw Addictive TV sign with major US dance label Moonshine for American distribution. Projects feature original work from artists including Quantic, 808 State, Coldcut and EBN's Brian Kane and exclusive mixes from DJs including Baby Mammoth, Tim 'Love' Lee and Spacer. Visual styles range from trippy Super8 to full-on CGI. Music includes everything from chilled electronica to drum 'n' bass.

Animation Trip have downloadable examples, but you can also purchase the DVDs from Addictive TV themselves.

Free Online Videos

Thanks to list-member Rebecca for this link to the Open Video Project that has all kinds of historical footage and other weird and wonderful stuff that you can use. Over 200 clips at present. Formats vary.

Storytellers DVDs and More...

For sometime I have been playing around with ideas of how to create space for a wide variety of gifted people to share their inspiration, spirituality and perspective in a time where questions could be asked and faith explored.... then along comes Sarah McLachlan's new DVD 'Storytellers'. Its basically an intimate unplugged type performance where Sarah shares more than normal about the inspiration behind a limited number of her songs as she performs them.
Its part of a 'storytellers series of DVDs.
At different points the time opens up for questions from the small audience.
SNAP!!
Whether you choose a community venue like a cafe or transform a worship space into an informal setting... the idea is to invite individuals to prepare some input based around their INSPIRATION, SPIRITUALITY AND PERSPECTIVE... make space for Q&A as part of the presentation and ideally include hospitality as part of the event!!

For example:
1. Invite a musician to perform their own tunes and those of their influences, explain how the songs inspire, shape their faith or what perspective they have on the issues it raises.
2. Invite an artist to curate an exhibition of their own works or significant ones [display stills or video by big screen]
3. Invite someone who is into alt.worship high tech multi-media experiences to put together some 'best of' stuff an lead people through some experiences
4. Invite someone like myself to share stories, movie scenes and songs that inspire and shape faith and explain whyAND so on....This could be done as part of an existing alternative or contemporary worship program, four times per year focused on being 'out there' in the community, at significant times like Lent and Advent and/or as a way of connecting to schools or particular communities of people in your local setting...

I'll be on the lookout for places to trial these events in the next 12 months!!

Find this idea, youth ministry 'unreliable ideas', worship unplugged suggestions, music, movies and my own less than academic observations on the world and my interests in it!!
At www.pumphouse.blogspot.com comments welcomed...
I try not to steal too many of the ideas from members of the youthmulti-media egroup...

Princeton Youth Ministry CDs

The Princeton Insitute for Youth Ministry in the US gives away two excellent youth ministry resources.

Each year since 1996 they have hosted a lecture series on Youth, Church and Culture, with presenters such as Jurgen Moltmann, Kenda Creasy Dean, Dorothy Bass, Will Willimon, Mark Yaconelli, Michael Warren, Sharon Parks and others. A copy of the lectures is available free. You can download them here.

Information about the next lecture series in January and April on the theme "With Imagination and Love: Leadership in Youth Ministry" is here.

Cloud of Witnesses is the Princeton Audio Journal on Youth, Church and Culture. Now at Volume Seven, on the theme of Mission, the free CDs feature talks, interviews, music, Bible studies, sermons, stories and more. The presenters consist of youth pastors, young people, clergy, theologians and others. And its free.

Previous volume themes include Play, Story, Vocation, Suffering & Hope, Spirituality, and Ministry.

To find out more click here.

the cyber schoolbus

The United Nations have a sensational web portal for students called the cyberschoolbus. I know, "cyber" and "schoolbus" don't seem to add up, but hey.

All kinds of great informational on global issues
- comparative statistics on countries around the world (as distinct from other countries....?)
- quizzes about global stuff (currently flags and water - that's two quizzes, not one!)
- curriculum resources of peace, poverty, human rights and more
- info about special days such as World Environment Day
- a link to the previously posted Aftershocks art exhibition

Currently an interactive Flash cartoon exploring work for children in terms of human rights called 3PLUS-U

Lots of great resources for educational use.

Growing up with War and Terrorism

Aftershocks in an online display of art and memoirs by young people growing up with war and terrorism. (don't call it 'terror'. Grrr)

The artwork and journals in this online exhibit were created by teenagers who lived through the war in Bosnia and children in New York City who witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center.

As well as art and journals, the site contains a video documentary of some of the artists.

Well worth a visit.

the art of speed

the art of speed is a project commissioned by nike with 15 talented young filmmakers interpreting the idea of speed. all 15 films are on the latest dvd that came with creative review magazine (you have to subscribe to get the dvd which comes out twice a year). but all 15 films are available to download from the web site. the large size ones are pretty big so you'll need broadband connection. my favourite is the associates in science one which has the most useable sequences for worship. grace are doing a service at greenbelt called 'slow' looking at speed and slow - handy eh?!...

the web site also contains links to several other interesting things. i particularly like this hand clock

Global Images of Christ

Like many of us I gather pictures of Jesus from various places and
use them in various ways, often rather neglectful of the copyright
issues involved.

So I've been ecstatic to come across an excellent resource called "The
Christ We Share" which has given me a legal way to do this.

Produced by the Church Missionary Society in the UK, it contains 35
full colour images of Christ from various cultures around the world.

The images come as A5 mini posters, AND on CDROM as high and low
resolution images and two Powerpoint presentations - one with music by Proost.

But wait there's more... The pack also contains an excellent range of
activity sheets and worship ideas enabling people to explore how and
why various people and cultures see Christ through different eyes.

some of the images you will have seen before, particularly in WCC
publications - some will no doubt shock and disturb some.

It costs only 15 pounds sterling (where is that pound symbol when you
need it...!) and for me an extra 6 pounds for air freight to Oz.

Highly recommended - its stunning.

They don't have online ordering so you have to fax the details.

CMS Partnership House, 157 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8UU
Switchboard (020) 7928 8681 Fax (020) 7401 3215
Direct Line (020) 7803 3376
E-mail: anne.key@cms-uk.org
URL: www.cms-uk.org

in motion - new DVD

Im Motion is a new DVD produced by OSBD for RUN (reaching the unchurched network). it has clearly been a huge project in the making with 4 sections -

5 stories of faith (it was surprise and fun to see barry taylor on there!)
3 dramas
5 excerpts from 'the street bible' performed by rob lacey on location (street bible is being published in the USA as 'the word on the street' i think)
4 reflective visual pieces designed for meditation or worship

it's all new material - over 80 minutes worth, useable in lots of contexts. i think it is well suited to churches looking for creative material or small groups wanting a discussion starter. i can imagine the street bible being played for the bible reading in a service - would be great... the most useable bits for alt worship are the reflective visual pieces. my favourite is one that has shots of eyes overlaying each other with things going on in the reflection of the pupil of the eye - very nicely done! it actually reminds me of an eye we filmed close up as part of grace ten. our concept there was that grace comes to us through sight if we have eyes to see.... the loop on the dvd is rather more sophisticated...

there are some samples of the video on the osbd page......

free image archive

pixelperfectdigital is a source of free high resolution images - thanks to the ooze blog.

may the font be with you

I'm a font junkie. I admit it. I have way too many.

I have some favourite font designers. Here are some...

The Type Quarry - home of "Marydale" and some great old style handwriting, not to mention "Speed Bump" with its sensational dingbats that I've used on many occasions
Robot Johnny - home of "Girls are Weird"
Font Diner - great retro stuff
Kiwi Media - the amazing 'violation'

A few freebies on these sites.

Some of these may be Mac only....

Craig

free images from osbd

free images from osbd

Best Kept Secrets

No doubt some of you know Lamb very well and some have never heard of them. Well I've heard of them for a while and just got their "Best of" album - "Best Kept Secrets".

I know nothing about the duo except that people keep mentioning them... Much of the album is stunning and makes me want to check out the rest of their stuff.

Andy Barlow does the instrumentation - an astonishing mix of lush, fat, backward, odd-tempo and weird beats and sweeps. From sublime to strange, from chill to choke, from dream to dance, from sigh to spew (yeah, some it doesn’t work for me).

Lou Rhodes does the vocals. On many tracks she has gorgeous phrasing but you feel you want her to come back and sing it in 10 years time, just because her tone is still getting there. But that is to understate her ability and interpretation. On many of the tracks she is fabulous. I don't know who writes the lyrics but the overall interpretation is moving. Here is the sense of a band pushing towards something, and in doing so they stretch us towards something as well.

One of Lamb's gifts is that they keep surprising you in every song. The beats and sounds change, the songs have several 'movements'. The mood goes places that songs rarely go. Not up or down but other places.

The lyrics of the songs that hit me are a mix of spiritual and sensual. "God Bless", "Gorecki", "Heaven", "Gabriel", "Wonder" and "Stronger".

Love songs? Questions? Dreams? Yes.

I hope some others might tell more of their music and background.

Here's the official website

http://www.lambstar.net/

Some live video stuff there too

"God Bless" - Lamb

You're gonna feel the wind at your heels you know
You're gonna feel a sparkle in your step
Everything will touch you in a different way
Let it come, soon come, let it come
'Cause I'm gonna make you feel lighter than the air above
Let me breath it into you
Let me breath it into you
Let me breath it into you

Here's to happiness
God bless the day
That made my feel this way

An angel's smiling on everything we do
Let them try to stop this good thing growing
'Cause there's no dark cloud
Gonna leave a shadow on there
Gotta keep it strong
Keep it true
Keep it strong
I'm gonna build you up
And build you up
Keep this natural thing
Keep this precious thing
Gotta keep it going on and growing strong

Here's to happiness
God bless the day that made me feel this way
Here's to happiness
God bless the day that made me feel this way, feel this way
Here's to happiness
God bless the day
That made me feel this way
Feel this way
Here's to happiness
God bless the day that made me
Feel this way
Feel this way
Gotta keep this naturel thing
Gotta keep this precious thing
Gotta keep this naturel thing
Gotta keep this precious thing
And I'm gonna keep it going on
And growing strong
Here's to happiness
God bless the day that made me feel this way, feel this way

Here's to happiness
God bless the day that made me feel this way
Feel this way
Feel..this..way
Here here here heres to happiness
Here here heres to happiness
Here here here here to happiness
To happiness
To happiness

Plug-Ins for iMovie

If you're an Apple iMovie person (and which newbie film-maker isnt?) then you might like to know about the plugins you can get to allow you to do VFT (very funky things)

Some of these plugins are OK and some are pretty cheesy. Some have free samples, most have free demos.

http://www.geethree.com/
http://www.stupendous-software.com/
http://www.ezedia.com/products/eZedia_plug-ins/
http://www.virtix.com/imovie/index.asp
http://film.arts.geckotribe.com/iMovie/
http://plugins.bkms.com/
http://www.imageip.com/

As someone who uses Final cut for serious stuff, I can't say i've tried them. The eZedia stuff look pretty good though.

BTW these were all listed on the Apple website.

Using Video in Powerpoint

I thought I'd post a few old emails to the egroup. Thanks to all for getting this up and running.

Indezine is an excellent Powerpoint site, with loads of technical info and free and commercial resources.

They have recently run a couple of articles on the use of video in Powerpoint. This is mainly aimed at PC users rather than Mac because for Macs its a quite straightforward. (However the article has some useful info about movie file types which will be useful to all.)

Indezine also has a free email newsletter to which you can subscribe here.

The site also has a number of links relating to Expression, the (currently) free vector painting program which I wrote about recently. Click here.

Don't forget that there's a list of sites for Powerpoint templates at the Mission Resourcing Network website.

Ikon

This is the most beautiful website... www.ikon.org.uk

This is what they say about themselves:

"In short, ‘Ikon’ is a wayward inn for heretics, raggy dolls and wandering stars. It is the first few words of a new language, the first few notes of a new melody, the first tentative moves of a new-born life."

Stunning.

From Madonna to Esther...

So Madonna is changing her name to Esther...

I wonder what she particularly likes about the story... or what it is about Esther that she identifies with...

Coincidentally, I've been thinking about Esther over the last few days (I'm about to do some writing on the story). I love the book (and how it doesn't mention God at all! - don't read too much into that), and have always thought of the story as a kind of anti-fairytale. It's the kind of "marry the prince" story that you would want your daughter to hear... strangely, though, I don't ever remember hearing it in church (gosh, there's a surprise)... How nice that Madonna's got the story out there again...

fuel for the creative nation

good news from the bbc which has plans to make archive footage available for use from the autumn...

"The Creative Archive is fuel for the creative nation," said Paula Le Dieu, co-director of the initiative. "It allows people to download these excerpts and be able to edit them and incorporate them into their own creative works."

it will start off with thousands of three minute clips of nature footage. great news for VJs, altworship etc etc and it will be available for non commercial use

Duncan's Adland

Just working out how to amend the headers and footers etc. I've developed the graphic I want to use
(a very wide screen adapted from an Istock image). Now all I have to do is host the image on my bigpond site so its the size I want.

Duncan's AdLand 

Canon Digital Photo Gallery - Uluru(Ayers Rock)

Just found some great caches of high quality digital photographs provided free by Canon. There's an excellent section on Uluru. Also - nice pics of flowers and fruit, animals etc.
Canon Digital Photo Gallery - Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Free Vector Painting Program

Some time ago, FractalDesign (who created "Painter" - at least i think it was them - now owned by Corel) put out a wonderful program called Painter - a 'natural media' painting program. Then FractalDesign became MetaCreations...

They also put out "Expression" which was a vector painting program. Imagine being able to paint a brush stroke on computer and have the stroke as vector art rather than bitmap art. Anyway MetaCreations folded (mmm... maybe it wasn't them) and "Expression" was taken over by "Creature Expression", whoever they are.

THEN Microsoft bought "Expression"....
(Get to the point - this is getting more complicated than J-Lo's love life)
Well Microsoft aren't sure what they're doing with the thing, so in the meantime you can download it FREE - for Mac OS 9 and X and Windows. Definitely worth a look. Click here to download it.

You can get additional free brushes for it here.
And who said Bill wasn't a good guy?

And for Mac people....

If you're interested in more brushes for Expression or addons for a wide variety of creative applications (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Synthetik Studio Artist, CinePaint, Macromedia Freehand MX and other applications). Dozens of free collections available. To find older collections, go to the search page here, and perform a search for the word "download." (some of these would work on Windows versions as well)

another free images site

i had a look at the mission resourcing network site listed a couple of posts back - great site. another one to add to that list...

if u ever want a nice photo of somewhere in the world, or of anything as far as i can see... go to www.danheller.com - he seems to have been everywhere and taken good photos...

What on earth is a "bothy"?

Martyn Bennett
"Bothy Culture"

A couple of years ago, Martyn Bennett released a rather indescribable album called "Bothy Culture" - a collection of folk music blended with all kinds of stuff - beats, spoken voice and goodness knows what else. Great and challenging to listen to. And it was recorded at "Mouth Music Chip Shop" - what a great name.

A bit like the Afro Celts but much more individual and experimental.

He has liner notes like... "This tune has only four notes, but I haven't worked out what they are."
and... "There are lots of Punjabi folks songs about Kali that have loads of sex and sweary words, but this isn't one of them. This is a party tune with a pile of twaddle over the top."

The good news is that his website has some free downloads. Click here.

(and I thought before today that he was a bloody Irishman! He's a Scot!)

Craig
(descended from Scots and once confirmed as a Presbyterian)

Free Images Online

I thought I'd post some previous posts and pages from http://www.missionresourcing.net.au while we get up and running!

The Internet has quite a number of sites where you can download royalty-free images for personal and/or non-commercial use. Here are some of them. Please note that the photo quality varies. You need to check the usage conditions for each site.

Go to the Mission Resourcing Network website for a list of sites.

Multimedia and the multimedia-illiterate

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this blog is for, but since Craig invited me, it can't simply be to share expertise... I feel a bit of an intruder on the multimedia stage (I joined the youth multimedia egroup mostly for the recipes). I don't know how to do much, and I have hardly any equipment, but I love the idea of it, and I love playing, and I'm so inspired by what others do, and I'm learning to do more (am about to make my first foray into animations)... I have no equipment - well, apart from an iBook at home and a clunky pc at work. We do have wireless broadband at home, but I was talked into that not because it would give me faster downloads and more opportunity to do multimedia-type things, but because my "IT advisor" said it would mean we could search the internet while drinking gin and tonic in the backyard on a sunny day... (We've got the gin and tonic ready, waiting for that elusive sunny day in Melbourne...). I'm trying not to feel like a complete idiot in every conversation I have about multimedia and technology... or at least, not to let feeling like a complete idiot stop me from being part of the conversation.

I'm currently working in a resourcing role across Victoria and Tasmania with the Uniting Church in Australia. My major focus at the moment is children and families, but my position is evolving, as we speak, into working with people and groups who want to explore alternative worship. I'm not quite sure what it means to work on alternative worship from within the centre of the institutional church, even whether it's possible to do that, but we're going to give it a try. It's a very new area for us to be working in, and I'm a tad excited that I get to do it...

Apart from all that... I write... Christian Education resources, poetry, worship stuff... and my perfect job would connect all of them... I also buy a lot of cd's, go to art galleries, read a lot of books, watch crap tv, and visit scotland as often as I can...

a great step sideways

well, i have plans for something more permanent, so here's a temporary home for some stuff related to the "youthmultimedia" egroup - which is not just about "youth". What is "youthmultimedia"? It's an egroup I started 3 1/2 years ago. The "official" description is this...

"Use of Multimedia with Young People in Christian Education, Worship and Mission. Members include ove 100 pastors, youth workers, high school and tertiary chaplains, youth leaders and others, primarily from Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA and Canada. Members come from a range of Christian churches. The group shares technical information, info about new music and movies, ideas for use of multimedia, and occasional discussion of a more theological nature!"

What does that mean? Well, we talk about...
new music and movies
tech stuff
issues about using stuff in churches
country music (sometimes!)
six degrees of separation
WWW resources for multimedia
cooking (very sometimes)
free multimedia resources
data projectors
what 'online' community might be about
darren's exploits in canberra
alternative worship
where to see the spirit in media
Apple Macs (and those other computers from the dark side)
expressing the gospel through contemporary culture
computer music
obscure musical history
what young people are doing, wathcing ans listening to
use of multimedia in worship settings of all kinds
how to get started in a multimedia
what makes a good website

and a whole lot more!

I'm your host, Craig. I'm surrounded by a couple of Apple Macs, a scanner, USB audio/MIDI thingy, a borrowed Ensoniq keyboard, a Fender Telecaster and amp, a couple of video cameras (one mine, one borrowed), the digital camera from work, several bookshelves of multimedia resources, many hundreds of CDs, many more books on theology, Christian education, potery, sociology, a bunch of DVDs - and there's a family out there somewhere too! I hail from Adelaide, Australia where I work in mission resourcing with the Uniting Church in Australia at a state level.

I'm planning a 'real' website for the list but this will do while I get organised.

If you want to see the real list archives, go to www.yahoogroups.com and search for "youthmultimedia" and join up.

see you in cyberspace.

craig

Mass Destruction Film Clip

Faithless

Mass Destruction EP

Well today I bought the "Mass Destruction" EP and album "No Roots" by Faithless. The EP has the video clip for "Mass Destruction".
P>The clip is a provocative statement about the evils of war, racism, misinformation and fear as weapons of 'mass destruction", and features chilling black and white footage of British school children acting out 'prisoner of war' scenes. These scenes produced the desired shock reaction, particularly as the children act the parts of both captors and captives, aggressors and victims. One is prompted to ask what kind of world our kids are growing up in, or more pointedly, what is our society training them to become?

As he did with "We Come 1" from the "Outrospective" album, Maxi Jazz puts global violence in our faces to bring a message of peace. Although Jazz's particular religious beliefs show through more clearly than at some times ("An you aint goin to nirvana or far-vana, you comin' right back here to live out your karma") this is not a distraction from the thrust of the song as a whole - if anything it is a reinforcement that we reap what we sow.

For those who don't know Faithless, they are the masterminds behind "God is a DJ". a former band member, Jamie Catto, was one of the duo who put together the extraordinary 1 Giant Leap CD and DVD. And band member Rollo's sister is Dido who has also been part of the band on more than one occasion. Did o provides some vocals on this album.

Have a listen here:
Faithless Website

A great website too!

Lyrics to Mass Destruction:
(Chorus)
With a long range weapon or suicide bomber
Wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether you're stowaway's son or BBC 1
Dis-information is a weapon of mass destruction
You could a caucasian or a poor asian
Racism is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether inflation or globalisation
Fear is a weapon of mass destruction

My dad came into my room, holdin his hat
I knew he was leavin', he sat
on my bed, told me some facts, son

I have a duty, callin on me
You and your sister be
brave my little soldier,
and don't forget all i told ya
Your the mister of the house now remember this
And when you wake up in the morning give ya momma a kiss,
then I had to say goodbye

In the morning i woke momma with a kiss on each eyelid,
Even though im only a kid,
certain things can't be hid
Momma grabbed me, held me like i was made of gold,
but left her in the story untold
I said, momma it will be allright,
when daddy comes home, tonight

(Repeat Chorus)

Whether Haliburton, Enron or anyone
Greed is a weapon of mass destruction
We need to find courage, overcome
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction

My story stops here, lets be clear
this scenario is happenin everywhere
and you ain't goin to nirvana or favana
You comin right back here to live out your karma
with even more drama
than previously, seriously
Just how many centuries have we been waiting for someone else to make us free
And we refuse to see,
The people overseas are just like we
Bad leadership, amigos, unfettered and free
They feed on the people they're supposed to lead, I dont need it
We need to pray away, for the lord to make it all straight
Its only now we do it right, cos I don't want my daddy, leavin home tonight