Got back from Greenbelt on Tuesday. The Cheltenham Racecourse venue in Gloucestershire seems good for this kind of thing, although, like any outdoor, grassy venue, the trampled mud plus rubbish smell does get a bit on the nose towards the end. It was a good long weekend - I was thoroughly `seminared-out' by the the end of it, and enjoyed some good music, too. There is so much to do and see at this festival that one can't possibly get remotely near to doing everything. Highlights? Sampling the interesting brew in the Organic Beer Tent. Camping with fellow Ship of Fools folk was fun, and much wine was consumed. As for the festival program, I heard talks by David Batstone, Jim Wallis, James Alison, John Bell, Steve Stockman and Clive Stafford-Smith. Jim Wallis has much passion but I find his talks to be a bit too `mass-produced' sounding to be engaging enough. James Alison was every bit as good as I was hoping, and his storytelling style really tickles the imagination. It was great to meet Steve Stockman - I've been enjoying his BBC radio show for several years via the internet.
Greenbelt caters well for it, but I didn't go to many of the emerging-church oriented events, although I attended the Sanctus evening session in the New Forms Cafe on the Saturday night.
On the music front, I saw Martyn Joseph live for the first time. He did a good set on the Friday night, sounding nice through the main stage's Meyer line array loudspeaker system. I regret not hearing more of Brian Houston, though. I got to his short gig in the red Christian Aid Performance Cafe, and wished I'd made it to his longer set on the main stage. He's very good. Having said that, it seems that CDs that you buy at a gig after hearing the artist for the first time rarely deliver. I bought Brian Houston's recent release Sugar Queen, and like his spare live style much better than the full band sounds delivered on the album.

Yesterday I went out to sunny Kent to visit a place of potential work at the Maidstone Studios in Maidstone. After a one-hour train ride from London Victoria to Maidstone East, I made the walk from the town up the hill to the well-appointed studios. It looks like there will be some worthwhile freelance opportunities to be had there.

Greenbelt

Just a quick post from Greenbelt Festival. Just been to a fantastic seminar by James Alison - I've read quite bit of his stuff but he's such a great storyteller in real life. It was also good to meet and hear from Steve Stockman at his seminar last night. On the music front, there's been some good stuff, but Brian Houston (no not the Hillsong one, the Irish one!) was superb in a short set he played this afternoon.

off to Greenbelt today!

Well, it's the day we pack the car and head up to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire for the Greenbelt Festival. I think I'll make it a computer-free weekend (given that I'm camping there won't be much power nearby anyway).
Back next Tuesday. Feel free to send email, but I may not get back to you until then.

Is anyone else frustrated by Blogger's new Google Beta thing? I find it less than direct to get to the Dashboard. Who's getting offered upgrades?

down in Dorset

Wednesday afternoon finds me down in Poole, with a few gadget-related things to play with. I've been working on setting up a wireless network at a friend's place, in between learning how to use my new Motorola L7 phone. Greenbelt this weekend, then I'm heading over to Maidstone in Kent next Wednesday to see about some potential tv studio work.

The flight over on Monday-Tuesday went ok. I'd definitely fly Thai again. Their Melbourne-Bangkok runs have good planes with the best on-demand video systems I've seen in economy. Unfortunate they're still using the `old-school' 747s on the Bangkok-London leg, where the minimal video material is delivered to everyone via a handful of overhead screens.
Air security wasn't as major a nightmare as I was expecting, although I knew most of the restrictions of the past two weeks had been lifted. In Bangkok airport's departure lounge a large team of staff thoroughly checked all hand luggage (including all zip pockets, etc.), while two others performed simple pat body checks of everybody. I think they were doing a good job of it all, with patience, professionalism and cheerfulness all round (although Melbourne's Tullamarine still has the most good-humoured baggage screening staff I've encountered!).

hmmm...

Well the grand plans for a region-free Superdrive have been thwarted by a small screw in the side of the PB that refuses to budge and is now stripped. I think a drill will be in order, but I'll leave it a while. The 12" PB seems notoriously difficult to get into, with removal of the entire inside and about 40 screws to get to the optical drive. The newly flashed drive works fine in the G3 Pismo, at least.

not long now...

Not long to go now, and I'm heading off. At this stage it seems that liquids are forbidden on flights out of Melbourne to the UK.

I've been working on setting up my G4 Powerbook with a new Superdrive, that will enable dual-layer burning and Region Free DVD playback, two things the factory standard drive doesn't have. Following the excellent articles at Low End Mac and downloading firmware flashing tools from RPC1 Firmware page, I successfully flashed an Ebay-bought Pioneer drive using my G3 Pismo. Installing the optical drive in a 12" G4 Powerbook looks like a nightmare though, despite the pictorial guides available online. The machine's going off to a professional today.