The Fourth Plinth

The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square has hosted interesting pieces of art over the years. For the next 100 days (ish...it's been going on for a bit already, not sure exactly how many days are left) someone will get the chance to spend 1 hour on top of the plinth, doing anything they like. A new person gets up there every hour. Tonight, my friend and fellow church leader in Camden, Brandon, got up there for an hour. He gave out little gifts, there was a fishing rod involved, and a make-shift boat. We left before his hour was up - had to put the kids to bed - so I don't really know what the end of the story was, or if there was an end. Check out the One & Other site for more info, as well as live video of what's currently on the plinth. Right now, there's a guy calling out Twister instructions to a bunch of people down below.

Art Show

My daughter is taking an afternoon art class. Her teacher was part of an exhibition last night, and he has had the kids helping him out. Here she is pointing out the area she helped paint.

Anarchists get the boot

We have a friend who tends bar at one of our local pubs. He also happens to be an anarchist. Not the 'smash everything up' kind of anarchist, but actually a well-read, socially conscious anarchist, who sees a need for society to focus on tackling social problems as well as technological ones. He recently was part of a group that took over an abandoned house that was being claimed as the 'primary residence' of a couple of MPs so they could get expense reimbursements for their 'second residence', a nice flat near the river. We went to the court case where the squatters were given 24 hrs notice to leave, and hung out with them while they partied after the decision. They knew they were going to lose, but they had done the job of raising awareness of the abuses of taxpayer money by elected officials.

LockStock Music Festival

Last night the LockStock festival took place in Camden Lock market and surrounding pubs and tea shops. We listened to one of the bands at the outdoor stage.

Austria Retreat

Last week we spoke at a retreat for World Harvest's summer interns in Austria. Our good friends from Philadelphia, the McMullens, were there, and we were really encouraged by them. A few pics of the beautiful scenery.

Climbing

I've been taking Andi with me on my weekly climbing sessions with Dave and Barry (and sometimes Andy). She's been improving each week. This week, she got to the top four times, on two different routes. Very exciting.

Everything's OK

This is Danny. Danny doesn't take himself too seriously, though he has a very serious message:

Everything Is OK
Except that everything is not OK. He rails against Capitalists, bankers, the police, government drug and terrorist policies. He says we just need to love each other. But then he says that everything around us, all the differences, are illusion. So what's the good of love if we're all the same? Kind of self-serving if you ask me. But that's ok, you see, in fact, everything's ok. Because Danny is just having fun. Or maybe not.
His speech is riddled with paradox, irony, sarcasm, and contradiction. At one point, he gets stopped by the police because he appears to be promoting drug use. At another point he grabs the megaphone away from his friend to announce to the crowd that I'm a Presbyterian. His partner and I chat for a while about why Jesus came, and why Christians teach that faith in Jesus is essential for life. It's easy to talk about these serious things, because nobody's taking themselves very seriously...or are we?

Dept of Urban Censorship Strikes Again

On my favorite abandoned building in Camden. You can clearly see the "18" in the red circle next to the door. "This area contains violence, drug use, and bad language" the sign reads.
I'd love to see this place turned into a monastic house where prayer and glassblowing are the order of the day.

Dept Urban Censorship

This 'sign' has been popping up in random places around Camden. It's quite big - maybe a meter wide. There's one on the side of the Dev pub, and one on the empty office building across the street from us. It's a clever bit of graffiti - if that is the right term (it looks like it's just a massive sticker). But what does it all mean?

Learning to Follow Jesus

One of the things I want for my girls is that they learn what it means to follow Jesus by walking along that path with us. We've been handing out small bags to welcome traders to the new market that opened up down the street from our house. It's one small way of bringing Jesus' love to them. The girls were really excited about the whole idea, and insisted on helping put the bags together.

Lemon Cupcakes

Right, so Somer has stopped blogging about food, but that doesn't mean she's stopped baking (nor have I stopped eating). Last night one of our neighbors invited us around for her birthday. These are the cupcakes Somer made. I cannot provide a recipe, but I can tell you that in addition to the lemon gummy candy on top, and the lemony cream-cheese icing, they also had a bit of lemon curd hidden in the middle. I can also tell you that the lemon curd was too sweet for me, so I scooped it out with a spoon.

I like big bumpers...

So says the writing on the back of the Streetcar van. Streetcar is a company that provides car rental services in half-hour increments, with as little as 1 hour advance notice. We've used them since 2006 and have found it very useful to have a car (or in this case a van) available to us on short notice. I've lost count of how many cars they have parked around London - there are 3 vans and about 15 cars within a short walk from our flat. We've used them mostly for trips to Ikea or to pick up stuff for the homeless shelter. But on several occasions we've also helped friends move, as was the case earlier this afternoon. I was taking a when I first noticed the aforementioned quote. Why I decided to take a picture of the van open, instead of with the doors closed so you could actually see the writing on the back, I don't know.