Home video audit

A cloudy start to St John the Baptist's day, up early and breakfasting with Jas before driving her to Cardiff Central station for the 09.15 London train. Her big brother Peter arranged to collect her from Paddington Station and taker to visit the British museum for the first time. We had a text message later in the morning to say she was looking at the dinosaurs. Next we she flies to Geneva with her Dad and stepmother for a road trip through Haute Savoie down to Turin and then on to Nice. She's looking forward to seeing places, but not the many hours of driving to be endured in between. She's been a well travelled child since her infancy in Canada, before moving to Arizona. At least we could give her a good time without having to travel far, and she loved going into town on a double decker bus!

Having had a poor night's sleep, I wasn't feeling too good so I didn't do much at all most of the day. Clare cooked a prawn stir fry for lunch, and then I went for a walk in the park, and another down to Tesco's to he her some flowers and a birthday card for Martin. He's seventy tomorrow.

After supper, I completed and printed off my Sunday sermon and started extracting files from the Google Takeout zip archive. First, the YouTube videos. Sixty six assorted one of my own, and two and a half year's of Morning Prayer weekly videos, about a hundred and thirty two. Actually I think I've backed them up systematically, but there may be lapses, errors, so having a file containing them all on a separate device is adequate data security, even if I may never need to resort to them. 

The next big job will be photos, and I know I've been systematic about saving those files independently over years, but I'm just curious to see what Google Photos has saved on my behalf. And after that there's emails, blog posts. A big job with files archived stretching back seventeen years. I have an archive of messages from the previous thirteen years pre-gmail, when I used PMail. Finding an app to open such an obscure file format, if I ever needed to, could be problematic. One day I'd like to dig out and read the messages sent from my Jerusalem sabbatical end of 2000. I can't even remember if I had notebooks as well from that stay. My photos from the time were digitized fifteen years ago and are in one of the zip files from Google Takeout. Over years, I've come to rely more on the visual record I made than what I wrote, but it's good to recall what kind of stories I told family and friends then. Such a troubled time in modern Holy Land history.

Today's news of the mutiny by Wagner Group forces, their occupation of Rostov on Don, where Russian invasion forces have their main command post, and then starting a march on Moscow to confront military commanders there has certainly drawn the world's attention to the weaknesses in Putin's regime. It seems to have been more of a high profile protest initiative than anything else, as Wagner troops stopped their advance within the day. There have been minor rebellions in other parts of Russia as well in the past but these were quickly extinguished. The world waits with interest to see what happens next and wonders how long Putin's regime may last in the light of signs of instability. Meanwhile Ukraine battles on to free its land from brutal invaders. May it happen soon.

Last task of the day, finish and print out sermon for tomorrow, St Peter's and St Luke's one after the other. Then, Martin's birthday feast.

Chasing Trane

Yesterday, I prepared and uploaded my Maundy Thursday Morning Prayer, and then continued working with the components of the Good Friday service video. It turned out to be more complex and difficult to realise, as YouTube flagged up digital rights management issues on a couple of the music tracks I'd used. To be honest, I couldn't make sense of it, whether it was possible to use the pieces in the way I'd intended. 

It took me a couple of hours to change the selection and upload a revised version to YouTube, but the next time other DRM issues were flagged up, and I think incorrectly, but how to dispute this was beyond my ability to understand. And a waste of even more time. At fifty minutes this was the longest video edit I'd ever attempted and the software didn't fail on me. The video rendering and uploading to YouTube took up hours of time machine minding.

Clare is still in a lot of pain and incapacitated with her back injury. She went for an osteopath treatment yesterday and is in  even worse pain today. Between looking after her needs and working on the video, my day was entirely consumed. It was nearly ten in the evening before I went out for a walk, needing to clear my head before going to bed without finishing the job, having decided to edit out the music altogether and just present a voice audio version of the service. Not what I wanted, but it will have to do.

Thankfully, I slept well, and uploaded the Good Friday video without issue this time. Then, a couple of grocery shopping trips, another to the surgery to collect a pain killing prescription for Clare and another for my blood pressure medication. Then, after supper I went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's. There were twenty one of us present, eight in the choir. Mother Frances talked about a Picasso Blue Period painting, which I recognised, signifying estrangement and failure in relationships, and jumping from this to Judas at the Last Supper. I go the point, but it didn't quite work for me. I think I work by visualising the story and conjuring with it dramatically. That's certainly how I got the thread of ideas for my Good Friday text.

Before bed, I watched a remarkable documentary about the life of John Coltrane, one of the 20th century's musical geniuses. It had interviews with many of the jazz greats, now at advanced ages, but full of energy, still inspired by their memories of the man who died aged 40, fifty five years ago, What was important in this biography was the exploration of Coltrane's spirituality, his creativity and mystical relationship with God. It was so good, I'd love to watch it again. It was so absorbing that I was surprised to find that it had run for two hours, when I thought it was only an hour long. It also made me wonder why I have none of his albums in my music collection. Somehow, after his time with Miles Davies, his contribution to music passed me by.

 

State of Alarm - day Fifty Eight

I woke up to rain and it rained on and off until mid afternoon, then dried up nicely, as it wasn't too cold. After the emotional upheaval of yesterday, thankfully, I slept quite well, but all today I have been tired and short tempered (thank heavens I am living on my own at the moment), struggling to get work done and yet still managing to be productive.

After breakfast I did a little discursive prayer video, for a significant day. Pope Francis along with other religious leaders of the world called for a global day of prayer about the pandemic. Last night a lovely little promotional video with clips of dozens of people praying in different languages. This included our own chaplain in Nerja, Nigel Thomas, praying in Welsh. That pleased me no end! It gave me the idea of contributing, using the discursive prayer format, which I've been getting used to over the past month, and shooting the video clip using my HX90, as the sound reproduction is good.

Choosing a setting with not much time to think about it or plan properly was frustrating at first, but I ended up with the camera on a box on the table on the back terrace, pointing into the trees around the garden, occasionally waving gently, with the occasional background birdsong. It would have been nice to have had the sound of rain in the background, but dampness at that moment had no audio profile. It took me three goes to get a clear run at it, either because of passing car noise - so much more now than previously - or because I kept stumbling over words, sabotaged by tiredness. All was well in the and, and I had some appreciative feedback later, after Dave posted the YouTube link to the chaplaincy website.

Then I made an effort to bring together as many of the strands of the Sunday service as I could with the aim of getting it completed earlier this week and under less pressure. I guess I got two thirds of it done, before the call of daily exercise got me moving, first in the direction of Es Cuco to shop for food, and then out on a walking circuit past the large school complex, which I knew would enable me to reach my daily 10k target.

Next to the supermarket by the school is a small cafe/bar. It was open with four tables and maybe eight chairs between them, the whole area cordoned off so there was one point of access. I didn't count the number of people outside, socialising at a distance, but I guess it was about half a dozen. It was sweet music to hear laughter and banter in the air, people making an effort to stay safe and be their normal selves in such trying circumstances. The staff in Es Cuco are all properly kitted out but their manner is friendly and relaxed. Amazing what attitude can do to reduce a sense of isolation. 

State of Alarm - day Forty

How disappointing to wake up to overcast skies and rain after such a lovely day yesterday. Farmers may welcome the rain, but how demoralising the cold and damp is! Ah well, plenty to busy myself with, getting this Sunday's service completed and ready to send to Dave for uploading.

Clare sent me a link to a video of Max Boyce reciting a 'lock-down' poem he's recently written in keeping with many other poets in Britain and doubtless across the world at this time. 'When only the tide went out' is moving and reflectively serious, yet not without a dash of humour in the best Welsh bardic tradition. It moved me to tears 'hiraeth'. You'll find it here on YouTube. Thanks Max.

Talking of YouTube, I found a wonderful rendering of the Taize canticle 'In resurrectionem tuam'

played by a virtual choir of fifty singers and musicians all over the world, appearing on screen in vignettes saying who they are and where they are. The video is beautifully crafted, and the sound editing precise, demonstrating a true digital native's mastery of the technology, whether Zoom or something else, I have no idea. Seeing so many joyful young faces from all around the world is a truly Gospel message in its own right. It's great to listen to but really must be seen here for this to have its inspirational impact.

I spent some time after my walk listening to a couple of thoughtful pastoral Bible studies by Simon Ponsonby for the ICS annual conference conducted for the first time ever this year using Zoom and then posted on YouTube. Co-incidentally on the page running the live stream I spotted a live video stream about to start of Vespers and Mass broadcast from the Church of St Gervais in Paris. As I'd finished Simon's talk, I then listened to Vespers while I cooked supper. A French Catholic internet channel has been showing services from there for at least a decade as I recall, and occasionally in times past I have dipped into them. 

The singing sisters at St Gervais are part of the Communaute de Jerusalem. Many of those under vows, men and women work in the area, and worship together twice a day. Are they flouting lock-down law, I wondered? It was clear from the conduct of the liturgy that social distancing is part of the everyday norm for the sisters. They don't bunch up in choir stalls, but use the generous expanse of floor space offered by the Gothic choir of the church with its exquisite acoustic. It allows them to flatten themselves on the ground in adoration without getting in each other's way, and may help their excellent varied choral singing not to be positioned so closely together. Kath rang for a chat while I was watching and cooking, so we agreed I'd ring back when I'd eaten. We then had a lovely conversation on WhatsApp while she was making supper. 

Late this evening, Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez is speaking of the prospect off people being allowed out their confinement for exercise on May 2nd, if there is no negative impact on rates of infection from letting under fourteens out with their parents from tomorrow. No doubt this will be hedged in by an assortment of limitations by the time that day arrives, but it will be better than how it has been now for the past forty days.

State of Alarm - Easter Day

As soon as I got up at eight, I continued work on the Easter Day audio service ready or upload. It took me far longer than I expected, so it was eleven before I was able to stop for breakfast and the Office of Morning Prayer. I was impressed to hear the Queen's very affirmative Easter message to the nation at the end of the BBC Radio Four Sunday programme. An unequivocal and exemplary Christian message of resurrection hope, from the leading lay person of the CofE and of a kind that is as unprecedented as the circumstances of the broadcast.

I had to catch up on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Easter home Communion service later in the morning to retain my concentration on the task n hand. This too was inspirational and a very well prepared  service considering the conditions. Bishop of Dover, in effect his assistant in the diocese, Rose Hudson Wilkins joined him on-line him in the service, giving a superb dramatic rendering of the John's Gospel passage about the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene. I get the impression that this crisis is bringing out the best in Christian preachers everywhere.

I've had an exchange of emails with Dr Laura Ciobanu in Romania today. She's a specialist in lung conditions among the elderly. I imagine this puts her on the front line, but she doesn't talk about her hospital work. I notice that their number of reported covid-19 deaths is 316, average 16 per million, is quite low on the countrywide scale, with 6,300 cases altogether. Few big cities, poor internal road networks and a dispersed rural agricultural population may work to their advantage.

I got most of my day's walk done in the afternoon, but again finished after sundown with light rain, almost a mist settling. Thankfully it's not been cold. While I was out after lunch, I had an idea for a short videoed Easter greeting, and broke off to write and record it for YouTube. It only took an hour for the file to upload, and then I had a link I could send to Dave, albeit a bit late in the day to be an evening message for Easter day, but never mind. I can relax now.

After eight, we had short a family Easter day gathering on Zoom to greet each other, which was very nice, and finished my walk before having a late supper treat - beans on toast! And so to bed, time to say Evening Prayer and start catching up sleep.

State of Alarm - day twenty four

A blue sky day after the full moon slipped away not long before dawn, and up to nineteen degrees too, which is lovely. The walls of the house are starting to retain warmth you can feel when passing into shadow. After domestic tasks and chatting early with Clare, I started work on a script for a pre- Easter video message for the church website, which I'll try and do on my Blackberry, following the advice I have received from Ann, one of the Wednesday Eucharist group back in Pontcanna. She's emailed me a couple of times, as have others in the Parish, and she's followed the recordings I have had uploaded to the Ibiza chaplaincy website.

Much to my surprise, Jayne turned up with my grocery shopping order before lunch. She said that there were very long queues at Mercadona, and other supermarkets. A controlled entry policy is now in operation admitting so many people, allowing them space, and not letting anyone in until someone comes out. Heaven help you if you forget anything! 

In a flash this took me back to days before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the DDR, when ex-Archdeacon Geoff Johnston and I led a small party of people from Halesowen where we served in ministry to the DDR to inaugurate a parish twinning with Leipzig's Stefanausgemeinde. We were in the East the night Erich Honeker resigned, but that's not the point of the story. We westerners noticed how little there was on offer in many stores, and also noticed queues outside supermarkets and bigger shops. 

We asked our hosts what this was all about, and we're told that it wasn't just a matter of scarcity of goods, but social convention. "In the west you queue to pay, then leave with your goods. Here we give people space to buy what they can afford at leisure with no need to queue to get out. If you want something, you queue to get in, like at the cinema. Nowadays this protocol is operated by big fashionable consumer and technology outlets when their latest product is launched.

Ironic that now we just need space to avoid contagion.

I was delighted with my box of supplies, including some fresh salmon for Easter Sunday lunch and a bottle of Faustino VII Rioja to toast Christ's resurrection. Jayne had just done several shopping errands for others and still had to do her own big weekend shop. I felt sorry for adding to her work load, but it's not worth putting myself at risk and maybe causing more trouble if I got sick. Since I last checked over a week ago, the confirmed number of coronavirus cases in Ibiza is 130, and there have been no new cases in 24 hours, just a death, of of eight, and over 50 in hospital. 

Proportionally, for a population of 148k, it's the least afflicted place in Spain. The overall Spanish toll is colossal but the new infection rate is levelling out now at last, though the number of deaths will continue to rise, fourteen and a half thousand to date, the highest coronavirus death rate in the world, attributed to strategic errors in allowing large mass gatherings at the outset. It's going to have a huge impact on future political and well as economic impact in the country.

In the Balearics there's mild optimism that the State of Alarm will be scaled down after the 26th April. Maybe this will happen for each island, but I can't see how that would extend to resumption of traffic with the mainland, even with contagion tailing off. There's `

State of Alarm - Day eighteen

Forty years today since the Bristol St Paul's riots happened on confirmation night with Bishop Freddy Temple at St Agnes Church, when Amanda was confirmed. Very little mention of this in the news media, and not surprising considering the worries of the world at the moment. It's been good to write about those events in recent months. I'm glad I did. There may be more to write eventually, when there's more time to reflect on those days. I dropped an email to Paul Bartle-Jenkins, the NSM priest at St Agnes who was my churchwarden there in those days. I had a surprisingly quick but very brief acknowledgement thanking me for my message, telling me nothing about how things are with him at the moment. I wonder if he is sick or recovering from sickness?

More clouds, rain and lower temperature today, disappointing after yesterday. I did the first half of my daily 10k before lunch, then Jayne arrived with a big order of groceries I'd asked her to get for me. I missed her message while I was out walking, and wasn't expecting her until tomorrow, so it was a pleasant surprise to be restore food stocks. I have enough to last me until Easter now, even some dark chocolate!

After lunch I made a video recording of the Palm Blessing ceremony in the dining room, suitably arranged, with the Sony HX300 perched on top of the desk. I got the alignment correct, checking by taking stills with me standing in place using the timer. It only half worked however, if I remained in position, but I took a step towards the camera and this cut off the top of my head during recording.

This camera is starting to worry me. I love its long zoom and balanced handling, but it's started to produce the same error message as spelled the end for the HX50 which died fifteen months ago. It's a code which indicates a problem with the zoom extending mechanism being slightly out of sync.

It may be wear and tear, as I have zoomed with it a lot taking seven thousand photos with it in the three and a half years since I bought it. It's possible to get rid of the error message with a little physical manipulation of the camera without the battery in it, but it returns when the zoom is used and the extending of the zoom gives tiny crunching sounds, as if there's grit in the barrel. I think it means the camera is doomed. And while I'm here, there's little chance of getting a replacement, let alone a repair done. Alas! So if it works it's on borrowed time.

I'd forgotten the video recording is in 16x9 format and not 4x3 for still pictures which means the image frame isn't as tall. It will have to do however, since the 1.2gb ten minute video file took two hours to upload to YouTube, after one failure wasting an hour's upload time. I used the waiting time to complete my day's exercise, albeit indoors, as it had started to rain. 

Uploading would have been fine first time if the Chromebook had been by the router in the office, but it was in the dining room where the signal is generally adequate, but can be variable, probably because of signal bounce or load demands. Next time, optimize, optimize connectivity!

After supper, I made a sound recording of the Book of Common Prayer 1662 Communion rite to use with the audio of the Ministry of the Word which I recorded and edited yesterday. Checking and editing that is a job for tomorrow. I'm much too tired tonight.

State of Alarm - Lady Day

Well, the feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Lady Day as it was known in the old British civil calendar, one of the four Quarter Days of the year on which rent is normally due for those who pay four times a year. It's one of the twelve great feasts of the world church calendar, so merits a mention under lock-down even if it cannot be observed with a celebration in the usual way. Thank heavens for Morning and Evening Prayer. 

The Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth was on BBC Radio Four's Thought for the Day this morning, reflecting on Mary's readiness to accept whatever God asked of her, and suggesting so should we in this time of plague. Although TFTD is often based on ideas and reflections taken from scripture, it's often done so without direct reference to God, just in case the Secular Society uses it as leverage to get rid of Thought for the Day anyway.

A cold, wet and overcast day, but busy too with supportive phone calls and messages. Rosi sent me the Ibiza Vice Consul's email address, so that I could write to her personally, just in case my message left on the website last night got filtered out, regarded as cranky by a desk officer who didn't understand its intention, or a badly trained A.I. program. I had a positive, friendly response from her, and a promise to pass on my offer of telephone pastoral support should the occasion arise in her work zone. I'm glad that Owain prompted me to make the effort to contact the Consulate.

As it was raining, I did the first hour of my afternoon walk back and forth through the downstairs flat on to the covered front patio and back porch. The rain stopped and I completed the second hour on the usual circuit around the outside of the house. I started thinking about making use of the phone's video capabilities, something I have done very little. Just for fun I videoed the walking course I was taking and talked through it, to see what the quality was like. The result was pleasing, albeit rough. I uploaded it to YouTube via my Chromebook later, and sent the link to family members, for interest.

It then occurred to me that I could record a self-introductory video message for the chaplaincy website, and set about doing that, after spending two more hours on the phone to family and friends. It's not so easy talking straight to camera continuously like that, as I had to, with no means of editing footage. It's probably forty years since I last had to do that for a televised broadcast service after the St Pauls riots - the last major social crisis I was witness to. Forty years ago already? Yes, in just over a week's time. It doesn't seem possible.
 

Video labours

Slowly but steadily over the past few days, I've edited the footage from Rachel's gig last Friday into separate videos of all sixteen of the songs she performed. Technically speaking they're not perfect, but, the sound quality is excellent and the performances are remarkably good, well worth uploading to her YouTube site for a wider audience of fans family and friends. The first one to be published 'Bubble Trouble' is here. It's a song from ten years ago, and there an audio recording of it on her site, but the live video is value added in my opinion even if it's not as polished as a studio recording. She will release one song video a week on YouTube and publicise the series on her Facebook page. Good for getting her work a wider audience.

Yesterday morning I celebrated the Eucharist at St John's again. There were just seven of us as some of the regulars are away, which is only to be expected at this time of year. In the afternoon, I had an GP appointment to find out the result of last Friday's blood test and ECG. I was relieved and glad to hear there are no anomalies requiring further investigation, clearing the way for my next round of duty travel to Montreux, in three weeks time. Having said that, I have an endoscopy appointment next Monday to get through first, and optimistic about the outcome of that.

I was driven over to St German's church for today's funeral, and was pleased to be able to drop in and say hello to people in the old people's day centre in the hall beforehand. As expected there was a big attendance for the service, as the deceased was a well known member of Millennium Centre staff. The organist played us out to a largo version of 'There's No Business like Show Business', but I'm not sure if any of the congregation recognised this, as people were chatting on their way out. Ah well, it was still worth the effort.

Window on the world out there

With little else scheduled to do, I worked on editing and correcting the music slide shows for Anna all day Monday, and when we were both satisfied with the results, she uploaded them to You Tube for viewing. At choir practice on Tuesday evening, she made sure we took note of how to find them. It's not easy to find them at first, when there are almost no views, and before Google's bots have checked the content and flagged them for basic search. By trial and error we found that Googling 'Fountain Choir Cardiff' helped locate them reasonably quickly. I can't imagine having a business and a career that involves the constant promotion of video content in a market lace which is by nature global.

Lat week there was an interesting item on Radio 4 about a curious feature of YouTube, I hadn't heard of before. Apparently millions of videos have been uploaded of the years since digital video recording became a feature of every camera and phone, which get almost no views. Some people use it to document their lives or their creative output, with no concern to promote it to others. If they do get views it may be because there's another legion of YouTube users who want to be entertained by randomly selected videos, material curated by chance, you might say.

In addition, there's a variety of sites where interesting collections of randomly selected videos can be viewed. Featured in this programme was a website called Astronaut.io, brought to life by two San Francisco based techies. It features random clips of a few seconds length, and weaves a unique tapestry of images and sound. Here's an American feature article about it. I guess it's the equivalent of what we used to do as kids, turning the tuning dial on the Long Wave radio to catch the sounds of broadcasts from Europe and the rest of the world through the hiss and crackle.

It's said the internet abolishes distance, in the sense that you can communicate with people anywhere, and be informed or entertained by material without knowing where it's been produced. We home in on themes and places that catch our attention and interest, and in narrowing our attention may miss out on much more. Astronaut.io allows the flow can be halted on any video that captures attention, and let it play play to conclusion which invites viewers to be more than passive. There's something quite contemplative about just looking and listening openly, letting yourself be surprised by what's out there.

Unexpected new mini-project

I walked to St John's and celebrated the eight o'clock this morning for four people. Fr Mark arrived at the end with Rose Dymond, one of the staff of the St Padarn's Institute, to introduce her to the church set up. I was delighted to discover that she was an ordinand of the Diocese in Europe whose journey into ministry started in Leipzig, followed by Den Haag, then a spell as Rector of Bedwellty before recently joining the Institute staff. I then celebrated and preached at the St Catherine's Parish Eucharist.

Yesterday, I had a call from Andrew James the Vicar of St Andrews Major and Dinas Powys to ask if I could cover his Sunday duties next week, as he is about to start a period of sabbatic leave. As I've committed my time to help out in Canton while I'm here, I referred him to Fr Mark, who said he could manage without me next week. In all my years of ministry, I've never visited either church, although I've driven past both many times, taking a short-cut back home from Barry via Leckwith. St Andrews Major is a 12th century country church, St Peter's is in the suburban Victorian village expansion of the Parish. I must be sure to take my camera with me.

Last Tuesday at choir practice, Anna gave the gathering some musical feedback with a couple of recordings made of them at their last concert, which was, coincidentally at St Catherine's. She asked if anyone could make a YouTube video slideshow using these 'best of the bunch' tracks with some photos of the choir performing. Nobody present seemed able or willing to take this on, so I said I would give it a try.

This evening the respective image and audio files arrived. First, attempted to use the rather long in the tooth version of Picasa, still in use on my computers, but wasn't satisfied with the result. Then I hunted for Windows Movie Maker, unsure whether it had been swept aside in favour of other Apps by updating the operating system, but I found it was still there and working, so I started again. This wasn't easy, as it's several years since I last used it to edit video clips, and had forgotten how. Even so, by the end of the evening I emailed Anna with a couple of rough cuts of the tracks to see if this project was going in the right direction, pleased to have recovered a modicum of mastery over this piece of digital kit. Not something I could have anticipated doing a week ago.