6 Years of Relevance

The new edition of RELEVANT magazine is so good it's got 2 covers. To celebrate their 6th birthday Strang and co. have managed to wing a timely interview with then Oscar nominee, now Oscar winner, Mickey Rourke. In his interview, the real-life boxer/big-screen wrestler spills the beans about his life of drugs, prayers, fights, failures, girls and dodgy plastic surgery, not to mention a close shave on a murder/suicide mission that turned into a decade-long friendship with a Catholic priest. On the other cover renaissance man Q-Tip of Tribe Called Quest fame is seen looking not-so-hip-hop-but-then-that's-the-point-nowadays and the accompanying snaps inside are equally smooth. As usual, the magazine's a good read. If you don't have it, get it at www.relevantmagazine.com

Anti Hero

I just had to put a shout out to my friends and family for all the gift cards and birthday money and my wife for letting spend some on a new board! I found myself a nice 8-inch Anti-Hero board at the new Ideal store down in the Custard Factory...just need to go try it out on their new indoor mini, apparently one of the best in the UK.

Relentless 7

After more than a decade with the Innocent Criminals Ben Harper has teamed up with a new band of buddies who go by the name of Relentless Seven. The tunes are amazing, with a mean mix of blues-busting slide and meaty rock n' roll garnished with surprisingly mellow material as far-fetched as a cover of Prince's Purple Rain. Whatever Ben does is genius if you ask me, and this project is no exception. Check 'em out at relentless7.com

Dear John

Loney, dear have done it again. On the 2nd March they release their new album Dear John, and if the single Airport Surroundings is anything to go by, we're in for a treat. Currently on tour in the States, the guys are heading back over to Europe in the next month or so for some fresh tour dates all around their home continent. Last time they were in town Sara and I saw them at the Glee Club in Birmingham supported by the then virtually unknown Noah and the Whale. The intimate setting and 50-strong crowd coupled with their endless layers of hypnotising indie-pop-don't-know-what made for what was one of the better live gigs I've been to. To check out the new album go to iTunes, or read up on the Loneys here

Porn in the USA

In preparing for a session for the guys at the upcoming Momentum conference in Solihull, I've been studying a few different topics over the last few weeks, including the ever-relevant subject of sex. One of the books I've been reading is Mark Driscoll's eBook Porn-Again Christian. If you've not come across it, there's more to it than the provocative Driscollian title. Definitely worth a read.

Whilst on the subject of porn, here's some statistics on the subject:
12% of all internet sites are porn sites.
35% or all downloads are porn downloads.
Every second 3075 dollars is being spent on porn.
Every second 28258 people are viewing porn on the internet.
Every day there are 68 million search engine requests for porn.
Every day 116000 people type the words child pornography into search engines.
The revenue generated by the porn industry is greater than the world's top 10 companies combined.

The USA accounts for a huge percentage of worldwide porn consumption, but countries such as China, India and Australia are also in the top 5.

It's a proven fact that while porn may provide some degree of temporary pleasure, it's addictive and brings with it a whole stack of negative side-effects. One of the more common ones is sexual frustration and reduced satisfaction in real-life sex with a partner. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! In many cases this lack of fulfillment leads to harder forms of porn, child pornography, the use of prostitutes, and in some cases rape.

With the damage it's doing to our generation for whom porn is just 3 letters and click away, it's great to finally see Americans like Mark Driscoll and Ed Young finally manning up and talking about the subject in church. It's also good to see people like XXX Church developing accountability software and online recovery courses for confessing perpetrators.

It's time to bring the beast out in the open and start talking about it, and give help to those who need it so we can clean up the dirt and prevent more lives being destroyed by the stuff.

To find out more about XXX Church go to www.xxxchurch.com

To download Porn-Again Christian go to Relit

Wired 09 Promo

Wired 09 Promo Trailer from Brad Hawkes on Vimeo.

Driscoll & DL Talk Sex on CNN

Spring 09 Lookbook from RISE Out Now

Check out the latest threads from the RISE Family (not to mention the hot new models!) in their spanking new lookbook here.

See the Slumdog!

It seems like all the good films come at once and there's just not enough coinage in the piggy bank to take them all in on the big screen, but thanks to the generosity of the NG Team and my Cineworld card, Sara and I continued our cinema streak last night, catching the award-winning British brow-raiser Slumdog Millionaire. Brilliantly filmed and surprisingly well-scripted, this one's definitely worth seeing. For once...do believe the hype!

Team With New Generation

Since 2002 young people have been giving 1 or 2 years after high school to serving voluntarily at New Generation on one of our Teams. In the past few years the Team program has been growing, and having had Teams in just 2 countries in 2006 we now have Teams in 7 countries, and the numbers of applicants is growing. With options to work with NG Media, NG Music, NG International or one of our national NG Teams, there's a stream for everyone. Over and over again we've seen that Teamers are the key to helping our groups to make a real impact in their schools, and with more groups in more nations, we need more Teamers to be able to keep growing the work and raising the generation of school-changers we dream about. So if you're not sure what you're doing next year, log on to our Team Site.

The Coffeeless Month Begins...

I'm still not quite sure how it all came about, but somehow I've gotten myself into a month without coffee, and I'm feeling it already. Let the rehab begin...

Go! Västerås

I just got home from speaking at my first Go! weekend in Sweden and I'm really positively shaken up and impacted by the whole event...such a good concept, so much talent and so many great young people. Go NG! Go Västerås!