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Following my bliss

I was brought to Glastonbury [UK] for a reason. Well, several reasons! To get the call to ministry. To raise a family [done, they're off being adults in the world]. To get ordained [done]. To open to Spirit more and more fully. To work in an ecumenical Celtic Christian community and live the old monastic rhythm of work, prayer and study. To travel the world and discover ‘home’ in New Zealand.

To be called again two months ago with words of fire, ‘I want this more than anything else!’. What is the ‘this’? Could be to train as a Lay Reader in the Church of England. Might even be to get one of those uncomfortable-looking backwards collars and be a Vicar. Might be something else. In the middle of this, being a remote member of the Community of Aiden and Hilda based on Lindisfarne, I discover that there’s a St Aiden church in Malibu. Maybe God is starting to point a finger further Westwards. That’s the unknown!

San Diego in general and some observations

Pop = 3 million.

1. Balboa Park.  It's gorgeous and well worth a visit. Lots of grass and trees, plus regular maps to show you where you are, which was very handy for a first timer. I walked over a lovely bridge across the freeway and into a sprawling complex of Spanish style buildings [not surprising, given how close San Diego is to Mexico]. These include a hot house which looks like a huge bird cage. I proceeded to the zoo and spent seven hours there [with a lunch break!] seeing all the animals. There's a free tram which runs around the park and I hopped on that to shorten my return journey. The driver is planning to come to Nottingham and was asking for information!

2. Flying home

The plane took off and headed out over the Pacific before performing a U turn to get to Detroit. We flew over California and the terrain soon became brown, desert-like and craggy. But the more fertile plain is laid out in huge regular squares, as far as the eye can see. In this part, the squares were mostly filled with circular patches of green - crops? - which made me think of a giant sheet of green stickers! Then the terrain reverted to desert and became even rockier, looking just like aerial shots from a cowboy movie!  We went over the Grand Canyon; I recognised it by the look of it and the green river at the bottom, plus the stewardess confirmed my guess.  Then, more regular green squares; mostly farms and small collections of houses. The only thing which altered the pattern were hills, the odd freeway and pesky meandering rivers! We went over Lake Michigan and finally into Detroit itself, which was a lot greener than I'd expected. Tree lined streets, small lakes and lots of grass. And still the basic square pattern. I mean, I knew; but I'd never flown low enough over the US to see this phenomenon so close.

Pix [http://www.flickr.com/photos/30367056@N02/sets/72157624644019792/ ]

SDCC part 2

SATURDAY

Got up about 4.30 a.m. [yes, really] to get in line for the 'Chuck' panel at 10 a.m. I was in full 'Wienerlicious' mode, so got some comments. I was even recognised by a handful of folk in the line!! When we finally got to it, the panel included; Mark Christopher Lawrence, Scott Krinsky, Vik Sahay, Ryan McPartlin, Sarah Lancaster, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez and Zac Levi with writers  Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz. The panel was moderated by Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Fienberg.

The clips and fun stuff before the panel were really good and as for the big reveal about Linda Hamilton...!! I think it's safe to say that was well received :-). I absolutely love JEFFSTER doing Lady Ga Ga [GG]. When Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahsy stumbled on stage in exactly the same gear that they'd been using in the video, it was a sweet moment.

As always, it is a personal thrill and pleasure to see Adam Baldwin. Don't ask me why, but seeing him causes my heart to smile. Of course, he's one of the Big Damn Heroes, but it's more than that. He walks his talk and has a big heart for the fans. He helped a friend of mine a couple of years ago - went out of his way - to be there for her when she was having a hard time. Can't thank him enough for that.

Straight after the panel was the Jayne hat flash mob. We sang about half of the song and got ourselves filmed! I was right near the front, so keep your eyes on You-tube. I snuck downstairs to the Warner Brothers' signing for the 'Chuck' stars. Turns out, only the first 100 people would get in and the line had long since closed. So, one would have had to make a choice; panel or signing. When everyone but Yvonne turned up, around the booth turned into something of a rugby scrum!

I saw where Adam was going to be standing and positioned myself with hope. Sure enough, Adam spotted me, greeted me and we exchanged a few words until the harassed Security Guard exerted his necessary authority. The huge crowd around the booth was being something of a health and safety hazard, to be fair. I eventually managed to stand back and took the rest of my pictures off the WB video screens. Adam last seen, exiting the panel with a wonderful copy of Casey's cop car held on one upraised hand rather like a waitress carrying a tray of drinks, lol.

After this, I got Jane Espensen's autograph on my Firefly items, then made my way to the room where Ray Bradbury would be speaking. Not only did I see the panel, I got to ask him a question and have it answered. 40 years of being a fan and in awe of his ability with words and here he was, right in front of me. ::wibble::

Later that day, I got autographs from Jose Molina, Brett Matthews and Ben Edlund. After that, KJ and a whole bunch of us went out for supper at a local Italian restaurant.

SUNDAY

An easier day today. I made the Browncoat meeting and we saw all sorts of shiny new things [the Fruity Oaty ladies, the Mule, Mals' pistol, hero River, Mal's browncoat]. Browncoats:Redemption special casting cameos [Yan & Rafael Feldman, Michael Fairmasn, Sunny Rhodes, P J Haarmsa, the Bedlam Bards and ADAM BALDWIN!]. Naturally the characters for which they are better known are copyright to Joss, so we won't have familiar names. Premiere Sept 3rd, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It's due to be available streaming on line!

Dark Horse news: 8 page Serenity comic in USA today in the Autumn [viewable on line, hopefully]; 25th anniversary next year, expect good things; Shepherd's Tale; ships in 'Float Out' quite unwittingly stolen from Bellflower [apologies]; Dollhouse one-shot with season 2 DVD; Dr Horrible graphic novel; Jamie Chambers has an Origins award for the Serenity RPG.

Finally I went to the Buffy 'Once more with feeling' sing along and the convention was done for another year.

San Diego Comic Con

First off for any Brits reading this... Think BOTH London Expos. Add 'London Film and Comic Con'. Imagine the WHOLE of the building housing London Expo as one enormous Dealers' room. Then ramp that up to 11. That's how big SDCC is, with added ballrooms, meeting rooms and the now infamous Hall H.

THURSDAY 22

Arrived at the new age space port....San Diego Convention Center [sic] at about 9 a.m. Got through registration quite quickly. Gold star, SDCC peeps. My big swag bag had the SDCC logo on one side and the main cast in suits from 'The Big Bang Theory' on the other. Located the California Browncoat booth in one corner of the humongous Dealers Room and handed over my Jayne hats. Mooched about quite a bit, finding out where everything is.  Got into Stan Freberg's panel [with his lovely wife Hunter].  They share an identical sense of humour. They have a new CD out; 'Songs in the key of life'.  They talked about Stan's impressive and extensive back catalogue and showed two of his vintage adverts. These two :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiC9IBNlrGw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-NdrzfFOo

I found Mr Freberg's desk later and he kindly autographed his CD for me. I also got my Buffy and Angel books signed  by Camden Toy [one of the creepy 'Gentlemen' in 'Buffy']. In the late afternoon, I went back to my hostel changed and rested before setting out for the CSTS screening of 'Serenity' down town. Sadly none of the BDHs turned up :-(, but we had fun and raised a lot of $$$ for charity.

FRIDAY

Got to the EE desk for a FREE signing with Seth Green. After that, made a flying visit to the rest room and the long, LONG line to see Joss Whedon on stage. Writing process = fun, hunger, porn, depression, fun [GG]. Other people have better and more fulsome reports, I'm sure, but the panel was enlivened by a certain Mr Fillion [in fairly heavy disguise] crashing it at the end [GGG]. I went downstairs for the signing, just to see Joss up close and personal. Helen [Cappy #2!] was there with a couple of others from Browncoats: Redemption. They spotted ME and we went for a juice and a natter after they'd got their autos. Michael Docherty had his 'Joss gives his blessing' letter autographed by Joss [GG].  Joss said he was looking forward to seeing it.

Friday evening was the 'Chuck' Tweetup. I met a whole bunch pf people I'd only 'spoken to' on line :::waves::: At 10 p.m., a number of the cast arrived: Zac, Joshua, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin and Sarah Lancaster. The bar went crazy!!! My personal thanks to them for turning out for us.

Second part soon....

Belated update

Apologies for the break in service! Lots of LIFE happening here. However, I plan to be back here soon-ish with a report from the T2 convention and other animals.

Podbean podcasting news

Latest 'episode' up. This is the first 'round table' character discussion for this UK based 'Chuck' podcast. Shirley, Adrienne and I [Philippa] discuss the characters of Bryce and Jill.

http://chuckgeekuk.podbean.com/

Next time - Chuck's stable of ho's!

UK 'Chuck' Podcast!!

http://chuckgeekuk.podbean.com/

Darshan with Mother Meera, Bristol

Reflections on my encounter on Wednesday 10th February

I opted for the 10 a.m. Darshan in Bristol. I was planning to do some shopping or see a film afterwards, but the weather had other plans. I deliberately didn't read about Mother Meera beforehand; I wished to go with no pre-conceptions. I'd heard from others that they had found the experience positive.

The venue was a converted church about halfway up Park Street in Bristol. I arrived in good time, had my name checked off the 'guest' list and went in. The church was constructed somewhere around the Georgian era and has a balcony going around three sides of the central worship area. On the East wall is a carved and painted tryptych with Christ in the act of ascending in the middle, bordered by sculpted & painted Corinthian columns, plus two angels in separate bays to each side. The colours are mostly muted shades of brown and red with gold leaf highlighting the halos; so much so that the paintings almost look like marquetry work.

We were directed to sit in silence with footwear removed and placed under the seats. We waited in quiet and almost silence for about 40 minutes or so until 10 a.m. Right on time, we were directed to rise and Mother Meera came in. I heard definite, firm and fairly quick footsteps behind me before she swept past, wearing a glorious red, orange and gold sari. She seated herself on the stage in a chair provided.

The Darshan proceeded with people being asked out in rows. Each row of people knelt on a carpet down the central aisle. Anyone who could not or had difficulty kneeling was allowed to stand until joining their alloted place on stage. Those who could not kneel at this stage could also stand and were provided a chair to sit for the actual Darshan. Anyone who would not be able to get up the stairs would receive Darshan at the end, with Mother Meera coming to them.

So, people knelt or sat in front of Mother Meera in turn, bowing their heads. She gently placed her fingertips on each head, around the temple area. After about seven seconds or so, she withdrew her hands. At this point each person could look up at Mother Meera [and she would look at them]. The gaze was longer than in 'polite conversation' and wordless, about seven seconds yet again. Try it with someone you know; it's longer than it sounds.

After about 45 minutes or so, it was the turn of my row. I went and knelt on the central carpet. By this time, I was calm and fairly peaceful within and just waiting to see what - if anything - happened for me. Mother Meera's touch was gentle and confident, nurturing. As for looking at each other, she saw me. Complete, dispassionate and with loving acceptance. If you've seen 'Avatar', my perception is that the gaze of the Na'avi and their, 'I See You' is intended to be like this.

As I made my way back down the hill after-wards, the snow started! Since snow on the Mendip hills between Bristol and Glastonbury on untreated roads has proved a problem to traffic in the past, I decided that I'd rather get home while I could.

My bad

Apologies. We've had this thing called Christmas and New Year, then a whole heap of cold white stuff decided to fall out of the sky. I will post a proper blog soon, promise!

Coming soon - UK based 'Chuck' podcast! Audio blogging courtesy of Podbean.

Go find some historic audio files of varying quality at [chuckgeekuk] on Podbean.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...