jonnybaker

reel and congrats!

congrats joel on getting a distinction in your art foundation! yay!!!! and here's his reel if you want to get a flavour of the movie stuff. the end piece should be worked up on proost for july we hope!

Reel from cntrst on Vimeo.

hey bro my fro's bigger than your fro

hey bro my fro's bigger than your fro, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

well another parental rite of passage - had 50 friends of harry's at ours for a party last night for his seventeenth. it seems ages since joel's! a beautiful evening meant we could use the garden with candles everywhere and the fire burning, and we had a sound system in the lounge with joel and friends playing tunes (we moved everything out that was remotely breakable or valuable) . harry had made it fancy dress - come dressed as a song title. there weren't prizes but the most impressive entrance was adam as 99 red balloons! it meant for some crazy outfits... i didn't take many photos - it was all very dark but this is joel and harry comparing 'fro's. harry will add the rest to his facebook i'm sure. harry started the evening dressed in an ice cream outfit but swapped with chris later in the evening. all good fun, no damage, no breakages, no neighbourly complaints (yet), and no one seemed to drink too much... wow!

the pressure is now building as we need to begin planning next year's having gone nuts for joel's eighteenth!

kitchen toys

kitchen toys 5, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

over the summer we had our kitchen redone. it looks wonderful now. one little feature is a couple of lighting box shelves. we tried putting kitchen things on them - jugs, pottery and that sort of thing - but decided they look best with toys on!

the goat house, french alps, and being in a cloud

i have finally added a set of holiday photos in the french alps to flickr...

we started off in grenoble for a couple of days meeting up with the glocks - i have known matt for a while so it was great to hang out with the family and watch the fireworks on bastille day. we caught the funicular to catch a view of the city, loved the fountain, and wandered around at night. then we took a day to visit the chartreuse monastery - these are the monks filmed in the film into great silence. they have communities all round the world and part of their vision is sustainability - this slogan shows that they don't want to have to ask others for money. the chartreuse liquor they have developed (we visited the vaults and tasted some - 59% tastes like mediciine!) has clearly brought in a lot of money. having looked at communities a bit in the last few years i was interested to see just how thick their rule is. a bizarre quirk of the visit was watching a film about the monks in 3d specs - got to love this photo of matt and sylvie donning the glasses.

then it was off to la chambre de la chevre, a converted goat house in a tiny hamlet on a thin windy track in the alps 1800m above sea level. there was no electricity, just gas and then in the evening an open fire, candles and parrafin lamps - which of course meant a holiday from computers... it was an absolutely wonderful place - the view from the balcony of la meije mountain was breathtaking and seemed to look different every time you looked. we've not done a mountain holiday before but had a great time climbing, rafting, swimming in mountain lakes. we got a cable car up to snow topped mountains above la grave where harry fulfilled an ambition of his of being in a cloud and we visited an ice cave full of ice sculptures. opposite the goat house was a climb up to a peak with the most amazing bench i have ever encountered with an amazing view to contemplate the mountains. the alpine fields are an array of colour with all sorts of dazzling flowers. the glocks came out one day to visit and walked up there with us. this photo is pascal standing on a rock dangling his foot over a drop below!

we only had one rainy day where we literally in cloud all day. but in its own way that is magical in the mountains. a highlight of course was the visit to the alpe d'huez to watch the spectacle of the tour de france where sastre sealed winning the tour. this year joel nad harry had both finished school because of exams so it was a rare chance for us to be able to watch a stage of the tour. it totally lived up to expectations.

it was an amazing holiday. the photos only capture a glimpse of how stunning the alps are...

photos of the alpe d'huez stage of the tour de france

i have added a set of photos of our day watching the alpe d'huez stage of the tour de france. the best way to look at them is in a slideshow, then click on the i in the centre and you'll get the blurb with the photos...

i realise i haven't blogged about mark cavendish - it is amazing to have a brit win four stages of the tour!

provocations, pacman and triathlons

looks like the labyrinth was a success...

we had fun at breakout leading a session in the big top saturday night and then a communion this morning. i don't know if you have ever been to gigs where there are computers on stage and people leaning over looking busy and you are wondering what they are doing? well simon was caught on camera here with the crowd facing him in the communion service and what's on his screen?! pacman!!!!! mmmm... he tells me he was also playing music.

if you are dropping by from breakout hi... if you want to follow up any of the music visit
proost | dubb | twotone | cntrst

here's dubb and twotone in action

if you've ever heard me speak about creativity one of the idea i like is provocations. edward de bono says that we get ideas or get creative when our routine is interrupted so when something unwelcome happens learn to receive it as a provocation and see where it might lead. well on saturday we had got about an hour out of london when i remembered that i had left my laptop behind with all the visuals on. so i turned round to head back but dropped joel, harry and simon at newport pagnell service station to wait. when i picked them up two and a half hours later they had composed a new track in reason on simon's laptop and harry had written a rap on the theme of the breakout weekend - beyond. they duly performed it live that evening and it was brilliant - so leaving my laptop behind proved to be a great provocation!

jenny smashed her personal best in the triathlon this weekend getting below the 3 hour mark with 2 hours 49 minutes. that knocked 20 minutes off her previous personal best which is amazing. she has trained really hard and it all came good - congratulations! sorry we missed it...

portrait

i like this portrait shot i took of harry. it was at the volume installation with his face lit up by the led lights...

the long road

we went to see the long road last night, the play commissioned and directed by my sister. it's amazing. go and se it if you get the chance. it's the story of a family trying to deal with the aftermath of the youngest son, 18 years old, being stabbed in a random act of violence. it's very powerful... one shock was that there is a photo on the table of the son which is a photo esther has used of joel. and he is also larger than life in a huge backdrop to the set...

if God is a DJ...

if God is a DJ... joel's latest doodle

the long road - a new play about forgiveness

the forgiveness project is an amazing collection of stories of forgiveness. it has been exhibited as a series of portrait photos with the accompanying stories. i first saw it in london at the oxo tower back in 2004 and it has also been to greenbelt... since then the stories have multiplied. norman kember's is one of the more recent ones.

my sister esther (you may remember me blogging about her film) and her charity synergy theatre have been working with the forgiveness project and she is directing a new play the long road about forgiveness from 19 may to 5 june at soho theatre. i chatted to her today about it and she is really excited. the long road evolved out of stories and research with prisoners with whom she has worked now for over a decade in one way or another. its debut appropriately was in a prison yesterday. esther is the founder and artistic director of synergy.

i'm looking forward to it. if you are in london go and see it...

birthday drink, sacrifice and warming up for tom middleton

joel winning the open dex heat at the big chill bar gets to play a 2 hour set at the big chill bar (as well as competing in the final in july).

so he is playing from 4-6pm on sunday 24 feb at the big chill bar. the next day is my birthday so i am combining it with celebrating with a birthday drink (as is fellow grace friend paul wainwright for whom it is his actual birthday). so if you around and fancy it, come along and join us.

the sacrifice is that chelsea are playing tottenham in the cup final at the same time!!!! so i will have to watch the highlights later i guess...

joel is fairly excited because one of his DJ heroes and big chill legend tom middleton is DJing his top 100 tunes that evening so i guess joel is his warm up act (scroll down the what's on page)

20 years...

my dad, john baker, died 20 years ago today.

memory is a funny thing.
when someone dies there is a big hole but the gap lessens, it fades over time.
if anything you can feel bad you don't think of the person enough after they have gone.
but today if i think of my dad, words that spring to mind are:
integrity
unafraid to speak the truth
gentle
kind
articulate
intelligent
a love for god and people
acceptance

he gave me so much.

on his grave are written words along the lines of:
john baker awaiting the bodily resurrection of the dead and the renewal of the heavens and the earth

i always thought that was the most amazing thing to have on your grave stone...

he won!

open dex at the big chill bar, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

cntrst [joel] in the open dex contest at the big chill bar last night. he won!!!! this was heat 1 - he will be in a final in july. the winner gets to play at the big chill festival. congrats joel...

open dex tonight at big chill bar

following last year's performance at the big chill open dex competition joel has entered again and is playing in tonight's round at the big chill bar.

cntrst end of year mix

joel has done an end of year mix of his favourite dance tunes of 2007

you can view his podcast here or subscribe in itunes as there will probably be further podcasts in 08

[i'm hoping he doesn't crash my bandwidth on typepad as i have no idea how much i get!]

the track listing is on a blog entry on his myspace page and you can catch him DJing on voodoo freqs every sunday night from 9pm to 11pm (uk time)

god is a londoner

or so says the cover of this week's timeout magazine which focuses on the vibrant religious life in the capital.

two years ago joel took part in creating a youth produced mini timeout magazine called timeout trashed. it was a fantastic experience where he learned a ton and contributed illustrations, articles and layout. well ealing borough have just run a simliar project again with a different group of young people. the results are in a huge foldout poster that is included in this week's timeout in shops across london. joel got invited back to be a mentor and part of the team leading the project (and got paid too which was a bonus). the results are amazing. i think this is such a brilliant project and wonderful for young people in ealing to get a chance to create something like this. and as before the results are fantastic...

magical mystery tour meets rite of passage

i have been having fun and no time to blog...

jen and i wanted to do something special/memorable for joel's eighteenth. so on his birthday at 7am the theme tune for mission impossible blasted out and harry burst into joel's room and delivered an envelope with number one written on it. inside were the instructions to pack your bag for overnight and meet us at munsons for breakfast. a bewildered joel showed up and discovered he was off on a mystery tour during which he would receive eighteen envelopes or text messages with instructions on what to do next. they included...

video messages to find on youtube from family
meeting people
a first class ticket to liverpool (where i had travelled separately)
filling in a journal en route
staying at parr street recording studios
dining out at alma de cuba (stunning old church kitted out as a bar/restaurant with 300 candles lighting it)
buying me his first legal pint
listening to a track by harry we had smuggled onto his ipod (which was amazing)
visiting the turner prize (loved the wallinger bear suit video and the comments at the end were amusing)
watching a video from friends on his ipod
going to visit anthony gormley's wonderful another place (absolutely brilliant btw) at crosby beach
returning to a friend's house, being blindfolded and taken to a mystery destination (our house!) for
a surprise party with family and friends

joel loved it!

we included some stuff along the lines of a rite of passage to mark joel's transition from child to man and us letting go of our child and welcoming joel back as a man which is why we wanted it to be a journey...

(thanks to my friends in croatia whose own crazy antics when i was over there with videos and all sorts of stuff inspired us to go over the top in our own way)

phew...

happy 18th birthday joel!

nice tri

congratulations harry and jen on completing your triathlons yesterday!

(this is harry crossing the finish line of his first triathlon looking suitably happy and knackered)

hoodie

one evening in portugal i went to take some night shots with harry but it wasn't really happening as i hoped so we started messing around taking photos of harry instead and that turned out to be much more fun and interesting. i think this is my favourite though this one is fun too - he can use them on his first album cover!?