This is a note to self, a journal of sorts. You might find it relevant too… Years ago, as an inexperienced learner driver with no more than a few hours of practice under my belt, I booked an evening driving lesson with my instructor. It was the first time I would be driving without the…
Read moreDo The Thing, Badly
Fill in the following sentence for me, will you? Anything worth doing is worth doing… Did you opt for the word ‘well’ by any chance? Did you say ‘anything worth doing is worth doing well?’ That’s what I would have said a while ago. I would have said anything worth doing is worth doing well,…
Read moreThe Environment
Here is an idea so obvious and yet so insightful, at least to me: Nobody exists in a vacuum, and nobody lives outside some sort of environment. There is always some sort of setting, place or physical context for every aspect of life. This is true for every waking moment, and every sleeping one too. …
Read moreReflections – Part 2
This is the second part of a two-part series I started last week. Last week’s post was part one, the penultimate post of the year. I shared some of the key takeaways and things I learned from my artistic and creative journey to date, having started this weekly blog and newsletter in the spring of…
Read moreReflections
This is a two-part series. This post is part one, the penultimate post of the year. Part 2 will come next week, and it’ll be the last post of 2022. I started this blog in the spring of this year and I’ve written and published a post every week since. I’m immensely grateful to everyone…
Read moreValue of Art
This is a note to self, a journal of sorts. You might find it relevant too… Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading Supersense by Bruce Hood. Supersense is about the brain science of supernatural beliefs and it covers diverse phenomena like why we’re prone to superstitious beliefs and why we fall for conspiracy…
Read moreGratitude
It was Thanksgiving a few days ago across the pond. The holiday has a controversial history and origin story, and the national pastime that follows it the day after is nearly as contentious, at least in some circles. Yet, the sentiment of the holiday that is Thanksgiving is one I hold dear. It’s a day…
Read moreAll Things Pass
Sometimes song lyrics are literal, sometimes they’re metaphorical, sometimes they hold hidden or double meaning, and sometimes it’s all of the above. Recent events have reminded me of an old song of mine that fits the above description, a song whose lyrics resonate in the literal sense as an account of seasonal weather changes, but…
Read moreStill Smelling The Roses
This is a note to self, a journal of sorts. You might find it relevant too… Last Sunday I was a guest on a local radio station, Manchester-based ALLFM. I had an hour-long chat with the lovely host and played some tunes live in the studio. Fast forward six days to Saturday and I took…
Read moreSnapshots – Part 2
Last week I wrote about a little appreciated ability of art to capture snapshots – little snippets or slices of our emotional state from the vast expanse of our lives. Photographs do this naturally, paintings and sketches too, but non-visual arts like music also excel at this, as I argued in last week’s post. This…
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