Sunday, 28 August 2011
And Now For Something Completely Different
I'm belated at writing up these next four posts, but they will give you an insight into what my overall impression was of the Further Education courses I saw. I've dug them out and edited them as my writing back then was rusty and the grammar was nothing short of horrific. They may or may not help you, but they give my opinion and criticism of things as I saw them in November-December 2009.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Visions of Paris
It was around about late January or early February, New Year had been and gone and I was once again thrust into another year of existence. 'The Roaring Twenties', 'The Golden Era', 'The Jazz Age', the 1920's stained with the dried blood of the Great War. The European economy was booming; for anybody who wasn't me prosperity and money flowed like wine.
I was living in Paris at the time. If you'd have asked my father, he'd have told you I was living out a lie, a delusional fantasy of which no good would ever come. However, if you'd have asked me I'd have told you straight - I was there to fulfil my lifelong ambition to become a writer. I got by on what little I had, my determination and drive were the only things that I could call riches.
The Cafe Laurent was a place I frequented often, it was a hive for people such as I, down on their luck artists with financial constraints. Artists, writers and models gathered in clusters to talk recent publications, latest exhibitions, business, current affairs, lost and newfound loves; half empty coffee cups filled the tables of the despondent clientele. Cold, unnerving and as bitter as the ferocious wind that bit at my lips.
I sat inside people watching, comparable only to star-gazing. It was then that I saw her, my eyes fixed on a distant étoile. Fumée projected from her delicately formed mouth, rouge lips emanated smoke in thick, full of life plumes.
My throat became coarse like emery paper; a human heart that beat with the rapidness, urgency and uncertainty of a locomotive. Lust, need, want, desire, every primal instinct was redundant next to love.
She stood to walk out, as she passed I smelled a pungent aroma in the air - roses and cedar wood. I sat there fixed in what seemed like a lingering purgatory, entranced and encapsulated in an otherworldly bind.
I followed her out onto the densely packed street with the intention of declaring my love to her. Just ahead of me and about to cross the road I saw her...
Absent-minded faces cluttered my path, constricting the blood flow and causing a temporary block in the arteries of fate.
As the clot dispersed I regained my vision and composure, she was gone.
I was living in Paris at the time. If you'd have asked my father, he'd have told you I was living out a lie, a delusional fantasy of which no good would ever come. However, if you'd have asked me I'd have told you straight - I was there to fulfil my lifelong ambition to become a writer. I got by on what little I had, my determination and drive were the only things that I could call riches.
The Cafe Laurent was a place I frequented often, it was a hive for people such as I, down on their luck artists with financial constraints. Artists, writers and models gathered in clusters to talk recent publications, latest exhibitions, business, current affairs, lost and newfound loves; half empty coffee cups filled the tables of the despondent clientele. Cold, unnerving and as bitter as the ferocious wind that bit at my lips.
I sat inside people watching, comparable only to star-gazing. It was then that I saw her, my eyes fixed on a distant étoile. Fumée projected from her delicately formed mouth, rouge lips emanated smoke in thick, full of life plumes.
My throat became coarse like emery paper; a human heart that beat with the rapidness, urgency and uncertainty of a locomotive. Lust, need, want, desire, every primal instinct was redundant next to love.
She stood to walk out, as she passed I smelled a pungent aroma in the air - roses and cedar wood. I sat there fixed in what seemed like a lingering purgatory, entranced and encapsulated in an otherworldly bind.
I followed her out onto the densely packed street with the intention of declaring my love to her. Just ahead of me and about to cross the road I saw her...
Absent-minded faces cluttered my path, constricting the blood flow and causing a temporary block in the arteries of fate.
As the clot dispersed I regained my vision and composure, she was gone.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
The Times They Are a-Changin'
3 years ago I would have considered myself to be immature, annoying and a general nuisance. Now, I am still all of those things, but slightly more so. I was just beginning to start art college after working for a year and a year-long stint of bad and unproductive relationships. It was around this time that I was persuaded (perhaps seduced is a better word) by Tom Howarth to enrol at art college and do what I love and enjoy and hopefully gain some form of qualification from it. In many respects he has helped me to see the light, not in any religious sort of way, but by encouraging me to break-up with my then girlfriend and making me aware that I should persue the thing that I am best at, which is art. The way I think, write and act now has radically changed compared to how I did then. Where as before I believe I put on a front and acted the way others wanted me to act. Now I do what I want, please and feel to be right. I'm not afraid to speak my mind or wear my heart on my sleeve.
N.B Done during the writing workshop, in conjunction with 'Monologue of a Coal Miner's Wife'.
N.B Done during the writing workshop, in conjunction with 'Monologue of a Coal Miner's Wife'.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Colour Separation
The world and the monoply guy live as one
He buys and sells; speaks and tells
When he dies there'll be nothing but the sun.
He buys and sells; speaks and tells
When he dies there'll be nothing but the sun.
Song for a Son
To a Son
As these things usually start
Cards, letters, greetings
For a Son
Suggests you're willing to provide
Shelter, warmth, love
I'm on my way oh how I'm on my way
The present that refuses to be wrapped
I'm every image that you once were
A permanent reminder that will never stray
From every Son
This is their solemn vow
Hello, Thank you, Goodbye.
As these things usually start
Cards, letters, greetings
For a Son
Suggests you're willing to provide
Shelter, warmth, love
I'm on my way oh how I'm on my way
The present that refuses to be wrapped
I'm every image that you once were
A permanent reminder that will never stray
From every Son
This is their solemn vow
Hello, Thank you, Goodbye.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Odysseus
We died believing we were worthy
of divine intervention.
They wrote mine and your name in
the local paper without a mention.
Sadly and lastly this is my
only real intention.
To be reborn with new working parts,
a work of pure invention.
of divine intervention.
They wrote mine and your name in
the local paper without a mention.
Sadly and lastly this is my
only real intention.
To be reborn with new working parts,
a work of pure invention.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
In God We Trust
Let me be honest, this entry is a little off topic; then again what I write, say and do tends to lack any continuity at all. I don't expect this post to change anything or alter things in any way, it is just what I think and how I view religion.
Once again we have seen an event which cites religion as the catalyst, more specifically Islam. The motivation behind this atrocity is said to be about immigration and the spread of Islam. What I like about religion is that it encourages people to form a sense of community, belonging and to respect one another - Islam does not differ to this. Yet, we have people such as the perpetrator who carried out these atrocities who spouts fundamentalist ideas and far-right views about how Islam is taking over. I am sorry, but nobody can force you to believe in something, everybody has free will. Islam is not taking over, no religion is. People with the views such as the man who carried out these henous crimes, the EDL, the BNP etc. are wholly and totally wrong. They are ignorant and base their judgements on a very very small minority of people, many of whom were not even Muslim. Far-right groups such as the EDL and BNP masquerade as "against Islamic extremism", but in actual fact they are against anybody who is non-white.
On 3rd September the EDL will enter Tower Hamlets, one of the UK's most Islamic areas; their reasoning for doing so? To protest "against Islamic extremism" of course. I am baffled by this because A) what will this achieve? B) what have the residents of Tower Hamlets got to do with "Islamic extremism"? C) to march through an area of people and condemn their religion is sickening D) this will neither help or change anything (for the better).
Segregation is what promotes paranoia and fear, I understand that many cultures densely populate certain areas and this is an issue which needs tackling. It can be solved through inclusion and encouraging people to come together, i.e through events, street parties and get togethers. This country was built on multiculturalism, it is one of the few things that makes me proud of society. Everybody should have the right to live in any country they wish to; after all, it is only an island on which you happen to have been born on. Multiculturalism is something that should be embraced, not shunned. Why do you think there is so much hatred and prejudice against other cultures and ethenicities? It's because of segregation.
There is good and bad in everybody, should we then suppose that all Catholics and Protestants are violent due to the conflicts in Northern Ireland? - the answer is no, we shouldn't. An individual is responsable for his/her actions and how they treat people, their religion isn't.
Everybody is an individual, regardless of background, sexuality, religion, skin colour, gender, appearance etc. A person should be viewed for WHO they are rather than WHAT they are.
A lot of problems would be eradicated if religion didn't exist, but then again people are happier, friendlier, more spiritual and peaceful with it. It is people who misinterpret it and take the context out of hand who give it a bad name.
The BNP say they want to "keep Britain British" (I suppose they mean keep the things we haven't taken from everywhere else then). The EDL say they want to keep England English. Okay then, how do you explain them just concentrating on Islamic extremism and overlooking Americanisation and Globalisation? The answer is you can't. I'm absolutely all for multiculturalism, but what would be nice is if local businesses, working men's clubs, grocers and paper shops could be kept open without being taken over by huge conglomerates. This is what the BNP and EDL should be campaigning against, not religion.
Once again we have seen an event which cites religion as the catalyst, more specifically Islam. The motivation behind this atrocity is said to be about immigration and the spread of Islam. What I like about religion is that it encourages people to form a sense of community, belonging and to respect one another - Islam does not differ to this. Yet, we have people such as the perpetrator who carried out these atrocities who spouts fundamentalist ideas and far-right views about how Islam is taking over. I am sorry, but nobody can force you to believe in something, everybody has free will. Islam is not taking over, no religion is. People with the views such as the man who carried out these henous crimes, the EDL, the BNP etc. are wholly and totally wrong. They are ignorant and base their judgements on a very very small minority of people, many of whom were not even Muslim. Far-right groups such as the EDL and BNP masquerade as "against Islamic extremism", but in actual fact they are against anybody who is non-white.
On 3rd September the EDL will enter Tower Hamlets, one of the UK's most Islamic areas; their reasoning for doing so? To protest "against Islamic extremism" of course. I am baffled by this because A) what will this achieve? B) what have the residents of Tower Hamlets got to do with "Islamic extremism"? C) to march through an area of people and condemn their religion is sickening D) this will neither help or change anything (for the better).
Segregation is what promotes paranoia and fear, I understand that many cultures densely populate certain areas and this is an issue which needs tackling. It can be solved through inclusion and encouraging people to come together, i.e through events, street parties and get togethers. This country was built on multiculturalism, it is one of the few things that makes me proud of society. Everybody should have the right to live in any country they wish to; after all, it is only an island on which you happen to have been born on. Multiculturalism is something that should be embraced, not shunned. Why do you think there is so much hatred and prejudice against other cultures and ethenicities? It's because of segregation.
There is good and bad in everybody, should we then suppose that all Catholics and Protestants are violent due to the conflicts in Northern Ireland? - the answer is no, we shouldn't. An individual is responsable for his/her actions and how they treat people, their religion isn't.
Everybody is an individual, regardless of background, sexuality, religion, skin colour, gender, appearance etc. A person should be viewed for WHO they are rather than WHAT they are.
A lot of problems would be eradicated if religion didn't exist, but then again people are happier, friendlier, more spiritual and peaceful with it. It is people who misinterpret it and take the context out of hand who give it a bad name.
The BNP say they want to "keep Britain British" (I suppose they mean keep the things we haven't taken from everywhere else then). The EDL say they want to keep England English. Okay then, how do you explain them just concentrating on Islamic extremism and overlooking Americanisation and Globalisation? The answer is you can't. I'm absolutely all for multiculturalism, but what would be nice is if local businesses, working men's clubs, grocers and paper shops could be kept open without being taken over by huge conglomerates. This is what the BNP and EDL should be campaigning against, not religion.
Monday, 1 August 2011
#624815
There is an age old philosophical question, can money make you happy? I think at some point we have all wondered this, but I can say with much certainty that it does not.
Think about it, what is money? Pieces of paper, useless by itself, it is merely a middle man. If you think money can make you happy, imagine yourself in this situation - you have all of the money that you could possibly ever want, but are forbidden to use it, would this make you happy? Money by itself is useless, it is something that is man-made and designed to elevate people to a higher status than others.
It seems, at the moment anyway, money is what it's all about.
Money = Respect + Power
Having money doesn't make you better than anybody else, it doesn't make you more successful, more respected, more powerful. Did having money educate humans how to survive? Knowledge did that, and in my opinion knowledge is power. Knowledge has helped us to adapt and cope with change and whatever has been thrown at us since humanities inception.
Hapiness doesn't come from little pieces of paper or from what it can get you, after all they are just materialistic things, they're worthless compared to what really matters in life. Love, relationships, hapiness, peace, respect, equality, morals and freedom are just some of the things that money can't buy, they are also essential components to life.
Think about it, what is money? Pieces of paper, useless by itself, it is merely a middle man. If you think money can make you happy, imagine yourself in this situation - you have all of the money that you could possibly ever want, but are forbidden to use it, would this make you happy? Money by itself is useless, it is something that is man-made and designed to elevate people to a higher status than others.
It seems, at the moment anyway, money is what it's all about.
Money = Respect + Power
Having money doesn't make you better than anybody else, it doesn't make you more successful, more respected, more powerful. Did having money educate humans how to survive? Knowledge did that, and in my opinion knowledge is power. Knowledge has helped us to adapt and cope with change and whatever has been thrown at us since humanities inception.
Hapiness doesn't come from little pieces of paper or from what it can get you, after all they are just materialistic things, they're worthless compared to what really matters in life. Love, relationships, hapiness, peace, respect, equality, morals and freedom are just some of the things that money can't buy, they are also essential components to life.
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