I did my interview with Lars Larson, a very popular radio show host in America. I understand these ‘one theme’ shows are common but it came as a culture shock to me that a radio show would try to steer every conversation and every guest into denigration of one political faction. I did suggest to…
Month: April 2010
The Endless Search
I have heard many people talking about ‘finding themselves’ over the years and the myriad ways they go about it, I have often wondered what this idea of ‘self’ actually is. It is of course vitally important, perhaps the most important idea of any, as it does inform us of how we should act in…
Do We Understand Each Other
The simple answer is, ‘only if we make an effort.’ I think my upbringing, being with a single parent who happened to be one of the great beauties of her age and one of the most talented poets of the century, is not going to be typical by anyone’s standards. But I think if you…
The Eve Of War
I know the sea is made of tears for I Have wept them all; I know the air is made Of sighs for I have felt them all and cried Out all the world’s nightmares which cannot fade With the dawn. There is no battle I am Not weary from; no dirt that does not…
The Birds And The Trees
In one of the fields in which I walk everyday there is a copse of trees. There are about thirty trees spanning an entire corner of a field. I have no idea why they have been left there the land is ploughable, but there they are. Some are pine, the rest are beech, sycamore and…
I Am Awake Really
Coleridge famously used opium and ended up with quite a dream. De Quincey was an addict as were many who took Quinine (opium being the active ingredient) for pain. Artists also take drugs because they are bored and they hear good things about getting ‘high’, and they seek the heightened intellectual response to reality drugs…
The Art Of Dimensions
I am very bad at being able to visualise finished work taking shape in mid air or empty space. I look at pieces of paper wondering if I could draw anything and doodle because nothing comes to mind but words. The few times I have sat down and sketched something like my dogs sleeping or…
Strength
We are well used to seeing things that do not yield, that are instantly resourceful, as the ‘strongest’. Though in the way of Chinese philosophy it is pointed out that sometimes giving way makes you stronger as water can erode everything in time. And that’s the point, time. We are creatures of moments, held within…
Clowning Around
I think I saw my first real, live clown outside a circus in Bristol when I was a child. He gave me an Indian Feather hat which I still have replete with broken red feather and an elastic band at the back to keep it in place. I have never been one to be scared…
Uniformity
The thrust of business (free market or otherwise) is to make the greatest number of people buy the greatest number of the same things. The business system is also deigned to ensure we keep buying by depriving people of the means to grow their own food (which it seems to me most people are reluctant…