Senses working overtime #188

1 H D T
Loads of heavy hitters in this edition of JFTT. We've got the Fabs, 'Trane, the Band, poetry corner, and kicking us off this week - Henry David Thoreau.

Let's get this arty party started!!

Austin Kleon has a nice piece in his blog about Thoreau (and I want to tell him to read Walden: Life in the Woods!). He also explains why he put stickies over the eyes.

2 The Biblio-Mat

Ingenious device and a great idea to dispense old books to a good home. Love it!

3 The Beatles by The Beatles

This album is always in my top 5 of all time (usually sits at number 2 behind John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band). There have been reams written about the album but this was a nice podcast style interview with Giles Martin that you might like.

4 The Band's It Makes No Difference

Excellent piece from The Immortal Jukebox on The Band and that song.

5 Poetry corner

We asked the captain what course
of action he proposed to take toward
a beast so large, terrifying, and
unpredictable. He hesitated to
answer, and then said judiciously:
"I think I shall praise it."

Robert Hass (1979)

Overtime The church of John Coltrane

Senses working overtime #187

1 William Goldman - Titan.

My wife and I were travelling on a train in to London last Saturday. I buy the Guardian and read it during the journey. I turned a page and gasped.

William Goldman had passed away.

I've written one fan letter in my life so far and it was to William Goldman after I read his close to autobiographical novel The Color Of Light.

I have read everything I could get my hands on over the years. Watched and collected his movies.  Worshiped his style.

He's a genius. A titan.

2 Forever Young - Bob Dylan

“Forever Young, I wrote in Tucson, … I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not wanting to be too sentimental. The lines came to me, they were done in a minute. I don’t know. Sometimes that’s what you’re given. You’re given something like that. You don’t know what it is exactly that you want but this is what comes. That’s how that song came out. I certainly didn’t intend to write it – I was going for something else, the song wrote itself – naw, you never know what you’re going to write. You never even know if you’re going to make another record, really.”

3 Blue Note covers. Yeah man.


4 Keepy Uppy - venue for footie activity criticised!

Hilarious!! Sounds a lot like school, doesn't it! The chamber for the House of Commons looks like a good spot to me.

5 Personalised Netflix thumbnails.



Overtime Yeah!!
After a crunchy week at work I needed to read this before heading into the weekend - which is why I'm dispatching this bulletin early - before Friday goes to bed, Shock. Horror.

Now read this and then have a great weekend!!

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken”

I don’t agree with Oscar Wilde on this one.

In fact, almost no one else is taken. You definitely can’t (and shouldn’t) be someone who already exists, but the number of slots left is infinite.

Each of us can work to become the person we seek to be. A better version of the person we are right now.

Doing work we’re proud of for people we care about.

Senses working overtime #186

1 A sombre week

Just when you thought the odious Donald Trump couldn't plumb any new depths of insensitivity, he did.

2 The horror, the horror




3 Michelle Obama

The Guardian featured some extracts from her autobiography recently. They were as impressive as she is. Class. All class. And yet - down to earth!

4 Seth is wise Part 1,467

One by one, the urgent goes away

Those emergencies from a year ago (and a month ago), they’re gone.

Either they were solved, or they became things to live with. But emergencies don’t last. They fade.

Knowing that, knowing that you will outlast them, every single one of them, does it make it easier to see the problem, not the panic?

5 Poetry corner - a modern ode to autumn

November

Show's over, folks. And didn't October do
A bang-up job? Crisp breezes, full-throated cries
Of migrating geese, low-floating coral moon.

Nothing left but fool's gold in the trees.
Did I love it enough, the full-throttle foliage,
While it lasted? Was I dazzled? The bees

Have up and quit their last-ditch flights of forage
And gone to shiver in their winter clusters.
Field mice hit the barns, big squirrels gorge

On busted chestnuts. A sky like hardened plaster
Hovers. The pasty river, its next of kin,
Coughs up reed grass fat as feather dusters.

Even the swarms of kids have given in
To winter's big excuse, boxed-in allure:
TVs ricochet light behind pulled curtains.

The days throw up a closed sign around four.
The hapless customer who'd wanted something
Arrives to find lights out, a bolted door.

Maggie Dietz (2016)
via Megan

Overtime: Bless you Stan Lee

Without him, no Fantastic Four. No Thor. No Spidey. No fun. No youth. Thank you Mr Lee. Rest in peace. Excelsior!

Senses working overtime #185

1 London Bridge station

Our train from Caterham's final destination. Great twitter account

2 Poetry Corner

from Triangles of Power Got a slice burned the roof of my mouth. Knew I would it was delicious. Eileen Myles (1991)

3 Life hacks - eating a burger the right way

I flip my burger depending on its quality - find out about why and more life hacks here.

4 White House releases doctored video
Shameful behaviour that shouldn't be allowed to stand. The video analysis here makes me feel sick.

5 Advice from Haruki Murakami
Great advice from a novelist I have a lot of time for.

Overtime - with Trump and Brexit dominating headlines - this is still as relevant as it was back in 1971.

Senses working overtime #184

1 Getting Stuff Done (GSD)

Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash

This has been a week of GSD - now it's the weekend and time to reflect on what that really means.

2 GSD - the flipside

“You just have to determine to settle for nothing less than being fully alive, to show up, be who you are, and share your gifts.” ~Gabrielle Roth

Loved this piece - things don't happen unless you take action!

3 The Bodyguard
My wife and I missed this when it played on BBC1 on Sunday nights recently, but we've caught up with the rest of the country via  the BBC's iplayer. 

4 New targets
I like this idea, highlighted by Austin Kleon

5 Where Eagles Dare
Finished Geoff Dyer's book after watching the film again.

Overtime:  Another sword, another lake

Loved this Guardian story - the little girl who pulled a sword from a lake.