Senses working overtime #325

1 The benefits of swimming

Photo by Todd Quackenbush on Unsplash

2 Make the sign bigger?

3 Burberry ad starring Adam Driver

esss crazy, no?

4 Here are 25 small changes to improve your life

Photo: Tim Chow/Unsplash

5 A Life Audit

No wait - it actually sounds like a fun and worthwhile thing to try on a wet afternoon!

Overtime: 

“Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow… The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.”

– Kurt Vonnegut Jnr (courtesy of Swissmiss)

Senses working overtime #324

1 Nitch

Joni Mitchell // "Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth...we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side...and we become attracted to fluff... But along with developing my superficial side, I always nurtured a deeper longing, so even when I was falling into the trap of that other kind of love, I was hip to what I was doing."

2 Marvel villains ranked by, erm, hotness

3 Five words that will open doors for you

4 Black Widow

I was looking forward to this pre pandemic. Not sure now, after reading this.

5 Coffee - the invisible addiction

Coffee houses have been around awhile

Apparently, "Something like 90% of humans ingest caffeine regularly, making it the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, and the only one we routinely give to children (commonly in the form of fizzy drinks)."

Overtime: Believing is seeing 

They say that seeing is believing.

But it might be more true that believing leads to seeing.

It’s often easier to discover the truth if we believe it’s there in the first place.

(Seth Godin)

Senses working overtime #323

The senses went into overdrive on our recent holiday to Wellington. The main reason for our visit was to see the exhibition of surrealist art at Te Papa. The big city sounds and smells were definitely a change from our rural outlook in Takapau!

1 Surrealism at Te Papa

Great little camera trick allows you to reproduce Magritte's famous painting.

2 

3 Flamingo Joe's

Feeling good at Flamingo Joe's after their sticky date pudding!

4 Windy Wellington

Weather was pretty good but windy on our last day. 

5 Pier Review

Spied this well named boat on the Wellington waterfront (before finding ourseleves by the fishing boat Viking Bay Vigo - moored in Wellington so that the fishers with covid can go into MIQ).

Overtime: Replacement copies

I picked up a couple of replacement copies of some damaged albums at Slow Boat Records. 

My English copy of the Procol Harum album had a badly defaced cover - some plonker had coloured in the faces, so this clean Aussie copy was a good find, as was the Quicksilver Messenger Service; my original had some bobbles in the vinyl which made track one on each side unplayable. Given this is my favourite album by them I was thrilled to find this 'new' copy.

Senses working overtime #322

1 Train your brain!

2 Robert Christgau's album reviews

I stumbled upon this and have had it bookmarked for reference. Even though it's presented terribly, it's fun to dip into.

3 The year is half over

4 Deep reading

5 Seth Godin on creativity

Overtime: 

"Three steps to exceptional results:

1) Do less. Stop dividing your attention.

2) Do it right now. Once you have identified the essential, go fast. Maintain a bias toward action.

3) Do it the right way. Acting quickly doesn't mean acting carelessly. Get to work right away, but keep working on it until it's right."

(Courtesy of James Clear)

Senses working overtime #321

1 A man, a dog and a walk around the world

2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 

It's 30 years old! Still wonderful. And the American spelling of'judgement' still grates.

3  To the people

To the people
reading this poem, hello.
I want you to know
nothing bad will happen
as long as you’re here.
Every line you see
was written in a cab.
I’m on the FDR
in the middle of winter
and the sky is suddenly bluer
than Sundays in June.
There’s no reason for it.
No real science
to what will happen when
I get off at Chambers
and Broadway, wearing
gold and black sneakers
on my way to meet
a friend who is sad.
To my sad friends, hello.
For you I will be
a version of myself
I hardly remember.
I will be a lake
at the top of morning
some late afternoon into night.
And if you look away from
this page, to your right
there’s the world.
I am only trying to describe it.

—Alex Dimitrov, from "Poem Written In A Cab"

4 Detectorists

Loving this show! Season one was a hoot. We've just started on Season two and looks like Season three is out as well. 

5 Johnny Flynn's theme to the show...

...is special as well!

Overtime: When it's over...

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”

– Mary Oliver

(Courtesy of Swissmiss)