Senses working overtime #495

1 Fund raiser for men;s mental health: Movember

Photo by Disney . on Unsplash

First week of the Movember fund raiser for men's mental health is ahead. You can support me and this cause during Movember, via this link.

2 Reading: The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday

3 Reading: The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

4 Listening: WTWMC - Beasties

We've now completed this playlist - 105 awesome songs. Do try it.

5 Listening: Jan & Dean - Drag City

Try Surfin' Hearse for a laugh.

Overtime: Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell - Bob Dylan

While reading The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan cites the 'Hurricane' Carter story superbly (Carter was falsely imprisoned, but retained his dignity and power of choice while in prison for 19 years) and Dylan's perfect phrase came to mind.

Senses working overtime #477

1 Theme of the week: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more - Bob Dylan.

More about the song here.

2 Listening: Wonderful Life - Black

A great video to this one too. Always worth watching.

3 Reading: George Orwell - Selected Essays

4 Watching: The Yellow Birds (on Netflix)

I really loved this film. Would hold up to repeat viewings too.

5 Listening: WTWMC True Colours

Yes this is still going strong - we had a brief hiatus while Greg and his wife were overseas. But the boys are back!

Latest colour was Purple and its offshoots.

Watch in real time as offshoots of Green is up for exploration this week.

Overtime: 

"One of life's counterintuitive lessons is that you will often gain energy by spending a little bit of energy.

When you feel lethargic and like you want to lay around all day, it is usually the case that getting up and moving will make you feel better than simply sitting around. Getting outside for 10 minutes or doing the first set of a workout or simply stretching on the floor for a moment — anything to get your body moving — will often leave you feeling more energized.

If you want to get your day going, then get your body going. It's harder for the mind to be sluggish when the body is moving."

James Clear

Senses working over #463

1 The feeling this looooong week

Photo by Impresso Studios on Unsplash

2 Reading: Bleak House

Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.

3 Listening: Bob Dylan's Infidels

Jokerman retains all of its glories in 2024.

4 Watching: The Gentlemen

From Guy Ritchie on Netflix. He's toned down his OTT tendencies in this action/comedy series and gone for strong writing/characters instead and it works.

5 Austin Kleon

Overtime:  

Some people get addicted to chain-smoking their problems. They spend all day going from sorrow to sorrow. It doesn't have to be that way. You can live each day going from joy to joy—like a sunflower that turns to face the sun as it moves across the sky. It's not about having a problem-free life, but about focusing on the light. Sunflowers still have shadows, but they are always behind them.

James Clear

Senses working overtime #462

1 Feeling this week on the daily grind

2 Watching: Brené Brown TED talk on vulnerability.

3 Listening: Bob Dylan/ The Band - Before The Flood

A great double live album. If I had to choose one track from each, I'd go for Ballad Of A Thin Man and Up On Cripple Creek.

4 Watching: Damsel

We enjoyed this 2024 release on Netflix. Some genuinely exciting sequences and a good script/acting combo (Robin Wright is great as the wicked Queen in a reverse of her Princess Bride role from all those years ago). 

Worthy of your time!

5 Listening: WTWMC True Colours

Greg, Kev and I have covered songs with pink in the title, and last week it was orange. This week - green.

Overtime: Seth Godin

Holding on for dear life

That’s a cliche from the movies. Dangling from a railroad bridge, only determination and firm grip can save the hero.

In our modern world, we often end up holding on to ideas, to grievances or to our view of the world.

Ironically, the harder we hold on to the things we’re hiding from, the less dear our life becomes.

Perhaps we could let go for dear life instead.

Senses working overtime #437

1 The feeling this week

2 Listening: Tim Finn - Say It Is So

3 Watching: Tim Finn live at The Civic 23 Sept. 2023

4 Reading: Bob Dylan - The Philosophy of Modern Song

5 Listening: Bob Dylan's The Philosophy of Modern Song

Overtime: 

Carnival Worker a meteor moves toward earth but commerce only speeds up! Rachel Rabbit White (2019)

Senses working overtime #390

1 Why we enjoy a good scare (well, not all of us - Jacky Purdy hates getting scared)

2 Giles Martin talking about Revolver

3 How brands get those crazy names

4A Why Liz Truss only lasted six weeks and 

4B Here's what to know about Rishi Sunak

5 The best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix

Overtime: Bob Dylan on life

Boy, I hurried… I hurried for a long time. I’m sorry I did. All the time you’re hurrying, you’re not really as aware as you should be. You’re trying to make things happen instead of just letting it happen. You follow me?
 

Senses working overtime #319

1 Supporting England

2 The benefits of coffee

3 I'm so tired

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

Sleep is important.

4 June Sunset - Sarojini Naidu

Here shall my heart find its haven of calm,
By rush-fringed rivers and rain-fed streams
That glimmer thro' meadows of lily and palm.
Here shall my soul find its true repose
Under a sunset sky of dreams
Diaphanous, amber and rose.
The air is aglow with the glint and whirl
Of swift wild wings in their homeward flight,
Sapphire, emerald, topaz, and pearl.
Afloat in the evening light.

A brown quail cries from the tamarisk bushes,
A bulbul calls from the cassia-plume,
And thro' the wet earth the gentian pushes
Her spikes of silvery bloom.
Where'er the foot of the bright shower passes
Fragrant and fresh delights unfold;
The wild fawns feed on the scented grasses,
Wild bees on the cactus-gold.

An ox-cart stumbles upon the rocks,
And a wistful music pursues the breeze
From a shepherd's pipe as he gathers his flocks
Under the pipal-trees.
And a young Banjara driving her cattle
Lifts up her voice as she glitters by
In an ancient ballad of love and battle
Set to the beat of a mystic tune,
And the faint stars gleam in the eastern sky
To herald a rising moon.

5 Two-Gun Kid

This pin-up is crazy good!

Overtime: The Water Is Wide - Dylan and Baez

Sublime. I listened to this version from The Rolling Thunder Revue tour three times on repeat each day this week!

It doesn't need any visuals - it does it all.

Senses working overtime #316

1 Thomas Drambo's trolls

A friend's blog alerted me to these great troll sculptures, built in a variety of countries. Thanks Annette.

2 TV Friends and real adult friendships

3 The famous pick their fav Dylan song 

His Bobness has had his 80th birthday doncha know.

4 Tour of the moon

This is mesmerising!

5 How to overcome fear

Overtime: Downhill serenity

Senses working overtime #307

1 The first week of autumn

Teigan Rodger on Unsplash

Mixed bag this week as I was sick and off work for two days, spent one day at school. one day at our Regional Athletics meet, and one day inducting a new Principal in Palmerston North.

Through it all, I read a lot, watched and rewatched some Juliette Binoche movies (when sick), bought a 14 CD set of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour of 1975, and struggled to keep up with my emails! 

All this and it was the start of my favourite season!

Here then is my week:

2 The Paris Architect

I struggled a bit to finish this off - too many implausibilities and I didn't ever warm to the main character.

3 A Spool Of Blue Thread

I love Anne Tyler novels - this is another great example. Three quarters through this one.

4 Not On Top

Listened to this a couple of times - an album by Herman Dune (a band). It's the latest album featured in the MNAC (Monday Night Album Club). It's growing on me.

5 The Rolling Thunder Revue 14 disc set

Overtime: Non-Fiction

Senses working overtime #299

1 Writing

Intriguing verbal, visual and written communication seems to be a thread this week.

Crossing The Rubicon (from Bob Dylan's latest album) was my go to track this week.

2 The Great Gatsby

Redesigning the cover

3 PBS's 1,000 hours of interviews

Some real gems amongst this - Bowie, Patti Smith...

4 A newsletter on newsletters

5 The craziness of panes of glass

Seth Godin makes a great point!

Overtime: Cult Movies.

Here are 50 of them!