Senses working overtime #264

1 Our Jacinda

We've got used to this image - the daily 1.00pm briefings

The NZ covid-19 response in a world context.

2 Must see movies

According to The Atlantic, you gotta see these 30 movies!

3 Poetry Corner

What's New?

My heart leaps, running for the stick
you never threw.

James Richardson (2016)

4 Three paths

Three paths for a soloist - Seth Godin

Consider one of three paths. Which works for you?

1. Honor the noise in your head. Make the work you believe you were born to make. Create things you can visualize but haven’t seen yet. Do it without regard for critics, the market or the math of it all. It’s your handiwork.
2. Embrace your market. Make what it needs. Earn a seat at the table by developing an asset, and leverage it to create real value for those you serve. Price it accordingly.
3. Stay busy. Make slightly better than average work, for less than average pricing.

It’s difficult to see how you can do all three at the same time for the same kind of client. All three choices are valid, any could work for you, but it’s worth choosing.

5 Marga's story

This is a great story of a true survivor: Marga Steinhardt

Overtime: An American hero

This is the terrific real story of Henry Johnson

Senses working overtime #263

1 The fab Fabs

They heighten my senses every day, let alone every week.

2 Poetry Corner

from Journal: April 19 : The Southern Tier

All our farewells al-

ready prepared inside us   .   aaaall our

deaths we carry inside us, double-yolked, the

fragile toughness of the shell   .   it makes

sustenance possible, makes love    possible

as the red buds break against the sunglight

possible green, as legs move against legs

possible softnesses     .     The soft-boiled

egg is ready now  .

                                                       Now we eat.

Paul Blackburn (1971)

3 The Mock Turtle's curriculum

Austin Kleon highlighted this on his blog - worth repeating here.

4 Monty Don feeds the chickens




I watched this with the sound on mute and it was a magical experience.

5 Unsolicited advice in 68 bits

Overtime: This week's sign off comes from Seth Godin

Waiting and worrying

It’s easy for us to choose to worry. The world is upside down, the slog continues, a tragedy unevenly but widely distributed.

Worry takes a lot of effort. And worry, unlike focus, learning or action, accomplishes nothing of value.

And, at the same time, due to the time-horizon of the pandemic, it’s also tempting for us to simply wait. To wait for things to get back to normal. But all the time we’re spending waiting (for a normal that is unlikely to be just like it was) is time we’re not spending learning, leading and connecting.

Waiting is, sort of by definition, a waste of time. But time is scarce, so wasting it is a shameful act.

If we decided to simply reduce our waiting and worrying allocation by 50%, just imagine how much we could discover, how many skills we could learn, how dramatically attitudes could shift.

We can still wait (even though time will pass either way). And we can still worry (even though it doesn’t do any good). But perhaps we can figure out how to do it less.

Senses working overtime #262

1 Lessons on being calm from the stoics

Fear is an initial reaction that is out of our control. But that staying afraid is a choice.

If you're having trouble dealing with things right now - read this!

2 Poetry Corner
Who Else

i tell the same stories
again and again
because who else is going to
and what are the builders making

apart from a racket
the black mould in my room makes it feel
like the wall is learning something

i tell my computer i'm not a robot
when it asks
because who else is going to

i can't believe you thanked me
for sleeping in your bed

if a tree falls in the forest
that's fine

Crispin Best (2019)

3 The real Lord Of The Flies

Still from the movie version of LOTF

Excellent piece from the Guardian.

4 Music is love

Why some people, like me, love music, and others don't.

5 Schitt$ Creek

Moira Rose arrives for her Merlot Carpet appearance

We're really enjoying this show - Season 6 has just hit Netflix NZ and we are bingeing on Moira and the clan. BTW, Moira Rose is the real star turn of this cast: the outrageous wardrobe and wigs; the language; the vocal inflections - brilliant!

Overtime: Pat Metheny
I've had his American Garage album on repeat for a few days now. Here's a taste - the title track (side 2, track one).


Then stick around for this live track:

Senses working overtime #261

1 Al Ain daze

Came across these shots this week from when we were in Al Ain. Some spectacular sunsets in that part of the world. They really impress themselves on the senses.

2 Poetry Corner

Thanks Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water thanking it standing by the windows looking out in our directions back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you over telephones we are saying thank you in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators remembering wars and the police at the door and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks we are saying thank you in the faces of the officials and the rich and of all who will never change we go on saying thank you thank you with the animals dying around us our lost feelings we are saying thank you with the forests falling faster than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you with the words going out like cells of a brain with the cities growing over us we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you we are saying thank you and waving dark though it is W.S. Merwin (1988)

3 Driving down the autobarn in perpetuity

RIP Kraftwerker Florian Schneider

4 On predicting our future - Seth Godin  

Two things:

We do it all the time. Constantly.

We’re terrible at it.

We spend our days guessing how an action will impact the future, and we’re often wrong.

And we spend the rest of our days hoping we were right or worried that we weren’t. We try to control the future by telekinesis and anxiety in equal measure.

When the future doesn’t cooperate, we spend even more time trying to change the next bit of future so that it ends up more closely matching the future we were hoping for.

What if, instead, just for a little while, we simply did our best?

And let the future take care of itself.

Because even if we don’t fret, the future is still going to take care of itself.

All that’s on us is to do our best work. Paying attention to models and the community and the people we serve. 

5 Lene Marlin

I love Lene Marlin's stuff - been listening to Twist The Truth a lot this week.

Overtime: The return of Zuni 



Her version is brilliant - makes me feel great when things aren't going so great. God bless you, Zuni.

Senses working overtime #260

1 Goin' back 1

I love this photo so much - taken while we lived in Cambridge (Alpha St.)  purely for the fact that we are all genuinely smiling at something Nita (the photographer) has said.

2 Goin' back 2
The nostalgia thing is an impulse right now. 

Interesting that my Facebook friends appear to be responding to a challenge (from someone somewhere) to post pictures of themselves as young children. I think The Byrds nail the reason why.

 


3 She has always been ahead of her time

Mask Piece I Make a mask larger than your face. Polish the mask every day. In the morning, wash the mask instead of your face. When somebody wants to kiss you,  let the person kiss the mask instead. Yoko Ono (1961) Mask Piece II Make a mask smaller than your face. Let it drink wine instead of you. Yoko Ono (1962)

4 Zoom fatigue

Wondering why you are so tired from all those online video calls? Here's why.

5 Today’s special

I just noticed something about the ubiquitous sign at every diner.

On one hand, it means, “the special that was assigned to today.” It’s possessive.

But on the other hand, it could simply mean, “today is special.”

Because both are true.

Plan accordingly.

(Seth Godin) 

Overtime: The Warren Ellis sign off-
And that's it from me.  Remember to be kind to yourself this week, because you do actually deserve it and you need to quit arguing with yourself about that.  The days are still passing, you're still moving forward, and the good times are ahead. Hold on tight. Be well.

Senses working overtime #259

1 A Tale Of Two Cities

Like a lot of us I've been working from home (full tilt too as it happens) and I mistakenly thought that would give me an opportunity to read more of A Tale Of Two Cities but that time was swallowed up by urgent and important school stuff. So I'm slowly edging forward - right now on page 241 (of 307 in this edition).

It's grim - Paris in the revolution was no picnic! But I am loving the language and the removal to a traumatic time in the past as an antidote to the traumatic times of the present.

Although, it's ANZAC day in NZ and Australia today - a day to remember another traumatic time in our past. 

Interesting species aren't we?

2 Poetry corner (returns)

Ha, This One's About Insomnia Too My bed is a godless church yet I still pray there every night.  Am I a fool? I can almost hear other worshippers in their far- off corners, the small breath of their hands unclasping. Ariel Francisco (2020)

3 Poetry

Wondering rather than knowing.

4 Austin's zines

I love Austin Kleon's newsletters - always filled with great creativity. I urge you to check out his zines.

5 Sweet Baby James

The music of James Taylor is a great salve for these times. 

Overtime: 

Senses working overtime #258

1 The search for the grail
(or why finding the original 1977 version verges on the impossible)

A lot of the family are binge watching franchise movies (we've just finished the five Bourne movies frinstance). Might be a good opportunity to go back to 1977! I might have a copy of the original on VHS.

2 Being Bill

Love Bill Murray? Everybody does!

3 Famous art museums you can visit...

...from your workspace! Seventeen of them!

4 Brothers

Great piece, pithy and well written, by a younger brother (age 62) about his attempt to reconnect his brotherly bond with his grumpy older brother (64) on a tramping adventure!

Excerpt:

I told Don on the phone that the hike would cement our brotherly bonds and reconnect us to the wilderness where we had spent significant chunks of our young adulthoods. I told him we might find something like peace in alpine meadows and under starry skies. I told him the trip could be life changing, that it would provide us both a much needed reset.

“No thanks,” he said. Don had never been one for big speeches.

“Why not?”

“What’s the point?”

“Fun? Exercise? Living in the moment? Leaving our comfort zones? Getting some clarity and perspective? Rediscovering purpose and connection?” I’m a talker.

“Spare me the inner-life mumbo jumbo,” he said. “You have the luxury of dabbling in that stuff, since you haven’t had a real job in decades.”

5 Seth Godin's message
The boat is really, really big and we’re all in it.

This is a slog, and there will be another side. It is unevenly distributed, it’s a tragedy and it’s a challenge. But we’re in it together and with care and generosity, we can find perspective, possibility and hope.

Overtime: Warren Ellis' sign-off
Don't be like me.  Get some rest, eat properly, sleep when you can, and turn your phone off once in a while. Nothing wrong with shutting the rest of the world off when you need to. I'll keep an eye on it for you while you're gone. Take a breath, go and look at the sky, hold on tight.  You're doing fine.