You Gotta Know Yourself, Yeah?

It’s strange what can end up motivating you. I was always aware of a bloody-minded streak lying dormant in a neglected corner of my personality – one throwaway, somewhat patronising comment from an old friend on the dreaded FB about my communication style sent me right off on a ‘Right, I’ll show you’ tangent and I ended up turning a blog that essentially is an arena for me to try new ideas out and share stuff that I get enthusiastic about into a weekly What’s Hot list containing a load of stuff I thought I should include in a wannabe Pitchfork attempt (only with links hat work the UK… sorry, couldn’t resist) rather than just stuff I’ve loved/found interesting and want to sing the praises of. After formatting the goddamn embed codes for a bunch of trailers that I don’t particular want to see (beyond dullsville) and cramming in as much information as I could  – I decided streamlining is the way forward.  SO on Friday y’all get a link ‘cloud’ of stuff I’ve loved and my beloved Spotify Disco Al Desko, I’ll leave the trailer reviews to the experts/marketing machines.

What is the lesson to be learnt from this whole thing? Trust your own instincts, woop about stuff that actually makes you want to woop and ignore  patronising types and haters perhaps…

 

P.S

LOVE this : Caribou – Swim

Expect to see a lot of this lady, she’s awesome : Sky Ferreira – 17

 And this one: MNDR – C.L.U.B 

 

Sorry, couldn’t help myself .

You Are What You Read…

…And Watch, And Listen To.

 

January by tradition is the month for re-birth. De-toxing, re-inventing oneself, making promises to be different and do things differently going forward – attempting to make up for the inevitable excesses of the previous month. Doomed exercise regimes are undertaken, diets composed, juicers and exercise dvds are purchased (guilty on the last one) for this period of reinvention as the New Year’s Resolutions lists are made. At this point adverts and articles often throw round variations on the phrase ‘you are what you eat’, most likely in order to promote a health product of some sort. Of course it’s true, it makes total sense that what you put into your body is going to affect you but what about everything you surround yourself with, doesn’t that affect things too?

Now I’m not suggesting that watching Enders is going to turn you into a fake Cockney, or being glued to Celebrity Big Brother is going to result in you reciting every move you make with a dubious Geordie narration but I do think it must have an effect on our brains and energy levels watching constant cr*p, along with reading it and listening to it. Bathing in the shallow end can be delicious but not if you never venture out of it and you become incapable of constructing a sentence anymore because you've fried all your braincells. It just occurred to me that while I adore pop culture, the volume on my quality control needs to be turned up. My vocabulary is not great, my spelling & grammar has definitely deteriorated, my knowledge of current affairs is alright but not amazing and as for the hot air I constantly flick in and out of on Twitter and Facebook for – surely it’s killing brain cells?

The solution? Well like any diet – I figure the solution is balance and moderation. I reckon I cut down on social networking dramatically like you’d cut out the carbs, instead of fruit & veg – I get my nose in some quality fiction and watching the odd arthouse movie that isn’t drenched in product placement and if I must watch Enders and Ugly Betty, then I have to watch Question Time and the odd natural history documentary now and again. With a bit of luck, it'll last longer than the average crash diet but no promises…

These Things I Have Learned This Year Pt 2

Listening to the inner critical voice way too much is unfortunately a demon I'll be cursed with for life, albeit one I seem to beat more and more into submission as the months go on. At the beginning of this year I was pretty convinced I was an asshole that didn't deserve anything particularly good to happen to me. What was the basis for this belief? Well, I admit somewhat sheepishly, there wasn't one, I just had, for varying reasons, zero self-confidence or belief.  It's startlingly common and it happens quite easily – I'm quite interested in helping other people avoid feeling like that, how I do that remains undefined for now.

 

An echo of this belief that one is an asshole of the highest order is looking for love in the wrong places, albeit subconsciously. My heart may have been starved into submission but it still needed nourishment. Weirdly I managed to find comfort and ultimately healing in the most abstract of friendships. I wasn't ready for love, after keeping my malnourished, sickly heart locked away for years, it could only take a very subtle, gentle reassurance. As I felt accepted and appreciated as I was by my new friend, randomness and all, my heart started to get healthier even if things weren't as I'd originally anticipated.. And here we are now, with a whole new fresh year ahead of us. 2009 has been a year of healing ultimately and with it's lessons, it's sweet friendships alongside the crashing lows, I have only one resolution for the year ahead – to be brave.