Regular readers of my blog over the last few years will know that I love the music of David Sylvian and have been a big fan since the early days of Japan back in the 70s. His solo career has been an eclectic and diverse mix of albums with a stunning array of musicians from … Read more
A lot of posts to this blog are about music at the moment. There’s a lot of stunning music around to listen to. Here’s a Friday playlist: 1. Porcupine Tree – The Incident Already reviewed this. It’s their best album to date. The range of music and variety from intense to melodic. 2. David Sylvian … Read more
Just a couple of listens so far, but the new album by Porcupine Tree is a wonderful thing to behold (whose line is that?) It’s a two disc collection – the first disc comprising an extended piece of 55 minutes. In the form of a suite of 14 songs, the music and lyrics are the reflections … Read more
I mentioned in an earlier post that I stumbled across the work of Harriet Martineau again recently. Another book which I remember being fascinated by when I was a student was ‘For want of the golden city’ by Sacheverell Sitwell. I had developed an interest in the Bloomsbury set along with friends of mine at the … Read more
The latest collection of poetry is nearly completed. I am in the middle of the final poem which is an extended piece called ‘seventy nine to eighty two’. Here’s a verse from it: Watching bands at Eric’s – seeing Simple Minds Keyboard player with his head between the beams Music bouncing off walls, everyone saying … Read more
I am in the middle of writing an extended poem (100+ lines) at the moment, which will be the final piece in my latest book of poems. It is about my experiences of Liverpool in the late 70s and early 80s. As I write it, many memories are being evoked. The motivation behind the writing … Read more
I’m at St Deiniols Library writing this. For years I have dreamed of a secluded place to hide away and write. A few years ago I spent a weekend at the Manjushri Buddhist Centre in Cumbria – but that is a significant distance from where I live. St Deiniols is the only Residential Library I know … Read more
The brain works best when it has a pattern to recognise. When we are young this is how we multiply the capacity to learn. Rather than seeing everything as fresh and having to decode it, we search through our neurone connections for something that resembles what we are seeing. So, when we see a dog, … Read more
The key to great biography work as part of a process of self-development is to ask great questions. A few years ago I met Rennie Fritchie who shared with me the ideas she had about Biography Work. She published on this. I tried the exercise which focused on 9 key questions – and the results … Read more
There are two principles which have helped me to increase my productivity recently. They occurred to me during a coaching session. The inbox isn’t our work For those of us who spend a lot of time working with email it is easy to become caught up in the illusion that the inbox is the workplace. … Read more