Greed became an acceptable thing in the 80s.

Financial greed has become one of the fundamental issues at the heart of so many global problems.

The financial crisis and the housing market, the technological revolution, the climate crisis…all of the complacency and unwillingness to follow through on promises that the world needs can be stemmed to short sighted greed.

The world’s richest CEO’s pursuit vanity projects in outer space whilst the Earth itself suffers from a cancer of the atmosphere, more commonly known as climate change.

As each year goes by, there is a tangible sense of anger and resentment, especially when young smart people are working their asses off to get an education, get ahead, keep their LinkedIn profile up to date only to end up in tens of thousands of debt and still even then struggle to attain a job with dignity that can cover the bills.

‘Parasite’ touched upon the issue with one of its opening lines of dialogue, 500 graduates in Korea applying for a single security job.

People do not need to be billionaires. To argue otherwise isn’t based on meritocracy but entitlement. I’ve no problem with people doing well for themselves and becoming rich but there’s a threshold when those who are already rich start pursuing even more wealth for no more than the hedonic treadmill of status or Forbes lists…that’s where the line has to be drawn.

Check out these stats on Oxfam. https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-shocking-facts-about-extreme-global-inequality-and-how-even-it

It’s totally unacceptable and some people are waking up to this…but not enough!

It’s time to stop idolising egoistic billionaires and call them out for the greed ridden lunatics they are. And for those going down the legitimacy rabbit hole and gross oversimplification of calling this line of thought communism, it’s not! It’s the necessary cause of action required to make things fairer, eradicate poverty, improve lives across the globe and save the planet. Hyper-capitalism is literally killing the planet.

Tax the rich.

I read a brilliant article today from the Guardian about how our attention has been stolen from us. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/attention-span-focus-screens-apps-smartphones-social-media

There’s also a brilliant podcast by Seth Godin on our use of time. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/akimbo-a-podcast-from-seth-godin/id1345042626?i=1000539150843

My phone tells me how much screen time I use and when that information is revealed to me, I only realise then whether I’ve spent too much time online or on the phone.

The pandemic has also altered my state of mind when it comes to use of time and quality of attention over time. Especially when I consider how to make the best of my time when I work from home.

And one of my favourite quotes about time is from Proust.

‘The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains.’

Time moves slower when we are aware of time. What habits do we have in place? Are they predominantly good ones or bad ones?

No doubt, we have to fill time in leisure and mere habits but the days I spend pursuing passions are more fulfilling.

Some of the passions I have are as follows:

Playing guitar, composing, producing, mixing, arranging, editing, teaching, listening to and learning music.

Collaborating with and inspiring others to get the best out of each other. Engaging in interesting and open discussions.

Running, cycling, swimming and beating personal records, setting and achieving new goals.

Cooking vegetarian food from scratch. Learning new recipes and trying different things.

Reading books, both fictional and non fictional. listening to podcasts that inform, educate and inspire me.

Supporting Liverpool and watching sports, namely football and F1 and getting into the political or tactical details.

Long walks with friends. Time spent with family and friends.

Writing on my website.

Each day is an opportunity to fill up time with your passions. Sometimes passions find you but I find that it’s more likely that you garner a passion when you work for it.

Ultimately, may each day be filled with time and attention spent on that which is worthwhile. There’s significantly more than a lifetime’s worth of worthwhile out there.

New Year’s Eve is an odd event. It’s a party, it’s a hootananny, it’s hype and anticipation and fireworks and it can be a drunken blur or a suitably peaceful anti-climax.

New Year’s Day is lazy and I like it! There’s a holiday sense to it and it’s usually a peaceful day and that is what it was for me.

And inevitably, there is some sense of reflection involved. The culture drives it when it comes to food and activity for instance. Cue the noon diets and gym memberships in response to the overindulgence of Christmas.

It’s all a bit of an illusion. It’s easy to lose sense of time through the holiday period and the significance of Christmas and New Year’s Day disorientate us. Before long, the weeks of January kick in, work kicks in and we are back into routines.

When it comes to mapping out time, seasons lend themselves to certain things as do holiday periods, but to engage in short, medium or long term possibilities can happen at any time and possibility is available to us all. I like to think we can control those things to some extent as opposed to time dictating it for us. Small choices and steps are available to us now to make things better.

For me personally, 2021 was one of the most creatively diverse years of my life. I made a vast amount of music and collaborated with so many brilliant people and now as we enter 2022, I look forward to sharing my work with you.

I wish everyone peace of mind, success and happiness as we enter the New Year.

Drop Everything and Read

It’s an initiative in schools to encourage more reading. Especially in response to falling literacy standards.

Should the same initiative be applied to adults too?

I have no doubt that increased forms of media consumption including of course social as taken up time and attention, arguably away from reading and that is a real shame.

And I truly know that when I commit to a book, especially a good one, the rewards are astronomical and far outweigh any time spent scrolling news feeds.

Books have shaped my views on the world profoundly. I wouldn’t have taken the risks and career decisions going forward were it not for books like the Art of Possibility by Ben and Roz Zander or Linchpin by Seth Godin. I wouldn’t have the same sense of compassion were it not for Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy or Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I wouldn’t have the imagination I do were it not for Lord of the Rings or the pleasure of details in everyday life were it not for Proust.

Having taken time off, I’ve kicked started my reading again and from here on I will aim to do at least twenty minutes of reading a day.

Funnily enough the more I read, the more I want to read and the less time I want to spend online.

The profound rewards of reading are one of life’s great joys and despite the new landscapes that technology has provided, it’s worth reminding ourselves of that every once in a while.

Christmas is a strange holiday to me.

It is a wonderfully baffling cornucopia of festive traditions, all of which is initially inspired by the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated by billions of people, both religious and secular.

Added to that is all the festive traditions that take place from fairly lights to Christmas trees to exchanging presents. Honestly, it’s all there in my head as fixed traditions but part of me wants to dig deeper and understand where it all exactly came from.

The colourful lighting of Christmas comes at an apt time of the year. Especially in the Northern Hemisphere where days are shorter. The festivity works as a wonderful tonic for the darker days and I love participating in the collective traditions that bring together family and friends in eating too much, drinking too much and participating in intense, high stakes board games.

Whilst Christmas amplifies a sense of togetherness and generosity, it also can amplify pain and loss and especially during Covid, I approach Christmas with an appreciativeness of family and comfort but also a dose of compassion.

I also reflect on the year that has past and whilst I perhaps hesitate to categorise the time too much, it is a good way to look back on what has been achieved and what one may set out to do next.

To everyone who has read and listened to my work this last year, I extend to you my gratitude and may Christmas be everything you need it to be this year, merry, happy, peaceful and/or anything else for that matter.

Season’s Greetings.

I was fortunate enough to be called up for my booster jab on Saturday morning.

The following night, I had shivers, got to bed, kept as warm as I could and drank about 2 litres through the night.

I’ve also been wiped out for four days, barely left the house but for some short walks, accompanied by books, music, the Witcher and Jon Ronson’s things fell apart radio series.

I had two Pfizer shots in the summer and the booster was the moderna. I am surprised at how much I’ve felt it but that’s because my body is responding and building up immunity to the vaccine. Reports have come out that this combination of doses is really effective against Omicron.

It’s a blessing in disguise in some ways as resting is what I’ve probably needed to do following a busy few months. I’m nearly back at full strength and positive that I’ll feel refreshed.

It’s not pleasant but side affects from the vaccine shouldn’t discourage one from taking it.

There are a few rough weeks ahead as we enter winter and over 100,000 cases were reported in the U.K. today.

Wishing everyone health and peace of mind going forward and my sympathies to everyone who has had their festive plans disrupted.

Everyone has an opinion.

And many who think they know better, don’t.

And many who claim to be an expert, aren’t.

And social media amplifies all of this and puts it out there as a stark reality of the world we live in where anyone behind the veil of a device can write what they like. It’s not a new problem and has been going on a while now.

It’s always easier to be a critic than a creator. It’s always easier to sit back and judge those who do and most of the time, these people who do write in this kind of way are clearly expressing some form of hurt or fear they are feeling in themselves.

That’s not to excuse the abuse Latifi received for his DNF or that football players get for mistakes. The fact that these people can receive death threats is well beyond the pale and as usual more needs to be done to quash this kind of behaviour.

But for those participating in this kind of behaviour for now. A simple alternative would be to go for a walk, get some air and return to the state of being able to have a perspective on things. Such as sports really being a wonderful irrelevance.

By all means have your opinion, but if one directs it in a purposefully harmful way, that’s not acceptable and does no one anyone any good, least of all oneself.

Better to not contribute to the noise until you have something constructive or insightful to say.

Spoiler alert.

There was an expressed desire that the race would be won on the track.

So what we got was a safety car, a decision that cars would not be able to unlap themselves and then some cars could in the last minute, an 11 second advantage essentially wiped out by a crash, and replaced by another advantage in the form of fresh soft tyres against old hard tyres for a one lap show down.

Verstappen wins the championship and Hamilton loses out through no fault of his own and Mercedes protest twice, get rejected and are now appealing.

This is really messy and the victory for Verstappen is unfortunately, rather hollow.

Hamilton and Verstappen both drove and battled amazingly throughout the season. Red bull had the better car at the start but from the half way point, Mercedes tweaked some things, managed to find their A game and clawed their way back.

And as great a driver as Verstappen is, I was less than impressed with his aggressive tactics and standards. It’s the inner bastard that this kind of sport manifests in you and he won’t back out and is always in it for himself.

Hamilton’s experience and approach was much more dignified. He changed tact to avoid collisions and always puts the collective effort first above himself, hence why he always talks about the crowds or the teams first before himself. How he handled the loss with such dignity and grace is to be hugely admired.

But Hamilton didn’t deserve to have his 8th world title clinched away in such fashion by an FIA call that was at best, inconsistent and arbitrary.

For Masi to change his mind last minute puts a real dent in his credibility. Such a discussion with the safety car meant that he ended up dictating the winner. After all the work Hamilton and Mercedes did, there were no good options, including changing tyres due to losing track position.

So the lap cars could unlap themselves to let the battle take place for 1st but what about podium positions and Sainz? Did those positions not count for that kind of consideration in the last lap showdown?

And it makes you wonder how manipulated this situation was. It provided a last minute spectacle but that was that the expense of rules being consistently applied in the sport?

This needs to be questioned going forward.

And I don’t like the stewards constantly being badgered by team principals. Horner will especially use every trick in the book and to him, it’s NEVER his drivers’ fault. The Red flag situation at Saudi Arabia when Verstappen almost caused a collision at the second restart sounded like a negotiation as opposed to an enforced rule. The authority of Masi was always challenged and at times, it appeared he cracked under the pressure.

So many people feel that a world championship battle tonight and even the sport as a whole was tarnished by an arbitrary decision this evening, and they are right!

And whilst Hamilton may not be victorious for this year, he’s still a 7 time champion and captures the essence of a sportsman who is dignified, has an amazing attitude and stands up for justice and causes he believes in.

And it’s not new news that the deserving are victorious in F1, but that’s also the case for many other aspects in life.

Despite that, Hamilton’s maxim is the most fitting response.

‘Still we rise’.

My favourite records of the year are always usually incomparable to anything else.

Arroj Aftab’s Vulture Prince is an incredibly beautiful record and my favourite of the year. It is gorgeously performed, arranged, I love the use of harp and it sounds unlike anything else I have heard this year.

The culture of music and other art forms for that matter often presents an issue where gatekeepers and curators require the status quo, music that is generic and averse to risk, but every time, the truly outstanding work often comes from the outsiders.

There is something to be said for the solipsistic nature that artists sometimes pursue their work and there is much to be admired from this process. To only zone in that which is what you truly want to do for your own vision oddly often manifests in itself the best results, because you are pushing your ideas forward in a way that is pure and uninhibited. It is also courageous and brave.

I love the later Talk Talk records and it’s so obvious that Mark Hollis had a total disregard for audience and just stuck to his vision. Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock were commercial failures at the time but the legacy of the former record is especially enormous.

Sure, things need to be tailor made to an audience sometimes and as a result you need to quash some sense of authenticity in that situation, but my taste steers toward the roads less taken or formed entirely anew. There are opportunities aplenty with the resources and technology we now have and instead of playing it safe and the same as everything else, I welcome those who take risks because, in the long term, risk is what rewards you in the quality of being unique.

What kind of conversation is this?

I’ve come across the odd punter now and then who has a conceived notion in their minds of what real music is, as if you can incontrovertibly distinguish one type of music from another.

What does real music even mean?

Not much in short, and to summarise music, it is a combination of frequencies and silence, either prepared, captured, controlled or even just observed. Beyond that, anything goes.

And to often, we are so eager to categorise things that we end up creating a tunnel vision of what we accept as real or not and in some ways missing out on the opportunity to engage with different versions of an art form. In many ways, we compromise so much and as a result, the things that dominate become watered down mediocrity.

I’ve had some people argue the toss with me that instrumental music isn’t as worthwhile as lyrical music.

How about dismissing the entire history of classical music or film music or jazz records with one notion?

Real music is a non-concept and merely a sign of dogma when it comes to taste. And if you find yourself making this argument, it might be you who is missing out on what’s available to be experienced.

And music like life itself, is experienced better without any prejudice.