Head Space Daily Words...

I often find myself writing on the bus journey to The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton. A guaranteed 30 minutes to get something down on paper, which is where this begins...

It has been a slow start to the blog in 2017, as I try to keep up with life as it hits the ground running straight after Christmas. The hunt for work is underway – a game of patience – sitting and waiting and keeping sane by keeping busy. The news has been a daily shell shock as a racist, discriminatory president, verging on the fascist, shakes the world up from The White House and now our own government can’t show enough compassion to allow child refugees into the country. Where has it all gone wrong? If you stayed home and watched the news, you could end up living in terror and sadness but once you get out your front door and see that life is happening, people are people and the big wheel keeps on turning, you can relax a little. Get up and get out, it’s good for the soul.

I am now on a train going from Crofton Park to Farringdon. The Little Simz album, Stillness In Wonderland is on my Spotify. The vinyl has just dropped and will be imminently purchased. Her young voice expresses a great deal through her largely spoken words, broken vocals and the music steps across boundaries. I like it very much. As the train rolls through Denmark Hill, Loughborough Junction and pauses at Elephant And Castle, it dawns on me, looking out the window, just how important graffiti is to an urban landscape. It brings colour, form, identity, humour, passion, spirit, belonging, creativity. The drab grey walls running alongside the tracks are brought to life. How dull the landscape would be without graffiti. It is art. Graf people, keep on spraying!!

As Little Simz signs off singing, “I don’t want to be in this Wonderland no more,” the train pulls away. Cranes reach for the sky and the London Eye peeks over concrete office blocks, weighed down by the February drizzle. The words End Hate are scrawled on a breezeblock at the top of a soon to be demolished building. As we pull into BlackFriars, I wonder how many people will see this fine sentiment before it is bulldozed into oblivion. A red double decker bus drives over Waterloo Bridge in the distance and the greyness still hangs heavy over London Town.

This morning, another day, freezing cold. The dank greyness lingers on, floating on the other side of the overpass, as I stand on the train platform, waiting for my carriage to arrive, it’s guiding light now visible through the mist. The train pulls in. People take their seats, hoods and hats pulled down and taken off, phones removed from pockets. My eight fellow passengers seated within my compartment start to tap on devices. I, on the other hand am writing these words, pen on paper, like it is a dying art, as if I should be using a feather quill and inkpot and scribing upon parchment. The woman on my left takes out her phone and starts a crossword. At least she is not playing candy crush like the young woman to my right. I hate that game. A brain drain, devised to keep peoples heads down, disengaged and uncommunicative.

Got to get up, got to get out. Today I’m off to the David Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain. Keep on moving as Jazzie B once sang. My Tate Membership is the best thing and essential for a freelancer in a creative job. You have to see interesting work to spark your mind, keep you thinking, keep you sharp, ensure the cogs keep on turning. At this time of year when the greyness is all consuming, it is vital to keep your brain above 50% on the positivity scale. Don’t let it slip below 50, do whatever it takes to keep it above 50%, like a mental version of the film Speed. Movies have been seen – Manchester By The Sea, La La Land and Jackie – football matches have been witnessed, Villa v Preston and game of the season as Dulwich Hamlet beat Braintree 5-2 in an FA Trophy replay. Live musical therapy will also be upcoming in the form of Miles Mosley at Jazz Cafe, Nerija at Oval Space and possibly Thundercat at Heaven. There have to be little bumps in life’s graph to look forward to. Little Simz will be spinning on my turntable in the next few weeks. The XX album sounds good on Spotify and Sampha’s new album Process is another to get to grips with. What a beautiful voice he has. He sounded fantastic on the SBTRKT album, it’s a shame that the beats drowned him out live.

The Hockney exhibition was good. You have to admire someone who has achieved 60 years of consistent artistic work. It is always impressive to see the art up close and personal and to see how the work has evolved and developed over time. The final room brought us up to date with modern technology and work that Hockney has made using i-pads in particular and also an i-phone, which kind of brings us full circle. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of dulling their brains with Candy Crush, people started making art on their phones!! Perhaps they could even transfer it to the grey rail side walls to brighten up all of our lives.