Running your own race

Robin's Blog: Blog Archive: "Robin, the most important thing in life is to run your own race." Never forgotten that one. Run your own race. Don't worry about what others are doing. Stick to your values and cling to your dreams.

This is a quote from the latest post on Robin Sharma's weblog. It is a really thought-provoking idea. I remember being really hopeless at sport at school - and I think that was because it was always someone else's race I was a part of, so I was always going to fail. It took a while into adulthood to realise that the way to progress was to compete with myself - to run my own race. Another way of looking at this is to see it as a process of continuing self-improvement.

one big race

you’re at that age when
everything’s moving faster,
but you can’t play god.

Sid Smith's Postcards From The Yellow Room: Climate Of Hunter by Scott Walker

Sid Smith's Postcards From The Yellow Room: Climate Of Hunter by Scott Walker

The latest post on Sid Smith's marvellous blog is a review of Scott Walker's album 'Climate of Hunter'. When Sid likes something he has a way of writing about it which draws you into it, and makes you want to go out and buy it. Sid's book about King Crimson ('In the Court of King Crimson') achieves this with each of the albums over the band's 40 year history. It's a great read.

I wrote about the Scott Walker 5-CD set 'In Five Easy Pieces' ages ago, and also posted a link to an informative site about him. Thanks to Sid's review, I'll be diving back into that 5-CD set - as soon as I have finished listening to Robert Fripp's latest album 'Love Cannot Bear' which has been played at least once a day since I bought it just over a week ago. I know I referred to it on the last post, but it deserves another mention. Beautiful and serene soundscapes that touch something deep into the soul and leave the listener breathless. And there's even a track where Fripp 'sings' a poem - well, he does it through a heavily treated piece of electronics. It is very moving and unsettling in the way that Laurie Anderson can be.

Oh, and it's a great CD to play whilst working too!

Happy New Year ... at last

Happy New Year … at last


In spite of all the promises I stayed away from the computer for the whole of the festive season. There are times when it is important to have a break from the gadgets!

Three things preoccupied me over the festive season:

Music – I listened to a fantastic range of music. I now have two albums by Doves which are regularly on my CD player, especially in the car. The latest album ‘Some Cities’ is great, but I am also enjoying listening to ‘The Last Broadcast’ which is heavily influenced by King Crimson.

But the album which has really gripped me over the last couple of days is the latest album by Robert Fripp. Called ‘Love Cannot Bear: Soundscapes – Live in the USA’ it has taken me a few weeks to get hold of this one. I was pleasantly surprise to find that it was on sale in a local record shop (I thought it was internet sale only!). I love Fripp’s soundscape albums. My favourite is ‘A Blessing of Tears’ which I often play when I want a deeper level of concentration for some prolonged writing. This new album is stunningly serene. It draws out elongated emotional expressions, almost symphonic in its deliberations. If you have the chance to get hold of this CD, do so. If you want to hear some extracts you can go to Fripp’s latest site here.

Books – I’m in the middle of reading Robin Sharma’s ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari’. It is a really good read – lots of self development ideas. I recognise a few of them from writers like Tony Robbins, but the book has a real inspirational air to it. I like the Dan Millman style of story telling which is used. I recently subscribed to the Sharma podcast which is well worth a listen too.

Reiki – I am consolidating Reiki 2 and have begun to think about doing Reiki Masters. I will make decisions about this in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I am working with the energy and working through a few issues towards the right place to decide. If anyone finds their way to this writing through serendipity and has a useful comment or advice feel free to post something. I welcome your views as I move to the next stage in a spiritual journey.

All the great bands

There are so many bands around at the moment who are making great music. It feels like being a teenager all over again. The influences are straight from that time for me – Joy Division, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Patti Smith, Talking Heads.

I have been really impressed with albums by Doves (‘Some Cities’ and ‘The Last Broadcast’), The Editors (‘The Back Room’), The Open (‘The Silent Hours’) and Kasabian (‘Kasabian’) and The Arcade Fire (‘Funeral’). There is nothing pretentious about this music – just great guitar band music. I saw The Editors recently playing support to Franz Ferdinand, and thought they were really good. This music restores faith in the direction of music again.

Looking back over the last few decades, music seems to go through cycles. Just as we are enjoying music like the current scene, it won’t be long before the focus shifts to dance-oriented and manufactured music again. So we might as well enjoy it whilst it is here.

What's he building in there?

What’s he building in there?

Apologies for the prolonged break in transmission. There is an immutable law in this process which says that the longer you leave it before posting, the harder it is to get back to. This is because the expectation I place on myself that the return post should be fantastic increases the pressure. So the gap grows and the expectation rises.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to just get on with it. So here I am. What have I been building? Well, I have been putting a lot of time and effort into the world of work, the world of music, and the world of Buddhism and Reiki. Although the last pair in that list would benefit from a lot more focus than I have given of late.

I have been writing up entries in the other journal I keep – the one with a rubber band round it, which I carry most places with me, and which I keep private thoughts in. This is where I play and test out ideas. Some of them find their way onto this blog. Some don’t.

Well, the posting resumes – I am a few days away from a break, and with it will come an increase in posts to the blog…

The title of this post – “What’s he building in there?” – follow the link for the song it comes from.

Sounds that need time

Here are some CDs that have appeared in my collection over recent months and are just shouting out for more time to listen. I have so much wonderful music at my fingertips that sounds better the more it is played:

1. Iarla O’Lionaird – Invisible Fields


2. Nine Horses – Snow Borne Sorrow


3. Kate Bush – Aerial


4. Jon Hassell – Maarifa Street


5. Brian Eno – Another Day on Earth


6. Afro Celt Sound System – Anatomic


7. Jackson Browne – Solo Acoustic Vol. 1


8. Nitin Sawhney – Prophesy


9. Nitin Sawhney – Human


10. Keith Jarrett – Radiance


11. Charles Lloyd & Billy Higgins – Which way is East


12. Charles Lloyd – Lift Every Voice

… and in most cases – the better for listening through headphones.

but she's a girl... Kate Bush - Aerial

I was going to post a review of the new Kate Bush album. 'Aerial' is her first album since 1993, and I approached the first listen with a little trepidation. When expectations are so high it is easy to be disappointed. The album is a slow grower - and I like it that way. The albums that stay in my playlist the longest are the ones that take a time to get under my skin.

Well, I won't post a full review, because I read a brilliant review last night. The "but she's a girl" blog has a really good post about the album which says exactly what I would have wanted to say. So why repeat, when you can link!

Sonic Turtle -- Adham Shaikh

Sonic Turtle -- Adham Shaikh

I am a regular reader of the 'nervenet' mailing list, which is a list for comment on Brian Eno's music and all things related.

Over the last couple of days there has been reference to the work of Adham Shaikh. I had never heard of him, so followed the link to the Sonic Turtle website. There are a handful of mp3 files to download there. His music is stunning - a mix of ambient, world beat and electronica. I am very impressed. Time to go hunting for albums by him I think.

County Kerry - Glenbeigh

Back from a few days away in Ireland. Visiting friends, and marvelling at the constant rain! We spent a few days in Kerry, in a small village called Glenbeigh which is beautiful. We had all day views of the Dingle Peninsula, which changed by the minute with the change of light.

Plans to go whale and dolphin watching were cancelled due to bad weather, but that didn't take away from the experience.

I'll post some photos over the coming days - if any of them were worth looking at.

Monetisation versus Open Source

There is an interesting tension building on the internet between the whole principle that anyone who blogs or podcasts might want to get to the situation where they can monetise what they do (an Americanism for "Make Money out of!") – and the concept that the web is the means by which to provide vast amounts of content in an Open Source way.

For an example of the monetisation concept, I look to the work being done by Adam Curry in the podcasting world – he is mindful of the free-at-source roots of podcasting but can see the opportunities too, and is looking to monetise this sector. I'm not critical of this. There are loads of podcasters producing content for reasons of passion and obsession rather than for commerical gain. But there are many people who want to generate income. Adam Curry is working ingeniously to deliver business models which make that possible.

Around the issue of Open Source I think the approaches of Tom Peters and Seth Godin are really interesting. Both of them have a growing store of freely downloadable material for people to read. I guess they figure that they make plenty of money and the issue is about getting readership.

Although they presumably also realise that giving away free electronic content does convert into sales in a world where people still prefer the real printed page to browse and stick on their shelf. And it is this translation of free to purchase that leads to something else.

There is actually a 3rd way in all of this – something at the interface between monetisation and open source. I guess in software terms it would be shareware. But that isn’t quite what I mean. I’m talking about the way in which it is possible to build market share (something Amazon did in the early stages of its business where it lost warehouses full of cash selling at ridiculously low prices to get customers), build readership (Godin & Peters) and develop a meme-like interest through the ‘give it away for free’ approach. I guess this idea needs more work, but I am sure that we are on the brink of some new business models, and exciting new ideas.

I have written before about the 'Creative Commons' idea - this weblog has a creative commons license. This is another aspect of this wider picture. The challenge which faces web publishers (bloggers?), podcasters and other net-entrepreneurs is to work out how to weave through all of this and get out of the net what we want to, whilst ensuring that we give the reader / surfer what they want too.

There is a lot of talk at the moment about Web 2.0 which will take us into the next era of the web, beyond the market place which it has become of late. Exciting times are ahead - more thought is needed about the collision of monetisation, open source and creative commons to create new ways of doing things.

Earthquakes and poetry

I keep a regular track of the visitors to the series of weblogs which I host using sitemeter. This helps me to see how many visitors are looking at the site, how they get there, and a rough idea of where they are located.

Yesterday someone did a search on MSN Search looking for 'poems on earthquake' and found my weblog for the poetry press which I run. There is a book of poetry which I wrote a few years ago called 'Umbrian Images' which includes a poem about the earthquake in Assisi in 1997. The site visitor was in Pakistan and was therefore presumably looking for poetry about the Pakistan earthquake.

Well, as a response to this, I thought I should do two things. First, post the poem about Assisi - I think it brings into focus the difference between these two disasters. This year has been filled with disasters of immense scale and suffering. It is easy to become numb to it all. But I think we just need to keep responding, doing what we can. The world of global media is a two-edged sword which offers us information on an unprecedented scale and immediacy - but it does give an armageddon quality to all of this. Our reaction and support is vital. (There's a useful post about the impact of the internet on our view of disasters by Seth Godin here.) Which brings me to the second thing I can do as a response. Follow the link to the Disasters Emergency Committee to donate to the Appeal for the Asian Earthquake. Please help.

Assisi Earthquake
(some words taken from a Daily Telegraph article)

On the western edge of town
firemen fear the roof of the upper basilica
might not withstand
heavy rainfall.

The magnificent campanile’s bells
which sound when St Francis’s birds flock
have been eerily silenced as if
their tolling might be enough
to bring the tower crashing down.

The restorer says
“I know the fresco which included this detail.
I’ve restored it twice before,
to see it like this makes my heart sink.”

One local says of the monks,
“I don’t see any of them
rolling up their sleeves
and getting to work with a spade.”

Meantime,
twenty five thousand people
have no homes.

And
we look at moments of time
without the context of history
and emphasis becomes distorted.

3·10·97
13·47

Svarte Greiner's music mixes

Type Records has a podcast feed where you can download mp3 files of music mixes. There are about 20 different downloads there - each is about an hour long. The link - http://www.typerecords.com/radio/ - is badged as a 'radio' page. I like the idea of this. The music mixes are eclectic, mostly a mixture of ambient / jazz / modern classical. There's a lot of music from the Rune Grammafon label, and plenty of Arvo Part, Dead Can Dance etc.

My favourite so far is a mix called 'under the leaves' by Svarte Greiner (aka Deaf Center's Erik Skodvin) - music from Arvo Part, Arve Henriksen, Julie London, Aphex Twin, Max Richter (a beautiful highlight), Biosphere and Cliff Martinez combine to make an hour of stunning sound. Download it and enjoy!

M Scott Peck dies

I just found out today that M Scott Peck died at the end of September. He was 69. There is a full obituary in the Telegraph, a UK paper, which ends rather grudglingly and rudely in my view. Scott Peck wrote some fantastic books - to comment on his inability to write great songs seems like a mean-spirited sort of comment to me.

I read 'The Road Less Travelled' in the early 90s and was hugely influenced by it. The beginning 'Life is difficult' must be one of those great one-liners that helps with the process of growing up. It sits alongside 'life isn't meant to be fair' as one of those things that moved me forward in life.

I read several of his other books too - 'The Different Drum' is a wonderful book about building communities. My favourite book is 'In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason and Discovery' which describes a journey which he made through Britain looking at ancient sites with standing stones. It's a spiritual read, and an enjoyable one too.

I was sad to hear that Scott Peck had left this life.

For a more recent post on this subject please click here

Borders - too many people

I went to our local Borders last weekend for a couple of hours. This should have been fun - books, CDs and Starbucks. Unfortunately each time I go to this store it becomes more and more popular.

Why do car park designers have no idea how to design them in ways that avoid gridlock. I was gridlocked getting into the car park - and then again trying to get out. Then there was the human equivalent of a traffic jam at Starbucks - too many people with not enough seats and tables. It was chaos. There was nowhere to sit and browse, which is the whole point of the ambience of these places.

The whole experience showed me that the success of a place can become its failing too. Very zen!