Real Talk: Again...

Well then... here we are! Another piece of inspired writing by yours truly - jacked up on music.

Yeah, one of those tiresome, pretentious pieces!

Just close this if you don't want to read another strongly worded 'how to live better' articles like this, this, this, and this. If not, I hope you find something worthwhile.

Kids In Glass Houses stand as an inspiration to me.

Don't you just love revisiting music that you haven't listened to for a long time. Two days ago I discovered that one of my favourite bands, Kids in Glass Houses, are soon to disband. I am fully aware that many people have a strong dislike for this artist in particular, but, for me, they stand as a firm inspiration. Let me tell you why!

In my opinion, Kids in Glass Houses produce honest music which has a lot of character. The music is not extravagantly composed - there are no face-melting solos for example. The majority of their music is non-offensive upbeat stuff. If truth be told, I have found the vocals to be an acquired taste, but the way in which Aled Phillips pours his heart and soul into every word such as Annie May, more than compensates for this. Their stuff has heart, and you can feel it, wholeheartedly.

The reason why I find this music so inspirational is that in my eyes their success if based on their talent in songwriting, not sex appeal and not having perfect vocals or by saturating their music with anything in particular. There is a certain brilliance to be found in imperfection, a raw passion; the real stuff. As mentioned countless times before, I see myself as a songwriter; it's what I love doing. However, I do not possess a voice touched by an angel. It is more of a voice likened to a hippopotamus' squashed bollock. But I can live with this, because the music I create brings me happiness and one day I hope to share this happiness and the sentiments with others in a similar way as the likes of Kids in Glass Houses have. Don't get me wrong, I know that success is unlikely, I am merely stating that I hope to make music that people will reflect upon and be inspired. If one person is inspired, then the mission is complete.

As well as being a musical inspiration to me, I draw strength from Aled's lyrics. For instance:

'Stop wishing for the sunshine; start living in the rain.' - Sunshine.

This is a lyric to live by. I know that, generally, I intend to. Stop wishing for the sunshine; start living in the rain! What inspirational words! I interpret these words as telling people to stop waiting for opportunity to come by chance and take the hard route to success; just dig deep and make it for yourself. 

I take these words to heart. I know that I am not a person with extreme talent, but I do find that I improve, as a person, through creativity. I will never rise to the top and become the next Freddie Mercury, but nobody can tell me what my passion is and what I want to do with it.

Every success was once a goal.

As Kids in Glass Houses would say, The Best is Yet to Come...but only if you are willing to make sacrifices for it to do so!

Real Talk: Is there too much news?

Seriously, I can't keep up with anything these days. Trying to find time outside of work to socialise, write my book, music, this incessant blog is too exhausting. Filtering out necessary information from articles has simply become a task so impossible that I literally have no idea what's happening anymore - even in my own life. On some nights I return home, put my feet up and ask myself, 'what did I do today?' and try to list things off.

'Well, my dear,' I say to myself affectionately, 'you probably woke up.' This is a given. 'Soon after, you made yourself cereal, the indicator being the bowl next to the sink in the kitchen, which also evidence that you didn't wash up. And apart from work, I guess that you did little else but drink tea and what you believe to be writing.' Thus failing to make arse nor tail of my day. This confusion is furthered by the fact that I fail to make arse nor tail of the World's day.

Nonsense aside, with such collosal news stories as the Crimean disrepute, the Malaysian airline mystery and the Alan Pardew crisis* churning out mountains of information from speculated facts to fabrication passed down the grapevine - let alone completely unrelated splooge - it is difficult to get an idea as to where to begin reading. Give me facts not a load of spruced up coincidence, convincing at a stretch!

Could you possibly imagine the news as told by
Gary Linekerwith special guest analyst Paul
Gascoigne? Compelling to say the least...

For this reason, I propose a news service that sifts through it all - every story, plausible opinion, comment, remark, youtube autotune parody - and just give us squirming trogs a quick summary of what the hell is happening. A bit like a Match of the Day, only for news. A play-by-play of the day's happenings that cuts the crap and gives us digestible chunks of intelligible, tasty mouthfuls of fact. In my naivety, I am guessing that this service already exists somewhere (logically, it must) and, in my juvenile haste, have overlooked it. If so, I urge that you not read on and humour me for I do not need the encouragement.

In summary, with the mass media being more vast than ever, and showing no signs of decreasing its rate of expansion, there should be a more condensed and convenient service for those too lazy to read through the swamp of news that, nearly literally, relates every issue of every day to everything that has ever happened. The Internet is becoming too big and invaluable for its own good - and I am too lazy to use it properly.




Song of the moment:



*This is really not worth knowing about. The less you know, the better.

Today I... Question Love

Love doesn't exist everywhere in the world. Did you know this? I bet you didn't. Its a Western construct that is spreading with globalisation. The Beatles were wrong, as history dictates, many people live without love. Some civilisations actually survive on a healthy mental diet of respect and life-saving water.

No, no, no! This is not one of those heart-broken, forlorn examples of someone whose expectations have fell short and have taken to the keyboard to confront an injustice bestowed upon them by someone who, once a ray of sunshine, turned out to be devoid of a heart. This it is not. It is, however a rant about 'Lurve' and 'Harleywould' derived from the sheer abundance of content that passes by without scrutiny. So, here is another petty blog. Enjoy!

American Hollywood romance creates unrealistic expectations for the rest of us brainless specks. Jude Law is nothing more than a marionette, a prop. Real men are addictive creatures who are afraid or pretty much feckless when it comes to showing a shadow of their true feelings. I couldn't tell you how many times I have been in a situation where I couldn't put words to my deepest, most inner desires; moments when overused, worn out phrases just don't cut it. 'I love you' and the ideology of 'forever' seem to be the easy way out and a segway to an impersonal relationship.

'I love you' or 'I am in love with you' should be savoured and cherished, not a time-filler when you are entangled with your love of 9 months, struggling to find something to say about their eyes, bodies, personality, taste in clothes, style, impact on your life, hot mother, cooking, good graces, similar choice in literature, and so on, that you have not said before. Don't get me wrong or distort my message to produce an argument of your own, because I know how easy it is to 'troll' by deflecting an argument and take a holier-than-thou approach, but I feel love is losing its value.

Love in itself is a magnificent concept; the idea that a bond between two people can make life more meaningful, adding to it what words do not dare begin to explain. It is something of fairy tales and has often been reflected and reproduced beautifully with grace and splendour in classic literature. I just feel that today, it has lost some of its sheen. It has been over-exposed, tailored into a manufactured, promotable product embraced by the media, aimed specifically at the consumer serial sharers amongst us. You know the type, the 'selfie tweetagrammers'.

What initially fuelled me to write this blog was something that someone shared on Facebook that infuriated me. It wreaked with banality. The old same old, same old. It was an image consisting of two frames of a film. The first had a man, looking as forlorn and disappointed; wrinkled forehead - the works. The caption with the first image read, 'Don't go.' The second frame was that of a woman by a door, looking back into the room all forlorn and upset, the very image of the sorrowful goodbye. The accompanying annotation: 'Don't let me.' And you know what? This really got on my nerves, and I can't explain exactly why. This also got on my nerves. I can only go over my train of thought. Which went something like this:

'Dont' go!'
Don't let me!'

There is a choice here? They have a choice? Why the sad faces then? Surely there should be a third frame!


'Don't go!
Don't let me!
Ok, then.'
 
If he wants her to stay, she will? And he wants her to stay? So, what's the problem? Unless, in reality, he doesn't really want her to stay. He is just saying what he thinks he wants her to hear. Ease her pain and his guilty conscious for not caring enough. That's it. The selfish bastard! What a poor woman having to invest her emotions into such a man let alone have it witnessed by millions of viewers then shared by some fool on Facebook who believes it to be a true act of romance.

I know! I know! I may be being a tad bit petty here but can't we relate the concept of love to something a little less trivially contrived than this? Please? Can't we just? Please?


If this article gets enough recognition I will post a second one about being 'in love'.

In the meantime...enjoy my song of the moment

Merry Christmas

I know that out of everyone who follows this blog, it is my parents and family who keep their eye on it the most.  At the risk of sounding cliché, if it wasn't for my family's support I would not have been able to live so freely as an adult nor would I have been able to have such a unique experience as living abroad.  I am indebted to them for a life well raised.

If you hadn't guessed this is one of those Christmas blogs mainly aimed at my family because this is the first time I will be away from my family during the holiday season.  So...the rest is a personal message from me to my family.

I can't be with you at home over Christmas, so let this be a homage to the experiences that I have been blessed with and my addition to the seasonal spirits...

 

Me, the education provider (playing pinball on the PC during my break)

Little Evans.  Bright kid.

Preparing for Christmas.

The little ones.  Jim and Alex are such attention seekers.

Dimitra, Billy Boy and Alex.

Me and the boys.

Alex was tired...

George and I - post-coffee by the sea.

Timos in the studio.

Marianna, George, Me, Venia and Helen.  The younger ones all took exams, so fingers crossed!

Menidi... my favourite place.

The 'Epiphany' Class.

The not-so-angelic angels.

Petro and Maria.

Vasoula and Marianthi

 

Helen and I.

Me, Alex and Billy Boy (from last year)

Chris, Timos, Me and Venia (before their exams)

Flights of Icarus Update

It is always horrible to admit to yourself that you have put something important on the shelf, but I have not been giving my book my full attention of late.  Instead, I have been writing bits and bobs and gradually building the image.  I must make time to sit at my laptop and tap away for an hour or two very soon.

One good thing that has arisen from my bits and bobbery is that I have given one of my characters a new lease on life. Originally designed as the comic relief of the story (which is very much needed, may I add), he is also a personality and has become an important vehicle for my the progression.  Sometimes it is important to see characters as tools and constructs.

Over the next week, I may post up a short chapter of my book to see what people think of it.  I hope that I can get some feedback. 

If you are interested in proof reading sections of my book do not be afraid to get in touch with me at jonathan.a.keeling@gmail.com



I will leave you with my song of the moment

Mid-week reminder. What do you make of this question? A new discussion has been posted on our Facebook page. Get involved!

via Today I Change https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=617375954966530&set=a.615833911787401.1073741828.516110198426440&type=1

Today I...Expand

Just a little update.

I am publishing a Facebook page today.  It will stand as a different entity to this blog - although it will fall under the same name.  Mainly offering discussion topics and will involve different writers.

If anyone is interested in being a content creator or would like to offer topic subjects please email me at:

theheard@gmail.co.uk


Check out the facebook page here!

Update

I am getting back into the whole writing gambit again.  The whole routine of sitting before a keyboarding and thrashing out a few gripes and groans.

Another feature I will continue (mainly for my enjoyment) is the Celeblog.  It is just trash-fiction to keep me creating, really.  Atop of this, I hope people find enjoyment out of their lunacy.

Today I Return

Today I am afraid that I am the bearer of bad news...I'm back with more words laced with general quips and qualms. This post will serve as more of an update if truth be told. Let's get this out the way. 

• I am back in England.
• I just turned 24.
• A baby was birthed in London.
• I am currently unemployed.
• I am currently exceedingly bored.

Apologies in advance, for this is the first real 'my life is drab' styled article I have ever really posted, but my word, the English culture has learned how to reflect the grey skies. Maybe it's me being older and developing a fleeting interest in all things interesting. 

My birthday was a lot of calm fun. A very good friend came from London to stay with me for the weekend and we reminisced. Even though I went to a night club, the nostalgia acted more like chicken soup for the soul than the good skinful we acquired.

I wish I could say that during my month of non-blogging that I have been on some exciting adventures involving intelligent and humorous anecdotes, or that I have been doing a bit of soul seeking and found the answers that plague my assiduous mind - yet I cannot. I have been a state of mere existence and have not seen a lot of my good friends or relatives due to a lingering debilitation brought about by lack of prospects. The future is as blurry as it has ever been.

Granted, this post was short and banal but I WILL be back on form posting something every few days really soon. So, hang tight.

In the meantime listen to my song of the moment and enjoy: