Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose August 2018

I wish to experience freedom.  Not total freedom because that means freedom from all responsibility.  Not that, but the freedom of a true creative artist who earns his crust from his own labours.  Who defines his work himself and whose life is sculpted not by the spurious notion of talent but by application, study and constant improvement, and most of all, by the discipline of showing up each day and doing the work.  By enduring all of it, the euphoria and the despair of art.  And all of it underpinned by the fusion of the attentive intellect wrapped up in compassion for self and others and the non-human beings in all their glory.

I commit this to myself as a life oath for however long I have left on this beautiful Earth.

Heart of Balance  

Writer and Musician

So all of that is posted on twitter and the blog but what about the unsexy stuff, that is, the planning, the cunning plan.

Well this independent social work malarkey is a joke and if you calculate the amount of time against the pay, you might find you are working for brass rings.

So…

We will jack that in and focus on writing.  Not the writing of high art derived from muse-induced inspiration.  This will be writing for money, for dosh.  Writing for competitions.  Writing to live not living to write.

So some rules are:

·      One complete weekend a month writing

·      Write 500 words minimum a day but take Sunday off (unless that muse comes calling unexpectedly.)  That is 3000 words a week.  12000 a month.  144000 a year.  1,440,000 a decade.  A million and a half well aimed words and stories is enough for any man or woman.

·      Read like a writer.  Anatomically and annotating.  At the very least an hour a day.

·      Be brave and bold but don’t believe your own bullshit or anyone elses.  Believe in yourself instead.

·      Write quickly.  If you are going to be dead by draft 380 there’s no point in its perfection.  Understand ‘good enough.’

·      99.9% of everything written about the creative arts is complete shite.

·      99% of all ‘criticism’ is written by non-creative jealous psychopaths.  Don’t waste time on their ego-driven bullshit.

·      The internet is a stagnant yet hypnotic pond.  Drain it.  Pull the plug.

·      Finish work even though it breaks your heart

·      There is no link between money and intelligence.  There may even be an inverse correlation.

·      To be truly free means that you are not affected.

·      There are few political facts.  One is that democracy is entirely dependent on intelligence.

·      Political activity is simply a means for nasty people to experience community.

·      Most human beings have less intelligence than their dogs.

·      There is nothing that is more important than the Earth.  It is already more beautiful than anything that can be created by humans.

·      99% of what is described as original is someone elses vomit, and likewise back to the beginning of time.

·      Nearly everything you have ever been told is a lie.

·      Everything else you have been told is by someone who believes the lie.

·      Religion is a ligature around the brain.  See above.

·      Only a fool denies the existence of Spirit.  Only a greater fool writes about it.

·      Time is completely relative but generally speeds up.

·      Gravity is inescapable.  Consider it nature’s way to declutter.  Likewise Death.

• Have death on your shoulder like a pirates parrot.  Get to hang out with her.

• Fast and move.  Its what we are designed for.

Reading July 2018

Reading never stops.  I'd recommend all these but I am struggling with Joseph Conrad, amazing writer though he is.  It's the patriarchy and stony manliness of the characters.  It's the tinge of racism even through an enlightened lens, for the time.  I am beginning to think Conrad is not timeless in the way that Shakespeare and Cervantes and Rabelais are.  But I have committed to the three books:  Lord Jim/Heart of Darkness/Nostromo in order to read Maya Jasanoff's 'The Dawn Watch'.

Such are the reading deals we make!  But I shall finish Lord Jim even if it curls my toenails.

The Vorrh is extraordinary.  A symbolist novel written beautifully by a sculptor.  The pinnacle of Science Fiction and there are two more books in the trilogy!  Marvellous abundance.

Pound I shall report on in future posts.

Edmund White-Humanity squared.  Lovely and an introduction to lots of interesting reading avenues.

Review of BOAR HAIR SHAVING BRUSH BY THE Gentlemens Face Care Club

So gentle reader-Full disclosure.  I ordered a jar of the Premium Shaving Cream from the Gentlemans Face Care Club (which I strongly recommend to my wet shaving community by the way-soft, thick and luxurious) and was contacted by them asking if I would review their Boar hair shaving brush to which I agreed without hesitation given that they would send me a free brush for review with no strings attached.

As a hardcore wet shaver guy of many years I research any advantages from new products in order to find the ultimate shave kit to leave me post-shave happy, energised and ready to take on the World.

One big hook was that the Company sell this little brush as an alternative to badger hair brushes and refer to the un-ethical farming of badgers to produce these products.  Now I have to say I was strongly motivated to find an alternative if indeed my badger friends are farmed to produce such brushes because I was completely unaware that such a vile practice could be considered.  The badger is a creature I particularly love and feel an affinity for.  Here in the UK I have protested strongly against a culling policy by the environmental agency of our government which state sponsors the destruction of badgers due to their tenuous link with contributing to TB in cattle.  A link I should say that is not supported by scientific research and appears only to be made policy to appease the farming community who are not known (with some heroic exceptions) for their appreciation of our wild creatures and their habitat.

I am also guilty as charged because I have used a super badger hair shaving brush for the last ten years and enjoyed it immensely and, therefore, inevitably use it as a comparison with the boar hair version.

First I researched the farming of badgers.  They are wild creatures and will not submit to domestication, wild creatures die when they are confined.  After a cursory internet search I can find no evidence that brushes are the result of farmed badgers.  So then the question becomes-where does badger hair come from?  I have to own to a degree of stupidity here.  I assumed badger hair came from roadkill, but when I thought it through, it was obvious that this would be ridiculous.  Are there teams of badger roadkill specialists helicoptered to fatal accident sites to remove the hair from dead badgers?  No there are not.  Such an enterprise would require electronically chipped badgers flipping a switch on a massive computer database resulting in a quick response team heading to the accident site, rappelling down from black hawk helicopters scissoring the required hair and high tailing it back to site to produce said brushes.  Ridiculous.  Silly.  It does not happen.  There is no Rapid Response Badger Hair Recovery Team, sadly.

It does however appear that most badger hair comes from China, where badgers are hunted and eaten.  (Thanks, I’ll have the Badger noodles and Salt and Pepper Badger ribs with Peking sauce please.  Is that Badger dim sum on the specials board?)

The brushes are gathered into knots of hair and shipped to be glued to their faux ivory handles in the UK and elsewhere.  There is something faintly unnatural about such an industry, like farming cats or pulling bicycle trailers with Llamas.

Boars on the other hand are hunted widely and spend their allotted time, one hopes, completely wild and snuffling in the woods for truffles, having sex and teaching their little ones general boaring skills.

So with a view to this actual review, how does badger fare against boar?  Well, a super badger brush is like being stroked with an angel’s wing, a soft enveloping massage, a gentle kiss on the face whereas the Boar bristle is a tad gristly, a wee scratchy.  The badger hair is much more expensive and it must be said that the Boar brush with the GFCC’s Face Cream was perfectly adequate and a splendid alternative to those awful aerosol driven gels from the supermarkets.  It lathers well and gives a good shave.

The super badger brush with the Premium Face Cream however lathers to peaks of soft fluffy meringues and enables the razor to glide effortlessly over the craggiest of jaw chops.

I’m sorry but there’s no contest.

If you want the best shave in the world pair a super badger brush with the Gentlemens Face Care Club Premium Shaving Cream and some good quality shave oil and show the world a face as shiny as a newborn baby’s bottom.  Happy shaving mates!