Just like my folks...

I blame The Brits - yeap, that golden glittery award ceremony for the 'best in British (?) music'.

Having missed the first part and coming into one of the ex-Oasis duo throwing his award into the audience and Peter Kay calling him (?) I 'knob' (allegedly) I sat down for my fix of the best music in the land...

It wasn't long before I heard myself muttering a phrase from long long ago...

"This modern stuff has no tune or decent words!"

I was taken a back...

It was a voice from the past!

It was the voice of my parents talking about some Top of The Pops (remember that?) performance I was raving over. I have become my parents!

Out of touch with much of what I was listening to or watching.

From the "moving, dialoguing lace table cloth" that was Ladg Gaga, to the time travelling Cheryl Cole (she had to be travelling through time because there was an obvious delay between what she was singing and what we were hearing)I found myself wondering just what it was all about.

I mean at least Cheryls song had a tune and some lyrical content, but I'm afraid I just didn't get either the wierd parings of some of the performers or much of the stuff they were singing.

The whole evening was rescued by the great Robbie Williams. I mean he was singing, and singing songs with words and proper tunes! (Robbie, work with Guy again - great songs!)

See, I've grown old and out of touch - and it feels like it happened overnight! I'm actually tutting and saying "I dunno, is THAT what you call music?"

Damn you The Brits for diagnosing my ills.

Alan

An interview...

Just a quick blog note to let you know that the 'soul retrieval' specialist and ITV psychic Andrea Faulkes is being interviewed on Penwith Radio today 2pm - 4pm.

www.penwithradio.co.uk




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Are we hearing what we've been told to hear?

Do you hear what I hear???



Apparently this Chinese Toy has been recalled because it 'sings' Paedophile instead of Jingle Bells.

Distributors of the £2.99 novelty toy, Humatt, said the man who provided the singing voice could not pronounce certain sounds and when it was speeded ... the results were .... well.... not quite as expected.

Alan

A More Glorious Dawn

Sometimes you come across something that is so special that you really want everyone to see the and understand it for what it is...

For example I think everyone should read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Back and the stories of Winnie the Pooh by A A Milne and...

Everyone should see Cosmos as presented by the scientific poet and artist Carl Sagan...

And in my list of 'should have seen' or 'should have read' I rarely rave about re-tellings or re-envisionings. Of course there are a few exceptions and the work of the genius who put the following together ranks amongst the best of the best.

I heartily recommend his site www.symphonyofscience.com where you can see another clip he has lovingly created.

For me the poetry, the sentiment and the re-mixing of Mr Sagan (and in this case Stephen Hawking) is sublime...



Alan

New The Enigmatist TV (well almost)

Thought I'd share a new project with you.. and ask you to

WATCH THIS SPACE for announcements about the forthcoming TRICK-A-THON event..

Until then...

Them Them Them

So folks, I've been out and about over the last few weeks and so lost the thread of where I was and what I was doing...

SEE - I'm into giving excuses almost immediately.

Sometimes things are just the way they are - nothing more, nothing less.

Life moves on and personal situations change from moment to moment.

If we're honest all we can ever really deal with is the now. True we can create fantasies about the future and work towards bringing them into being - AND of course we have to accept responsibility for our past, after all that is what has brought us to this moment, but all we can ever interact with is the NOW which surrounds each and every one of us.

Having said all that isn't interesting to notice how excuses can become a way to direct blame.

I wonder how many people use other people's choices and behaviours as the excuse for their own in-actions?

It's not my fault I've been out of the loop but it is because of THEM
and the way THEY have intruded on my time, emotions and energy!

Taking this thinking further isn't it interesting that the moment we can apportion blame to someone else we are able to feel some sense of justification for our own behaviours.

They MADE me angry.... They NEEDED me to... They GOT in my way...

This "THEY" are the anonymous 'some ones' who steal our time, drain our energies and take our attention.

It is often much easier to blame THEM for doing these terrible things than to accept that we made the choices which allowed them to do what ever it was that we now have to apologise for.

THEY can, of course, INSPIRE and CHALLENGE and GUIDE - and just as it is easy for some of us to 'blame THEM' for holding us back, there are those who assume that without 'THEM' they as creative and wonderful individuals would not have achieved all that they have.

Are we becoming a society which frequently abdicates personal responsibility to an amorphous THEM whilst at the same time denies our own creativity because as individuals we are 'not one of THEM'.

THEM - the demons of procrastination!
THEM - the angels of inspiration!
THEM - the YOU others seek to blame or venerate

Alan

Technorati Tags: THEM, choice, reesponsibility

Me Me Me

Is it me or are we becoming more self-centred and self absorbed as a culture?

Over the last two weeks or so I seem to have been involved in a number of professional and personal conversations in which the 'other party' as either displayed a paucity of listening skills or a penchant for wanting to monopolise the conversation with 'their stuff'.

To put this in some sort of quantifiable context, I'd say that out of the several dozen conversations I have had in the last week only a three or four of them have involved any meaningful sharing of perceptions and questions. The focal point of the conversation becoming the emotions, challenges, needs and desires of the other person.

In many cases even the pleasantry of 'how are you?' or 'how are you doing?' has been relegated to a closing 'oh by the way...' throw away question at the end of the conversation as the people concerned have been getting ready to leave.

Are you a Me Me Person?

Here's a few simple questions to helpyou decide...

How soon after the start of the conversation do you ask questions about the other persons wellbeing?

When you ask such questions do you really listen and reflect upon what they tell you OR do you use their answers as a segue into YOUR stuff?

When asked 'How are things?' do you unload your stuff without pause or consideration for the listener?

How much of any conversation is about YOU?

Do you 'stomp all over' the other persons comments or questions with your own free-flowing monologue?

Do you really CARE about the people you are in conversation with?

Alan