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 |   A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
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Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end. So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.     |
| Foote on Writing Advice for writers is everywhere these days, so I feel no compunction in adding the following to the pile: If someone were asking me whether they should become a writer, I would always say emphatically no, have absolutely nothing to do with it under any circumstance. And, if he would listen to that, he certainly should not have been a writer. Shelby Foote |
| Hold That Sauce Lilli had a huge response to her Question of the Day yesterday. Everyone, it seems, couldn’t wait to tell the world just how they like their oatmeal (porridge). After studying the vast array of various additives people use in porridge, I am forced to the conclusion that I am somewhat of an exception in this area. I reckon that I must be the only person in the world who actually likes porridge. Everyone else adds all sorts of things to the mix, presumably because they don’t like the taste. A little sugar I’ll allow but that’s it. Anything else is affecting the taste and texture of the real thing and you cannot claim to like porridge if these are so necessary. There are certain foods that it is sacrilege to add anything to because you spoil the unique taste that makes them so desirable. Porridge is obviously an example but an even better one would be lobster. If you have only had it with the innumerable additives that go to make up the various ways that people adulterate it, you have never tasted lobster (or Cape crayfish). Why spoil the food of the gods by making it taste like something else? The real heresy comes when you mix two outstanding tastes together to make something that can only be described as unfortunate. The best example of this is chocolate and peanut butter. Both are excellent tastes when on their own. Together they’re just rather oily muck. You may point fingers at me and laugh but the fact is that only I know how many foods really taste. The rest of you have experience only of some watered down, insipid and tainted version of the truth. Try it straight and you’ll see what I mean. And, Americans, please, exercise some restraint with the cinnamon. Yes, it’s a fabulous taste but you only demean it by putting it on everything. Use it sparingly and it retains its specialness. Word count: 326 |
| I don't care what they say, the old songs are the best. This one was huge in the 16th Century: |
| Writing I wasn’t looking for it, but I found a really interesting interview with Shelby Foote, the writer. Apart from being an excellent example of how to conduct an interview (ask your first question then let the person talk), it contains a wealth of wisdom about and around writing. It’s less than half an hour in length but, if even that is too much, you should listen at least to what the man has to say about learning to write. He begins this at 12:26. Of course, I believe what he says is both wise and true because that’s what I think too, but can you afford to disregard it for that reason? Have a listen. I doubt you’ll regret it. Word count: 121 |
| The 48-Hour Challenge: Media Prompt In the past, I have attempted this challenge on precisely two occasions (if memory serves me well). Usually, the song choice is way outside of my taste and I have to pass on the offer to comment. I’m sure the challenge owners don’t want me to be rude about their choice, after all. But they’ve come up with a good one this time. I’ve never heard of the group, OK Go, and I must admit to being pleasantly surprised at their song, Obsession, and its accompanying video. Both are pure entertainment from start to finish and highly original into the bargain. The video alone was enough to win me over. The novel idea of using computer printers to spit out paper in time to the music, creating a myriad of fascinating visual effects, is brilliance indeed. Add the fact that the printer noises combine with the music to become an orchestral constituent makes the song a valid contribution to electronic music and musique concrète. It’s a cascade of shape, colour and sound that is a delight to the eye and ear. And so to the song itself. This is a pounding, repetitive tune that is entirely in keeping with the title. Obsession is certainly a matter of repeating impulses to a fascinating object. I googled the lyrics (to echo the words of my father from long ago - I can’t hear what the singer’s saying) and they are deep enough to be worthy of some thought. This makes a happy change from the usual throwing together of a few meaningless phrases. Altogether this was a refreshing experience. The song is catchy and the video a delight. If only they hadn’t decided to include the somewhat creepy assurances that the paper used would all be recycled. God, I hate the self righteousness of the modern world, even if it is caused by the fear of being cancelled for some imagined offence. Word count: 320 |
| MeTube My wife, Andrea, at the end of a long day: “I nearly reached the end of YouTube.” It’s an interesting concept. With thousands of new videos being added to YouTube every day, the very idea of there being a limit to it seems a bit far fetched. And yet there are times when we feel as though we’ve seen everything it has to offer. We scroll down the offerings, muttering, “Seen that, not interested, why are you showing me that, for pete’s sake find me something new!” Thanks to the system of indicating our preferences for content, it’s only videos in those areas that YouTube is supposed to present to us. The possibility exists, therefore, that we could reach a position where we’ve seen all that YouTube has on a particular subject. If we’ve limited our interests to very few and they happen to be a bit esoteric, this becomes almost inevitable. Which is why Andrea’s statement was so memorable. She has subscribed to over two hundred channels. Word count: 168 |
| Cloud Bustin’ Back in the days of my youth, I had a hippy friend by the name of Garth. He lived in an apartment block with a balcony several floors up. This was an ideal place to catch some sun and chew the fat. We used it often. My most memorable time on the balcony came when I found Garth there, stretched out on a lounge chair and watching the sky. He greeted me with the words, “Hey man, come do some cloud bustin’.” In those days I would try anything once so I asked how this was done. Garth explained that the idea was to concentrate on just one area of an individual cloud and watch as the force of your attention dispersed it. Naturally, I tried it and it worked. At first one could nibble away at the edge of a cloud or bust a hole in it. Then it was possible to switch to other parts of the cloud and so disperse it entirely in time. I know it sounds unlikely but you should try it before dismissing it as a hippy’s fanciful imagination. Heck, even I figured there must be some natural cause of this phenomenon and that clouds were always dispersing and reforming like this. I couldn’t deny that it was fun, however. It didn’t seem to matter where you directed your attention in the cloud, that portion always started to disappear into thin air. And, if clouds did this naturally, surely we would notice them getting smaller all the time? I doubt that it did any harm to imagine we were causing the phenomenon, anyway. Garth reckoned it was the latent power of the mind that was shifting things around. Clouds are so ephemeral that it was easy even for untrained minds to affect them. Imagine, he proposed, if we could get control of such power. Garth was always interested in such things, whereas I was already a bit concerned about the idiot things we humans did with some of the powers we had developed. We lost contact a few years later and, the last I heard was that he’d moved to Australia. Which is a pretty good place for finding errant clouds just asking to be picked on and busted. As for myself, I still do a bit of cloud bustin’ when the opportunity presents itself. It’s a harmless pastime after all. But the really weird thing is that I’ve never seen a cloud grow - they only disperse. How come they can drift clear across a continent without disappearing altogether? Word count: 425 |
| Double Vision Been thinking about entering a contest that allows two entries. I’m having enough difficulty coming up with new ideas at the moment, so writing two stories hadn’t really entered my head. If I could just think of one, that would be enough for me. And then, in the wee hours of this morning, I had an idea. As I lay there working on it, I realised that it could be two ideas. Writing a story from different points of view has been done before but it never attracted me. Why double my workload, after all? But this story was crying out for it. There were two protagonists and they had quite different takes on the story. Not only that, but their versions, when taken together, revealed yet another layer of meaning. The brain was really racing now and I knew there was no possibility of further sleep that night. I rose and went to the computer. Now it’s done, both stories have been individually gift-wrapped and fired at the contest, and I’m fairly pleased with the result. Not that I’m going to advertise the stories with a link here. This post is much more to encourage others to try the multiple point of view tale. It’s actually quite fun and does wonders for the feeding of the portfolio. Plus you get more than one piece from a single story. It’s every Gemini’s motto: Two for the price of One! Word count: 239 |
| An Historical Thought Ah, the delights of YouTube for the carefree wanderer. I can’t help smiling at the irony of Mark Knopfler, in a concert in Seville, launching into his song, Privateering. Oh, granted that his lyrics are careful enough to mention the coast of Barbary rather than the Spanish Main, but don’t mention the war, man, don’t mention the war. What war? Well, I admit it was a long time ago, yet we still remember Elizabeth. The First, that is. Word count: 78 |
| Quotation Schmotation Whenever writers start slinging advice around, you can bet that the old Hemingway quotes will come out. Which I’m sure is very edifying for most, but not for me. My problem is that I never liked Hemingway. Don’t like his style or his subject matter or his attitude. Never have and, in all likelihood, never will. So it’s predictable that I won’t take any notice of what he had to say about writing. The strange thing is that the writer of that generation that I admire the most, J.D. Salinger, was a great fan of Hemingway’s, in his younger days at least. I am prepared to overlook this one weakness in the great Salinger, however, and would be happy to listen to any advice he might have given. And the same goes for Steinbeck, even though he was a bit of a one-subject man. Word count: 145 |
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Quite good is quite a good compliment 
As someone who just reviewed an item in your port, I can't help but wonder, Did I pick an item that you'd throw out? 
