No returns

So I was listening to the radio in the car the other day. Apparently NASA are planning a one way trip to Mars. With a maximum of 4 people. Who would go? Why would they go? How would they decide to go? How would they tell their friends and family they were going to go?

And what if they didn't like it.

For yourself

Tuesday I went to see Joshua Radin with a bunch of my friends. Once in a while you need to go out in the middle of the week and just do something fun, out of routine, out of the ordinary day to day life. If you do that every now and then, you always have something to look forward to. No one likes a formulaic film - so why make your life seem like one.

I don't think I've ever found an artist that I just want to listen to all day. His albums could be on repeat constantly and I would not get bored and want to turn it over. It's easy listening, yet at the same time it's incredibly detailed. Each song is entirely different, there isn't two which sound alike. Through his albums you can hear his progression as an artist. He ventures into different styles and types of music, yet always keeps the essence of his music.

When you go and see a show you expect to hear music, that's all you've ever heard from the artist. But when we went to see Joshua Radin play, you got so much more. He literally spoke for around 2 minutes before he played a couple of songs, explaining what each of them meant to him and why he wrote, and actually engaging with the audience. Telling us and making us listen to the words of the song, getting us to participate and helping him in making the song complete. At one point he just stood away from the microphone and listened to the audience singing along to his song 'It's a brand new day' with a massive smile on his face. At the beginning he sang a whole song without using a microphone, who else would have the courage to do that and the confidence in themselves. He's not just a singer who wants it for the fame and the money, from seeing him on stage, you can tell that he really enjoys what he is doing especially clear when he ended his set with the first song he ever wrote; 'Winter' causing the whole audience to listen and turn completely silent.

It think its something we should all adopt. The ability to want something and do something, not just for money or for recognition, but for ourselves and our own self satisfaction. It's a hard thing to do, even for people who realise that this is what we should be like.

Impossibility

Impossible is just a big word thrown around

by small men who find it easier

to live in the world they have been given than

to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact.

It’s an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare.

Impossible is potential.

Impossible is temporary.

Impossible is nothing.

The nature of perceiving.

I bought some heels yesterday. I'm not really the type of person to buy or walk round in heels. But I bought some anyway because I thought they would go well with a dress that I bought. So I need to start practising walking in them because currently it is not so good. I don't look elegant or beautiful. I look like a person who hasn't learnt to walk. How do they make it look so easy!

Despite the late date in the year the infamous Sun has decided to make a brief appearance again. Who knows how long it could last, maybe this one day is all we've got before winter kicks in and takes over with frosty mornings and cosy evenings. Sometimes I feel that looking at the weather forecast is like cheating. The spontaneity stops and you can predict everything. Although it seems like there is nothing worse than being caught in the rain wearing a skirt and sandals, looking back on all those times in London where paper bags have broken due to torrential down pours is actually quite humorous. Your misfortune is an impracticality of life, and it is just one that makes life that little more interesting when you want to retell the story of how it felt like you were going to drown from the insanity of the weather.

Sartre says that the only way you feel a certain way, like shame or elation, is because of other people perceiving you. It's true. The more I think about it, the more true it becomes. If you fall over, the only reason why you feel embarrassed it because others laugh at you. The only reason why you re-tell a story in the hyperbolic way that you do is so that people will laugh with you or show a reaction. Without the reaction from other people how boring would life be. We live to please others and for other people to acknowledge that. It's not a bad thing.