Thought Bucket

Night time standing at the wide open window of our hotel room on the third floor I can hear the sounds of the city permeate my senses it feels alive bustling beautiful there is an accordion in the distance playing mournful traditional music while cars growl past on the street below and a melee of voices bubble softly from all directions. There is the hum of life all around me I feel immersed soft murmurs from the pedestrians below the accordionist’s tune has risen into a carefree stride it sounds velvety so many sounds amalgamated into a singular rushing wave washing around rebounding off buildings and street objects and pouring into my ears. I am overwhelmed although I have been in cities just as big and noisy before there is something different about this experience it feels more real and present. (My vantage point from up above and the quiet reflection of the hotel room after a long day’s exploring).

Tomorrow morning circa 6am I am woken by a tramp manically thrashing around in the street below, ranting his head off. The windows do nothing to dampen his crazed outburst towards the rest of society? his family? unfortunate circumstances? god? (I don’t know exactly, it was in Italian) 

Continuing on his protest he knocks over shop signs, and something spills out over the street creating a loud metallic clatter. By this point I am up looking out the window (from the safety of the third floor) and can see him now with a cardboard piece, slapping the roofs of cars. Twenty meters down the road, bin men are working the morning rubbish collection, unresponsive and ignoring the disorder. Cities are a strange place. I roll my eyes and go back to bed.

Had something to write about but now it’s gone. Damn fleeting attention span! 

Hey look, a radish!

I had a burst of creativity in creating a poster for my band. it happened in such a flurry! Wooosh, my brain went. It’s not especially original, but it is quite interesting to look at (i think).

Right now feeling I need to grasp things a bit more and just get things DONE. 

First on my list: Go to bed.

That is a purely idealistic viewpoint. While I respect Bill and his essentially ‘anarchic’ principles, i think our lives as capitalist consumers in the west bring a lot of suffering to other regions of the world. It is almost impossible to live in our society and not contribute indirectly to some degree of unethical consumerism. However I wholly agree with the sentiment and if everyone thought like this, the world would be a better place. But i think it’s a bit more complicated than that. We have a choice to act on what we now know thanks to globalisation and widespread media, and should endeavor not to sweep certain inconvenient truths under the carpet. Ultimately, enjoy being part of this crazy fucked up world. But enjoy responsibly and considerately. Know what you’re buying into! ……………. I will get off my high horse now.

In response to the Bill Hicks quote above.

Joy to the world. (I have nothing interesting to say)

Rodriguez is a rogue gem of an artist. Listening to him I feel sublime. I heartily recommend it.

Got a few days off work. Going to do up all my undone things and try to leave the computer alone. Maybe even go for a wander outside with no destination in mind.

Feeling surprisingly optimistic about the future. It’s certainly still quite a novel feeling for me.

Just read a plea to ‘stop using palm oil’, as its production is contributing to a mass deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, viciously disrupting the ecosystem and destroying homes for the rainforest’s many inhabitants. Orangutans in particular are at risk and are now an endangered species. 

We, the west, are fueling this with our reckless and ignorant consumption of the ever-increasing range of products to keep us entertained and keep capitalism ticking over, while people far removed from our own society pay the price of exploitation and suffering for our luxury.

It’s been weighing down on my conscience for a bit now, all this. Seeing adverts on TV often remind me of how crazy, fucked up and atrocious the world is now. Right now. Right now as I type this, there are people slaving away in factories in China, working for a pitiful wage in appalling working conditions. There are people clearing down the rainforests in big bulldozers ready to make way for palm oil plantations. And there are people idly consuming all these tainted products, completing the cycle.

Sometimes I wonder if it will ever stop, if the majority of people actually give a shit about all this excessive consumption and unethical production. And while i’m attacking people around me for either being ignorant pawns, or hypocritical self-righteous preachy wankers, I shouldn’t let my self get away with it either. Right now i’m being massively hypocritical, as I know for a fact I buy so much without knowing where it came from, what’s in it, or where it was produced.

It’s like something I switch on and off when I feel like it, when it’s convenient. Because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to cope. It’s too ingrained in our society. We’ve grown up with it, it’s the norm.

We need to be more ethical and accept that our choices as everyday consumers are affecting other people, places and ecosystems! Cause and effect.
Although you could argue that buying something already on the shelf is only making use of that situation (ie. otherwise it would go to waste, or it would only get bought anyway), it’s beside the point. It’s about principle. Even boycotting a single product would have an effect, on a very small scale admittedly. If we ALL stopped buying palm-oil products then it wouldn’t be such a lucrative deal and they wouldn’t produce as much. Simple really. We can also lobby against the use of it in UK products and spread the word. That’s what one person could do, but if (and it’s a big IF) everyone did it, it would make a difference.

Next time, i’ll tell you how existence is futile, humans are fundamentally flawed and why immediate suicide is the only option. Hooray!

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Oh and for anyone (assuming someone reads this) who wants to make a difference —- http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/palm-oil.php

Hello world, 

I’ve just carved out a little bit of the internet for my thoughts, the kind that baffle and stir me. Not the kind where I must let everyone know I need a Jaffacake or it’s just been snowing again; there’s Facebook for that.

I’ve been reading a lot recently. Mostly staying up late reading vivaciously into the night, until the point where it feels like my eyes are slowly dripping out of their sockets and all the words transform into meaningless nonsense.

I’m reading a book by the comedian Stewart Lee right now, which is very good. It’s called ‘How I Escaped My Certain Fate: The Life and Deaths of a Stand-up Comedian’ and I recommend it if you like behind the scenes stuff, and stand-up comedy. and Stewart Lee. And words. And I think this new reading habit has been a vessel for late night/early morning thought mongering. Where usually I would forget 99% of what happened the previous day, now I have a few more thoughts huffing around in the brain. Which is nice.

Anyway, I had enough of these odd, chunky thoughts last night (10/03) to motivate me to create a “blog” and jolly well “write” something. And give a  greater contribution to the great internet thought-leak of the Noughties. I’ve already got a Facebook and Twitter account, but I couldn’t write something like this there, in case someone actually reads it. Here it is anonymous and safe. The only person likely to read this, is a Russian spy, or a computer-illiterate n00b completely lost in the depths of the internet. Or a bored, browsing and ultimately disappointed tumblr-ist.

So, i’ll get to the point eventually. Not this time though. For I must take a shower and get ready for work. Good bye.

Ps. Katie is lovely.