The smoke that blushed

Street art I found in East London

Yesterday i was walking through Camden and infront of me a bellow of blue and pink smoke was coming out of a huge industrial dark chimney. It was one of those tiny details amidst a normal routine that puts a smile on your face, I was just waiting for a suitable accompaniment of rainbows, fairies and candy canes to shower down upon the unsuspecting landscape. Below the dreamlike smoke were swarms of preoccupied individuals going about their daily lives with their heads down looking at their phones or buzzing in their own thought bubbles. 

Even though we all share the same environment, we are such seperate entities and our society only emphasizes the fact. We have our own entertainment to start, ipods, phones, books, newspapers. We're tuned into our own thoughts and feelings, and we rarely attempt to merge into the more communal world and really interact with/ feel what's going on around us. We have conversations and link in to one or two other people's fields of existence but we are primarily individuals. Yet what strikes me as odd, is in psychology, one of the sociocultural principles is 'humans feel a need to belong'; within this principle lies the idea that we rely on each other to survive, our whole community and society is built up of various blocks, from farmers to shopkeepers to businessmen, if one stage didn't exist, the rest of our pyramid would fall apart. It's so hard to switch everything off when sometimes it's just a force of habit, and it almost instills fear when you think of the idea of not being able to communicate with everyone in your life for one moment. It scares me when I start to panic after only a day of not checking my emails - but at the same time, in feeling 'connected' to everyone, it creates such a huge disconnect with your physical reality causing a whole percentage of our awareness, and sense of presence to fly out the window. 

East London again

It's funny, when we were younger in 'world studies' we went over the theory's that two great philosophers had about the true characteristics of human beings. Aristotle and Plato I think it was, were more positive about us, they truly believed humans were able to act for the benefit of others and not for self-gain. Whilst Hobbes on the other hand believed humans were completely selfish and every act was for self-gain even if it wasn't conciously done for that purpose. Lets look at a few examples: In helping someone carry their bags up the stairs, you gain satisfaction and content. In having a child, you set yourself up with what will become a physical, emotional and financial support system (that especially benefits you in your older years), in opening yourself up in a relationship 'for' the other person, you gain love, support and all that jazz. Hobbes commonly used the example of letting individuals loose in a sweet shop, or a bank, and taking away rules - what happens? We'd go crazy and grab everything we could, not stand around holding hands. A more recent and solid example is last year when the raids took place in London and the more primal side of the community was revealed, looting shops, stealing whatever there was to steal, getting violent, using weapons etc.

.. And again

When I first learnt about these philosophies, we were asked to give our opinion on whom we agreed with, I chose the more optimistic view. Thinking of humans as purely selfish and evil just didn't float my boat. But as I've grown up and my eyes have widened to the reality of the world, I do believe Hobbes was right, as pessimistic as the idea may be. Our main goal as mammals is to survive - but to do this it does involve helping, supporting and interacting with others, so though at its core our nature may not be full of rainbows and fairies, it does manifest positive outcomes.. but back to where I started.

Street art in Neasden

As I was watching the smoke drift over the conker trees, grey buildings, and billboards advertising the latest and most lustrous hair shampoo! I thought of a poem that made me smile, it was written by a great friend that sadly passed away last year - but her gift of writing should always be appreciated:

People don’t look up. 
They spend their lives absorbed in their feet,
in the pavements,
in the leaves and dirt,
in the rubbish discarded on the streets. 
This is what we seem to be fascinated by, 
only daring to lift our heads when someone points out how beautiful the sunset is, 
or a bird, or rarely, 
occasionally, 
something above their normal eyeline.
There could be entire goddamn cities on rooftops and no-one would notice. 

- Cameron Krokatsis 

I remember this poem when I lean over my windowsill and watch passers by. It reminds me to look up once in a while when I'm strolling through an empty street. The other day a little girl in a blue school uniform with dark red hair, was sitting by the window gazing out at the empty street with a melancholy stare. What was going on in her mind was a mystery to me but the image the mystery created was beautiful. 

Time to get out of my head and check what's next on my to-do-list, deep breath!


 Recipe of the day: Fairy Cakes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fairycakes_93711

Observation

My brother's band's called 'Lazy Sunday' - coincidence!

For a while it seemed as though we could have easily teleported to a rural Mediterranean country-side town. The weather was too good to be true; I no longer gaze out the window at blue cloudless skies, the English weather has found its niche once again and the grey clouds have returned with vengeance. It hasn't rained yet, but everything feels ominous, the air's heavy and the rain's waiting to fall. I want to almost press the flush button and watch it all pour down - the suspense requires too many layers of clothing. 


This morning we were up bright and early - I love that nature reveals different aspects of itself to you in different conditions. This morning, before the clouds stormed in, the early birds were singing and amazing blue and yellow butterflies were circling outside our window. I felt like I was in a children's fairy tale, I just needed to open the door for the rest of the woodland animals to join in the sing-along. An amazing smell drifted up the stairs as I got out of the shower. Dad was making his indulgent breakfast, porridge with molasses and clotted cream. The scene had suddenly switched to goldilocks and the three bears - well two bears. I stuck to the usual - Dad keeps saying if I eat too much muesli I'll get sick of it, or my body will revolt against it, but that hasn't happened so far so I may as well count my blessings, keep calm and carry on!

Buying muscles

We've seen a fair amount of wild life while we've been here, yesterday a beautiful badger was caught stunned in the middle of a country lane. The most perfect white stripe was situated across it's face, it's bright eyes reflecting the sun. It scrambled back into it's hole at record speed. There's definitely something to be said for the perfection that lies within nature. On my way up the hill I saw a lonesome poppy swaying with the summer breeze. It's delicate petals felt like silk and the sharp crimson stood out against it's black centre. Poppies have such a sexy daredevil-like quality to them. It was almost like a symbol for 'The heart of Darkness', a book we'd spent months analysing - to the point at which it had almost become ingrained into our psyche. 
The landscapes that surround us also continue to blow me away, my eyes open slightly wider when I think of those responsible for cultivating these works of art - local farmers, people that don't gain enough recognition around these parts. Now I'm not religious myself, but the idea that these stunning natural creations (flowers, animals, forests) all have such sophistication and perfection without being sculpted or altered by hand is so humbling - and it's understandable how people attribute this perfection to the concept of 'a god' in creating such beauty, because man-made art that also contains a high degree of perfection, is the only thing we have to compare it to - hence the fact that gods image is so similar to man, is conceivable. 

Vintage ad.

Moving on from religious matters (my book has me hooked), we went into town today to pick up a few bits and pieces, and I noticed something as I walked into shop after shop after shop. About a year ago I watched a documentary made by Morgan Spurlock (the same man that made 'Supersize me' a film I'm sure everyone's familiar with), it was called "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" and while I don't particularly recommend it for entertainment's sake, it does have some thought provoking insights. The whole documentary is based on the idea of marketing and advertising, how products become successful based on the schemes surrounding them. It even got to the point of being psychological - movie trailers today are based on creating the biggest reaction possible to hook their audience - this can be measured via EEG machines that measure brainwaves and can detect when the frequencies are the most active reflecting various moods like excitement or fear. A bit of a scary idea that we're subconsciously being reeled in to watch movies without really knowing it, but I suppose we subject ourselves to them in the first place..

Vintage ad.

But one other big idea that I took away from the documentary was the advertisement ban that took place in São Paulo - to enable brands to succeed or fail based on their products quality and the preferences of the people, without any influence from advertisements. The satisfaction rates of the population increased dramatically following this ban. And this is exactly what went through my head as we walked into shops confronted by a million different products and prices. It's so much to take in I don't understand how one can filter through it all unless you have a completely clear objective of what you need without being subject to distraction along the way. My friends always joke around with me when we walk through malls saying I need horse-blinders to keep me focused. A few shops and a few-too-many headspins later I gave up; there are always going to be things that we want or can/ can't afford, that's the nature of consumerism and materialsm. And it's hard to end that process, of course I still haven't 'ended that process' living in the society we do today, but it was nice not needing to go home with handfulls of new clothes to add to my suitcase that's already spilling over. Living on a budget means I have to actually think before I buy now aswell, not that I didn't before - but knowing how long it takes to earn $6 as opposed to having it handed to you, does give you another layer of awareness to add to the basket. 

My Gran's arrived so we have more female energy in the house - balanced at last. Pasties and salad for lunch, as we sat wrapped up in shawls and jumpers with stronger gales still approaching. We'll get in a bit of nature later with a nice walk through nearby fields. French bread and fresh muscles for dinner - mm, who can resist a taste of France ;). 


 Recipe of the day: Steamed muscles in white wine served with grilled French bread
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/steamed-mussels-with-white-wine-tarragon-shallots-butter-and-grilled-french-bread-recipe/index.html