The front page of this website says I subscribe to the idea of side projects, yet since embracing self-employment I’ve provided little evidence of anything remotely approaching a ‘side hustle’. Today that changes. Today I’m proud to introduce you to a little-known thing I like to call ‘beer’.
Read MoreMan Alive!
Our social groups should have a positive effect, not hold us back. We need to share our stories because we are individual. One of the big messages of Man Up is that we share experiences, not opinions. Bottling things up and being someone we’re not is unhealthy. We need to laugh and cry and feel things because we are human beings.
Read MoreLight in the Middle of the Tunnel
In the peaks of its different phases, Array represented a battle of wills and philosophies: order vs chaos; geometric vs fluid; bleak colourscapes vs rainbows. At one point, a dazzling light display was instantaneously supplanted by a static, imposing red and black colour scheme. The sense of oppression, of an unseen authority reasserting its dominance, was palpable.
Read MoreWhat do you do if you see a spaceman?
This isn’t a minimalism blog. I’m not here to pass comment on how people live their lives. What I am interested in is: how much space do we actually need versus how much space we want?
Read MoreMaking the Leap: Three Months In
Three months since making the leap seemed like a good time to take stock and share some of what has interested me lately. If you get some value from any of these links, or come across something you think might interest me, let me know! Contact details are at the front of the site, and social media links are at the foot of every page. Here's to the next three months!
Read MoreDiscovering Carcassonne
There is certainly something of the fairytale about the ‘original’ city of Carcassonne, but there is little point in denying the extra charm it bestows on the place as a result. It’s good to be reminded there are things that can still make you feel a childlike excitement, and seeing the Cité in the flesh instantly banished any lingering doubts about being yet another tourist among the millions who visit each year.
Read MoreDon't Bat Away Sustainability Issues
The first floor was intended as a play room - a play room that had to be sacrificed once the bat survey yielded its results. The family found themselves still paying for a substantial brick-built structure on its own foundations, but with an upstairs that I designed and detailed solely for bats and not for them or their kids.
Read MoreIn Search of Knowledge (a podcast review)
Diversity of opinion is good; it informs debate and encourages learning. But it can also be bloody annoying when seeking an objective view on a topic. One person says one thing, another says the opposite and the truth you’re seeking lies in between. But where, and how best to find it?
Read MoreMaking an Exhibition of Ourselves
Based on similar presenting experiences in recent years, however, I’m also left wondering if a level of … mistrust … towards manufacturers remains, regardless of the ratio of educational content to overt promotion. No type of construction product appears to be immune to a muted reaction, even if the content is genuine and well-intended.
Read MoreMy First Cinema Visit
Whether an all-time classic, or a candidate for ‘so bad it’s good’, inaugural films command our affections to the extent that even the most mediocre first movie lodges itself in the memory. My introduction to cinema was the unremarkable Dante’s Peak, so it’s hard to think of another circumstance under which I’d remember it so fondly.
Read MoreDo As I Say, Not As I Do
Does a boy of ten understand any of that? No idea, but I believe each and every word. Believe them despite knowing how often I disobey them. Like any good adult, I’m perfectly happy ignoring my own advice.
Read MoreSold Out! (the author, that is...)
You don't have to pretend. You can admit that you're taking down the system from within, using the establishment to propagate your anti-establishment argument!
Read MoreBack on my Usual Stomping Ground
Amateurish effects are part of the charm of these films, but they only grant so much grace. Thankfully, the story of an island's native population being exploited by ruthless profiteers stood up in its own right, and ensured that Mothra wasn't simply an unremarkable preamble to the main attraction: a 35mm print of Godzilla.
Live Every Day Like it's Your 20,000th
It might sound like a whistle stop tour around a man's life, but Cave's mesmerising creative outpourings and deliberate articulation of thought made it impossible to feel rushed. The concentrated blend of philosophy, life history and song-writing entranced the viewer with a world that seemed entirely plausible in its artifice. Rather than begging multiple questions, it was a world that concentrated on just one: who is Nick Cave?
Lessons for the Future
Because, done right, cinema distils universal moments with elegant objectivity, encapsulating and presenting them ready to be coloured by the prism of our own feelings and beliefs. To witness characters bestowing their wisdom on the adolescent Mason was a perfect context for my quest for answers from the film.