I have to entertain the children

This is a quote from a mother about her own children; I have to entertain the children. It made me reflect on my parents and the idea that they had to entertain me was ridiculous, they expected me to entertain myself which I did and that became a lifelong skill and I can honestly say that I have never had a day in my life where I was bored. A skill was imparted by my parents by them not doing any entertaining!

The laid back Taoists of ancient China had a philosophy of letting the world turn and then all one does is ride the wave, if you need to, and if you don’t need to you just watch the wave!

I have made a career out of the opening quote and for that I am grateful but I believe it reflects a strange aspect in society that we have to be doing something and it is going to get a lot worse because the next generation of children will be parented by the children who need entertaining, where the hell are we going? What about people learning to be their own bosses following their own intuition?

Society has made everyone believe that they know nothing; a mass of people who need guidance. We are in a very strange place and that will develop very clearly that we are becoming mindless sheep. Maybe a glimmer of hope is that people are getting more connected and therefore there is a rise of a counterculture that might present an answer.

With music we have the chance to make something happen like in the days of Punk or the days of Skiffle where you did it for yourself there were no experts you just made it up as you went along rather like improvising. The test for improvising is simple, does it sound good?

So entertain yourself and listen to yourself and ask does it sound good and do I feel good? Oh and let the children play...

Vic



.www.bluescampuk.co.uk

 

The point about life is about living not working; we did not have children to make money for the ruling classes.

The reality is that many of us do have children for the above reason, ok not intentionally but if we consider the check list mentality that goes on in our culture where the young are literally going through their version of the bucket-list of life. The car, the house, the children, the holidays, the pets, the new job, we are doing this because it is the checklist given to us by the media passed through what our friends are doing; the living in London, the moving out of London etc.
As I get older the only thing that becomes clear to me is I realise how much I really do not know. When I was younger I knew it all and as each year went by the less I knew until now I am completely stupid BUT I have also in that time have become to realise that no one else knows anything either and all the points put across are flawed including the advice given to us by the experts
I my life time butter has been bad and now it is good, margarine was good and now it is bad, wine was good, bad, good and now bad, tea and coffee likewise fluctuate. So with that experience I ask myself who is paying for the research and who is getting the money for our fears?
In the past music and health treatments were free and you could heal yourself by eating the herbs that were outside your door.  Now we are told this is rubbish and we are encouraged to take drugs that cost lots of money only to discover later that A, they do not work. B they are more dangerous to either us or the environment than the good they do or C they are making someone who happens to be part of the ruling elite either here or in Washington lots of money, or all three of the above.
I suggest that we do what the troubadours did in times past become the channels of information through our music and bring our music to the people in such a way that avoids the big companies, that establishes the small i.e. you and your friends, and all things that you do you do for yourself and those around you disregarding the tick box culture propagated by the media
Be true to yourself, you are your best judge.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

The Gospel according to Kellogg

The physical act of crunching cornflakes or other cereals is portrayed as working an amazing alchemy on slothful human beings; the incoherent, unshaven sluggard is magically transformed into a smart and jolly worker full of vigour and purpose by the positive power of cereal. Kellogg himself, tellingly, was a puritanical health nut who never had sex (he preferred enemas). Such are the architects of our daily life. – Tom Hodgkinson

 

When we look at how something is presented through the media it often takes years before you really see what is going on and then after that epiphany everything starts to look stupid.

The book written by Tom Hodgkinson that this quote is taken from, How To Be Idle, is a great read with some lovely insights like this about the madness of the modern world and its fixation on cereals and health when the evidence is to the contrary. Yet as people are making lots of money from a product that has more nutrition in the cardboard packaging than its contents we are entranced into this spell that we should be happy and healthy like the actors in the advert.

Another point raised in this book is of days lost to business because of illness; his point is what happened to people being able to recover without popping a pill? Of course someone is making money out of you. What about life being lost to days of business?

Now we are seeing this with the schools and education. The idea that children cannot have a few days off without the law being broken is ridiculous because we you see what goes on in a school such as when there is a cover teacher taking a class then the pupils would be better to have done work on their own at home BUT we are led to believe that any moment lost at school is a disaster as if every moment of every day is of dire importance; this is rubbish.

Many of the things being taught at school is more about teaching people to conform than to think. A point raised by Matthew Parris in the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives is that it seems that a standard education is an impediment for a ‘great life’ as most of the nominated lives on the programme were either self-educated, late educated or unconventionally educated. May be the very fact that their education is different makes them stand out from the crowd.

I am suggesting that as a great musician and artist you MUST think for yourself and be different because you will not become successful if you believe the way to make it is being on The Voice or X Factor, think about it Adele, Amy Winehouse or Ed Sheeran made it without the talent show circus.

So think for yourself, don’t take what the media gives you and ask yourself why the education system is built the way it is and if you are like most artistic people you will feel uncomfortable with the system, simply because it was not built for people to become musicians it was to make you someone more pliable.

 

Vic

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Much Time?

How much time do you need to spend on artwork before it is finished? When have you not done enough?
For someone like Picasso who could paint a bird on glass in a few minutes or Billy Childish who says that if a piece of work takes more than twenty minutes it really isn’t happening, the idea of spending ‘enough time’ on a piece of work is an interesting concept.
Maybe it all comes down to the vision of the artist that once it reaches that fulfilment it is done but that is a challenging problem for examination work at schools when you are dealing with children. I am just wondering if this is presented to pupils at all in their lessons. I know that it was not for me until I met one of the special teachers that you remember who do more than just teach you the subject they change you and the way that you think. My art teacher did this by asking me ‘why’. Just that simple question, not saying that I was right or wrong but he wanted me to know for myself why and the formulation of the answer made me think about why and what I was doing.
I suspect that for the pupils of art it says more about what the teacher needs to show and what boxes they need to tick than what it says about the pupil. When someone tells you that even though they have spent hours on their work it still ‘is not enough’ you need have the vision of what is required, then do it and it IS finished.

Vic

 www.bluescampuk.co.uk