 |
MY Independent article that never came out...
Current mood:  adventurous
Category: Life
Independent Article - finally posted (pretend it's still August).
The Heat of August
Festival Time!
Train Travel…
Life and Death.
It's August time people!
Here in the heat of August, I am confused about life and death…
I have traveled the UK trains more than any person should ever have to – traveling from my East London flat to Crewe… to record a little band that I like from London (The Hatcham Social – gonna be the best record ever)!
Any way back to those pesky trains and their petty excuses for delays, and don't even get me started about traveling on a Saturday, or Sunday. That's only if I am desperate to stop in 10 random cities and almost get beaten up in Utoxeter, being taunted & shouted at/mocking me, saying I had Mr. Bean glasses (whatever that means!), all this before 6 hours later 'safely' docking into Euston.
Okay, so that's the rant on the trains, the trains that you take to get to the festivals.
The festivals these days are nuts – all 2,000 of them. I mean these days; they even have a festival for dudes with beards!
I mean who's really in control/running these shows, who's performing, and who does what, where and when?
The folks employed to work at some of the post, seriously don't even know where they are! Much less be able to tell me where I'm going! The workers seem to have more of an ego than the bands/performers! At least the bands just get on with it… (We don't really want your stupid meal ticket; we wanna be skinny any way!).
Travel there, and back on a train, then mix all this in with a few bank holidays and the chaos begins.
Welcome to the heat of August!
Summer is suppose to be full of sunshine and picnics, bbqs and flowers, and people pay a lot of money to ride on trains and to attend concerts…
Life should be enjoyed and lived in the easiest way possible, especially if you are paying for it!
Because you never know when it will ALL end…
For instance, a gentleman I had a business meeting with the other day literally passed away (died), an hour after our meeting.
He informed Alan McGee and me that he wasn't feeling well, and needed to go get his heart medication. Alan immediately encouraged him to do so and ended the meeting at that second.
We continued to talk a little more with his wife, but were concerned about the situation, so we all agreed it best - to go check up on her husband.
He later collapsed, and was taken to the hospital where he shortly died afterwards. He was only 45.
That night, all I could see in my sleep/dreams was his face.
I wondered what was going on through his mind, what was his last thought, I remembered him offering me a coffee, and I couldn't help to think - Oh dear God, I was one of the last people this man laid eyes on. I feel really bad/weird. Death occurred during an every day activity – with no warning, no clues, with no nothing… Just there one day in August.
I am terribly sympathetic for his wife, family, and colleagues.
I respect him and life more than ever.
Taking me to the above rants/topics.
Sometimes I watch some of the performers at the festivals, and I think to myself - look at them on that stage – they are doing it, I am doing it, we are living our dream!
We are especially fortunate to being doing what we love to do… and I just wonder why do some people when they have been so blessed with a gift (literally life)… Why would they want to intentionally harm themselves/waste their talent?
For example why would an attractive, talented female artist, that has an amazing unique voice, loads of fans, and is loved, etc. want to ruin the dream/destroy the gift?
I guess it's an age-old question, but why do some want to exploit the weaknesses/good fortune of others, for the sole purpose of greed/fame? Love thy fellow man.
You just can't take it with you!
Look at Isaac Hayes... back in his days at Stax Records – he had it all (cars, diamonds, furs, big houses), but ended up losing it all. He reinvented himself several times as a 'soulful' human being… as I think an individual should. Yet one day, there he was on his treadmill in his home – he just dies. That one day in August.
We all are gonna go one day – Tony Wilson died one year ago in August. He was also someone I highly respected and admired.
He was the first person to put The Charlatans on TV, and a man who without knowing it taught me everything about music that I needed to make a go of it. Through the power of TV, he brought incredible independent, alternative music into the living room of my Northern parent's home!
I feel like he was pioneer, he was a risk taker, he was a rebel. Yet, a leader, he fought for what he stood for, and every day he tried to learn more. He had the academic ability to back up his ideas.
Therefore, whenever I can learn something new – I try.
Again every day is a gift, a new lesson to be learned waiting around the corner.
Also this month, I played records at a great festival called The Underage Festival in Victoria Park, where a lot of new, cutting edge subversive bands played – S.C.U.M., Ipso Facto, Poppy and The Jezebels, Pull In Emergency, and even Dizzy Rascal.
These are people in particular that are standing out in the crowd, saying something new, living for a new generation, creating a new breed of life!
We all have to start somewhere.
Life is a gift.
We ain't perfect, but we are alive.
We all have to stand up for what we believe in without being self destructive (I know how it gets), because when it is our time, we wanna go with a smile and a sense of accomplishment, and a feeling of love, giving love, being loved.
So here's to – the festival organizers, businessmen, factory workers, train drivers, the songwriters, the Isaac Hayes, and the Tony Wilson's of the future! Here's to life man!
Over and out – I've got some living to do!
Peace, Tim
"Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding."
- Diane Arbus
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
_______________________________________________
ps - Thanks Always to: MDB. (my best mate).
 |
Currently
listening
:
The Culling Is Coming
By
23 Skidoo
Release date: 2003-09-30
|
6:27 PM
-
16 Comments - 18 Kudos
- Add Comment
|
enlightened
accomplished
anxious
busy
strong
