October Earworms

When I wrote my first Earworms post back in August, it was a one-off. A curiosity. Nothing more. Seems like my brain had other plans though. Something in the examination of the near constant music I hear in my head, the whats and the whys hooked me. So I continue to pay attention, scribble them down and ponder.

Indulgent? Perhaps. Fascinating for no one other than me? Maybe. Am I going to carry on. You bet.

The songs I list here. These are the ones that stick. The loiterers. The ones that won’t let me go. That sometimes speak to the very core of me. Not the ones that flit in and out of my head like a constantly re-tuning radio.

They often seem to reflect my mood. Frequently low, melancholic with a side order of angst. Occasional bursts of enjoyment, love at the brilliance of life. Sometimes simply songs that say ‘hey-I-am-going-to hang-around-and-bug-the-hell-out-of-you-just-for-the-fun-of-it’.

Alongside the ever present thrum of Tom Hickox, the sounds in my head and occasionally (unfortunately for those present to hear) sung out loud last month included:

Kids by MGMT – I adore this song. I hear it, I smile…even when it is on repeat in my head. Which happens surprisingly often. For some reason this time, I found myself hooked by the lyrics ‘Decisions are made and not bought. But I thought this wouldn’t hurt a lot. I guess not’. Why I have no idea.

Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap – It kinda reminds me of me right now. Moving between long, slow, low moments and bursts of energy where everything feels alive. A recurrent earworm that dips in and out of me. That reminds me not to ‘stop till it’s over’.

Low by Cracker – a real blast from the past this one. Heard on 6 Music (best radio station ever!) and then in my head for the next week. From back in 1993, it bought memories from my misspent youth. Of dancing on sticky club floors, of feeling like I could do anything. Could be anyone. Of life before so much went wrong.

Shout Out to My Ex by Little Mix – rare example of a earworm that I don’t actually like. Annoyingly it is one of those songs I simply have to hear or see its name for it to be rampaging with glee around my head. If I hear it, it sticks. I couldn’t even look it up to link to it for the fear of what it would do to me. Every year Strictly Come Dancing dumps unwanted tunes in my head – why oh why did it have to do this to me though?

One thing I did notice from my taking stock of my earworms is the influence my recent rash of binge watching has had. Soundtracks have literally become my soundtrack.

I missed the little gem of zombie awesomeness that is In the Flesh when it was first shown on BBC 3. I discovered it whilst on a trail of seeing what Emmett Scanlan has been in (my current method of choosing what to watch. Follow the trail of an actor like I am walking the yellow brick road). Anyway I digress. The music of Keaton Henson lays amongst and between the episodes. His work is not for the happy amongst us. It is raw and melancholic, full of sadness and uncertainty. Much like me. My head flicks through his songs with relative frequency and is haunted by 3 in particular – You, Flesh and Bones and Charon (*trigger warning – song and video deal with suicide*).

My biggest binge watch has left me with some serious earworms and a desire to feel the beat of heavy bass in my bones again. I loved the UK version of Queer as Folk and gave into my curiosity as to whether the US would simply be a poor imitation that I wouldn’t want to watch. I was wrong. I love it. And I love the music. I had forgotten how alive ‘thumpa-thumpa’ music makes me feel, the deep urge it provokes to move my limbs.

I couldn’t decide whether to share the songs or the clips for the earworms from this show. I went with clips in the end as it is the show versions I hear in my head. Be aware that the show was a LGBT adult drama and you *may* not want to watch them at work …

You Look So Fine by Garbage – a brief yet intense earworm. A brief yet intense (and ever so slightly filthy) clip.

High School Confidential by Carole Pope – a poptastic tune, saucy lyrics and a scene involving a young man dancing and eventually stripping to his pants. Makes me smile, want to dance (though thankfully not to strip) and probably one of the most persistent earworms I have had for some time. Odd.

Absurd by Fluke – definitely the most filthy of the clips, this song though is awesome and its beats pulse through my head frequently. Turns out I have owned the album it is on for years yet never remember hearing it before. Foolish!

Earworms = mood at the moment. The lively ones that make me want to pull some shapes appear when I am not deeply low. Keaton is there the rest of the time. The likes of Little Mix…well I have no explanation for them. Much like my moods…

This will (hopefully) be the last post on this blog as my new blog is nearly up (exciting! and running. Fingers crossed we are nearly good to go.

 

Photo by Mark Solarski on Unsplash

 

 

What’s in a name?

At the moment I am stuck. My whole life feels stuck. I keep feeling I am on the verge of doing big things, making big changes yet never actually taking any steps forward. Ever since finishing my last deadline I have felt unanchored and drifting. I feel the weight of all our plans and my work closing in around me, not knowing what to do or how to do it.

I don’t know if it is the reason for this blocked ‘meh’ feeling or a symptom of it but this blog seems to be a big tree blocking my way at the moment. Or more specifically its name is. My blog’s focus has moved away from my little button jewellery business and deserves a new name. It is about me now – my fears, adventures and hopes. So I want to refresh it, give it the new start that I working so hard towards.

Can I think of a new name though? Nope, the inspiration boat has well and truly sailed leaving me stranded here. I have been stuck thinking about this for weeks. I have read articles on choosing blog names, written lists of words, thought about my aims and goals, all that sort of jazz. Yet that name is still hiding from me. I keep getting tantalising feelings like the perfect name is about to pop into my head…and then it doesn’t. Or I think of a good name only to find that someone has got there before me.

Maybe I am resting too much on finding this name and that it is why it is hiding, fearful of the pressure I am placing on its shoulders. All I know is that I am one frustrated blogger at the moment…please if you have any ideas or suggestions, save me from this misery!

 

‘Everyday Inspiration’: wrap it up

Finally I have escaped the dreaded work deadline that has been hanging over my head and sucking up all my time these last couple of weeks! So I am back and ready to blog. First up, here’s that summary I promised on the Everyday Inspiration course I finished what seems like months ago now…

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Day Twenty: Wrap It Up

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And now, the end is near…yep it is the final day of the ‘Everyday Inspiration’ course that I have been doing over here on lovely WordPress.  Funnily enough they have made the last task a wrap-up piece, a look back over the course…never saw that coming…

I choose to take part of my curiosity about some ‘whats’ ~ what do I want from my blog, what I do want to write about and what direction or focus do I want to take?  Sprinkle in a few ‘whys’ ~ why do I write and why do I blog? ~ and that gives you a glimpse of the me that started this course.

It has given me both answers to those questions and at the same time given more questions about how and why I write and what I write about.  Stretching my writing muscles and trying new things has been an interesting experience.  I have not always been brave enough or pleased enough with the results to publish what I have written, I have though written and learnt **

Has taking part in this made me a better writer or blogger?  I don’t really know and maybe it is not for me to decide.  I am not even sure I would be able to answer, I would be too busy looking at what could be better or what I feel is still missing…the damn perfectionist in me hasn’t quite let go yet despite my efforts.  It has certainly given me ideas and shown me blogging doesn’t have to be simply spilling out word after word from my over active mind.

All tasks taught me something, either about my writing or about myself.  These three are the ones that go ‘hey I was really special though’…

Home is Everywhere and it is Anywhere – based on the single word ‘home’ this piece struck a chord with me and with people I shared it with on social media, it reminded me how home is not one building or place.

Dear Tokyo, I miss you– writing a letter to something rather than to a person is a style of writing that was completely out of my comfort zone and I so nearly backed out of it.  I didn’t and was really rather chuffed with the result.

If we were having coffee right now… – This task introduced me to a new way of writing and I loved it!  I will probably introduce it to my blog as a more regular feature.

So now the course is over and what comes next?  A little part of me is concerned that without the focus and prompts given by the course I may lose my way.  Right where’s that positive hat I don’t wear often enough?  Okay found it, yes I may be a little concerned but what sort of anxious person would I be without some worry?  Worrying is nothing new to me.  Accepting that and with my little hat on, I will continue to write, explore new ideas and share my thoughts with you all.  The focus and style for this blog will come together in time, my little thoughts will find their big voice.

**I may have missed a couple of tasks out…**

Hello…I am still here…

I haven’t forgotten about you all or my little blog I promise!  Life has been a little…well busy…and I was feeling a little overwhelmed so something had to give before my sanity did.  

Feeling slightly more on stable ground now so hopefully will follow this quick update with some more blog posts soon (the doofus that I am forgot that I had a couple of drafts ready to go including the summary of my Everyday Inspiration course…doh). 

Catch up with you all soon!

All in a Muddle with Social Media

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Day Sixteen:  Mine Your Own Material

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Scrolling through the examples for this task, one jumped out and said ‘me, me me!’  Amongst the suggestions for using your own posts on social media as inspiration for writing about how we now document and live our lives online, the one clamouring for my attention was how using social media feels.

This is something I think about way too regularly and still am none the wiser about!  How exactly do I feel about the world of social media we live in and how can I use it in a way that works for me without the unhappiness and stress which so often seems to dog my relationship with it.

My relationship status with social media…well as Facebook would say…’It’s complicated’.  I love and hate it, part of me enjoys the world it opens up to me and another part resents the time I use on it, the effect it has on my mental state.  Looking at social media can so easily trigger anxious or depressed spells in me, make me feel isolated or sad yet it can also make me laugh, feel cared for and connected.  Just what is a girl supposed to do about that?!

I am on the big 3 (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and have different issues/likes about them all.  Twitter I don’t really quite get if I am honest, it overwhelms me and I can’t keep up with it.  I dip my toe in it every now and again generally finding it not my thing and moving on.

Instagram is by far my favourite and one that brings the least amount of issues to the table.  Sure I can occasionally get caught in the ‘how many likes did I get?’, ‘I wish my life was like that person’s’ etc and when I do, I step back and have a little break from it.  On the whole though I find Instagram a happy, welcoming place to be and have found some of my most supportive friends there.  I no longer try to catch up with everyone’s posts and have a little scroll once or twice a day, 9 times out of 10 leaving with a positive tummy feeling (on an aside, why are so many emotions felt in the tummy…or is that just me?)

Facebook is the big one for me, the one I really wish I could sort my feelings out for.  I loved Facebook when it first started.  It was a social place where people shared photographs with others, talked about what they were doing.  It was like meeting up with my friends and having fun, except these friends could be at the other end of the country or even across seas.  Over times though that has changed, Facebook has changed and it has become more bloated.  I spend less and less time on it and when I do pop by for a scroll, my feed is full of shared memes (often at someone’s expense), articles, bad news or people arguing  about the state of the world/the UK/the TV/whatever.

I am all for debate and think it is good that people do get involved in politics or protests and petitions, something though about Facebook seems to say to people ‘hey it is okay to be really rude and offensive’  I find this and the constant sharing of bad news or ‘shocking’ events hard reading and often leave Facebook feeling down or with my anxiety pushed right up.

Facebook to me is no longer about spending virtual time with my friends, ironically sometimes I feel like I am losing touch with them more and more because of it.  I simply can’t be bothered to spend much time scrolling through all the stuff that clogs my feed and so miss seeing actual updates from people.  Nobody seems to tell each other their news anymore, it is all ‘oh I shared it on Facebook’.  Friendships no longer feel so special.

In contrast I have people on my friends list who I never really talk to or interact with yet I feel that I can’t unfriend them because of connections with other people.  I’d like to keep my friends list to exactly that ~ my friends, yet it feels out of my control to do so.  I know I can unfollow people to keep the peace yet it stresses me knowing they are there and I berate myself for not having the balls to defriend them.

This all sounds like it is obviously pointing towards a break up with Facebook however the situation doesn’t feel that straightforward (as life never is).  Virtually all my friends are on it including many in other countries and I feel that if I left it, I would lose touch with some of them.  I suppose there is the argument that is how life is, people come into your life and some stay, some move on.  I like though that I can keep in contact with people this way, I like seeing what my friends in New Zealand or Japan are up to, I like the odd exchange of comments or likes.  I want that connection, the question is can I have it without all that negative stuff?  I am not yet ready to give up Facebook, I need to find a way of making it work for me though or I will reach that point for long.

See I told you I was all mixed up about social media!  What are your feelings about social media?  Do you use it and if so, how do you balance the real and online worlds in your life?  Am I alone in finding it all such a muddle?!