Lyrics: “Do One” – Frank Turner, 2024
A good night’s sleep does wonder for my mood. I should try to get enough sleep more often. Duh! Why do the most basic things to improve mood and mental health sometimes still feel so difficult to achieve? Or is that just me?
I usually try to not look at my phone / social media first thing in the morning. Bathroom, coffee, meditation first. Today though I had to check up on Frank’s world record journey and was thrilled to see that around 9:00 my time he was still on track. In the early afternoon he had done it. World record holder Frank Turner. Never thought I’d type that to be honest. Congrats!
While sipping my (first) coffee I made a list of what I wanted to do today, not a to-do-list as such, but more sketching out blocks of time for this or that on a make-shift-daily planner on a journal page. It worked well for the most part so far. It feels a bit stupid for lack of better word, but this bit of self-imposed structure seems to help a bit.
One block of time was for writing down first thoughts about each track of “Undefeated” for my album review, which will come at some point. Not for a while though, because trying to gather my thoughts about some songs tends to cause an avalanche of introspection and tangents about my own psyche and there is no place for that in an album review.
I’ve also made time to read some of the many news articles saved in my feedreader. Articles about
- life in the city vs the countryside,
- how primary schools react to the political demand of more Math and less Musical education,
- people taking part in a Universal basic income study
- Ryan Gosling
Re: current news, of course Israel/Gaza is always in the back of my mind and so many times I start drafting a comment / argument on one aspect or another. But it always quickly feel like the argument falls short, because I just don’t know enough, even as much as I read about it.
The “A Muslim & A Jew Go There” podcast is a good way to learn more about different perspectives on Israel/Gaza, but also hear important views on racism against minorities (in the UK, but the situation is similar elsewhere I’d say). I’m still two episodes behind, but I’m planning to catch up.
While I was listening to one of those podcast episodes I kept working on my latest “Zendoodle” or whatever to call the activity. I sometimes forget that I better cover the rest of the page with a tissue when I put my hand down on it to easier fill the blanks.
The day ended with a concert of movie / musical scores in a nearby theatre. As someone who can’t really play any instrument nor has a lot of knowledge about making any kind of music, hearing / seeing an orchestra is always fascinating to me. The conductor this time also was rather active on his podium, more so than I have seen others before. I quite enjoyed watching him, even though I had no idea how conducting an orchestra actually works.
And is there any movie theme more heartbreaking than “Schindler’s List”? I doubt it. It’s not even that I see sad scenes from the movie in my mind or any other images from that horrible time. The melody on violin is enough to bring tears to my eyes. The power of music, I guess.
