writing – BLANK CANVAS

AI

Artificially intelligent. Robots taking over the world. Our lives changing forever, your life in their hands. Big brother taking control of the wheel, building the car and taking you for whatever journey they fancy. You are out of control, like Trump out for a morning stroll, spitting nonsensical rubbish out into the world, creating chaos, firing shots all over the place just to see what happens, shooting them so they just fly past ears, surface wounds. Just a few centimetres from a different world; the fallibility of humans. AI will take the strain although trains will still probably run late, be cancelled, smell of the 1970s: Comfort, sweat and piss. The perfect world built around AI will never exist. People will still be sheltering under bridges, wrapped in stinking old blankets, comforted by Blue Nun or other such fortified wine. Our computerised intelligent friends will make many jobs redundant, those menial tasks that some people probably enjoy. Fiddling around with a spreadsheet, using mental arithmetic, digging deep into school history lessons to remember dates of lesser-known wars. The Boer wars, when were they again? Time will exist to pop more regularly to the gym, to go out for midday walks whilst your bot collates every element of your business into a streamlined project management proposal. Us humans left to ponder, to be artistic, creative. So why then are multiple governments defunding the arts, when understanding our creative selves is going to be a key element of the next 100 years. By 2099 the average life span will be 150 years old, frail bodies reconstructed, minds connected to mainframes, town centres overpopulated with electric zimmer frames and silent non-polluting vehicles. Healthcare transformed, early warnings for the previously terminally ill. Street corner smokers replaced by electronic transmitters. No one dies. Graveyards get turned over to be used as spaces to house mega computers. Chips implanted into babies at birth, regulating every last internal element, checking dietary requirements from within. Providing a smart watch readout, regulating everything so that you can maximise productivity and life. Serendipity disappears. We are all under central control. Tik Tok memes a quaint remembrance from the past like grainy black and white film. Everything is sanitised. Life is perfect. More people are stacked up under the bridges, freezing, washed away by yet another deluge as ice caps melt. What is AI going to do for and to us? But what is the overall ethos? What is the point? Increased efficiency. No more potholes in the road as AI can gather this data and put repairs into action, robotic teams laying steaming tarmac whilst one human worker looks on from central control. One human worker oversees all potholes, shuffling to monthly line management meetings with his robotic boss. Lines of driverless cars waiting patiently for the green light, no horns are blared, the world is silent except for the incessant sounds of nature and the unromantic whirring of machines; a chance to make music and write poetry whilst sat in early morning traffic. Planning vacations where electric planes can silently deliver you to picture perfect locations; all is clean and sanitised now, the madness of Varanasi no longer existing, pushing past cows in the streets as bodies burn by the dirty rivers edge. No gritty industrial estates, bleak and foreboding windswept arenas. But inequalities will remain, the human desire for separation and difference. Sanitised AI worlds only existing for a few not the many. Those lucky to have been born into AI families, those fortunate Gen Z whose long line of families bought property cheaply during the 1970s and 80s. Will AI really change that much for the general population, like watching the BAFTA’s, lots of suited and booted mega stars on your screens, talking about inequalities, talking about creativity, still a load of old white men in boring evening suits congratulating other white men in equally anonymous attire. Hopefully AI can help to bring some levels of equality rather than just efficiency, provide opportunities and visibility for all. Reconfigure the workplace so that everyone’s talents are maximised, that life work balance, universal wage and true equality arrives for all.

AI generated picture of AI taking over the world

Money, Money, Money

Money, what is it good for. Absolutely buying anything you want, not worrying about your future. Safety. We live on that edge of calmness and concern. Working daily to make ends meet, not struggling but veering towards the precipice which could cause it all to fall down. Living a comfortable life but knowing that one misstep could mean it all comes tumbling down. But we are middle class, have the security of family and friends, our health and many back up plans. We are a long way from the streets but like most people, closer than everyone thinks. It only takes one Michael Douglas day, to wake up on the wrong side, to self destruct through sheer and sudden panic. I have a contract for a couple of years, the job is engaging and interesting but already I am slightly distracted, wondering what I can do in 2026. Where will my career go, how do I ensure the future. Generally though I believe in fate, and waiting for the right opportunities to arrive. I balance my money between credit cards, juggling everyday, checking apps and fine tuning, watching the numbers gradually get lower and lower. As a student it took me a while to get used to money. I was amazed that each time I went to a cashpoint the number seemed to increase, before realising that there was a minus sign before it. Some people have money tied up in properties. Those ‘lucky’ people who inherited something or came to the housing market at an opportune point. This has long gone for the youth of today. The ladder is gradually rising off the ground, way out of reach. Asset rich, cash poor the nouveau upper middle class sometimes struggle to work, used to having money fly to them, swirling around in the sky and gently dropping into their waiting arms. For most of us money has to be learnt. The hard slog of life to get some cash, to pay for a holiday as a break from the drudgery of life. To buy something that takes us away from normality, is special. Provides a focus. I would love to buy a new synthesis for my studio but everyday money passing means that it keeps getting pushed back, waiting for that magical moment when you gain something. A minor lottery win (although I only played it for the first few weeks). Tax rebate. Work bonus. Maybe one of my tracks or books or photographs will finally make me some dosh after all this time. Waiting. Working. Longing. I don’t want much, just that little extra. But money means nothing. It is worthless. Previously gold, silver, paper and now just numbers rolling around in the ether. Money makes the world go round but will also lead to its fatality. Money will be squirrelled away by the chosen few as the earth burns, floods, dies. They will be standing there with notes stuffed in their pockets as the world gradually tips off its axis and falls away into the ether, another lonely star wondering around in outer space without a cashpoint in sight.

I love books

They provide sustenance for the soul

A quiet space of reflection away from the maddening din of life.

They review lives and define our current times

So many people write books, millions out there although the process is such a painstaking and difficult thing to complete. An achievement. A marathon.

Writing a book comes from deep inside, the extraneous moments eradicated by the moment of action

Writing a book is the pleasurable moment, like making music it transports you

There is a cleanliness where your mind and body have been stripped bare, laid out on parchment

I love the smell of new books, that deep fresh aroma, possibilities ahead but new books are clogging up the earth. There are so many already out there that surely we can find what we are looking for in the already created. The Booker Prize longlists from years gone past. I get defeated by fiction. So many authors that dazzle in front of my eyes but so few who really resonate. The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois the most affecting from the last few years, a deep dive into Black American histories through a structure that follows lineage, connects ancestors with the current day. A book you can live within, become immersed in unfamiliar and known worlds. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver I found less engaging, some memorable sections but overall it seemed to drag along. Exploring addiction from a voice that seems slightly detached and unknowing, an academic and detached version of events.

The same as The Bee Sting, another lauded book for its clever time travelling experience but surely it could be told more effectively. I am trudging through the Irish forests waiting for it all to come together. Increasingly I find it more difficult to engage, to find the works that resonate so it’s probably time to visit the classics. Homers Odyssey, 1984, DeLillo etc…For some reason I love Rachel Cusk. I suppose she is talking directly to me. I understand her worlds. Her books aren’t too long, they take you on a dreamy trip through the world of literature, the writer uncovered. So really I want to read books about worlds I would like to inhabit, the literary festivals, country houses by the sea, a life of creation and discussion.

The bookshelf in my studio showing the current books I am reading

New Years Revolutions

So its 2024, another year over, another year starts, but really its just another day, sunrise, do stuff, sunset. The mid winter break (if you get one) allows the chance to rset, to think about those things which you want to concentrate on, to change old habits, bring in new ideas, start afresh from a Blank Canvas (™). I am lucky in that I am happy with my life so my main wish is for continued health and happiness, some resolution to world conflicts, action towards halting climate change, a Labour government, new patio (not like Fred/ Rose), the chance to go to conferences in Copenhagen, Philly and Porto, travel to Vietnam, see more of my kids and be just a little bit more famous.

New Years Day started well on my mission, with the Lyme Lunge, a beautiful site of 1200 people in fancy dress dipping into the ice cold water of Lyme Regis, Dorset. The local press loved taking pictures of friend Steve and myself, our outfit garnished with 2024 futuristic glasses. An easy image to summarise the new year. So far this year I am having an article written about my first book (Blank Canvas), have had some music played on Radio Wigwam and have finalised some amazing acts for the Sidmouth International Jazz and Blues festival. Exciting times ahead. I hope everyone has had a great start to the year, enjoy the increasing amount of daylight and the opportunities a new dawn brings.