clinging to the wreckage

  The pool shimmers in the blinding brightness and causes hallucinatory reactions in the intense heat. I open the blinds and look down, but all I see is light… rippling rays of light. There are noises erupting from people down below, so I close the blinds and listen to Shattered Faith  by Bad Religion, it plays from the Marshall speaker in my bedroom, one of my greatest purchases. I have two of them, one in the living room, one in the bedroom; Marshall Acton III. In my bathroom I have a smaller one, a waterproof battery operated one that I use to listen to music whilst I am in the shower. I cannot live without music and literature. Reading about Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell made me think of Slayer and their Seasons in the Abyss . Now I listen to Slayer, but I was in the mood for South of Heaven , so that is the album I am playing. I love the way that the opening track, the title track, bleeds into the second track, Silent Scream . South of Heaven was one of the very first CDs ...

  A voice from Spain booms from my speaker. We exchange messages about life and relationships. For so many years we, as humans, live in the naivety and ignorance of youth and then, suddenly, time catches up and people around us start to disappear or die. So often, when this happens, we have left the relationship in a bad way, it ends in an open and unfinished silence. However, that is life. We enter with hopes, ambitions, and dreams… then we often just ride a wave and hope for the best. The ones we look at and consider to be the most successful, the most in control, are often the ones with tremendous secrets and unfathomable depths of pain.                     I walked to the office, grateful to be able to go and see people and share some discussions. A colleague told me about some of the work he was doing with airlines and payment systems, and it was fascinating. The Korean sisters running th...

  It’s really fascinating how people will post a video or story about ‘Europeans loving America’ during the world Cup. And they add a thumbnail of Donald Trump or add something about religion. Yes, Europeans love America when visiting, it is an incredible place. However, do not fool yourself, there is no love for Trump… and Europe has almost entirely moved on from religion. An even greater irony is these guys posting videos, including Trump thumbnail, of Europeans saying 'we are free here.' Do they not realise that Trump is trying to have comedians banned, fired, blocked, because they joke about him? Yes, Europeans, and others, love America, but the America they love is the one established by great systems and communities over decades, not the one that Trump aspires to and wants to create. America, without Trumpism, is great. I only wish Americans would travel to Europe and speak to locals in the countries they visit to understand how people really feel and think. And, if the s...