Getting right down to it…Creativity

It’s easy to drift through life, get up, go to work, or get the kids off to school, do the housework, ironing, or whatever is our daily routine; get through the days, wait for the weekend, look forward to a little relaxation, maybe some entertainment. When the weekend’s done, get up on a Monday, and start all over again. That’s what most people do, drift through life, following the routine.. Nothing wrong with that, if that life means something to you..you may derive satisfaction from doing your best with the everyday tasks, and even take comfort from the reassuringly mundane nature of your life.. that’s fine, absolutely nothing wrong with that, but, if that’s the case, this post, and quite a few subsequent posts, are not really written for you.. Unless..Unless something happens to you, as it did to me, to make you realise that, for you, an everyday existence is not quite enough..In that event, you will probably realise that you need to change your life.  

There are, of course, as many life changing ways as there are people. What I’m about, and the way I went about changing my life, is not for everyone. I had a series events occur in my life that were pretty much out of my control, and, for a long time, I wallowed in a sort of very angry self pity, which ultimately led to clinical depression..I wasn’t insane, just very, very unhappy.. it was when I realised that I was harming myself, and, more importantly, my friends and my family, that I decided I needed to take control of my life, in a positive way. So, I chose to become creative, using the tools I already had at my disposal, as the most attractive and readilly available option to do so. I know what you are thinking..well, that’s ok for him, he has a musical talent, he could do that with music.   

Over the years, I’ve lost count of the people I’ve had approach me, after a gig, and say things like..  ‘It must be nice to have a talent..I’d love to be able to play an instrument’  I usually respond by saying, ‘So, why don’t you?’ The answer is almost always the same.. ‘I’m not musical, I couldn’t do what you do, I don’t have the ‘talent’ for it.’  By now, I’m thinking, ’I imagine you think I just picked up my first Guitar and instantly played it like a pro, like I was born with the ability.’  I don’t persue the conversation, except to be friendly and polite. I know they’re a lost cause..because they were defeated by the idea, by their mindset, not by the instrument.

Nobody was born with the ability to type, drive a car, pilot an airplane, play the Harpsicord or perform Neurosurgery. Whatever a human being does well, was learned..it was learned, by starting at the begining, working through the basics, and developing the required skill, building on their experience, over time.. It is fair to say that some people have more natural apptitude than others; for them, the skills are easier to aquire, but, they still have to work and practice, and the top flight performers work at their craft every day. They make a point of watching and talking to the most skilled people in their chosen craft, to glean something of benefit to them, in persuit of progressing their skills. They want to learn, and they want to be be better at what they do.

Now, let’s get a little more personal. If you want to do something interesting, exciting and fulfilling, if you want to change your life for the better, you stand a way better chance of doing it than you imagine. You are a creative, sensient being. What? Me? Creative? Yes, you. Most people are far more creative than they imagine, and have the tools they need, right there, around them, in their immediate vicinity… Try this:

Go get a coin. Any coin..and a pencil and paper.

1) Write down the profession of more than ten people who might have owned it before you. 

2) Write down more than ten places it might be found, if it were lost.

I don’t need to see the answers; You have answered them, easilly, because you are creative. Of course, there are no right answers..they are all your answers, and, as soon as you asked yourself the question, out they came. I have no doubt some will be the same as other people’s answers, but there will be differences..those differences are yours, an aspect of your different mind, to that of other people.. We are all creative, we humans, and we are all a little different.. 

To bring out our creativity, all we need do is ask ourselves questions..and answer them with our Art, or our Ideas.. The innate ability is in nearly all of us, to a greater degree than we anticipate, until we start..

One more thing.. Did you go get a pencil and a piece of paper?

It’s all you need to Draw, or Write, all you need to make a creative work of some kind..Music, Art, Poetry, Philosopy.. with, of course, a Head, a Heart, and a little Determination.. 

Who needs a mundane life?

George Bolam

http://InZaneCountry.co.uk

Why is helping people important to me; Who are they?

Most musicians, these days, see the internet as the way to go.. make some recordings, get a few sample tracks online, publicise their release, get the wheels turning on their career, start making money, and, hey presto! a fast track to musical fame and fortune… that’s their goal, fame and fortune.

Now and then, you’ll come across one or two that don’t see fame and fortune as all they’re cracked up to be. I’m one of those few. So, what do I want? What do I see as important? Where do I want to go with my music? 

Well, it’d be nice to be rich, let’s not kid ourselves, here, but it’s unlikely I’ll get to be..so, I reason, why bust my ass trying to achieve that unlikely goal, when I can find my reward in other ways, ways worth busting my ass for..

I started writing songs for reasons entirely unrelated to money. As I’ve said in previous posts, my early songs  were written to help a friend. It was the only way I knew how to help, at the time, through our mutual love of music..  Quite coincidentally, the writing process became a therapy for me too, as did all the creative aspects of putting together a CD of original work, entirely on my own. I found myself writing lyrics, melodies, playing the instruments, singing, recording, producing, designing artwork, taking photographs, and writing prose.. I even started looking at marketing and publicity, and put together a basic, and somewhat homely website.. I did it myself, because no one I knew had the motivation I had, and because I simply wanted to, and I realised that doing that stuff helped me..it was hugely therapeutic. If it was therapeutic for me, I realised, it would be for others..and the therapeutic benefits of completing something worthwhile, from nothing more than idea, are manyfold.  There are thousands of people, millions maybe, out there who could do what I did, or something similar.. It may be poetry, art, photography, writing, making pots..whatever..but many of those people don’t know how, or don’t have the self belief to feel they can do the sort of things they so admire when created by someone else.. I start from a simple premise:

Most people are more creative than they believe they are, but don’t know how to release their creativity, and don’t have the self belief and motivation to try. Moreover, they don’t know where to start or how.

That was me, for many years. It took a a severe bout of clinical depression to get me off my backside and into my work, doing something positive to help myself and others…. a combination of circumstance, unhappiness and need gave me the kick start I needed;  it has rewarded me with enormous satisfaction, confidence, and self belief. I didn’t know, when I started writing and recording my album, whether or not I could do it. I had an idea I could, but that was all. Well, I could do it, and I did do it; I wrote, performed, recorded and completed a Country Music album, with no help from anyone but myself.. 

Interestingly, the biggest reward from all this came to me, not when I had finished the record, but during the process of making it, during the act of creation.. it was then that I came to start loving myself, life and people, once again. Loving yourself is not about pride, arrogance, self egrandisment, or any of that clat trap. It is about humility, and acceptance of your true nature, it is, maybe, the first step to understanding your own humanity, the humanity of others, the first step, a prerequisite, toward loving other people.

So, why do I want to help others? Once, I was very unhappy, and now, I’m not. I’m a better person than I was, a much happier person, and a better, happier world needs better, happier people. I received a gift..something I didn’t know I needed, the gift of creativity. Best part of all, though, is that it’s a gift I already had, and all I ever had to do was give it to myself. If it’s like that for me, it’s probably much the same for other people. Those simple truths are my motivation… For me, there was no road to Damascus moment, it was a gradual, dawning of realisation. Well, I’m sharp in some ways, a bit slow in others..I’m just a human, so, whatever.

Who do I want to help? I’ve already told you, but it bears repitition:

Most people are more creative than they believe they are, but don’t know how to release their creativity, and don’t have the self belief and motivation to try. Moreover, they don’t know where to start or how.

That’s them. Those’re  the folks I want to help, and those that I think I can.

I asked, earlier, where do I want to go with my music? Well, I want to get better at it..I write decent songs, I think, and produce decent recordings, as things stand, but they aren’t great, my songs and recordings.. I want to become really, really good at both. In time, I want to earn a modest living, doing the thing I love most, full time. Along the way, I want to see other people happier, moving in the same kind of direction as me.. I want the world to be better, happier, for you, me, and the people we care about. We can all help that to happen..and I want to do my share..

George Bolam

http://inzanecountry.co.uk

I want to help people..they all say that, don’t they?

I don’t know what it is about popular musicians, that they imagine they can change the world, make it a perfect place..it’s a bit of a forlorn hope, after all, when all the great Philosophies and Religions, who’s job it is, arguably, to do so, have failed, are failing, so dismally, after thousands of years of endeavour… but, a lot of musicians seem to think they can do it in a year or two.. 

A little while back, I was asked to contribute to a charity CD by a pretty well established and popular OMD, (Online Music Distributor) , which, from my point of view, was very flattering, and, would, in all probability, have done me considerable good in publicity, and, possibly, popularity terms. My musician friends told me I’d be crazy to say no, but, say no, I did. It wasn’t an easy decision. It would cost me nothing but a little of my time and a dedicated song, and it was to help needy children, in a number of countries, world wide. I’m a Dad, and I can pretty well imagine how desperate for help the parents of those children are.. so, why did I say no? 

I’ve said on numerous occasions, I want to help people. It’s part of the aspiration of my InZaneCountry project to do so. So, in the face of such an obvious opportunity, why did I say no? Well, the answer is very simple. I didn’t, (and still don’t), think that, realistically, a ‘charity CD’ was going to make much, if any difference, even if it became a best seller, which I regarded as highly unlikely..I also thought that others with more belief and committment to it would do a better job. It’s probably fair to say that if the amateur and semi professional music community was organised and commited, as a whole, to help aid charities throughout the world, that there is little doubt that considerable revenue could be raised, but, first, that is highly unlikely to happen, unrealistic; And, second, I find it very difficult to have faith in the idea that a small scale amateur or semi professional collective, on a one off basis, would achieve anything of consequence on a world scale.  So, reluctantly, I declined the offer. If I’m going to do anything to reduce unhappiness in the world, to help people less fortunate than myself, I want my time and trouble to count.. in short, I want to help those people I actually can help… I also believe, very strongly, the best way to help people is to empower them, give them the tools, the knowledge and know how, and the encouragement to change their lives, by helping themselves to do so. I feel that’s where my effort is best placed. 

So, who are the people I want to help, and how do I propose going  about it? Well, I’ll provide a little more detail on that in my next post, in a few days, but, first, a little background. What makes me think I have something to offer?

There are so many ways a human being can suffer, that it is, quite literally, impossible to enumerate them here. There are some people I might be able to help, and some I simply can’t. I can’t help those people who’s problems I don’t understand, or who’s problems are those of which I have no knowledge, experience or expertise, so, I think only in terms of those people I can reach, and where it is practicable for someone like me to help, reasonably quickly and directly.. that, is where I can make a difference, and begin to restore some hope, right from the get go…

I started InZaneCountry to help a seriously ill friend, who’s husband was taken from her, suddenly, and traumatically, just as she began to recover from her illness.. It so happened, at that time, that a little bad luck was dogging me, too.. the combination of unfortunate events in both our lives took me into a deep depression, a depression from which I thought I’d never recover. Depression is a very odd experience, especially if you are an upbeat, optimistic, ‘never say die’ kind of person, as I had been all my life. I found it very difficult to handle; my life began falling apart.  While I was trying to hold myself together, I had the idea of creating a band, InZaneCountry, to try to help my friend through her troubles..She loved Country Music, and I can play a country lick or two.. so, I decided, the idea was, an eccentric English guy writes a CD full of love songs for someone he’s never actually met,  from four thousand miles away, about somewhere he’s never been.  Quite a challenge. I’d never written a song in my life, let alone a love song, and now, I was going to write an album!  The plan was to create, for her, a fantasy world, to ease the pain of her real one..  Something else, though, I later realised, was going on. In the course of writing and recording the album, ‘FairyTale’, I discovered it was working on a completely unexpected level..it was functioning as a kind of self help therapy for me too..

In the process of completing the work on ‘FairyTale’, I discovered a great deal about my life, about myself, and about Creativity.. and, a huge bonus; I discovered a creativity I never knew I possessed, and realised what a positive and therapeutic force Creativity is.. perhaps, my most important, most powerfull realisation, was that we are all more creative than we believe we are, and that, no matter at what level we begin, and,  no matter what our discipline is, we can become better and better at what we do.. we may have to adapt our art to suit the limitations of our ability to translate it, but that doesn’t matter..it can still work for us, and for our audience.. and, so, slowly, while I was working at my songwriting, over time, I also formed the realisation that the idea’s I found myself contemplating could be put to use to help other people do similar things to me, and, hopefully, with similar benefits to them..

Musicians.. they want to help people, they want save the world. They all say that, don’t they? I doubt if music, or musicians, either, can save the world, but I do believe that those of us who care enough can make a bit of a difference..  I can’t save the world, and I’m not going to say I can..but I am going to say I want to help people.  The next time we meet, a few days from now, I’ll tell you who, and how..

George Bolam

http://inzanecountry.co.uk

Money and me, InZaneCountry and the Trail to Somewhere..

There’s only so much contemplation of Life, the Universe and Everything you can do, before the realisation dawns that nothing is getting done, nothing is being achieved, and simply won’t,  if all you do is think about things.. Thinking is not such a bad thing, and everyone needs to do some, now and then, but it’s so easy to let your thoughts dance and swirl, interminably, intermingle with your dreams and troubles, and let the truth, the reality, disappear into the mist and haze of indecision and confusion, to let it all drift off to the horizon, while you do nothing but get through another day.  

So, there comes a time.. Now, for me, the  time has come. I need to explain and amplify what I’m about,  if I really want to take my work, and indeed, my life, beyond the point I reached about two years ago.. I had gone so far down the InZaneCountry trail, stopped in a green, shadey, protective valley,  meaning only to refresh myself and the horses,  for a little while..I stayed there, in a mini idyll, for two years. Two years is too long to simply watch and wait..So, today, I’m heading back out, into the dust and the blazing sun, in search of the distant horizon.. I’m going to be publishing a lot more, here, over the next few weeks and months, as I move out, along the trail to somewhere…

I was certain of what I wanted to do..learn how write some songs, record them, make some money, change my life.. help some people. Helping one particular person, a good friend, was first on my agenda. My attitude was nieve, maybe, but very determined, and I did most of it..I think I helped my friend, though I can’t be certain, but I learned a lot, and among the things I learned is that I have the ability, and the potential to do better, to help more people, and, in the process, help myself..

Recently, I decided I would tell the world a little more about me, what I’m doing,  how I’m doing it, what’s happening now, and where I want to be.. At present, to the extent that anyone notices me, I probably come across as slightly oddball, mildly eccentric, a bit enigmatic, something I think I tend to cultivate, a little .. chirpy, jokey, trivial, not too serious, occasionally irritated, sometimes angry, with a flash of insight now and then..whatever, I try, always, to be polite, sympathetic to troubled people, helpful and kind, though I sometimes fail dismally in all of those aspirations.. Well, that’s me, I’m human..show me a human who doesn’t let the world down, once in a while..

Anyway, while I was contemplating writing an introduction to a few planned posts on what I do and what I’m really about, I encountered a question on Twitter.. The question was about Money, something which is very much front of house, you might say, at present, in the media..  @TrudyYS wanted to know about Twitter folks attitudes to Money.. I promised to give my views, though it interupted my planned posting Schedule.. [Schedule? I have a Schedule? ]..  It occurred to me, though, that money is pertinent to virtually everything we do in the modern world, and certainly, most people would assume that Musicians do what they do, not just for love of music, fame, adulation, ego and the rest, but for money.. well we do, but some of us are different, have a different world view from the rest. Perhaps, I pondered, my attitude to money might be just as pertinent as anything else I might post on my music, or other aspects of InZaneCountry, my online music project…

So, here it is.. Money..Money and me and the InZaneCountry Trail to Somewhere.. 

Yes, I’d like to be a multi millionaire, who wouldn’t? The thing, is though, money only does one thing. It buys you freedom. Whatever you want to be free of, a lot of money will get you some way down the road to being free of it..I say, some way, because Money is not the answer to every problem..Money may get you better treatment and medical care if you are ill, but there are some illnesses no amount of money can save you from, ultimately.. Money simply buys you freedom, to a degree, from some things. That’s it. It doesn’t make you happy, if you aren’t, it just makes it easier to be free of some of the obstacles that might bar your way to happiness, if  happiness is what you seek..That, in a nut shell, is my attitude. I don’t actually care much about money, for it’s own sake. I’m alive, well and happy, and that’s enough. I wouldn’t burn a winning lottery ticket, but I’m not desperate to win…

There was bound to be a however, wasn’t there? It’s here. However, I would like to have more money than I do, and it’s one of the reasons I’d like to write great songs, great songs that sell, and make a lot of money. Why? I have a good, happy life. I have a great family, a nice home, good food on the table, every day. I take nice vacations, in the Sun, most years. I have all of the things I need, and most of the the things I want. I have those things because I worked for them, all my life, and I continue to work for them, today. I’ll be leaving for work in about an hour, and I’ll be out of the house for about nine hours..while I’m not at home, while I’m doing things for other people, I’m not doing things to make my projects succeed. So, there’s your why.. 

It costs money, and it takes time, to write, record, print and publicise records.. I don’t have enough time, because I’m spending too much time working at something else, something comparitively pointless to me, I might say, to earn the money that keeps me, my family and my simple lifestyle ticking over…I love my family, and I cannot live without them. Losing them is the only price I will not pay for success, in any endeavour.

I am, nonetheless, very ambitious for my music and my projects, and I need money to spend my life working on them, without the distraction of having to work, full time, at an ordinary day job.. As this series of posts  develops, incrementally, anyone who is interested enough to read them will see what my work with music is really about.. money is an important factor, but, in the context of what I’m trying to do in the world, rather than for me, per se. Read them, and you will know as much as I do about InZaneCountry, why it exists, what it is all about..

In the meantime, before too long, I hope to be in the luxurious position of being able to live, modestly, freely, with the family I love, working full time at my music..Money is, to me, then, fundamentally, about buying that freedom..and, using it, and anything else I might gain, to help make a better world for those I can. That, actually, is all.

George Bolam 

InZaneCountry  

http://inzanecountry.co.uk 

So..You want to feel a little more Special?

In 2004, I was held in the grip of an uncharacteristic depression, the real thing, the clinical works.. doggedly pragmatic, even when I had lost interest in almost everything, I started to look for answers, meaning. I didn’t turn to the Bible, as many might, but, rather, to fundamental Physics and Cosmology. Ok, I’m slightly loopy, I suppose, at the best of times, but there you go, that’s me. Physics and Cosmology, for God’s sake. Yes. that’s probably right..for God’s sake..anyway, I’m back to the normal me, nowadays, but I’ve kept up my interest in that stuff..

So, there I was, yesterday, reading my regular circular from the American Institute of Physics, when I came across this little piece:

Historically, humans have often felt the need to be special, and just as often have been disappointed. The Earth, as it turned out, wasn’t at the center of the universe. Humans are smart, but in the end, they evolve, live and die just like all the other living things on the planet. In astronomy, the prevailing theoretical models of how the solar system got here have assume that, based on past experience, we’re probably just an average solar system. But according to a new study by Northwestern University astronomers looking at 300 planets orbiting other stars, we might really be special. “We now know that these other planetary systems don’t look like [our] solar system at all,” said Frederic Rasio, an astronomer at Northwestern, in Chicago. Computer simulations used by Rasio’s team showed that the birth of a planetary system is a very violent affair, with the gas disk that gives birth to the planets pushingthem toward the central star, where they often crowd together to be engulfed. Gravitational encounters between growing planets fling some across the planetary system, or into deep space. “Such a turbulent history would seem to leave little room for the sedate solar system, and our simulations show exactly that,” said Rasio in a news release from Northwestern University. Our solar system “had to be born under just the right conditions to become the quiet place we see,” he said. “The vast majority of other planetary systems didn’t have these special properties at birth and became something very different.”

Ok, what do I think? This nice little piece of research is very encouraging, for those of us looking for answers, for some sort of reassurance that there is a purpose in our existence.. As Hubble comes closer and closer to completing almost three billion miles in it’s quest to provide humanity with information about the World, (the Universe), I feel priviledged to exist in a time when the slowly evolving ideas of the last three hundred years, or so, through which we came to feel that we are not so special, begin to turn full circle, and we start to think, again, that perhaps we have a little importance.. I’m sure that planetary systems like our own are common enough, in a universe so vast, so full of galaxies and stars, and that life, also is out there.. but, the idea that we are common as mud, is, conceivably, a retro conceit..and I’m oddly reasurred by that…

George Bolam

You think Science Fiction’s weird? Take a look at Quantum Mechanics..

I’m reasonably impressed by Photoshop Express..

I’ve been looking or some time for an embeddable photo gallery…

https://www.photoshop.com/user/tindle

I think I may have found one..

George Bolam…

www.inzanecountry.co.uk

SPAMMING? don’t even think about it…

I don’t know what is confusing you spammers.. clearly, you have a combined mentality of a retarded Beetroot.. Let me make it clear..the owner of this blog does not tolerate Spam. Indeed, I report every incidence of it to the appropriate legal authorities, and deal with it in other ways you’ve never even thought of, not that you’ve much time for thought, let alone the necessary equipment with which to generate any. In case you still don’t understand, I will put you out of business, by pursuing a ruthless vendetta against you, your employers and your products, and I will ensure you go to prison, if I can…

There is no logic to the force that drives me, it is an entirely emotional motivation, built on extreme hatred of spam and the incredibly stupid people who dare to perpetrate the act of spamming against me. Sometimes, I wonder if I should seek psychiatric help, such is the depth of my loathing of and drive to eliminate spam, on any of my projects.

Some attempts have been made to present spam on this blog as well meaning commentary, simply pathetic, juvenile attempts to disguise the real purpose of the comment.. I am not fooled..if you want to know why, it’s because I’m cleverer than any spammer I’ve ever encountered. Not that it’s difficult to be cleverer than those failures of evolution we call spammers, the sub protozoa of the Internet. No spam ever appears on this blog, no matter how disguised. So, don’t test my patience, crawl back under your pebble in the slime of the primordial soup you came from, and keep your crap off his blog… or suffer the consequences of an utterly irrational hatred of spam.

My name is George Bolam, and I will not even begin to tolerate spam on my blog.

George Bolam

      

Apolitical….some wonder why, some just wonder….

I haven’t voted in any kind of political election, for the better part of ten years, and it is my intention, unless there is a truly radical change in modern politics, never to vote again…. I regard myself as apolitical, not because I have no view on political issues, but because I believe politics, and politicians, are so utterly discredited as to be beyond any meaningful redemption. 

We imagine we live in a democracy, we people of the western world, because we are not ruled by the butt or barrel of a rifle. Not living in a totalitarian state, or dictatorship, is, however, not the same thing as being democratically ruled. We are ruled, instead, by manipulation, economic and social, by people who have little or no interest in the will of the majority of the electorate, except insofar as it enables them to remain in power, in order to continue to manipulate us, under a so called democratic mandate. Make no mistake about it, modern politicians are skilled adepts at looking after the interests of themselves, their friends and families, while masquerading as servants of the greater good, as democratic leaders. 

A classic example of the way in which they do this is current. The Lisbon Treaty. I am not going to be sidetracked into discussing the Lisbon Treaty, it’s history, it’s aims, it’s purpose, or any detail of it, simply because to do so would detract from the main thrust of this post. I will simply say that the Lisbon Treaty is a body of legislation, designed to modify the existing legal framework of the European Economic Community. It was discussed and developed by the representatives of twenty seven member states of the EEC, representatives whose duty it was to provide the people of their respect countries with a document acceptable enough to them, so as to be ratified, in due course, as a legally binding agreement between the twenty seven member states.

Twenty six of the twenty seven member states have now agreed a document acceptable to them, and they are prepared to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon. One of the twenty seven, however, The Republic of Ireland, has consulted with it’s people, via a national referendum, which has emphatically shown that the people of Ireland are not prepared to accept the Treaty of Lisbon, since they returned a majority vote in that referendum of ‘No’. The people of Ireland, in other words, do not wish their government to ratify the treaty in their name. They find it unacceptable. Now, the legal framework of the EEC requires not just a majority of it’s member states to agree on the Lisbon Treaty in order to ratify it, but a unanimous and unambiguous vote in it’s favour from all the member states, all twenty seven of them. Since this is, clearly, not the situation, the Lisbon Treaty should, by all reasonable measure and rationale, be dead in the water, regarded a complete and utter failure, and be subject to no further debate, at this stage.

Is the Lisbon Treaty to be subject to no further debate? No, it is not. It is to be fiddled with and fudged, and a means is actively being sought to find a way round the embarrassment of defeat for this piece of legislation, legislation which is viewed with discomfort, not just by the people of Ireland, but by many others, others who have been denied the direct voicing of their opinion by their respective governments, who are not as illuminated as the Government of the Republic of Ireland, and denied them the opportunity of a national referendum.

It truly troubles me, that we should live in what is considered a free and democratic political society, and yet the people be denied their will, by those elected to enable and enact it, when the people voice it so clearly. It requires arrogance of simply epic, colossal proportions, to ignore the disquiet of the people, when it is expressed so emphatically. What is it that these democratically elected representatives, these politicians, don’t understand about the word no?  Two letters… it doesn’t seem too much to understand.. hardly surprising then, that they struggle so much with an understanding of the nine letter word, Democracy.

I’m apolitical, because it seems to me, it doesn’t make a difference, whether I vote or not. It’s a waste of my time, and I’ll never vote again… Now, consequently, because I choose not to be involved in the ‘democratic process’, whatever happens in the world, I can go my own way, dealing with it in whatever pragmatic manner I can, or whatever manner I choose.. I can’t do anything about the everyday reality imposed on me by the society I live in, because no one with the power to change it is listening to me, or anyone like me, and, even if they were, they wouldn’t care what my view is, so I live my life, and ignore the entire political process. I’ll never vote again. I’m apolitical.   

George Bolam

                         

Plurkish Delight….

http://inzanecountry.blogspot.com/2008/06/right-royal-plurkey.html

Don’t worry, it’s safe to click the link, above; what you’ll see, when you do, says something about my views on the way social media is going, and I’ll have a little more to say about social media and networking, right here, in the next day or two…

George Bolam   

Eclectic? Yeah, I like eclectic…

I need a few more lifetimes.. the one I’ve got just isn’t going to be enough. I love my life, though it’s not the one I’d probably have chosen, if someone had said to me, ‘Ok, how d’you want us to to play this, then’ at the outset.. my life has worked out the way it has, because, well, it has.. I’m not sure it whether it could ever have been any different, whatever, but it isn’t, so, anyway, here I am, just getting on with living it… that doesn’t stop me thinking I could do with a few more lifetimes, though, because I could fill them all, however long they kept them coming…

I’m interested in a lot of stuff, and if you glance back through this blog’s archive, you’ll see a tiny smattering of what does interest me. Believe me, ‘tiny’ smattering is right.. there’s a lot of stuff I’m never going to get anywhere near talking about. Among the things that interest me, and the things I do, is music. I haven’t talked about my music here, so I’m going to say a thing or two about it now..

A lot of people tell me they love music, and I see people, every day, wandering around with headphones stuck in their ears, so, I guess a lot of people do. I love music, but not in the same way as many of these people. I’m not content with listening to it, I have to make it, myself. For many years, while I was getting on with other things, I played in bands in my ’spare’ time.. I played other people’s music, but I could never resist adding to it, augmenting it, changing it, just a little, every time I played a piece. I always felt that there was always something else that could be ‘wrung’ out of a song, and I would make the mental, emotional and physical effort to try to do the wringing.. I knew that one day, when I got round to it, I’d have to write the songs I played, myself. So, now, I do..

If I happen to find myself in a conversation about my music, as, occasionally, I do, the question I’m always asked is, What kind of music do you do?  The truth is, there is no definitive answer to that question. Usually, I answer, ’Country, Folky, Rocky, Poppy, Soully, Bluesy stuff’, because that’s an easy, readily accessible answer.  I should really say, ‘Ecclectic’.. I write whatever takes my fancy, without a thought for anyone or anything else.. it just depends on my state of being, at the time an idea comes to me..I’ll have more to say on that on another occasion.

My lifestyle is very different, these days, from what it used to be. Some of my life is lived in much the same way as always, but my job is different, these days, and my attitude to my daily work is different, too. Like a lot of folks who read this are, in all probability, I used to be a busy professional, intent on my career, concentrating on it, often, to the point where little else occupied my thoughts, a good deal of the time. I worked long hours, in a stressful, competitive environment, chasing the elusive butterfly of success. Today, due to an accident of fate, a combining of circumstances, in what I now see as a wholly fortuitous episode, (though I didn’t at the time), I have a day job, rather than a career. That change in emphasis, which you may have noticed in my choice of words, from career, to day job, is deliberate.. I used to have a job, a career, which, like a lot of other people, fundamentally defined me, and my life.. today, I am defined by my attitude to the world, to my life, and by who I really am, what I care about, what interests me, and by what I do with my life. I have a day job, and, at last, I no longer live to work, as they say, I simply work to live. I go to work each day, do my eight hour shift, come home, and live..

The eclecticism I referred to earlier, now pervades my life.. There’s a guy I see every day at work.. we tend to spend our time, there, working together, because we can, and because we enjoy each others company. Pete Ridgeway is an engineer. Pete’s half my age, has a Degree in Electronics, and used to maintain Nuclear Power Stations in his former career. (I’ll be writing a piece about Pete, here, at some point, simply because he’s a thoroughly nice guy, and a really interesting person, and we share  many common threads in the way we see the world). Peter tells me that he’s fine when I’m not around, but, when I’m there, he goes home exhausted, simply because of the plethora of subjects our conversations encompass, during a working day. Pete and I are interested in so many things… we are simply Eclectics, I guess… and we both need a number of lifetimes, just to cover the ground.. 

Most of what I do, on the Internet, is to do with exploring the life I didn’t have time to explore in my previous Hurley burly life.. Among the many things that mean a lot to me, is using the net to show others that, in a life of adversity, (and for many of us, our lives are largely about dealing with every day adversity, in it’s many shapes and forms), there is nearly always a way of improving or enhancing an otherwise dull or difficult existence. Though I’m not sure I can manage to do that in one eclectic lifetime, my music, and the associated InZaneCountry Project, is one of the ways I’ve chosen to do it.. I’ll be talking more about that, on another occasion, very soon… this piece is simply, well, an introduction, a kind of perspective overview..

If they have some more lifetimes stacked up by the Pearly Gates, and some invitations to issue, they can find me, right here, logged on, and waiting..

George Bolam