5 ELASTIC BANDS AND A SHOE BOX

Now I know I’m going to sound like my Grandad here in that ‘don’t know they’re born’ kind of way – but bear with me.

Picture the scene. 1976 (or thereabouts) and I’m watching the rain pound against the kitchen, window.

“Mum I’m bored…”

“Well, if you don’t find something to do Anthony, I’ll find something for you”. Was mum’s reply.

“Er – it’s OK…”

‘Sod that’ I thought; and not wanting to clean the garage out, tidy my bedroom or peel the spuds for tea, I disappeared and found something to do.

And I can clearly remember what I did too. Sellotaping a ruler to the back of a shoebox, and stretching 5 elastic bands across the front, I knocked up a guitar! And from the rainy outside, my mates then turned up - bored! It wasn’t long before upturned bins became a makeshift drumkit, various glasses of orange juice were lined up and became homemade percussion, and together we proceeded to cobble a couple songs to fit the noise. When my Dad came in from work, we performed our creations, (under the band name – “The Elastic Band” – clever eh?) and shorty after the band broke up. Shortly after a cry from the kitchen of “Tea’s out.” that is.

Bored?
Us?
Never!

So why am I reminiscing? Well what I’ve noticed (and I generalise obviously) is that we simply don’t seem to get bored these days, and as a result our latent creativity remains just that. Untapped, undiscovered, unrealised and unseen. What a waste.

Whenever we get anywhere near the danger zone of boredom, we are rescued by the cavalry of 24-hour TV, films on demand, the ever-giving internet, Playstations, iPods and all that great ‘time-filler’ stuff. And the instinctive creativity that was once propelled by such an occasion remains out of reach.

Now I’m no luddite, and enjoy all of the afore mentioned as much as you probably do; but I do make the effort occasionally to surround myself with nothing and no-one, and see where this then takes me. And I have to say it usually takes me to a better place creatively.

So go on, try and get bored. This weekend, switch off everything with a plug or a signal. Surround yourself with nothing, and see where you end up. You never know, you might end up lead singer in an elastic band!

Let me know if you do.

THE INTERNET IS GOING DOWN...

The internet is going down,
does no-one understand?
That from tonight, the world wide web
wont support your brand.

No click-throughs or banner ads,
no more sites to see.
The wonder of the Internet
is headin' for his-tor-ee!

It's the last stand of the home page
- no more skip intro's.
No more life spent waiting,
to watch those mpeg shows.

Its the end of on-line shopping,
all passwords now expired.
No more e-bay bargains
they're all gettin' re-wired.

The futures back to paper based,
mail - enveloped and stamped.
The way we all communicate
will have to be revamped.

The battles out in cyberspace
will end without a fight.
With screens all blank, and plug's all pulled,
we've had our final byte.

LOST...

"Follow the map", he said.
"It'll just take you there”, he said.
"Don't worry", he said.
So I didn't.

And now I'm here.

I'm lost.

Lost - but I've arrived.
I've arrived at Lost.
It's a kind of strange place.
Unfamiliar - unchartered.
But I'm here.

I arrived here earlier, so technically I can't be lost.

Can I?

I've never been here before, and don't know were I am.
So technically I am lost.
But it's a nice place.
Nice and quiet.
Just me.

Lost.

I think I'll stay.

WAITING...

Through the bricks they sit and weep,
they cannot think - they cannot sleep.

How much time have they got left,
before they part, their love at rest?

What went wrong to cause their pain?
Why no way out? Just who's to blame?

What can we learn from their great sorrow?
From their grim gloom that is, tomorrow?

What right have we, to sulk and row?
We must enjoy our moments... ...NOW!

WHIFF

There's nothing more that I detest,
than old ladies - with bad breath.
Stale old teeth, that rot in gums,
with smells that should belong in bums.

ABSOLUTELY FLABULOUS

There's a call to lower t-shirts in any public place,
To cover up bare bellies that wobble in your face.

I blame the super models for setting such a trend,
With their skeletal flat tummies and clothes all carefully hemmed.

Its the height of summer fashion for girls it's all the rage,
Tops, stop short of covering spare tyres - of any age.

Wearing high cut T-shirts, displaying big pink hearts,
They parade the shopping centres with guts that should play darts.

Bring back the shrink wrapped gut i say, all toned and tucked and nice;
- the one that doesn't overhang,
- the one that's out of sight.

Back into high waist Levis, that's where tummies should be put!
Away from public view again. Lets banish public gut!

It's definitely a suitcase of - the emperors new clothes.

VISUALISE DON’T VERBALISE

Way back, (but not too far back mind!) when I was at art college, my old lecturer used to wander the studios and corridors chanting a little phrase that has haunted me ever since. Now just to put this into perspective we were usually chasing him to see what he thought about some concept or other… “What do you think about this Jim?” - “Jim I’ve got this great idea…” - “Jim how would you improve on …” and unless he could see that we were carrying reams of scribbled on layout paper, he would more often than not turn on his heel wave us away chanting, “VISUALISE DON’T VERBALISE!”- “VISUALISE DON’T VERBALISE!”

What he wanted was to SEE our thoughts, not HEAR them. A sketch, an outline, stickmen, marks on paper - some kind of visual commitment to accompany our thoughts. “Don’t just talk about it – get it down on paper and show me” - “Draw it” - “VISUALISE DON’T VERBALISE!”

Following Jim’s lesson, my experience is that creatives that just talk about their ideas and haven’t committed them to paper haven’t formulated anywhere near a strong enough thought - and are usually just practising the rhetoric. The process that happens between brain and hand makes ideas real.

One of my most prolific writing partners always drew as he wrote. Even though he was the guardian of the written word, manic scribbles, cartoons, shapes and stick men, always accompanied his thoughts. Often he would just sit scribbling to illustrate his chat and of how he saw the problem in his head. Random but committed. And his work was better for it. Thoughts were out of his head and down for discussion.

I was reading about Leonardo and how he scribbled ALL of his thoughts down and the article read that “The explosion of creativity in the renaissance was intimately tied to the development of graphic illustration.” That is… THEY SCRIBBLED EVERYTHING DOWN! Check out Leonardos’ sketchbooks sometime – they’re not unlike a common worksheet or sketchbook today (http://www.unmuseum.org/leosketch.htm). His Ideas, scribbles, sketches, thoughts and renaissance coffee stains… they’re all down on paper…
Anyway the point here is that several hundred years later, his ideas are still being discussed and indeed used today - unlike the conversations that he had, which are long, long gone.

SO in the words of Jim Lockley my old lecturer. “VISUALISE DON’T VERBALISE” Make your thoughts visible. Words OR pictures, get them down on paper. Your work will be a lot stronger for it. Cheers Jim.