Some bold clothing choices this week. Those who dare to wear. Fashionistas that really don’t give a fuck.
I have always admired those who express themselves through their clothing. Whether they are unconcerned by the approval of others or trying to get noticed, which paradoxically are two opposites, the end result is the same. I also like couples and bezzie mates combine and compliment their styles. As if they become each other’s accessories. Individuality in pairs (another paradox right there).
It does seem to me that people dress up more in everyday life and I think that is because every situation could potentially be an instagram opportunity. So gone are the days when you just chuck on whatever and leave the house, you get dressed up no matter what, even if you aren’t meeting anyone, just in case you find a backdrop that screams ‘likes’.
On a Saturday down Portobello you get a lot of people really dressed up, flaunting their best outfits, that to me, look like they would be reserved for a swanky event, but maybe days out are the new nights out. It does seem slightly strange to me to get all dolled up to go to what is basically a market but there you go.
I actually think uninhibited freedom of expression through our personal style is a great symbol of an open society that isn’t insisting on conformity through repression. In London you can wear what the fuck you want and yes you might get the odd glance but most peeps don’t give a shit and you won’t get harassed for it neither.
So this is a celebration of all you dedicated followers of fashion. Be brave, be bold, be beautiful.
I used to see this colourful character all the time in the neighbourhood. He also had another hat the same as this one but it said “Wanker” on it as oppose to ‘Xanax”. I never saw him with out either one on but I was never able to get a shot of him wearing the other hat, much to my disappointment. Always thought it was a bold choice. I haven’t seen him for a while so can only assume he moved out.
What do all the people in the shots this week have in common? Well nothing other than they are all sat down. This is actually not really to do with them. It’s actually all about me. Why? Because I am currently living life sat on the subs bench..and have been since I last did this blog. Actually, to be fair, I probably get the equivalent of one minute per game to shuffle around the pitch before being hauled off on a stretcher. It’s quite a frustrating way to live.
It takes forever for my body to recharge and then I am a spent force within a nanosecond and I then have to start the process all over again. Like filling up your car at the petrol station but instead of it taking a couple of minutes it takes a full week and then it will only get you to the end of the forecourt before conking out and then you have to then push it back to the pumps and start all over again. I am basically the never getting anywhere boulder pushing ancient Greek dude Sisyphus (encapsulated in glorious GIF form below for a visual on my current existence)
What is also beyond infuriating AKA driving me fucking nuts is that I am constantly yoyo-ing between relapse and recovery. I feel ok for a bit and then I overdo it and I am tossed back in the hole (which I have been in and out of 3 or 4 times since I have been away) And for the record, me overdoing it means doing something so inconsequential it probably wouldn’t even register to you as even doing anything at all. Like speaking
The worse thing is that each time I feel better I think this is it, I’m out, I’m in the clear, it’s all over..but invariably it isn’t and the merry go round continues. The disappointment is kinda crushing tbh. I have likened it to being on death row and getting a reprieve, but when you get to the gates they say, sorry mate, there’s been a mistake, you’ve got to go back in. And so you go back into your cell and await the next false reprieve and so on and so on..
And yet just like them old dumb boxers I keep getting knocked down but I keep getting up again (yes I have had a lot of time to think of analogies that describe my situation) Guess I just don’t know when to quit. I am currently on the ropes and getting a proper pummeling but I ain’t giving up just yet. In all honesty I haven’t started this blog up again because I was feeling better, I just need to do something as oppose to nothing..the relentless boredom coupled with not being creative was really starting to do me ‘ed in.
I actually read this great quote (thanks @verseandproseau) which has helped propel me back into action…
“If you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned.” (Joy Harj)
And I have had quite enough of that as it is and it’s not just me either. The Long Covid community as a whole feels like it has been abandoned, dismissed, ignored and left to cope with a condition that has taken us all totally out of the game (back to the football analogy) and with no real way of knowing when or even if we will ever be back in play again…
Medical moan disclaimer: I share all this not for sympathetic gain but because most people now know somebody who has L.C and so I think it’s important to explain how much it affects us because on the outside we look sorta normal. And also, as it’s kinda dominating my life at present it means I’ve been up to sweet fuck all other than this crapola and therefore don’t really have anything else to report for now..but don’t fret, I haven’t returned just to make this a platform for my own misery..I will also use it to highlight other miseries such as impending climategeddon, war, the cost of living crisis and the never ending moral decline of this country..just to keep your spirits up..;)
Actually I might just stick to pics for a while..ease meself back in and all..
..and so I’m back..from outer space, well, no, not really. I’ve been staring into space. Not sure that’s quite the same thing. Anyways, had been waitin till I felt A-OK to resume service but if I do that I ain’t ever gonna get rollin so like I said before, if I disappear again at least you know where I went…you can’t blame a guy for tryin..hopefully you are slightly happier to see me than this guy is…
The latest IPCC report came out this week and it categorically and unequivocally states that it is “now or never” for the world to initiate drastic & immediate action to switch us to a low carbon economy in order to stave off disaster. Basically act now or we’re fucked.
And judging from the muted response from governments around the world they are quite unbelievably choosing to not act. Between now and never they are going with never. Well they are choosing ‘not now’ which effectively means never because when they do eventually choose to step up it will be too late.
So just so we’re all clear, in a simple choice between ‘fixing it’ and ‘not fixing it’ we are choosing not to fix it. And that is with the report stating that all solutions are already worked out and in place. No fancy new tech required. Just action.
And just so there is still no confusion we appear to be choosing for this planet to become unliveable to humans as oppose to liveable. An odd choice out of the two don’t you think?
And we’re all ok with that are we? Just checking because I gotta say it doesn’t feel like out of those two options that is the one I thought we would go for.
It’s like going to someone and saying ok, you can a) live but you gotta do a bunch of shit or b) you can do nothing and die…what do you choose? Umm, I think I’ll have to go with b) Really? Yes b) please. You’re sure? Final answer?
People going about their business this week. And from this moment forth that is pretty much all I am going to be showing to you. Why? Because future generations will want to see what we were doing when we should have been all hands on deck fixing the climate crisis. They will be asking..why didn’t they stop it? Why did they ignore it? Why did they carry on as normal when they knew it would spell catastrophe for the rest of humanity to come? It will be as unfathomable to them as it is indeed to me. I am living through this era and I keep asking myself the same question..why?
Why can’t we act on it? Why can’t we take it on board? Why are we so utterly paralysed when we know what is ahead? Why do we continue to shunt it? It’s clearly only going to get worse so why delay? Why not deal with it? We know the window of opportunity is rapidly closing and still we act as if it isn’t happening. But why?
i thought that when the climate deniers were proven 100% wrong we would surge into action. We didn’t
I thought when we started to see extreme weather on a regular basis we would do everything we could to prevent the situation worsening. We didn’t
I thought when we saw that every year was the hottest on record we would realise we had to prioritise the environment above and beyond everything else. We didn’t.
I thought that when they declared a climate emergency they would then act like there was one. They didn’t.
And so I keep just asking why? What’s wrong with them? What’s wrong with us? I have been asking these same questions for years but I never find a good enough answer. We have the information. We have the solutions. We know the consequences if we don’t. And so does everyone in charge. So what the friggin fuck?
The only conclusion I have come to is that we have collective ADHD which prevents us from being able to focus on the matter in hand. Dumbphones and the never ending scroll have reduced our attentions to absolute zero. We just can’t stick with anything long enough to solve it before we just wanna flick onto the next thing. And so when anything comes along which demands our attention (eg global pandemic, WW III) we leap on it cos it means we don’t have to think about climate armageddon for a bit . The other problem is that there is just too much noise. It can’t penetrate through all the other shit . There are just too many other things hovering around our brains to distract us. We are being utterly overfed by the feed and it has rendered us useless. Here is a diagram to illustrate the point.
And it the same on the news. Irreversible climate breakdown is just one of a load of different stories all vying for your attention. Last week I saw two articles sandwiched in amongst everything else. Just a couple of little squares in a sea of squares, and some much larger with titles with infinitely bigger fonts. The two stories were that the Antartica was around 70 degrees hotter than it should be for this time of year (!) and the other was that the Amazon is at the tipping point of transforming from an oxygen producer (the biggest in the world) to an emitter of Carbon dioxide (!!) These are both catastrophic developments that should have dominated the headlines and caused widespread alarm but they barely registered.
And ultimately the problem is all these other things need to be dealt with as well and it’s just one of them. As people and as a society, both domestic and global, we are already up to our ear balls in problems and this particular problem must go to the top of the pile but it never quite gets there. Because it never has a chance to. Something always gets in the way.
Like real life. And as we can all agree, that is hard enough to get through as it is and so it looks like we are gonna wait until things become so catastrophic we won’t have a choice but to deal with it. When it is right up in our faces our survival instinct will finally kick in but by that point we will be well and truly fucked.
We are the lobster in the pot.
I have probably said all this before and it is probably nothing you don’t know. I follow the climate scientist Peter Kalmus on Twitter who has been trying to get the message across, along with the rest of the scientific community for decades and he recently exclaimed in defeat “I just don’t know how else to say this”.
The film ‘Don’t look up’ shows the frustration of the scientists who cannot convince the world of their findings so matter what evidence they put in front of them and the film perfectly captured the insanity of these times as a giant metaphor in the shape of a giant meteor hurtles towards them . It also accurately demonstrates the division in our society driven by the polarisation of opinion and shows that our inability to act is also due to the fact that the days of consensus are over. We need unified collective action which in a post truth world is virtually and depressingly impossible.
The other main problem with ‘telling it like it is’ is that you are accused of being a doom monger. No-one wants to hear bad news. I always think back to hunter gatherer societies and they would be traipsing around looking for food and water and there would be a guy up front leading the way, being all confident like and inspiring hope in the community which, in trun, spurs them onwards even when things are desperate because they believe he knows what he’s doing. And then you got some guy at the back saying..”there’s nothing this way. We’re all going to die”. No-one ever wants to hear from that guy. Not until it’s too late.
And our inability to receive this information and act upon it will ultimately be humanity’s greatest failure.
So now what? What to do in the meantime? We just carry on as normal? I am finding that increasingly difficult these days. I just can’t pretend anymore that our nonsense jobs and our nonsense concerns matter. We fret about the small shit and ignore the colossal catastrophe we are sleep walking towards. I know it’s too much to take on board everyday and we would literally sink if we did but pretending everything is fine when it just isn’t doesn’t make sense anymore. I know we need hope to function but if it blinds us to the reality of the situation and leaves us with an utterly hopeless situation then it’s pretty fucking useless. So what to do?
We certainly can’t look to our leaders to lead us out of this. They need to usher in an entire new way of living but they either can’t or they won’t . Are they short-sighted, dumb as a brush or just plain corrupt? It doesn’t really matter. Based on an entire era of inaction it is pretty clear they are just gonna let the clock run down. That much is clear. But why?
Well, largely because they are essentially dicatated to by the fossil fuel industry who have a sociopathic pursuit of profit. They are diseased by greed and so for decades, to protect their interests, they have blocked any attempt to move to a more sustainable and renewable future. In that time they have acquired so much wealth they used it to ‘buy’ everyone who is actually in power which makes them the defacto rulers of Earth and they are now seemingly too powerful to be overthrown.
And we have, in turn, become too passive, too stupid, too distracted and too selfish to stop them.
And so it looks like despite all of this we are all just going to attempt to maintain business as usual. Even though it isn’t. Even though it spells disaster. Even though it’s utter insanity. And so, in turn, I will carry on and continue to document this blinkered approach to living and post them here so there is evidence of what was actually happening during this period or rather not happening. So from now on when you look at my shots of Londoners doing their thing, please know that all of this is locked away in a bubble of denial hovering around their brains but if you look closely you can see it lingering just on the other side of their eyeballs trying to emerge…
And yes, you guessed it..I am that guy at the back of the group. And yes, no-one probably does want to hear from me…I’ve said me bit..pictures only from this point onwards..
